Alpharisms-
Alpharisms
To say there is a 'blind spot' in people's minds concerning Alpha is an understatement!
Many are in total darkness when it comes to dealing with this vile course.
Despite blunt talk, few are willing to discuss the evil basis of Alpha.
Instead they claim that thousands are 'saved by Alpha' and defend it to the death!
Can't they see that the very words 'saved by Alpha' make it anathema?
We are saved by Jesus Christ, through the preaching of God's word, not by suppers, jokes, jolly get-togethers, or chat about all manner of topics ('life')!
I find it laughable that people who cannot discern the truth about Alpha or its roots, can nevertheless claim to grip souls, by using their supposed expertise in things philosophical.
Rowan…Again
Rowan Williams seems to get into hot water often. And no wonder…look at what he opened his Alpha talk with at St George's church Holborn, London, on the 1st September…"Who the hell do you think you are looking at?"
Great words, eh?
Just like the one's used by Jesus Christ?
The archbishop ought to have been immediately removed from his office for such a cheap Arminian lead-line!
His words followed a story about a South African who was asked the same question whilst being interrogated. But, there is no excuse for such irreverent language.
He then went on to quote a story about a Jew who became a Catholic nun…yet another irrelevant anecdote instead of straightforward Biblical Gospel preaching!
He, like so many Alpha-ites, relies on Arminian-style preaching.
For example, they see salvation as the culmination of enquiry and discovery, not as a God-given gift out of the blue.
"By listening to what Jesus says, and by watching what he does, people's whole sense of their world changes."
This is not true - they change only when God speaks to them directly through regeneration. It has nothing to do with gaining in knowledge about Jesus.
But, Rowan insists that it "is a slow discovery, it doesn't happen all at once." This is not how salvation is portrayed in scripture, where God makes a man alive in spirit and, at some time in his life, prompts him to repent and receive salvation. Salvation, to be true, must occur immediately, in an instant, for one cannot be partly saved and partly not. If he died in the middle of the process - what would he be? Saved or unsaved? The question highlights the absurdity of Alpha's quest.
But…
We return to the repeated claim of Alpha-ites, "look at how many are saved!" Now, this claim is subtle and essential. What they are really saying is that it does not matter how Alpha works or why, or even whether or not the leaders are truly born again. What matters is that men and women are saved.
I have even had this likened to taking aspirin - we don't know how it works, but it does. So, just accept it!
Others have pointed to the case of the disciples complaining to Jesus that as they went about their tasks, some were mimicking true preaching though they were themselves unsaved. Jesus replied that it did not matter how the Gospel went out so long as it was preached.
Yes, I know! But it is not the same thing!
Nowhere in scripture are we told to simply accept unsaved men as our equals. Nowhere in scripture are we told to accept preachers who are unsaved as the equals of saved preachers, called to their task. Nowhere in scripture do we find an esoteric (aspirin!) side to the Gospel - it is clear.
And, above all, we may indeed allow unsaved men to pretend to preach, so long as what they preach is the Gospel.
And that, my friends, is the core of the matter…Alpha does not preach the Gospel!
Time and again critics of Alpha point this out - but few seem able to grasp what we are saying! How many ways must we say these things?
Why won't supporters of Alpha see the truth? The answer is not in their intelligence, for most folk leading Alpha are intelligent enough. The answer can only be in Satan's sphere.
I will again repeat a simple fact - men who lead Alpha do so because they are not called by God to preach. They cannot preach the true Gospel because they are not called to do so. They cannot teach scripture because they are not called to do so. They cannot reach folk because they are not called by God to do so.
Those who lead an Alpha course have seen its success. So, being failures in their own churches, they latch-on to it, like would-be businessmen who buy into a successful franchise, like McDonalds! Their own spiritual lives have failed so they try to catch a ride on something that seems fashionable and winning.
There can be no other explanation. A man who is called truly of God to preach or teach, will be given the spiritual gifts to enable him to function and to see 'success'. And even if there is no apparent success, it will be success in God's eyes, for the man has obeyed.
I am often amused when angry Alpha-ites retort "Just how many people have been saved under your ministry?" Every week, folk contact our ministry's website to tell us that they have been amazed by what it contains. A growing number of charismatics write to tell us that their lives have been changed dramatically by renouncing their errors, based on what we have taught. (I refuse to head-hunt non-website people who have been saved by my preaching).
As one woman from South Africa said last week, "I do believe in the doctrine of election and predestination. It stopped me right in my tracks when I came across it on your site and when I went to check it out for myself in the Bible. I was a 'Christian' for a long time before I was confronted with it. It was also one of the reasons why I left the charismatic movement…"
Why is this relevant? It is very relevant, because the Alpha course is rooted in, and springs from, the charismatic movement, the same movement that spawned the hideously evil Toronto Blessing. Indeed, the writer of the Alpha course was the very one who spread this 'Blessing' around the UK, with all the signs of Satan following!
The Gospel
What is the Gospel of Alpha?
It is Arminianism.
And Arminianism is the result of Romanist-style teaching. It first made its formal debut in the writings of Thomas Aquinas, though the heresy existed from the beginning. And it is this heresy that charismatics adopt and maintain…the heresy that men have free will and may choose their own salvation.
This is not the Gospel!
Right back in the writings of the founding Pentecostal minister, William Seymour, we find the stirrings of anti-Calvinistic feeling alongside an Arminian teaching of the 'gospel'. And this ethos was passed on to all other Pentecostalists ever since -Pentecosatlism being the mother of charismaticism.
The authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ is this: God elected who would be saved from before the beginning of the world, before it was made. Now any logic, and any rational person, would understand that this means salvation is fixed in eternity.
No man, by his willpower, by his response, or by his intellect, can ever change what is already fixed in heaven!
Yet, this is what Alpha teaches and what Arminian preachers preach - that men may alter God's elective power and choose to have Christ as their Saviour! How is this possible?
Aquinas taught that we are indeed saved by grace (which is also taught by Alpha), but this 'grace' included man's freedom to choose salvation. It is this same theology that permeates Alpha and all its obedient Alpha-ites.
We can see that this is opposed to scripture - so why support Alpha?
Why listen to Alpha-ites, whose teaching ability can be likened to reading off the side of a cereal packet?
They mimic each other, repeating phrases and slogans that are 'successful'!
We repeat - Alpha is not the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, when adherents claim that they are 'saved by Alpha' they are correct, for they are certainly not saved by God or the true Gospel. And even those who are truly saved cannot attribute it to Alpha, for it is a dead fish, rotting from its inward parts.
April 2005
By: K. B. Napier
Bible Theology Ministries