Subject: Date: Sun, 02 Feb 2003 13:27:37 -0500 From: SR To: webmaster@jesus-is-lord.com I have enjoyed your site for quite some time and have downloaded it so I could read over and over again. You have many powerful testimonies - I am especially delighted to see that you are taking a stand against the Charismatic movement and its false doctrines. Believe me, I can say that because I used to be a member of a Charismatic church, and it was horrible. When I went into the church five years ago, I had a wonderful husband and three lovely children all under the age of six. We had moved to another town and the only two churches available within reasonable driving distance: Methodist and Charismatic. My husband wanted to go to the Charismatic church, and despite misgivings I said okay. After all, I thought all churches were practically the same, so what difference would it make? Unfortunately, there was a HUGE difference although we didn't notice it right away. The tongues thing really bothered me, but my husband thought that this was really a sign from God and how wonderful it all was. The people were exceptionally friendly to us (AT THE TIME) - it was really like a cult, now that I think about it. After the birth of our fourth child two years ago, the pastor brought in an "evangelist" who had a "new word from God" for the congregation. This was my introduction to the "prosperity gospel." The "preacher" told us that it was God's will for all of us to be rich. He himself drove a Cadillac and had over a million dollars in the bank. He got the money from the churches he visited - he'd try to fleece us dry! He would tell us that we needed to give money in order to receive it from God. Well he came back three times and each time he raked in over five thousand dollars from church members! But as he got richer, we just got poorer. The last sermon this man preached, he said that we were "coming out in style" and that God was going to give us all of our monetary dreams if we would just "name it and claim it." My husband "named and claimed" three million dollars that night, but it didn't come. I didn't expect it to - I was sick of this church and its false teachings. I saw what it was doing to our oldest daughter - she was 8 at the time and becoming rebellious, insolent, etc. After a year went by and that money didn't come, my husband started seeing a "Christian counselor" who also happened to be a woman. She told him that I was somehow holding him back, so he "named and claimed" a new wife (all behind my back!). I didn't even see it coming until I came home one night and my 8 year old daughter was sitting out on the porch with the baby screaming in her arms and the other two children sobbing beside her. My husband, who told me that he would watch the kids that night while I went grocery shopping, had LEFT instead and locked the children outside!!! When I opened up the house, it was completely ransacked. Everything of value was gone (including my baby's crib, which my father had made by hand, and all of the baby's new clothes!). I later learned that he pawned things to finance his trip, WITH THE "CHRISTIAN COUNSELOR" to Florida! He filed for divorce a few months ago but I am fighting it. I don't want a divorce, I want him to get right with God! He wants nothing to do with his children and is living in sin on some boat down in the Keys with the "Christian counselor." When I went to the Charismatic pastor about it, he told me to give him the divorce and claim a new husband, for God would provide! I left the church that day, and that has nearly been a year ago. The children and I have moved back with my father (who is a devoted Christian and opened his arms and house up to us right away) because we could not afford the house payments and we are attending a BIBLE-PREACHING church finally. I still pray for my husband... As you can see, what has been said about the Charismatic movement on your site is absolutely true. It is a wicked, evil perversion of the Word of God. I am just glad that my eyes have been opened to see this. Keep preaching the truth, for that is what this dying world needs to hear. Amen. In Christ Jesus, Mrs. S R