“You are about to see a world where greed and deceit raise their ugly heads. Where lives have been needlessly lost. And where hope, the most precious gift of all, is peddled at a price. This is the wickedness in the world of faith healing.”
No, Derren Brown, the man behind the documentary Miracles for Sale, isn’t a watchblogger and he doesn’t head up a discernment ministry. He’s an atheist. And this project is proof in living color that – to our shame – lost people often see right through these types of blasphemies better than some so-called Christians do.
Several years ago, Derren Brown set out to expose the chicanery of faith healing. He chose to do so by taking an average man off the streets, teaching him the tricks of the trade, and passing him off as a legitimate faith healer, proving that God isn’t behind this movement – it’s all sleight of hand, fakery, and deceit.
Have you ever wondered how faith healers make it appear as though someone has actually been healed? Or how they can know personal things about someone in their audience whom they’ve never met? Miracles for Sale will show you.
WARNING:This movie contains a smattering of profanity (I tried counting. I believe it was about 5-6 words). It was made by an atheist and other non-Christians, and that’s how atheists and non-Christians talk sometimes (which, of course, is not to excuse this sin, merely to explain it). Additionally, since this movie was made by non-Christians, it does not contain a doctrinally sound theological response to the evil of faith healing. If these things would cause you to stumble or make you uncomfortable in any way, PLEASE DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO.
Or maybe I answered your question already? Check out my article The Mailbag: Top 10 FAQs to see if your question has been answered and to get some helpful resources.
My oldest daughter is turning 12 this week, and I see a lot of heart issues in her that I would like to help her with. She is a triplet, and also has three younger siblings, and I think she feels like she doesn’t get as much attention from me because of the neediness of the other children, which has turned into bitterness and disrespectful attitudes in her. Is there a book that you know of that I could take her through that would help us both with these things? Really, anything directed at her age discussing how to be a godly older sister. I want to be a good mom for her, raising her to be a kind and loving older sister, but I feel like I am failing.
Being a mom is pretty challenging, and we all have moments and seasons when we feel like we’re failing. Ask the best, most godly mom you know, and I’m sure she’ll agree. Sometimes, it’s because we have failed, which means we need to repent – to God and to our children – and obey Him. But often, we take those feelings of failure upon ourselves when we’re truly doing our best, and/or when the situation is unavoidable or isn’t our fault.
Let me give you a few resources that may help…
First, you’ll want to get your own heart and mind in order – according to Scripture – about your feelings of failure. Check out my article: Guilt and Shame- Burden or Blessing?
Your daughter is the perfect age for the two of you to study the Bible together. If she’s not yet a Believer, you’ll want to explain the gospel to her. If she is a Believer, study through a book of the Bible together. The Bible is a book, it’s directed at her age, and it addresses all of the things you’ve mentioned both textually and transformatively. (If I may be a little blunt: your daughter needs godly parenting from the best people for the job – you and your husband – and either salvation or sanctification by the Holy Spirit more than she needs to read a book written by someone else.) If you’d like, the two of you might also enjoy working through my Bible study Imperishable Beauty: A Study of Biblical Womanhood. Studying Scripture together will also help address the issue of her feeling like she’s not getting enough attention from you.
And don’t forget to pray for your daughter on your own, with your husband, and with her. Prayer is also transformative. It will help you, your husband, and your daughter get on the same page with God.
Finally, let your church be the resource for you that God wants it to be. This is a textbook Titus 2:3-5 situation. Find a godly older woman in your church or in your family, and ask for her help and guidance. If you don’t know anyone like that, set up an appointment with your pastor for counsel and ask him to point you in the direction of a godly older woman who can disciple you through this.
Although doctrinally sound books can sometimes be helpful, the means and methods God has prescribed in Scripture – the Word, prayer, and the church – should always be our “Plan A”.
I’m 19 years of age and I’m currently at war with my parents because I told them I wanted to start wearing pants. They believe my salvation is not real because I’m going against Deuteronomy 22:5…..And it has made me so confused about my stand with God. Am I really sinning against God or am I misunderstanding something?
I think there’s definitely some misunderstanding and some sin going on here, but maybe not like you might be thinking. Let’s sort it out according to Scripture.
In and of itself, it is not a sin for a Christian woman to wear modest women’s pants. If your parents genuinely think you’re not saved solely because you want to wear modest women’s pants, then they are misunderstanding Deuteronomy 22:5 (and possibly the New Testament concept of Christians being under the covenant of grace rather than the Mosaic covenant). I’ve explained all of this in detail in my article The Mailbag: May Christian Women Wear Pants?.
However there aresins being committed in this situation that you may not have considered. If you’re “at war” with your parents about this or any other issue of adiaphora/Christian liberty, you’re probably committing the sins of pride, dishonoring/disobeying your parents, failing to live at peace with them so far as you’re able, and failing to bear with their weakness in this area. (Your parents may also be committing some of these sins as well as provoking you to anger, but you can only control whether or not you’re sinning, and how you react to their sins.) I would encourage you to study the Scriptures I’ve linked here, ask God to humble you and help you understand whether or not you’ve sinned in any of these areas, and, if you have, repent – to God and to your parents.
Now, there is one more dynamic at play here: It doesn’t sound like you’re married, so are you still living under your parents’ roof and/or financial support (e.g. You live in a dorm or apartment they’re paying for, they’re paying for your education, etc.) or are you living on your own and supporting yourself? Those are two different kettles of fish.
Your parents have the right to make the rules for their house, and they have the right to decide what they will and won’t support financially, even if those rules and conditions seem wrong, ridiculous, or unfair to you. At nineteen, you are an adult, and you have the right to decide whether you want to live under those rules in their house, and whether you want to abide by the conditions under which they will financially support you. It’s just a question of which is more important to you at this point in your life – housing and financial support or wearing pants. If you want to live at their house and/or receive their money, you need to humble yourself and abide by their rules without complaining. If you want to wear pants, you need to move out and pay your own way.
A few final thoughts:
If you’re still living at home or receiving financial support from your parents, you can lovingly and humbly ask if they might be open to the compromise of you wearing split skirts or palazzo pants / skirts. Go into this conversation prepared to graciously accept an answer of “no”.
Give 1 Peter 3:1-6 a good study. This passage is not about the parent-child relationship, but about Christian wives softening their unsaved husbands’ hearts to the gospel by their godly, submissive behavior. Are there any principles you can glean from this passage that can be applied to your relationship with your parents as you submit to their authority in their home and under their financial support?
When you do move out and support yourself, you’re free to wear modest women’s pants whenever you like, but Scripture doesn’t allow us to exercise our Christian liberties in ways that unnecessarily offend others. In other words, when you go visit your parents, put on a skirt.
I am curious as to why Kenneth Copeland and Rhema Bible College [founded by Kenneth Hagin] are NOT on your list of false teachers. Thank you for your ministry but I believe these are important ones to highlight as well.
I agree, the two Kenneths are/were rank heretics, and Rhema “Bible” College knows nothing of the Bible. No one should have anything to do with any of them.
Here’s why they (and a number of other blatant heretics) are not listed at my Popular False Teachers & Unbiblical Trends tab (in the blue menu bar at the top of this page). Let’s start with an excerpt from that page that perhaps you didn’t see:
Please understand that this isnot a comprehensive list of every false teacher inexistence (there are thousands of them, so that would be impossible)… I provide information here largely in answer to questions from my readers. In other words, if you don’t see it, it’s either because I haven’t been asked about it, or I haven’t had time to get to it yet. The names you see are simply some of the most well-known teachers my readers have inquired about.
Generally speaking, my audience consists mostly of Christian women in passable to vibrantly doctrinally sound churches. They’re not asking me if the Kenneths are false teachers; they can watch or listen to five minutes of either of those guys and know.
Women who are so undiscerning that they’re following these guys are almost certainly not saved (and aren’t following me). What they need is to repent and believe the gospel, or they’re neither going to understand why, nor believe that the Kenneths are heretics, and, like the pigs and dogs they are, spiritually speaking, they’re going to turn and attack me for trying to convince them
There are tens of thousands of false teachers out there. I am one person with a husband, family, church responsibilities, friends, a podcast, speaking engagements, and other topics I have to blog about. I have to spend my time, not on the obvious false teachers, but on the more subtle ones my readers are actually asking about.
I have also attempted to help out readers who don’t find the false teacher they’re looking for on the list (again, from my Popular False Teachers & Unbiblical Trends page):
In this article, you’ll not only learn how to research teachers for yourself (a skill every Christian should develop), you’ll also find a list of trustworthy discernment ministries who may have the information you’re looking for.
If you have a question about: a Bible passage, an aspect of theology, a current issue in Christianity, or how to biblically handle a family, life, or church situation, comment below (I’ll hold all questions in queue {unpublished} for a future edition of The Mailbag) or send me an e-mail or private message. If your question is chosen for publication, your anonymity will be protected.
PLEASE READ WARNING (BELOW) BEFORE VIEWING THE MOVIE.
“You are about to see a world where greed and deceit raise their ugly heads. Where lives have been needlessly lost. And where hope, the most precious gift of all, is peddled at a price. This is the wickedness in the world of faith healing.”
No, Derren Brown, the man behind the documentary Miracles for Sale, isn’t a watchblogger and he doesn’t head up a discernment ministry. He’s an atheist. And this project is proof in living color that – to our shame – lost people often see right through these types of blasphemies better than some so-called Christians do.
Several years ago, Derren Brown set out to expose the chicanery of faith healing. He chose to do so by taking an average man off the streets, teaching him the tricks of the trade, and passing him off as a legitimate faith healer, proving that God isn’t behind this movement – it’s all sleight of hand, fakery, and deceit.
Have you ever wondered how faith healers make it appear as though someone has actually been healed? Or how they can know personal things about someone in their audience whom they’ve never met? Miracles for Sale will show you.
WARNING:This movie contains a smattering of profanity (I tried counting. I believe it was about 5-6 words). It was made by an atheist and other non-Christians, and that’s how atheists and non-Christians talk sometimes (which, of course, is not to excuse this sin, merely to explain it). Additionally, since this movie was made by non-Christians, it does not contain a doctrinally sound theological response to the evil of faith healing. If these things would cause you to stumble or make you uncomfortable in any way, PLEASE DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO.
So we’re “beta testing” a new weekly feature today and for the foreseeable future: The Mailbag. I get lots of great questions from readers, and I figure if one person is asking, there are probably several more wondering the same thing.
If you have a question about: a well known Christian author/leader, a Bible passage, an aspect of theology, a current issue in Christianity, or how to biblically handle a family, life, or church situation, comment below (I’ll hold all questions in queue {unpublished} for a future edition of The Mailbag) or send me an e-mail or private message. If your question is chosen for publication, your anonymity will be protected.
Have you listened to/researched anything on Dr. David Jeremiah? I have heard a couple of his sermons on Turning Point Radio and they have both been sound, but I am wondering more about him.
Photo via DavidJeremiah.org
I have not read any of David Jeremiah’s books nor listened to more than a few excerpts from his sermons, so I suppose it is possible his materials themselves, especially older ones, may be OK, doctrinally. I would, however, urge caution and careful discernment should you decide to use any of his materials.
That being said, while David Jeremiah, generally speaking, has a reputation for preaching and teaching sound doctrine, at least in the past, he is not someone I would recommend due to his extremely poor discernment.
Over the past several years, David Jeremiah has been associating and partnering with a variety of popular false teachers and engaging in questionable practices:
In 2012, he went on Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Praise-A-Thon to help raise money for the indisputably Word of Faith television network. He had all kinds of laudatory words for Paul Crouch and TBN, and his remarks about stewardship, sowing and reaping, etc., were worrisome at best.
Jeremiah has partnered with Catholic mystic, Roma Downey, writing a companion book to her A.D. miniseries. (This article also asserts that Jeremiah has connections to T.D. Jakes {modalist, Word of Faith} and Jesse Duplantis {Word of Faith, New Apostolic Reformation}. I don’t doubt the author, but I have not been able to find those connections through my own research. T.D. Jakes was a consultant on Roma Downey’s The Bibleminiseries, so it’s possible they know each other through her.)
In May, Jeremiah will be sharing the stage with Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen at the Jumpstart conference. UPDATE: “Due to other conflicts” Jeremiah will no longer be appearing at the Jumpstart conference. A reader shared with me this email she received from Turning Point ministries:
In the same way I do not recommend female authors and teachers who preach to men because they are living in ongoing, unrepentant sin (1 Timothy 2:12), I cannot recommend a pastor or teacher (male or female) who is living in ongoing, unrepentant sin by partnering with and endorsing false teachers regardless of how sound his own doctrine might be. Scripture is very clear that this is forbidden:
Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting,11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.
2 John 9-11
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
Additionally, it is dangerous to fellowship with false teachers because they can corrupt even sound theology.
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
1 Corinthians 15:33
