[video] John Wimber: Vineyard Signs & Wonders Conference 1985 (Entire Series — including John’s Personal Pilgrimage)

jotham,

No doubt, John didn’t have Christianity fully figured out or the Vineyard would have helped bring in the Third Great Awakening, and America wouldn’t be in the mess it currently is in.

I believe the main problem with Christianity is the once-saved-always-saved doctrine or “it’s hard to lose one’s salvation — we don’t have to be holy to be ‘in Christ.'” Hardly anyone is getting this doctrine correct. I wrote this article, which I think is the #1 key to revival:

Who-Goes-To-Heaven Scriptures — Narrow is the Way | Who are the Children of God?

And this includes the idea that we need to be right with each other. Reconciliation hasn’t been strongly taught since perhaps 1970 in Asbury, but the Asbury revival didn’t last probably because their doctrine didn’t require that level of being right with each other and God to continue, actually doing the greatest two commandments:

[video] Asbury Revival, 1970: “‘Dr. Kinlaw, I am a liar. Now what do I do?’ … Three days later, she came to me radiant, and she said, ‘Dr. Kinlaw, I’m free!’”

The Welsh Revival of 1904-05 by J. Edwin Orr: A Countrywide Asbury-like REVIVAL! The 4 Points: #1 Confess any known sin, and put any wrong done to man right again. #2 Put away any doubtful habit. #3 Obey the Spirit promptly. #4 Confess your faith publicly.

The Didache (70-100 AD): Reconciliation was required to attend early church meetings! “How upside-down the ‘church’ is today.”

My 1990 Key-to-Revival Prophecy: “There is might and there is power and there is glory, but it isbeing withheld until these relationships are made right, until we love our brother enough to…”

John Wimber was actually amazing! He did so much to help bring the church back into balance in some key areas, until the powers that be undid much of the good he did. This article is a good example. “You guys should be ashamed.” When I was in seminary, the professors there were openly criticizing John, but backed off a bit after they realized they very well could be criticizing the Holy Spirit Who was actually doing most of these signs and wonders.

The article you link to states:

“The teachings of John Wimber, founder and pastor of Vineyard Ministries, errs dramatically in three main areas:

1. Dependence on experience rather than Scripture, leading to the practice of pragmatism (the idea that if a technique works, it must be of God), and subjectivism (i.e. the equality of all sources of information as truth).

2. Acceptance of Occult practices in “Christian” forms, such as aura reading and manipulation, the teaching of “Inner Healing”, and psychological and Occult methodologies.

3. The teaching that Christians can be possessed by demons.

#1

John was big into scripture, which teaches we’re supposed to walk like Jesus and do what He and the apostles did. Jesus also said “the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth,” and Mark says: “signs and wonders will follow them that believe.” Paul said “those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God.” There are many more scriptures, as John and others like Jack Deere point out.

It’s totally bogus and unbiblical to fight the gifts of the Holy Spirit as being normal for Christians. This is fighting God, Himself.

#2

People do need inner healing, especially through actively forgiving those who hurt them. The fact that new age people also recognize this doesn’t make forgiving others wrong. Did they do everything right? Probably not, but there was probably a lot more right than wrong. I personally wasn’t involved in this, so I’m not sure what actually happened.

#3

Most ‘Christians’ are full of demons because of the rampant willful sin in today’s church, which I have shown  biblically:

Can a Christian Have a Demon? Absolutely! Most Have Many!

The Red Gate Prophecy — What If I Open It Just a Little Bit? The believers, not the non-believers, have opened the gate to sin, which is why this country has deteriorated

God wants to move, and not just be a theological concept. He wants to touch people’s lives, heal the emotionally and physically sick.

Who are you to get in the way?

It’s time to repent of this unbiblical, anti-Holy Spirit bashing.

You guys have a canon within the Canon, as you throw out the baby with the bathwater, just as D.A. Carson has (unless he’s changed). He suffered from this very thing he correctly wrote about:

D. A. Carson: The Problem of the Canon Within the Canon — A subset of scriptures taught in exclusion of those that would result in true doctrine. “We badly need to listen to one another, especially when we least like what we hear.”

Cessationism is from the Devil. We are supposed to walk like Jesus walked, just like John the apostle and John Wimber taught:

A Call to Intimacy: The Holy Spirit in John’s Gospel & Epistles — A paper I wrote for D. A. Carson’s Johannine Theology class at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1993

It’s time to repent of this unbiblical, anti-Holy Spirit bashing, and get with the program as stated and demonstrated in the New Testament.

We need more Johns.

Your kingdom come, Lord Jesus! May Your will be done through us that the world will see and know — and You will be glorified!

Be careful not to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you all. “Without holiness no one will see the Lord.”

Who-Goes-To-Heaven Scriptures — Narrow is the Way | Who are the Children of God?

jeff