Time and again, I have wondered why the ministry has been so hard.  It has taken years to arrive at the point where we are at.  I have recently uncovered the problem.

The problem is the fact that I still hold on to the Doctrine of Imminence.   That the New Testament teaches Christ could return at any moment is a strong doctrine supporting the pre-trib rapture doctrine (see 1 Cor. 1:7; 16:22; Phil. 3:20; 4:5; 1 Thess. 1:10; Tit. 2:13; Heb. 9:28; Jam. 5:7-9; 1 Pet. 1:13; Jude 21: Rev. 3:11; 22:7, 12, 17, 20). Pretribulationists call this the doctrine of imminence. If Christ can return at any-moment, without the necessity of intervening signs or events, then it renders pretribulationism most likely and posttribulationism impossible. Imminence in relation to the rapture has been defined as consisting of three elements: “the certainty that He may come at any moment, the uncertainty of the time of that arrival, and the fact that no prophesied event stands between the believer and that hour.”

I have seen those who believe in the prophetic, healings, miracles, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit taken by some force other than by God away from the Doctrine of Imminence.   I have been pushed to deny the Doctrine of Imminence and to accept Dominion Theology, Latter Rain, and the Manifested Sons of God teachings.  I still stand firm against such teachings.  These teachings have almost taken the prophetic movement over.  They have seized the hearts of the saints making the saints look away from the Coming of the Lord to that of a now kingdom upon the earth.  

So as it were, there are two camps of the prophetic.  Those who follow still the Doctrine of Imminence and believe in the prophetic, healings, miracles, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are faced with a up hill battle to have a ministry.  However, we can overcome this and promote and defend the Doctrine of Imminence.

On rare occasions, some have criticized the ministry and me personally as being too critical.  I disagree.  I have never been critical in my life.  However, when I see error, I have to address it.  When I see heresy, I must confront it.  When I see error or heresy, I also must preach or teach against it in a way that will deal with the error or heresy alone.  Then, it is not criticism at all, but a correct stance of the Gospel and a spirit of teaching and preaching the Word of God so that people can flee error and heresy.

I do not believe that the ministry is the only one that is of God.  I do not believe that I am only going to heaven.  But I do believe that Jesus Christ is the only means, and that few will make it.  I do believe that we are in the midst of great deception.  I do believe that many of the saints of God are weak, lukewarm, and defenseless.  I do believe that few of the saints of God have any power or authority.  We are being deceived into thinking that we are powerful when we are being torn down piece by piece. 

Martin Luther as a reformer became very unyielding and bold in his stance for Christ.  He wanted the church as she was when she was young and powerful.  The church as it is today is a shadow of her former glory.  I pray that God will correct His church, change His church, and empower her so that she can become a church of authority, anointing, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and that of power.

Andrew Strom gives a negative report on the revival that is on going through the Ministry of Todd Bentley.    We are waiting for any good report to be noted.   Always in any movement there are positive and negative reports.   

Here is what Andrew Strom wrote:

Many of you will have already heard about the “Healing Revival” that has purportedly broken out in Lakeland, Florida. Today Charisma Magazine put out a piece on it entitled ‘A Holy Ghost Outbreak in Florida’ – “…Charismatics are flocking to the sleepy town of Lakeland, Fla. to attend evangelist Todd Bentley’s unconventional revival services.” Is Charisma preparing to hype this one to the skies like they did with Toronto and Rodney Howard-Browne? It seems perhaps they are.

But why am I opposed to this ‘Healing Revival’ so soon after it has been announced? -It is because I already know Todd Bentley’s ministry all too well, and this whole thing centers around him.

Todd Bentley actually has deep roots in the Prophetic movement, and he is one of the very few ministers that I have ever felt I had to publicly warn people about by name. -His ministry is that bad.

False “angel” encounters of the weirdest kind, gold dust, guided visualizations of the “Third Heaven” that are straight out of the New Age, etc. And yet there is a “power” with it that makes it all the more dangerous.

Here is how Charisma describes his Florida meetings-
“His methods are far from polished. When he prayed for people in Lakeland, he usually began by laying his hand on their heads and then yelling, “Bam!”

Often the people fell backward to the floor. After one elderly woman fell, Bentley told the audience: “She doesn’t know why she fell down.” The woman then laughed and said to him in the microphone: “Because you pushed me!” He prayed for her three more times that night, and she said she could hear better…

During the past three weeks people have testified of being healed from heart conditions, skin rashes and back problems, and many said scars disappeared…

Many charismatics are wondering if the protracted meetings will become a phenomenon similar to what happened in Rodney Howard-Browne’s meetings in Lakeland in 1993, at the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church in Canada in 1994 and at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola in 1995…” [END QUOTE]

Sadly, the Charismatic movement is in such a sick state today that it would not surprise me at all if this happens. (-I say this as a strong Spirit-filled, tongues-speaking believer myself. I am by no means opposed to genuine miracles). Have we completely forgotten the warnings of “Lying signs and wonders” in the Last Days?

Below is a testimony by Lynn Clark who is a Moderator at our website ‘RevivalSchool.com’. This is what she wrote about her involvement with Todd Bentley’s ministry:

“I decided to check out Patricia King and Todd Bentley and,
ignorant of their ‘third heaven’ guided visualizations, attended a five day conference of Patricia King and then two of Todd Bentley’s conferences and began to imagine third heaven visitations – guided visualization – still not realizing that these are actually spirits of darkness – the New Age calls them spirit guides – demons is what
they are. And so I bought Todd Bentley’s teaching on third heaven visitations and brought it home to listen to.
“I was in my living room laying on the floor listening to the teaching on how to visualize the third heaven and what to say and was getting caught up into his teaching and all of a sudden I began to shake uncontrollably and jerk and groan, and no sooner had this taken place I became frozen stiff – I could not move any part of my body and I knew this was a demon trying to take hold of me, and so with all the effort I could muster I cried out, “God save me – Jesus help me” – and as soon as I cried out to the Lord my body went limp.

God spared me that night and I will be forever grateful.
“I spent much of the night in tears asking God to forgive me – and renouncing all the hands layed on me and all the awful deception I had opened myself up to…” [END QUOTE]

ANDREW AGAIN: I myself have heard the tapes of Todd Bentley’s “Third Heaven Visualization” teachings, and I want to tell you – they are straight out of the New Age handbook. -Terrible stuff. And yet so widely accepted by thousands of Christians today.

Do these kinds of practices (above) produce a genuine ‘Healing Revival’? -These are the kinds of questions that we need to be asking Charisma Magazine. I leave it for you to decide.

URGENT – PLEASE FORWARD This EMAIL TO OTHERS.

Send feedback to- prophetic@revivalschool.com

God bless you all.

Andrew Strom.

 The following statement comes from a great man of God.  Many have suggested that it came from C. H. Spurgeon.  It may have, but the point is that the quotation is so in line with what is going on in the church, it must be cited again.

An evil resides in the professed camp of the Lord so gross in its imprudence that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate evil for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them. From speaking out as the Puritans did, the Church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses. My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the Church. If it is a Christian work why did not Christ speak of it? “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” That is clear enough. So it would have been if He has added, “and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel.” No such words, however, are to be found. It did not seem to occur to Him. Then again, “He gave some apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers, for the work of the ministry.” Where do entertainers come in? The Holy Spirit is silent concerning them. Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people or because they refused? The concert has no martyr roll. Again, providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all His apostles. What was the attitude of the Church to the world? “Ye are the salt,” not sugar candy-something the world will spit out, not swallow. Short and sharp was the utterance, “Let the dead bury their dead.” He was in awful earnestness!Had Christ introduced more of the bright and pleasant elements into His mission, He would have been more popular when they went back, because of the searching nature of His teaching. I do not hear Him say, “Run after these people, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow, something short and attractive with little preaching. We will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick, Peter, we must get the people somehow!” Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never sought to amuse them. In vain will the Epistles be searched to find any trace of the gospel amusement. Their message is, “Come out, keep out, keep clean out!” Anything approaching fooling is conspicuous by its absence. They had boundless confidence in the gospel and employed no other weapon. After Peter and John were locked up for preaching, the Church had a prayer meeting, but they did not pray, “Lord grant Thy servants that by a wise and discriminating use of innocent recreation we may show these people how happy we are.” If they ceased not for preaching Christ, they had not time for arranging entertainment. Scattered by persecution, they went everywhere preaching the gospel. They “turned the world upside down.” That is the difference! Lord, clear the Church of all the rot and rubbish the devil has imposed on her and bring us back to apostolic methods.

While I believe in the Prophetic Gifts and all other such manifestations of the Holy Spirit, I cannot accept all things that are on going in the Pentecostal and Charismatic circles.  I cannot accept the mixture of Christianity and New Age.  I cannot accept the New Age techniques being used by Christian leaders and Christian teachers.

Within these circles it seems as though babes are leading babes.  Many of these modern day manifestations that are flowing out of these circles are not genuine.  They are the result of fanaticism and hysteria wrought in the midst of psychological release or, even worse, the work of Satan.  But thank God, the Holy Spirit still works. So there are genuine workings of God. 

Many of us are seeking this and seeking that instead of seeking the Lord.  Every time a word is spoken of a revival, we think that the revival is of God without praying and checking it out.  I do believe that a new revival is coming, but it is not here.  We are receiving many counterfeit movements.  Thank God that there are some movements that are of God, but these are not that of which have been spoken of for the last thirty years.

I have witnessed several movements in the last thirty years.  Some have done great good and have truly come from God.  Others have not come from God, but have come to mislead the community of the saints.

Another revival is on the scene now.  This is another revival coming from those who promote Dominion Theology, the Latter rain movement, and the Manifested Sons of God. People who believe in all of these things have an over realized Eschatology.  They have placed themselves in the Millennial Reign of Christ when the Millennial kingdom had not as yet come.   Paul condemned this type of belief in 1 Cor. 4:8-21. 

1. The beginning of our church is God, not human ability or activity (1 Corinthians 6:3).
2. God’s part is always supernatural (1 Peter 2:21; 1 John 3:16; Ephesians 5:18-20). He breathes life into the church and causes it to grow through the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 1:5).
   1. Man’s part is to abide in Christ and to rely on the Spirit to bring change (John 15:5; Galatians 5:18).
   2. We abide in Christ because we rely on the Word of God (1 John 2:24; 1 John 3:24; John 15:10).
3. Consequences for Church
   1. The church will be centered on God, not on man.
   2. The minister must understand that he or she is unqualified to minister to anyone.
   3. It is God alone who can qualify (2 Corinthians 3:5-6; 1 Corinthians 3:6).
   4. It is God who equips us to minister, not ourselves (Romans 1:5).
   5. We can only do all things in Christ (Philippians 4:13).
   6. We must continue to abide in Christ (John 15:4-5).
   7. We must commit ourselves to the Word and prayer (Acts 6:4).
4. Our measuring stick is the Bible, nothing else (Isaiah 55:6-11).
   1. The Bible is inspired of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
   2. It is the final authority for Christian faith and practice.
   3. The Bible serves as the ultimate judge about what we believe as truth (John 16:13; 2 Peter 1:20-21).
5. Our focus is the moving of the Holy Spirit through His Gifts for breathing life into the saints to refresh them, bringing healings, miracles, deliverances, and other manifestations (1 Corinthians 12-13).
6. Our goal is for the church to be equipped with many mature Christians who are ready and willing to commit their lives to tearing down all strongholds whatever they may be (Ephesians 6:11-17; Colossians 1:28-29).
7. Mature Christians will have several other commitments:
   1. To Jesus Christ (Matthew 6:33).
   2. To family (1 Timothy 5:8).
   3. To the body of Christ (Galatians 6:10).
   4. To the work of Christ in the world (Galatians 6:10).
   5. Mature Christians are those grounded upon the Word, equipped with the necessary disciplines of the Christian faith, and equipped with prayer and with the manifestations of answered prayer. 
      1. Those saints who are willing to pay everything for Christ, sold out to Him, and willing to follow in obedience and faith to whatever He wants.
      2. Those who stand on their own faith.
      3. Those who can also pray for themselves.
8. Our atmosphere is for the Holy Spirit, His Holiness, and His glory (John 13:34-35; 1 Corinthians 12-13; Acts 1-2).
9. Our process is for saints to be reproduced into the realm of maturity (2 Timothy 2:2).