David Wilkerson varnar för Ekumenik

D.W. varnar för Ekumenik
David Wilkerson varnade för falsk enhet i Kristi kropp
Det är med ett oroligt hjärta som jag följer utvecklingen av den ekumeniska rörelse som talar om ”enhet i Kristi kropp”, där olika samfund och i förlängningen religioner blandas ihop (synkretism). Det jag syftar på är det grunddokument som går under namnet Charta Oecumenica. Dokumentet går ut på att Europas olika samfund och kyrkor närmar sig varandra, och i realiteten syftar det på den romersk-katolska kyrkan. Det låter fint och vackert, men under ytan kan jag se att det döljer sig företeelser och underordnanden som hotar det enda, sanna evangeliet. Ett konkret exempel är erkännandet av den eukaristiska nattvarden (offergången) som den katolska kyrkan har. Dokumentet hänvisar också till förbindelser med judar och muslimer – därtill möten med andra icke-monoteistiska religioner.

Hedniska religioner – gudaläror, trosläror, trosbekännelser, konfessioner, kyrkor, trossamfund, kulter, gudstjänster, liturgier, ritual kulter, hyllningar, tributer, uppvaktningar, gratulationer, hyllanden, hedersbevisningar, skatter, pålagor, avgifter, tributer, erkänslor, eloger, ersättningar, vedergällningar, gengåvor, ersättningar, surrogat, reserver, substitut, ritualer, ceremonier, ceremoniel, mönster, förlagor, förebilder, ideal, exempel, rättesnören, dekorer, figurer, mönstringar, motiv, bilder, symboler, underliggande strukturer, strukturer, förebild, modell, prototyp, mall, förlaga, ritning, ideal, dekor, figur, mönstring, motiv, symbol, bild, avbildning, avbild, bildstod, gudabild, beläte, vision, idé, föreställning, sceneri, anblick, scen, bildligt uttryck, symbol, bild, sinnebild, metafor, tecken, figur, emblem, förebud, varsel, omen, avtryck, fläck, ärr, fabrikat, varumärke, signatur, signum, bomärke, pseudonym, märke.

Med artikeln ”Finans krisen profetiskt förutsagd av Wilkerson?” (Världen idag, 22/10) i åtanke, varför inte stanna upp och fundera lite på vad Wilkersons ”Synen” (1973) kan tänkas säga om Charta Oecumenica: ”En världsomspännande superkyrka bildas genom en union mellan liberala ekumeniska protestanter och den romerska katolska kyrkan. De gör även gemensam sak politiskt. På detta sätt blir denna kyrka en av de mäktigaste religiösa faktorerna i världen. Denna superkyrka blir andlig endast till namnet. Man använder fritt Jesu Kristi namn, men är i själva verket antikristlig och politisk i sin verksamhet. Denna mäktiga kyrkounion kommer att engagera sig djupt i socialt arbete, väldiga välgörenhetsprogram och filantropisk verksamhet. Dess ledare gör storordiga uttalanden om vikten av att fylla alla människans behov och man kallar folk till förnyat intresse för sociala problem, politisk intervention och vidgat inflytande i världsfinanserna. Rom kommer att insistera på vissa eftergifter från de protestantiska ekumeniska ledarna och får sin vilja igenom.” Framtiden får utvisa om Wilkerson har rätt också denna gång.

Om nu olika samfund och kyrkor närmar sig den romersk-katolska kyrkan, betyder det alltså uttryckligen att samfunden och kyrkorna inte längre kan kalla sig för protestantiska. Ordet protestantism betyder just ”kyrklig riktning som utgår från Luthers brytning med den romersk-katolska kyrkan”. Den katolska biskopen Anders Arborelius lär ha sagt, att hans mål är att återkatolisera Sverige. Vad skulle Martin Luther ha sagt om allt detta, om han levt idag? Vid ett tillfälle svarade en frikyrkopastor i det katolska Polen helt desperat, då han fick höra om denna utveckling i Sverige: ”Är ni inte riktigt kloka! Hur kan ni närma er denna kyrka, som vi har blivit frälsta ifrån?”.
I min bibelläsning har jag stannat upp vid Galaterbrevet 1:6-10: ”Jag är förvånad över att ni så hastigt avfaller från honom som har kallat er genom Kristi nåd och vänder er till ett annat evangelium, fast det inte finns något annat. Däremot är det några som skapar förvirring bland er och vill förvränga Kristi evangelium (…).” Här syftar visserligen Paulus på judaismen, men orden grep ändå tag i mig och kanske har de något att säga oss i dag om denna kyrkliga rörelse jag just nu låtit beskriva?

Marcus Ahltun

Min egen iakttagelse!

Många är kallade men få är utvalda!

Tyvärr får Marcus undran stå obesvarad i denna fråga, forumet är fel, det blir liksom att fråga djävulen vad han anser om Bibeln! Artikeln är från Världen Idag!

De som redan har låtit sig fångas av något, någon har nämligen blivit dess träl!

Så utgör denna sammanblandade hop ett släkte av oduglig säd, korrupt och förlorad, fallen, förvillad, vanartad, urspårad, tillspillogiven, i upplöst massa!

De har fått en dom över sig, deras sinnen är förmörkade så de inte ser skenet från evangelium, de har ett och samma sinne till att tillbedja vilddjurets bild, så varför bygga på en annans grund, nej det enda rätta är att skilja sig från dessa så att man själv inte faller under samma dom, på grund av ohörsamhet och olydnad mot Guds Ord!

Svensk ”kyrkfromhet” har upplöst sig själva genom institutionell sacramentalism, en död religionsform, av hedniskt ursprung mixad med kristna värderingar! En styggelse inför Gud!

Ekumenikens tal om enhet i Kristi kropp är så vilseledande som den kan bli, ekumeniken är inte Kristi kropp, utan den representerar vilddjurets bild, så någon enhet kan det aldrig bli fråga om, så vill man förvrida enhetstanken till att förväxlas med denna hydra av missfoster till skapelse, en styggelse!

Ändock står flertalet av ”pastorer” och ledande figurer inom kyrkosamfunden och talar om enhet, med falsk kärlek, lösaktighet, och förleder mängder av människor in i villfarelser, och stympar dessa arma tills de har blivit så förhärdade att de ej längre kan höra vad Guds eget Ord lär!

Detta är majestätsbrott!

Denna mänskliga kyrktro eller folktro kan inget annat än upplösa sig själv, det är dess natur!

Skenkristendom har alltid en förledande, vilseförande ande och lära med sig, till att omstörta allt vad Guds Ord lär för att förväxla Guds avbild till vilddjurets bild!

Det behövs nämligen vad Upp 3 lär!

Upp 3:14 Och skriv till Laodiceas församlings ängel: "Så säger han som är Amen, den trovärdiga och sannfärdiga vittnet, begynnelsen till Guds skapelse:
Upp 3:15 Jag känner dina gärningar: du är varken kall eller varm. Jag skulle önska att du vore antingen kall eller varm.
Upp 3:16 Men nu, då du är ljum och varken varm eller kall, skall jag utspy dig ur min mun.
Upp 3:17 Du säger ju: 'Jag är rik, ja, jag har vunnit rikedomar och behöver intet'; och du vet icke att du just är eländig och ömkansvärd och fattig och blind och naken.
Upp 3:18 Så råder jag dig då att du köper av mig guld som är luttrat i eld, för att du skall bliva rik, och att du köper vita kläder till att kläda dig i, för att din nakenhets skam icke skall bliva uppenbar, och att du köper ögonsalva till att smörja dina ögon med, för att du skall kunna se.
Upp 3:19 'Alla som jag älskar, dem tuktar och agar jag.' Så gör nu bättring med all flit.
Upp 3:20 Se, jag står för dörren och klappar; om någon lyssnar till min röst och upplåter dörren, så skall jag gå in till honom och hålla måltid med honom och han med mig.
Upp 3:21 Den som vinner seger, honom skall jag låta sitta med mig på min tron, likasom jag själv har vunnit seger och satt mig med min Fader på hans tron.
Upp 3:22 Den som har öra, han höre vad Anden säger till församlingarna.

Som sagt få är utvalda!
Hur har Du och jag det?

Inlagt av Leif Berg

Vad hände sedan efter David Wilkerson:s besök i Pingstkyrkan

David Wilkerson: Gud har en kontrovers med svensk kristenhet

Vad hände sedan?

Den Svenska ”kyrkfromheten” har övergått från apati till ett tillstånd av likgiltighet, liknöjdhet, och försoffning, ombildade, transporterade till en fångenskap i klorna på hänsynslös exploatering, anpassning, påverkan så att man idag står i upplösningstillstånd!

Man har blivit mer toleranta, liberala, vidsynta, allmänna, generella, obestämda, vaga, förhärdade!

Kontroversen med Gud har övergått till äktenskapsskillnad, slut på ett äktenskap, söndring, förruttnelse, sönderfall, kaos, oordning, upplösning, kaos, sönderfall, oordning, avslutning epilog, yttersta gräns, ända, slutstadier, dödar, förbrukad, använd, avslutad, förbi, till ända, ändad, stäng, lås, bomma för!

Likt Israel i öknen har de gjort sig en egen guldkalv!

2Mo 32:4 och han tog emot guldet av dem och formade det med en mejsel och gjorde därav en gjuten kalv. Och de sade: "Detta är din Gud, Israel, han som har fört dig upp ur Egyptens land."
2Mo 32:8 De hava redan vikit av ifrån den väg som jag bjöd dem gå; de hava gjort sig en gjuten kalv. Den hava de tillbett, åt den hava de offrat, och sagt: 'Detta är din Gud, Israel, han som har fört dig upp ur Egyptens land."

Apg 7:41 Och de gjorde i de dagarna en kalv och buro sedan fram offer åt avguden och gladde sig över sina händers verk.

Nu står den ljumma hopen i förbund med hedendom, antikristendom, påvekyrka, världskyrka, detta ska bliva dem tillräknat på den dagen, då de ska göra räkenskap för sina gärningar!

Nedan från David Wilkersons budskap

David Wilkerson: Gud har en kontrovers med svensk kristenhet


David Wilkerson berättade att han fick budskapet från Gud på sitt hotellrum ett par timmar innan mötet började. Herren talade: "Jag har en kontrovers med den evangeliska kyrkan i Sverige."

Vad betydde det, frågade han. Vad har det med mig att göra. Jag vet ju ingenting om den svenska evangeliska kyrkan. När jag talar om den evangeliska kyrkan, menar jag den lutherska kyrkan, pingstkyrkan, frälsningsarmén, alla evangeliska kyrkor.

Gud talade till mitt hjärta. Jag har en kontrovers med den evangeliska kyrkan i Sverige och Skandinavien. Herre, vad vill du att jag ska göra åt det? Herren sa: Du ska profetera. Gud ledde hans tankar till Amos 3:1-8 som var grunden för hans predikan på 15-mötet denna fredag.

Mal 3:1 Se, jag skall sända ut min ängel, och han skall bereda väg för mig. Och med hast skall han komma till sitt tempel, den Herre, som I åstunden, ja, förbundets ängel, som I begären, se, han kommer, säger HERREN Sebaot.
Mal 3:2 Men vem kan uthärda hans tillkommelses dag, och vem kan bestå, när han uppenbarar sig? Ty han skall vara såsom en guldsmeds eld och såsom valkares såpa.
Mal 3:3 Och han skall sätta sig ned och smälta silvret och rena det; han skall rena Levi söner och luttra dem såsom guld och silver; och sedan skola de frambära åt HERREN offergåvor i rättfärdighet.
Mal 3:4 Och Juda offergåvor och Jerusalems skola då behaga HERREN väl likasom i forna dagar och i förgångna år.

Mal 3:5 Ja, jag skall komma till eder för att hålla dom, och jag skall vara ett snarfärdigt vittne mot trollkarlar, äktenskapsbrytare och menedare, så ock mot dem som förhålla dagakarlen hans lön eller förtrycka änkan och den faderlöse eller vränga rätten för främlingen, men icke frukta mig, säger HERREN Sebaot.

Mal 3:6 Ty jag, HERREN, har icke förändrats, och I, Jakobs barn, haven icke heller hört upp:
Mal 3:7 allt ifrån edra fäders dagar haven I vikit av ifrån mina stadgar och icke hållit dem Vänden om till mig, så vill jag vända om till eder, säger HERREN Sebaot. Nu frågen I: "Varutinnan skola vi vända om?"
Mal 3:8 Menen I då, att en människa får röva från Gud? Ty I röven ju från mig. Åter frågen I: "På vad sätt hava vi rövat från dig?" Jo, i fråga om tionden och offergärden.


Den kontrovers Gud har med den evangeliska kyrkan är ett problem, ett enda ord, som Gud gav mig, apati. Han sa, Jag kan inte gå med er, Jag kan inte göra vad Jag vill göra, trots kallelsen på väckelse, trots allt detta.

Jag ser apati, säger Herren.

Ni har kommit till den punkt när ni har förlorat kraften, den Helige Ande, på grund av apati. Ni är nöjda med att komma till kyrkan, gå till programmet, formaliteterna, organisera och försöka finna makt i samhället. Ni har blivit toleranta och det är vad Gud hör både från kyrkan och samhällets toppar.

Nej, säger Gud, ni är ljumma, ni tolererar att ni inte får tala emot homosexualitet från era talarstolar. Det finns ingen som böjer knä och i bönens kraft bryter ner dessa fästen. Det finns inga tårar, det finns ingen smärta, för att vi evangeliska kristna är så toleranta.

Den Helige Ande säger: Det är apati. Receptet mot apati är NÖD. Men det är inte många som vill höra det. Vi vill inte gråta. Om vi vill ha väckelse så skulle bönemötet vara den mest besökta kvällen. Det här är ert andliga "11 september". Högmodet är Amerikas synd, och apatin är den evangeliska kyrkans synd i Sverige.

David Wilkerson och hans son Gary besökte Filadelfiakyrkan Stockholm 27-29 maj 2004. Pastor Stefan Claar säger till de båda om deras besök: "Ni har rört till det ordentligt för oss. Vid ett seminarium så var vi helt förkrossade." Seminariet ifråga var det som David Wilkerson höll fredag kl. 15.00 när han förmedlade vad Gud bett honom säga: "Herren har något emot de evangeliska kyrkorna i Sverige. Det Gud har emot de svenska församlingarna kan sammanfattas i ett enda ord: apati. Detta är er andliga väckarklocka, ert "elfte september". Och boten mot apati är nöd." Dagen 040529.

David Wilkerson: Ni har förlorat Guds kraft. Vakna ur apatin! Dagen 040601.

Inlagt av Leif Berg

Watchman Nee, The Latent Power of the Soul

“A great number of people desire to have joy in their feeling. The so-called holy laugh is an extreme case in point. It is taught that if a person is filled with the Holy Spirit he invariably will have this holy laugh. He who claims to have this kind of laughing cannot control himself. Without any reason he will laugh and laugh and laugh as if infected by a certain disease, and will appear to be partially insane.”

Once in a certain meeting, after the sermon was concluded, it was announced that everybody should seek for this holy laugh. All began to beat tables or chairs, jumping and leaping all around, until not long afterwards this so-called holy laughing came. People would merely look at one another and break out laughing. The more they thought about it the funnier it became. And so they could not contain themselves and kept on laughing. What is this? Can this possibly be the fullness of the Holy Spirit? Can this be His work? No, this is plainly one of the works of the soul.”

Watchman Nee, The Latent Power of the Soul (1932).

See also http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2007/12/17/godfrey-the-godly-giggler-a-case-of-holy-laughter/ and http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2007/12/17/rodney-howard-browne-says-you-have-to-be-drunk/ and http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/signs-wonders-bizarre-spiritual-manifestations/ and http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/01/05/on-false-prophets-strange-fire-wolves-in-sheeps-clothing/ and http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/03/30/modern-day-signs-and-wonders-hypnotism-and-trancework/ and http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2007/08/04/the-toronto-blessingor-curse/ for other related articles.

From:http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/category/watchman-nee/

Inlagt av Leif Berg

Modern Day Signs and Wonders

Modern Day Signs and Wonders, Hypnotism and Trancework

I found the following excellent article by Lawrence A. Pile.

Any readers who do not know me well yet, should know I am not against true miracles, signs and wonders, but I am against deception, charlatanism and quakery in the modern day church – and there is plenty of deception and charlatanism abounding within it, unfortunately.

And where there is not intentional charlatanism, there is ignorance and spiritual deception in its place from counterfeit words, gifts and works from false brethren, false teachers, false prophets, and/or false spirits who have not been tried and tested as per scriptural command - the ones fooled being mainly naive, but well meaning and sincere Christians, or those that do not love the truth and prefer their ears being tickled instead with soothing words from false prophets. ‘Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies..’ I only hear what I want to hear. I don’t really believe the prosperity gospel is what Christ taught, but I want to believe it, so I will believe it and decieve myself…..

Many preachers deliberately use well known hypnotic techniques to manipulate their flock and to hype their audience to manifest supposed ’spiritual’ manifestations (watch ‘Dr’ Rodney Howard Browne, for example, he is a classic and obvious case: his body language, the way he waves his arms and orchestrates the audience and the way his voice goes up and down, the way he laughs to get them laughing, the keywords he throws in etc etc – it is classic manipulation and it is intentional and well worked), and it is time the church wised up to it, and realised what is of God, and what is just hype…..or worse.

It’s not new though. Even John Wesley, several hundred years ago, was criticised in his day for playing on the human psyche and promoting emotionalism and fleshly manifestations in his revivals – which was mistaken for spiritual signs and wonders in his time too. Just like the modern Toronto Blessing meetings or the Pensacola Revival Meetings, or the Sunderland Revival meetings, or the Holy Trinity Brompton meetings, or the River meetings, or whatever you want to call them meetings, some people went to his meetings only to manifest and have a good time – true holy rollers! And this type of behaviour was not uncommon during the New England revivals either, during the so-called Great Awakening – all sorts of bizarre behaviour (sacred theatre) went on then (just like today, it’s nothing new), which promoted the great puritan theologian, Jonathan Edwards, to write several very long pieces on the manifestations, including The Religious Affections, and the more critical Charles Chauncy to write a few choice words. (See here for Chauncy’s wonderful piece on the French Prophets, forerunners for all sorts of quakery and milleniast cults and modern day charismaticism and pentecostalism and numerous other ’spiritual’ manifestations. http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/01/05/on-false-prophets-strange-fire-wolves-in-sheeps-clothing/ )

The Chicken Little Syndrome and Spirituality

By Lawrence A. Pile

Several years ago, while living south of Oakland, California, a couple of friends and I drove to Berkeley to visit a couple of bookstores near the University of California. It was a Saturday and parking places were scarce. After driving around the Telegraph Avenue area several times (and ignoring my friends’ advice that I do what many others had done and park illegally) I finally found a spot by a parking meter. I quickly pulled in and we set off on our bookstore prowl. While browsing in one store, I suddenly realized I had neglected to put a quarter in the parking meter! I had been so intent on parking legally, that I had ended up nevertheless parking illegally! By now I figured I had already received a ticket from the diligent meter cops that roamed the area. However, returning to the car after a couple hours of shopping, I was surprised and elated to find no ticket on my windshield! Half in jest, I exclaimed to my friends, “It’s a good thing God looks out for children and idiots!”

Many years before that incident I might not have said that in any degree of jest. I had come to believe that almost every event in life was directly caused by God for some purpose. I now know that such a view is much too simplistic, and ultimately can lead one to take less responsibility for one’s own actions. As a child growing up in a residential suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, I learned a different, but similar, way of thinking that had the opposite consequence of assuming too much responsibility for my actions. Perhaps you, too, learned the frightening “fact” that if you stepped on a crack in the sidewalk you would “break your mother’s back.” Or if you walked under a ladder, looked in a cracked mirror, or had a black cat walk across your path you would have bad luck. Like you, though, as I grew older I learned that such “facts” are false, and I needn’t fear breaking my mother’s back or bringing bad luck on myself by such things. (However, I frequently found myself stepping over sidewalk cracks “just in case”!)

These superstitions are called the “Chicken Little Syndrome.” You remember the story. Chicken Little was sleeping under an oak tree when, “out of the blue,” an acorn hit him on the head and woke him up. Not knowing what hit him, Chicken Little reached the only “logical” conclusion he could think of: the sky was falling! Having reached this conclusion, he then ran around “like a chicken with his head cut off” yelling, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” By the end of the story he had convinced most of his neighbors that the sky was indeed falling, and they were all taken by intense panic until one wise animal investigated further and learned the truth. I believe many people are guilty of succumbing to the same Chicken Little Syndrome when it comes to spiritual matters and alleged spiritual matters. Much like my childhood belief in various common superstitions, we too often, like Chicken Little, draw false conclusions from inadequate, inappropriate, or even no evidence. Often the consequences are slight, but occasionally they can be of major impact on our lives, even changing our beliefs and way of life. Consider the following scenes and see if you can determine what is happening in each.

Four Scenes

Scene 1: A line of people winds from the floor of the auditorium and trails across the platform to the visiting speaker as mellow music plays in the background. The man says a few words to each person, then vigorously presses his thumb in the middle of each one’s forehead, while speaking in a foreign language and instructing him or her to “Breathe! Breathe!” Instantly the person drops to the floor, seemingly unconscious. The speaker goes from one to the next down the line, occasionally directing a person off to the side, but otherwise having the same effect on each one. Before long bodies are lying all over the platform.

Scene 2: Another line of people stretches up to another platform in another city. A small band plays slow, mellow music as the guest speaker similarly says a few words to each person and places the palm of his hand on their foreheads. The man frequently shouts out phrases of a foreign-sounding language. Several of these people likewise collapse onto the floor of the platform. Those who don’t, nevertheless walk away in ecstasy, staggering as if drunk.

Scene 3: In yet a third meeting room a man is surrounded by swaying men and women as, one by one, he passes among them vigorously pressing his thumb on their foreheads, sending them into rapturous ecstasy. Music plays and the congregants sing harmoniously. As the man moves through the crowd he occasionally utters words in a strange accent.

Scene 4: Another line of people weaves to the front of an auditorium to receive the touch of the speaker’s hand on their foreheads. Many of these folks will also fall to the floor as if unconscious. After a few minutes they rise and move away in ecstasy, several swaying and dancing to the sound of the up-tempo music played by a small orchestra.

What Is Happening In Each Of These Scenes?

What is happening in each of these scenes? In spite of the many similarities among them, there are some very significant differences.

Scene 1 is from a film called “Captive Minds: Hypnosis and Beyond,” produced by the National Film Board of Canada. The scene is of a stage hypnotist in Quebec (he is speaking French, hence the “foreign language”). The film shows a line of people coming forward to be hypnotized as part of the hypnotist’s public performance. The people clearly want to be hypnotized. In addition, they believe in the hypnotist’s ability, having perhaps already witnessed various demonstrations of his skill. The mellow classical music being played over the loudspeakers helps to create the proper relaxed mood. The hypnotist judges a few as inadequately prepared to be hypnotized, and shunts them to the side while he moves on to the next person. Then, just as I have described, he simply presses his thumb on the middle of each person’s forehead (albeit vigorously) and the person slides or falls to the floor immediately hypnotized.

Scene 2 is from a film entitled “Marjoe,” a documentary made with the full assistance and cooperation of former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner. Gortner decided to make the film to show what his life as a child and adolescent preacher was like. He made one last preaching tour, visiting Pentecostal churches and tent meetings in various parts of the country, preaching energetically in every place. At each meetings conclusion Marjoe called for all to come forward who desired healing, the filling of the Holy Spirit, or some other blessing of God. In each preaching venue, the same effects resulted: people were “healed,” “slain in the Spirit,” “filled with the Spirit,” and variously “blessed with the presence of God.” The only problem was that Marjoe did not himself believe what he preached, and claims he never did. In fact, in the course of the film he enunciates beliefs that are more in line with New Age or Eastern religious ideas rather than with Christianity. And yet the people upon whose heads he placed his hands experienced the “touch of God” or so they thought. Marjoe was the consummate con. One of the saddest scenes in the movie is a lunchtime conversation between Marjoe and a Pentecostal preacher and his wife. The wife remarks, “There are so many preachers nowadays… you can’t have ‘em but only once, and after that you can’t have ‘em back, because they’re not honest, and they don’t treat the people right, either, y’know. And if they don’t treat the people right, the people won’t back ‘em up.” Then she adds, “That’s one thing we appreciate about your ministry you’ve always blessed our people.” Her husband, the pastor, then says, “When ya tell ‘em somethin’, they believe it.” While the wife solemnly nods in agreement Marjoe replies, “I think nowadays people have seen so much happen they can tell one o’these shysters when they come through, ’cause they’ve heard everything.” If only it were possible to strike a gong and yell at that pastor and his wife, “Wake up! You’re talking to a shyster now!” Even tho believed to be spiritual phenomena.

Scene 3 is also from “Captive Minds.” In this case the man at the focal point is not a stage hypnotist, nor a fake preacher/faith healer, but an Indian guru, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. In a voice-over in the film the viewer hears Rajneesh say, “Without a Living Master, no method, howsoever beautiful it is, works. In fact, it is the Master … that works. That is the real thing, not the methods. With a live Master everything works. With a dead Master nothing works. It is not the method it is the Master. It is the man behind. It is the golden touch, the magical touch of the Master. It is his charisma that works. Being with the Living Master is what works.” And indeed it seems to. His disciples are transported to levels of ecstasy seldom reached, and they conclude they have come in contact with God.

Scene 4 is typical of what happens in tens of thousands of churches, schools, and storefront gathering places around the world usually twice every Sunday and at other times in the week.

What differentiates Scenes 1,2, and 3 from Scene 4? Pastors and worship leaders who are totally sincere and devout are producing the same, or very similar, results that hypnotists, frauds, and gurus produce. What, if anything, makes one “legitimate” and “genuine” visitations of the Holy Spirit, and the other merely “psychological” or even “demonic”? Is the Christian commitment of the preacher in Scene 4 sufficient to understand the ecstatic phenomena he calls forth as being from God? Is it possible the evidence is being misinterpreted in line with the presuppositions, beliefs, hopes, and desires of the participants?

Mind Manipulation

A Psychological Coin Trick In my work at Wellspring in helping victims of cults and spiritual abuse understand what happened to them I often demonstrate a simple coin trick. I place three coins on a table and keep a fourth in one hand. Let’s say the coins on the table are a quarter, a nickel, and a penny, and the one in my hand is also a penny. I don’t tell the person what coin I have in my hand; rather, I say, “I can read your mind, and I have already predicted what you are about to do. The coin in my hand will prove to you that this is so. Now, what I want you to do is to pick up any two of the coins on the table.” Let’s say he picks up the quarter and the nickel, leaving the penny on the table. As I show him the penny in my hand I say, “Was there any way I could have known you would leave the penny on the table?” The answer, of course, is “No,” and he begins to believe that maybe I do have ESP. But then I tell him to pick up a different combination of coins. So he picks up the quarter and the penny, leaving the nickel on the table. Now I say, “Give me either one of the coins you just picked up.” Let’s say he gives me the penny. Then I say to him as I again show him the penny in my hand, “Ah, ha! Was there any way I could have known you would give me the penny?” Again, the answer is “No.” But by now he’s beginning to see what I’m doing. Finally, I tell him that there is only one other possible outcome of the trick. Instead of leaving the penny on the table, or picking it up with another coin and then giving it me, he could have picked it up but then kept it while giving me the other coin. I explain that in that case I would have shown him the penny in my hand and said, “Ah, ha! Was there any way I could have known you would keep the penny?” Now he understands that all I’m doing is interpreting what he does after he does it. I don’t say at the start that the coin in my hand will be the same as the coin he leaves or gives me or keeps. I wait till he makes his move and then I only interpret what he does afterwa seem like I have psychic powers.

A television program called “A Class Divided,” originally broadcast on Public Broadcasting’s Frontline in 1985, contains several examples of this type of manipulation. A third grade teacher named Jane Elliott is shown conducting an innovative but daring classroom exercise to teach her pupils about discrimination. She divides her class into two groups according to the color of their eyes: blue or brown. One day the blue-eyed children are the superior group, the next day the brown-eyed children are. The first day Mrs. Elliott “proves” to the children that “brown-eyed people are not as good as blue-eyed people” by using a psychological version of the coin trick. She says to Brian, “Is your father brown-eyed? …One day you came to class and you told us that he kicked you… Do you think a blue-eyed father would kick his son? My dad’s blue-eyed he’s never kicked me. Greg’s dad’s blue-eyed he’s never kicked him… This is a fact blue-eyed people are better than brown-eyed people.” The next day, however, Mrs. Elliott employs the same psychological coin trick to “prove” just the opposite. She points out that Russell forgot his glasses that day, but Susan didn’t. Because Russell has blue eyes and Susan has brown, that “proves” that brown-eyed people are superior to blue-eyed ones. Obviously, none of the examples Mrs. Elliott uses proves her conclusions, and at the end of the exercise she helps the children understand that neither eye color nor skin color determines superiority or inferiority, but that those determinations are made on the basis of inadequate and inappropriate evidence.

Perhaps the most remarkable result of this exercise was the fact that the children actually performed better on the days they were in the “superior” group. Mrs. Elliott gave tests in spelling, reading, and math two weeks before the exercise, each day of the exercise, and two weeks later. She found that, almost without exception, the pupils’ grades “went up on the day they were on the top, down on the day they were on the bottom, and then maintained a higher level for the rest of the year.” I believe what this shows is that our behavior is often at least partly a result of the way other people treat us, and is not necessarily a true measure of our character or intellect.

Holy Laughter And New Age Gurus

“Holy Laughter”? Let’s return to the four scenes. Much has been written in the last few years about the so-called “Toronto Blessing” or “Holy Laughter” movement. Every account, whether pro or con, has described the phenomena the same way: in the context of a church service or Christian conference, a preacher (often Rodney Howard-Browne or someone who has been influenced by him) induces uncontrollable laughter in most of those in attendance. Frequently those so affected emit other noises, such as barking, roaring, and other animal sounds, as well as weeping. The affected people also evidence unusual bodily movements, such as shaking, dancing, staggering as if drunk, stiffening as if paralyzed, and falling to the floor with subsequent inability to get up, sometimes for hours. Most critics of the movement point to the complete lack of scriptural precedent for such phenomena. Others refer to the remarkable similarity of the phenomena with what is observed in numerous non-Christian and even non-religious settings.

Beyond the stage hypnotist, the fake faith healer, and guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, many other Hindu gurus have been known to impart a similar “grace” to their devotees. In a sidebar to “Holy Laughter or Strong Delusion?” by Warren Smith (published in the Spiritual Counterfeits Project Newsletter, Fall 1994). Smith and Danny Aguirre give “examples of Holy Laughter in other religions.” Included among the examples were the Siddha Yoga Dham cult of the late Swami Baba Muktananda, the African Kung Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, the practice of “latihan” in the Malaysia-originated cult Subud, and Qigong (an ancient Chinese practice). In the case of Muktananda, he was to “awaken” the kundalini energy that, according to Hindu belief,

“is a powerful energy source lying dormant in the form of a coiled serpent at the base of the human spine. When freed it reputedly has the capacity to effect great physical and spiritual healings” (Smith and Aguirre).

Smith and Aguirre quote New Age authors Christian and Stanislav writing that

“individuals involved in this process might find it difficult to control their behavior; during powerful rushes on kundalini energy, they often emit various involuntary sounds, and their bodies move in strange and unexpected patterns. Among the most common manifestations…are unmotivated and unnatural laughter or crying, talking tongues…and imitating a variety of animal sounds and movements.”

Muktananda’s physical touch produced remarkable

“manifestations includ[ing] uncontrollable laughing, roaring, barking, hissing, crying, shaking, etc. Some devotees became mute or unconscious. Many felt themselves being infused with feelings of great joy and peace and love. At other times, the ‘fire’ of kundalini was so overpowering they would find themselves involuntarily hyperventilating to cool themselves down (per former Muktananda follower Joy Smith)” (Smith and Aguirre).

Smith and Aguirre quote the Grofs concerning rituals of the Kung Bushmen during which

“[t]hey are often unable to maintain an upright position and are overcome by violent shaking. Following these dramatic experiences, they typically enter a state of ecstatic rapture.”

Those who experience this “cosmic healing force” are then able to pass it on to others by direct touch. The Encyclopedia of American Religions by J. Gordon Melton (cited by Smith and Aguirre) has this to say regarding the latihan practice of Subud:

“the latihan proper is a time of moving the consciousness beyond mind and desire and allowing the power to enter and do its work…often accompanying the spontaneous period are various body movements and vocal manifestation cries, moans, laughter and singing. These occur in the voluntary surrender of the self to the power. During this time, people report sensations of love and freedom and often, healings. All reach a higher level of consciousness.”

Finally, Smith and Aguirre mention Chinese Qigong master Yan Xin, who gave a talk in San Francisco in 1991. The San Francisco Chronicle reporter who witnessed the event wrote that experiencing what Yan Xin calls spontaneous movements… “before long, the scene began to resemble a Pentecostal prayer meeting with many people waving their arms and making unintelligible sounds.” According to Smith and Aguirre,

“Yan told his audience, ‘Those who are sensitive might start having some strong physical sensations or start laughing or crying. Don’t worry. This is quite normal.’”

Carole Tyrrell, writing in FAIR News of January 1995 (published by a British cult information organization) also cites Qigong masters as eliciting similar manifestations as are commonly seen in “holy laughter” meetings. She quotes a 1988 article in the London Globe and Mail which likened a Qigong master to

“a faith healer at an old-fashioned revival meeting… [The master] stands slowly waving his arms. He is, he tells them, emitting Qi. As the Qi supposedly starts flying around the stadium, a woman in a white dress starts wailing uncontrollably. Another shrieks and then swoons. A young man beats his breast. People twitch and shake. Others cry, some laugh hysterically. An old man talks in tongues, then screams that he is cured.”

One is compelled to ask, “How are these descriptions different from what has been reported at the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church and elsewhere? Why are those who experience the phenomena so quick to ascribe them to the action of the Holy Spirit?” The urge to identify the manifestations with God, Qi kundalini, or enlightenment is due to several factors:

the setting in which one has the experience;
the strength of one’s desire to have the experience, one’s belief that such an experience is essential to one’s spiritual advancement, one’s acceptance of the preacher/guru/seminar leader as one who can provide the experience, and one’s expectation of having the experience;
the emotional level within the setting; and
the suggestions made by the authority figure(s) before and during the experience.
These will be discussed in Part Two of this article.

Part 1 of this article began a look at some current manifestations of alleged spirituality within both Christian and New Age religious organizations. Specifically, I pointed out the strong similarities between what in Pentecostal/Charismatic churches is called being “slain in the Spirit” and what in Hindu sects is called “raising the Kundalini.” Often accompanying both experiences are such phenomena as falling down, twitching, hopping, writhing on the floor, laughing, crying, making animal sounds, feeling as if an electric current is coursing through the body, and many other remarkable manifestations.

One is compelled to ask, “How are these phenomena, when found in Eastern religious settings, different from what has been reported in Christian settings? Why are those who experience the phenomena in churches so quick to ascribe them to the action of the Holy Spirit?” I suggest the urge to identify the manifestations with the Holy Spirit is due to several factors:

Those who have the experiences are, so far as anyone can determine, sincere Christians, and the experiences occur in churches or in convention halls during Christian gatherings. Thus the Christian character of the participants and the setting would lead naturally to the assumption that God was causing these effects.
Those who have the experiences generally desire to have them, believe God wants them to have them (and that in having them they will have a greater experience of God), accept the preacher as an “anointed servant of God,” and expect the manifestations to occur. These are all very similar to the frame of mind of those who are shown coming forward to be hypnotized in “Captive Minds.” It is clear that they all wanted to be hypnotized, believed in the ability of the hypnotist, and expected to be hypnotized.
The setting is typically emotionally charged. Prior to the manifestations, the congregants join in the singing of worship and praise songs, frequently lasting one-half to three-quarters of an hour or more. Often accompanied by an upbeat orchestra the singing can produce an emotional state of euphoria, putting the participants in a highly suggestible state of mind.
Do the similarities between “holy laughter” meetings and hypnosis sessions prove they are the same? No, of course not; a number of similarities between any two things do not prove they are the same. However, if it looks like a duck, etc., we ought at least to consider that maybe, just maybe, it’s a duck. Other manifestations often associated with “holy laughter” and are also disturbing, especially when one learns that they are found also in settings that are anything but Christian. For example, in his article “The Strange Teaching Of Rodney Howard-Browne” (in The Quarterly Journal published by Personal Freedom Outreach), G. Richard Fisher quotes Howard-Browne as having written of an experience he had:

“I must have called out to God for about twenty minutes that day. The fire of God came on me. It started on my head and went right down to my feet. His power burned in my body and stayed like that for four days. I thought I was going to die. I thought He was going to kill me. I was plugged into heaven’s electric light supply and since then, my desire has been to go and plug other people in. My body was on fire from the top of my head to the souls of my feet and out of my belly began to flow rivers of living water. I began to laugh uncontrollably and then I began to weep and speak with other tongues. This continued not for one hour only, but for hours on end. I was so intoxicated on the wine of the Holy Ghost that I was beside myself. The fire of God was coursing through my whole being and it didn’t quit. One day, two days, three days and in the fourth day I couldn’t bear it anymore” (Fresh Oil From Heaven, pg. 27).

Similarly, Benny Hinn wrote in his book Good Morning, Holy Spirit:

“And then like a child, with my hands raised, I asked, ‘Can I meet you? Can I really meet you?’ …After I spoke to the Holy Spirit, nothing seemed to happen… Then, like a jolt of electricity my body began to vibrate all over… I felt as if I had been translated to heaven… (p. 12-13; cited in The “Toronto Blessing”: A Theological Examination of the Roots, Teaching and Manifestations, and Connection Between the Faith Movement and the Vineyard Church, by The Rev. Stephen Sizer; November 21, 1995).

Rev. Sizer also quotes Vineyard pastor Randy Clark’s testimony of an experience he had at a Howard-Browne meeting:

“I wanted to be prayed for, so I came forward. Rodney’s coming by: ‘Fill, fill, fill, come to me, fill, fill,’ and I went, [Randy Clark gets on the floor to show what happened to him] and I went down like this. Now you have to understand [laughter], I had been touched by the power of God before, in a Baptist church in ‘84, and in the Vineyard in ‘89, but every time major baptisms of the Spirit, I was getting electrocuted, I was doing this, shaking like this, feeling … from electricity all the next day in the joints. Now I had a couple of those, so I equate strong anointing with shaking and electricity only problem is I’m not shaking, I don’t feel no electricity … Why don’t you just get up? … All right … [laughter] Nothing’s working, something happened, I can’t move. ‘OK God, I don’t understand this, I’ll just lay here.’ I can’t move, I might as well lay [laughter]. While I’m laying there, there’s this woman two bodies down, she gets the cackles, she starts cackling and she gets the ‘anoinking,’and you can hear her, [sound of Randy Clark making the sound of a pig grunting with audience laughing]. At first I think it’s just natural, I’m just laughing because she has the ‘anoinking,’and I was really laughing and I couldn’t stop laughing… [Shows how he attempted to get up off the floor.] I get together with the other guys and we start to go home; only problem is, the longer after that… How drunk have we got? [Laughter] So we’re going down that mile walk. [Shows how he staggered home with much laughter from the audience.] I’m afraid the police are going to pick us up, and how are we going to explain this, laughing our heads off? That was wonderful … only problem is that was August ‘93, now a long time, and I’ve only been like that three times… I think (because of a Baptist background) subconsciously it’s difficult for us to enter into this holy drunkenness… So Rodney says, “Tomorrow night were going to have a Holy Ghost blowout…” (Taken from a Toronto Vineyard video and included in “A Plague in Land,” a video recording of a talk by Alan Morrison (1995); some editing by author).

Bill Jackson of the Champaign-Urbana (Ill.) Vineyard quotes Charles Finney:

“…the Holy Ghost descended on me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going through and through me. Indeed it seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love; for I could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me, like immense wings. No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love; and I do not know but I should say, I literally bellowed out the unutterable gushings of my heart. The waves came over me, and over me, one after the other, until I recollect I cried out, “I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me.” I said, “Lord, I cannot bear any more;” yet I had no fear of death. (”What In The World Is Happening To Us?”, by Bill Jackson; no source given for Finney quote).

Finally, in an article entitled “The ‘Toronto Blessing’or ‘the New Wave of Holy Laughter,’” Rev. Fred Grigg of Australia’s Mandate Ministries writes:

“Worth noting is how one pastor, currently promoting ‘holy laughter’ throughout Australia, in a recent two-page magazine article described the experience in the following way, he said, ‘…one minister, after shaking for about 45 minutes, screamed at the top of his voice, “Don’t touch me, you’ll get electrocuted!” Others were on the floor rolling or laughing or shaking under the power of God.’ Of another pastor’s experience, with whom this pastor said he had prayed for one morning, without any ‘powerful manifestations’ at that time, he said, ‘…When he tried to start the meeting (in his own church) that night he was struck dumb and, then, all he could do was laugh!’ The response of this same pastor, in answering the question, ‘How is it possible that people can be changed by lying on the floor, rolling, or laughing or shaking,’ is very intriguing. He responds, ‘Well, if the power of God touches you, it’s like 20,000 volts (of electricity) trying to go through a piece of fuse wire something has to give!’” (The Gospel Truth, Vol. 13 No. 1, January 1996; emphasis in original).

Compare the preceding accounts to the following. In his book King of Cults, E.J. Daniels recounts an incident first related by Arthur H. Howland concerning an experience the latter had as a follower of the late George Baker, alias Father Divine, who claimed to be God in the flesh. Howland’s story, published in Father Divine’s paper The Spoken Word, tells of a midnight meeting held in the cult’s “heaven” at 20 W. 115th Street, New York. Howland had just gotten off work at his office in the organization’s building down the street from Number 20 when he heard that “Father is talking.” This announcement emptied the building of all workers, and Howland decided to join the throng to hear what Divine was saying. Unable to get into the banquet room where Father Divine was holding forth, Howland found a place in the auditorium upstairs, into which Divine’s voice was carried by a scratchy sound system. At first Howland was put off by the shouted responses of the crowd around him, but as he continued to listen he was enthralled by the words of Father Divine. As Divine recounted the words of Jesus to the demons possessing the Gadarene demoniac “HOLD THY PEACE AND COME OUT OF HIM!” Howland reports:

“And then I, too, so in need of blessing and of quieting, was struck by the Lightning. Who can describe it. Who can explain it. There is no earthly explanation for it is a heavenly experience. The body is on fire; the brain blazes with light; the heart turns over; the lungs contract; eyes are flooded with tears What has happened I long ago gave up trying to find out. But I thought if there were any devils in me when I came in and maybe there were they were all gone now. They could not stand the POWER, and GLORY and the LOVE of that MAJESTIC VOICE. (The Spoken Word, May 19, 1936; punctuation and capitalization as in original; cited in E. J. Daniels, King of Cults.)

Can anyone honestly say that what Arthur Howland experienced in the context of a cult led by a false Christ was essentially different from what was experienced by Rodney Howard-Browne, Benny Hinn, Randy Clark, Charles Finney, and the Australian ministers? If we cannot attribute Howland’s experience to the working of the Holy Spirit, then how can we attribute the others’experiences to it? Is it not more reasonable (and honest) to look elsewhere for the explanation? (The same must be said regarding the practice of “throwing” or “wafting” the Holy Spirit towards an audience as done by Howard-Browne, Hinn, Reinhard Bonnke and others, which is virtually no different from the Qigong master mentioned above who caused Qi to fly about the auditorium by waving his arms.) I am convinced this is the only honorable thing to do, and I believe the explanation lies in the direction of hypnosis and other forms of trance induction. Some time ago I sent copies of several articles descriptive of the “holy laughter” phenomenon to Dennis Wier, director of the Trance Institute in Switzerland, and asked for his evaluation of the phenomena: is what is happening in such situations simply a form of hypnosis? He wrote back:

‘Simply’ is not the right word. The articles you sent do describe a form of trance, only in part hypnotic, but there are also addictive and centric trances present. These are advanced trance forms. Such trances do generate ‘trance forces’of the kind that Rodney Howard-Browne describes experiencing. Such trance forces are certainly capable of spreading laughter in the forms that he has described. Such trance forces have nothing to do with God or Spirit they are simply the effects of centric trances. However, many people do not understand these rare forms of trance and attribute the manifestations of these trance forces to personal individual power or to unknown entities (God or Devil or Holy Spirit or drugs or UFOs). Improperly attributing the effects of these types of trance forces for purposes of exploiting the ignorant is a form of trance abuse.”

I have no doubt that the men and women who engage in the practices associated with “holy laughter” and even faith healing have no intention or even awareness of indulging in trance induction. But I firmly believe this is what they are doing, and that, while the Holy Spirit may be present in some way in these meetings, as in all meetings of believers, most of what is experienced by those who fall under the spell is merely psychological and not spiritual. The context in which the phenomena are experienced, along with the explanations given by the ministers under whose direction they occur, are largely responsible for the spiritual interpretation of them. Early in the film “captive Minds” a hypnotist is shown demonstrating the powers of hypnosis to a university class. While in trance (though appearing wide awake) the young male student who is the subject of the demonstration is made to be unable to see or hear the other students in the room. Even when he hears the teacher address the others he asks, “Who are you talking to?” To the teacher’s reply, “Some students in the room,” the young man asks, “Where are they?” Then the hypnotist tells the subject, “It’s time to go… But you can’t go out of that door.” The subject asks, “Why not?” The teacher answers, “I don’t know. Why don’t you try it?” But when the young man attempts to get out of his chair to leave the room, he finds to his chagrin that he is unable to do so he is “stuck” to the seat! The hypnotist didn’t tell him he would be stuck to the chair, only that he wouldn’t be able to go out of the room. But in the young man’s mind that information was translated into the powerful suggestion that he couldn’t get out of his chair, and as a consequence, no matter how hard he tried, he simply could not get out of his chair. Rodney Howard-Browne relates an incident in his booklet, Manifesting the Holy Ghost, that bears a marked similarity to this. He writes:

“Holy Ghost Glue. When this happened I noticed a woman on the floor who was laughing uncontrollably. Then she started weeping and speaking in other tongues. She was lying on her back under the power of God with her hands lying back above her head. She was stuck to the floor. … The Mack truck of God’s power is coming! She was lying there from noon until 1:30 drunk in the Spirit. At 1:30 she tried to get up. She wanted to get up. She couldn’t. All she could do was flap her hands. So she was there flapping away flap, flap, flap, flap. She said ‘I can’t get up. I’m stuck to the floor.’ I was walking up and down. It was 2:30, 3:30, 4:30. She was still stuck and I was still walking. Sometimes, as in her case, we close the meeting, but the Holy Spirit is still there. … At 4:30 the woman was still saying, ‘I can’t get up. I’m stuck to the floor.’ I turned to the Pastor and said, ‘Look I haven’t had either breakfast or lunch. It’s 4:30. I’m not stuck and you’re not stuck. These people are going to stay here with her, so let’s go have a meal before the night service.’ The ushers told us later that at 6 o’clock the woman finally peeled herself off the carpet. Then it took her an hour to crawl from the center of the church auditorium to the side wall. She had been stuck to the floor for 6 hours! … So I said, “Bring on the fire God! Do whatever you want to do in my meetings. Stick the people to the floor, to the roof, to the wall whatever” (pp. 25, 26, 27, 29; cited in “The Strange Views of Rodney Howard-Browne,” by G. Richard Fisher).

Could it be that, like the young man in “Captive Minds,” this lady had heard something that her mind, against all her rational powers, had translated to mean that she would be unable to rise from the floor and as a result she remained “stuck” there for six hours? What possible purpose could the Holy Spirit have in sticking people to the floor or “to the roof, to the wall”? In the Randy Clark quote cited above he relates how he said to himself, “… Why don’t you just get up?” But then he continues,

“… All right … [laughter] Nothing’s working, something happened, I can’t move. ‘OK God, I don’t understand this, I’ll just lay here.’ I can’t move, I might as well lay [laughter].

I suggest the same thing had happened to him as happened to the university student and the woman stuck to the floor. However, the context in which both Clark and the woman found themselves stuck to the floor (a church meeting conducted by a “man of God”) led them both to conclude that what they experienced was from God. However, a very similar experience in a class taught by a university instructor led to no such conclusion. In another section of “Captive Minds” a young woman who had been recruited into the Unification Church. She describes her experience during the weekend retreat she attended (and before anyone told her it was connected with the Unification Church). After two or three days of lectures about God, philosophy, and morality she experienced an intense emotional breakdown. Surrounded by Unificationists who offered comfort, support, and the explanation that what she was feeling was “God’s suffering heart,” she concluded that that “must be what I’m feeling.” But what her new friends were doing was simply the psychological “coin trick,” interpreting her experience (as they no doubt had interpreted their own) according to Unification concepts, and in her distress she saw no other explanation. Like Chicken Little she, and they, drew false conclusions from the evidence, and as a consequence joined a cult led by a false messiah bent on taking over the world. Fortunately, this particular young woman later left the Unification Church, but not until after she had given precious time and energy to it. At this point some readers may be wondering whether there is any genuine mystical or supernatural experience at all! If so, how does one tell the genuine from the false or merely psychological? This, perhaps, the more important question, but unfortunately it must wait for a later article to be answered.

Factors that Determine One’s Interpretation of a Mystical Experience

The setting in which one has the experience. If a church, it will be understood in Christian terms. If an ashram, in Hindu/Buddhist terms. If a hotel ballroom, in secular terms.
The strength of one’s desire to have the experience, one’s belief that such an experience is essential to one’s spiritual advancement, one’s acceptance of the preacher/guru/seminar leader as one who can provide the desired experience, and one’s expectation of having the experience.
Equally important is the emotional level within the setting. A half hour or more of upbeat or mellow music/singing, oral prayer, chanting or speaking in tongues, and exhortations from the leader all produce an atmosphere in which trance induction of one kind or another is more easily facilitated.
Finally, the suggestions made by the authority figure(s) before and during the experience are crucial to the interpretation process.
Light on “Abnormal” Experiences*

Extract from a book published in Germany by Pastor Ernst Lohmann Translated from the German.

Just as in a caricature the outstanding features of the true picture are to be found, so that a likeness is unmistakable, so phenomena which we find in heathen systems, in theosophy so-called, or new Buddhism, in spiritism, etc., resemble to some extent the Divine manifestations called forth by the working of the Holy Spirit upon the spirit of man. They also produce revelations and prophecies, speaking and singing with tongues, healing and miracles.It is of importance that we should study this subject to find an answer to the question as to how these phenomena are brought about. It is self-evident that they are not manifestations of the Holy Spirit. The numerous and exact investigations which are being made in our day into the subject are giving us increasing insight into this dark realm. Powers and possibilities have been discovered in man, which until now have been totally unsuspected. They are designated “subliminal powers”, and we speak of “subconsciousness”. What physical occurrences accompany these phenomena? The lower nerve-centres (the ganglionic system, or the “vegetative” nerves, as they are called), which have their chief seat in the region round the pit of the stomach, are excited to increased activity. At the same time the central region of the hither nervous system (the cerebral system), which in a normal state of affairs is the medium of conscious perception and action, becomes paralysed. There is a reversal of the order of nature. The lower nerves take over the duty of the higher ones (a sort of compensation). This state of things comes to pass negatively by the higher organ losing its natural supremacy under pressure of illness, or artificially by hypnotism, auto-suggestion, etc.; and positively by the lower nerves being in some way excited artificially to increased activity, whereby they get the upper hand. These nerves then display abilities which our ordinary organs of sense do not possess, they receive impressions from a realm usually closed to us, such as clairvoyance, presentiments, prophecy, speaking with tongues, etc. The Mohammedan sooth-sayer, Dschalal-Ed-Dinrumi, describes the trance-state, as follows:

“My eyes are closed, and my heart is at the open gate”.

Anna Katharina Emmerich (1774-1824)

“I see the light, not with my eyes, but it is as though I saw it with my heart (with the nerves which have their seat in the pit of the stomach) . . . that which is actually around me I see dimly with my eyes like one dozing and beginning to dream; my second sight is drawing me forcibly, and is clearer than my natural sight, but it does not take place through my eyes. . . “

When in a state of somnambulism, the inner sense, heightened in its activity, perceives outward things as clearly and more so than when awake, when it recognizes tangible objects with eyes tightly closed and absolutely unable to see, just as well as by sight; this takes place, according to the unanimous declaration of all somnambulists, through the pit of the stomach, i.e., through the nerves, which have their seat in this region . . . And it is from this part that the nerves are set in action which move the organs of speech (in speaking with tongues, etc.). . .

Numberless cases of false mysticism through all the centuries of Church History display the same characteristics, the sub-consciousness being always the medium of such perception and functions. They are morbid, coming under the garb of Divine manifestations to lead souls astray. Now, it is very significant that according to the assertions of the leaders, it is an activity of the sub-consciousness that we meet with in the “Pentecostal Movement” (so called). We read in a report of an “International Pentecostal Conference”:

“‘On Tuesday, a Pastor introduced the discussion. The main topic was the working of the sub-conscious mind in messages and prophecy. Much confusion prevailed concerning the relation of our consciousness to our sub-consciousness. The Scriptural discrimination was preferable (I Cor. xiv. 14, 15), where they were spoken of as understanding and spirit’:

“‘When Christ lives in us He lives in our hearts and in the heart are two chambers. In one room lives the conscience and through the conscience I can know that Christ lives in me. In the other room of my heart there is the sub-consciousness, and there also Christ lives. We look at I Cor. xiv. 14, For if I pray in a tongue my spirit prayeth but my understanding is unfruitful’.”

Notice the expression “my spirit” (my sub-conscious mind), and also the expression “my understanding”, i.e., “When my spirit prays in tongues, my sub-conscious mind prays!” In the Declaration of the Second Mulheim “Pentecostal Conference”, September 15th, 1909, we read:

“In I Cor. xiv. 14 (Luther’s translation) Paul makes a distinction between the understanding and the spirit of man. By the word understanding he means the conscious, and by the word spirit the unconscious spiritual life, life of man. In this unconscious spiritual life in modern language also termed sub-consciousness’ God has placed the gift of speaking with tongues and prophecy.”

According to this, the spiritual life of the believer is synonymous with the sub-consciousness of the somnambulist. And the more highly developed this sub-consciousness is in any individual, the more highly developed would be their spiritual life. Just try substituting the word sub-consciousness in those passages where the Scripture speaks of the spirit of man; for example Ps. li. 17, Ps. lxxvii. 6, Isa. lxvi. 2, Acts vii. 59, Acts xviii. 5, Acts xx. 22, Romans I. 9, Romans ii. 29, Romans viii. 16, I Cor. ii. 11, I Cor. iv. 21, 1 Cor. v.5, Gal. vi. 1, Gal. vi. 18, Eph. iv. 23, I Thess. v. 23. Those in whom the sub-consciousness becomes active in the manner described above, feel as it were an electric stream passing through the body, which is an exciting of the nerves, which have their central seat in the pit of the stomach. It is from thence that the jaws are moved in speaking with tongues. One of the leaders of the “Pentecostal Movement”, in describing the process of this so-called Baptism of the Spirit in his body, made use of the singular comparison that it seemed to him as though there were in his body an inverted bottle. The simile was incomprehensible to me, but this way of expressing it was most strikingly illuminated when I find an almost identical expression used by a Mohammedan sooth-sayer. Tewekkul Beg, a pupil of Mollah Schah, was receiving instruction from his master as to how he could get into the ecstatic state. He says:

“After he had bound my eyes . . . I saw something in my inner being resembling a fallen tumbler . . . When this object was placed upright a feeling of limitless bliss filled my being.”

This feeling of bliss is another characteristic feature of this class of occurrences. By exciting the lower nervous system a feeling of intense rapture is regularly produced . . . At first we find connected with it usually, involuntary contraction of the muscles and movement of the limbs, in consequence of the unnatural inversion of the nervous system. Pastor Paul again says:

“If anyone is to prophesy in the way I have now learnt, God must be able to move the mouth of the one prophesying, as He formerly moved the mouth of Balaam’s ass. The ass understood nothing of the words which she spoke, she only said what she was to say. There is a danger in uttering things we understand. It is so easy to mix in one’s own thoughts, and then to utter what one thinks. This occurs without our intending it in the least. That is the reason why God trains His prophets in so preparing them that they utter exactly what the Spirit gives them. Speaking in strange tongues is a good preliminary school.”There one learns to speak as the mouth is moved. One speaks without knowing what one is saying by simply following the position of the mouth. Just so in prophecy; there, too, one speaks as led by the position of the mouth. Speaking with tongues and prophesying are both on the same principle.”

It is evident that in these phenomena we have the exact opposite of what the Scriptures understand by the communication of the Spirit. When the Spirit of God takes possession of the spirit of man, he is brought back to a normal condition; the spirit acquires the full authority given it by the Creator over the powers of the soul, and through the soul over the body. The conscious personal life is once more completely under the authority of the spirit. The dependency upon God, which man sought to break off, in his mania for exalting himself by setting his reason, his emotions, or the flesh upon the throne, is restored again. The Spirit of God can exercise once more His controlling and quickening power. The deeds of the flesh are put to death by the Spirit, the powers and the gifts of the Spirit developed, the man becomes spiritual, full of the Holy Spirit.

Note by Mrs. Penn-Lewis

“The light given by Herr Lohmann will open the eyes of many perplexed believers, and give them intelligent understanding of much that has distressed them, and caused painful division among the most devoted children of God. It will also confirm the statements we have made concerning the working of evil spirits in the circumference of a believer, at the very same time that, up to the extent of his consciousness, he may know nothing against himself before the Lord; for Satan and his emissaries are well aware of the laws of the human frame, and work along their line, arousing and exciting the natural life, under the guise of its being spiritual. The false conception of ’surrender’ as yielding the body to supernatural power, with the mind ceasing to act, is the highest subtelty [sic] of the enemy, and is exposed as such in this book, for it brings about as Herr Lohmann explains the paralysis of the ‘cerebral’ systems, i.e., the action of the mind, and allows the ‘vegetative nerves’ full control and activity, excited by evil spirits, for the Holy Spirit dwells in, and acts through the spirit of man, and not through either nerve centre, which have both to be under the control of the spirit. We have also pointed out again and again that ‘claiming the blood’ cannot protect us from the enemy if in any way he is given ground, e.g., if the cerebral nerves cease to act by ‘letting the mind go blank’ (!) and the vegetative nerves are awakened to act in their place, so that the latter are excited to give ‘thrills’ and ’streams of life’ through the body, no claiming of the precious blood of Christ will prevent these physical laws acting when the conditions for action are fulfilled. Hence, the strange fact which has perplexed many, that abnormal experiences manifestly contrary to the Spirit of God, have taken place whilst the person was earnestly repeating words about the ‘blood’. Moreover, the arousing of the ‘vegetative nerves’ to such abnormal activity that ‘floods of life’ have appeared to pour through the whole body. . . [that]

dulls the mind and makes it inert in action,
causes a craving in the recipient for more of this “Divine” life,
leads to the danger of ministration of it to others, and all that follows as this path is pursued in honest faith and confidence of being “specially advanced” in the life of God. Should any reading this discover their own case depicted let them thank God for knowledge of the truth, and (1) simply reject by an attitude of will, all that is not of God; (2) consent to trust God in His word with out any “experiences”; (3) stand on Rom. vi. 11, with James iv. 7, in respect to the Adversary. John xvi. 13, “Through the Eternal Spirit”.
__________________________

* From The Overcomer of 1920.

J. Grasset, “Le Psychisme Infr�rieur,” 1906, writes: “Psychical proceedings fall into two groups:

those of a higher order conscious, volitional, free;
those of a lower class unconscious, mechanical, involuntary”.
On this subject Dr. Naum Kotik says in “The Emanation of Psycho-physical Energy”:

“Under ordinary conditions in the activity of the brain, the sub-consciousness hardly makes itself felt, and for this reason we have no suspicion of its existence. There are conditions of the psyche, however, such as somnambulism, in which the sub-consciousness comes to the front, takes over the complete control, and forces the super-consciousness back into the position in which it (viz., the sub-consciousness) rightfully belongs. The actions which attest the activity of the sub-consciousness independently of the super-consciousness, are usually termed automatic.”

Lawrence A. (Larry) Pile
Wellspring Retreat & Resource Center
PO Box 67
Albany OH 45710
614-698-6277
614-698-2053 (fax)
freemind@wellspring.albany.oh.us

(from the website http://users.stargate.net/~ejt/sky3.htm)

Inlagt av Leif Berg

A VISION of the LOST by William Booth

With thanks to Brian of http://www.newchristian.org.uk

On one of my recent journeys, as I gazed from the coach window, I was led into a train of thought concerning the condition of the multitudes around me. They were living carelessly in the most open and shameless rebellion against God, without a thought for their eternal welfare. As I looked out of the window, I seemed to see them all… millions of people all around me given up to their drink and their pleasure, their dancing and their music, their business and their anxieties, their politics and their troubles. Ignorant- wilfully ignorant in many cases- and in other instances knowing all about the truth and not caring at all. But all of them, the whole mass of them, sweeping on and up in their blasphemies and devilries to the Throne of God. While my mind was thus engaged, I had a vision.

I saw a dark and stormy ocean. Over it the black clouds hung heavily; through them every now and then vivid lightening flashed and loud thunder rolled, while the winds moaned, and the waves rose and foamed, towered and broke, only to rise and foam, tower and break again.

In that ocean I thought I saw myriads of poor human beings plunging and floating, shouting and shrieking, cursing and struggling and drowning; and as they cursed and screamed they rose and shrieked again, and then some sank to rise no more.

And I saw out of this dark angry ocean, a mighty rock that rose up with its summit towering high above the black clouds that overhung the stormy sea. And all around the base of this great rock I saw a vast platform. Onto this platform, I saw with delight a number of the poor struggling, drowning wretches continually climbing out of the angry ocean. And I saw that a few of those who were already safe on the platform were helping the poor creatures still in the angry waters to reach the place of safety.

On looking more closely I found a number of those who had been rescued, industriously working and scheming by ladders, ropes, boats and other means more effective, to deliver the poor strugglers out of the sea. Here and there were some who actually jumped into the water, regardless of the consequences in their passion to “rescue the perishing.” And I hardly know which gladdened me the most- the sight of the poor drowning people climbing onto the rocks reaching a place of safety, or the devotion and self-sacrifice of those whose whole being was wrapped up in the effort for their deliverance.

As I looked on, I saw that the occupants of that platform were quite a mixed company. That is, they were divided into different “sets” or classes, and they occupied themselves with different pleasures and employments. But only a very few of them seemed to make it their business to get the people out of the sea.

But what puzzled me most was the fact that though all of them had been rescued at one time or another from the ocean, nearly everyone seemed to have forgotten all about it. Anyway, it seemed the memory of its darkness and danger no longer troubled them at all. And what seemed equally strange and perplexing to me was that these people did not even seem to have any care- that is any agonising care- about the poor perishing ones who were struggling and drowning right before their very eyes… many of whom were their own husbands and wives, brothers and sisters and even their own children.

Now this astonishing unconcern could not have been the result of ignorance or lack of knowledge, because they lived right there in full sight of it all and even talked about it sometimes. Many even went regularly to hear lectures and sermons in which the awful state of these poor drowning creatures was described.

I have always said that the occupants of this platform were engaged in different pursuits and pastimes. Some of them were absorbed day and night in trading and business in order to make gain, storing up their savings in boxes, safes and the like. Many spent their time in amusing themselves with growing flowers on the side of the rock, others in painting pieces of cloth or in playing music, or in dressing themselves up in different styles and walking about to be admired. Some occupied themselves chiefly in eating and drinking; others were taken up with arguing about the poor drowning creatures that had already been rescued.

But the thing to me that seemed the most amazing was that those on the platform to whom He called, who heard His voice and felt that they ought to obey it- at least they said they did- those who confessed to love Him much were in full sympathy with Him in the task He had undertaken- who worshipped Him or who professed to do so- were so taken up with their trades and professions, their money saving and pleasures, their families and circles, their religions and arguments about it, and their preparation for going to the mainland, that they did not listen to the cry that came to them from this Wonderful Being who had Himself gone down into the sea. Anyway, if they heard it they did not heed it. They did not care. And so the multitude went on right before them struggling and shrieking and drowning in the darkness.

And then I saw something that seemed to me even more strange than anything that had gone on before in this strange vision. I saw that some of these people on the platform whom this Wonderful Being had called to, wanting them to come and help Him in His difficult task of saving these perishing creatures, were always praying and crying out to Him to come to them!

Some wanted Him to come and stay with them, and spend His time and strength in making them happier. Others wanted Him to come and take away various doubts and misgivings they had concerning the truth of some letters He had written them. Some wanted Him to come and make them feel more secure on the rock- so secure that they would be quite sure that they should never slip off again into the ocean. Numbers of others wanted Him to make them feel quite certain that they would really get off the rock and onto the mainland someday: because as a matter of fact, it was well known that some had walked so carelessly as to lose their footing, and had fallen back again into the stormy waters.

So these people used to meet and get up as high on the rock as they could, and looking towards the mainland (where they thought the Great Being was) they would cry out, “Come to us! Come and help us!” And all the while He was down (by His Spirit) among the poor struggling, drowning creatures in the angry deep, with His arms around them trying to drag them out, and looking up- oh! so longingly but all in vain- to those on the rock, crying to them with His voice all hoarse from calling, “Come to Me! Come, and help Me!”

And then I understood it all. It was plain enough. The sea was the ocean of life- the sea of real, actual human existence. That lightning was the gleaming of piercing truth coming from Jehovah’s Throne. That thunder was the distant echoing of the wrath of God. Those multitudes of people shrieking, struggling and agonising in the stormy sea, was the thousands and thousands of poor harlots and harlot-makers, of drunkards and drunkard makers, of thieves, liars, blasphemers and ungodly people of every kindred, tongue and nation.

Oh what a black sea it was! And oh, what multitudes of rich and poor, ignorant and educated were there. They were all so unalike in their outward circumstances and conditions, yet all alike in one thing- all sinners before God- all held by, and holding onto, some iniquity, fascinated by some idol, the slaves of some devilish lust, and ruled by the foul fiend from the bottomless pit!

“All alike in one thing?” No, all alike in two things- not only the same in their wickedness but, unless rescued, the same in their sinking, sinking…down, down, down… to the same terrible doom. That great sheltering rock represented Calvary, the place where Jesus had died for them. And the people on it were those who had been rescued. The way they used their energies, gifts and time represented the occupations and amusements of those who professed to be saved from sin and hell- followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The handful of fierce, determined ones, who were risking their own lives in saving the perishing were true soldiers of the cross of Jesus.

That Mighty Being who was calling to them from the midst of the angry waters was the Son of God, “the same yesterday, today and forever” who is still struggling and interceding to save the dying multitudes about us from this terrible doom of damnation, and whose voice can be heard above the music, machinery, and noise of life, calling on the rescued to come and help Him save the world.

My friends in Christ, you are rescued from the waters, you are on the rock, He is in the dark sea calling on you to come to Him and help Him. Will you go? Look for yourselves. The surging sea of life, crowded with perishing multitudes rolls up to the very spot on which you stand. Leaving the vision, I now come to speak of the fact- a fact that is as real as the Bible, as real as the Christ who hung upon the cross, as real as the judgement day will be, and as real as the heaven and hell that will follow it.

Look! Don’t be deceived by appearances- men and things are not what they seem. All who are not on the rock are in the sea! Look at them from the standpoint of the great White Throne, and what a sight you have! Jesus Christ, the Son of God is, through His Spirit, in the midst of this dying multitude, struggling to save them. And He is calling on you to jump into the sea- to go right away to His side and help Him in the holy strife. Will you jump? That is, will you go to His feet and place yourself absolutely at His disposal?

A young Christian once came to me, and told me that for some time she had been giving the Lord her profession and prayers and money, but now she wanted to give Him her life. She wanted to go right into the fight. In other words, she wanted to go to His assistance in the sea. As when a man from the shore, seeing another struggling in the water, takes off those outer garments that would hinder his efforts and leaps to the rescue, so will you who still linger on the bank, thinking and singing and praying about the poor perishing souls, lay aside your shame, your pride, your cares about other people’s opinions, your love of ease and all the selfish loves that have kept you back for so long, and rush to the rescue of this multitude of dying men and women.

Does the surging sea look dark and dangerous? Unquestionably it is so. There is no doubt that the leap for you, as for everyone who takes it, means difficulty and scorn and suffering. For you it may mean more than this. It may mean death. He who beckons you from the sea however, knows what it will mean – and knowing, He still calls to you and bids to you to come.

You must do it! You cannot hold back. You have enjoyed yourself in Christianity long enough. You have had pleasant feelings, pleasant songs, pleasant meetings, pleasant prospects. There has been much of human happiness, much clapping of hands and shouting of praises- very much of heaven on earth. Now then, go to God and tell Him you are prepared as much as necessary to turn your back upon it all, and that you are willing to spend the rest of your days struggling in the midst of these perishing multitudes, whatever it may cost you.

You must do it. With the light that is now broken in upon your mind and the call that is now sounding in your ears, and the beckoning hands that are now before your eyes, you have no alternative. To go down among the perishing crowds is your duty. Your happiness from now on will consist in sharing their misery, your ease in sharing their pain, your crown in helping them to bear their cross, and your heaven in going into the very jaws of hell to rescue them.

Now what will you do?

Inlagt av Leif Berg

Benny Hinn in Kampala, Uganda Was the 'crippled' man really healed?

Benny Hinn in Kampala, Uganda

Was the 'crippled' man really healed?

Article from: Let Us Reason Ministries ON cults, Religions, their teachings and practices, check my blogglist!

By Bud Press, Director

Christian Research Service www.christianresearchservice.com June 12, 2007

To the Reader: The following information details an encounter between Benny Hinn and a crippled man named Moses, who, according to Hinn's Kampala, Uganda Crusade Report and a This Is Your Day! telecast, had been crippled since birth.

This information is not meant to satirize, ill-treat, or ridicule Moses. It does, however, expose more incredible, in-your-face deception that permeates the most prolific false prophet, false teacher, and false healer of our day.

On May 18-19, 2007, Benny Hinn conducted his first "Holy Spirit Miracle Crusade" in Uganda at the Nelson Mandela National Stadium in Kampala. The following information contains direct quotes from Benny Hinn's website, and a word-for-word transcript of portions of Benny Hinn's Monday, 6/4/07 This Is Your Day! Archive Show.

Beginning with the Uganda Crusade Report from Benny Hinn's website, the reader is informed that,

Nationally distributed newspapers proclaimed, "The lame walked, the blind had their eyes opened, the deaf heard, and the sick recovered at the first-ever Pastor Benny Hinn crusade in Uganda!" ("Crusade In Uganda Draws International Audience," http://www.bennyhinn.org/articles/articledesc.cfm?id=263 ).

The Crusade Report also shares "The Moving Story of Moses," which states in part that,

One of the most amazing stories that was shared with everyone was the story of Moses. At the close of the first service, the young man named came to the platform. Pastor Benny noticed that Moses was wearing no shoes. He quickly learned that Moses had been crippled since birth (emp. added).

"The Moving Story of Moses" goes on to state that Moses entered Hinn's crusade in a wheelchair, was accompanied by his sister, and that the 28 year old Moses took his first steps during the crusade.

The story contains two photos of Benny Hinn and Moses. The first photo is from the waist up. The second is full-length, where the reader will notice Moses' left leg, which is obviously bent at the knee and bowed inward.

Was the 'crippled' man really healed?

The following is a word-for-word transcript of a portion of Benny Hinn's Monday, 6/4/07 This Is Your Day! Archive Shows telecast of the "Holy Spirit Miracle Crusade" in Kampala, Uganda, http://www.bennyhinn.org/television/tiyd.cfm ).

At 11 minutes:28 seconds into the telecast, a conversation takes place between Benny Hinn, Henry Hinn (Benny Hinn's brother), Benny Hinn's crusade interpreter, and Moses the crippled man:

Benny Hinn: "He has been a cripple from birth!"

Henry Hinn: "His mother; he was born in 1979. This is Moses, born in 1979; paralyzed when he was born. He couldn't move! He couldn't move his body! He, this is his wheelchair. He was back there. I saw him back there; pulled his way out of the wheelchair, and just began walking."

Benny Hinn [looks at Moses and asks]: "You've been a cripple all your life?"

Interpreter: "He has never walked. This is the first time."

Benny Hinn: "Now, you've never walked?"

Moses: "No."

Benny Hinn: "Ladies and gentlemen, this young man has never walked. You understand? From his mother's womb he was born a cripple. For the first time tonight, he's using his legs."

At 12 minutes:36 seconds into the telecast, Moses struggles to balance himself on one leg, and says he wants to be saved. Benny Hinn raises his hands and thousands cheer.

Benny Hinn: "Listen. The man has just walked for the first time in his life."

At this point, Benny Hinn instructs the crowd to stand up, and begins quoting from Isaiah 53:5. Afterwards, Benny Hinn states,

And the man comes up. You know what it's like for me to stand here and listen to a young man who had never walked in his life, and tell me, 'I want to be saved'?

At 14 minutes:22 seconds into the telecast, referring to Moses, Benny Hinn states,

His legs. Life is coming back in his legs tonight.

At 16 minutes:55 seconds into the telecast, Benny Hinn states,

You know, I'm, I'm standing here next to this young man. We better never take this for granted; never forget the privilege.

At 18 minutes:05 seconds into the telecast, Benny Hinn pronounces Moses healed:

Here's a young man who says, 'I want to be saved.' He's healed. He's happy about that but he really wants to be saved. That's what he wants.

At 21 minutes:05 seconds into the telecast, the Kampala, Uganda segment ends and returns to Benny Hinn in his This Is Your Day! studio, where Hinn states:

What a Lord we serve. There's none like Jesus is there? To heal this young man, like this, a cripple from birth. And then for the young man to look at me and say, 'I want to be saved.' This, I, I'm telling ya; there's nothing like it. Nothing.

Towards the end of the telecast at 22 minutes:04 seconds, Benny Hinn once again reminds his viewers that Moses was crippled from birth, and that he stood for the first time in his life:

And then this, this young man. I mean, this is one of the greatest miracles I've seen in really a long time. We've seen wonderful miracles. But, you know, to see a young man crippled from birth just standing for the first time in his life--in front of me--and he stood with no shoes on, with clothes that weren't that nice.

But the next night when he came back, he had new shoes for the first time in his life. And he had new clothing. And now he is in a Bible school.

The video evidence

If a picture is worth a thousands words, then a video must be worth its weight in gold. Benny Hinn is no stranger to controversy and deception, and the video evidence of Hinn's encounter with Moses does not lie.

At 22 minutes:17 seconds into the telecast, Moses and Benny Hinn are shown together on-stage during the crusade. Moses is balancing himself on his right leg. His left leg is still bent inward at the knee.

At 22 minutes:29 seconds into the telecast, Moses is seen limping to the stage. As he approaches the stairs to the stage, Moses is assisted up the stairs by Henry Hinn. Two "catchers" are behind Moses at the bottom of the stairs.

As Moses slowly hobbled up the stairs, he uses the stair-rails to assist his climb. His left leg remained bent inward during his climb. When Moses finally reached the top of the stairs and onto the stage, he was not only assisted by his sister, he limped to Benny Hinn with outstretched arms.

Therefore, was the crippled man Moses really healed? No. Yet, he was pronounced "healed" by Benny Hinn.

It bears repeating again: Benny Hinn follows a counterfeit Jesus, counterfeit gospel, and counterfeit spirit (Galatians 1:6-9; 2 Corinthians 11:3-4). Hinn's god is incapable of healing precious people like Moses.

However, Benny Hinn's god is capable of deceiving the masses into thinking a legitimate healing has taken place.

The crippled and lame: true accounts of healing

"One need not be a doctor or physical therapist to know when someone is walking abnormally and in pain. Most importantly, where in the Bible does it say that when Jesus healed someone, they remained partially blind, partially diseased, or walked away limping? It doesn't" (Bud Press, "MIRACLE IN TRINIDAD?" http://www.christianresearchservice.com/BHinn16.htm ).

One need not look to Benny Hinn and like-minded false healers for true accounts of healing. God's word records numerous accounts of legitimate healings of all types, including those who were lame and crippled from birth:

The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them (Matthew 4:24).

Departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up on the mountain, He was sitting there. And large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them. So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel (Matthew 15:29-31).

And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them (Matthew 21:14).

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been lame from his mother's womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is

called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, "Look at us!" And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, "I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene--walk!" And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God (Acts 3:1-9).

For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed (Acts 8:7).

At Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother's womb, who had never walked. This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well, said with a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet." And he leaped up and began to walk (Acts 14:8-10).

When Jesus healed the lame and crippled, they didn't get up, limp around, and struggle to maintain balance. When the apostles used their gift of healing through the power of God, there was no lag-time in between and no ifs, ands or buts. The feet, ankles, and legs of the lame and crippled were immediately straightened and made whole.

None could deny Jesus' miracles, nor could they deny the apostles' gift of healing through the miraculous power of God.

2,000 years later, although Benny Hinn is adored and idolized by his followers, he has once again clearly demonstrated his inability to heal the sick, dying, and crippled by the power of God. Indeed, the testimony of God's word proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Benny Hinn is a charlatan and a false healer.

To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them (Isaiah 8:20).

The God of the Bible forgives, saves, sanctifies, and redeems the unsaved. The God of the Bible also heals broken bodies--according to His perfect will, that is:

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us (1 John 5:14).

Sometimes, God's perfect will for the believer includes incredible suffering and persecution, of which the apostle Paul endured in 2 Corinthians 11:18-30.

Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the apostle John wrote:

We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error (1 John 4:6).

Those who listen to God and study His word will know the difference between truth and error, as well as the difference between a true and false healing.

God does not work miracles through hyper-heretical faith healers like Benny Hinn, because Benny Hinn and those like him are ...false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

Final comments: To the skeptic and unbeliever

The situation with Moses is both sad and tragic. It not only serves as fuel for the skeptics and unbelievers to downplay Christianity, it serves to drive the unsaved deeper into sin and further away from accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Accordingly, a skeptic or unbeliever who witnessed the encounter between Benny Hinn and Moses may say, Benny Hinn proclaimed a "crippled" man healed, but the man continued to limp. If this is what Christianity is all about, then I want no part of it.

The fact of the matter is that individuals like Benny Hinn have been around for thousands of years. They do not represent true Christianity. They are, as the Bible warns: savage wolves (Acts 20:27-31); distorters of the gospel of Christ (Galatians 1:6-9); false brothers (Galatians 2:4-5); enemies of the cross (Philippians 3:18-19); stumbling blocks to those searching for truth (Matthew 18:7); false prophets (Matthew 24:11); false teachers (2 Timothy 4:3-4); false healers (Matthew 7:21-23); and more.

This is why it is extremely important to trust in Jesus Christ and the truth of His word over-and-above the Benny Hinn's of this world. While Benny Hinn has a long history of controversy and deception, Jesus Christ will not lie or deceive you, for He alone is the Healer of souls:

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30; KJV).