Truth Magazine

By Harry Persaud

Morris Cerullo mails out literature to preachers and churches all over the U.S., claiming God chose him to be a “worldwide” evangelist and “prophet.” “Morris Cerullo World Evangelism, Inc.” publishes GVA Today, “Revealing God’s Global End Time Prophetic Plan.” The January 1997 issue included a “Special End Time GVA Today Section.” His “first pastorate” was with “a small Assembly of God church in Claremont, New Hampshire,” but God “placed a mantle of power and authority” on him which has resulted in his worldwide prophetic ministry (Special, 2).

Cerullo claims to perform miracles and to receive prophecies directly from God. His first miracle was performed on himself by healing a broken cheekbone some time after doctors had treated it. Once the Holy Spirit told him to go into the woods. There, a red bird flew in front of him. “God spoke: `Son, this red bird is a sign. Tonight, there will be a lady in the back of the auditorium. She’ll be wearing a red coat. She is crippled. Tell her to rise and that I am the Lord thy God.”‘ Since then, “miracle after miracle” has been performed (Special, 2).

Such claims are made without any verification, and are made by all sorts of preachers, churches, and religions preaching contradictory doctrines. These are Satan’s “lying wonders” because “God is not the author of confusion” (2 Thess. 2:9; 1 Cor. 14:33). Paul and the other apostles of Christ taught “the same thing every where in every church” (1 Cor. 4:17). These genuine miracles were verified even by the enemies of the gospel, who said on one occasion, “What shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it” (Acts 4:16).

According to Cerullo, God asked him to name what he wanted, and he answered, “Give me the ability to take what You have given me, the power and anointing that is upon my ministry . . . And give me the ability to give that to others.” In granting that request, God said, “Son, build Me an army!” (Special, 3). Such broad powers are “the signs of an apostle” (2 Cor. 12:12). When Philip preached the gospel, confirmed his preaching with miracles, and baptized many people in Samaria, he could not give them the ability he had to work miracles. Peter and John came from Jerusalem for that purpose because only the apostles had such broad powers. “Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given” (Acts 8:12-19). Like Cerullo, Simon wanted to obtain this power which belonged to the apostles alone. It was not given to Simon, nor to Cerullo.

If Cerullo had the power of an apostle, he could strike me blind as Paul struck Elymas blind for withstanding the truth and turning other people away from it (Acts 13:6-12). I am withstanding Cerullo’s perversions of the truth and turning people away from him. This article will be published for that very purpose, and I am sending him a copy. I invite him to strike me blind the day it is published. I challenge him to do it. I defy him to do so. He will not because he cannot.

If someone thinks such a challenge is too harsh, let him read the New Testament and learn that God commanded his people, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). Christians at Ephesus were commended for doing exactly what I am doing: “Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and hast found them liars” (Rev. 2:4). Cerullo has no anointing from God, received no mantle of power or authority from God, cannot perform miracles, and utters no true prophecies.

Cerullo claims to receive visions and messages directly from God just as Joseph Smith, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, and so many others have claimed. Cerullo arranged “an urgent prophetic summit” with men like Hal Lindsay “and prophetically mapped out the Count-down to Armageddon,” offered on video for a “gift” of “$30 or more.” This prophetic video proves “how the current bloodshed in Jerusalem is just the beginning of an all-out war involving Russia and Israel” (GVA Today, 3). These are the same prophetic events Hal Lindsay proclaimed immanent twenty years ago when he published The Late Great Planet Earth, which has been discredited and disproven by the course of history. The Palestinians and Israel are now fighting, not “Russia and Israel,” so the video is false prophecy.

Cerullo claims to be “God’s prophet” who reveals “the word of the Lord” (GVA Today, 8). He claims to have received many messages and visions from God. For in-stance, “God also revealed to Dr. Cerullo that Jesus will not return to this Earth until there is a volume of prayer ascending to heaven, bombarding the throne of God, praying for the return of Jesus” (Special, 7). If God is providing such new revelations to Cerullo, they can and should be added to the Bible just like the prophecies and revelations of the first century. We will need a new Morris Cerullo Version of the Bible! Actually, God has already warned us through Paul not to listen to such men: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8).

The caption under one picture says, “Thousands crowded the altar to receive the power of God to defeat the devil in their lives. The crowds stayed at the altar literally for hours, seeking the anointing of the Holy Ghost” (GVA Today, 8). We do not read any such thing in the New Testament. Those who wanted to be delivered from the power of Satan were not told to seek the anointing of the Holy Ghost for hours, but were told, “And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16).

The Bible warns against men like Morris Cerullo. “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. There-fore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be ac-cording to their works” (2 Cor. 11:13-15). Reader, beware of men like Cerullo. This man is an impostor, masquerading as an angel of light. His claim to be a prophet is wholly false and fraudulent. He has never performed a genuine miracle or received a genuine revelation from God in all of his life. If he is willing to put his claims to the test (and he is not!), we will make arrangements for a public debate so that his false claims can be even more fully and more force-fully exposed.

Guardian of Truth XLI: 7 p. 8-9
April 3, 1997

By Connie W. Adams

Teenaged Girls Appointed Elders

The Morning News of Rogers, Arkansas reported on January 25, 1997, that the First Presbyterian Church of Rogers has recently appointed two teenaged girls elders, one aged 16 and the other aged 15. This is a part of their effort to get young people more involved in church decisions. It was reported that youth elders have been appointed for about 20 years nation-wide, though this was the first time in Rogers. These youth elders will serve for one year instead of the usual three years served by other elders.

First, there is the word “elder” to consider. It means a senior, one who has reached maturity in age and experience. Next, the qualifications indicate men, not females. “If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work” (1 Tim. 3:1). “A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife … one that ruleth well his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)” (1 Tim. 3:2-5, emphasis mine, CWA). Oh yes, bishops and elders are the same thing in the New Testament (Acts 20:17, 28).

The “co-pastor” of the church is quoted as saying, “Typically, you think of an elder as someone who is elder and has been in church awhile, but the Presbyterian form of government allows for someone under 25 to serve. It allows the church to adopt a youth elder.” Well then the Presbyterian form of government allows something about which the word of God knows nothing. If they really want to help young people, a good starting place would be to teach them respect for the word of the Lord.

Serving While Waiting

Every few years some cult decides they know when the Lord is returning. This results in adherents walking off their jobs, giving away property and sitting around waiting for the fateful hour to arrive. That the Lord is coming again, Bible believers confidently affirm. Jesus spoke of this in parabolic form when he described the man taking his journey while appointing his servants work to do while he was gone. They were taught to “watch” but while they watched, their service continued (Mark 13:34-35). Every chapter of 1 Thessalonians closed with a reference to the second coming of our Lord. Yet, in 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 he said they had “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven.” Note that while they waited, they were to continue serving. The return of the Lord is the great expectation of the saints, but it was never intended to cause us to retire from the work to be done. We must work while it is day. We must go everywhere preaching the word and save as many as we can. Then we must mature and stabilize the saved. That gives us plenty to do while we watch and pray.

Suffer Hardship as a Good Soldier

The work of teaching those who in turn will be able to teach others also requires soldiers of Christ to endure hardship. Paul made that clear in 2 Timothy 2:1-10. The work requires rigorous training. An untrained solder is ill equipped for the battle. The warfare will demand strenuous effort, endurance to the limit. Preaching the gospel is not a place for wimps, whiners, and cowards. Everybody will not love us. Some will ignore us and others will despise us and do whatever they can to hinder our work. The faint hearted will grow weary in well doing and quit. Men with mixed allegiance will be distracted by error and some will be ensnared in it. Hardships come in different packages. Sometimes it may be inconvenience. Then it may take the form of criticism. Or it may be overt opposition. It might be financial stress. It could be discouragement. Whatever form it takes, Paul said, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). What-ever it costs, it is worth it. It was this settled persuasion which moved Paul to say, “Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (2 Tim. 3:10).

The Continuity of the Covenant

It is being taught by some among us these days that no law ended at the cross, that we have one continuous covenant throughout the Bible. At least one book is in print which advocates this view and it is being taught in various places in this country and abroad. This position is related to the false doctrine that the alien sinner is not under law to Christ, but to an eternal moral law. This has been taught in connection with the issue of marriage, divorce, and remarriage to the effect that God’s marriage law is not binding on the alien until he becomes a Christian. In practical terms, that means that if he has been married fifteen times and divorced each time for reasons other than the sexual unfaithfulness of his previous wives, that baptism takes care of all of that and he may now continue on with wife number fifteen. Necessity is the mother of invention. One false doctrine leads to another.

The denominational preachers of a former day called this doctrine of one continual covenant throughout the Bible the “identity of the covenants” and some of them used it to justify infant church membership. They argued that since circumcision was practiced on infants and was the sign of their part in the covenant with Abraham, then it is now in order to baptize infants and admit them to the church. They said, “baptism of infants comes in the room (place) of circumcision.”

There are several covenants mentioned in the Bible. God made covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, and with the nation of Israel through Moses. It is this later covenant called “the first” in Hebrews as it is contrasted to the covenant of Jesus Christ. “He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:9-10). That described as “first” in verse 9 is identified with “the law” in verse 8. He took away the first that (hina, in order that) he may establish the second by which will we are sanctified. All of this was done by what was offered on the cross. How on earth any man who claims to be a gospel preacher could teach that no law ended at the cross and that we have one continuous covenant from Genesis to Revelation is beyond me.

Guardian of Truth XLI: 9 p. 3-4
April May 1, 1997

By Mike Willis

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18).

Paul exhorted the Ephesians to “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). He used the words to contrast with the tendency to become exuberant through intoxication. T. Croskery wrote, “There is a real contrast here exhibited between fulness of wine and fulness of the Spirit. There is an intensity of feeling produced in both cases” (The Pulpit Commentary: Ephesians 223).

Drunkenness is to be avoided. It is accompanied by noisy partying with unrestrained merrymaking. Paul said that it was accompanied by asotia: “an abandoned, dissolute, life; profligacy, prodigality” (Thayer 82). Such a one is abandoned to vice, lost to principle, virtue, or decency; shameless in wickedness. This is not the kind of excitement that a Christian should be involved in. Rather, he should find his thrilling exuberance when he is filled with the Spirit. One should find a means of expressing his warm, glowing feelings toward God and his brethren. W.G. Blaikie wrote, “Instead of re-sorting to wine to cheer and animate you, throw your hearts open to the Holy Spirit, so that he may come and fill them; seek the joy that the Spirit inspires when he makes you to sit with Christ in heavenly places, so that, instead of pouring out your joyous feelings in bacchanalian songs, you may do so in Christian hymns” (The Pulpit Commentary: Ephesians 210).

The apostle then cited three different ways that we can manifest that we are full of the Spirit.

Singing Praise To God (5:19)

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord (Eph. 5:19).

Those who are filled with the Spirit burst out in praise to God in song. There is a social aspect of the worship, in which one joins with others to offer praise to God. He is full, not of the latest country western, rock, pop, or new age hits, but with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. His worship is not that empty ritual in which a person goes through the motions of singing. He is singing and making melody in his heart to the Lord.

Those who are full of the Spirit enjoy praising God in song. We need worship leaders who appreciate what good singing does for an assembly of saints. Such leaders will make preparation for that part of our public worship just as Bible class teachers, preachers, and others prepare for their part. A song leader who runs in at the last minute and hurriedly picks out a few songs that have been sung so many times that the congregation is worn out from singing them interferes with our offering worship. A song leader who leads songs out of pitch and drug to death make it hard to enjoy this part of worship to its fullest.

How encouraging is an assembly in which the saints sing their praises to God with obvious exuberance! Those who are full of the Spirit find that their hearts thrill to offer this worship.

Thanksgiving

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:20).

Another mark of being full of the Spirit is being thankful to the Lord. Thanksgiving is not a day to be observed on the last Thursday in November. It is not an annual spiritual holy day in which a large American bird is sacrificed to our gluttony. Rather, thanksgiving is a way of life.

Old Testament Commentaries

Thanksgiving is an attitude toward God for his abundant provisions for us. If we had nothing to be thankful for except his physical provisions for us, we American people should be a thankful people. However, on top of the abundance of our physical blessings, we have all spiritual blessings in Christ for which to be grateful. No wonder the psalmists exhorted us to praise the Lord in thanksgiving:

Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High (Psa. 50:14).

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and bless his name (Psa. 100:4).

Our thanksgiving should not be limited to those times when everything is going just like we want it. Our God superintends our life and sometimes sees the need for fatherly chastening (Heb. 12:6). Solomon wrote long ago, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him” (Eccl. 7:14). Like Paul, we need to accept our afflictions with grace, giving thanks for the God who knows what is best for sending them (2 Cor. 12:90.

Mutual Submission

Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear God (Eph. 5:21). Another mark of being filled with the Spirit is mutual submission to one another. The opposite of this spirit is a perverse egotism, a self-opinionated superiority that causes contention and strife in the local church. To the degree that such contention and strife exist, the church is still carnal (1 Cor. 3:3). Those who are filled with the Spirit will have learned to consider the needs of their brethren. Paul wrote elsewhere, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (Phil. 2:3-4).

We can witness how full of the Spirit a body of people are by their serving one another. When the needs of the sick go unmet, when the poor are left hungry, and when the hurting are ignored, the congregation of people is not full of the Spirit.

Conclusion

Being full of the Spirit does not mean that one jumps up and down while shouting. That more nearly resembles the conduct of those who are drunken than those who are full of the Spirit. Paul defines for us what being filled with the Spirit means. Let’s individually measure ourselves to see if we are empty, half full, or full of the Spirit.

Guardian of Truth XLI: 9 p. 2
April May 1, 1997

By Phil T. Arnold

A few weeks ago our own brother George Bittner was talking with me and reflecting on the beginnings of this congregation. The main point that he stressed was the role that godly women had played in the early days of this church. He said that probably very few people in the congregation today realized what a vital role those women had played  godly women who stood firm and committed, often without their husbands, to allow this congregation to “get off the ground” and succeed. I would add to that not only in the beginning but throughout the history of this congregation even to its present, godly women have continued to play a significant role in seeing this congregation continue and experience success. Shamefully we fail to acknowledge this as often and rightfully as we should. Perhaps it is just such failure to rightfully acknowledge the church has perhaps become role of godly women that has helped fuel the fire of controversy over the role of women in the church. I realize that there are radical feminists who cry for change and want to break down all barriers of distinction between women in the church. men and women. But there may also be those women who perhaps have been swayed to listen to these cries at least in part by the unfulfilled expressions of appreciation for their contributions to the cause of Christ in the local congregation. Certainly, no Christian serves God rightfully if he does so to receive the praise of men (John 12:42-43; Matt. 6:1-8; Gal. 1:10; 2 Cor. 5:9).

But no one should be taken for granted. No one likes to have his efforts and labors ignored. The lack of recognition and honor that has been given to godly women in the church has perhaps become a fertile soil for the seeds of change being sown in an effort to alter the divinely authorized role of women in the church. The call for women to be held up in leader-ship positions within the church and to lead in public assemblies is no longer merely being heard in denominations, but is now being heard among many of those wearing the name church of Christ. While no abuse or failure in the past could ever be pointed to as cause for rejecting the divine pattern for the present, we need to recognize and acknowledge the rightful role that godly women have and do play in the Lord’s church.

In today’s church, the women outnumber the men in most local congregations. In fact, many congregations would not exist at all if it were not for godly women. This is not to say that godly men have not and do not contribute to the success of the church, but so many times it is godly women who have been the source of spiritual maturity in their homes and in the church. Many husbands have sinfully abdicated their role as spiritual leaders in the home and in the church. In so many cases, godly women after the pattern of Lois and Eunich (see 2 Tim. 1:5; 3:14-15) have been the source of godly teaching, training, and example that has helped shape the next generation for servants and workers in the Lord’s kingdom. Many of us can personally look back upon godly mothers and other godly women who have greatly influenced us to arrive at our current positions of faith and service in the Lord’s church. Yes, the Lord’s church would be in quite a fix without the efforts of such godly women.

Many a man in the Lord’s church today can also point to his godly wife as the source of his conversion. The persistent, faithful teaching and example of a godly woman has introduced many a man to the Lord. And many of us men in our current positions of service also realize the difficulty it would be for us to carry on that service without the faithful support of our companions who do all to hold up our hands and encourage us in all things that are right. Yes, we men would be in a terrible way without godly women!

Yes, we must resist the attempts to conform the Lord’s church to the ways of the world. Yes, the Lord has made a distinction between the role that men and women are to have in the home and in the church. Yet, while there may be a difference in function there is no difference in value. While a woman’s leadership role in the church is limited, the in-valuable work that she may do is virtually limitless. Women may teach Bible classes of children, young women, and ladies (Tit. 2:3-4). Women may teach privately those that are lost (Acts 18:26; Matt. 28:18-20). Women are especially adept at the work of benevolence and seeing to the needs of others. There are an endless number of things that women may engage in to further the cause of the Lord and serve in his kingdom. Without their efforts, any local congregation (this one included) would be greatly handicapped.

So let us thank God for godly women. Let us ever ac-knowledge their irreplaceable and priceless role in the kingdom of Christ, and never be guilty of placing a stumblng block before them by minimizing or overlooking their value. Any may godly women never be discouraged when their service is not rightfully acknowledged. Nor may they every be tempted to abandon the glorious state to which the Lord has called them for the cheap counterfeit being touted by the world.

Guardian of Truth XLI: 9 p. 2
April May 1, 1997