Where will you spend the endless eternity? If you haven't been justified by faith in Jesus Christ you could die and drop straight into hell at any moment of the day or night. That's the truth. It's the sheer mercy and loving kindness of God that He has kept you alive till now and given you time to hear the gospel, turn from your wicked way and be reconciled to Him. Today is the day of salvation. Tomorrow could be too late. Ian's new book REALITY CHURCH is on Amazon. Ian is on Facebook.com/ian.vincent.5 and on Twitter @IanVincentSays
This entry was posted on April 21, 2014 at 1:17 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Alan Heron I’ve done a bit of research on Smith Wigglesworth and what he said during his ministry and I find that he sounds very much like (if not exactly like) the Word of Faith preachers that I grew up hearing about, such as Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, and the rest.
Sadly, I find that SW made a habit of hitting people who were sick, rather than just being a rare thing, this was one of the hallmarks of his ministry. This is extremely worrying, because in Romans 8:29 we read that the Holy Spirit will conform those in whom He dwells into the image of the Son, Jesus Christ. That does not mean that we will be clones of Jesus, but it does mean that we will take on His character.
So what is the character of Jesus? In all the Gospel accounts of His healing people, He never once hit anybody, nor did He tell them that they were not healed because they lacked faith. Although He did complain of this at times, no-one that came to Him for healing went away without being healed because of it, yet SW (like others) did precisely this on many occasions. Jesus was gentle, meek, kind, compassionate, etc, and these attributes should also be the ones most evident in a person whom the Holy Spirit is conforming into His image.
Seeing as these are obviously conspicuously lacking in anyone who would hit, punch, or otherwise strike a sick person (most often in that part of their body where they were afflicted), I have to say that I cannot applaud SW as a man in whom the Holy Spirit was working at all, no matter what good things he may have said.
It is reported by supporters of his that he encouraged crowds of people to speak in tongues all at the same time, with no interpretation to follow, which Paul’s teaching in 1 Cor. 14 forbids. Even in the Pentecostal church I attended in my youth, this was not permitted and all things were done according to Paul’s instructions in the passage I just referred to.
SW also gave a prophecy that a great revival would sweep through Australia, beginning in the last years of the 20th century and continuing into the 21st. This revival was supposed to be the greatest revival the world has EVER seen. This has conspicuously NOT happened. I have heard of this great end times revival for decades, yet it has never eventuated.
There can be no doubt that we are living in the last days, as two of the hallmarks of those days are easily observed as I write; deception and apostasy, as well as an unhealthy seeking after signs and wonders. Jesus said in the Olivet Discourse, that these things would be signs of the end of the age (especially false teaching and deception) and nowhere did He mention a great revival. There is no mention of such a thing anywhere in scripture. What we do see, is that deception (fuelled by lying signs and wonders) will grow more and more, until true believers will be persecuted (unto death) by others who claim to be Christians. Jesus said that these people will think that they are acting for Him:-
John 16:2 KJV
[2] They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
This has many applications, not least the Pharisees who stoned Stephen, but there are men today (Rick Joyner and his friends for example) who have said that there will come a time when they will have to execute Christians who refuse to acknowledge their ‘apostolic authority’.
The Bible says that these things will get worse and worse, and Jesus said that it will be so bad in the end, that if He doesn’t return at the time He will, then there would be no-one left. (Mat.24:22, Mk.13:20) Despite the fact that the Bible paints a picture that is the polar opposite of this great end-time revival, men like Smith Wigglesworth and others have prophesied that it will happen. The question has to be asked, if a man has the gift of prophecy (and I believe that this is still valid for today), then what are we to do with prophecies given by men, that are not only opposite to what the Bible prophecies say, but haven’t come to pass at the time these men said they would?
The Bible is crystal clear in giving us an answer to this question and it’s not the usual excuses given by so many in the Pentecostal, or Charismatic churches. We are told very clearly, that if a prophet gives a prophecy that does not come to pass, we are to hold that prophet as false. (Deut.18:22)
There is no recanting of this principle in the New Testament and no reason to believe that God has changed His mind in this score. About the only thing that has changed, is that I don’t believe the sentence of death is still to be administered by us, but we are told to separate ourselves from such people.
It is amazing to me that we can look at such prophecies and yet not be willing to apply the standards that God has set in our evaluation of them. True prophecy comes by the Holy Spirit and He doesn’t make mistakes, so when someone prophecies and it doesn’t come to pass, the Holy Spirit cannot have been speaking. This begs the question; Exactly who was speaking?
If the person claims it was the Holy Spirit, he or she is obviously not telling the truth. That is an unavoidable conclusion and the scriptures give us no choice to believe otherwise. This is not easy to write, but it is scripturally true, as anyone can read for themselves in the Bible. There is no scriptural account of the Holy Spirit giving someone a prophetic word that did not come to pass (unless it is the word that came to Isaiah to give to King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20, but that is a case where God relented because of the King’s repentance, much as He did when Moses appealed to Him for the children of Israel in Exodus 32).
Hezekiah still died eventually anyway, but that is not the point, God is sovereign and can do as He pleases. As far as judging a true prophecy from a false one, the standard is 100% accuracy. By that standard, sadly, Smith Wigglesworth fails the test. This is not my opinion, but the Bible’s word on the matter. If that is upsetting to people, I’m sorry, but God’s word is the standard, not what anything else.
Ian Vincent I think you’re right on all points here concerning SW’s faults and errors, but maybe totally overlooking his character, his conversion, and the truth of God’s Word he had, lived out and taught.
One of SW’s positives is that he did challenge people to have Biblical faith to expect great things from God. He didn’t covet money. The WOF movement took his teaching and twisted it for self interest and covetousness. WOF is a perversion of real faith, just as much as dead evangelicalism is. Some evangelicals would be in a state of terror if they saw people really get healed or see demons cast out. They would automatically think it must be the devil.
It comes back to the issue of misrepresentation. Just bcos people misrepresent what Jesus taught it doesn’t cause us to question Jesus, it doesn’t mean He is under suspicion. If people try to get SW’s anointing or whatever, it has nothing to do with SW cos he’s not here to stop them doing it.
Ian Vincent 
April 23, 2014 at 1:27 am
From FB:
Alan Heron I’ve done a bit of research on Smith Wigglesworth and what he said during his ministry and I find that he sounds very much like (if not exactly like) the Word of Faith preachers that I grew up hearing about, such as Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, and the rest.
Sadly, I find that SW made a habit of hitting people who were sick, rather than just being a rare thing, this was one of the hallmarks of his ministry. This is extremely worrying, because in Romans 8:29 we read that the Holy Spirit will conform those in whom He dwells into the image of the Son, Jesus Christ. That does not mean that we will be clones of Jesus, but it does mean that we will take on His character.
So what is the character of Jesus? In all the Gospel accounts of His healing people, He never once hit anybody, nor did He tell them that they were not healed because they lacked faith. Although He did complain of this at times, no-one that came to Him for healing went away without being healed because of it, yet SW (like others) did precisely this on many occasions. Jesus was gentle, meek, kind, compassionate, etc, and these attributes should also be the ones most evident in a person whom the Holy Spirit is conforming into His image.
Seeing as these are obviously conspicuously lacking in anyone who would hit, punch, or otherwise strike a sick person (most often in that part of their body where they were afflicted), I have to say that I cannot applaud SW as a man in whom the Holy Spirit was working at all, no matter what good things he may have said.
It is reported by supporters of his that he encouraged crowds of people to speak in tongues all at the same time, with no interpretation to follow, which Paul’s teaching in 1 Cor. 14 forbids. Even in the Pentecostal church I attended in my youth, this was not permitted and all things were done according to Paul’s instructions in the passage I just referred to.
SW also gave a prophecy that a great revival would sweep through Australia, beginning in the last years of the 20th century and continuing into the 21st. This revival was supposed to be the greatest revival the world has EVER seen. This has conspicuously NOT happened. I have heard of this great end times revival for decades, yet it has never eventuated.
There can be no doubt that we are living in the last days, as two of the hallmarks of those days are easily observed as I write; deception and apostasy, as well as an unhealthy seeking after signs and wonders. Jesus said in the Olivet Discourse, that these things would be signs of the end of the age (especially false teaching and deception) and nowhere did He mention a great revival. There is no mention of such a thing anywhere in scripture. What we do see, is that deception (fuelled by lying signs and wonders) will grow more and more, until true believers will be persecuted (unto death) by others who claim to be Christians. Jesus said that these people will think that they are acting for Him:-
John 16:2 KJV
[2] They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
This has many applications, not least the Pharisees who stoned Stephen, but there are men today (Rick Joyner and his friends for example) who have said that there will come a time when they will have to execute Christians who refuse to acknowledge their ‘apostolic authority’.
The Bible says that these things will get worse and worse, and Jesus said that it will be so bad in the end, that if He doesn’t return at the time He will, then there would be no-one left. (Mat.24:22, Mk.13:20) Despite the fact that the Bible paints a picture that is the polar opposite of this great end-time revival, men like Smith Wigglesworth and others have prophesied that it will happen. The question has to be asked, if a man has the gift of prophecy (and I believe that this is still valid for today), then what are we to do with prophecies given by men, that are not only opposite to what the Bible prophecies say, but haven’t come to pass at the time these men said they would?
The Bible is crystal clear in giving us an answer to this question and it’s not the usual excuses given by so many in the Pentecostal, or Charismatic churches. We are told very clearly, that if a prophet gives a prophecy that does not come to pass, we are to hold that prophet as false. (Deut.18:22)
There is no recanting of this principle in the New Testament and no reason to believe that God has changed His mind in this score. About the only thing that has changed, is that I don’t believe the sentence of death is still to be administered by us, but we are told to separate ourselves from such people.
It is amazing to me that we can look at such prophecies and yet not be willing to apply the standards that God has set in our evaluation of them. True prophecy comes by the Holy Spirit and He doesn’t make mistakes, so when someone prophecies and it doesn’t come to pass, the Holy Spirit cannot have been speaking. This begs the question; Exactly who was speaking?
If the person claims it was the Holy Spirit, he or she is obviously not telling the truth. That is an unavoidable conclusion and the scriptures give us no choice to believe otherwise. This is not easy to write, but it is scripturally true, as anyone can read for themselves in the Bible. There is no scriptural account of the Holy Spirit giving someone a prophetic word that did not come to pass (unless it is the word that came to Isaiah to give to King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20, but that is a case where God relented because of the King’s repentance, much as He did when Moses appealed to Him for the children of Israel in Exodus 32).
Hezekiah still died eventually anyway, but that is not the point, God is sovereign and can do as He pleases. As far as judging a true prophecy from a false one, the standard is 100% accuracy. By that standard, sadly, Smith Wigglesworth fails the test. This is not my opinion, but the Bible’s word on the matter. If that is upsetting to people, I’m sorry, but God’s word is the standard, not what anything else.
Ian Vincent I think you’re right on all points here concerning SW’s faults and errors, but maybe totally overlooking his character, his conversion, and the truth of God’s Word he had, lived out and taught.
One of SW’s positives is that he did challenge people to have Biblical faith to expect great things from God. He didn’t covet money. The WOF movement took his teaching and twisted it for self interest and covetousness. WOF is a perversion of real faith, just as much as dead evangelicalism is. Some evangelicals would be in a state of terror if they saw people really get healed or see demons cast out. They would automatically think it must be the devil.
It comes back to the issue of misrepresentation. Just bcos people misrepresent what Jesus taught it doesn’t cause us to question Jesus, it doesn’t mean He is under suspicion. If people try to get SW’s anointing or whatever, it has nothing to do with SW cos he’s not here to stop them doing it.