The
phrase “Biblical insights [combined] with personal rhema..,” is found on
the commendations page (xvii) of Bill Hamon’s book Apostles Prophets and the Coming Moves of God.
Hamon defines personal rhema as “present restored truth.”
Present Restored Truth is so-called “truth”
the apostle or prophet receives by direct revelation, and no claim is made that
it can be backed up by scripture. In fact, it is usually clearly stated that it
cannot be found in scripture.
Present day apostles and prophets freely admit
to creating new doctrine and holding
councils to decide what criteria should be implemented in establishing their new
doctrine (imitating apostles and church counsels during the 1st and
3rd Centuries.[1]
Here is a quote from a disciple of Bill
Hamon’s: “God is restoring truth to the Church that was lost during the dark
ages of Church history (500-1500 A.D). The believer will understand the
importance of being established in ‘present truth.’”[2]
“Present Truth,” according to its purveyors
and Bill Hamon spin-offs, is extra-scriptural revelation supposedly from God
that has nothing whatever to do with Biblical Truth. And they are not
ashamed to admit this. They are frequently quoted as saying, “you won’t find this in the Bible,
but...”
According to Present Truth, one of the main
premises of the prophetic movement is that Christians should be seeking
spiritual growth and ascension to new and higher levels in
the “ascension” gifts (i.e., the prophetic).
The terms ascension gifts and higher levels are New Age
terms that have been integrated into the Christian
vocabulary by prophetic leaders such as Bill Hamon and many others, although most
will deny this by saying they coined the term using Ephesians four.
Books on “ascension gifts” and attaining “higher
levels” of spirituality have long been available alongside books on the occult
and metaphysical at New Age bookstores. These concepts predate the prophetic
movement by centuries. Those rising to “higher levels” in the ascension gifts
are doing it, not with the help of the Holy Spirit but with the help of
spiritual entities known among more advanced new agers as the “Ascended Masters.”
Present Truth, as already stated, is truth
that was supposedly lost to the church during the Dark Ages and is now being
restored via direct revelation, by present day apostles who claim to be highly
developed in the “ascension gifts.”
New Age ascension gifts are not the gifts of
the Holy Spirit.
As previously stated, those who focus merely
on growing in the knowledge of God with the help of the Holy Spirit through his
written Word and who focus on soul-winning are regarded by those in the NAR
as spiritually under-developed Christians.
The king-pins of the New Apostolic
Reformation [NAR/Apostle-Prophet movement], those who have supposedly ascended
to “higher levels,” have demonstrated a zero-tolerance policy toward those
who will not let go of what they derisively call “old” religious traditions, unless
of course it is the old “Roman Catholic” mystical religious tradition of
contemplative prayer.
The old
religious traditions contemplatives work to overcome and do away
with are twofold. The first is the old tradition of holding to the
authority of scripture as the standard for judging any and every utterance, and
the second is evangelistic soul-winning by way of preaching the gospel. These
are things they insist must go.
Extra-scriptural revelation, prophetic
evangelism (soothe-saying), having spiritual gifts “activated” (another
New Age term and practice) and growing in the ascension gifts are the
major priorities of the prophetic movement … along with networking of course.
The concept of the prophetic movement’s “Present
Truth” is at variance with the scriptures which clearly say God’s truth, as contained
in his Word, the Bible, endures to every generation.
Does that mean God’s truth was available, albeit
difficult for the common people to access, during the Dark Ages? That is
exactly what it means. The term “Dark Ages” is a term coined to describe a particularly
difficult period of history in which the Roman Catholic Church made a cruel,
aggressive, and unsuccessful, attempt
to snuff out the light of the gospel.
China, North Korea, most Middle Eastern
Countries, and other countries with Islamic or totalitarian regimes do the same
today.
When Jesus gave his disciples, not just the twelve
he called apostles, but seventy others as well, authority over all the powers
of the enemy, he warned them not to revel in the fact that they had such great
power. In this, he demonstrated a different set of priorities from those who
exalt spiritual growth [in the “ascension gifts”] over soul-winning and understanding
the written Word of God.
Jesus said having all that power was not the most important
thing.
If having all power over all the
forces of Satan was not the most important thing, then what was?
The Creator of all things told his followers
to rejoice because their souls were saved.
Imagine that.
Jesus said being saved and winning souls was
the better thing.
With that warning, our Lord and Savior
lumped himself into the same group Rick Joyner calls pathetic and spiritually
under-developed. Bill Hamon claims that same group is part of the “anti-Christ religious system.”
I cannot recommend reading Hamon’s book Apostles Prophets and the Coming Moves of
God, but that is where you will find the above-mentioned phrase used in
reference to traditional Bible believers who refuse to buy the bill-of-goods he
has been successfully peddling to so many.
The man’s words are smoother than butter,
but it is clear that war is in his heart, and not against that old serpent,
Satan, as they so love to boast.
It has been pointed out that movements do
not necessarily need a god to be successful, but they do need a devil. Even Hitler admitted the Jews served
an important purpose in being the devil of the Third Reich.
Almost nothing rallies a diverse group of
people together in the same cause like a common devil can do.
I propose that the “devil” of the prophetic
movement is not Satan at all, but rather Bible-believing Christians who contend
earnestly for the faith and oppose the prophetic movement’s unscriptural
“revelations,” along with the false doctrines they promote based on them.
The Bible says: “You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” But those who resist the Present Restored Truth of the
New Apostolic Reformation by stubbornly clinging to scripture, are called a
number of nasty names by leaders of the NAR. Below are a few examples of the
names Bill Hamon calls ordinary Bible believing Christians who refuse to be
seduced by the doctrines of devils he promotes (most can be found in just the
first chapter of his book):
·
Rebellious
·
Critical
·
Jealous
·
“Traditional” (as in “old fogey”)
·
Contentious
·
Narrow-Minded
·
Not open to the Holy Spirit
·
Not very spiritually developed
·
Discriminating
·
Belonging to the “anti-Christ religious system”
·
Withered hand
Jesus
embodies truth.
Jesus is
“The Truth” as well as speaks the truth.
And he—as our
creator—chose to give us the truth in his written Word, the scriptures—which will endure forever. The scriptures themselves
claim to endure to every
generation—to be preserved to every generation.[3] The
scriptures themselves claim to be complete
in that they are settled forever.[4]
Where does that leave those who say God’s
truth has been lost?
Which
generation is not included in “every?”
So, whose “truth” is going to carry the most
weight, the “Present Truth” of Bill Hamon, Peter Wagner, Rick Joyner and their
crowd (which is growing exponentially and who waste no opportunity to
pooh-pooh, ridicule, and viciously stereotype Bible-believing soul
winners), or the Word of Truth that is settled forever and endures to all
generations, the Bible?
Long after “Present Restored Truth” has dropped its rotten
fruit, dried up and withered, and like the dust has blown
completely away, that which has been
written…will still endure.
[1] A farmer in southern Iowa
used to tell the story of a man who claimed to have owned a $3,000 dog. When
asked how he knew his dog was worth that much the man answered, “Because I
traded it to the neighbor for two $1,500 cats.” So it goes with apostles and
prophets of the resuscitated Latter Rain movement. They know they are apostles
and prophets because they declare each other to be such. How do you know you
are an apostle? “A prophet told me.” How do you know he was a prophet? “An
apostle told him.” Today there are thousands of individuals telling each other
they are apostles and prophets. --Critical Issues Commentary, Bob DeWaay, 2008
[2] Prophet Quinn Mitchell from his prophetic
in action website
[3] Psalm 100:5 For the LORD is good his
mercy is everlasting and his truth
endureth to all generations --KJV
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