1 Timothy 4:1,2

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will renounce the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.

In view of the state of the church world-wide,  I am taking a strong stand for the Truth against false preachers and the heresies that abound. These wrong doctrines have spawned illicit gains by leaders and others, money-wise, building-wise, prominence-wise, music-wise, star status, financial corruption and many immoralities, witness the falls of many leaders, even in New Zealand, Australia (Frank Houston both countries) and of course, the U.S.A.

It is something that as a very old woman, I can do, something I would not have even dared to do a few months back. The condition is such that I must cry out in lament! Think of the latest financial scandal in that a U.S. Senate Committee is investigating the financial affairs of Benny Hinn, Joyce Myer, Paula White, Eddie Long, Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar. Again there are the immoral peccadillos of Earl Paulk, Church of God and Charismatic Leader, as well as many other well-known and famous leaders – as shown publicly and correctly on the Internet.

I am naming some who have renounced the faith by doing what Paul above said they would do.  He mentioned teachings from deceitful spirits and demons. The teachers and they themselves, Paul says, are liars, whose consciences do not function.

Think of Word of Faith preachers, all of them, knowingly and unknowingly, being followers of those who have abandoned and diluted the faith. One told me I was not born again because I did not believer Jesus became a sinner.  What is the faith? It is the message as spoken about in Hebrews 2:3,4 “How can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord and it was attested to us by those who heard him, while God added his testimony by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will”. The non-biblical confessions, Jesus being the first man to be born again, the paranoia about being negative, the supposed necessity of being positive and come and receive “your” healing, are all waywardness and error.

The Lord Jesus preached the message of the Kingdom of God which is the identical message of the Kingdom of heaven. There is only one gospel. Paul said “If any man or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you let him be accursed”. It appears many today are accursed. Jesus’ eleven disciples continued preaching what He had as well as further truth that was given to them. Jesus had told them that when the Holy Spirit came, He would lead them into all Truth. That Truth they have written about in their epistles, viz. such writers as Peter, James and John. Mark and Luke were inspired to add their testimony of Truth.

Then Jesus Christ Himself revealed the whole message of Truth of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to Paul. This is declared in 1 Corinthians 15:8,9, “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me, For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God”. He says in Galatians 1:12 about his knowledge of the Truth of the gospel, “nor was I taught it but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ”. No one else has had such a revelation and not one person today will receive from Jesus Christ any further revelation that can be added to Paul’s gospel, yet the church today is full of these revelations.

Then Paul said in Ephesians 3:2,3, “For surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words” (chapter 2). Verse 2, “Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power”. There are 123 computer hits about “Truth” in the New Testament. The Truth of the gospel is of paramount importance. We do well to follow such Truth, it is Christ Himself. Otherwise, we are following falsity and not totally following Christ. Many have falsity mixed with Truth. Some have so gone astray that they indeed have abandoned the gospel.

All these words of Paul also include an indictment against everyone today who calls himself or herself an apostle, who harms the church of God by false doctrine, heresies, lust for power, lust for money and lust for sex. There is a multitude of them, similar to those spoken against in 2 Corinthians 11:12,13, “For such boasters are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. Their end will match their deeds”.

Peter in chapter 2 of his second epistle, condemns the “false teachers” and their followers, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them – bringing swift destruction on themselves. Even so, many will follow their licentious ways, and because of these teachers the way of truth will be maligned. And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words”. In verse 9,10 he shows the judgment to come upon them, “Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment – especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority. Bold and wilful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones”. Greek is “glories”. Can we not see a majority of leaders today in these categories? Paul also speaks of “false believers” in Galatians 2:4. There are false leaders and false followers who are blind. “All will fall into a ditch”, said Jesus.

We consider the healing ministries of present day. It is a known fact that of the multitudes who go forward for healing in campaigns world-wide, probably 3% only are healed. Whether these people knew how to receive or whether it was a Sovereign act of God, one does not know. Some of these evangelists use mystical and occult measures. They all base their teachings on a false understanding of Isaiah 53 and 1 Peter 2:23-25. They say, as I was taught all my life and have indeed taught to others in years past, that healing is in the atonement. A close reading of Peter will show that it is impossible for healing of the body’s many ailments during our life-time is included in that passage. Its thrust rather is to do with our sins being borne by Christ in his body on the cross. The purpose is that we should be free from sins and live for righteousness, because we have been healed by His wounds. Obviously Peter would not detract from the central them of Christ’s work on the cross for sins to include something for the body. We were wounded by sins. We have been healed from those wounds by His death on the cross, and this shows the necessity – we were going astray like sheep. However, says Peter, “but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls”. Believers obtain the redemption of their bodies at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds, Romans 8:23, “we groan waiting for the redemption of our bodies” and 1 Corinthians 15:51,52, “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imp perishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality”.

Benny Hinn falsely makes horrendous statements, that I have heard. He is not stupid so therefore his ridiculous statements and prophecies over the years have been the result of listening to demons. One was that God is not three but nine, the Father is three persons, the Holy Spirit is three and the Son is three. Another was given perhaps five years ago in that he said on T.V. that Jesus was going to appear in his meetings. Then I heard him say that the time was coming when our dead would be raised to life as we stood them against his T.V. programme. Well, I do not know about the U.S.A. but I do know that in Australia, it would be illegal to keep one’s dead at home, without notifying authorities, in order for the appropriate moment to arrive, viz. Benny’s T.V. programme! Another which we heard while in Kerala, is contrary to what Peter said. Benny said, “The body celebrated in communion (as slain on the cross) is not for sins. It is for healing. It is the blood that is for sin”. What ignorance and heresy! How can believers of the Truth follow such errors!

What of the Purpose Driven Church and Purpose Drive Life, as taught by Rick Warren. Pentecostals and Charismatics are following this teaching from a man who does not believe in the Pentecostal experiences, in healing, or anything they have held dear. Rather he follows Robert Schuller, who reveals heresies in such statements as “Never say anyone is a sinner” and words that deny the efficacy of the blood of Christ, as does Joel Osteen and in a different way, Copeland does. He preaches something that is not gospel, but rather relevant to this day’s education and psychology. This is grave error as it has penetrated much of the church world-wide. The gospel is not to be relevant to the world. It is a sub-culture of the world’s cultures.

Then there is the Dominionism widely taught. That teaching is far removed from the truth of the gospel. Any preacher who disgorges it, has renounced the message of the faith and Truth of the gospel. Such preachers are many. The Bible does not teach that we will take dominion over any of the world’s economies, education facilities, medical practices or governments. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth”, not rulers in the earth. The Garden of Eden in a fashion will be restored in the heavenly and New Jerusalem that John saw coming down to earth in Revelation 21, in the new heaven and the new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.

What of the matter of prosperity and money taking by hundreds of thousands of preaching? Such teachings are based on tithing given to the nation of Israel that now has been shut out of the programme of God. It was under the Old Testament or Covenant in a natural nation of Israel when God gave the commands regarding tithing. We who believe in Christ are under the New Covenant. The last verse in Leviticus plainly shows that tithing, first fruits and such like, were given only for Israel and not for the church. There is no command or incidence in the New Testament regarding such things. In a measure, this emphasis on tithing and finance is an abandoning of the truths of the gospel. The gospel does not promise material wealth to any believer. 1 Timothy 6:9 speaks against the desire for outrageous prosperity, “But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction”. This is quite a condemnation against many preachers and their followers.

Perhaps the basis of many of the errors today can be attributed to the teachings of John Nelson Darby in 1828.  He originally received them through a Scottish woman under Irving, a tongues speaker. Yet the Brethren and certain denominations say speaking in tongues is of the Devil.  He was the founder of the Exclusive Brethren, so often featured as in error, on Australian Television. Nevertheless, he was the one who introduced the teachings of the End-time as we have it today. He often visited leading preachers, leaders and pastors in the U.S.A. for up to forty years. Those leaders he taught passed on his teachings to maybe thirty million leaders to this day. They have instructed most churches in these errors. In addition, the teachings were imbibed by many through the footnotes of the Schofield Bible, this Brethren doctor having received it from Darby.  Again there is Acts 1:7,8 “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.  We learn from what Jesus said that we are not to seek to know the time of the Lord’s return, as is widely done. We are not to try and figure out when the world will end. According to Jesus, there is no basis for any attempt to figure out Daniel 9 as relating to our day and age. As a matter of fact, it was a prophecy regarding Israel, its end and its Messiah. To say “the anointed one” is the Anti-Christ, this being part of their doctrine, is to say it with an Anti-Christ spirit!

One such wrong doctrine is that of the Millennium. I actually heard an American female preacher in A.O.G.,, Cairns say, “We are waiting for the millennium”. I could hardly believe my ears. Where is that in the New Testament? When did Jesus say that. Did Paul, Peter, James or John, even Jude, ever mention such a thing? The answer is “No”. There is actually no teaching on the Millennium she mentioned, in the Scriptures. All my days we Pentecostal believers have waiting for the coming of the Lord in the clouds, according to 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-53.

Is there not an idolatrous veneration of Israel, as a people and a nation? Let me quickly say I have always loved Jewish people, having known quite a few. However, one’s love for people cannot be allowed to take the place of the clarity of the truths of the gospel. Israel as a nation is finished, Jesus Himself having said, “Your house is left unto you desolate”.

Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 2:15,16 “from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, they displease God and oppose everyone by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. Thus they have constantly been filling up the measure of their sins, but God’s wrath has overtaken them at last”.  He could have been speaking about the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, the priesthood, the nation and the killing of two-thirds of the people in 66-70, and on to 73 A.D. Strangely, one does not hear anything about this in churches where I have been from childhood to this day.

The centre of the Bible is Christ. The purpose of the church is Christ. The purpose of the believer and his life, is Christ. The hope of the church is Christ. The bridegroom of the church is Christ. The only Saviour and coming King, is Christ.

In case you are thinking, “Touch not my anointed, do my prophets no harm”, let me show you from the Scripture how wrongly this is quoted and used by leaders to convince followers to be under their despotic and “popish thumb. “You pastors are little popes”, was said by Du Plessis (who took the baptism with the Spirit into the World Council of Churches) in Brisbane, 1967 or so. The answer is found in Psalm 105:14,15, “He allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account, saying, ‘Do not touch my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm’.”  God was speaking, not about present-day pastors, but about every person in the nation of Israel.

Where were the prophets some think he meant? The major or minor prophets who wrote parts of the Old Testament were not in existence then. Moses himself, of course, was a prophet. Those other prophets came on the scene long after Moses lived and died. God was considering that His children at that time were to have been prophets as some were. We see this in Numbers 11:29 as a reply to a young man who said to him, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp, stop them.” It says, “But Moses said to him, ‘Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them1’” Obviously, these verses in Psalms have no connection with present-day pastors and leaders. Are leaders using them to stop the mouths of those who follow the Word of God where they do not want them to?

I have ministered to multitudes to receive the Biblical experience of the baptism with the Holy Spirit and they have. Sadly, the Pentecostals and Charismatics have left preaching and experiencing this part of the gospel truth – like their brothers in other denominations. It is part of the truth of the gospel. I dare say this, because it is included in John chapters 14-16 and Luke 24:46-53 (“Stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high”).  But you will receive power (the miracle itself) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” and Acts 2:1-40. Verse 4, “They were filled with the Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance”. This was not the Gift of Tongues as Jesus had given this gift. It is the Holy Spirit who gives the gift of Tongues, as in 1 Corinthians 12-14.

All of us, believers and preachers should realise the importance of repentance and going back to seeing what the truths of the gospel really are. The strong words of the apostle John are this: 2 John 10,11 “Do not receive into the house or welcome anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching (the teaching of Christ) for to welcome is to participate in the evil deeds of such a person”. John, the apostle of love, says, verse 9, “Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God; whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son”. We should surely wonder – how many preachers and how many so-called believers are in the category of verse 9? “Our God is a consuming fire”. All of us should be in fear.

“You are gods” has been a false teaching and any preacher who teaches that has strayed from the Truth. Jesus did not say we are “Gods” as He is. God did not make us a duplicate of Him. We were made in His image, only. The gods were magistrates and rulers of the people. God acknowledged their stance as the truth, so therefore, says Jesus, surely it is not impossible that I can be acknowledged as God Himself, which is the truth?

I think of the wrong teachings that have come out of Latter Rain from Canada and U.S.A., 1948. Those were the beginning of much sorrow for the church that is reaping it today. One such teaching was the Restoration of the Tabernacle of David. This emphasis is on music, choirs, orchestras, soloists, stars, bands and dancing. So we have this modern, worldly and rock trend in our churches. This wrong teaching of the Restoration of the Tabernacle of David is shown to be wrong by James, in Acts 15:15-18, “This agrees (the preaching of Paul to Gentiles) with – “After this I will return and I will rebuild the dwelling of David which has fallen; from its ruins I will rebuild it”.

It centres around Jesus Christ, David’s Greater Son who would tabernacle amongst us and build a church, a temple or tabernacle to be inhabited by Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Anyone who can find the meaning as restoration of the kind of worship with music as in David’s Tabernacle of the Psalms is surely missing it! On such errors the church is subjected to modern worldliness.

The tragedy is that all over Australia and the world, believers are finding new “revelations” because “the Lord told me” (sometimes daily). This is error.  The errors that have come out of the Charismatics are manifold. The majority do not even glimpse any error. “The timing of the Lord” is used nefariously and unscripturally.

They put anything they do not like about women in the church down to a Jezebel spirit. Where in the Bible is such a spirit mentioned? The Jezebel in Revelation 2:20 has a connection with Jezebel, wife of King Ahab of the Old Testament. Her sins were idolatry, witchcraft, whoredoms (connected with idolatry), lust for money and power and persecution of the just. To understand this verse we must consider who and what Queen Jezebel really was. This is not done when they accuse some women, preachers or otherwise, of a “Jezebel spirit”.  This shows their lack of Bible knowledge and understanding. Revelation 2:20 reveals she called herself a prophet and was teaching and “`beguiling God’s servants to practice fornication and to eat food sacrificed to idols”. It is doubtful in this case that it was a woman. Rather it could have been those responsible for certain evil teaching as mentioned in verse 24, “who do not hold to this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan”.

There is all that “being slain” that has gone on world-wide. The only time in the Scriptures where some fell backwards, is recorded in Isaiah 28:24, “in order that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared and taken”. This is in the same passage regarding speaking in tongues, as in verse 11, that is quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:21 as “in the law it is written” and then he quotes verses 11 and also 12 of Isaiah 28. In verse 22 Paul says, “Tongues, then, are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers”. Being slain is not in the Spirit, rather it is generally demon inspired, people inspired or from a personal desire to “fall” and be caught!

The Vineyard preachers have gone far beyond the truths of the gospel. This includes all those Kansas prophets and the School of Prophets who have been conspicuous world-wide. The Elijah company of prophets is a company of false prophets. They have taught error and prophesied falsely the impact being world-wide.  There are many affiliated with same, such as today’s John and Lisa Bevere. Sadly, their teachings include extra revelations that are not part of the gospel.

Many came out of the so-called Toronto Blessing. This was false and demonic as we realised on seeing it in Australia, as was also the Pensacola one that we saw on Video. I could barely believe such a thing could happen, for the first two days of hearing that the Australian Assemblies of God had swallowed the Toronto errors and were perpetrating it. They quoted scriptures out of context to bolster their case. I as a child was in the first Assemblies of God small meeting in Brisbane, Queensland. I knew many of those older Pastors whom I am sure would have decried the onslaught of such evil.  Many of the prophesies that we have heard for years and read about, have been proven to be 99% wrong.

It is not a matter of interpretation. Isaiah 30:20,21 says, “Your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it’.” Also Jesus said in John 7:16-19, “My teaching is not mine but his who sent me. Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. Those who speak on their own seek believers to follow their own agenda. Are church people wanting to do the will of their pastor or evangelist rather than doing the will of God? Are leaders and others who speak on their own not seeking their own glory?”

Maybe the return of the Lord could be at the door.  In any case we should listen to Peter saying, “What manner of people must we be”.  He said in his 2nd Epistle, 3:10-12, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with aloud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire”. Notice, we are to be “hastening the coming of the day of God”, which is the Day of His Judgment on the world and on the church.  Revelation 22:11, “Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy”.