Yes, they seem to use it, they quote from it, but in practice, the Bible has lost its authority to their new prophecies whose message goes far beyond the Bible's teachings. There is an air of superiority -arrogance, even- over the church of previous ages- ''the 90's'' and the coming century are imagined worthy of something new beyond the tired, old message of the Bible- something more ''positive.'' Their gospel is so 'cutting edge'- it's too fresh to be in the Bible! There is an attitude of having matured beyond the word.

They are prone to rationalize unbiblical doctrines and practices with the same few superficial phrases like ''God is bigger than His word'' - yes, does that mean He acts contrary to it? Or, referring to Jn 21:25, claiming that since ''everything Jesus did isn't recorded in the Bible,'' maybe this doctrine or practice is something that just isn't in there but could have been. Our Omnipotent, all-knowing, all-wise God is surely the Master Author and was able to choose for inclusion in His word every principle necessary for us to know. And that He surely did this is obvious from the statements He has made concerning His word, quoted above.

Those of us who remain faithful to the scriptures are often accused of ''putting God in a box,'' as though the Almighty God could be limited by us, and, absurdly, by us applying His own word! I hear the same ring in these phrases as I hear in that tempting ''Indeed, has God said...?'' recorded in Gen 3:1.

When the Bible is used in the movement, it is haphazardly. Most often the symbolic/allegorical method is used, yet there is no overall logic to their system. They fragment the scriptures to support their various ideas, as opposed to drawing sound doctrine out of a comprehensive view of the whole word of God, rightly divided.

In the symbolic method of interpretation, with a little imagination, the Bible can be made to appear to support anything. Symbolism and allegory are used to draw far-fetched teachings out of random fragments of verses. Here is an illustration I like of just how far out it gets. When ''prophet'' John Hinkle prophesied on TBN that God had told him that on June 9, 1994, He would fulfill Isaiah 25:6-9 by ''ripping the blanket of evil out of the world,'' Gary Fischer, of Lion of Judah ministries, pointed it out as a false prophecy. He tells of a letter he received in response:

J. Dwight Pentecost, in his classic Things To Come, made a very accurate statement about this method, ''a... great danger in the allegorical method: the basic authority in interpretation ceases to be the Scriptures, but the mind of the interpreter.''