Have We Made a Mess of the Greatest Holy Spirit Movement in History?

The Charismatic-Pentecostal movement finds itself at a critical juncture. On the one hand, our movement is arguably responsible for the greatest ingathering souls in Church history, with well over 500 million new converts in the last 50 years. On the other hand, abuses abound in our midst, from sexual scandals to financial impropriety and from unaccountable prophecies to doctrinal deviances.

It is high time that we do some self-policing. Better that we judge ourselves than be judged by the Lord (see 1 Peter 4:17; 1 Corinthians 11:31-32).

I recently signed up to receive emails from a well-known "prophet," curious to see if he had changed his ways. (In the past, his fundraising methods were infamous.) Immediately, I received this appeal:

MIRACLE MONEY is coming, discover WHEN now! PROFITABLE CONNECTIONS are yours, discover WHO now! GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES will be found, discover WHERE now!

And it got much worse after this, including stories of people who had suffered serious losses because they failed to respond to the prophet's word. What a horror. More horrible still, I'm sure hundreds or thousands of sincere but gullible believers wrote out checks for $80.18, even if they barely had a dollar to their name.

A critic of the Charismatic-Pentecostal movement, of which I am a joyful, committed part, emailed me a couple of years back. He pleaded with me to watch a segment from a recent broadcast of a famous TV preacher. I watched, and I was shocked. The critic was not exaggerating.

This prominent TV preacher brought a "prophet" onto his program and asked him to receive the offering. The prophet claimed to have received a direct, clear word from the Lord, warning of a major disaster coming that September, which was then just a few weeks off.

The good news was that if you gave an offering of $500, you, your children, and your grandchildren would be protected from this disaster, plus your debts would be cancelled and your body healed. And this was on national (and probably international) Christian TV.

How in the world did the stations allow this to air? And how could this prominent TV preacher allow this to happen on his watch? This is absolutely corrupt in every way.

Aside from the fact that no major disaster happened that September, it is complete manipulation to claim people must give a sacrificial gift to a particular ministry to be protected from a disaster.

What if they simply trusted God to protect them from this impending doom? And what if they could only afford to give $250? Does that mean only half of their family would be protected? Yet people wrote out their checks and donated their hard-earned money, believing the smooth talk of this slick prophet. I'd be surprised if he didn't receive a nice cut of the offering too.

But it's not only prophetic abuses we've had in our midst. One megachurch pastor slept with his brother's wife and fathered a child by her. Years later, that child, who thought he was the megachurch pastor's nephew, took his place as the new pastor of the church, only to find out that his "uncle" was his father. So, the leadership succession in this congregation went from the father to the son born out of adultery and incest.

Another megachurch pastor said that God told him he married the wrong woman. Seven days after his divorce went through, he married his new wife, continuing to minister without interruption. Ironically, it was the pastor who slept with his brother's wife who performed the wedding. May God help us to repent.

I absolutely believe in showing mercy, and I live by the kindness of God 24/7. I'm all for restoration, knowing that our God is a redeemer. And I'm the last one to throw stones at my fallen brothers and sisters, knowing full well that "there go I but for the grace of God."

But will we really see change if we don't preach the cross, don't preach repentance, don't call out sin, and don't call out disobedience? We will really see change if we major on the minors and minor on the majors? If we put personal revelation ahead of the Word of God? If we preach a gospel of financial gain? If we substitute flakiness for fullness? As Derek Prince wisely said, "Do not expect New Testament results without New Testament methods."

I personally believe that the best is yet to come and that what we have seen so far is nothing compared to what is coming in the days ahead – the greatest outpouring of the Spirit in the history of the planet. All the more, then, it is urgent that we get our house in order, that we quit celebrating doctrinal silliness, that we hold our leaders accountable, that we quit manipulating people out of their money, and that we show our Lord that we are ready to go to the next level in Him.

A dying world is watching and waiting. Heaven is looking down with interest. How will we respond? May we no longer play with holy fire. The flames of God are too sacred for silly games.

(Some of the material in this article has been adapted from my new book, Playing with Holy Fire: A Wake-up Call to the Charismatic-Pentecostal Church, just released this week.)

The Rock was struck once a long time ago. Jesus is that rock. He was struck once for all when He died once for all on the cross.

It is time for someone, known of God, to decide to lead a more perfect Church. As long as the men of God are satisfied with far less than perfect that is what we will have. Jesus said be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect. We are all to seek and prove God’s good and acceptable will. We are not to be satisfied with mediocre or lukewarm.

His conclusion was that the question should be (essentially) *Is what is being practiced today the same thing as the gift of tongues that was evidenced in the NT church?*

The gifts being practiced today are often worked up in the flesh. It is much harder to wait on The Living God for His real gifts to be poured out. It often involves correction, for one thing.

I think it involves obedience as well, particularly obedience to the Great Commission to go out and preach and make disciples.

When the church is active in going, I really think then we’ll see the Holy Spirit really moving through the gifts, since they are not given to us to make us fat, dumb, and happy.

Churches have become little enclaves where Christians too often insulate themselves from the world and focus their attention there instead of on reaching the lost, which is God’s heart.

I thank God for someone who went out and shared the gospel, cause I certainly had no interest in connecting with a church for any reason. You could not have gotten me in one to hear there.

Today many of the Jew have a very difficult time interpreting Isaiah. There are parts of it, such as the suffering servant, that they completely ignore because they can’t understand it. Yet Isaiah is the pivotal book which bridges the Old and New Testament and the calling of the Gentiles into the Kingdom.

I would suggest a lack of understanding of Revelation does not mean it is any less inspired. And, I might add, I have yet to have someone explain it to me so that it makes sense. I don’t think anyone really knows until Christ returns.

“Today many of the Jew have a very difficult time interpreting Isaiah. There are parts of it, such as the suffering servant, that they completely ignore because they can’t understand it.”

The Masoretic text was altered in some cases to follow what non-Christian Jewish leaders of that era assumed to be the most accurate. It is highly unlikely that they made decisions regarding textual accuracy without considering the impact on the debate with Jews who believed in Jesus as the Messiah.

While the Septuagint is merely a good translation of Hebrew scriptures and not the original source, it still may be more accurate in some cases than the Masoretic text.

The main reason Jews today do not pay much attention to latter portions of Isaiah is because the traditional readings in synagogues do not include these sections. And this has to do with history where they were at one time unable to read the books of Moses. Today passages read aloud in synagogues are either books of Moses or passages that directly relate to them as determined by past rabbis.

“Yet Isaiah is the pivotal book which bridges the Old and New Testament and the calling of the Gentiles into the Kingdom.”

The prophecies of the Old Testament not only includes Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection; they also proclaim salvation would come to the Gentile nations through a New Covenant which would be spread through the Gospel, the hearing of faith, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on people from ALL nations and languages.

“Fifteen of 54 weekly Torah portions have haftarahs (additional readings) from Isaiah.”

It appears I chose an unreliable source for the information about Isaiah. Others mention that Isaiah 53 is not read in synagogues, but the reason is not any diabolical plot to prevent congregants from reading it.

In Christian churches that do not follow a standardized liturgy, one might expect readings from any passage of scripture. However, some are more favored (in practice) than others, just as it is within Judaism.

The idea that the Masoretic text was altered due in part to an influence of Jewish Christianity (i.e. as a backlash to some of the claims of Jesus fulfilling ancient prophecies) is not original with me (obviously). But I think it is a reasonable explanation for some of the discrepancies between the the Masoretic text and other historical copies and translations (such as the Septuagint).

I totally agree with you.

Mark 16:15 - And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

16 - He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

17 - And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18 - They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Christian canon -- remember that canon means a collection of books - the Bible is a collection of books. the first instance of canon was by Marcion in 140 AD (the version Iscool adheres to, I believe, right?)

Canon was closed in 367 - and considering that John and the book of the Apocalypse was writen in the last 90s AD, it would make it less than 300 years

If, as you, Iscool state wrote it's own version... that means that the Bible in your hands, if it is a KJV etc. is not the "true version" in your opinion. unless you have a marcion bible

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