You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. -- Galatians 5: 7-9 (ESV)
As the end times grows darker and deeper it is more important than ever that true Christians draw a line in the sand and say no more. No more dancing with the doctrines of devils. No more looking the other way when false teaching is running rampant. No more coddling wolves that tear the sheep of the Lord apart. Yes some churches will go out of business. Of course they should not have been "in business" to begin with. The compromising of the Gospel starts with good intent. Just want to draw a few more people into the house of God, right? Just want them to feel comfortable, right? Just want the church to seem relevant to where they are at because we are all on different journeys, right?
Wrong. Dead wrong. We are all on the same journey and the inevitable destination is hell. The only one that can save us from this broad path is our Savior Jesus Christ through His preached Gospel. While many know this and believe it in their heart they allow leaven into the church. The key verse comes from the end of the Book of Galatians. The Church at Galatia had allowed an insidious false teaching to enter their church. The group known as the Judaizers had convinced the Galatians that you had to adhere to circumcision in addition to saving faith in Christ. Paul spends the majority of the letter rebuking them and calling them foolish. He says that if they insist on adding to the Gospel they actually sever Christ from them and render Him useless in their lives! Our key verses show his exasperation. You were running so well. Who led you away from the truth because that persuasion sure didn't come from God. Do you not realize that a little leaven will leaven the whole lump?
The false teaching is the leaven in this analogy. False teaching spreads like a cancer and it claims lives as one as well. It does not start however in the extreme because it would be more easily noticed. Holy laughter did not grow out of a hole in the ground. It slowly and methodically entered the church and because it was not excised out immediately it festered and grew. We see the same thing today in modern Charismania. We have a sliding scale of stupidity when it comes to false prophets and teachers but they serve to prop each other up, share underserved credibility and at all cost -- defend the brand. Allow me to present this week's teaching on the absurd side of the scale -- Todd Bentley. Todd was a former biker turned false evangelist who rose to popularity in 2008 during the "Lakeland Revival." He was packing 15,000 per night into tent meetings where he would amaze the crowd by punching and kicking people to "impart" healing and claiming he was directed to do by the Holy Spirit. He was making so much money the NAR decided to try and cash in by anointing him a "prophet." Shortly thereafter he fell in disgrace for having an affair with his secretary.
He is back though beloved; this time in Texas. His "restoration" to ministry was overseen by familiar false prophets and teachers. He recently made a claim that someone DOA at a local hospital came back to life when his show was placed on the TV in the dead man's room. The hospital of course has no such record of this instance but the Charismatics went wild! This past week he is at it again. Here is his testimony of what happened:
"I'm in my hotel and in my bathroom and it's the middle of the night. And I open my hotel room and turn the light on, and there's a man in there, in my bathroom. And I looked at this man, he didn't have his shirt on, so I thought he must've got into the wrong hotel room. First thought. You know 'you're in the wrong room bro.' ... And then realized he was wearing funny like, white yoga pants, like really tight, white ballet-type pants and like Aladdin golden slippers. And I looked down at him and thought 'wow, this isn't a man. This is an angel, you know this is where you may be entertaining strangers but you're entertaining angels Hebrews 13:5. Literally this is like Abraham thought three men came to his tent and it turned out to be the Lord and two angels but he thought it was three men. He like told his wife to go get the fattened calf and you know Genesis 18, he said three men are coming to have dinner with me, they were actually angels. That was what happened to me, and so this angel then turned around and I saw like out of the angel's back, wings and feathers like an eagle. And the angel then, the man ... spread his wings and out came four wings. And I looked and inside his wings, feathers -- whatever you want to call it -- were gemstones of every kind, precious gemstones."
Bentley then claims the angel spoke to him saying: "'I'm like a cherubim and I work in the realms of glory.' 'I'm here to release the glory that will bring a favor that will release supernatural resources for the purpose of kingdom. And I am a financial angel from the highest realms of glory working with Heaven's economy." -- Todd Bentley
