Justin Peters in Brazil: God Does Not Speak to You Today Through Prophecy and Revelation
By Julio
Severo
There
was a lot of confusion among some experts on Christian apologetics in Brazil
early this year about whether Justin Peters preached or not cessationism when,
as a VINACC guest speaker, he taught against prosperity theology preachers by
calling them “heretics.”
 |
| Justin Peters |
He
was prevented from teaching his cessationist gospel in VINACC.
How
did Peters become an intransigent cessationist?
Apparently,
after attending several meetings of prosperity theology proponents and
receiving no miracle, Peters, who is a disabled man, let his bad experience
create a bad theology: If he received no miracle in these meetings is because
God gives no supernatural gifts in our days.
Today,
he is an avid cessationist — a theological jargon to design adherents of the
theory that says the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased 2,000 years
ago and that they are no longer available today. In fact, his non-healing
experiences have been used by Calvinist theologian John MacArthur to back his
anti-Pentecostal “Strange Fire” conferences, where Peters is one of the
speakers.
In
Campina Grande, Brazil, where the VINACC meeting was held, Peters was recorded
as saying,
“Anytime
somebody says God has spoken to me and has given me a word, has given me a new
revelation, has given me a prophecy, that you automatically write that person
off as a false teacher as a false prophet. And we could talk for an hour at
least about how God does or does not speak to people. Hebrews 1:1,2 pretty
clear: God long ago spoke through the fathers in the prophets in many portions
in many different ways, but in these last days has spoken to us in His Son
Jesus who is the final speaking of God. We have the perfect, inerrant,
infallible and sufficient record of that. So God is not giving certain
individuals special revelations, special insight into His future plans. He’s
not doing that anymore. Everything that we need is right here in the Word of
God. We’re the dwell of the Spirit who illumines the meaning of this Word in our
hearts and minds. That’s all we need. The second thing: anybody who claims to
be an apostle or a prophet, write that person off immediately.”
After
reading Peters’ words, Dr. Michael Brown, author of “Authentic Fire” (a book
that exposes the fallacies of “Strange Fire,” a book by MacArthur), said to me:
“What a
bizarre statement about God not speaking today. The Word plainly says that
Jesus, by the Spirit, continues to speak. If I believe the Word, then I must
believe the Spirit is still speaking today. It’s troubling to see how Mr.
Peters terribly misuses the Bible to justify his claims and rather than dealing
with the detailed scriptural evidence I provided in my Authentic Fire book, he
dismisses it all because I accepted Benny Hinn’s invitation to appear on his
broadcast and preach the gospel to millions of viewers.”
With
his words, Peters showed that he has not a problem just with prosperity
theology preachers. His problem is with all people professing Pentecostalism or
charismatic experiences. In fact, his main foundation to attack Pentecostal
leaders seems to be his fierce opposition to the supernatural gifts of the Holy
Spirit today.
By
the way, Brazil was a huge challenge for him, because most Brazilian
evangelicals are Pentecostal. Brazilian evangelicalism is basically Pentecostal
and neo-Pentecostal.
Peters
would get a good audience among followers of Bishop Edir Macedo, the founder of
the Kingdom of God Universal Church (KGUC). Macedo also believes that God gives
no prophecy or revelation today. He said, “In former times, God used to speak
through dreams, visions or prophecies, because there was not His written Word.
Today, He speaks through His Word.”
What
is to be done to people today who say that they had a prophecy or revelation?
Macedo answers, “If someone learns that there is a ‘prophet’ or ‘prophetess’ in
KGUC, denounce it immediately to the minister and also to the regional leader,
so that we may take immediate measures.”
It
would sound ok for Peters, wouldn’t it? After all, this is his theology!
Macedo
is relentless in his anti-prophecy stance. Incredibly, he is a neo-Pentecostal
(neo-charismatic) leader who preaches the prosperity theology. Yet, whether or
not you bring Macedo a prophetic revelation or God’s Word about the value of
life, he remains fierce and equally relentless in his defense of abortion and
birth control.
If
Peters’ attacks were directed to this real strange fire (abortion, birth
control, partial cessationism and the Gospel together), it would be fair. But
his attacks are directed to other issues and against all Pentecostals. For Peters, all gifts of prophecy and
revelations today are “strange fire,” are demonic. Of course, Macedo would
say, “Amen!”
There
are false gospels and false miracles, but you should never use the false gospels
and the false miracles to disqualify the true Gospel and the true miracles.
Because
I am charismatic Christian, should I accept all manifestations of supernatural
gifts coming from Christians? No. Some years ago, an American preacher said
that he received a prophecy about Brazil winning the 2014
World Cup and also
about an evangelical woman getting elected as Brazilian president in the 2014
election. His prophecy was interpreted as God supporting Marina Silva, a socialist
militant who began in the Catholic Church and today is an Assemblies of God
member.
Brazil
suffered its worst defeat in the 2014 World Cup. I knew that his prophecy was
not correct, especially for its interpretation favoring Marina, who has solid
socialist stances. While many evangelical leaders were supporting her because of
the prophecy, I was, before the election, exposing Marina and her avid
socialism. Eventually, she lost.
Apostle
Paul, who had many charismatic gifts, never taught that you should reject
prophecies, but that you should be free to prophesize and free to evaluate what
each person says in prophecy: “Two or three people should speak what God
has revealed. Everyone else should decide whether what each person said is
right or wrong.” (1 Corinthians
14:29 GWV)
In
Campina Grande, Brazil, Justin Peters lambasted prosperity theology preachers. He also lambasted the VINACC organizers
because he wanted to teach cessationism (the strange doctrine that says God no longer grants
supernatural gifts today), but they did not allow him. Even though several
VINACC speakers are cessationist Calvinists, its public is mostly Pentecostal. Peters’
cessationism would have been extremely offensive to this public.
Peters’ declarations against
prophecy and revelation were recorded in an interview with him in Campina
Grande and show how eager he was to teach the VINACC public to reject “heresies,”
misinterpreted by him as an acceptance of prophecy and revelation for today.
In
his recorded declarations, Peters also attacked Dr. Michael Brown, a Jewish charismatic
leader who has been prominent for his defense of the Gospel and Israel. He
said,
“A lot of
pastors will have invite questionable people to come to their churches to
preach. They will go on to questionable or maybe I should say questionable
because it could sound like mad, television programs associated with false
prophets. One good example is Dr. Michael Brown, who is considered to be one of
the intellectual leaders of the charismatic movement. He blasted the Strange
Fire Conference that was held at John MacArthur’s church, because he claimed
that the Strange Fire Conference plained all charismatics with raw brush and it
was really as if the Strange Fire Conference should talk about the strange time
fringe of the charismatics. He said that is not who we are. So he blasted the
Conference and then three months later he goes on Benny Hinn’s television
program and records five programs with Benny Hinn who is one of, if not the
world’s most infamous bad influence, that’s the bad way influence in believers.
If you can’t tell Benny Hinn is a false teacher then something is really
wrong. And so associations pick volumes about who we are and what we believe.”
In
answer, Dr. Michael Brown clarified that, because Peters tried to misrepresent
him in Brazil, he is open to a public debate about these issues. The debate
could happen in Brazil. Brown said,
“1) I invited
Pastor MacArthur to private discussion or public debate on numerous occasions,
but he refused to engage in private or in public; 2) I would debate Justin
Peters in a heartbeat as to what the Bible says about divine healing; 3) I
exposed false accusations made against Benny Hinn by Justin Peters; 4) my
appearance on Benny Hinn’s show is not an endorsement of his theology any more
than my appearance on Piers Morgan. Instead, I was able to reach his audience
with the message of Jesus the Messiah. Is this wrong? 5) I have exposed errors
in the Charismatic church for decades, and I continue to do so to this day, but
I am Charismatic because of the plain teaching of Scripture and again. I would
gladly debate what the Scriptures say with any qualified non-Charismatic
leader.”
Dr.
Brown is willing to debate John MacArthur and Justin Peters, in Brazil or in
the U.S., about their stance against prophecy, revelation and other
supernatural gifts for today. He said:
“I invite Mr.
Peters to have a formal, moderated debate with me on what the Bible says – not
what people say – about the gifts of the Spirit, including healing and
prophecy, being promised by God in His Word for today. Let’s not engage in
rhetoric. Let’s look at the Word.”
I do
not know if Brazilian charismatics are prepared for such debate.
CPAD,
the biggest Pentecostal publishing house in Brazil, has published several books
by anti-Pentecostal Calvinist John MacArthur, but it has not published
“Authentic Fire,” by Dr. Brown. In contrast, cessationist Calvinist publishers
in Brazil will never publish any book by Dr. Brown or by any other charismatic,
even though there is no anti-Calvinist Pentecostal version of John MacArthur in
Brazil.
CPAD
belongs to the Assemblies of God, which has over 12 million members in Brazil.
The Presbyterian Church of Brazil, the first Calvinist denomination in Brazil,
has 1 million members, but not all of them are cessationist.
MacArthur’s
“Strange Fire” has been published in Brazil by Thomas Nelson. Both Thomas
Nelson and Zondervan, the two largest Protestant publishing houses in the
world, belong to HarperCollins, which publishes the Satanic Bible, by Satanist
Anton LaVey.
So the
publisher and promoter of “Strange Fire” in Brazil is owned by HarperCollins,
which publishes and promotes satanic books. This is satanic fire!
Yet,
the publisher and promoter of other books by MacArthur in Brazil is Pentecostal
giant CPAD. Does it make sense?
A schizophrenic
contrast. Brazilian Pentecostals promote MacArthur. MacArthur does not promote
Brazilian Pentecostals. MacArthur uses and abuses the Gospel to attack
Pentecostals. Brazilian Pentecostals do not use and abuse the Gospel to attack MacArthur.
Are Brazilian Pentecostals spiritual masochists who love to be labeled “heretics”
for believing in supernatural gifts for today?
There
is a real strange fire when “Strange Fire” and the Satanic Bible are published
and promoted by the same source.
There
is a stranger fire when books of an anti-Pentecostal Calvinist author are
published and promoted by the biggest Pentecostal publisher in Brazil.
Portuguese version of this
article: Justin
Peters no Brasil: Deus não fala com você hoje por meio de profecia e revelação
Source: Last Days Watchman
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