“The Spirit expressly says that in later seasons some will revolt from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons.” I cannot presume to know why God allows certain things to occur in His church other than perhaps to test us, although recent events suggest other possible explanations. He cares for His people, and even when He judges them, it is to correct and save them. Unfortunately, all too often the worst elements rise to the top in Popular Christianity and preaching.
For example, two of the most prominent leaders of the
so-called “Prophetic Movement” broadcast for all to see their attempt at mimicking
an act of wizardry. Copying a scene from the movie Lord of the Rings,
they struck the ground with their wizard's staff modeled after the movie’s
character, Gandalf, while reciting repeatedly an incantation intended to ward
off evil spirits of racism.
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| [Photo by Viva Luna Studios on Unsplash] |
I am all for rebuking demons of racism and any other sins, but I doubt Satan’s minions listen to us when we use sorcery and occult rituals in our attempts to manipulate them.
The Bible condemns witchcraft and all forms of divination,
yet today we have multiple examples of church leaders engaged in divination,
Kabbalah and New Age mysticism. Some of them speak openly of recovering
practices from the occult that, allegedly, the New Age Movement robbed from
Christianity.
For example, the widely accepted and embraced use of
numerology to divine God's will. Then there are the “monthly prognosticators”
and omen readers. Like astrologers providing their clients with daily
horoscopes, each month they peer into the “spirit realm” to determine what God
is doing “in this next season,” often by appealing to the phases of the Moon or
the passage of time on the Hebrew calendar.
Men and women who practice such things have NOT been sent from God since they openly do the works of the Devil and teach and encourage others to do likewise.
Moreover, in recent years, the church produced
numerous “prophets” who disseminated prophecies about what God would do in the
U.S. presidential election of 2020, none of which came true. Nevertheless, many
of these same faux prophets are still in business “making merchandise”
of God’s sheep despite their prophetic incompetence.
However, what is different in the contemporary Charismatic
Movement is how openly prominent pastors, counterfeit apostles, and prophetic
pretenders use terms, ideas, and practices borrowed from the world of the occult
and pagan religions and philosophies. This includes Gnosticism, Spiritualism,
Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, and so on.
Such abuses will increase in the coming years, just
as Scripture warned us. God has given many of these purveyors of demonic “doctrines”
over to the very Satanic things for which they lust. They wish to commune with “spirits,”
and the Devil is more than eager and able to accommodate them. They are “deceiving
AND being deceived.”
Between now and the return of Jesus, his followers
must separate from such deceptions and cling to the Apostolic Teachings handed
down from Jesus and His true Apostles and Prophets, the body of teachings preserved
in the Greek New Testament.
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| [Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash] |
What I am saying is this: The evidence is plain as day. Many of the leaders of the Charismatic Movement have gone over to the occult, mysticism, and other deceptions, and they themselves provide indisputable evidence for this in their public pronouncements and conduct.
We need to remember the repeated warnings of Jesus,
Paul and Peter about the MANY deceivers who would infiltrate the Church
and proliferate false teachings in the Last Days. Considering the horde of
deceivers and deception that has swept over the Church, surely that final
period must be upon us! However, will we heed the abundance of evidence before
our eyes and the warnings of Scripture?
RELATED POSTS:
- Apostasy and Misdirection - (Believers who are watching for apostasy outside the Church will be among the first who are overtaken by it as it operates in the Assembly)
- Serpents in the Assembly - (The Spirit of Antichrist works to destroy the Body of Christ from within, especially through deceivers and false teachers)
- Prophetic Blunders - (Time and again, popular preaching on end-time prophecy has propagated predictions and expectations that have not come to pass)