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.

A Different Gospel

There is an original and true Gospel message proclaimed by The Apostles.  Sense then, there have been attempts by others to add to it, change it, or preach something entirely different.  How do we know what is the true gospel and what is a different gospel?  That means we must first know what the true gospel is before we can discern a different one.  Everyone knows the most basic form but not everyone understands its supreme and ultimate value and meaning in relation to the identity of God himself.

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?

Church Shootings

Church shootings are a tragedy just like any other shooting that causes the loss of life.  Some however feel that they are worse in the sense they are done in a 'house of God'.  There have been 14 fatal shootings at a house of worship since 2012 with different motivating factors.  Americans tend to be more shocked by these type of shootings verses all other types but is there really a difference?  There are 3 major misconceptions in American society: (1) A Church building is the house of God, (3) Limiting Gun access will reduce murders, (3) Prayer is not enough.

Spiritual Legalism

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Have you ever heard the phrase "Let God bless you" or "Allow God's love in"?  How about being told you need to "Empty yourself so that God can..." or "Claim a blessing..."?  Sounds focused on God right?  It is suppose to.  The reality is it is actually focused on YOU and YOUR works.  This article will explain why this is nothing more than legalism with a 'spiritual' sound.  It goes to the heart of how we understand our selves and how we understand God himself.  First we need to correctly know God, and correctly understand ourselves in the light of truth.  Then we can see the legalism that is disguised in spiritualism.

What Language do Angels Speak?

Angels come from heaven and were created by God.  They are either messengers from God or fallen angles, punished to earth and awaiting judgement with no hope of redemption.  As messengers and servants of God, how do they communicate with mankind? There are a lot of writings on angels but what does God's Word make known about angles?  In this article we will look at how angles interact and communicate with mankind.

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 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'.

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?

The Montanists of 170 AD and Charasmicits of Today

The saying 'history repeats itself' is true for false teachings and pseudo-Christian movements.  A perfect example is Montanism and the Charasmatic, Word of Faith movements.   First lets took at what the Montantist believed and taught in the late 2rd century then we will look at what the Word of Faith and charismatic movements are teaching now.

Montanus, a self described Christian around 160 AD jumped to fame when he started teaching that he had visions from God.  He teamed up with two other followers, Maximilla and Priscilla, who also claimed to be receiving visions and messages form God.  Their visions were so energetic and grand that it drew a large crowd and soon become a movement.