Founder of Living Waters Unlimited, Rev Ladi Thompson has given insight into why the gospel being preached in many assemblies today is a scam, stating that any gospel that places emphasis on speaking in tongues as evidence of being baptized in the Holy Ghost is a corrupted gospel.
He warned that if we don’t return to the real gospel of Jesus which was revived at the 1906 Asuza revival, the church will continue to remain powerless.
Thompson, also the founder of Macedonia Initiative, a ministry which has over the years reached out to persecuted Christians across Nigeria especially in the North, emphasized in a recent message posted on his Facebook wall that “the gospel preached at the Asuza revival which gave birth to the Pentecostal movement is not what many Pentecostals are preaching today.”
In his views, the corrupted gospel is the reason the church is bereft of power and has been unable to make a real impact in the modern world.
He said he did research into what the purveyors of the Asuza revival did and found out that there were two streams of the revival. “The first stream is the one that believes that speaking in tongues is just a sign of being baptized in the holy ghost while another stream believes speaking in tongues is evidence of being baptized in the Holy Ghost. This may look similar, but they are different theological leanings.” He said.
Giving further insight, Thompson said John G. Lake performed many miracles in his ministry because he was able to activate the law of the spirit of life in Christ. “It is a law and not a personal anointing of somebody. That is why it was possible for him to do all the miracles he did in his ministry.
“G.Lake’s ministry and his understanding of the law of the spirit of life in Christ, made me do more research and I was able to trace him to Williams Seymour. It was Seymour who influenced G. Lake. Seymour believed the Pentecostal experience is an explosion of the divine love of God and that speaking in tongues is just a sign of the baptism of the Holy Ghost.”
Seymour was the one-eyed son of freed slaves who God used for the mighty Asuza revival. The revival got the black and white to mix together. There was no single thing that Jesus promised that was not experienced in Asuza according to Rev Thompson.
He said, “One of the major things that attracted people to Asuza was that those who came to the revival heard people speak in tongues and heard the simplified gospel in their languages. The Japanese and the Chinese people heard their languages in tongues.”
He explains further, “But then there was Charles Fox Parham who had taught Seymour in the Bible School. Parham said speaking in tongues is evidence of being baptized in the Holy Spirit. A sign and evidence may look similar. Tongues for Seymour is a sign but the evidence of being baptized in the Holy Ghost according to him is an explosion of the love of God. If you study the Bible you will find out there is no eternal gospel once you take agape love out of the gospel
“The reason the modern gospel is not working is that people are not preaching the eternal gospel. There is no place for love in the contract we have in many Pentecostal churches that the pastor has to love the flock. You can wow them, dazzle them but the objective has not been to love the flock. But that is not the Bible. That is not what was preached by Seymour. In fact, Seymour said when it comes to the Pentecostal experience it is best captured when summed up as a massive increase of divine love. He said any Pentecostal church where there is no explosion of divine love is counterfeit.”
Thompson then added, “what kind of experience are we demonstrating in our churches? Is it the one that talks about speaking in tongues as just a sign of being baptized in the Holy Ghost or the one that says speaking in tongues is the evidence of being baptized in the Holy Ghost?
“This modern Pentecostal message in many instances has nothing to do with the original. We must get back to the original gospel, not the one that is tainted by evidence that is not eternal. It is when the divine love of God is exhibited by us that we will be able to perform miracles, signs and wonders. The gospel that places emphasis on tongues as the evidence of being baptized in the Holy Ghost is counterfeit.”