When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” (John 6:12)
S09-001. Jesus Christ is alive. He possesses all authority in heaven and earth. He is the supreme spiritual leader. And he sets you free from false religion and phony piety, doctrines that people made up and added to his teachings, so that you would follow their prejudices instead of Christ. All that has no power over you. Learn the truth that is in Jesus, and shake yourself from human religion. It is fine to leave, but you must let go. Do not hold on to it, and do not be afraid. Follow Christ. He will never let you down. Those who have faith in Jesus will never be put to shame.
S09-002. Some people portray the Christian life as a miserable one. This is supposed to be a picture of holiness. Indeed, the Christian life involves sacrifice and opposition, because there is sin in this world. When you believe the truth and behave in righteousness, and when you love God, unbelievers will hate you. However, we can have a wonderful life in the face of this. Jesus said that he came to bring us an abundant life, not a miserable life. It is not a life in which problems never occur, but it is a life of victory over these problems. It is easy to be miserable, so easy that even unbelievers can do it. Just do nothing, believe nothing, be nothing, and you will be miserable. In the end, the one who suffers is you, and it is unnecessary. The Christian life is a wonderful life. It is a life of promise, of purpose, of power, a life of faith, of knowledge, of love and hope and unspeakable joy.
S09-003. Christian theology typically offers false comfort by allowing people to feel pious, even heroic, in their unbelief and defeat, and to even look down on those who affirm faith and victory through Jesus Christ. This is the theology of the ultimate loser and heretic. It is the reason unbelievers ridicule religion as a psychological crutch, because people who believe this false theology exploit God to make him into this. They think that suffering is romantic, but suffering is grotesque. It happens only because sin has contaminated the world. I do not say that a person suffers only as a direct consequence of a particular sin he has done. This might or might not be the case, but a person could suffer just because he lives in this world in which there is sin. Nevertheless, this does not mean that he must keep on suffering, whether or not he is suffering for his own sin. Jesus has suffered in our place, and we benefit from his sacrifice by faith. Faith wins. Faith overcomes. Even if it does not change the situation, you will not have your head down, but you will shout in joy in the face of overwhelming attack. But faith can indeed change the situation. Our victory is not only psychological.
S09-004. The confession of faith in Christ is not a vow of sickness, poverty, and defeat. The confession of faith in Christ is a declaration of identification with Christ, dependence on Christ, and victory in Christ. God does not mind healing people. The Bible shows that he would heal people whether their conditions are terminal or whether their conditions are mere inconveniences. And God does not mind prospering people. The Bible shows that he would prosper people with much more than they need. It also teaches principles to increase and manage wealth. We should never value anything more than God, and we should use what we have to promote the gospel, but that is a separate issue from what God is willing to give us and what we are promised or allowed to take by faith.
S09-005. Forgiveness is impossible without making moral judgment, because unless you think that someone has done wrong, there is nothing to forgive. God thinks that people are wrong all the time. What he does about this is another matter. It does not always mean that he will punish the person. For his chosen ones, he has already punished their sins in Christ, and there is nothing left for his people to repay. If I take on the mind of Christ — the God-view or Christ-view — then I will also think like him. Thus I think that people are wrong all the time. It does not mean that I hunt them down and make them pay. God will hunt them down. Either God’s grace will catch up to them, or his wrath will catch up to them. God will get them one way or another.
S09-006. The Jews wanted to make Jesus king by force (John 6:15). Some Christians are still trying to do that.
S09-007. Look at their theology. They attack those who have faith in God’s promises for good things, and force the matter back on “the will of God.” If they truly respect God’s sovereignty, then they would listen to what he says and believe it. They think they are so humble when they sing, “Have thine own way, Lord.” All I hear is, “I pay my own way, Lord.” They want to appear above it all, as if they are spiritual and unworldly, but they are so full of pride that they would not come to God as little children and receive from him.
S09-008. A preacher said, “God is not here to solve your problems.” Then who is going to do it? That preacher certainly is not solving anyone’s problems. Some Christians have the idea that we are God-centered only if we are working harder for God than he is working for us. We are here to solve his problems, but he is not here to solve ours! But this is the opposite of being God-centered. It is the opposite of being covenant-minded. The Bible says he is not really served by human hands, as if he needs anything. From this perspective, even your ministry is something that God is doing for you. God can do everything by himself, but Paul says he wishes to be co-workers with us.
S09-009. Science is not God. It is not truth. It is not knowledge. It is not rational. Science is people.
S09-010. People who are so against a “health and wealth” gospel make it sound like they are above all these worldly things. The truth is that they still need the same things, and they still want the same things, sometimes much more than those they criticize. They still go after these things, only that they do it by their own effort instead of depending on God for them. They want to make it look like they are God-centered, but they are the most self-centered, because instead of having faith in God for these things, they are depending on themselves to get the same things. God has always been pleased with those who come to him and ask for what they want by faith. When you do this, you are treating him like God, and not like someone who needs your service.
S09-011. Science is people, and people are stupid. We obtain the science that we want, not the science that is true.
S09-012. People who attack the Bible’s promises of health and wealth want us to think that they don’t care about these things, that they are above it all. But they do care, often more than the people they criticize. The difference is that they don’t have faith that they can get any of it from God, and so they strive to get the same things by their own effort. They call that the cultural mandate.
S09-013. “Praise the LORD. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands. His children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever” (Psalm 112:1-3). An inconvenient truth?
S09-014. One man told me that he associated with unbelievers because Jesus did it, and so that he might evangelize some of them. I asked if he ever preached the gospel to any of them when he went out to dinners, parties, and events. He paused, then admitted that he had never done it. Not once. It was just an excuse to play. Jesus associated with people that society hated, like tax collectors and prostitutes, not people like your peers, or friends and relatives. He also associated with people who hated him, like the Pharisees. Some of these people were wealthy, powerful, and educated, but they were not like your everyday friends with whom you enjoy playing games and watching movies. So don’t compare the two. If you want to play, just play. Don’t tell people it is ministry. It is not. The truth is that you admire non-Christians, and prefer worldly and unbelieving friends. You associate with them for your amusement, not for their benefit. Just do it, but call it what it is.
S09-015. Cessationism is the sunset of faith.
S09-016. The world sanctions its hatred and rejection of God in atheism. The church sanctions its hatred and condemnation of God in cessationism. Cessationism is “Christian” atheism.
S09-017. Since they are so wrong, and since they have been so abusive toward those who have faith, cessationists are fair game to anyone who wants to take shots at them. There should be no mercy and no sympathy. It is open season on cessationism. Show no restraint.
S09-018. The cessationist is the worst sinner and heretic. He hardens his heart against the Holy Spirit and speaks against his works. He also attempts to exterminate the Spirit in other people. The cessationist should have no place in the Christian world. In fact, the cessationist should have no place in God’s creation, in any part of reality.
S09-019. Show no mercy to the cessationist intellectually. Slay him with the sword of the Spirit. Burn the corpse with the fire of the Word. Then cut him into pieces and send them back to the devil.
S09-020. There is no future in a tradition that does not believe all of the Bible. It might continue to exist, but it will just talk to itself, and it will hardly do the work of God.
S09-021. Jesus says, “According to your faith be it unto you.” This is a death sentence to the cessationist, because his faith is so dark and pessimistic. It is his worst nightmare. It might mean disaster for his entire family. But to someone who has faith, this declaration would mean that he is getting everything that he has ever wanted.
S09-022. Cessationists are the enemies of Christ and Christians. In fact, they are the enemies of all humanity, including unbelievers, because their message attempts to steal God himself away from everyone through unbelief and deceit. They make it more difficult for unbelievers to come to Christ. They preach a God that is hidden, when God has been showing himself like he did in the Bible. God testifies to them that he has been working, but they suppress the truth in their wickedness. Those who support cessationists share in their condemnation. Every man and woman has a responsibility to rise up and destroy cessationism. Even non-Christians should join in.
S09-023. God seems foreign and wrong to someone who worships Satan. The fire of the Spirit will look like “strange fire” to someone who bears the torch of Lucifer. Is it because the fire of faith is not fire from the Spirit, or is it because the alter of unbelief is an alter for the devil? If his soul burns with nothing but hellfire, then any other kind of fire will appear strange to him.
S09-024. I do not endorse ministries that are dedicated to a negative function — heresy hunters and cult watchers. If we must have them, then Christians should establish organizations dedicated to exterminating cessationism. This includes attacking cessationists, seminaries, and denominations that support the false doctrine. The heresy and cult of cessationism should have no place in this galaxy.
S09-025. Praying “if it be your will” or “your will be done” in a prayer of petition is almost always wrong. Most of the time, if you do not know God’s will before you pray, either you do not know the Bible, or you do not believe it. You might think you appear humble, but it just means that you have hardened your heart against what God promises. You refuse to believe him. Do you criticize the charismatics for not finding God’s will in the Bible? But when you pray, you throw it up to some unknown “will of God” instead of finding it from God’s word. You are a self-righteous oblivious faithless religious hypocrite.
S09-026. Cessationism adapts Christian theology to match non-Christian experience. It reduces God into a heuristic principle. He guides ethics, but produces no actual and obvious effects. It is a stealth attack that seeks to neuter Christianity from within.
S09-027. Unbelief is a death sentence. There is no future in a church tradition that defines orthodoxy by it.
S09-028. As I have demonstrated a number of times, the main basis for healing, prophecy, miracles, and spiritual gifts is existing revelation, even ancient revelation. Thus to say that these things have ceased is not to deny the occurrence of new revelation, but it is to deny all revelation, including old revelation. Cessationism does not prevent new revelation, but it attacks existing revelation — all of it at the same time.
S09-029. Cessationism is not the end of miracles, but the end of God. The worst use of the doctrine of divine sovereignty is one that says because God is sovereign, he will no longer honor his word by performing miracles, that he could sovereignly cease to do what he has promised. This is worse than Arminianism and Open Theism.
S09-030. Cessationists have ceased having faith in God, in the Bible, in his power, and in his promises. They would still like to think of themselves as Christians, and so they turn this religion into a theoretical thing. They go through the motions and mumble some incantations. But they are religious zombies. They are corpses of faith. They attack and feast on others to sustain themselves. Their religious life consists of criticizing those who have life. They have no life in themselves, and so they must survive by tearing apart those who have life, and feast on their flesh.
S09-031. Both charismatic and cessationist frauds should be exposed, but all cessationists are frauds because their theology is false, and they have been given a pass for so long that most of the attacks should be focused on them for centuries to come.
S09-032. Don’t you cringe when someone calls you “reverend” or “doctor”? But you like it. How come?
S09-033. I am not against medicine as such. I am against making anything into an idol, so that a man looks to it instead of to God. I am against depending on something to help us when God has promised that he would help us another way. I am not against medicine. I am for healing. I think that man ought to seek health, and he should first seek it by faith in God.
S09-034. Professional cult watching is not true orthodoxy. True orthodoxy is characterized by the power and mercy of Christ, resulting in forgiveness, healing miracles, and second chances (Mark 5:18-20). Then from gratitude gushes forth praise and truth about Jesus Christ. This is true orthodoxy.
S09-035. If you do not preach that God heals people by miracles, you are not God-centered. If you do not pray for the sick, you have no compassion. If it is spiritual to help the poor, the hungry, the orphans and widows, then it is at least as spiritual to pray for the sick to demonstrate God’s power and concern, and to relieve the suffering of people. If it is spiritual to help the poor, the hungry, the orphans and widows as often as we can, then it is at least as spiritual to pray for the sick as often as we can. The most anti-Christ, anti-gospel, and anti-spiritual thing is to pretend to be a dedicated Christian, a defender of the faith, a watcher of the cults, but then do not make any effort to pray for God to work miracles to help people. To justify this by blaming it on God, and claiming that he no longer does certain things to help people, makes a person worse than an unbeliever.
S09-036. John 9:35-37. Healing shows that Jesus Christ is true, kind, and HERE.
S09-037. The healing ministry is established on a biblical basis that is a number of times larger than the biblical basis for baptism and communion combined. However, it demands genuine faith to produce success, whereas the other practices can be faked without faith. Therefore, Christians whose faith cannot rise above the level of ceremony refuse to practice the healing ministry and attempt to destroy it.
S09-038. James 5:14-15 and other verses that teach and command healing miracles are just as authoritative as Romans 10:9, 1 John 4:2-3, and other verses in the Bible. Therefore, those verses can be used as tests of orthodoxy just as much as other verses. A pastor who refuses to pray for the sick with the intention that God would heal them by miracles should lose his position and his salary. If he does not keep his mouth shut but spreads unbelief in the congregation, he should be physically expelled from the community.
S09-039. Preachers are criticized for holding healing services, in which either the main purpose for the services is to preach on healing and pray for healing, or at least a significant portion of the time would be dedicated to praying for the sick. One complaint is that this seems to promise that God would perform healing miracles in these situations, when we should defer to God’s sovereignty. A criticism like this exposes these people’s unbelief and ignorance. Of course we should hold healing services. Of course we should tell people that God will perform healing miracles. Jesus himself had healing services, and God himself promised that he would heal people when we pray in faith. The problem is in the critics. If they believe in the faithfulness of God or the inspiration of Scripture, they are surely doing a remarkable job at hiding it.
S09-040. Even when we teach the doctrine of healing straight from the Bible, Christians often counter, “But God might not WANT to heal everybody.” How intelligent. It is like we have never thought of this objection before. What does it mean? Does it mean that God heals only 99%? But they never say, “God might not want to heal everybody, although I have never seen him skip one yet.” Somehow we are expected to run into the unlucky dude everywhere! And they never say, “It might not be God’s will to heal everyone, but he always heals me. Always.” No, when someone makes this objection, he usually means that God heals the 1%, if even that. Some of them do not really expect God to heal anybody — 0%. They think this despite what God says on the subject. It is an excuse to hide their unbelief under what looks like respect for God’s wishes, when God has already stated his wishes in the Bible. How does he know that God does not want to heal everybody? What does the Bible say? The objection is a scam. Even if God heals only 1%, it is irrelevant. Why should that matter to you, if you have faith? If God heals only one person today, why can’t it be you? Let it be you. Let it always be you.
S09-041. Jesus said that healing was the children’s bread. It belonged to the heirs of the covenant. A pagan woman, who had no covenant right to this, received a healing miracle for her daughter anyway by stating that she would take the crumbs that fell from the children’s table. Jesus commended her faith and granted the request. Thus one who refuses healing by faith or who teaches against healing is not a superior believer. He is worse than a pagan dog, barking madly outside the house.