Steven Furtick and What God Can't Do

The lead pastor over at Elevation Church in North Carolina, Steven Furtick, is a rock star.  He is a big personality with high dollar speaking engagements.   He gets his audience all ralled up with his engaging public speaking style and use bold words and statements.  He even got his masters in divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Even Oprah added him to her top list of spiritual leaders (John 15:19)... With all that said, lets get into what really matters; TRUTH.

John of God, The Spiritual Healer from Brazil

John of God is a fairly well known spiritual healer based out of Brazil.  He has been interviewed by Oprah and featured on ABC News, Newsweek, and other international news outlets.   He is a medium and spiritual healer that performs odd 'surgeries' that heal the individuals illness and spirit.  He claims to be possessed by 'entities' such as dead saints and doctors.  He claims that all his spiritual encounters and healings are done by God's will.  Given his region of the world is predominately catholic and mentions the 'saints' it would seem that the God he is referring to is The God of The Bible.  BUT is he serving God's will?  Is allowing himself to be possessed by 'entities' God's doing?  Is he OF God?

When Someone Says "The Lord told me..."

Some people will claim God spoke to them directly, either verbally, in a vision, in a dream, on their private air plane, or they were lifted up to heaven and met God face to face.  But are their claims true?  If these claims are true, what are the implications?  If they are not true, what does that mean for the person making that claim?  How can we know the trustfulness of their claims?  We need to seek God's actual word to test these type of claims.

Are There Prophets Today?

Much like Apostles, there is the Office of The Prophet and gifts of prophecy; two separate things.  We know both existed and used in the days of The Bible but did they continue on after all the Apostles of Christ died?  The word itself, prophecy can mean various things.  We need to see the biblical definitions and uses of the word, then analyze the character of its use in scripture, research church history and compare with modern claims.

Gnosticism in the Modern Era

Gnosticism is a divers system of spiritual beliefs that incorporated pagan, Greek, and Christian ideals to formulate its own system.  Each Gnostic teacher added or changed the Gnostic beliefs to fit their own individualized ideals.   The first mentions of some of these Gnostic ideals were developed from the 2nd to 4th century AD.  The Church exposed these ideals as unorthodox and unchristian but sadly, even today, we can still see some of the ideals being taught.  There are a few primary teachers that developed ideals that are familiar still today: Marcion of Sinope, Valentinus,  Theodotus of Byzantium, Arius of Alexandar, Pelagiu, Cerinthus, Menander, Sabellius, Basilides, and Montanus.  There are other early Gnostic teachers but their forms of Gnosticism are far more separated from orthodoxy Christianity.  These same teachings influence modern religions and movements such as the Word of Faith movement, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, and Islam.

Word of Faith Hermeneutics

Word of Faith Hermeneutics.  There is no one central teacher or organizational ministry but a collection that feed off each other adding in their own unique idea, which is usually accepted by the others.  The primary teachers that form the collection of Word of Faith doctrine are: Kenneth Copeland, Fred Price, Joyce Meyer, Paul Crouch, Kenneth E. Hagin, Charles Capps, Marilyn Hickey, Benny Hinn, Paul Yonggi Cho, Morris Cerullo, Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, and E.W.Kenyon. What do they teach?

When An Angel Teaches A Different Gospel

Since the foundation of the Church, there have been many claims of supposed truth that has come down from heaven after what Jesus, and The Apostles of Jesus have made known in scripture.  Three most notable is what founded Islam, Mormonism, and Jehovah's Witnesses.  All of these claim an Angel revealed something to their founders, different from the gospel that was proclaimed in scripture; either attempting to correct or add to it.  But, interestingly, The Holy Spirit knew this would happen and thus specifically said something about it.

Commonalities of Cults

There are many subgroups of the Christian faith.  These subgroups tailor their teachings and focuses in different ways.  That is exactly how the Body of Christ functions BUT there are some groups that claim to be 'Christian' when in fact, they are not.  Some deny being 'Christian' but claim to have similar beliefs and 'more correct' views than that of orthodox Christianity; but how can you identify a cult?

Being A Confessional Church

What does it mean to be a confessional church and why is it important?  In this day and age most people do not even know what being a confessional church is, in any shape or form.  This article will address a very important issue in the Body of Christ that most Christian leaders have neglected for generations.  We will review what 'confessional' is referring to, why it is important, discuss statements of faith, and clear up common misconceptions about historic Creeds and Confessions.

2016 Ligonier Lifeway Research Study

In 2014 and 2016 Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research conducted a study that surveyed participates nation wide of their theological beliefs.  The participates ranged from Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical, 'mainline christian', and 'other' in the christian faith.  Age, gender, ethnicity, region, education, marital status, income and church attendance data was also collected.  The questions asked are huge and fundamental to the identity of the Christian Faith.  The questions analyzed the participants understanding of who God is, who they are before God, how they view the Bible and sin.  The results are stunning.  So shocking in fact, Gospel4all.com feels it is critical to address these topics in a more clear fashion.  We will look at those who attend church one or more times a month and how they understand the questions asked.  We will also focus on the 18-34 year old age group.  The results are eye opening on what the Church body in 2016 believes.

Test, Discern, and Righteous Judgement

Everything we are taught about the Holy Scripture needs to be tested against Holy Scripture.  We do not blindly believe everything every preacher or religious teacher states; but why?   God calls us to test everything and rightly judge.  This leads us to truth and emboldens our faith; but how?  This article will go over all the who, what, when, where, and why of testing, discerning, and rightly judging.

Open Letter to Faith Healers and their followers

To all whom it may concern,

I am writing this to all those who claim to supernaturally heal in Jesus' name and to all those who believe in these faith healers.  I have three key areas of questions.

I want to start off and state that I do not believe the gift of healing has ceased absolutely.  I absolutely believe God heals still to this day in the same ways he healed in biblical times as He sees fit when he wills it (1 Corinthians 12:9).  My purpose for writing to you is to hopefully get you to see if what you are doing is actually of God for God, even if you feel or think it may be.  I pray that I edify you, convict those whom the Holy Spirit convicts of misrepresenting God, and offer solutions.

The Gift of Supernatural Healing

What does God say about divine supernatural healing and the gift of healing?  What is the bible's stance on 'inner-healings' like the Sozo Prayers?  And are healings today the same as healing of the Apostles and the disciples of the apostles?  It is important to state that it is not the position of The Gospel 4All that the gift of healing has completely ceased; however, due to recent history we do believe that it has changed but God reserves the right to gift it as he pleases, even to this day.  This article will address the biblical understanding of divine healing and why this gift has changed to this date.

Supernatural Positive Thinking

Life can get hard and people can be mean.  Does thinking positive and speaking positively have a supernatural effect on the negative world around us?  Does being positive only invite more positive things to occur?  Is there such a thing called "Law of Attraction"?  Where does all this positivism come from and what does history prove and God say about it?

The End Times P1: Jesus' Outline

The highly discussed and debated issue with in the church and between other religions is the study of The End Times also known as Eschatology.  The Apostles ask Jesus directly.  Right after Jesus tells them Jerusalem will be destroyed (happened in 70AD), they then start to wonder and ask in Matthew 24:3 "...what is the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”.  There are four predominate theories of how The End Time will happen and in this article we will look at what Jesus revealed first.  Jesus graciously gives us an outline of what will take place before The End Time happen and how it will unfold.

Hyper-Grace theology

The amazing Grace of God is so amazing it changes lives for eternity.  Even the reformers stressed that we are saved by Grace Alone but does this amazing grace negate repentance and confession?  Wouldn't you want to live how-ever you wanted and not worry if it is sinful? The reality is that hyper-grace is nothing more than new age positivism and emotionalism disguised in churchy words that focuses on one subject of truth (Grace) while avoiding another (Obedience).  Thus it does not teach the truth of God in its entirety and just want man wants to hear and avoids what man does not want to hear. 

More Valuable than Money

What are the most important things?  A house, car and job?  Clothing on your back? Food and water?  What if all those things were not the most important things.  What if God valued something more?  Things that are not tangible but eternal in value?

Fasting helps us put this and our hearts in perspective.  The symbolism of absolute fasting shows us this exact thing.  God's Glory and his character and attributes far exceed the value of food and water.

The Errors of The Modern Prosperity Gospel

C. Dollar, a teacher of the modern teaching of health, wealth, happiness, and prosperity movement said it best.  At least he was explicit when it comes to what they all subtly teach.  Later this tweet was removed from his twitter account.  Now why would he do that if he speaks God's truths?  hum. But 99% of these modern teaching of health, wealth, happiness, and prosperity teachers are not explicit like he was.  But regardless of their obvious or hidden agendas, there are some fundamental errors and heresies in this modern 'theology'.

Negative Name Dropping and Calling Out

It has become common in American society to view name dropping and calling people out in regards to something negative as 'wrong' even a 'sin'.  The question(s) we dive into are:  Is it ever 'okay' (right and not a sin) to name dropping and calling people out?  If and when it is appropriate?  To come to the answers to these questions, we need to first look at Jesus Christ and his apostles.

Health, Wealth, Happiness, and Prosperity Teaching

In this new season of the Church, a new teaching has developed in America and spread to the rest of the world.  It is a teaching about spiritual positive thinking and speaking.  It has become popular in America and developing parts of the world.  But what exactly is this teaching saying and how does it impact the hearts of those who listen to it?

You will notice a lot of catch words in these teachings and used by those who follow these new teachings.  Words like, victory, favor, claim, declare, destiny, and portions.  When used these words are positive in their context.  Sounds good right?  They go a step further and teach that by YOUR words that YOU create YOUR own Health, Wealth, Happiness, Prosperity, and ultimately your Destiny.  Sounds even better right?