In the bible we are advised to « test the spirits, making sure that what they teach is indeed from God, for there is much falsehood being taught by some pseudo christians ». (1 John 4: 1)
Let us therefore test what churchgoers maintain, since many false teachings are taught in our churches.
The Pentecostal and charismatic movements, for instance urge believers to experience the « baptism of the Holy Spirit » just as the early believers did once the apostles had laid their hands on their heads.
These deceivers have managed to fool many, starting with themselves…
For they, themselves, were told that they should « open their mouth » so that incomprehensible words from the Holy Spirit start flowing through them…
Start uttering words, they advice, and soon they would flow.
And they did so, in order not to appear to be less spiritual than those among them who « spoke in tongues », and « at another level » from those who didn’t!
What a travesty…
The damage that results from such a pretension is very real, deep and unforgivable:
The Truth of God has been tarnished because of this!
The bible tells us clearly that the experience of actually receiving the gift of speaking suddenly in other foreign human languages or even the language of angels, (as they all claim it is the case today) was given only by the laying of hands of the apostles such as Peter, John, James and Paul.
Period!
This is clearly stated in Acts 8: 18
“…the Holy Spirit was given to the believers by the laying of hands of the apostles…”
With the death of the apostles this “outpouring” of spiritual gifts ceased to be experienced,
Let us stop now the pretending, and not not allow such hypocrisy to take place in our congregations.
The apostle Paul wrote:
« Am I seeking the approval of man, or of God?
If I were trying to please men, then I would not be a servant of Christ ». (Galatians 1: 10)
Let us prove to be true servants of Christ by stopping this pretence.
Let us repent and confess this sin that is a very serious one in God’s eyes and does much harm to his church.
God made it clear that he strongly disapproves of God’s people wanting to impress the church by pretending to be what they are not.
In the Acts of the Apostles 5: 1 – 11 we read that, Anania and Saphira had decided to lie to the believers, making out that they were more devoted and generous Christians than they really were!
So as to impress the other christians, they lied to the congregation, stating that they had sold a plot of ground of theirs and were now giving all the money they had earned from the sale to the church, when in fact they only gave a part of it…
It goes without saying that no one expected them to give any money to the church!
And, of course, if they wanted to give, they could have given as much or as little as they wished…the believers and the church would have been grateful anyway.
By pretending to give the whole amount, they were simply trying to impress their fellow believers, trying to convince them that they were more spiritually driven, more generous and dedicated than others.
Such motives are totally unacceptable in the church.
God made an example of them by putting them to death there and then, right at the feet of the apostle Peter, for lying to the believers and by extension to the Holy Spirit.
The believers who saw or heard what happened became very afraid, and where careful not to provoke God’s wrath by being hypocritical in any way again.
And yet, today, Christians show no such fear of God when it comes to try to impress the church of God!
Pretending seems to be the name of the game:
Pretending to be holier than thou, pretending to love one another and forgive, when, they don’t, truthfully. Pretending to be happy when they are not, and pretending also to be spiritually superior for having been baptised in holy spirit, as their gift of tongues indicates…
No wonder the world refers to churchgoers as hypocrites…
“Hypocrisy” is a very serious sin! It gives the church a bad name.
There are many Ananias and Saphiras among believers today, many, church loads of them, who act in such a way so as to appear more spiritual to others…
As a rule, those who « speak in tongues » today utter deceitfully words that do not originate from the Spirit of God, as they claim, but from their own self.
They do that for the same reason that Anania and Saphira did: so as to appear to be in « another level » spiritually!
They will certainly pay dearly for this!
Beware of such teachings. They go against the very grain of Christianity.
Constantin Economides