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Posted by: Aardvark ()
Date: August 16, 2019 06:11PM
Puddington,
Well said, but I stand by my previous statements. This issue is complex because it is largely theological and would require a long winded biblical debate. The first question here is whether one believes as the charismatics do, for example, that God can and still does many of the same things that He did in the Bible. If you don’t believe that than any claim to a present supernatural manifestation can be viewed as the occult (I believe this is Nicol’s perspective).
On the other hand, if you generally believe and expect manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the church today then many of the things you named are not a problem (notwithstanding the Nephilim thing). It is then contingent upon the one witnessing the event to discern the spirit behind it. Is it the Spirit of God or another spirit?
Nothing that happened in the blessins is nearly as strange as the things that Jesus and the apostles did (I never saw JRS spit on someone’s tongue to heal him). The British preacher Smith Wigglesworth, in the early 20th century, did many things stranger than JRS.
I suspect you have a more conservative view of spiritual things. That’s OK, we don’t hold it against you. There’s room for all here.
Question: were you at the blessins? If so, did you find the Lord there like hundreds of others? Or did you see the occult in operation?
Aardvark, I think that you mistook puddington for me with this response. Yes, it's possible that I currently "have a more conservative view of spiritual things". And thanks for "not holding it against me".
My question is, how do you judge if you had a "meeting with God" in the Bless Ins? Was it a feeling? Did you fall down? And if so, what was the fruit of that meeting with God in your life? I would argue that we were reacting in groupthink in the way that we were taught to react. A good feeling is rather a dead end if it doesn't cause change, or good fruit, in the person who is "meeting God".
What was the fruit of JRS' ministry? Did it yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness? Or did it yield "mainly waste, friction, vain striving and misdirected effort, sickening failure and defeated ambition"?
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Matthew 7:15-20 KJV