Welby, the wedding and the Gospel

My colleague Charles Gardner has written a splendid piece on the Royal wedding, eulogising the sermon from Bishop Curry that made such a great contribution to the union of Harry and Meghan. It was a powerful message delivered with great skill and passion that captivated not only the congregation in St George’s Chapel, Windsor, but countless millions watching the service around the world.

At the risk of being a spoilsport and dubbed a ‘prophet of doom and gloom’, I want to offer a few thoughts to go alongside what Charles has written. I too watched the wedding on TV and I was delighted with the charismatic message delivered by the Bishop. And I was really pleased that he did not only speak about love in a sentimental, romantic context, but he spoke about the love of God and got some Gospel into his message.

I applauded him for taking the opportunity of presenting the Gospel in simple words that would have communicated clearly to probably the largest congregation any preacher has ever faced. It was certainly good for Christianity.

Changes in the Church

My concern was not with the message but with the whole event and with the enormous changes that are taking place within the Church – especially the Church of England as our state Church. The last time a prince of the realm wanted to marry a divorced American lady whose ex-husband was still living, it resulted in the abdication of King Edward VIII. 

My concern is not with the message but with the whole event and the enormous changes taking place within the Church.

That was the 1930s and much has changed since then. But Harry and Meghan’s wedding could not even have taken place 10 years ago, when Dr Rowan Williams was Archbishop of Canterbury and Prince Charles wanted to marry Camilla Parker-Bowles whose ex-husband was still alive – something that was directly against the teaching of Jesus (Luke 16:18).

I remember discussing it with Rowan at the time. He was steadfastly against allowing a full Anglican wedding service and Charles and Camilla had to go to Windsor Town Hall and have a civil ceremony, after which they went to St George’s Chapel for a blessing.

Now, everyone is so delighted that the Royal family have accepted a beautiful, racially-mixed young lady into their midst that no one takes any notice of her divorce. I believe it is right under exceptional circumstances that the Church should offer a full wedding service where someone has been divorced – I have done this myself – and I don’t know the circumstances of Meghan’s former marriage, so I’m in no position to make any comment on this. My concern is really with Archbishop Justin Welby who has said publicly that it is his intention to make the Church of England ‘more inclusive’.

Gospel Truth?

It was Welby who advised Harry and Meghan to have Bishop Curry as their preacher, knowing full well that Curry is an advocate of same-sex marriage and the propagation of the LGBT code of immorality. I know that the Archbishop sent out guidelines to all CofE primary schools last year urging teachers to encourage the children to cross-dress in preparation for living in a gender-free society. 

What message is the Church sending to the world?

So, I wonder what Welby’s next move will be in undermining our Judeo-Christian heritage? How far does he intend going in promoting the LGBT agenda, destroying biblical truth and promoting an apostate Church?

Yes, it was a lovely wedding and only the British could put on such an amazing pageant in such an historic setting, blessed by perfect weather. It was great to have a national celebration in the midst of the dark Brexit-laden days we are enduring. It was great for the public to enjoy such a celebration and it was good for the national image worldwide. My only concern is: what message is the Church sending to the world? Does the Church of England even know the truth of the Gospel it is supposed to proclaim?

Reflections a year on from Grenfell and Manchester.

This week we were reminded of two tragedies in our nation. On Monday the media carried harrowing reports of the tragic loss of life at Grenfell Tower, as the main inquiry into the cause of the disaster began.

On Tuesday, memories of the 22 lives lost and the multitude injured in the Manchester Arena terrorist attack replaced memories of Grenfell.

I heard no-one in the media asking the obvious question, “Where was God in all of this?” Indeed, God has been so sidelined in the thoughts and lives of the majority of our nation that we no longer even hear the question, “Is there a God?”

Yet, we still live in a nation whose Queen, at her Coronation, swore an Oath to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who has protected us beyond our deserving over many years. Central to that Oath was the commitment to maintain his laws and the true profession of the Gospel. Over a generation, this commitment to God has largely been forgotten by the nation’s leaders and is rarely mentioned by the leaders of the established Church.

Unprotected Children

As far back as the 1980s, I was waiting one day in the playground of the school where our youngest two children were about to finish their school day. I watched as the classes were dismissed and as a crowd of children emerged, each looking for a parent to take them home safely. I thought I heard the voice of God in my mind saying that these children were no longer under his protection.

Over a generation, our national commitment to God has largely been forgotten.

I wondered if I had imagined it, because these were simply innocent children, embarking on their lives in a country God has greatly blessed and protected. I recalled the wonderful protection of my own childhood when, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, family and community co-operated to re-build our nation after the devastation of war, thankful for God’s deliverance from the evil that so easily could have engulfed us.

Yet, since that day when I thought I heard that voice of God, one disaster has followed another in our nation, making me think that God was indeed speaking, in the early stages of removing his hand of protection.

Let me say clearly, however, concerning both the Manchester and Grenfell disasters that God was not punishing those who had assembled there, any more than those who lost their lives when the Tower of Siloam fell in Jesus’ day. The picture is bigger: that, whilst we must also recognise that God allowed these disasters, they serve as signs to our nation – warning signs that we will not live in safety if we choose to live outside of his protection.

Knowing God’s Ways

If, as we should, we search our Bibles to discover God’s ways, we will see that God does take his protection away from his people if they do not seek him with all their heart. At the time of Samuel, for example, when the religious framework of the nation had decayed under Eli the priest and his wicked sons, the Philistines prevailed over Israel.

Again, when the kings of Israel and Judah led the people astray (kings whom God warned his people they should not desire), the troubles of the nations soon followed. Ultimately, God’s protection was removed: first from the Northern Kingdom of Israel which fell to the Assyrians, and then from the Southern Kingdom of Judah which fell to the Babylonians.

Disasters like Grenfell are warning signs that we will not live in safety if we choose to live outside of God’s protection.

God’s sadness was displayed through the weeping of the Prophet Jeremiah, as recorded in the Book of Lamentations. Similarly, Jesus wept over Jerusalem when he foretold the coming second fall of the City.

God knows what will happen when the doors are allowed open to the evil adversaries of the people of this world – adversaries both physical and spiritual. God weeps when the time comes for him to remove his protection from a people who do not seek him, who choose to try to live without him under the beguiling principles of humanism and false religion, where false gods are honoured. But he is willing to remove his protection.

We are reaping the consequences of this in Britain today despite the fact that we have had sign after sign that should bring us to ask, “where is our God?”

The Prime Minister adds her condolences to a 'Tree of Hope' in Manchester. See Photo Credits.The Power of Testimonies

The testimonies of those who lost loved ones at Grenfell and the memories of the fatal night in Manchester are profound. But they should not only be sparking human sympathy and attempts to celebrate and unite a community (such as in Manchester where a concert has been held), but be compelling those who have responsibility for our nation to lead us in seeking God in repentance.¹

God is a loving Father to those who seek him with all their heart and protects his loved ones beyond their deserving – always. But he is also a strong God who will not bend from the eternal balance of justice and mercy. He is Judge of the entire earth and cannot compromise in the ‘big picture’ of his eternal covenant purposes throughout history.

God weeps when the time comes for him to remove his protection from a people who do not seek him.

If he did not spare his own Son in these eternal purposes of overcoming sin and offering eternal redemption to those who would accept it, he cannot continue to protect a people who reject him and choose lives of sin.

There is a Way Back

There is always a way back and those who know the Lord, namely those in the churches of our nation (especially the leaders of the churches), should be his prophetic voice. It is imperative that we take the opportunity while we still have it to call this nation back to repentance and seeking God.

It is time for the leaders of our Government - from the Royal Family through to the executives who are duty-bound to outwork the purposes of the Monarch’s Oath - to take their responsibility before God and lead the nation back to him. This is what the tragic signs are telling us. We are vulnerable outside the protection of Almighty God and that vulnerability is bringing increasing pain, sadness and loss of life - not only to those who lead but to those for whom they are responsible.

Notes

1 And we do not mean just any God. The multi-faith service in Manchester which was part of the memorial activities a year after the attack is yet another symptom of how far our nation has compromised our allegiance to the One True God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Conclusions (Pt 1 of 2): is the charismatic movement a move of God?

This article is part of a series. Please see the base of the page for more details.

A Move of God?

Having reached this point in the review of the development of the charismatic movement we may return to the question posed much earlier in the series: is the charismatic movement a move of God? Was it initiated by the Lord Jesus? Despite all the strange aberrations we have noted, I would still want to affirm very positively its divine origins. I could not deny the work of the Holy Spirit in my own life or in the many hundreds of churches of which I have personal experience.

Through what we call the charismatic movement, the Holy Spirit has brought new life, joy, liberty and a more intimate personal relationship with the Lord Jesus and the Father into the lives of millions of believers. This has to be the work of God. It is certainly not anything that satan would want to do.

The fact that the charismatic movement had no clear-cut beginning causes me to doubt that God has moved in a series of 'waves' at different points during the 20^th Century. I see a continuous process in the work of the Holy Spirit throughout the century. On the first day of 1900, Charles Parnham's students began speaking in tongues, this was followed in 1906 by the stirring events in Azusa Street resulting in the formation of Pentecostal assemblies.

The fact that the charismatic movement had no clear-cut beginning causes me to doubt that God has moved in a series of 'waves' at different points during the 20^th Century.

Gradually throughout the century the recognition of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit has spread across the world. This has brought spiritual awakening in lands where the Gospel had never previously been heard, with vast numbers of new-born believers. It has also brought spiritual renewal in nations that had had the Gospel for centuries and where the Church had become largely inactive due to the onslaught of secularisation.

It was clearly God's intention to reap a mighty harvest during this century in lands which had never before been reached by the Gospel and it was also clearly his intention to renew the flagging belief and spiritual power of the Church where institutionalism and traditionalism had sapped its strength. What we see as fresh 'waves' of the Spirit have in fact been part of the on-going work of the Spirit of God working out his purposes and preparing a great company of believers to withstand the stormy days that lie ahead.

Using Human Strength

The great failing of the charismatic movement has not been in a lack of enthusiasm but in taking over the work of God and trying to do that work in our own strength. It is recorded that Frank Bartlemann, the Azusa Street leader, said that within a few years of the 1906 experience the flesh had taken over from the Spirit. This is really what also happened to the charismatic movement in the latter part of the 20^th Century. Paul's warning to the church in Galatia needs to be heeded today, “After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” (Gal 3:3).

There are many indications that we have done something similar to the offence caused by Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, who put unauthorised fire ('strange fire' AV) in their censers which they then offered before the Lord with disastrous results (Lev 10:1). When we do such things we are showing a lack of trust in the Lord. We are trying to force the pace and direct the work of God.

Once we begin to move in the flesh and not under the direction and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we open the door to all kinds of alien influences as well as to the things of the flesh such as pride and arrogance. When we take over the work of God we are, in fact, rebelling against him and we grieve the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 63:10 speaks of the terrible consequences of such action, “In his love and mercy he redeemed them...Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them.”

This needs to be taken as a serious warning by all who are part of the charismatic movement. If we seriously step outside the will of the Lord he is against us, not for us. It is essential that we should understand both the will of God and his ways because all the evidence points to the fact that the world is moving closer and closer into days of international turmoil and conflict. The moral and spiritual plight of the nations, especially in the West, is desperate.

If we seriously step outside the will of the Lord he is against us, not for us.

But God is actually using this social situation to prepare the way for the Gospel. Never has there been a greater need for the Word of God to be clearly heard among the nations. Never has there been a greater need for the establishment of biblical principles as the guidelines for healthy living, both for individuals and at a corporate level. Yet the influence of the Church in the western nations has never been so weak.

In Britain the Church is under continuous attack from the media who delight to scorn the Gospel and seize every opportunity to mock the faith. The Church of England, as the established Church, holds a unique position which is rapidly being eroded by unbelief and by spiritual and moral corruption from within.

It was obvious to all those who were aware of the tactics of the enemy that as soon as the issue of women priests was over, the next battle would be over the acceptance of homosexual priests, both men and women. When that battle is over the way will be prepared for the ultimate onslaught on biblical belief from the multi-faith lobby.

Battle for the Bible

As Peter Fenwick has rightly said earlier in this series, the real battle today is a battle for the Bible; it is a battle for the soul of Britain. Alongside the battle within the Church and the attacks of a secular media, there is the growing power of Islam. The Muslims are determined to make Britain the first Islamic state in Europe. By the mid-1990s, they had been planting mosques in all the towns and cities of Britain at the rate of one per month for a decade.

During the 1990s Britain celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and the war in Europe. That was a battle for physical survival. The battle today is for spiritual survival. The Holy Spirit whom God began to pour out upon all believers on the Day of Pentecost is still active in the world today. As the battle against the enemies of the Gospel intensifies there is a new urgency that the Church should recognise the nature of the battle and understand the reasons why Jesus, shortly before his ascension, told the disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1:4-8).

Jesus knew that without the power of the Holy Spirit his followers would not be able to withstand the attacks of the enemy. They had to learn not to rush out in human enthusiasm or to seek after exciting signs and wonders, but faithfully to be witnesses of the Lord Jesus, declaring the way of salvation to all those around them and trusting the Lord of the harvest to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit and enlarge his Kingdom until the Day of the Lord dawned.

Where Tomorrow?

We began this series by saying that the charismatic movement had reached a point beyond crisis and was already beginning to crumble. In Britain by the mid-1990s there was a significant number of ministers who had once exercised charismatic ministries but who later repudiated that term.

There were thousands of church members who left charismatic churches because they had been sickened by the behaviour of leaders who, under the influence of Toronto, each time they began to read Scripture or preach the Word became doubled up as with stomach cramp and fell to the ground in a helpless heap. They were sickened by being told that uncontrollable laughter, barking, roaring, mooing, crowing like a cockerel, shouting, screaming, vomiting, pogo dancing and shadow boxing were all signs of the activity of the Holy Spirit.

They remembered that these same leaders who encouraged these things were saying, only a few years ago, that such activities were clear evidence of the presence of demonic spirits and required deliverance. They had been saddened to see the Holy Spirit ridiculed in TV programmes and tabloid press reports by displays of bizarre activity. They had been dismayed to see the name of the Lord Jesus mocked in the media through the activities of some charismatics.

Jesus knew that without the power of the Holy Spirit his followers would not be able to withstand the attacks of the enemy.

There are those who, like the authors of this book, still hold fast to their belief in the charismata. They believe that the Holy Spirit is present and active among believers today as he was in the days of the early Church and that the gifts of the Spirit are available to all believers. They nevertheless believe that it is high time to ask some fundamental questions concerning our response to the work of the Spirit among us in the British charismatic movement.

If, as we believe, it was God's purpose to renew the Church and revive the nation, has that purpose been achieved? There is no evidence to suggest that the spiritual life of the whole Church has been revitalised and neither is there any evidence of moral or spiritual revival in the nation. Indeed, the moral and spiritual life of both Church and nation are infinitely worse. Scandals concerning adultery, homosexuality and child abuse are regularly revealed and that's only within the Church! In the nation all these things occur plus violence, murder and all kinds of corruption.

So what has gone wrong? The plain and simple answer is that we have turned our back upon the word of God. We have neglected to study the word, we have relegated it to a secondary place in the life of the Church and we have substituted experience, false prophecies, strange revelations, our own opinions and teachings. We have thereby abandoned the truth for the myths and fantasies and teachings of men.

Since 1990, we have been reaping the inevitable reward of the tares that have been sown among us. Although many people are still enjoying the exciting experiences of the latest waves of charismatic chaos, I believe the outlook for the future of the charismatic movement is bleak; the writing is already upon the wall.

1990: A Turning Point

I believe future Church historians will see 1990 as the major turning point in the apostatising of the charismatic movement. This was the time when all the strange, unbiblical teachings which had been current among Pentecostal/charismatics since the Latter Rain Revival of the 1940s were gathered into a complete package and swallowed uncritically by the Church in Britain.

Foremost in the body of this teaching was the expectation of a great revival brought about by signs and wonders. There is no scriptural foundation for such a belief. Indeed, Jesus did not use signs and wonders to astound the crowds and draw them into Kingdom. Quite the reverse, he instructed people whom he had healed to keep quiet about it, not to 'noise it abroad'.

God's purpose to renew the Church and revive the nation has not been achieved because we have turned our backs on the word of God.

The New Testament teaches that signs and wonders follow the preaching of the Word, but once we start making the miraculous the chief object of desire - once we start running after signs and wonders - we take the focus away from the centrality of the word of God and the glorifying of the Lord Jesus.

A major problem for us in the West has been the amazing growth of the Church in the poor, non-industrialised nations of the world. In these days of easy travel and rapid communications, many church leaders have been to the poorer nations and seen at first-hand what is happening. They have returned with accounts of multitudes being saved at great open-air meetings with amazing miracles - the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame walking and even the dead being raised.

I myself have seen evidence of all these things in my preaching travels across Africa, China, South East Asia and other parts of the world. I too have brought these stories back and used them to make Westerners jealous by saying that the same things could and should be happening here. These stories have fuelled the longing for revival.

What has happened in Britain has also happened in other Western nations; the deep desire for revival has caused us to run ahead of the timing of the Lord. God has been telling us for many years that he is 'shaking the nations' and that his purpose is to turn the hearts of men and women away from their trust in material things, which is idolatry, to seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

In the highly secularised, materialistic Western industrialised nations, our whole culture revolves around the acquisition of wealth and the accumulation of material possessions. These things largely determine our position in society and they therefore have a far greater influence upon our values and our minds etc than most of us realise. It is almost impossible to divorce ourselves from the culture of the society in which we live.

A Culture of Idolatry

There is no place in our culture for the God of the Bible; the God who demands our total loyalty and our absolute trust. Western culture is a culture of idolatry and we are adherents, willingly or unwillingly, of that culture. There will be no revival until that idolatrous mindset is broken in the servants of God.

That is why revivals and great spiritual awakenings have always occurred among the poor and the underprivileged - from the days of the early Church to the impoverished nations of today. Soon after the Day of Pentecost, as revival swept through the city of Jerusalem, the rich and the powerful noted with scorn that the apostles were unlearned men, they “realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

Western culture is a culture of idolatry: there is no place in it for the God of the Bible.

The same is true of those who came to Christ in the Wesleyan revival, of the blacks and poor whites who flocked to Azusa Street in 1906 and of the revival that swept through the Welsh mining communities in the same decade.

In the rich Western nations evangelicals have become obsessed with revival and the desire to reproduce what is happening in the poorer nations. What we fail to realise is the vast cultural difference. We cannot compensate for this simply by greater enthusiasm or by turning up the volume of our praise and worship, or even by more earnest intercession. Even confession, repentance, weeping and crying out to God at our meetings will not provide the quick-fix answer for which we are looking and which our quick-fix culture moulds our mindset to expect.

The Key to Revival

The key to revival is in Philippians 3:7-10 where Paul describes how he has renounced the world for the sake of knowing Christ Jesus as his Lord. He considers all worldly values as rubbish so that he may gain not the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or supernatural power to confound unbelievers, but simply that he may “gain Christ and be found in him”. He says, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.” In case anyone should interpret this to mean an exciting experience of having the power to raise the dead, Paul's next words should be noted! He adds, “and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

The way to life is through death; death to self and the renunciation of the world. There is no other way for the Church in the Western nations to see revival. It may be part of God's plan to allow the Church in the rich industrial nations to die in order to raise a new and purified Church.

The great spiritual awakenings in the poorer nations are not being seen in the West because we are unwilling to meet the cost. We want the excitement of revival without paying the price of the pain and suffering and travail that goes with it. In the poorer nations the great spiritual awakenings are occurring because the Gospel of salvation is being preached, the good news that Christ died for our sins. Multitudes are being saved and the signs and wonders follow. This has been the pattern in past revivals.

But in the Western charismatic churches we are not motivated by the desire to save multitudes going to hell but to have the multitudes come and join us in the excitement of a spiritual spectacular! If they won't come and join us, then we'll have it on our own! Furthermore, if God won't do it for us, then we'll do it ourselves!

This is the tragedy of the Western charismatic movement. We are children of the world rather than the children of God. Our lifestyle is very little different from our unbelieving neighbours; our values are similar to theirs; we read the same newspapers, watch the same TV programmes, follow the same fashions in clothes, food and music; even our charismatic worship sometimes sounds more like a pop concert. We justify this by saying that it helps modern people to feel comfortable and at home in our midst; in other words, that they haven't had to leave the world in order to come into the Church! How different from New Testament teaching! How different from the teaching of the Reformers and the great revivalist preachers.

The great spiritual awakenings in the poorer nations are not being seen in the West because we are unwilling to meet the cost.

The Church in the poor non-industrialised nations is presently thriving and expanding rapidly but there is great danger of spiritual pollution from the West. In these days of worldwide travel and communications the materialistic values of the West may be easily transmitted, especially in the context of the Western nations' economic power and dominance.

Here is a parable. In the early 1980s a West African preacher of extraordinary gifting arose out of a background of grinding poverty. He had an anointed ministry of evangelism and began drawing crowds of up to half a million at his rallies. Thousands responded to the Gospel, giving their lives to Christ, and as they did so there were miraculous healings and many other signs and wonders which were reported in the secular press.

Soon some Westerners got to hear of his ministry and took him on a tour around the rich nations. They poured money into his lap. They taught him the 'prosperity gospel' by which they lived and convinced him that God wanted him rich as a sign to the poor Africans among whom he ministered. He built a great church building; he also built himself a fine home and rode around in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes. He became a great man in his community but he lost his anointing. His ministry of evangelism disappeared.

Next week: Likely consequences if the true and full word of God is not restored to the charismatic movement. Our final article in the series.

Series Information

This article is part of a series, re-publishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’, an analysis of the ‘Toronto Blessing’ and a wider critique of the charismatic movement in the late 20^th Century. Click here for previous instalments and to read the editorial background to the series.

The future of the Church in Britain.

This is a question that was fiercely debated by members, clergy and bishops in the Church of England following the consecration of David Jenkins as Bishop of Durham in York Minster on 6 July 1984. Some hours later a bolt of lightning struck the Minster and burned the south transept where the consecration had taken place.

It was particularly remarkable because weather maps showed clear skies over the whole of the UK and northern Europe except for this one tiny cloud no bigger than a man’s hand crossing Yorkshire and delivering an electrical strike of such magnitude that it overrode a newly installed lightning conductor at the Minster.

Even the secular media saw this as an ‘act of God’ but not so the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, who declared that God does not do such things. It later emerged that he was faced by a ‘God or Mammon’ dilemma as the Minster’s insurance might not have covered ‘acts of God’!

Liberal Theology

Jenkins had some unorthodox views on central tenets of Christian doctrine including casting doubt on the resurrection of Jesus. Although the Archbishop did not publicly support the views of Jenkins, he nevertheless continued to promote non-Bible-believing clerics to senior posts in the Church of England which brought liberal postmodernist teaching into the leadership of the Church that still has an influence today.

In last week’s editorial we were examining the influence of ‘postmodernism’ in the nation and noting its objective of destroying the family in its war against Christianity. We said:

The central tragedy of recent history over the past half-century is that neither Church leaders nor politicians have understood the philosophy of postmodernism, with its objectives of destroying Judeo-Christian civilisation.

For the Church to play a significant part in guarding the nation against destructive philosophies that undermine basic truth, its leadership must have an unshakeable grasp of truth that is derived from its source in God, the Creator of the universe.

For the Church to be able to guard the nation against destructive philosophies, its leadership must have an unshakeable grasp of truth.

When church leaders lack understanding of the truth - as revealed in Scripture, through the prophets of Israel and through Jesus the Messiah - and promote obscurity, distortions and lies instead, they come under the judgment of God. Paul makes this clear in Romans 1:18:

York Minster's south transept after the lightning strike, 1984. See Photo Credits.The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

This particularly applies to Church leaders who claim to be men of God but are not faithful in declaring the truth. In the same passage Paul continues:

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.

This is similar to Jeremiah’s complaint about the leaders of the nation in his day: “The shepherds are senseless and do not enquire of the Lord” (Jer 10:21). They were relying upon human wisdom; in 23:1 he elaborates this: “‘Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!’ declares the Lord.”

Undermining Truth

This exactly describes many church leaders and professors of theology in our seminaries and universities today, most of which are steeped in liberal theology and driven by its spirit of postmodernism, which has roots in anti-Semitism, atheism and Marxism.

I can speak from personal experience because I did a doctorate in liberal theology. I went up to university with a strong faith in God and a conviction that my life was to be devoted to preaching and living in accordance with biblical truth. Most of my faith was destroyed by the time I left university and it took me some years and a personal experience of spiritual renewal to regain my faith.

I went up to university with a strong faith in God and came away with most of my faith destroyed – having studied liberal theology.

Please do not misunderstand me – I am not despising biblical scholarship; indeed, we need good, sound, biblical scholarship to guard against deception in the Church and in the nation! But the postmodernist heresies that began in Germany in the late 19^th Century have penetrated deeply into our academic institutions, such that biblical scepticism undermining truth has been taught in many of our theological colleges and universities for the past century and more.

What is ‘the Church’?

In the light of this statement we can now return to the question at the beginning of this article: Can the Church come under God’s judgment? Here we must define our terms: what do we mean by ‘Church’?

If we mean the Church founded by Jesus on the Day of Pentecost when he fulfilled his promise to send the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, enabling and empowering them to take the Gospel to the nations beginning in Jerusalem, then to Judea, Samaria and out to all the world – if we mean the true Church that is the ‘Body of Christ’, then we must conclude that such a Church can never come under the judgment of God!

But are the institutions that we call ‘churches’ the true Body of Christ? I was recently discussing this with my wife who has for many years been studying church history. She told me about an incident of which I was not aware. When King James I became King of England (having previously been King James VI of Scotland), he brought with him a strong Christian faith although, like his father Charles I, he had Catholic sympathies. James wanted to make the Bible available in English to all his subjects.

At that time most Bibles were in Latin which many people, even among the clergy, could not read. He called together a group of Protestant scholars, some of whom were Church of England clergy while others were Dissenters (Nonconformist ministers). They allocated different parts of the Bible to individual scholars and collectively set about the task of translating the Bible into what became known as the ‘Authorised Version’ or the ‘King James Version’.

The group of scholars worked well together but there was one word upon which they could not agree, so they all came together to consult the King. It was the word ecclesia which in the original Greek of the New Testament means ‘a gathering’– or ‘congregation’ – ‘a gathering of people committed to a particular purpose’. The Dissenters wanted to translate ecclesia as ‘congregation’, whereas the Church of England clergy wanted to translate it as ‘church’, as in the Roman Catholic Bible.

The King agreed with the CofE clergy and the word ‘church’ came into the Authorised Version of the Bible and in most English translations since then.

The true Body of Christ can never come under the judgment of God!

What an amazing difference it would have made if our Bibles had all read ‘congregation’ instead of ‘church’. We might have been saved from the mess that we have today where ‘church’ can mean a building, a denomination, an organisation, a congregation, or a small group of believers in Jesus. We might even have been saved from the disgrace of whole denominations becoming infected by unbelief: becoming ‘a broad church’ tolerant of everyone’s beliefs (or unbelief).

Hope for Reformation

The prophecy in Hebrews 12:26-29 that all man-made institutions will be shaken and will crumble, appears to be happening: not only to banks, finance houses, business institutions and politicians, but also to the man-made denominational institutions that we call ‘churches’. This is surely the judgment of God falling upon corrupt institutions! `

The good news is that many Christians are recognising these institutional failings and are meeting in small groups for prayer, Bible study and fellowship similar to the first Christians. Luke describes this in Acts 2:42: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

Maybe what we are seeing today is the beginning of a new Reformation rediscovering the spiritual dynamic of the Early Church.

Further Response from Clifford Hill

Susan and Randall have asked me to explain why I believe that the true church as the Body of Christ cannot come under judgment. Let me say straightaway that I am not infallible and I’m open to correction from brothers and sisters in Christ – in this way we all learn from each other: so I really appreciate comments which I always read carefully.

I found the comments on this subject particularly helpful and I am happy to explain a little more of what I was trying to say. I was distinguishing between the true ‘ecclesia’ of God and the man-made institutions that we call ‘churches’. John is perfectly right in saying that of the 115 references to ecclesia in the New Testament only two are correctly translated in most English Bibles. They both refer to the riot in Ephesus where the whole town came together to oppose Paul’s teaching, chanting “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” This gathering [ecclesia] is referred to as “an assembly”.

All the other references are to ‘gatherings of believers in Jesus the Messiah’ and in each case ecclesia should similarly be translated ‘congregation’, or ‘assembly’ (of believers). It is entirely wrong to translate ‘ecclesia’ as ‘church’, as in most English Bibles.

Confusion can arise over the concept of God’s judgment because the word is so often used to mean his wrath and punishment. In fact, the word used for judgment in the New Testament (krima) can mean these things, but is also broader, simply meaning a verdict or decision. In this respect, we will all be judged – for we will all one day stand before the judgment seat of God, as Paul says in Romans 14:10.

It is true that a church can go off track and come under condemnation like the church at Laodicea. But if we are part of the true ecclesia of Christ, it is his intention to present us spotless before his Father – it was for this that he shed his blood. Paul says this in Ephesians 5:25-27:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the ecclesia and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word to present her to himself as a radiant ecclesia, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

The New Testament teaching is that the true ‘ecclesia of Christ’ can never come under condemnation, for “God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:9). True believers still undergo trials, but these are appointed for God’s paideia - his discipline - so our faith can be refined (1 Pet 1:7; Heb 12:4-11).

As such, the reference to “judgment beginning at the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17) most certainly does not refer to God’s wrath! It is referring to the persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire. It is the wrath of human beings upon God’s people – not the wrath of God upon his own people. That is made very clear in the context of the passage beginning 1 Peter 4:12: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering…But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ.”

Jesus himself said “Remain in me, and I will remain in you…if you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (John 15:4 and 10). Provided we remain in Christ we cannot come under his wrathful judgment: we are bound to Him in love.

Cliff

How the Kansas City Prophets impacted Britain.

This article is part of a series. Please see the base of the page for more details.

Church Leaders’ Support

Reference was made last week to the fact that a number of British church leaders rushed into print with a public statement issued in July 1990 supporting the Kansas City Fellowship ministry. The statement was issued from Holy Trinity, Brompton by Sandy Millar, probably in response to the articles in Prophecy Today which urged leaders to be on their guard and to test all these spiritual phenomena according to principles laid down in the New Testament. The statement gave unreserved support to the Kansas City Prophets.

We believe they are true servants of God, men of sound character, humility and evident integrity...We have no doubt about the validity of their ministry... and encourage as many as possible to attend the conferences to be held in Edinburgh, Harrogate and London in the autumn of this year, at which they will be ministering.¹

The signatories included Gerald Coates (Pioneer), Graham Cray (St Michael-le-Belfry), Roger Forster (Ichthus), Lynn Green (YWAM), David McInnes (St Aldate’s, Oxford), Sandy Millar (Holy Trinity, Brompton), John Mumford (South West London Vineyard), David Pytches, Brian Skinner, Teddy Saunders, Barry Kissel (St Andrew's, Chorleywood), Terry Virgo (New Frontiers International), Ann Watson (widow of David Watson), Rick Williams (Riverside Vineyard, Teddington).

All had been 'ministered' to by the Kansas City Fellowship team. This was acknowledged in the statement they issued. The fact that they stated that they believed a man such as Bob Jones to be a 'true servant of God' and a man of 'sound character' is evidence of the extent to which they were deceived.

It was the practice of the prophets led by Cain and Jones to give encouraging messages, supposedly from God, with promises of amazing power and greatly-expanded ministry. They were told they would be speaking to multitudes, seeing miracles, witnessing to kings and presidents and enjoying tremendous blessings. These prophecies resulted in bringing the recipients under the controlling spirit operated by/operating through the 'prophet'.

It was the practice of the prophets led by Cain and Jones to give encouraging messages, supposedly from God, with promises of amazing power and greatly-expanded ministry.

There are always serious consequences of believing false prophecy. It has a polluting effect upon the spiritual life of those who receive it. At best it is taking an alien influence into your life; at worst it is actually receiving an alien spirit. I have personal knowledge of several British church leaders who received false prophecies from Cain and Jones, believed them and then strove to fulfil them. The 'prophecy' thus exercised a controlling influence over the life of the recipient.

The 'use of prophetic gifting for controlling purposes' was tenth in the list of 15 errors acknowledged by Kansas City Fellowship in May 1990,² but there is no evidence that they had abandoned the practice two months later (July 1990). The support of senior British church leaders was essential if John Wimber was to see the fulfilment of those things which the 'prophets' had predicted. He fully expected a mighty revival to break out in London in October 1990. This had been prophesied by Cain whom he believed 'never got it wrong'.

They had foretold the great revival would be accompanied by an explosion of signs and wonders, leading to the submission of church leaders to Wimber's apostolic authority. He would also be given divine power over the enemies of the Gospel to deal summarily with them in the same way as Peter dealt with Ananias and Sapphira. As the revival spread across the UK into continental Europe, Wimber and his 'apostolic team' would assume governmental control of the nations.

All this had been prophesied by Cain and Jones and embraced by Wimber. It is doubtful if many of the British leaders knew of Wimber's expectations, but their willing compliance played an important part in preparing the way for the October meetings. The prophecies of a great revival were repeated from many pulpits and anticipation was high.

Promises of Supernatural Power

The commendation of senior church leaders, plus considerable publicity promising an exciting message and signs and wonders, brought large crowds to the public meetings in Harrogate, Edinburgh and London in October 1990. Prominent British church leaders had endorsed this ministry, so the people lapped it up. Not being trained theologians, they looked to their pastors, ministers and priests to say whether or not the ministry was biblically respectable and should be heeded. Their ministers themselves were enthusiastically endorsing this new ministry and the message, so the people followed their leaders.

The amazing promises given at the Wimber meetings filled the people with excitement and anticipation. The teaching was a heady mixture drawn from bits of all the strange teachings that had run through the charismatic movement since the middle of the 20^th Century: Latter Rain, Manifest Sons, Positive Confession, Signs and Wonders, Power Healing, Power Evangelism, Spiritual Warfare, New Breed and Joel's Army - to mention just a few. Elements of all these teachings came together in 1990 and were injected into the British Church with great hype and all the charisma of American glamour ministries.

The amazing promises given at the Wimber meetings filled the people with excitement and anticipation.

These strange teachings had been steadfastly resisted by most faithful preachers and Bible teachers in Britain for many years. But this latest onslaught was led by a man who was an excellent communicator, who appeared friendly, laidback and trustworthy. He was a man who had been recommended by David Watson and a number of prominent Anglicans as well as denominational and house-church leaders. He came with a popular message attractively presented. This heady cocktail was drunk by leaders, pastors and elders in many of the British evangelical churches, especially those in the charismatic sector.

The mainline churches in Britain were particularly vulnerable due to the years of decline. In fact, the whole nation was labouring under a cloud of status deprivation from loss of empire and world prestige. Here was a message of hope. Here was a message of power to the powerless. Here was a message of light and life to scatter the darkness of moribund inactivity.

But the promises were false. This was partially acknowledged by John Wimber at Holy Trinity, Brompton in June 1991 and again at the New Wine conference in August 1995. What has never been recognised, however, is the extent to which these promises were rooted in false teaching.

Expectations of the End Times

The foundation of this teaching lay in the belief that in the last days there would be a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit empowering the saints to perform great signs and wonders.

Some of this teaching was based upon prophetic revelation which Bob Jones claimed to have been given by the Holy Spirit. He said that the 'last generation' would be those born since 1973 and that they would be an elect company of believers of the seed of the apostles. They would be 'omega children'. Jesus was the 'Alpha' and they are the 'Omega'. Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom, and the elect company of omega believers would complete the work and establish a glorious Church on earth reigning over the nations.³

This teaching, which was given by both Jones and Cain, became the basis of the Vineyard/Kansas City Fellowship revivalist preaching. But it has no biblical foundation. The Bible declares Jesus to be both 'Alpha and Omega' (Rev 21:6). New Testament eschatology says that Jesus will come again to complete the work of the Kingdom. The Father will not take this away from his Son and entrust it to human hands.

There is a great need today to study what the Bible actually says about the Kingdom of God and the Second Coming of Christ. This may, in fact, provide the key to bringing the charismatic movement back onto a firm biblical basis. In Matthew 24 Jesus gave a series of signs of the end of the age - none of which promised supernatural power to believers.

Jesus warned those who are his followers to be alert to resist deception; to expect false christs, apostasy and false prophets.

He warned those who are his followers to be alert to resist deception; to expect false christs, wars and rumours of wars, famines and earthquakes, persecution, apostasy, betrayal, false prophets, the increase of wickedness and a lack of love within the Church. He nevertheless promised that the “Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world” (v14).

The only prediction of supernatural power was in an additional warning about deception!

For false christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect if that were possible. (v24)

This is not the only warning in the New Testament concerning deception in the last days. Paul spoke of a time of great lawlessness which, he said, “will be in accordance with the work of satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders” (2 Thess 2:9); and writing to Timothy he warned, “the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (2 Tim 4:3-4).

These warnings, and a number of others, are in the New Testament for our own protection so that we will be alert to the intentions of the enemy to deceive, and to the strategy which may be employed. This is where a knowledge of the Bible is essential. When we move away from Scripture and invent doctrine, however attractive, we are in grave danger of deception. Once we are loosed from the word of God we are adrift on the high seas like a rudderless ship in a storm.

Non-Biblical Teaching

The injection into the British church in 1990 of a package of non-biblical teaching promising supernatural power, signs and wonders and imminent revival, marked a milestone in the apostatising of the charismatic movement in Britain.

The way had been prepared for this by a gradual and almost imperceptible down-grading of the Bible from its place of centrality within the Protestant tradition. This could be seen in the increasing separation between the reading and exposition of the word of God, and the exercise of spiritual gifts. Jesus was perfectly clear in stating that signs and wonders would follow the preaching of the word. This is what happens in the poorer non-industrial nations, where multitudes have been coming to Christ throughout the second half of the 20^th Century.

At large gatherings where the word of God is proclaimed, while the preacher is still speaking miraculous healings occur, many are born again and the signs and wonders of the presence of God through the work of the Holy Spirit are evident.⁴

In charismatic churches in the western nations, by contrast, we have developed the practice of separating word and Spirit. When we reach the end of our act of worship, or service, where there has been singing, prayer and the exposition of the word, then we clear away the chairs or invite people forward saying 'Now we'll have a time of ministry!' Over the years these so called 'ministry times' have gone from the simple praying for the sick to the performance of all kinds of bizarre manifestations as we have moved farther and farther away from a biblical centre.

In charismatic churches in the western nations, by contrast, we have developed the practice of separating word and Spirit.

Peter Fenwick, earlier in this series, has shown how the path to the Kansas City Fellowship 1990 package had been well prepared by Restorationist teaching, at least in the house-church streams. The new factor was the open door into the mainline churches which enabled their teaching to sweep right through the denominations. This was very largely due to John Wimber's acceptability, which in turn, had been due to David Watson's influence and subsequently to the support of several influential Anglican clergy.

A number of prominent charismatic leaders also embraced the false teachings presented in 1990. They were on an escalator from which there was no turning back and which it was not easy to jump off without risking personal injury. Their reputations were at stake and they had taken false promises into their spiritual lives. Many of them also took into their teaching and preaching the false expectations of a great revival. Churches such as St Andrew's, Chorleywood gave great prominence to preparing the congregation for revival and for the expected inflow of large numbers of new believers. But the revival did not happen.

On to the Toronto Blessing

By 1994 it was becoming difficult to sustain the enthusiasm of the people and to stave off massive disillusionment. The credibility of leaders was on the line. The Toronto Blessing arrived just in time to provide a new wave of excitement. With its coming, many leaders cut down or even abandoned the preaching of the word in order to get into the 'ministry time' as quickly as possible.

Thus the move of many charismatic churches into experience-centred phenomena took another leap forward. But the way had been prepared by 25 years of neglect of the Bible and a lack of biblical scholarship among charismatic leaders, which left an open door for the Toronto Blessing.

The eagerness with which Toronto was embraced is an indication of a deep spiritual hunger and a longing for God to 'rend the heavens and come down' and bring a mighty revival to transform the decaying life of the Western nations. But even this longing for revival is a reflection of the values of the world where the whole of our society is looking for 'quick fix' solutions to all our problems.

In the Church we are not prepared for the cost of obeying the 'Great Commission' and “making disciples, teaching them to obey” everything the Lord has taught us (Matt 28:19-20). Instead, we look for supernatural power to create an instant, ready-made reproduction model.

It is this human longing for revival that opened the way for many of the strange things which have become associated with the charismatic churches over the years. This eagerness to see the reign of God on earth and to promote the work of the Kingdom is surely good. But in the Western nations, generally, the Bible has been abandoned. Humanistic and New Age teachings have been widely embraced in an increasingly secularised, post-Christian society and the churches, especially charismatic, have been influenced more then we realise.

The eagerness with which Toronto was embraced is an indication of a deep spiritual hunger for God to 'rend the heavens and come down' and bring mighty revival.

Many evangelicals, especially those who have embraced the charismata, have tended to follow the world in neglecting the systematic study of the Bible and whole-hearted commitment to its teaching and living according to its moral and spiritual precepts. We have elevated spiritual excitement to new heights leaving the door open for non-biblical teaching and lax standards of personal and corporate morality.

Of course this is a generalisation and we would not wish to imply that there are no faithful evangelicals who love the word of God and live godly lives. Neither would we wish to imply that none of those in churches affected by the Toronto Blessing have been blessed by God. As others have clearly stated earlier in this series, God will always honour those who come to him with clean hands and a pure heart, or with humility and repentance. God longs to bless his children and those who come in sincerity will not go away empty-handed.

I personally know many believers who have been blessed by attending 'Toronto' meetings. But this is evidence of the faithfulness of our God, who loves to bless his children. It is certainly not an endorsement of the Toronto Blessing. God does not initiate things which are contrary to his own word in Scripture.

There was, nevertheless, cause for concern regarding this wave of excitement which swept through the charismatic churches in 1994 and 1995. It did not bring revival; neither would it even prepare the way for revival. It proved to be yet another blind alley that actually led the Church away from fulfilling the purposes of God.

There is also cause for concern that, as the charismatic movement has increasingly embraced the experiential, the way has been opened for even more bizarre behavioural phenomena and the embracing of heretical New Age-type teachings and practices. As the years have passed since the Toronto Blessing, what other waves have been introduced – and what does the future hold?

Next week: Our penultimate instalment in this series.

References

1 Published in Renewal, October 1990.

2 Published in Prophecy Today, Vol 6 No 5, September 1990.

3 Vineyard School of Prophecy, Bob Jones, op cit. p 1.

4 See Prophecy Today Vol 1 No 3 July 1985.

Series Information

This article is part of a series, re-publishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’, an analysis of the ‘Toronto Blessing’ and a wider critique of the charismatic movement in the late 20^th Century. Click here for previous instalments and to read the editorial background to the series. 

We embark upon the final chapter: 'Here Today, Where Tomorrow?'

This article is part of a series – please see the base of the page for more information.

Here Today, Where Tomorrow?

The 20^th Century will surely go down in history as the century of the Holy Spirit, both due to the amazing worldwide expansion of the Pentecostal movement from the beginning of the century and the charismatic renewal which has swept across the world in the second half of the century. But will it be seen as the pure work of God, representing a turning point in world history? Or will it be seen as a missed opportunity, a work of God spoiled by human hands?

It was often a cry of the prophets of Israel that the nation had moved outside the blessing. The people had deviated from the path set before them by God. They had neglected his word, spurned his law and disobeyed his commands. Therefore, the nation was experiencing judgment rather than blessing. They had brought upon themselves the antithesis of blessing clearly foreseen by Moses in the warnings given, “If you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country…” (Deut 28:15-16).

The biblical record of God's relationship with Israel shows that it was always God's delight to bless his people. This is his intention today just as it was when he called Israel to be his people through whom he could reveal himself to the world and establish them as his servant: “I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isa 49:6).

The 'Great Commission' given by Jesus to his disciples to preach the Gospel to all nations reaffirmed God's intention (Matt 28:19). His promise to send the Holy Spirit was to enable the Church to carry out his command: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The 20^th Century will surely go down in history as the century of the Holy Spirit…but will it be seen as a pure work of God?

Outpouring of the Holy Spirit

The fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church at the beginning of the 20^th Century, which resulted in the worldwide Pentecostal movement, is a significant milestone enabling us to understand how God is working out his purposes in our times. As the Church has progressed, two things have happened of immense significance.

• The first is that the worldwide Church has grown at a phenomenal rate. The majority of this growth has been in the poorer non-industrial nations. David Barrett in the Encyclopaedia of World Religions records that in 1900 only 17% of Christians were in the non-western nations. By 1988 this had risen to 53% and he estimated that by the year 2000 this would rise to 61% with only 32% in the rich western nations.¹
  
• The second significant fact is that the Holy Spirit has been renewing and revitalising the life of the traditional churches in the western world. This did not begin to happen until the second half of the twentieth century.²
  

It surely cannot be a mere coincidence that throughout this century a combination of disturbing and destructive social, economic and political forces moved with increasing velocity across the world. It was a century of revolution, of war, terrorism and violence, as well as a century of incredible social and technological change which responsible for almost unbelievable upheavals in every continent and in almost every nation: China, Russia, the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, every part of Africa, eastern Europe. The political upheavals which have shaken these nations have been matched by the revolutionary social forces that have swept away the foundations of social stability in most of the western nations.³

There are strong links between these events and the kind of eschatological scenario described in Scripture. Jesus gave a number of specific signs which would mark the nearness of his own Second Coming. They are to be found in Matthew 24 and Luke 21. There are additionally many passages both in the New Testament and in the Old Testament prophets that set the scene for the prelude of the 'Day of the Lord' when he will come to judge the nations.

It is not our purpose to elaborate that theme here, but it is relevant to note that world events towards the end of the second millennium began to become increasingly like the biblical eschatological scenario. Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:10 that it is God's intention to use the Church to reveal himself to the whole universe. It is his purpose to prepare a holy people, a people who love him and trust him and who are empowered by the Holy Spirit to declare his word to the nations.

The Holy Spirit is given to the Church to enable the Church to be the Prophet to the world, prepare the way of the Lord and preach the Gospel of salvation with power and authority.

The Holy Spirit is given to the Church for just this purpose, to enable the Church to be the Prophet to the world, to prepare the way of the Lord and to preach the Gospel of salvation with power and authority, with signs and wonders following. But God can only use a purified people. When his people depart from his ways and run after the values of the world, he withdraws his blessing and eventually removes his presence, leaving them unprotected from the onslaught of the enemy.

There are many indications that this is what we have been seeing in the western nations and also in western churches. We urgently need to learn the lessons recorded in the Old Testament.

Blessing and Judgment

The history of Israel follows a constant cycle of blessing and judgment corresponding to the spiritual health of the nation, as measured by the plumb-line of the people's faithfulness to the word of God. Whenever God blessed the nation and a time of peace and prosperity was being enjoyed, it was not long before the people became unfaithful and turned away from God. Then things began to go wrong because the Lord gradually withdrew his blessing and the cover of his protection. Hosea has a telling passage which describes this process. He records what is essentially a lament of the Lord:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt; you shall acknowledge no God but me, no Saviour except me. I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat. When I fed them they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me. (Hosea 13:4-5)

Hosea was writing shortly before the fall of Samaria and the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel and their exile in Assyria. He rightly interpreted the warning signs as things began to go wrong. He knew that the final tragedy would follow the withdrawal of the protecting hand of God when he finally turned his back upon his people leaving them exposed to their enemies. Ezekiel saw this in a vision of the Spirit of God leaving the temple in Jerusalem. He saw the word ichabod - 'Glory departed' - over the city.

Thus blessing and judgment were always part of Israel's experience and are written across every page of her history. They illustrate important spiritual principles which are valid for all time for those who would be the people of God and who desire to experience his blessing.

When we turn away from the word of God, embracing false teaching and false prophecy, the consequences for the whole nation are serious and may even be disastrous, as in the history of Israel. False teaching and prophecy pollute the spiritual life of the Church, distort our discernment and fail to give moral and spiritual correction to the nation. The political, economic and social life of the nation becomes corrupted and standards fall. The ways of God revealed in the Bible also teach us that God holds his servants, particularly the religious leaders, responsible for the state of the nation.

The British Situation

In Britain through the 1990s, we suffered from the consequences of false prophecy given very publicly by the Kansas City Prophets in 1990. Reference has already been made to this in previous instalments in this series, but it is of sufficient importance to warrant further consideration since this marked a major turning point in the history and direction of the charismatic movement in Britain.

Bob Jones, Paul Cain and John Paul Jackson all proclaimed that a mighty revival would be experienced in Britain in 1990, saying that it would spread across England into Scotland and then across the North Sea and throughout Europe. Paul Cain was even more explicit, stating that the revival would begin in London in October 1990 when John Wimber was due to lead a mission at the Docklands Conference Centre, East London.⁴

False teaching and prophecy pollute the spiritual life of the Church, distort our discernment and fail to give moral and spiritual correction to the nation.

Just as Hananiah's false prophecy (Jer 28) came as a welcome relief from the stern message which Jeremiah had been preaching for a number of years, so this promise of revival came as sweet, enchanting music to the ears of many faithful believers who were longing for revival and had been interceding earnestly for many years. But they were misled. It was a false prophecy. I said so publicly six months before the October conference.5 I had personal contact with all three men, including face-to-face discussions. But the bandwagon was already rolling with, what was by British standards, extraordinary hype.

Tens of thousands flocked to hear these men with a popular message as they travelled across the country touring the provinces before their big London event. By the time of the Docklands Conference expectations were running high and before the end of the week they reached fever pitch, with John Wimber commanding the Holy Spirit to come down. But God did not come upon his people in power like a mighty rushing wind as at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit does not obey the commands of men!

There were many signs that Britain was not yet ready for revival. For a number of years, it had been apparent that God was shaking the nations in order to shake the confidence of mankind in material things and cause the nations to turn to him, the living God, to heed his word and to walk in the paths of righteousness. Then in due time the blessing of God would be poured out upon nations that turned to him. The Scripture underlying this hope was:

In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I win shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory’, says the LORD Almighty. (Haggai 2:6-7)

1990 was too soon for a great revival. The boom years of the 1980s had to be followed by the bust years of the 1990s. The pride and complacency engendered by the success of the greedy acquisitive policies of the 1980s had to be broken. The corruption that accompanied the greed in the commercial and financial institutions had to be exposed. It can now be plainly seen that the seed sown in the 1980s reaped a bitter harvest in the 1990s. But this was all part of God's intention to allow evil to reap its own reward and to bring about a humbling of powerful leaders in the political and business life of the nation.

The exposure of greed and corruption in the 1990s – and since - brought about dramatic revelations much capitalised on by the media, always hungry for sensation. The revelations have included abhorrent sexual activities by politicians and celebrities, failures of banking institutions, financial scandals, huge wage inequalities and impunity enjoyed by many in the corporate and finance sectors.

This has all been part of the shaking of the nation to prepare the way for the Gospel, in just the same way as a farmer prepares the ground to receive the seed so that it may take root and bear fruit, giving an abundant harvest.

Prophecy plays an important part in the preparation for the word of God by giving the spiritual interpretation of physical events. There are numerous examples of this in Scripture, such as Jeremiah's explanation for the withholding of the spring rains (Jer 3:3), and the powerful explanation given by Amos of drought, blight, plagues and other disasters (Amos 4:6-12).

Prophecy plays an important part in the preparation for the word of God by giving the spiritual interpretation of physical events.

It has always been God's intention that his Church should be the Prophet to the nation, declaring his unchangeable word in a changing world and making it applicable to each generation so that the will and purposes of God can be readily understood.

It is the responsibility of those who exercise a prophetic ministry to be the eyes and ears of the Church, to interpret events in accordance with principles laid down in Scripture so that the whole Church can carry out its prophetic function in the nation, turning the people back to God when they have gone astray and leading the nation into the paths of righteousness where the blessing of God will be experienced.

It was for this reason that the Holy Spirit was poured out afresh in the 20^th Century and that New Testament ministries were restored.

Next week: Dr Hill's summation about the Kansas City Prophets.

References

1 Quoted in Rich Christians, Poor Christians by Monica Hill (London, Marshall Pickering 1989), p2. For 2018 figures, click here.

2 Ibid, p60f.

3 See Shaking the Nations by Clifford Hill (Eastbourne, Kingsway, 1995).

4 Reported by Rick Williams at a clergy conference in St Andrew's Chorleywood, 7 March 1990, transcription of tape.

5 Prophecy Today, Vol 6 No 4, July/August 1990.

Series Information

This article is part of a series, re-publishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’, an analysis of the ‘Toronto Blessing’ and a wider critique of the charismatic movement in the late 20^th Century. Click here for previous instalments and to read the editorial background to the series.

David Noakes concludes his chapter.

Having provided his own personal testimony about the Toronto phenomenon, David finishes his chapter with some scriptural teaching on discernment.

This article is part of a series. Please see the base of the page for more information.

The Need for Repentance

Reflection upon the history of the charismatic renewal movement as I have experienced it leads me to the conclusion that we began well, but that increasingly we have departed from the purposes of God.

We have done this as a result of having moved progressively farther from an adherence to his word, a process which accelerated alarmingly during the 1980s and 1990s. I believe we are in imminent danger, if the trend is not checked, of reaching a point where we can no longer be said to care about biblical truth, but only about enticing experiences.¹

Repentance is urgently needed in order that God should not finally give us up to the delusion which we seem to desire more than the truth of the word.

The triumphalist teachings of Dominion theology lead inevitably to a post-millennialist view of eschatology; and with this comes also a rejection of the consistent testimony of Scripture concerning God's intention to fulfil all his stated purposes for the nation of Israel. To deny those purposes and to declare the Church to have replaced the descendants of Jacob as the inheritor of all the covenant promises of God makes out his word to be a lie and distorts its testimony.

This issue is of fundamental importance. Taking his farewell of the elders of the Ephesian church, Paul declared, “I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God” (Acts 20:26-27, NASB).

The charismatic renewal movement began well, but increasingly has departed from the purposes of God.

We can only have a right understanding of the will and purpose of God for the Church in the days in which we live if we accept as truth the whole of the revelation contained in Scripture, but a false hope of revival and rulership here and now has been substituted for the true biblical hope of the Second Coming of Jesus and the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom.

Unbiblical doctrine gives rise to unbiblical expectations and opens the door to increasing error and deception.

Spiritual Discernment

What could and should have saved us from getting to the position we have now reached? I have no doubt in my own mind that the phenomenon of the 'Toronto Blessing' constitutes the next experience of a floodtide of deception such as I was shown at the time of the Kansas City Prophets. What will come next? We are in increasing danger.

We would not have fallen prey to the confusion brought into the Church by successive waves of deception if we had known and applied the principles of spiritual discernment given to us in the pages of Scripture. We have already referred to the test as to whether spiritual activity conforms to God's ways as revealed in the Bible.

When in Toronto, I heard given consistently from the public platform the injunction that people should not feel the need to weigh and test anything that was happening: that it was all from God, who was present in such a powerful way that satan could not gain access. People should therefore 'open up their minds, put down their defences and go with the flow'.

Not only is this utter folly; it is also plain disobedience to the Lord - clearly contradicting the command contained in his word. satan is the “prince of the power of the air” (Eph 2:2, RSV) and we can never safely assume on this earth that he is denied access. Therefore, the Church is instructed in all gatherings, particularly where spiritual manifestations are taking place, to be alert and on guard: “Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil” (1 Thess 5:19-22, emphasis added).

What exactly are we testing? Our principal concern is to test the source of origin from which the spiritual activity is proceeding, be it prophecy, tongues, healing, or whatever. Our principal question is: what manner of spirit is operating behind and inspiring this activity? Is it the Holy Spirit? If so, all is well; but if not, we must be on guard and refuse to accept the activity as valid.

We would not have fallen prey to the confusion of successive waves of deception if we had known and applied the principles of spiritual discernment given us in Scripture.

An obvious and immediate test is that of the word of God. Does the utterance, or teaching, or activity conform to the revelation of Scripture? If not, we may dismiss it at once.

We are also commanded to test the spirits and not to be so gullible as to believe that every spirit is from God (1 John 4:1). How may we do this?

Acknowledgment of Jesus

1 John 4:2-3: If a spirit does not acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh it is not from God, but is the spirit of the antichrist.

Learn to Recognise

1 John 2:20-21, 26-27: “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth...I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit just as it has taught you, remain in him.”

Every believer who has received the Holy Spirit has this anointing from the Lord. It has the effect upon us that our own spirits have the capacity to recognise what is true, genuinely from the Lord, and what is not. As Jesus said (John 10:3-5), his sheep know his voice and can distinguish it from a stranger's voice.

Unfortunately, very few believers have been taught to recognise and to respond to the witness of their own spirits within them. Most of us will probably have experienced the sense of the inward lifting or rising of our spirit when something is genuinely from the Lord; and conversely the sense of deadness or heaviness, or even alarm-bells, when the source is not from God.

However, many believers tend to ignore or quench that inner witness, often because they rely on leadership to do all the discerning; or because they think that a trusted minister cannot get it wrong, so their own discernment must be at fault. Anybody can be in error, and we should never take anything for granted.

It is for all Christians to take heed of the inner witness with which the Lord has supplied us; and if we do so, it leads to the safety of the whole Body. This inner witness is often the first indication we receive in any particular situation of whether the Holy Spirit is active, or perhaps simply a human spirit operating in the flesh, or sometimes a demonic spirit. It is of great importance.

It is for all Christians to take heed of the inner witness with which the Lord has supplied us.

Distinguish Between Spirits

1 Corinthians 12:10: The Holy Spirit manifests through believers “the ability to distinguish between spirits”. This is the witness given directly from the Holy Spirit through one or more believers to enable us to identify the spirits operating in a situation, to receive the awareness of what manner of spirit is active.

If it is not from God, then it may be, for example, a lying spirit, an unclean spirit, a seducing spirit, a spirit of pride, or greed, or whatever else may be at work. Through this gift the Holy Spirit reveals to God's people the exact type of demonic activity which is opposing them.

The operation of this gift is of vital importance in any situation of supernatural spiritual activity. Any believer may be used by the Holy Spirit in this way and it is a great mistake to rely solely on the leaders, or for leaders to seek to keep all matters of discernment within their own hands.

Put to the Test

1 Corinthians 14:29: Where prophecy in particular is concerned there must be a careful weighing of what is said. Of all spiritual manifestations, prophecy is potentially both the most valuable and also the most dangerous, because of its great capacity either to edify or to mislead those who hear and receive it as being a direct communication of the mind of God.

The same root word is used as in 1 Corinthians 12:10 - the Greek verb diakrino, meaning 'to distinguish, to make a separation' between true and false. When prophecy is weighed, both the content of what is spoken and the spirit responsible for inspiring the utterance should be put to the test of both the witness of the Holy Spirit and the inner witness of the spirits of those who are present.

Practise Discernment

Finally, we should take notice of Hebrews 5:14: “...solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil”.

Again the verb diakrino is used. God wants all believers to come to maturity, and continual alertness to distinguish what is of God from what is not is a hallmark of a mature believer. Practising discernment in the ways which the Bible reveals should be a way of life for a Christian.

Of all spiritual manifestations, prophecy is potentially both the most valuable and also the most dangerous, because of its great capacity either to edify or mislead.

If these ways of discernment had been taught and practised within the charismatic churches in the way which the Bible instructs and encourages, much deception and difficulty could have been avoided. The hour is late and deception has made deep inroads, but my plea is that we might embrace repentance in these areas while there is yet time.

If we return wholeheartedly to the word of God as final and unquestioned authority in all matters; if we embrace the biblical teaching concerning the nation of Israel; and if we become diligent to distinguish the genuine activity of the Holy Spirit from all other manifestations, then surely the Lord will deliver us from error, and instead of the Ishmael which we have produced, will bring forth for us the Isaac of his original purpose.

Next week: We move on to the final chapter of Blessing the Church?, written by Dr Clifford Hill: ‘Here Today, Where Tomorrow?’

Notes

1 Please note that the original time of writing was 1995.

Series Information

This article is part of a series, re-publishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’, an analysis of the ‘Toronto Blessing’ and a wider critique of the charismatic movement in the late 20^th Century. Click here for previous instalments and to read the editorial background to the series.

Why are we often so different?

In response to Linda Louis-vanReed’s recent article ‘The War on Trump’, Jock Stein muses on the contrasts between American and British attitudes to life and liberty.

In earlier life I had an American colleague who, domiciled in Scotland, heroically adopted three children from Devon. The oldest had an inherited genetic condition and suffered from depression as an adult. Last year, living on his own in California, he took his own life – but not before seeking help from three hospitals who all refused him admission because he had an insurance card called ‘Obama Care’.

The hospitals all refused to use the Obama Care card because they had been purchased by large hospital conglomerates, who wished to pursue more expensive insurance options.

American Christians have a record second to none in dedicated missionary and humanitarian engagement. But it has always puzzled me why their attitudes to healthcare provision, as well as to other political issues, are often so different from ours in Britain. If it were a matter of Christians thinking differently from others, I would expect and understand that – but my impression is that these attitudes represent the majority of Christians as well as Americans in general.

This article is an attempt to explain why this may be the case; it draws upon conversations with Americans as well as past reading, but I am open to correction.

1 Separation of Church and State

The Declaration of Independence is premised on belief in God. But because the American colonies saw church affiliation as directed by the attitude of the reigning monarch (rather than based on theological principles) they decided to allow for a separation of Church and State, hoping that this would make differences between denominations less problematic. Indeed, America was big enough to allow what missionaries called a ‘principle of comity’, with some States being mainly Presbyterian, others Baptist and so on.

Those who signed the Declaration never intended this separation to rule God out of public life. They just wanted to avoid the ‘establishment’ model being replicated in America, so that Christians (especially Non-conformists) would have a freedom they had not enjoyed in Britain. This has resulted in thousands of denominations freely proliferating.

On the one hand, this has allowed a freedom of theological inquiry which is non-aligned to political identity. On the other hand, it has inevitably led to the emergence of ‘tribal’ political identities, with politicians courting ‘the Christian vote’, just as Britain has had ‘the Non-conformist vote’ and ‘the Catholic vote’.

Those who signed the Declaration of Independence never intended the separation of church from state to rule God out of public life.

Since the Constitution does not actually name God, in the 20^th Century atheists began to argue more strongly not just to keep church out of state business, but to keep God and the Bible out of it too. Abortion and religious education in schools became crunch issues. While much the same kind of situation has now been reached in Britain by a different route, nevertheless here there is not the same stark gap between faith and public life that exists in the USA.

For example, take the polarisation between Christianity and science. In the USA, believing scientists such as Francis Collins (who cracked the human genome) have to tread very carefully around this issue when they write (as Collins does in his latest book The Language of God, which includes his testimony), despite the fact that 70% of US scientists across the full spectrum of disciplines identify as being ‘people of faith’ (Christian or otherwise). In the UK, there has been a far greater historic acceptance of faith and science rubbing along together.

This modern American attitude to separation – keep faith out of public life – seems to have embraced aspects of service also, feeding the arguments (outlined below) that welfare and healthcare are private matters - the responsibilities of individuals and churches, rather than the state.

2 The Formation of American Identity

The century leading up to the First World War did a lot to found American values. It was a Cowboys-and-Indians century in which Americans drove the frontier westward, with a belief (parallel to the spirit of British Empire) that the United States had a destiny to subdue the entire continent in the name of God.

A nation of self-made people was in the process of forming its own identity, especially after the Civil War, which left the country shaken and wounded. During this century, the steel magnate and self-made multi-millionaire Andrew Carnegie wrote a book called The Gospel of Wealth. In it, he argued that economic inequalities then emerging in American society should be tackled by the wealthy upper class, who should put their hard-earned millions to good use, engaging in thoughtful, responsible philanthropy.

A sense of individual responsibility came to characterise white American society and its Christianity.

This sense of individual responsibility came to characterise white American society and its Christianity, while it was black people who began to identify the Gospel communally – i.e. with a people and a race.¹ This contrast between individual and communal aspects of Christianity is expanded later.

Both Britain and the US have struggled to work through their race issues, but in Britain the work of those like ‘the Clapham Sect’ extended far beyond slavery into other social issues, and eventually Christians and non-Christians formed a consensus to support ‘the welfare state’ after the Second World War, which included the provision of social care. The same did not happen in USA.²

3 Individual and Social Provision of Care

The Old Testament teaches that God’s justice and care for the poor does require some social provision, not just individual charity (e.g. Lev 25). Similarly, the New Testament teaches that equity cannot be left simply to the goodwill of individuals (e.g. 2 Cor 8:13-14). This has often been reflected in the teaching of Christian leaders – for example, Calvin’s concern for his neighbour led him to support low interest rates and a city-sponsored job creation programme.

The theological underpinning of this comes from the biblical idea that each individual human being is made in the image of God (Gen 1:26) and is in need of rescue from sin through the coming of Christ and his sacrifice (John 1: 14, 29). But we also see (e.g. in Hebrews 2:5-10) a social or corporate focus – Jesus taking on humankind as a whole and dying, once for all, on the cross.

That is why the early Church Fathers described the incarnation as having both an individual side - the Lord coming to earth as a specific individual (enhypostasia in Greek) – and a corporate side - the Son identifying with humanity by taking on human nature (anhypostasia). And it is why the illustration of the Church as the Body of Christ – one body with many parts – is so powerful.

In other words, both the social and the individual matter when it comes to salvation, and this affects how we see the Gospel impacting society. My impression is that Christians in Europe, perhaps more influenced by Calvin, have taken on both these aspects of our salvation, the corporate aspect which lends itself to socialism, and the individual aspect, favourable to capitalism. This has led (all told) to a centrist economic position incorporating aspects of both in the provision of social welfare, but without the exclusion of charity.

Both the communal and the individual matter when it comes to salvation – and this affects how we see the Gospel impacting society.

In the US, it is the individual emphasis which has largely prevailed, while socialism has often been identified with communism (seen as the great rival of the American way of life, especially since the McCarthy era), and so rejected.³

In Britain the founder of the Labour Party (Keir Hardy) was a Christian; and early Trade Union branches, especially in Wales, were known as ‘chapels’. While of course many Christians held other political views, socialism was respected in Britain and found political expression in a way that did not occur in the States. The US Democratic Party had very different roots.

Final Thought: How Far is Grace ‘Unconditional’?

Healthcare is expensive, and understandably all governments struggle to put a cap on cost in one way or another, especially in ageing societies like Britain and the US. Both countries continue to debate this.

Although the contexts are very different, there is one question about attitudes which both societies face: do you help the poor regardless, or only the ‘deserving’ poor? And – to pick up the story I began with – do people really have to be wealthy enough to afford a certain level of health insurance before they qualify for assistance?

In other words, should the State set ‘conditions’ for the receipt of benefits, and if so, what conditions should it set? This may be directed by cost, but it is also a moral dilemma. Responses on each side of the pond will, at least in part, reflect the cultural differences outlined above.

Christians face this with regard to their own giving: do you help the poor, whether they deserve it or not - whether they belong to your group or not? Or do you limit generosity to ‘those and such as those’? In Roman times, the Emperor Julian used to complain how Christians supported pagan poor as well as their own, even though they would also have known Paul’s priority expressed in Galatians 6:10. And beyond the Church, is ‘charity’ only a private and individual concern, or is taxation and welfare a proper concern of ‘charity’?

In the days of the New Testament, Christians had to work out these issues within a minority group of believers – and in many respects we are now back where they were then. But the laws of Western nations were drawn up when Christians were at least nominally in a majority.⁴ Our social and political witness does, I think, require us to put these questions on a wider canvas, while we still retain the freedom to do so.

References

1 The formation of this ‘evangelical identity’ is well documented (see for example George Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture, 1980, OUP).

2 A recent interesting book which explores the history of these ideas is by the American writer Marilynne Robinson, The Givenness of Things (2016, Picador).

3 See Bob Goudzwaard, Capitalism and Progress: a Diagnosis of Western Society (1979, Wedge Pub. Foundation).

4 See The Evolution of the West, by Nick Spencer (2016, SPCK), Research Director of Theos.

David Noakes continues his commentary on the state of the charismatic movement.

Having considered how counterfeit spiritual activity has infiltrated the church, David now turns to the dangers of false doctrine, before applying these insights to the Kansas City Prophets.

Warnings of False Doctrine

Jesus, Paul and John have all warned us concerning the dangers of counterfeit spiritual activity. There is also, however, a second major aspect of deception about which the Scriptures warn, and it is that of false doctrine.

Paul speaks about it numerous times in his letters, for example in 2 Corinthians 11:1-4, in Galatians 1:6-9 and in Colossians 2:8-23. He warns in 1 Timothy 4:1 that “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars...”.

Let us be clear about what Paul is saying: it is a warning principally for the closing days of the age - 'later times'. It is a warning that Christians will fall away: you cannot abandon a faith unless you have first been a party to it. The false teachings will not be man-made, but demonically-inspired by deceiving spirits, and they will come through people who are hypocrites and liars; like the 'savage wolves' of Acts 20:29-30, they will be falsely motivated so as to draw people away from the truth in order to obtain a following for themselves.

It is of vital importance in these days that we are alert to the dangers of false teaching. Those of us who teach must be diligent to declare the whole counsel of God; it was only on that basis that Paul was able to declare himself innocent of the blood of all who had heard him (Acts 20:26-27) and he was warning the elders of the church at Ephesus to be equally diligent.

It is of vital importance in these days that we are alert to the dangers of false teaching.

All believers should cultivate the habit of the 'noble Bereans' (Acts 17:11), who did not accept even the teaching of Paul as being true until they had examined it in the light of the scriptures. How we in the church need in these days to re-examine our diet of the seemingly-endless flow of books and magazines, and to ensure that above all we are fully acquainted and familiar with the whole of the Bible. Only by knowing what is in God's word can we walk in safety. 

A Time Will Come…

Paul's chief warning concerning false doctrine is found in 2 Timothy 4:1-4. He has just encouraged Timothy at the end of chapter 3 concerning the importance of holding fast to Scripture, underlining that “all Scripture is God-breathed...so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (vv16-17, emphasis added). We need to note that there are those in leadership in the Church of God in these days who do not believe in the inspiration of Scripture; if they thus declare the word of God to be untrue concerning itself, we must then question the validity of whatever else such men may say.

In chapter 4, Paul urges Timothy to preach the Word “with great patience and careful instruction” (v2), particularly in the light of the fact that “the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (vv3-4). 

I believe we are now living in such days. A factor which has lately become of particular concern is the coming together of the two major facets of deception - counterfeit spiritual activity and false doctrine - in such a way as to support and reinforce one another. This brings great danger to the Body of Christ, particularly as many believers now have only a very limited knowledge of what is contained in the Bible.

In Deuteronomy 13:1-5, the warning of Moses to the people of Israel is that they may encounter a prophet who predicts signs and wonders which do in fact come to pass but that this in itself is not sufficient to validate him as a true man of God; for if he then teaches them falsely so as to lead them astray, he is to be regarded as a false prophet.

Biblically, therefore, the acid test of the genuineness of a man's ministry lies not in signs and wonders, nor even in accurate predictions, but in his faithfulness to the Lord in declaring doctrine which is in accordance with God's word.

How we in the church need in these days to re-examine our diet of books and magazines, and to ensure that above all we are fully acquainted with the Bible.

The Kansas City Prophets

In recent years, this biblical principle of giving pre-eminence to the revealed word of God has been turned upside down. In 1990 came the experience of the ‘Kansas City Prophets’.

These men were brought to the charismatic church in Britain that year on a wave of publicity concerning their outstanding prophetic ministry, and particularly of a specific predictive prophecy that a great revival would break out in this country in October 1990. It did not, to the dismay and embarrassment of many church leaders who had publicly endorsed this ministry, and to the great disappointment of thousands of believers who had believed that their longings for revival were about to be realised and that they would see dramatic events.

This sort of happening is dishonouring to the name of the Lord, bringing his Church into ridicule in the eyes of those who had been exposed to the extensive publicity, particularly in the mass media. It also undermines the belief that the Holy Spirit does bring genuine prophecy to the Church for our up-building and enlightenment.

Furthermore, the shock and disappointment has damaging and far-reaching effects. For many years God's people in the charismatic churches have been given by their leaders specific words of prophecy and much teaching of a prophetic nature which has been triumphalist in flavour, encouraging expectations of mighty visitations of God, of great numerical increase, and of the Church enjoying an experience of exercising power and authority in the world, equipped with unparalleled supernatural spiritual power.

This kind of teaching has been entirely at odds with the biblical picture of a suffering servant Church displaying the humility of her Master, preaching the Gospel in the last days under increasing pressure and persecution. It brings with it a particular danger from which we are now, I believe, beginning to reap harmful results.

Triumphalist teaching and words of prophecy is entirely at odds with the biblical picture of a suffering servant Church.

Where leaders have continued to promise great things to the people and those promises have gone unfulfilled, the leaders come under an increasing sense of pressure to deliver the goods which have been promised; and the people's experience of disappointment, of hope continually deferred, leads to disillusionment. 

The scene is thus set for the entry of deception, because both leaders and people become desperate at the failed predictions and dashed hopes, and both are increasingly likely to grasp at any straw which appears at last to bring fulfilment.

In such circumstances the counterfeit can all too easily succeed, because the need for something, anything, to fill the gap overrides the Godly caution which should test and discern the source of what is being offered, before it is accepted as genuine.

Triumphalist Teaching

The doctrine brought by the Kansas City Prophets was very much in line with the triumphalism of Restorationist teaching and expectations. The teaching was based upon specific prophecies which have been reproduced in articles 15-19 in this series. It was that God was raising up in the Church an ‘end-time breed of dread warriors', before whose power and authority nothing would be able to stand. They would be an all-conquering army; and the scriptural basis for that teaching was taken from Joel 2:2-11.

To base such a doctrine on that passage of Scripture, however, is entirely fallacious. Arising immediately from the preceding description of the effects of a great plague of locusts, the passage describes an all-consuming army invading the Land of Israel, and taken in its context of “the day of the Lord” (vv1-2, 11), it is speaking prophetically of an invading army sent by God to execute his final judgment against Judah and Jerusalem at the end of the age. Certainly its fulfilment is yet in the future, at the time of Jacob's tribulation (Jer 30); but it does not refer to the Church.

Nowhere in Scripture does God call his Church to be an invading army to execute judgment. Nor does it speak of a worldwide domination; the specific geographical setting is the Land of Israel and in particular the City of Zion.

Such teaching, based on a complete distortion of this passage from the word of God, displays the worst sort of error in interpretation. It takes specific predictive prophecy, converts it into an allegory which is not to be found in the text that the invaders represent Christian 'dread warriors' and then bases a doctrine upon that allegorical fancy. It is not merely nonsense, however. It is also dangerous to the Church because of the numbers of leaders who received it with gladness and were willing to let their people believe such teaching.

Where leaders have promised great things to the people and those promises have gone unfulfilled, there is increasing pressure on leaders to deliver the goods – setting the scene for the entry of deception.

Why should such false doctrine be so gladly and easily received? It was received gladly because it reinforced all the false doctrine and false prophecy which had been accepted during the previous 15 years. 

It was also received easily, I believe, for a subtler and deadlier reason, which is to be found in the coming together to reinforce one another of the two main strands of deception - counterfeit spiritual manifestations and false teaching - to which I have already referred. Let us now consider the topic a little further.

Put to the Test

The Kansas City Prophets came to Britain as guests whose ministry was being invited and welcomed by many prominent church leaders in the country. Some of us had been unhappy about this visit, because we were not at ease with their style of ministry or their doctrine, and in particular we had said publicly that we did not believe the specific prophecy concerning the outbreak of revival in October 1990 to have come from the Lord.

During the summer of 1990 there was a preliminary gathering where the ministry of these men was presented to an invited group of national charismatic church leaders. Some remained unhappy and unconvinced, but others were willing at the end to sign a statement approving of the ministry as being valid. In view of the doctrine already mentioned, one might have expected the ministry to be regarded as questionable on those grounds with no further evidence being necessary; but there was a further ingredient involved.

An outstanding and spectacular feature of the ministry lay in the singling out by name from the public platform of individual members of the audience with whom the speaker was apparently not acquainted. Words of knowledge were given concerning those individuals, relating to aspects of their past life and their present circumstances, and usually completed with encouraging prophecy concerning their future. The accuracy of the words of knowledge brought amazement and served to convince many that they should attest the ministry as being from God.

To be convinced on these grounds alone, however, is to make an assumption which can be dangerously misleading. There is, of course, no question but that such words of knowledge could certainly have been given by revelation from the Holy Spirit; but we need to be alert to the fact that this is not the only possibility where supernatural spiritual activity is being manifested. It is essential also to take other factors into account in order to be sure of the source from which the manifestation originates.

One factor, the nature of the doctrine, we have already mentioned; in addition there is the scriptural injunction to “test the spirits” (1 John 4:1), and a further matter of vital importance is whether what is happening is consistent with the revelation of Scripture: is it in character for the God of the Bible to be acting in this sort of way? An understanding of the ways of God as revealed in his word is of great importance: according to Psalm 95:10, quoted again in Hebrews 3:10, the hearts of God's people go astray when they do not know his ways.

We charismatic Christians can be terrifyingly gullible when it comes to supernatural spiritual manifestation. We assume that because a thing looks right, it is right. A good counterfeit always looks right unless and until it is put to the test.

We charismatic Christians can be terrifyingly gullible when it comes to supernatural spiritual manifestation.

When a word of knowledge is true, we assume that this means that it must have come from God. That is an assumption which is unsafe to make, and one which the word of God demonstrates to be so. In Acts 16:16-18, we find the following account of the experience of Paul and Silas with a slave girl who had a spirit of divination:

Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved”. She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned round and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

There was not one false word in the slave girl's statement about Paul and Silas. The spirit of divination was speaking absolute factual truth through her. Yet Paul discerned that the source of her knowledge was false and commanded the evil spirit to leave her.

What a lesson this contains for us in these days. How much we need to be alert and discerning, aware of the subtleties of the Adversary. satan has no objection to presenting us with any amount of factual truth, but always with a false motive. If true statements will cause us to lower our guard and be lulled into a false sense of security, then he will willingly use them to pave the way so that when the lie finally comes we will not detect it.

If, by a spirit of divination, he can give us a number of accurate words of knowledge so as to convince us that God is the source from which this spiritual manifestation is coming, then he will gladly oblige; once we have made the mistaken assumption that all is from God and all is well, we will then without hesitation accept the false teaching which follows.

It is imperative that we learn the ways of God from Scripture. The doctrine of Joel's Army was false and the ministry should have been questioned on those grounds alone. In addition, however, we need to ask the question: 'Would Jesus in person be doing such a thing in such a way?', specifically in this case: 'Would Jesus personally stand on a public platform and dispense words of knowledge for no apparent reason other than to display the fact that he had the ability to do so?'

The answer in light of Scripture would be a resounding NO! Jesus was never willing to perform spiritual signs to order, as a performance for its own sake. He did so when it was necessary for the purpose of exercising the compassion of God towards the needy; the signs confirmed the truth of the word which he spoke and they were certainly indications of his Messiahship, but he chose to communicate his authority through the words which he spoke, not through the signs and wonders.

satan has no objection to presenting us with any amount of factual truth, but with a false motive - to lower our guard so that when the lie finally comes we will not detect it.

Indeed, Jesus often told those whom he healed to keep quiet about it. In these days, however, we are more impressed by the signs than by the truth of the word and it brings us into great danger of deception. 

Believing without question or testing that the source of origin of the signs is genuine, we easily swallow the bait which has masked the hidden hook of false doctrine to bring us into error.

A Vivid Picture

During the summer of 1990, the members of the ministry team of which I was part met together for a day to pray and wait upon the Lord about this perplexing matter of the then-impending visit of the Kansas City Prophets. During that time, I received and shared a vivid mental picture.

I saw first a large, flat, empty expanse of sand on a seashore. The sea was a very long way back down the beach, and scattered about on the sand were a number of large rocks, all of which seemed to be about four to five feet high. Each rock had a flat top on which was a small lighthouse.

The picture then changed. The rocks no longer supported lighthouses but were otherwise unaltered. The sands were covered with many people, enjoying themselves on the beach on a fine warm day. Then, as I watched, there came sweeping in across the sand a sudden very swift flood-tide. Nobody had time to get out of its way, except for some who scrambled onto the tall rocks and stood there, above the level of the water, which seemed to be about three to four feet deep.

There was no panic from those in the water. After momentary surprise, they were splashing around and shouting to those who were up on the rocks: “Come on in, the water's warm and it feels lovely”, but those on the rocks were refusing, saying “we don't trust it”.

Then, as suddenly as the flood-tide had come in, it receded back across the sands and all those in the water were swept out with it. The sands were now empty again except for those standing on the rocks, who I saw had now become the lighthouses which I had first seen.

Asking the Lord what this meant, I received the understanding that the flood-tide signified a coming wave of deception; it was not the first and it would recede, but it would not be the last, and further, more potent waves of deception would come. Those who remained happily in the water were deceived by the fleshly appeal of what was happening to them, and their failure to discern the true nature of it and withdraw would mean that they would be easily swept into the next wave when it came, and further deceived.

Those who stood on the rocks were those who stood on the rock of God's word and distrusted what was suddenly happening, and they would continue to be as lighthouses of warning when further flood-tides came in to try to deceive God's people.

Next week: David offers his testimony of his personal encounter with the Toronto Movement.

This article is part of a series, re-publishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’. Click here for previous instalments. References to time spans have been edited where necessary.

The world in the Church.

David Noakes continues his chapter giving a personal and biblical perspective on renewal. First published in 1995. Click here for previous instalments.

We can now see within the Church the equivalent of the world's superstars, the hero on a pedestal supported and followed by his admirers. In some cases, the gifted man in leadership has been exalted in the minds of his followers to a point of infallibility, which brings both him and them into great danger.

Within the last year, a mature Christian man with leadership responsibilities said to me: “David, I simply cannot believe that X [a prominent charismatic leader] could possibly get anything wrong”. I could only respond that in that case, he had effectively elevated the man to the status of God, bringing both of them into great peril. We have brought into being the phenomenon of the Christian guru.

During the last 20 years we have seen emerge another characteristic of the spirit of the age: the desire to create large-scale enterprises, to build church empires. This is the ecclesiastical equivalent of the multi-national conglomerate commercial organisation, ruled through a hierarchical authority structure with exalted executives directing operations and visiting outposts of their empires from their central headquarters. It has much of the world's ways about it, but little of the biblical revelation of the structure of the Church or of the servant-leadership of which Jesus speaks in Matthew 20:25-28 and 23:1-12.

The world's delight in spectacular entertainment has infected the Church with the love of the big show on the public platform. 25 years ago we would see lines of people quietly waiting to receive the laying-on of hands so that the Holy Spirit would show the compassion of God in bringing gifts of healings. Now, however, we have progressed to the point where we expect that in place of the ministry of the word and prayer, men will perform as magicians to cause others to fall to the floor, for no good reason, but simply as a demonstration of power.

This is far removed from the activities of the Jesus revealed in the gospels, who disdained to exercise power for wrong purposes. He was consistently unwilling to perform signs and wonders to impress, but only in order to demonstrate the compassion of his Father to the sick and the needy and as confirmation of the truth of the word which he spoke. Many meetings now, however, are not for the purposes by which he was motivated, but for those of worldly display, financial gain and the elevation of the ministries of men.

The Church today has adopted the world’s delight in superstars, spectacular entertainment and commercial empires.

The materialism of the Western world and its 'get rich quick' philosophy has entered the Church in the form of the prosperity gospel. By 'naming and claiming' we seek to oblige a penny-in-the-slot god to deliver the goods which a hedonistic philosophy desires. Paul would have found it very hard to believe in such teaching in the midst of his impoverishments, imprisonments and shipwrecks! Yet the Church wants to be like the world, luxuriating in a form of self-indulgent religion.

“To the law and to the testimony” cries Isaiah 8:20. What does the word of God say of this? “Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God” (Prov 30:8-9). The Scripture explains clearly the wisdom which underlies the teaching of Jesus that we are to ask simply for our 'daily bread'.

How Has the World Gained Access?

What has made possible this wholesale invasion of the Church by the thinking and the ways of the world? Most of those who have introduced these ways are men who originally started well as ministers of the word. What has ensnared us?

The largest factor leading us to embrace the world and its methods is exactly that which led Abraham into the trap of his liaison with Hagar: the operation of the uncrucified flesh, the inherent drive towards self-gratification rather than to what is pleasing to God. The permanent conflict within us between spirit and flesh, so plainly spelt out in Romans 8 and Galatians 5, always poses one stark question: whose will is going to be carried out, that of God or that of self?

The attributes of the self-centred, self-gratifying flesh will always drive us away from the Lord and into the embrace of the world. As with Abraham and Sarah, the flesh causes us to think that we know best and can manage God's business quite well for him. This pride, however, for that is what it is, opens the way to the desire for wealth, for fame and for the praises of men; and to the urge to exercise within the Church not godly authority, but worldly domination and control over the lives of others.

The attributes of the self-centred, self-gratifying flesh will always drive us away from the Lord and into the embrace of the world.

As a result, leaders unwittingly usurp the place of Jesus as Head of the Body, just as Jezebel usurped the authority of her husband King Ahab. Instead of gifted leaders being used by the Holy Spirit in his primary purpose of building up the Body of Christ, they often became the agents of causing the people of God to become crushed and ineffective under a religious tyranny, unable to grow and mature as the Lord would desire.

A further effect of overbearing leadership, and one which is potentially of immense and far-reaching danger, is that all discernment of the source of spiritual activity becomes the prerogative of leaders and the rest of the people have often no alternative but to stifle the witness of the Holy Spirit within them. We shall return to this topic later.

Doctrinal Error

Pride, and its accompanying desire for power and dominion, all too easily opens the door to false doctrine. Taken together with the vital ingredient of the deep root of anti-Semitism (the largely unadmitted and un-repented sin of the Gentile Church through so many generations), pride has opened the way for the doctrines of Dominion theology and for the false concepts of Restorationism and Reconstructionism.

The rejection of the clear and unambiguous teaching of Scripture concerning the continuing part which the nation of Israel has to play in the purposes of God throws away a vital key to a biblical understanding of the significance of the times in which we live. It leads to error and confusion in eschatology; to deny that God will fulfil all his word concerning Israel in the closing days of this age is to throwaway, as it were, the hub of the eschatological wheel into which all ancillary doctrine fits like spokes.

Discard Israel from the equation and there is no clear understanding of how the rest can fit together. We cannot understand how or when the coming Day of the Lord will affect the Church or the world unless we first understand how that event will affect Judah and Jerusalem.

The concepts of Restorationist thinking can only be sustained alongside a theology which maintains that God has replaced Israel with the Church; and to hold that theological position involves the assertion that God has broken his word of assurance to the Hebrew nation, particularly with regard to their restoration to the land given as an everlasting covenant to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Ps 105:8-11).

The God whom we know as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not, however, one who breaks his word of covenant, for to do so would be to deny his very character. He will undoubtedly fulfil to the uttermost all his word concerning the descendants of Jacob.

Restorationist teaching and the accompanying 'Dominion' or 'Kingdom Now' theology depends, however, upon an interpretation of Scripture which denies that God will fulfil his word concerning Israel. Such an interpretation is utterly false.

To deny that God will fulfil all his word concerning Israel in the closing days of this age is to throwaway the hub of the eschatological wheel into which all ancillary doctrine fits like spokes.

The basic concept of Restorationism stems from an erroneous understanding of Acts 3:21. This verse is interpreted to mean that God will restore the Church to a glorious condition in the world before the return of Christ. However, the same verse goes on to define this restoration as being that which God has promised to do through the Hebrew prophets. Of what, then, did they predict the restoration?

They prophesied concerning the restoration of the Davidic kingdom (Amos 9:11-15) and all that accompanies it, which will be restored by the action of the Messiah at his return. No 'restoration of all things' prior to the Second Advent is predicted by the prophets of Israel.

Why should this error of understanding matter so greatly? Clearly it must matter for the fundamental reason that any distortion or error in interpretation falsifies the word of truth and misleads those who are wrongly taught. In the times into which we have now entered, however, it has an additional peril for those who have been misled by it. False doctrine gives rise to false prophecy, and false prophecy leads to confusion and disillusionment because of the failure of its expected fulfilment.

In that part - and it is a very considerable part - of the charismatically-renewed Church which has espoused Restorationist thinking and Dominion theology, there has been a consistent strain of prophecy predicting glory and dominion, power and rulership for the Church before the return of Christ. Triumphalism has been a dominant feature. It is very appealing; it appealed strongly to me when I was first hearing it more than 20 years ago but its appeal, unfortunately, is to the flesh in us. Who would not prefer to be the head, rather than the tail?

The problem, however, is that neither the basic doctrine nor this prophetic theme are true; they are both deceptive, for neither accords with the revelation of the word of God concerning the last days in which we are now living. These are days, not of increasing light, but of increasingly great spiritual darkness on the nations of the earth (Isa 60:2), which will intensify until he who is the Light of the World returns. Along with this darkness will come the false light of the increasing power and extent of New Age religion, leading ultimately to the worship of Lucifer.

The Dangers of Deception

The greatest peril to the Church, and one which will increase in danger as time progresses, will be that of deception. This is the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles in the New Testament. Satan will assume increasingly his two principal roles (Rev 12:9) of both dragon and serpent, persecutor and deceiver, and he will employ both means in causing many to fall away (Matt 24:9-13).

Any error in doctrine falsifies the word and misleads those who are wrongly taught – it also gives rise to false prophecy, which leads to confusion and disillusionment.

Deception, however, is his preferred method, for by it he can cause men unwittingly to serve his purposes. We are warned in 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 that Satan masquerades as an angel of light, and his ministers as ministers of righteousness.

If the Church is not alert and discerning, we will surely be deceived, for he will prove too subtle for us unless we have open ears to hear and to heed the warnings which the Holy Spirit gives against deception whenever it arises, as more and more frequently it will surely do.

Counterfeit Spiritual Manifestations

Although deception is no new weapon against the Church (much of the writing in the New Testament epistles had the exposure of deception as its purpose) nevertheless of all the signs of the imminence of the Second Coming and the end of the present age, the increase of deception is the sign of which we are given the most consistent warning.

When the disciples asked this very question of Jesus concerning the signs of the end of the age, he began his reply with the words: “Watch out that no-one deceives you” (Matt 24:4). He immediately warns them of the emergence of false Christs (v5) who “will deceive many”, and in verse 11 of false prophets who “will appear and deceive many people”.

There is further warning in verses 23 and 24 concerning the appearance of false Christs and false prophets who “will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect if that were possible.”
Jesus is warning of false men who will seek to validate their deceptive claims by performing great signs and wonders. They will manifest great spiritual power and bring about amazing activity yet nevertheless, they are not sent by God.

Satan is a master of counterfeit spiritual phenomena, as he had demonstrated when Pharaoh's magicians by their occult powers duplicated Moses' action in turning his staff into a snake, and then also duplicated the phenomena of the first two plagues which Moses pronounced upon Egypt (Exod 7:6-8:15). The source of their power was entirely different, but the results appeared identical. It was not until the third plague, of gnats, that God did not permit the magicians to succeed, at which point they recognised and declared to Pharaoh that the plague must be from God; their own source of power was no longer operating.

What a warning we should draw from such an account in Scripture. The outward evidence was identical, but the origin of their power was occult. If we look simply at outward appearances, impressive as they may be, we are candidates for deception. It is for this reason that the New Testament gives us so much clear warning concerning counterfeit spiritual activity.

Our need is not to reject spiritual manifestations, but to become increasingly alert and practised in distinguishing the source of the power behind them (Heb 5:14).

This is not so that we should become afraid of the genuine and reject all spiritual phenomena out of hand; rather the reverse, for the more the deceptions come against us, the more we shall need the genuine powerful activity of the Holy Spirit in order that we may discern and counter it. Our need is not to reject spiritual manifestations, but to become increasingly alert and practised in distinguishing the source of the power behind them (Heb 5:14).

Paul gives clear warning in 2 Thessalonians 2 concerning the coming of the Day of the Lord and the return of Jesus. He declares that first, a figure known as the man of lawlessness (or man of sin, the personification of the spirit of satan, sometimes called the anti-Christ) will appear. This person will be overthrown and destroyed at the return of the Lord Jesus; but before that, warns Paul in verses 9-11, he will display by the activity and power of satan “all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders” and “every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie…”.

How awesome and terrible that last statement is: but for the believer it should be encouragement to hold firmly to the truth of what is revealed to us in the word of God.

A further major warning concerning counterfeit spiritual activity is found in Revelation 13:11-18, describing the second beast of John's vision. The first beast of that chapter corresponds to the man of sin, while the second is the 'false prophet', who is encountered again in Revelation 19:20. His function is to perform miraculous signs by power which counterfeits that of God, so as to deceive the people on earth into worshipping the man of sin. They will be fooled into thinking that he is the true Christ, but he will be the anti- or pseudo-Christ.

Next week: David turns to the issue of false doctrine, which joins counterfeit spiritual manifestations to make up the two major forms of deception.