Category: False Teaching

The NAR apostles and prophets claim great authority in the church because of one doctrinal teaching that our Lord Jesus gave five offices for governing and directing the church : apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.  The NAR apostles and prophets claimed that they were entrusted to reclaim back these two offices to make the church complete and also operate in supernatural power. Kris Vallaton claimed the restoration of these offices would result in increased angelic activity manifested by miracles rarely witnessed in the history of the planet.  They would have the authority to make “prayer declaration” that the angels must carry out. They lure and bait their followers with the promise of blessings. All along the church teaches the written Word of God and nurture their flocks, but now these NAR apostles and prophets have the new revelations their followers need to develop miraculous powers, bring God’s kingdom, and fulfill His will on earth.

From Matt 23:8-10, Jesus our Lord mentioned so clearly we are all brothers and call no one rabbi, father or instructor for we have only one Lord Jesus.  Yet the NAR apostles and prophets claim great authority over the church and they can wreck havoc in the lives of many who submit to them.

I took the liberty to summarize a chapter of the well researched book, Counterfeit Kingdom, by Holly Pivec and Douglas Geivett on the spiritual abuse of the NAR leaders using very questionable tactics.

They are told that through their submission, they can then experience physical and emotional healing, learn to work miracles and protect themselves from demons who hinder the fulfillment of their destinies. Without submission to their authority, angels will not help them.

Here are some tactics or ruses to secure their submission :

1. Twisted Scriptures.

They need to use Scripture to bolster their teaching of supreme authority, but Scripture does not support this teaching as stated cearly in Matt 23:8-10 and Scripture has to be twisted or quoted out of context.  2 Pet 3:16.  I explained in detail the five fold ministry as mentioned in Eph 2:20-21 and Eph 4:11 which does not contradict Matt 23:8-10.

2. Euphemisms Or Playing With Words.

a. Alignment.

Instead of calling for submission to their authority, they use the word “alignment” to suggest submission.  Kris Vallaton shared,”If we don’t understand how to recognize and align ourselves under true spiritual authority, we may build bigger armies, develop better strategies and buy more powerful weapons, but we will still lose.

b. Spiritual Covering.

With spiritual covering from the apostles and prophets, all the bad things like demonic attacks will be blocked.

c. Covenant Relationships.

That is another teaching to solicit submission to another wiser believer.

d. Culture Of Honour.

A must read book for students in the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, Culture of Honour : Sustaining a Supernatural Environment, teaches that believers must show proper honour to the apostles and prophets as a condition to receive miraculous gifting and supernatural empowerment from them.

We can notice that these NAR leaders do not state candidly their controversial teachings but rather they rely on insinuation, implication and innuendo. But the followers fully comprehend that if they want to be blessed,  they have to show honour and submit to these NAR leaders.

3. Brainstoppers.

a. “Eat the meat and spit out the bones.”

This catchphrase actually absolves the NAR leaders of any wrong teaching or immoral lifestyle. If the follower is part of a “revival” and it comes to light that such an apostle or prophet has a secret immoral lifestyle like Todd Bentley, he or she should still believe God was working through that “unclean” person and that they led a genuine “move of God”.

b. “You should trust God’s ability to protect you from being deceived more than you trust Satan’s ability to deceive you.”

This catchphrase is to dispel the followers’ fears of being deceived by them. This teaching clearly contradicts so many warnings in Scripture about guarding against false teachings.

c. “God offends the mind to reveal the heart.”

This catchphrase is to excuse all kinds of bizarre works of the prophets. If the followers refuse to listen to these prophets, that is a sign of an evil and hard heart. 

d. “God is bigger than His book.”

Another catchphrase is “Don’t put God in a box.”  Such catchphrases are used to defend bizarre experiences reported by these NAR leaders not found in Scripture.

4. Book Ban.

The NAR leaders strongly warn their followers not to read books that are critical of NAR teachings.

5. Name Calling.

Critics are given labels like “mean-spirited, heresy hunters, judgmental, Jezebel, Pharisee, legalist, unanointed”.

6. Threats.

When all other tactics fail to silence criticism, these NAR leaders resort to threats.  The famous catchphrase is the repetition of the warning, “Touch not the anointed”. That implies critics may be judged by our Lord for criticizing them.

I took the liberty to summarize and paraphrase one chapter of the book, Counterfeit Kingdom authored by Holly Pivec and R Douglas Geivett, which detailed the new age teachings of the NAR movement.  I did so in the hope that the summary could give a quick understanding of the danger of such teachings.

Occultic Practices

Biblical teachings about miraculous gifts and the NAR new age teachings are worlds apart.  The Christian gifts are given to serve and build up the church.  However,  God forbid occultic practices that seek to obtain supernatural power and secret knowledge such as fortune telling and communicating with the dead using various methods of divination.  Deut 18: 9-12.  They are forbidden because they are usually associated with the activity of demons.  Deut 32:17; Ps 106:34-43; Acts 16:16-18; 1 Cor 10: 19-21; 9:20-21.  The stranger thing is that these NAR prophets acknowledged that all such practices were stolen from the Christians. Jonathan Welton in one of the chapters of the book, The Physics Of Heaven, said that spirit guide, trances, meditation, auras, power objects, etc, were actually stolen and cleverly repackaged by the New Agers. As such, many NAR prophets believe they have to reclaim these practices to advance the Kingdom of God.  The Christian gifts are given by the Holy Spirit and nowhere does the Bible teaches that they can be activated. 

Levitation And Teleportation

A generation growing up with Harry Porter would surely be drawn to the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM).   It is no surprise that these BSSM students attempt to practice levitating coins and guitar picks and walking through walls.  Bethel leaders merely laughed them off when questioned by the media. 

Psychic Fairs And “Spirit Readings”

After the BSSM students are activated with a prophetic gift, they are sent out to the Bethel community to “prophesy “ to strangers.  Usually they will go undercover to set up booths in psychic fairs to offer dream interpretation and spirit readings. They will claim that they are involved in a creative way to reach the New Agers with the gospel.  And that is strange because in blending in, they won’t say anything religious and refer to God as Spirit of Creation.  By not sharing about Jesus, wonder what is the gospel they are sharing ?

Destiny Cards

At these fairs, the BSSM students used a Christianized version of the tarot cards, the “Destiny Cards” designed by a Christian organization named Christalignment.  The card images of angels, animals and nature scenes have symbolic meanings and functions much like tarot in the hands of prophetic readers.  Through Christalignment readings,  clients can receive answers to questions like “Have I chosen the right career ?” or “Will I have any more children ?”.   The following description of one deck of Destiny Cards appeared on an early version of Christalignment”s website :  “Psalm readings are similar to Tarot in that cards are counted out according to your birth date…Only three cards are used and these will represent your past, present and future.”  This controversy erupted in 2017 when it came to light that many BSSM students had joined Christalignment teams over the years and Bethel Church prophets Kris Vallaton and Theresa Dedmon published statements online defending Ken and Jenny Hodge, the founders of Christalignment and their Destiny Cards.

Telepathy

Mind reading or telepathy is taught by Seth Dahl (a BSSM graduate) and co-author with Bill Johnson of the children’s book, God Is Really Good.   In one Facebook video in 2017, Dahl told parents that the practice is helpful with children who are very young or sick or have trouble verbalizing their needs. He said he used it successfully with his son who was one and a half year old then.  His son could not sleep and they communicated spiritually with each other and his son psychically told him to stay near his crib and rub his back, and his son fell asleep within minutes.  How absurd !  It is just plain common sense.

Seeing Dead People

Ben Armstrong, the Bethel Church’s Prophetic Ministry Director, shared in a video about stories of Christians who have seen and talked to dead people.  The deceased people they encountered were Christian “revivalists” including faith healers such as Maria Woodworth-Erter and Kathryn Kuhlman. Such practice known as necromancy is strictly forbidden by Scripture.  Deut 18:9-12; Gal 5:19-20; Acts 19:19. 

There are already many articles written on the subject of the Holy Trinity.  I just want to share some clear evidence from Scripture to debunk Binitarianism specifically.  Binitarianism is the belief that there is no Third Person in the God-head and the Holy Spirit mentioned in Scripture is either the spirit-being of God the Father or God the Son.

Firstly,  2 Cor 13:14 mentioned all three persons in the benediction in which there is no necessity to mention the Holy Spirit if it is not existent separately.  ( 2 Cor 13:14. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.)

Secondly, during the baptism of our Lord Jesus, it was clearly mentioned that God the Father spoke from Heaven and the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and alighting on our Lord Jesus.  (Matt 3:16-17. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”)

Thirdly,  our Lord Jesus mentioned that He had to leave in order for God the Father to send the Helper (the Holy Spirit) to the disciples. John 16:7.  And the Holy Spirit will not speak on His own authority but will only speak what He hears and will glorify our Lord Jesus implying the subordination of the Holy Spirit to Him.   So there is clearly this subordination to one another in the God-head. God the Father would send God the Spirit to be subservient in His ministry to glorify God the Son and will not speak on His own authority but declare the truths from God the Son. John 16:14.  These verses – John 16:7, 13-14 –  will be incomprehensible if God the Spirit is not a separate Person from God the Father and God the Son.  According to Binitarianism, if the Holy Spirit is just the spirit-being of God the Father or God the Son, re-reading these verses will be incomprehensible. (John 16:7,13-14.  Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send him to you…When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare to you.)

Fourthly,  the Holy Spirit intercedes for us.  If the Holy Spirit is the spirit-being of God the Father, then it will be ambiguous to intercede to Himself since we know from John 16 that our Lord Jesus is distinct from the Helper, the Holy Spirit.  (Rom 8:26-27.  Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.)

Lastly,  we are given the Great Commission by our Lord to make disciples of all nations and baptizing them in the name of the Triune God – God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  In Acts 19:1-7, the disciples in Ephesus did not even know of the Holy Spirit despite being baptized by John the Baptist and telling them to believe in the name of Jesus our Lord.  They did not have the Holy Spirit since their understanding of the gospel and the Triune God were likely to be spurious.

Through the centuries since the birth of the church, creeds from ecumenical councils and confession of huge part of Christendom have affirmed the Holy Trinity.

The Nicene Creed, accepted by all Christendom, clearly states in the creed that the Holy Spirit is worshiped and glorified together with God the Father and God the Son : “…And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified…”  The Athanasian creed affirms the Holy Trinity though it is not universally accepted by all Protestant churches.  (http://www.prca.org/about/official-standards/creeds/ecumenical/athanasian).

Other confession through the centuries include the Belgic Confession (https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/belgic-confession-1561/) and the Cape Town Commitment (https://www.lausanne.org/content/ctcommitment#p1-5).

2 Cor 7:9-11 NLT

Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right.

2 Cor 7:10-11 NASB

For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong!

The hyper grace false teacher taught that repentance is just a change of mind which is the meaning in Greek.  But from the whole counsel of the Word of God, that is only half the truth.  After we have acknowledged and confessed that we have sinned against God,  we experienced a change of heart in which we mourned over having sinned and grieved God whom we love.  When King David sinned against God,  he experienced a broken or contrite spirit and he exclaimed in Psalms 51,” The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

A truly repentant believer will not go straight in front of the mirror and convince himself that he is righteous first and totally unmoved by his sin at all.  He will move into contrition for having grieved God by his sinful action.  It is that contrite heart that make one change course and seek God’s forgiveness and return to faithfulness again.  That is godly sorrow which God wants.

There is another kind of sorrow over sin that does not lead to repentance and it results in death.  Godly sorrow will make one own up his or her sin before God and not try to find excuse for the sin or simply agonizes over one’s mistake. (The hyper grace believer even ignore his or her sin altogether as taught by the false teachers.)  Though Judas Iscariot felt sorrow for betraying Jesus,  his sorrow concerned more of himself in the fact that he felt shame or humiliation for betraying Jesus but he did not come to Jesus for forgiveness.  He chose suicide rather than forgiveness.

So there is godly sorrow that leads to repentance and worldly sorrow that leads to death.   Genuine repentance will bear fruit mentioned in 2 Cor 7:10-11 :

1. Earnestness.  One will be earnest to change course concerning his or her sin.  It will not be apathy towards sin and will seek to make amends or to restore relationship.
2. Eager Vindication.  One will yearn for righteousness again and seek to vindicate himself or herself that he or she has left that sin behind.
3.  Indignation and Fear.  One will feel upset with himself or herself and fear for offending God for that particular sin.  (The false hyper grace teacher taught not to be sin conscious which is precisely saying the opposite of such a fruit.)
4. Longing. One will long for restoration with God and damaged relationship due to sin.
5. Zeal and Punishment. One will zealously accept justice as sin is disciplined biblically.

Rev 3:14-22

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.  ¹⁵ “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷ For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. ¹⁹ Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. ²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. ²¹ The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. ²² He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Rev 3:20 is often taken out of context to be the evangelistic test to invite Jesus into one’s heart.

The context was actually Jesus talking about the church at Laodicea.  It was a wealthy and “successful” church (in her own eyes), but only Jesus was not attending it.   Rather Jesus saw her as poor, wretched and pitiable.  Today,  she represents the cheap or hyper grace church all over the world.  She fits exactly the description of the Laodicean church.  Jesus called the Laodicean church then to be zealous and repent, and is doing likewise to the hyper grace church today.

Our Lord is calling such a church to repent so it is not surprising that the hyper grace false teachers preached against repentance and told their followers not to confess their sins.  So if anyone in that church is willing to hear the voice of our Lord Jesus pleading for him or her to repent and open the door to welcome Him, He will come and dine with him or her just like He did with Zacchaeus.  Rev 3:20.

It is terribly sad to note that the false hyper grace teachers are teaching this heresy of the Lord’s Supper being a delivery system of good health. And worse of all,  they added this heresy that confession of sins will be tantamount to taking the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner and in danger of being judged.  (This teaching is diametrically opposite to the exhortation of our Lord Jesus in His Prayer in Matt 6:9-13 that we ought to pray for the forgiveness of our debts.)

Numbers 21:4-9

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

In Numbers 21, we read that the Israelites grumbled against God and Moses for bringing them out to die in the wilderness. They did not realize that it was their sin which brought them to wander in the wilderness. God sent poisonous snakes to judge them. Later they confessed their sin and asked Moses to pray for deliverance. God then instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole so that those who were bitten could be healed by gazing on it.

It was a lesson from God on faith. It took faith to believe that healing from the snake bite came by gazing, and the serpent was a reminder of their sin. In John 3:14-15, our Lord told us that the serpent was the foreshadow of Himself. He would be made a curse for our sins and be hanged on a tree, just like the serpent which was a symbol of sin. Gal 3:13.

God did not take away the poisonous snakes but provide an antidote for the Israelites instead. The Lord’s Supper was instituted to make us remember the Lord’s death till He comes again.  God wants us to remember His abhorrence of sin and its consequence whenever we are bitten by sin, and His provision of the cure for our sin sick condition, just like how the Israelites were taught on this lesson. Whenever we sin, we should confess our sins like what the Israelites did, and know we can have His forgiveness by the curse that our Lord bore on our behalf. 1 John 1:9.

The false teachers are described by Scripture as wolves coming in sheepskin to dwell among the unsuspecting sheep in the church. They will come in disguise as servants of righteousness. They can even masquerade as apostles of Christ !  2 Cor 11:13-15.     So how can we discern ?

Firstly, as agents of the devil, they will preach a different Jesus or a different gospel for sure to lure many in the church away. So this will be the main criteria to judge the motive of the false teachers.  If you find them adamant in not recanting what they preach on the wrong soteriology and Christology after expose by many quarters,  won’t you find it so strange ?  Any genuine believer,  all the more for so-called leaders, will not want to be misunderstood on belief on these very important doctrines and will definitely do their best to clarify them.

Secondly, they will have a different spirit and we can know them by their fruit stated in Jude 1:11-12.

Jude 1:11-12

Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

1. Way Of Cain. They will walk in the way of Cain.

When Abel came to worship God, he came by faith knowing that he had to bring a substitutionary atonement sacrifice.  Heb 11:4 told us that he brought a better sacrifice so there is reason to believe that God had instructed both Abel and Cain on the right form of worship sacrifice. Cain simply devised his own way of worship and came not by faith.  Today, we can see the false hyper grace and NAR teachers devising their own way of worship denying repentance and forgiveness of sins, and including demonic manifestations during worship respectively.

2. Balaam”s Error. They will run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit.

Basically Balaam’s error is a deliberate decision to promote falsehood for monetary gain.  Though Balaam was a prophet of God, yet he counseled Balak, God’s enemy, on how to exert harm on Israel for the sake of gain. When God stopped him from using his prophetic gift to curse Israel, he still counseled Balak how to weaken Israel through using women to seduce Israelites into sexual relationship and pagan worship. Today, we see the false hyper grace and prosperity teachers gaining so much wealth by perverting God’s truth.

3. Korah’s Rebellion. They will perish in the rebellion against God’s authority.

When Korah promoted himself as leader over Moses,  he was actually rebelling against God who called Moses.  Today, we see the ambition of the NAR false prophets to subordinate God’s servants worldwide to their authority as apostles and prophets.  God’s true leaders will shepherd their flocks and serve with humility and care and will not lord over them.  1 Pet 5:2-3; Matt 23:8-12.

RC Sproul mentioned that the early church had to contend against 2 heresies concerning the doctrine of our Lord Jesus.  One is docetism and the other is monophysite heresy.  Here is what he said,

“The great ecumenical council of Chalcedon in AD 451 affirmed that Jesus is truly man and truly God and that the 2 natures are so united as to be without mixture, confusion, separation, or division, each nature retaining its own attributes.  The true humanity of Jesus has been assaulted in 2 ways. The early church had to combat the heresy of docetism, which taught that Jesus did not have a real physical body or a true human nature…The other major heresy the church rejected was the Monophysite heresy. The heresy argued that Jesus did not have 2 natures but one. This single nature was neither truly divine or truly human but a mixture of the two. It was called a “theanthropic” nature. The Monophysite heresy involves either a deified human nature or a humanized divine nature…We must distinguish between the 2 natures without separating them.”

Today we have the NAR leaders proliferating another similar heresy known as kenotic Christology in that Jesus gave up His deity during His earthly sojourn and then gained it back when He resurrected. (The biblical truth that Christ fully possessed both natures is called the hypostatic union.)

If believing in docetism is having the spirit of the Antichrist (1 John 4:2-3), is it not worse to believe in this current kenotic Christology heresy ?  Both will change His Personhood and His work. But the latter is more deplorable than the former.

I believe it is worse because of 2 reasons:

1. It undermines the monotheistic distinctive of the Christian faith.

The only way to limit the use of attributes of one Person without limiting the attributes of all three members of the Godhead is to divide God into three divine Beings for each of the three Persons. Jesus could then suspend His omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, etc., while the Father and Holy Spirit would continue to exercise sovereign dominion over the universe. This view of the Trinity, however, is polytheistic, not Christian. The Christian faith is monotheistic. We believe there is only one God. “Hear O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord” (Mark 12:29). The Creed of Athanasius affirms this truth: “The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but there are not three gods, but one God…The Father is omnipotent, the Son is omnipotent and the Holy Spirit is omnipotent, but there are not three omnipotent Beings, but one omnipotent Being …We distinguish among the Persons, but we do not divide the Substance.   (This reason is copied from an article on internet with link not found now.)

2. It will undermine the perfect sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ as presented by God.

Jesus said no one is good except God. If Jesus is not God even for a moment, then He is not good. If He is not good, then He is not perfect. If He is not perfect, He cannot atone for our sins.

The NAR leaders based their error on Phil 2:5-8.   I would interpret Phil 2:5-8 as referring to the humility of Christ that He humbled Himself in giving up His heavenly glory and independent authority in submission to the will of God the Father, but not divine characteristics.  Because in the context of this Scriptural passage, St Paul was exhorting believers to have the same humble mindset of our Lord Jesus.

Given the current absurd shamanistic practices taught by these NAR leaders and now this heresy concerning the doctrine of our Lord Jesus, I am inclined to believe they have a different spirit.  Because if they do really have the Holy Spirit, they will not err on this very important doctrine.

Matt 16:15-17
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

I believe this is the sinister motive to want to believe that Jesus our Lord did His miracles as a mere man without having His divine powers  –  for that will justify mere men like the NAR leaders can also perform miracles with the power given by the Holy Spirit.  Matt 24:24 warned us that false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, the elect, in the end times.  So will the Holy Spirit cause even more confusion in this last period of the last days in enabling believers in great numbers to perform signs and wonders ?

“The lust for power has always been a characteristic of the human story, at least since Adam and Eve were offered power for disobedience. Still today the three major human ambitions (the pursuit of money, fame and influence) are all a concealed drive for power…Unfortunately we see the same power hunger in the church…I confess to being frightened by the contemporary evangelical hunger for power, even the quest for the power of the Holy Spirit. Why do we want to receive power ? Is it honestly power for witness (as in Acts 1:8), or power for holiness, or power for humble service ? Or is it in reality a mask for personal ambition, a craving to boost our own ego, to minister to our self importance, to impress, to dominate or to manipulate ? “
– John Stott

I see this same madness of Christendom falling for the deception of the NAR prophets today very much like the Corinthian Church falling for the ruse of the “super apostles” in St Paul’s days.  Like these “super apostles”, the NAR prophets try to dominate the church and the world through power and utterly ignore the words of our Lord that His power is only made perfect in weakness.  This sort of display of power and worldly wisdom are sadly the basic idolatries of the fallen world.  God has made it clear that it pleases Him to save believers through the FOLLY of the gospel so that none can boast. 1 Cor 1:18-21.

These false prophets try to realize their ambition by teaching all Christendom to submit to their authority as prophets and apostles so that they can usher in a glorious kingdom now and NOT till Christ comes again. They are effectively usurping the supremacy of our Lord. 1 Cor 1:12-31.

How amazing that the same history as in the days of Paul at the Corinthian church repeats itself today !  The NAR prophets always tried to deliver their messages in conferences with high sounding rhetoric and with a display of eloquence. Both of which Paul denounced as the Corinthian church did fall for the ruse of the “super apostles” who came displaying power and eloquence.  1 Cor 1:17; 1 Cor 2:1; 2 Cor 11:5,13; 2 Cor 12:11.

It takes two hands to clap.  The Corinth Church also deserved blame.  She was self sufficient.  She was living in luxury, comfort and ease.  She had this tendency to follow human leaders and tried to form parties following Paul or Apollos, and later the “super apostles”.  She prided herself with abundance of spiritual gifts and believed she was already reigning in power.  Paul said the following in sarcasm to admonish rather than to shame (1 Cor 4:8-14) :

⁸ You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you. ⁹ For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. ¹⁰ We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. ¹¹ To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; ¹² and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; ¹³ when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now. ¹⁴ I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

The Believer’s Bible Commentary has this commentary on this same passage concerning the Corinthian Church :

“The Corinthian Church had become self sufficient, they were already full.  They prided themselves on the abundance of spiritual gifts in their midst; they were already rich.  They were living in luxury, comfort and ease.  There was no sense of need.  They acted as if they were already reigning, but they were doing so without the apostles.  Paul states that he could wish that the time to reign had already come so that he might reign with them !…Christians will reign with the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes back and sets up His Kingdom on earth.  In the meantime, their privilege is to share the reproach of a rejected Savior.  HP Barker warned, “It is positive disloyalty to seek our crown before the King gets His.  Yet this is what some of the Christians at Corinth were doing. The apostles themselves were bearing the reproach of Christ.  But the Corinthian Christians were ‘rich’ and ‘honorable’.  they were seeking a good time where their Lord and Master had such a hard time.” ”

How strikingly similar are the affluent churches today submitting to the lordship of the NAR apostles and prophets to usher in the glorious Kingdom of Heaven with this Kingdom Now mentality to “invade” the world.

(For further reading on the “super apostles” mentioned in 2 Cor 11 : https://www.gotquestions.org/super-apostles.html)

The NAR prophets are proliferating a very dangerous teaching known as the Kenosis doctrine.  Such doctrine is not merely academic disagreement on certain interpretation of Scripture but it actually denies most essential doctrines.  By either diminishing the deity of Christ or undermining the union of the two fully-God and fully-man natures in one Person, this Kenosis doctrine has presented a doctrine of a different Jesus.  Marking themselves as false prophets through this Kenosis doctrine and many more,  it is not surprising to see more fruit of strange and bizarre teaching of pagan shamanistic-like practices from them.

(2 Cor 11:4.  For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.)

The Kenosis doctrine teaches that the Messiah, in order to assume the form of a servant and become incarnate (into human flesh), had to give up some, several, or even all the powers and attributes of God and “live as a mere man.”  The logic is that since Jesus left His powers and attributes behind and lived as a mere man, we born-again believers are just as much an Incarnation of God as Jesus was.   So if Jesus did all His miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit, born again believers could do likewise and even more.

This Kenosis doctrine is extremely dangerous as it denies most essential doctrines, especially Christology.

1. It destroys the integrity of the atonement.   

The Blood that redeemed the church has to be the blood of God.  Acts 20:28.  If He was not God, then His blood sacrifice was not INFINITELY powerful to redeem all who believe in every age.  In other words, if Jesus was not fully divine, then His atoning work would not be sufficient to atone for the sins of the world.  God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Col 1:19-20.

2. It destroys the Christian view of the incarnation.

Sovereignty is an attribute of God. According to Don Fortner it means ruling “all things, everywhere, at all times absolutely.”  If, by becoming man, Christ gave up the use of His divine attributes in any way, then He was not sovereign. If Jesus was not sovereign during His earthly ministry, then He was not God. If He was not God, the Word that was God (Jn.1:1) never became flesh – only part of the Word did. And the name “Immanuel,” meaning “God with us” (NAS Mtt. 1:23), is a lie, and God’s Word is not true.

3. It denies the immutability of God.

In order for the God the Son to abandon His sovereignty in any way, He would have to change His character or being. This, God would never do. “IAM WHO I AM” (NAS Ex. 3:14). “But Thou art the same, And Thy years will not come to an end.” (NAS Ps. 102:27). “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever.” (NAS Heb. 13:8). According to R.C. Sproul, “If God laid aside one of His attributes, the immutable undergoes a mutation, the infinite suddenly stops being infinite; it would be the end of the universe.”

4. It undermines the monotheistic distinctive of the Christian faith.

The only way to limit the use of attributes of one Person without limiting the attributes of all three members of the Godhead is to divide God into three divine Beings for each of the three Persons. Jesus could then suspend His omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, etc., while the Father and Holy Spirit would continue to exercise sovereign dominion over the universe. This view of the Trinity, however, is polytheistic, not Christian. The Christian faith is monotheistic. We believe there is only one God. “Hear O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord” (Mark 12:29). The Creed of Athanasius  affirms this truth: “The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but there are not three gods, but one God…The Father is omnipotent, the Son is omnipotent and the Holy Spirit is omnipotent, but there are not three omnipotent Beings, but one omnipotent Being …We distinguish among the Persons, but we do not divide the Substance.”

(Article is extracted from www.kenosis.info and re-phrased.)