John,

Like I said, some of those things mentioned are true, some are things
misunderstood by anti-charismatics, but I have learned how atheists can take
things Jesus said and turn them into contradictions and make it sound
perfectly logical.  I have also learned how easy it is to lift things out of
the context in which they were spoken.  You could go to my website right
now, lift out many statements, or parts of statements I have made, and
create an intire denominational movement based upon false precepts.  As in
the Baptist churches of this country, Charismatics are guilty of screwing up
the truth.  Not like me, of course, because I'm perfect.  However, in the
last 30 years, I have watched Charismatics shift into a more doctrinal type
of teaching.  They are teaching things now they had backwards many years
ago.  Most of my Baptist friends, unfortunately, haven't moved an inch.
Some of my friends, and my two older sisters, think I am a heretic and teach
psycho heresy.  It is true that I have only led five people to Christ in the
last two years but I also now have contacts all over the planet I didn't
have even 10 years ago.  I teach people Bible doctrine in more detail and
specificity, with which I never personally had practical application and
experience before, and I have discovered just how screwed up many bible
Believers really are due to how they were taught.  I'm a critic at heart,
too, so I don't mind when people point things out about those they refuse to
believe may actually be preaching the same salvation message.  A Baptist
pastor friend of mine went to bible college in Oklahoma at Jim Vineyard's
church.  During this time of his life, he was going to the jail every
weekend to preach.  A bunch of Assemblly of God guys were there preaching,
too.  My friend, he is still a pastor today but just no longer Baptist, said
the thing that bugged him the most was that these crazy Pentecostal
preachers, as he listened, were preaching the exact same salvation Gospel he
was as a Baptist.  Other than his salvation, this friend of mine had never
experienced a single miracle in his life.  I have since told some of the
miracles he has now been a part of.  You see, as a Baptist boy in college,
and later as a Baptist pastor, he believe there were no miracles today
because that's what John Macarthur and a lot of others taught.  He believed
what they taught.  Thus, he never witnessed any miracles in his life,
ministry, or in the lives of any other Christians.  I'd repeat some of those
miracles he has been a part of now ubt it wouldn't prove anything.  The
biggest mistake I made as a Baptist, I still consider myself a Baptist by
the way but Baptists disagree with that personal identification, was that
the Bible was the "concluded finalized Words of God."  thus, we never heard
from God because we have the bible.  Sounds good but this would have to mean
that the indwelling Holy Spirit was a deaf mute.  Yet Jesus told His
disciples, the Holy Spirit was no such thing and would bring all truth to
their minds.  Let me quote what Jesus literally said so there is no
mistaking His Words.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will
send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you, John. 14:26.

Yes, I am aware this verse talks about what Jesus said to His disciples
while He was upon earth.  However, unless somebody believes that everything
Jesus said and did is in the Bible and the disciples wrote everything down,
that is, every words and ever work Jesus did, we have John 21:25 that sheds
a little more light on the subject.

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which,
if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world
itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

It would be proper Biblical interpretation, therefore, to openly recognize
we don't know everything Jesus said and did.  Unless, of course, John the
disciple was lying and I doubt that very seriously.  Regardless, I have
personally heard from the Lord in my mind and spirit hundreds, if not
thousands, of times.  I have always confirmed what I heard by the written
Word.  For example, one day, as I was viewing a memory about going to school
as a 5 year old for the first time, I was scared, I thought, but it turned
out, that wasn't my problem.  My problem was, as the Holy Spirit revealed it
to me, I was disappointed in myself for being scared because I was a big boy
now and big boys are never afraid.  This was a lie, of course, and I
recognized it for what it truly was.  At that very moment, the Lord spoke to
me and said, "Phil, you don't have to be perfect because I am."  Of course,
I could prove this statement from the Bible without a bit of trouble yet
those words, spoken by the Lord to me, are not written word for word in the
Scriptures as He spoke them to me.  Additionally, the Lord spoke these words
directly to me.  I can point this truth out in the Bible to anybody at any
time but just because they see it in words does not mean they believe it.
I've tried leading people to Christ who repeated a prayer after me but when
we finished, they were no more born again than a goose.  Why?  they didn't
believe a word of what they said.

Furthermore, it stretches the spiritual imagination beyond any reasonable
consideration to think that God does not know any more, and say more, and
think more, than what is written in the Bible.  So, do we toss the Bible
out?  Of course not.  The Bible is the Word of God and confirms, or refutes,
what other's say and do.  I know lots of Baptist pastors who have sexually
used teenage girls and secretaries in their church.  I didn't stop being a
Baptist when I discovered what they had done.  Nor will I stop speaking in
tongues just because some fundamental Baptist, which I am as well, thinks he
has all of his documentation, or ducks, in a row.  Charismatics, regardless
of how big of name they have and regardless of how large their church has
become, get it wrong, too.  They just don't take the time to correct all the
Baptist that are teaching miracles and tongues died out with the last
apostle, whoever he was.

A few years ago, my children and I, along with Sandy of course, visited a
small Charismatic church near our home.  We thought we would end up joining
after several visits.  Then one day, they had a special speaker.  What
happened in the service, unless you are savvy to this sort of thing, would
freak you out.  It didn't freak me out but I likewise disagreed with what
they were doing and felt it to be unscriptural and extra Biblical and on top
of all of that, very fleshly, too.  When we got in the car and started
pulling out after church was over, all three of my kids started asking me
about it.  A couple of the younger ones even expressed being scared.  I
explained what was going on and what I thought about it and what was wrong
with it, and my oldest, who was driving, said, We aren't going to join this
church, are we, dad?  I laughed and said, Nope, we sure won't be coming
back.

Now, if you were a visitor at the Corinthian church a couple of thousand
years ago, I would bet you'd likely freak out during one of their services,
too.  If you read both epistles careful, you will discover that God didn't
think they were a bunch of unsaved, Biblical ignorant Charismatic
Christians.  He did, of course, bring some wise instruction to what was
going on but these Christians, coming from the life of male and female
prostitutes, and all types of heathenistic pagan religious beliefs and
practices, were some of the most dedicated Christian, I want to be like
Jesus, Christians the world has ever seen.  They still had some problems
though, but you'll never find a more dedicated bunch of believers wanting to
live Godly spiritual lives in any church on the planet today.

Well, I've probably whipped this dead horse long enough but I'm just saying,
and my website has such articles, you can find doctrinal error any place you
hear the Gospel preached and the Bible taught.  I'm glad it is the Holy
Spirit administrating the church and not me.  He can handle the whole world.
I once heard a guy call Hank Hanigraft's bible Answer man show.  You know,
call 1 800, Ask Hank?  This kid had just gotten born again.  He wanted
everything God had for him.  Kind of like the Corinthian Christians you
might say.  He asked Hank a very simple question.  What does it mean to be
filled with the Holy Spirit?  Hank immediately dragged the conversation off
topic.  He played a three second clip, get that, a three second clip, of a
preacher Hank thinks is a heretic and as lost as a goose.  This proves, of
course, Hank is right, if you get my drift.  The young man repeated his
question two or three more times.  Hank finally told him just to stay in the
Scriptures and he'd find out for himself.  God as my witness, this was what
old Hank said.  Very said and very misleading.  Hank should be ashamed of
building an entire ministry off the criticisms of those with whom he thinks
are weirded out Christians.  I won't send anybody a dime with that sort of
attitude.  Regardless, my point is the young man deserved an answer but he
received none.  If you take three seconds out of any of my recorded sermons,
you can prove I am a heretic.  You take three seconds out of the words of
Jesus, for that matter, and you can make even Him a heretic.  Do these
people mentioned in the article need to be corrected?  Sure.  I could take
that same article and lift several comments out where the man is
Scripturally dead wrong.  Would he receive it if I did so?  You know the
answer.  So, I just keep preaching Jesus.  By the way, for anyone
interested?  In the last two years and leading five people to Christ, I have
taught no one how to speak in tongues but I do it every day and I teach it
in my church as a gift of the Holy Spirit and that it can be one of the most
important aspects of your spiritual relationship with the Lord.  I use the
same bible to teach this truth while others use the same bible to say it
died out with the last apostle, whoever he was.  When we get to Heaven, I am
going to look up whoever that last apostle was because I sure want to meet
him.

Phil.

It Sounds Like God To Me.
www.SafePlaceFellowship.com