At one time I had a large stack of Charisma Magazines in the basement....right alongside of Christian History....and....Tabletalk....and....Modern Reformation....and other various Christian periodicals that I subscribed to....but Charisma Magazine was probably the first. I was Assembly of God Pentecostal in my early years in the Faith. I later became....Reformed....after coming into discernment....(and I thank God for this mercy)....coming into discernment that there was something terribly wrong with this Charismatic Movement that was pushing Pentecostalism out of the way.
I was sitting in the church....back row....that we were attending at the time....a church that began in Pentecostalism....but was....to the regret of the elderly pastor....moving into the Charismatic Movement. Benny Hinn was coming to Pittsburgh. A speaker had taken the pulpit for an announcement....and said that this was not Benny Hinn coming....but Jesus. I blurted out one word...loud enough for a few pews in front of us to hear it...."Liar." We never returned to that church.
The Charismatic Movement literally took over evangelicalism....a smaller group within a larger group....just like the MAGA Movement today took over the Republican Party....or the Bolsheviks in Russia took over the revolution....or the National Socialists in Germany 1933 took over the government. In spite of those like John MacArthur and Robert Jeffress and Franklin Graham....and even Jonathan Cahn....who came in after it was in full force....the Charismatic Movement was the driving force in putting Donald Trump in office in 2017....and resurrecting him after the horrors of the insurrection....and putting him back in office this year.
This movement codified everything....as some claimed to be apostles....and others prophets. There are these prophets running around literally everywhere....prophesying that God put Trump in the White House....to make America great again....but this that we are witnessing is the antithesis of greatness. These charismatics are all through the White House. This movement was also the driving force behind giant megachurches....where people leave small churches....to join the excitement.
John MacArthur wrote his bestseller Charismatic Chaos in 1992....and Strange Fire in 2003....but by 2020....politics and patriotism had all but hidden the fact that Donald Trump used Paula White....who assembled many others....to deceive and win the votes of evangelicalism....to a man who is everything that God's Word....both the Old Testament and the New Testament....warns and commands us to stay away from.
I'm adding a post below from June 8, 2020....and in it I posed the question...."what is next?" What is next after....'the Donald Trump evangelical?' Well....this being five years after that post....that question is being answered....this is no longer politics....this is a new religion....it is supernatural....it is 'another Jesus' that they put forth....and it is end times related.
It's What Might Be Next That Concerns Me
We're familiar with this....the Left...in its many forms....has hijacked America. All we have to do is read the latest news to see how far we have fallen as a people in common sense and reasoning and vigilance and discernment. Once again...to conservatives reading these posts....we know this....and lament it! What we do not know....this in my opinion of course....is that the charismatic church....has also hijacked America....or more accurately American evangelicalism. It is that bad.
They have 'prophets' running around everywhere....all of it nonsense at best. Joel Osteen....a false teacher....has risen to the top of the bestseller lists. They have an extraordinary influence on evangelicalism in general through the mediums of Christian television and magazines....and books....and radio. In fact they are almost our only supply line today since Christian bookstores were put out of business by the Internet.
They are newsmakers. They thrive on coming up with something new and exciting....supernatural....the latest being a march in Washington D. C. this September....40 days before the general election. (does that surprise anyone?) They had been a force in choosing Donald Trump in the 2016 primaries....and are a guiding light since then as to how evangelicals have dealt with a very obviously troubled individual in the White House in Donald Trump.
This is a great delusion that America is under today....and we brought it upon ourselves over decades. Evangelicalism was at one time a legitimate defender of traditionalism in America. We were to a large degree humble....and patient....and then came Donald Trump....where the charismatics latched onto him....and he latched onto them. It was a marriage made not in heaven.
The prophets are still at it....just changing the narrative a little.....and this is what troubles me....because they seem to be looking to some kind of miraculous events that will propel Donald Trump to even greater heights....(or depths).
The charismatics are not alone....for the mega-church pastors have become the Paul Reveres of this mess. Why? They think that they are defending American's religious liberties. It doesn't matter that those liberties are used in a cheap grace....too often gnostic....easy-believism church age. It wasn't always like this....but as I had written in a previous post....the Billy Graham evangelical....became the Ralph Reed evangelical....that became the Karl Rove evangelical....that is today the Donald Trump evangelical. What is next?
My hope was that Donald Trump would be forced to abandon his efforts for a second term....that he would take these remaining months to make decisions for America not based on a reelection....and that we would give him a pardon for any future indictments.....and that he could return to Mar-A-Lago....having achieved the ultimate office of President of the United States to add to his resume.
We also see this everywhere today. We cannot express an opinion....for it might offend someone....often taken totally out of context. Well this political correctness is in the church also. There are men and women all over the place it seems who claim to be prophets.....and evangelists claiming to have saved millions of people....even tens of millions.....at rallies somewhere.....and we're not supposed to even question this? There is more involved here than one man running for president....or even the results of such an election....for there is a possibility that this weakened church age....spurred on by the quest for the supernatural....that even much greater delusion is in store for us.
Folks....I'm just a blogger.....not even a blogger....more of a pamphleteer....with a very limited readership....but there appears to be a winnowing coming in the church....as these many extraordinary and varied problems will eventually become too much for Christians to endure who just want to live a peaceable life. Surely the Lord is near. I heard just this afternoon one of these 'prophets'.....prophesy on what will happen in the next decade....and it was all good....and the audience nodded their heads and smiled.
