Christ
is fulfilling His promise in John 14:12
Recommendations
from Southern Baptist leaders
John
14:12 Most assured, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works
that I do he will do also...
In
view of Christ's soon appearing, God has begun to restore His miraculous
healing power to conservative evangelical believers for the sake
of the Great Commission. Many non-Christian people groups simply
will not believe in Christ unless they see miraculous signs. For
this purpose God is restoring His healing power to His whole Church,
evangelical as well as charismatic, in order that together we might
complete the Great Commission.
God
has begun to use The Elijah Challenge to train evangelical churches
and believers how to effectively and consistently minister healing
to the sick as a tool for evangelism. In our Seminar, we present
principles found in the healing ministries of the Lord Jesus and
the apostles Peter and Paul as found in the gospels and Acts. Believers
need not speak in tongues or be baptized in the Holy Spirit according
to conventional charismatic theology or have the "gift of healing" in
order to minister healing for the sake of the gospel. Rather, the
crucial element is a desire to preach the gospel, to win souls, to
obey the Great Commission. Instead of choosing sides in this evangelical-charismatic
debate, we prefer rather to teach that which promotes unity instead
of division. Both sides agree that preaching the gospel is an essential
element of the Christian walk. Thus the focus and context of the
teaching are the preaching of the gospel and winning souls.
In
August 2002, our Egypt Campaign was hosted by the evangelical organization Campus
Crusade for Christ of Upper Egypt and the local Presbyterian
Church. Local believers from Campus Crusade and the Presbyterian
Church as well as other evangelical groups were trained how to minister
healing. The results were historic. Approximately 10,000 souls accepted
Christ in the largest evangelistic campaign in the history of Egypt.
Please see Egypt02 for the report
of this Campaign.
In
November 2002, we held the very first mass evangelistic crusade in
the history of Niger, West Africa. The Campaign was sponsored by
the evangelical humanitarian organization World Vision. Most
of the churches in this Musl__m country are conservative evangelical.
Thus most of the believers who were trained in the Seminar were evangelicals.
In the ensuing mass crusade meetings, evangelical believers stood
beside charismatic believers to minister to the sick, and God performed
mighty miracles of healing through both the evangelicals as well
as the charismatics. Musl__ms, seeing these miracles, accepted Christ
in unprecedented numbers. See Niger02 for
the amazing report of this historic Campaign.
In
the fall of 2002, The Elijah Challenge held a Seminar at the Monmouth
Chinese Christian Church in Holmdel, New Jersey. Their senior pastor
is Dr. Paul Chang, who earned a Ph.D. from Westminister Theological
Seminary in Philadelphia, well-known for its very conservative theological
stance. Yet the teaching was very well received by Dr. Chang, the
elders of the church, and the congregation. Dr. Chang has begun to
recommend The Elijah Challenge to other Chinese evangelical pastors.
See MCCC for the report of this
Seminar.
In
July 2003, Brother William went to Vietnam and taught the Seminar
before 250 pastors and leaders from both evangelical and charismatic
backgrounds. Instead of dividing the participants over the issue
of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the teaching was well received and
promoted unity among the pastors. Following the Seminar took
place the largest Crusade meeting in the history of this country
under communism, where the Lord used these pastors and leaders of
different denominational backgrounds to do powerful miraculous healings.
Many souls came to Christ that evening. Click
here for the report on this historic Campaign.
In
May 2004, The Elijah Challenge held a Seminar for the leaders of
the Vietnamese Evangelical Churches of Australia, a denomination
of traditional evangelical believers. In the ensuing evangelistic
Crusade, the Lord used these believers (as well as charismatic believers)
to minister healing to the infirm in Christ's name. The testimonies
of miraculous healings resulted in an unprecedented number of Buddhists
and idol-worshippers accepting Christ as they heard the word of God.
Although the Lord is using these believers in this way, their denomination
continues to be a traditional evangelical one. Click
here for the report from the leadership of the church in Perth.
Pastor
Albert Kang of Malaysia, trained under The Elijah Challenge, wrote
after a mission trip to the Philippines:
"Another
thing that I had learned from that first seminar and subsequent seminars
was the way to present this truth. Pastor William's approach has
great advantage because it appeals to people from every denomination.
He uses, primarily, scripture verses to convince the participants.
Initially, it may look very simple and some times even boring. However,
in my recent seminars, I found this approach to be very convincing
and effective. As a Pentecostal pastor, it is against my nature not
to include some spectacular display of emotion but with this method,
I do not need to do that. The Word of God speaks for itself. Rev
Olie (Rolando Lapuz), a Conservative Baptist pastor in the Philippines
and the chairman of the Bacoor Ministerial Fellowship said that anyone
can fight an opinion but no one can fight the pure Word of God.
Incredibly,
I am still amazed at how the Evangelical churches are joining hands
with the Pentecostals and Charismatics to use the Elijah Challenge
Model of End-time Evangelism to heal the sick and bring unbelievers
to the saving knowledge of Christ. If someone were to tell me three
years ago that I would be conducting healing seminars in churches
pastored by Conservative Baptist and other Evangelical pastors, I
would not believe him. Ten days ago, I conducted a full-day Elijah
Challenge seminar in a Conservative Baptist church, attended by pastors
and leaders from 27 churches of many different denominations. It
was extremely wonderful just to see so many of these pastors and
leaders, who were once sceptical about divine healing, being miraculously
healed in this place."
Dr.
Charles J. Wisdom, Pastor Emeritus, First Baptist Church of Katy;
and Former Chairman of Trustees, Houston Baptist University,
wrote: "I am happy to commend to you the person and ministry
of Pastor B. The Lord has gifted B. with keen insight into biblical
teachings on POWER ENCOUNTERS and he handles this exciting and potentially
controversial subject with great wisdom. I have attended the seminar
B. teaches and this led me to invite him to present it in the First
Baptist Church of Katy. Any pastor or lay leader will be greatly
blessed who sits at the feet of this gifted and humble servant of
the Lord."
If
your evangelical church or organization would like more information
about our Seminar, please contact us.
The Lord is restoring His healing power to His evangelical churches
for the completion of the Great Commission, especially to non-Christian
people groups. Musl__ms, Hindus, Buddhists, and animists generally
must see miracles before they will turn to Christ in significant
numbers.
Other articles
Luke
10:9 "Heal
the sick who are there and tell them,
'The kingdom of God is near you.’"