THE SIGNS AND WONDERS MOVEMENT

How can we distinguish the blessings of the Holy Spirit from there satanic counterfeits (2 Thess. 2:9)? We should expect repentance to coincide with the blessings of God, even the forgiveness of sin, as Jesus had taught His disciples after His resurrection:

·       [Jesus] said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:46-47 ESV)

Jesus taught that rather than blessing the unrepentant, we should expect that the Spirit will chasten them:

·       And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:2-5 ESV)

The same principle had also been true for God’s dealings with Israel: no repentance – no blessing. This also pertained to revivals:

·       And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” (1 Samuel 7:3)

And this was exactly what had happened. The Lord delivered Israel. Likewise, when Israel was unrepentant, they were severely chastened. Confident after their great victory over Jericho, the Israelites attacked a small town, Ai, and were defeated. Joshua was crushed. However, the Lord revealed to him that the defeat resulted from the fact that one Israelite had secretly disobeyed the Lord, and Israel wouldn’t be blessed unless they first dealt with the sin in their midst.

Even pagan Nineveh received a reprieve from the Lord once they repented of their sins. The king had issued an edict at the preaching of Jonah saying:

·       Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. (Jonah 3:8-10)

The Bible very plainly tells us that blessings depend on repentance. This is why we have to be very skeptical about the so-called signs of the Holy Spirit in “signs-and-wonders” churches. They are convinced that the Holy Spirit is blessing them with spectacular demonstrations including dramatically falling backwards. They call this “slain in the Spirit.”

Is it biblical? These churches claim that this represents the blessing of the Spirit and cite the soldiers falling backwards when trying to arrest Jesus (John 18:6). However, this wasn’t a blessing from the Spirit but a warning. There doesn’t seem any biblical basis to regard “slain in the Spirit” as a blessing or a gift.

Could this manifestation be evidence of the presence of the Spirit, perhaps to draw the unbeliever? Certainly not! Instead, Paul had argued that bizarre behavior would be a turn-off:

·       If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? (1 Corinthians 14:23)

If Paul’s warning applies to a genuine gift of the Spirit, how much more to something that clearly isn’t!

Instead, Paul warned that everything must be done to build up the brethren (1 Corinthians 14:26). Even tongues, the gift of the Spirit, wouldn’t build up the Church unless it was accompanied by an interpretation. Therefore, it is hard to understand how being “slain in the Spirit” biblically builds up anyone apart from validating the church leadership.

Paul also warned that order must prevail in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:40; Colossians 2:5). It is hard to construe how falling backwards could possibly pass this test.

Even those Christian leaders who are in favor of such manifestations are sounding the alarm. In “Untamed Christian Unleashed Church,” Terry Wardle, former professor of spiritual formation at Ashland Theological Seminary, laments the fact that many churches are missing out on the signs and wonders of the Holy Spirit. However, even Wardle admitted:

·       What starts out as a fresh move of the Spirit ends in a confusing and unproductive free-for-all of unbiblical spiritual excess…There has also been more than a little immaturity evident in these movements, which has not always ended well for the people or congregations involved…Not all people or congregations who have “caught the fire” [of the Spirit] have survived the experience. Individual believers, and in some cases local churches…experience division and in some cases destruction. (152-53)

Division hardly seems like the Spirit’s fruit. If biblical transformation results from these spiritual manifestations, it would seem that these congregations would be examples of spiritual maturity, but they clearly are not.

God’s Word clearly tells us what our Lord wants – faith, prayer, Bible study, repentance, confession, and obedience. His Word also tells us that everything we need to be complete is found in His Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17). If such bizarre manifestations are not found in the Scriptures, we have no reason to regard them as coming from the Spirit.