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February 20, 2019

Blurring the Lines of Unity and Discernment

By Anthony Wade

It is easy to call for unity when you toss the bible out...

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If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. -- Galatians 5:25-26 (ESV)

https://www.charismanews.com/opinion/75262-why-we-need-to-stop-fighting-over-the-rapture-hell-and-beards

These are the end times beloved. These are the times that will see more and more who profess Christ drift away from Him and towards the eventual one world religion. These are the days that the people who stand before Christ and say "Lord Lord" exponentially grow under the spell of the purpose driven mega church assurances contained within the false salvation they sell. Increasingly, we will see doctrine marginalized and maligned and discernment portrayed as legalism and unloving. We need to be wary of this and stop to diagnose it correctly lest we succumb as well to the dangers of false teaching which the bible is replete with warnings of. The above article is another such attempt to blur the lines of doctrine in a call for pious sounding unity based upon carnality and not scripture. Let us reason together once more beloved.

"John Wesley followed a time-tested approach: "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, charity." Wesley believed that the spirit of charity needs to take into consideration the limits of human understanding. He observed, "To be ignorant of many things and to be mistaken in some is the necessary condition of humanity" and therefore, "As to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think." So what are the essentials? For example, do they include a specific view of eschatology or hell? There are four biblically backed views of eschatology and four of hell and a lot of church splits have happened over these views. The church I was saved in had a church split over whether men should have beards or not! Is that really an essential? Is that really worth starting a new denomination over?" -- Mark Virkler

No it is not but Mark Virkler knows that full well. The silly split over beards is an exaggeration to get us to lower our discernment guards. No one is suggesting splitting denominations over beards. That is asinine. The problem with Wesley's argument is who gets to define the essentials? I also agree that eschatology is not a subject worth dividing over unless you espouse some "hell-less" doctrine. Make no mistake about it though beloved. This opening paragraph is solely designed to make a later unreasonable pitch appear reasonable from the start. Virkler then briefly turns to the Apostles Creed, which he uses to discuss how he thinks the apostles lived as a model for us today:

"Since the Apostles' Creed does not cover how the apostles lived, let's move on and explore that next.

The Essential Lifestyle: Live by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25)." -- Mark Virkler

Here we start to see the true agenda come out. Virkler laid the trap with fair points and seeming good intent but eventually we see his doctrine revealed which simply does not line up with Scripture. The tag line "live by the spirit" means something to Virkler and the circles he travels in. it is the same expression used by the partakers of the various heresies of Bethel Church and IHOP. It is neck deep in the false signs and lying wonders network of churches that emphasize the supernatural over the biblical. Now, does Galatians 5:25 say live by the spirit? Absolutely. Look at the key verses however for the context, which Virkler astutely avoids. What can one say about living in the spirit then? Can we say what Virkler believes? Not based on the text. We can say that it means we should stay in step with the spirit. We can say it means to not become conceited, provoking others or envying others. The preceding context shows that it means to not walk by the flesh and reviews the fruits of the spirit. Not one mention of supernatural jibber-jabber. This is why it is important to let the bible define the essentials and not Mark Virkler or any man. It is easy to take "live by the spirit" and turn it into a sound bite. It is harder to do the work of a Berean and see what God actually meant when He said it.

"We are created in God's image and are to rule and reign with Him (Gen. 1:26-28)." -- Mark Virkler

Sigh. No Mark. God does not need co-Gods. I challenge you beloved to go read Genesis 1:26-28 and see if you can find where it says we are to rule and reign with God. This is just the same old sin that Lucifer was cast down from heaven for. Ironically, it is the same sin that Eve would fall victim to just two chapters later. Here however, God is merely saying that Adam and Eve are given dominion over plants and animals. That is never good enough however for the crowd that wants to ascend to the throne of the Most High.

"Having God's Spirit/breath allows us intimate daily communion with God. This was God's original intent and has never changed (Gen. 2:7; 3:8; John 20:22).

Sin breaks our intimacy with God, causing us to live under law (Gal. 5:18; Rom. 8).

Jesus modeled God's original intent, living in intimacy with God, doing nothing of His own initiative, but only what He heard and saw His Father doing (John 5:19, 20, 30; 8:26-38)." -- Mark Virkler

While the explicit message here is correct, the implicit call for "intimacy" is problematic. Words have meaning in our world beloved. Intimacy is routinely used to denote some form of sensual closeness. What happens within Charismatic circles is intimacy morphs into this carnal closeness with God. We see people thinking they are "lovers" with Christ or soaking in prayer. Intimacy without a proper understanding of His lordship is dangerous ground to build upon.

"Jesus' death released many provisions to mankind, including becoming a "partaker of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:1-6), freedom from sin's power (Rom. 8), new life in Christ (Gal. 2:20), restored intimacy with God (Jn. 10:27; Rom. 8:14), restored capacity to rule and reign (Eph. 2:6), and commission and power to overthrow the kingdom of darkness through healing and deliverance just as Jesus did (1 John 3:8; Matt. 12:27; Luke 11:20)." -- Mark Virkler

The partaker of the divine nature is only related to overcoming sin through Christ but I want to come back to his reassertion of the restored capacity to rule and reign. There never was this capacity to begin with. God did not create man to rule with Him as an equal. Only the wickedly deceitful heart of man can think so. Ephesians 2:6 refers to a future time when we will sit with Christ in heavenly places; not today. Do you see how easy it is to twist scripture beloved? Look at the last statement of doctrine here from Mark Virkler -- that we have a commission and power to overthrow the kingdom of darkness through healing and deliverance just as Jesus did. He even lists three verses hoping you are too lazy to actually look them up. Here they are:

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. -- 1John 3:8 (ESV)

And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. -- Matthew 12:27 (ESV)

But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. -- Luke 11:20 (ESV)

The first verse states that Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. This is of course through His salvation by defeating death and the grave. The Matthew verse is Jesus saying He cast out demons and the Luke verse is the same. There is absolute no commission for us in these verses. There is no mention of any power we have been given to overthrow the kingdom of darkness and certainly no mention of healing or deliverance. This is all NAR code-speak without a shred of biblical basis. The bible says to resist the devil and he will flee. I know, not as sexy.

"We speak things into existence: God spoke the worlds into existence (Gen. 1 & 2). We are made in His image, and we also create as we speak (Heb. 11:3; Prov. 18:21; Mark 11:23, 24), with our goal being to speak the things God has spoken to us.

As imitators of Christ, we can say: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed" (Luke 4:18)." -- Mark Virkler

Wow. First of all, we do not speak things into existence. The bible is clear that this is a power God alone possesses. Hebrews 11 reiterates that God has this power, not man. Mark 11 and Proverbs 18 are favorite verses to twist from the word faith crowd and in no way suggest we have the power of creation. If this wasn't brazenly arrogant enough, Virkler triples down by claiming the moment Christ revealed Himself as his own. Again, wow. Now he reviews errors we need to avoid.

"Error 1: To reject, condemn, attack and call people heretics when they disagree with us. We choose blessing rather than cursing (James 3:10). We respect those who disagree without becoming disagreeable. By choosing this, we obey Christ's command to show honor (1 Pet. 2:17, 3:9), and prove to the world we are His children, in that we love one another (John 13:35). Maintaining honor and love are some of the weightier issues Jesus spoke of in Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42." -- Mark Virkler

Again a poor word-faith interpretation of scripture. It is not a blessing to allow someone to mangle the word of God. It is not a curse to properly discern as the bible tells us to do. Discernment ministries reject, condemn, and attack doctrine that disagrees with the bible, not the individual minister. The crucial mistake Virkler makes here is in assuming everyone who can spell Jesus is his brethren. Yes we are to show love for each other within the body of Christ but wolves are not my brethren. The bible says to mark them.

"Error 2: Believing you can't learn from non-Christians (For example, "You can't learn anything from a New Ager."). God granted revelation to Pharaoh, an evil king (Gen. 41) as well as to Belshazzar (Dan. 5). God gave insight to Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, as to how to govern (Ex. 18). Everyone can receive God's revelation. Therefore we can learn from all." -- Mark Virkler

Uh, no. Bible interpretation does not work like this. Because you can point to three times in 6000 years that God gave glimpses of insight to pagans; that does not mean we therefore can learn from all unbelievers. That is like saying God spoke through a donkey once so we should listen to all donkeys. It is an illogical leap. You must understand that Mark Virkler espouses doctrine that loves this world, which is why he has no issue listening to their experts. The reality however is if I wish to learn something carnal, I can certainly learn it from someone unsaved but if I want to learn something eternal, why would I turn to someone who thinks my beliefs are pure foolishness? More importantly, if I have the final revealed will of God in His word -- why would I want a carnal opinion on anything?

"Error 3: To live in reaction to error. Some suggest we should live in reaction to the New Age, making sure we don't do anything similar to what they do. The Bible never instructs us to live in reaction to error. We are to explore truth and live in the truth. We believe what the Bible and the Spirit instruct us to believe, period! We do not care if every cult group or no cult group believes things similar to what we believe." -- Mark Virkler

Ooh, this is quite revealing. Apparently, Virkler has faced criticism for believing as a cult and it struck a nerve. What he is missing in his anger is the fact that his interpretation of scripture is so skewed to begin with that I assume the criticism was correct. If you "explore the truth" and think the bible says we are to reign with God and that we can speak things into existence then I am going to say that you either did not explore the bible or you do not have the indwelt Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth. How disturbing it would be to me if a cult actually believed what I was espousing! At the very least I would have to examine my doctrine to make sure no leaven had snuck in! The truth is that Mark Virkler's doctrine is very cultish. Many have described IHOP and Bethel as cults. They center on a cult of personality preacher and the bible is cast aside as the final arbiter of truth. Sorry Mark, if the cult fits, wear it.

"Error 4: To believe that the Bible, coupled with man's reason, is enough to discover truth. We believe the Bible is the inerrant, authoritative, divinely-inspired Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16). Even as Jesus "opened the Scriptures" to the disciples on the Emmaus road (Luke 24:32), so today, we need the Holy Spirit to assist us by opening the Scriptures to our understanding (Prov. 3:5). We "reason together" with God (Isa. 1:18) rather than reasoning on our own. We ask God for wisdom and tune to the river of the Holy Spirit Who flows within. This results in insight, illumination and revelation." -- Mark Virkler

While this sounds all pious it seems to set up the pretense of denying the sound basis of what the text says in favor of this "illumination." For example he took three scriptures that said nothing about God saying we can learn from unbelievers and concluded from them that we can. He took three scriptures that had nothing to do with overthrowing the kingdom of darkness through deliverance and healing and concluded there was proof for this. The reason why is he started with his doctrine and went verse fishing. That is not illumination beloved. It is scripture hijacking, also known as proof texting. The bottom line is we need to be protective of scripture as these end times deepen because the Mark Virkler's of the world will gather more and more people around them because they scratch itching ears. Who wouldn't rather hear that they should reign with God as opposed to being His servant? Guard your life and your doctrine closely beloved. The wolves are coming for them.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- February 20, 2019



Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

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