From: allan-sv@algonet.se   
      
                            The Charismatic Revival   
      
   Through the whole church history there has been disruption and new   
   churches have been established, later there has been new disruption   
   with establishment of still more churches and sects. Nevertheless,   
   lately there has been a remarkable sudden change with speaking about   
   Christian unity. Different churches have begun to co-operate.   
   Pentecostalists and Catholics also can have meetings together.   
   Previously they have built walls between the churches, but now   
   they break down these walls and speak about love and fellowship   
   and Christian unity. The development on the religious front is a   
   sensation without a counterpart. It has been a slogan that all   
   Christians may stand together, for we have the same God and we   
   are going to the same heaven! Not even here the unity-thought   
   is stopped. On full earnestness they mean that also all other   
   religions are different ways to the same God.   
      
   For us who believe in God's word, this struggle for unity is no   
   surprise. The Bible tells about an apostasy in the last days. People   
   will have a form of godliness but denying its power. 1 Tim. 2:3.   
   2 Tim. 3:1-5. 2 Peter 3:3-13.   
      
   The so-called unity-revival is a central part of the great apostasy.   
   Both Lutherans and members of the Free-Churches are seized with   
   the new "unity-revival" and they see its theology as a solution of the   
   Christian unity. Let us love one another. Let us gather about the   
   essential that which unite us and avoid that which divide us. This   
   theology can seem pleasant and logical, it excludes such things that   
   cause disunion and all the opposition is away. In this way they have   
   laid the foundation of the great World Church.   
      
   This is no such unity that Jesus speaks about in John 17th Chapter   
   where he says that his disciples may be one. What that created unity   
   and fellowship among the first Christians were a belief in one body,   
   one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father   
   over all. Eph. 4:1-6. But where is it written in the Bible that all the   
   religious, irrespective of what they believe, come to heaven? How   
   can these so-called Christians be united with two sorts of baptism?   
   How can Pentecostalists have fellowship with Catholics who   
   worship Mary? The pope and the Catholic priests call themselves   
   'father.' How can this blasphemy be compatible with Christian   
   faith and fellowship? Jesus says, "And call no man your father   
   upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven."   
   Matt. 23:9.   
      
   Perhaps you mean that many ecumenic are humble. It does not help.   
   The question is, before whom do they humble? Humility before   
   church fathers, church traditions, bishops and priests is a treachery   
   against the Lord! The Catholics do not abandon their humility before   
   the pope, and the Lutherans do not abandon their humility before   
   Martin Luther. Yet, many of those who would preach God's word   
   are not longer humble before the Lord. They have left the truths of   
   the Bible for the sake of unity. The unity where they reject God's   
   word is the unity that God rejects. It is an imitation and a falsification   
   of the Christian unity. The so-called unity-revival is not of the holy   
   Spirit. Prophecies and signs are no proof that it is right.   
      
   The churches rule of false religious leaders. Many of them are former   
   servants of the Lord who have deserted from him and joined with the   
   harlot-being which they ought to unmask and combat. Instead of   
   taken up the struggle against idolatry and religious fornication, they   
   have abandoned themselves to these sins. These religious apostates   
   are the worst seducers.   
      
   The so-called Charismatic Revival came about 35 years ago, but   
   what has the result been of that? Has this revival helped people to be   
   free from the churches? No, on the contrary. Within this so-called   
   revival they do not preach the truth about churches and denominations.   
   Instead of warning of the churches' false doctrines, they gather people   
   to the churches. Those who would have preached the Revival   
   Message of the Lord, the truth concerning the Assembly of God,   
   they have been faithless to the Lord.   
      
   That they have once been born again and baptized with the Holy   
   Spirit, it is no guarantee that they are right before God. Please, read   
   what Paul writes to the Assembly in Corinth. In 1 Cor. 1:6-7 we   
   can see that this Assembly did not lack any spiritual gift.   
   Accordingly, this Assembly had all the spiritual gifts of grace.   
   Nevertheless, Paul does not praise them or write, when you have   
   such gifts then you have it well before God. No, instead he gives   
   them reproofs. Already in the verse 11 we can see that everything   
   was not good. There was division. And in the third Chapter we   
   see that they were underdeveloped. They were like children in   
   spiritual meaning. In the 5th Chapter we see that there occurred   
   severe sins among them.   
      
   Paul gives them strictly reprimands, and in 2 Cor.13:5 write Paul   
   to this Assembly that had all the spiritual gifts: "Examine   
   yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.   
   Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in   
   you, except ye be reprobates."   
      
   In Rom. 11:29 it is written, "For the gifts and calling of God are   
   without repentance." Therefore, it is possible that people who   
   have got spiritual gifts, but have deserted from the Lord, yet can   
   have these gifts and can use them though they are not right   
   before God. They can appear in public as preachers and teachers   
   of the Bible, but their preaching is misleading and can be very   
   treacherous.   
      
   Such people appear in the so-called Charismatic Revival. If they   
   had been faithful to the Lord and taken up the fight against the   
   great harlot-being, then the Lord could use them to a real Revival.   
   But in the so-called Charismatic Revival they serve the Church,   
   and not the Lord. And the spiritual gifts that they have got of   
   grace they now are using to serve the Church and the devil.   
      
      
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   (Article 77)   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)