The Holy Spirit In The Church Of Laodicea
[Introduction] [Part I] [Part II] [Part III] [Footnotes]
Part II (continued)
A Pu-Pu Platter Of Spirit-Filled Laodicean Teachings
To underscore how greatly the mantle of laodiceanism has gripped the charismatic world, I want to highlight a "directory" of the more potent man-centered themes presently permeating the spirit-filled prophetic church. This list is not in any particular order. Nor is it complete or in depth. It is just enough to give you something to hang this understanding on. Note that some of the teachings are common to all branches of religious socialism, not just the spirit-filled wing. Yet the spirit-filled wing embraces all of them. Please take a careful look at the following sample teachings now dominating the prophetic, intercession and worship movements:
- On the Church's Role and Destiny
- Exalting of the church, the body of Christ, and the bride of Christ as the center of God's eternal purpose. Proclaiming the church to be the "deciding force" in an "equal" contest between God and Satan in the earth.
- Kingdom emphases that envision the take over of earthly society by the anointed, pre-glorified prophetic church. Based in the belief that the Comforter's powers give us clear proof of ownership of the earth and that our essential inheritance is temporal, not eternal. Includes teachings that mock and rail against the devil as well as make light of the Great Tribulation.
- On the Individual's Relationship to the Church
- Exclusive emphasis on corporate ministry that denounces individual pursuit of God and ministry outside corporate channels (sometimes referred to as "lone rangerism"). Includes emphasis on activation into corporate ministry apart from personal consecration and devotion.
- Emphasis on subjection to corporate leadership apart from confirmation of personal conscience, and apart from leadership's demonstrated fruit of investment in the lives of individuals. Redefines the fear of God in terms of the fear of leadership, and acceptance with God in terms of acceptance with leadership.
- Defining of spiritual maturity by one's relationship to a particular move or wave of the Holy Spirit (hence by one's relationship to a certain group experiencing that move).
- On God's Love and Moral Responsibility
- Preaching of the unconditional love of God divorced from obedience. Includes the defining of love for God in terms of love for man.
- Teaching that blames the devil for all the church's and society's problems, that views men as less-than-responsible pawns for spirits, and that uses spiritual warfare against heavenly powers to eliminate the need to confront men for sin.
- On the Nations, Revival, and Reconciliation
- Universalist and sentimentalist teaching concerning the nations that extols the ethnic distinctives of people groups as pleasing to God or as central to their "prophetic destiny." Based in the belief that fleshly corporate identities in this world are to be preserved and sanctified instead of crucified in coming to Christ.
- Emphasis on "revival" and "harvest" of souls as the ultimate end-time purpose of God rather than the revelation of Christ to and through a prepared people.
- Promoting possession of the anointing as the basis for spiritual unity among all and any groups called Christian without regard to the truthincluding denominations infested with babylonian religion (eg, Roman Catholicism, etc.)
- Unqualified teaching that holds the church responsible for making peace and bringing reconciliation to the earth's peoples, races, institutions without recognizing the intrinsically divisive nature of the church's identity or the essential futility of human society.
- Indiscriminate historical reconciliation and intercession for the world that teaches us to identify with the past sins of peoples as a panacea for today's problems. Includes teaching that alleviates the world of the responsibility for confessing its own sins by confessing the world's sins vicariously for them.
- Indiscriminate historical reconciliation and intercession for the church that holds all of the present church guilty for the past sins of the professing church. Based in the belief that the entire historical professing church is one organic whole with no difference in spiritual lineage based on fruit. Includes teaching that implicitly or statedly denies the concept of remnant (see below).
- On Making of Spiritual Evaluations
- Anti-discrimination attitude that is unwilling to discern between a true obedient remnant church and a false professing church, and labels as spiritual pride any attempts to distinguish between the elect and non-elect, and between the qualified and unqualified in the kingdom of God. Includes teachings on grace that eliminate distinctions in realms of discipleship determined by obedience.
- The rejection of the rebuking and corrective elements of prophetic ministry; the labeling of all correction as condemnation; and the denial of any legitimate role for the critical evaluation of spiritual teaching and phenomena.
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Some of the teachings described above have genuine merit, but are bogus because they exalt the Comforter's mothering ministry over the Truth's fathering ministry or else simply ignore it.12 Others are outright bogus because they flatly deny or contradict the Truth's fathering elements altogether. In all cases, these teachings skew the proper relationship between the Truth and the Comforter by:
- exalting the Spirit's role in building the church above His work in the individual;
- exalting the Comforter's desire to meet human need over the Truth's appeal to human obligation as the basis for relationship with the Lord;
- exalting the Comforter's earthly temporal manifestation above the Truth's hidden preparation for the eternal as ultimate reality; and/or
- blurring the church's identity in the world and enshrining man at the center of God's purposes.
[Introduction] [Part I] [Part II] [Part III] [Footnotes]