We looked at how the church has built buildings with their own hands, but it is not just buildings but doctrines and theology that man has developed and accepted as truth that completely reject the power of God. Obviously, these doctrines don’t just come from the mind of man, but satan. satan knows that only the power of God can defeat him, so he has deceived the church with doctrines of demons and most in the church have readily received them. This rebellion has caused the church to be powerless against our enemies. One such doctrine is cessationism. I have to admit, the word cessationism was not in my vocabulary most of my life. One writer defined “cessationism as the view that the “miracle gifts” of tongues and healing have ceased—that the end of the apostolic age brought about a cessation of the miracles associated with that age. Most cessationists believe that, while God can and still does perform miracles today, the Holy Spirit no longer uses individuals to perform miraculous signs.” The opposing view is continuationism. The same writer wanted to make clear they do not believe in this which is defined as “a Christian theological belief that the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual gifts, have continued to the present age.” The strange part is that I grew up going to church, not understanding that the power that we read about in scripture is available for today, but I always believed there had to be more to church than what I was seeing. Yes, the charismatics are obviously continuationists, but there are many that would never say they are cessationists but really do not believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit are available for today, even though they say they do. They say they do but they never seek them, nor are they happening in their churches. They are also not looking to find out why they are not there. They are also quite content to continue being powerless, just as the cessationists are.
Most believe that if God so desires, He would heal. If I could be so blunt, that is really an ignorant and profoundly stupid way of thinking. Of course, God desires for His disciples to heal as scripture tells us. First of all, Jesus is not dead and therefore can still appoint disciples. Jesus appointed right away and anointed disciples to do as He did. Jesus then sent out His disciples to heal. Luke 9:1 “When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” He did not say go gather together and hope God heals people. Mind you Jesus did say the one time, go wait and the church would have power and authority to go out and do as Jesus did. That was Pentecost. Luke 24:48 “You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” When they were clothed with power, they went out to heal the sick. At Pentecost the whole church was to be anointed and sent out with the same power and authority that Jesus had and were given gifts to do so. We read 1 Corinthians 12:7 “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.” Stop for a moment and reread this verse. What you will notice is Paul did not say “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit.” This last version is what satan wants you to believe. Every version of the bible sates that disciples are given the gift of healing. It is only man teaching doctrines of demons that say otherwise. Now ask yourself if man is telling you what you just read is not for the church, is it not satan’s voice you are hearing because the power we would have is the only thing that can continue destroyed the work of the devil. Acts 2 defines what tongues is as the definition does not come from the charismatics who have deemed babble as evidence that the Holy Spirit is present. That was a massive deception by satan and large groups of people have been deceived.
The answer is God definitely wants to give His disciples the power to heal, just as Jesus gave the first disciples the power to heal. Jesus did not go around hoping that God would heal people, He and the disciples healed people. Matthew 8:16 “When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” Since Jesus is alive, bearing our diseases still applies. Mark 6:12 “They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” They were told Mark 16:15 “He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” 19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.” So the cessationists does not agree with this because God is not healing so therefore no longer bears or diseases. Most will not take the time to find out why today’s disciples are not healing and just accept doctrines of demons as truth while rejecting what God’s word clearly states. They will not say this out loud, but they are saying this does not agree with our doctrinal position, therefore I reject God’s word.
I believe that cessationists and continuationists are both wrong. The first has rejected scripture completely and the second are okay without seeing what they read take place, nor do they seek it. Most charismatics failed to test the spirits. Most are so afraid to be labeled charismatic that they have no desire for anything supernatural, so they ignore scripture because of what the charismatics are doing. In a moment you will see that the argument for cessationism is closely tied with the charismatic, not the bible. Yes, the charismatics are wrong because they did not test the spirits and were deceived by what they thought to be manifestations of the Spirit and most charismatics are easily deceived when it comes to manifestations. It wasn’t the Holy Spirit, but satan. As you can see in the definition of cessationism, they have broken down scripture in dispensations. In the church age you have the apostolic age where they say disciples would no longer have power. This is all utter nonsense since God does not change and the promise to Abraham and David still apply. Yes, the Old Testament became New, but God does not change. The power that parted the Red Sea, the power that knocked down the wall of Jericho, the power that defeated the king of Assyria is still available to the church but like in the Old Testament, that power was removed when God’s people rebelled against Him. Nowhere in the bible does God say that disciples would no longer be given power. You should cringe when you read the definition of cessationism, but you should also cringe because many continuationists have been deceived and others are quite content to continue with church as they know it, though it looks nothing like the church was supposed to be. Many get confused with the love passage and forgot to read 1 Corinthians 14:1 “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.” Everything is done in love, but also with authority and power.
Just to be clear, the desire for truth is good, but where the charismatics made a crucial mistake was they did not test the spirits. Jesus warned us not to be deceived and a whole group of people were deceived by false manifestations and meaningless babble. Matthew 24:4 “Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.” 1 John 4:1 “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” These days would be so severe that as Jesus said Matthew 24:22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.” Both cessationists and continuationists are being deceived because the word of God has been set aside for the words of man.
Usually, the charismatics take the brunt of the false teacher / prophet / apostle / evangelists / doctrine / theology accusations but there are just as many and possibly more false teachers / evangelists / preachers / doctrines / theology on the non-charismatic side. I left out apostles and prophets because most on the non-charismatic side do not believe they are present in the church even though we are told Ephesians 4:11 “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” Because the church did not adhere to God’s plan for the church is why so many have been deceived.
I said above that many have fallen for the words of man over the word of God. Early in my journey I learned not to seek the words of man. I believe that lesson changed my life because the bible became to me not just idle words as Moses said but my life. My desire is for you to read the bible yourself and then go and encourage others to do the same. When I first started looking into cessationism I came across a video from the false teacher John MacArthur. In this video he said, “most of you know that a few months ago we had a Strange Fire Conference and uh we talked about the aberrant charismatic Pentecostal movement that has dominated the Evangelical landscape and even spread around the world somewhere between half a billion and 750 million people claim to be a part of this movement and it raised the question of what is called cessationism that kind of awkward word simply defines the belief that the New Testament miraculous gifts ceased, they ceased. That has been the normative historical view of the church through the church's life going all the way back to the New Testament and on into the modern era but since the turn of the 20th century there has been the birth of a of a strange uh Pentecostal and then charismatic movement that wants to affirm that all the signed gifts miraculous gifts are back including prophets including Apostles.” So if you listened to him speak on the video, you would not be convinced. It was a pathetic attempt to sway you from believing what scripture actually states, but many do believe him as you will see in a moment. The reason why this is not the normative view of the church is because it is not biblical. This is what Paul described as a doctrine of demons. 1 Timothy 4:1 “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” I will admit that as I said earlier, most in the church believe that miracles, signs and wonders, healing and casting out demons are no longer possible. But miracles, signs, wonders, healing, casting out demons are not happening, not because they have ceased and no longer possible but because the church has rebelled against God’s word and have followed the likes of MacArthur and the many like him both charismatic and non-charismatic, and now the church has all but been decimated by the abomination that causes desolation. Instead of seeking out why what the bible clearly states as possible, most have come up with doctrines and theology to explain it away.
Paul also said 2 Timothy 4:3 “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” It has taken me a bit to get here, but we are looking at people who leave one group to join another. The saying “out of the frying pan and into the fire” means “from a bad situation to one that is worse,” but today I am slightly changing it to another frying pan. To add another saying, this is also like the frog in kettle where the temperature seems just right for a moment but then it will suddenly be too late, and the result will be the eternal fire. When you think about the Reformation, they jumped out of the frying pan into a whole bunch of new frying pans, which became worse than the original frying pan and the fires of deception spread even more rapidly. The fires are still roaring and there are still many new frying pans to jump into. People move from one pan to the next, but the end result is still the same – fire! Matthew 23:15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” 2 Peter 2:1 “There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. 17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” This happens all the time and most have no idea what either group / pan believes and is often as bad or worse than where they were at. People tend to think that moving churches is a good thing, but most people do not actually look at what is being taught and just accept what they hear as truth. You would think changing is a good thing but not always, hence saying out of the frying pan and into the next pan and then the fire. It could be worse because you may die without ever knowing the truth. The Reformers should have returned to the word of God but instead went their own ways and many have followed and today many still continue to go their own ways and millions have been deceived.
The false teacher John MacArthur speaks against the Pentecostals and the danger of their strange fire and the charismatics speak against the non-charismatics for their unwillingness to accept the fire, but they are both wrong based on scripture, as both have set aside the word of God for their own beliefs and they have not tested the spirits. MacArthur speaks against the charismatics but at the same time refuses to believe the words of God he claims to know so well. What he seems to know are the words that are not there and the words he distorts. His teachings on cessationism among others make him a false teacher. On the other extreme is a false faith healer named Benny Hinn and he is still doing crusades. On his website he states, “You shall restore your relationship with God and receive more anointing and power from Him! Come expecting wonderful things from our precious Lord Jesus, and be sure to invite your loved ones and friends!” You will not receive anointing from God but satan will be present instead! What you will receive is what satan offers. There is a video of Hinn waving his jacket and people being slain in the spirit. The person who posted the video said, “This is from the 90s and I really love this clip so much. The anointing of the Holy Spirit flowed through Pastor Benny's coat and hit the people.” That was not the Holy Spirit flowing, but satan. I bring up Benny Hinn because I also came across a story when I was looking into MacArthur and cessationism and saw a story of Costi Hinn, Benny Hinn’s nephew who left his uncle’s very prosperous ministry because he said His eyes were open. But were they? He literally jumped out of the frying pan and into another pan that he thinks is the true gospel and is now teaching people to do the same.
People think his story of being saved is amazing, but he did not test the spirits to see what he was being saved into. Over time Costi would end up connecting with the teaching of John MacArthur, a false prophet who is just as bad as Benny Hinn but on the other end of the spectrum. Costi said his eyes were be opened to the falseness of the gospel his uncle taught but failed to see the falseness of the new guru he was now following. In his search for truth, Costi had a commentary from MacArthur, and he also said MacArthur’s study bible changed his life. I have warned about this before, as the extra that is written in a study bible is not the word of God. As I listened to Costi, it was the books and teaching of a man telling him a distorted view of scripture and he buys into the new pan. He even taught at MacArthur’s Grace Community Church. From what I could see, he is all in with John MacArthur. His website said “Costi is currently completing his doctorate at The Master’s Seminary. (John MacArthur’s seminary)”
One video I watched with Costi Hinn and Justin Peters explaining away the power gifts and the one statement that stood out was if the gifts are for today “where is the guy with the healing gifts.” I have heard that before. Someone will say if you believe what the bible is saying why is it not happening? No, it is not happening, and we have talked a lot about why. This is why repentance and returning to the word of God is so important. The answer is simple. The church has rebelled against God’s word and followed a different Jesus and has accepted other gospels. By coming up with these doctrines, they excuse themselves from believing God’s word to their own demise. Another more recent video with Costi, talks about hyper - cessationism which is weird because all doctrines seem to have to separate themselves from one another. Here they talked about hyper-cessationism. It doesn’t matter if the classic separates themselves from the hyper, they are both wrong. They defined hyper as “someone who would say the Holy Spirit is not operative today in the church gifting the way in which we see in the New Testament and we would just simply say we disagree with that, obviously the spirit of God is active, the spirit of Christ is gifting his church today and obviously the gifts are very much present, we're simply stating that there are some gifts including you know the Apostle, the prophet, the revelatory gifts that have ceased and obviously there is a distinction between what we would say classic cessationism versus a hyper cessationist position.” It is pretty clear that they do not believe the spirit of Christ is gifting His church as they only believe what they want the bible to say.
So just in case you missed it, they are denying the power of God, but at the same time saying the gifts are present just not the ones they don’t like. Paul said 2 Timothy 3:5 “having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” Scripture makes it clear that the power available to the church can return but the church must return to God’s word. Each group is adamant about what they believe but neither looks like the church Jesus is the head of. The reality is because the church turned away, the gifts are not flowing as they were supposed to and you even have to question salvation. Cessationism is a reaction to the charismatic and in doing so rejects the word of God. Another saying is they threw out the baby with the bathwater. You will notice that the reaction of MacArthur and others like him is a reaction to the charismatic, yet they do not turn from rejecting the word of God and continue down a path to destruction. So instead of repenting and turning back to God’s word, doctrines of demons are accepted as truth and millions are deceived. Now Costi is as convinced as He was when he was flowing in prosperity with His uncle’s ministry, yet he is no closer to the truth that he was before. He has accepted the powerless church to be the way and now has denied the Holy Spirit by listening to the likes of John MacArthur who has distorted the word of God.
I won’t spend much time on this, but Francis Chan went the other way. He started with MacArthur’s Masters seminary and ended up with the charismatics and not just any charismatics, one with a scandal. To see what this is about just look a IHOPKC - Mike Bickle. One writer said “And then there’s Francis Chan. Before the scandal broke, Chan spoke at IHOPKC multiple times—acknowledging that he had been warned by many people not to accept the invitations because Bickle is “creepy” (warnings he ridiculed while on stage at IHOPKC). He also gushed about his love for Bickle in front of thousands of young people, and praised Bickle’s “humility” and love for Jesus. And he apologized to Bickle and other influential NAR leaders (including Bill Johnson – Bethel Redding) for ever thinking he needed to “correct” their theology. Shockingly, he suggested that anyone who criticizes Christian leaders, including Mike Bickle, is a “divisive person” and may be struck dead by God. Say what? In short, all those who gushed about Bickle and assured people that he was safe, while lambasting Bickle’s critics for daring to question him, are culpable. Of course, when they were directly affirming Bickle, they were also affirming Bickle’s vision and the movement that grew out of his fraudulent claims. Surely, they have much to answer for.” I watched a couple of videos of Chan praising Bickle and rebuking anyone who opposed him. It was pretty sickening. I saw a recent video in May that someone asked what Chan would say now but I could not find if Chan has said anything. One of the comments summed this up how surprised they were but they shouldn’t be. “He (Chan) comes out of the Seminary of Grace with John MacArthur’s School.” False shepherds do flock together. Bickle and Johnson are easy to see that they are false prophets but Chan had no discernment. Chan comes across like he knows his bible, yet praises the theology of false prophets.
Both Chan and Hinn simply switched frying pans but failed to return to God’s word. Millions of people follow men like MacArthur and Bickle (not so much now) whose pans people continue to jump into and now many are following Costi Hinn and Francis Chan. Yes, people are looking for truth but when you start praising man, and turning away from scripture, you will not find truth but deception.
