I only wish that I had known the information shared in this chapter when I was plagued with strange feelings concerning charismatic churches almost 25 years ago, while attending some of them. The zeal and the faith of fellow charismatics seemed fine and even terrific, but it was the leadership that began to make me draw back and ask questions. They didn't seem sincere. I felt they were putting on a show. They were gunning for success rather than intimacy with their sheep. It was then very difficult to put my finger on the root problem, but all is very obvious now. They are immersed in bringing about a counterfeit revival that just isn't going to happen. They are wasting everyone's time, and misleading them into possibly a great hazard.Those charismatics who had been disappointed the most, because the promised charismatic revival hadn't materialized on schedule, took the position of being guilty of luke-warmness before God...so that the solution, in their eyes, was to do greater spiritual "somersaults" for God. But this "solution" has brought some of them into the realm of the ridiculous. You may have heard of the so-called "Toronto Blessing," for example, where exuberant worshipers in the name of the Holy Spirit roar like lions, bark like dogs, shake, wiggle or otherwise move frantically on church floors, and more.
The particular church in Toronto where this has gone on, and those of the similar Vineyard churches, are grounded in Latter-Rain theology, the idea that a "rain" of the Spirit has been ordained by God BEFORE the return of Christ. Because Latter Rain was first introduced by the Drummond-Irving cult (Catholic Apostolic Church), we really do need to take a hard look to see if per chance the idea wasn't an Illuminati plot transferred into the charismatic movement.
The problem with defining Church history as the Millennium is that history thus far has hardly had the appearance of the utopia promised by the Bible, nor has Israel been established as the gem of all nations. But in Latter-Rain post-Millennialism, only a part of the Church Age, near the end of the period, is predicted to become glorious. Not similar to but still capable of playing into the hands of Millenarian Illuminatists, the pre-Millennial Latter-Rain camps hold to a bright age of Revival just prior to the wicked rule of the anti-Christ. It has been said that Illuminatists might attempt to portray the wicked period of the anti-Christ as the promised Revival of God via the majority of apostate/liberal Christians whom might be persuaded to support the anti-Christ and/or the False Prophet.
There is a great push these days to make us believe that the literal rapture, into the clouds, is an unbiblical teaching, and I suspect that this push originates in the Illuminatists/Freemasons (secretly) among us. Instead of the mortal becoming immortal thanks be to a rapture at the Appearance of Christ, Latter-Rain "prophets" are claiming that God's people will be transformed while still on earth, gradually taking on powerful, amazing bodies in order to empower the revival and conversion of the world. Paul Cain of the Kansas-City prophets expects us to be walking through walls soon, etc., apart from the rapture! This is the "Manifest Sons of God" doctrine currently promoted not only by his group of wayward seers, but by several con-artist tele-evangelists. The idea being passed off is that we are supposed to be achieving a spiritual-godhood condition as of now. Christians who disagree or do not conform are even now being accused of being anti-Holy-Spirit and, of course, the anti-Christ!
But did you know that "Manifest Sons" is a phrase found in Rosicrucianism? Upon studying the spirituality of Rosicrucianism, you will find that they apply a spiritual alchemy. Alchemy was at first the Rosicrucian quest to turn common metals into gold (note that recently the Latter-Rain charismatic leaders began claiming that silver fillings in teeth were turned to gold by God!!!) When the chemical process proved to be impossible, the Rosicrucians, to save face, claimed that their true alchemy was a "chemical process" of the soul in which it undergoes a transformation from the common state to "pure gold," as it were, until the inner being achieves a God-like condition. The Latter-Rain charismatics are teaching the very same! But the Bible teaches that we will not be so changed until the rapture in the clouds (see 1 Corinthians 15). And the apostle John said:
"Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we shall be has not yet been manifested. We know that when [Jesus] is manifested, we shall be[come] like him. And everyone having this hope purifies himself..." (1 John 3:2-3)There is a big difference between purifying ourselves from worldly norms while we wait patiently for Jesus to transform us suddenly at His appearance, and becoming slowly like little gods while we transform the world to Christ apart from His appearance.
The reality is that demons act in Latter-Rain groups while posing as the Holy Spirit. Those who have left the straight way of Christ--apostates--are the mediums through which the demons act to give the impression that Manifest-Sons revival is under way. In the meantime, demons attempt to pollute, confuse, and deceive the Elect. Among the "great evangelists" through whom this terrible work has occurred was William Branham (mid-20th century). The fabulously wealthy Morris Cerullo is an example of one still alive.
It is noteworthy that the miracle-working Branham and, a half-century earlier, the "father of healing revivalism in America," John Dowie, had both accepted the title of "Elijah" for themselves. Dowie claimed, as any typical cult of the time had, that his movement was the restoration of the Apostles, of which he was the first in modern times. Branham went further and proclaimed himself an angel in the Book of Revelation!
Ultimately, cultists do not take second place to other humans. While Edward Irving had been involved in founding a 12-apostle cult--still lingering in Dowie's day more than a half-century later--Dowie had obviously rejected it as a genuine move of God when he set up his own apostleship with himself as the first. Just the same, Irving's apostolic egoism was rehashed on planet Earth by Dowie. In fact, while Irving's church was the "Catholic Apostolic Church," Dowie had called his church, "Christian Catholic Apostolic Church."
Should we suspect that the Rothschilds were behind Dowie, as they had been behind the Irvingites? After all, Dowie came packed with quite a lot of money. It is very interesting that at least one Rothschild (Victor) was a member of the so-called "Apostle's Club," a secret society disguised as a Christian organization in the days of Arthur Balfour. Thus, as this society was formed just as Dowie was rising, might its purpose have been to set up counterfeit apostles, namely Dowie himself?
The term, "Catholic," meaning "universal," represents egoism and it's sister, anti-denominationalism. More bluntly, "Catholic" is a very suitable term for a cult because cults despise all denominations and churches but their own...while considering themselves the only universal church in existence. JWs, Exclusive Brethren, Adventists, Roman Catholicism, Unitarians, Universalists, you name it...all despise the churches holding to orthodox/Biblical/fundamental doctrines. The Biblical churches are often times lumped together as the "anti-Christ" or "Mystery Babylon." The problem is, these cults make no distinction between the sheep and the goats within denominations: all are hypocrites, and all are damned merely for having memberships in (other) denominations. Moreover, cults slander the denominations, not for the heresies that the goats put forth, but for the truths that the sheep put forth!
A good example of slandering denominations for truths put forth can be found in the Universalist movement. Edward Irving was himself a Universalist, the idea that everyone is going to be saved in the end, even if they end up in Hell for a spell. The purpose/effect of Universalism is to paint the denominations with a black brush for teaching an eternal/permanent punishment. Another tactic of anti-denominationalists is antagonism against the Trinity or the Deity of Christ. Thus, make a distinction between those, like myself, who rail against the denominations for promoting things like homosexuals in the pulpit, and those, like the cults, who rail against key Biblical truths.
Dowie didn't merely rehash Irving's apostolic cultism, but also Irving's Latter-Rain "miracles." As Irving had proclaimed his own movement to be the restoration of first-century miracles heralding the return of Christ, ditto for Dowie. Moreover, Dowie was a cultist teaching that it was better to allow a sick person to die rather than to receive medical attention and live...he permitted his own daughter to die that way. Just prior to her death, "he banished one of his followers for trying to alleviate her pain with Vaseline" (David Cloud). Is it merely coincidental that Irving held that same belief!? Three of Irving's sons, not to mention himself, died without receiving medical attention". All in all, one could easily conclude that Dowie was deliberately resurrecting Irvingism, especially as Dowie had connections with the Irvingites.
The contention of the Irvingites was that Europe was equivalent to Spiritual Israel. This European-Israelism was a heresy coincidental to yet another heresy, Anglo-Israelism. In fact, it can be shown that Anglo-Israelism was an offshoot of Irvingism, and yet has deeper roots in Rosicrucianism e.g John Dee and Francis Bacon. It was important to the cause of the early Anglican Church to find means by which to lift England above the Vatican, wherefore teaching that the English peoples were the bloodline Jews became an effective part of that cause. To this day, to keep the myth alive, the British royal family (e.g. Prince Charles) falsely claims to be descended from King David. A few Christians are still swallowing this, and even proclaiming Prince Charles to be the anti-Christ!
Indeed, preoccupation with the lost 10 tribes of Israel was on in the days of the Drummond cult. For example, some of the Irvingites had private words with certain men who were of the Mormon opinion that the native North-American Indians were the lost tribes. Understand that the Mormons were affiliated with Freemasons and that Freemasons were affiliated with Rosicrucians and/or Rothschild Illuminatists. But, now, see here: akin to the Mormons proclaiming a New Jerusalem in the United States, John Dowie--the "ghost" of Edward Irving--built from scratch his own Illinois city, called "Zion." The city included a huge, 8,000-seat auditorium. Its seal had a cross and a crown, clearly Freemason imagery used also by the likes of Charles Russell.The Irvingites claimed that the return of Jesus could not occur unless their 12 apostles restored the Church to a certain level of purity and power. That's Latter Rain all over. But after the last apostle died in 1901, a new apostolic and miracle-studded Latter-Rain movement began--that very year--with Dowie himself in what can be portrayed as a deliberate attempt to export Irvingism to America. The same process was repeated in mid-century by the likes of John Stevens and William Branham, leading now to the Kansas-City prophets, Vineyard, Promise Keepers, and an array of faith-healing evangelists having similar Freemason stripes.
Should it be any surprise to find that the Dowie miracles and subsequent spiritual manifestations at Azusa street were counterfeit? Some readers would say that the Pentecostal movement is less conspiratorial; perhaps every new generation merely grows an army of sincere zealots who don't learn well the difference between their imaginations and the voice of God:
In his early days in Chicago, certain people had approached Dowie with what they claimed as a "direct revelation from God" that Dowie was, in fact, 'Elijah the Restorer', the great end-times prophet. For their trouble, Dowie immediately rebuked them soundly and dismissed them from his presence, warning them never to mention such things to him again. However, the suggestion that had been planted that day kept ringing in his ears. "According to his own testimony, he tried to rid himself of it, but could not. A voice seemed to say, 'Elijah must come, and who but you is doing the work of Elijah?' Time passed. Then one day there came flooding into his consciousness a strange and intense conviction that he was indeed Elijah...The impression came with such overwhelming power, that his entire personality became absorbed with it."Whether or not this rather innocent-sounding story was concocted or modified by Dowie himself to make his Elijah-career seem uncontrived, I do not know, but, continuing now with the quote above, we learn the year that he elevated himself to supreme man of God: "In June 1901, Dowie took the fateful step of publicly announcing that he was indeed Elijah the Restorer. (A claim which was immediately challenged and denounced by most religious leaders)" (http://www.fwselijah.com/Dowie.htm#T). Again, this was the same year that the last Irvingite apostle had died. By this time, the Rothschild Zionism movement was in full swing, and Jews had already been re-settled into the Promised land by the thousands.
My advice: don't think highly of yourself, and don't listen to voices in your head to the point that your own ego (or a demon) is mistaken for the Holy Spirit's voice. And stay away from the charismatic movement, especially where hard-core, liberal prophesying is practiced. I'm not suggesting that charismatics should throw the baby out with the bath water...I'm suggesting that they toss out the entire bathtub and spigot too...anything that smacks of the charismatic movement!! There is True Christianity without the charismatic movement, did you know? There are even true miracles, true prophecies, and true tongues without the charismatic movement. But know that there is no method that we can invent or learn by which to acquire these gifts; they are exercised through people only when God chooses to exercise them...all other manifestations are of the evil one...did you know?
As Dowie is credited with thousands of miraculous works, it is made apparent that demons were working through his hands. It should be plain, at least, that God does not perform that many miracles through one man alone, and especially through a man who doesn't know enough to refrain from self-asserted claims regarding his own great importance. The miracles performed through Jesus were for the purpose of establishing the reliability of His ministry, as that ministry was critically important for our eternal salvation, and for transferring the earthly power of Satan to God. Unless we honestly think that God was trying to glorify Dowie in the same sort of way, and for the Latter-Rain purpose that Dowie claimed for himself, we had best realize that this man was working with demons.
If charismatics insist that their great miracle-working leaders are indeed men of God, then who are the "many" end-time false-miracle workers that Jesus foretold about, who are to come disguised as men of God? It's the apostolic and prophetic charismatics unmistakably that have brought us the signs-and-wonders phenomena. And both the apostle Peter and Jude make it crystal clear in their epistles that apostates will make merchandise of believers. So keep your money for better things.
Dowie eventually died, but, the question is, did his movement die, or is it still with us because others took his place? David Cloud answers that question thoroughly enough as follows:
"In spite of Dowie's heretical doctrines and unscriptural ministry, he prepared the way for Charles Parham and his equally unscriptural Pentecostalism. The Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements notes that many of the most famous Pentecostal evangelists went out from [Dowie's Illinois city of] Zion (p. 368) and dozens of Parham's followers at Zion joined the Assemblies of God at its formation in 1914. In fact, three of the original eight members of the AOG general council were from Zion City (p. 370)...Influential Assemblies of God minister Gordon Lindsay, editor of Voice of Healing, wrote Dowie's biography and gave him credit for influencing "a host of men of faith who have had powerful ministries," referring to generations of Pentecostal preachers" (http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/strange1.htm).From the Dowie movement came the Name-it-and-Claim healers, also typically opposed to medicine. For example, Jack Coe, who believed that taking the mark of the beast included such things as seeking the assistance of a doctor. But when Coe himself contracted polio, he suddenly found that he had no aversion to seeking the assistance of doctors...and not even his "miraculous" powers, nor the powers of fellow faith healers, could keep him from dying some weeks later. According to David Cloud, "his own widow published a series of articles exposing the fraud of key Pentecostal healing evangelists."
NEXT CHAPTER The Quackery of Charismatic Patriarchs
In an attempt to lure Christians of all denominations
the charismatic movement appealed to ego
using egotistical men.
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