Need to Be Discerning About What We Hear and See in Church

(by Bill Stevenson)

I heard to sermons in two churches on July 26, 2008, which grieved me because they were
teaching a wrong gospel and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The sermons were done by an
enthusiastic and dramatic young preacher of a conservative denomination. My wife, who had
been exposed to many charismatic services, said that the sermons were teaching charismatic
doctrine. Please get your study Bibles so that you can see the contexts of the sermons for
yourself.

The first sermon was abased on Joshua 14:12 in which Caleb asked Joshua “Now therefore, give
me this mountain of which the LORD spoke that day….” The main point was that we should ask
God for big things not just for the small things. The preacher went back to the story about the 12
men sent to spy into Canaan. See Numbers 13-14. He only read some of that chapter and not the
important verses about Caleb: Numbers 13:30-31-- “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses,
and said, ‘Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.’ But the men
that went up with him said, ‘We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger
than we.’” Numbers 14:22-24-- “Because all those men which have seen My glory and My
miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me now these ten times
and have not hearkened to My voice; surely they shall not see the land which I swore unto their
fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked Me see it; but My servant Caleb, because he had
another spirit with him and has followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he
went; and his seed shall possess it.” God did not tell Moses to get the Israelite soldiers to possess
the mountain that the spies climbed to see what was happening in the valley of Canaan, but the
preacher said that Caleb personally wanted to possess the just mentioned mountain. And he went
on to claim since all promises are for us now, we should not just ask God for the small needs, but
ask him for the biggest needs. But the fact is: Joshua 14:13-15-- “And Joshua blessed him, and
gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the
inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly
followed the Lord God of Israel. And the name of Hebron before was Kirjatharba; which Arba
was a great man among the Anakims. And the land had rest from war.” The second half of
Joshua 15 beginning with verse 15 shows where Caleb was to drive out the enemies (and there is
no mention of giants as the preacher had emphasized there were based on one verse about what
the ten spies reported). Hebron is in the southern part of the Land of Canaan and is not a
mountain. And the preacher did not mention that Caleb “wholly followed the Lord God of
Israel” which God and Joshua had recognized. He did emphasize that it wasn’t until after 40
years when God promised them victory, and so we should not delay or procrastinate in asking
God for the big victories we need in our lives.

The preacher said that knowing Scripture and attending church regularly is not as important as
claiming God’s promises. And when he claimed that all promises of God and all Scripture is for
us claim today, he got many “Amen”s. But that was extending what the following says: 2
Timothy 3:16-17—“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man [or woman] of God may
be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” Colossians 2:12-15—“Buried with Him
in baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, Who
hath raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, has He quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the

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way, nailing it to His cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them in it.” Ephesians 2:13-16-- “But now in Christ Jesus you
who sometimes were far off are made near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, Who has
made both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us: having abolished in
His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in
Himself of twain one new man, so making peace and that He might reconcile both unto God in
one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.” We need to be careful about
determining which commandments and promises in the Bible were just for the Israelites or
certain individuals and which commandments and promises are for the disciples of Jesus Christ.
John 14:15-17-- Jesus Christ said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray
the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever: even
the Spirit of truth; Whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him;
but you know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you.” [Why do charismatic
preachers, including the one I have mentioned, usually start of the sermons or/and the church
services with a prayer or song asking the Holy Spirit to come?] John 15:9-11-- Jesus also said,
“As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you: continue in My love. If you keep My
commandments, you shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments
and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you,
and that your joy might be full.” And in the promises made by Jesus Christ about His disciples’
prayers being answered for and about other things, all of them had at least one condition or
requirement.

The second sermon was about the river mentioned in Ezekiel 47. The preacher mentioned that it
came from and went out of the temple. He said that his guide had him help him do some
measuring in the waters, he first went in the water until it was as high as his ankles, then for the
next measurement where the water was as high as his knees, then to where it was as high as his
waist, and finally to where it became too deep for him continue walking across. The preacher
claimed that the different stages of walking into the river indicated our (the preacher talked as if
all people in the audience were born again Christians) stages of spiritual commitment. He said
that we needed to get out of the temple and walk into the river. And then the preacher indicated
that Ezekiel kept walking into the deeper part of the river where he could not stand anymore and
was out of control. The preacher said that this meant that we must surrender all. He ignored the
next verse which says “And he said unto me, ‘Son of man, have you seen this?’ Then he brought
me, and caused me to return to the bank of the river.” He also ignored verses 7-10 and only
mentioned verse 11 about the swamps and marshes as a warning to us. He claimed that verse 12
was Heaven. The rest of the chapter and the next chapter plainly indicate that this vision of
Ezekiel’s was for the Israelites and not for us. Following the sermon, the “I Surrender All”
hymn was song. Then the preacher asked for anyone who wanted to stand as a sign that they
wanted to surrender all to God and most did. [He obviously had assumed that all in the audience
were born again saved, because he had not mentioned the Biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ.] Then
he said that there were stones on the platform in front of the sanctuary and that during a slide
presentation (of photos with Bible verses about God’s love for us in German), we each could go
forward and get one to use as a memory of the decision made. But such a decision should have
been made at one’s conversion to Christianity.

The two happenings in two churches mentioned in this report show that when people don’t know
enough Scripture, they cannot discern truth and error, and will follow the latter. Most Germans
do not even bring their study Bible to church. Same in the USA where so many have been
misled by un-Biblical famous preachers and prophets for many years and by the Presidential
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candidates for about a year. I grieve about such, but I am glad that since January 2004 I have
had the opportunity to use the Internet fulltime and church attending to warn people and
encourage careful study of the Bible. I usually share Philippians 2:1-5, Proverbs 3:5-6, and Jude
20-23 for obvious reasons. What are those reasons?

Please be careful about how you respond to what you hear or read about spiritual issues. Jesus
Christ did not come to Earth and die for our sins so that we could ask God to give us victory over
the tough challenges (the mountains) in our lives or get us to loose control of our lives in
surrendering all to Him (“in the river of life”). For countering wrong preaching, “Study to show
yourself approved unto God, a workman [or workwoman] that needs not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15) How should we be living and sharing the good
news of Jesus Christ? What is true Christian commitment and Christianity?

My concluding responses: I have been and will be continuing to pray for the preacher I
mentioned. After the second sermon, I gave him a list of places in the Internet that he can get
good information from. I hope that he will research in them and change his way of preaching.
He apparently has spoken at youth conferences and in many other churches. If he sends an e-
mail to me, I will share this report with him. The Holy Spirit did not tell me to share my first
impressions after the second church service. God’s timing is perfect for any changes we each
need to make in our lives. In the evening, God blessed my wife and I by a sermon we heard via
3ABN about the “Sower of the Seed” parable. It had some new carefully reasoned applications
we never thought of before. And the main conclusion was that we should get “the stones of
selfish sins out of our soil”. Ironically, stones were emphasized twice, in the altar call after the
second sermon and during and at the end of the sermon I heard on TV. To me, that is like God
confirming that I should write this report. I hope that it will help many as I will share it my e-
mails and in my blog sites.