You’ve probably seen Isaiah Saldivar somewhere on social media. He’s a 34-year-old revivalist and full-time social media influencer and content creator that has 250k friends on Facebook, 412k subs on YouTbe, 100k followers on Instagram, and another 350k followers on TikTok, where he has 3.5 Million likes.
Isaiah says he was saved after, as an atheist, he was sitting in a pew when Jesus spoke to him in an audible voice and told him “I am going to use you to preach the gospel to every nation.” He claims that shortly after, he had a vision of people praying at his house and concluded, “We need to pray, and people will gather.” As a result, “people began to gather, and gather, and gather. Soon enough, signs, wonders, and miracles began to occur effortlessly” until there were 500 people there.
He specializes in deliverance ministry and casting out demons, as he has a whole demonology thing going on, teaching the how and why to cast out demons, giving them all sort of wacky names. He also believes that Christians can have demons inside of them that need to be expelled, and that Christians need to cast demons out of each other.
He also has some bizarre ideas about ‘spiritual spouses’: which is when your spouse has a demon inside of them and they claim you as their husband or wife, and then destroy your life and try to keep you from God because they are a jealous demon. He believes that demons can have sex with people- that occasionally they can rape people while they sleep, and believes in literal incubus and succubus.
In a recent video, he preaches another gospel by making the following claim:
Anyone who says signs and wonders don’t matter or isn’t required in presenting the gospel is completely wrong. Paul says this; signs and wonders gave him full confidence that he fully preached the gospel and without them the gospel is not full.
Here’s what the NLT says. ‘They were convinced by the power of miraculous signs and wonders and by the power of God’s Spirit, in this way’- in what way? by the mark of signs and wonders- ‘in this way, I have fully presented the good news of Christ from Jerusalem, all the way to Illyricum.
In today’s era of Christianity, we’ve lost the convincing factor. The thing that was convincing people in Paul’s day was the signs and wonders, and today we use programs, gimmicks and nice buildings, but Paul used signs and wonders. He didn’t need to play, a performance, a gimmick. It was the raw power of God that convinced them. The Bible says they were convinced by the miraculous signs and wonders. So the world doesn’t need a new definition of Christianity. They need a new demonstration of Christianity.
Because Saldivar is a false teacher, a quick examination of the scriptures, in context, shows that he has it wrong an dis just making stuff up, like his demon beliefs.
For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and all around as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And in this way I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already known by name, so that I would not build on another person’s foundation. Romans 5:18-20 NASB.
Paul is not saying that without signs and wonders the gospel is not full, that they are in some way necessary for the gospel to be preached, or that a signs-and-wonder-less gospel is deficient. Instead, by saying he has “fully preached the Gospel” in verse 19, he means he has preached the full counsel of God all through the area. He faithfully preached all across the region, “from Jerusalem and all around as far as Illyricum” which is a ministry area of some 1400 miles. It’s about where he preached, not the substance of what he preached. Extent, not content.
Here is the gospel. There is nothing about the necessity of accompanying signs and wonders for this to be true. The scriptures recount instances of people being saved by Peter or Paul where signs and wonders are not present. Based on Saldivar’s teaching, however, sharing this good news about is only a small part of the equation and should not be shared unless miracles are going to happen also. (Beyond the miracles of regeneration and a heart of stones becoming a heart of flesh). It is definitional of what it means to preach a false gospel.
Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures .1 Corinthians 15:1-4 NASB.
Lastly, for someone so big on the insistence of miracles 24/7, like most false teachers who claim to daily walk in the supernatural, any evidence or proof of his miracle-making and wonder-walking is conspicuously non-existent and absent. Would love to see some videos where he’s doing sign gifts like Jesus, Paul, Peter, Moses, Elijah, Elisha, but we’re not holding our breath.
