In today’s podcast, we will learn if Christians can end up in Hell if they sin against the Lord and continue in disobedience. Some professing Christians have claimed through their testimony, when Jesus took them to Hell, that they saw Christians there. Is that true? We will find out on this podcast.
If you are having trouble listening to the podcast, you can click on the title that’s on the player to listen to the whole episode on Spotify.
Not all Charismatics are false but all false prophets come from the Charismatic Movement.
Spiritual Minefield
Cessationism are Calvinistic and they believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are no longer active for today. They stifle and limit the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to ever work in them like healing someone or actually speaking in a different tongue to preach the gospel to someone who doesn’t know your language.
I am not a Pentecostal nor am I a Reformer (Calvinist). I believe that you cannot lose your salvation but through the transformation of the Holy Spirit living inside of you by conversion, you will live a life of holiness, not perfect but will strive to please God through repentance when at times you come short through sin. I believe that you have to choose Jesus through faith to be saved. Salvation is not by works but by faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross and afterward rose on the third day.
As you can see, I don’t swing in one camp or the other when it comes to some of their biblical doctrines. Some things that the Pentecostal teaches I believe it is biblical but others are not like losing your salvation. The same with Calvinism. Some things that they teach are biblical and others are not like salvation happens before you believe in Jesus which frankly is really bad theology.
I believe what the Scriptures plainly teach about both issues mentioned in the header of this post. Both views are unbiblical because they go way off the pages of the Bible. I will do my best to show the difference and what the Bible actually teaches.
Have the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are given to the saints ceased? Does the Holy Spirit speak to the believers today as He did in Acts? Or, after the completion of the canon (the whole Bible) made the Holy Spirit quiet?
First off, what are the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are given to all the saints for building up the church? It is found in two places.
In 1 Peter 4, these gifts are only to bring glory to Jesus Christ and not the one who is being used by the Holy Spirit. If praises comes to you, exalting you in any way, you must quickly correct them by telling them to point their praises to Jesus Christ.
Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking actual words of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. -1 Peter 4:11
Saying that, do we posses the gifts of the Holy Spirit as mentioned in the list above? The short answer is yes.
John Calvin is the one who came up with the view of Cessationism.
Charles Fox Parham wasn’t happy with the traditional churches of his time which “needed to be revived by another outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He instructed his students—many of whom already were ministers—to pray, fast, study the Scriptures, and, like the Apostles, await the blessings of the Holy Spirit” (britannica.com/topic/Pentecostalism)
Pentecostalism started in the early 1900s. They teach that speaking in tongues, a foreign language, gave clear evidence that the person was now baptized with the Holy Spirit.
John Calvin and Charles Parham are two extreme cases which both men stray in opposite directions from biblical sound doctrine. How fortunate we are that we hold in our hands the Word of God that keeps us from being deceived. How easy it is to know what is sound from what is not. Whenever a person comes up with a teaching that sounds weird, compare it with the Scriptures and if it contradicts it or it isn’t found in God’s Word, just reject that erroneous teaching.
Now, getting back to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I just wanted to give you guys a quick glimpse of where these teachings of Cessationism and the baptism of the Holy Spirit came from.
The gifts that the Cessationists mostly reject are: Speaking in tongues—must be a real language not gibberish—healing, and prophecy.
There is not one verse in the whole New Testament that says after the completion of the canon the gifts will end. The Scripture has to be our final authority.
No one can have the workings (miracles and wonders) of the apostles, those who saw Jesus and walked with Him on earth. The extraordinary wonders and miracles that the apostles did were signs that they indeed walked with the Son of God and was sent out by Him to preach the gospel.
The distinguishing marks of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs, wonders, and miracles. -2 Corinthians 12:12
To be called an Apostle like the 12, you have to have been with Jesus, involved in His earthy ministry that lasted 3 years.
21 Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us— 22 beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection. -Acts 1:21-22
The type of miracles and wonders that the Apostle did was only for them to do not for us.
Cessationism is a false doctrine. The Holy Spirit is still much involved with the church as He was at the beginning. Nowhere in the Scriptures does it shows otherwise. The gifts of healing, speaking in different languages, prophecy and etc, cannot be performed whenever we want. Not every believer has the same gifts.
All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? -1 Corinthians 12:30
It is the Holy Spirit who will use you with the gifts that have been given to you for the glory of Christ Jesus when He and He alone deems to do so. It is not commonly seen—being rare, nonetheless it is still active in believers today.
The Scriptures give a serious warning that in the last days, many false prophets will arise with false wonders to deceive everyone. I believe that we are witnessing it today. The Charismatic movement is full of false prophets that when they speak in tongues, it sounds like gibberish and not a real language. They claim to perform miracles which is never proven and teach unbiblical doctrines. The Pentecostal movement has become a magnet for false teachers and prophets. Not everyone in that movement is a false Christian. I believe that their false prophets will play the big role of the end times false prophets mentioned in Mark 13.
For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and will perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, the elect. -Mark 13:22
All Scripture quotation was taken from NASB
20 And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one spirit said this, while another said that. 21 Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will entice him.’ 22 And the LORD said to him, ‘How?’ And he said, ‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ Then He said, ‘You shall entice him, and you will also prevail. Go and do so.’ 23 Now then, behold, the LORD has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours; and the LORD has declared disaster against you.” -1 Kings 22:20-23
The “prophets” of the Charismatic movement, a denomination of Christianity has been exposed as false teachers. In the verses above, the LORD wanted to bring judgment to Ahab for worshiping false gods causing Israel to abandon the LORD and for murdering Naboth, so that he can have his vineyard that was next to his palace (1 Kings 21).
Who were the spirits that were before the LORD? The answer is in verse 19 which says, “And Micaiah said, “Therefore, hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the angels of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left.”
The LORD allowed demons (deceiving spirit) to deceive Ahab but at the same time sent him a true prophet to warn him for repentance.
The spirits are angels, but it is a mixture of God’s angels and fallen angels. In the Book of Job Chapter 1, it shows that God’s angels are before the Throne of God listening for a command from the LORD and Satan with his fallen angels present themselves to give an account of what they are doing on earth.
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. 7 The LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.”-Job 1:6-7
Mr. Trump was never going to serve two terms as president. God’s will has been clearly revealed. Many genuine Christians like myself were hoping that he would, but in the Charismatic circle, those who call themselves “prophets” were saying unanimously that the LORD spoke to them that Mr. Trump was going to win. We now know that the LORD never spoke to them. If the LORD never spoke to them, then who did? They were hearing from demons. What was the purpose of that false prophecy? It was to disillusion many true Christians who are in the Charismatic denomination. It literally was to destroy their faith in Jesus.
These false prophets, which is what they truly are, as proven with Trump’s loss, that God has exposed the Charismatics, as having a cesspool of false Christians, prophets, preachers, teaching false doctrines.
Friends, if God truly speaks to you that something will happen, you can believe that it will happen.
How can we know if the LORD has spoken to someone?
21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How will we recognize the word which the LORD has not spoken?’ 22 When the prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, and the thing does not happen or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you are not to be afraid of him. -Deuteronomy 18:21-22
How does the LORD feel about a false prophet, who speaks in His name something that which God didn’t say to him?
But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name, a word which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ -Deuteronomy 18:20
It was a capital crime to speak a false message in the name of the LORD. God dealt with a false prophet very seriously because it was so deadly for anyone who would believe their message as it would lead them either to a false god or make them afraid through a word, as if from the LORD to make them believe that God was not happy with them.
All of these Charismatic “prophets” are not from God and are not hearing from God. They have been sent to deceive as many as possible. These false prophets are hearing from demons.
If you are a genuine Christian and you listen to them, you have to stop. You are taking in demonic doctrine. Stick to the Word of God.
Are we to listen to prophets today?
1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world. -Hebrews 1:1
In the Old Testament, God’s spoke in two ways.
In the New Testament, after Jesus ascended to heaven and gave His disciples the promised Holy Spirit, there were besides the 12 Apostles who were the only ones that had supernatural powers, the Holy Spirit working in them powerfully, there were also apostles (not the same as the 12) teachers, preachers, prophets, and etc. The reason for them was to help the church grow, as they didn’t have the complete Bible yet.
11 And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; -Ephesians 4:11-14
We no longer need prophets to hear from the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the Scriptures that God uses to speak to his saints. Now, can God speak to an individual with what they are going through personally? Yes. Can God use you to do a miracle for someone? Yes. Can you speak in tongues, a language that you don’t know to minister to a foreign person? Absolutely. Is this the normal way God speaks to people? No. The main way that God communicates with people is through His Word. The others are very rare.
Don’t let yourself be deceived. Match up everything that you hear with the Scriptures. The Scriptures warns that many professing Christians will abandon sound teachings and apostatize in the last days. Don’t be one of them. Anchor yourself in God’s Word.
Spiritual Minefield 