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What an interesting study….
Matthew 12:38-39
Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you. He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
The Pharisees brought Jesus a demon-possessed man who was blind and could not speak. Jesus healed this man. The people were amazed at this and wondered if Jesus was the Son of David, which meant that he would be the one that God had sent to deliver them. This agitated the Pharisees and so accused Jesus of using the power of Satan rather than the power of God. Jesus knew their thoughts. Jesus answered in three ways. First, why would Satan use demons to defeat his own demons. Second, Jews had cast out demons and they did not question them, and third, Jesus was driving out the demons by the Spirit of God. They had made a terrible accusation that the work of the Holy Spirit was done by Satan. To deny the Holy Spirit’s revelation of Jesus as Christ and the promised Savior is not forgivable.
The words that the Pharisees spoke showed the evil in their hearts, and they were told that men will be judged for their careless words. Jesus warned that on the Day of Judgment our words will either acquit us or condemn us because they express the condition of our heart. The mouth is the overflow of our attitude.
Even though the Pharisees saw and heard, they did not want to believe. Jesus has power and authority over everything and is greater than Satan. The Pharisees had seen Jesus’ miracles and heard the evidence that Jesus was Lord. Yet they ask:
38 “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.”
39 He answered ” A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign. But none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.
40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Are we a wicked and unfaithful generation asking for a miraculous sign? Are we not content with walking in faith anymore? Do we need the experience of signs and wonders to fulfill a need of power in us?
The simplicity and and complexity of this one single thought! Jesus is the miraculous sign and wonder, till He returns to earth. What else is there to ask for? To ask for more than Jesus is unbelief. If ones receives anything beyond the Holy Spirit, He is deceiving himself.
Because of Jonah, Nineveh initially repented and God shows a remarkable display of compassion. Yet, Nineveh eventually was totally destroyed for her oppression, idolatry and wickedness.
Nahum 1:14…I will destroy the carved images and cast idols that are in the temple of your gods. I will prepare your grave for you are vile.
Matthew 12:43 says When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, “I will return to the house I left.” When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.
The Jews had rid themselves of idols, but they never replaced their idol worship with the worship of Jesus Christ.
If you have believed and then become unfaithful to the Lord by worshiping other idols, whether it be power, money, authority, or worship of another spirit, evil may return 7-fold and completely destroy you.
The Pharisees had seen the miracles that Jesus performed and they had heard the evidence that Jesus is Lord, yet they refused to believe. “We want to see a miraculous sign.”
Jesus promised the wicked sign-seekers that the only sign they would get would be the Sign of Jonah. Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of a whale before being coughed up onto the land. Jesus spent three days and three night in the tomb before he was resurrected. Those listening to Jonah repented. Jesus is greater than Jonah, so the wicked sign-seekers should repent.
Are we a wicked generation asking for signs and wonders? Do we need more than the written word? Jesus, is all the sign we need, but a wicked generation, asks for “more…more..Lord…more”. Jesus then goes on to say what will happen to those who repent but do not follow Him. Evil will return 7-fold. If you ask for a miraculous sign you may get one, but it may not come from the Holy One.
Jesus is THE sign and He is the miracle. He is all we need. To ask for more…is wicked. So if you are thinking of going down that road, you are going the wrong way.
There are many who are very intrigued with the mysticism that has been entering the church. I have heard it said, I need and desire the mystical side of faith. Where does it say in the Bible that we are to understand the mysteries of God and the universe? Why is it that some need to go outside scripture to “get the feeling”, or to have an “experience”? There is a good reason…It is difficult to create a euphoric bliss, a new ministry, or create a new following on revelation of the scripture alone. Therefore, we have a “new gospel”, for those who do not get enough sensations or feeling from reading the Bible or worshiping God in a traditional manner.
A social gospel is being taught, and this gospel promotes a god of love and prosperity. The problem is…….without truly following Christ by repenting, and picking up a cross daily, your spiritual life will be void of any true regeneration.
I watched a special on GODTV last New Years Eve’s featuring Mike Bickle at IHOP. He was teaching young people at a huge conference. It hit me while watching that he was just all talk and had absolutely no substance. Over and over again he was telling these young people to Live For the Lord and to be Holy, Holy, Holy. But he did not give any scripture. Without scripture and the Holy Spirit, these young boys and girls were doomed to fail. When people fail in love, have no control over sin in their life, and have not the joy in times of trouble…..they become discouraged and may turn away from the Lord. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can be holy. We have no righteousness of our own.
These are the ones who may need to reach out into an unknown mystical world for a spiritual “fix”. Gnosticism provides this spiritual fix.
First, let’s take a look at early Gnosticism. It was introduced into the first two centuries of the church and taught that the spirit was good and matter was evil. Therefore, to be saved was to be freed from the body which was deemed evil. To be freed from this slavery, one needed the special “knowledge” (gnosis). This eliminated the need for the cross and a savior. Today, much of this can be seen today…Man’s salvation is not by faith in God but rather, in the special, mystical knowledge than one can learn by experience. This experience or enlightenment is a key word in New Age religion.
This heresy flourished in the 2nd and 3rd century and the gnostics claimed to still be Christians. Please read this paragraph from a gnostic site that has a definition of Gnostic Christianity.
“A Gnostic is a person who believes that salvation is gained through the acquisition of divine knowledge or gnosis..When gnostics speak of salvation, they mean being freed from these illusions of darkness so that they can perceive Reality. Gnostic Christians have commenced following a Path of never ending increase in Knowledge, Enlightenment, Power, Peace, and every Divine Attribute. They are led along this Path by those disciples who have preceded them, a chain of initiates going back to Jesus himself.”
A spiritual fix…..What is it in the above sentence that may appeal to someone looking for spirituality? Divine Knowledge perhaps? Who doesn’t want to be in on a secret…Who doesn’t want to be part of an elite group…Is it Power? Hasn’t power corrupted men over and over again. To be powerful is to be over and above others. To be in charge or at the “Head of the Table” Ah, Divine….Divinity is self-consciousness, to find the Divine Spark within himself. Godhood. One can attain a spiritual fix by experiencing an emotional outpouring or is it “in-pouring”, of supposedly godly manifestations.
Also I was interested to find out what the Path was. Here is what I found:
The Mystic Christ
by Ethan Walker IIIThe light of non-duality and the path of love according to the life and teachings of Jesus. The Gnostic path is the inner path to God-realization. Buddha, Krishna, Jesus and the other great Masters are all one and in essence taught the same thing.
Meditation is the means by which the individual may achieve direct union with God. In order to attain this gnosis, one must first fully understand the mind. All through our lives, we have grown accustomed to indirect experiences.
See how Jesus Christ is grouped with Buddha and Krishna? Jesus Christ is the Son of God and here He is reduced to a great master. Another heresy is that they “taught the same thing”? Unfortunately, Gnostic trends were never totally eliminated and have always been filtering into the church and of late have exploded and taken a stronghold. Meditation is added to assure that one can reach God directly. What happened to prayer?
Have you heard any of these phrases lately?
LatterRain, Overcomers, Manifest Sons of God, Universal Consciousness, Christ Consciousness, A New Breed, The Anointed, The New Prophets, New Order, A Harvets of a Billion Souls, A New Thing, or Spiritual Warfare. This is but a thimble in a pool of phrases. Lingo is created in certain ministries to numb the mind of the believer. When jargon is heard over and over again, one ceases to question it. This is a huge issue in these end times, because the Bible teaches of end-time deception and if you do not know the Word of God, and study it in context, relying on the KJV, you may be easily deceived.
Most of these phrases come out of the LatterRain influence, and out of LatterRain we have Word-of-Faith, The New Apostolic Reformation, and Dominionism. Because we hear and read these phrases that are being used readily today, we know that Gnosticism is alive and well and is currently at work destroying the true Christian faith. If you hear these or similar phrases in your church then you need to do some research.
So Gnosticism has many names. From it flows the Rosicrucian Order and from it Freemasonry. All is a basis for New Age thought and religion. I know that many cringe at the thought that some churches today may truly be involved in New Age religion, but sadly it is so. Theosophy’s main goal was to infiltrate the church with Eastern mysticism and this is being accomplished.
According to Theosophist Alice Bailey, (she was a channeler) the Church is being used as merely a part of an overall plan to bring in world peace, world domination and to set up the “Kingdom on Earth”. This kingdom is not a godly kingdom. This kingdom belongs to Satan.
2Ti 3:1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
2Ti 3:2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
2Ti 3:4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God–
2Ti 3:5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
So if you are falling into the trap of Warrens Peace Plan, Wagner’s Apostolic Reformation, or IHOP’s Joel’s Army, you are furthering the plans of the “enlightened” ones. Is this what you are doing? If so, then you are not following Jesus Christ. He told us in the Beatitudes to: Mourn over our sinful nature, to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and that we will be persecuted because of Him. Can this be any more opposite than the Gnostic gospel of self-deity?
So if you are in need of a spiritual “fix”. Get down on your knees, confess your sin, repent and turn away from sin.
Todd Friel Interviews Doug Pagitt of the Emergent Church
11/17/07 UPDATE:::: I found someone who transcribed the entire interview…Read it here http://www.robwillmann.com/blog/2008/07/10/wotm-radio-transcript-todd-friel-interviews-doug-pagitt/ A reader sent me two audio interviews of Doug Pagitt of Solomon’s Porch in Minnesota. Todd Friel is the interviewer from Way of the Master Radio. I have already posted an article about this church here: https://kimolsen.wordpress.com/2007/09/20/solomons-porch-an-emerging-church/ I do not want to clump all emergents in one defining category or imply all their theology is like Pagitt’s but all emerging churches seem to be involved in either mysticism, contemplative spirituality, a road back to Rome, universalism, ecumenism, or adding Jesus’ name to another religion. Please listen to these audios:
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These comments are from YouTube
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Doug Pagitt is fulfilling
2 Timothy 4:3-4
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
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Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and ALL LIARS, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Wow, heresy.
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Systematic theology=taking your own views and imposing them on the Bible.
Biblical theology=reading the scriptures, with historical context in mind, and trying to figure out what is being said through it.
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Bless his heart, Todd Friel is a radio host. He did well given the extremely combative, elusive Padgitt. It’s difficult to nail down the Emergent doctrines because they are continuing to evolve.
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These comments are from the below site that also featured these two interviews:
http://reformedvoices.blogspot.com BTW i really like this site…..
Anonymous said…
- If I have to wander about in goat skins and starve half to death to preach out against this heresy I will this is a shame and is perverted enough to make me weep. Please hold fast to the bible. Thank you for exposing this garbage. Greg.
- Anonymous said…
- Paggit is just another in a long list of heretic kooks who have no understanding of the word of God, for they have not the Holy Spirit to open their blind eyes to see, yet they proclaim to be teachers of men. Unfortunately,there are too many in the church today that are not truly born again, and are willing to swallow ANY teaching that comes down the pike. They love to have their itching ears scratched. It is also unfortunate that some seem to be so complacent and gullable, that they may as well wear a sign around their neck saying, “feed me and burp me when it’s over”. In season and out of season.
- Jason L. said…
- DP didn’t surprise me one bit. One of the Po-motivators posters describes it best:”If you don’t agree with my new point of view, then it’s pretty obvious who the divisive one is”http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/posters.htmPray for the “sheeple” of these false prophets, that God would deliver them out of those places.
- Vaughan Smith said…
- I think it was funny when he almost claimed Luther, Calvin, Whitfield, Spurgeon and Moody.
DiscernIt 
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