Trust me,
I’m a Doctor!

And you could go through experience after experience after experience, in Scripture and show that when God comes to people in a dynamic, power of the living, eternal, almighty God, who spoke and caused the millions of stars, when He comes in power to people, something happens. And those who’ve tried to talk their way around the manifestations, from the Biblical point of view and tried to say, Oh well, Paul had that experience, but, you know, in context, it was a sovereign thing and so on, they are playing with things, brothers and sisters. The fact is, if God comes into any of our lives, He’s a dynamic, powerful God and He can do what He wants to do for His own purposes, that He may be glorified. And so, I believe they’ve passed the Biblical test.

They’ve passed the Biblical test?
Here we have Dr. Evans’ fifth appeal to authority. If I believe they’ve passed the Biblical test, then it must be okay.

Where is the evidence that they have passed the Biblical test? Where does the Bible say that Christians should spend their time falling down, rolling on the ground, laughing hysterically, crying, in confusion and hysteria, suffering from paralysis, from the loss of the power of speech, and from the loss of self-control. This isn’t exactly “the fruit of the Spirit,” is it?

Where is the evidence? There isn’t any! But Dr. Andrew Evans says, “I believe they’ve passed the Biblical test,” and that’s all there is to it. Trust me, I’m a doctor!

The Bible was
written by
isolated
individuals

But there’s a third test that we need to pass when unusual things happen. And that is the test of: What do spiritual leaders say? Whenever there’s a controversy in the Church, the answer to that controversy doesn’t come from isolated individuals who write books or send tapes or videos around. The answer to the controversy comes from God’s appointed leadership. Now God has order in Chri, in the Church. In the Book of Revelation, when God wanted to deal with the Church, he talked to the person He held in His right hand. And we read there in Revelation two and Revelation three where He held in His right hand the angel of the church or the minister of the church and He gave direction to that church to him.

Isolated individuals who write books?
“The answer to that controversy doesn’t come from isolated individuals who write books.” What a load of dishonest rubbish! Who wrote the Book of Revelation? John, an individual who was isolated (on the island of Patmos) and who wrote a book (at the Lord’s direction). Write, therefore, what you have seen… (Revelation 1:19).

God “gave direction to that church to him…the person He held in His right hand”? Rubbish! God gave the direction to an isolated individual, John, who wrote it in a book, the Book of Revelation, and who passed it to the leaders of the seven churches named therein.

Notice that the content of those messages to the leaders was, in most cases, a rebuke and a correction. God spoke to an isolated individual and told him to write a book precisely because the leaders weren’t listening to God!

Where does Dr. Evans think the rest of the Bible came from? It was written by isolated individuals — Paul, sitting in a Roman prison; David, the lonely shepherd boy on the hillside, or fleeing from King Saul; Jeremiah, in stocks and prison; Moses, surrounded by millions of murmuring Israelites who looked like stoning him to death in the wilderness; Nehemiah, constantly battling enemies within and without, struggling to build the wall; and so on.

Read about the Heroes of the Faith in Hebrews chapter eleven and see what a collection of isolated individuals they were. Throughout Church History, God has specialised in speaking through isolated individuals, rather than committees or Executives.

Dr. Andrew Evans’ teachings here are comprehensively dishonest. He abuses the Bible in order to reinforce his personal empire. The controlling, manipulative authority that he demands of us is one of the major marks of a cult. Trust me, I’m a doctor!

I’ve got more
churches than
they have!

Now, in the twentieth century, when there’s controversy in the Church, God still wants to speak through the leaders of the Church, and give them direction. He hasn’t got another plan. And so, in February this year [1995], after Rodney Howard-Browne left, the leaders of the Pentecostal Church of Australia, who meet once a year, met. And we discussed this issue at great length, for about a full day, and I, uh, uh.

At this meeting was Neil Myer, the President of the C.O.C.; Mike Cronin, the Chairman of the C.R.C.; Phil Pringle was not there, but he agreed with the decision, but he’s normally there, of the Christian City Church; Don Baker, good friend of mine, from the Four Square Church in Sydney and their movement, they have about, maybe fifty churches under them; Phil Pringle has forty, fifty churches; Mike Cronin, maybe a hundred and fifty churches; Neil Myer, about two hundred churches.

The Apostolic Churches were represented by Joe Bowes and John Hewitt, about a hundred and twenty odd they represent; the Waverley Christian Fellowship, by Kevin Connors; Phil Baker, from Rhema Church in Perth, has the largest church in Perth; Trevor Chandler, from C.L.C. Churches, they have about thirty churches in various parts; Barry Chant, from Tabor was there; another brother from InterMin was there; and Peter Vacca from the Bethesda Churches was there, with fifty odd churches.

And there was myself and two other representatives from the Assemblies of God, and, in total, we covered the whole of the Pentecostal churches, by and large, in Australia. Something like sixteen hundred churches we represented.

And we sat there and we discussed this move, this new move. We discussed the unusual phenomena. We discussed these things, like Trevor getting, you know. People saying, How can that be? And as we discussed it for about a day or more, the conclusion of the meeting was that it was of God. Out of that whole group there was only one who had some concerns. And he expressed concerns, but he didn’t deny the fact that there was something happening. And so the whole group of the leaders of the Pentecostal movement in Australia in February this year endorsed this thing that’s happening in our nation today. All of them had amazing testimonies of what’s happening in their churches. Most of them had some personal experiences themselves along that line. Most of them had seen it happen under their own ministry. And so, these men that would be considered the apostles and elders of the Pentecostal movement endorse the current wave of the spirit as being from God.

Endorsing the current wave
Here we have Dr. Evans’ sixth appeal to authority. If certain religious leaders say its okay, then it must be okay.

His presentation is extraordinarily one-sided. David Wilkerson opposes this “wave.” Barry Chant has publicly said he found it “very disturbing.” Harry Westcott is opposed to it, describing the wave as a “dumper” and expressing his concern that many people will be injured by it. Ken Chant is strongly opposed to it. Numerous AOG pastors across Australia are deeply concerned and some of them boycotted the 1995 AOG National Conference because Rodney Howard-Browne would be there. There are groups of Christian leaders around the world who are warning people to be extremely careful and to exercise their discernment.

The fact that Dr. Andrew Evans achieved an “endorsement” from a group of men who meet just once a year doesn’t mean a thing. If this group were truly “the apostles and elders” of the Church in Australia, they wouldn’t be representing a dozen or more denominations. They would be able to hear clearly from God, correct any wrong doctrine that any of them might have, put their personal ego trips aside, and restructure their individual groups as the one Pentecostal Church in Australia. Until that happens, we can all be sure that they mean well, but they lack the spiritual authority that Dr. Evans claims for them.

Red Herrings
and Character
Assassination.

However, not everyone has accepted that ruling. And in this city these are the opponents to it. Let me go through them. Number one, there’s a little church just near by here that puts ads in the paper saying it’s of the devil. And that brother is a sincere person and believes the Bible, but doesn’t believe in the gifts of the Spirit, doesn’t believe in the power of God, doesn’t believe in miracles, doesn’t believe in speaking in tongues. So, he would oppose anything supernatural, because in his mind it finished two thousand years ago. So, you as a congregation have a choice whether you’re going to believe him or the apostles of the nation. You’ve got a choice.

You’ve got a choice whether you’re going to believe a little two or three cult-buster groups that have their little meetings and their main job in life is to destroy the cults and expose the cults. They do a reasonable job in that and I’m grateful for people who are involved in that. But when they begin to take on a role of giving direction to the church, they’ve gone past their mandate from God. You see, in the early church they never had the apostles and elders and then a little group here on the side, cult-busters, who were going to keep the church straight in doctrine. It was the apostles and prophets. And these cult-busters are very active. They’re putting out videos, they’re putting out tapes, they’re putting out literature. Very active. But they’re operating outside their authority from God.

And you have a choice whether you’re going to believe the apostles of this nation, in the Pentecostal sense, or whether you’re going to believe these groups. You’ve got a choice whether you’re going to believe people who don’t go to church at all, and what they say.

You’ve got a choice?
For Bible-believing Christians, it is never a question of:
Do you believe this person or do you believe that person?
It is always a question of: What does the Bible say?

Dr. Andrew Evans uses two of his favourite techniques here: the Red Herring Chase and Character Assassination. The Red Herring Chase keeps people earnestly debating about irrelevant matters until the crisis (for the false leader) has passed.
The Red Herrings here include:
- “Cult-buster groups”,
- “take on a role of giving direction to the church”,
- “keep the church straight in doctrine”,
- “gone past their mandate from God”, and
- “people who don’t go to church.”

These are all intended to excite emotions and remove the focus from the real question: What is the Biblical basis for the bizarre manifestations that occur with the “Toronto blessing”?

Character Assassination (also known as Damning With Faint Praise) is intended to make the opposition look so silly that no one in their right mind would listen to them.
The Character Assassinations here include:
- “a little church just near by here”,
- “doesn’t believe in the gifts of the Spirit”,
- “doesn’t believe in the power of God”,
- “doesn’t believe in miracles”,
- “doesn’t believe in speaking in tongues”,
- “he would oppose anything supernatural”,
- “cult-buster groups that have their little meetings”,
- “a little group here on the side, cult-busters”, and
- “people who don’t go to church at all.”

Even if these comments were all true — and we have no way of checking any of them — they don’t help us to answer the real question. (The value of observing this exercise lies in the insight it gives us into the methods of Dr. Andrew Evans.)

What does
the Bible say?

There’s some people that are making, that are saying a lot of things these days, that don’t even go to church. Oh, they have been in the past. They’ve been to several churches, as a matter of fact, numbers of churches. But for some reason or other they’ve left them all and at this present time, some of those people don’t go to any church at all. Well, if you want to believe that, God bless you. I’m believing the apostles. I never, ever believe, I never take one scrap of notice, I never take one scrap of notice of someone who doesn’t submit to a local church.

If someone comes to me, and they do from time to time, ah, my first question is, people come to me, they, some of them, I’m a target, and they come to me and say, We’ve got a word from God for you, they, uh, prophets and so on.

Remember, a guy come a few months back, he said, I’ve got a prophecy from God. You know my first question? I said, where do you fellowship? He says, Oh, I don’t. I said, well forget it, brother, I haven’t got time to waste listening to your prophecies. I don’t believe you’re from God, because if you were you’d be in a local church, you’d be submitted to the leadership, you’d have people who can bring correction to you if you’re wrong, you can put your input in the Body, but when you’re just a loose limb floating around some place, I’m not even going to listen to you. Anyhow, he left the room mumbling curses on me and, and God was going to judge me and all the rest. I come the next day, on Monday, and I see him in the foyer again and I say, Hey, what are you doing here? He said, I’ve got an appointment with a Phil Ward. I said, You did have one. I said, I just cancelled it. I said, we do not listen to people who will not submit to a local church. It’s amazing, though, some people do, they’ll listen to people who don’t even go to a local church, rather than listen to the spiritual, God-ordained leadership.

Listen to the spiritual, God-ordained leadership?
For Bible-believing Christians, it is never a question of:
Do you listen to this person or do you listen to that person?
It is always a question of: What does the Bible say?

Dr. Evans wants us all to believe that he, personally, is the great oracle of God. But if he cannot substantiate his teachings from the Bible, it doesn’t matter what titles, badges or honours he has accumulated to himself, no one should listen to his new doctrines.

All of the
Evans-
approved
churches
agree with Andrew
Evans.

Any church
which doesn’t
agree with
Evans is not
OK.

OK?

Very shaky grounds, very shaky grounds. I had one dear old man, I, uh, I felt the Lord just say to me, Be kind to him. He came to me and he wanted to sell me a book. And, uh, it was a nice book, it was on End Time and Prophecy and things like that, and it was nice, and I, uh, believe a lot of what it had in there, and I was sympathetic to him, and, uh, I just felt the Holy Spirit say, Be kind to him. So, brother, I said, just let me ask you one question before I consider your book. I said, Where do you go to church? Oh, well, I worship at home. So I said, My dear friend, please, find a spiritual home because, I said, Your credibility goes down the tubes, just like that, when I find that you can’t mix with your brothers and sisters and be submitted to them and work with them and flow with them. Something wrong, when people.

Anyhow, I got a phone call just about a month later, and the Baptist pastor from Ingle Farm rang me and said, Andrew, have you had a visit from so-and-so trying to sell a book? I said, Yeah. He said, Oh, he’s been to see me too. I said, What did you tell him? He said, I asked him what local church he went to? Anyhow, I, uh, I understand that this man has now joined the local church, and that’s good.

Where do you go to church?
Dr. Evans has been working systematically to discredit three groups of people:
1) Those who don’t go to church,
2) Those who don’t go to a Dr.-Andrew-Evans-approved church, and
3) Those who go to one of the House Churches springing up around Australia.

Even if you pass these three hurdles, you must still submit to the leadership of your Dr.-Andrew-Evans-approved church, which means that you submit to his new doctrine.

In other words, the only people who are qualified to criticise Dr. Evans’ new doctrine are people who have submitted themselves to that doctrine, and who therefore won’t criticise it. So, all the “good guys” agree with Dr. Evans, and anyone who doesn’t agree must be one of the “bad guys.”

This approach is both dishonest and manipulative. If Jesus had adopted the attitude demanded by Dr. Evans, He would never have gone near John the Baptist, but would have signed up with the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, instead.

Feelings,
not fruit!

But you see, God, when, when there’s these teachings coming through, who you’re going to listen to? You going to listen to someone who doesn’t go to a church, who’s a loose cannon, who doesn’t come under submission, you’re going to listen to some group that, uh, anti, uh, charismatic, anti gifts of the Spirit, are you going to listen to some, some cult-buster group that have taken on a role that God hasn’t called them to be? Or are you going to listen to this, to the leadership of a nation? And in the Bible they did it, and the leadership of this nation has said, despite the unusual things and the phenomenas of it all, it’s of God.

The fourth, fourth, uh, test is the test of the fruit. It’s the fruit test. Become a fruit inspector. The latest Evangel is, is an incredibly wonderful Evangel and some wonderful stories in it. We’ve heard testimonies this morning of Trevor and said what it did for him. Cameron, what its did for him. Just a few quick ones on fruit. Jim Cavell, fellow I know in Brisbane says, After I stopped shaking, God ministered to me. He drew me into a far closer relationship with me and filled me with a deep love. When people are being touched by the power of God, there’s love for God.

Two. A desire for holiness. A tribal aboriginal man came forward to the altar without any counselling. But as the spirit moved on his life he decided to go home and arrange to marry his defacto. A greater desire for the Scriptures. A district pastor said the Word of God has become fresh and alive.

A home group leader’s wife said, Fear is gone, I’ve always been fearful of people, but the fear of rejection and people that plagued me until now was suddenly gone. Another lady said she was refreshed, a wife and mother of two children who is studying for a doctorate of psychology was exhausted in body, emotions and spirit. She was ministered to by the Holy Spirit and she said amidst tears and laughter the Lord lifted the exhaustion and the burden.

A twenty year old student said his life was changed, he found that God imparted into his life was life-changing. He’s renewed my heart. I no longer struggle to communicate with Him, because I fell close to Him, I feel close to Him as I’ve never felt before.

One of our pastors in Perth sums up what’s happened in his church since this new wave has come. He said, There is a new sense of closeness to God, an unquenchable desire to read the Scriptures, to pray, as well as a renewed joy in Christ and a strong desire to tell others about Him. That’s good fruit.

That’s good fruit?
What is the “good fruit” that Dr. Andrew Evans has identified? Most of it relates to people’s feelings:
• “He...filled me with a deep love”
• “Fear is gone”
• “She was refreshed”
• “I feel close to Him”
• “A new sense of closeness to God”
• “A renewed joy in Christ”

Our emotions are good, in so much as they are God-given, but they are notoriously unreliable indicators of spiritual reality. The test of: Is this from God or is it from the devil? cannot be decided by how it makes people feel. The 1960s doctrine of: If it feels good, do it! has led to massive problems in Western society.

The next group of responses have a distinct tone of unreality to them.
• “An unquenchable desire to read the Scriptures”
• “He drew me into a far closer relationship”
• “I no longer struggle to communicate with Him”

How long does something need to last before you can confidently describe it as “unquenchable”? (More than two days?)

And what constitutes a “far closer” relationship? If Jesus was your Saviour and Lord before you developed a “far closer” relationship, what actually changed? (Or was this just a feelings thing, as well?)

All true Christians “struggle to communicate with Him” some of the time. (Try reading Pilgrim’s Progress for its picture of the Slough of Despond.) To boldly assert that “no longer” will you have that experience smacks of immaturity and unreality.

If the final group of comments:
• “The Word of God has become fresh and alive” proves to be true for these people over the long term, I will be delighted. None the less, the fact of the matter is that the leaders of the “Toronto blessing” movement display a consistent disregard for the Word of God. Their example is to be abhorred!

Close

You want to test the spirits? Find out what they think of Jesus Christ. If you want to test the spirits, see what they say, whether it lines up with Scripture or not. If you want to test the spirits, see what lead, spiritual leadership say about an issue. If you want to test the spirits, see what the fruit is. And if you use those four principles, you won’t go far wrong. And when God begins to move, you’ll move with Him. And when there’s something false, you’ll pick it up and protect yourself from it. We are to test the spirits, but to enjoy the blessings that God wants to give.

Summary