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 Re:

SMITH WIGGLESWORTH (1859-1947) was a famous Pentecostal evangelist and faith healer. Many books have been written about his unusual life. He was converted in a Methodist church, confirmed as an Anglican, and as a young man was associated with the Salvation Army and Plymouth Brethren. In 1907 he claimed that he was "baptised in the Holy Spirit" after hands were laid on him by Mary Boddy, who alleged to have had a Pentecostal experience only a month prior to that. Mrs. Boddy believed in the doctrine of healing in the atonement, but she spent the last sixteen years of her life as an invalid. Wigglesworth, too, believed that physical healing is guaranteed in the atonement of Christ. He taught against the use of all medicine.

He believed that signs and wonders should always follow the preaching of the Gospel. He taught that a Christian can be justified and sanctified but still not have everything necessary from God. "People are never safe until they are baptized with the Holy Ghost" (Wigglesworth, "The Place of Power," June 1916, reprinted in The Anointing of His Spirit, p. 151).

He taught that handkerchiefs which are prayed over will bring life if carried in faith to the sick (The Anointing of His Spirit, p. 231). He taught: "Jesus came to set us free from sin, to free us from sickness, so that we should go forth in the power of the Spirit and minister to the needy, sick, and afflicted" (Wigglesworth, "Divine Life Brings Divine Health," Pentecostal Evangel, Jan. 17, 1942).

He claimed that the Christian has the power to speak things into existence: "God declares, 'You have an anointing.' Believe God and you will see this happen. What you say will come to pass. Speak the word and the bound shall be free, the sick shall be healed" (Wigglesworth, "Power from on High," Pentecostal Evangel, May 27, 1944).

Like today's Word-Faith preachers, Wigglesworth failed to make a proper distinction between the person and ministry of Jesus Christ and that of the Christian. He claimed that Jesus Christ increased in the fullness of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit. "I want you to understand that after the trials, after all the temptations and everything, Jesus comes out more full of God, more clothed in the Spirit, more ready for the fight" (Wigglesworth, "The Place of Power," June 1916, reprinted in The Anointing of His Spirit, p. 146). This is heresy. The Lord Jesus Christ was God the Son. He could not be "more full of God." Further, He was given the Spirit without measure (John 3:34).

The Lord Jesus Christ did not come to be our example; He came to be our Savior (Lk. 19:10). Wigglesworth also taught that the Christian can operate in the same omnipotent power that Christ exercised. "Dare you come into the place of omnipotence? ... God's design is to bring you to the place where you will be a son clothed with the power of gifts and graces, ministries and operations, to bring you into glory, clothed with the majesty of heaven. For he shall bring many sons and daughters unto glory--unto son-likeness, son-perfection" (Wigglesworth, "The Privileges of Sonship," August 1924, reprinted in The Anointing of His Spirit, p. 221).

This is very similar to the false Manifest Sons of God theology of the perfectibility of certain saints, and it is the same heresy as that taught today by Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, and other Word-Faith teachers. Again, it is a confusion of this present life with that which is to come. They would mock this statement, claiming that my problem is unbelief and spiritual blindness, but the fact remains that they cannot do the miracles that Christ performed.

The Lord Jesus Christ never conducted a healing crusade and He never took up an offering before He performed His signs and wonders. He did not have any rock music to stir up the crowd. He did not laugh hysterically or stagger about like a drunk man. He could raise the dead and heal every sickness without fail. No Pentecostal preacher has ever been able to do this.

Wigglesworth taught a form of sinless perfection. He stated: "I am realizing very truly these days that there is a sanctification of the Spirit where the thoughts are holy, where the life is beautiful, with no blemish" (Wigglesworth, "Count It All Joy," August 1925, reprinted in The Anointing of His Spirit, p. 226).

Oh, that this were the truth, but it is not. The Apostle Paul described his experience in these words: "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. ... O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death" (Rom. 8:18,24).

There is spiritual victory through the Holy Spirit in this life, but it is not the experience described by Wigglesworth. It is not a life in which the thoughts are perfectly holy and in which there is no blemish. This is the destructive heresy of perfectionism, of complete sanctification, which has led multitudes of sincere people down the road of confusion and despair. To encourage people to seek and demand that which God has not promised is to expose them to demonic delusion and fleshly fanaticism.

The popular Bible commentator Harry Ironside began his ministry as a young man with the Salvation Army. He earnestly sought the sinless perfection experience, and at one point he thought he "had it." Alas, though, he soon realized that his old sin nature was still present and active. In great despair he was committed to a hospital in a state of emotional and spiritual breakdown. There God brought him into contact with literature which taught the way of biblical sanctification and with Christians who could help him understand his salvation correctly.

He became established in the Faith and went on to have a long and fruitful ministry of the Word of God. His testimony is in the book Holiness: The False and the True, which is published by Loizeaux Brothers.


Wigglesworth preached constantly on the power of faith, but he failed to balance his teaching with the absolute necessity of submitting one's faith to the sovereign will of God. He failed to distinguish properly between this present life and the resurrection life which is to come (Romans 8:18- 25).

Instead he taught: "Jesus would have us come forth in divine likeness, in resurrection force, in the power of the Spirit, to walk in faith and understand his Word, what he meant when he said he would give us power over all the power of the enemy. Christ will subdue all things till everything comes into perfect harmony with his will" (Wigglesworth, "The Substance of Things Hoped For," Pentecostal Evangel, Oct. 25, 1924).

This is a destructive doctrinal error which causes people to be confused about what they can and cannot expect from God in this present time.

Such false teaching produces great confusion and results in the overthrowing of the faith of great numbers of people who, having tried to exercise the faith spoken of by the Pentecostal preacher and having failed to achieve the desired miracle, give up in great despair.

Faith is trusting God and His Word NO MATTER WHAT THE CIRCUMSTANCES, whether He does miracles or whether He does not do miracles. Faith is waiting on God to bring His promises to pass, regardless of what I am experiencing in this present life.

Hebrews 11 reminds us that there are two kinds of faith: that which overcomes difficulties (Heb. 11:32- 35a) and that which endures difficulties (Heb. 11:35b-40).

In spite of his teaching that God promises perfect physical wholeness and that the Christian can operate in the same sign gifts that Christ exhibited, very few of those who sought Wigglesworth's healing ministrations were ever healed.

His own wife died a mere six years after he became a Pentecostal, and his son died two years after that. His daughter, who assisted in his meetings, was never healed of her deafness. For three years Wigglesworth himself suffered with gallstones.

In 1936 Wigglesworth gave a prophecy to the aforementioned David DuPlessis that God would pour out His Spirit upon all denominations and that the Pentecostal experience would sweep the world. DuPlessis was told that he would play a significant role in this movement.

The fulfillment of the prophecy has proven that it was not of God. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth (Jn. 14:17; 15:27; 16:13; 1 John 4:6), and wherever He holds sway in men's lives He enlightens their minds to the truth and causes them to abhor error.

In contrast, the ecumenical-Charismatic "renewal" with which David DuPlessis was associated, is a movement which confirms people in their doctrinal error. Catholics remained committed to Roman heresies. Modernists remained committed to their unbelief. Members of apostate denominations remained committed to the apostasy. The ecumenical- Charismatic renewal has broken down the walls between truth and error and has been one of the chief glues of the end-times one-world church movement.

 2008/3/27 15:51
psalm1
Member



Joined: 2007/1/30
Posts: 1230


 Re:

Here is wigglesworth on deception;

........How many times has Satan come along to you this way? He says, "After all, you may be deceived. You know you really are not a child of God." If the devil comes along and says that you are not saved, it is a pretty sure sign that you are. When he comes and tells you that you are not healed, it may be taken as good evidence that the Lord has sent His word and healed you. The devil knows that if he can capture your thought life, he has won a mighty victory over you. His great business is injecting thoughts, but if you are pure and holy you will instantly shrink from them. God wants us to let the mind that was in Christ Jesus, that pure, holy, humble mind of Christ, be in us.

I come across people everywhere I go who are held bound by deceptive conditions, and these conditions have come about simply because they have allowed the devil to make their minds the place of his stronghold. How are we to guard against this? The Lord has provided us with weapons that are mighty through God to the pulling down of these strongholds of the enemy, and by means of which every thought shall be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ and His mighty name are an antidote to all the subtle seeds of unbelief that Satan would sow in your minds.


I just love this man,how could anybody not be uplifted?


David

 2008/3/27 16:29Profile









 Re:

"The Lord Jesus Christ did not come to be our example; He came to be our Savior (Lk. 19:10)."

Katy-did,

Not both? Example and Savior? why are these mutually exclusive? Jesus showed compasion, would that i could emmulate this. Jesus showed fortitude under great stress, Lord let me approach life in such manner. Jesus disdained the riches of this world; let my priorities be so!

bub

 2008/3/27 16:56









 Re:

Quote:
God wants us to let the mind that was in Christ Jesus, that pure, holy, humble mind of Christ, be in us.



That mind spoken in Philippians is,
Who made Himself of no reputation ,
He humbled Himself, became obedient unto death, even death of a cross....

David if we too are to have this mind in us, then wouldn't it be fair to say if one is dying, humility is accepting that as God's will.

So one can be pre-occupied with self and perfection, or one can die to self, and enter into HIS perfection, as only Christ is perfect.

Our life is In Christ...Christ IS our Life.

The last man Adam is a LIFE giving Spirit. We are Born Again, born of the Spirit. Our HOPE and anchor of our soul is In Christ, and we don't know what we are going to be but we know ONLY THEN will we be like HIM. But now, in our flesh, we carry the fall of original sin. We still get colds, flu, and age. Aging is a degenerative disease. That was not overcome at the Cross.

Just as the earth groans within waiting for the New Creation..or the New Heaven and New Earth, so do our mortal bodies. I think people who are so fixed on their flesh, and health and healing etc, are looking after the flesh and not living after the Spirit. I think the Idea is that we have a BETTER HOPE coming...an eternal lasting HOPE and existance, when all tears are wiped away where nothing evil, including disease , sickness and death can enter in.

When Paul told Timothy to take a little wine for his ailing stomach...he didn't admonish him for not having faith to heal himself, or rebuke any demons as the cause.

Wigglesworth taught faith in faith. This is what Word Faith teaches. If you look in Hebrews 11, all faith was in the redeemer, regardless of circumstances...and they did not have the Holy Spirit....it said they are waiting for a better resurrection. Oh what a day that will be, our New Glorified Bodies!!!

Katy

 2008/3/27 16:59









 Re:

Quote:
"The Lord Jesus Christ did not come to be our example; He came to be our Savior (Lk. 19:10)."



Take that in the context it was written.

Many people only see Jesus as an example we are to immitate. I believe we live by the Faith of Christ in us. I cannot in and of myself immitate Jesus Christ, however Christ In Me lives HIS life through me. Christ is being formed in me... I am being changed from Glory to Glory by the Spirit of the Lord...2 Corinthians 3.

We are partakers of His divine nature through faith by His great and precious Promises. 2 Peter 1.

The Just shall live by faith ( the faith of Christ) not by immitation.

The fruit of the Spirit comes through obedience to His word. That fruit comes throuh death to self. Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh Galatians 5...No longer I but Christ in me. Gal 2:20


Katy

 2008/3/27 17:05









 Re:

Hello Katy-did and others,


I would like to say that when we read things about men such as wigglesworth, ravenhill, katz etc....

Let us remember that these men were every bit of Flesh, and it would behoove us to understand or to place in better perspective the Faith they carried. Too many details about these men can be controversial and possibly untrue or inaccurate.

The important thing to me is that they were spirit filled believers, and signs and wonders dod follow them.....

Also note, all these men spent countless hours and moments of prayer before the Saviour.....

So, if i may, let us look/ think on those things that are lovely , pure, true, filled with virtue, praise, and where there was a good report.


Praise the Lord

 2008/3/27 17:20









 Re:



David,

Revelation 21:1

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.


[u]4And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. [/u]

Katy

 2008/3/27 17:20









 Re:

EJG, I would have to ask people to hold ALL things up to scripture regardless of what men may say or do.

Many will say in that day..haven't we done many wonders and miracles and Jesus willsay..I never knew you.

We also know that anti-christ is coming and will be accompanied with great signs and wonders.

So, I will have to totally disagree with you on this point.

We are to see if these spirits are of God. Also Satan can turn himself into an angel of light and a preacher of righteousness.

Katy

 2008/3/27 17:26
ChrisJD
Member



Joined: 2006/2/11
Posts: 2895
Philadelphia PA

 Re:

Hi everyone,




The Lord Jesus said,


[b][color=660000] If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. [/color][/b]






Paul told timothy to [i]make full proof of thy ministry.[/i]


Of servants of the Lord, he told him that they must


not strive

be gentle unto all


be apt to teach

be patient

and give instruction in meekness.



As to preaching the Gospel, Paul wrote of himself,

"I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ."


- Romans 15:17-19(KJV)


[i]I have fully preached the gospel of Christ[/i]



Not only in words, but in deeds also.




Chris









_________________
Christopher Joel Dandrow

 2008/3/27 18:57Profile
psalm1
Member



Joined: 2007/1/30
Posts: 1230


 Re:

In this little snippet wigglesworth recounts the awesome breaking of the believer;

............"We need to wake up and be on the stretch to believe God. Before God could bring me to this place He has broken me a thousand times. I have wept, I have groaned, I have travailed many a night until God broke me. It seems to me that until God has mowed you down you never can have this longsuffering for others. We can never have the gifts of healing and the working of miracles in operation only as we stand in the divine power that God gives us and we stand believing God, and having done all we still stand believing.

We have been seeing wonderful miracles these last days and they are only a little of what we are going to see. I believe that we are right on the threshold of wonderful things, but I want to emphasize that all these things will be through the power of the Holy Ghost. You must not think that these gifts will fall upon you like ripe cherries. There is a sense in which you have to pay the price for everything you get. We must be covetous for God's best gifts, and say Amen to any preparation the Lord takes us through, in order that we may be humble, usable vessels through whom He Himself can operate by means of the Spirit's power.




I'm glad he was willing to pay the price



David

 2008/3/27 22:30Profile





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