False Teachers: Touch Not The Lord’s Anointed?!

The Common Objection: “Touch Not the Lord’s Anointed”

Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where the Bible and critical thinking meet to give you real Christian commentary about the things that matter. Thanks so much for watching, let's get into the video.

So this is one of the most common complaints that I get in the comments section in my channel all the time. How dare you call out these pastors, these prophets, these apostles, these Bible teachers. Don't you know that the Bible says, touch not the Lord's anointed?

Here's a video of charismatic prophetess Kat Kerr saying pretty much the exact same thing.

Watch this. That's my will, but it not be written down. I don't want them held accountable so they lose their destiny or maybe he brings severe justice against them because they're speaking against God's anointed and it totally talks about in the Bible, do not speak against my anointing.

He says that and whether I like it or not or anyone else, I said, I'm anointed to do this. And you're, you're speaking against, this is why I say, I won't hold it against him. Don't write it down, but they're actually speaking against God himself.

If you're interested in my video refuting Kat Kerr, go ahead and hit the link in the description as well. But in any case, this is a serious argument that discerning Christians are coming up against all the time online and in person.

Most of the time, this argument comes from hyper Pentecostals and hyper charismatics who really don't like it when you question their anointed prophets and apostles who consistently fail to meet any of the biblical criteria for what an apostle or prophet is.

But that's a topic for another time. The point here is that we are asking the question, do Christians have the right to publicly call someone out for false teaching who is some sort of self-identified Christian minister of some kind?

Is that a violation of what the Bible says about touch not the Lord's anointed? In this video, I'm going to show you how to respond to this because with all due respect, the argument, it's just very silly.

Psalm 105 and the Misuse of “Touch Not My Anointed”

It basically goes something like this. In Psalm 105 verse 14, it talks about God's people of Israel and it says, quote, he allowed no one to oppress them. He rebuked Kings on their account saying, quote, touch not my anointed ones.

Do my prophets no harm. But that's the Old Testament. Some people would say, well, in first John two 20, some would respond. It says, quote, but you have been anointed by the Holy one and you all have knowledge and quote.

That's a New Testament passage, a New Testament reality pointed at Christians. So there is some sense in which all Christians are anointed with God's blessing through Christ through having the spirit.

As Jesus says in Luke four 18, quote, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news and quote. In a sense, all believers are anointed with the Holy Spirit and we too are proclaimers of this good news of Christ.

But more than this, many Pentecostal preachers and charismatic leaders will confidently say that they have a special anointing from the Lord, something unique. This is meant to bolster their spiritual authority and their presence and to help others understand that they have been chosen out of the pack by God to accomplish a certain task and to share in his supernatural power, usually through miraculous gifts and signs.

They might quote Acts 10 38, which says, quote, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power and quote. So there's a few claims being made here. Let me list them for you as best I can.

Claim one, the leaders in the hyper charismatic movement have a unique and special anointing claim number two. This anointing means that God's approval rests on them to the degree that they should not be publicly rebuked for any doctrine.

They preach touch, not the Lord's anointed is what they say. This is the argument. So let's take this one claim at a time and deal with this claim. Number one, the leaders in the hyper charismatic movement have a unique and special anointing.

Christ Alone Is Uniquely Anointed

The problem with this is that it goes far beyond what the scriptures say. We see that the kings and prophets of old, including Saul, David, Elijah, just to name a few. There were many others. They were anointed by God as a sign of God's favor upon them.

This is true. But the official office of prophet and king of Israel are now ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The only person referenced in the entire New Testament as an individual person being uniquely anointed of the Lord is Jesus Christ.

He is our ultimate prophet, priest and king, and he has the anointing that comes with that. Acts 4 .26 says that when they killed Jesus, quote, the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed capital a end quote, Jesus is uniquely the anointed of the Lord.

And as far as I can tell, in my research, every other reference to being the anointed in the New Testament refers to the general anointing of the Holy Spirit over every believer. Second Corinthians 1 .15 says, quote, and it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

End quote. All believers, that's the us being mentioned, are anointed in the Lord and have been given the Holy Spirit. That is something greatly to be rejoiced in. What we do not see, though, in the New Testament is one of the apostles or a particular Christian teacher who goes around to every town declaring that they have a special anointing from the Lord that other believers don't have access to or do not have currently.

There's really no precedent for claiming a special anointing in the New Testament age, yet charismatic leaders like Cat Kerr do it all the time. So claim number one is really debatable, if not completely absurd.

To say that you have a special anointing that not all believers have is simply not a biblical claim, and it would seem to violate the standard of Romans 12 3, which says, quote,. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment.

End quote. It is proper and entirely good to say that different Christians have been given different gifts to build up the body of Christ. That's biblical. Some Christians are spiritual leaders and pastors over others.

That's still true, and it's clearly represented in the New Testament writings. But to say that you are uniquely God's anointed one and different from everyone else, well, that's a prideful statement with virtually no biblical support in the New Covenant.

In fact, every passage I've seen would contradict that. So again, claim number one has been soundly refuted. Cat Kerr and others like her are not some special class of Christians with special anointings.

This brings us to claim number two. It is often said that the fact that they have this anointing means that God's approval rests on them to the degree that they should not be publicly rebuked or chastised or even contradicted for the doctrine they preach.

That's the second claim being made, and it's also very wrong. It's rooted in a horrible interpretation of Psalm 105 verse 14, which we've already covered. And it says this, quote,. He allowed no one to oppress them.

He rebuked kings on their account, saying, Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm. But this passage is not talking about contradicting the doctrine of these people based on the truth of God's word.

It's talking about literally killing or harming the people of Israel or its prophets. The passage does have a New Testament application, of course. All Christians are God's anointed. We've already covered that.

And no person or institution or government has the right to harm or kill them. That much is certain. But this passage has nothing whatsoever to do with contradicting the Pentecostal doctrine of Kat Kerr.

That has no bearing on the situation at all. It's talking about bringing physical harm to God's people, not contradicting someone's teaching. There are several other passages, though, that utterly destroy this argument about not touching the anointed charismatic leaders.

Biblical Examples of Publicly Testing and Rebuking Teachers

In Acts chapter 17, the Berean Christians heard the apostle Paul teach, and in response, they did not instantly believe everything he said about Jesus. Rather, they were, quote, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so, end quote.

In response, Luke calls them noble. He does not say that they sinned by questioning the Lord's anointed. Then we look at Peter. If there's anyone who charismatics could possibly point to saying that they had a special anointing, surely it would be Peter.

He was directly commissioned by Jesus himself to be the rock of the church, right? But in Galatians 2 .11, Paul writes, quote,. But when Cephas, that is, Peter, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned, end quote.

Peter was publicly and directly opposed, contradicted, by the apostle Paul. Wouldn't that qualify as touching the Lord's anointed in the charismatic view? Shouldn't Paul have been rebuked here? Nope, because Peter was in the wrong.

He was partnering with those who were teaching falsely about important issues, and Peter, he needed to repent. A plain reading of Scripture then leads us to two conclusions. One, the modern leaders of the charismatic movement are not specially anointed by God, and to declare that they are is absurd and unfaithful to the text of Scripture.

And two, the modern leaders of the charismatic movement can and should be contradicted for the very same reason that they say they shouldn't be. What I mean is this, the fact that they call themselves God's special anointed and say that no one can contradict them, that's proof that they're violating the Scriptures and that they ought to be contradicted in the first place.

In other words, their entire position defeats itself. Now I'm no better than any of these people, and neither are you. I'm a wretched sinner in need of grace just like them, so let's all pray that they would repent of this falsehood and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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