Today is Pentecost Sunday. As William Booth of the Salvation Army said in his well known hymn, “Send The Fire” –  we need another Pentecost.. To have that happen the church needs to repent of her follies and heresies. Jesus called on the churches in the Book of Revelation. To have another Pentecost, means we get filled with the Holy Ghost as they were on the Day of Pentecost. They received the power which was speaking in other tongues. The fire of God on display became the judgement of God on the nation of Israel, the Temple and Jerusalem. All was destroyed in AD 66-73 according to the vision of Daniel 9:24-27. To receive what they had at Pentecost we need to be filled with the Holy Ghost speaking in other tongues and to preach the Word of the Gospel of Christ as they did throughout the whole book of Acts.

The Apostle Peter still speaks to us today according to Acts 3:19,20; “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing (revival) may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, …” ESV. Paul wrote about those who follow human thinking, human philosophies and in that day, plain Gnosticism. Such form today’s version of the gospel heard by hundreds of millions is Gnostic. His words are:

“For no reason at all, such people are all puffed up by their human way of thinking
and have stopped holding on to Christ, who is the head of the body. Under Christ’s control the whole body is nourished and held together by its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God wants it to grow” GW (Col.2:18,19)..For those who like the KJV, the same thoughts are expressed in that language, as used in AD 1611: “Vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God”. KJV.

Those in India who long to see the oppressed go free in Christ and to see their country-men enter heaven, should consider this. Is the preaching of such preachers as mentioned, appropriate for the hundreds of millions who live in dire poverty? Is their message what these souls need? No. They need the message of Jesus that is His gospel of truth. He is the Truth. Jesus Christ is the One they and all of us need. To preach as such as mentioned do, will never reveal the only way to heaven, to forgiveness of sins, to eternal life, to a knowledge of the Christ who was crucified, God manifested in the flesh and who through Him alone can the Spirit of life enter a person and be created in Him anew.

All pastors and churches should be preaching everything that Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, Jude and Stephen also Barnabas proclaim. There needs to be a major shift from what we are hearing from Christian channels on television worldwide. We need a reformation! Its a pity many of the old hymns that contained the Gospel have been replaced by the world’s style of sentimental songs. It is all experience and lacks theological content. Many of the old hymns center on the Lord Jesus Christ and His atoning work on the cross. They feature in some way or other most of all the tenets of the doctrine of Paul. We need that doctrine of Truth.

As New Thought Mind Sciences (now New Age) have crept into much of the preaching, we should bear in mind that verses used in support are often wrongly applied. A preacher may  say some things that sound good but are deceptive. Here is an example. Psalm 1:2 (KJV), “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” and Joshua 1:8, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success”. His major application was physically and now, total health, prosperity and success in this life.. Deut. 5:9 said that the Law was to be obeyed. Meditation can also be relative to New Age meditation. So what is he teaching?

However, the Old Testament application of Joshua, Psalms and Jeremiah (below) was relevant to the keeping of the Law and subsequent national and earthly blessings. He used: “For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (Jer.17:8). I heard it said that “You will be ever-green and never have sickness”.

We turn to the New Testament and it varies. There it is different. It now is the Word of Christ and not the Law, as Paul stated: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” Col.2:16). Jesus emphasized the Holy Spirit in relation to His Word having its place within us: “But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you” (Jn.14:26)..This decidedly is far more advanced for us today that what the Lord Jehovah told Joshua and what the Holy Ghost revealed “(the Spirit of Christ in them”, (1 Peter 1:11).

Regarding health,  prosperity and success in this world’s system of nations (as was Israel then) , that it is different under the New Testament. In Matthew 5:1-15, Jesus said “Blessed are they” in relation to heaven, three times and to God, three times. The other verses indicated inner blessedness.

Then Paul speaks of the riches of Christ as being heavenly with nothing to do with earthly prosperity or success. in “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor.8:9). Despite what the Prosperity in the Gospel preachers say and he is one, this wealth was heavenly. There He, full of glory, was worshipped by angels, took counsel with God the Father, was the One through whom the worlds were created and manifested the attributes of God. He laid all this aside to descend to earth, from riches to poverty, to become a man. He went into the womb of Mary and grew as a human being, even with his parents living in poverty. In poverty compared to the riches of His glory in heaven, he humbled Himself still further to the cross and then to be laid in the grave. (Phil.2:6-8). This poverty has given us riches, the riches of His grace and of heaven – nothing to do with prosperity and success naturally in life. This is seen here: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight” (Eph.2:7,8). These are the riches spoken about in Corinthians above.

In 3 John, vvs.1,2, Gaius was a brother in the church who gave much hospitality to o travelling preachers. So John says he prays that Gaius may have prosperity (in all that he does) and be healthy. Money was needed to continue providing hospitality. We knew a Chinese brother in Indonesia who did just that. His home was always host to many preachers and others passing through. Once he had great trouble in his business that was a sawmill. He asked for prayer. In answer, God made his business prosperous again.

We can expect the Lord to care for us and in all of our needs we look to Him. Sometimes we need to pray in other tongues so that the Holy Ghost will intercede through us about the problem. Other times, we just rest in faith, knowing in our innermost beings that the Lord will undertake and provide. He will give a life-time of this kind of help as we walk with Him.

This is a reply from me re an email received: – Dear One In Christ,                                   “Glad to receive your email (. Most English Bibles have some error of translation, including the KJV. It is not such a bad thing to read the NIV Bible, although that is not my choice. I believe in searching the Scriptures, having the Bible in my heart,. knowing the full truth of the Gospel and having obedience to the Word of God. I am told that most Christians in India watch Christian Television and do not read their Bibles. The same is happening in Australia. Here, we have wholesale neglect and turning away from the Truth of the Gospel as revealed from Mat. 1:1 to Jude 1:25.

. The Copelands and Hagin have been major factors in producing some non gospel. There teaching goes back to the Baptist preacher E.W. Kenyon who went to a Christian Science Seminary. All of his books are full of Christian Science. That philosophy is gnostic and goes back to Mary Baker Eddy, Quimby and Mesmer the doctor who started mesmerizing and hypnotizing. Quimby was into Mind Sciences, called New Thought. Such beliefs also went among the Unitarians.

We look at these verses: “Unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words” KJV (Col.2:2-4). Beware, we must not be beguiled. Then Paul repeats the message about “beguile you”: He says this: “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” KJV (2 Cor.11:3). This I myself fear is happening. It is a great sorrow that fills me when I think of it.

“This kind of spoken confession is certainly a part of Positivism, being a philosophical system by Comte, recognizing only positive facts. Positivism is a religious system found on this. The modern Television preachers are following this system of belief. It is not allowable to say a negative word. All must be positive confession. There are negative words in  the Bible itself.

We heard it said on television that we share the throne with Jesus.  Are we able to uphold the world? Do we hear prayers? Can we create anything? However, he does say some good thing. But he, with most of the others, base their sermons on the Old Testament. Paul told Timothy, “Preach the Word”. He was speaking about the Word of the Gospel. He referred to the gospel that he preached.

All are to base preaching on this gospel and on the Word of the Gospel, the New Testament. We are not under the Law or under the Old Testament, “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away” KJV (Heb.8:13); “For ye are not under law, but under grace” (Rom.6:14) and “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, That I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers In the day that I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt; For they continued not in my covenant, And I regarded them not, saith the Lord”.(Heb.8:7-9).

Teaching should not include human philosophy, human effort and works, even if using the Bible to back it all up.

“2Pe 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who secretly will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction.
2Pe 2:2 And many will follow their pernicious ways, and because of them the way of truth will be evil spoken of.
2Pe 2:3 And through covetousness they will use you for gain with well-turned words; for whom judgment from of old does not linger, and their destruction does not sleep.

seared in their own conscience, MKJV (1Tim 4:1,2); “Therefore I solemnly witness before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is going to judge the living and the dead according to His appearance and His kingdom, ‘preach the Word, be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.

‘For a time will be when they will not endure sound doctrine, but they will heap up teachers to themselves according to their own lusts, tickling the ear.
‘And they will turn away their ears from the truth and will be turned to myths.” MKJV (2Ti 4:1-4)