Many people want to know what will happen in the future. People have always been curious about what the future holds. The mystery of the future is something that people are interested in and they look to many ways to find answers to the questions they are asking.
No matter which country one is from, people have a desire to know what's going to happen in the future. Wanting to predict the future is like divination. Divination is the attempt of ascertaining information by interpretation of omens or an alleged supernatural agency, either by or on behalf of a querent. Below are some methods of divination that people use.
astrology: by celestial bodies.
bibliomancy: by books (frequently, but not always, religious texts).
cartomancy: by cards.
cheiromancy/palmistry: by palms.
chronomancy:about time, lucky/unlucky days.
cybermancy: by computers.
gastromancy: by crystal ball.
feng Shui: by earthen harmony.
I Ching divination: by the I Ching; a form of bibliomancy.
numerology: by numbers.
oneiromancy: by dreams.
Ouija: board divination.
taromancy: by Tarot; a form of cartomancy.
necromancy: by the dead, or spirits/souls of the dead/recently dead
I have only included the common ones, for a more comprehensive lists of the different methods of divination, look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_divination
In the next few moments, I'm going to reveal what's going to happen in the future and it can be found in the Word of God.
Matthew 24:3-14
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Firstly, we see that one of the signs of Jesus' second coming is that there will be an emergence in false prophets, people claiming to be Jesus Christ. Today, we will examine this topic.
In today's world, there are many false prophets who are twisting the facts of the Bible and leading people to hell and condemnation. False prophets who come out and teach ungodly, unholy, wicked doctrines, confusing and destroying the lives of people.
One example is John Scotland. Some of his outrageous teachings is his claim to have experienced spiritual drunkenness of the Holy Spirit for the last 3 years non-stop. As he got up to minister in Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship (3,000 people were in attendance), he staggered around the stage, told jokes, mumbled, slurred his words and then worked his way up to reading the Bible. When he tried to read the Scripture he would stop and make cackling chicken sounds. In fact, each time he tried to read the Bible, strange sounds proceeded from his mouth, which the audience loved. Scotland calls this manifestation from the Holy Spirit "a wake-up call".
Listen to what he says:
"See, some of us are saying, I can't get my head around this. You're not supposed to get your head around it, you're supposed to get your heart around it. You've got PhD "Permanent Head Damage" from listening to too many sermons. For 20 years, I've preached 3 point sermons and nobody get set free. Now I get drunk and ramble and God offends people to reveal their hearts. I was at another service and I had the bag with my bottles in it. As I staggered to the front, and went through my bag looking for my bottles, I know the spirit of God is doing something. And my natural mind is saying, get on with the sermon but the spirit of God says, carry on, go with the flow. What do you want? You want religion? You want sermons? Tickle your ears? Or do you want the foolishness? Do you want the foolishness of the holy spirit to come in? In Power. Isn't it great to shout in church. Isn't it? Its great. You know, all these years, you've been told. When you walk into church, SHHH, SHHH. You might wake god up. Ladies and gentlemen. The angels are serving wine. They are serving wine as I speak. They're bringing big barrels. The party has just BEGAAAAN. A couple of years ago, a couple who was living together, had a daughter who died of cancer at 23. 6 months before she died, they came and asked me, can I use the church hall to throw a party for my daughter? What was I to do? I said Yes. They were an ungodly family and they wanted to party, and along with the party, they wanted drink. And the lord said go along, let them drink. And they invited me to the party and it was about 1 am and the party had just begun. And the disco was playing and they had this machine that puffed out smoke and flashing lights and I sat there in the party and the place was heaving. And you know what the lord said to me? He said, John this is how you party. This is how you party. I've been to church for 20 odd years and people keep looking at their watches, wondering when the preacher was going to finish. Church were only just learning how to party. you know we were never invited to parties when we were Christians and the reason we weren't invited to parties is because we were joy killers. Yeah. Yeah. JOY KILLERS! Now we get invited all the time. Jesus said I've come to give you life. LIFE! LIFE! And that more abundantly."
Another person we see is Benny Hinn.
Benny Hinn promotes himself as a Christian healing evangelist, Bible teacher, and the author of a number of best-selling inspirational Christian books. His thirty-minute TV program This Is Your Day, is among the world’s most-watched Christian programs, seen on various Christian television networks, including Trinity Broadcasting Network, Daystar Television Network, Revelation TV, The Christian Channel, Vision TV, INSP Networks, and The God Channel.
Benny Hinn conducts regular "Miracle Crusades" – revival meeting/faith healing events held in sports coliseums and stadiums in major cities throughout the world. His teachings are based on Word of Faith theology which espouse belief in the inerrancy of the Bible, contemporary works of the Holy Spirit and the "perpetuity of spiritual gifts" which includes activities such as 'speaking in tongues', faith healing, exorcism, and consequential financial prosperity. Particular concerns of Hinn's critics include a lack of transparency regarding his personal income derived from ministry, disputes as to substantial claims that the sick are actually healed through his ministry, and Hinn's persistant aberrant theology.
Hinn made a number of unfulfilled (religious) prophecies for the 90s, such as God will destroy America's homosexual community in 1995 or the death of Fidel Castro, election of the first female president of the USA, the East Coast of the United States will be devastated by earthquakes, etc., all before the third millennium.
I have only listed two false prophets above and there are still many more around, looking to deceive and confuse people. In a world where truth is often diluted, we need to be all the more careful to weed out what's good and what's bad. Be the judge, use God's Word as the litmus test against what people may say.
Next up, we will examine some of the false doctrines that are common today.
Word-Faith Movement (Prosperity Doctrine/Positive Confession)
HERETICAL DOCTRINES
Because of the diverse nature of the movement, the doctrines listed below are representative of those held widely or predominantly throughout the leadership of the movement.
Doctrines:
- Christians are "gods", and therefore do not need to ask "in God's will", but rather use our own divinity to speak what we want into being.
- We are lacking faith if we are not healthy and wealthy. (God intended for us to be rich and healthy).
- Men are capable of saving themselves.
- Belief in faith as a "force" capable of being used for good or evil.
- Use of faith-force to change reality or to create through visualization
- God is unable to operate within the earth realm without our help
- Use of words (negative) releases Satan's power, while words (positive) release God's power.
Manifest Sons Of God (The Manchild Company)
HERETICAL DOCTRINES
The following philosophies represent those commonly held by organizations following these theologies. The actual beliefs of any one organization may vary somewhat from the details presented below, but general theme remains the same.
- A New Form and Standard for Christianity is emerging. It will change our entire understanding of what Christianity is. In 20 years it will be entirely different. Change will be so dramatic, the Christian church as we know it will oppose it. The change will come from outside the church.
- Rapture of the "wicked" (Not of the saved!).
- God is to be revealed when he takes his throne in the temple.
- Christians cannot be deceived.
- City Churches: One church leadership per city. Other churches are to join the KCF, transfer membership to them (or associated churches in other cities), and close down their churches).
- Joel's Army/Kingdom Now/Dominion theology: the church is to conquer and subdue the earth in order to bring in the millennium.
- New Breed/manifest Son's of God: We will be perfected into our glorified bodies prior to Christ's return. This will allow us to subdue the earth.
- Christians become "gods". We have the "divine" nature.
- Christ comes into us as a "seed" and grows into a "prophet". Christ therefore comes "within us".
- Jesus was sent as a "pattern" for the corporate church (Corporate church in this context means that the church becomes Christ. Christ is not complete without us because he is the head and we are the body).
- The current church has the spirit of "Antichrist".
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