The
subject of the last days inevitably raises the question of the signs which mark
this climactic period of history-a period which includes the Rapture
of
the church to heaven, the Second Coming of Christ with His saints in power and
glory to rescue Israel and to destroy Antichrist, followed by His thousand-year
millennial
reign from Jerusalem on the throne of His father David. One immediately recalls
the "signs" given by Christ in His Olivet Discourse, which have
been
widely publicized in sermons, books, and videos:
"...wars
and rumours; of wars ... nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes
...
these are the beginning of sorrows" (Matthew 24:6-8).
There
is no denying that these specific "sorrows" have been both prominent
and accelerating since Israel, in 1948, became a nation in possession of the
land
of her fathers again, in fulfillment of the specific promises God made to His
ancient people through His prophets more than 2000 years ago. Since
that
remarkable rebirth of Israel, the intensity and frequency of these signs has
increased like the birth pangs of a woman approaching her time of delivery,
exactly
as Christ foretold. There has, however, been such emphasis upon these
oft-mentioned signs of the nearness of Christ's return that the first words
of
Christ's response have been largely overlooked and His solemn warning
neglected:
And
Jesus answered and said ... Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall
come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many .... (Matthew
24:4,5).
And
many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many .... (verse 11). For
there shall arise false Christ’s, and false prophets, and shall shew great
signs
and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very
elect (verse 24). [Emphasis added.]
It
is essential to note that the very first sign (and thus the most important one)
Jesus gave in response to His disciples' query was religious deception:
"take
heed that no man deceive you." It is significant, too, that His revelation
of this primary sign was phrased as a warning: "take heed," or
beware.
He
repeated this sign two more times for emphasis and explained the nature of the
coming deception: it would involve false Christ’s, false prophets, and
false
signs and wonders. Moreover, His repetition of the word "many" four
times indicates that this deception will not be hidden in a corner but will be
a
worldwide delusion deceiving multitudes.
A
Solemn Warning for the Last Days Paul uses similar language and issues a
similar warning in refer ring to the last days: "Let no man deceive you by
any
means
A time of deception is coming, says Paul, so take care. But in echoing Christ's
warning about apostasy, Paul provides an added insight. lie reveals
that
the spiritual deception to which Christ referred, though it will of course
involve rank unbelievers following false Christ’s and false prophets, will
infect
the professing church, it will involve a "falling away," or apostasy:
"for
that day [of the Lord] shall not come except there come a falling away first,
and that man of sin [Antichrist] be revealed, the son of perdition" (2
Thessalonians
2:3).
While
a true Christian cannot fall away, a false Christian can. Fall away from what?
From the faith in Christ which he or she has outwardly professed but
without
inward reality. These apostates, however, will not leave the church and
announce themselves as atheists. They will not convert to Buddhism or Hinduism.
While
there are always some exceptions, it is important to understand that the
apostasy doesn't represent a massive defection from Christianity but a turning
away
from the truth within the professing church.
Christ
warns us in Matthew 24 not to be deceived by false Christ’s and false prophets
and lying signs and wonders. Paul repeats the warning, but with an
added
dimension: to beware of being deceived into thinking that the apostasy won't
come. It will. It must. Surely Paul would not speak in this manner unless
in
the last days the popular view would be to reject the idea of apostasy within
the church. The grave danger will be that of following false prophets
who,
with their signs and wonders, will seem to back up their false teaching that
revival, not apostasy, is the order of the day. Paul therefore says,
"Don't
let anyone deceive you with sweet talk about revival: the apostasy must come or
the day of the Lord cannot begin."
That
fact becomes clearer when we refer to other passages of Scripture. Christ's
statement about false signs and wonders is clarified as we are given further
insights
into the nature of the apostasy. False signs and wonders will be an integral
part of the apostasy. The departure from the truth will be spearheaded
by
apparent miracle workers and the delusion will be made possible by a prevailing
emphasis upon experience over doctrine. Paul says, "For the time will
come
when they will not endure sound doctrine" (2 Timothy 4:3). And Christ
declares:
"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).
These
apostates of whom Christ speaks did not lose their salvation, they were never
saved ("I never knew you"). Yet they outwardly appeared to be
high-profile
Christian
leaders apparently performing signs and wonders in the name of Christ. They
didn't leave the church to become atheists or to join some non-Christian
religion.
They remained in the church. They even called Jesus Lord-but without really
knowing Him. Tragically, they seemed to think that their ability
to
prophesy and to perform wonders proved that they belonged to Him. Clearly,
doctrine is out and experience is in; and the signs and wonders are so
impressive
that
doctrine no longer matters.
Surely
these of whom Christ speaks in Matthew 7 must be the same "false Christ’s
and false prophets" to whom He refers in Matthew 24. It is certainly
sobering
that
the signs and wonders these false professors are able to perform are apparently
so impressive that even the very elect might be deceived by them were
they
not given discernment by the Holy Spirit. We can only conclude that something
more than mere trickery is involved. These wonderworkers are backed
by
the power of Satan, whom they unwittingly serve in the name of the Lord.
Paul
indicates as much when he gives us further insight into this great sign of the
last days. After a solemn warning that in the last days "perilous
[extremely
dangerous]
times shall come," Paul makes this remarkable statement:
"Now
as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these [apostates] also resist the
truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith" (2 Timothy
3:8).
Jannes
and Jambres weren't skeptics or atheists, they were the magicians in Pharaoh's
court who, through the power of Satan, duplicated (up to a point)
the
miracles God did through Moses and Aaron. Paul is telling us clearly that the
last days opposition to the truth will not come so much from atheists
on
the outside of the church (though they are always there) but from those within
who are reprobate concerning the faith, depraved men who corrupt the
truth.
And they do so by performing apparent miracles in Christ's name which (when
more than mere trickery) are actually by the power of Satan. In that
way
they deceive and lead many astray not out of the church, but into false
doctrine and thus a false hope within the church. Satan has no more effective
tactic
to damn souls!
Other
Scriptures confirm those above. Jude, for instance, said that we must
"earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints" (Jude
3). Contend
against
whom? Not primarily against godless enemies outside the church but against
those within: "For there are certain men crept in unawares" (verse
4).
Crept
in where? Obviously, inside the church. That is where the problem lies in the
last days.
Paul
confirms Jude. Addressing the Ephesian elders, Paul said, "For I know
this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not
sparing
the
flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to
draw away disciples after them" (Acts 20:29,30). The spiritual deception
of
which Christ warned would be rampant within the church. Some of those very
Ephesian elders whom Paul had hand-picked, trained, and ordained would turn
out
to be apostates and hear Christ's damning words, "Depart from me!"
In
confirmation of all of the above, Christ warned His disciples that "the
time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God
service"
(John
16:2). This is a most remarkable prophecy. Obviously Christ is not referring to
persecution by atheists. He did not have in mind the slaughter of
Christians
by the Caesars or by Mao or Stalin or Hitler, for they did not believe they
were serving God thereby. Of course, when the Jews killed the early
Christians,
they thought they were serving God; and so did the Roman Catholics when they
slaughtered the true Christians before and after the Reformation-,
and
so did the Muslims when they killed Christians. But none of these killings was
the complete fulfillment of Christ's prophecy.
That
word "whosoever" is the key. Neither the pharisees nor the popes were
alone in killing Christians. Others were pursuing them to the death at the same
time.
But Christ is saying that a time is coming when whosoever, in other words,
everyone who kills Christians will think he is serving God. That can only
mean
that a world religion to which everyone must belong is coming, a religion that
will seek to exterminate true Christians in the name of God. John saw
the
same scene in the future:
And
it was given unto him [Antichrist] to make war with the saints, and to overcome
them.... And I beheld another beast ... he exerciseth all the power
of
the first beast ... and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship
the first beast.... And he had power to ... cause that as many as
would
not worship the image of the beast should be killed (Revelation 13:7-15).
Even
more solemn is an added dimension to Paul's declaration concerning the coming
apostasy. Whereas Christ warned of deception, Paul said it is essential:
"for
that day [of the Lord] shall not come except there come a falling away
[apostasy] first." This statement, as we have noted, is preceded by the
strange
warning,
"Let no man deceive you ......
Clearly
Paul, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, anticipated the very delusion we find
in our day: the rejection of the biblical teaching concerning apostasy
and
the insistence that we are in the midst of or at least are building up to the
"greatest revival in the history of the church." Such is the
prevailing
teaching
today among charismatics and even noncharismatics. The promise of revival will
be a deception, he warns, so beware. Instead of a great revival
in
the last days directly preceding the Rapture, there will be a great
apostasy---a falling away from the faith.
Christ
refers again to this falling away more subtly when He raises the question,
"When the Son of man cometh, shall he find [the] faith on the earth"
(Luke
18:8)?
While the definite article is not included in most translations, it is
obviously implied here and is found in other exhortations, such as in Jude.
Christ
is not referring to just any "faith" but to "the faith which was
once [for all] delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3) and for which we are to
"earnestly
contend."
This is the faith from which great numbers (seemingly even the vast majority)
will fall away.
One
of the greatest contributors to the falling away we are seeing today is the
false view of faith promoted by the so-called "faith teachers" of the
"faith
movement,"
also known as the "positive confession movement." They promote a
"faith" largely devoid of moral and doctrinal content and which
promises that
whatever
one truly believes and confesses with one's lips will come to pass. This
self-centered heresy is deadly.
That
we must earnestly contend for the faith against those who have crept into the
church implies that the battle is not so much faith against no faith,
but
rather true faith against false faith. And that is precisely what we see today.
Even the world is into "faith" and "spirituality." Articles
in leading
medical
journals cite studies showing that those who have any "religious
faith" are more likely to recover from illness. Christianity Today
recently ran
a
major article naively promoting these studies as though they were supportive of
the truth.'
Multitudes
of Christians imagine that faith is believing that what they are praying for
will occur, and that if they truly believe, they will have whatever
they
ask. Obviously, if things happen because one believes they will happen, then
one does not need God. This is mind power, not "faith in God" as
Christ
taught.
It is faith in faith, which Kenneth Hagin teaches, calling it "the law of
faith. 112
This
delusion comes from Eastern mysticism and is found not only in all the Mind
Science cults (Science of Mind, Christian Science, Unity, et al.) but in
the
Positive Thinking of Norman Vincent Peale, the Possibility Thinking of Robert
Schuller, and in the Positive Confession teaching of Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth
Copeland,
Frederick Price, David Yonggi Cho, and others. No one expressed it more clearly
than Ernest Holmes, founder of the Church of Religious Science:
Man,
by thinking, can bring into his experience whatsoever he desires... [i.e., as
little gods we each create our own world]. We are co-partners with the
Infinite
... a Universal Creative Mind which receives the impress of our thought and
acts upon it.
Norman
Vincent Peale borrowed the phrase "Positive Thinking" from Charles
Fillmore (founder of Unity)5 and credited Ernest Holmes with making him into a
positive
thinker.' Said Peale, "Positive thinking is just another term for
faith."' On the contrary, atheists can be positive thinkers. Peale claimed
that
man's
empowerment could be realized by visualizing God as "energy"
("God is energy," said Peale) and inhaling this energy and
visualizing it permeate one's
being.'
If
faith in faith or in some "higher power" is all one needs, as
Alcoholics Anonymous and the various Twelve-Step Programs in churches teach
(there are
over
500 participants a week in Bill Hybel's Willow Creek Community Church') then
there is no true faith. "God" is no more than a placebo that triggers
some
inner power to heal. Indeed, Peale declared that in prayer we commune not with
the God who created us but with "the great factor within oneself, the
deep
subconscious mind.
Differing
insights into last days apostasy are given throughout the Bible. A major factor
accompanying the departure from the faith will be "giving heed
to
seducing spirits and doctrines of devils" (1 Timothy 4:1). Through the
occult teaching that one can visualize Jesus and carry on a conversation with
Him,
a legion of seducing spirits has been loosed in the church. Richard Foster
tells us that through visualization "Jesus Christ will actually come to
you.""
Calvin Miller, in an Inter Varsity book, teaches the same," as do the
inner heaters and many Christian psychologists. Of course, it is not Jesus
they
see and converse with, but a demon masquerading as "Jesus." Yet even
when the deception ought to be obvious, leading Christians embrace and promote
it.
In
her eighteenth book, Lonely No More, best-selling Christian author and leader
Karen Mains provides a clear example of a seducing spirit and its doctrines
of
devils. A popular speaker at women's conferences, Karen, at the time that book
was published, was a "chairperson of the trustee board for Inter Varsity
Christian
Fellowship/USA." She tells how at Cenacle, a Catholic contemplative
center, using visualization for contact, her alleged "male-self" from
her
dreams
turns into an "idiot-child sitting at a table." Fully awake, she sees
its "totally bald" head "lolled to one side... drooling
emaciated and malnourished
a
little skeleton of a ragamuffin..............[with] sad, huge eyes Under the
guidance of her "spiritual director" (a Jungian Catholic nun), Karen
is convinced
that
this visualized "idiot child" which has now come alive to her is, in
fact, the "Christ child" within, that part of herself "that is
Christ" and has been attempting
to
woo her!
Paul
presents yet another characteristic of the apostasy: "For men shall be
lovers of their own selves" (2 Timothy 3:2). This false teaching is
rampant
in
the church today through Christian psychology. It came from a godless
psychologist named Erich Fromm who called "belief in God ... a childish
illusion.""
He
claimed that when Christ said, "Love your neighbor as yourself," He
meant that we must learn to love ourselves before we can love our neighbors or
God.
In
fact, the church had always interpreted that verse to mean that we love
ourselves too much and need to give some of that love to our neighbors, not
that
we don't love ourselves enough.
Robert
Schuller promoted that false view in his book, Self-Love, the Dynamic Force of
Success. From there the lie spread throughout the church. The exploding
new
men's movement, Promise Keepers, has been foremost in promoting this and other
delusions of Christian psychology. A newsletter stated:
Many
Christian single men have fought the battle to build their own self- worth,
self-esteem, and self-love. They have learned that it is impossible to
have
a healthy relationship with others while having an unhealthy relationship with
one's self. Jesus recognized this when He challenged us to love our
neighbor
as we would love our self (Mark 12:31).
Yes,
some people say, "I hate myself!" How do we reconcile that statement,
earnestly uttered, with the biblical declaration, "No man ever yet hated
his
own
flesh" (Ephesians 5:29)? What that person actually hates may be his
appearance, clothes, job, salary, the way people look down upon or mistreat
him,
etc.
But he doesn't hate himself. If he did, he would be glad he was homely, had
poor clothes, low income, and was abused by others. The fact that he complains
about
these things proves that he loves himself, exactly as the Bible says. He needs
to give some of that love to his neighbor, not learn to love himself
more.
It
was surely not a "negative self-image" that was Lucifer's downfall
but a very "positive" one. More than 200 years ago, William Law
expressed what Christians
had
always understood: Self-love, self-esteem, and self-seeking are the essence and
the life of pride; and the Devil, the father of pride, is never absent
from
these passions, nor without an influence in them ......
The
last-days apostasy will also be characterized by a rejection of the church's
Rapture to heaven: "There shall come in the last days scoffers ... saying,
Where
is the promise of his coming?"
(2
Peter 3:3,4). The apostasy involves claiming that revival rather than the
Rapture is imminent and denying that apostasy must come. Again, these days
are
upon us, and we need not quote the many Christian leaders who ridicule belief
in the Rapture, calling it an escape theory. Their books and tapes are
readily
available.
How
is such a departure from the faith possible, and how can it gather momentum in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ under the umbrella of revival and a
great
prayer and fasting movement? Simply because, at the heart of the apostasy is a
rejection of the primacy of sound doctrine: "For the time will come
when
they will not endure sound doctrine" (2 Timothy 4:3). And here again this
day is upon us with a vengeance, as we will now document.
Yes,
the Bible definitely predicts a last-days signs and wonders movement. That is
clear from the verses to which we have referred. However, Scripture tells
us
that this signs and wonders movement will not be of God but of Satan. It will
be a delusion that will deceive many. The topic on everyone's lips and
mind
today is revival. It comes as a shock to many to learn that the word revival
does not occur even once in the entire King James Bible. The hope of
revival
that excites so many today is not even a biblical concept. Unfortunately, lack
of space prevents us from elaborating.
In
his new book, Confronting the Powers, Fuller Theological Seminary professor C.
Peter Wagner seeks to explain and biblically justify the false revival
now
being promoted. Wagner calls John Wimber "my mentor."" He
introduces to readers terms that were unknown only a few years ago: territorial
spirits,
spiritual
mapping, Spiritual Warfare Network, A.D. 2000 Movement, ground-level spiritual
warfare, occult-level spiritual warfare, strategic-level spiritual
warfare,
cosmic-level spiritual warfare, praise marches, prayer walking, prayer
journeys, prayer expeditions, praying through windows, etc. Wagner says
that
these new concepts and practices (of which Jesus, Paul, and the early church
knew nothing) hold the key to spiritual breakthrough and worldwide
revival."
Similarly,
and in agreement with Wagner and Wimber, Christian TV and radio and
best-selling books persuasively argue that we are in the midst of the greatest
revival of Christianity in the history of the world. This revival is claimed to be characterized by power: power to prophesy, to speak in tongues, to heal the sick, to
confront evil spirits, and even to raise the dead. Enthusiasts point to plenty of apparent evidence of the vaunted "revival" spreading rapidly throughout the world
from such places as the former Toronto Vineyard, the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, Benny Hinn's church in Orlando, Florida, and his huge
televised crusades, to
mention a few centers of this delusion.
To
justify the unbiblical physical manifestations accompanying this movement
(hysterical laughing, weird twitchings and contortions, animal noises and
mannerisms,
etc.)
John Wimber says that God is greater than His Word. He waves the Bible and
declares that when the Holy Spirit moves, He doesn't go by this book.
There
is a mad thirst for power and its supposed manifestations. One can view
numerous videos from the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola where
hundreds
surge
forward at an altar call--without the gospel having been preached. People come
from all over the world to "get it," meaning the physical
manifestations
of
supposed Holy Spirit power.
Nicky
Gumbel, the curate of Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) Anglican Church in England,
tells how he was swept into this new "move of the Spirit." Gumbel
testifies
that
he felt "something like 10,000 volts" of electricity going through
his body when Wimber prayed for him. Prayed for what? For power. (The
Brownsville
revival
began when evangelist Steve Hill, having just come from HTB, related his
experiences there.) Said Gumbel approvingly on a teaching tape: The American
[Wimber]
... just said, 'More power....' It was the only thing he ever prayed. I can't
remember him ever praying anything else ......
Someone
will say that apostasy had already begun in Paul's day or at least shortly
after his death. That is true. Jude testified that when he wrote his
short
epistle the apostates had already entered into the church. The Roman Catholic
Church, certainly, has been in apostasy for 1500 years. There is, however,
something
new about the apostasy we are now seeing which points to the final fulfillment
of biblical prophecies in our day.
It
is generally believed that the Roman Catholic Church was the only
representation of Christianity on earth prior to the Reformation. Even today's
evangelical
leaders
echo the lie of Roman Catholic apologists that, since the Roman Catholic Church
was the only church prior to the sixteenth century, then if it
was
in apostasy, Christ's promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against
His church failed. The truth, however, is that an evangelical church
comprised
of millions of true believers always existed and was always persecuted by Rome.
Martin Luther himself said:
We
are not the first to declare the papacy to be the kingdom of Antichrist, since
for many years before us so many and such great men (whose number is large
and
whose memory is eternal) have undertaken to express the same thing so clearly
and plainly."
Who
were these to whom Luther referred? We have a letter dated 1429 (100 years
before the Reformation) from Pope Martin V commanding the King of Poland
to
exterminate the Hussites. Jan Hus had been martyred in 1415. But for 1000 years
before that there were the Vaudois, Albigenses, Waldenses, and other
similar
groups of evangelical Christians. These simple believers were the object of
repeated crusades (larger and more numerous than those fought for the
"Holy
Land") in which the popes offered "the remission of all sins to
everyone who should slay a heretic.""
Tragically,
the false accusations made by the inquisitors to justify their slaughter of the
"heretics" are still found in encyclopedias to deceive the unwary
today.
For the truth, one must look to other sources, such as John Fox's Book of
Martyrs, The Martyr's Mirror (published in 1631), Samuel Morland's The
History
of the Evangelical Churches of Piedmont (published in 1648), or to other books
written nearer to the time. Even Halley's Pocket Bible Handbook
tells
the truth.
And
here we confront a disturbing example of the new ecumenical characteristic of
the last days apostasy. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA)
acquired
the printing rights to Halley's Pocket Bible Handbook and printed a special
Billy Graham Crusade edition of it in 1962, 1964, and 1969. In so
doing,
they deleted dozens of pages of vital historical facts concerning the evil of
some of the popes and of Rome's persecution and slaughter of Christians.
Truth
was sacrificed on the altar of ecumenism in order not to offend Rome, and
readers were robbed of indispensable information. The following is a sample
of
facts carefully presented by Halley, which the Graham organization eliminated
from its special edition:
[The
Albigenses] preached against the immoralities of the [Catholic] priesthood,
pilgrimages, worship of saints and images ... opposed the claims of the
Church
of Rome; made great use of the Scriptures .... By 1167 they embraced possibly a
majority of the population of South France .... In 1208 a crusade
was
ordered by Pope Innocent 111; a bloody war of extermination followed, scarcely
paralleled in history; town after town was put to the sword and the
inhabitants
murdered without distinction of age or sex ... within 100 years the Albigenses
were utterly rooted out.
[Two
centuries later] between 1540 and 1570 no fewer than 900,000 Protestants were
put to death in the Pope's war for the extermination of the Waldenses.
Think
of monks and priests directing, with heartless cruelty and inhuman brutality,
the work of torturing and burning alive innocent men and women, and
doing
it in the name of Christ, by the direct order of the "Vicar of
Christ"!
...
on the night of August 24, 1572, 70,000 Huguenots, including most of their
leaders, were massacred [St. Bartholomew's massacre]. Some 200,000 [more]
perished
as martyrs... land] 500,000 fled to Protestant countries .23
To
carefully suppress such essential information not only robbed readers but
dishonored the martyrs and the Lord for whom they died. The courage of the
martyrs,
who gave their lives for Christ rather than to deny His Word, puts to shame
those who hid that truth from a generation which desperately needs
to
know it!
Down
through the centuries, though the major visible church with its headquarters in
Rome was deep in apostasy, there were millions who gave no allegiance
to
Rome. They sought to follow the New Testament and remain pure. Then came the
Reformation. As a result, most of these groups were gradually absorbed
into
and disappeared among the so-called Protestants. And now the Protestants are
turning back to Rome, and the apostasy, for the first time in history,
is
becoming worldwide!
One
of the most significant events in the history of Christianity in nearly 500
years took place March 29, 1994. Leading evangelicals and Catholics signed
a
joint declaration, Evangelicals & Catholics Together: The Christian Mission
in the Third Millennium (ECT). The document says . we [Evangelicals and
Catholics]
thank
God for the discovery of one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. That statement
overturns the Reformation! Evangelicals have endorsed and
joined
Rome's longstanding apostasy! The March 30 New York Times news release said in
part:
They
toiled together in the movements against abortion and pornography, and now
leading Catholics and evangelicals are asking their flocks for a remarkable
leap
of faith: to finally accept each other as Christians. In what's being called a
historic declaration, evangelicals including Pat Robertson and Charles
Colson
joined with conservative Roman Catholic leaders today in ... urging Catholics
and evangelicals ... to stop aggressive proselytization of each other's
flocks.
John
White, president of Geneva College and former president of the National
Association of Evangelicals, said the statement represents a
"triumphalistic
moment"
in American religious life after centuries of distrust....
Other
evangelical endorsers include the heads of the Home Mission Board and Christian
Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest
Protestant
denomination, and Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ ... Mark
Noll of Wheaton University ... Os Guinness, Jesse Miranda (Assemblies
of
God), Richard Mouw (President, Fuller Seminary), J.1. Packer and Herbert
Schlossberg.
Robert
Simonds, Southern California chairman of the National Association of
Evangelicals, "applauded the declaration" and said he hoped it would
bring "increased
cooperation
between evangelicals and Catholics Amazingly, the document claims that all
Catholics hold the same faith as evangelicals. That idea would be
a
shock both to the martyrs and those who burned them at the stake for what were
recognized at that time as such vast differences in belief that the faithful
were
willing to die for them!
Rome
has neither changed its beliefs nor rescinded its more than 100 anathemas
damning those who accept the biblical gospel. Nevertheless, Billy Graham
has
said, "I've found that my beliefs are essentially the same as those of
orthodox Roman Catholics."" Upon receiving an honorary doctorate at
Belmont
Abbey
(a Jesuit college), Graham said, "The gospel that built this school and
the gospel that brings me here tonight is still the way of
salvation"" an
unthinkable
statement in light of Rome's undeniably false gospel of works, ritual,
purgatory, indulgences, prayers to the saints, and the perpetual sacrifice
of
Christ in the mass. In justification of burning the martyrs, the highest Roman
Catholic authority states:
If
anyone says that the sacraments of the New Law [Roman Catholic rituals] are not
necessary for salvation but ... that without them ... men obtain from
God
through faith alone the grace of justification ... let him be anathema. If
anyone says that in the mass a true and real sacrifice is not offered to
God
... let him be anathema.
If
anyone says that the sacrifice of the mass is ... a mere commemoration of the
sacrifice consummated on the cross but not a propitiatory one ... and not
to
be offered for ... the dead, for sins ... let him be anathema.
The
last words of Hugh Latimer, martyred for rejecting the mass, ring in our
consciences. Bound back-to-back to the stake with Nicholas Ridley, Latimer,
England's
most effective gospel preacher at that time, was heard to exclaim as the flames
engulfed them: "Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the
man.
We shall this day, by God's grace, light such a candle in England as I pray
shall never be put out." Today's apostasy is determined to extinguish
that
"candle," though the evangelical leaders doing so would not have
known the gospel but for the faithfulness of such martyrs!
Such
is the heritage of today's evangelicals, which this document (ECT) now rejects.
We are asked to believe that the Reformers were deluded, that like
all
active Catholics today they were saved but didn't know it. The tens of millions
of Catholics who since then have received Christ by faith alone and
left
the Catholic Church have also been deceived. The whole evangelical church of
today is equally deluded about what it means to be a Christian. Colson,
Robertson,
Brightetal., have revised both history and the gospel of our salvation!
Pope
Paul VI said to Sri Chinmoy, a Hindu leader, "Your gospel and my gospel
are the same." And now evangelical leaders are saying to Rome, "Your
gospel
and
our gospel are the same." Billy Graham has recommended a biography of Pope
Paul VI which encouraged "devotion to Mary, the Saints, worship of the
wafer
at
the Mass, and trust in the sacraments for salvation." He called the book
"a classic in devotion."" Having visited Pope John Paul 11
several times, Graham
calls
him "the world's greatest evangelist"" and says that any
differences in their theology "are not important as far as personal
salvation is concerned.
1130
Tell that to the millions who died at the hands of Rome because of very real
differences that Graham now denies!
On
the Phil Donahue Show, Billy Graham praised the Pope as "a moral and
spiritual leader" that the American people could look up to and said,
"Thank God,
I've
got somebody to quote now with some real authority. 1131
The
move back to Rome has been underway for many years under the leadership of
Billy Graham and his magazine, Christianity Today. Senior editor, Kenneth
Kantzer,
in a CT editorial, honored Pope John Paul 11 as "the successor of Saint
Peter" whom "God has called ... to forge a united church... [whose]
priority
to
the Christian message ... endear[s] him to the hearts of
evangelicals."" Apparently the martyrs died for a semantic
misunderstanding which has lately
been
clarified!
In
his 1977 crusade on the campus of Notre Dame University, Graham's invitation
certainly confused the gospel: "Many of you want to come tonight and
reconfirm
your
confirmation. You want to reconfirm the decision that you made when you joined
the church." He made a similar appeal for people to "reconfirm their
confirmation"
at his Milwaukee crusade in August 1978. In Milwaukee, 3500 names of those who
went forward were turned over 33 to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese.
At
Billy Graham's Vancouver, British Columbia crusade in October 1984, David
Cline, vice chairman of the organizing committee, had this to say: "If
Catholics
step
forward there will be no attempt to convert them and their names will be given
to the Catholic church nearest them." (Emphasis added.)
Says
Graham, "We're delighted that the Roman Catholic Church now cooperates
with us wherever we go." That cooperation involved about 400 Catholic
"counselors"
in
Graham's mid-September, 1990, crusade at Nassau Coliseum, Long Island. The
local Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office exulted that the crusade would
"provide
opportunities
for Catholics who attend to be reconnected to their parishes via Catholic Bible
study. 1131 England's Cardinal Hume wrote a letter thanking
Billy
for sending him 2100 converts from his 1989 London crusade and for helping them
renew their Roman Catholic faith . As long ago as his 1952 Pittsburgh
crusade,
Graham told newspaper reporter William McElwain:
"Many
of the people who have reached a decision for Christ at our meetings have
joined the Catholic church and we have received commendations from Catholic
publications
for the revived interest in their church following one of our
campaigns.""
We
thank God that Billy Graham has preached the gospel and souls have been saved. Unfortunately,
however, he has also done much to undermine that gospel.
Of
course, Graham, the BGEA, and Christianity Today have not been alone in
bringing evangelicals back to Rome. Paul and Jan Crouch and TBN are at the
forefront
of
this move. Crouch believes in the apparitions of Mary and even that Mary has
appeared to him and Jan. He recently said:
"In
the 1980s, David Duplessis, father of modern Pentecostalism, visited Medjugorie
... and concluded what he experienced was ... a revival, the likes of
which
he had given up seeing in his lifetime, and he spotted no 'bad fruit.' The
heavenly apparitions, concluded the great Charismatic leader, were 'of
God"'
(emphasis in original)."
Also
leading the march back to Rome are Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition,
Charisma magazine, Promise Keepers (which has a Roman Catholic on its board,
uses
a Catholic evangelist at its meetings, just revised its statement of faith to
satisfy Catholics, and cooperates closely with Rome), and others. John
Wimber,
head of the Vineyard Movement, from which Promise Keepers came, has called the
Pope "a born-again evangelical... [who] is preaching the gospel
as
clearly as anybody is preaching it in the world today. 11411
Bill
Bright and Campus Crusade for Christ have worked closely with Catholics for
years and have welcomed a number of them on staff. So have John Wimber
and
the Vineyard churches he founded.
Former
Vineyard pastor John Goodwin tells of being present when Wimber addressed about
5000 people. Says Goodwin:
John
Wimber actively promotes the reunification of the Protestants and the
Catholics. I was there at a seminar, a pastors' conference in Anaheim. The
archbishop
of
the archdiocese was attending, sitting up in front with his robes on .... John
asked him to stand up and said to him, "I want to apologize to you on
behalf
of all Protestants for leaving the Catholic Church and for the things we've
said about you and the Church."
When
Pope John Paul 11 designated the last decade of this century for "world
evangelization," John Wimber, head of the Vineyard churches, exclaimed,
"This
is
one of the greatest things that has ever happened in the history of the Church
... I am thrilled with the Pope and glad that he is calling the Church
to
this goal, to this work.""
An
article titled "YWAM Builds Bridges to Catholics" makes it clear that
YWAM (Youth With A Mission) works with Catholics as well as Christians here in
the
U.S. and overseas. It shows a picture of Billy Graham meeting with the Pope and
states that "Beginning in 1978, YWAM workers in Austria began to cooperate
with
Catholics there .... In 1984, YWAM adopted a policy allowing staff to work with
Catholics .... YWAM has installed a Catholic, Rob Clarke, as director
of
its discipleship training school in Dublin .... YWAM's missionaries are not
aiming to lure Catholics out of their churches... [but] helping to establish
Christ-centered
evangelistic Catholic communities.
The
Scriptures to which we have referred clearly indicate that the last-days apostasy
will come from within the church and will be led by false Christ’s
and
false prophets who will compromise the gospel and God's Word and rely upon
outward manifestations and apparent miracles. Again, this is precisely what
we
see today.
Examples
of those who have preached a false gospel and crept into the church unawares in
our day are legion. Space limits us to a few. At the top of the
list
one finds Norman Vincent Peale. His books have sold many millions of copies.
The most shocking thing about Peale is his acceptance by the evangelical
church.
Millions of those who call themselves born-again Christians and attend
evangelical churches read his books and find nothing wrong with them. He
has
been praised by Billy Graham and other evangelical leaders. Though he died
recently, his books, magazines, and tapes continue to infect the church.
In
1984, on the Phil Donahue program, Peale said: "It's not necessary to be
born again. You have your way to God; I have mine. I found eternal peace in
a
Shinto shrine ... I've been to Shinto shrines, and God is everywhere."
Shocked, Phil Donahue responded, "But you're a Christian minister; you're
supposed
to
tell me that Christ is the way and the truth and the life, aren't you?"
Peale replied, "Christ is one of the ways. God is everywhere.""
Peale
was the keynote speaker at Mormon President Spencer W. Kimball's 85th birthday
celebration in 1980. He called the Mormon leaders "men of God [who]
are
doing God's work by their fruits ye shall know them Because Kimball was
"so deeply spiritual," Peale asked him, "Will you bless
me?""
Perhaps
Peale, who was a 33' Mason (more than 1 million Southern Baptists and many of
their clergy are Masons), favored Mormonism because it is so much
like
Masonry. Each state in the U.S. has a Supreme Grand Lodge of Freemasonry and
most Grand Lodges publish a Monitor for the guidance of members in the
official
doctrines and practices. Consider the following from the Kentucky Monitor:
The
three really great rituals of the human race are the Prajapati ritual of
ancient Hinduism, the Mass of the Christian [Roman Catholic] Church, and the
Third
Degree of Masonry. Together they testify to the profoundest insight of the
human soul: that God becomes man that man may become God!"
Next
on the list of leaders of today's apostasy comes Robert Schuller, to whom
President Clinton, in his January 1997 Inaugural address, referred as "one
of
America's best-known pastors." Schuller calls Peale "the man who has
impacted and influenced my thinking and my theology and my life more than any
other
living
person...."" Schuller, through his Hour of Power, has the largest
television audience of any Christian program, reportedly going into 20 million
homes."
As pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, Schuller has
said, "It was Dr. [Norman Vincent] Peale who got me to go to Los Angeles
...
and it was [Billy] Graham who first got me to go on TV.""
Schuller
preaches what he unashamedly calls a "man-centered theology," though
theology is the study of God. He perverts "Thou shalt have no other gods
before
me,"
to mean, "Believe in the God who believes in you! "-though the Bible
warns, "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man" (Jeremiah 17:5). He
says it's
destructive
of the gospel to call anyone a sinner, and declares:
That's
what sets me apart from fundamentalists, who are trying to convert everybody to
believe how they believe .... We know the things the major faiths
can
agree on. We try to focus on those without offending those with different
viewpoints, or without compromising the integrity of my own Christian
commitment.
Of
course, the major faiths don't even agree on God, and certainly not on the
gospel that saves-so Schuller can have little to say of any substance. He
has
said, "When we built this church [the Crystal Cathedral], our aim was to
construct such a building that it would stand for centuries. 1151 Obviously
he
does not entertain the hope of the imminent Rapture of the church as did the
early Christians. Schuller went to Rome to get the Pope's approval of a
drawing
of the Crystal Cathedral, saying he wouldn't have dared to build it without
first getting the "Holy Father's apostolic blessings."
John
Wimber, of course, is another key figure in the apostasy. He gave us numerous
false prophets in Kansas City and elsewhere and the "praise and
worship"
movement
with its rock beat, shallow words, and hypnotic repetition. The Toronto
laughing revival has spread mainly through the Vineyards. Promise Keepers
is
also a Vineyard movement and was begun largely to fulfill Vineyard prophecies
about stadiums being filled to overflowing with people excited about Jesus,
and
accompanying miracles.
The Toronto Vineyard church, which became the center of the laughing revival, has been removed by John Wimber from the Fellowship of Vineyard Churches.
This
action has been mistakenly taken as a sign that Wimber is maturing and
rejecting some of the excesses that he once embraced. In fact, Wimber wrote
the
foreword to the book on "Holy Laughter" by Jon Arnott, head pastor of
the now disfellowshipped Toronto Vineyard. Toronto was disfellowshipped not for
"holy
laughter," but for trying to find specific verses in the Bible to explain
the animal noises.
Many
other Vineyard churches, such as the St. Louis Vineyard Christian Fellowship,
continue their involvement in "holy laughter." Its pastor, Randy
Clark,
brought
the laughing revival to Toronto. Clark "got it" from Rodney
Howard-Browne at Kenneth Hagin Jr.'s Rhema Bible Church in Tulsa and continues
to promote
this
movement worldwide. Moreover, Clark was attracted to Howard-Browne because
"people shaking, falling, laughing" reminded him of what he had seen
"years
earlier
in the Vineyard revivals.""
One
of the more notable leaders in the apostasy is John Marks Templeton, a wealthy
Wall Street money manager. His beliefs are so contrary to biblical teaching
that
it is astonishing how he could have "crept in unawares." Templeton's
beliefs are expressed clearly in his many writings. He is an evolutionist and
a
pantheist ("God is billions of stars in the Milky Way .... Time and space
and energy are all part of God ... God is five billion people on Earth ...
God
is untold billions of beings on planets of millions of other stars""
He is a universalist and occultist who rejects Christ as the only Savior,
claims
that
heaven and hell are states of mind we create here on earth, that truth is
relative, and that Christianity is no longer relevant. Yet this man is highly
acclaimed
in evangelical circles. He was on the Board of Princeton Theological
Seminary" and for fifteen years was on the Board of Managers of the
American
Bible
Society," in spite of his rejection of the Bible as God's Word. Norman
Vincent Peale called Templeton "the greatest layman of the Christian
Church
in
our time,"" an amazing tribute to an anti-Christian!
Templeton's
1994 book, Discovering The Laws of Life, is pure occultism. Instead of warning
against it, Christianity Today devoted the entire back cover
of
its April 24, 1994 issue to an ad promoting it. Headlined "WILL INSPIRE
MILLIONS OF READERS," the ad contained the endorsements of Norman Vincent
Peale
(who
also wrote the foreword), Robert Schuller, Billy Graham, and two prominent
Catholic New Age leaders, Theodore M. Hesburgh (former president of Notre
Dame
University) and J. Peter Grace (head of the Knights of Malta, sworn to defend
the pope). Here are sample quotes from the book: The basic principles
for
leading a "sublime life"... may be derived from any religious
tradition-Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and others as well as Christian....
[A]stronauts
travel[ed] into outer space... [and] did not bring back any evidence of heaven.
And whereas drills had penetrated the earth, they'd found oil,
not
hell, in the depths ... spiritual theorists are inclined to conceive of [heaven
and hell] as states of mind....
Through
our choices and attitudes we create our own heaven or hell right here on earth
... the only place we can find heaven is in our own hearts .... Our
innate
goodness is an essential fact of our existence ... of God within us. Be honest.
Be true. Love all parts of yourself ... the godhood within you ...
is
in a state of becoming perfect."
Templeton
and his neo-pagan views were first introduced to the church in 1986 by Robert
Schuller. Schuller's Possibilities magazine put Templeton's picture
on
its front cover, and its major article was an interview with Templeton. In it
he expressed his Unity/Religious Science/New Age beliefs: "Your spiritual
principles
attract prosperity to you ... material success ... comes ... from being in tune
with the infinite .... The Christ spirit dwells in every human
being
whether the person knows it or not ... nothing exists except God. These
heresies were enthusiastically promoted by Schuller to his vast audience
of
readers.
Templeton's
writings are readily available in any bookstore, thus any Christian leader can
know his beliefs. Nevertheless, this man is accepted in the church
and
is embraced and praised by Billy Graham, Charles Colson, and Bill Bright, among
others. Each of them has been the recipient of the annual Templeton
Prize
for Progress in Religion. It is larger than the Nobel Prize. What Templeton
means by "progress in religion" and what he intended by establishing
the
prize should prevent any evangelical from accepting it. The "progress in
religion" he envisions is clearly toward Antichrist's world religion:
The
doctrinal formulations of Christianity have changed and will change from age to
age .... Christians think God appeared in Jesus of Nazareth two thousand
years
ago for our salvation and education. But we should not take it to mean that ...
progress stopped ... that Jesus was the end of change .... To say
that
God cannot reveal Himself again in a decisive way [through other Messiahs] ...
seems sacrilegious ......
As
the religious forms of traditional Judaism and Christianity are losing their
powers to inform the contemporary mind, the West desperately needs religious
geniuses
who can create new imaginal forms....
"Theologians
... must begin to explore the vast unseen dimensions of our evolving universe I
am hoping we can develop a body of knowledge about God that
doesn't
rely on ancient revelations or scripture [such as the Bible!] ... that is
scientific ... and is not disputed because of divisions between religions
or
churches or ancient scripture or liturgy....
The
next stage of human divine progress on the evolutionary scale needs ...
geniuses of the spirit, blazing trails for the rest of us to follow. To
encourage
progress
of this kind, we have established the Templeton Foundation Prizes for Progress
in Religion."
In
keeping with his idea of "progress" in religion, Templeton suggests,
"Maybe one of the attributes of God is change. 1162 That is indeed true of
his "god,"
but
the God of the Bible declares, "for I am the Lord, I change not"
(Malachi 3:6). The very idea of "progress in religion" denies the
gospel of Jesus
Christ.
Christianity is not a religion, nor is it subject to progressive development.
Nor does Christianity maintain a friendly, ecumenical relationship
with
the world's religions, but opposes all of them as devices of Satan. Every true
Christian, by the very tenets of his faith, must be uncompromisingly
opposed
to Templeton's neo-pagan beliefs and the prize he offers. It would be clearly
dishonest for anyone to accept the Templeton Prize for Progress in
Religion
who was not in complete sympathy with its purpose and the beliefs behind it.
The very reception of the prize by any individual constitutes an
endorsement
of all that the prize represents in the mind of its founder. Try to imagine
Elijah accepting an ecumenical prize from the prophets of Baal,
or
Paul from the pagan leaders of his day!
Yet
Billy Graham, Charles Colson, and Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright
not only accepted the prize but praised the prize and the man behind
it.
Upon accepting it at the first news conference, Colson said, "I salute Sir
John for establishing this award and doing it in such a generous way His
acceptance
speech was made at the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago. The
meeting was opened with a Muslim prayer and closed with a Buddhist
prayer.
Tragically, Colson never gave the gospel to the robed religious leaders on the
platform behind him and their followers filling the large auditorium.
Bill
Bright was even more effusive in his acceptance speech at a Catholic Church in
Rome:
The
prestigious Templeton Prize, to me, because of the nature of its objective, is
greater than any other prize that could be given for any purpose. So
I
am deeply humbled and greatly honored to be the recipient of this 1996
magnificent Templeton Prize. I would like to thank and commend Sir John
Templeton
for
establishing this prize....
More
examples could be given to prove that the prophecies of Christ, of Paul, of
Peter, and of Jude concerning the last days apostasy are coming to pass
in
our day. We have not named names in order to denigrate anyone, but to show the
extent of the delusion. It would hardly do to say in general terms that
ecumenism
and apostasy are being promoted by Christian leaders without concrete evidence
identifying them.
Furthermore,
we have avoided naming the leaders of the more obvious heresies within the
charismatic movement such as Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Frederick
Price
(who say we are
little
gods and create reality with our minds), Morris Cerullo (who says that when you
look at Morris Cerullo you look at God), Yonggi Cho (who says we
must
visualize to have faith), and so many others. Several authors have pointed out
their errors and the fact that they are playing a large part in the
apostasy
and false revival.
We
have taken our examples from among those who are more highly regarded in
evangelical circles in general and whose influence is the greatest among
mainstream
evangelicals.
That will be the last bastion of true faith to fall. We have not had space to
show from the Scriptures why the apostasy must come, but it
should
be clear that its coming is essential in preparing the world for the Antichrist.
Neither
do we desire to engender discouragement. Our Lord's desire is that we should
not be ignorant of Satan's devices and should arm ourselves well against
them.
Then we can face the end times, of which we are assuredly a part, with
confidence and with hope.