by Tony Pearce

Jesus said in the last days of this age there would be a situation which he described as the ‘distress of nations with perplexity.’ The word in Greek translated ‘with perplexity’ is ‘aporia’ meaning with no way out. In other words at the end of this age there will be a crisis so severe that there will be no solution to it. In fact bringing this age to an end and starting again will be the only solution from God’s point of view. Things will be so bad that it will be impossible to patch up, repair or recondition the state of the world. This will apply to the physical world as multiple crises combine for the final perfect storm created by human rebellion against God.

It will also apply to the spiritual world as all manner of errors and deception bring people into bondage to evil spirits instead of true faith in God through the Messiah Jesus. Sadly we are seeing more and more error and deception taking over the professing church of Jesus Christ. We have liberal theology questioning more and more of the Bible, especially the Creation, the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the only Saviour of humanity and the hope of the Lord’s return to judge the world in righteousness. We have supposed evangelicals joining hands with Roman Catholicism in ecumenical prayer gatherings and projects to save the world. In doing this the evangelicals have to compromise on the teachings of the scriptures in order to accommodate the errors of Rome.

Now we have God TV broadcasting night after night ‘miraculous revival’ meetings taking place led by Todd Bentley in Lakeland, Florida. The miracles are apparently being done under the power of the ‘anointing’ which causes Todd Bentley to shake backwards as he waves his arms over the audience and shouts ‘Fire, Fire, Fire!’ Then people start roaring, groaning, shaking, jerking, experiencing burning sensations in the body and laughing uncontrollably. There have been reports of people having their eyes rolled in the back of their heads and women gyrating and pulsating like they are being ravaged from behind by some unseen force.

Bentley is credited with bringing ‘a million people into the kingdom of God in the last eight years’ and with being ‘one of the most accurate prophets of our generation’ (interview with Patricia King on Xtreme Prophetic TV show). People travel from around the world to pick up this ‘anointing’ which is said to be the most ‘contagious’ one ever. Some Christians are convinced that this is the great end time revival that will bring multitudes into the church and transform the world. Others that it is a great deception that will end in tears and tragedy.

Bentley claims that his miracles are accomplished with the help of angels – in particular an angel called Emma – who provide him with revelations and are bound to do his bidding. ‘Angels are commissioned to carry out the word that God's servants speak and prophecy,’ he says. In fact angels are messengers of God who do His will but there is nothing in the Bible to suggest that humans can command them to do our will.

Bentley claims succession to noted false prophets – in particular William Branham, Paul Cain and Bob Jones. William Branham was a Pentecostal preacher who made a name for himself in the 1950s with claims of sensational miracles. He was denounced as a heretic by the Assemblies of God on account of his false teaching. Branham denied the doctrine of the Trinity claiming it comes from hell, and taught that the zodiac and Egyptian pyramids are on a par with the authority of Scripture. He taught that Cain was the product of the sexual coupling between Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden. He first taught the Latter Rain teaching of the ‘Manifest Sons of God’. This teaching states that in the last days a 'new breed' of believers would attain to immortality and conquer the last enemy of death. Latter-Rain prophets look forward to the appearance of a glorious end-time church which will become perfect and thus qualify for immortality here upon the
earth prior to Christ's return. (Branham died in a car crash). The prophetic movement teachers identify this great end time company as the 'Manchild' of Revelation 12, which will rule the nations with a rod of iron. This indestructible and immortal company become impregnated with the presence of the 'Christ' and they will put all things under their feet. In fact the Bible teaches that in the last days the Antichrist will reign and true believers in Jesus Christ will be persecuted. The idea that Christians can become perfect or immortal here on earth before the return of Christ is a delusion.

Both Bob Jones and Paul Cain have been exposed as false prophets who have been guilty of sexual sin. Bob Jones appeared recently on a TV programme with Todd Bentley boasting of daily trips he makes to heaven. Unfortunately he is also suffering from a kidney disease and having to have painful dialysis treatment for this. He asks for prayer about this condition. Why doesn’t he ask Todd Bentley to heal him instead of going to the hospital? Is it because he knows that the healings are fake?

With most charismatic Christians today if you mention the word ‘healing’ or ‘miracle’ they suspend all critical faculty and go off into waves of ecstasy. They never question whether or not the healings are really taking place. In an article by Andrew Strom on the Florida events a pastor is quoted as saying, ‘When Todd Bentley conducted a healing meeting in a large charismatic church in England in 2005 he laid hands on many people who were apparently healed. I know of at least one instance when a pastor’s wife with cancer was prayed for by Todd. Soon afterwards she heard voices in her head telling her ‘to drown herself like her father did.’ The poor woman ended up in a mental hospital. I believe she still has cancer. No one is following up or keeping records of what happens to people who have hands laid on them by Todd or others like them. I have kept records as far as I can concerning this particular church. Over a relatively
short period there has been a dramatic increase in premature deaths, cancers, marriage break-ups, sickness and disease amongst the congregation where the leadership have allowed this type of ministry into their church. Many people left the church in fear. These are the consequences of following this type of ministry which no one is aware of or wants to address. I know. I have visited the people in hospital and attended one of the funerals.’

If Todd is to be believed they could well end up in hospital as a result of attending his meetings. In one of the most appalling scenes I have ever witnessed on God TV (which is saying something) he claims that ‘God’ told him to grab a crippled lady and bang her legs up and down like a baseball bat, to kick another lady in the face with his biker boot. He also ran and hit a man so hard 'it drove him back several feet! He hit the ground and his tooth popped right out of his mouth!' The worst thing about this madness was that the congregation was sitting there laughing at all this. This blatant incitement to violence if repeated by his deluded followers could well end up with these preachers being arrested for assault. It would certainly cause any unbeliever watching to reject Christianity as dangerous lunacy and even move for the suppression of the faith by the authorities.

Jesus warned of a great deception in the last days of this age. His first word when asked by the disciples about the sign of the end of the age was ‘Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name saying I am the Christ and will deceive many. … For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders to deceive if possible even the elect.’ Matthew 24.4-5, 24. It is clear that evidence of the miraculous is no guarantee of faithfulness to God. The Antichrist and the False Prophet perform miracles by the power of the devil. ‘The coming of the lawless one (the Antichrist) is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved.’ 2 Thessalonians 2.9-10. ‘He (the False Prophet) performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven
on the earth in the sight of men and he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast.’ Revelation 13.13-14.

Any true miracle will always glorify God and point to the Lord Jesus, not angels or men, as the only mediator between God and humanity. In the programmes I have seen of the events in Florida I have not seen any preaching from the Bible or heard any explanation of the Gospel. People are invited to come to Jesus or to come to catch the fire but unless they understand what the Gospel means they are not coming to the real Jesus. At the very least they must understand that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and rose again on the third day and was seen by the disciples. They must understand that we are sinners who deserve God’s judgement and hell, but in God’s mercy He is offering us eternal redemption through the blood that the Lord Jesus shed at Calvary. They must know that they need to repent and believe that Jesus died and rose again and they must be willing to confess their faith before men. Anyone who
really understands this should come in a sober and penitent way not in this wild uncontrolled and irrational behaviour which has much more to do with paganism than true Christianity.

In fact many people who have come to Christ from a New Age or occult background see strong connections between this kind of behaviour and what they were into before coming to Christ. In an article on this subject Yakov Prasch notes that in these meetings ‘people react to the powerful suggestion, or touch, of the minister by barking, crowing, jerking, jumping on the spot, falling over (‘slain in the Spirit’), screaming, crying, becoming tingly, having visions, seeing lights and so on. These effects, in various measures, have always followed occult ministry – the most extreme form being kundalini yoga. Awakening kundalini energy is so dangerous that many yoga gurus refuse to fully release it in disciples – but Charismatics have no such qualms and people get hurt.’

Much of the church today is looking for gimmicks to bring people into the churches. They try one thing after another, but ignore the Master’s instructions and some even boast that they ‘don’t do doctrine’. In fact doctrine is a dirty word in many Christian circles today. But when the church abandons doctrinal teaching it is inevitably on the way to error and ultimate collapse. Isaiah 29 shows what happens when the word of God is no longer taught and the true prophets of God ignored – the Bible becomes a closed book and religion becomes man made and empty. Jesus told the disciples to go into all the world and make disciples ‘teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.’ Matthew 28.18-20. Teaching involves doctrine.

Jesus said His doctrine was from the Father (John 7.16-7) and that He had come from heaven so He could tell us the truth about God and the kingdom of heaven (John 6.43-51). The apostles taught new believers the doctrine they had received from the Lord. ‘And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.’ Acts 2.42. They filled Jerusalem with this doctrine according to the opposition (Acts 5.28). Obviously this was not some weird experience or wild behaviour, but something which related to the blood of Jesus and His sacrifice for the sin of the world.

Paul told the Ephesians that ‘we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ.’ Ephesians 4.14-15. He told Timothy to pay attention to doctrine and to teach it in the church. 1 Timothy 4.16. He says ‘All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.’ 2 Timothy 3.16. He also says ‘The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.’ 2 Timothy 4.3-4.

That time has certainly come. People today are looking for preachers who will tell them what they want to hear – that they can have power, wealth, health without having to bother with repentance, faith and walking humbly with God. As a result they are being blown about like leaves before the storm and turned aside to fables. Fables are basically made up stories. The kind of revival happening in Florida feeds on stories and testimonies. The stories become ever more exciting – healings, people being raised from the dead, angels coming and filling your teeth with gold, sending down feathers into meetings etc.

No one bothers to ask how much of all this is happening in the real world and how much is in the imagination of the people giving the stories – in other words how much is based on fables. If it is real and they have such power why don’t they go and empty the hospitals? Why does Bob Jones need dialysis for his kidney problem? Why are there as many people suffering from various diseases in ‘signs and wonders’ churches as there are anywhere else? Why do any of these preachers die in road accidents or of cancer? If such extraordinary things are really happening why does the world for the most part pay no attention and even laugh at the claims of these poor deluded Christians?

There might have been opposition to Jesus and the Apostles but the evidence of the scriptures is that everyone knew something supernatural had happened including the opposition. The Apostles never made exaggerated claims about what they were going to do in order to get people excited. They demonstrated the fact of the risen Lord Jesus Christ through the signs that He granted them to do and then they explained what had happened to the people. In Acts 4.14 we read how the Sanhedrin reacted to the healing of the cripple at the Temple: ‘Seeing the man who had been healed standing with them they could say nothing against them.’ They might not have liked it but they could not deny that a notable miracle had been done and that it was evident to all who dwelt in Jerusalem.

People like me who criticise this movement are often compared to the Pharisees in the New Testament. On the contrary if I really saw genuine lasting, medically verified miracles happening on the scale that is claimed I would join in praising God. But I see many disappointed people who have been prayed for over and over again and who remain just as sick as they were before and then have the added burden of being told it is because of their lack of faith that they are not healed. And that makes me wonder who are the real Pharisees.

We also find that the Apostles did not rush around laying hands on people to impart an experience of ‘fire’ or power. In fact the ‘anointing’ which most of these preachers talk about has no basis in biblical teaching. In the Old Testament the word ‘mashach’ (verb) and mashiach (noun) is used exclusively of anointing priests and kings and prophetically of the Messiah which is the English form of the Hebrew mashiach. Jesus the Messiah is both priest and king so the Old Testament anointing points to the anointed one – the Messiah. In the New Testament the word anoint in Greek is chrio (verb) and chrisma (noun) from which we have Christos (the anointed one or Messiah). Chrio is used 5 times in the New Testament (Luke 4.18, Acts 4.27, 10.38, 2 Corinthians 1.21, Hebrews 1.9). Apart from the Corinthians reference all these verses apply to Jesus Christ as the anointed one.

The verse in Corinthians reads ‘Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God who has also sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.’ This has nothing to do with transferable anointings calling down fire, but is about God placing us into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, a theme found elsewhere in Paul’s letters (1 Corinthians 12.3, 12-13, Ephesians 1.13-14). The only use of the noun chrisma in the New Testament is 1 John 2.27: ‘These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.’ In this case the anointing is the Holy Spirit in us who guides us into the truth and glorifies the Lord Jesus (John 1613-15). That is one
anointing which we really do need today.

The ‘transferable anointing’ actually never happened in scripture. Acts 8 is an interesting passage in which Philip preaches in Samaria and many people are saved, but Peter has to come from Jerusalem to lay hands on the people so that they might receive the Holy Spirit. When Simon the Sorcerer sees what is happening he offers to pay for the ability to pass on the Spirit to others. One wonders what today’s signs and wonders preachers would say to this generous offer to fill the funds of the church from a wealthy sorcerer. In fact Peter says ‘Your money perish with you because you thought the gift of God could be purchased with money. … Repent therefore of this your wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned with bitterness and bound by iniquity.’ Acts 8.22-23.

The laying on of hands is used in Acts in order to commission ministry and to give spiritual gifts and in working miracles. Nevertheless the kind of manic laying on of hands on everyone who comes up at a meeting pushing them over as a sign of the power of the Holy Spirit is not to be found in Acts or the Epistles. In fact Paul counsels Timothy ‘Do not lay hands on anyone hastily.’ 1 Timothy 5.22. The fruit of Paul laying hands on Timothy was the very opposite of the frenzy and manic behaviour we are witnessing today in Lakeland: ‘Therefore I remind you to stir up in you gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.’ 2 Timothy 1.6-7. Far from some magical power been transferred by the touch of one anointed person to another, the message of the Christian faith was to be spread by teaching its content from one to another: ‘And the
things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.’ 2 Timothy 2.2. How much we need this today.

Tony Pearce