false prophets Archives - Truth Is The Word

Satan’s Deep Secrets

8 Comments / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog / Christopher Peppler

In the early days of the church Satan’s deep secrets came in the form of pagan idolatry, in later years he promoted his lies through the philosophical gnostic (knowledge) cults, but today they come better disguised.

In the last few posts I have picked up some points from the letters to the first three of the seven churches and in this article I will tie together three threads that appear in the letter to Thyatira. I have commented in previous posts on Jezebel, who is a focal interest in the letter, but now I want to bring together the ‘so called deep secrets’ she taught with Jesus’ injunction to ‘hold on to what you have until I return’, and his declaration that those who overcome will have ‘authority over the nations’.

During the twentieth century there have been many Christian and pseudo-Christian heresies who’s originators have claimed special, and often secret, revelation. In the last couple of decades we have seen the emergence of the ‘New Apostolic Reformation’ (NAR). Sometime in the future I will be writing extensively on this movement but for now I will need to describe it in, perhaps, oversimplified terms. The NAR, contrary to what its name suggests, is not really new at all. Much of its core theology comes from the Latter Rain movement of the 1950’s and 60’s. To this has been added Postmillennial Dominion theology (I will explain this shortly) and what is often referred to as Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare. (One definition of this is ‘praying against territorial spirits, seeking to “map” their strategies over given locations by discerning their names and what they use to keep people in bondage, and then binding them so that evangelism may go unhindered’).

Postmillennialism is one of the various end-time teachings and enjoyed some support before the World Wars. The core idea is that Christianity will become so dominant in human affairs that the world will experience a golden age of peace and prosperity (the millennium) at the end of which Jesus will come again to claim his now perfected bride, the church. The horror of two world wars demonstrated conclusively that human society was not getting progressively better and so postmillennialism quickly fell out of vogue. Now it’s back in a particularly aggressive form labeled Dominionism, a belief that Christ will rule the world through the church by gaining either direct or indirect control over education, government, business and so on. This is how NAR teachers would understand the application of Jesus’ words, “I will give authority over the nations” (Revelation 2:26).

Earthly dominion was never on Jesus’ agenda, the first disciples certainly did not see it as the church’s mandate, and it cannot reasonably be argued from an exhaustive study of scripture

Verses 26 and 27 of Revelation chapter two are complex and require far more analysis than I can give in a short article. These verses quote from Psalm 2 which is generally accepted as a messianic prophecy fulfilled in Christ Jesus. When Jesus began his public ministry the devil tempted him by offering him authority over all the kingdoms of the world, but he rejected this out of hand.. At the end of his public ministry Jesus was asked by Pilate if he indeed was an earthly king and his answer was, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Earthly dominion was never on Jesus’ agenda, the first disciples certainly did not see it as the church’s mandate, and it cannot reasonably be argued from an exhaustive study of scripture.

When Jesus instructs his church to “hold onto what you have until I return’ he is commenting on what his disciples have been taught by the apostles as opposed to the teachings of Jezebel. In other words, “Stick with what I have taught you and do not get caught up with any so-called deep teachings”. If Jesus and his Apostles did not teach what NAR ‘apostles’ teach then what do they claim as their source of authority? Well, they claim to receive special ‘revelation knowledge’ and by this they usually mean that the Holy Spirit gives them special insight into the meaning of certain scriptures. How this occurs is often by way of allegorical interpretation of types, patterns, and isolated texts, usually drawn from the Old Testament. For instance, the army of locusts in Joel is understood as a type of the end-time church army that will gain dominion over the earth, and so on.

There is some room for responsible allegory because Paul used it on occasions (Galatians 4:21-24 1 Corinthians 10:4) and Jesus sometimes spoke allegorically (John 10), but a good rule for interpreting allegorically is to ensure that any ‘deeper’ meaning is consistent with the literal first intended meaning of the text. By this I mean that any additional meanings of a Bible passage must be consistent with the more obvious meaning of the text and not contradict or present something unrelated to its essential message.

Much of what we hear taught as ‘prophetic revelation’ is based on unfounded allegorical interpretations of Old Testament scriptures. These are not the deep things of Jesus, so we are left to wonder at their source and the validity of those who teach them.

In my next post I want to focus on the phrase ‘morning star’ that Jesus used at the end of his letter to the church in Thyatira, and I am sure you will find it ‘illuminating’.

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The Comet is coming

3 Comments / Home Bulletin, Special Message / Christopher Peppler

There are numerous sites on the internet containing ‘facts’ proving that something big is about to happen. A comet is set to strike the earth on 24th September, 2015! Blood moons confirm this and the Shmita year supports it. So batten down the hatches folk because we are in for a near extinction event…. not!

In my latest sermon I show how these predictions are biblically incorrect and logically flawed. If listened to before the end of September, 2015 the sermon should prove instructional… after that it will be more entertaining than anything else.

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Healing under the scalpel

Leave a Comment / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog / Christopher Peppler

I am painfully aware that as I take a surgical knife to the subject of healing I will be cutting into a number of sensibilities and run the risk of being carved up myself. Yes, healing is a gift of God, but it can also be a satanic present that carries bondage and distress under its colorful wrapping.

In the last few posts in the Revelation Revisited series I have been dealing with the seven letters to the churches. Last week I focused on pornography as one of the societal problems in the city of Pergamum. In this post I want to develop another aspect of that cities serpentine god Æscalapius’ influence both then and in our day. Strange as it may seem, healing was a gift that this pagan deity bestowed on its devotees. But healing is a good thing, a gift of God… isn’t it?

Although, regrettably, modern medical science claims as its heritage from Greek myth, I regard it as part of God’s overall provision for us and I consult doctors and take antibiotics when they are needed to restore my health. I see divine healing as a more direct and immediate gift of grace. Medicine can heal and is seldom linked directly to God’s goodness and mercy, but divine healing, true divine healing, always points us back to God and evokes praise and gratefulness. If it were not for divine intervention in my life when I was a baby I certainly would not be here now writing this article. I believe in the present-day reality of divine healing both on biblical and experiential grounds.

But supernatural healing, or what appears as such, is not necessarily from or of God. The pagan priests of ancient Pergamum healed by operating in satanic power and their modern- day equivalents do the same.
About 20 years ago the Philippine Faith Healers were in the spotlight and thousands flocked to them for healing. They were the product of Roman Catholicism and indigenous Voodoo and practiced a sort of ‘psychic surgery’. A person with a stomach problem would be laid on a table and the priest would run a dirty thumb nail down her belly. A scarlet incision would appear and the priest would seem to plunge his hand into the wound and then pluck out bloody material of some kind. He would then run his thumb back over the gash and the wound would disappear. The person was then pronounced healed.

Sleight of hand? Crude but effective showmanship? Most certainly, but I suspect that there was more going on than that and that some malign force was also at work. From the reports I have read it seems that the ‘patients’ almost all felt better immediately after the ‘surgery’ but the symptoms soon returned leaving the poor person, well…. poorer.

More recently, the Nigerian Prophet Joshua [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._B._Joshua] has attained notoriety and once again Christians by their tens of thousands have been flocking to Lagos to be healed. I have watched hours of documentary video evidence and have had firsthand experience with a misguided member of my local church. I am convinced that something more than smoke-and-mirrors is involved. Certainly there is a lot of powerful psychological pressure and suggestion, but I discern more. There appears to be a spiritual power at work which, although manipulated in the name of Jesus, does not conform to anything I know of the Lord Jesus’ ways as revealed in the Bible.

Then there is the leg-stretching so favored by itinerant and TV evangelists. Are we supposed to believe that so many physical ailments are caused by one leg being shorter than the other and that instant healing occurs when the offending limb is ‘grown out’ before the amazed eyes of the faithful? Pull the other leg, why don’t you!

Most of these ‘healing’ events stimulate a rush of adrenalin and a resultant feeling of well-being. But it doesn’t last and the sufferer ‘losses’ their healing. Say what?! When Jesus healed people they stayed healed irrespective of whether they continued to confess their healing and avoid all negative thoughts. When the disciples of the book of Acts healed someone there is never any mention of conditions and the possibility of losing the gift from God.

I don’t see any biblical warrant for psychic healing, leg-stretching, or losing a genuine healing gift from God. In my opinion these are a machinations of Æscalapius, not the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
I must stress again that I believe that divine healing is valid in our day as a ministry of the church of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and to the glory of God the Father. I see it in scripture, in the life of the Lord Jesus, in people I know, and in my own life. I urge Christians to believe in and be open to receiving divine healing and I counsel them as urgently to run from the false and manipulative ministries of the serpent, no matter how ‘Christian’ they are presented as being.

In my next post I am moving on to uncover some of the spiritual wealth contained in the letter to the church in Thyatira… can’t wait!

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More about Old Nic

Leave a Comment / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog / Christopher Peppler

The notorious Nicolaitins of Ephesus and Pergumum are worth a second look. In my last post I mentioned that their name is probably derived from the Greek words for ‘rule over or by’ and ‘the people’. I identified this group as a class of false Apostles in the early church that attempted to rule over the people and lead them into heretical doctrine and licentious practices. In this post I want to use the word ‘Nicolaitan’ to develop another leadership problem in the church of our day.

Rule over the people

Autocratic leadership structures are all too common in the church of our day. Many of the major church denominations have adopted a hierarchical form of church government where Bishops preside over Ministers/Priests who in turn rule local churches. In the Pentecostal and independent churches, Apostles replace Bishops, and Pastors replace Priests, but the system is essentially the same. In all its variations this type of church government represents a form of ‘rule over the people’. A typical independent charismatic church form of government is a Pastor, or pastoral couple, assisted by a group of Elders, a finance committee and a group of leaders, sometimes referred to as Deacons. The Pastor appoints the Elders and often replaces them on a regular basis. He is the ‘anointed and appointed of God’ and he effectively rules over the people. The committees provide advice and the Elders act as counsellors, but the person in charge is the Pastor.

Pastoral elders are both biblical and very necessary and feature in Paul’s letters, however I have always understood the word ‘pastor’ as a description of ministry and not a title or position. I also believe that church government should be by a group of elders led by a Lead Elder. Countless church ills, splits, and dysfunctions have occurred because of one-man-rule-over-the-people. In addition, when a single Pastor rules a local church then accountability and support, if provided at all, is usually represented by a person higher in a chain of command. Armies may be organised in this manner, but churches are not armies and nor are they one-man businesses.

Rule by the people

On the opposite end of the spectrum are those churches governed by the democratic vote of its members. In the top-down system the members count for very little but in the bottom-up system they count for everything. I don’t believe that this system is much better than the hierarchical systems, yet most churches that do not have a hierarchical system of government have a democratic system. Whereas in hierarchical systems the Pastors are essentially the proprietors, in the democratic system they are usually just hirelings.

I live in one of the newer democracies on earth, South Africa, and I have to say that in practice this ‘democracy’ is simply a form of rule by mass numbers. This will be the case in any group of people where one type/persuasion/race/gender hold an overwhelming majority. I don’t think the church is much different from any other society in this regard. In the natural world bodies are not designed or equipped to rule the head and in the body of Christ the same applies. But if so-called democracy is not the answer, and hierarchical autocracy isn’t either, then what is a better form of church government?

Rule by plurality of Elders

I believe that church government should be in the hands of a group of elders led by a Lead Elder where major decisions are taken by a genuine consensus. New Elders should be nominated by existing Elders but members should have some form of veto power by voting in General Meeting for the appointment of a new Elder. The effective headship of Jesus Christ is exercised through the true consensus of a group of specially called men who are accountable to Him but also to the church membership. Paul’s words to the group of Ephesian Elders captures the essence of this form of church government: ‘Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood’ (Acts 20:28-29).

No system of church government is perfect and traces of all three systems can be found in scripture, yet I believe that a plurality of Elders has the greatest New Testament support and is least likely to become ‘nicolaitan’.

In my next post I will leave old ‘nic’ behind and move on to other important lessons from the seven letters to the churches of Revelation.

The lesson of lost love

4 Comments / Blog, Home Bulletin, My Blog / Christopher Peppler

The Lord Jesus’ letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) are also for all of the church throughout the ages – which means they are for us today as well. So, I am going to go through each letter picking up on some important practical issues for us and the churches to which we belong.

The most piercing criticism of the otherwise faithful church in the city of Ephesus was: “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” (Rev 2:4-5) What is the first love of any Christian and any Christian church group? Surely it is our love for Jesus. We love the Bible, we love each other, we love the lost… but love for Jesus must trump all of these for He is the head of the church body, the author and perfecter of our faith, and our Saviour and Lord. We all experience great love and devotion for Jesus when we are first ‘saved’ but, sadly, our passion for him and the things of God tends to diminish over time. So many ‘mature’ Christians appear to be cynical and passionless adherents rather than zealous disciples, because they have fallen out of a loving relationship with Jesus into a form of religious observance. This is of such importance to the Lord Jesus that He says; “If you do not repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place.” The lampstands symbolically represent churches (Rev 1:20) and so this warning applies to church bodies and not to individual Christians. It states a terrible truth: a church that does not place love for Jesus above all else is no church at all! And we must remember that a church is simply an organised and continuing group of Christians; so it can only lose its first love if WE, who make up the church, lose our first love.

Revelation 2:5 gives the remedy for this deathly condition: Remember => Repent => Do!

Do you remember what it was like in those first months and years after you were spiritually regenerated, born again of the Spirit? I remember those days so well. I had an insatiable hunger for the Bible: I loved to go to church to worship, and learn, and minister: I prayed fervently on every occasion: I expected the miraculous; I loved to talk to people about Jesus – saved and unsaved alike. If this is no longer the case then I need to repent, (acknowledge my condition, apologise to God, and turn away from an apathetic and cynical mind-set), and do again the things I did when I was first saved – Study the Bible, pray, worship, testify… all with expectancy and faith. Remember? That’s how it was! Do ‘the things you did at first’, and the feelings will surely follow.

The Lord Jesus didn’t just criticise the Ephesian Christians, He also commended the church for her deeds, hard work, and perseverance. In addition He noted with favour their rejection of false apostles and the Nicolaitans. History has nothing to say about the mysterious Nicolaitans, but their name gives a possible clue to their nature. It is possible that the name is a composite of two Greek words meaning ‘rule over or by’ and ‘the people’. There is a strong possibility that this group were introducing their own ‘false’ apostles into the church.

Today there are many false apostles promoting themselves on television, on the international speaking circuit, and through books and other media. With them come wave after wave of deceptive counterfeit signs and wonders. Most of these ‘miracles’ are just cheap tricks, like the preposterous leg-stretching sleight of hand so many of them perform (talk about having your leg pulled!). These false apostles, evangelists and teachers prey upon the great need for the genuinely miraculous, the good faith of Christians, and the incredible gullibility of so many immature believers. But they are not that hard to spot – here are three dead giveaways:

• They promote themselves shamelessly pretending all the while to be pointing to Jesus when in reality the centre of attention is what they are claiming and doing.
• They distort the Bible, taking texts right out of their biblical context and using them to support their own ‘teachings’.
• They ask for money, lots of money, and sometimes spend more time promoting the offering than they do actually preaching.

On the other hand, there are those who feel that they have a discernment ministry and a mandate to expose these false apostles, evangelists and teachers but in the process many of them throw the baby out with the bathwater and exclude the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit from the life of the church. In addition they become hard and fanatically committed to their cause, often labelling anyone they believe is in error and attacking their characters as well as their credibility. The Internet-based heresy hunters are a good example of this but I have seen it in books and videos presenting doctrinal differences among well-educated and senior leaders. The Calvinist/Arminian debate is a case in point where I have observed character assassination and the loveless presentation of ‘truth’ at its most obnoxious.

I appreciate that there are times when church leaders need to take a public stand against error and deception, but I am convinced that it is usually better to focus on Jesus and His truth than to focus on combating what a particular leader or group perceives as ‘error’. A focus on an intimate relationship with Jesus yields zeal for God and his Kingdom, whilst a focus on erroneous doctrine and practice invariably produces a cold and critical heart.

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These are some of the lessons we can learn from the Letter to the church in Ephasus in Revelation chapter two – in my next post I will continue to pick up on these and other practically important matters.

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