Monday, March 31, 2014

Doctrines of Demons



According to the Bible, one of the prophetic signs of the last days will be strange new doctrines that will be introduced by the Church under the banner of Christianity.

In his two letters to fellow apostle Timothy, the apostle Paul warned the early church that apostasy would enter the end-time church and begin to spread like a deadly cancer.

In his first letter Paul warned: “The (Holy) Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” (1 Timothy 4:1-2)

In his second letter, Paul issued this caveat: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2Timothy 4:3-4)

Jesus Christ Himself also warned that in the last days, “many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.” (Matthew 24:11) Who are these false prophets? They are popular preachers, teachers and evangelists who promote unbiblical and false teachings under the banner of biblical exegesis.
Are we seeing these prophecies being fulfilled?

Indeed we are. What are some examples? The latest example involves a popular teaching called The Christian Healing Codes that claims the Bible contains specific scriptures that when properly invoked, can heal anything from cancer to ALS to depression, anxiety and even heart disease.

The authors of this alleged new breakthrough are Dr. Alexander Loyd and Dr. Ben Johnson. Johnson makes the bold claim on the thehealingcodes.com website that he was cured of ALS, a catastrophic illness more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, after he began practicing the codes.

ALS is nearly always fatal, and those few who survive the disease spend the remainder of their lives in near total paralysis.

Nevertheless, without any documentation, Johnson claims that the codes healed him of ALS. There are many other testimonies of miraculous healings published on the healing codes website. Unfortunately, like Johnson’s testimony, none are backed by any documentation that verify the testimonies.
Are the Christian Healing Codes a scam?

That’s a strong possibility. But where there’s proverbial smoke, there’s often just enough fire to make the scam seem real. Certainly, Satan has the power to perform supernatural feats that seem to legitimize whatever he’s promoting.

For Satan and his fallen angels, the end always justifies the means, if that means healing desperately sick and terminally ill people in order to promote a scam that will lure people away from biblical truth to embrace heresy and falsehood.

The Christian Healing Codes aren’t Christian at all. Rather, they offer a rehashed version of the false Positive Confession-Word of Faith gospel that is rooted in the Hindu Vedas.

The Healing Codes teach that those who apply the appropriate scriptures by confessing them positively can realize physical and emotional healing and achieve material and financial success. That’s not biblical, but that’s one of the false teachings that Paul and Christ warned would circulate throughout the end-time church.

What are some other examples of demonic teachings that have crept into the end-time church? While there are several examples, one of the more notorious examples involve the eastern religious practices of altered states of consciousness, creative visualization, remote viewing and channeling.

These practices, that have been promoted by such evangelists as Charles and Frances Hunter and Paul Yonggi Cho, involve conjuring images of “spirit guides” or even Jesus Christ in one’s mind and then attempting to communicate with them until they respond.

Not only are these practices unbiblical, they’re witchcraft and occultism. No where does the Bible teach that communicating with God involves conjuring images of Him in one’s mind and then speaking to those images.

Those who practice positive confession and creative visualization will make contact with demonic spirits that masquerade as God, Christ, angels, Mary, saints etc. And these unclean spirits will lead them away from biblical truth to spiritual falsehood and eventually right into eternal damnation.

Among those who promote these practices is the Rev. Pat Robertson who said this: “And you can perform miracles if you but understand the power of God and the laws that unlock God’s power…the basic principles that enable you to experience the flow of God’s energy. In short, God uses the spoken word to translate spiritual energy—sheer power—into the material. We speak to money, and it comes. We speak to storms, and they cease. When you confess blessing and success, those things will come to you.” (Pat Robertson with Bob Slosser, The Secret Kingdom: A Promise of Hope and Freedom in a World of Turmoil)

Still another aberrant teaching that’s entered Christendom in the last days under the banner of genuine biblical teaching is signs and wonders. The Signs and Wonders Movement, that had its beginning with the dubious Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, Ca. in 1906, claims that an explosion of miraculous events will begin to manifest across the world just prior to the return of Jesus Christ.

That teaching is based upon an erroneous interpretation of a scripture recorded by the ancient prophet Joel who revealed that God would make His Holy Spirit available to all nations and peoples in the last days. And that scripture was subsequently fulfilled at Pentecost in the Upper Room in Jerusalem shortly after Christ had returned to heaven. When the Holy Spirit came upon Christ’s disciples in that room, Peter recognized the fulfillment of that scripture and spoke about it. (Acts 2:14-21)

Nevertheless, Joel’s prophecy has become the foundation of the Great Revival Movement that claims that a worldwide Christian revival will commence in the last days culminating with the return of Jesus Christ.
What will highlight this revival? An explosion of supernatural signs, wonders and miracles. However, these signs and wonders will be demonic in nature and lead millions astray, ultimately to the Antichrist when he appears.

From the Azusa Street revival came the Latter Rain Movement and other end-time revival movements such as Signs and Wonders, Kingdom Now and Word of Faith. Not only are these movements obsessed with the supernatural, they’re loaded with false prophets who, as Paul warned 2,000 years ago, tell people what their itching ears want to hear.

One such prophet of the end-time global revival movement is Todd Bentley who claims that he was visited by an angel from God in 2007 that allegedly revealed this interesting news: “The angel spoke about God judging and shaking everything that can be shaken and releasing a fresh fear of the Lord upon God’s people and the earth. The angel then went on to describe a ‘greater glory’ that was coming. The Lord commissioned Todd to begin hosting ‘Greater Glory Gatherings’ for the purpose of stirring up God’s people to simply seek after the face and presence of God for a release of His glory like we have never seen before.” Fresh Fire USA - Writings » Current Prophetic Message

That was seven years ago and we’re still waiting for this revival that Bentley claims the angel told him was coming. Furthermore, according to Bentley, the angel revealed that an explosion of wealth and prosperity would come from this revival: “There came a supernatural release of God’s glory in the form of gemstones and diamonds showing up in the meetings, major financial breakthroughs, debt cancellations, and major in the realm of finance that continued for months leading right now into what has been called ‘The Lakeland Outpouring’ which was marked by notable miracles on a massive scale and aired live on television with thousands in attendance…”

Among the events that allegedly took place during the Lakeland Outpouring was the dubious claim that 30 people were resurrected from the dead. However, no one--including officials from Ignited Church in Lakeland, Fla. where this revival took place--was ever able to provide any documentation to verify that incredible claim. 

Furthermore, the only “major financial breakthrough” that took place after Bentley’s revelation in 2007 was a deep financial recession that followed the collapse of the housing market that year.
That rendered Bentley’s prophecy false.

The Christian healing codes, signs and wonders, end time revivalism and Christian mysticism are just some of the spiritual deceptions that have crept into Christendom in the end times. Sadly, these deceptions were prophesied of long ago. And now, we’re seeing the fulfillment of these prophecies.

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