THE REALITY OF DECEPTION
Y2K scams proliferated and people were being bilked out of money through the selling of fear and paranoia. Internet myths are being circulated and are growing like fungus. One can be “ordained” over the Internet for no charge in 20 seconds. And, for what it is worth, there is an assortment of “degrees” that you can purchase. The myth that U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno promoted (on the news program 60 Minutes) a definition of “cult” that included evangelical believers was actually believed and proliferated even though it has been debunked. For the last 25-plus years, PFO has and continues to get pleas in regard to the bogus Madalyn Murray O’Hair/FCC petition. Other FCC stories continue to mutate and circulate.
The vanishing hitchhiker is still showing up regularly in evangelists’ stories. And then there’s the missing day, hell found and tape recorded in a Siberia cavern and, let’s not forget, Procter and Gamble’s sellout to Satan. All of these reports are still making the rounds. Rumors are fascinating and they do sell. There are so many myths and urban legends that retired English professor Jan Harold Brunvand has put together, The Colossal Book of Urban Legends with the main title being, “Too Good To Be True.” Myth debunking has spawned a whole industry for that genre of books.
The title of a new study of urban legends by Brunvand (and published by the University of Illinois Press) really underscores the susceptibility to hearsay: “The Truth Never Stands in the Way of a Good Story!”
Charismatics in Toronto (and elsewhere) are passing off as gold what has tested out to be cheap glitter. Also there has been the planting of feathers that are claimed to be the work of angels. Hokey pictures — and just plain bad photography — with fire superimposed on crowds of people is supposed to prove the new “baptism of fire.” Even heartwarming stories from seemingly sincere men can be used to deceive. Paul warned us: “But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).


IT’S IN THE BOOK — A LOT
Remember that Satan duped Adam and Eve in the garden (Genesis 3). The Israelites followed the impostor Korah to their own destruction (Numbers 16). Saul was drawn in and deceived by the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28). Jeremiah warned of false and wicked “shepherds” who would deceive and destroy the sheep (Jeremiah 23). We can be easily seduced if we do not hold on to and really know God’s Word.
Kathryn Lindskoog has astutely commented that “Some Protestants love any heartwarming stories that seem to authenticate the Bible, whether they are true or not.”5 There is no end of undocumented stories and claims by modern pied pipers.
There are so many Christian myths and urban legends accepted as fact in the Church that it is embarrassing. In some instances they are harmless, in other instances they are costly and even deadly. However, the world looks at the gullibility and silliness of some professing Christians and mocks. We lose the battle because of the effects of our being deceived and looking ridiculous.
The Old Testament constantly exposes the cons. We are shown the magicians in Moses’ day who could fake the miracles of Moses (up to a point, Exodus 8 and 2 Timothy 3). Jacob’s tricking and scheming are laid out. Laban is exposed. In Isaiah 30:10 the people cried: “prophesy illusions.”
The book of Proverbs warns again and again about deceit, false balances, being taken in by deception whether in the moral realm, or the everyday realm of life and practical living. The Bible repeatedly insists on truth, calls us to truth, demands truth.
Jesus in Matthew 7:15 warns of false prophets and Paul in Acts 20:29-30 warns about “grievous wolves” who will not spare the flock.

WHOPPERS DELUXE
The deceivers are getting more shameless all the time. Inner-City Christian Discernment Ministry reports on Rod Parsley’s “Whopper.” Parsley sent his constituents a letter dated April 2, 1999, in which he claimed to heal a man of full-blown AIDS. No name, address or documentation was given. It was just a tall tale.
Joan Gieson, who served for many years at Benny Hinn Miracle Crusades doing stage introductions of the “healed,” reported at one of Hinn’s meetings that the woman on stage had been thrown out of a automobile, hit by three cars, run over by a tractor trailer, was taken to the morgue, marked DOA with a tag put on her big toe. The lady stood there looking like she was in a drug stupor. No documentation, proof or medical records were offered — just wild claims.
Marilyn Hickey is selling anointed red rubber bands to wear on the wrist for seven days for only $10.00. In the past she has offered blessed pennies, miracle carrot seeds and magical healing cloths. It is a travesty.
Former “signs and wonders” leg lengthener, C. Peter Wagner, reports stories that in Argentina people lose large amounts of weight in the meetings and that bald men grow hair. Again no proof, no documentation, no witnesses, no specimens. We are told if we do prayer walks, demons will flee out of their geographical strongholds. If this was true the demon busters could have taken back all the ZIP codes from Satan years ago.
IT JUST IS NOT WORKING!
Inner-City Christian Discernment Ministry has also posted information on just how physically sick modern healers get. These healers also regularly seek medical attention for themselves and their family. It is one of their best-kept secrets although the facts are slowly leaking out.
In ICCDM’s report entitled “It’s Not Working For Them Either!” they chronicle:
• the deaths of John Wimber and his son Chris, both of whom died of cancer;
• E.W. Kenyon died in a coma with a malignant tumor;
• John Osteen sought medical help for his wife Dodie’s cancer;
• Word-Faith publisher Buddy Harrison died of cancer;
• Fred Price got chemotherapy for his wife. He did not name it and claim it.
Further, ICCDM reminds us that Jamie Buckingham died of cancer and Charles Capps’ wife got medical treatment for her cancer, as did Joyce Meyer. Mack Timberlake is getting medical attention for throat cancer and healer R.W. Shambach, who regularly tells his gullible followers, “You don’t have any problems, all you need is faith in God,” has had a quadruple bypass. Add to that, Prophet Keith Grayton who died of AIDS complications, Kenneth Hagin’s sister who died of cancer, Hagin’s wife who was operated on and Hagin himself who wears glasses and you begin to see the hypocrisy.
The list goes on and on. Kathryn Kuhlman died of heart disease. A.A. Allen died from alcohol abuse and Aimee Semple McPherson died from an overdose of barbiturates. John Lake died of a stroke and Gordon Lindsey of a heart condition. Daisy Osborn died of cancer that she claimed was healed. How does one explain this since all the above claim healing powers and special visitations from God? Self-deluded? Or just deluding others?
What about the other “miracle workers”? Robert Tilton dealt with lawsuits, lies and divorces while he collected millions. Peter Popoff was exposed by the secular world as a fraud when it was revealed his “words of knowledge” were received through an electronic earpiece. Leroy Jenkins was convicted for tax fraud. Jimmy Swaggert is a serial adulterer and multimillionaire. W.V. Grant was jailed for tax fraud and has divorced his wife. The world of televangelists is a sick, dysfunctional and sinful world. These people claim that they have seen Jesus, seen angels, have extraordinary powers, are the anointed of God and the recipients of direct revelation. Charisma magazine touts them as Christian leaders, apostles and miracle workers and tries to give them credibility through smoke and mirrors using fantastic stories, unproven claims and slick advertisements. It is such a sham. Based on the above it should not be hard for the reader to decide what is really going on.

REAL JEWELS
Kathryn Kuhlman gave false hope, which is worse than no hope at all. Quadriplegic Joni Eareckson Tada recounts her experiences:
“And so, when I was released from the hospital, my friends would drive me to Washington, D.C., so I could be first in line at the door whenever the famous faith- healer, Kathryn Kuhlman, came to town. Miss Kuhlman breezed onto the stage in her white gown, and my heart raced as I prayed, Lord, the Bible says you heal all our diseases. I’m ready for you to get me out of this wheelchair. Please would you?”6
Tada goes on:
“God answered: I never walked away from my chair. The last time I wheeled away from a Kathryn Kuhlman crusade, I was number fifteen in a line of thirty wheelchair- users waiting to exit at the stadium elevator, all of us trying to make a fast escape ahead of the people on crutches. I remember glancing around at all the disappointed and confused people and thinking, Something’s wrong with this picture. Is this the only way to deal with suffering? Trying to desperately remove it?”7

Wheelchairs in a meeting are incredible props and powerful symbolic tools even if nothing happens. They create great effect for healers. W.V. Grant used to truck them in for effect. In Canada, architects have hung them on the pillars at St. Anne’s Church in perfect symmetry. When the chips are down, the “biggest” names don’t come through — Oral Roberts prayed for Kathryn Kuhlman in the hospital twice. She was resuscitated by hospital staff twice but the enlarged heart she carried for more than 20 years finally gave out. Kuhlman pulled in an income of $1 million a year and died with a vault full of jewels.8 Joni Eareckson Tada will get her jewels in heaven.
Tada shares the sad aftermath of the healing crusades:
“I wonder how many of those sullen-faced folks at the elevator after the healing crusade still believe in God? That was almost thirty years ago. Are they still waiting in line? Still hoping? ‘Hope deferred makes the heart sick,’ and a heart can break only so many times.”9
Faith healer Benny Hinn, who claims to receive “anointings” at the grave sites of Kuhlman and McPherson, has fostered deceptions that are crass and blatant but very well- documented. His claims of surviving a plane crash unscathed do not match up with the law enforcement report which details the accident. The heroin-overdose deaths within his own organization show his impotence. His constant threats of lawsuits and cursing of detractors’ children show his spiritual bankruptcy. His claims of raising the dead have all been shown to be lies.
The banter can even turn rude, crude, vile and vulgar. Take the comments of Hinn’s wife, Suzanne, who is now “ministering” with her husband: “You need a Holy Ghost enema,” she told her former Orlando congregation. The rest we will leave out. Shortly after that she charged back and forth across the stage hollering into the microphone and did a big belly flop on stage to the howling delight of her audience. Clips of the above were run on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show for all the world to see and ridicule.10 It has provided Hinn with another black monetary hole of legal expenses in his empty threats of lawsuits against the network and The Daily Show producers. It gives every Christian a bad name.
According to 1 Timothy 3:4-5, an elder is to rule his house well. If he cannot rule his house, he cannot rule the Church. At the very least Hinn could have his wife apologize, clean up her act and stop belly-flopping on stage. How the shocking banter of Mrs. Hinn must grieve the Holy Spirit. Her husband at times has threatened those who disagree with him with suggestions that they are blaspheming the Holy Spirit. He even once called for a “Holy Ghost machine gun” to blow off the heads of his detractors. However, the suggestions of his wife may be very near blaspheming or at least seriously degrading and mocking the Holy Spirit. Yet there has not been an outcry from Hinn’s following.
Is the Charismatic world getting so jaded that nothing shocks it any more? Hinn has gone from getting an anointing at graveyards to full-blown necromancy (added to his lies and false prophecies) and his crowds only get bigger.11 One of the ways deception is promoted is by the terrible misuse and twisting of Scripture
to try to shore up wild claims. There has been a constant misuse of Jeremiah 31:22, “for the Lord has created a new thing in the earth.” We have been told that each new excess is that “new thing.” Holy laughter
was described as the new thing. Various “revivals” and bodily manifestations were touted as the new thing. Some are claiming the new thing is yet to arrive.

CONTEXT, CONTEXT, CONTEXT
Invariably, cults spawn false doctrine by using proof texts out of context. Extremists were saying that revival was sweeping the land and we could expect to see anything because God was going to do a new thing. But just as Peter warned, they are twisting the Scriptures to say that the new thing is anything they proclaim it to be, no matter how wild or weird.
The “new thing” is foretold in Jeremiah 31:22. In verse 31, the “new thing” is clearly expounded and explained as follows, “Behold the days are coming says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel.” So the new thing is the New Covenant. Charismatic extremism, I believe, is trying to rob us of the new covenant. Keil and Delitzsch work out all the contextual nuances in the Hebrew text of Jeremiah 31 and conclude that the new thing is not some emotional experience, but that “Herein is expressed a new relation of Israel to the Lord, a reference to a new covenant which the Lord, ver. 31ff., will conclude with His people.”12
The so-called “new thing” of frenzies, manifestations, spastic fits, and out-of-control emotions is, in fact, not new at all but a reproduction of bizarre behavior that cropped up in the Church periodically and was soundly condemned when it did. Whether it be the Camisard “prophets” of 1706 or the other outbreaks of the 18th century, strong words were used against the excesses and the Bible upheld as the only source of truth.13 Having seen the reality of deception we need to try to understand secondly, the roots of deception.