(2) The Filling Of The Holy Spirit - The Quality Of Life by Tommy Ice, 1997
Is the "filling of the Spirit" metaphysical or ethical?

(3) The Holy Spirit And Hermenuetics by Daniel B. Wallace, 1997
The role of the Holy Spirit in relation to the interpretation of Scripture.

(4) The Anointing by Dean & Laura VanDruff, 1996
Who is really anointed?

(5) Misplaced Faith by B. M. Rocine, 1996
"By saying the right formulas, can people control God? Can the Holy Spirit be held in the palm of the hand, pumped, or scooped into other people? Is it true that Jesus Christ will not come back until Christians all over the world unite under the leadership of new apostles and prophets and take control of the whole earth? Can Christians be gods?"

(6) The Anointing: Bible And Fiction by Shawn Paul Sauve, 1996
"The purpose of this article is to clarify the Biblical concept of anointing in contrast to current concepts of anointing present in many churches. It is not uncommon to hear comments in church, on Christian radio, and on Christian television where the words "anoint," "anointing," and "anointed" are used. Very often the context and the connotative meanings poured into these words differ from the words as they are used within the context of the Bible ... Biblical anointing is never equated with power, but position."

(7) What Is The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit? How Does A Person Receive It? by Dr. John Bechtle, 1996
"We may use whatever words we want to describe our experiences with God. But it is most accurate to say that the Bible uses "baptism of the Spirit" to refer to one of the wonderful things that God does for us the instant we trust Christ and enter His family!"

(8) Who Surprised Whom? The Holy Spirit Or Jack Deere? by Richard L. Mayhue, 1994
A review of "Surprised by the Power of the Spirit" by Jack Deere by a cessationist, Richard L. Mayhue, the Senior Vice-President and Dean and Professor of Pastoral Ministries at Masters Seminary. Although we are not cessationists, he correctly points out that Deere's "proofs" for his new-found belief in modern day miracles and manifestations are based mainly on experiential rather than a solid biblical exegesis. "Dr. Jack Deere, a former professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and a highly visible convert from the cessationist to the noncessationist position regarding miraculous acts of God through men, recounts his journey in Surprised by the Power of the Spirit. He reasons that cessationists have argued more from silence than from Scripture, have twisted Scripture, and have no one single Scripture passage that proves their point. In this brief analysis of his work, it is apparent that Deere, not cessationists, has made these interpretive errors in coming to his biblically unfounded conclusion that the miraculous acts of God have continued beyond the apostolic age--but with lesser quality and frequency." This is an Acrobat .pdf file.

(9) Signs, Wonders, and Evangelism: The Down Side by Gregory Koukl, 1994
"Signs and wonders are not to be identified as the principle evidence of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, for in fact one way the filling of the Holy Spirit is characterized is by a bold, powerful and effective witness of the Gospel rather than by external manifestations of power (Acts 4:8, 31; 7:55). " From the perspective of a Foursquare pastor.

(10) Understanding the Gifts of the Holy Spirit by Rev. John S. Erickson, 1997
"So, what is prescriptive for the believer today? First and foremost, be in the Word. Meditate on the Word (Psalm 1:2). Secondly, since it is clear that the Holy Spirit of God works with us through Word and Sacrament, it is imperative that that we are consistent and faithful in worship. Thirdly, since prayer is the 'breathing of new life' the believer will want to spend time, daily, in prayer. A part of that prayer time ought to be spent in asking that God would gift as he sees fit [I Corinthians 12, with special emphasis on asking to be gifted with the greatest gift of all, that of love (I Corinthians 13)] and that the Holy Spirit would then give the willingness, wisdom and strength to put that gift(s) to use for the "common good." Praying further, that the Holy Spirit would help the believer to "live by the Spirit" (Galatians 5) and specifically, that the "fruit of the Spirit" (verses 22-26) might be born out in one's life to the glory of God (I Cor. 10:31) and in witness to the world (Matt. 5:16)" From a Lutheran perspective.

(11) Holy Spirit by Paul Becker, 1997
" ... "the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one...But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. (1Cor12:7,11) ... what we see in these so-called "revivals" is NOT Scriptural...where people are being "slain" in the spirit...and are totally NOT in control of themselves, as SOME "spirit" has taken control OF them. In these meetings the "preacher" will warn the men against looking with lust upon the women so-caught up in the moment, dancing around. When these skirt-clad women fall down "dead" in immodest poses, special workers go around with drop clothes to cover them. The Holy Spirit will work where He is given room to work...but will not render a person incapacitated. Nor will He "cause" a person to act unbecomingly, nor flop down non-demurely. (Ex20:26,1Tm5:2,1Cor14:40)"

(12) We All Fall Down: An Investigation Into The Experience Known As Slain In The Spirit by Alan Morrison, 1995
"Those who profess Christianity should refrain from indulging in practices which undermine the essential message of its Founder. Instead of inducing mass swoonings and hysterical laughter, churches should be cultivating widespread repentance and reverential worship before the present time of Gods mercy comes to an end (Rev.14:14-20; 18:4-24; cf. 2 Chron.36:15-16). If the crisis in modern Christianity deepens, the ensuing Divine judgement will defy the powers of the imagination."

(13) Slain In The Spirit: A Midrashic Perspective by Jacob Prasch, 1997
"The only thing that God is interested in — and therefore the only thing that we should be interested in — is not what happens when people go down, but what happens when people get back up. "

(14) The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit by Hank Hanegraaff, 1998
"... to ask where the Holy Spirit is is to confuse categories. When we speak of the Holy Spirit, we speak of "who" and "what", not "where" in the physical sense. To ask spatial questions concerning a Being who is Spirit and does not have location in space is analogous to asking what the color blue tastes like. "

(15) Slain In The Spirit & Other Signs And Wonders: Biblical Or Unbiblical? by Wayne O'Conner,  Searching Together Magazine, 1996
"Just because signs and wonders, including the "slain in the spirit" phenomenon, occur "in the church," that does not mean that Jesus is the power behind them. There is little doubt to the discerning that many Christians today are being exposed to seducing spirits and Christianized New Age philosophies on an unprecedented scale."

(16) The "Anointing" by Inner-City Christian Discernment Ministry, 1999 
"In conclusion I do not believe any Christian today has God's power to bestow on  another Christian, certainly not the people mentioned in this short booklet."

(17) How To Try The Spirits by A.W. Tozer, an excerpt from his book Man, the Dwelling Place of God
"Another revealing test of the soundess of religious experience is, How does it affect my attitude toward the Holy Scriptures?"

(18) Survey of Bible Doctrine: The Holy Spirit by Sid Litke, Th.M., 1999
An excellent outline on the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

(19) Filling in the Blank (Acts 18:18–19:7) by Prof. Robert Deffinbaugh, 1999
A thoughtful explanation for the few instances in Acts where the Holy Spirit was "apparently" given at a different time than salvation.  An apologetic against the second blessing idea of Pentecostalism and the Third Wave.

(20) Exposing The True Source Of The So-Called Third Wave "Anointing" by Yvette, 1999
A letter from Yvette in South Africa with her testimony.  It gives startling confirmation of the spiritual deception of the revival.

(21) Baptised With An Unholy Spiritby Alan Morrison, 1999
"If we are serious in discovering the true meaning of 'Baptism with the Holy Spirit', what do we find? We discover the remarkable fact that it is in reality an experience that it is applied to all believers at the time of their regeneration. This is the clear and unequivocal teaching of Scripture on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit." (Link is no longer active.  It was at:  http://www.diakrisis.org/spirit_baptism.htm)

(22) The New Anointing by Mike Oppenheimer, Let Us Reason, 12/99
"Today the modern anointing can come in various sizes and shapes. This is a word that has absolutely no meaning anymore, even less than its "new power." It has become a charismatic tradition to say this or that is anointed. People, music, even envelopes are anointed. The Bible does not say such things in the NT. It states we have the anointing because He, the person of the Holy Spirit who is God, lives inside the believer and we are a living temple because of his presence." 

(23) Is Holy Spirit Baptism Subsequent to Conversion? by J.A. McConnelee, D.D., The King's Business, October 1927
"We cannot take the experience of the Apostles as a guide in determining what the baptism of the Spirit is for us. But we can, and we should, take the experience of their converts as a determining factor, as well as the direct apostolic instruction on this point." 

(24) The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8:9-11 by Shawn Paul Sauve, 1997
"…people speak in spatial terms instead of relational terms. The Holy Spirit is not located inside of anything--like pouring water in a jar or something--the Holy Spirit is first of all infinite. You cannot get an ‘infinite’ into finite space. Secondly, the Holy Spirit is a spirit; he doesn't have molecules where you can put molecules here and molecules there. So people are thinking in materialistic terms and they simply don't know theology. The doctrine of the ‘omnipresence’ of God is that God is everywhere present--not that He's ‘in it’ but He is ‘at it;’ not that He's  contained in it, but He's present to it. If they knew basic theology they wouldn't make these mistakes…. In the Bible it refers to the Holy Spirit being ‘in’ us. Solomon prayed, ‘Lord, the heavens can't contain you, how much this temple?’ If you can't get God in the Solomonic temple, you are certainly not going to get Him contained in a human body." - Dr. Norman Geisler 

(25) The New Violence Of The Holy Spirit? by Mike Oppenheimer, 1999
"The TV program Inside Edition was filming at a Toronto meeting capturing the laughter and strange bodily actions. A woman was being interviewed as she was sitting on the floor laughing heartily she said, "it seems as if someone has told a dirty joke!" She unknowingly was absolutely right. The church has had a dirty joke played on her, and the one who is laughing the hardest is the Devil and his minions. Its time to wake up, and get up off the floor, shake off these compulsive, irrational behaviors, and stand up for Jesus! Let’s preach the GOSPEL, not experiences!"

(26) What Kind Of Spirit? by Lasaro Flores, 9/7/00
"As I look at much of what is referred to as the moving of the Holy Spirit of God in the crusades or church services of many of the preachers and televangelists on TV, I cannot in a good conscience accept it to be Scriptural. Not only is there so much of false doctrine being taught, but also much of what is being practiced cannot be of the Spirit of God."

(27) Will The Real Blasphemers Please Stand Up? by Sandy Simpson, DITC, 6/6/01
"This subject is one so serious that I do it with great fear and trepidation. Nonetheless, because I get so many e-mails accusing me and other Bereans of blasphemy, among other serious charges, I felt it was necessary to clear up some issues on this topic. Because of my stand for the truth of God's Word juxtaposed against all the false teaching that is going on today, I think it is important to do a quick study on what blasphemy is actually all about from a biblical standpoint.  There are many references to blasphemy in the Bible and from them we can find out how and why that term was used."

(28) Implications Of The "New Anointing" by Bill Randles, Believers In Grace Ministries, 6/01
"Is there a way back? How do you admit that you were wrong after going under the "Tunnel of Fire"?Worse yet, how can you admit that you were deceived when you were the one who formed the tunnel with your Braveheart sword?It is because we are often unwilling to be reproached, because we want to be great and regarded as 'cutting edge', that we become seduced by all of this unholy madness.How else can we explain the proud boasting, the swelling prophecies, the desire to have the power to turn stones into bread?If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all UNRIGHTEOUSNESS."

(29) Neurotheology by Dr. Orrel Steinkamp, The Plumbline, Vol. 6, No. 3, May/June 2001
"In the current 'pretentious revival', certain abnormal states of consciousness are not only observed but are that apparent prize jewel of experience. (As we referred to such 'states' in the previous article).  There are many people who are seeking to be inducted into another state of consciousness.  How else can we explain people collapsing to the floor experiencing convulsive bodily movements, unable to walk, talk and/or loosing track of time etc.  The current revival practitioners assert that these uncontrollable spasms are the work of the Holy Spirit heralding the final global revival. (We have long since known that these mystical episodes are very common in other religious groups such as the Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists and Mormons). Altered States of Consciousness (known as ASC) have been thoroughly researched since the 50's and it has been demonstrated that these ASC display a lowering of brain waves.  Now researchers have gone a step further to find out exactly where, in the brain, these changes take place. I recently read a very interesting article in Newsweek, May 7, 2001, p. 57) regarding just this."

(30) Worshipper's Holy Spirit Fall Nets Her $80,000 From Church by New York Post, Story filed: 15:43 Tuesday 5th February 2002
"A New York parishioner has won $80,000 compensation after falling while a church minister was blessing her." 

(31) Why Were The Grace Gifts Of Servant Leadership Given? by Sandy Simpson, 9/26/02
An examination of Ephesians 4:11-16 and a reminder of what grace gifts of servant leadership are all about.

(32) Spiritual Gift Use And Abuse by Dean VanDruff, Acts 17:11 Bible Studies, 12/02 
A corrective response to the idea that every Christian has every spiritual gift, and what to do with the misguided
"minister" who wants to make all of us like him.

(33) Implications Of The "New Anointing" by Bill Randles
Is there a way back? How do you admit that you were wrong after going under the "Tunnel of Fire"? Worse yet, how can you admit that you were deceived when you were the one who formed the tunnel with your Braveheart sword? It is because we are often unwilling to be reproached, because we want to be great and regarded as 'cutting edge', that we become seduced by all of this unholy madness. How else can we explain the proud boasting, the swelling prophecies, the desire to have the power to turn stones into bread? If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.

(34) What about the gift of tongues for today? by Mike Oppenheimer, Let Us Reason Ministries, 9/7/06
Are all supposed to speak in tongues?

(35) False Anointings by Spiritual Research Network, 11/06/08
The TRUE ANOINTING is God the Holy Spirit, Third Person of the Triune Godhead. See John 14:16; 1 John 2:20 and many other references. The FALSE ANOINTING is a Satanic counterfeit of the Holy Spirit. 

(36) Is the anointing tangible and transferable; can we impart it? by Let Us Reason, 6/08
A ‘transferable anointing’ is not seen nor practiced anywhere in Scripture. 

(37) The Spirit of Truth Set Me Free From the False Anointing by Chris Lawson, Spiritual Research Network International, 7/08
Before I became a Christian, I was overcome by a powerful occult experience that nearly led to my death in a California desert.  Two years later, as a new, yet undiscerning Christian, I had an equally powerful occult experience - only this time it was in a hyper-faith Christian church. 

(38) Slain in What Spirit? by FinalTrumpet2, YouTube Video, 11/10/08
Watch people fall backwards as false teachers Benny Hinn, Rodney Howard-Browne, Todd Bentley, and Peter Popoff slay them "in the spirit." Then pay close attention to the closing comments. 

(39) Christians Under the Influence of Another Spirit by Warren Smith, Reinventing Jesus Christ, 1/09
The apostle Paul went to great lengths to warn the Corinthians not to be deceived by a "Jesus" that wasn't Jesus Christ the Son of God, a spirit that wasn't the Holy Spirit and a gospel that was not the true biblical Gospel (2 Corinthians 11:4). Throughout the New Testament, believers are continually warned not to be deceived by spiritual teachings and experiences that are not from God. Jesus Christ specifically warned his disciples that spiritual deception would be a sign of the end (Matthew 24:3-4). 

(40) They were not drunk as you suppose! by Mike Oppenheimer, 4/30/10
Oftentimes the Pentecostal/charismatic faddish experiences wane only to surface again with renewed vigor and influence. Take for example drunk in the Spirit (the close cousin of being slain in the spirit). This was first widely promoted by a man from S. Africa, Rodney Howard- Browne that Benny Hinn promoted at his meeting. It was then brought to Toronto then to Brownsville and spread everywhere as a spiritual virus with no inoculation. Looking back at the experiences that have become part of the “open church” should immunize us against accepting practices that go further than the Biblical parameters allowed. Often the same aberrant practices come back with even greater intensity when they are permitted again.

(41) How to be "unsaturated" by Sandy Simpson, 9/24/10
I guess you think this is going to be an article about cholesterol or saturated fat.  No.  This is an article on how to get away from those who use pantheistic terms for the work of the person of the Holy Spirit and claim they can pass the Spirit to you by the laying on of hands!

(42) Do you have to be (water) baptized in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit? by CARM, 10/27/10
No, you do not have to be baptized to be filled with the Holy Spirit.   To prove this all we have to do is look at the Scriptures where the phrase "filled with the Spirit" is used.

(43) The Spirit of Truth by J.C. Philpot, 1/5/10

(46) What does it mean to be slain in the Spirit? by Matt Slick, CARM, 1/14/13
Now, I am not saying that the Spirit of God cannot knock someone down or that the Spirit of God does not move today.  I wholeheartedly believe that the Spirit is still very active in the Church.  But, given the sensationalism in the TV church, the numerous unbiblical practices and teachings that occur there, and the over-eagerness of people to be slain in the Spirit, I would conclude that this phenomena is to be frowned upon.

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New Sandy Simpson Messages 
on CD & DVD

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New DVD!
Examine Yourselves & Hold On!
by Sandy Simpson

This DVD is a message based on the articles "Examine Yourself To See If You Are In The Faith" and "Hold On!"

2 Cor. 13:5  Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.
Do you not realise that Christ Jesus is in you— unless, of course, you fail the test?

People who call themselves followers of Christ or "Christians" and claim they are born again must believe certain things.  If they do not then they fail the test of faith.  They can claim they are born again all they want and "once saved, always saved" but if they fail the test of faith there is no eternal security.  Only God knows who will be saved, from beginning to end, because of His foreknowledge and omniscience (Rom. 8:29, 1 Pet. 1:2).  God did not make an arbitrary judgment about who would be saved and who would not.  His Spirit is given to those He foreknew, when convicted of sin by His Holy Spirit, would choose to believe and commit themselves to Jesus Christ.  We are not God and we do not have His omniscience.  Therefore, according to Paul, we must be sure our belief system is in the right place once our eyes have been opened to the Truth.  I am not saying we do not have assurance of salvation, but our assurance comes not only because of His Atonement and promises of salvation but from our continuing in the Faith, which is always the Biblical criteria. Those who would be Bible teachers must teach according to the whole counsel of God's Word.  Let me be clear. There is only one way to salvation.  That is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  I will deal with a few of those issues following, but it is important to recognize that being saved is not just a matter of believing that Jesus lived, or that He was a man, or simply giving mental ascent to His existence in whatever form.

Go here for ordering information. Only $5. plus s/h. for US. 

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