Martin Luther once said, “Where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved.” Sometimes, it is our duty to be the voice of reason and truth when such a duty is frowned upon. With that in mind, I’m going to continue going out on a limb. I hope this isn’t the extra pound that cracks the stick.
A dear friend recently handed me a book titled, The Walk of the Spirit—The Walk of Power. It’s written by Dave Roberson—a Charismatic who runs below the radar, but he gets around.
According to his website and book, Dave had a most unfortunate life with most unfortunate doctrinal consequences. His abusive father—a preacher—chased off his alcoholic mother. She then retreated to her parents’ home where Dave was subjected to severe verbal abuse.
As a teenager, Dave met a preacher’s son with whom he regularly attended a Pentecostal church, but only to meet girls. After worship, the boy drowned himself in booze. Dave was eventually steered toward a Holiness church where he accepted his call to preach. There, surrounded by scandal and abuse, he formed his belief system. There he learned things like: doctrine limits spiritual power and people who speak in ecstatic languages have real supernatural power (p. 39-43, 58, 74, 96-103). This led him to be bored with subjects like God’s nature and Christ’s atonement (p. 36).
Dave’s spiritual influences include controversial leaders Kathryn Kuhlman (flamboyant, adulterous, and discredited faith healer), William Branham, Maria Woodworth-Etter (called “the voodoo priestess“), and a few others.
His life mission is to instruct others in the way to “unlock divine mysteries and discover God’s personal plan for your life,” which simply means he trains people to speak in tongues in order for God to communicate His special revelation. God told him this.
From there, draw your own conclusion—the book is available for free. Needless to say, I disagree with much of the book’s content on the basis of Scripture and expositional study. My heart goes out to Dave for his difficult past experiences, especially within the church.
Sometimes we can learn from the mistakes of others. What I learned is that an unfortunate history brought about many unfortunate beliefs. But fortunately, there are several good points to share. Here they are:
Your God is too human if …
- your God cannot save people because people have more power than Him (p. 9-11),
- your God forgets to update His spiritual counterpart on changed plans (ibid.),
- your God doesn’t know the beginning from the end, until it has happened (ibid.), and
- your God cannot overthrow man’s free will (ibid.).
Your Revelation is too human if …
- your revelation still comes from God in the language of the King James Version (p. 6),
- your revelation is better than Christ’s atonement (p. 37, 70),
- your revelation is received through no known language (p. 16),
- your revelation only edifies you (p. 44), and
- your revelation contradicts God’s revelation (p. 14).
Your Bible is too human if …
- your Bible doesn’t give you all you need for godliness and eternity (p. 15),
- your Bible cannot be interpreted without ecstatic tongues (p. 90), and
- your Bible says less than the ecstatic tongues in the prior point (p. 90).
Your Baptism is too human if …
- your baptism requires a second baptism (p. 67),
- your baptism requires evidence of speaking in ecstatic tongues (pp. 65, 67, 86),
- your baptism is required to resist sin, perform any spiritual ministry, or endure trials (p. 58, 65, 67, 91), and
- your baptism puts you on a higher level than others having just one baptism (p. 71).
Your Priority is too human if …
- your priority is the mysterious gifts of the Spirit (p. 50), and
- your priority is none other than speaking in tongues (p. 57-58).
God bless you, Brother Dave.