"But there were false prophets also among the people,
even as there shall be false teachers among you,
who privily shall bring in damnable heresies."
(2 Peter 2:1)
Just what have weevils to do with spiritual evil, like false prophets and false teachers who introduce heinous heresies, you might well ask. Well, on the face of it, absolutely nothing at all! But as it happens, these ugly snout-nosed wee bugs provide a most useful metaphor for understanding something of Satan's methods of meddling in Church affairs. Let me attempt to explain how... PESTS IN THE PANTRY A glistening grain of rice. 'How nice!' thinks the female weevil, as she scurries over and bores a little hole in it. And into this hole she carefully deposits a fertilized egg, equally carefully sealing up the hole so it looks like it was never there. On the outside, everything looks hunky-dory. It's a solid grain of good rice, or so it seems! But on the inside? Well, that's another matter altogether... In due course the egg hatches, and the ravenous little larva relentlessly feeds on all the good stuff inside the grain, steadily growing and growing until it reaches a stage of full adulthood. And then it eats its way out of the ruined rice grain. Immediately, the act of mating and fertilization occurs, and the female weevil spots a fresh grain of glistening rice. 'How nice!' she thinks, as she scurries over and bores a little hole in it... And so on and so forth... IN TIME, THE ENTIRE WEEVIL-INFESTED SACK OF RICE IS TOTALLY RUINED. GOOD FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. EACH INDIVIDUAL GRAIN DESTROYED FROM THE INSIDE OUT. PESTS IN THE PULPIT A congregation of evangelical Christians. 'How nauseous!' thinks the Enemy, who hurries over and bores a little hole in it where its spiritual armour is weakest. And into this hole he carefully slips a false teaching, equally carefully sealing up the hole so it looks like it was never there. On the outside everything looks hunky-dory. It's a solid fellowship, as sound as a pound, or so it seems! But on the inside? Well, that's another matter altogether... In due course the false teaching surfaces, relentlessly eating away all the good stuff inside the church, steadily growing and growing until it reaches a stage of full-blown apostasy. Then the false teacher emerges from the ruined congregation, on a mission to multiply, and the cycle of church infiltration and ruination continues unabated. The Enemy knows of another congregation of evangelical Christians. 'How nauseous!' he thinks, and rushes his false teacher over to bore a little hole in it where its spiritual armour is weakest... And so on and so forth... IN TIME THE ENTIRE SPIRITUAL EVIL-INFESTED DENOMINATION IS TOTALLY RUINED. GOOD FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. EACH INDIVIDUAL CONGREGATION DESTROYED FROM THE INSIDE OUT. PESTS IN THE PERSON But let's take this analogy a very important step further. A church is not bricks and mortar, a church is the people who gather within that structure. Indeed, there is actually only one Church, of which all born-again believers are a part, living bricks if you will, and held together with the mortar of the Holy Spirit. What applies to a denomination, or to an individual fellowship, applies firstly - and always so! - to an individual believer. A church as a whole can only succumb to spiritual evil if the persons who constitute that congregation of the saints INDIVIDUALLY - and only then COLLECTIVELY - succumb to it. Every single one of us bar none, has points of weakness which the Enemy is ever ready, waiting and eager to exploit to the fullest. He always knows exactly what buttons to press to get a result. He knows precisely where to bore those little holes where someone's armour is weakest, and sneak in one of his locked-and-loaded Laodicean eggs. And after the incubation, hatching, and eating away of Truth in that person, the mature deception-bug emerges, mates and continues the sorry cycle. THE DESTRUCTION OF A CHURCH FROM THE INSIDE OUT BEGINS WITH THE PLANTING OF A FALSE TEACHING AND ITS INCUBATION IN THE SOUL (i.e. MIND, EMOTIONS AND WILL) OF AN INDIVIDUAL.
CONCLUSION My friends, we've now reached the point where it is not just the odd sack or two but nearly the entire storehouse that is infested and ruined. Only a Remnant remains uncontaminated, but mark well that even that Remnant is extremely vulnerable. Anyone who thinks that he or she is immune from deception is already deceived in holding that very thought. No-one is immune. Period. A grain of rice has no defence against the weevil's ravagings. But thanks be to God that in His incredible grace we have access to the strongest defence imaginable against spiritual evil, in the form of the Word that was written and the Word that was made flesh. Even when our soul has been infiltrated, the Word of Truth can still oust that seditious intruder. Why has apostasy reached such epic proportions? Because Scripture has been thrown to the winds, and experience has usurped its rule in peoples' lives. In this "post-modern" world, there is held to be no absolutes and truth is whatever you want it to be, not what it unalterably actually is, now and eternally. Where the Bible is neither read nor upheld in all its fullness, Satan will bore holes without number! Friends, be diligent to follow the laudable example of the Bereans and check absolutely everything against Scripture. Don't let spiritual evil bore its subtle and insidious way in. If it already has, don't let it remain, don't let error grow into full-blown apostasy. Far too many have already allowed this to happen. Don't be one of them. Ask the Lord in His great mercy for wisdom and discernment, and both treasure and unceasingly use these most precious gifts. Yes, you may end up being at odds with most if not all around you. Faithfulness comes at a cost, it always has. But is the price not completely worth paying? Surely what matters is to one day be able to hear these words from the lips of the Lord of Glory:
"Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things,
I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."
(Matthew 25:21)
PLEASE, MY FRIENDS, GUARD YOUR SOUL ZEALOUSLY AND JEALOUSLY! BE A WISE AND NOT A FOOLISH VIRGIN AND HAVE YOUR LAMP FULL OF THE OIL OF UNADULTERATED TRUTH, FOR ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING OUTSIDE OF PURE TRUTH IS SIMPLY ABSOLUTE EMPTINESS!
"Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.
But they said, We will not walk therein.
Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet.
But they said, We will not hearken.
Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.
Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people,
even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words,
nor to my law, but rejected it."
(Jeremiah 6:16-19)
As the wise old saying goes, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Just as it was in Jeremiah's day, so it will be in ours also. Just as unfaithful Judah was given over into Babylonian captivity, so will today's unfaithful Church be abandoned to its apostasy and taken captive to "Mystery, Babylon the Great" (Revelation 17:5), the one world religious system of the Antichrist. The old paths. The good way. God's way. The narrow way that leads to life eternal. The one road which alone promises rest for our souls. The road that Judah refused to walk. The road that today's professing Church similarly refuses to walk. Watchmen. Those who keep vigil on the walls. Those with a sober responsibility to warn of danger by sounding the shofar. The trumpet that Judah refused to heed. The trumpet that today's professing Church similarly refuses to heed. "Talk to the hand!" was the response of the people then. "Talk to the hand!" is the response of the people now. But there are consequences of such determined disobedience, and those consequences will be dreadful indeed. As in Jeremiah's time, evil will come upon such a people as this, from which there will be no escape. And note, and note well my friends, that it is the Almighty Himself who sends it in judgment. Those who now say, "Talk to the hand!" will one day find the hand of God raised against them, and barring entrance to His grace. I don't pretend to know when that day will come, I only know that it will. One day the danger will be greater than it has ever been in all history, disaster will be at the very doors, but the shofar will have stopped sounding. And that will be God's divine decision; by His edict the last chance to hear and to act will have been given to those who claim to be His people but have loudly and proudly paraded down new paths, the bad way. As it is ominously written:
"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."
(Jeremiah 8:20)
The leaves on the trees are rapidly turning brown, my friends. Summer is over, the days are growing shorter, and there is a distinct chill in the air. But toasting herself with tongues of strange fire, the Church has hedonistically heaped to herself teachers who take delight in tickling her itching ears with wondrous words she wants to hear, rather than righteously upheld those who faithfully proclaim the words she needs to hear. And so we see fable-weavers and fantasy-mongers without number, gift-of-the-gab goatherds galore. Hirelings too many to head-count! But shepherds who feed the sheep rather than their own bellies? As hard to find as a hen's tooth or a hatching dinosaur egg. Congregations everywhere are spellbound by celebrity status leechers pretending to be preachers, with "another Jesus... another spirit... another gospel!" (2 Corinthians 11:4). The only thing that gets a favourable REception is DEception. The Church just can't get enough of it! She simply far prefers fabrication to fact, illusion to reality. But be it known without a shadow of doubt that there will be a lead-heavy price to be paid for such full-on folly. Let me here present a vitally important truth. The word of God is never given in vain, but with a very definite purpose and certainty of outcome; as it is indelibly written:
"So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth:
it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please,
and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."
(Isaiah 55:11)
With this very firmly in mind, let's turn to another Scripture, another promise which will inevitably and frighteningly be fulfilled:
"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
(2 Thessalonians 2:11-12)
Who, we must ask, is the "them" referred to here? Who are the recipients of this "strong delusion" that God Himself sends? The context of 2 Thessalonians 2 is Paul reassuring those believers that they couldn't have missed the Rapture, because neither the Falling Away nor the coming of Antichrist - which follows hard on its heels - had yet occurred. As we are told:
"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition."
(2 Thessalonians 2:3)
What is the Falling Away? It is so translated from the Greek "apostasia" - meaning defection, departure, revolt, forsaking, apostasy. Note well that Antichrist follows in the wake of the Falling Away; the inherent implication is that it is of significant assistance to him in his coming to power when he does! The Falling Away/Apostasy is the outworking of what is called in this chapter "the mystery of iniquity" and elsewhere referenced as "the spirit of antichrist," and can only pertain to those people who would claim to follow the Way but have markedly departed from it to follow a very different path, one paved with deceit, mapped out by men, and signposted with Satanic signs and lying wonders. It is these religious renegades to whom the "strong delusion" is sent by God. Many are the infinite attributes of our Creator. But we need to mark well that patience is not one of them. It is emphatically NOT infinite! Yes, He is long-suffering. Yes, He tries time and time again to bring people to their senses. But it IS a FINITE number of attempts. As He warned way back in Genesis:
"And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man."
(Genesis 6:3)
The sands of His patient striving are fast streaming through the glass. At some point, and maybe much sooner than we might think, the final grain will drop through and be gone. The last chance to heed will have passed into history, and the "strong delusion" will descend in its stead. Then... those who refused to return to the old paths from their new ones, those who re-wrote the Word of God into the text of men, those who deserted sobriety for spiritual drunkenness, those who held light to be darkness and darkness to be light, those who exchanged exhortation for entertainment, those who applauded profitless prophets and self-appointed apostles, those who boasted that flesh would set up the Kingdom while Jesus just looked on, those who used and abused the glorious Gospel to feed their greed, those who fashioned Almighty God into the image of mortal man, those who stole His glory for their own ego's gratification, those who swindled the unsaved by giving them fiction in place of fact, those who in countless ways contorted Christianity and twisted the Truth, those who laughed and not wept as the world around them crashed and burned, those who claimed apostasy to be anointing and revelry to be revival, those who devoured the doctrines of demons and thought them so sweet, those who said "Talk to the hand!" and refused to repent... ... will be given over by God to the lies and the deceptions that they lusted for. He will effectively lock them into the dark strongroom of delusion, and throw away the key. There will be no way out. No parole. No release. The "strong delusion" will have descended, and will not depart. God will have granted them the increase of that which they would not desist from planting and watering. They rejected the Light, and now the Light will have rejected them.
"And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face:
though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them,
yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.
But they set their abominations in the house,
which is called by my name, to defile it."
(Jeremiah 32:33-34) "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matthew 7:22-23)
"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
(2 Timothy 2:15)
It has been my great pleasure to have come into contact recently with a Christian brother in North Wales, similarly concerned with the terrible state of the contemporary Church. To be pro-active about the problem of finding genuine fellowship with an uncompromising commitment to the Word of Truth, Ed Barkhuizen has set up a Bible Study group in Llandudno. Here are the details: BIBLE STUDY IN LLANDUDNO, NORTH WALES: Are you struggling to find a Spirit-led, Bible-only based church that obeys 1 Corinthians 14:26? So are we - evangelical Christians meeting every Thursday evening for sound teaching, fellowship and refreshments. Come and be fed. At the Trinity Centre, Trinity Ave., Llandudno LL30 2TQ. Various topics covered. Plus free notes. Phone Ed at 07927 076710 or email eldo@arroweditorial.com for more info.
They would be delighted and much encouraged to hear from anyone who would be interested in going along!
ANY MORE FOR ANY MORE... ANYWHERE ELSE? Has anyone established a similar oasis in the spiritual wilderness of Wales, and would like to welcome more weary and parched homeless travellers? Or is anyone perhaps thinking of initiating such a venture in their own neck of the woods, and would like to float the idea? Please do get in touch with me - Rob Thomas - at watchman4wales@yahoo.co.uk and I'll look to put something up on the blog, where a little notice like the one above might just catch the eye of my readers. It would be my privilege to be of any small service in acting as a conduit for bringing disengaged members of the Remnant Body together!
"For where two or three are gathered together in My name,
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart
from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils."
(1 Timothy 4:1) "Pedal to the metal, driver! Let's get this church going!"
THE ROCK (I took a pencil and I wrote These lines that you now read, A small sad ode I hope you'll note If such might be your need!) "Let's shift our church!" the leaders said, "This Rock feels far too rough! Let's build it on the beach instead - We think that's soft enough!" "Lead on!" the people cried with glee, "The Rock's not to our taste - We'll find a nice spot by the sea! Let's go, and with all haste!" And so that church was quickly moved And built upon the sand; The laws of logic soon were proved: Its walls fast ceased to stand... The Rock's the only place to be: The cost to leave it's great! The Rock's our sole security, Too many find too late! * * * * * * * "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock; And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."
(The words of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 7:24-27)
"A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; The prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so:
and what will ye do in the end thereof?"
(Jeremiah 5:30-31)
"Should've gone to Specsavers!"
SHARON STONE, 'THE ELIJAH LIST' AND THE NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION Sharon Stone is coming to Ebbw Vale. No, not the Hollywood "A-Lister" but rather the Counterfeit Kingdom "Elijah-Lister." For anyone unfamiliar with The Elijah List, I should perhaps here explain that it is, in a nutshell, "a non-denominational Christian prophetic website created by Steve Shultz in 1997 with 135,000 subscribers as of August 2012." (Wiki); it has been most aptly described by Sandy Simpson of The Apologetics Co-ordination Team as "the biggest distributor of false prophecies in cyberspace." (See: www.deceptioninthechurch.com/elijahlist.html) The Elijah List is an extremely influential organ of the hyper-Charismatic "Apostolic-Prophetic" movement, which vigorously promotes the seriously erroneous concept that God is restoring the offices of Apostle and Prophet to the Church, as the highest tiers of Church governance in the Fivefold Ministry, as they interpret Ephesians 4:11-13. It is the underlying essential ethos of the New Apostolic Reformation, which is spearheading a deadly deception which is seducing many thousands into following a path which takes them away from Biblical Truth and into the farthest reaches of apostasy. Berkshire-based Dr. Sharon Stone, whose utterances are enthusiastically hyped by The Elijah List, is such a "prophet" within the New Apostolic Reformation, which to all intents and purposes is simply the contemporary expression of what has over the years been variously known as Dominionism/Kingdom Now/Joel's Army/Manifested Sons of God/Latter Rain, and is intimately connected to the Charismatic Renewal/Third Wave of the Holy Spirit/Signs and Wonders movement. Doctrine is downplayed, experience is elevated, extra-Biblical revelation is unquestioned, and what seals the deal as far as its unyielding unsoundness is concerned is that Biblical eschatology has been dismissed. These modern-day, self-proclaimed "Apostles and Prophets" have dared to re-write the inerrant Word of God concerning the End-Times in favour of the fleshly fable that is Dominionism. Back in 1948, the "Latter Rain Revival" kicked off in Canada, its adherents teaching an entirely different eschatology to that which the Bible presents. Restoring, as they saw it, the Fivefold Ministry offices, the Church under the headship of the Apostles and Prophets would be militant and victorious. Central to this worldview was the belief in "the manifested sons of God," aka "Joel's Army," i.e. believers -in realityDISbelievers - who would come into the full stature of Jesus, being as He was in His Incarnation, and themselves confronting Antichrist and establishing the Kingdom on Earth ahead of Christ's return. It is this 70-year-old delusion, once quite correctly held to be heretical, which has now re-surfaced in the professing Church under the banner of the New Apostolic Reformation. A disease long in remission, this most terrible spiritual cancer has returned with greater malignancy than ever, and is very rapidly spreading unchecked through the entire Body.
The NAR believes that it has a mandate to take over all aspects of human endeavour on the planet, thereby ushering in the Kingdom on Earth PRIOR to the return of Jesus Christ. This is trumpeted as "reclaiming the seven mountains," a process which in their completely unorthodox, Revelation-rejecting worldview, will mean that things will get better and better and lighter and lighter, rather than worse and worse and darker and darker as the Scriptures tell us in no uncertain terms will actually be the case! The NAR sees the world as coming under their complete control, each of "the seven mountains" being successfully scaled. Business, government, family, religion, media, education and entertainment will be taken over and come under the headship of these supposedly restored Apostles and Prophets. The stark reality of the matter is that the Church has no such mandate. Our brief is simply to be salt and light and rescue brands from the burning through the solid sharing of the Gospel. It is the King Himself who establishes the Kingdom on Earth; He is no mere passive spectator taking a back seat while human effort wins the day. Such a notion is as preposterous as it is perverse, and plays straight into the hands of the Antichrist and his agenda for domination of the Earth. The NAR is a powerful part of the great Falling Away which precedes the emergence of the Man of Sin, hailing its apostasy as anointing and its revolt against End-Times Truth as revival. The Lord Himself is most certainly not expecting to return to a Gospel-loving world that has enthusiastically embraced Him. Quite the reverse in fact! As He very ominously stated:
"When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"
(Luke 18:8)
SHARON STONE AND ACPE: A FALSE PROPHET AMONG FALSE PROPHETS One notable manifestation of the NAR is ACPE, the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders. The late C. Peter Wagner, regarded and revered as the Presiding Apostle of the New Apostolic Reformation was unsurprisingly a key member. We need to note well that "Apostolic Prophet to the nations" Dr. Sharon Stone and her husband Greg Black are members of this elite group, alongside a whole host of Dominionist deceivers such as Bill Hamon, Chuck Pierce, Dutch Sheets, Tommy Tenney, Lou Engle, James Goll, the aforementioned Steve Shultz, and Cindy Jacobs who chairs its annual get-together. Something I have previously written about ACPE I feel is really important to repeat here. Friends, please consider very carefully what Cindy Jacobs revealed on one of her 'God Knows' TV programmes about the ACPE summit:
"Yes, in fact, you know... as I chair the Prophetic Round Table, every year I go back and I will pull out the prophecy from the year before, because if we're prophets, then we need to look and see IF WE GOT IT RIGHT; IF WE DID NOT GET IT RIGHT, WE NEED TO GO BACK AND CORRECT IT."
SAY WHAT???!!! "IF WE DID NOT GET IT RIGHT, WE NEED TO GO BACK AND CORRECT IT???!!!" THE BIBLICAL TEST OF A TRUE PROPHET OF GOD IS TO GET IT RIGHT. EVERY TIME. 100% RIGHT.
"When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him."
(Deuteronomy 18:22)
OUT OF HER OWN MOUTH, CINDY JACOBS INADVERTENTLY HAS CONFESSED THAT SHE AND THE WHOLE APOSTOLIC COUNCIL ARE FALSE PROPHETS! A TRUE PROPHET COULD NOT HAVE GOT IT WRONG IN THE FIRST PLACE, NEVER MIND LOOK TO "CORRECT" A PROPHECY WHICH WAS LATER SHOWN TO BE FALSE!
"Oops! Slipped up a bit there. Hope no-one noticed!"
SHARON STONE AND 5-STAR "JOEL'S ARMY" GENERAL, BILL HAMON ACPE associate Bishop Bill Hamon is the founder of the Dominionist organization called Christian International Ministries, the UK/Europe wing of which was established and is led by - well, what d'ya know! - Sharon Stone. Given this very close and comfortable collusion, it should come as no surprise that she cites Bill Hamon as being her father in the Lord, as well as a 5-star general and the father of modern-day prophets. (Ref. Facebookentry for Sept. 30 2017, and https://youtu.be/giYSozoswHA). The Joel's Army/Manifested Sons of God beliefs of Bill Hamon are all too evident in the following quotes, in which the letters R-T are an abbreviation for Resurrection/Translation:
"The positive purpose of the R-T is to enable the army of the Lord to finalize the war against all evil. The army of the Lord will progress on in the war until they have accomplished all they can in their limited mortal bodies. The R-T is for the purpose of immortalizing their bodies. This will remove all the earthly limitations, thereby enabling the saints unlimited abilities. They will be able to travel in all space realms of the heavenlies the same as Jesus and the angels do now. They can move in and out of all dimensions of the natural and spiritual realms as Jesus did in His resurrected flesh-and-bone body."
"God's great end-time army is being prepared to execute God's written Judgments with Christ's victory and divine judgment decrees that have already been established in heaven. The time is set when they will be administered and executed on earth through God's saintly army. All that is destined and needed will be activated during God's restorational Army of the Lord movement..."
('Apostles, Prophets and the Coming Moves of God' - Bill Hamon)
It will be clearly seen here that in Hamon's worldview, the Church's purpose is not so much to lovingly preach the Gospel, as to militantly wage war against evil, in which she will be ultimately successful consequent to this Restorationist army becoming translated into immortal bodies with all the unlimited abilities of the Lord Himself. It is this Army of the Lord Movement, aka the New Apostolic Reformation, which having itself defeated evil will have the authority to judge and to punish perceived evil-doers, presumably meaning anyone who will not bow to the assumed lordship of the NAR's Apostles and Prophets. (This will of course include born-again believers who question their control, who will be branded as evil, Spirit-resisting rebels, to be similarly warred against and overcome). Here are a couple more quotes from Hamon's books to underline this vital point about the delusional, Scripture-ditching "Manifested Sons of God" heresy that he teaches, with Christ's incredible impotency to effect His Second Coming until the Apostles and Prophets (like Hamon and Stone) have first "matured" the Church and won the Kingdom for Him:
"At that time the sons of God will be fully manifested on the earth. Widespread spiritual warfare will result with the Sons of God doing battle with Satan and company, the non-Christian nations of this world will also be defeated. Once the earth has been subdued, Jesus will come back to earth and be given the Kingdom that has been won for Him by this "manchild company." The Manifested Sons of God doctrine teaches that these sons will be equal to Jesus Christ: immortal, sinless, perfected sons who have partaken of the divine nature. They will have every right to be called gods and will be called gods."
('Prophets and the Prophetic Movement' - Bill Hamon)
"Christ CANNOT return until His ascension gift ministries
have brought the church into full manhood."
('Prophets and Personal Prophecy' - Bill Hamon; my capitalization for emphasis)
GIVEN THE CLOSENESS OF THEIR LONG FRIENDSHIP AND PARTNERSHIP, IT WILL SURELY BE QUITE OBVIOUS THAT BILL HAMON'S WORLDVIEW IS ALSO SHARON STONE'S. AS THE WORD SAYS, "CAN TWO WALK TOGETHER, EXCEPT THEY BE AGREED?" (Amos 3:3)
CONCLUSION It was five years ago this month, back in May 2013, that the very first article appeared on this site. Five years of careful observation, research and analysis have served to convince me beyond the shadow of a doubt that there is both an unswerving ambition and a very active agenda for revival in Wales. But I regret that I have to say that this determined push for "revival" is not birthed of the Holy Spirit, but rather is of a deeply Satanic nature. Capitalizing on Welsh (and many other) Christians' desire to see a new 1904/1905-style move of God, the Enemy has an ongoing subtle (and sometimes not so subtle!) strategy to engineer a counterfeit revival here, a move which will be hailed as Heaven-sent but in fact comes courtesy of Hell. Wales would be the epicentre of a major spiritual seismic disturbance, the tremors of which would be felt globally. This coming Conference at Love Wales' new Mission Centre at the Festival Church in Ebbw Vale is seriously bad news for Wales, in progressing the Dominionist agenda here. I'd like to think that this group was just being ignorantly undiscerning in their choice of keynote speaker; however, when the following blurb about their guest openly appears on their website, it would seem that they are wilfully NAR complicit:
"As a passionate apostolic, prophetic minister she is being used to gather, equip and mobilize many to develop new Kingdom Paradigms and a Supernatural Lifestyle."
In any event, Marilyn Harry and her 'Love Wales' mission team have bought heavily into the bogus, cwtched up to the counterfeit, allied themselves with apostasy, and in doing so are answerable before God. May their eyes be opened to such a lamentable betrayal of the Faith once and for all time delivered; Wales is in desperate need of undiluted Truth, not Dominionist "new Kingdom Paradigms" delusion! The self-proclaimed Apostles and Prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation are in the business of relentlessly re-defining what it means to be a Christian, and denying and shamelessly re-writing what the Bible expressly teaches concerning the End-Times. IN THEIR BRAZEN TEACHING AGAINST BIBLICAL ESCHATOLOGICAL PROPHECY, THESE NAR "PROPHETS" DETERMINEDLY CONTRADICT THE WORD OF GOD, SOMETHING WHICH NO TRUE PROPHET WOULD - OR INDEED COULD - EVER DO! Finally, friends, on this most serious note let us diligently and most urgently remember what the Book of Revelation warns concerning those who would erase its Spirit-breathed words:
"And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy,
God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city,
and from the things which are written in this book."
"And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you."
(2 Peter 2:2-3)
Jonathan Miller with Benny Hinn on his "This Is Your Day" in 2016.
INTRODUCTION
Following on from 'Revive 2018' with Bishop Ceirion Dewar, the subject of my last article (http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/richard-taylor-and-bishop-ceirion-dewar.html), Richard Taylor's next trumpeted event at his New Beginnings Church in Merthyr Tydfil is the arrival of Jonathan and Cristina Miller for "a special weekend of services," March 17-18. These are the founders and Lead Pastors of New Beginnings Healing Center in Orlando, Florida, who Mr. Taylor has jubilantly joined forces with.
Who a man's best mates and mentors are, those who he is well-pleased to partner with and share a platform with, sheds much light on where that man is at. The very first article that appeared on this site back in May 2013 highlighted concerns that Richard Taylor's mentor at the time of the so-called "Welsh Outpouring" was the heretical Tommy Tenney, who teaches that God has moved on from the Bible and we have to chase after where He is now! (Obviously Cwmbran at that moment in time!) But let's fast forward to the present, and cast a careful eye on who the counterfeit revivalist Richard Taylor's best buddy is now. It is very relevant and revealing, as we shall see, to check out the ambitious guy who somehow saw fit to appoint a man disqualified from the pulpit as the European Director of "the NBC family" - a burgeoning network to which we should most carefully note that Mr. Miller "gives apostolic oversight," in more than a hint of a New Apostolic Reformation structure of governance.
JONATHAN MILLER, BENNY HINN AND THE "SEED-FAITH" DECEPTION
"A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."
(Galatians 5:9)
Sadly, Jonathan Miller has been weighed and found wanting. Like all false teachers, Mr. Miller says much that is true. But like all false teachers, he laces that which is true with that which is not. Which makes him a dangerous deceiver, a shaker and server of a deadly spiritual cocktail. It only takes a drop of cyanide to poison the whole glass, just a pinch of leaven to work its way right through the batch. Once introduced, the whole is unavoidably and irrevocably affected. God hates the mixing of truth with untruth, which is what we are confronted with absolutely everywhere in the Church today, and the "Word of Faith" (or simply "Word-Faith") movement - with which Jonathan Miller is aligned and whose aberrant theology he regurgitates - is a classic case of such a fleshly fusion.
We will here examine some of Miller's deeply erroneous teachings, starting our investigation with perhaps the most glaring pointer to his "Word of Faith/Prosperity gospel" proclivities and dearth of discernment: his long and deep friendship with and endorsement and promotion of Benny Hinn, one of the worst of the worst of the host of charlatans masquerading as ministers of the Lord in the world today. I do not propose to go into detail here about Benny Hinn's utter falseness, for this has been extremely well documented in a multitude of places on the internet, and the overwhelming evidence is easily accessed at the click of a mouse. (You can find a catalogue of well over a hundred such articles here: http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/bhinn.html)
Rather, I want to highlight Miller's significant accord with Hinn, which it would be a massive mistake to turn a blind eye to. As Holy Writ with all the unanswerable divine wisdom of its Author asks:
"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?"
(Amos 3:3)
Miller walks with Hinn, who is welcomed at his church. His awe of and entanglement with Hinn goes back a good many years. They are agreed, and this harmony in itself decisively demonstrates that he is an equally renegade representative of the Faith. Miller, guesting in 2016 on Hinn's 'This Is Your Day' TV programme, revealed conclusively his belief not only in Hinn's "ministry" but in the grotesque "seed-faith" give-to-get scam dreamed up by that notorious money-raker and fake, Oral Roberts, urging gullible viewers to pour their dollars into Hinn's already very considerable coffers. I will transcribe here some of that very enlightening broadcast entitled 'Miracles of Multiplication!' (which in itself gives a good idea of what is afoot!); anyone who so wishes can watch the whole unseemly half-hour episode here:
This is the sycophantic and deluded Miller, urging the viewers to follow his example and "plant a seed" (i.e. deposit a significant sum of money) into Hinn's "fertile soil" for a guaranteed tenfold increase:
"Many people will be watching today that are facing a specific need of fifty thousand dollars... My challenge to you is do you have the tithe, ten per cent of that amount? Will you step out in faith today... and give God [actually Benny Hinn] a tithe of five thousand dollars seed?... The anointing is here... and I declare to you in not many days from now it's going to come back to you, the full amount... but... you've got to give Him [actually Hinn] something to work with and you've got to give Him [Hinn] something to move on. I know there's many of you watching today facing a ten thousand dollar need, some of you are facing a five thousand dollar need. And I want to take a moment to tell you that I have tested and proven the soil of this ministry. This is fertile soil. Good ground. Good soil. There are some grounds that yield a little bit of increase and there are some that yield multiplied increase, and this field of this ministry is a field that I've proven time and time again. I have never sown a seed into this ministry and not seen God return it back to me, even more than what I could expect... There's something about this ministry, and it is because of what you [addressing Hinn] preach."
We only need to apply some basic common sense to determine the utter fallacy of this premise. If it was for real, let's say someone did exactly as Miller urges and indeed got a $50,000 return for his $5,000 stake. He could then invest that $50,000 in Hinn's "fertile soil" and get a whopping half a million dollars back, as God doesn't fail to deliver, does He? Then, with only a third seeding, he'd reap no less than five million. Five million then yields fifty million, fifty million spawns five hundred million, and just one more investment in the bank (sorry, ministry) of Benny Hinn, and you're a billionaire five times over!!!
Truth of the matter? This "seeding" is effectively spinning a spiritual roulette wheel, and infinitely more likely to get you much further into monetary trouble rather than out of it. The only guys it ever works for, the only high-fliers with the fancy mansions and the flashy cars parked up front are those who teach this lie of how to use God for gain; everyone who heeds their call to greed will almost certainly continue to park their average car outside the church, and drive it back home to their average house containing average possessions. And what is wrong with average things? Aren't we supposed to build up our treasures in Heaven, not here on Earth?
WE ARE PROMISED PROSPERITY ONLY IN HIS GRACE, NOT IN OUR PURSE!
God is no man's debtor, and sowing a Biblical seed has nothing whatsoever to do with money; it is the sharing of the blessed hope of salvation unto eternal life through belief in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God forbid that we re-define it as anything else. If we, like Miller, dare to do so, it has to be asked, "What master are we serving?" As the Word avers:
"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other;
or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.
Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
(Matthew 6:24)
GIVING AS TAUGHT BY THE BIBLE EXPECTS NOTHING IN RETURN. GIVING AS TAUGHT BY JONATHAN MILLER AND HIS MERCENARY ILK ON THE OTHER HAND EXPECTS A MULTIPLICATION OF ONE'S MONEY IN RETURN, AND IS AN UTTER ABOMINATION. HAVE THESE PEOPLE NEVER READ, "THOU SHALT NOT TEMPT THE LORD THY GOD?" (Matthew 4:7 and Luke 4:12)
Hinn's 'This Is Your Day' broadcasts every weekday on TBN, the biggest mouthpiece for "Word of Faith/Prosperity gospel" heresy on the planet. Unsurprisingly, we find that his bosom buddy Miller also airs on TBN, not only guesting on the main USA channel's programmes but also having his very own 'New Beginnings' slot on TBN Salsa, their English language Hispanic network launched in 2015. Miller's increasing exposure on the Total Blasphemy Network demonstrates that he is a man well trusted by them to deliver their false gospel of "name-it-and-claim-it" health and wealth.
With this firmly in mind, let's now look at a couple of recent (2017) articles written by Mr. Miller, containing teachings that clearly underscore his alignment with the heretical, even blasphemous "Word of Faith" brand of alternative "Christianity."
JONATHAN MILLER AND "POSITIVE/NEGATIVE CONFESSION"
Here is Miller teaching the doctrine of demons commonly known as Positive/Negative Confession:
"Have you ever considered your words to be a powerful force? When I think of a powerful force, I envision that nothing is able to stand in its way. Did you know that God has given us that kind of a powerful force and He's put it in our mouths in the form of words? We can either use those words to release God's will and purpose upon this earth; or, we can use them to bring destruction upon our own lives."
('Your Words Are A Powerful Force' - Jonathan Miller, October 3, 2017)
Friends, this is heresy. Rank heresy. The idea that words in themselves are a force having the power to alter reality has nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity, and everything to do with an occultic mindset. Jonathan Miller is here teaching witchcraft! Period. And in making his apostate argument, he breathtakingly twists a Scripture to attribute a power to mere mortals that the Almighty alone possesses:
"Isaiah 55:11 says, "So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." The word of the Lord comes to earth and is established ONLY when the redeemed of the Lord "say so!"
In other words, we need to say a thing."
So that there's no misunderstanding of this divine ability that he attributes to us, Miller goes on to assert:
"Life and death are in the power of our tongues. It is up to us to speak "life" in every situation. When we do, Isaiah 55:11 reminds us that the word which goes forth out of our mouths will not return void. It will accomplish what He pleases. It will prosper where it is sent."
No, Mr. Miller, it's not WE who speak to accomplish what the Lord pleases. It's not WE who send words which will not return void. It's God Himself! You re-write His holy Word to teach a lie! He has no need whatsoever of any mere man to "release" His will and purpose. How dare you to declare that the word of the Lord is only established when we humans say so? He is Sovereign Lord of all creation! The word comes out of HIS mouth, not ours! You attempt to make us equal to the Most High, and isn't that the selfsame desire that led to Satan's fall? (Ref. Isaiah 14:12-14). Can you not see, Mr. Miller, the most terrible seriousness of your crass, indeed blasphemous claim?
JONATHAN MILLER AND "SPEAKING HEALING"
"You may be sick, but don't stop speaking you are healed!"
This is the extremely foolish, indeed downright dangerous kind of "denial" teaching from the pulpit that causes diabetics to stop taking their insulin, asthmatics to throw away their inhalers, cancer sufferers to cease their radio- and chemo-therapy and people not to phone for an ambulance when they've had a stroke or are having a coronary. This is the kind of "Positive Confession" folly that results not in healing but in continued and worsening health problems that can even lead to the death of individuals who fall victim to this dreadful deception.
As we noted above, to Mr. Miller words are a force. "Remember," he says, "nothing can stand in the way of a powerful force. Just speak the Word!" "Stop worrying about all the obstacles that seemingly stand in the way of God's promises!" he declares. (Ref. 'Your Words Are A Powerful Force.') Thing is, He never promised us physical healing this side of eternity; He promised us only spiritual healing upon our acceptance of His Son as Lord and Saviour. In this life the believer is subject to exactly the same health issues as everybody else. Our spirit may be redeemed, but it still inhabits a body of fallen flesh and blood and no amount of speaking that we are healed when we are sick is going to change things one iota.
"Word of Faith" adherents preach that physical healing is our right. It is not. Did the Lord remove Paul's thorn? Nope. It actually had a purpose in His plan for the Apostle's life and ministry. Did Paul tell Trophimus to speak his healing and accompany him? Nope. He left him at Miletum, still sick and unable to travel. (2 Timothy 4:20). In Timothy's frequent infirmities, did Paul advise him to use words to effect healing? Nope. He told him to take a little wine for his stomach's sake. (1 Timothy 5:23). Our words cannot change the reality of any given situation, for we do not have the ability that only the Lord God of creation possesses. We cannot by-pass God, making ourselves "little gods" with god-like powers. To attempt to do so is rebellion to His Sovereignty over all things. And rebellion is as witchcraft, wherein, as we have noted, lies this Bible-defying belief in words as a force.
Jonathan Miller is set on putting the word spoken out of our own mouths on a par with the Word of God Himself. Consider this quote by one Nuno Pedro, the "Prosperity Gospel" pastor of Charisma, a megachurch in Paris, France:
"He [God] instructs us to put His Word in our heart and in our mouth, so that by proclaiming it with faith, we can produce the same results as He!
Same results as God, nothing less!"
('31 Days To Create Your World' - Nuno Pedro, 2005)
These guys are all on the same warped wavelength. No surprise then to find that Jonathan Miller has guested at Charisma, as indeed have many others of his ilk like Tommy Tenney (what a coincidence!), Creflo Dollar, T.D.Jakes, Casey Treat, Morris Cerullo, Kim Clement, Juanita Bynum, Mike Murdoch, Jesse Duplantis, Myles Munroe, Steve Munsey... even Wales' own WoF frontman - Ray Bevan! If you can stomach it, here is a video of Jonathan Miller performing (I use that word very deliberately) at Charisma, whipping the crowd up into a frenzy with a totally manic, screaming exhibition of unashamed circus showmanship:
All these folks speak (or scream!) about Jesus and the Gospel. Question is, What Jesus? What Gospel? Jonathan Miller avers that, "The only thing we really have to worry about is our mouths speaking the wrong things." (Ref. 'Never Stop Speaking.') Wrong, Mr Miller. The thing we should be absolutely concerning ourselves about is not "speaking the wrong things," but whether we and those teachers we might be heeding have the bona fide Jesus and the bona fide Gospel! Is the faith that we and they are proclaiming the unerring, uncompromising Faith that was once and for all time delivered? (Jude v.3). Or is it a faith subtly re-defined and re-delivered to itching ears?
FRIENDS, TAKE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT FACE VALUE. TEST EVERYTHING THAT ANY PREACHER UTTERS AGAINST THE WATERTIGHT WORD OF GOD. REMEMBER ALWAYS:
"There were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies."
