“For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household” or church (1 Peter 4:17). May God judge and purge his Son’s church, so we can live in more wisdom and clarity and righteousness.
This season may last for a decade or two longer. God is patient. He waited forty years for the old generation to die off in the wilderness before the younger generation entered the Promise Land (Num. 14:29-35, 32:13).
This post is a convenient summary of longer posts at this website.
If you want more details, click on the links below each numbered point.
Let’s begin.
I.. Bad Doctrines and Practices
A.. List of them
1.. Progressivism
Progressivism is infiltrating and destroying the church, little by little, and now rapidly. Advocating for favorite progressive doctrines and doing them is to practice lawlessness and will deserve the sobering words: “Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness! I never knew you!” (Matt. 7:23). Judgment is coming.
The solution is to preach grace and moral law.
The Leftward Drift of the Church Must Be Stopped
Progressivism Is Bad for the Church
The Earliest Disciples Did Not Practice Modern Communism or Socialism
The Biblical Norm for Marriage
Do Not Deconstruct Gender Differences
The Bible Speaks on Prenatal Life and Abortion
14 The Church and Postmodernism
Postmodern Roots of Leftist Policies
Begin a series on postmodernism and the Bible, here:
1. Postmodernism and the Bible: Introduction
2.. Christian Nationalism
Let’s now go in the opposite direction from Progressivism.
Yes, America was founded on Christian principles, but we also have the First Amendment, which promises religious liberty. Christian Nationalists push to make law conform to Christian principles. But I concede that if a Christian Nationalist persuades a political party to vote for a particular bill, then he used persuasion, and this is reasonable and permitted. He did not use coercion with a militia behind him.
However, some leaders wish to restrict other religions, like Roman Catholics putting a statue of Mary on a platform and carrying her in their parades. Though I would never honor Mary in that way, once again, we have the First Amendment, so it must be allowed. Jefferson said a man can worship no god or twenty of them. Just don’t pick his pocket or break his leg. In other words, if a religious practice does not infringe on my liberty in practical ways, then on what grounds do I stop it, in the American Republic?
To me, gratitude for one’s country adds up to patriotism. I am grateful to God for the country I live in, but I don’t take things farther than that. I personally do not put the two terms Christian and Nationalism together. I prefer just being a grateful citizen of the American Republic, without joining a controversial movement. I like simplicity.
I am a Christian ‘Kingdomist,’ Not a Christian Nationalist
3.. Dominionism, Seven Mountain Mandate, kingdom now!
These three doctrines and practices are tied to Christian Nationalism.
Dominionism says that Christians should take dominion over society in politics and culture, bringing them in alignment with biblical laws.
The Seven Mountain Mandate brings more focus than Dominionism does to politics and culture with seven areas to take over: religion, family, education, government, media, arts/entertainment, and business. (I have to ask where the medicine mountain is, but this is a summary post.)
Kingdom now is another term for taking over society by bringing the kingdom down to earth by human effort. Yes, the kingdom is already here but only in part, and not yet fully–the “already and not yet” of the kingdom. Kingdom now advocates want more and more of the “already here.” They cannot wait patiently for the Second Coming, which is the only time the kingdom will be here completely and powerfully and eternally.
Observations on New Apostolic Reformation and Christian Nationalism
5 The Kingdom of God: Already Here, But Not Yet Fully
4.. New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)
This point is related to the next one about false apostles. The NAR Movement needs to be left behind. The man or men who started it had no mandate from God, nor do those who keep it alive. How do I know this? They did not follow Scripture in defining what an apostle is. They defined it too broadly. Now the floodgates are open to all sorts of apostles who are popping up everywhere in American Christianity and elsewhere around the globe, poisoned by American Christianity. Confusion and arrogance. Everyone needs to stay in their lane. Then the self-deception and demonic attacks will diminish.
Analyzing the New Apostolic Reformation
Review of C. Peter Wagner’s Book ‘Churchquake’
Review of Joseph Mattera’s Book ‘The Global Apostolic Movement and the Progress of the Gospel’
5.. False apostles everywhere
This false doctrine and practice flows out of the previous point about the NAR. I see all of the movements to restore apostles in a Second Apostolic Age as a danger to the church. The rapid, numerical growth of apostles and apostolic leaders sows confusion and deception and self-promotion, because the promoters do not do sound exegesis and therefore do not base their definitions on the strict and narrow biblical view of apostle and apostolic. Maybe if they did proper exegesis, they would have to renounce their apostleship (I would hope).
Worst of all, today’s apostles are setting themselves up without a commission from the risen Lord and without reading Scripture more carefully. They have “extraordinary authority” without earning it, biblically. They are in danger of deceiving themselves and large swathes of the church.
Jesus to the church at Ephesus:
I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. (Rev. 2:2, NIV, emphasis added)
6.. False prophets everywhere
They shriek and freak, dance and prance, and yell and sell the gospel. They rock back and forth on the platform and appear to go into a trance when they prophesy. They refuse to judge their own prophecies or teach God’s people to judge these prophets’ prophecies. They affect their voices with a quiver and a vibrato, for extra pathos.
They say weird things, like they know what Charlie Kirk and Queen Elizabeth II are doing in heaven. God told them. They take trips up into heaven regularly and see a T-Rex and a mountain of Jell-o. They talk with people who have passed on (necromancy). They tell us that the names of winning horses and jockeys in the Kentucky Derby have social and national meaning.
They are accountable to no one, especially the ones on YouTube, unless it is to a few compliant yes-men.
Reject them all..
Review of C. Peter Wagner’s Book ‘Apostles and Prophets’
Review of “7 Simple Ways to Test Prophecy” by Joshua Lewis of Remnant Radio
7. Hyper-charismatic pastors and evangelists
Yes, the gifts of the Spirit, like tongues and prophecy, are still in operation today. But hyper-charismatics teach the dumbest things, like astral projections, flying up into heaven to battle principalities and powers. They teach you have to travel back in time to forgive, rather than just forgiving people who abused you in the past. They teach the courts of heaven, a complicated Gnostic doctrine. They teach that Christians will not have gray hair or ageing faces, because they have defeated an evil spirit of death. Never mind that Scripture honors age and gray hair:
Gray hair is a crown of splendor;
it is attained in the way of righteousness. (Prov. 16:31)
They call evil good and good evil and get confused about what is light and what is dark (Is. 5:20). This happened at Joni Lamb’s memorial service, on May 18, 2026, when Jentezen Franklin inappropriately called out the exposure ministries for criticizing Joni’s and Doug Weiss’s adulterous marriage. But consider this. John the Baptist lost his head for denouncing Herod Antipas who had taken his brother Philip’s wife, Herodias (Matt. 14:1-12). Franklin was wrong, and the exposure ministers are right. He was confused about good and evil and darkness and light.
Hyper-charismatic ministers and evangelists believe God has to obey their decrees: that is, it works out to their becoming gods, and as if God lost his throne.
The basic principle or characteristic that defines hyper-charismatics is their twisting of Scripture and showing off their strong personality, which they confuse with an anointing, to the dazzlement of the crowd. Watch out for it.
Is ‘Decreeing’ Biblical for Christians?
Be Balanced and Avoid Hyper-Teachings
2 Miracles: Warning! Discernment Needed!
God’s Signs and Wonders versus Satan’s Signs and Wonders
Ancient Heresy of Gnosticism and Its Postmodern Teachers
8.. Platform bullying
Preachers use their platform to keep their people under control. They preach at them that they are being sifted by Satan if they think of leaving their churches. Separate from your family members, the bullies say. Don’t listen to biblical wisdom and common sense, they say. They target individuals by name, as the individuals sit in the audience. They put pressure on people to tithe.
This is wrong.
True Church Leaders Do Not Lord It over God’s People
Mike Bickle and His Team v. John Wimber and His Team
9.. Exploiting church positions of power to groom (seduce) women
These examples are multiplying. The groomers and manipulators need to be chased out of ministry, permanently.
Review of Sam Storms’ Book ‘The Rise and Fall of the Kansas City Prophets’ (offers examples)
Mike Bickle Is Forever Unfit For Ministry
My Take on the Shawn Bolz Situation
10.. Restoring repeat offenders (wolves) to ministry
This point goes along with the previous one. They can be restored to their relationship with Christ and fellowship in a church, but not to ministry. Very few exceptions exist. Do we restore child predators back into the nursery? No! They cannot be trusted, no matter how loudly they proclaim they repented and were healed through counseling.
Restoring Fallen Church Leaders to Ministry?
Mike Bickle Is Forever Unfit For Ministry
11.. The ‘phenomena’
They are outlandish displays, like writhing around on the ground and barking, roaring (and other animal noises), and the laughing fits. They are sometimes called ‘manifestations,’ which is different from the true definition in 1 Corinthians 12:7.
If we are permitted to judge prophecies without treating them with contempt (1 Cor. 14:29 and 1 Thess. 5:21), then surely we can judge these physical manifestations. If leaders do not clarify this issue, then people will be confused. Satan will also infiltrate the churches and prompt people to act strangely or exotically. Leaders and the people must be vigilant.
Anaheim Vineyard and the ‘Phenomena’
Biblical, Physical Responses to Worship, and How to Judge Charismatic ‘Phenomena’
12.. Word of (hyper-) faith
Yes, faith is biblical: “Your faith has made you well.” But this teaching is erroneous because it claims faith itself is an impersonal force. God wants everyone healed, every time they ask. The teachers falsely tell us the kingdom has come in such great power that people always get healed. Kingdom now! They misdefine the already and not yet of the kingdom and focus on the “already here now!” So if a person is not healed, then he did not have enough faith and did not call down the kingdom come hard enough.
The (hyper-) faith men teach that the sick person has to lie: “I don’t have cancer. I have a healing!” This skips over God’s sovereignty and just plain Bible-based wisdom and common sense. Remember, Luke the author of the Third Gospel and the Book of Acts was a “beloved physician” (Col. 4:14). If people are not healed immediately, they should go to the doctor’s office.
Be Balanced and Avoid Hyper-Teachings
Why Doesn’t Divine Healing Happen One Hundred Percent of the Time in This Age?
Does God Want to Heal Everyone Every Time They Ask?
Kenneth Copeland Gets a Pacemaker
13.. (Hyper-) prosperity
Yes, prosperity is legitimate if someone owns a business and God blesses it (Deut. 8:18). But it should not come by a ministry platform like TV when a preacher twists Scripture to enrich himself. Now he lives in conspicuous luxury, while the people who sent him money on the false promise that God will enrich them too live ordinary lives, just like they did before they gave. Or worse, they’re now broke. One tithe teacher, now fallen from ministry, had said God’s people are under a curse for not tithing, based on Malachi 3:8-11. But God’s people are never under an Old Covenant curse (Gal. 3:13).
Why Tithing Does Not Apply to New Covenant Believers
Be Balanced and Avoid Hyper-Teachings
Apostle Paul Traveled on Cargo Ships
14.. Multi-Level Marketing
Pastors and their wives recruit members of the church to sell a product, and the money trickles upward to the founders or starters who get rich. The salespersons recruit other salespersons “downline,” and then get a commission from their new recruits.
Run from a church that practices MLM. The leaders are greedy and manipulative and lost the vision of what God’s Son’s church is all about.
15.. Twisting Scripture to defend the Charismatic Coverup Culture
Mean “Pastor” Landon Schott used his pulpit to defend himself and the Charismatic Coverup Culture. He twisted Revelation 12:10 about the accuser of the brothers. The critics are not of God, he said. No. He’s wrong. The exposure ministries are using the true meaning of Scripture to uncover all the rot in the Charismatic Coverup Culture.
11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (Eph. 5:11)
I heard a solid podcaster (John Mark Baker) say a wise thing. A goal of the Seven Mountain Mandate is to take over one of the mountains: government. But if Christians did take it over, they would not punish certain Christian criminals but restore them and turn them loose on society. Many Christian leaders who believe they are wise are actually fools. Don’t let them near the reins of government power.
Pastor Landon Schott Cares More about the ‘Abusers of the Sisters’ than the Victims
16.. Invented Numerology
They take advantage of certain numbers that have true biblical meaning, like seven or twelve. This gives them permission to fabricate significance from silly numerical sequences. Thus the Jewish year adds up to a hidden meaning. On a special day or year, like 2020, they scour the Bible for verse numbers. They got lucky with that year (yes, I wrote “lucky”). In 2 Chronicles 20:20 King Jehoshaphat said to have faith in the LORD’S prophets. No wonder the “numbers guys” liked it. It is prophets who promote this nonsense, but it could be teachers.
Ignore them. Just stay with the plain and main teaching of Scripture.
B.. Basic Solutions
One solution is to teach the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) and follow Jesus in his balanced ministry of teaching and helping the needy and healing the sick and expelling demons.
Another solution is that these preachers and deceivers need to die to self daily (Luke 9:23). They have allowed their ego needs and greed to run away with them.
Scripture is still infallible and authoritative. They cannot pick and choose by their own tastes. “I like this verse, but not that one!” They need to learn how to do a clear and balanced exposition of Scripture and study basic doctrine. No, I’m not asking them to become professional theologians (I’m not). Just know the basics.
Begin a series here:
Introduction to Concise Theology
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