Both Peter and Timothy make it clear that in the last days
believers will display error, false teaching and general un-biblical works.
False Prophets are numerous as we scan the TV stations and get an idea of
what's out there. One of the worrying signs are the counterfeit signs we
see in ministry today. Obviously we have the Todd Bentley crowd who
claimed 23 people were raised from the dead in the 'Lakeland Revival.'
This was ushered in by the same people who supported Pensacola, Toronto
and the Bethel Church problem pushed forward by Bill Johnson. When
investigated Bentley didn't raise anyone from the dead, nor did the revival.
Also gold dust falling from the sky onto over-indulged Americans seems a
little too strange for the Lord who calls those who are 'rich' to repentance
(Rev 3).
People, hungry to see the Lord move, buy
into this and are taken in by the wider message which has no Gospel contact and
certainly doesn't connect them to their Risen, Glorified Savior. So they
all approve of the whole 'kit and caboodle' as the Brits say. There are
also the more subtle signs that are counterfeit. An example of this is
the minister who feels that can produce a huge attendance in a hall. To
attract people we need a compromised Gospel... an attractive prospect where
'death to self' is ignored. Replacing this are sensual tools to make a
Christian feel relevant, contemporaneous and unruffled about their beliefs.
Next comes the means by which this came about. I know a few people
who have been given money to build a facility and kit it out for mega church
type vision. The general public think somehow 'God gave them the money'
to build the ministry but in the absence of Scriptural evidence that this is
what the Lord does to build his church we are just left to Man’s logic:
"Man of God gets loads of money... wow
that's rare... it MUST be God who really gave it to him."
Ipso-facto this must be a ministry God is
blessing. The counterfeit Gospel promotes counterfeit provision which
leads to counterfeit growth. Transfer growth is the next thing to happen
as believers compare their experience in church with this 'phenomena.' So
let's put this logical process together...
This thing exists and is growing.
Therefore it MUST be God who is making this different thing happen.
EXCEPT it isn't necessarily God. I have been among the leadership
streams who know how to make this happen. The known information
'out-there' in 'leader land' is that believers respond to marketing. The
temperature check of spirituality is that most people are hungry for signs.
Matt 16:4 is clear that all we have is the sign of Jonah. We now
know this to be the death and resurrection motif. Far from the 'Boom' of
'shiny church,' we find the remnant of believers who stay true to the genuine
call to all followers to die to self. Resurrection, transformation will
surely come. Tell THAT to people and watch your church empty! This
generation is the 'microwave meal' generation who want instant EVERYTHING.
Jesus said ‘wicked’ and ‘adulterous.’
What has this to do with the Mark of the
Beast? Well the seduction of 'even the elect' that leads to deception
involved the Anti-Christ. 'Anti' is not 'against.' He is against
Christ but Anti means 'Instead of' or 'in place of.' Much of the church
are happy to counterfeit signs... the Gospel, the blessing, the growth, the
miracles, the ....er... gold dust...
If the inauthentic is being sown into the
Christian experience then how easy will it be for the Spiritual powers of Evil
to present a set of attractive elements that will seem to be 'obviously' of the
Lord. We are being set up for an end-times deception and power-hungry
Christian ministers are being played right into it. I thank the Lord who
saved me and my family from this and enveloped us with the authentic, genuine
gospel with biblical church practice. I know this is true because I can
find every element of how we walk this out in Scripture, not in the cultural
and historical traditions of what 'works.'
It offers little for ‘self’ as we offer people Jesus, not the strategies
that seem to produce followship.
Gary Ward
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