"What do you consider the most deceptive doctrines that are openly peddled today"
"False Healing" and "Name it and Claim it" are the money makers. If you want to make money in the ministry and don't care how... that's the way to go. You can deceive yourself all the way to the bank, pass "go" then "go" to hell cause that's where it leads. People who believe these particular doctrines are the ones who haven't read the Bible from cover to cover. Kenneth Copeland and Kenneth Hagin (Coplenhaginism) can say whatever they want to their crowds and those crowds will believe it, it doesn't matter what they say as long as it appeals to thir greed. To them, if it's on TBN, it's gospel (note: not 100% of everything on TBN is bad, just most of it).
Is either of them in themselves damning? No. There are some that will make it to heaven in spite of these beliefs but not any who've been in it long. I met some Mormons who have just joined the Mormon church, young guys and they know nothing about the Mormons but they want to serve G-d so they joined. They too would make it to heaven if they died today, but maybe not next year.
I believe in what I call "The forehead effect". If your eyes are toward G-d (if He can see your forehead) then your ok, but if He sees your back... you're in sin and will die. It doesn't matter where you are on your path, if He doesn't see your eyes focused on Him... you're in trouble. Many of the people who are involved with the name it and claim it group never were really saved in the first place. They simply saw G-d as a big Santa Clause and decided to join so they get could get their piece of the pie. That's not love, that's greed. This happens in other churches... they want to go to heaven so bad because they don't want to go to hell. That's not love either. You can't go to heaven because you're scared of hell. All these prophecy teachers who go around scaring people with the end days and they get all these converts... it doesn't work, those people aren't Saved. You can't get Saved out of fear! Hal Lindsey was scaring everyone with his "Late Great Planet Earth" and all those people started going to church... they weren't Saved. Sure they may have later down the road accepted Yeshua but most of them quit church soon after and were now even more hardened then they were in the first place. That's because you can't get Saved outta fear. If the spirit of fear is there... guess which Spirit ISN'T there?
It's common sense really. One thing I really love about G-d is that He's the G-d of common sense. Common sense is becoming very rare these days and has become a commodity. Look at Dr. Phil for example (I'm not supporting Dr Phil here by any means, just using him as an example) 90% of what he says is and used to be common sense. He's not saying anything new or profound, he's just using common sense most of the time (he's not Saved so I don't recommend him). You want real common sense? Follow the Bible! He's the Master of common sense. Every single thing said in the Bible makes perfect sense to me. Even in things I don't get 100%, it makes sense because I'm not supposed to get 100% of every single thing and I can rest in peace about that. If you're not Saved, you're life is a big bowl of confusion and nothing will ever make sense to you because you're following the Lord of Confusion.
Back to doctrine. "Name it and claim it" and "Healing" are the money makers. Replacement theology is the Devils pet theology. The Devil wants to kill every Jew. He always has wanted to. He's very intelligent and he knows that in order to get people to hate the Jews, he has to start small. The Jews are greedy. That's a good start message. They own the media. That's a good one too. The Jews are rich. Hey wait a minute, isn't that last one true? It doesn't matter if it's true or not, can it be used against them? If Satan can get every Christian to go around saying the Jews are rich... he might be able to sneak in the next thought... "They shouldn't be that rich should they?". It doesn't take long from there and we have Nazi Germany, because you know what... that's how it started! I've been called "over sensitive to anti-semitism" and told to "just let it go". Aint gonna happen. I'm aware of the master plan... kill the Jews. It's not like any other plan like... "kill the Icelanders". It's not because I'm on some trip about being Jewish and the Jews are special or what have you... it's because the Bible says there will be Jews in the end days and the Devil wants to prove G-d wrong on that issue. If the Bible had said something about the Icelanders... that could be different. The Devil hates the Jews for some very specific reasons. First, they were chosen as G-d's people. No matter what anyone's problem is with that statement... it doesn't matter, they're still chosen and they Devil hates that. If you hate the fact that the Jews are the chosen people... check yourself cause you're on the wrong side. The Devil also hates the Jews because it was through the Jews that Jesus came and died for all our sins.. that really bugged the Devil :-) That ruined his plans in a major way and highly intelligent Evil beings don't like their plans interrupted. Now he wants every one of them DEAD!
Here's where he's at with the church on his plan... The Jews aren't Israel, the Church is. Nice and tidy. All those good promises that "could've would've should've been Israel's are now ours because the Jews messed up!!! The Jews REJECTED the Messiah, the Bible even says so!!!" You got it all wrong friend. First of all, G-d's promises are forever. He doesn't take them back. If He says this is "yours FOREVER"... then He means FOREVER. If He says "Through all generations"... He means all generations. Not, till the Messiah comes. If He meant that, He could say that! There are things that must take place in Israel before the Second Coming. If the Devil can distract us and get us to look at other things (things other then Israel) he thinks he can delay His return and get more souls. We don't think like this. We don't spend our 24 hours a day figuring out ways to get people's souls to go to hell. But he does and he's patient. He's got a human lifetime to get it right in each individual. Replacement theology... his best trick in the church. Will it damn you in itself? No. But if you believe it, you wont bring many Jews to the L-rd... Devil wins that plan.
So which ones WILL damn you? Well, here's one... the Shepparding movement. This is one that will lead you into the cult category. Cults aren't what you think. Everyone who disagrees with you isn't a cult. A cult has to have 2 ingredients and they have to have both of these together to work. False doctrine is the first and unquestionable leadership is the second. The false doctrine in itself doesn't have to be damnable. Look at Jim Jones. He preached the Gospel for many years. It wasn't till he got up into Ukiah that he started to give a little twist here and there to the Scriptures. His daughter survived the cult and is Saved now and is also a good friend of our family. Once he was able to get a twist or two past his congregation... he knew he could tell them whatever he wanted and they'd do it. Cause they had already crossed the line and they already met condition 2.
I have dealt with many cults. One I went to was a "Church of G-d" (not all COG's are bad). The pastor decided where all the congregants worked. He decided where they all lived and he who they could or could not see. His word was law. They told me, "The Pastor hears from G-d". I said, "Ok. But what if he's incorrect about something?" They said, if he hears from G-d, then how can he be incorrect? Is G-d incorrect?" BAM, there's your unquestionable leadership. Of course they had false doctrine peppered throughout their statement of beliefs but they have to have both to be in "cult status".
If somebody tells me that their church is right... I have no problem with that, you should feel that way. If you didn't think they were right, then you should not be going there! Now if they tell me that every other church is going to hell... I got a big problem with that cause now they're venturing into cult status. There's a big difference between, "I'm right about everything and everyone else is wrong about everything". And "We're going to heaven and no one else is". You don't go to hell for being incorrect as such because no one on this planet is 100% correct about everything. But if one makes it where he's (or his church) are the only ones to make it then he's forsaking the Body and thereby forsaking Christ. Many get awfully close to that. Name it and claim it say that if you don't have a lot of stuff, then you have sin in your life (sin is damnable) but not many would follow Coplan to the grave... they're too greedy. Replacement theo is neither. The false doctrine of it wont damn you in itself and it's leadership isn't organized enough... yet anyway. I hate replacement theo the most though. Because it's sending a lot of Jews to hell because it causes the church to ignore them. I'm fanatical and militantly against it. It's such a hard one to fight too, the Devil knows his Scripture and He knows which ones to use. If it wasn't for the Holy Spirit working through us, we wouldn't stand a chance against him. Don't underestimate the Enemy. I've heard some say, "the Devil is so stupid" and some tell me I'm glorifying him. I'm not, I'm simply realizing that he's been on this planet longer then any human being and he's seen and known G-d for many centuries. G-d created him and G-d didn't make him stupid. I don't even believe he's deceived himself. I think he knows the end, but he's gonna take everyone down with him if he can. False doctrine is a big part of that plan.
Shalom in Yeshua,
Rabbi Stanley
