What is your ecclesia doing concerning the question of the Holy Spirit in operation today? Since the prominence given to certain charismatic organisations by advertising media in particular areas, there are pockets of brethren and sisters who have been intrigued, if not impressed, by the claims of healing and tongue-speaking demonstrated by members of these organisations. Their simple claim is that God heals and that God works in them through His Spirit. Is the claim true, or false?
Claims to have witnessed limbs increasing in size and people with crutches walking normally are not easily ignored. Nor should they be. Cures are cures unless reports of these cases are exaggerated.
God forgive me if I should judge the integrity of people, or should I assume to theorise regarding the modus operandi of the alleged miracles. True, some may be due to mere charlatanism; but frauds are insincere, and most of these leaders who claim cures appear intensely fervent and compassionate.
The ecclesia I belong to attempted to examine the claims of the Holy Spirit working in these people as a direct response from God to their faith in Him. Two Bible class nights were set aside for the consideration of these problems and even two nights were found to be centrated emotional waves. Brethren I know personally who, at one time seemed well founded in the Truth, have, with continued association in groups such as these, completely lost the real value of the Truth. Others, at least one in particular have lost the Truth itself. The mind has been so barraged by an emotional undercurrent that even the thinking patterns have been rearranged with little conscious effort.
In other words, years of studious application to God’s Word has been restored and resifted subconsciously until former patterns have been completely lost; until they are not even desired. The emotions constitute the strongest force for steering the mind in channels not willed by the individual; but the consciousness is borne aloft on the wings of emotion so often mistaken for the spirit of God.
What Of Miracles By Non-Christians?
The question you are thinking by this is, ‘If this is not the spirit of God working in these gatherings and individuals, how are the cures performed?’ Would it surprise you that I must say I cannot presume to know. But I know this, that equally sincere people claim similar wonders in the name of eastern religions and also in the name of carefully studied science.
For example, a simple foundation upon which one science is built, is that the air we breathe contains the spirit of God. Genesis 7:22 is quoted in support of this universal phenomenon. (All in whose nostrils is the breath of the spirit of life) (Revised version margin). So this is a true basis supported by the Bible. However, they build on this basis a disciplined course of breathing exercises in conjunction with controlled imagination and concentration to such a pitch of intensity and rhythm that cures have been effected not only in themselves but in others also; sometimes by the laying on or application of hands or by using them in soothing stroking motions. Others claim to be able to direct at will the mind with healing properties after being charged like a battery with this invisible power, which they claim is available to all, but few are equipped to tap its source.
I ask, is this a part of God’s spirit, which He his distributed throughout his creation? Is it part of His Almighty sustaining power? Have the Charismatics and the Easterners in different ways tapped the same healing energy? For they both claim similar results and offer the evidence in support of their claims. At least it is worth consideration.
In each case the cure is the result of controlled mental effort, with a reaching out of the mind towards the afflicted one with a sure confidence that results will be achieved. The point we must make, though, is that these cures are not the same as those described in the New Testament by the power of the Holy Spirit sent specifically by an act of will from the Father.
Present-day cures may well be effected because individuals have drawn upon naturally-available reserves of power that God, in His wisdom, has supplied for the preservation of his organic creation: but in New Testament times God sent his power, baptising the apostles with the spirit, by an exertion of his own will. The result was that they did works like those of Jesus described in John 15:24 as those which none other man did. Let them raise the dead today and make eyes for blind men to see, before claiming to have the same power as Jesus and his apostles.
That certain cures were possible in New Testament times by those other than Jesus and his apostles is implied in the verse quoted. It is also implied when Jesus replied in Matt. 12:27 ‘If I by Beelzebub cast out devils by whom do your children cast them out?’ In Old Testament time reference is made to the the magicians of Egypt who imitated the first two plagues with their enchantments. During the third plague however, their attempt to bring forth lice was barren and they recognised defeat in ascribing the plague to the finger of God. But the Bible claims they were successful twice by their enchantments.
John says that many spirits had gone out into the world in his day. Would he use this language unless the false prophets were claiming to have the power of the Holy Spirit? Under those conditions John told us how to identify the ones who really had the Holy Spirit, and it was not by measuring the extent of their miracles. It was by their doctrine concerning Jesus. If they did not confess that Jesus came in the flesh, they were not of God.
The Spirit Tested By Doctrine
If the exhibition of miracles were the test, surely John would apply it. The fact that he did not apply it leads us to the inference that they all claimed the power to work them in some measure, and the truth was made manifest by doctrine and not by miracle working. God tells us exactly the same thing in the Old Testament. Deut. 13 refers to the prophet or dreamer of dreams who gives signs and wonders that really worked so convincingly that they could lead Israel astray. Again he tests him by his doctrine and adherence to the first commandment, to love the Lord thy God with all the heart, soul and mind. If he tried to entice Israel to serve other gods they were not to regard the signs and wonders, for the Lord their God was proving them.
Could not this be the same today? Is God proving us if we become impressed by signs and wonders worked by others? Let us then soundly test them by their doctrines.
The two scripturally mentioned constitute the very foundation of our faith: the oneness of God and the fact that Jesus his son came in THE flesh — that is, our flesh. This at once eliminates any workers of signs and wonders who believe in other Gods which neither us nor our fathers have known. They are to be disowned and disassociated from any identifying connection with our body, which has preserved the Truth in these last days. In the days of Israel’s commonwealth they were to be put to death, being under the law. But those of today are outside the law and know not the true God, nor His Son Jesus Christ.
In the days of Isaiah the prophet they were seeking for signs and wonders amongst wizards that peep and mutter instead of to the Lord their God. The test Isaiah said to apply was not the reliability of the evidence of the signs and wonders but doctrinal consistency with Scripture. Even though he refers to Christ and his children given by God for signs and wonders in Israel (they certainly worked them in the New Testament days), the only final appeal could possibly be the law and testimony of God. (Isa. 8:18-20).
Let this supremacy of the word of God be surely fixed in our minds, and we are guaranteed to be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. We will be protected by the power of the word of God from all false prophets who advertise similar claims to those of the New Testament days. A right division of the word of truth will also preserve us from being led away by the persuasions of wonders akin to those performed by the wizards that peep and mutter as Isaiah describes. For them there is no morning. Their light has become darkness.
However, these observations do not attempt to limit God’s reaction in answer to genuine prayers of his children or, for that matter, petitions of those outside the faith who are genuinely convinced that there is a God in heaven who will help them in their desperation. God alone is the dictator of his own will in those cases. Who am I or any one else to become his counsellor! But of this I am certain: claims that the Holy Spirit has been outpoured today as in Pentecost are quite false. Let us always subject the spirits to the test of the word of God, and live.
The question of the time of the latter-day outpouring has a simple Scriptural answer, and if sufficient interest is shown in this theme by response from readers, we propose to examine the Scriptural evidence in the next issue.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One