Clear evidence of when Pentecostalism goes completely off the rails! Even their denominational name shows how far off track they are!
What we consider the visible “church” with all its myriad of denominations is not the TRUE Church. Not to mention their adherance to the heretical “Prosperity Gospel” or Doctrine of Balaam.
One of the world’s largest and most controversial Pentecostal churches has been given permission to build a $200m (£130m) replica of Solomon’s Temple in Brazil’s economic capital, São Paulo.
The 10,000 capacity “mega-church”, which is the brainchild of Brazil’s
Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, will also house a replica of the Ark of the Covenant and be built according to “biblical orientations”.
According to the Estado de São Paulo newspaper, planning permission was granted this week and church officials say it should be completed in four years.
The 55-metre high temple, the equivalent of an 18-storey building, would tower over central São Paulo and be “twice the height of [Rio’s] Christ the Redeemer statue”, the blog [by leader and founder, Bishop Edir Macedo] said.
Founded in Brazil in 1977, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God claims an estimated 8 million followers in 180 countries worldwide, with a TV channel and a free newspaper, the Folha Universal, which it says has a weekly print run of 2.5m. The church claims its leader’s blog receives up to 4m hits a month.
The church supports so-called “prosperity theology” – by which acts of faith including donations are rewarded with material wealth.
In 2009, São Paulo’s public prosecutor accused 10 senior members of the church, including Macedo, of siphoning off billions of dollars of donations to buy cars and property. Macedo, who denied the charges, owns a $45m private jet.
Explain to me what this has to do with the pentecostal movement as a whole? How can you condemn an entire movement based on the extremism of one segment of it? That’s like saying Lutherans are pretty much heretics for still believing in transubstantiation! I identify myself with the pentecostal movement, and am currently studying theology at a conservative University – I am very much opposed (even indignant!) to the ‘prosperity gospel’ ideology and am quite convinced that adherence to the Gospel does not guarantee you a comfortable life or material possessions. HOWEVER, I agree with the pentecostals and even the charismatics that the Holy Spirit and its role in our lives as born again followers of Christ has lost a lot of meaning in the modern evangelical church, and we need to realize that it’s a part of our faith. It needs to be given more thought than the downright and unfounded rejection it experiences in most ‘conservative’ circles these days.
Also – what does the denominational name have to do with being off track? Are Calvinists followers of Calvin and therefore ‘off track’? Are Baptist churches all about baptism and therefore reject the important role of teaching? If you’re really trying to hang a stigma on the NAME of this denomination, you’re WAY out of line and need to do some serious rethinking of your understanding of the topic of ‘true discernment’. Think of what Paul would say on the subject, if you believe in ‘Sola Scriptura’ – and stop *judging*!
I don’t agree with this particular community, either. Solomon’s temple, if rebuilt at all, should be rebuilt in Jerusalem at its original location. And a church that has a pastor with a private jet – and with millions of followers that all think if they become Christians they’ll get all the stuff they could ever want and have money out the wazoo – should maybe do some research on the passages where Jesus talks about the fact that as Christians we can EXPECT hardships and persecution.
I don’t want to make you angry, nor do I want to try to tear into your opinion – but I think there’s a certain misconception here which a lot of Christians share that needs to have some light shed on it. My lamp may not be the brightest, nor the farthest reaching, but I’m not prepared to turn it off and let this sort of thing tear the rift between denominations wider than it already is.
May Jesus get back, soon, so we will stop fighting amongst ourselves.
His
Michael Weber
PS: so what, then, is the ‘True Church’, if I may ask?
I actually come from a Pentecostal background born and raised in the Assembly of God denomination, and in my adult years I have been Pentecostal to the core.
I think if you look where, those churches that call themselves Pentecostal are now, compared to when Pentecostalism started, especially here in the U.S. at Azusa Street, you would see that the vast majority have went into abject Apostasy.
They have dropped any pretense of Biblical Doctrine in favor of “signs and wonders” anywhere and in any way they can get it! Even if that means accepting beliefs and ideologies that not only contradict the word of God but DENY it! Hence the signs and wonders that they do see and “experience” are nothing more than lying spirits.
Pentecostalism went off track when it ceased to judge Signs and Wonders via God’s Word! And when it made Signs and Wonders the core of its theology & practice instead of Good Biblical Doctrine. True Signs and Wonders are a RESULT and Testimony to True Biblical Doctrine and living, not the other way around.
I can speak from personal experience that when your primary focus as a Christian is to stand on God’s Word and use it for its God intended purpose: as the definitive guide with which to judge right from wrong, truth from deception then God through the Holy Spirit will make himself manifest and real! And what God makes manifest and real will always agree with his written word!
And as for who is the True Church? That is an easy one, it is not ANY visible Church or Denomination. It is a spiritual body united by their belief in, standing on, and living on the Truth of God’s word above all else.
If our focus and the desire of our hearts as Christians is to adhere to the Truth, God will give us the ability to recognize truth from deception, and the way in which he will do that is to give us the Spiritual eyes to “rightly divide” his word.
Visible denominations are nothing more than Man’s attempt to copy what God has created and hence man’s creation is always corrupted and increases in corruption.
In Christ Alone, God Bless,
John Baker
True Discernment
Hello again! I read through your previous post again after I read your reply, and realized I read the first line all wrong. I apologize for the misconception – but I still don’t understand this part of what you said:
‘Even their denominational name shows how far off track they are!’
what exactly is this denominational name, if not pentecostal? or is there another name that I somehow missed? and if there is another name, then they’re not pentecostal, are they? sorry – I’m a bit new to the whole denominational scene.
I know very little about American pentecostalism, knowing only the churches I’ve been to in Switzerland – but there is a certain all-inclusiveness in the way you say ‘what they are now compared to…’ which is a little misleading. Every single pentecostal church I’ve been to so far has not been like that – has had their doctrine soundly buried in the bible. I think there’s still quite a few pentecostal churches that have kept the roots of ‘what it started as’. Then again, you did say ‘the vast majority’. On the other hand, most ppl will just read right over that and take it as a general ‘all’!
As to the whole signs and wonders thing – I agree with you. Religious ecstasy as a basis of any sort of ‘church’ is not safe. As in the Hymn: ‘On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand’ – Christ, who is the Word of God incarnate. Which we also have :-).
Also with your definition of ‘the Church’, I’m mostly of the same mind. Just a couple of notes, though: Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Yes, there’s not a single denomination or church where we can say everyone is saved, everyone is automatically definitely guaranteed a place in the book of life – but there’s not a single church or denomination that we can safely say the opposite of, either. That’s something I’ll gladly leave to Jesus :-). This is not to say it isn’t our responsibility to try to help each other, and to try to set straight ppl who’ve ‘gotten off track’! But I don’t think writing a blog about them like this is the best way to go about it. I think I remember ‘gentleness’ being one of the fruits of the spirit ;-)… I suppose that this setting straight in itself could be seen as a missionary effort, especially if said ‘denomination’ is as far gone as you’ve made it sound!
I don’t understand what you’re trying to say with your definition of ‘denomination in the last paragraph, there. No argument that it’s mostly a man-made split – but you’ve phrased it in such a way that I can’t really make sense of your reasoning.
OH! and I realized I said the Lutherans believe in transubstantiation – that’s wrong, sorry :-).. it was Zwingli…
May He bless you, also, and continue to give us both opportunities to be self-critical and learn from one another!
His
Michi
Michael,
I was not referring to just American Pentecostalism when I was speaking of Pentecostalism in general. I have also lived and travelled to Europe, Africa & Asia visting many Pentecostal churches and many denominations that consider themselves Pentecostal and I reiterate on the whole the vast majority of Pentecostal Churches, denominations and for that matter non-pentecostal churches have went into apostasy.
And it is not unreasonable, unbliblical, un Christian, or un Charitable to say these things, after all God’s Word says very clearly that this is what would happen over time because of the “leaven” of men’s teaching, and the natural unregenerated condition of man to want to take the “sting” out of the gospel message and adapt it to his unregenerated desires. It is known in God’s Word as the great falling away!
Your own words show how secular humanist ideology has crept into Pentecostalism. When you say the following:
“I think I remember ‘gentleness’ being one of the fruits of the spirit”
While it is true that “gentleness” is one of the fruits of the spirit, your utilizing a secular humanist misunderstanding of this word when you use it! Gentleness does not mean to withhold the truth not to stop warning! In fact God’s Word spends more time warning people than it does anything else. And your own words show why warnings make up such a fundamentally and important place in God’s word. God knows that the entry of humanistic thought into the church is very subtle.
I would warn you not to ignore the vast majority of harsh and stern warnings that Christ and his Apostles gave, ones that people today including yourself would consider uncharitable and not gentle at all.
And in regards to what I said about Denominations. What I said is very clear, Denominations are man made and therefore corrupt creations. Denominations to not define the Body of Christ, they only exist because of men’s flaws. Over time they teach an ever increasing amount of Humanist ideologies and less and less about Biblical teachings, beause they are controlled by men and men control them according to fleshly desires and not Spiritual Guidance. All the apostles but one were martyred because of the ideologies behind the existance of denominations.
And in regards to the name of the denomination in this article it shows their Spiritual blindness and what they are attempting to do reveals a very dark idolatrous blindness.
I want to thank you for your comments, and I want to close by saying that I do practice gentleness on this blog and one way in which it is practiced is that I do not become involved in long debates. From my experience over the years I have found them to be unfruitful and unhelpful to any of the parties involved.
God Bless,
John Baker
This is being built for the glory of Macedo – not God.
He is a greedy thief who robs the poor. He promises that if they give their money to God (to his so-called churches and temples) they will be blessed with health and wealth (which never happens). In the meantime he gets richer and richer and more greedy while the members of his congregation become poorer and poorer.
Macedo is despicable. He is a thief. He lives in luxury and so do all his “bishops”.
I used to attend one of his temples and every time I went to a service the pastors and bishop tried to manipulate, threaten and coerce money from the congregation.
This temple is going to be used for thieving the congregation over and over and over again. I am sure Macedo worships a god and his name is Lord Mammon.