The man who attempts Christianity without the church shoots himself in the foot, shoots his children in the leg, and shoots his grandchildren in the heart.
Kevin DeYoung

Anointed

Anointed

Anointed

When dealing with the subject of the annointing by God we must first define exactly what Anointed means.

Strictly speaking to anoint means to rub something (usually oil) on someone or something else in a ceremonial ritual. Another meaning of anointing is “blessing” so that we could say that “God has anointed him as Israel’s king,” which would mean that God blessed the man with the honorable position of leadership.

The question at hand is if anyone should oppose those who have been anointed by God. To fully understand why this question needs to be asked we must look to the one verse in the Bible that specifically says not to touch Gods anointed. This verse is found in Psalms.

Ps 105:15 “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm.”

(NIV)

This verse is used by many people to claim divine protection from any questioning of their authority or messages. I have personally dealt with a “prophet” who was obviously not Christian in either attitude or action and he used this verse to show me that I was wrong in questioning what he said. So, we must ask, as people who want to handle the Word of God correctly, if we should be allowed to question another’s authority and teaching if it seemingly conflicts with Scripture.

For those who believe that Psalms 105:15 should apply to all those who claim to be annointed by God I would ask them to consider the Roman Catholic Church’s position on this matter. The Roman Catholic Church declares that they are infallible as an organization because Christ has set up a priesthood that has extended from Peter down to the current Pope. They also claim that the church “fathers” and those who interpret the Scriptures for their theology are not to be questioned by the laity (regular people who attend services and study the Bible personally). While they do not regularly invoke Psalms 105:15 in defense of such a position they do say that the laity is in no position to question what the “Church” says is true or false because God has blessed those in the position of interpreting, especially the Pope.

What this means to the normal person who goes to a Catholic church is that they have no right to question any decision that the Catholic church hands down to them no matter how wrong it seems to them. This, I believe, is beyond Scripture.

It is true that we are to listen to God’s prophets and godly men. However, how are we to determine who is speaking the truth if not by Scriptural standards? Joseph Smith (the founder of Mormonism), Charles Taze Russell (the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses), and David Koresh (the leader of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas) all claimed to have gotten revelations from God and that they were teaching the absolute truth. Very few of us would have any problem in condemning what these men teach because we know that they went beyond Scripture. The question is still how we should determine who is to be trusted if not from a Scriptural viewpoint? All the men listed above used the Bible (and other literature) to prove their points. They were masters at twisting the Scriptures to fit what they wanted people to “understand” from the Bible. However, they still used the Bible. So, my question to anyone who believes that a person who claims to be anointed by God should not be questioned would be: “How can you condemn what these men teach since they have claimed to be ‘anointed by God?'”

The fact of the matter is that we are all to be accountable to one another regardless of the position that we hold in the church (whether a localized church or as a part in the Body of Christ which includes all people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior). The Pope should be just as accountable for what he says as you and I are for what we say. We should all agree not to invent two different sets of rules by which to judge what someone says and does but, rather, to use the Bible as the supreme standard or rule. This will enable the Body of Christ (the Church Universal) to see who is of God and who is not, at least outwardly.

The Bible specifically tell us that Christians are to be known by their fruits; their purity of character and doctrine.

2 Cor 4:2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. (NIV)

1 Tim 6:3-4 3 If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions (NIV)

Titus 1:7-9 7 Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless– not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. 8 Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. 9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. (NIV)

Titus 2:7-8 7 In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8 and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. (NIV) The position that I have taken, after studying the facts in Scriptures,

is that all men, no matter what they claim, may be questioned and opposed.

The people of the first century were just as susceptible to “idolizing” other people as we are today. By idolizing I do not mean that the people made gods of others but, rather, that they considered them to be so holy that they were beyond the question of “regular” people. As an example we might consider the Pharisees. These religious leaders of yesteryear seemed as pious as any of the men today and the people who saw them everyday thought of them as being incredibly godly and righteous. The pharisees themselves even believed that they were doing God’s work. Paul, the apostle who had been a Pharisee said the following about the way he felt about his religious duties:

Phil 3:4-6 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. (NIV) Here is a man who, before coming to Christ, was living up to a standard

in his religion that few could ever have attained. Paul actually believed that by following the law, in all of it’s implications, that he was honoring God. He even went so far as to persecute the church to the point that he allowed members of the Body of Christ to be stoned to death. An example of Paul’s religious zeal is shown when he approved of the stoning of Stephen.

Acts 7:58 dragged him [Stephen] out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. Acts 8:1-3 1 And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. (NIV) So, here is a man, a religious leader of his day, doing what he thought

to be right. However, Jesus told him to stop doing what he was doing because he [Paul] was going against the Body of Christ and, in effect, attacking Jesus Himself.

In other instances we find that Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of His day with harsh words.

Matt 23:27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. (NIV) Jesus did not pull his verbal punches when telling the Pharisees what He

thought of them. He knew their hearts. Jesus knew that they looked very righteous on the outside but He also knew that they were acting better than they really were because they liked the honor of men better than giving honor to God.

Matt 6:5 5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. (NIV) However, some might object that “we still don’t have the right to oppose

those who seem to be anointed by God since we are not God. Since Jesus is God He had the right to oppose and expose them but we don’t since we don’t have the knowledge of men’s hearts that He does.” Is this true? NO! Let us look in the Scripture to see if there are instances of men other than Jesus rebuking people because of their heretical or wrong teachings.

Gal 2:11-14 11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? (NIV) Here we see that Paul not only opposed Peter but called Peter BY NAME and

rebuked him in front of other people (v. 14). Was Peter anointed by God as an apostle and as a Christian? Yes. Was Paul wrong to confront him [Peter] about being a hypocrite? No.

We should never forget that although people may look holy on the outside that they may have inner motives that are hidden from us and devious. Remember that Jesus called the Pharisees dead men spiritually and that these same “teachers” wanted to kill Jesus for what He was teaching. Although the Jews of Jesus’ day looked up to these so-called religious leaders they were controlled by ungodly desire; the desire to be thought of as holy before men rather than God. Their desire made them crazed to the point that they were willing to kill the one person who could save them — Jesus.

Luke 19:47 Every day he [Jesus] was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. (NIV) We must always remember not to call a person “anointed” unless there is

good reason to do so.

In the case of the Christians life we are all anointed by God. John says that we have an anointing from God (all believers) and yet none of us can rightfully claim any special status over other believers. We all have the same Holy Spirit in our lives if we have been born-again and adopted by God. We are said to be able to discern the truth from a lie because of this anointing. If we did not have the Holy Spirit in our lives and a new nature many of the claims that people make and will make might seem justifiable to us.

1 John 2:18-24 18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist– he denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 24 See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. (NIV) If we look through the Scriptures we can see that even the Anti-Christ

will claim to be anointed by God and will try to prove it by performing miracles.

2 Thes 2:9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, (NIV)

Rev 13:13-15 13 And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. 14 Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. (NIV) We are commanded to be aware of false teachers that will come into the

church (the Body of Christ as a local and universal set of believers) claiming to be true believers but who will teach destructive heresies.

Acts 20:29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and

will not spare the flock. (NIV)

2 Pet 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them– bringing swift destruction on themselves. (NIV)

1 Tim 1:3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer (NIV)

1 Tim 4:1-7 1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. 6 If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. 7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. (NIV)

Rom 16:17-18 17 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. 18 For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. (NIV) We are even told to keep to sound doctrine and to oppose those who do not

keep to the truth.

Tit 1:9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. (NIV) Please note what 2 Tim 3:16-17 says:

2 Tim 3:16-17 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (NIV) Did you notice that the words “rebuking” and “correcting” are included in

these verses? If we are to be solidly based in God’s word and equipped for His service then we must have some standard by which to judge our own improvement and our doctrine. God’s Word is that guideline and there is nothing wrong with testing ourselves by it. In fact, if we fail to follow God’s standard and test ourselves and what others say by that standard then we are not trusting God to set us back on the “straight and narrow.”

There is no doubt that we don’t like to be corrected by we sometimes need to be.

Now the question remains, “What does Psalm 105:15 refer to?”

The exact context of this scripture has to do with causing physical harm to someone. It does NOT teach that religious leaders cannot be questioned or even rebuked if their teachings are not in accordance with the Scriptures.

The LORD’s anointed is commonly used in reference to the Kings of Israel and at times to the specific descendants of David. The references do not refer to “mighty prophets” or “teachers.”

Physical harm to God’s anointed:

1 Sam 12:3-5 3 Here I stand. Testify against me in the presence of the LORD and his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me shut my eyes? If I have done any of these, I will make it right.” 4 “You have not cheated or oppressed us,” they replied. “You have not taken anything from anyone’s hand.” 5 Samuel said to them, “The LORD is witness against you, and also his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.” “He is witness,” they said. (NIV)

1 Sam 24:6 He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD.” (NIV)

1 Sam 24:10 This day you have seen with your own eyes how the LORD delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, `I will not lift my hand against my master, because he is the LORD’s anointed.’ (NIV)

1 Sam 26:9-11 9 But David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless? 10 As surely as the LORD lives,” he said, “the LORD himself will strike him; either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. 11 But the LORD forbid that I should lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let’s go.” (NIV)

1 Sam 26:16 What you have done is not good. As surely as the LORD lives, you and your men deserve to die, because you did not guard your master, the LORD’s anointed. Look around you. Where are the king’s spear and water jug that were near his head?” (NIV)

1 Sam 26:23 The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness. The LORD delivered you into my hands today, but I would not lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed. (NIV)

2 Sam 1:14-16 14 David asked him, “Why were you not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed?” 15 Then David called one of his men and said, “Go, strike him down!” So he struck him down, and he died. 16 For David had said to him, “Your blood be on your own head. Your own mouth testified against you when you said, `I killed the LORD’s anointed.'” (NIV)

2 Sam 19:21 Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this? He cursed the LORD’s anointed.” (NIV) Descendants of the royal line of David:

Psa 2:2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. (NIV)

Psa 18:50 He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever. (NIV)

Psa 89:38 But you have rejected, you have spurned, you have been very angry

with your anointed one. (NIV)

Psa 89:51 the taunts with which your enemies have mocked, O LORD, with which they have mocked every step of your anointed one. (NIV) So, we can see, in light of Scripture, that Psalm 105:15 is referencing

the patriarchs in general.

Psa 105:8-15 8 He remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, for a thousand generations, 9 the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. 10 He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: 11 “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit.” 12 When they were but few in number, few indeed, and strangers in it, 13 they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another. 14 He allowed no one to oppress them; for their sake he rebuked kings: 15 “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm.” (NIV) Compare Psalm 105:15 with 1 Chronicles 16:15-22:

1 Chr 16:15-22 15 He remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, for a thousand generations, 16 the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. 17 He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: 18 “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit.” 19 When they were but few in number, few indeed, and strangers in it, 20 they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another. 21 He allowed no man to oppress them; for their sake he rebuked kings: 22 “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm.” (NIV) Now, having looked at what the Scripture has to say about the anointing

of God it is up to us as Christians to rightly divide the Word of the Lord and keep it’s truth from being twisted.

Remember, if we, as Christians, cannot question any of God’s anointed then we should all just smile politely at each other. It should not matter what our spiritual maturity is in the Lord since we are all God’s anointed. Since even the “baby-Christian” has been anointed with the Holy Spirit their reasoning should be just as correct as a person who claims to be anointed an a Christian for 50 years.

Now, lest someone tries to claim that I am saying that a young Christian cannot have wisdom allow me to quote from Scripture concerning youth.

1 Tim 4:12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. (NIV) The point is this: We should not presuppose that just because a person

looks righteous on the outside or is of old age or knows many Scriptures that they are correct in their beliefs or teachings. We should test everything as God tells us to do.

1 Thes 5:21 Test everything. Hold on to the good.

(NIV)

We should also test each and everything that is said by man to make sure that the spirit which is communicating it is true.

1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (NIV) Seeing that this is true we might look at some of the “anointed” teachers

sayings to see if they stack up to what is right and true according to the Bible.

Below are some teachings from various people. Some of them claim to be anointed by God to teach and others are simply thought to be good teachers. After reading what the teachings try to decide whether or not the teaching is of God and supportable by the Bible and who said it. The answers will be provided at the end of the excercise.

This work was produced by Lonnie Honeycutt and was distributed by Counter Cult Consultants 1704 Round Rock, Tx.