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In my years of ministry I have experienced people being slain in
the Spirit in deliverance sessions and those people would be
delivered from one or more evil spirits, sometimes often when
the person is on the floor, I am lead by the Holy Spirit to
continue conducting deliverance and then the evil spirit is cast
out or more are cast out.
But I also know and have seen and have had it
confirmed by the Lord on many occasions where Satan, the master
deceiver, has counterfeited this and where it was actually
demonic.
It is known that for example in Hindu rituals, Kundalini yoga,
hypnotic meetings, etc there are
people being slain in another spirit, yes indeed the whole nine
yards, often a large number of people would fall all at the same
time.
A
shepherd is supposed to discern this and the Lord's true
shepherds do discern this and keep their flock save from
witchcraft. If it cannot line up with the Word of God, then it
is not of God, run away from this.
Then their is a group of pastors, who belief the slaying in the
spirit is necessary for their congregants to believe that they
are anointed, or for themselves to believe that they are
anointed, these well-meaning yet so very deceived men, are
often recognised as so-and-so wannebees, so many started to
push their congregants to make them fall and being loud, copying
all sorts of behaviour.
The problem is that Satan
has caused confused and deceived ministers and Christians in
general to hold televangelists as the standard for 'being
anointed' rather then the Word of God!
Televangelists nor TV ministers nor any man, nor any woman may
ever be a standard by which one measures or describes God's
anointing, the Word of God must be the only standard, hence this
challenging study in challenging times, we now live in the
prophesied last days, where deception increases and for which
the Lord Jesus Christ warned us so thoroughly.
Unfortunately Satan has successfully made amongst others 'the
slaying in the spirit' the standard for 'the anointing', through
the Illuminati funded charismatic and word of faith movement
which are satanic.
One of the most famous leaders of this Charismatic movement,
has over the years brainwashed millions of Christians throughout
the world, with always saying 'this is the anointing' after one
or many would fall to the ground. When something is said over
and over and over again in large meetings and on TV stations in
nearly every nation in the world, false teachings and
extra-Biblical statements (statements that are not in the Bible)
will be believed by millions, this is brainwashing, Satan is an
expert in deception and did you really think that this fallen
yet supernatural creature the arch-enemy of God, would sit back
and let the fundamental Christians expand territory?
Satan came up with a 'new' kind of 'Christianity'
something that feels real, looks real, but is ultimately
demonic, truth is mixed in this Charismatic movement and YES
even people get saved and give their life to the Lord Jesus
Christ, otherwise it would never be believed to be a true
movement! But enough false doctrine and false signs and false
wonders and demon spirits are mixed in to deceive the greater
masses and help the great falling away.
Only once one truly meditates on what the Lord Jesus Christ and
the Apostles have warned for and ask for understanding and
discernment, can one see the deception!
So there is a
lot to do about this subject, hence this page, I would like to
share with you this article and study by James
Jacob Prasch, it is a long read but worth it:
Slain in the Spirit - A Midrashic Perspective
If you have
had some sort of sensual experience like falling on your back
due to some kind of "impartation" - a term the Bible does not
use nor promote nor teach by example as a normal Christian
experience; or exhibited some kind of "manifestation" - a term
used only once in the Bible with regards to the gifts of the
Spirit which are clearly listed (1 Cor. 12:7-11); been in an
induced trance state, found yourself pinned to the floor,
laughed uncontrollably, made animal noises, exhibited signs of
"drunkenness in the spirit", or other such phenomena ... if you
have "experienced" these things ... has the urge to pass along
those experiences taken on more importance than preaching the
gospel? Have they begun to overshadow the Word of God and its
sound doctrines and their application to your life? Have they
taken on more significance than the sanctifying ethical work of
the Holy Spirit in your life? Have they begun to eclipse the
work of the cross in your relationship with Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, to whom the Holy Spirit always points our worship and
obedience? Are you now a zealous proponent of something you have
not really investigated fully but only "experienced"? Examine
yourself and others in your congregation to see if phenomena
such as "slain in the spirit" have taken on far more importance
in your life than they should. Prasch points out the nature of
these ecstatic experiences and points us back to the Word. If
you are caught up in these modern mystic/gnostic paths that end
up leading away from the truth, please take the time to read
this article carefully. Prasch brings the Word to bear on and
balance back to the subject of "slain in the spirit".
For those of you who
have not taken the time to find out where the modern unbiblical
strain of "slain in the spirit" came from, it has its doctrinal
roots in Christian gnosticism and mystical eastern religions. In
the occult world it is known as "serpent power" or "awakening
your chakra" through Hindu "kundalini" yoga techniques by the
laying on of hands of a guru during a "shakti-pat" initiation.
In the "Christian" realm it was practiced by the Shakers (they
had a number of heretical doctrines and practices and also used
necromancy in summoning, conversing with and following the
edicts of the "spirit" of their dead leader Mother Ann, whom
they believed to be the female expression of the Godhead) in the
early 1900's. "Slain in the spirit" was later reintroduced by
the Latter Rain Movement (which was found to be unbiblical in
its doctrines and practices by the A/G and was put out of that
denomination in 1949, yet has now been brought back into the A/G
at Brownsville) and spiritist/spiritualist faith healers such as
William Branham, A.A. Allen, Jack Coe, Kathryn Kuhlman, and
others of the early to middle 1900's. In our day it was brought
back for yet another round through the RHEMA/Word-Faith Movement
by people like Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland and Rodney
Howard-Browne as well as by Benny Hinn, and leavened into many
denominations when popularized by John Wimber and the Vineyard,
the Toronto "Blessing" and the Pensacola "Outpouring".
Please do not allow
this false anointing into your church. Since this is clearly not
the biblical "anointing of the Holy Spirit", it is really no
"anointing" at all but rather a fleshly and/or demonic exercise
in futility. The damage may not be apparent at the outset, but
will become more evident as time goes by, if not to yourself,
then to others. This has been demonstrated over and over again
in many testimonials that we have on file as a result of running
a web site dealing with these issues. We could cite (and do)
many testimonies of shipwrecked lives - people who found out
they were deceived and are dealing with a world of hurt while
allowing the Holy Spirit to put their lives back together. If
you doubt that this stuff ends in chaos and spiritual upheaval,
please investigate what is happening in the Toronto "Blessing"
churches in England for the "fruit". Check out what is going on
currently in Kenneth Hagin's church. It's awful!
Brownsville A/G is
now showing the same "fruit", namely: lack of systematic Bible
teaching; a low view of Scripture; disorder; emotional upheaval
in people's lives; abusive shepherding; cultic techniques to try
to continue a perceived "revival" atmosphere; pragmatic
"spiritual warfare" and "intercession" teachings and practices
that more closely resemble those found in witchcraft; use of
icons to focus "worship"; false prophesy (documented in the
cases of John Kilpatrick and Michael Brown, leaders at
Brownsville); lashing out against rebuke rather than repenting
of false doctrines and false prophecy; non-disclosure and/or
hiding of financial resources; seeking after financial gain by
making people feel guilty if they don't give; many documented
cases of lies and deception regarding published "facts" about
the revival; wild interpretations of Scripture to try to prove
experiences that have more to do with the occult than
Christianity; the preaching of a watered-down gospel that is
really no gospel at all; and so on. These are a few of the
indications that the apostasy that Jesus and the apostles talked
about regarding the end times is already upon us in the guise of
the Third Wave counterfeit revivals.
You may have had an
experience that fits into the category of the "ecstatic" and you
may not have seen any immediately harmful effects from it. That
does not necessarily mean it is beneficial for you. You may have
had a genuine experience of God's miraculous power sometime
during your life. You need to look to God through His Word for
discernment in these matters. Having been an MK and missionary
practically all my life I have seen God work in many miraculous
ways - sometimes using people, sometimes not using people. He
has worked miraculously in my life in a number of ways through
the years. The proof that any "sign and wonder" is of God is
that it must be completely consistent with the "word and
testimony" of Scripture.
But there is a false
anointing in the world today which is not of God but of the
flesh and of the devil because it is not consistent with the
Word of God. If any Christian continues to run after experiences
and teachings that are apart from the truth of God's Word and
outside of His will for the Christian life, that person is on a
certain road to ruin. God has ordained how He wants to be
worshipped - in our right minds, in an orderly fashion, and with
self-control (1Cor. 14:33, 40; Col 2:5; Pr 25:28; 2 Pet. 1:5-8).
Do not make the
mistake of the gnostics whom Jude addressed in the early church
by:
-
Taking the way
of Cain - substituting a works gospel for salvation by grace
alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone by His
blood, offering sacrifices that God has not ordained, and
not giving our best to God.
-
Rushing for
profit into Balaam's error - attempting to use sorcery to
summon up Almighty God and, as luck would have it, get paid
for it too!
-
Claiming to be
"holy" like Korah - boasting in a false anointing that is
not holy at all, and suffering ultimate destruction because
of rebellion against God and His true church.
We need to have
mercy on those deluded by the false anointing and attempt to
pull them from the fire ... while taking a wide berth around
their tents! It is dangerous to burn strange fire before
Almighty God ... to rebelliously accept and promote a false
anointing that is not from YHWH!
Slain in the Spirit: A Midrashic Perspective by
Jacob Prasch, 1996
There are few issues
today that result in as much controversy, misunderstanding and
division, as the question of being "slain in the Spirit". Some
maintain that the phenomena has absolutely no biblical basis.
This position is mistaken. Others who promote such carnal
deceptions as Toronto / Pensacola see it as some proof that God
is moving. They accuse those who disagree of "Not being Spirit
Baptized" or "Repressing the Spirit" or of being "cessationists"
(ie, holding to the erroneous opinion that the gifts of the
Spirit ended with the Apostles). In fact, many opposing such
unscriptural practice are themselves Pentecostals and
Charismatics. Examined biblically, the truth is somewhere other
than what either camp seems to realize.
Manifestations
Nowhere in Scripture
are "manifestations" or "impartations" associated with being
slain in the Spirit. The manifestations cited in 1 Corinthians,
in connection with Spiritual Gifts, bear no relation whatsoever
to what we see going on in places like Pensacola.
Toronto/Pensacola manifestations more closely resemble Stage
Hypnotism, Eastern Religious Mysticism and demon possession,
than they do anything biblical. Indeed, being "slain in the
Spirit" in at least one place is connected with Jesus casting a
demon out of someone following irrational behaviour. Several
years prior to Toronto, a number of Vineyard pastors associated
the same expressions of irrational behaviour, now common in
Toronto and Pensacola, with the irrational behaviour of the
demoniacs in scripture. Being slain in the Spirit was seen as
evidence of "deliverance" and "exorcism" and demons coming out
as in Mark 9. Now the phenomena once recognized by them as proof
of the demonic, is suddenly proof of the Divine! What is the
truth? What has God already said about this subject in His Word?
John on Patmos
We find the term
"slain in the Spirit" in the first chapter of the Book of
Revelation, where the Apostle John is "in the Spirit on the
Lord's Day" and, after the presence of Jesus overtakes him, John
"falls as if slain". This is not the first or only time such an
experience is recorded in Scripture, but it is the place from
where we get the term, and it reveals something about the
experience. These phenomena were unusual in the Bible. For
something that was rare in Scripture to become a common event in
contemporary times must raise questions about the authenticity
of what we are seeing today. Instead of God moving, people are
being pushed over or manipulated by hypnotic suggestion, after
being set up by repetitive mesmerizing music. This is no
different from what happens at stage hypnotist shows. (Those who
fall down all the time have personality types predisposed to
hypnotic induction.) Today's experiences are frequently
accompanied by hysterics, animal imitations, drunken behaviour
and slurred speech. In John's experience in Revelation, as in
Daniel's, it was accompanied by a sense of terror at the
holiness of the awesome presence of the Lord. With both John and
Daniel (who saw the same prophetic eschatological visions from
different aspects), the experience was so frightening that the
Lord dispatched an angel to reassure them and tell them not to
fear. Whenever this experience happened in scripture, it was a
unique, one time event that took place for a specific reason in
a specific situation. There is no biblical record of it
happening multiple times. An overpowering encounter with the
Lord brought a sense of terror, so it was not likely to be
something people wanted to happen again. Not that the experience
with the Divine itself was bad, but it was very frightening to
John and Daniel. They required divine intervention to make it
bearable. Today, however, we see people going back again and
again to receive "another dose". Such people are not seeking the
Lord, but seeking an experience. This counterfeits the authentic
biblical phenomena with a cheap thrill, reducing a bonafide
encounter with the Lord to the level of popular entertainment.
The unbiblical practice of getting back in the prayer line for
"going down" on the floor is no different to getting in the
queue for another ride on a roller coaster (except in their own
imagination). The fact that their experience does not match
biblical descriptions of being 'slain in the Spirit' does not
seem to register with them. Christians who go back for more and
more of these experiences are not going back for something real,
but for a psychological (and in some cases possibly a demonic)
counterfeit. This is only possible due to an ignorance of both
post-hypnotic suggestion and an ignorance of the Book of the
Lord - as well as the Lord of the Book. Even though they have
had a New Birth experience at some point, they have not been
properly discipled and never taught the Word of God, nor managed
to acquire discernment. Seeking manifestations of the Holy
Spirit instead of seeking the Spirit Himself, and chasing
thrills for thrills' sake, while foolishly misinterpreting those
as a "blessing", comes dangerously close to "the wicked and
adulterous generation seeking a sign" that Jesus warned against
and condemned (Luke 11:29).
Ignorance of Scripture
Yet if one questions
such unscriptural practices on the basis of Scripture, they are
not infrequently told that they are in danger of blaspheming the
Holy Spirit. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Holy
Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. He wrote the Bible, speaking
through the Prophets and Apostles. We are plainly commanded to
"examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good"
(1 Thessalonians 5:21) - 'good' meaning 'biblically true'. A
predisposition to such manipulation and suggestion is cultivated
by unscriptural worship. (With no theology, there can be no
doxology). The Holy Spirit is only ever worshipped in Scripture
in the context of the Triunity of the Godhead. He is never
prayed to directly in the Bible. But as John 14 and John 16 tell
us, He always points people to Jesus.
The worship of worship
What we see today in
the unbiblical lyrics of Vineyard Music, such as "The River
Song", does not lift up Jesus but an experience. It is the
worship of worship, which is not worship at all, but deception.
The music has a pre-hypnotic impact, setting people up for
"going down". This is why we see people, who are already
Christians, running up for altar calls at such places as
Pensacola, in what is then falsely termed "revival". But when
unsaved people see the ludicrous carnality, they think the place
is a lunatic asylum. Tragically they are more right than they
are wrong. As the experience of "going down" becomes what is
sought above the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit Himself becomes
denigrated. Thus we see people referring to going to Pensacola
or Toronto to get "IT", instead of going to the Lord for
themselves to get "Him". Such extreme Pentecostals and hyper-Charismatics
wind up with a pneumatology (a doctrine of the Holy Spirit)
which is no different in substance and practice to that of the
Jehovah's Witnesses cult, which sees the Holy Spirit not as a
person but as an inanimate force. A force however cannot be
grieved or blasphemed, only a person can.
Psychological manipulation
Christian
Psychiatrists and secular experts on hypnotism, who campaign
against its non-clinical use in entertainment, have warned that
what we see with people going down today is pure manipulation.
So have some Christian leaders who have come out of it. On a
national TV broadcast in Great Britain, Mark Haville, a preacher
who directs National Prayer Network video ministry, showed
videos of himself running around putting his hands on people and
them dropping like flies, explaining how it is done from the
point of view of a preacher who realized from scripture that
what he was doing was wrong. There are many other fundamental
differences between the genuine biblical experience of being
slain in the Spirit and the majority of what goes on today.
Phenomena in history
Some will point out
that it was a common phenomena in the ministry of John Wesley
and George Whitefield during the Great Revivals, and in the
ministry of Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney. That is true.
However, while the Lord may have used Charles Finney, we need to
be very cautious about making him an authority for any belief or
practice. Mr. Finney, for all of his good intention, effectively
denied original sin and bordered on the terrible heresy of
Pelagianism. Pelagianism is an ancient error, named after an
apostate monk, that says we can make the initial steps towards
salvation by our own efforts. Mr. Finney denied that man was
born fallen with original sin and thus needed to be born again,
although he did agree we all had sin and needed to repent and be
saved. Our standard to authenticate something must, first and
foremost, be the Bible. In the ministry of Wesley, Whitefield,
and Edwards however, while people in large numbers did indeed
fall down, it had no resemblance to what we see normally witness
today. In their ministries it was unsaved people falling under
the power of a holy and righteous God, in fear and trepidation,
and repenting of their sin and being saved. It was not people
who already claimed to be regenerate Christians behaving like
silly maniacs. It had nothing to do with the kinds of things we
generally see in our time. In the Bible and in church history,
when the genuine thing happened to either believers or
non-believers, it was nothing like today's popular fiasco.
Moreover, as in the Bible, the "falling down" was a unique, one
time experience. It was not repeated at every meeting or
continually sought. The almost addictive craving some people
develop for "going down" - as if it were a verification that
God's Spirit was really at work - is the kind of compulsive
behaviour His Spirit is given to set us free from.
Dangerous and foolish
The real test of
God's power in our lives as believers is the power of holy
living, not silly stunts. In a large church in London, a man
supposedly "Went Down in The Spirit" and split his head open.
When I questioned the leader of the particular denomination
about it he said that it happened because the particular area of
the floor where he fell was not carpeted! We have had calls from
distraught people in a Pentecostal church in England where a
woman has more than once gone down on the floor, supposedly
'slain in spirit', and lost control of her bladder in church.
More than that, she insisted that others come and join her on
the floor, pontificating that they were 'grieving the Spirit' by
refusing to do so. I can think of few things more warped than to
suggest that God's Spirit produces incontinence as a
manifestation of His presence. I can only pity this unfortunate
woman, but people should not be in a church like that. In a
video of Bishop David Pytches at St. Andrews Chorleywood in the
UK, another woman had someone fall on her smashing her eye
glasses and bruising her face, yet she was in hysterics
displaying the injury for the camera and insisting it was 'of
God'. Benny Hinn settled a multi-million dollar law suite out of
court when he laid hands on someone and they supposedly went
down under the Holy Ghost, falling on top of an elderly woman,
effectively killing her as she soon died from broken hip
complications. These extreme cases are becoming more common. On
some videos we have from London's Victory Church (a UK platform
of Rick Godwin and Ray Macaulley) which show people falling
violently, it is portrayed as hysterically laughable, despite
the potential for physical injury. This is destructive to our
Christian witness and testimony -particularly as millions watch
such outlandish frenzy on national TV. This is not supernatural,
but unnatural. It is for certain that at her funeral the
bereaved family of the woman killed by the actions of Benny Hinn,
and the poor victims of medical incontinence in geriatric
hospitals do not see such things as "blessings". Such dangerous,
traumatic, degrading and even deadly things have no relation to
any episode in the Bible where this experience is initiated by
God's Spirit. God's Spirit does not injure, humiliate, or kill
people in the name of 'blessing' them, or in the name of
bringing Revival to His church. If there is any danger of
blaspheming the Holy Spirit it is by those who so dishonour Him
by teaching otherwise.
Teaching of
Scripture
But let us
look even more closely at this experience when it happened in
scripture in contrast to what mainly goes on today. We do not
wish to suggest that if someone falls backward the experience is
false, purely psychological or demonic, yet whenever it happened
in the Bible the people fell on their faces before The Lord. The
only time recorded in scripture where people fell backwards,
spiritually slain, is when His enemies and false accusers came
to arrest Jesus (John 18:6). The other times the people fell
forward. To really grasp the true nature of being "slain in the
Spirit" we must look at one key example from the gospels. In our
exegesis let us understand the midrashic and typological
dimension of the episode which illustrates the true meaning. As
always, we must beware of building any doctrinal conclusions on
type, allegory, or midrash. We only use typological illustration
and midrash to illuminate and demonstrate doctrine.
Mark 9:17-29
In Mark 9:17-29
we read the narrative account of a young man so demon possessed
that the apostles could not cast the evil spirits out of him.
This gospel account reveals important things about the subjects
of demonology and exorcism, and also the subject of faith (v.
24). But the text also graphically depicts features which are
central to a genuine understanding of 'being slain in the
Spirit'. With the single exception of Mary Magdalen, each case
of demonic possession recorded in the gospels is accompanied by
some form of self destructive, irrational behaviour. This case
is no exception. We first see the boy being driven by the
unclean spirit into convulsions, with foaming at the mouth. Some
Christians in the medical profession have investigated demonic
possession from the view point of medical science. One of the
most renowned of these was Dr. Kurt Koch. Clinically there
appears to be at least two general areas of possibility here. We
asked Dr. Hilda Podlas, a Messianic Jewish Physician
specializing i n neurological disorders to attempt a forensic
review of the case in Mark 9 from a diagnostic perspective. We
are advised that such phenomena can be symptomatic of serious
neurological disorders such as encephalitis, some meningiococcal
infections, leuco-dystrophy, and certain kinds of epilepsy.
Clearly these illnesses are not always caused by sin or by the
direct workings of Satan, but they can be in some cases, and
they are here in verse 25, causing the deaf and dumb condition
in this young person who Jesus delivered from Satan's clutch.
Whenever Jesus took away a disorder caused by demonic
'oppression' in the gospels, the Greek term is therapeuo meaning
'healed'. When it is caused by open 'possession' however, as it
is here in Mark 9, the term is ekballo meaning 'cast out'.
Another clinical
possibility for the boy imitating an animal might point to the
bacterial disease rabies. Rabies can result in irrational
behaviour in humans as it does in animals. When the mind of a
beast was given to Nebechednezzer, the animal imitations were a
manifestation of God's judgement. Here it could be a
manifestation of demon possession. Although in its literature
the Brownsville Assemblies of God church in Pensacola (like its
Toronto counterpart) sanctions animal imitations such as roaring
like a lion, nowhere in scripture is animal imitation ever a
manifestation of God's Spirit. Non-metaphorical comparisons of
persons to animals, may be a sign of God's judgement, or of
demon possession, but never of God's blessing, in spite of what
some people are teaching today. Perhaps however, there was no
medical pathology involved, only symptoms. We cannot be sure.
Midrash
The demons then
propelled the boy to throw himself into the fire. Viewed
midrashically, there is more to this abnormal, self destructive
behaviour than the demon trying kill him, although that surface
aspect is certainly true and important in its own right, as it
reveals how Satan wants people to kill themselves. In verse 22
the demon threw him into the water and threw him into the fire.
In biblical figure, as with Noah's flood and Pharaoh and his
army, death by drowning was judgement. Throwing into the fire
however is a picture of hell (Revelation 20:14). This is the
true nature of Satan. He wants to see people join him in the
judgement and eternal perdition reserved for him. God - in the
person of the Lord Jesus -is in the business of saving people
from judgement and hell. This story in Mark is a typological
illustration of a new birth experience, a saving act by Jesus
resulting in a regeneration, where the old creation that was
bound for judgement and hell dies (as this boy falls down like a
corpse after encountering the Lord, v. 26). After meeting Jesus,
he becomes (as it were) a different person and is now in his
right mind. This is exactly what happened in Mark 5:15 at
Gerasene. The Lord gives us the power of a sound mind. The
theological term that applies in this text is known as
"corporate solidarity", where one person represents a larger or
collective group of people. Here the young boy represents all of
fallen mankind collectively. This is not to suggest that all
unsaved people are demon possessed. This is certainly not true,
although all of them reside in Satan's kingdom and are under the
realm of his domain in this fallen world. But while we cannot
say that all persons not yet born again are demon possessed,
since the Lord promises His people the power of a sound mind, I
cannot help but wonder if all unsaved people are not to some
degree, not 'of sound mind'. How tragic it is then, when
supposedly saved Christians behave more irrationally than the
lost do, by falling down at meetings all the time, erroneously
believing it is God's Spirit knocking them out.
A new creation
In terms of a
corporate solidarity, this young man being plunged by Satan into
judgement and hell is saved by Jesus. He falls as if he is dead
(verse 26) and becomes like a corpse. When we are saved we also
fall down dead. The old creation is slain. Even though we may
not all literally fall under the Spirit of God physically, as
happened in figure here in Mark 9 or in the ministry of John
Wesley or Jonathan Edwards, the old creation bound for judgement
and hell becomes a corpse and we become new creations. Something
happened when this young man met Jesus that is so typical of
what happens when anyone meets Jesus and becomes a new creation.
Most people thought he had died. When I was saved, my family and
friends thought the crazy university student stoned on cocaine
that they once knew was dead. I became different. And when you
first met Jesus and were saved by Him you became different. Your
unsaved family and friends thought the old you was dead. And
they were, in some way, right. The unsaved cannot understand
what happens when we are born again. Our old selves become dead
at the feet of Jesus and He raises us up as new creations that
Satan can no longer control and throw into judgement and the
fire of hell. Understood midrashically, the literal experience
of being 'slain in the spirit' in Mark 9 reflects the deeper
experience of death and resurrection we all have when we meet
the Lord Jesus. He saves all from the judgement and the fire who
repent and truly receive Him.
Spectators have
the same need
Just like the
spectators in Mark 9 however, the unsaved who knew us before we
met Jesus share a common attribute. They knew that the demon
possessed young lad was in serious trouble and in desperate need
of help. What they did not realize however, was that in God's
economy they were in the same desperate state. They are bound
for the same judgement and destruction at the hands of Satan.
The unsaved who see the change that meeting Jesus causes in our
lives, do not realize that they too have just as desperate a
need for Him to bring Himself and His salvation into their lives
as well, although the need may not be as outwardly obvious. They
also are bound for judgement and hell without the true salvation
only found in Him.
God can do the
same today
The physical
falling that happened with the young man in Mark 9 happened in
the crusades of the Great Awakenings, when people fell under the
conviction of sin and were saved. There is no biblical reason
why the real thing cannot still happen today, if and when God so
chooses. But precious little of today's falling down is the
sovereign power of God. Once the boy got up again, he was a
completely different person. His falling down 'slain in the
spirit', when he encountered the Lord, was a once-only life
transforming experience. Even when it happened to Daniel and
John, it was the same. In each biblical case the people were
totally different after they got up than from when they went
down. The test is not what happens when somebody goes down, but
how radically transformed their lives as believers in Jesus are,
once and for all, after they get back up. In genuine cases, the
people were never the same again. Today, we see very little of
this. What we mainly have now is people going back for more and
more because the first time they went down it was not
transforming enough - so they want another dose of the same
experience. If anything demonstrates the hollow and counterfeit
nature of most of what we see today in "falling in the spirit",
it is this. The real thing we see in Scripture has nothing to do
with Toronto, Pensacola, Sunderland, or what has become of most
of the Full Gospel Businessman's Fellowship. How radically
different are most of the people we see falling down today after
they get up again? Usually they are no different in the longer
term. That is why they go back for what amounts to little more
than "another fix". But it would be very wrong to say, as some
do, that there is no biblical authority for the experience of
being 'slain in the spirit'. There is a clear scriptural basis
for this experience and, as with the Gifts of the Spirit, Satan
only counterfeits things worth counterfeiting. It would also be
a mistake to state that this experience is something that only
happened in biblical times and that a sovereign, all-powerful
God cannot or will not cause this experience to happen again if
He so chooses. Nowhere does Scripture teach that He will not do
it when and if it suits His purposes. He did it in the ministry
of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield (Reformed Calvinists)
and John and Charles Wesley (Arminians), and He can do it today.
In accordance with
Scripture
But
if He does elect to do it today, it will be in accordance with
Scripture as it was in the ministry of Wesley, Whitefield, and
Edwards - and not like Benny Hinn, Colin Dye, Steve Hill, or
Rodney Howard-Brown. These are two distinct and mutually
exclusive things. The former group was of God, and the latter
group most certainly is not. While it would be quite wrong to
say that most of what is alleged to be being 'slain in the
Spirit' in contemporary trends has anything at all to do with
the genuine biblical article, it is also quite wrong to say that
there is no genuine biblical article to begin with. We must not
confuse the biblical with the popular, neither conversely,
should we reject the scriptural and authentic because of the
unscriptural and counterfeit.
The overwhelming majority of what
goes on today clearly is not God at all. At best, most of it is
a fleshly manifestation where the psychological and carnal are
substituted for the biblical and spiritual. In some cases it may
even be overtly demonic. The increase of body heaviness, despite
no actual increase in mass or weight, testified to by Pensacola
Pastor John Kilpatrick when he went down - while a very common
feature in demon possession, occult practices, and in Eastern
and New Age Religion - certainly has no biblical warrant.
Because the Fruit of the Spirit is self control (Galatians
5:23), no valid supernatural experience, no matter how ecstatic,
can justify people passed out in a day dream or screaming like
maniacs on the floor.
This is not what happened to John, or
Daniel. Less still does a real supernatural experience of the
Lord see someone crashing down on the ground, vibrating like a
victim of severe epilepsy, and resembling more the demoniac in
Mark 9 before Jesus saved him, than the soul he became after he
met the Lord.
A genuine falling under God's Spirit that reflects
a true redemptive work of God, or revolutionizes the life of a
believer in such a way as the church is blessed and encouraged,
as with John in Revelation chapter one, is another matter. It is
rather rare in Scripture, fairly rare in church history, and
seemingly even more rare today. Perhaps, if the real experience
were not being counterfeited and produced in the flesh so
widely, we would see the Lord doing more of the real thing. I do
not know. God is sovereign and that is up to Him. Being
discerning and judging biblically, however, is something He said
is up to us. We live in a church environment today where people
are falling down left, right, and centre. There is a true
version and a false version. What predominates in contemporary
circles, is plainly the false. This falling can and has caused
physical injury, humiliation, and even death. The saturation of
our churches with this current brand of manipulation and
deception is good for little, except undermining the credibility
of the church. I want to be open to anything of God that He
desires for me. If it is of God it will be Bible based.
The
only thing that God is interested in - and therefore the only
thing that we should be interested in - is not what happens when
people go down, but what happens when people get back up.
Midrash is the ancient
Jewish method of biblical exegesis used by The New Testament
writers, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and in early rabbinics.The
rabbinic 'Midrashim' were written in the fourth century to the
Middle Ages but the earliest recorded rabbinic midrash cites
earlier orally transmitted traditions dating back to the 7
Midoth of Rabbi Hillel , the grandfather of Rabbi Gamaliel,
tutor of St. Paul. We see Paul's use of these principles of
interpretation in his epistles. We also see the same exegetical
approach used in the New Testament handling of the Old Testament
in both the early midrashim and in much of the Qumran
literature. In Jude's epistle we see the use of Midrash not only
as exegetical method, but as literary genre. Midrash does not
nullify the standard grammatical-historical exegetical methods
the Reformers adopted from 16th century humanist scholarship,
but in fact incorporates a more ancient grammatical-historical
approach into the 'peshet' (simple meaning) interpretations but
with a cyclical view of prophetic history expands into 'pesher'
interpretations which is exactly what the New Testament does.
This is not to say to say that the New Testament is Midrash but
rather that it is "midrashic'; the Jewish authors of the New
Testament inspired to write it handled handled exegesis in the
same matter as the other Jewish religious exegesis broadly
contemporary with it.
The use of midrashic
hermeneutics in the New Testament has been recognized in
conservative Evangelical scholarly circles for centuries since
the Puritans. The first midrashic commentary having been written
by John Lightfoot, the Puritan scholar. Bilderbeck and Strach
pioneered research into New Testament midrash in Germany.
Contemporary Evangelical
scholars have been drawn to a re-examination of Midrash in the
New Testament due to the implications of the Qumran literature.
These include TS Doherty, RN Longenecker, EE Ellis, and Moises
Silva. A number of rabbinic scholars have likewise confirmed the
Jewish-ness of the New Testament as Second Temple Period Jewish
literature including Jacob
Nuesner, David Flusser, W. Lachs, and Pinchas Lapide.
Unfortunately this area
of hermeneutical scholarship has been wildly distorted by a few
liberal higher critics who in their contorted analysis have
actually departed from the fundamental principles of midrash in
order to negate literal meaning and historicity, when in fact in
actual midrash. Historicity and literal meaning (peshet) are
pre-requisites for defining the expanded (Pesher)
interpretations. These have included Barbara Thierring and John
Sponge; but their supposed citations of midrash are often held
as bogus by serious theologians familiar withy the field. Some
have viewed biblical uses of midrash through the prism of M.
Goulder's lectionary hypothesis.
Opposition to Christian
use of midrash in The New Testament has also surfaced from non
scholars posing as self styled academics but who themselves are
not even literate in the biblical languages and are unqualified
to offer an intelligent opinion in the matters they misrepresent
themselves as having expertise. These are generally adherents to
the Ruckmanite heresy which elevates the 17th century King James
bible over the original texts and autographs in the original
languages. Because they have no knowledge of the subjects they
pontificate on their rather merit-less and often preposterous
views are not published in scholarly journals but they do have
small cultic following on the internet. These include Richard
Engstrom, V. Dillen and B. Aho. Reformed scholar wrote an
excellent refutation the 'King James Only' heresy which is the
basis of Ruckmanite opposition to anything placing Hebraic
scholarship above post Elizabethan English. Ruckmanism is also
the counter part to British Israelism and the racist beliefs of
The Identity Movement. Opposition to Jewish origins of the New
Testament are also voiced by radical replacementist Calvinists
(who are often seen as a result of the tone and content of their
writings as anti semitic) such as the journalist Peter Golver.
Glover likewise has no training in theology or biblical
languages and his opinions are dismissed as unqualified by
conservative researchers and he has no serious acceptance in the
academic community. In light of the Dead Sea scrolls, few
conservative Evangelical theologians would doubt the
presence of midrashic hermeneutics in the New Testament, though
some like Waltar Kaiser would seek to explain it in terms of
conventional typology while others would demonstrate typological
exegesis itself is a cardinal component of midrash.
Midrashic hermeneutics
have no placed in interpretation of inspired commentary - the
epistles, because the epistles themselves often use midrashic
method to exegete other scripture. Midrashic hermeneutics
however are employed in the interpretation of narrative,
apocalyptic, wisdom literature, and biblical Hebrew poetry.
Moriel places an
emphasis on the need to re-connect hermeneutics with Sitz im
Leben. The same as meaning of a biblical text must first be
examined in light of its historical setting before it can be
applied to our situation today, so too interpretation cannot be
divorced from its historical setting in order to arrive at its
proper meaning for today. In short, we must interpret scripture
in the way that scripture does.
(by James Jacob Prasch)
All for Your glory, Lord Jesus Christ!
NOTE from Pastor Vincent:
If you like to study more, I recommend Cisco Wheeler's
recent book 'Behold a white horse' available from Amazon,
it is a must read for every believer that is pressing for the
truth of Jesus Christ.
I am a truth-seeker for I follow the Lord Jesus Christ who is
the Truth, the only way and the LIFE, everything else is lies
and dead, so we must know what is false and what is true and
this research from Cecil helps us understand the warnings of
apostasy in the scriptures much better. It is not for the
faint-hearted for it pulls down the veils of deception, and
unfortunately there are shockingly many of them; the rabbit hole
is deep.
FOR MORE TEACHING SUBJECTS by Pastor Vincent click to the page
false-teachings-exposed
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