A Whole Lot of Wishful Thinking These Days
Published February 5, 2010 by Sandy Simpson
Deception In The Church
“There Is No Hell”
This is certainly wishful thinking at its worst and most destructive. The Bible is replete with warnings about the lake of fire and who will follow the AntiChrist, False Prophet (Rev. 19:20) and Satan and his demons (Rev. 20:10)… that is all unbelievers (Rev. 21:8). Those who believe there is no hell are those who do not believe in what Jesus Christ and the Apostles warned us about in the Bible. Among those who teach against hell are many of the leadership of the Emerging Church movement.
Articles to read:
Hell (http://www.carm.org/christianity/christian-doctrine/hell)
Hell (http://www.letusreason.org/doct12.htm)
Is there a Hell? (http://www.letusreason.org/biblexp39.htm)
Purgatory
There is a holding place called Hades where unbelievers are held till the day of judgment. Old Testament believers were taken with Christ upon His death when He went to the part of Hades called “Abraham’s bosom” and emptied it by taking those there to heaven with Him. By the way, Jesus did not go to hell but to Hades to tell everyone there what He had done by His death and coming resurrection. Today Hades is only populated by unbelievers. Purgatory is a manmade idea from the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church and has no support in Scripture. Since there are no believers there since today all believer’s spirits immediately go to be with Christ in the third heaven or Paradise, then there is no such place as Purgatory where either sinful believers or unbelievers can do penance and be prayed out of there by living believers.
Articles to read:
Doctrine of Purgatory (http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/cat1030.html)
Is There Really Such a Place as Purgatory? (http://www.thebereancall.org/node/1280)
Purgatory a Spiritual Bermuda Triangle (http://www.letusreason.org/rc9.htm)
The Roman Catholic Bible Has The Answer (http://www.christian-witness.org/rcc/rc_bible_has_answer.htm)
Purgatory: Purifying Fire or Fatal Fable (http://pro-gospel.org/x2/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=62)
Confession Doctrine
Also known as “blab it an grab it”, “positive confession”, “name it and claim it” and other names this idea is solely without merit in Scripture. We are not little gods as Word of Faith proponents extol, since that is the original lie of Satan (Gen. 3:5). We cannot create something out of nothing as only God can.
Rom. 4:17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” {Gen. 17:5} He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
Only God can create something out of nothing. We may ask God for His help but we do not command God. We may ask, seek and knock (Matt. 7:7) if we do so according to His will (1 Jn. 5:14) as long as His words remain in us (John 15:7).
Do not say “Lord if it be thy will”. (Robert Tilton, Success in Life, recorded 12/14/91)
We cannot speak a car or money into existence from nothing. Yet that is what they claim.
What do you need? Start creating it. Start speaking about it. Start speaking it into being. Speak to your billfold. Say, ‘You big, thick billfold full of money.’ Speak to your checkbook. Say, ‘You, checkbook, you. You’ve never been so prosperous since I owned you. You’re just jammed full of money.’ Say to your body, ‘You’re whole, body! Why, you just function so beautifully and so well. Why, body, you never have any problems. You’re a strong, healthy body.’ Or speak to your leg, or speak to your foot, or speak to your neck, or speak to your back. … Speak to your wife, speak to your husband, speak to your circumstances; and speak faith to them to create in them and God will create what you are speaking.” (Marilyn Hickey, quoted in Hanegraaff, Crisis, 63).(Paul Yongi) Cho’s concept of fourth-dimensional thinking is nothing short of occultism. In his best-selling book “The Fourth Dimension”, Cho unveils his departure from historic Christian theology and his entry into the world of the occult. Cho lists four steps in his incubation formula: 1) Visualize a clear-cut goal or idea in your mind; 2) have a burning desire for your objective; 3) pray until you get the guarantee or assurance from God that what you desire is already yours; 4) speak or confess the end result into existence. (Hank Hanegraaff, Christianity in Crisis, 1993 citing Paul Yonggi Cho, The Fourth Dimension, Volume One (So. Plainfield, NJ: Bridge Publishing, 1979), 9-35; vol. 2, 18-33)
Many of the phrases popularized by present-day prosperity preachers, such as “What I confess, I possess,” were originally coined by Kenyon. Kenneth Hagin … plagiarized much of Kenyon’s work, including the statement, “Every man who has been ‘born again’ is an Incarnation, and Christianity is a miracle. The believer is as much an Incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth.” (E. W. Kenyon, The Father and His Family, 17th ed. (Lynnwood, WA: Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society, 1964), 100; cf. Kenneth E. Hagin, “The Incarnation,” The Word of Faith, December 1980, 14)
Confession doctrine is probably the quintessential “wishful thinking” gimmick of our time. This is what “The Secret”, Oprah Winfrey and other New Age gurus have been advocating for a long time. So have hundreds of Word of Faith teachers who hearken back to Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland.
Articles to read:
Preaching a False-Positive with a Smile (http://www.letusreason.org/Popteac29.htm)
I have what I think and say I have (http://www.letusreason.org/Wf8.htm)
A Profile Of The Word-Faith Movement (http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/wf-10.txt)
Danger and Apostasy! The Signs and Wonders of Kenneth Copeland (http://moriel.org/MorielArchive/index.php/discernment/church-issues/false-prophets/danger-and-apostasy-the-signs-and-wonders-of-kenneth-copeland)
Four Current Movements Within The Church (http://moriel.org/MorielArchive/index.php/discernment/church-issues/false-prophets/four-current-movements-within-the-church)
Revisit to “The Seduction of Christianity” Part One (http://www.thebereancall.org/node/6856)
Drunk In The Spirit
There is a Latter Rain teaching that has floated around now for many decades through many counterfeit revivals. It is the idea that Christians should seek to be “drunk in the spirit” usually through a transferable impartation. The justification for this practice is from the teachings of Rodney Howard-Browne and others where they claim that the disciples were drunk in the Spirit at Pentecost. But this teaching is exactly backwards.
Acts 2:5-16 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs— we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.” {Or sweet wine} Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
Peter explained to them that their mocking remarks about the disciples were incorrect, they were not drunk. They were filled with the Spirit and speaking tongues lucidly, proclaiming the Gospel message. And yet drunkenness is equated by Latter Rain proponents as being filled with the Spirit.
“I mean people say, “How can Dr. Wagner at his age be with all these weird people. He’s been on a fourteen year drunk. It’s the only way to explain it. He’s not been sober for years. … when you sober up and all of a sudden you’re not cross-eyed, your pastor doesn’t look what you thought, man that person you’ve been praying with irritates you and you don’t like their personality, you’ve got one choice. Get drunk again! And let me tell you (cheers) if we’re going to make it in this hour, if we’re going to make it in this hour, we have got to stay filled with the spirit.” (Jim Laffoon, NSOP, 5/00)
The Bible not only says not to be drunk but it contrast being drunk with being filled with the Spirit.
Eph 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Being filled with the Spirit is the exact opposite of getting drunk and putting oneself in an altered state of consciousness. Being filled with the spirit is the ultimate in soberness and self-control, which is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).
Articles to read:
Drunk on the new wine (http://www.letusreason.org/Pent21.htm)
Whooping it up under the new anointing (http://www.letusreason.org/Pent17.htm)
Drunk in the spirit (http://www.apologeticsindex.org/d43.html)
Resolution on the Brownsville Assembly “Revival” Movement (http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/opposition.htm)
Spiritual disciplines
It is being taught that if you do certain pragmatic exercises you can get closer to God or have a better relationship with God. But this is the same misguided methodology practiced by false religions and cults. Yet many in the Emerging Church movement are trying to take people back to the practices of the early Roman Catholic “desert fathers”, monks who instead of getting out and preaching the Gospel has sequestered themselves away from people in order to mystically get closer to God. So EC proponents want Christians to follow the practices and teachings of men who were fundamentally disobedient to the Great Commission. Going into trance states, contemplating your belly button, doing labyrinth prayer repeating some word over and over, standing under a waterfall for hours, subjecting your body to rigorous exercise or grueling self-inflicted punishment will do absolutely nothing to get you closer to God.
Col. 2:22-23; 3:1-2 These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Mt 6:7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
Spiritual disciplines ultimately focus our attention on earthly things, get us further into self and emotion. If we would but follow the practices of the first century Christians we would benefit.
Acts 2:42-47 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Journey Into Wholeness or Journey Into Worldliness? (http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/intowholeness.html)
Pragmatic Methodology versus Practical Theology (http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/intowholeness2.html)
New Spiritual Discipline from Ancient Roman Catholic Sources (http://moriel.org/MorielArchive/index.php/discernment/catholicism/new-spiritual-discipline-from-ancient-roman-catholic-sources)
Ancient-Future Heresies (http://www.thebereancall.org/node/6535)
Life with God, Reading the Bible for Spiritual Transformation by Richard J. Foster (http://www.svchapel.org/resources/book-reviews/4-christian-living/618-life-with-god-reading-the-bible-for-spiritual-transformation-by-richard-j-foster)
Contemplative and Spiritual Formation (http://www.lighthousetrails.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=LTP&Category_Code=CTMP)
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Tellingly, Obama and his White House advisers are refusing to “wake up.” Obama responded to Brown’s win as he has to many of his setbacks since assuming office a year ago this week. He blamed his predecessor, George W. Bush.
