THE HOLY SPIRIT MADE ME DO IT

Comedian Flip Wilson had a character in his arsenal of goofball personas he invented to make the rest of us laugh who always had the same ready excuse for the stupid or bad things "Geraldine" did. "The Devil made me do it." Audiences laughed hysterically because it was entirely obvious that the excuse was just that--an excuse. In today's Evangelical community the excuse has been changed.

But only a little.

Today, males in the pulpit who are SUPPOSED TO actually study the Word and report to us in sermon form what that Word says, often resort to "and God told me..."

If God has spoken to all these men, why do they contradict each other? Is God confused? Is He a liar? Like the Catholics who have a piece of the cross in this cathedral and one in that cathedral and other cathedrals until, when added up, the cross must have weighed several tons, even so Evangelicals could put all their and-God-told-me's together and start a new religion.

Christo-hindo-buddho-islo-mormo-watchtowero-psycho-scientologo-confusitarianism.

Take this quote from "Jenn" who wrote, "You have to study - and hard. Then pray that God will open your eyes and heart about the questions at hand."

Now think this through. There are two sources of spiritual truth available to Jenn, evidently, and the best one for the hard questions isn't the Scripture. After you study, if you still have questions after a time of study, ask God. Notice she didn't say to ask God and then go back to studying. No, when we can't get anymore out of that Bible Ouija board, we go to our other Ouija board. Pray and wait for the unholy tingles, call it "the Holy Spirit" and you're on your way.

And He will "open your eyes and heart", according to Jenn. (Where does it say in the Bible that God will give us important truth without study?)

This sort of thinking is unbiblical and misses the seriousness of dealing with God. We have forgotten the holiness and fierceness of God. We have forgotten that false teachers will live for eternity in hell. We have forgotten that God ordered the death of all who claim God has spoken what He didn't say.

Study is hard work. Why would we think for a moment that the God Who designed the eye and the stars the eyes sees would be simple or easy? Did He not tell us that we are to pursue Him with everything we have?

Here are some questions for those who seek God in the tingles, instead of Scripture:

1. If the Scripture isn't the final authority, why waste our time there at all? Go around the road block and get the answers right away.

2. Is your "Holy Spirit" confused, a liar, or are there more than one since your "Holy Spirit" has so many opinions?

3. If the Scripture can't do the job and you need the tingles, why not admit in all your doctrinal statements that your final authority isn't Scripture, but the spirit or spirits you call "Holy"?

4. If you really believe that your "Holy Spirit" is right, why don't you challenge the other "Holy Spirits" who give doctrines that contradict your "Holy Spirit"?

5. Ought you not warn others of teachers whose "Holy Spirit" isn't holy at all if yours is?

I wonder what God will say to me next Tuesday. Perhaps we'll start releasing buterflies during service. The doves were just too messy.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.