Is God Still Speaking Today?

Hello, and thank you for listening to the

Testing the Spirits podcast. This episode is titled, Is God Still Speaking?

And I believe God is still speaking today. God speaks to us through His Word, the

Holy Scriptures. I tell people if they want to hear God speak, then read the Bible. If you want to hear

God speak audibly, read the Bible out loud. But what about all these Pentecostals and Charismatics who say that God is, even today,

He is giving new, fresh revelation. God is continuing to speak to people.

And it's really not just Pentecostals and Charismatics. Thanks to men like Rick Warren, who was a

Southern Baptist, men like Henry Blackaby, this type of thing is found in Baptist churches, non -denominational churches, basically it's everywhere.

You will run into Christians, and they'll say things like, God spoke to me, God told me this,

God told me that. And I realize many of them do not actually mean that God literally spoke to them, but some do.

And that leads us into the discussion whether or not God is still speaking.

These Pentecostals or Charismatics, these men who claim to give words from God, they claim to give prophecies, are they actually hearing from God?

Are these prophecies that are truly from the Lord? I'm going to prove to you that, for example, a guy like Benny Hinn, who claims divine revelation, he gives all sorts of prophecies.

Here's one thing all these prophets have in common, you know, prophets, quote unquote. One thing they all have in common, they're all wrong at times.

So that begs the question, is God wrong? Well, that's not a possibility, is it?

So the only other possibility, if you're giving prophecies and they're wrong, if you're giving prophecies and they're false, wouldn't that make you a false prophet, if you're giving false prophecies?

So this is a very serious thing, and that's why it's important that we talk about it.

Because I don't want people led astray. Here's the thing, if you read the Bible, you know you're reading

God's Word. If you're listening to some guy on YouTube or on TV who said, God told me this,

God gave me this, you don't know. And in fact, well, we'll get into that further.

Okay, so let's just jump into this and ask a very basic question.

What does the Bible say about this? I do not believe that God is still speaking today, and here's why.

Here's a passage of Scripture that I would point to. Hebrews 1 says that God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days, he has spoken to us by his

Son. So we have the New Testament revelation of Jesus Christ.

As Jude puts it, we have the faith once for all delivered to the saints. We have this revelation of Jesus Christ.

We have it in the New Testament. Jesus gave us his Word through his apostles who wrote the

New Testament Scriptures. Once the apostle John finished the book of Revelation, which remember,

Revelation, its full name is the revelation of Jesus Christ. So even though it was written by John, it's

Christ's message. So once the book of Revelation was finished, divine revelation, including prophecy,

I believe at that moment it ceased. Paul alludes to this in 1

Corinthians 13 that tongues and prophecy will cease once the perfect comes.

I believe the perfect is the New Testament revelation of Jesus Christ.

Now, if you want to disagree with me on that, that's up to you, but I would just add that John in Revelation 22, some of the very last words in the

Bible, he gives this warning, which is really God giving a warning that nobody either add to or take away from the prophecy of this book.

If they do, the curses of the book of Revelation will be applied to them. Many have seen this and I would agree that this is a warning statement, making it clear, warning everyone not to add to the

Bible. So it really begs the question if these Pentecostals and Charismatics, if they truly are receiving these prophecies, words from God, new, fresh revelation, as some of them put it, if Benny Hinn is actually receiving revelation from God, if it's really

God's word, why can't we just tack it on to the scripture? Why not tack on Benny Hinn's right?

So it would be 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation, and then 1 and 2 Benny. How come we don't do that if it's really

God's word? But thankfully, even the hyper

Charismatics and Pentecostals, even they don't go that far, but they do claim, and many people today claim that God is speaking directly to them, giving them prophecies and new words.

So let me just define these terms because I can't assume that everybody knows what

I'm talking about. A Pentecostal, the Pentecostal movement, which began in 1901, it's named after the day of Pentecost, Acts 2, where they spoke in tongues, etc.

So the Pentecostal movement, this would be denominations like the

Assemblies of God. They are Pentecostals. Charismatics, however, are different.

The Pentecostal movement started in 1901. The Charismatic movement started in the 1960s.

So Charismatics can be found not just in Pentecostal denominations.

Charismatics can be everywhere, you know, Congregationalists, Methodists, Catholic. So a

Charismatic is not necessarily a Pentecostal, but a Pentecostal is going to believe like a Charismatic.

So they believe that tongues and prophecy and all of these miraculous gifts of the

Holy Spirit, they say they are for today, and not only that, they say they are common.

So down at the local Assemblies of God church, when somebody gets up and says, God spoke to me and God told me to tell you this, they believe that that is real prophecy, or at least it can be.

And when they, you know, quote, speak in tongues, it's really,

I would call it gibberish because it's not an actual language. The Greek word, glossa, either in the

Bible, it refers to either your literal tongue, you know, the organ in your mouth, or it refers to a foreign dialect.

So the Apostles in Acts 2 were speaking other languages, and it says that the people heard them speak each in his own language.

But anyways, modern Pentecostals and Charismatics, they say that tongues is for today, but it's not the same as the tongues in Acts chapter 2, but that's another story for a different day.

But Pentecostal Charismatic, I just want you to have a frame of reference for what those terms mean.

Anyway, back to the point I was making. If these people claim that God is still speaking and that God is giving new, fresh words of revelation and prophecy,

I have two simple questions. Number one, why are these Charismatic prophets wrong more than they are right?

If it's really God who's giving them these prophecies, why are they wrong? Number two, even if you say at times they're correct, can you actually demonstrate that?

Can anybody link me to a YouTube video where a Charismatic prophecy, or excuse me, a

Charismatic prophet made a prophecy maybe years ago, they said that something would happen, and then it just recently came to pass?

Can anyone link me to an actual prophecy? Honestly, I've never seen that.

And it would have to be more than someone in 2016 saying that, well,

Trump is going to win over Hillary, because that's a 50 -50 chance of being right. I'm talking about proof, or somebody legitimately knew something before it happened, and they couldn't possibly have known.

Can anyone link me to a video that shows an actual prophet giving the prophecy ahead of time?

Again, I've never seen it, but if you can prove me wrong, or if you can link to a video where someone is actually speaking in tongues, and it's the legitimate gift, it's a foreign language that they didn't know,

I'm open to this. In some ways, I'd like to be proven wrong.

I'd like to think that new prophecies are being given. But at the same time, I recognize the danger.

God's Word is true. This is, again, as Jude put it, the faith, once for all, delivered to the saints.

But if these people on TV, and these people on YouTube that are teaching, and God told me that, if that's not actually the

Word of God, then what does that mean? Well, if they're making a prophecy, and it ends up being false, well, how would that not make them a false prophet?

So this is a very serious issue. False prophecy, if you give a false prophecy, that makes the person giving the prophecy a false prophet.

I'm going to prove that in a moment. We're going to read from Deuteronomy, but first, let me just give an example.

One example, Pat Robertson said, I think this was back in 2011, 2012,

Pat Robertson said that God told him Mitt Romney would win the 2012 election.

Well, obviously, that didn't happen. Pat Robertson was wrong. God did not tell him that.

Pat Robertson used God's name in vain. He said, God told me here's the prophecy, turned out to be false.

Pat Robertson, by definition there, is a false prophet. Listen to what

Benny Hinn said. The Lord also tells me to tell you in the mid -90s, about 94, 95, no later than that,

God will destroy the homosexual community of America. But He will not destroy it with what many minds have thought

Him to be. He will destroy it with fire. Many will turn and be saved, and many will rebel and be destroyed.

Okay, so clearly that prophecy did not come to pass. Matter of fact, the opposite happened.

So Benny Hinn, by definition, because he made a false prophecy, that makes Benny Hinn a false prophet.

Deuteronomy 18, 20 -22 says, But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which

I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.

This is God speaking to Moses, very, very serious. And if you say in your heart, how shall we know the word which the

Lord has not spoken? This is a good question. This is what people want to know. How do we discern?

Is this man a true prophet or not? Verse 22, When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if that thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the

Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him.

So you can see very serious subject, capital crime in Israel. Now that's under the theocracy today in the church.

We are to mark and avoid false teachers. But back then, they were to be put to death.

So how do you know if someone's a false teacher? Well, you know what they prophesied, did it happen or did it not?

If it doesn't happen, they're a false prophet. So pretty clear definition, right?

It's an obvious definition. A false prophet is someone who makes false prophecies.

And yet, these charismatics will often defend these men and say, Well, see, that doesn't.

Yes. Okay. He made a false prophecy. But that doesn't make him a false prophet. It's like, what?

So how do we make sense of that? First of all, one thing I've noticed, charismatics almost always defend other charismatics.

Number two, they're basically trained not to question things. This isn't universally true.

I mean, there are charismatic churches where people are taught to discern. But in general, the average charismatic or Pentecostal, they're trained not to question the man of God.

Like in a Baptist church, you're supposed to be a good Berean, you know, test everything the preacher is saying by the

Word of God. Within the charismatic movement, you're not supposed to do that, you know, because the teacher is this anointed man of God and touch not the

Lord's anointed. So if you say anything, even if you're questioning him, it's like you're doing something wrong.

That's the environment within many Pentecostal and charismatic churches. So even if they give a prophecy that's false, like with Benny Hinn, like it's clearly false or some of these fake faith healers.

See, if you deny the prophecy or deny the power of the anointed teacher, it's almost the same as denying the faith.

That's the way it works in their system. Or if Kenneth Copeland claims to speak by the

Holy Spirit, remember when he prophesied that COVID would end like a month or two into it and it didn't?

Well, he claims to speak by the Holy Spirit. If you question him and you say he's not, then you run the risk of blaspheming the

Holy Ghost, then you might lose your salvation. So there's a lot of fear and intimidation, bullying, spiritual abuse that happens within this movement.

So the system is in place. It's sort of built in to kind of keep people quiet.

It discourages them from doing what scripture says to test the spirits, right?

First John 4 .1, that's what this podcast is named after. Test the spirits, whether or not they're of God.

Why? Because many false prophets have gone into the world. And again, a false prophet is someone who makes a false prophecy.

So let's talk about this. If a man makes a false prophecy, why is it these other charismatics will continue to defend them?

Well, case in point, there's a YouTube channel called Jew and Greek. The guy who runs the channel,

I think his name is Rod Saunders, and he defends some of these so -called prophets.

So I decided to ask him and I tried to be respectful because I really want to know where he's coming from because he says just because somebody makes a false prophecy doesn't make them a false prophet.

I'm like, wow, that makes no sense. So I just asked him and he said, Oh, a false prophet is someone, according to Deuteronomy, who leads people into the worship of other gods.

So he said, yeah, a false prophet isn't someone who makes a false prophecy. It's someone who leads people to worship other gods.

Well, let's go back to Deuteronomy and see if that holds up. Deuteronomy says,

Deuteronomy 18, starting verse 20 through 22, the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name, which

I have not commanded him to speak, or, highlight the word or, or who speaks in the name of another god, that prophet shall die.

So what makes a person a false prophet? If they speak a word that God didn't give them.

So if it's false, that makes them a false prophet or, again, highlight the word or, or if they speak in the name of another god.

Just to prove that in the book of Jeremiah, you had the false prophet, Hananiah. You can read

Jeremiah 28, Hananiah was a false prophet because he prophesied falsely.

He was not trying to get the Jews to worship other gods. So again, a false prophet is someone who gives a false prophecy.

Again, kind of an obvious definition, but charismatics, again, they, they kind of defend one another and they say, well, that doesn't actually make him a false prophet.

It's like, okay, you know, it's, it's frustrating. But one of the reasons why

I'm doing this podcast is because I saw a video on YouTube between Chris Roseborough, Phil Johnson, and Justin Peters, and they were going back and forth with guys from the

Remnant Radio. One of the guys from the Remnant Radio podcast, Josh, I guess he admitted on video to making a prophecy that turned out to be false.

So Chris and Phil and Justin were like, well, if he made a prophecy and it didn't come true, doesn't that make him a false prophet?

And they were like, well, yes. And I just know this is going to lead to people chiming in.

There's going to be all this back and forth between charismatics and cessationists, and people are going to get all upset.

Here's one thing I want to try to, a positive that I want to bring out of this, because if you are aware of these subjects, chances are you've already made up your mind.

If there's someone who hasn't made up their mind, maybe, maybe this will be helpful. But one thing that we should all be able to agree on, when somebody says

God told me this or God told me that, you know, the Word of God is very, very important.

So if you say that God told you something, I mean, you want to be absolutely certain that God actually spoke those words, because at best, by claiming that God said something when he in fact didn't, you're lying, number one.

Maybe you're not intentionally doing it, but it's not true, right? So that's number one. At best, you're taking

God's name in vain. You're saying something that's not true. You're invoking God's name in something that's a falsehood.

That's like a best case scenario. Worst case scenario, if someone utters a false prophecy, that makes them a false prophet, which in biblical terms, a false prophet is unregenerate.

So this is a big deal. So can we all agree that this is serious stuff, number one?

Number two, the fact is 99 % of people have never read the

Bible cover to cover. We know the Bible is the Word of God. So instead of searching after prophecies and anointed teachers with new, fresh revelation, can we agree on this that for the new year coming up, most people who start a

Bible reading plan, if they're going to do it, reading through the Scripture in a year, if you're going to do it, you're probably going to start

January 1st. So can we agree with this? If you've never read through the

Bible cover to cover, instead of seeking out new, fresh prophecies, will you commit to reading what has already been given to the church?

Will 2024 finally be the year you read through the Bible cover to cover? I hope so.

And if out of this video and the back and forth, if it can lead just a couple people to really search out

God's Word as in Scripture that we know is God, if we can do that, or if it leads just one or two people to read through the

Bible cover to cover, I mean, that is a life -transforming type of thing.

You read things that you never knew were in the Bible. You're like, wow, how did I never hear this or know this?

It will change your life. So if we can get people to focus on the Word of God, if we can get someone, even a couple people to read through the

Scripture cover to cover, I mean, that would be a win. So hopefully this was helpful.

If you have a comment, a question, go ahead and leave it in the comment section. I'll try to reply if it is a question.

If you're going to preach or you're going to leave something negative, I may not respond. But this is a contentious subject because it really does divide a lot of professing evangelicals and Bible believers, whether or not the gifts are for today.

Again, the one thing we all agree on is the Bible is the Word of God. That should have the place of preeminence.

Amen? Amen. All right. Thanks for listening. And until next time, may the Lord be with you and have a great day.