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A religious person asks Paul to comment on Andrew Wommack’s sermon that argues against God’s sovereignty (His determination of all things). Why do people oppose this truth? Because they presume to be in charge themselves, and wield their religious convictions as the power of God to accomplish what they will. This is seen with Wommack, and the one who follows his teaching.
“And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17 MKJV).
Hi Jill,
It’s taken a while for me to get to this letter and writing on Andrew Wommack, but I’m thankful for the opportunity to address some very important matters, both for you and others. I trust that the Lord’s timing is perfect, as He has revealed to us on many occasions where He has given us to see something of His marvelous workings. And why should it be any different in this case, when we know and have such ample evidence that Jesus Christ rules over all things according to His wisdom and sovereign power?
I have more to say about Wommack, but the main reason he’s a false teacher is because he isn’t crucified with Christ. He walks according to his carnal mind and soulish willpower, exercising those as if they were the authority of God and His spiritual power. And he has taught you to do the same.
All of his works (and yours) are what the Lord calls “the works of men, the paths of the destroyer” (Psalm 17:4).
As we visited with you in person, and you told us about the things you do to help new believers at the Assembly of God church, Sara asked the Lord about your works. Right then and there, He gave her Matthew 7:23, which I quote here with the preceding verses for context:
Matthew 7:21-23 EMTV
(21) “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven.
(22) Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and in Your Name we cast out demons, and in Your Name we did many mighty works?’
(23) And then I will confess to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you who work iniquity!‘”
A minute or two after the Lord gave Sara those words, you said words to this effect about your works and standing before God: “I would never want to hear the worst words a believer could ever hear, ‘Depart from Me….‘”
You said these words with some conviction, as if you feared it was possible that might happen to you. That’s the way it works with fear – it targets the very thing that needs to, and will, happen. Job said, “The thing I greatly feared has come upon me” (Job 3:25).
Sara knew you were going to say those words. The Lord also gave that knowledge to her, as with the revelatory words about you and your works.
You asked me during our recent phone call whether we had received the gifts of the Spirit. By what I relate here, you can see that the Lord is with us by His Spirit, speaking to us, giving us revelation and understanding. He has given us, along with our spiritual brothers and sisters, discernment, words of knowledge, prophecy, and the wisdom to apply these things according to Him, as part of His Body. Isn’t that what the gifts of the Spirit are for and all about?
The Lord was opening your condition to us because we are His, and now we inform you of the truth as He wills. You are zealous in works, Jill, but without knowledge or obedience to the Lord. You don’t know Him or His ways. He isn’t in your works. He has never known (been intimately related with) you. You are doing your own thing.
When He says, “Depart from Me,” He is saying, “You aren’t with Me, so stop thinking and acting like you are. I have nothing to do with your self-appointed works and the ways you’ve learned from those I haven’t known or sent.”
If you were with Him, you would receive those who are walking with Him:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, He who receives whomever I send receives Me. And he who receives Me receives Him Who sent Me” (John 13:20 MKJV).
How have you received those walking with Him? Several years ago, your husband kicked us out of your house for preaching Christ as the Savior of all men, and you had nothing further to do with us. When we saw you earlier this fall, we gave you our website and heard nothing from you after that.
If we were speaking here of the apostle Paul’s encounter with some religious people in the Book of Acts (you and your husband represented by the religious people and us by the apostle Paul), how would you view your reception of us? Wouldn’t the reality be at odds with your perception of yourself as a faithful follower of Christ?
We are one with Paul, of the same Body, serving the same Head, preaching the same Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel. I’d call your reception of Him “lukewarm.” There’s the heat of your profession mixed with the chill of your stance towards the brethren of Christ and their works in Him.
What does God do with the lukewarm?
“Depart from Me….”
You gush with excitement over my fleshly heritage as a descendant of Aaron and the Levitical priesthood, while rejecting my spiritual heritage as a son of God and minister of the Melchizedek priesthood. Doesn’t this say it all about where your allegiance and priorities are?
You and your husband are nice and polite folks, but so were many of the Pharisees. The time also came for them when the Lord made the reality of their spiritual condition known, that they weren’t with God. And what did they do? They reviled Him.
“Depart from Me….”
Your “tongues” aren’t of God, either. How can you be praying in the Holy Spirit daily, yet not be able to detect a wolf (Andrew Wommack) or his false teaching, though you listened to the CD twenty times? What about the gift of discernment? God gives His children eyes to see and ears to hear, so that they don’t walk blindly into a wolf’s lair and get eaten alive.
But here you are, not only getting eaten, but eating others and loving it. How can that be, except you are one with the wolf, sold out to the enemy of God?
“Depart from Me….”
“What is it to you, to declare My Precepts, and to take up My Covenant in your mouth? Yea, you hate to be taught, and you toss My Words behind you. When you saw a thief, then you were pleased to be with him, and you have taken part with adulterers” (Psalms 50:16-18 MKJV).
Wommack is a thief, teaching spiritual adultery. We will prove it. Just like with Jezebel, his judgment doesn’t linger.
The Lord has been gracious and longsuffering with you, Jill, but now comes your day of reckoning, your day of judgment:
“And whoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Truly I say to you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city” (Mark 6:11 MKJV).
There are degrees of tolerableness in the judgment, because it is remedial. And as Jesus taught, the unrighteous are remediated before the self-righteous:
Matthew 21:28-32 MKJV
(28) But what do you think? A man had two sons; and he came to the first and said, Son, go work in my vineyard today.
(29) He answered and said, I will not. But afterwards he repented and went.
(30) And he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir; and did not go.
(31) Which of the two did the will of his father? They said to Him, The first. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you that the tax-collectors and the harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you.
(32) For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax-collectors and the harlots believed him. And when you had seen it, you did not repent afterwards so that you might believe him.
In the reckoning that now comes, you’ll lose what you thought you had:
“Therefore be careful how you hear. For whoever has, to him shall be given; and whoever has not, from him shall be taken even that which he seems to have” (Luke 8:18 MKJV).
Are we negative or hateful towards you in saying these things? That isn’t our tone or spirit. The Spirit of the Lord is the Spirit of Truth, Who is love. Our words are words of life, not of condemnation, but that which must be condemned will receive condemnation.
2 Corinthians 2:14-17 MKJV
(14) Now thanks be to God, Who always causes us to triumph in Christ, and He revealing through us the odor of the knowledge of Him in every place.
(15) For we are to God a sweet savor of Christ, in those being saved, and in those being lost;
(16) to the one we are the savor of death to death, and to the other we are the savor of life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?
(17) For we are not as many, hawking the Word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.
Now for more on Wommack’s deadly error. You told us when we met that you follow Andrew’s teachings because he preaches strictly from the Bible. In this writing, I will prove that he does no such thing. When he quotes the Bible, he misinterprets it. God isn’t in agreement with Andrew, and Andrew isn’t in agreement with God. Read this carefully and see if there is anything in the Bible that contradicts what I say. If you can’t find anything, then you will know I speak the truth. If you think to find something and send it to us, I will show you if and how you err.
In the CD you asked me to evaluate, Wommack refutes what he calls “the sovereignty of God” teaching. On his website, he summarizes his opposition as follows:
“I believe this is the worst doctrine in the church today. I know that this is a shocking statement and is near blasphemy to some people, but the way sovereignty is taught today is a real faith killer. The belief that God controls everything that happens to us is one of the devil’s biggest inroads into our lives. If this belief is true, then our actions are irrelevant, and our efforts are meaningless. What will be will be.
If we believe that God wills everything, good or bad, to happen to us, it gives us some temporary relief from confusion and condemnation, but in the long-term, it slanders God, hinders our trust in God, and leads to passiveness.”
This view of God’s sovereignty and the conclusions it draws are twisted and wrong in almost every way. It presumes that God can’t be sovereign if there is something required of mankind, namely to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him (Micah 6:8). But why should the two be mutually exclusive? Man has commandments and responsibilities from God, but God does with all as He chooses:
“The dice are thrown, but the LORD determines every outcome” (Proverbs 16:33 GW).
Isaiah 40:22-25 GW
(22) God is enthroned above the earth, and those who live on it are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the sky like a canopy and spreads it out like a tent to live in.
(23) He makes rulers unimportant and makes earthly judges worth nothing.
(24) They have hardly been planted. They have hardly been sown. They have hardly taken root in the ground. Then He blows on them and they wither, and a windstorm sweeps them away like straw.
(25) “To whom, then, can you compare Me? Who is My equal?” asks the Holy One.
According to Andrew, if men can sin and sow for their destruction, then God can’t control everything that happens, unless He is also the author of rebellion and its evil fruits. Since that would be slandering Him, Wommack concludes God isn’t sovereign. But where are his Scriptures and proof that these things are so? He has none. The Bible, on the other hand, tells a completely different story, as I will show here and in the writings I will provide at the end.
The error underlying Wommack’s circular reasoning is that man is in charge of his final destiny. If that is true, then obviously God can’t be in complete control. One is forced to reject His sovereignty if man occupies the position of “ultimate decider.” It is this proposition that we put to rest as totally untrue.
Wommack summarizes his teaching as follows:
“So the whole focus of all of these meetings have been about taking your authority, recognizing that there are certain things under our control, speaking and seeing things come to pass.”
It’s true there are many things for which we’re held responsible, but where Wommack goes wrong is assuming that we can and should determine how to handle things and take control. Our first responsibility is as follows:
“Then they said to Him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe on Him Whom He has sent” (John 6:28-29 MKJV).
And what did Jesus say when the Devil tempted Him to take control, “speaking and seeing things come to pass”?
“And the Devil said to Him, If you are the Son of God, speak to this stone that it might become bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God” (Luke 4:3-4 MKJV).
The children of faith walk according to whatever God says and commits to their trust. Believing in Him translates into obedience, not “name and claim it.” Wommack has the cart in front of the horse, that is, he puts himself before the Lord and therefore acts as if he is the Lord. His heart is with man (himself), not with God. He thinks he walks with God because he talks, but his heart is deceived. Those who take up the cross talk because they walk. We speak the truth because we do and are the truth.
“And He Who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things which please Him” (John 8:29 MKJV).
Here’s an example of this error in Wommack’s teaching. He says:
“If you were focused on God’s supply you could rejoice regardless of what’s going on in your life… If you aren’t focused on God’s supply, there’s always going to be some problem.”
Wommack says to focus on God’s supply for all your needs. Sounds reasonable, right? Surely God is our Provider. But that isn’t the way Jesus taught His disciples to rely on Him – not even close. He said, “Seek you first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you” (Luke 12:31). It’s about putting God first by taking up the cross – “Your will be done, not mine” – and not about visualizing our way to provision by focusing on His power to give us what we need or want, “speaking and seeing things come to pass.”
If your husband is the breadwinner in your household, do you need to visualize and “claim” his paycheck to make it appear? How ridiculous, right? But that’s what Wommack is telling you to do with God. That’s not His way, but it is Satan’s, because the Devil savors the things of man and would have you focus on what you want, rather than on what God requires.
To focus on what God wants means taking up the cross, which is where Satan will never ever lead you. He’ll support anything else, though. The more religious and fervent the activity, the greater the power for him, because greater commitment deceives the heart even more in the service of promoting the works of darkness in the Name of God. And the Lord told us just how dark it would get, “They will excommunicate you; but a time is coming when everyone who kills you will think that he is offering God a service” (John 16:2 EMTV).
This happens to us daily at The Path of Truth, metaphorically, if not physically.
When one walks in the light as God is in the light, when one takes up the cross and does what He commands, that person won’t think or need to concentrate his willpower and work on visualizing/claiming/praying things into existence. He will be resting in God’s sovereign will, untainted by human hands:
“The blessing of the LORD, it makes rich, and toil adds nothing thereto” (Proverbs 10:22 JPS).
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with Whom is no variableness or shadow of turning” (James 1:17 MKJV).
“And if you will make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stone. For if you lift up your tool upon it, you have defiled it” (Exodus 20:25 MKJV).
Wommack tries to give Scriptural support for practicing visualizing God’s provision into existence by citing Isaiah’s words, “You will keep Him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because He trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3). Andrew says, “Your peace is tied directly to what you believe…. If you don’t have perfect peace, your mind isn’t stayed on God.”
Wommack misinterprets what it means to stay your mind on God, defining it as realizing and manifesting His power by believing He is with you and will do you good. That isn’t the faith of Christ – it’s witchcraft – the serpent’s sorcery in all its subtlety! Staying one’s mind on God through trust isn’t something mental you have to conjure up and believe; it’s the obedience of faith, walking with God:
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6 HNV).
When you trust God, you are acknowledging and looking to Him in all you do. You walk in faith, responding to Him, rather than focusing the mind and thoughts on what you think you need or want, trying to make Him respond to you. Those are the works of the flesh, which Wommack substitutes for the faith of Christ, because he isn’t trusting and acknowledging Him. This is the man of sin at work.
“Nor shall you swear by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black” (Matthew 5:36 EMTV).
Wommack is teaching a “Christian” version of The Secret. And like the heathen who are deluded by their material success when practicing visualization and attitude technique, attributing it to false gods, he credits his presumed success to a “false christ,” the same which has snared you, Jill.
What of Wommack’s alleged miraculous works, the ones he boasts of in his sermons as proof of his faith and doctrine?
For example, Wommack reports that he prayed for his son who came back to life after being dead for five hours (not verified by the doctors or the hospital). Here’s what he says you should learn from his experience:
“We need to quit blaming God, we need to find out the truth and stir ourselves up, stand up and take our authority and change your situation. It’s not your power; it’s God’s power, but it’s under your authority.”
What is the truth? And what does God require in each situation? Is it always the “good” thing, like healing? Then why this commandment?:
“Do not lay hands quickly on anyone, neither be partaker of the sins of others. Keep yourself pure” (1 Timothy 5:22 MKJV).
What did the Lord teach?
“And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian” (Luke 4:27-28 MKJV).
How did His hearers react to His teaching?
“And hearing these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath” (Luke 4:28 MKJV).
God exercises His power according to His wisdom, understanding, and will. Who are men to stir themselves up to take authority over His power, as if He has no mind of His Own? Who are they to substitute their imaginations and interpretations for His mind? Wouldn’t that make them God and Him their servant?
We who know God exercise the authority He has given us, with Him as Head:
“For He put all things under His feet. But when He says that all things have been put under His feet, it is plain that it excepts Him Who has put all things under Him” (1 Corinthians 15:27 MKJV).
Wommack continues: “And if you don’t stir yourself up you’re going to settle to the bottom. You gotta stir yourself up, you gotta make yourself, encourage yourself in the Lord.”
This describes the works of the flesh, according to the will of man. This is the credo of the prophets of Baal, who lift up their bodies, voices, and spirits while trying to bring God down.
“But the righteousness of faith says this: ‘Do not say in your heart, Who shall ascend into Heaven?’ that is, to bring Christ down; or ‘Who shall descend into the deep?’; that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead” (Romans 10:6-7 MKJV).
Make no mistake; those who believe can heal the sick and raise the dead, and we do, but not as the false who make a show of it and have their reward, deceiving men and stealing their souls. (Read God Heals Today, His Way.)
“For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders; so much so that, if it were possible, they would deceive even the elect. Behold, I have told you beforehand” (Matthew 24:24-25 MKJV).
And did Wommack really raise his son from the dead? There’s no proof from any outside witnesses, so it would be irresponsible of anyone to take his word for it. But even if he did show such a great sign and wonder, his fruits tell us he is a false prophet who represents a false messiah. We must believe what we see in the Spirit and not what he says – the razzle-dazzle he tries to perform in our minds, if not before our eyes.
Here’s but one of many evil fruits: Jill, you say that Wommack doesn’t charge for his materials. That may be, but he does ask for donations. His hand is stretched out for money to all who come on his website. Did John put his hat on the ground while Peter was preaching in Acts 3? We know that could never be, because the apostles weren’t in it for the money, but not so with Wommack. He is an avaricious wolf and you have been deceived, taken by him because you aren’t right with God.
2 Thessalonians 2:8-12 MKJV
(8) And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of His mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming,
(9) whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
(10) and with all deceit of unrighteousness in those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, so that they might be saved.
(11) And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie,
(12) so that all those who do not believe the truth, but delight in unrighteousness, might be condemned.
False christs come with false gospels, which all have the common denominator of depending on man’s righteousness and works. Wommack’s works are about glorifying himself and have nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ or His glory. It all began when he decided to “accept” or “receive” Christ. God never manifested Himself to Wommack; he was born by the will of the flesh, his own will, but not by the will of God.
“But as many as received Him, He gave to them authority to become the children of God, to those who believe on His Name, who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but were born of God” (John 1:12-13 MKJV).
After his initial decision to believe in Christ, one based on Scriptural knowledge, not God’s supernatural gift of faith, Wommack continued exercising his uncrucified will, calling it the “will of God” or “walking by faith.” It is faith, but a darkened one – faith in man, the flesh, and Satan. It is personified by the man of sin, the spirit of anti(in place of)-Christ:
“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is unveiled, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or every object of worship, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 EMTV).
Wommack says to those who aren’t experiencing the “fullness of God” that he thinks to have:
“You aren’t believing your power and authority. You don’t have a full revelation of who you are and the goodness of God. And those things hinder the power of God from operating in your life.”
Let me ask you a question: Who’s in charge, the man who rubs the lamp and commands the genie that emerges from it, or the genie with the magical powers that the man has at his disposal?
Truly, God plays second fiddle to Wommack as his “genie in the lamp.” No wonder Andrew rejects and scoffs at God’s sovereignty. Embracing his own presumed preeminence, Wommack walks in the essence of satanic rebellion. And as Satan, he comes as an angel of light. Those in the dark don’t know the difference, with many taking the bait of self-godhood. Because they didn’t love the Truth, God has given Wommack and his followers over to a lie and the working of error.
God lets men trample the outer court of the Temple for a time, while they exercise Adam’s fallen powers as their own mini-sovereigns seeking to alter reality for their pleasure. For a time they seem to prosper, as Andrew boasts of himself and his works, inviting others to follow him based on his results. Little does he (and those who believe him) know that he’s been sowing according to the flesh, with a bitter harvest coming on quickly:
Psalms 73:12-20 MKJV
(12) Behold, these are the ungodly, who are at ease in the world; they increase in riches.
(13) Surely I have made my heart pure in vain, and washed my hands in innocence.
(14) For all the day long I have been plagued, and chastened every morning.
(15) If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I would deceive a generation of Your sons.
(16) When I thought deeply in order to understand this, it was painful for me,
(17) until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end.
(18) Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down into ruin.
(19) How have they been brought into grief, as in a moment! They are fully eaten up with terrors,
(20) like a dream when one awakens; so, O LORD, when You awake, You shall despise their image.
God has despised Andrew’s image (the false one Andrew’s made of Him). He has set Andrew’s feet in slippery places. That isn’t Satan’s doing. It is Satan’s downfall! God casts down the Devil, along with his servants. That’s why Wommack is refuted by the testimony of the Word of God at every turn.
And why should we believe him because of presumed miracles and works, when God warns us of those “whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9 MKJV)?
Wommack’s reliance on fleshly faith and human willpower is evident in everything he says and does. He says God’s will doesn’t “automatically” come to pass, implying that unless you do something, what God intends won’t happen.
But if it’s God Who causes us to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13), how is He dependent on us? Doesn’t everything originate with Him? Doesn’t everything end there, too? Isn’t He the Alpha and the Omega? Isn’t He the One Who says, “Let there be light,” and gives us eyes by which to see? Don’t all things consist by Him? Don’t even unbelief and corruption serve His mighty purpose, to magnify His glorious Name when redemption comes for all?
“For the creation was not willingly subjected to vanity, but because of Him Who subjected it on hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21 MKJV).
While God’s designs aren’t fulfilled immediately or “automatically,” they are realized in the fullness of times, or He isn’t God, Creator and Lord of all! If He controls the beginning, and if He controls the end, then He controls everything in between, Wommack’s disagreement notwithstanding.
During the sermon, he says:
“1/3 of me is wall-to-wall Holy Ghost, man, I’ve got the power of God… If you’re thinking you’re only human then that’s part of the reason why you’re only getting human results. If you think God can do anything but He has done nothing… God is waiting on us to move.”
It’s true that our sins hold us back from God’s healing power and life, but it’s not at all true that He’s dependent on us to do as He wills. And it’s true that He performs His will through those who obey Him, but it’s not true that He’s dependent on men to obey Him. As Mordecai said to Esther:
“Do not think within yourself that you shall escape in the king’s house more than all the Jews. For if you are completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance shall arise to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house shall be destroyed. And who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for a time like this?” (Esther 4:13-14 MKJV)
Will anyone stop or withhold God from doing His will? Jesus said otherwise. When the Pharisees complained about His disciples praising God for His entrance into Jerusalem, He said to them, “I tell you that if these should be silent, the stones would cry out” (Luke 19:39-40 MKJV). In other words, “Who is going to stop God from doing what He wills, and from manifesting His glory?”
Wommack also relates the story of a little boy with terminal illness at whose bedside he prayed for over two hours. When the boy died, he didn’t blame God, but said to the parents: “Look, I don’t know why he died, but I can guarantee you that it wasn’t God. It wasn’t God that killed him. It was either me, or my puny faith, or it’s you, or it’s something we don’t understand, but God is not a baby-killer.”
Oh, what deceptive poison Andrew peddles! He won’t blame God, but he won’t acknowledge Him as God, either. Better to be an atheist than a believer who doesn’t believe God is in charge. Job believed and acknowledged God when all ten of his children were killed in one day:
“He said, Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the Name of the LORD. In all this, Job did not sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing” (Job 1:21-22 HNV).
Those who charge God with wrongdoing sin, as do those who charge Him with non-doing. He reigns supreme.
Men abhor the truth of God’s sovereignty because they want to be in charge, so they deny Him as Ruler of all. But rather than outright repudiate Him, they redefine Him on their own terms, as Wommack does.
For example, he argues that because “God is a good God Who wants you to prosper,” He wouldn’t do anything evil (therefore Satan does that by himself). Yet time and time again, we hear in the Scriptures how it is God Who sent evil against Israel because they forsook Him. It didn’t happen out of the blue, or because they were doing well. It happened just like He warned them:
Leviticus 26:14-33 MKJV
(14) But if you will not listen to Me, and will not do all these commandments,
(15) and if you shall despise My statutes, or if your soul hates My judgments, so that you will not do all My commandments, so that you break My covenant;
(16) I will also do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, consumption, and burning fever, consuming the eyes and causing sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
(17) And I will set My face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies. They that hate you shall reign over you. And you shall flee when none pursues you.
(18) And if you will not yet listen to Me for all this, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
(19) And I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heaven like iron and your earth like bronze.
(20) And your strength shall be spent in vain. For your land shall not yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the field yield their fruits.
(21) And if you walk contrary to Me, and will not listen to Me, I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins.
(22) I will also send wild beasts among you, who shall bereave you. And I will destroy your cattle, and make you few. And your highways shall be deserted.
(23) And if you will not be reformed by Me by these things, but will still walk contrary to Me,
(24) then I will walk contrary to you and will punish you seven times more for your sins.
(25) And I will bring a sword on you that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant. And when you are gathered inside your cities, I will send the plague among you. And you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
(26) When I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight. And you shall eat and not be satisfied.
(27) And if you will not for all of this listen to Me, but will walk contrary to Me,
(28) then I will walk contrary to you also in fury. And I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.
(29) And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat.
(30) And I will destroy your high places and cut down your images, and throw your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols, and My soul shall despise you.
(31) And I will make your cities waste and cause your sanctuaries to be deserted. And I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors.
(32) And I will turn the land into wasteland. And your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.
(33) And I will scatter you among the nations, and will draw out a sword after you. And your land shall be waste, and your cities waste.
“I do all these things,” says the Lord. And for those who say He changed after Christ, hear what Paul says by His Spirit:
“And all these things happened to them as examples; and it is written for our warning on whom the ends of the world have come” (1 Corinthians 10:11 MKJV).
God doesn’t change (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8). And why would the fact that He administers judgment and justice make Him evil? Would any sane person call a government that punishes criminals “evil”? Don’t we live in evil times because governments don’t punish evildoers?
Men are wrong to assume God has an evil end for Israel (or mankind) because He judges/punishes them in the evil they have sown. The very opposite is true. His judgment is a token of the good He plans to bring to pass. Aren’t you aware that He says He will save all of Israel (Romans 11:26)? It’s not His will that any perish, but that all come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). And who has resisted His will?
Praise the Lord; He is Sovereign!
But Wommack doesn’t believe God is sovereign. He uses the verse I just cited to try and prove otherwise:
“The Lord does not delay concerning His promise, as some reckon slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 EMTV).
Wommack interprets the Scripture to be saying God is willing for all men to be saved, but since all men aren’t willing, not all will come to repentance. He goes on:
“This verse makes it just as clear as you can possibly make it, God is not willing for any person to perish… It is not God’s will for a single person to go Hell… Jesus has paid for every person’s sins… He’s made provision, but they have to receive it.”
What Wommack doesn’t understand is that those perishing are already in Hell, and God isn’t willing to leave a single one of them in that condition. There is nothing said about consigning men to Hell and certainly nothing said about leaving them there forever. That is adding to His Words, and doing so by reading man’s diabolical doctrine into their plain meaning, even twisting them to mean exactly the opposite of what they say.
Wow! The perversity of man – an audacity that knows no bounds! Read the postings in The Restitution of All Things for the truth about Christ’s total victory that destroys the horrible error and blasphemous slander known as “eternal torment in Hell for all those who don’t accept Christ.”
In direct contradiction to the Word of God, Wommack declares that, although God’s will is for all to come to repentance, not all will. God and His work of salvation through Jesus Christ are made subordinate to the will of man, as in the following example from Andrew’s sermon:
“Do you know Hitler’s sins were just as much paid for as my sins were, but the difference is that as far as we know, Hitler never received that; he never put saving faith in the Lord, and he will have to answer for his own sins, because he didn’t accept that.”
According to Wommack’s gospel, Hitler’s salvation is up to Hitler. But the Scriptures make it clear that Wommack’s gospel is dead wrong:
“For He said to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’ So then it is not of the one willing, nor of the one running, but of God, the One showing mercy” (Romans 9:15-16 MKJV).
Hitler served as a vessel of dishonor and performed his appointed job. One result – Israel was raised from the ashes. “All things work together for good,” as it is written in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That includes curses, as well as blessings. But not according to the false gospel of Andrew Wommack, which says that God only does the “good” things, the nice things – whatever bad things happen to man are caused by man (or chance), not God. Seeing how man is evil, and he is in control (according to Wommack), that would mean all things are working for evil.
What a liar man makes of God! Wommack says God can’t do whatever He wants, even though He says otherwise:
Isaiah 46:8-13 MKJV
(8) Remember this, and be a man; return it on your heart, O sinners.
(9) Remember former things from forever; for I am God, and no other is God, even none like Me,
(10) declaring the end from the beginning, and from the past things which were not done, saying, My purpose shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure;
(11) calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my purpose from a far country. Yes, I have spoken, I will also cause it to come; I have formed; yes, I will do it.
(12) Listen to me, stubborn-hearted who are far from righteousness;
(13) I bring near My righteousness. It shall not be far off, and My salvation shall not wait; and I will place salvation in Zion, My glory for Israel.
“Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for Me?” (Jeremiah 32:27 HNV)
Contrary to God’s specific declared purpose that everyone will come to repentance, and all will be reconciled to Him, Wommack’s teaching has most people forever cursing God and the day they were born, as they will be suffering excruciating torment in a Hell that never ends.
How can that be? God says that every tongue will confess Him as Lord to His glory. Those praising Him are more than man can number, declare the Scriptures. How high can you count, Jill? Use your calculator, if you wish. God didn’t rule that out.
He says that death will be no longer, every tear wiped away. He’s not the ultimate loser that Wommack depicts, Who died in vain for the majority of humanity. That would make death and Hell the victors, but those are destroyed in the Lake of Fire!
No wonder Wommack derides the sovereignty of God, as it certainly obliterates his teaching and authority. The apostle Paul warned of such preachers and their false gospels:
“ As we said before, and now I say again, If anyone preaches a gospel to you beside what you have received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:9 MKJV).
Wommack says:
“And it’s not God’s will that a single person go to Hell. So, does that mean that God’s will just comes to pass? No, Jesus made it very clear that there would be more people entering by the broad gate unto destruction than the narrow gate unto everlasting life. God’s will does not automatically come to pass.”
Who says that because men choose destruction they will not finally be turned to the Lord? What happened to those who were destroyed in the Flood?
1 Peter 3:18-20 EMTV
(18) For Christ also suffered once to atone for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring you to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit,
(19) by Whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,
(20) who formerly disobeyed, when the longsuffering of God was waiting in the days of Noah, when the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
Don’t the Scriptures tell us God will turn those who perished? Here’s a second witness:
“And whoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Truly I say to you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city” (Mark 6:11 MKJV).
“Tolerableness” speaks of degrees of punishment, which means the punishment isn’t meted out for the sake of pain, but for the sake of needful correction, a rehabilitation bringing all men to repentance and the place where they will confess Christ and praise God in His Kingdom. So says our third witness, even of those most heinous of offenders, the self-righteous religious like Wommack who enter the Kingdom last:
“Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and the harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the harlots believed him. And when you had seen it, you did not repent afterwards so that you might believe him” (Matthew 21:31-32 MKJV).
The Lord brings in the firstfruits, then the rest of the harvest. Wommack declares God will eternally burn the harvest that He has said He would save. But Wommack would spare from the fire that which must be destroyed (his self-righteous works):
1 Corinthians 3:13-15 MKJV
(13) Each one’s work shall be revealed. For the Day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try each one’s work as to what kind it is.
(14) If anyone’s work which he built remains, he shall receive a reward.
(15) If anyone’s work shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss. But he shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
Wommack is one of the many on the broad path to destruction, his works destined for the fire of God and he for judgment.
Wommack welcomes all who profess Christ to learn his knowledge, which he says will set free the power of God to give them abundant lives:
“God wants you to be living such a superabundant life. But you know it’s not happening because of the way we think. All of this victory, all of this abundance, and all of the joy come by us renewing our mind and thinking according to the Word of God.”
There is nothing about sin, obedience, discipline, taking up the cross, or enduring to the end. It’s all about getting power. It’s about keeping your life, not losing it.
There is nothing about exercising the judgment of God or distinguishing between true and false brethren. That’s because Andrew is looking for adherents and allies, as is the custom of men building their own kingdoms. All potential supporters are welcomed under his tent. If you profess Christ, you’re in, and you’re free to exercise the knowledge he peddles as the faith of Christ.
But not all who profess Christ have the Lord’s faith or the standing and privileges of His children. True teachers from God warn of false teachers and brethren:
“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” (2 Peter 2:1 MKJV).
“And pray that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for all do not have the faith” (2 Thessalonians 3:2 MKJV).
Paul wasn’t talking about heathen unbelievers when he referred to unreasonable and wicked men who don’t have the faith. Why belabor the obvious? He was referring to those of whom the Lord spoke:
“Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15 MKJV).
Like Wommack.
More needs to be said about the lie that if you believe God is completely sovereign it kills your faith and renders you passive. It’s Wommack’s teaching that has the evil effect, either making men self-righteous, willing workers of Satan or resentful atheists who blaspheme the Name of God for allegedly making creatures in His image destined for eternal torture.
The true teaching of God’s sovereignty has the opposite effect. It instills faith, love, and obedience in those who believe, and refutes those who blaspheme God’s Holy Character.
One dictionary definition of “passivity” is “submission to others.” If we as Christians consider this as submission to God, then isn’t that a desirable outcome? This kind of “passivity,” however, is never “inactive” (another dictionary definition), because our faith in Christ compels us to actively seek out and obey Him, doing what’s right and shunning evil. “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20).
Wommack is essentially saying, “If God does everything, then you are justified to feel like you don’t need to do anything. What’s the point if you don’t get the credit and glory?”
The Word of God strongly repudiates such thoughts:
“Do not be deceived: ‘Evil associations corrupts good habits.’ Awake to righteousness, and do not sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame” (1 Corinthians 15:33-34 EMTV).
Thinkers such as Wommack expose their spiritual nakedness. Read The Most Foolish of Questions.
We are warned of God’s severity so that we don’t become passive in the face of evil:
“See then the goodness and severity of God. Toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off” (Romans 11:22 HNV).
The very words tell us God is sovereign over all. It is He Who cuts you off, not Satan or chance. Without God’s severity, how would He judge the world? But Wommack disagrees: “If it’s good it’s God, if it’s bad it’s the Devil.” He renders Omnipotent God an impotent god who doesn’t judge, correct, or punish. What a tragedy for those who believe such a lie! Without God’s judgment, there’s no hope for anyone. “Judgment begins at the House of God” (1 Peter 4:17). Where would we be without it?
“LORD, I know that Your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness You have afflicted me” (Psalms 119:75 HNV).
We’re never told to fear Satan, only God:
“But I will warn you of Whom you shall fear: Fear Him Who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into Hell. Yea, I say to you, fear Him” (Luke 12:5 MKJV).
But Wommack says God doesn’t do these “bad” things, only Satan does, “and if you think God has a hand in all of this stuff, then it renders you passive.” No doubt some are rendered passive by hearing God is doing “all of this stuff,” but who are they and why are they demoralized? They are ones who need to repent of their sins and unbelief!
Believing these things we now boldly speak to you, taking great pains to do so, can you or anyone dare say we are passive?
It comes down to this: Should you believe the Lord of Heaven and earth Who is Altogether True or the creature who contradicts Him? Jesus says not only does God have a hand in “this stuff,” but He is the One doing it. He is utterly and completely in charge. Knowing that He is Lord gives us empowering hope, not demoralizing despair!
The apostle Paul refuted those who came against God’s sovereignty with their “passivity” or “powerlessness” argument:
Romans 9:18-23 EMTV
(18) So then He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
(19) You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has ever resisted His will?”
(20) But indeed, O man, who are you to be answering back against God? Surely the thing formed will not say to Him Who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”
(21) Or does not the potter have authority over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and the other for dishonor?
(22) But what if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make known His power, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath having been prepared for destruction,
(23) and so that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory.
God has purpose in everything created, and all of it serves to fulfill His will, including those who walk contrary to Him. But that doesn’t let evildoers off the hook one iota. The Scriptures teach God’s sovereignty and man’s accountability are inextricably linked together:
Romans 3:5-8 HNV
(5) But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous Who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do.
(6) May it never be! For then how will God judge the world?
(7) For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?
(8) Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), “Let us do evil, that good may come”? Those who say so are justly condemned.
Wommack and his straw man arguments against God’s sovereignty are condemned. Jesus Christ is Lord and God of all, ruling in perfect power and wisdom! Everything has its place under His sovereignty, both good and evil:
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things” (Isaiah 45:7 KJV).
Deuteronomy 32:39-43 MKJV
(39) See now that I, I am He, and there is no god with Me. I kill, and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is no deliverer out of My hand.
(40) For I lift up My hand to Heaven and say, I live forever!
(41) If I sharpen My glittering sword, and if My hand takes hold in judgment, I will give vengeance to My enemies and will reward those that hate Me.
(42) I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the hairy scalp of the enemy.
(43) Rejoice, O, nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His foes and will be merciful to His land, to His people.
“Does the war trumpet sound in a city without making the people afraid? Does disaster strike a city unless the LORD sends it?” (Amos 3:6 GNB)
Jill, have you looked over our site? Does the knowledge and preaching of God’s sovereignty make one passive? Does our site make us look passive?
A quick review of our testimonies and writings quickly dispel that notion, as does the content itself. The Lord has given us to actively fight evil, starting within, removing the beams from our eyes so we could help others thereafter. He has also given us to reprove the works of darkness, as here, for the zeal of His House has consumed us.
Our work in Christ brings up a crucial point: We don’t have the power within ourselves to do right. It’s all His doing:
“LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. LORD, correct me, but in measure: not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing” (Jeremiah 10:23-24 HNV).
How do we enter into the blessing of His promises? By the faith of Christ. By His faith, we believe and obey God. By His faith, we know His Word is true and that He doesn’t warn in vain of the evil reaped if we don’t believe and obey. By His faith, we know that to forsake Him is to forsake life. All of this comes from God through Jesus Christ. We are dead in the water without Him! If that’s not sovereignty, what is?
“For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8 MKJV).
As creatures in this world, what is under our control, truly?
“And which of you by taking thought is able to make himself any taller? If, then, you are not able to do even that which is least, why are you troubled about the rest?” (Luke 12:25-26 BBE)
Because others don’t have the faith of Christ, does that mean God is any less powerful or in control? Not at all!
“For what? If some did not believe, will not their unbelief nullify the faith of God? Let it not be! But let God be true, and every man a liar; as it is written, ‘That You might be justified in Your sayings, and will overcome when You are judged’” (Romans 3:3-4 MKJV).
God’s sovereign purposes are being worked out in all things, regarding both those who believe and those who don’t, even as His Word declares. Everything serves His holy purposes, including unbelief and Satan.
Wommack scoffs at those who believe that “nothing happens without God’s will,” and that “Satan is God’s messenger boy.” He doesn’t realize that by using this humiliating term for Satan, he is disparaging the One Who sends the Destroyer.
For example, wasn’t Satan God’s “messenger boy” with Job? Didn’t God ask Satan about Job, and not the other way around? Satan replied that God had placed a hedge around Job, and said:
“But put forth Your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face” (Job 1:11 MKJV).
Whose hand would be put forth? God’s hand. Who removed the hedge? God did. So, while Satan was sent, it was by God, to do whatever He commanded, no more, no less. The evil that He did through Satan was necessary to initiate a marvelous work in Job, as related by the rest of the book.
God’s servants preach Jesus Christ as Lord over all, including Satan, who serves as an agent of His judgment. The apostle Paul knew this, and thanked God for sending one of Satan’s messengers to keep him in line:
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 MKJV
(7) And by the surpassing revelations, lest I be made haughty, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be made haughty.
(8) For this thing I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me.
(9) And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may overshadow me.
(10) Therefore I am pleased in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am powerful.
Paul knew Satan’s place and the purpose he serves under God. That’s why Paul delivered one in willful sin over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh (1 Corinthians 5), and others to learn not to blaspheme (1 Timothy 1:20). Paul didn’t despise God’s messenger of evil, as Wommack does with his spiritual trash talk:
“Satan is a coward; Satan is a zero with the rim knocked off. He doesn’t have any power; the only power he has is deception and if you’ll get a hold of this truth, he won’t just roll over and play dead. He’ll fight you, but you’ll be the one who wins… get mad at the Devil… just blast him and tell him where to go and how to get there.”
What do the Scriptures say about this?
Jude 1:8-10 KJV
(8) Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
(9) Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the Devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
(10) But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
Doesn’t this glorify God? Doesn’t the realization of the immensity of God’s power and authority take one’s breath away and add depth and awe to His glory and worship?
And for what purpose has Christ come? We are here in His Name, by His faith and Spirit, to take back what the Devil has stolen. This is the sovereign power of God at work.
What of those who are destroyed by the Destroyer, because they are in sin and don’t repent like Job? Doesn’t this go against God’s will, and prove He isn’t sovereign? What of those who claim to believe in Him, but are perishing by disease and disaster, without relief, respite, or rescue? Jesus gave this warning to all the people:
Luke 13:1-5 MKJV
(1) And some were present at the same time reporting to Him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
(2) And answering, Jesus said to them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things?
(3) I tell you, No. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
(4) Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were sinners above all men who lived in Jerusalem?
(5) I tell you, No. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Wommack says God can’t be sovereign if those who profess to believe in Him destroy themselves, but he is ignorant of this simple truth: They don’t believe, and therefore God hands them over to the Destroyer in order for them to find out they don’t believe. He has made things this way in order to bring all people to repentance and the knowledge of Him:
“For God has shut up all in unbelief, so that He might show mercy to all” (Romans 11:32 MKJV).
We have two possible options when confronted with the fact that we have no righteousness of our own – to repent as did Job, or to be angry and sin as did Cain.
To Job there was never any question but that God was responsible for his calamities. He didn’t get out of his predicament by following Wommack’s counsel:
“Satan can’t do anything without your cooperation and consent – so quit cooperating and giving him your consent.”
Job wasn’t cooperating with Satan, or God wouldn’t have said to Satan:
“Have you set your heart against My servant Job, because there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil?” (Job 1:8 MKJV)
Job didn’t know where he went wrong. Neither did Job’s friends who condemned him by essentially giving him Wommack’s advice to “stop cooperating with Satan.” But Job needed revelation and understanding from God. Then, when God revealed the truth and corrected him, God rebuked the friends who spoke as Andrew does, because they hadn’t “spoken concerning Him rightly, like His servant Job” (Job 42:8).
God never corrected Job’s conviction of His sovereignty over everything that happened to him. He confirmed it in every way. God did correct Job, however, on his thought that he may as well be passive, because being right didn’t get him anywhere. Elihu, the man of God, answered Job:
Job 33:9-13 MKJV
(9) You said, “I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent, and no iniquity is in me;
(10) behold, He finds reasons to be against me, He counts me for His enemy;
(11) He puts my feet in the stocks; He marks all my paths.”
(12) Behold, in this you are not right; I will answer you, for God is greater than man.
(13) Why do you fight against Him? For He does not give account for any of His matters.
And:
Job 34:5-9 BBE
(5) For Job has said, “I am upright, and it is God Who has taken away my right;
(6) Though I am right, still I am in pain; my wound may not be made well, though I have done no wrong.”
(7) What man is like Job, a man who freely makes sport of God,
(8) And goes in the company of evil-doers, walking in the way of sinners?
(9) For he has said, It is no profit to a man to take delight in God.
Elihu rebuked Job’s thinking of, “What’s the use?” And by doing so, he effectively put away Wommack’s complaint that God being over all reduces men of faith to passivity and unbelief.
I have barely begun to scratch the surface of all that could be said about Wommack’s false doctrines, Scriptural manipulations, and anti-Christ gospel. We also have writings that specifically address, in greater detail, the errors refuted here. Thank God for His light and illumination! I list several that come to mind.
If you, reader, wish to learn more, you can search our site, and if you have questions or contentions, Lord willing we will have answers for those as well.
Paul Cohen
To know the purpose of evil is the question that confounds the wise, but it can be known and to this end is the paper written, declaring the sovereignty of the Lord our God. We can indeed know the purpose of evil.
Is God, Who is Love, responsible for everything that happens, particularly evil? Can we, as Ron, who poses the question, suggests on his site, understand the nature of God and love Him because we have comprehended Him? But God says His thoughts and ways are not men’s thoughts or ways. What men make God out to be reflects their own thoughts and ways, as does their love.
There is so much talk about, and emphasis on, the “love of God,” that He, in fact, IS love (which is true). But it is a false love that most conceive of Him, without balance or justice. Man is afraid to face the facts about the reality of God’s true nature, knowing he falls short and he is guilty and accountable to Him. This writing establishes a balance and perspective by focusing on the severity of God, His justice and His wrath, as clearly documented in the Holy Scriptures.
Jesus Christ demonstrated what true freedom is, what it does, what it cannot do, and what it means to be fully committed to God: “Thy will, and not mine, be done….” He, Christ, is therefore the One to Whom all men are drawn, to learn in due time that none can resist His will.
What we have been hearing, referred to as “the good news” or the gospel, must be seen for what it is – bad news indeed! In its place must be declared the truly good news. Our selfishness would dictate that if news is good for us, it is good news, though it might not be very good for everybody else.
Ultimately, if it is not good for all, it is good for none. Like it or not, none of us can remain an island unto himself for long, and if one tries to be otherwise, there is only stagnation and stench, even as when waters stop running, forming a black swamp in which nothing can live.
What treasures of God are hidden in the sign of Jonah? Hear what this rather obscure and short book, which of all Scripture was singled out by the Lord Jesus Christ as the sign of His coming, has to tell us about the momentous work God is doing, according to His sovereign will.
When some hear that we preach Jesus Christ will reconcile all people to Himself, they become offended and exclaim: “If all are going to be saved, what was the point of Jesus Christ dying on the cross for us?” If that is your thought, you need to read our answer to… the most foolish of questions.
There is no good thing that God will withhold from those who look to Him. Who are those that look to Him? Those who are ready to hear Him in all things and obey Him. Obey Him in what? There are three levels of obedience, covering all aspects of life. Hear what they are and how you can walk in them.
There is only one way to Heaven. Traditional thoughts focus on the death of the body, but the truth from God says that if we will live here and now, we must first die. To be identified with Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, we must certainly die to the world and ourselves, or how can we be with Him where He is, as He would have us to be?
“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints” (Psalms 116:15 KJV).
Are you considering a true walk of faith? Do you think you have that now? Don’t be deceived and don’t mock God, Who cannot be mocked. Here’s what you need to consider if you want to walk with Jesus or think you are.
The spirit of lawlessness, of iniquity, is everywhere, in everyone. It is that spirit whose ringing cry is, “You’re not going to tell ME what to do!” It is that “wicked one,” that man of sin, that son of pride which hates the law of God because it hates Him. People must be addressed and dealt with on a personal and specific basis and not only in general. And if they are going to walk with God, they must submit to such correction, without murmuring.
Several important questions are raised and answered: What is the purpose of the Lake of Fire? What is the second death? And how does one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ enter the Kingdom of God?
Who is Satan? Where did he come from? How did he get his power? How is it exercised? How is it broken? These are things you need to know, if you will be an overcomer in Christ.
Many are the definitions and descriptions of a “cult.” The determination of what or who is a cult is invariably subjective. We have taken the term as it is used today (as a condemnation of religious expression perceived to to be untrue and harmful), and have identified common religious beliefs and practices that are indeed untrue and harmful, by contrasting them to the lives and examples of the Lord Jesus Christ and His disciples. The result is a true yardstick by which you can measure the religious teachings and practices of any group or individual, whether they be good or evil.
The children of God don’t judge false teachers by their signs and wonders (if they have any), but by their fruits. The religious children of this world judge by signs and wonders, and are taken in, because their confidence isn’t in the Living God. They believe Pharaoh’s magicians and are drowned, following Pharaoh into the sea.