Much of the church of our day is plagued by false prophets and apostles. Deception is a spiritual virus let loose in our church environments. I recently preached into this situation and gave insight into how to recognise the false and embrace the real power of the Holy Spirit. The message is an exposition of Acts 8:4-25 and you can find it here on my new website at https://truthistheword.com/my-sermons/ The title is ‘Double Double Toil and Trouble‘
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My name is Christopher Peppler and I was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1947. While working in the financial sector I achieved a number of business qualifications from the Institute of Bankers, Damelin Management School, and The University of the Witwatersrand Business School. After over 20 years as a banker, I followed God’s calling and joined the ministry full time. After becoming a pastor of what is now a quite considerable church, I earned an undergraduate theological qualification from the Baptist Theological College of Southern Africa and post-graduate degrees from two United States institutions. I was also awarded the Doctor of Theology in Systematic Theology from the University of Zululand in 2000.
Four years before that I established the South African Theological Seminary (SATS), which today is represented in over 70 countries and has more than 2 500 active students enrolled with it. I presently play an role supervising Masters and Doctoral students.
I am a passionate champion of the Christocentric or Christ-centred Principle, an approach to biblical interpretation and theological construction that emphasises the centrality of Jesus
I have been happily married to Patricia since the age of 20, have two children, Lance and Karen, a daughter-in-law Tracey, and granddaughters Jessica and Kirsten. I have now retired from both church and seminary leadership and devote my time to writing, discipling, and the classical guitar.
If you would like to read my testimony to Jesus then click HERE.
7 thoughts on “Sermon on False Prophets”
Excellent. So wonderful how God sets things up as we seek Him and His will. I’ve been trying to get with our Pastor because we are expanding to two sites and trying to grow as we are bursting at the seams. Wonderful problem really..but I see how the enemy works. Some young, sincere Bible school graduate has been talking about more power in the church. The Toronto movement and Benny Hinn were both brought up of moves of the Spirit in these days. I have seen Mr. Hinn twice and am concerned for the direction we may be taking if the leadership sees that as authentic revival. Your warning is timely to a very gullible church at this time. Where is the Berean spirit that searches the Word or the admonition to test the spirits to see if they are from God???Keep the truth coming I for one find it a breath of fresh air !
Thank you
You desccribe much of the Charismatic Church World here today. And they consider themselves perfectly online. They all pray for power, that seemingly only comes through the lead guy, or an elder, sometimes a deacon, but of course he may have some hidden sin, right? Money. Don’t touch the tithes, you’ll be put through hard times they say. Which leads to the manipulation factor. It doesn’t stop there. They add “Law” to their sermons. Their own or Old Testament. Which is why i believe most Christians are inaffective. Even though they are born again, their sin consciousness keeps them unable to raise to the heights placed before them by the Elders and “lead guys” . They also try manipulate God by fasting, or praying for days on end. Go on retreats for deeper prayer, hoping that somehow God will be moved by their plight. Sounds familiar. Most of these churches have dimmed lights for worship? Have a planned sequence of songs to mindfully bring the mass into submission and repentance in many cases. The preaching is done from the front and controlled, even to the word received from “Those who hear”. Enough said. You’ve done a great job of getting your people to focus on the negative and the “Demonic” to keep them in your pews a while longer. Fear is the great preaching tool of the false teacher. Guilt even better. After all, how could a simple Christian understand what the Holy Spirit is saying. Right?
I don’t know if you are agreeing with what I preached or criticizing it but I will post your comment anyway and let others decide. 🙂
Good stuff, great sermon!
I think your comparison of money- and power orientated Christian leaders with Simon the Sorcerer is fair and justifiable. I also believe that one reason why people are so gullible in accepting these attention-attracting leaders is because they are poorly steeped in scripture, thus lack discernment to tell that what they see being taught and demonstrated from the platform is not in line with Jesus’ teaching and example. No wonder you are so passionate to teach Truth in scripture.
There is however a major dilemma which many believers wrestle with: Why do so few ordinary people who have accepted Christ operate in the power of the Holy Spirit as was the norm with the apostles? You rightly invited people forward to receive the Holy Spirit’s power with the laying on of elders’ hands at the end of your sermon. But how many of the recipients actually experienced God’s power in line with what Jesus empowered His disciples and then the Apostles to do? I have no doubt that people who throng to these “power” meetings have a genuine desire to experience the power of God, not least in the area of healing. Leaders obviously, and unfortunately, exploit this desire, but it is very real and needs to be addressed seriously.
Throughout four decades of preaching ministry that I have been exposed to, I have without exception seen one of two poles of platform ministry: quality Bible-based exposition without evidence of Holy Spirit power in healing, words of prophecy and speaking in tongues on the one hand; evidence of healing (at least seen on the platform), words of prophecy and speaking in tongues following rousing preaching but lacking in systematic exposition of scripture on the other. Dawid Pawson has laudably tried to bring the two poles together throughout his ministry, but I have no idea how successful he has been.
Whilst exposing self-seeking leaders as modern Simon-the-Sorcerers, whom I believe will stand before God in judgement (Mt 24:45-51), we need to earnestly seek the power-gifts. It is not biblical for a few charismatic (in the non-theological sense) leaders to monopolize these gifts; it’s for ordinary people in the body of Christ, as with Philip (which you emphasize.) The charismatic movement in the mainline denominations gave as a foretaste of that, but it is not enough. Could it be that we live increasingly in an unbelieving generation that limits us from operating in power? Or could it be that we are not willing to give up everything like the Underground Church in China?
Philip, thank you for taking the time to make such a thoughtful comment.I have tried to wrestle with many of the questions you pose in my book ‘Prayer, Power, and Proclamation’ https://truthistheword.com/prayer-power-proclamation/ I don’t have all the answers and the very best I can do is to observe the life of the Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in the Bible and draw out some principles and practices. I believe that all Christians/disciples are called to emulate Jesus and that this should include both His character and His ministry. i.e. to be like Him and to act like Him – the later must therefore include demonstrations of spiritual power. Having said this, I acknowledge that both transformation and practice are works of the Holy Spirit in and through us and that we can neither be like Jesus nor do as Jesus did in our own strength or by virtue of our own knowledge or abilities.