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We print letters from you, the readers. Letters may be edited for the sake of brevity. Editorial Comment (Ed) is by Philip Powell (PP) or Siam Bhayro (SB).

The Editor,
Christian Witness Ministries
Dear Sir,
I read with interest the interview with Barry Smith in Contending EARNESTLY for THE Faith (CETF). While respecting his evangelistic work, it is with both amusement and sadness I recall his many end time predictions over the years.
The sad part is that he has put many off the subject of end time events, robbing them of the truth and blessing of Revelation. In his article on the book of Revelation in Reality magazine August `96 Murray Roberson of Spraydon Baptist reported a drop in attendances whenever the book of Revelation was preached from. The reason for this was that end time's preachers had scared people. Feelings of fear and helplessness have become linked with bible prophecy.
The average evangelical Christian would probably be surprised to know that the prevalent view of end time events (Futurism) has only gained popularity in the last hundred years and can be traced to counter-reformation Jesuit teaching. I am encouraged by the inclusion of the traditional prophetic view (Historicism) in CETF as subscribed to by Dr Charles Taylor (author of "Revelation as World History") in November `98 and Michael de Semlyen (author of "All Roads Lead to Rome") in April 2000.
Anyone who has a love for the Truth will not be satisfied with a one sided view. The distinction comes with one's interpretation of Daniel 9:27. As the notes to the NIV study bible indicate, some believe this verse to refer to the Messiah, others to the Antichrist. Virtually every Christian leader from Wycliffe to Spurgeon as well as the founders of the Apostolic and Elim churches were historicists.
Futurism is based on the Jesuit Francisco Ribera's writing, which put Daniel's 70th week into the distant future (so taking the heat off the papacy). It was popularised by John Darby (Plymouth Brethren), Edward Irving (Irvingites) and Dr C.I. Scofield's notes in the Scofield reference bible. Nearly all modern evangelicals, including of course Barry Smith, propagate the futurist view.
I recently had the pleasure of leading a seminar, which went through the book of Revelation verse by verse. The reaction of the participants (with futurist backgrounds) as they were exposed to historicist teaching on the book was a joy to behold. Revelation finally made sense and was indeed a blessing!
Yours in Christ,

Rhys P. James, pasto
Gisborne Family Church
New Zealandr

Editorial Response:
Dear Mr James,

There are several weaknesses with your letter.
Firstly, you ascribe the lack of interest in the "end times" to futurists like Barry Smith. Our experience is that Mr Smith's meetings are extremely well attended and that among "futurists" in general there is always a keen interest in eschatology. I suggest that the lack of enthusiasm comes from your "historicist" camp and is due to its poor exegesis of Revelation, which leaves the book void of any purpose.
Secondly, the "historicist" view is deeply rooted in Roman Catholic theology, as are the traditional reformed views concerning the millennium. So to accuse "futurists" of having a Catholic inspired theology is rather like the proverbial pot...This kind of red herring occurs in other debates. For example, Calvinists are accused of having a Catholic theology, whilst they would see a clearer link between Arminian "salvation by works" and popery. Doctrine should be decided by recourse to the scriptures alone and not by perceived and often non-existent links to dodgy groups.
Thirdly, the distinction is much more than the interpretation of Daniel 9:27, though for the record it is foolish to conclude that it is Jesus being referred to. Consider the following points:
a) The "he" who makes the covenant refers to the proper noun which immediately precedes it, in this case the "prince" of verse 26.
b) If you seriously want to argue that this "prince" is Jesus, then answer why he causes the temple sacrifices to cease, exactly the same crime which Antiochus Epiphanes is condemned for in the preceding narratives. As a good historicist, you will know that Antiochus desecrated the temple by sacrificing a pig on its altar, and he
persecuted the Jewish religion. Jesus speaks of a future scenario when this will be repeated in Matthew 24:15. Why would Jesus tell his disciples to flee from a work, which He Himself will do?
c) Why would Daniel present the Jewish Messiah as persecuting the Jews? Only someone with the Reformed view, whose
theology is tainted by Roman Catholic antisemitism, would suggest such an idea. We at CWM believe that Jesus was Jewish, and that He is the Jewish Messiah — He will return to establish, for a period, the Jewish religion upon the earth and reinstate the sacrifices at a consecrated temple.
d) Fourthly, and just for the record, we are not strictly speaking futurists! As Jacob Prasch notes, "The futurist and historicist approaches are by no means mutually exclusive. Thus there are many prophecies in Daniel, which have had their fulfilment already, and were fulfilled before Jesus' time. But Jesus Himself makes it clear that many events are yet in the future. The Olivet Discourse is not simply Matthew chapter 24, but also chapter 25. Did Jesus separate the sheep from goats in 70AD or reward people on their faithfulness in using their talents in 70AD? Of course He did not! Thus, we can say that the Olivet Discourse was not fulfulled in 70AD". The point is prophecies should be taken in total.
e) Finally, we can highlight just as many, if not more, instances of people being presented the so-called "futurist" interpretation and finding it enlightening. But again, we base what we believe on scripture alone — not how many times we appear to be able to persuade a congregation to a particular point of view.
Feel free to respond should you wish to. This applies to all our readers. We do not think that this is an issue which should divide us, but one which could spark a vigorous exchange of views (SB).

Not long ago an AoG minister from Australia who ministers internationally said to Philip Powell: "I always associated apostasy with other groups. I never thought that the movement to which I belong would apost-atise. Sadly I can now see that my denomination has also been affected".
Here's part of a letter from another associate of more than thirty years ago:

"It greatly saddens me to read of the way representatives (ambassadors) of Christ are conducting themselves, and how they can justify their actions in the light of God's Holy Word. I was always aware of the statement of our Lord Jesus, " Shall He find faith when He returned" but did not realise that even in the AOG fellowship, there would be so much rubbish and error. Whilst not considering myself in any way to be without the ability to fail to obey my Lord Jesus at times, I trust that I would remain faithful to Him with the constant guidance of the Holy Spirit to whom He Himself referred in John's gospel. Philip, may God our loving heavenly Father, protect and keep you ever vibrant in the cause of the gospel. May all His saints rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory at the great mystery of His overwhelming love for His creation through Christ Jesus."
J.D.Y.
Dalkeith, Scotland

BENNY HINN:
I am a Christian for 21 years and God is so faithful to me.
The articles about Benny Hinn are true, I believe that we true believers in Christ should do something about this to warn our true brothers so that they will not be deceived by false teachers.
Physical healing is not the base of our faith in Christ. It is spiritual healing, asking God to enter your life and make Him your Saviour and Lord, repenting from your sins.
Remember when the devil tempted Jesus after the fasting? And the devil wants Jesus to bow down to him and he will give all the treasures here on earth? Actually the devil can heal too if you will give your life to him.
Please continue your good work, because of your website I was able to know the false teachings of Benny Hinn.
Keep the faith!
Please give me some info about Copeland too!
Thanks!
In Christ,

RA
California, USA

Bless you my brother for having the integrity and courage to expose the demonic spirits controlling Benny Hinn. It is a shame that so many persons all over the earth have been deceived by his ministry. God still has a church, blood washed, blood bought. It is good to know that there are still a FEW persons in the AoG that stand for His Word, even though they are far apart and few in between.

J. H. R.
USA

APOSTOLIC APPEAL FOR MONEY:
Dear CWM,
Thanks for your defence of the faith. On the local front, my former pastor bought an $800,000 house a few months back (to go along with his new $60,000 suburban, vacations every three weeks, etc). Well, the congregation just got a letter saying that the church needed millions of dollars to build the "vision" for their church. Do you know what the letter said was going to open up the millions to the people, so that they could in turn give it to the church? Pay off the pastor's mortgage! That's right; by paying off the mortgage by September 3 the Holy Spirit said that millions would be given to the people. This is a sad, but very true chapter to this saga. I've seen the letter with my own eyes.
Doug Dean
USA

The subject letter is posted at www.cyber scripture.com .The interesting sequel is that the appeal resulted in donations of $70,000 (US dollars), which brought a rebuke from the spiritual father — self-styled apostle F. Nolan Ball.

REVIVAL True or False:
Dear Pastor Powell,
I am a 16 year old boy in need of your assistance. You see Pastor I agree with your stances against people like Benny Hinn and this new wave of "anointed" people. I myself have experienced the bad side to these kinds of people and only recently have left these false prophets. Anyways, I was wondering if you could tell me something about the history about the Pentecostal movement and other movements like the Quakers. Were these movements from God or were they also false. Was there any real revival from God you can think of? The reason I ask these questions is because I am Pentecostal, and if these movements and their histories prove to be false, then isn't Pentecostalism false also?
Hope you can reply soon, and may God bless you in your ministry.
Benjamin

Dear Benjamin,
Thank you very much for writing to me. I'll make a few comments but would like to know more about you and your background in order to get some better idea of your needs and concerns. All I know at this stage is your christian name. I presume that you or someone that you know may be on our mailing list. I don't know what country you are from. I get so much mail from all over the world.
My background is like yours—pentecostal, so I am not against the supernatural or the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I am sure that there were extremes among the early Pentecostals just as there probably are in all groups. However I think it is important to realise that the term Pentecostal was not adopted until long after Azusa Street and Charles Parham etc and that the early Pentecostals were opposed to the extremes of the things that took place there. In Britain Pentecostalism came out of the Welsh revival, which had nothing to do with what, happened in America. The early Pentecostals in Britain were bible based in their doctrine and practice.
I think the Quakers were very sincere people, but they too had extremes and very quickly became a social based movement. John Wimber was a Quaker, who certainly became very extreme and non biblical in his teaching and practice. In fact a lot of the error among charismatics and Pentecostals today can be traced to Wimber and his associate Peter Wagner.
;I hope these comments are helpful. As I say I may be able to provide more information and help if you can give me more idea about you and your concerns.
If you are not on our mailing list we will happily add your name and address at no charge. Just email me the details including your street and city, country address etc.
(PP)

NOTE: The above correspondence resulted in Benjamin becoming part of our USA database and receiving by email Philip Powell's article on CESSATIONISM versus BIBLICISM published on pages 9 to 18 of this issue of CETF.

A CATALYST FOR SOMETHING NEW?
Many thanks indeed for the latest mailing of Volume 6.1 CETF.
The articles are, as usual, well thought out and I am particularly grateful for those on prophets (or profits!) and Rome …..
It is commendable that regarding prophets, you practise what you preach; your magazines are free to those who need them. How different to the money grabbing profiteering scams which are dressed up as biblical resourcing, which usually follow a meeting where the latest "prophet" has spoken.
Propheteering reminds me of the court of King Ahab, where, for the sake of the King's favour, the prophets prophesied victory when the Lord said, "defeat" through Micaiah. It's not easy to stand against the flow, but God's favour rests on those who do. As the church slips further into ecumenical apostasy and the Toronto circus, the Word of the Lord for the church in the U.K. is: "The rod has blossomed, pride has budded". And can be found in Ezekiel Ch 7(v10). The whole chapter is worth a look. We need to be prepared for times of difficulty and yet our "prophets" are declaring a victory. If we seek revival (God will continue to save those who are His), surely we need to throw off the shackles of unbelief in His word and repent before it is too late! Like David Wilkerson, rejecting Toronto yet experiencing great revival, the truth should be proclaimed, not watered down nor replaced with spurious spiritual experiences.
I had been praying about the possibility of a new believing, Spirit-filled church grouping, when I read of your new direction, Philip: You should expect God to use you as a sort of catalyst. The word says, "Come out of her, my people" and so we should. The headship of antichrists has no authority over those who love the Word. I will keep praying about this.
Thank you so much for keeping us informed and for such good, biblically based articles. They will be used locally to try to warn many who are positioning themselves under the headship of Rome through Alpha, joint services and general eye-blinding acceptance of the vile harlot. Maybe they will listen?
Thank you again for sending CETF and Vanguard. We need you.
K JK, UK

CHARLES STANLEY:
My wife, Elizabeth, and I want to thank you for your stance for the Truth. We have been receiving CETF for some time now and have been encouraged by the articles. I do have a question concerning an American preacher/teacher whom we have been watching on the Christian channel here in the UK. Whilst we are aware of the erroneous teaching of people like Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn, Charles Stanley the subject of my question, seems on the whole a man of sound doctrine. I was wondering if you had any information on Charles Stanley, which would help to assure me of his soundness or otherwise.
Q&E, UK

Dear Quentin and Elizabeth:
Thank you so much for your encouragement. Everything that I have heard about Charles Stanley, with one exception and I can't remember what that was or who it came from, was good. My suggestion is that you do with him as you (we) must do with all — apply the Berean principle. Test what everyone says and writes — including us — by the scriptures. Sadly we are living in the days when a person may be on course today but off tomorrow, or when a person may be completely biblical in most things but very wrong in just one thing, which can become the thin end of the wedge. In saying that I am not meaning minor things, but major things. We will never all see eye to eye on every detail.
May God bless you. Thank you for your support and encouragement.
(PP)

THE WORLD IS OUR PARISH:
Thank you for your emails and your magazines. Please continue to send us your reading materials at the address as follows. We enclosed a bank draft … being collections for CWM.
KO
Ipoh, Malaysia

Dear Friends in the Lord
"Being confident of this very thing that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." How wonderful to know that our precious heavenly Father will fulfil His word to us—it sure gives us confidence in Him and His dealings with each of us as individuals.
I just want to say how much I appreciate your magazines … I am the widow of a pastor ... We spent 36 years in the full time ministry, and he went to be with the Lord nearly 5 years ago. I miss him so much, and his fellowship and love—at times life seems to be very lonely. But the Lord Jesus is very precious to me, and I would not survive without His tender love and care daily. He is so faithful, and I bless Him. Consequently, your messages are such a joy and blessing as I read them and ponder them, and then pass them on to others to share as well. Many hearts are encouraged and blessed by them. Thank you so much for sending them to me, and I pray you will continue to do so. I pray for your ministry DAILY, and trust that the Lord God Almighty will continue to bless it abundantly, so that many may share in His Word. Yours in His happy service to teach others.
Mrs LD
Cresta, South Africa

Dear Sir,
My sincere greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I am grateful for all your assistance in sending me regularly "Contending EARNESTLY for THE Faith" and have found each issue very timely and to enrich me in the ministry.
In my area, many young college students, employees, school teachers, village elders, church members and friends take your magazine one by one and are being equipped spiritually.
I request you to continue to send your wonderful magazine CETF. The articles from the pen and pulpit of the preachers are burning in our hearts. Our hearts are thrilled to read the stirring messages.
I am enclosing herewith the paper cuttings, which are self-explanatory. The churches' situation in India is very bad, so please pray for this matter. Thanking you,
Yours very sincerely,
Rev Y Prabhakar
Andhra Pradesh, South India

CWM is receiving increasing requests for bulk supply of our papers to third world countries. So far we have stretched our limited resources to meet some of these requests in countries like Malaysia, parts of Africa, India and Singapore. We value your prayers that we will be able to continue and extend the ministry to these needy parts of the world.

These came from visits to our website:
How do you manage to dig up all this dirt to pull down other servants of God?
Don't you have more important tasks to take care of, like preaching the gospel to the unsaved?
I live in Norway, on the other side of the globe, and I feel great sadness when I read this website. It is probably the most negative, accusing Christian website on the face of the earth. Yes, Benny Hinn has faults and so have you.
What makes you have the boldness to blame brothers in the Lord? Anyway, God bless you! Best regards,
Kristian
Norway

Hi. Firstly, you have a great site. I haven't looked at everything yet but some of the Christian authorities that are featured at your site are top notch, especially Dave Hunt. I have just read his latest book on A Urgent call for a Serious Faith and it is absolutely RIGHT ON!!
JM
Liechtenstein

Dear Brethren
Thank you for the latest edition of the Vanguard, which I have read with interest, except those sections that I am fully conversant with and agree with already.
You are quite right to point out the truly awesome and disgusting error and evil preached in most churches today and I endorse what you do. Can I however make a suggestion? You quite rightly point out these things but fail to take a "global" view and see where things may have gone wrong in the past, (perpetuated in the present), and which have led to the current malaise. I believe that there is one central problem.
I am a licensed minister you could say. I am a preacher mostly working in evangelism at the moment, on the streets, for which there is no competition. The normal, correct, and spiritual running of churches has been a burden on my heart for years. Spiritual friends and I have discussed this at length and studied through the scripture for God's model for church and its normal configuration. We have drawn all the obvious conclusions, 90%, of which you would immediately recognise and endorse. A friend has recently written this up as an essay, or booklet if you will, and is seeking a publisher. A copy of this you may have to read if you so desire.
I believe that whilst you are sound and solid biblically in your doctrine you have failed to notice one main reason for the mess, and you seem to endorse it yourselves. All this will do is give you an endless source of error to point out! In scripture there is absolutely no basis for the "pastor system" as we call it. The concept of one-man ministry, a "leading-elder", "senior elder", etc, etc, has no biblical warrant and is therefore unsupportable. I cannot go through all the scripture on the subject here, so, if you wish, you may have a copy of my friend's essay and check.
There is no warrant in scripture for church meetings away from the home either! Special buildings which people leave their homes to go to, plants in people's minds that church is outside the home, something you go "to". Sin and error is much less likely to enter in any substantial way where churches have a multiplicity of elders without pompous titles, (which I am entitled to use), and where not one is seen to be above another. That one-man ministry belongs to Jesus Himself. The "pastor" inevitably ends up inserting himself between the LORD and His people.
In the centralised huge churches we see around us the normal functioning of the body cannot take place for various reasons. People follow the man "at the front", and the devil brings in error, all are then led away. I believe the scripture plainly shows that the "one step removed from God's way" system, which is now virtually universal, the "pastor system", is expressly and implied to be error. All spiritual men known to me know this to be the truth and have rejected this model.
I would be interested in your comments, though I understand that you would find agreeing with the biblical model tough, as most of your writers are plainly "system" men. There was one minor point I would also like to mention. That is that, whilst your article which mentions the "pope" states that the Roman Catholic religion is wrong, you have not made the point that all the Reformers considered, along with Almighty God the "pope" to be the antichrist. It is dangerous to allow that pagan Rome is a "church" when it plainly is not, and never has been, Christian. It is Satan's false church. Perhaps you could consider, and it is not for me to tell you what to do in your organisation, in the future referring to the catholic religion rather than to it as a "church". The old putrid pagan of the Tiber is delighted by any acknowledgment of his foul religion, which damns people to a lost eternity.

Your brother in Christ,
Justin Hughes
Bruton, UK

Editorial Comment:
In publishing the above we acknowledge that Justin Hughes raises two very important issues. Firstly, regarding the title "church" and its use in the phrase "Roman Catholic Church", we note that there is nothing sacred about the word "church" (ecclesia). It is variously used in the NT. In applying it to the Roman Catholic church we do not imply that it is or ever was a bona fide church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Secondly, regarding the structure of the modern church, we intend to produce a thorough study of biblical ecclesiology in subsequent issues of Vanguard.

ALPHA COURSE:
From: Philip Evans, UK
To: Philip L Powell, OZ
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2000
I have read something of your criticisms of Nicky Gumbel and the Alpha course. Do you think that someone who has been away from God and then attends the course would be better off not having done so?
Philip Evans

Response (21/10/2000):
I think that God is sovereign. Salvation is of the Lord. He uses all sorts of things and people for His glory. In particular He sees the seeking soul and those who seek Him will always be met. "All things work together for GOOD to them that Love God and are CALLED according to His purpose ..."
Results do not justify a ministry or a man. We judge those things on the basis of the Word of God. In accordance with Colossians 1:28 and many other passages of scripture we MUST issue warnings. Some may get saved at an Alpha course. Our concern is that MANY are in danger of being deceived into a false form of Christianity and taken down the road to Rome. God bless you
(PP)

Dear Goff:
Thanks for your email. I think it's easiest to respond point by point, so PLEASE READ ON (my comments under yours):

PASTORAL SUPPORT:
I write to praise the Lord for the way in which through Contending Earnestly for the Faith you raise important issues for these days. I am more than ever convinced of the importance of holding on to that which we have heard! We need to be strong as Paul exhorted Timothy. As a Baptist pastor in UK and having responsibility as an association secretary I find the insights most helpful. The need to be aware of what can happen. The gospel is still the power of God unto salvation. May the Lord continue to encourage you and provide for all your needs. Thanks, your brother in the Lord.
PW, UK

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Appeared in Issue CETF 6.2 December 2000

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-Last revised-Wednesday, 21 March 2001