I think this thread has been a very compelling demonstration of how captivating false doctrine can be! Even when confronted with irrefutable proof from God's own infallible word, those who love to have their ears tickled will not give it up - even if it leads straight to hell.

Evangelist, you asked the question, and then completely rejected every answer you received. Whatever led you to ask the question to begin with? Was it a sincere search for knowledge or were you simply picking a fight to defend your favorite ear-tickler?

And why, in any quest to know God better, would you reject His unchanging word to follow your own feelings?

Only a true addict refuses to give up his drug even when he knows it is sure to kill him. TBN is your drug, Evangelist. You take it not only to feel good, but to keep from feeling bad. And when confronted with the frightening prognosis of everlasting torment for those who follow these false teachers, you run back to your drug to feel better, knowing because you asked that it will destroy you.

You're not alone, though. Some of us have been there too. I was a 700 Club "phone counselor" and addicted to what we called "the anointing" for many years. I prophesied, laid hands on the sick (and saw some healed instantly), and cast demons away from people. I was well on my way to becoming the next TBN-style "evangelist," all by the age of seventeen. Were it not for an abusive situation at home that forced me to run away, I could have ended up among them. But it's hard for a homeless teenager to claim "the anointing" when it's obvious to every Charismatic that "God isn't blessing the boy - or he wouldn't be homeless now."

Those circumstances were the blessing of God! He was saving me from becoming another ear-tickling charlatan like those on TBN, believing their own lies and filling their own addiction to fame and following.

Besides: The Son of Man had no place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20) either, but that was no proof that God was against Him. But the TBN followers of today would have rejected Jesus because of His poverty just as the Jews rejected Him, putting Him to death. But praise God, that rejection was all part of a greater plan to purchase our salvation!

And my own rejection by fickle followers of "the anointing" was part of a larger plan to rescue me from becoming just like them.

Glorying in humiliation,
Robin