Study – Grow – Know

Wolves? Who is Perry Stone?

November 14, 2017 at 7:24 AM 2 comments

Perry Stone is part of the Charismatic movement; a preacher who is also billed as a prophet and evangelist. The terms “preacher” and “evangelist” are certainly valid labels to be used today for those called and qualified, but unfortunately, to be called or to call one’s self a prophet today in the same vein as the prophets of old is something that we believe the Bible does not condone. It must be understood that when a person is labeled (by self or others), a prophet, that means that God is effectively revealing new things, as prophets were God’s human mouthpieces normally to Israel. Do today’s so-called prophets reveal new things or is the Bible all we need to know what God would have us know about Him and His plans and purposes?

We believe that the Bible is the only authoritative and final Word of God. His Word, as penned by roughly 40 human authors (over approximately 1,600 years or so), who were moved along according to the work of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21), wrote and/or prophesied by God’s power for God’s purposes and for His glory. We need to remember that God did not have to but deliberately chose to stoop to us, letting us know what He was going to bring about throughout this age and into the next.

If we say that the Bible is the final and only authoritative Word of God, then we need to be content with that and not other extra-biblical revelations no matter how spiritual they may appear to be. We cannot look beyond Scripture to other sources that claim to also be God’s spoken word.

Recognizing that within Charismatic/Signs and Wonders movement, while people believe that God “still speaks,” they would also often deny that this “speaking” by God through humans countermands or overrules God’s written Word. They believe the two are complimentary. However, when push comes to shove, the truth is that if they are claiming that God speaks at all today (either through prophesy, vision, dream, or word of knowledge), how could that not be equal to God’s written Word?

Perusing Perry Stone’s Voice of Evangelism website tends to remind me of Oral Roberts and the things that were offered through his ministry years ago. During my time in the Charismatic movement, I remember obtaining a small vial of prayer anointing oil (as a result of a donation I made to them). Placing a drop or two of this oil on my forehead was supposed to help strengthen my faith during prayer so that I could believe whatever I asked for in God’s Name would come to pass. It didn’t, but like many of the claims of Oral Roberts, much of it relies on the individual Christian and not Oral Roberts, so he was off the hook.

Stone’s Internet store lists several items that are questionable. First, there’s the “Anointing Oil Special.” For only $20 (limited time offer, so hurry!), you can receive the oil and two books, Purging your House and The Meal that Heals. It is claimed that the oil is “made from the spices used in the Holy Land anointing oil,” so you’ll get oil from where Jesus walked and lived.

The book The Meal that Heals deals with the Lord’s Supper and Stone’s claim that by partaking of that meal, you will actually start healing your body. A quote from the description of the book reads like this:

The Biblical revelation contained in this 70-page book will not only challenge your spirit, but could possibly extend the days of your life! This is not just another message, but a life-changing spiritual revelation of God’s healing covenant through the bread and the fruit of the vine.

The back of the book makes more interesting promises.

There is a way to experience life-changing intimacy with God and, at the same time, receive emotional, spiritual, and physical healing…Perry Stone explains how God established a total healing covenant that is available to you today through Communion.

On one hand, yes, the Bible tells us that we are healed by His stripes (Isaiah 53:5), but the emphasis there is not on our physical healing, but on our spiritual healing. Because of the brutal flogging and death Jesus went through, shedding His blood for our sin, we again have access to God through faith, as Adam and Eve had access to God prior to their fall.

However, there is no promise in Scripture that God will heal us physically. We can and should certainly ask Him to do so, but He is under no obligation to heal. In fact, everyone is slated to die (which is a form of constant decay until our bodies give out), with many dying natural deaths caused by sickness or simply old age. Others will die in a variety of other ways  (car accidents, murders, work-related accidents, martyrdom, etc.).

Perry Stone wants us to believe that somehow, taking Communion, if done in the right frame of mind and accompanying faith, will bring about the total package of healing in our emotions, our spiritual life, as well as physically. If we’re all slated to die (except those who will be alive when the Rapture occurs), then God really isn’t going to actually physically and/or permanently heal us in this earthly body, is He? He never said He would.

The main reason Jesus healed people, fed thousands, and even raised some from the dead was to call witness to His deity and His Messiahship. Lazarus, though raised from the dead, would eventually die again. Could this be one of the reasons Jesus wept (John 11:35)? It would not surprise me to learn that He cried because He was bringing Lazarus back to his sinful body and to this sinful world.

I can absolutely guarantee that if more people (including Christians), watched what they ate, eliminated the junk from their diets, and got exercise every day, they would be far healthier and in less need of physical healing and doctors. Nearly five years ago, God gave me the ability to do just that. I’ve lost 80 pounds since then and there are certain foods I avoid like the plague they are and my health has improved greatly. But I still won’t live forever in this physical body. There will come a point where I may see my final days in a hospital or hospice care because of my dying body.

The communion meal or Lord’s Supper was solely given as a memorial. It is “this do in remembrance of Me,” said Jesus to His disciples on the night He was betrayed after Judas had left the building (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24). There is no special magic in the Lord’s Supper and to teach that there is, is wrong. Roman Catholics are taught that when they take communion, it actually becomes the flesh and blood of Jesus. This is called transubstantiation and it is one of the problems Martin Luther had with the Roman Catholic Church since that is without doubt not biblical. The Lord’s Supper is taken in memory of the tremendous sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf, procuring salvation on our behalf, suffering the Father’s wrath in our place. His actions – flogging, death – is where the miracles of salvation occurred spiritually, not in the re-enacting of that by partaking the Lord’s Supper.

Have I somehow misunderstood Stone’s meaning or intention here? If so, I’m not the only one. Christian Research Institute (CRI), has stated the following.

Stone teaches that divine physical healings are normative for Christians. He teaches that healing can happen through daily communion in a book entitled The Meal That Heals: Enjoying Intimate Daily Communion with God (Charisma House, 2008). The book description on his Website says, “Through a daily, personal Communion service with God — right in your own home — you can experience spiritual renewal and physical healing in your life.”

Stone appears to be arguing that if one takes daily communion that God will guarantee healing. This is a stronger statement then even Stone himself makes in his statement of faith when he says that “healing is provided for all through the sufferings of Christ.” The frequency in which the Lord’s Supper is to be partaken is a secondary issue that Christians can debate but not divide…

Apparently, Paula White (we may get to her in an upcoming article), tends to agree with Peter Stone regarding his teachings about Communion.

I believe that as you take communion that there is protection through that blood. Then the bible declares that the blood not only saves us, not only protects us, but it also provides for us.

There’s another problem with Perry Stone and it is one that is common to the signs and wonders crowd. Many believe that God has deliberately kept things secret even from godly Christians for generations until the time was right to release those secrets. Jonathan Cahn operates under this con that God has given him the knowledge about certain things (often related to America), that no one else has been privy to because the time is allegedly the right time now to release that information. Cahn has published numerous books that have claimed special knowledge about biblical things. He has yet to be correct and his exegesis is seriously flawed.

Perry Stone’s book, Prophecies Concealed Now Revealed, is the sixth in a series of “unusual prophecies being fulfilled.” The entire emphasis is on how things are allegedly pointing to the return of Jesus. Yes, with each day that passes, we move closer to His physical return. Granted, we are told to look forward to that day (Luke 21:34-36; 1 John 3:2-3), but the major difficulty is the emphasis people have on His return as opposed to the need for us to continue working to reach the lost.

When I was involved in the Charismatic movement decades years ago, the emphasis then was on the Second Coming (or Rapture), which was always said to be just around the next corner. Roughly 40 years have passed and it has not happened. I look back to my involvement and realize just how much time I wasted looking for and attempting to interpret one sign after another.

The Lord’s return is and has always been imminent. It could happen at any moment, but we also need to remember that God is completely outside of time and not at all bound by it. He sees everything at the same time – past, present, and future – because He exists as God in the eternal present. So for Him to say that He is returning soon is literal fact as far as He is concerned. However, I may end up dying before the Rapture occurs and then there are still seven years of Tribulation that must occur before He will physically return to this planet.

We can run from one book to the next, one conference to the other, all in the pursuit of trying to “unlock” the alleged Bible “code” so that we have greater understanding, but what is our relationship with God like? Do we live each day doing what Jesus did? He lived to fulfill the Father’s will for Him for that day. His “food” was obeying God. He fulfilled needs placed before Him as the Father moved Him. We seem far more concerned about “unlocking” the Bible to let us in on God’s secret time of return rather than searching the Bible to determine how to live the life God wants us to live. What is wrong with that picture?

Jesus wasn’t the least bit concerned about timing of certain events. In fact, when the disciples asked Him if He was then going to set up His earthly Kingdom, do you remember what His response was at that time?

And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. (Acts 1:7 KJV; see also Matthew 24)

One would think that Jesus Himself would be much more excited and anticipatory about His own physical return, yet He deferred to the Father. So should we, yet an entire cottage industry has arisen dedicated to discerning and decoding every aspect of God’s Word not for the purpose of living more dedicated, obedient lives, but to have knowledge regarding His return. We like to be “in the know,” don’t we?

Our objective as Christians should be to daily live our Father’s will. He actually has things for us to do, things that will often go a long way in bringing the lost to Him. But Satan prefers that we set that aside and focus on the timing of His return.

People like Perry Stone appear to feed into this and encourage that thinking. Unfortunately, seeing the items he sells in his online store reminds me of a snake oil salesman. Did Jesus open a store and sell Holy Land trinkets? Did He encourage the use of anointing oil? Did He carry a bottle? He sometimes used spit to heal (John 9:6), yet no one sells saliva from the glands of Jews who live in the Holy Land, do they?

Jesus commanded His disciples to not be deceived (Matthew 24:4; Luke 21:8). He expects us to obey and the implication is that anyone who is not careful can be deceived. How can we avoid that? The greatest first step you can make is to immerse yourself in God’s Word every day. If you do not do that, it is not too late to start.

Entry filed under: christianity, Cultural Marxism, Demonic, devil worship, emergent church, Emotional virtue, eternity, israel, Judaism, Life in America, Maitreya, new age movement, Political Correctness, Politically Correct, Politics, Religious - Christian - End Times, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation, Satanism, second coming. Tags: anointing oil, manna-fest, miracles, NAR, new apostolic reformation, paula white, perry stone, prophecies concealed now revealed, purging your house, return of jesus, signs and wonders, the meal that heals, voice of evangelism, wolves in sheep's clothing.