Critics of Rob Rufus Rear Their Heads ...

Rob Rufus has always alluded to the incredible amount of criticism and virtual abuse he receives for unashamedly preaching the message of glory and grace and I have always wondered what these people look like. I was interested in that in the space of two quotes, two critics have arrived. The quotes they so objected to were these; "Rob Rufus on the Florida Outpouring Critics" and "Rob Rufus on the Gift of Tongues". On the one hand I am sure Rob Rufus does not need the likes of me to come to his defence but as these criticisms have been posted on one of my blogs I feel I should at least address them.

"Mark" addressed the "Florida Outpouring Critics" and said this;

"All we have is the bible. It is not about experience, emotion, or what gifts are being presented. It is about the written word of God. I find your words offensive ... Rob Rufus, the apologetic community is watching you and NCMI, and unfavorable reports are coming out from SA and Aust".

I think a comment like this scarcely requires an answer - these "heresy hunters" again and again fall into the same cliches. On the one hand they say; "All we have is the Bible - it is not about experience ..." and yet on the other hand do not carefully and sensibly respond to the Scriptures that Rob himself has quoted and cited in defence of the viewpoint he is preaching. "I find your words offensive". It's so easy to become very emotional about the positions we are defending and I did want to answer "Mark" - but on the other hand I suspect there is nothing I can say that would appease his offense. My only suggestion could be that he stops looking at blogs where he may find Rob Rufus's words. I suspect he won't as these people often feel it is their "Christian duty" to answer such worrying quotes to themselves.

His final comment; "The apologetic community"?! Who and what on earth is that and what on earth does "unfavourable reports" entail. Again I object to the "heresy hunters" carefully coded words of warning that are so frequent and so labourious. It was something I was very used to at my home church and it usually went something like this; "Good men are very concerned". "Anyone who is discerning should be worried". "Beware of "certain" so-called preachers". These self-appointed heresy hunters have taken it upon themselves to "warn the Church" of such dangerous men and yet can offer no objective warnings. "Unfavourable reports"? Where are they? Let me read them first-hand and maybe they can be taken seriously.

Then "Tim" found Rob's quote on the gift of tongues almost as upsetting as "Mark" - maybe more so as he cast doubt on Rob's very salvation - something that proves he is obviously bolder than many. I would not like to take the place of God deciding who is and is not elect. "Tim" too took a very cliched approach to answering the issue of the gift of tongues;

"Rob this shows your true colors, this is new age and is part of the occult. The spirits that you refer to are not from the God of the Bible but rather a twisted version that is based in the occult. The talking in tongues that charismatics often talk about is exactly the same as used by sharmas, witch doctors, hindus etc ... May God have pity on you, you need much prayer and obviously salvation".

I did in fact leave a response to "Tim". Once again the cliched response of cessationists (as I presume these people are) is to point to the counterfeit of the New Age as "proof" that there can be no genuine gift of tongues. This again was something I heard all-too frequently at my home church. "We must beware the counterfeit". "We must be careful of the spurious". "We must beware of abberations". My simple reply is this; I do accept and agree that the Bible instructs us to "test the spirits". But the Bible does not call us to "reject all spirits". There is a testing to be done! If all gifts of the Spirit, all experiences of God, all heavenly encounters, all visions and dreams had deliberately and objectively stopped when the canon of Scripture was closed then why are we asked to "test" and "prove all things" and "cling to what is good?".

If all that is around is the counterfeit then we simply need avoid everything experiential and simply as "Mark" calls - cling to the Bible and the Bible alone. But the ironic thing that these "Word people" claim is that it is the very Word of God that outlines these gifts of the Spirit, these heavenly encounters, these visions and dreams. It is the BIBLE that gives us our expectation! If I am to be persuaded that these things are "not so" then I want to see some Scriptural evidence rather than "dire warnings" of the New Age.

These comments have given me a taste of what Rob must receive weekly and even daily maybe - and he has my fullest sympathy and support and prayers! If I have been unjust in my portrayal of these critics then I am open to correction. In my opinion these two comments are simply "destructive criticism". As my friend Lydia challenged;

"If you find Rob's words offensive then you have a problem with God's word, because he is speaking straight from Scripture, 2 Tim. 3:5 ....talks about people with a form of godliness that deny the power, have nothing to do with them".

The lines are being drawn in the sand it seems, and the only secure foundation we have is the Word of God. Not tradition. Not the teachings of one's favourite evangelical celebrity. The Word of God.

Criticising Moves of God? Think Carefully ...

I noted previously that City Church International held a series of "Miracle Healing Meetings" in Hong Kong. The Sunday morning was a particularly incredible time of heavy anointing and of the manifest Presence of God. I've drawn attention to Rob's prophetic song - and I do URGE everyone to listen to it. The message was vintage Rob - and he was addressing Pharisees and legalists. He wasn't happy. But I do believe it is a message whose time has come (and will shortly be transcribed and published on the Rob Rufus blog). The Pentecostal/Charismatics traditionally have been criticised by the Reformed section of the church for not being "Word-based" enough. The emphasis and demand for orthodoxy has been overpowering.

Yet I have been reading John MacArthur's New Testament commentary on 1 Corinthians and I remain puzzled as to why no one applies the same stringent "tests" to a so-called academic who is held in great esteem by people such as C J Mahaney. For example those who "eagerly desire spiritual gifts" (as being obedient to 1 Corinthians 14:1) are told by MacArthur;

"The Corinthians were to stop seeking gifts because to do so is both persumptious and purposeless".

Further on MacArthur seems to contradict himself by on the one hand declaring;

"God does not bypass men's minds either to reveal or to teach His Word. There were no ecstatic, bizarre, trancelike experiences related to divine action or the prophet, such as occured and occurs with demonic revelation".

Did he not read the book of Acts where Peter fell into a trance just before going to Cornelius's house? We can therefore safely assume that ANY trances or ecstatic experiences that occur within the church today would be classed by MacArthur as demonic (and I guess that answers his views on the Lakeland Outpouring). Yet bizarrely enough MacArthur does seem to believe that there is a demonic counterfeit to spiritual gifts;

"People do not counterfeit what is not valuable. Satan counterfeits the Spirit's gifts because he knows they are so valuable in God's plan".

I don't understand how MacArthur can be so inconsistent in his exposition of pure Scripture and yet be very quick to point a finger of judgement at the flaws of men such as Todd Bentley or Rodney Howard-Browne or Bob Jones. Rob Rufus doesn't either. He said this:

"Isn't it amazing that as God begins to focus on what He is doing in Florida and He is breaking out across the world and the church has cried out for decades for a mighty move of God's Presence and healing - that when God brings it, some of the church is not happy with who He is using and they are not happy with the package or with tattoos on the man and go and dig out all the snot and all the stuff about Bob Jones's past. People are sending emails about what I must go and look up about Bob Jones and the sin he did in his past.

I am NOT interested! What I want to know is - is that God there? If God chooses to use Todd Bentley at the age of 32 then I say as a 53 year old - thank You Lord for Todd Bentley! Thank You for a new generation carrying the message of healing!

How can you listen to Bob Jones - do you know what he did 10-something years ago? How can you read the Psalms? That guy who wrote the Psalms is a weirdo - I tell you. Watch out reading the Psalms - you know you are reading the writings of a man that God was inspiring to write - that man saw a beautiful chick on a rooftop that he manipulated and connived as the king of Israel to get her? And he had illegitimate sex with her! Oh! Then she fell pregnant! Oh! Big problem now! What is she going to do when her husband finds out? Who happens to be one of the king's best friends?! So he betrayed his close friend and called him back from the battle and makes his friend drunk. Oh! Made his friend drunk!? So his friend would be so drunk and would go in and have sex with his wife and then he would think he made her pregnant!

You are reading the Psalms of a guy who wrote them and yet did this?! The husband said; "I'm not going in to be with my wife because my friends are out on the battlefield and I am not going to have that privilidge while they are out there". So he goes back to the battlefield and David arranges for Uriah to be murdered. Sure great was his repentance and David realised how serious what he had done and he repented from the depths of his heart and never did anything like that again in his life and when he died, God said; "This is a man after My own heart - who served My purposes in My generation".

We have got Pharisees in the church world and we have got Sadducees and I tell you - this is a true saying. If you are bleeding don't swim with the sharks. If you are bleeding and you are swimming with the sharks, do not let them know you are bleeding. I wouldn't want to fall into serious sin in much of the modern church because they will rip into you and rip your reputation apart. They will display your dirty washing across the internet and over email. They will disqualify you forever standing in ministry again. I felt the Holy Spirit say that He is getting quite angry with this. He said that these people who are always criticising the ones that I am using - He said, I am going to start scrutinising their lives and bringing out their dirty washing because when you operate in self-righteousness and pride then you forfeit the protection of grace because God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

All these criticising, judgemental people have got stuff in their own cuboards that they are covering up. It is coming out in the open. The Holy Spirit is going to bring that stuff out. So I bless what God is doing in Florida - I bless Todd Bentley and I bless Bob Jones! I bless the prophets of God - I bless the work of God - I bless the fact that 25 people have been raised from the dead!".