Have you noticed that no matter how many times charismatic televangelists make outlandish false prophecies, they never lack for followers, and they don’t stop claiming the Lord has spoken directly to them?
Benny Hinn, for example, made a series of celebrated prophetic utterances in December of 1989, none of which came true. He confidently told his congregation at the Orlando Christian Center that God had revealed to him Fidel Castro would die sometime in the 1990s; the homosexual community in America would be destroyed by fire before 1995; and a major earthquake would cause havoc on the east coast before the year 2000. He was wrong on all counts, of course.
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January 30, 2010 at 8:56 pm
Jasmine
Who knows, maybe John MacArthur is right and the greatest Greek scholars (Google “Famous Rapture Watchers”), who uniformly said that Rev. 3:10 means PRESERVATION THROUGH, were wrong. But John has a conflict. On the one hand, since he knows that all Christian theology and organized churches before 1830 believed the church would be on earth during the tribulation, he would like to be seen as one who stands with the great Reformers. On the other hand, if you have a warehouse of unsold pretrib rapture material, and if you want to have “security” for your retirement years and hope that the big California quake won’t louse up your plans, you have a decided conflict of interest – right, John? Maybe the Lord will have to help strip off the layers of his seared conscience which have grown for years in order to please his parents and his supporters – who knows? One thing is for sure: pretrib is truly a house of cards and is so fragile that if a person removes just one card from the TOP of the pile, the whole thing can collapse. Which is why pretrib teachers don’t dare to even suggest they could be wrong on even one little subpoint! Don’t you feel sorry for the straitjacket they are in? While you’re mulling all this over, Google “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty” for a rare behind-the-scenes look at the same 179-year-old fantasy.
January 30, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Christina
Jasmine,
This piece was about “spiritual revelation” not the book of Revelation. Revelation 3:10 is used to support the pretrib rapture argument and this post is about false teachers and lying prophets.
I realize that John MacArthur’s view on dispensationalism is not popular among those in the Reformed camp. Truth be told, I am not sure I agree with him either. However, in most every other area, he is as solid as they get. So, I’ll let him have his pretrib beliefs and I won’t, as they say, throw out the baby with the bath water!
Thank you for stopping by. God bless you.
March 9, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Paul Bortolazzo
Saints,
“…’The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” (Heb. 13:6)
Pastor John MacArthur teaches the speaking of tongues by believers at Corinth was demonic. [56. Truth About Speaking In Tongues-John MacArthur 1, T. 7:38-8:27] Because of the deadness in the church, he teaches the believers in Corinth were deceived into feeling God by speaking in tongues. This is why he teaches the work of the Holy Spirit within the Charismatic movement is a counterfeit of Satan. The night I prayed to be baptized in the Holy Spirit I had never seen anyone speak in tongues. Reaching out for some ecstatic experience was the furthest thing from my mind. I simply wanted more power to be a better witness for God. It’s true, especially in the past decade; admired teachers have deceptively introduced heresies within Pentecostal and Charismatic churches (2 Pet. 2:1). This still doesn’t nullify the godly lives of over three hundred million Christians in the world that have been baptized in the Holy Spirit with the physical evidence of speaking in tongues (Acts 1:5; 2:4; 8:17; 10:46; 19:6). Paul encouraged all the saints to speak in tongues (1 Cor. 12:1-11). He also instructed us how to properly give and receive an interpretation of tongues in a church service (1 Cor. 14:23-33). Any believer can pray and receive the gift of tongues. Not all have the gift to give an interpretation of tongues (1 Cor. 12:30). I cherish speaking in tongues because this gift was given to me by Jesus (Acts 1:5). Yet, pastors like John MacArthur, Charles Stanley, and David Jeremiah, have convinced millions of Christian’s speaking in tongues is demonic. The truth is, God desires every believer to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues (Acts 1:5; 2:4, Mark 16:17, 1 Cor. 12:10; 14:39).
Til, Paul
March 9, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Paul Bortolazzo
Mark this down and pray over it. Jesus never places the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the gathering up of believers from earth, before, in the middle, or at the end of the 70th week. Think of the countless hours of research, preaching, articles, and books by believers vainly trying to prove a pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, or post-tribulation rapture. These interpretations are not in scripture. Let’s remember, the 70th week of Daniel is never called the tribulation period (Dan. 9:24). When Jesus says ‘after the tribulation of these days’, He is referring to the first five seals on the outside of the heavenly scroll. Jesus will open the 4th seal in the middle of the 70th week (Rev. 6:7-8, Mat. 24:9-15). The Son of Man will come back after He opens the 6th seal (Mark 13:24-27). This proves the gathering up of the elect at His coming must happen sometime in the second half of the 70th week; no man knows the exact day or hour (Mat. 24:36).
March 10, 2010 at 7:31 am
Christina
Paul,
Thank you for visiting. This article was not about “speaking in tongues” nor was it about “the gathering up of the elect” after his coming. You may well have your differing opinion.
The article was about placing more weight on experience rather than the sure Word of God. This is a sound warning to Christians to guard against “allowing our experience and our own subjective thoughts and imaginations to eclipse the authority and the certainty of the more sure Word.”
I’d be hard pressed to find the Apostles, or the early church Fathers taking issue with that.
Christina