A Loving Warning

In my experience, the people I've known who are associated with New Apostolic Reformation/ Prosperity Gospel teaching are,

1. Imbalanced in some way. Usually it's an obsession with miracles, signs and wonders; they ignore clear scriptures that tell them to test the spirits (1 John 4:1). They accept the craziest things in the name of "not touching the Lord's anointed", i.e. paralytic shaking/ animal sounds, laughing uncontrollably, false prophecy after false prophecy, spurious, unbiblical things like gold dust, "angel" feathers, 90 foot tall angels, saying they have travelled to heaven many times etc. (This is only the tip of the iceberg.)

2. Their family members are usually into the weird things they are or completely dead to the gospel. I know people who were at the Toronto "blessing", for example; their families and churches are DEAD! No life whatsoever!

3. They get extremely angry when you try to talk to them about the false teachers they listen to. They either go completely silent or get visibly upset, and refuse to listen. They always remind me of king Jehoiakim cutting up and burning Jeremiah's scroll. This is far from a Christlike response. If anyone has a problem with a teacher/author/pastor I listen to, I'll listen with an open mind to their reasoning.

4. This one I handle very carefully. I love Jesus, and He has graced me way more than I deserve with His manifest presence. But we cannot put subjective experience over God's word. Humans are so constituted by God that we have a capacity to experience Him. But we are easily deceived, and can mistake a response to emotional stimuli for the nearness of Christ. We can ignore the major, serious theological problems with a pastor/teacher because we feel something. If a pastor is teaching things that are unbiblical, run as fast as you can from him! It doesn't matter that he seems anointed, or that many people are responding to his message, or he seems so loving.

This is not me judging anyone on this forum, or anyone in the body of Christ. I love you all. But I am duty bound to warn you to stay away from these teachers. Stay away even if it means you'll "miss out" on something God is allegedly doing. I think there are legitimate believers in prosperity gospel/NAR churches, that are saved because they were seeking God with an honest heart and He met them where they were. But that isn't God's stamp of approval on their teachings, it just means He can save anyone, anywhere.

"For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him." 2 Corinthians 11:2-4

Brother I'm just trying to understand your experience that you've had. It would probably be safe to say around the world there's maybe over 10 million people that are associated with movements that express the five-fold ministry and even prosperity teachings I would put the number up to more than 10 million but if we say that there are 10 million how many of those 10 million Christians have you actually met, would it be in the range of maybe 1000? 1000 out of that 10 million do you think you could be judging without actually meeting all knowing the other 9 million 900000 Christians without actually knowing anything about them. Because from my experience this seems to be what a lot of Christians do whether they are judging the Calvinists or whether they're judging the Catholics whether they're judging people from those associated with Nar, their experiences is like a drop in the bucket. And I would lovingly warn people not to judge if you've never met them or know anything about them because that type of sin is as serious as any other sin that's why Jesus spoke about judging and Paul also spoke very clearly about not judging brothers and sisters. I personally have never been to a new apostolic church or ever been to a church that teaches the prosperity gospel so I'm not personally involved in it but I have been personally involved in falsely judging people without knowing them. Through a very narrow experience that I had through meeting a few people or watching some videos on YouTube. Not a good move brother you should be praying and weeping in the spirit of intercession for these people whether they're Catholics or Anglican or new apostolic reformation how much do you really love them. And if you class them as your enemy how much do you really love your enemy?

In recent days we often read, "there was no one leading, just the holy spirit moving..."
But here is what we read in God's Word:
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 2 Tim. 4:2

We read about 5 points how to respond or not to respond when something was happening.
But the Bereans responded by searching the Scriptures daily when Paul came into town, to make shure he was speaking according to the Word of God.

Many Christians these days don't know the Scriptures anymore or they think it is just one of several options.
Paul wrote:
For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 2 Timothy 4v3
We can now see this everywhere.

4v4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.…
Very tragic and sad.

In Christ alone my hope is found...

Markus

Hi Gary. One does not need to know every Hindu, for example, to know it is an erroneous belief. We know by their doctrines.

Similarly, many NAR and prosperity teachers hold to unbiblical views, so I don't need to know everyone in their movements.

It alarms me that so many christians with solid biblical beliefs and experience so freely associate with these false teachers. If they have true biblical discernment they will distance themselves from error. It's that simple.

Believe me, I have prayed and will continue to pray for them. I have been overcome with grief and my sleep has often been taken away over concern for these people and their followers. I love them, and that's why I warn them, like Paul did.

"For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears." Acts 20:29-31

When I read Paul's letters to the Corinthians, Galatians, 2.Tim, 2 Thes and 2 Peter, and Jude, 2 John and 3 John and Revelation 2-3 you see that they do not spare to condemn false teaching and false teachers. You hear some of the harshest words in the whole bible about them. Entire churches and denominations can become corrupted, I have seen the devastating effects, I myself barely managed to escape a corrupted church.

In the same epistles you can find comfort and encouragement for those who still hold on to to the truth.

False teachers wreck more havock than murderers, because they do not just kill the body only but drag many souls into hell. Even Jesus warned about them in the Olivet discourse.

I have friends who are entangled in this NAR stuff, they know scripture but they just do not get whats wrong with it.

I also know a number of people who came out of the extreme Charismatic and then turn hyper-Calvinist or legalistic.

Having said that, I know many dear good souls that are in churches that teach poisonous doctrines, they are in unsafe places and I often wonder how long it takes before they become corrupted. Gary, you are right, we should not judge these dear sheep but not telling them the truth would be cruel, too. If I am in a den of wolfs in sheep skins, I want to be warned. Some are just naive. They will not follow the false shepherd, but someone need to have the guts to tell them. I got out of a pseudo Christian delusion through this very forum, I got introduced to David Wilkerson, Art Katz, Keith Daniel, Zac Poonen, Paul Washer and many more that helped me out of my blindness, they saved me out of apostacy.

There is a happy medium that is nice to imagine but difficult to actually find.

Some years ago a book was written called "Empowered Evangelicals” that described it to some degree.

I am currently is church that is very solid doctrinally but very weak in anything of the Spirit.

The problem is that the more charismatic churches I have attended got weird and there were too many red flags.

Hi All,
Here's my problem with this thread.Altough I broadly agree with the 5 points made it needs to be qualified somewhat.
For instance all of the problems mentioned are usually problems attached to churches that believe in pre tribulationism and once saved always saved doctrines not in churches that believe in Post Trib or you can lose your salvation.
This however doesnt mean that Once saved always saved or pre trib are biblically incorrect nor is it a biblically sound argument against once saved always saved or pre trib.
The majority of Christians who are osas and pretrib also hate prosperity gospel and cant help that these people also believe these doctrines.
In other words just because you believe osas and pretrib doesnt mean you agree with prosperity type doctrine,leaders or churches.
I say this not to start a debate about these beliefs but to clarify or highlight opposition to prosperity gospel etc comes from all sides of the Church,
urs staff