Steve Cioccolanti - A Pastor to Avoid

COMMENTS ARE CLOSED ON THIS POST.  THE MAJORITY OF COMMENTS RECEIVED OVER THE PAST COUPLE MONTHS HAVE BEEN NO MORE THAN AD HOMINEM ATTACKS.  OTHERS ARE JUST REPEATING THE SAME CLAIMS ALREADY ADDRESSED IN PREVIOUS COMMENTS.  READ THE ARTICLE AND THE COMMENTS AND ALL YOUR CONCERNS SHOULD BE ADDRESSED.  YOU WILL NOT CHANGE MY VIEWS AS TO THE FALSE TEACHING EXPOSED IN THIS ARTICLE.

A teacher to warn you about was brought to my attention by one of my readers: his name is Steve Cioccolanti.  Since his base is Australia, and most of his missions are in Southeast Asia and Indonesia, he will probably remain unknown among most American Christians.  However, it appears that he often travels to teach his eschatological beliefs, and everyone can find him on the Internet, so I believe there should be warnings about him also posted on the Internet.

Now, I have to say up front that it appears that his fundamental doctrinal positions are mostly sound, but the things which take him out of the “sound teacher” category are numerous.  So let me highlight these things, which I read on his blog, his Church site, and a video I was linked to for review.

Cioccolanti’s teachings on eschatology play fast and loose with conspiracy theories, numerology, and space aliens.  His speculations range from rational to bizarre, especially when he starts talking about the “cover-up” at Roswell.

Steve has written a book titled, “The Divine Code from 1 to 2020.”  While reading the reviews, it appears there are a lot of claims about the symbolism of numbers and why it is important that we know about such things.

From his church site, under “Core Beliefs,” there is this statement about women in ministry:   "Women are an integral part of the Body of Christ which is neither male nor female, with gifts differing according to the grace that is given to them."  So does this mean that Steve believes women should be in leadership positions such as elders and pastors?  With all his other problems, I think he might very well lean that way - but there was no clear teaching about it that I could find.

Like many others in the charismatic genre, according to his church’s “Core Beliefs,” they  teach "divine healing" - with members of the church being the healers.  I believe this gift was limited to the Apostles.  Additionally, he has DVDs teaching this stuff, and he also makes one's "words" important in healing - positive confession stuff, i.e, like the “Word of Faith” (he has a whole section headed, "speak words of life," under prayers for healing).

Again under his church’s “Core Beliefs,” there is a paragraph titled, “Total Provision,” which comes across as what I would call “Word of Faith lite.” Cioccolanti does not appear to be like the average WOF, “name it and claim it” teachers from what I could tell, in that he seems stay away from the extreme end.

In the “pray” section on his church’s site, Cioccolanti has many rote prayers, as well as including Scripture about the subject under discussion.  A lengthy prayer for his church ends with this statement: "We are a supernatural church, composed of supernatural people doing supernatural things, for we are laborers together with God."
This immediately sends up red flags - in what way does he see his church and people being “supernatural,” and what “supernatural” things to they do?  I couldn’t find any answers to those questions on the site.

In his "prayer" for the nation (he gives Australia as the example), Steve does the same thing so many U.S. Christians do - he claims the promise of 2 Chron. 7:14.  I wrote about that abuse of Scripture on my blog here.

Cioccolanti teaches the very aberrant “spiritual warfare” model of “binding” Satan, as well as a whole prayer which includes claiming “the blood” of Christ.

The prayer by members for the pastor is very, very presumptuous, telling God that His Spirit rests on Cioccolanti, etc.  And towards the end of the prayer they tell God that they will stand by their pastor and not criticize him, etc.  So if he teaches error, they pray that they won't confront him with it!

His "prophet's prayer" is claiming during the prayer that the person praying is indeed a prophet!  Shades of NAR and IHOP!

In his "pledge to sexual purity" prayer, Cioccolanti specifically says that God spoke to him!  "God told me to challenge people to make a personal pledge to sexual purity in 4 areas."  God TOLD him.  Direct revelation!  Right.

In his prayer for "studies and exams," Steve again claims to know what God wants; "If you’re a student, God wants to put you above the rest of the class."  This guy reminds me a whole lot about Beth Moore with all HER claims of direct revelation (although she doesn't claim to be a prophet.)  Then he says the two things you must do to pass exams are to (1) pray for an hour in "tongues" and (2) "confess the Scriptures" - yep, name it and claim it!

Cioccolanti is part of the whole "Rhema" charismania association, which, puts him right in shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Kenneth Hagan and the rest of the WOF crowd.

So here is the summation about problems with Steve Cioccolanti:
Aberrational eschatology
Fascination with numerology
Apparent acceptance of women in pastoral roles
Divine healing teachings
Aberrant Word of Faith teachings (including “name-it-and-claim-it”)
Claims of supernatural powers for both himself and his church
Misuse of Scripture (i.e., poor hermeneutics)
Aberrant and false spiritual warfare teachings
Not accountable to his congregation for any teaching errors
Claims to be a prophet
Claims direct revelation from God

This is NOT a pastor who can be trusted with solid Biblical teachings.