Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies

“Christian Publishing Full Of Rotten Fruit.”  Just now figuring that out?!?  I’ve been saying, for at least 30 years, that Christian book stores are minefields of false teachings.

This hour-long examination of “The Prayer of Jabez” book really hits the nail on the head!

Praying with our bodies?!?!? Where is this in Scripture?  This is total pagan nonsense.  Just more foolishness from the Methodist Church.

The New Apostolic Reformation — You will know them by their nuts.  H/T Marsha West

The Church of Scotland slips into apostasy.

The Daniel Prayer!?!  Another inane idea, this time from Anne Graham Lotz.

Mike Bickle has absolutely no clue about what the Bible says.

False teaching founder of KJV Onlyism has died.  Ruckman was about as whacked-out as they come.

Todd Bentley — Angelic encounter, or demonic encounter?  Definitely demonic (and there is nothing true about his stories!) And yet Bill Johnson has blessed him!  H/T Mary Dalke

Lighthouse Trails Research has a new tract booklet about the Alpha Course.

List of links about false teacher Jen Hatmaker.

Vineyard has long been aberrant in their teachings, but now they’ve crossed the line into heresy.

Why pastors should say “NO MORE!” to Beth Moore.

Glory of Zion goat pen — why do people get involved with such nonsense?!?!?

“Heavenly Tourism” is all fake.

The Clear Word Bible is a false Bible with added text supporting the cult of Seventh-day Adventism.

Kenneth Hagin is pretty much known as the father of the Word of Faith heresy.  The video in this article says “demonic activity” to me.

Finally, you vision-casting pastors need to be careful!

Random Apostasies and Heresies

It would be nice if I could go two or three weeks without apostasy, heresy, or just plain bizarre teachings needing to be warned about.  Unfortunately, false teachers never sleep; their web is daily spun and just gets larger and larger as it captures the gullible, easily deceived, and the spiritually immature.  So the warnings must be posted.

The Church of England has decided that a lack of male leadership justifies the idea of women bishops. I really don’t see why they are having such a problem making the decision, since they already have women in leadership roles - directly contrary to Paul’s teachings.  Perhaps if the Anglican Church concentrated on preaching the word and discipling members to maturity, they might just end up with a large reservoir of qualified male candidates.

Emergent, seeker-sensitive, and heretical Steven Furtick has been in the news too often.  First, I see he has made his debut on the Trinity Broadcasting Network - the station known for its abject heretical teachers.  Like them, he is getting wealthy off the gullible who attend his “church.”  Furtick is really a cult leader, with his followers acting very much like cult members.  His teachings are bizarre. and yet apparently none of his followers read the Bible for confronting him.  And if those outside his goat-pen challenge him, they are attacked as “haters.”  He is very reminiscent of those preaching the “Toronto Revival” with his man-caused, “spontaneous” baptisms and his focus on numbers of people joining his cult.  

Meanwhile, in one of the original seeker-sensitive/market-driven assemblies, Willow Creek, they are teaching the Alpha Course!!!  This course has too many false teachings to explain here, but it is a course which should never show up in any church claiming to be evangelical.

Excuses given for “pastors” using foul language are really getting old.  Now we have James MacDonald [link gone by 9/26/20] joining with the likes of Mark Driscoll and his ilk by using crude language.  I even had a commenter this week defending Tony Campolo’s foul language!  Since these men are seen as leaders in the church, should they not behave as leaders and follow the teachings of Ephesians 5: 4 and Colossians 3:8, where Paul says to NOT use such language?

Yes, there is more to be learned about Michael Brown’s association with Benny Hinn.  All I can say is, “Sorry Mr. Brown, but you have NO excuse for associating with such a rank heretic!”  Anyone in Brown’s position who supports the likes of Hinn in ANY way is not worthy of being a Christian leader.

Now that the subject of “Strange Fire” vs “Authentic Fire” has been broached, the Cripplegate had an excellent article about what “tongues” in the Bible really were - which is nothing like what the charismatic churches have today.  In fact, what goes on in these charismatic churches, and the people who claim to speak in tongues, is nothing but the same phenomena found in the early days of the Mormon Church.

Christian colleges are more and more becoming just like the world, or bringing in false teachings.  Wheaton College students protested the visit of a former lesbian to their campus.  It seems they didn’t like the idea of her message being that one can leave such sin behind by turning one’s life over to Christ.  It seems they think another side of the story should be presented that people can be Christians while being unrepentant of homosexual behavior. Then we have Faith Baptist Bible College in Ames, IA, which has always been very fundamental, now promoting and selling books by contemplative authors.  Sigh.

Last week I posted information about Bill Gothard’s sexual abuse and harassment of young ladies working for him.  Another young lady’s story was posted this week, which should raise the hackles of any parent.  With all the recent exposure of Gothard’s lust for his workers, and the refusal of Gothard to deal with it, a new project is being developed to bring lots of public exposure to what has taken place in Gothard’s organization.  I would really like to see the total collapse of the organization.

Andy Stanley disappoints me more and more.  Now he thinks it is “offensive that Christians would leverage faith to support the Kansas law. Serving people we don’t see eye to eye with is the essence of Christianity. Jesus died for a world with which he didn’t see eye to eye. If a bakery doesn’t want to sell its products to a gay couple, it’s their business. Literally. But leave Jesus out of it.”  The new Kansas law which failed to pass was about protecting Christians from being forced to provide services for same-sex fake weddings, etc, which SHOULD BE morally repugnant to every Christian.  And, there is plenty of biblical support for refusing to assist people in their sin.  It isn’t about refusing to sell products or services just because people are sinners, it is about specific kinds of goods and services which make the provider a participant in said sin.  For example, I don’t care what a person does with their sex lives (homosexuality, bestiality, adultery, fornication, etc) if I’m asked to play music at a birthday party for them; it’s helping people celebrate another year of life and is not in any way giving even tacit approval to whatever sexual immorality they may indulge in.  But if I am asked to play for a fake wedding I would be helping to celebrate what is an abomination to God.  For Stanley to suggest otherwise is an affront to God.

Random Apostasies and Heresies

I’m thinking about discontinuing this “Random” series as a regular posting.  It takes a lot of time reviewing all the goofy stuff in the Church, and there are many more articles I want to write!  If you are interested in keeping up to date with such problems, about half of my sources are listed in the blogs I follow on my profile page, while a few more are on ‘My Blog List” and “Some favorite apologetics sites” listed in the right-hand column of this blog.   Rather than wait until I have a collection, I think with more important issues I’ll just do a short report pointing to the article I refer to.  I guess we’ll just see how it goes, but I think alerting Christians to what is happening in the church, and what to avoid, etc, is very important.

Tim Keller has more issues we need to be careful about; he is teaching Romanist and Quaker mysticism.  Why is it so many good teacher seem to think this mysticism is good?!?!

Steve Chalke, who is supposed to be the U.K.’s leading evangelical, is 100% for same-sex fake marriage.  He equates supporting such an abomination with opposing slavery.  As with other so-called Christians who support same-sex fake marriage, Chalke just says we don’t understand what the Bible says about homosexuality.  Yeah, right.

And of course the ever-apostate United Church of Christ is also increasing their push for the legalization of same-sex fake marriage nation-wide.  More people who don’t read their Bible!

Ken Silva posted an article by Gary Hand examining the heretical “Wider Mercy Doctrine” - the “belief that salvation can be obtained even when a person has not heard the gospel and does not know Jesus Christ.”  Yep, a form of universalism.  Heretic Robert Schuller has taught this, and so has Billy Graham.

Where is Steven Furtick’s gospel teaching?

I learned of something new this week: “Incarnational Ministry.”  The Cripplegate examines this idea - and why the title is wrong-headed.

More on the imbroglio about Louis Giglio comes from Pyromaniacs.

Apprising Ministries posted another article about problems with Nicky Gumbel’s The Alpha Course.  I don’t think we can have enough articles exposing this spiritually damaging course.

I’ve posted some short items about spiritual abuse in the past, but I think it is another very important issue to understand.  There are many false teachers us use spiritual abuse to control their followers, and one of the first names which comes to my mind is Bill Gothard!  (Just read the many testimonies at Recovering Grace.)  I highly recommend the book, “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse,” by David Johnson & Jeff VanVonderen, which I picked up 12 years ago at a Biblical Counselors’ Conference.

Ken Silva posted an excellent article on the subject, “Beware of Spiritual Abuse.”

I wonder what in the world is going on with Andy Stanley?!?  I previously pointed out his apparent approval of homosexuality, but now he thinks President Obama should be titled, “Pastor in Chief”!!!  Barak Obama, the man who is the most pro-abortion president in history (and who called a child, “punishment”), the man who is the most pro-homosexual agenda President in history, and the man who is the most pro-Islam and anti-Israel President in history - and Stanley thinks he should be called “Pastor in Chief”?!?!

I direct you to three good articles on the subject by two apologetics ministries: Apprising Ministries (which includes other information about Stanley’s pre-inaugural sermon) and  Sola Sisters.

Don Veinot, of Midwest Christian Outreach, has a good example of how to respond to those who say we are mean for exposing false teachers.  I’ve heard Don in person tell about his method of responding, and I always liked it.  In this article he gives some examples of assaults he has responded to.

For those who aren’t convinced that Todd Bentley is nothing but a show-boating charlatan of a false teacher, take a gander at the video provided by Ken Silva.  All I see is a demonic spirit behind Bentley - it certainly isn’t anything holy.

Just remember to be alert at all times - the wolves are watching for their opportunity to devour the sheep.

Random Apostasies and Heresies

Well ladies and gentlemen, it is again time to highlight some news items from the past week.  

Up front is a report on the “Passion 2013” conference which just ended.  There is just so much wrong about this thing!  First, headlining the event was Jesus Culture, a music ministry from false teacher Bill Johnson’s Bethel Church in California.  I never heard of this group before this week, but their teaching is certainly not anything a discerning parent would want their youth involved with, and the group’s primary focus is youth! 

In fact, the whole Passion 2013 conference is directed at those 25-years-old and under.   The speakers all have some theological problems with their teaching, and this is poisoning our youth!  I have followed some good apologetics ministries and their reports on Passion 2013.  So, I will be linking you to their excellent coverage and commentaries.

As background information for “Jesus Culture,” Ken Silva at Apprising Ministries has an introduction to the sort of “signs and wonders” one can expect with Bill Johnson’s church.  Additionally, Ken posted a good review of a book by Johnson, “When Heaven Invades Earth,” written by Bob DeWaay.  Johnson’s teachings in this book are often heretical almost always at least aberrational.  So when examining this material, remember that this is the origin of Jesus Culture, which should be of gravest concern for those thinking of having them attend any Christian conference

Ken also posted a long video which exposes the teaching of Jesus Culture; it is an hour and eleven minutes long, but well worth the watching for educating yourself about this group.  The following day Ken posted another article with further information about Jesus Culture and Bill Johnson.  The fact that Jesus Culture was at Passion 2013 should be an immediate alarm bell.

Now I want to direct you to articles about the conference itself.  Elizabeth Prata has an excellent 3-part series about some of the speakers and their teachings.  Part one will link to the rest.

Erin Benziger posted an audio of Chris Rosebrough’s examination of the first night’s teaching by Louie Giglio.  Ken Silva posted an audio of Chris examining the last session by Giglio.

Sola Sisters has an article making a good point about why John Piper should not be attending or endorsing events such as Passion 2013.

There is so much more about this conference and its false teachings by false teachers, that I could spend many articles trying to capture the essence of what went on.  I’ll leave that to your further investigation.  My point was only to demonstrate what happens at these sorts of events which lead our youth farther and farther away from the truth and into emotionalism.

Well, let’s get on to other things, starting with T.D. Jakes.  Ken Silva was accused of “jealousy, envy and blatant racism” because he dared expose the false teaching of Jakes.  Silva had a very good response.

The Church of England has continued farther and farther into total apostasy.  Now they have decided that “gay clergy in civil partnerships can become bishops so long as they remain sexually abstinent.”  Yeah, I’m sure that is found in the Bible.

Meanwhile, Marsha West has a good commentary about “Christian” fashions such as I recently reported on.  This type of fashion is not productive for teaching modesty.

Tim Keller is becoming quite a popular teacher, and seems to have a lot of good stuff, although often from a Calvinist position.  However, in my opinion Keller is not to be trusted.  For one thing, he is a theistic evolutionist.  Outside of that, he justifies his belief by pointing to Roman Catholics, as if they represent the Christian faith!!!

Someone wrote Ken Silva at Apprising Ministries with the usual complaint from Beth Moore followers - that those exposing her have “little grace,” are “doctrinal police,” etc.  

Ken posted the email, along with his response and evidence of Moore’s claims to direct revelation from God.  Erin Benziger also addressed problems with Moore’s claims.

Lastly, just today the Christian Research Network exposed another problem with the Alpha Course - Nicky Gumbel fully admits the agreement Alpha has with the Catholic Church.

Random Apostasies and Heresies

Time for another round of things that should scare - and sadden - a discerning Christian; things which people need to be alerted to stay away from.

Let’s start with The Alpha Course.  As noted in previous blogs, this is a spiritually-dangerous course.  Not only did it originate from someone with aberrational ideas, but it is also extremely ecumenical and brings in lots of Roman Catholic teachings.  There is just so much wrong with this course that it has taken books to examine it all.  One of the best sites for good summation articles is Erin Benziger’s “Do Not Be Surprised...”

Apprising Ministries has also previously posted articles exposing the nature of The Alpha Course, and last week posted an excellent one examining six important points where this course is problematic.

What is shocking about The Alpha Course is that, while making a strong comeback, it is being promoted by too many well-known church leaders.  In my last “Random” post I noted that John Piper, and Moody Radio’s Janet Parshall were both speaking approvingly of the course.  Rick Warren has now joined the band-wagon, claiming that “God began a movement” with The Alpha Course, and that it was “inspired by the Holy Spirit”!  I hate to burst Warren’s apostate bubble, but God would never start a movement which teaches apostasy and other false teachings, nor would the Holy Spirit inspire it.  Just another reason Warren should not be trusted as a Christian teacher.

Apprising Ministries was good enough this past week to post an older article from another site examining some issues surrounding The Alpha Course, and whether or not we should be judging its content.  This link will go to the original article.

Moving right along, Rick Warren is not only promoting Alpha but he is now regretting making the video supporting real marriage during the 2008 Proposition 8 in California.  Putting this together with a comment he recently made during an interview when he stated that homosexual behavior “might be” a sin, one has to wonder what his particular teachings about homosexuality will now be.

I’m not done with Rick Warren yet (one could write a very large book about the false teachings of Warren).  I previously briefly mentioned his new PDL anniversary version as being as bad - if not worse - than the original; this week Lighthouse Trails Research ministry posted a special report which should be reviewed by everyone interested in the whole PDL issue.  The book is still unbiblical.

Although the fundamentalist LDS groups who practice polygamy are ostracized by the Utah church, in regards to polygamy the FLDS actually follows the teachings of Joseph Smith better than does the LDS.  Greg Kouki makes an excellent point comparing the Mormons desire for clear distinction between them and the FLDS, and Christians’ desire for clear distinction between us and the LDS.

Remember Christine Caine, mentioned in previous posts as being a false teacher?  Well she is again reminding us that her “spiritual mother” is none other than Word of Faith heretic Joyce Meyer.  Anyone with a heretic as a “spiritual parent” should not be teaching the Word of God.

Christine Caine’s association with heretics and other false teachers is becoming a very common occurrence.  It seems another of her favorites is Sheryl Brady, another WOF “pastor” who was installed in her office by WOF heretic and modalist T.D. Jakes.  In this article by Apprising Ministries, you can see the connections between all these false teachers with so many other WOF fakes.  None of these people have a clue about what the Bible really teaches.

And of course there is Rod Parsley, with his “prayer cloths.”  But guess who is chummy with this WOF heretic?  Steven Furtick!  There is no shame with these new “superstar” emergent and seeker-sensitive leaders; take a look at the latest from Ed Young, Jr.

Random Apostasies and Heresies

Yes, it’s time for another edition of random things I’ve come across demonstrating the apostasy and heresy invading the Church today.

Mark Driscoll is one of those teachers people either love or totally dislike.  Those who love him are, in my opinion, not very discerning.  Driscoll’s fundamental theology, being Calvinist, may or may not turn people off, but that isn’t what I address when I write about Driscoll.  As far as I’m concerned, he is mostly fundamentally sound, but he has too many problems for me to ever recommend him, as I have shown in previous articles. Now I have another example as to why he has business being a pastor: his teachings on Esther are almost 100% eisegesis!  You have to read this one to believe it.

If you remember a previous post about Driscoll and his comments about throwing people under the bus if they don’t agree with his “vision,” then you might appreciate this article about apologist Chris Rosebrough calling on Driscoll to repent!

Ken Silva, over at Apprising Ministries, has an excellent video showing the false teachings of Joel Osteen as well as the similar teachings of his follower, Steven Furtick.   Osteen and Furtick are false teachers, plain and simple, and those who follow these guys need to start reading their Bibles and quit listening to these men.

Ken Silva has another excellent post, this time reporting on a communication between him, Beth Moore, and some of her followers, while Ken is trying to get Beth to denounce a so-called vision from God which supposedly told her that Romanism is part of the true Church.  She’s not backing down, and neither are her supporters.

In my last “random” posting I reported about emergent guru and heretic Brian McLaren’s claim that homosexuality is not really condemned as a sin.  Well, now we know why he said this: he led a commitment ceremony between his son and his son’s homosexual lover.  Rather than call his son to repentance, McLaren sanctions - and honors - his son’s sin.

Another event which I found saddening is that the Assemblies of God “Enrichment Journal”  have compromised and are remaining “neutral” in presenting views of Genesis.  There is, of course, only one true view of Genesis, and that is a literal interpretation as the writer intended.  Once you drop the literal view of Genesis, apostasy quickly follows.

I have written only one article about the Alpha Course, explaining that it is an ecumenical system bringing is teachings of the various false revivals.  However, Erin Benziger, over at Do Not Be Surprised..., has posted some excellent articles on the course, so that is where I send people who are interested in information about Alpha.  This past week Erin has written another good article for Christian Research Network, about the doctrinal compromise of Alpha.  If Alpha is coming to your church, be sure to get Erin’s information to your leadership to show them why they don’t want such apostate teaching in your assembly.

With all the attention the LDS cult is getting because of Mitt Romney’s campaign, it is always good to see more LDS teaching exposed, where they are making it clear that they are not Christians.  Mormonism Research Ministry posted on their blog an interesting 1887 LDS hymn which states in no unclear terms that their church is not like the Christian churches.

SIGH!

The Alpha Course

You may have heard of a course called Alpha – it’s been making the rounds for quite a few years in churches nationwide, and also over in merry ole England. It claims to be a course for reaching out to the unsaved. Alpha originated in Holy Trinity Brompton Church in England and seems to be most popular here in the States in the Episcopal churches, although I have seen it advertised in the newspaper as being held at churches of other denominations.

Holy Trinity Brompton (also known as HTB) is a home of the false revival and other aberrations of that nature, so right away one has to be suspicious of any course coming from there. A little research definitely proves the suspicions valid.

Some books published in England are a thorough investigation of Alpha. The books are written by Elizabeth McDonald and Dusty Peterson, and comprise three paperbacks. The main title of all three is, Alpha – the unofficial guide. The main guide is in two volumes: World and Church. The final volume is Overview, which is a summation of the other two. The authors are well qualified to do this study since they have reviewed just about every video and audio tape and other publications put out by Alpha, and have attended some of the courses themselves. It is very thorough research.

I first read these books in 2003 when they were new. The first book I read was Overview, which was unfortunate because it really gave me the wrong impression of the main volumes. I think the authors’ brevity in that volume led to some ambiguity and confusion in regards to issues that were very well spelled out in the main volumes. My recommendation for anyone interested in studying the Alpha Course would be to read the main volumes first to get a better and fairer overall evaluation. For this commentary, I will highlight the volume Church.

There is one issue where I part company with the authors and that is their KJV-only stance. There are many complaints about Bibles other than KJV being used in this course, but I don’t really see that it matters what they use since Alpha is short on Bible use anyway. I do have to say that this series did give me a new perspective on comparing various translations; most of the authors’ arguments comparing passages were very good and only a few did I feel could be discounted. If the KJV-only stance turns you off, either forget about the books or just overlook those parts. I think the material on Alpha is well worth the study.

A primary problem with Alpha is its ecumenicism; it is very supportive and encouraging of Roman Catholicism. Because of the very strong connection with R.C. and Alpha, the authors spend a lot of time with the history and doctrine of R.C. so the reader will have no doubt as to the problems with encouraging unity with such an apostate religion. For those unfamiliar with R.RC. heresies and aberrations, this book is a very good primer.

Alpha is very weak on the gospel message and, as noted above, does not rely much on Scripture. There is a lot of “easy-believism” in the teaching about “accepting Christ” to the point where, according to the many cited testimonies, people really have no understanding of what it means to be Christian. “Holy Spirit Weekend” appears to be nothing more than an introduction to the false revival (the same “revival” of Toronto, Pensacola, etc). There is a lot of emphasis on how we “feel” about our beliefs, and how our “self-esteem” is doing. Absolutely no discernment is taught, and “students” are encouraged to go to “any church” without regard to doctrinal teachings.

There are a lot of quotations from the various Alpha sources, and most of them are troublesome because of either ambiguity in the teaching or just plain bad doctrine. There are some areas where you may see some “nit-picking” as I did, but when you understand that some of what may seem as “nit-picking” is actually showing the general tenor of the course (this was explained to me by the authors in personal communications), you will realize it was necessary to be picky in these areas.

Since Alpha is still making the rounds, if anyone is attending a church which intends to use, or is using, the Alpha Course, I strongly urge you to acquire these volumes so as to be armed for discussions with your leadership as to why they should not use Alpha. If you have friends involved in Alpha, I would suggest you learn about this course so as to be able to present them with the true gospel message and defend against errors in the course.

Information about purchasing this series by Elizabeth and Dusty can be found at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~emcd/index.htm

Holy Trinity Brompton is a bad tree and Alpha is its bad fruit. Be Bereans.