The Heresy of Healing Cults

In his exposition of John 16:13 (1538) the Reformer [Martin Luther] uses words which, in the light of modern developments, seem prophetic. He is speaking of possible future perversions.

If seduction and darkness were again to begin through the wrath and decree of God (as will happen after our days, it is to be feared- if the world is destined to stand longer), and the devil were to begin to perform signs through some false saint and perhaps were to cure a sick person, you would no doubt see the mob press to espouse the cause in such a way that no preaching or warning would be of any avail. Come now, they would assert (as they have hitherto done in the case if the deceased saints), say whatever you please, I have nonetheless seen and found that a certain man who devoted himself to this preacher and accepted him was thereby helped.

For in those who have no love for the truth the devil will be powerful and strong. Accordingly, they are misled by all sorts of his deceptive tricks and are not wise enough to guard against them. This is why I have said: The Holy Spirit must be present with His revelation, so that we observe the Word of Christ and His message and judge all teachings and signs, life and doing, in accordance with them. If, then, these contradict the chief doctrine and article of Christ (by which, Christ here says, the Holy Spirit is to glorify Him), we should accord them neither attention nor acceptance though it were to snow miracles daily. For whatever contradicts this teaching is certainly a pack of lies and trumped up by the devil in order to seduce souls. If you want to see and find miracles and signs, then look for them here; for this doctrine was certainly proved by miracles from heaven and by all kinds of true, divine, genuine signs, and to date it has been sustained by not a few signs against the devil and his bogus signs.

Martin Luther

What Luther Says, p. 632

Compiled by Ewald M. Plass

 

Signs of the Times (25)

 

In the last forum article, we finished our discussion of the sign of the great persecution that must come on the church before the Lord comes back. Immediately following the sign of persecution is the sign of false prophets. I will quote the passage. “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before.”

 

Jesus considers the sign of false prophets to be such an important sign that He mentions it no less than three times in His sermon. The first time is recorded in Matthew 24:4-5; the second time in verse 11; and the third time here in the verses I just quoted. If Jesus considered this sign important, we ought to prick up our ears and pay close attention.

 

There is a difference however, between the sign of false prophet in verses 23-25 and the other two places where false prophets are mentioned. In the other two verses the Lord refers to the fact that the world is always full of false prophets, and that they constitute a constant threat to the churches. They are those who today preach a prosperity gospel, in which they promise those who believe in them long life, riches, health and a life free from trouble. They are also leaders of Pentecostal churches who speak of special gifts of the Holy Spirit, which most believers do not have, and which raise the one possessing them to a higher level of holiness than the ordinary Christian.

 

But in this sign, the Lord is speaking directly of false prophets that arise in the times of the great tribulation and try to persuade the people of God that they are very foolish to suffer persecution, because the Lord is not coming back anyway. Peter warns against them as well in his second letter: “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days, scoffers walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:3-4).

 

I am going to take you on a sidetrack for a little while, because there are some things in this chapter of 2 Peter that are important. These things have to do with the terrible heresy of evolutionism. This deadly error is directly related to the signs of Christ’s coming particularly the sign of false prophets. Evolutionists, even when they are “theistic” evolutionists – if there really are such persons, for it is impossible to believe evolutionism and the true God at the same time -- are false prophets. If one truly believes in evolution, three fundamental doctrines of Scripture are denied.

 

One is, as we all know, the doctrine of creation.

 

The second is the doctrine of providence, especially that part of providence that teaches the truth that God continues to give every creature its existence by the word He speaks. God, Who gives existence to every creature, is sovereign over all, so that nothing happens without His direct act and control.

 

And third, evolutionism denies the second coming of Christ. This is the reason why evolutionists have adopted the social gospel that teaches that we must work hard to “Christianize” society and make this world a better place to live, because the kingdom of heaven comes to this earth and makes this earth Christ’s kingdom – through evolutionary processes.

 

Peter, under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, attacks evolutionism by attacking its most basic premise: “All things continue as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:2). That, while it is fundamental to all evolutionism, is, says Peter, false!

 

Evolutionists call this belief of theirs, “The Principle of Uniformitarianism.” The principle of uniformitarianism claims that scientists can know what the creation was like a million (or a billion) years ago by what it is like now. The creation is governed by laws of nature that have always and still do determine how things are now, how things were a millennium ago and how things were millions and billions of years in the past.

 

That principle, says Peter, is false. The fact is that things do not continue as they were from the creation of the world. God brought about tremendous changes in His creation. Peter refers to the most drastic change that God made in the creation at the time of the flood. He tells us, in so many words, what that change was: Before the flood, “the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water” (vs. 5). Now, after the flood, “the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (vs. 7).

 

What Peter means is that the creation before the flood was composed of water, its most basic ingredient. We find that hard to imagine, for the change that took place at the time of the flood was basic. But we can understand it a little when we read in Scripture that the waters above came crashing down on the earth and the fountains of the deep earth were opened so that water tore the earth to pieces. Further, the flood was a partial relaxation of the curse when God, at the time of the flood, tilted the earth on its axis 23 ½ degrees and thus created the seasons (Gen. 8:20-22).

 

It is not difficult for us to see how now the world is fundamentally fire. We are surrounded by fiery bodies in the skies that number in the billions; the creation itself is composed of atoms and sub-atomic particles, which are basically electrical charges and are really fire – as any short in an electric wire will show one; the terrible destruction of a bomb that uses the principle of splitting an atom or uniting a hydrogen atom is fire at its worst.

 

Of course, wicked men who love their anti-God evolutionary theories, deny the flood. When I was taking a physics course in college, a Christian physicist who worked on the atom bomb during World War 2, spent hours persuading us that there could not ever be such a thing as a chain reaction that would blow up the whole world. The time he spent trying to disprove it was a strong proof of its very real danger. Why cannot God destroy the world today by fire? (2 Pet. 3:10).

 

Peter says that the evolutionist is “willingly” ignorant of these truths. He doesn’t want them because he is addicted to his precious evolutionary theories that push God out of his own creation.

 

But He won’t be pushed out!

 

And so you see how evolutionism denies God’s promise that Christ will come again. The slogan of the evolutionists is: “Every day and in every way we are getting better and better.” What nonsense! Don’t they read the Newspapers? Or visit hospitals?

 

I read a book many years ago with the title, “The Omega Point.” It was written by a French paleontologist, who was also a Roman Catholic. For many years the RC Church put the book on the list of banned books. But later it was taken off. The author, Pierre, d’ Chardin, was a theistic evolutionist. In his development of the theory of evolution he claimed that as man improves through evolutionary processes he will continue to become a better and a higher creature until he reaches “the omega point,” which is to become God himself. One is reminded of the devil’s temptation of Eve: “Ye shall be as God. . . .”

 

And the flood is not all. When the curse came upon the creation with Adam’s fall, the curse brought death with its vast changes in the creation.

 

Evolutionism denies the coming of Christ!

 

Prof. H. Hanko