evangelist-7
New Member
post-apostolic … after the original apostles died
SWMs … signs, wonders, miracles
BACs … born-again Christians
The MAJOR CAUSES of these disastrous errors
#1 CAUSE
“the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Rev 12:9)
“the god of this world” (2 Cor 4:4)
“the ruler of this world” (John 12:31)
“the ruler of the demons” (Matt 12:24)
“the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19)
“there is no truth in him ... he is liar and the father of it” (John 8:44)
The biggest understatement in 2000 years: “Satan hates God and His church!”
#2 CAUSE
Many church leaders fell for the deceptive lies of Satan …
but they also had selfish reasons for going along with the great deceiver.
The big church organizations (especially) wanted to be in control of everything.
The leaders did NOT want …
-- God (His anointed apostles & prophets) to be in control of the churches
-- to acknowledge the continuing existence of SWMs
-- anyone in the church having more spiritual anointing than they had
-- to risk losing any church members and their tithes
-- to risk losing their power, authority, prestige, jobs, etc.
All of this caused God’s Church to become man’s church.
2 DISASTROUS ERRORS of the post-apostolic church
(1) – The Cessationism Doctrine: The spiritual power gifts have ceased
Jesus’ Great Commission: “… make disciples of all the nations …
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20)
New disciples were to preach the gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons, etc.
Pre-requisite for understanding this section:
In the NT churches, all of the 5-fold ministry leaders (Eph 4:11) were
anointed with one or more of the 9 spiritual power gifts (1 Cor 12:1-11).
These gifts were special anointings given by Jesus only to some BACs.
There certainly was NO reason for Jesus to stop this after the apostles died.
Post-apostolic church leaders who did NOT have any of these spiritual gifts
were jealous of those who did, and this was unacceptable to them.
They decided to point to 1 Cor 13:10 as an excuse to do away with the gifts.
And many “have-not” church members went along with this rationalization.
WHY was this such a disastrous error?
God’s evangelization plan always had SWMs confirming the truth of the gospel.
He knew … gospel power + SWMs power … would produce the best results!
But, the new plan was to NOT ask for (or expect) God to perform His SWMs.
Removing the SWMs obviously resulted in many fewer conversions, and also
no one was being healed of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual problems!
(2) – The OSAS Doctrine: Once saved, always saved
This has obviously been a very popular doctrine for everyone to believe in.
The opposite doctrine has required heeding …
-- the many warnings about falling away from the faith, habitual sinning, etc.
-- Jesus’ commands such as: “be holy”, “be perfect (mature)”, etc.
Talk about a popular doctrine for everyone: “We cannot lose our salvation!”.
WHY was this such a disastrous error?
Christians (in name only) in the churches loved the easy-believism gospel.
BACs were put off their guard and allowed to live more spritually-careless lives.
This doctrine has caused multitudes of church-goers to miss heaven.
Talk about a perfect doctrine for Satan to foist upon God’s church!
My suggestion: If you are attending a church that teaches these errors:
-- ask God if He will allow you to leave now
-- if yes, leave, and find one that does not teach these errors
.
