Indisputable Evidence

“The Spirit expressly says that in later seasons some will revolt from the faith, giving heed unto seducing spirits and teachings of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). 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 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 seem to rise to the top in Popular Christianity.

For example, in recent years two of the most prominent leaders of the so-called “Prophetic Movement” broadcast over the Internet their attempt to mimic an act of wizardry. Copying a scene from the movie Lord of the Rings, they struck the ground with a wizard's staff modeled after the movie’s character, Gandalf, while reciting repeatedly an incantation intended to ward off evil spirits of racism.

[Tarot card photo by Manik Roy 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 vain attempts to manipulate them.

DIVINATION AND MYSTICISM

The Bible condemns witchcraft and all forms of divination, yet today we have multiple examples of church leaders engaged in divination 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 now widely accepted 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 divine what God is doing “in this next season” by the phases of the Moon or the passage of time on the Gregorian or Hebrew calendar.

Men and women who practice such things are very likely NOT sent from God since they openly do the works of the Devil and teach and encourage others to do likewise.

And we should not forget that 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.

But what is different in the contemporary Charismatic church world is how openly prominent pastors, apostles, and prophets are using terms, ideas, and practices borrowed from the world of the occult and some very old pagan religions and philosophies. This includes Gnosticism, Spiritualism, Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, and so on.

Such abuses will increase in the coming years, just as Scripture warns us. God has given many of today’s purveyors of “doctrines of demons” over to the very Satanic things for which they lust. They are “deceiving AND being deceived.”

But between now and the return of Jesus, his followers must remain separate from such deceptions and cling to the apostolic teachings handed down from Jesus and His true Apostles and Prophets, the body of teaching that is preserved in the Greek New Testament.

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 by Jesus, Paul, and Peter about the MANY deceivers who would infiltrate the church and proliferate false teachings in the last days. Will we heed the abundance of evidence before our eyes and the warnings of scripture, and act accordingly?

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