John F. MacArthur - Strange Fire: The Danger of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship

ACCLAIM FOR THE MESSAGE OF Strange Fire

Testimonies from people whose lives were changed by the truth of Gods Word

I am grateful to the Lord for John MacArthur and the clear way he is exposing the many errors of charismatic teaching.

CARLA

I stayed six years in the charismatic church, until John MacArthur helped me reevaluate the teaching by comparing it to Scripture. My heart goes out to those still in the Charismatic Movement that are deceived. The prosperity they are promised eludes them. I saw people giving everything they owned of value, expecting to receive one-hundred-fold back. When the reward they sought did not materialize, they were told their faith was deficient. It is very sad.

MADALENA

We lost a child a few years ago, and several members of the church we attended told us that we just didnt have enough faith for her healing. Others told us that we must have had sin in our lives. I praise the Lord for the ministry of John MacArthur. My wife and I have learned so much through his books and teachings, enough to leave the charismatic church environment we were in for over a decade. There are so many misguided charismatics out there that desperately need to hear the truth.

MICHAEL

My wife and I served for sixteen years in French-speaking West Africa. Pastors in west Africa are bombarded with false teachingmostly from American televangelists and charismatic church leaders. John MacArthurs teaching on the Charismatic Movement gave me the tools I needed to confront the errors we faced.

LARRY

My husband and I are seniors, but it goes to show that whatever age a person is, the Lord can work mightily. We have been married nearly forty-nine years and for the first thirty-eight years we went to a charismatic church where feelings and experiences took precedence over Scripture. I felt uneasy and didnt know what to do about it. Then John MacArthur helped us take a new look at the Charismatic Movement through the lens of Scripture. He taught us to be Bereans.

VALRAE

I have often thought recently that the Word of Faith movement is one of the greatest threats to real Christianity today. The message seems Christian enough to new and young believers. It definitely sounds good in a world obsessed with prosperity. It looks good for people who want to be wealthy, healthy, and happy. I used to attend a Word of Faith church. This church teaches us that God wants us to have total victoryin our finances, relationships and our health! Then why isnt the pastor healthy? Why are people losing their jobs? They arent prosperous right now in their finances. Theyre struggling and cant make ends meet. People begin to wonder if God let them down. Why didnt He fulfill His end of the bargain? The Word of Faith doctrine is a dangerous false gospel, and Im grateful to John MacArthur for pointing us back to Scripture.

JEREMY

I am thirty-five years old and live in west Norway. As a new believer I was in a Pentecostal church for about two years. What they taught and practiced were not the things I read about in Scriptureyour best life now, positive confession, material prosperity, earthly fame, and so on. I never heard anything about repentance or laying down my life and certainly not anything about being a slave of Christ. I started listening to John MacArthurs teaching on these things about a year ago. Its liberating to learn and embrace the truth that Gods Word, the Bible, is my true authorityrather than constantly being enslaved to my own feelings.

BJORN

I was raised in a church where I was taught to speak in tongues and listen for God to speak to me personally. The God I was raised to believe in was mysterious, strange, mystical, and confusing. It was total chaos. I was so upset by those things, and by prophecies that never came true, that I turned from anything relating to the Bible. I wandered spiritually and avoided Gods Word for about ten years. The whole time, though, I knew I was wrong, and I did believe in God. I just did not understand how to live for Him. About three years ago, I discovered the teaching ministry of John MacArthur online. I went immediately to the sermons on 1 Corinthians to see what he said about speaking in tongues. It was refreshing to hear a sermon that made sense. I downloaded countless sermons. I was relearning the Bible. I joined a Bible-teaching church near me with a pastor who is committed to the Word without compromise. I am so excited about what the Lord is doing in my life.

JUSTIN

I came out of a charismatic background, and John MacArthurs teaching has been a real eye-opener. I am grateful to God for delivering my familyand our congregationout of total heresy.

CRYSTAL

STRANGE FIRE

2013 by John MacArthur

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

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Italics added to Scripture quotations are the authors own emphasis.

ISBN: 978-1-4002-0641-4 (IE)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

MacArthur, John, 1939

Strange fire : the danger of offending the Holy Spirit with counterfeit worship / John MacArthur.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4002-0517-2

1. Holy Spirit. 2. Worship. I. Title.

BT123.M148 2013

231'.3--dc23

2013015552

Printed in the United States of America

13 14 15 16 17 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

N adab and Abihu were not shamans or snake-oil salesmen who infiltrated the camp of the Israelites in order to spread the Canaanites superstitions among the people. They were by all appearances righteous, respectable men and godly spiritual leaders. They were priests of the one true God. And they were no middling Levites. Nadab was heir apparent to the office of the high priest, and Abihu was next in line after him. They were the eldest sons of Aaron. Moses was their uncle. Their names head the list of nobles of the children of Israel (Ex. 24:11). Aside from their father, Aaron, they are the only ones singled out by name the first time Scripture mentions Israels seventy elders, the group of leaders who shared spiritual oversight in the Hebrew nation (Num. 11:1624). Scripture does not introduce them to us as sinister figures or notoriously wicked menquite the opposite.