Cedric Fisher: "earnestly contending for the faith."

Seeds of Apostasy

A. W. Tozer, David Wilkerson, and other ones saw the coming of the apostasy years ago. And no wonder; they had the Holy Spirit living in them and they made the Lord Jesus their life.  They were praying men.  Tozer was said to have risen early each day to spend three hours in prayer. He kept a piece of leather in his office that he put under his face as the lay on the floor.  David Wilkerson prayed for hours late at night when all was still.  Tozer remonstrated about the shameful spiritual condition of professing Christians that were content to cozy up to the world system and sample its wares.  Wilkerson prophesied about the coming storm of apocalyptic proportions.

Today we are quite possibly witnessing the arrival of the events they spoke and wrote about. However, neither of them specifically mentioned Contemplative Spirituality via Spiritual Formation, the Emergent Church Movement, the New Apostolic Reformation, and the other heresies along with ecumenism that are destroying Christianity.  I do not know if either of them foresaw the degree and scope of ecumenism with Roman Catholicism and other religions that a significant number of Christian leaders are now involved in.  I believe that what they saw was what many lesser known preachers recognized and that was the seeds of apostasy.  What form the apostasy might take or the vehicle by which it might arrive may not have been as clear to them as the seeds of apostasy and soil they were germinating in.  Now we see the flowering tree of apostasy dropping its poison fruit, and the deceived ones feast without fear.

The seeds of apostasy are numerous. They include individual autonomy, loss of the reverential fear of God, self-aggrandizement, greatly diminished or loss of interest in maintaining godliness, desensitization to conviction, loss of spiritual hearing and sight, prioritizing life with the essentials of true Christianity at the bottom or absent from the list, marginalizing the precept of abstaining from fleshly lusts that war against the soul, ignoring the Holy Spirit to the point of rejection, the loss of gratitude to God and Christ Jesus for salvation.  I’m certain that the list could be lengthened with many entries, but the picture is clear.  They initiate and sponsor a subtle shift from a focus on eternal things to temporal things.  The seeds begin growing in the lukewarm soul long before the outward signs of apostasy appear.

In my opinion, the present apostasy was rooted long ago, but the seedlings broke through the top soil sometime during the last 4 decades.  In the past couple of decades, the pace of growth has increased.  However, in the past 5 years we have witnessed an astounding rate of growth. Many mega churches and even denominations have been completely overcome by apostasy. The reason for the sharp increase is singular.  There is no greater indicator of the state of Christianity than the condition of the churches.  If in a building designed and set aside for the most spiritual gathering of the week people cannot remain true to God’s truth, it is a given that their testimonies are significantly compromised during the rest of the time.  The fact is that there are now more than one generation of professing Christians that are spiritually anemic, unknowledgeable, addicted to the world system, and ready subjects for the Antichrist.

Church leaderships have dramatically changed the churches to appease professing Christians who compromise their faith and the essence of Christianity.  For those leaders the bottom line is numbers and economy.  Enter the church growth movement and its full scale compromise of every factor of true Christianity.  Whatever it takes to draw in the finicky and bored masses is the meat of most “church growth” programs and books.  It stands to reason that if an individual will compromise his or her belief system to accommodate a gradual move away from commitment to God, they are not going to tolerate a church that refuses to make the same compromise.  They will attend only those churches that make the compromise to accommodate them.  In fact, today churches can be planted and will grow rapidly that cater to a particular fleshly desire of nominal Christians.  Recently, I saw a news report about “fight churches” where pastors engage each other in MMA fighting in the “sanctuary”.  I read an article some time ago where a pastor hired a stripper to serve communion in an attempt to attract more men to the service.  Further, there is no doubt that many churches today have resorted to New Age practices and doctrines to lure in professing Christians that have been experimenting with other religions.

Taking advantage of the sordid spiritual condition of the nominal Christian masses, their lack of discernment and their willingness to be led by sensationalism and lures of carnal appeasement, a plethora of hirelings scramble over each other to plant churches and grab share of the booty.  It is obvious to true Christians that these practitioners of simony are not called, sent, or anointed by God.  But no matter how much they are exposed, or how disgusting their behavior is revealed, they have no shame.  Most of them simply ignore the exposure as if it didn’t exist knowing that in a few days or weeks it will blow over like a March raincloud.  It takes outrage by a significant number of professing Christians to expose the stench in heresy.  There is not enough outrage in Christianity because little moral authority remains.  A contributing factor is that true Christians are in a shrinking minority.  Consequently, everything is being flipped or swapped so that truth is now called lies and lies deemed as truth.  The situation has become so critical that heretics and their followers are considered true believers while the children of God are considered false and diabolical.

This apostasy appears beyond critical mass.  It seems that nothing can stop or even slow it down except a powerful revival.  There is no indication in the Scriptures of such revival during the final apostasy.  If we are in the final apostasy, the prognosis for this present spiritual declension is grim.  The false prophets and apostles are prophesying a mighty world-wide revival, but their basis for doing so is not God’s word, but a revelation that came to a few individuals at the heart of the apostasy.  Many of them, such as Peter Wagner and Rick Joyner, supported the openly heretical and bizarre Todd Bentley and homosexual alcoholic prophet Paul Cain.  If they were so prophetically tuned that they could add to God’s word by revelation, why is it that they could not discern obviously diabolical individuals that they knew personally?

I believe that when the Antichrist and False Prophet appears, the followers of Rick Warren, Rob Bell, Brian Mclaren, Bill Johnson, Ruth Haley Barton, Joel Osteen, Oprah Winfrey, Tony Jones, Bill Hybels, Richard Foster, Sue Monk Kidd, Sarah Young, Ann Voscamp, Beth Moore, Judah Smith, Steven Furtick, (and the list is very long and growing) will hail them as God’s chosen vessels to bring about the fabled “Kingdom Now” with world peace and unity.  Professing Christians that have fallen for “Seeker Friendly” easy believism will be ecstatic about the False Prophet’s new Christianity and one-world church.  They will be thrilled by the satanically powerful lying signs and wonders.  When all unrighteous deception floods their spirits, they will swoon under the ecstasy.  They will rejoice with the New Apostolic Reformation believing that the world dominance by the False Prophet and Antichrist is the fulfilling of dominion prophesies.  Rick Joyner and the New Apostolic leaders will most likely rejoice in the slaughter of Christians as the fulfillment of the “blues and grays” civil/holy war prophesy.

They will rejoice in the ecumenical one-world religion that they have finally achieved status with the “corporate christ”.  I can see stadiums filled will people in huge religious meetings, all of them sitting in Yoga position, hands upturned in salutation to the Sun, humming, breath praying, and chanting as demons dance all around them.  They will rejoice in one-world peace, perhaps according to Rick Warren’s P.E.A.C.E. Plan, bought with the compromise of truth stuffed in the skin of a lie.  Everyone who opposes the great lie (perhaps that we can become a christ) will be considered a hindrance to world peace and disposable.  I can see them lined across the television screen hand in hand, smiling all, faces shining with deception, the prominent Hindus, Buddhists, Druids, Witches, Wizards, professing Christians, along with the Pope and every other significant religious figure, with huge roars of unfettered pleasure thundering from the innumerable sea of adoring subjects.  I can see them as they will eat the bread of deception and drink the blood of the saints in an unholy communion, but afterward their mouths will be filled with gravel (Proverbs 20:17).

12 Comments

  1. sandra brown

    God forgive us for our weakness toward His teaching and His word! Help us, Lord, to descern the spirits and strengthen us to endure and be found worthy to enter into your kingdom!

  2. Sherry Meyer

    Cedric, thank you for posting this straight forward article. If only people would read it, and seeds be planted in them to further educate themselves in these heresies, well-known people who are guilty of spreading this evil. We see this all of the time on Facebook. They quote and follow these false teachers. I’ve warned and warned them to no avail. They keep on keeping on following evil. One in particular is so involved with the likes of Rick Joyner, etc and Toronto Blessing, etc. They live in Florida where so much evil reigns. A real blindness and hardening of hearts is so prevalent. It breaks our hearts….in two!!! Satan and his demons are fast and furiously duping Christians…and they don’t even want to have a dialog about their choices. They just want the Watchmen to shut up and leave them alone. I have very few friends anymore due to the stand I’ve taken for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ—the Call of God on my life. It is more important to me to honor and obey Almighty God than to fall away…just to have my family and friends back. I feel to my core for them because they have no idea what awaits them when they stand before God…and He says, “I never knew you!” God Bless you and Cheryl for all you both are doing to warn people…staying steadfast to the Call…hanging on to Jesus tightly.

  3. Sheila

    I have Sarah Youngs devotional and i’m not understanding what the problem is with it. You have her on your list of heretics can you explain this to me by email? Thank you

    • C.H. Fisher

      Sarah Young channels a spirit that is a false Christ. Some of her statements disagree with the Word of God. Her claim that her words belong beside God’s infallible word are certainly in error. It would take too much space and time to present all the information here when other individuals have already completed that task. Please read Warren Smith’s book, “Another Jesus Calling”. Here is a link to an article by Warren Smith. http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=14775

  4. Steph

    Thank you, dear one, for standing up for the Truth. We just watched part of a series called “Wide is the Gate”. It was a good reminder that there is a reason why we feel as though the circle of true fellowship for believers is becoming smaller and smaller. God’s Word talks about the “wide and the narrow”, the “few and the many”. Of God’s special Jewish people who experienced all of His sovereign care and miracles, God mentioned that there would only be a “remnant”. We must pray for pastors, pray for our children and grandchildren and pray that we stay true to the sufficiency of God’s Word and the simplicity that is in Christ. Also praying that we do not become discouraged and side-tracked from our primary job of sharing the true Gospel faithfully. In these discouraging times I continue to come back to a children’s song which is perhaps the most powerful song I know…”Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey”! I Cor. 15:57&58

  5. Eric

    I agree with a lot of what you are saying. I have been teaching and preaching about the apostasy that ushers in the anti-christ (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12) for the last decade. This apostacy has its roots in the late 1800’s and has continued on a record pace even while the fulfillment of several scriptures took place when Israel was finally relieved of Gentile control which Babylon started in the mid 500 BC. I find it interesting to note here that in this passage of 2 Thessalonians there is an implication in this passage that is hard to capture, it is summed up in the Pulpit Commentary.

    “Verse 3. – Let no man deceive you by any means; in any way, not only in any of the foregoing methods, “by spirit, or word, or letter,” but in any way whatever. For (that day shall not come). The bracketed words are not in the original, but are correctly supplied for the completion of the sense. Except there come a falling away; or, the apostasy; namely, that apostasy about which the apostle, when in Thessalonica, had instructed his readers. The falling away here alluded to is evidently religious, not political. Hence it cannot be the revolt of the Jews from the Romans, or any of those revolts and disturbances which then occurred in the political world. Nor must we conceive that the man of sin himself is here meant; for this apostasy precedes his coming – prepares the way for his advent; it is not the result, but the cause, of his appearance. The word, then, is to be taken generally to denote that remarkable “falling away” from Christianity concerning which Paul had instructed the Thessalonians (comp. 1 Timothy 4:1-3). First; namely, before the coming of the day of the Lord. And that man of sin; in whom sin is, as it were, personified, as righteousness is in Christ. Be revealed. The apostle considers the man of sin as the counterpart of Christ; as Christ was revealed, so shall the man of sin be revealed. The son of perdition; whose sin necessarily conducts to perdition; not here the perdition of his followers, but his own perdition. The same name which was applied by our Lord to Judas Iscariot (John 17:12). ”

    and again

    Verse 6. – And now. The particle “now” has been variously interpreted. Some connect it with the restraining influence: “And ye know what now withholdeth;” but if so, there would have been a different arrangement of the words in the original Others consider it as a mere particle of transition: “Now, to pass over to another subject;” but there is no transition, the apostle continues his description of the man of sin. It is rather to be considered as a particle of time: “Now ye know, because you have been instructed on this point.” Ye know; Paul having told them when he was at Thessalonica. What withholdeth; hindereth. The hindrance does not refer to the prevention of the apostle from speaking freely on this subject, lest he should involve himself in political difficulties; nor to any delay in the coming of Christ; but to a restraint upon the appearance of the man of sin: “Ye know what prevents his open manifestation.” That he; namely, the man of sin. Might be revealed in his time; literally, in his season; in his proper time, the time appointed by God. Events were not yet ripe for his appearance. Just as there was a “fulness of time” when Christ should appear (Galatians 4:4), so there was a “fulness of time” when the man of sin should be revealed; there was a series of events going on which would culminate in his revelation. The nature of this restraining or withholding influence will afterwards be considered; whatever it was, the Thessalonians were formerly explicitly informed.

    I would love some sources for your information on different teachings, agendas, culture shifts, church happenings that agree with your article.

  6. Sharon Weatherly

    So agree with your articles … The days of apostasy are here and Jesus is coming soon! We have been Hat especially hard with the hyper charismatic fallout and the Nee Apostiolic Reformation, it has affected our family in a very sad way as near separation occurred over the latter movement. It’s a very long story., so I won’t go into here. I would like to mention to you and your readers,however. an excellent new book entitled “A New Apostolic Reformation … A Biblical Response to a Worldside Movement and “God’s Super Apostles” by R. Douglas Geivett and Holly Pivec … Outstanding amalyses of this last days heresy that is gaining ground rapidly. Thanks again for your labors in this unpopular field … You can be sure. however, it is not an unpopular subject to the Lord. You shall one day be rewarded! (The Wide is the Gate series is excellent S well.) Your sister in Christ, Sharon

  7. Kinley Pink

    Amen, Thank you and may God continue to give you the confidence and boldness in His love, grace, and truth to proclaim The True Gospel and Admonish the saints!!♥

  8. Jim Black

    “Heresy breeds apostasy.” – Tertullian (Prescriptions Against Heresies)

  9. Lori

    Well said my brother! God is calling out His remnant. Thank you for being faithful and willing to speak the truth. You are a true “watchman on the wall” God bless you!

  10. Mark

    “However, neither of them specifically mentioned Contemplative Spirituality via Spiritual Formation, the Emergent Church Movement, the New Apostolic Reformation, and the other heresies along with ecumenism that are destroying Christianity”… So the Church can be destroyed? That’s silly and extra-biblical How do you frame Matthew 16:18? Christ is the cornerstone. It’s His Church. It will endure perfectly in His sovereignty. To suggest that man could destroy the Church, would mean our end is unsure, that eternity is in question and the Christ is powerless without man’s effort. You don’t need to hold the Church together, Cedric. That’s not your job. Take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, but start with loving your neighbor and work your way out from there.

    • C.H. Fisher

      Mark, I purposely use the term “Christianity” and not Church for a good reason. Please read my article, “Again, it’s not the Apostate Church, but Apostate Christianity!” You are making the two synonymous and building a strawman out of the result. The Church will never be destroyed, but Christianity is a religion that is in great apostasy.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

© 2024 TruthKeepers

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑