Chapter 3—Spiritual Gifts and Counterfeits
On June 19, 1994, the London Sunday Telegraph told its readers: ” ‘British Airways flight 092 took off from Toronto Airport on Thursday evening just as the Holy Spirit was landing on a small building 100 yards from the end of the runway.’ .” What has happened since then at this church in Toronto has been a source of joy for many but perplexing and even offensive to many others.GP 30.1
A reporter fromToronto Life Magazine went to one of the meetings and described what he experienced:GP 30.2
The man sitting beside me, Dwayne from California, roared like a wounded lion. The woman beside Dwayne started jerking so badly her hands struck her face. People fell like dominoes, collapsing chairs as they plunged to the carpeting. They howled like wolves, brayed like donkeys and—in the case of a young man standing near the sound board—started clucking like a feral chicken. And the tears! Never have I seen people weep so hysterically, as though every hurt they’d ever encountered had risen to the surface and popped like an overheated tar bubble. This was eerie . . . stuff—people were screaming, their bodies jerking unnaturally, their faces contorted with tics. GP 30.3
Many Christians in the charismatic and Pentecostal world believe that the proclamation of the gospel should normally be accompanied by “signs, wonders, and miracles,” including the gift of prophecy as it was in New Testament times.GP 31.1
At Pentecost, the early church received the promised power, also called the early or former rain, that enabled the believers to preach the gospel fearlessly and perform many miraculous signs and wonders (see Acts 1:8; 3:1-10; 5:1-12). For the end time, God has promised to pour His Spirit on all flesh (see Joel 2:28, 29). This means “the great work of the gospel is not to close with less manifestation of the power of God than marked its opening. The prophecies which were fulfilled in the outpouring of the former rain at the opening of the gospel are again to be fulfilled in the latter rain at its close” (GC 611, 612).GP 31.2
Referring to that time, Ellen G. White wrote that “servants of God, with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will hasten from place to place to proclaim the message from heaven. By thousands of voices, all over the earth, the warning will be given. Miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers” (GC 612).GP 31.3
But Christians must beware. In Matthew 24:24, Jesus warned of false christs and prophets. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9). And Ellen White wrote,GP 31.4
Before the final visitation of God’s judgments upon the earth there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. . . .GP 31.5
The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work; and before the time for such a movement shall come, he will endeavor to prevent it by introducing a counterfeit. In those churches which he can bring under his deceptive power he will make it appear that God’s special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest. Multitudes will exult that God is working marvelously for them, when the work is that of another spirit. Under a religious guise, Satan will seek to extend his influence over the Christian world (GC 464).GP 31.6
Many Christians today are looking for an experience—a manifestation of the presence of God in their lives—and if such an experience is presented by well-known preachers and packaged in the right way, most people are happy to accept it. Could it be that what we see taking place in the Christian world today is the predicted counterfeit? Three modern signs-and-wonders phenomena are speaking in tongues, healing, and prophecy.GP 31.7