WARNING AGAINST FALSE MINISTERS

A SOLEMN WARNING AGAINST FALSE MINISTERS
Discerning and Identifying the Bogus 5-Fold Ministry ROMANS 16:17 - “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.”

II TIMOTHY 4:2-4- “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” MATTHEW 24:24- “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” MATTHEW 7:15 - “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” ACTS 20:29-30 - “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. “ REVELATION 2:6- “But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” REVELATION 2:15- “So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.” We are cautioned in the Bible about false ministers who will come to rend the flock of God and become “grievous wolves” in “sheep’s clothings.” They will deceive the very elect if it were possible. They will try to impersonate the true church and the true ministers of God and will lead many astray. Who are these people? And how can we know those who belong to this false five-fold ministry? The messenger of the hour had exposed to us such systems clearly in what is known to be as the “Nicolaitanes doctrine” and the “Balaam” system of worship.

1. HE MUST EDIFY AND UNIFY THE BODY OF CHRIST EPHESIANS 4:12-13, “...For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

2. HE MUST NOT BRING DIVISION NOR CONTENTION(S) TO THE BODY OF CHRIST I CORINTHIANS 1:10-13- “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and [that] there be no divisions among you; but [that] ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them [which are of the house] of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?”

3. HE MUST BE ABLE TO DEMONSTRATE THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST I CORINTHIANS 2:4-5- “And my speech and my preaching [was] not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should NOT stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” His preaching must be INSPIRED BY THE HOLY GHOST; It must come from the HEART, and NOT from an INTELLECTUAL POINT of VIEW. He must live what he preaches, and the REALITY of GOD in his life must be supported by TRUE-TO-LIFE EXPERIENCES. He must be vindicated by the Scriptures. JOHN 14:12-14 - “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my Name, I will do [it].” LUKE 9:1-2- “ Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.” MARK 16:17-18 -”And these SIGNS shall follow THEM that believe; In my Name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

4. HE MUST BE ABLE TO LEAD THE CHURCH OF GOD UNTO

PERFECTION

MATTHEW 5:48- “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is

perfect.”

5. HE MUST LEAD THE CHURCH UNTO PERFECT LOVE

MATTHEW 5:43-47- “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy

neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them

that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully

use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in

heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the

just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even

the publicans the same?

6. HE MUST BRING CONVICTION TO SINNERS

II TIMOTHY 4:2-4- “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove,

rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they

will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves

teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall

be turned unto fables.”

7. HE MUST BE ABLE TO SET THE CAPTIVES FREE

LUKE 4:18-19- “The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed

me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to

preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at

liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

8. HE MUST BRING HONOR & GLORY TO JESUS CHRIST

ALONE (not to any man, group, system, nor denomination)

GALATIANS 6:14- “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of

our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”

I THESSALONIANS 2:6- “Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor [yet]

of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.”

9. HE MUST WITNESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE SAME

YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER (HEBREWS 13:8)

A TRUE MINISTER SHOULD ATTEST TO THE TRUTH OF THE FIRST PULL- HEALING &

MIRACLES; THE SECOND PULL- DISCERNMENT & PROPHESY; AND THE THIRD PULL REVEALING

OF THE WORD

10. HE MUST PREACH ONLY THE WORD OF GOD – THE REAL

FOOD FOR THE SOUL (NOT MAN-MADE IDEAS)

MATTHEW 4:4- “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” REVELATION 22:18-19 - “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book.”

11. HIS PREACHING MUST FOCUS ON THE PRESENT TRUTH - THE MESSAGE-OF-THE-HOUR II PETER 1:12 – “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know [them], and be established in the present truth.” 

12. HE MUST LEAD THE PEOPLE TO BECOME OVERCOMERS HEBREWS 12:1-2- “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the RACE that is set before us, Looking unto JESUS the AUTHOR and FINISHER of [our] faith.” I JOHN 2:15-16 – “Love NOT the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the LOVE of the Father is NOT in him. For ALL that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is NOT of the Father, but is of the world.” ROMANS 12:2- “And be NOT conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” II CORINTHIANS 10:5- “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” II CORINTHIANS 12:9- 10- “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

13. HE MUST PREPARE THE PEOPLE FOR THE RAPTURE JOHN 14:1-3- “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also.” MATTHEW 6:19-21- “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

THE GOALS OF PREACHING Preaching is the main work of the five-fold ministry. Preaching has to attain some goals and I personally categorize them as follows: 1. INFORMATION (Creating awareness in people about the Word; introducing the Message-of-the-Hour to the world) 2. INSTRUCTION (Acquisition of Knowledge by the people through a clear understanding the Mysteries of the Scriptures) 3. ACCEPTANCE (By faith, people must be lead to believe and obey the Word of god as their Absolute) 4. MOTIVATION (The building of inspiration amongst the people and offering them an invitation to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour) 5. PERSUASION (The assertion of Biblical truths and principles into people’s lives in order for them to be counted worthy to be called the “Bride” of the soon coming King.

NICOLAITANISM & BALAAMISM Nicolaitane, comes from two Greek words: Nikao which means “to conquer”, and Lao which means “the laity”. Nicolaitane means, “to conquer the laity”. “Now why is this such a terrible thing? It is terrible because God has never placed His church in the hands of an elected leadership which moves with political mindedness. He has placed His church in the care of God-ordained, Spirit-filled, Word-living men who lead the people through feeding them the Word. He has not separated the people into classes so that the masses are led by a holy priesthood. It is true that the leadership must be holy, but then so must be the whole congregation. Further, there is no place in the Word where priests or ministers or such mediate between God and the people, nor is there a place where they are separated in their worship of the Lord. God wants all to love and serve Him together. Nicolaitanism destroys those precepts and instead separates the ministers from the people and makes the leaders overlords instead of servants.” 

CORRUPTION OF THE CLERGY The Nicolaitane doctrine was “the corruption of the clergy as they sought political power amongst themselves”, while “Balaamism is the subjection of the people to their system of creed and worship in order to hold them.” Now watch this carefully. What was it that bound the people to the nominal church and thereby destroyed them? It was the creeds and dogmas formed into church tenets. It was the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. They were not given the true food, the Word. They were given the food that came from idol worship, Babylonian paganism wrapped up in Christian terminology. And that very same spirit and doctrine is right amongst all Protestants and it is called DENOMINATION. Nicolaitanism is organization, humanizing the leadership of the church, and thereby deposing the Spirit. Balaamism is denominationalism which takes the church manual instead of the Bible. ((372-2 RESUME.OF.THE.AGES - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK.CPT.10) And right to this hour, many of God’s people are caught in the snare of denominationalism and God is crying to them, “Come out of her My people, lest ye be partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not her plagues.” You see they are ignorant. But if the rapture should take place at this moment, ignorance would be no court of appeal from the judgment of God for being in the wrong ranks. “For the clergy to organize themselves with one rank over another until they are finally headed up by a president is a manifestation of the antichrist spirit, regardless of how wonderful and necessary it may seem. It is nothing but human reasoning taking the place of the Word. And any person who is in the organized denominations is right in the midst of an antichrist system. Now let me say this and make it very plain. I AM NOT AGAINST THE PEOPLE. I AM AGAINST THE SYSTEM.”

MONEY-MAKING SCHEMES “Notice how these people like Judas are out for money. They get you to sell all you have and give it to them and their schemes. They spend more time on offerings than the Word. Those who attempt to operate gifts will make use of a gift which has a margin of error in it and then ask for money, and neglect the Word and call it of God. And people will go to them, and bear with them, and support them, and believe them, not knowing it is the way of death. Yes, the land is full of carnal impersonators. In that last day they will try to imitate that prophet-messenger. The seven sons of Sceva tried to imitate Paul. Simon the sorcerer tried to imitate Peter. Their impersonations will be carnal. They won’t be able to produce what the true prophet produces. When he says the revival is over they will go around claiming a great revelation that what the people have is exactly right and God is going to do bigger and more wonderful things amongst the people. And the people will fall for it. These same false prophets will claim that the messenger of the last day is not a theologian, so he ought not to be heard. They won’t be able to produce what the messenger can; they won’t be vindicated by God as that last day prophet is, but with their great swelling words and with the weight of their world-wide notoriety they will warn the people not to hear that man (messenger) and they will say he teaches wrong. They are running exactly true to their fathers, the Pharisees, who were of the devil, for they claimed that both John and Jesus taught error. Now why do these false prophets come against the true prophet and discredit his teaching? Because they are running true to form as did their forefathers when in the days of Ahab they withstood Micaiah. There were four hundred of them and all of them were in agreement; and by them all saying the same thing, they fooled the people. But ONE prophet—just one—was right and all the rest wrong because God had committed the revelation to ONLY ONE. Beware of false prophets, for they are ravening wolves.” William Branham

Credits: The Handbook