RC Sproul and the Word of Faith Cure

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I wanted to hear about something other than that, chosen by God.

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I thought, that's an idea that we got over as the people of God, right? Jonathan Edwards was into that, and this is a new millennium.

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Why would someone of that caliber, whom I respected, fly from Florida to Scottsdale, Arizona, to talk about an idea that's passed its sell -by date?

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We got over this. I wanted to hear him, but I didn't want to hear him on that.

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So I was in two minds whether I'd go, it was a Friday night meeting and a Saturday morning meeting, and I thought,

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I'll go, no I won't, I'll go, no, I don't want to go, I'll go. Well, I decided to go, but I sat on the back row, because at the moment, this man, whom

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I do respect, starts quoting all these theologians, some of the greats of church history,

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I'm out of here, I'm not really interested. That's my thought.

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Now, if I sit on the back row, I'm not going to disrupt the event. Well, I went to the event, and if you've ever experienced a

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Ligonier Ministries meeting, it's full of God's Word, it's full of God's people.

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I was surprised that 70 % of the people attending were men, that took me by surprise,

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I'm not sure I fully grasp all of the reasons why that was the case, but that got my attention, and Dr.

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R .C. Sproul came out, and all he did was go to God's Word, and teach from the

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Bible, and I could listen to him without exasperation, and I was challenged by what he said, but I thought, but I've got other verses that would dismiss his arguments, and it's going to fall apart when

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I could ever ask him a question. Well, then he announced the fact, and I saw it in the program, there was going to be a question and answer time.

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A question and answer time, I thought, well, that's when this idea of his is going to fall apart, it's going to be exposed when we ask just simple questions, like, what about John 3 .16,

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what about 2 Peter 3 .9? Well, the funny part was, that's what got me to come back in the morning, because that's when the question and answer session was, and I thought,

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I've got a few questions, but I'm sure others have too, and what happened was, Dr. R .C.

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Sproul came out, sat in a chair, and a moderator had a microphone, and just looked at some of the questions, and before we got to the first question,

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Dr. Sproul said, now, let me anticipate what the first question is. It's either, what about John 3 .16,

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or what about 2 Peter 3 .9? And I thought, yeah, well, yeah, that's good, that is, those are the questions.

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God is not willing that any should perish, right? But all come to repentance.

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Well, what happened was, he handled those two texts in the space of about three or four minutes, and if you could have seen me, if the camera was on me, you'd have noticed my face went deathly white, because I realized

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I was in trouble. In two minutes, just expounding John 3 .16, a verse

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I could quote in my sleep, I think, he showed me how shallow my understanding was.

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My assumptions that I brought to the text, what the text actually said, and rather than being happy about this,

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I realized I was in trouble. My traditions, not his, were being exposed.

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He'd brought forth scriptures that plainly taught the sovereignty of God in salvation, but I thought

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I had verses that would negate it, and negate all that he was saying. But he dealt with the biggest and the best questions out there, happily, relaxed, and going to the text, and saying, let's see what it actually says.

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I ended up writing a book about that experience, because I did have a number of objections, and I wrote a book called

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Twelve Whatabouts, Answering the Common Objections to Divine Sovereignty.

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I really recounted my journey into the scriptures to see what they actually taught.

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But it started, and in fact, the whole weekend was an amazement to me, but I realized I owed it to myself to study this.

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I didn't want to preach it yet. I wasn't embracing it yet, but I knew I needed to study this, and here's what

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I found. Most people are not open to study. Most people that are so caught up in a system of man -made thinking think that there's no reason for them to study.

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Why would I study a verse I can quote, John 3 .16? I know it.

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Well, there's a reason to study, because we often bring our own traditions to the text, and let's see what it actually says.

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It started a period of about six to nine months, where I ordered everything I could of Dr.

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Sproul on the subject of predestination and sovereignty, and was amazed at what

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I found. I then began to run across other authors as well. James Montgomery Boyce was one,

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Dr. James White was another. Very soon after this, Dr. James White came out with the book

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The Potter's Freedom, which was tremendous exegetically to get into the scriptures to see what they were saying.

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With the thinking of Sproul and the exegetical insights of Dr. White, I came out of that what

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I call a theological cocoon as someone who embraced the doctrines of grace, if you know what that means, the tulip of the

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Reformed faith, T -U -L -I -P. It was as if Dr.

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Sproul had thrown a large rock called God's sovereignty into my theological pond, unknowingly.

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He just came and taught. But he set in motion a series of events whereby that rock, embracing it, understanding that God is sovereign, had huge ramifications, and I continue to see those ramifications as the ripple effects of that rock coming into the water makes it sway to the shore.

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That's what happened in my life. I realized God is sovereign in the era of salvation. Then I realized he's sovereign over this aspect of the church and that aspect of our understanding on this theological issue.

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I began to see that the roof of God's sovereignty was over all of the house, so to speak, that God is sovereign over all things.

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Well, aren't we going to go to the scripture? Yeah, I'm just setting us up. We're going to go to the scripture.

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I became a TBN host before all this. I said to people, it doesn't get lower now to say

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I was someone who asked people to call the number on the screen. Live television shows here in Arizona that span two hours, oftentimes the last guest didn't show up and I'd be on the spot asked to preach for 30 minutes and just ran with it.

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It's an amazing experience. I was so into this, believing I was helping people.

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I look back and wince because God, by the Holy Spirit, sent

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Dr. Sproul through the means of him coming and a fly that told me of the event.

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It started a process that has brought me to where I am today in my understanding of God, the true

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God who reigns, who rules, who lives. He really is active in his sovereignty in all things.

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So important we grasp this. Here's what I understood. We read

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Second Timothy chapter three. It tells us about the last days and I find

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I want to go there. Second Timothy chapter three. It tells us about God and about deception and it says that in the last days there will be deception and deceivers and having the experience of meeting some of these very well -known figures had a meal with Jesse Duplantis.

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He's another well -known proponent of the word of faith. Knew these guys a little bit.

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Do they really believe what they're saying? I think they do. But here's what I came to understand.

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Deceived people deceive people. There are some that are absolute sharks.

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They're in it for all the wrong reasons. But Second Timothy three and four tell us that it's not just the preachers who are wrongly motivated.

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They're hearers are as well. Second Peter chapter three verse 13 tells us but evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived.

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Do you hear that? They deceive themselves and they deceive others with their teaching but they really believe the deception.

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You however continue in the things you've learned and become convinced of knowing from whom you've learned them and that from childhood you've known the sacred writings that's the scriptures which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

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All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching for a proof for correction for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work.

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I solemnly charge you this is chapter four in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom preach the word be ready in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with great patience and instruction now hear this for the time will come when they will not endure they'll not put up with sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths you be sober in all things endure hardship do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry did you hear what was written here you hear what was said not only are they going to be teachers who are deceived who deceive others but they're going to be people who will want to hear the deception they will want to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for themselves their own favorite teachers

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I'm putting in the word favorite but it's really in it an implication they'll accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desire

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I want someone who's going to show me how to get ahead financially I want someone who's going to teach me the laws that will get myself healed

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I'm going to be free from this sickness I want that I want that with all my heart

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Jesus said he came to give me life and life more abundantly there it is yeah he did he didn't say he came to give you lifestyle he came to give you life and it's both the preacher and the people that hear that say

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I want the hundred dollar excuse me the hundred fold return if I give a thousand dollars

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I can just be looking for the hundred thousand dollars that's going to come because I give

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I need brother big shot and brother big shot needs me and if you have you ever noticed these guys they never get on the

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TV and say this works and I'm going to do the same thing I'm going to so my million dollars into this particular charity work or this work in Mexico no it's other it's brother big shot giving to brother big shot over the road in the same town or across the state and they never tell you to give to someone else and get the hundred fold return it's to them self -serving it really is deceive people deceived people here's what we're talking about in the charismatic sector of the church there is this thing called the word of faith not everyone who's a charismatic embraces word of faith doctrine but that's the seed bed where this thing springs and the word of faith is the idea as I say that you can have everything that is promised in the

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Bible now but the Bible itself tells us about God's sovereignty and it does not teach that we'll have every blessing of the kingdom this side of glory that will always live to be a hundred and twenty years old that will live free from sickness and disease we're in a fallen world and many have been born with terrible issues physically and for some their healing is going to be when they see

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Jesus face to face there won't be sickness in heaven and Jesus has paid for that healing if I could summarize the word of faith doctrine here this and you'll understand we're talking about a

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God that's different from the God of the Bible I wrote this a long time ago in a garden far far away the

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God of the word of faith made man in his image and gave him two special gifts the first of these was something called dominion this newly created being formed out of the dust of the ground was made the

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God of this world supreme Lord over all he surveyed this gift of dominion meant that man ruled over his circumstances everything in his environment including the weather was now subject to him the second gift

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God gave him was seed for sowing this came in two forms the first type of seed given to him would be sown into the producing crops of every imaginable kind man could determine the type and quantity of the crop he would have he could have as much or as little as he wished this second type of seed took the form of faith -filled words faith -filled words dominate reality like his creator before him man could speak and everything he said would come to pass he could have whatever he said in fact not only could have he would have all that came out of his mouth everything on planet earth was subject to man nothing was beyond his control and he exerted that control through the use of his words death and life being in the power of the tongue no lack or sickness or poverty could continue to exist once man had spoken in faith if there ever was lack man could speak abundance and everything would conform all created things all created all creation itself awaited man's faith -filled words to see what would be said the seed of his words would come to fruition

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God was hoping that man would decide to speak words of life rather than death oh how he hoped for that in this way all would be well all would be good but something happened that meant disaster for God and his plan man listened to the serpent and liked what he heard he decided to get in league with the crafty snake and instead of choosing words that would bring life health prosperity and blessing he chose the way of death the curse of death now reigned sickness and poverty would gain the upper hand if we could imagine a father giving a new car to a son as a gift so God having given man the keys to his car planet earth he could only watch in horror as man drove the car at full speed into the ditch the first man

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Adam failed to use his dominion wisely in obeying the serpent Adam and his race had handed over the planet's keys to the devil the devil not

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God was now in charge the ruling God of this world there was now nothing

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God could do his hands were tied all he could do was hope hopefully yes just hopefully another man would arise who would make good decisions and restore dominion back to mankind that was

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God's hope anyway in something called the plan of redemption ladies and gentlemen that's not the

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God of the Bible that's heretical it's based on some truth which all heresy is truth taken to an extreme see no one among us would believe something that had no basis in reality but if the one dispensing heresy can put some truth in there like a good and wholesome sandwich just a little bit of poison he can include healthy meat with just enough poison it becomes a lethal meal for anyone who partakes of it what

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I've just read to you is heresy of a most pernicious and damnable kind second

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Peter 2 tells us that there are damnable heresies to dismiss the sovereignty of God as an attack on truth that's heretical that that's big league stuff we're dealing with it's error of the worst kind that's what's taught in the word of faith movement behind the words of the preacher there's a hissing serpent spewing out damnable lies about God about man and the nature of reality these lies are damnable for the simple reason that if they believe they damn the human soul forever yet the serpent dispenses his lies with just enough truth to deceive his prey one of the lies is the fact that you can become a god little g because Jesus taught that right well

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I need to understand that and before I lay the groundwork for that let me do what

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I promised what kept me in when I began to understand these things and be hesitant about some of the things that I was hearing some of the strange things that came from these men's mouths particularly

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Kenneth Copeland I remember coming to the states and asked a pastor in the movement what do you think of Copeland's view on what happened between the cross and the resurrection he's got some uh blasphemous things that he teaches well the pastor actually said this and it surprised me in fact it shocked me he said oh he's just a jerk in that area and what

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I thought was amazing was here was someone in the movement who didn't hold to everything

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Copeland said and here's where people on the outside need to grasp hold of something not everyone in the movement believes everything that brother big shot or sister satellite says and that allowed me to stay because I thought

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I don't agree with him there I don't agree with that state he said this back in 1982 okay well

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I don't agree with that but I still maintain the basic premise of the movement that if we work the laws that God has given we can have what we say great lies are built on some truth there's a wooden understanding of scriptures that say death and life is in the power of the tongue and they take that to the point where we can speak words that bring death to our bodies if you say um

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I'm catching a cold you've just let the devil in he has now the ability to bring the cold and so that's what's going on when someone dies what have we said in the way of death that has brought death it couldn't have had the fruit of death unless there was the seed of death by the things that we've said now here's a right understanding of that verse

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I believe death and life are in the power of the tongue death in our relationships there are many relationships that are dead because of words that have been spoken death is is is spoken of but not in a literal sense again why am

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I getting that from that scripture because I'm seeing God's sovereignty in all things for for for me to say

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I'm catching a cold that allows the devil to give me a cold or I'm dying to see you that allows cancer to come because I've just said

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I'm dying and it's as if the spiritual realm is awakened oh now we can bring death to this man because he's said

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I'm dying do you see the bondage of that you see the appeal of that is

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I can stop saying those words and start speaking life I'm catching a healing how you doing

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I'm blessed I'm catching a healing all these words that we used to say in the word of faith movement thank