The Doctrine of the Trinity

 

In a pluralistic and relativistic age, Christians must stand firm in proclaiming the one living and true God who is revealed in Scripture. The one true God is one in being or essence and three in person: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Triune God is holy and sovereign. These biblical truths are often attacked, and Christians must, therefore, be diligent to defend them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How Satan's Rebellion Serves God's Purposes - Erwin Lutzer

Discernment and Revelation

Stand Firm in the Faith has been given permission by Pastor Gary E. Gilley to reproduce this article below: Discernment and Revelation from the Feb/March 2013 - Think on these things Newsletter. He is pastor of Southern View Chapel, in Springfield, IL. Please refer to the links below to visit the website.

Dr. Gary E. Gilley has been pastoring at Southern View Chapel for more than 37 years. He is author of five books, and has also contributed to four other books, including Dispensationalism Tomorrow & Beyond, a Tribute to Charles Ryrie.

Pastor Gilley received his B. A. from Moody Bible Institute and his M.B.S and Th.D from Cambridge Graduate School. He is a frequent speaker at Bible conferences and writes the monthly study paper, Think on These Things and is the Book Review Editor for the Journal of Dispensational Theology. He is also a board member of Brazil Gospel Fellowship Mission, Personal Freedom Outreach and New Tribes Missions.


Think on These Things Articles
Discernment and Revelation February/March 2013 - Volume 19, Issue 6

Discernment, one would think, is an extremely positive quality. In a world in which there are incalculable numbers of voices calling us to travel many different directions, discernment is invaluable. However, when used by those involved in spiritual formation, discernment is defined as the discipline that enables one to know when a person has supposedly heard the voice of God. Spiritual formation leaders do not question that God speaks to us today apart from Scripture, but they do believe that since God is speaking there has to be a means whereby we can discern the voice of God from our own thoughts. Adele Ahlberg Calhoun writes in her Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, “Discernment opens us up to listen to and recognize the voice and patterns of God’s direction in our lives.” [1] Ruth Barton further explains,

Discernment is a quality of attentiveness to God that is so intimate that over time we develop an intuitive sense of God’s heart and purpose in any given moment. We become familiar with God’s voice – the tone, quality and content—just as we become familiar with the voice of a human being we know well. [2]

Christian psychologist Larry Crabb believes he has learned the art of listening to God and proposes to let us in on what he has discovered in his book The Papa Prayer, “Sometime, though never audibly, I hear the Father speak more clearly than I hear the voice of a human friend.” [3] And influential pastor John Ortberg adds, “It is one thing to speak to God. It is another thing to listen. When we listen to God, we receive guidance from the Holy Spirit.” [4]

As we contemplate the subject of discernment it is important that we determine whether or not God does speak to Christians today outside of the Scriptures themselves. This is hardly an issue pertinent only to the Spiritual Formation Movement. As a matter of fact modern day revelations (or lack thereof) from God are one of the most hotly debated topics within evangelicalism today.
 

Despite the fact that the majority of conservative evangelical Christians since the Reformation have held to a cessationist (that present day revelations from God no longer take place) position with regard to Divine revelation, true cessationists are rapidly disappearing. In the articles and books I have written nothing has evoked as much criticism and anger as my position that God is speaking to His people today exclusively through Scripture. Due to the influence of a multitude of popular authors, theologians and conference speakers, cessationism is barely treading water, even within the most biblically solid churches and organizations. As a matter of fact, among those who claim to be evangelicals there are five identifiable views prevalent today on the matter of revelation:

Identifiable views:

Pentecostal/Charismatic/Thirdwave: All miraculous gifts exist today, including the gift of prophecy. God speaks through prophets and to His people both audibly (through dreams, visions, words of knowledge), and inwardly (inaudibly in the mind or heart). Representatives of this position are Jack Deere, John Wimber, the Kansas City Prophets, the Assemblies of God and the Word of Faith movement. Charismatic author Tommy Tenney, in his popular book The God Chasers, writes, “God chasers…are not interested in camping out on some dusty truth known to everyone. They are after the fresh presence of the Almighty…A true God chaser is not happy with just past truth; he must have present truth. God chasers don’t want to just study the moldy pages of what God has done; they are anxious to see what God is doing.” [5]

Classical Mysticism/Spiritual Formation: Through the use of various disciplines and spiritual exercises, God will speak to us both audibly and inaudibly. Dallas Willard and Richard Foster are two such examples. Willard, a leader within the Spiritual Formation Movement, recently updated a previous book renaming it Hearing God, Developing a Conversational Relationship with God. The thrust of his book is that we can live “the kind of life where hearing God is not an uncommon occurrence, [for] hearing God is but one dimension of a richly interactive relationship and obtaining guidance is but one facet of hearing God.” [6] In other words, the maturing Christian should expect to hear the voice of God on a regular basis, independent from Scripture, and that voice will reveal God’s individual, specific will for his life. Such personal communication from the Lord, we are told, is absolutely essential because without it there can be no intimate walk with God. [7] And it is those who are hearing from God today, in this way, who will redefine “Christian spirituality for our time.” [8]

　

Evangelical Mysticism: God is speaking to Christians regularly, mostly inaudibly through inner voices, hunches, promptings, feelings and circumstances (examples: Henry Blackaby and Beth Moore). Southern Baptists ministers Henry and Richard Blackaby wrote Hearing God’s Voice to “teach God’s people not only to recognize his voice but also immediately to obey his voice when they heard it.” [9] They promise that “as you spend time with Jesus, you will gradually come to recognize his voice more readily than you did at first…You won’t be fooled by other voices because you know your Lord’s voice so well.” [10] And, once you have figured out when God is speaking to you, “write it down in a journal so you can refer back to it as you follow him.” [11]

In this category could be placed the New Calvinists or Calvinistic Charismatics such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem, Mark Driscoll and C. J. Mahaney. Their followers are sometimes called the young, restless, and Reformed. Mark Driscoll, who often claims extra-biblical revelation, dreams, and visions from the Lord, documented four such events in his recent book Real Marriage. He writes, “…when God spoke to me, I had never experienced anything like that moment. God told me to devote my life to four things. He told me to marry Grace, preach the Bible, train men, and plant churches. Since that day in 1990, that’s what I have been pursuing by God’s grace.” [12] Matt Chandler would be on page with this idea. In his popular book The Explicit Gospel Chandler writes, “He [God] speaks to us in dreams and in visions and in words of knowledge—but in no way that runs contrary to Scripture.” [13] Long time Southern Baptist pastor, Charles Stanley is of the same opinion. In a recent interview with Christianity Today he is asked about his frequent references to God speaking to Him. He responded by mentioning a time that very week when God said to him, “Don’t do that.” He claims that he does not hear an audible voice “but it’s so crystal sharp and clear to me, I know not to disobey that.” [14]

Cessationist: All miraculous gifts, including prophecy, have ceased (examples: the IFCA International, John MacArthur and Charles Ryrie). The Westminster Confession states well the historic cessationist position,
　 The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. [15]
 

Cautious, but Open: Those holding this position are skeptical of prophetic claims and the majority of inaudible experiences. But they do not want to “put God in a box” and therefore are cautiously open to the possibility of additional revelation from the Lord today, although they are not certain how this works or how to identify God’s voice. Nevertheless, they are afraid to limit the power of God and fear that they might be missing out on a close personal relationship with the Lord if they do not allow for the possibility of God speaking today apart from Scripture (examples: most Christians).

Modern Revelations

Continuationists, those who believe that the miraculous sign gifts, including prophecy, are still available to believers today, define their supposed revelations in different ways. There are two broad categories that could be acknowledged, the first of which claims prophetic messages from the Lord. Such messages would be direct, clear words from God or angels, perhaps in dreams or visions or through audible voices. Such claims have long been common in Pentecostal and charismatic circles and are increasing among non-charismatic evangelicals. Extremely popular conference speaker and author Beth Moore is well known for her claims of hearing from God. In a DVD she states, "Boy, this is the heart of our study. This is the heart of our study. Listen carefully. What God began to say to me about five years ago, and I'm telling you it sent me on such a trek with Him, that my head is still whirling over it. He began to say to me, 'I'm going to tell you something right now, Beth, and boy you write this one down and you say it as often as I give you utterance to say it.” [16] Such statements coming from evangelicals are far too common to need much documentation. Moore is claiming a direct word from the Lord that sets the future agenda for her ministry. The source of authority is her own experience.

From a more doctrinal base we turn to theologian Wayne Grudem, who has had a massive impact on the evangelical world concerning modern prophecies. Grudem has written the definitive book on the subject, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, in which he claims that church age prophecy is different than Old Testament prophecy. While the Old Testament prophet was held to the standard of infallibility when speaking a word from the Lord (Deut 18:20-24), prophecies beginning with Pentecost are fallible and imperfect. He writes, “Prophecy in ordinary New Testament churches was not equal to Scripture in authority, but simply a very human—and sometimes partially mistaken—report of something the Holy Spirit brought to someone’s mind.” [17]  Modern prophecy then is impure and imperfect. By way of example and documentation Grudem quotes the Anglican charismatic leaders Dennis and Rita Bennet who claim
　

We are not expected to accept every word spoken through the gifts of utterance…but we are only to accept what is quickened to us by the Holy Spirit and is in agreement with the Bible…one manifestation may be 75% God, but 25% the person’s own thoughts. We must discern between the two. [18]

One of the most disconcerting aspects of Grudem’s position is his uncertainty as to how we can distinguish between our own thoughts and those supposedly from God. This is such an important and disturbing feature of the conservative continuationist’s system that I will quote Grudem at length.

But how would a person know if what came to mind was a “revelation” from the Holy Spirit? Paul did not write specific instructions; nonetheless, we may suppose that in practice such a decision would include both an objective and subjective element. Objectively, did the revelation conform with what the prophet knew of the Old Testament Scriptures and with apostolic teaching? [19]

With this quote cessationists partially agree. The Holy Spirit cannot contradict Himself and anything allegedly spoken by the Holy Spirit which is in disagreement with Scripture is naturally spurious. The continuationists, however, are rarely claiming new doctrines that supplement Scripture; they are claiming specific, personal words that guide them in decision making or knowledge of the future. It should be mentioned in passing that contrary to what is often stated by continuationists, many espousing modern prophecies do in fact add numerous doctrines not found or taught in the Bible such as specific demonic warfare techniques, insights on heaven or hell, “word of faith” authority that releases the power of God, dominion theology, novel views on the atonement, inspiration and ecclesiology. While more conservative continuationists such as Grudem, Piper, and Mahaney would not be guilty of such theological additions, many others are.

Turning back to Grudem we read of his subjective element of prophecy
　

But there was no doubt also a subjective element of personal judgment: did the revelation “seem like” something from the Holy Spirit; did it seem to be similar to other experiences of the Holy Spirit which he had known previously in worship…Beyond this it is difficult to specify much further, except to say that over time a congregation would probably become more adept at making evaluations of prophecies, and individual prophets would also benefit from those evaluations and become more adept at recognizing a genuine revelation from the Holy Spirit and distinguishing it from their own thoughts. [20]

When we contrast Grudem’s view of prophecy with Scripture we find nothing remotely resembling what Grudem teaches. Nowhere in the Bible is one receiving a message from God left to wonder if God is speaking to him (with the temporary exception of the young boy Samuel). No one had to ask if what they were hearing “seemed like” the Holy Spirit or matched previous subjective experiences that also “seemed like” the Holy Spirit. They knew without question when God was speaking to them. This is essentially the same teaching that Dallas Willard exerts in Hearing God: “How can you be sure God is speaking to you? The answer is that we learn by experience.” [21] Therefore subjective experience becomes the test of authority concerning revelation from God. This is a far cry from what we find in Scripture.
 

The second half of Grudem’s quote moves into the realm of the incredible. After 2000 years of church history, the best this world-class theologian can offer is that “over time a congregation would probably become more adept at making evaluations of prophecies…” This is a statement of speculation and hope that at some point the church will begin to figure out when a word of revelation is actually coming from the Holy Spirit and when it is the imagination of the speaker.

 

Let’s put Grudem’s hypothesis to a test. Sister Sally stands up in church and says the Holy Spirit has just revealed to her that an earthquake will flatten much of the city sometime within the next eight weeks. The congregation needs to add earthquake insurance to their properties, pack all their belongings, leave their jobs behind and head to the countryside. What is to be done? Given Grudem’s theory, the congregation knows that at best this prophecy is impure and most likely contains elements that are not from God. The people are then left to evaluate the validity of the revelation just received based on their own experience or other purely subjective means. In the Bible, if a true prophet of God warned of an impending earthquake there would be no doubt as to what to do, but Grudem’s New Testament prophet is unreliable. I have to ask, of what value is such a prophecy? It has no authority or certainty, and may actually lead to bad and even disastrous decisions. These modern prophecies do not have the ring of “thus says the Lord.”

When the different views on modern revelation and prophecies collide, continuationists attempt to pacify cessationists by assuring them that their messages from the Lord are not on par with Scripture. Grudem quotes George Mallone saying,
　
Prophecy today, although it may be helpful and on occasion overwhelmingly specific, is not in the category of the revelation given to us in the Holy Scripture…A person may hear the voice of the Lord and be compelled to speak, but there is no assurance that it is pollutant-free. There will be a mixture of flesh and spirit. [22]
　

Since almost no one within Christianity (save the cults) is claiming revelation that is equivalent to the Bible, we are left with a dilemma. Is it possible for God to speak in a non-authoritative way? Is it possible for Him to speak something less than His inspired word? The continuationists seem to have invented a novel type of divine revelation; one that contradicts Scripture and defies reason. In the Bible, and logically, either God is speaking or He is not. There is no such thing as partially inspired revelation or the true words from the Lord polluted by the misunderstanding or imagination of the prophet. This is not to say that all of God’s divine words are found in Scripture. John is careful to inform us that Jesus did many things, and certainly said many things, that are not recorded in his Gospel (John 20:30) , or the other New Testament books for that matter. Yet all that Jesus said were the words of God. He never expressed an impure or untruthful thought. He spoke with authority. Undoubtedly the Spirit also spoke through various men and women in biblical times whose words were not recorded in the Bible. The point, however, is that, while the Holy Spirit has not included every prophecy that He spoke through humans in Scripture, everything that He inspired people to say carries with it the infallible authority of the Word of God. Nothing that He said through people is less than God’s word. A polluted or partial revelation from the Holy Spirit has never been uttered.

This means that modern prophecies, words of knowledge, and other claims to hearing the voice of the Lord, if they are truly from the Holy Spirit, must be equal to the Scriptures in both inspiration and authority. God cannot speak with other than purity and inerrancy. Modern claims of the Lord speaking but with a “mixture of flesh and spirit” simply are not possible and are never attested to in Scripture. Those who are claiming divine revelation today must wrestle with the fact that what they are supposedly hearing must carry the same authority of the divinely inspired authors of Scripture.

　

A Case for Cessationism

 

With all of this as a backdrop, the question is reduced to this: Is God giving authoritative revelation on par with that which He has given in the past, much of which has been inscripturated, or is He not? If He is, then the church of Christ needs to take note and come into compliance with the modern prophecy movement, following its revelations as it would Scripture. But if the Lord is not revealing His inspired word today, then we need to reject the claims of the modern prophets and expose these supposed revelations for what they are. This means the position taken by most on prophecy – cautious but open – is untenable. The cautious but open crowd is skeptical of the claims coming from the prophetic movement and they are suspicious of the many “words from God” that so many evangelicals are claiming. Still they hesitate to embrace cessationism. They are concerned about limiting God or, as it was mentioned above, “putting God in a box.” To this let me make two replies:

It is okay to put God in a box if God, in fact, is the One who put Himself in that box. In other words, God can do anything He wants to do, but we expect God to do what He says He will do. If God has put Himself in the cessationist box we can embrace and proclaim it.

 

 Taking the open but cautious view really does not hold up. Either God is speaking today apart from His Word or He is not. If He is speaking, how do we determine which of the multitude of messages people claim are from Him and which are bogus? If, with Grudem, we have eliminated the tests of Deuteronomy 13 and 18, how are we to evaluate all these revelations? How do we know to whom we should listen and whom we should ignore?

On such an important area as divine revelation it is indefensible to believe that God’s people cannot know with certainty whether such is taking place. Surely we should expect that the Scriptures themselves would lay out the guidelines for us to determine if divine, authoritative, inspired revelation is being given today. I believe it does and that we can be confident, from the witness of Scripture itself, that God has ceased speaking to mankind during this age apart from the Bible. Let’s take a quick look at what the Word has to say.

 

A cessationist view begins with a careful look at what God actually did in Scripture. We find, when we search carefully, that God was not speaking to everyone all the time. His revelation, even in biblical times, was rare and when He did speak it was always supernaturally with an audible voice, never through inner voices or impressions. The assumption held by many that God spoke to most of His children in biblical times is simply not true. The average believer in either Testament never received a personal word from God and even the majority of key players never heard the voice of God personally. When God did speak in Scripture it almost always dealt with the big picture of what He was doing in the outworking of His redemptive program or the life of His people in general. You will search in vain to find God instructing someone to take a job, purchase a number of donkeys, or buy a house – except as it related to the bigger issue of God’s dealings with His people. Beyond a few individuals, finding a non-prophetic person in Scripture who heard directly from God becomes a difficult task. The contention that God spoke to almost everyone all the time, leading, guiding and directing, simply does not stand the test of careful examination of the Scriptures. Even those to whom God spoke in the Old Testament, to only Noah, Abraham, Moses (considered to be a prophet), Jacob, Aaron, Joshua, David and Solomon, did He speak more than twice in their lifetimes.

But what about the New Testament? We find that most records of God speaking to individuals after Pentecost are found in the book of Acts. But even here we find only thirteen distinct times in which God spoke directly to individuals (two of these through angels), (8:26-29; 9:4, 10; 10:3, 11-16; 12:7-8; 13:2-4; 16:6,9-10; 18:9; 21:4, 11; 22:17-21; 23:11). Eight of these occasions were to Paul or Peter, leaving a total of five other individuals or groups to whom God spoke directly in the first 30 years of church history.

 

So far, we have examined what might be called negative evidence. That is, if we are looking for a pattern of how God spoke to individuals in scriptural times, that pattern reveals a scarcity of individual revelations. The Lord chose to speak primarily through His prophets and the apostles. Following that pattern we should expect the same today. Let’s now move to more positive evidence that the Lord has ceased speaking today apart from Scripture.

Beginning with Ephesians 2:20, we find that the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” Since Christ is the cornerstone of the church, this verse has to be speaking of the witness concerning Christ that the apostles and prophets provided to the church. It is only to be expected that this witness would be passed along to the future generations of believers via the instrument of Scriptures that those men were inspired to write. As Ephesians 3:5 tells us, the “mystery of Christ” has been “made known to the sons of men through the revelation given to Christ’s holy apostles and prophets.” In the next chapter, Paul teaches that the Lord has provided gifted men to the church for its perfection or maturity. The apostles’ and prophets’ role in that process was laying the foundation of the church, as we have seen (Eph. 2:20; 3:5) . How? Through the teaching of New Testament truth, the apostles’ doctrine. The early church gathered together to devote “themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42) , for it was the apostles who would provide New Testament revelation.

The book of Hebrews enhances our understanding by detailing two periods in human history in which the Lord has spoken to mankind. Hebrews 1:1 proclaims that the first period was “long ago to the fathers and prophets in many portions and in many ways.” This is an obvious reference to the revelations given during the times of the Old Testament. In verse two the author of Hebrews cites the second period of divine revelation by simply saying that “in these last days [God] has spoken through His Son.” But as we know Jesus Himself did not write down anything that He said. That was left to His followers and so, the author of Hebrews adds: “After it was first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard” (Heb 2:3) i.e. the apostles. This however raises a practical problem. How did the people know that the communication they were receiving from the apostles was true? After all, many individuals made claim to being an apostle during the first century. The Lord would authenticate His true apostles by giving them the ability to perform “signs and wonders, and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit” (Heb 2:4). When the Corinthians challenged Paul’s apostleship and authority, he pointed them to the “signs of a true apostle…[which were] signs and wonders and miracles” (2 Cor. 12:12 ), just as the author of Hebrews confirmed. The book of Acts verifies repeatedly that miraculous gifts were taking place through the apostles for this very reason (Acts 2:42; 5:12,13; 9:38-41; 14:3, 8-9; 15:12; 19:11; 20:10; 28:8,9) . The only exceptions were Stephen (6:8), Philip (8:6-7) and possibly Barnabas (15:12), all very closely associated with the apostles. We find no examples of the average Christian in the New Testament either performing miracles or receiving authoritative revelation. Miracles were for the purpose of authenticating the office of the men who would lay the foundation of the church. Once the foundation of the church was in place, the role of the apostles was no longer needed. With the death of John, the last of the apostles, gifts authenticating the apostles were no longer necessary and they ceased.

　

But did that necessarily mean revelation ceased as well? I believe the evidence of Scripture would indicate that it did. We start with 1 Corinthians 13:8-10, which clearly tells us that the day comes when prophecy and supernatural knowledge will be done away, and tongues will cease. Specifically Paul writes that “when the perfect comes the partial will be done away.” All Bible believers are ultimately cessationists for this passage is clear that revelatory knowledge will cease at some point; that point being when the perfect comes. Many believe that the “perfect” refers to the coming of Christ or the eternal kingdom. That is a possible interpretation but the context is contrasting partial knowledge and revelatory gifts with that which is perfect. The best explanation in such a context would be that the perfect (or complete) would be the completion of Scripture. In other words, when the revelation for this dispensation as recorded in the New Testament is completed the need for partial words of knowledge and prophecies would cease. That is, because the final, full revelation of the Lord for this dispensation has arrived, there is no need for additional messages from God. This seems reasonable, but did it happen?

 

This understanding of the perfect in 1 Corinthians 13 is reinforced later in the New Testament by Peter, Jude, Paul and John. When the apostle Peter pens the inspired epistle we call Second Peter, he is desirous of reminding them of many things, especially that they “remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles” (3:2). Peter did not point his readers to new or fresh revelation but to the words spoken previously by the prophets and apostles. Jude offers similar understanding when in verse three he urges his readers to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” A message had been given, a foundation laid once for all that had to be defended. How did they know what that message was? In verse 17 Jude answers, “But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The faith in verse three that was handed down to them, the faith that was to be defended and proclaimed, had been given to them by none other than the apostles.

　

As the apostle Paul writes virtually his last inspired words to his friend Timothy he points him to the Scriptures that are able to make the people of God “adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16,17). In light of this lofty claim for the God-breathed Scriptures, Paul gives Timothy a final charge – “to preach the word…” (4:1-5). There is no hint in Paul’s charge that Timothy is to seek additional revelation, listen to the prophecies or words of knowledge of fellow believers or preach his own dreams or visions. He is to preach the Word handed down to the saints through the apostles. As the New Testament canon nears its close the divinely inspired authors unite in pointing their readers to the apostles as the inspired human source of New Testament truth.

The apostle John joins the chorus as he closes down the New Testament with a solemn warning against adding to or subtracting from this final revelation from God. He writes, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book” (Rev 22:18,19). Since this is the last chapter in the last book of the last Testament it is only reasonable to deduce that from that point on any addition of any prophecy would be adding to Scripture. With the death of John shortly thereafter, the last of the apostles had faded from the scene and with him the final word of revelation for this age. In addition there is no indication either the twelve apostles or the New Testament prophets were ever replaced (Rev 21:14).

 

The witness emerging from the Scriptures themselves is that God has chosen to communicate with mankind throughout history in specific and unique ways. He has chosen certain men at certain times to be prophets and apostles to speak and record divine revelation (Heb 1:1-2; 2:3-4). When God’s revelation was complete for this age, the ministry of the prophets and apostles was finished and we would expect no further communication at this time. This expectation is verified through the statements found in the Bible itself. What we are seeing today is not new revelation from God but subjective experiences and, at times, deception. Let us cling tenaciously to “the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 3) rather than chasing the inferior, inadequate imaginations of those who claim a new word from the Lord today.

Copyright © 2013 Gary E. Gilley

　

[1] Adele Ahleberg Calhoun, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Practices That Transform Us, (Downer Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2005), p. 99 (emphasis mine).

[2] Ruth Haley Barton, Sacred Rhythms, Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006), p. 111.

[3] Larry Crabb, The Papa Prayer, the Prayer You’ve Never Prayed, (Brentwood, TN: Integrity Publisher, 2006), p. 8.

[4] John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), p. 140.

[5] Tommy Tenney, The God Chasers (Shippensburg, Pa: Destiny Image, 2000), unnumbered pages in introduction (emphasis his).

[6] Dallas Willard, Hearing God, Developing a Conversational Relationship With God, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), pp. 12, 13.

[7] Ibid., pp. 26, 31, 67.

[8] Ibid., p. 15.

[9] Henry and Richard Blackaby, Hearing God’s Voice (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers), 2002, p. 234.

[10] Ibid., p. 235.

[11] Ibid., p. 236.

[12] Mark and Grace Driscoll, Real Marriage, the Truth about Sex, Friendship and Life Together (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012), p. 8. For more of Mark Driscoll’s claims of extrabiblical revelations see his book Confessions of a Reformission Rev, Hard Lesson from an Emerging Missional Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), pp. 39, 74-75, 97, 99, 128, 130.

[13] Matt Chandler, The Explicit Gospel (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), p. 30.

[14] Mark Galli, “The Mystic Baptist,” Christianity Today, Nov 2012, p. 54.

[15] The Westminster Confession , chapter 1, section 6.

[16] Quoted from Beth Moore's DVD “Believing God.”

[17] Wayne Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, (Wheaton: Crossway, 1988), p. 14.

[18] Ibid., p. 110.

[19] Ibid., p. 120.

[20] Ibid., pp. 120, 121 (emphasis mine).

[21] Dallas Willard, p. 9 (emphasis mine).

[22] Wayne Grudem., p. 111.

Out of body Experiences - Are they for real?

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Out of body Experiences - Are they for real?

By Cheryl Schatz

On the February 14th, 2011 edition of Supernatural TV, Sid Roth asks “Is it possible to walk through a door and find yourself in another part of the world? Bruce Allen was taught the secrets of supernatural travel and he says, ‘You can do it too!’” Sid Roth, the TV host of Supernatural TV, is a Messianic Jew who arose out of New Age doctrines but he continues to focus on the supernatural without much discernment.

The focus on the supernatural and paranormal has never before been so up front in the church, with many Christians claiming to have experienced an out-of-body experience. While some claim to have left their body and traveled to Heaven to receive a message to encourage other Christians, others are leaving their bodies to travel around the world accomplishing some kind of spiritual warfare.

Some like Patricia King of Extreme Prophetic teach that any believer can learn how to go to heaven to “encounter the Lord and His angelic majesties”. In her “Glory School” she teaches how to soar into realms of heavenly glory at will Patricia King is just one of the “Prophets” from the Elijah List. The Elijah List is a newsletter sent out to over 100,000 subscribers giving them access to the prophetic writings of such false teachers as: James W. Goll, Bob Jones, Rick Joyner, Cindy Jacobs and Todd Bentley. James Goll appears to be predicting even more supernatural travel and revelations as he writes “Watch for open heavens in 2011”.

What are we to think of the experiences of those who have “traveled” alive to Heaven in an out-of-body experience? Out-of-body Soul Travel is not new. It is found in ancient Egyptian teachings that present the soul as having the ability to hover out-side the physical body. It is also found in ancient Hindu scriptures and in Japanese mythology where it is believed that a part of the whole of one’s soul can temporarily leave their body and appear before the target of their hate in order to curse or otherwise harm an enemy. Soul travel is found in Theosophy and Eckandar, non-Christian religions based on mysticism, and it is also found in Rosicrucianism, a philosophical secret society.

But why are Christians now experiencing what has historically been an occult practice? And what does the Bible have to say about our spirit’s ability to travel outside of our living body? James 2:2:26 dispels the myths by saying that “the body without the spirit is dead”. What this means is that if a person were to go to Heaven without their body, their body would have to be dead since the body cannot survive with out the spirit. Paul himself said that being “absent from the body” was “to be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8) a clear reference to the death of the body without the spirit.

Paul writes that a person could be taken to heaven in their body, although he was unsure if the experience that he recalled in 2 Cor. 12:2 was such an occurrence. In this passage Paul recorded that a man (most theologians believe this was Paul himself) was caught up to the third heaven and Paul was not sure if this was in the body” (a transport of the body) or “out of the body” (an experience after death). Paul had several instances where he was whipped, beaten and once he was stoned, an act that usually doesn’t leave survivors. This maybe why Paul was unsure whether he experienced the third heaven after a death and resuscitation experience, or whether he went to paradise in his physical body. Whichever it was, there is no evidence at all that Paul had his spirit in paradise while he had a living body on the earth. Otherwise, the Bible would not be true when it says that “the body without the spirit is dead”.

When John writes about himself that he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”, he was not saying that he died and went to heaven as a spirit. The term “in the Spirit” does not mean that one becomes a spirit as the Jehovah’s Witnesses falsely teach about Jesus’ resurrection which was “in the Spirit”. Rather “in the Spirit” means to be under the power and control of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when John was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” he was under the Spirit’s control. He was not having an out-of-body experience.

Since the Bible teaches that the body cannot live without the spirit, why are so many Christians claiming to have left their body, when they never died? I believe the last day’s deception has arrived in full force and many Christians have been deceived by experiences that led them into various areas of extra-biblical deception. They accepted the experience without testing it.

We are instructed by the Bible to test everything, even our experiences, no matter how real and good these experiences seem to be, they must still be tested to see if they line up with God’s Word.


 Patricia King relates experiences with groups of Christians levitating and then being transported as spirits to locations around the world. In this state she claimed that “Jesus” spoke to her claiming that these experiences will be said by many to be empowered by occult power, but she was assured that she should not to be afraid of a false source of power. It is evident that Patricia King did not test these experiences by God’s Word, for these experiences contradict God’s Word.

Rick Joyner, the self-professed mentor of the disgraced Todd Bentley, has written about his own experiences of going to heaven where he met with the dead. In Rick Joyner’s “experiences” in heaven, dead people read his mind, but this does not line up with God’s Word, as only God can read the hearts and minds of men. Joyner also claims to have met a dead man who admitted that he was an enemy of the gospel when he was alive on the earth, and who worked to keep people away from the gospel, yet this dead man ended up in heaven according to Joyner’s communication with the dead!

Joyner also received a revelation that reinterprets Scripture when a group of dead people claimed that they were the foolish virgins of Jesus’ parable, but that they too made it to heaven. Rick Joyner concludes that these dead people couldn’t be lying about that.

It is too bad that Joyner did not believe Jesus’ words rather than the testimony of the dead”. Matthew 25:10-12 shows the foolish virgins asking to be allowed into the wedding feast in heaven, but the door was shut to them and Jesus Himself denied “knowing” them.

Rick Joyner’s experiences with the supernatural brought him further revelations that Satan is a bearer of truth, although he says Satan’s truth is truth without grace. However, if Joyner had checked out the Scriptures, he would have found out the testimony of Jesus is that Satan “does not stand in the truth”, because “there is no truth in him”. Who are we to believe---Jesus or the testimony of the “dead” in the out-of-body experiences of Rick Joyner?

The deception that resulted from Rick Joyner’s experience in heaven taught him that having the “mind of Christ” results in the ability to know everything about everyone that you encounter.

Yet the Bible clearly shows that the realm of knowing the heart of man belongs to God alone. The one who testified to Joyner and reinterpreted the Word of God causing Joyner to seek to gain for himself God’s own ability to read minds, was nothing less than a liar and deceiver. The fruit of these out-of-body experiences is not truth but deception.

Bob Jones, the “seer-prophet” who admitted sexual misconduct in 1991, claims to go to the third heaven several times a week and he also receives visits by a female angel named Emma. This “female angel” is the one who birthed the prophetic movement in Kansas City in the 1980’s according to Bob Jones. Bob Jones was removed from the Vineyard Anaheim because of sexual improprieties, which consisted of encouraging women to undress in his office so they could stand ‘naked before the Lord’ in order to receive a ‘word.’ Deception and immorality often go hand in hand!

In a surprising turn of events, Dennis Cramer one of the Elijah List prophets, has written a scathing rebuke to the church for allowing bad doctrine to come into their midst, however much of what he condemned had already been rampant amongst the Elijah List prophets. Dennis Cramer’s warning was posted on the Elijah List and then quickly taken down when it caused a lot of concern from those who had been following the experience focused “prophets”. Later the warning was reposted with a clarification.

The January 15, 2011 repost by Cramer (and subsequent Charisma magazine article also by Cramer) denounced the teaching that Christians could go to heaven at will. While Dennis Cramer did not come right out and refute the teaching that a person can leave his body alive and travel in the spirit, he did bring a stinging rebuke to the false doctrine that is rampant in the experience-related prophetic movement. Here is a part of his message:

“Do I believe in Third Heaven experiences? Absolutely, I do. The Bible supports such sovereign experiences as in the example of Paul in 2 Corinthians 12. Do I believe in being physically transported? Absolutely, I do! By a sovereign act of God, Phillip was physically transported (Acts 8) from one location to another. So if it’s in the Bible I believe it! I believe it all! Amen!

“However, there is a HUGE difference between God willing you to have a certain sovereign Bible experience (like Paul or Phillip), as opposed to you willing it or trying to make it happen, to duplicate it through mere human effort or merely through the exercising of your human or soulish will, in other words, “at will.”

These Bible experiences were 100% sovereign. They did not happen because these individuals willed them into existence or willed them to happen….Teachings like this often crossover into dangerous methods and techniques that resemble New Age Mysticism, Spiritism or other occult manipulative practices. A believer cannot and must not force, manipulate, or otherwise attempt to reproduce a sovereign supernatural Bible experience by merely following a method, a series of steps, or worst of all “willing it” to happen.”

Dennis Cramer goes on to give an antidote to pervasive false teaching in the charismatic church. He writes:

“I would like to prescribe a good healthy dose of the written Word of God, the Bible. The Church needs an immediate injection of the truth! We must all pray for the church to return to the orthodoxy (traditional belief) of Scripture. This means a return to the proper reading, INTERPRETATION, and application of the Bible in our lives. There is a growing trend toward some really bad doctrine out there. And we, the Church, must put a stop to it! If we don’t no one else will!! The Church must begin to police herself against unorthodox (false) teaching and bizarre practices. You must reacquaint yourself with the Scriptures and know your Bible…

“We must pray for a “Berean Revival” in the Church -- a revival which returns us all to our roots --our roots in the Word of God. In the bible, the original Bereans were Believers who “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things be so.” There is a lot of doctrine currently in circulation in the charismatic Church that is highly questionable---even heretical.

Each Believer must begin to “search the Scriptures” for himself to discover whether what he is believing is Biblical or not (Acts 17:11). Stop unequivocally trusting ministers and their pulpits to always and completely preach the truth---some do, some do not. You need to search and know the Scriptures for yourself. If their teachings sound too good to be true---they very well may be! Know your Bible!…It is time for the Church to return to her basic Bible beliefs (fundamental doctrines) and the core values these fundamental doctrines produce…We must stop extracting obscure, vague, single, solitary verses out of context, and stop trying to make major “sound “ doctrines out of them…We are “twisting the Scriptures to our own destruction.”

What an amazing message from within the Elijah List itself! No doubt there were ripples in the charismatic community when Dennis Cramer listed a lot of the excesses as bad doctrine. Here are just a few from his list:

• Open Heaven/Spiritual Portals = BAD DOCTRINE
• Going to Heaven At Will to Get Your Gifts = BAD DOCTRINE
• Cloud of Witnesses/Dead Saints= BAD DOCTRINE
• Traveling in Time At Will = BAD DOCTRINE
• Transporting Physically At Will = BAD DOCTRINE
• Going into Trances At Will = BAD DOCTRINE
• Trance Dancing = BAD DOCTRINE
• Hyper-Grace: Christians Do Not Need to Repent of Sin=BAD DOCTRINE

While I cannot endorse all that Dennis Cramer has said about the prophetic, his rebuke to the experience-seekers in the church was a breath of fresh air that was sent out to all 100,000 subscribers of the Elijah List! In concluding his rebuke, Cramer writes this encouraging word:

“I hear the Church saying again, “DEVIL, IT IS WRITTEN!” It does not matter what you think, feel, sense, or even believe. It does not matter what experience you claim to have had, or how many trips to Heaven you claim to have made, or how many angels you know on a first name basis. The only thing that matters is what God said in His Word. Know your Bible….Many will willingly and increasingly enter into incorrect thinking. Hard-core deception will find a home in the Church in 2011, if we are not diligent to know and follow the Word of God. Remember these words from Scripture: “Be not deceived!” This is a command, and the Responsibility of all Bible-believing Believers. Notice that deception is a choice! We must choose not to be deceived in 2011. How? Know your Bible!”

We pray that the word that was spoken from inside the Elijah List will cause many to re-evaluate their failure to test all things by God’s Word. We are in the last days and we have been told that deception will be rampant in these last days. Let us not be ones who are snared by a lie but rather let us be ones who love the truth of God’s Word and hold it tight, who have the fear of God and who are willing to lay aside every weight that hinders us from running the race in truth. Such ones will not be hooked by the deception but will be kept by God’s truth.

Copyright© 2011 Cheryl Schatz




MM Outreach - News & Views - April, May, June 2011
Website: mmoutreach.org

Phil Johnson Stand Firm in the Faith

Be Watchful the Lord is Coming.  Stand Firm in the Faith - Phil Johnson gives instruction - watch video:

SEE VIDEO HERE: http://youtu.be/z5MauAR0mjc

1 Cor. 15:57,58

but thanks be to God, who give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

Remember that God gives us the victory through His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. This is cause for rejoicing! Be always abounding in the work of the Lord. Stand strong in the Faith. Be firm, deeply rooted in the Faith. Be established, not wavering. Do not give place to unsound doctrines or new teachings. Believers must test all things to the Word of God 1 John 4:1.

In these postmodern times it is said that we shouldn’t be certain about anything, and doubting shows humility, … but scripture corrects this false view and instructs the Believer to: Stand Firm in the Faith, be stable, be secure, and be confident in the truths found in Scriptures.

Eph. 4:13,14 tells us to not be unstable and unsound in teaching and doctrine. We are to have a steady, trusting confidence in the Scriptures. Stand Firm in the Faith! Being addressed to the Believers Paul says this:

“Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; “ Eph. 4:13,14

“And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach---if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul was made a minister.” Colossians 1:21-23

Notice from the Scripture in Ephesians above that:  our 'unity' is to be based on the knowledge of the Son of God.  Our confidence in the Scripture and steadfast trust in the Word of God brings this true unity. To stand firm in the Faith is a Command. It is not an option. God’s people are to be steadfast, immovable, growing in stability, steady in belief, sound in doctrine, and transformed by the renewing of their minds, and trusting in God’s Word.

Why doctrine is Important

WHY DOCTRINE IS IMPORTANT
For the Christian, the bible is how we determine the truth. It also instructs us on how to handle any conflicts in our relationships, as well as every other area of our lives. But the trouble is; Do we take the bible's instructions and commands seriously, and apply what it says? or do we just brush it off as someone's personal 'opinion' or perception? In Christian relationships or in ministry - this is a crucial question.

To stand firm in the faith you must study the truths of the Faith. It is every Christians responsibility to know and study God's word. You can not mature in the Faith, if you don't personally study the bible for yourself. A lack of studying leads to immature attitudes towards your brothers and sisters in Christ and eventually sin. A lack of personal study also leads many into doctrinal error and misinterpreting of the scripture. Many Christians reject the study of doctrine and theology as unimportant. But isn't real Christian unity based on the whole of Christian truth (doctrine) found in the bible ? If we isolate one doctrinal teaching from others will it not effect the way we treat one another?

But it is not enough to study the truth, but we must also accurately handle the truths of scripture. 2 Tim 2:15 reads: "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." We need to be responsible for how we speak, apply, and handle the truth of Scripture, also in Titus 2:1 it says: "But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine."

The word is to be apart of our conversations, applied to our life circumstances and experiences so that we walk wisely, having godly relationships, so we may have peace through our trials and endure through our continued growth in Christ. We will enjoy unbroken fellowship. But if we willfully choose to ignore or brush-off this admonishing from scripture to obey and apply the word as the Holy Spirit convicts our hearts and leads us, there is a warning what will happen to us -

2 Tim 4:3-5 "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

In our conduct towards each other we are to live in a matter worthy of the gospel of Christ, standing firm in our faith, living a life that is consistent with God's revealed word. Our testimony before the world requires us to live with godly integrity otherwise we weaken the gospel's credibility. We are to as Phil 2:15, 16 says: "so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among who you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life."

** Note: This entry was originally posted on March 9, 2008. I have had to re-post it again.