10 Reasons Why You Should RUN AWAY From Bethel Redding

1. Bill Johnson & Kris Vallotton (and other Bethel pastors) put their own words above the Word of God. Listen to them talk and you'll hear very few actual Bible verses, but you will hear a lot of their own thoughts and ideas that they claim to have received directly from God. This is not accidental. They believe they are a new and better type of Christian leader who can hear directly from God and get "downloads" of new information. They believe the Bible is merely a good starting point that has useful information about God, but to really know Him you must go further than the Bible-you need to go "off the map."

“None of us has a full grasp of Scripture, but we all have the Holy Spirit. He is our common denominator who will always lead us into truth. But to follow Him, we must be willing to follow off the map—to go beyond what we know. ”

— Bill Johnson "When Heaven Invades Earth-A Practical Guide to a Life of Miracles"

“It’s difficult to expect the same fruit of the early church when we value a book they didn’t have more than the Holy Spirit they did have. It’s not Father, Son and Holy Bible.”

— Bill Johnson, YouTube video: "Friendship With God" https://youtu.be/P4RZ_ctiwlE

(Huh?)

2. Go back to the previous point. Seriously, that is enough to end the discussion. If the Bible is only a starting point (because we need to get new and better information) than this is not the historic Christian church. In fact, even the Roman Catholic Church believes that we can't have a bunch of different people running around claiming to speak for God; that's why they have only one Pope. In the Bethel/NAR way of thinking, practically everyone is their own Pope! Bethel teaches that we must have a subjective and mystical connection to the Holy Spirit that allows us to receive more than the clear meaning of the Word of God, because the Word of God isn't enough.

3. Are you carefully considering how dangerous it is to degrade and devalue the Word of God the way Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton and Bethel does? Are you really comfortable abandoning what the Christian Church has taught, confessed and believed since its very beginning? On top of that, are you really comfortable handing over the Christian Church and its doctrines to men like Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton? These men are getting rich off of the sheep they claim to serve; they are constantly selling stuff and giving speeches for money. These men make no bones about it-they make a lot of money and they're happy to continue making more. Is that who we should trust with the future of the Christian faith?

Please check out A Biblical Guide to the Prosperity Gospel.

4. Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton and Bethel twist the Bible to make it say what they want it to say. Bill Johnson will take the English word from the Bible and try to extract some special new meaning from it; but the original word was never in English! Here's a really embarrassing example:

The word "repent" has nothing to do with penthouses-obviously! The original Greek word transliterated is "metanoia" and it means "I repent, change my mind, change the inner man (particularly with reference to acceptance of the will of God), repent," according to Strong's concordance. This is horrendous Bible twisting from a man who either has no idea what he's doing (and Bill Johnson has no training in the ancient languages that the Bible was written in), or he's so confident that he's hearing new messages from God that he doesn't care. Here's another example from the same book:

“For many years I misunderstood the biblical concept of desire. Psalm 37:4 tells us: ‘Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.’ Like many pastors, I foolishly taught that if you delighted yourself in the Lord, He would change your desires by telling you what to desire. But that’s not at all what this means. That verse literally means that God wants to be impacted by what you think and dream. God is after your desires. The word desire is made up of the prefix ‘de’ meaning ‘of,’ and sire meaning ‘father.’ Desire is, by nature, of the Father.”

— Bill Johnson, The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind, page 144

Bill Johnson doesn't even bother to consult a concordance, which is a very simple way to learn the meaning of any word found in the Bible. Instead, he demonstrates that he is horribly incapable of teaching a Biblical passage. The Hebrew word translated into english as desire is "mishalah." It simply means "request" or "petition," but Bill Johnson is telling people that "God is after their desires" because de and sire means "of the father," according to him. This is a complete fabrication and a deliberate twisting of God's Word. Why would he do that? Who knows? Maybe it's because he's appealing to the selfish desires of his gullible audience. He is definitely tickling itching ears.

5. Bill Johnson didn't have enough sense to know that he was getting scammed by Todd Bentley at The Charismatic Day of Infamy. All of the "Apostles" of the New Apostolic Reformation gathered together to commission Todd Bentley as the great new leader whose revival meetings (the "Lakeland Revival") were a big deal for a few months of glory in 2008. But Todd Bentley was a fraud, adulterer and drunk, and none of those "Apostles" (Bill Johnson being a primary member) had enough discernment to figure it out. These are the men who claim to have all sorts of special insights directly from God, but they were utterly clueless. Does that sound like the kind of guy whose direct "downloads" should be trusted to establish new doctrine? After Todd Bentley abandoned his wife and children, Bill Johnson tried to restore him back to ministry-ignoring the fact that he was utterly disqualified by his despicable, sinful behavior. Even today, Bill Johnson supports and promotes the fraud Todd Bentley. Here's something he posted on his Facebook wall just recently:

So Bill Johnson openly supports and endorses his friend, the fraud Todd Bentley. By the way, even that promo for Bentley's "revival" is fraudulent: that's a an old photograph of a Billy Graham meeting in Los Angeles. 

6. Bill Johnson & Kris Vallotton are both big fans of the creepy cult leader William Branham (1909-1965). Branham was so detached from Biblical Christianity that even Word of Faith founder Kenneth Hagin called him a false teacher and predicted he would die two years before it happened from a car accident in 1965. Although he died on Dec. 24, 1965, Branham's followers refused to bury his body since they believed he would rise from the dead. They finally gave up and buried him on April 11th of the next year. Branham didn't believe in the Trinity. Branham believed he was the end-time "Elijah." Branham taught that Eve and the serpent had sexual intercourse and Cain was born, and that consequently every woman potentially carried the literal seed of the devil, so he always believed women to be inferior and untrustworthy. Branham was a pathological liar who told many variations of stories for decades with conflicting details. Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton have stated that they want the "mantle" of William Branham.

7. Bethel Church claims to be special place where the "Presence" is tangible, and miracles happen every day, yet when a coven of witches went there to get prophetic words spoken over them, they were told nothing but positive things and were actually encouraged to continue in their witchcraft. Seriously. Read about it:  Bethel Church Tells Witch that She's "On the Right Path" and "God is So Proud of Her!"

8. Bill Johnson has established new doctrines that are not taught anywhere in Scripture, and these new doctrines have become foundational beliefs that have caused a great deal of confusion. For example, a foundational belief at Bethel is that "we must create a culture that welcomes risk-taking." Once this belief is established, people feel free to make stuff up and do things that are weird, harmful and unbiblical. Another foundational belief is that "we owe people an encounter with God."

This "Encounter Gospel" teaches that people cannot believe in God unless we do some supernatural miracle for them, and it eliminates the need for a sinner to repent of their sins. This idea adds a great deal of confusion and it conflicts with the Bible's teaching that the Holy Spirit works through the Word of God to convert people. On top of these new doctrines, Bill Johnson & Co. are always degrading the use of reason and elevating a mystical/gnostic approach to knowledge. This is a recipe for utter confusion, and it lays a foundation for people to abandon their Christian faith, which should be based on God's Word. Check out these Bethel sayings and notice how murky, unbiblical and anti-intellectual the thinking is:

9. Although Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton and other Bethel pastors will claim to be focusing on "nothing but Jesus" the truth is that they don't. Listen to these people "preach" and you'll hear lots of talking and stories, but the emphasis is never on the simple and finished Gospel message that Jesus Christ came and gave His life as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. The Apostle Paul said "I preach Christ and Him crucified," but the Bethel message is focused on what they're doing and what's going to happen next. This is no accident. Bill Johnson has repeatedly said that he wants Bethel to focus on only one thing: "revival." This is not what the Bible teaches-but it's what Bill Johnson teaches. Why? Because Bill Johnson had an experience at the "Toronto Blessing" that caused him to devote himself to this form of "revival." The Toronto Blessing was so controversial that the founder of the Vineyard movement, John Wimber, went to the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church and told them they were in serious error. Wimber then cut the church out of his Vineyard fellowship for being too far removed from Biblical Christianity. Bill Johnson took over Bethel Church and steered it into the very controversial Toronto Blessing kind of teaching, and that caused the Assemblies of God to cut them off in a similar way. Bethel Church is so far on the fringe that it is creating its own new and unbiblical doctrines.

10. Benny Hinn. He's an obvious false teacher who is known for his outlandish and luxurious lifestyle, his highly staged "Miracle Crusades," and his Prosperity Preaching (which only makes Benny Hinn prosperous).

Bethel loves this guy.

There is no excuse for this, and if you are trying to justify this in your mind right now, you are part of the problem. Benny Hinn is a showman and a huckster, and he knows what to say in order to retain as large an audience as possible. Benny Hinn recently made a special appearance at Bethel.

Here's an "NBC Dateline" segment on Benny Hinn from 2005:

Bethel Bonus section: 

• Heidi Baker imparts demons at Bethel (no big deal...)

• What a Bargain-Bill Johnson's $400 Thumb Drive!! (Maybe that's how he can afford an Aston Martin?)

• Bethel Redding's Liturgical Prayer to the God of Mammon (it's just the heretical prosperity "gospel" rearing its ugly head)

• The Lord Grabbed Jenn Johnson by the Hair and Sent Her Into Outer Space (This is Bill Johnson's daughter-in-law "preaching" at Bethel)

• Jenn Johnson: "The Lord Has A Reflector Mirror Under His Armpit" (This is normal in the world of Bethel)

• Jenn Johnson Got More Cute By Believing What God Said About Her (Yes, she really said this)

• Kris Vallotton: "Wealth is the Magnetic Attraction to Prosperity" (Kris Vallotton is getting more and more wealthy as he tells everyone: "But it's not just about money!...")

• Kris Vallotton: Prosperity Preacher Exchanging Love for Wealth (This guy really loves to talk about getting wealthy, but remember, it's "not just about the money!...")

• Kris Vallotton LIES About the Bible (And Carey Nieuwhof loves it)

• Topless Dancing at Christalignment "Workshop"-Does Kris Vallotton Approve? (This is so weird, creepy and unbelievable it should be another whole series of articles, oh wait, it is. There are many links in this article)

• Bethel Redding Fire Tunnel with Puppets (Bethel Pastor, Seth Dahl, is selling and biting a man on the neck with his $100 puppets, just watch this video because it can't be explained...) 

•  Victims of Bill Johnson’s SOZO Ministry speak out (This is another can of worms, and articles...)

In summary, Bethel Church, Redding, has bad Christology, bad Pneumatology, and bad Soteriology. If you believe that "theology doesn't matter," you're a perfect candidate to fall for this bad theology. Theology is just a word that means "teaching about God." By definition, Bethel teaches theology, but they disguise it as something so totally new and fresh that people are fooled into thinking it's something "better" or "more spiritual." But it's just their version of teaching about God. Remember, as soon as someone starts teaching about God, they are doing theology. 

So, Christology is what you believe about Jesus Christ,  Soteriology is what you believe about salvation and Pneumatology is what you believe about the Holy Spirit. Those issues can be discussed in another article.

Do your homework. Take your Christian faith seriously and stop following these false teachers. Here is another article that can help you think more about this:

Bethel is part of The New Apostolic Reformation:

The New Apostolic Reformation Cornucopia of False Doctrine, Dominionism, Charismania and Deception

-This article by Steven Kozar; check out his new and improved: The Messed Up Church website!

The (False) Gospel According to Moana

(This is an incredible article & video by today's guest author, Brandon Kimber)

The (False) Gospel According to Moana

If you have young children or are a Disney fan, then you’ve likely seen the movie: Moana (Disney, 2016). Quite a few people in my life have brought up their love for the ending scene where Moana restores the heart of Tafiti because it reminds them of the Christian gospel. On a surface level, I would agree that there are some similarities; the imagery of an evil monster transforming into something beautiful can be compared to the doctrine of regeneration (what Jesus calls being “born again”). But if you dig a little deeper into the details you’ll see that this aligns more with the false gospel coming out of Word of Faith or NAR (New Apostolic Reformation) theology. I noticed a lot of similarities in the phrases and imagery used, so I decided to make a quick edit. I used clips from William Paul Young (author of ‘The Shack’), Oprah Winfrey, Kris Vallotton (Bethel Church), Todd White (Lifestyle Christianity), and Kenneth Copeland.

Check out the clip and then my explanation below: 

 

1. Deifying man, demoting God

In the film, Moana (the human) is playing the Christ/savior role:

"I have crossed the horizon to find you. I know your name.”

She’s the hero who restores (or transforms) the heart of the monster. The goddess is playing the role of the monster (or sinner). This flip in roles is what first grabbed my attention and made me realize that this wasn’t like the true gospel at all. If you’re familiar with some of the Word of Faith/NAR teaching (Kenneth Copeland, Bethel Church, Todd White, William Paul Young, etc.) you’ll see some striking similarities; they demote the deity of God by teaching that Jesus did not live as God, but only as a man. They don’t deny that Christ was eternally God prior to His incarnation, but claim that in His incarnation “He laid fully God aside”. This is called kenotic theology- a Christological heresy. The miracles that we see in scripture were signs that pointed to, or proved Christ’s deity, and showed that he had the authority as God to forgive sins:

“But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins”- then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.” (Matthew 9:6)

NAR theology flips this upside-down, claiming that Christ’s miracles were merely an example of what we can do and the power we can have. This view is problematic because if Christ had no power within Himself to physically heal the sick, then how would he have the power to provide our spiritual healing (forgiveness of sins)? Scripture teaches that Christ could only do this because He was fully and truly God, and fully and truly man while He walked the Earth. 

This theology not only diminishes the deity of Christ, but it elevates and deifies man by claiming that we’re ‘little gods’ with ‘divine DNA’ who can do greater miracles than Jesus did.

Copeland: “You don’t have a god in you. You are one.”

Todd White: “You have the divine DNA of Abba!”

Copeland: “You have the exact same spiritual DNA as Jesus! You are a twin to the Master Himself!”

For more examples of Copeland and White’s view on this, checkout this video: 

In sum, this view of God and man is directly connected to the first lie in the Garden of Eden, “…you will be like God” (Gen 3:4)

2. The nature of man: Are we sinners because we sin? Or do we sin because we’re sinners?

William Paul Young (The Shack), Oprah, and Todd White all teach a similar self-esteem message; they diminish the seriousness of sin and reject what the Bible teaches about man’s nature.

WPY: “I think the lie is that all we are is a piece of crap.”

Oprah: “That’s a lie some religions tell people. You are born in sin.”

WPY: “You’re depraved. You’re worthless.”

Todd White: “The cross isn’t just the revelation of your sin, the cross is the revealing of your value. Sin was an issue, but something underneath that sin was of great importance for heaven to go bankrupt to get you back.”

Let’s compare these ideas about the nature of man to Holy Scripture:

• "But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6)
• “It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.” (Matt 15:11)
• “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:21-23)
• "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9-10)
• “So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13)
• “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins…” (Ephesians 2:1)
• “…we were by nature children of wrath.” (Ephesians 2:3)
• “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:11-12)

3. The Gospel call: Knowing who you truly are? 

Moana: “This is not who you are. You know who you are. Who you truly are.”

If you are familiar with Kris Vallotton, Todd White, Dan Mohler or a bunch of similar teachers, you’ll recognize that this “knowing who you are” is the foundation of their evangelistic methods and their teaching on sonship (“knowing who you are”, “sonship”, “seeing your value”, etc.). When Todd speaks to an audience of struggling Christians (and even in speaking to non-Christians) he says that their problem is that they just don’t know who they are. They don’t know that they’re a “son” or that they’re amazing or valuable to God. 

First, what does the Bible mean when it talks about being a son? In Scripture all those who have been born again are called adopted sons and daughters of God:

“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:14-16)

Jesus says those who are not Christian are sons of the devil:

"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.” (John 8:44)

Essentially Todd, Kris and all the other teachers are saying that the way for a sinner to be made right with God is just give mental assent to knowing that they are born again (because they're so valuable). It doesn’t work like that; just thinking that we are born again doesn’t make us born again. The act of regeneration is a mystery and a work done by the Holy Spirit through the hearing of the (actual) Gospel. Jesus compares this work of the Spirit to the wind (something we can’t see, or have control over): 

“Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:7-8)

In evangelism, the first thing someone needs to hear isn’t “God thinks you’re amazing and you have a purpose! He’s so in love with you and thinks about you all the time!” (If you’ve ever watched a documentary by Darren Wilson-Holy Ghost, Furious Love, Father of Lights, etc.- this is the extent of the content of their "gospel"). A person who is not a Christian doesn’t need a boost in their self-esteem, but they need to understand that they have broken the law of God and are currently under His wrath (an enemy of God). The Biblical call of the Gospel is to repent (which is granted by God);turning from sin towards Christ, and trusting in His finished work alone. 

If you never tell people this bad news about who they truly are apart from Christ, then the good news is meaningless and has no power (it’s just news). If your message is all about boosting the ego instead of calling people to “die to self” and turn from their sin, then you aren’t preaching the Biblical Gospel. The Gospel can not be two different and opposing messages; either we were saved by Christ in spite of our sin, or we were saved by Christ because of how "valuable" or "good" we are. But if we're so valuable or good, why did Jesus die? 

4. Regeneration: An unveiling or transformation?

WPY: “I think the process of transformation is not about becoming something that we weren’t, but unveiling what we were the whole time.”

Oprah: “So there’s nothing to transform, but all of this to uncover.”

Todd White: “Something underneath that sin was of great importance for heaven to go bankrupt to get you back.”

Sin isn’t just something that is external that covers us, it actually flows out of our corrupt hearts (see verses in #2 above). Our hearts don’t just need a cleanup or a makeover, but they need to be replaced or resurrected. 

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stonefrom your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statues, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

I believe Scripture says the process of transformation IS about becoming something that we weren’t: a dead sinner, now made alive in Christ!

5. What is God’s motivation for saving man? 

All of these details may seem unimportant, but they have a huge impact on how someone responds to the gospel and our understanding of why God loves us. If we look to God’s relationship with Israel we can get a better picture:

"The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (Deut. 7:7)

God loves Israel (and us) because He loves us. He doesn’t love us because of our value, but He loves and has compassion on us in spite of our lost value. Yes, we were created in the image of God, but after the Fall we lost our value in our sin. And now apart from Christ we are described as worthless (Romans 3:11-12), tares to be burned (Matthew 13:29), branches to be burned (John 15:6), deserving of hell. 

If I believe that God’s motivation for saving me is because of my value or how amazing I am, then my self-esteem or pride is fueled. I now have something to boast about before God. Grace is now seen as something I deserved because of how amazing I am. It’s all about me. But if I see that God, out of His compassion and love for a people who didn’t deserve to be loved, chose to love us because He chose to love us, then I am deeply humbled. There’s nothing in me that is worthy, and therefore my focus is fixed on Christ and His worth and value- not my own. Remember this isn’t about whether or not we’re valuable to God. This is about why we’re valuable. God doesn’t love me because I am valuable. I am valuable to God because He loves me.  

---

Brandon Kimber is a filmmaker currently working on the film: American Gospel.

Francis Chan: "God Might Kill You If You Criticize Church Leaders"

There's a recent video sermon from Francis Chan which has eerie similarities to a cult leader indoctrinating his followers. His basic argument is this:

• God told the Israelites not to speak or act against God's temple in the Old Testament, upon penalty of death.

• In the New Testament, people are now the temple of God.

• Therefore, we must never speak or act against God's temple-His people.

• Rick Warren, Mike Bickle, and Mark Driscoll are men of God who should never be criticized, because Francis Chan knows them personally, and they have good hearts.

• If you speak out against these "people of God," Chan wouldn't be surprised if God took your life, because that's what He promised in the Old Testament.

In this sermon, Francis Chan merges and tangles two different topics into a frightening blend of confusion; on one hand he talks about people who gossip and complain about their fellow believers, but on the other hand, he talks about all doctrinal differences as if they were mere preferences. While his comments about gossiping apply to personal relationships, his comments about unifying with everyone who claims to "love the Lord" are very concerning to anyone who takes the Bible seriously.

“Are you gonna bash Rick Warren? Are you crazy? This is a guy who loves the Lord. You may not agree with everything he does, but man I’m telling you he loves Jesus-everything I can tell, a supernaturally spirit-filled man.”

— Francis Chan

“Are you gonna attack Mark Driscoll? Are you gonna attack John Piper? Are you gonna attack Mike Bickle? Are you gonna attack some of these expressions in the body of Christ that may look a little different? I’ve met these people and I see their hearts and I hang out with people from these different denominations and I’m like ‘they love Jesus,’ it looks different to me but I can see the spirit in them, so we better be careful.”

— Francis Chan

“And I’m reading this and I’m like ‘God, how come more people aren’t dead?’ And here’s what I heard from the Lord: THEY HAVEN’T BEEN WARNED.”

— Francis Chan

“It’s gonna be the unity of the Church that’s gonna get the world to believe.”

— Francis Chan

“...And now He says ‘you’re that temple.’ And if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. You wanna be on the right side of His protection.”

— Francis Chan

“You better not criticize any popular preachers who claim to love me, or I might have to ‘knock you off,’ (if you catch my drift)...”

— Jesus The Mob Boss

Sorry Francis, but these are the thoughts and ideas of a controlling cult-leader.

Here are some passages from God's Word that tell us to be on guard against false teachers in the Church. Please notice that false teachers will appear to "love the Lord," and we are told to judge them by their doctrine:

Matthew 7:15-23  “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'”

Matthew 24: 3-14; 24-25  “As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?" And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Vs. 24): For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. (25) Behold, I have told you in advance.”

2 Peter 2:1-3  “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

2 Corinthians 11:13-15  “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.”

Acts 20:28-31  “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.”

Titus 1:7-11  “For the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.”

James 3: 1 "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness." 

Titus 2:1 “But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.”

1 Corinthians 5:11-13  "But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of a brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler-not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those on the outside. Remove the evil person from among you."

Here's a much better sermon: The Sheep Judge Their Shepherds by C. F. W. Walther

Here's another helpful article on this same sermon/video: Lighthouse Trails

This article by Steven Kozar; check out his new and improved: The Messed Up Church website!

A Biblical Guide to the Prosperity Gospel

 

These are Bible verses that "Prosperity Preachers" hope you never read.

If you follow Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Brian Houston, Jesse Duplantis, Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton, Todd White, T. D. Jakes, Steven Furtick, and most of the other "Super Pastors" of today, you will not hear these verses hardly at all.

(Kenneth Copeland)

If you believe that all Christians are supposed to be rich and successful, you've been lied to in the name of God. And if you think that pastors can get rich by peddling the Word of God, you've really been bamboozled!

Here's what Jesus said about earthly riches:

Matthew 6: 19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Matthew 13: 22  "The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful."

Mark 8: 34-37   "Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?"

Mark 10: 17-25  "As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Luke 6: 20-26  And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets."

Luke 12: 13-21  "Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Luke 12: 13-15  "Someone in the crowd said to him, 'Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.' Jesus replied, 'Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?' Then he said to them, 'Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.'"

Luke 12: 16-21  "The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

Luke 12: 32-34  “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Luke 16: 13-14  “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things, and they were scoffing at Him.”

John 2: 13-16 "The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, 'Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.'"

Here's what the Apostle Paul said about preachers getting rich:

2 Corinthians 2:17  “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.”

1 Timothy 6: 5, 9-11  “...and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. (9) But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. (10) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things.”

1 Corinthians 5: 11-13  "But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of a brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler-not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those on the outside. Remove the evil person from among you."

Titus 1:7-11  “For the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.”

Here’s what the Apostle Paul said about how Christians should live:

Colossians 3:1-7 “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.”

Here's what James has to say about earthly wealth:

James 1:9-10  "But let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position; and let the rich man glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away." 

James 5:1-3  "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!"

Here's what the Apostle Peter said about preachers getting rich:

2 Peter 2:1-3  “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

 

(Benny Hinn)

Here's what the book of Hebrews says about getting rich and earthly success:

Hebrews 11: 13-16  "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city."

Hebrews 11: 32-40  "And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak,  Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets-who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated-of whom the world was not worthy-wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect."

Hebrews 13: 5  “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” 

Here's what the Apostle John says about getting rich:

1 John 2:15-17 "Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For all that is in the world-the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions-is not from the Father but is from the world. And this world is fading away, along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."

 

Here's what Jesus says in the Book of Revelation:

Revelation 3: 16-19 "So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent."

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Todd White: How Much Money Does He Actually Make?

The Word of Faith Cornucopia of False Doctrine

This article by Steven Kozar; check out his new and improved: The Messed Up Church website!

What's the Point of Billy Graham's Ministry? "God Has a Dream for You" Says Rick Warren

Recently, Saddleback Church had a service where Rick Warren was teaching the importance of "choosing the right team for your dream." Mention was made of Billy Graham's ministry, since he had just recently died. After the last video montage about Billy Graham played, Rick Warren told his audience the importance of "fulfilling your dream-just like Billy Graham." After just a minute of his pep talk, he tells everyone to listen to message of the next song. The worship team then performs the pop song "This Is Me," which Billboard Magazine describes as: "a beautifully uplifting tribute to self-acceptance and self-love." Here are some of the lyrics:

“I won’t let them break me down to dust
I know that there’s a place for us
For we are glorious

When the sharpest words wanna cut me down
I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out
I am brave, I am bruised
I am who I’m meant to be, this is me
Look out ‘cause here I come
And I’m marching on to the beat I drum
I’m not scared to be seen
I make no apologies, this is me”

— Lyrics from the song "This Is Me"

This bizarre combination of a Billy Graham tribute and a self-exalting secular song is a difficult and painful thing to watch. After the song ends, Rick Warren takes the mic and tearfully pleads with the audience to not waste their lives, and warns them not to live for the approval of others.

Wait, is this a church service... or the plot of every Disney film from the past twenty years?

Watch this edited version from the Saddleback Facebook page at your own risk:

Rick Warren also does his incredibly weak version of an "alter call" and suggests that people need to "accept Jesus" if they are to accomplish their dreams.

There is NO Gospel message here. This is a truly saddening pep rally of feel-good catch-phrases that belongs in an Amway rally from 1993. 

It sounds like Warren listened to this episode of Fighting for the Faith and did the exact opposite of everything that was said: How NOT to Shipwreck Your Faith

Rick Warren is a leader of the seeker-friendly takeover of Evangelicalism: The Seeker-Friendly, Purpose-Driven Cornucopia of False Doctrine

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This article by Steven Kozar; check out his new and improved: The Messed Up Church website!

A Hyper-Charismatic Guide to Losing your Mind

If you want to abandon your Christian faith and become mentally unstable, just follow these simple steps:

• "It all starts with a Dream! A God-Sized Dream!" To get started, you must believe that God expects you to dream up some outlandish desire in order to accomplish your Destiny. Because if you attempt to "do the impossible," God will miraculously answer your prayers and thus "get all the glory." You must take risks, step out in faith, and do something impossible. You and your dream must become the focus of your faith.

• You then step out in faith and do something really stupid. (Often, this involves giving money to someone who teaches this stuff.)

• Next, this ridiculous thing you've attempted doesn't work and you've got big problems. (Wow, what a surprise.)

• Instead of admitting your big mistake, you will now focus all of your attention on the future and the great things that you'll accomplish after you get your breakthrough (your "Destiny"). Because the finished work of Christ dying on the cross to pay for our sins happened a long time ago, you will forget about it. Christianity gradually becomes a magic wand you keep waving around in order to get God to do stuff, and the "holy spirit" will demand more and more attention as he continually confuses you, embarrasses you and demands that you become more hungry, desperate and broken. He also wants you to be on fire.

• At this point you'll latch onto all of the sermons about fighting battles, getting a fresh new word from God, and fending off demons, pythons, and sneaky squids. "The devil knows about your Dream/Destiny and he wants to stop you!" You take your last few bucks to buy yet another book/DVD/CD/conference ticket, hoping to learn the "secret" to getting your breakthrough; you know, the breakthrough you wouldn't even need if you hadn't done something stupid...

• Here is where you'll probably find people to "prophetically" declare something over you, in order to give you a "breakthrough." Nothing will really change, but you'll try really hard to pretend otherwise. You might go to see famous "prophets" who claim to be "anointed," because you believe they can help you, but they only help you to lose more money.

• You have a suspicion in the back of your mind that you've entered a cult-like state of mind, but you don't want to admit it to anyone. There's a part of you that would like to go back to being a "normal" person, but you've been told that thinking that way is a direct attack of the devil.

• The Bible is no longer the story of God redeeming sinful mankind (The Gospel); it is more like a book of incantations to ward off evil spirits and make your dreams (finally) come true. You've largely forgotten about the simple Gospel message in your attempt to get secret knowledge from God (this is called "Gnosticism," by the way).

• You're (secretly) willing to skip the whole dream/destiny thing and just have some stability in your life, but the experts you're listening to tell you to "press in to get your miracle!" or something like that, and you still believe them. So, the very people whose bad ideas got you into this mess are the people you continue to listen to. How's that working for you?

• The one thing you don't want to do is have a "have a religious spirit." This meaningless catch-phrase keeps you locked into all of this chaos and confusion. How's that working for you?

• There are a number of bad ideas that you've been taught, and they all work together to prevent you from seeing the very obvious fact that you've become delusional. If you don't want to lose your mind, please read this article to see these bad ideas described and refuted: Defusing Demonic Dirty Bombs

• You refuse to acknowledge that a collection of bad ideas ("doctrine") has replaced the clear teachings of the Bible. In fact, you believe the doctrine that says "doctrine is not important." You like the teachers who teach you that teaching is bad. Here are a whole bunch of Bible verses that you are deliberately ignoring: Shocking Stuff You're Not Supposed to Know!

• But you stick with those bad ideas because you like them.

• You continue to listen to false teachers because you like them.

• You continue attending a church that teaches false doctrine because you like it.

• Congratulations! You have lost your mind.

“For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.”

— 2 Thessalonians 2: 11-12

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Here are a few more articles (with links to more articles) that discuss this difficult issue:

Confirmation Bias: Why You Are Protecting Your False Beliefs

The Hyper-Charismatic House of Cards: Let It Fall and Be Free

Here's a recent episode of Fighting for the Faith where the author of this article (Steve Kozar) talks with Chris Rosebrough and @Aspree about this topic: How Not to Shipwreck Your Faith; here's the YouTube version: How Not to Shipwreck Your Faith

Here's a great little video from Chris Rice on this topic:

This article by Steven Kozar; check out his new and improved: The Messed Up Church website!

Hey Dr. Michael Brown, Your New Book is Already Useless!

Dr. Michael Brown has been very busy promoting his new book, even though it won't be released until April 3rd.

Here's an ad that is selling "signed and numbered" books:

Here's how this new book is described:

So, it sounds like Dr. Michael Brown is finally going to say something about the cesspool of false teachers in the Charismatic movement, doesn't it? Maybe he'll finally start calling out obvious frauds like Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland, huh? Maybe he's taken a few hours to listen to the incredibly popular new Charismatic superstar, Todd White, right?

Nope.

Even though this book is already finished, he doesn't know what Kenneth Copeland teaches for sure. He has no idea what Todd White teaches. Here's what Brown said on his radio show just a few days ago:

Here's an article from last month that Dr. Brown pretends does not exist: Dr. Michael Brown, Here's Some Heresy Information For Your Upcoming Book. Brown claims that he disagrees with the Word of Faith teaching that Jesus went to Hell to fight off demons and become born again that he says Kenneth Copeland "used to teach..."

Here's a couple videos that many thousands of people have watched, but Dr. Brown pretends do not exist:

ATTENTION DR. BROWN: You've got absolute proof that Kenneth Copeland AND Todd White both teach this doctrine! And you expect people to buy your book so they can learn about doctrinal error in the Charismatic movement?

You either didn't bother to do much research on the topic of your already useless book, or worse, you are hiding doctrinal error within your own movement.

After Dr. Brown wrote another one of his "important books" about the hyper-grace movement, he had a meeting with the #1 Hyper-grace false teacher in the world: Joseph Prince. And he declared: "Joseph Prince is okay!" Here's an article about that train-wreck: Dr. Michael Brown Adopts a New Pet Wolf-Joseph Prince. 

In this most recent Line of Fire program Dr. Brown also said that he "abhors the carnal prosperity message." No, Dr. Brown, you do not. You are such a close friend to Sid Roth that you've not only been a guest many times, but you've even been a guest host on his idiotic, money-grubbing TV program. Here's a small compilation of the prosperity message from Sid Roth:

We can expect nothing to happen after this "important book" is released. Nothing, except that Dr. Michael Brown will have made more money on yet another book, while pretending he's a trustworthy expert. 

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Here are more articles and videos to consider (with many more links):

Does This String of Incredible Coincidences Connect Dr. Michael Brown to the NAR?

Dr. Michael Brown Ruins His Credibility on His Own Facebook Wall, Then Deletes All the Evidence

Michael Brown Can't Defend "Sneaky Squid Spirit"-Repeatedly Changes the Subject

Dr. Michael Brown (Sort of) Approves of These "Fine Christians..." Watch at your Own Risk!

Why Michael Brown & Friends are Right and Everyone Else is Wrong?

Gatekeeper of False Teachings-- Dr. Michael Brown

Pharisees and False Teachers: A Modern Day Look at the Crooks Christ Couldn’t Stand

Phil Johnson rebukes Dr Michael Brown.

The Dr. Michael Brown Checklist of Manipulation

Does Michael Brown Know More About Benny Hinn Than He Lets On?

Sneaky Squids and Sola Scriptura

Dr. Michael Brown probably doesn't want you to listen to this episode of Fighting for the Faith: Calamari Discord

Does This String of Incredible Coincidences Connect Dr. Michael Brown to the NAR?

New Apostolic Reformation

Dr. Michael Brown is trying very hard to make it appear like the New Apostolic Reformation barely even exists. He's recently completed an entire program devoted to distancing himself from the movement he doesn't think is real. In the process of describing the thing he doesn't believe exists, he ends up explaining some of the core beliefs of the movement itself... you know, the movement that doesn't really exist.

It seems that Dr. Brown fluctuates between two opposing ideas:

• On one hand, he wants people to believe that the NAR isn't real and if you believe in it you're "chasing shadows." He ridicules NAR critics as "conspiracy theorists," which is really a meaningless smear intended to stop people from even looking into the matter.

• On the other hand, he describes the specific ideas coming from the leaders of the NAR (primarily the late C. Peter Wagner) and he makes it clear that he doesn't agree with all of those ideas.

Here's a brief compilation video showing how Dr. Brown contradicts himself on the existence of the NAR:

In Dr. Brown's radio show he described some of the specific beliefs of the NAR and how he doesn't agree with them. While it is very good that Dr. Brown has explained why he doesn't believe in or agree with certain NAR teachings, like "Dominionism" and the NAR's idea of authoritative contemporary Apostles, he knows (and promotes) plenty of NAR leaders who hold to these very views. Looking at all the ways that Dr. Michael Brown is closely associated with the NAR, one would have to believe in a lot of incredible coincidences to think that Brown has nothing to do with the NAR.

Pirate Christian Media has done a lot of research, writing and podcasting on this issue, but Dr. Brown says that we're "not credible" because we're "unethical." Why are we "not credible?" Because he says so. Why are we "unethical?" Because he says so. This is another thought-stopping device. His gullible listeners will hear those accusations and assume they must be true. But we've provided reams of evidence to support our assertions about Dr. Brown (as well as links to more information at other websites). Dr. Brown has such a bias against Pirate Christian Media that when Chris Rice called into his radio show to ask him some tough questions about the prosperity gospel, Brown talked over him and turned off his mic because he thought he was Chris Rosebrough; check out this article to hear that story: The Brown Rice Controversy. Here's a series of really good articles and videos about Dr. Michael Brown from Chris Rice's blog: Is Not Satire on Dr. Michael Brown

In this sound clip of Fighting for the Faith, Chris Rosebrough plays an audio clip where Dr. Michael Brown is pretending he knows very little about the "so-called" NAR in a recent podcast, but then in another audio clip from 2010 (seven years earlier) he sounded completely different, like he knew exactly what the NAR was and what the core beliefs were and who the primary leaders were... you know, the movement that doesn't really exist:

Let's take a look at the incredible string of coincidences: 

Dr. Michael Brown is published by Destiny House, a New Apostolic Reformation book company that clearly believes its purpose is to publish the "words of God" from the new prophets of God. Here's a post about an article from Destiny House publisher, Larry Sparks: "We Need to Get Weird Again"

Destiny House Publishing is a publisher that publishes Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton, Danny Silk, T. D. Jakes, Myles Munroe, Sid Roth, Doug Addison, Chuck Pierce, Heidi Baker, James Goll, John Crowder, John & Carol Arnott, Rick Joyner, Patricia King, Todd Bentley, Shawn Bolz, Randy Clark... and DR. MICHAEL BROWN. (What a coincidence, huh?)

Here's a brand new Destiny House book that features Bill Johnson, Lou Engle, James Goll and... DR. MICHAEL BROWN:

Dr. Michael Brown has no problem recommending the NAR's new Bible translation called The Passion Translation from Brian Simmons. This is not a real Bible at all, but the work of one man who doesn't know the original languages but nevertheless wrote his own version of the Bible. Adding totally new thoughts, ideas and "revelations" to the Word of God is okay with Dr. Brown (he thinks the Passion Bible is: "passionate, vibrant, powerful, and beautiful;" but admits that it shouldn't be a primary Bible):

The Passion Translation is not just a little different, it actually changes the meaning of passages to fit the agenda of the NAR. Here's an article with just a handful of shocking examples: A New NAR Bible-Drastic Differences by Holly Pivec.  Wanna see what kind of snake-oil salesman Brian Simmons is? Watch him on Sid Roth's TV Show: John Chapter 22 is Really Important (But God Won't Allow Us to Read It Yet)

Let's talk a little bit about Sid Roth.

Sid Roth has no problem inviting the very fringe of the fringe of the Hyper-Charismatic, New Apostolic Reformation crowd onto his ridiculous and embarrassing show called "It's Supernatural." If Sid Roth can sell some books, CDs and DVDs, he'll invite anyone with an unbelievable story to come on the show and make some money. This is the worst kind of salesmanship to extract money from the vulnerable and naive. Every show sells something (a book/CD package, usually) that makes outrageous promises that it clearly can't deliver. This is what's known as fraudulent marketing. This is a huckster making money in the name of God. 

Here's an example of all the crazy promises from just one show's product:

"Also, if you buy this $39 book/CD set you will:

• Partner with His presence!

• Release His power!

• Transform your world!

• Overcome addictions!

• Be free of anxiety, fear and compulsive desires!

• Be delivered from mental strongholds, extreme behaviors and sexual sin!

• You will exercise God's authority in every area of your life and destroy the works of the devil!

• You will be encouraged to believe for whatever it is you need!

• Obtain freedom and receive the power to overcome and end a life of struggling!

• Put an end to depression, bad habits, sexual bondage, fear and shame!

• Understand how to end sin at its root!

• Receive the power to overcome accusation and persecution!

• Walk in freedom and victory over the works of darkness like never before!"

Here are just a few examples of the outrageous things that regularly appear on Sid Roth's show:

Sid Roth has had most of the big names from the NAR on his show, plus some lesser known people as well.

Guess what? Dr. Michael Brown has been on his show a number of times, and they consider each other good friends who've known each other since 1984. Here's a recent show where they're selling his dieting plan:

Now here's Dr. Michael Brown on his Facebook wall telling everyone how excited he is to be the guest host of "It's Supernatural:"

By the way, Dr. Brown was happy to have Jonathan Cahn on his on radio show recently, to promote another one of his (unbiblical) "I've Discovered a Secret (again)" books:

Here's a (very disturbing) compilation video of NAR superstars Bill & Benni Johnson, Heidi & Rolland Baker and Sid Roth:

Here's Sid Roth selling the false revival of Todd Bentley in 2008, right before the "Lakeland Revival" collapsed into humiliation and bankruptcy after the Charismatic Day of Infamy:

Sid Roth recently had Rodney Howard-Browne on his show, and promoted him as the man behind the "great revivals" of the 1990s:

If you're thinking, "Well, Dr. Brown isn't a money-grubbing outrageous TV host like Sid Roth, he probably just goes on Sid's program to preach the Gospel. If Dr. Brown really knew about the contradictory, unbiblical and ridiculous content on Sid Roth's show, he wouldn't have anything to do with it." 

Nope.

Dr. Michael Brown has been extremely clear about his full support and endorsement of his close personal friend Sid Roth. A few years ago Dr. Brown interviewed Sid Roth and put that interview on his YouTube channel. A listener wrote on Dr. Brown's YouTube page to gently warn him that Sid Roth wasn't trustworthy because he doesn't always tell the truth. Dr. Brown responded in the strongest possible terms that he trusted Sid Roth 100%. Here's a screenshot from that page:

(Sid Roth is a huge NAR promoter, cheerleader and profiteer... and he's also fully supported by Dr. Michael Brown. What an incredible coincidence, huh?)

“Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.”

— 2 Corinthians 2: 17

“For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.”

— Romas 16: 18

“...and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.”

— 1 Timothy 6: 5

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things, and they were scoffing at Him.”

— Luke 16: 13-14

Michael Brown is a big supporter of Heidi Baker. In this short compilation we hear Dr. Brown wholeheartedly interviewing and endorsing Heidi Baker and her book; then we see him he repeating the story Heidi told him about how she was paralyzed by God for seven days... she couldn't even go to the bathroom:

As one of the leaders of the Brownsville Revival (from the mid 1990s), Dr. Michael Brown says the Holy Spirit can cause staggering, convulsing, laughter, and falling:

Sounds like Dr. Brown is okay with any and all disturbing manifestations, doesn't it? (What an incredible coincidence, huh?)

Here's an interesting way to consider this issue, from Pastor Chris Rosebrough's Facebook page:

A gigantic figure in the New Apostolic Reformation movement is Bill Johnson. Johnson was called an Apostle by C. Peter Wagner at the Todd Bentley commissioning ceremony (also known as The Charismatic Day of Infamy). In Dr. Brown's recent program he mentioned that his critics (tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theorists) believe that the NAR is a "Dominionist" movement that somehow seeks to "take over the world." He then went on to say that "Nobody I know believes that!" That statement by itself is problematic for Dr. Brown to say, because he always repeats that he has no time to listen to anybody's sermons. He usually refers to Bill Johnson as a solid Christian, but then admits that he really doesn't know what he teaches. This is an obvious deflection technique that Dr. Brown employs a lot.

Here's a quote from page 10 of the Lance Wallnau (also known as "Commander of the Millibars") compilation book (Destiny House, 2013) entitled "Invading Babylon: The Seven Mountain Mandate"

Notice the second sentence in the second paragraph? "In simple terms, dominion theology is the idea that Christian believers are called to not only preach the Gospel and win converts to Christ but also to establish the Kingdom of God on earth." Here's another strange quote from Lance Wallnau's recent book:

“When we set aside our religious agendas to make others a success, we have learned the Kingdom mindset and have become a part of the transformation movement.”

— Lance Wallnau: "Invading Babylon: The Seven Mountain Mandate"

Lance Wallnau has spent over a decade promoting and teaching the Seven Mountain Mandate as if it was something from the Bible, and everyone knows this teaching as a form of dominionism. Bill Johnson is in the same camp as Wallnau, otherwise why would they have collaborated on a Seven Mountain Mandate book together? 

In this video, Bill Johnson says this: "When the kingdom of God is preached there are automatically, when the Kingdom is preached effectively, there’s automatically, miracles signs and wonders to support the message. So when the Bible says when the kingdom of God will be preached throughout all the earth and the end will come is actually stating there will be full on manifestation and demonstration of the reality of God's dominion breaking into every culture, every society confronting every illness, every part of broken humanity, that will take place before the end comes. An effective preaching of the Gospel always brings the king into the room."

He's a confusing video from Wallnau at MorningStar Ministries, talking about how Christians are supposed to be taking over the seven mountains:

“Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.’”

— Jesus in John 18:36

Dr. Brown thinks so highly of Lance "Commander of the Millibars" Wallnau that he had him as a featured guest on his show recently:

This "Dominionist," "Seven Mountain Mandate" teaching is prominent with many NAR leaders, including Lance Wallnau, Bill Johnson and this next guy, another close friend of Dr. Brown: Rick Joyner.

Dr. Michael Brown explains that although the (semi-fictitious) NAR believes that the "new Apostles on earth today are equivalent to the original Apostles in the New Testament," he rejects that belief and he doesn't think any of his friends really believe that either. No, Dr. Brown, you have plenty of friends that believe we're in a special new end-time season where God is giving us new Apostles who are equivalent to the (real) Apostles.

Here's a quote from the introduction of Rick Joyner's book (MorningStar, 2006), "The Apostolic Ministry"

“One of the most important events at the end of the church age will be the restoration of the apostolic ministry to the church. The ministry that opened the church age will be the one that closes it. The raising up of a victorious church, demonstrating for all time to all creation that truth will prevail over lies and righteousness will prevail over iniquity, will be the completed job of the apostolic ministry.”

— Rick Joyner, "The Apostolic Ministry"

Rick Joyner is at the core of the Hyper-Charismatic New Apostolic Reformation (but he's on the outer fringe of anything resembling Christianity); he was also one of the "Apostles" present for the commissioning ceremony for Todd Bentley (also known as The Charismatic Day of Infamy). Joyner claims to have trances that lead him to have direct contact with God and the original Apostles; he has written extensively about these visions in a series of best-selling books that would make probably make Joseph Smith cringe. His most popular book is The Final Quest, and it is a frightening and nightmarish story of Christians engaged in an end-times civil war where the Bible-believing Christians are killed by the "spirit-lead" Christians. It is a book of 100% new revelation that any Bible-believing Christian should treat as the worst kind of heresy imaginable.

Here's a recent video of Dr. Michael Brown promoting Rick Joyner and his MorningStar Ministries:

WARNING: This is (seriously) a very disturbing video of a "worship time" at Rick Joyner's MorningStar Ministries:

(Rick Joyner 's "ministry" is so far out there on the fringe that a voodoo ritual is considered "Christian worship," but it's also something Dr. Brown actively encourages people to send money to... what an incredible coincidence, huh?)

The New Apostolic Reformation, as defined by C. Peter Wagner, was the Charismatic movement that he and others originally called The Third Wave, but after the Toronto Blessing and the Brownsville Revival in the mid to late 1990's, he came up with the name New Apostolic Reformation. Wagner believed the next big revival was the Lakeland Outpouring of 2008, but it completely imploded after The Charismatic Day of Infamy, where Todd Bentley was exposed as a fraud, adulterer and drunkard. Ever since the previous "revivals" fizzled, those leaders have been trying to start a new one. They've even got a new "super revival" coming up soon: "Light The Fire Again" (because all the other attempts to light the fire by renting stadiums and printing up fliers and building websites and producing emotionally manipulative videos and hiring emotional speakers and rock bands... has not yet lit the fire).

Notice that it says: "We are believing God to begin anew the mighty move of his Holy Spirit that swept across the earth at the close of the last century?" That's a direct reference to the Toronto and Brownsville "revivals" (and probably Smithton, too). A bunch of the leaders from that time are having a "reunion show" to talk about the good old days and get people all worked up again. Maybe they'll slay people in the spirit or get 'em down on all fours so they can bark like dogs again. By the way, you'll have to buy tickets for this "mighty move of the Holy Spirit" ($199).

Guess who is speaking at this reunion show? Yes, many of the original leaders of that "mighty move of God" that C. Peter Wagner called The New Apostolic Reformation...

Yep, that is the one and only Dr. Michael Brown, prominent speaker at the Toronto reunion show. He's gonna hang out with NAR leaders Randy Clark, Rick Joyner, John Kilpatrick, John Arnott... (What an incredible coincidence, huh?)

Speaking of John Arnott, he and his wife Carol were just recently "lighting the fire" on a special edition of Sid Roth's show:

There is a movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation, but it is a loosely-knit movement with no official leader or official doctrinal statement. A number of the key NAR beliefs originated in the New Order of the Latter Rain movement, which had splintered from the Pentecostal movement in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Latter Rain ideas were condemned by the Assemblies of God, but they've survived and flourished in spite of that.

Here's an official statement from the Assemblies of God: Endtime Revival: Spirit-led & Spirit-controlled. Some of the ideas that have come from the New Order of the Latter Rain are: the passing of an anointing by the laying on of hands; new revelations and "prophetic words" for the end times generation; a new generation of "manifested sons of God;" adherence to specially anointed end-times Prophets and Apostles; and supernatural healing as normative and expected. On top of those NOLR beliefs, here are some of the ideas that most NAR leaders believe:

• A belief that "ordinary" church growth is not good enough, we must have "revival" which is more "radical" and always involves fire of some sort.

• A belief that supernatural signs & wonders must be the practice of every Christian (regular Christians are to be pitied because they're not "on fire").

• A belief that the Holy Spirit is always desiring more attention for Himself, and He wants to make you do awkward, weird and humiliating stuff... because He wants to have greater intimacy with you. This same Holy Spirit can't function unless you attend manipulative "revival" conferences with speakers who yell a lot and rock bands who perform music from Hillsong and/or Jesus Culture.

• A belief that God really wants to give us this revival, but Christians haven't done enough to make it happen. We're not "hungry" enough, we're not "desperate" enough, we haven't "surrendered" enough, we're not "willing to burn" enough. We have to keep going to the next big conference or rally because each one is "The Most Important Event of Our Lifetime."

• A belief that we are to work toward, and expect, a "billion-soul harvest" sometime (very) soon.

• A belief that all of these crazy ideas are valid, in spite of the fact that they are not found in God's Word.

The Bible does NOT put these requirements on us.

Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.

He did not die on the cross so we could run around for the rest of our life trying to "burn more" or "really go after Him" or repeatedly ask for "more Lord, more" or any such thing. On top of that, the Bible makes no mention of a "billion soul harvest," no matter how much Lou Engle yells about it as he rocks back and forth. The billion soul harvest was made up in the twisted mind of false prophet, Bob Jones.

Here's the "prophet" Bob Jones, at Rick Joyner's MorningStar Ministries making that "billion soul" prediction, just like he did for decades before:

This is the same "seer-prophet" that sat right next to Todd Bentley and couldn't "see" that he was a fraud:

Bob Jones, Todd Bentley, Rick Joyner, Patricia King, Heidi Baker, Randy Clark, Bill Johnson, Sid Roth, Lou Engle, John & Carol Arnott, Kris Vallotton, Chuck Pierce, Todd White, Benny Hinn, Lance Wallnau, Mike Bickle, Che Ahn, James Goll, Shawn Bolz, Cindy Jacobs... these are people who have similar beliefs and practices (and there are thousands more like them, with millions and millions of followers). There is not a secret conspiracy joining them together in a specific plot to do some horrible thing that is deeply hidden.

Nope.

These are just people who have certain theological beliefs that are similar and, we at Pirate Christian Media believe, wrong. There are plenty of true Pentecostals who also believe some of these teachings are wrong (like the Assemblies of God!), so this is not an issue of cessationism versus continuationism as Dr. Brown wants everyone to think. We believe these ideas are not supported by God's Word, and we believe that millions of people are being harmed greatly by these false teachings.

Dr. Michael Brown has made it clear that he rejects some of the beliefs of this NAR group, like the specific dominionist beliefs that most of them hold to, and the belief that modern day apostles are somehow authoritative like the New Testament Apostles. We are happy to know where he stands on these issues.

But in most other matters, it seems that Dr. Michael Brown has a lot in common with these people. He wants all of the other connections to be seen as coincidences. That's a LOT of coincidences. There could be ten more articles just like this one with more and more evidence of Dr. Brown's approval and participation in these NAR teachings. 

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

— 1 John 4: 1

“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.”

— 1 Corinthians 14: 33

“An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?”

— Jeremiah 5: 30-31

“And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken.”

— Ezekiel 22: 28

“Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity
to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading.”

— Lamentations 2: 14

“For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”

— Matthew 24: 2

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Here are a few really helpful videos from Chris Rosebrough addressing this issue:

Here's a great resource with a lot of information about the history of the New Apostolic Reformation and its origins in the New Order of the Latter Rain: What is the NAR?

Here's a gigantic article that Dr. Brown probably hopes you never read: Dr. Michael Brown Ruins His Credibility on His Own Facebook Wall, Then Deletes All the Evidence

The Creepy, Drunk and Weird "Encounter Gospel" GIF Gallery!

In my previous episodes of "The Encounter Gospel" I explained the fortune-telling ("prophetic") version, and then the Hypnotic Worship "Encounter Gospel." With this episode you can simply watch... and learn! Click on any one of the GIFs to watch more. Also, it might be a fun to watch this together as a family next Halloween (if your kids are old enough)!

(Documented Fraud) Todd Bentley Giving John and Carol Arnott an "Encounter"

Che Ahn giving this woman "an encounter"

Rodney Howard-Browne spreads a laughing "Encounter" with God in the nineties

Rodney Howard-Browne keeps Giving People "Encounters" today

Stacey Campbell having "an encounter" (John & Carol Arnott standing by, Hoping they don't get punched)

Randy Clark Giving Todd Bentley an "Encounter" (and falsely prophesying About him and his "great" ministry)

Randy Clark giving this woman a screaming in pain "encounter"

Heidi Baker having one of her many drunken "encounters"

Lou Engle Can give the whole room a "rock back and forth Encounter!"

An "Encounter" at Mike Bickle's International House of Prayer (IHOP) 

Multiple "encounters" at Bethel Church

For the truly adventurous, you can give people an Encounter they'll never forget! Watch Heidi Baker transfer a demon at Bethel Church on iBethelTV for all the world to see!

We just looked at Heidi Baker imparting some kind of demonic spirit, so we might as well study the outright Voodoo Festival at Rick Joyner's Morningstar Ministries:

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If you're feeling left out on all the fun, there's a good chance you'll see plenty of "encounters" at the Toronto Blessing Reunion Show coming up this April! Buy your tickets soon!!

"Judas Helped Me Get There" Worst Sermon Ever??

Here's another useful (and frustrating) sermon review from BezelT3. This episode features a "sermon" from "pastors" Adam and Candice Smithyman, who also make money as "dream mentors."

Here's Todd White Contradicting, Yelling, Electrocuting and Bragging

Here's Todd White contradicting himself about the way of salvation; on one hand he says that "we don't get anyone saved," but then he says that he can get people saved by claiming them with his super powerful words. He says "I can actually claim somebody that doesn't believe and there's no way for them to get out of it." This is utterly bizarre and confusing:

Here's Todd White, the highly-paid professional speaker, partnering with his "mentor and spiritual father," the ridiculous prosperity preacher Kenneth Copeland (seen with his good friend and fellow prosperity preacher Jesse Duplantis). Todd White talks about how God requires us to be "uncomfortable in order for this Christian life to work right," while Copeland and Duplantis desire comfort so much that they require their own private jets:

Here's Todd White, the highly-paid professional speaker, yelling a lot and telling God what He must do. "Right now!! Right now!! Right now!! Right now!!" seems to be the magic catchphrase: 

Here's Todd White, the highly-paid professional speaker, telling people stories that are... "shocking:"

Here's Todd White, the highly paid professional speaker, literally bragging about how good he is. How does he know how good he is? Because he lives with himself! Do not question this highly paid professional speaker:

“They tie up heavy loads, burdens that are hard to carry, and place them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to help them. They do all their works to be seen by people. They make their phylacteries wide and lengthen the fringes of their garments. They love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, the greetings in the marketplaces, and being called “Rabbi” by the people.”

— Jesus talking about the Pharisees in Matthew 23: 4-7

“You cannot serve God and mammon. Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things, and they were scoffing at Him.”

— Luke 16: 13-14

“And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

— Luke 18: 9-14

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Wanna know how much money Todd White actually makes? In 2015 it was OVER $600,000!! 

Here's an article with details on Todd's obscene income: Todd White: How Much Money Does He Actually Make?

 Here’s a giant compilation of articles about Todd White: The Todd White Cornucopia of False Teaching 

The Hypnotic Worship "Encounter Gospel" of Bethel & the NAR Explained

In the previous episode of this little series, I wrote about the fortune-telling Encounter Gospel, but now I'm going to explain another great way to have an Encounter With God: Hypnotic Worship!

Here's a quick summary of the new and better Gospel of the Kingdom:

• People aren't really that bad, they just need to be convinced of how special they are-they need to understand their "true identity."
• Religion is the real source of people's problems, not rebellion against God (sin).
• God is desperately trying to get people to "accept" Him, but He's been hindered by the historic Christian Church, with its specific, Biblical teachings about Salvation, Heaven and Hell, The Atonement of Jesus Christ, and all other forms of unnecessary "head knowledge" found in the Bible. 
• People would believe in God if they could just see some proof for themselves, they need an experience of some sort.
• Bethel (and similar NAR churches) know how to give people the proof they need to believe that God is real, He loves them, and He wants all of their dreams to come true so they can fulfill their "Destiny."

How does Bethel teach you to provide proof of God's existence? How can you quickly and easily convert just about anyone you want? 

Give people an "Encounter with God." This is the new and better "Gospel of the Kingdom!"

You're practically guaranteed to Encounter God during the worship time at Bethel and churches like it (especially if they've got a moderately capable rock band, an emotional lead singer and plenty of electricity). The important thing is to suspend all of your disbelief and become completely open to the hypnosis of modern praise music (the very lengthy and repetitive songs will certainly help!).  

A gigantic church like Bethel, Hillsong, Elevation, or many other wannabe churches can't reach many people when it's done person to person (plus, pastor/celebrities don't often like to mix with the general public). But packing thousands of like-minded, receptive and gullible people into a darkened room allows the full manipulation treatment to work its magic. Rest assured that once you've entered into this carefully controlled environment, the lights, fog machines, music and passionate song leaders will do the rest. You're gonna feel it! (Note: At a normal rock concert you would feel it too, but in this case we will always refer to "it" as God, the Holy Spirit.)

When this mass Encounter really gets going and the crowd is worked up into a frothy madness, the best worship leaders start making stuff up on the spot...

This Encounter thing is so important that churches are scheduling various events in order to make sure everyone has one. For instance, you can have a special Encounter service or conference at your church (the best ones have a guest speaker from Bethel!):

Of course, nothing beats the ultimate Encounter: going to an actual Jesus Culture/Bethel Event!! This is where God spends most of His time! (Although, there is this nagging question: If "one encounter changes everything" why do they keep scheduling these events? Shouldn't everything be changed by now??)

Here's another idea that seems to make sense: simply name your church "Encounter Church" or something like that:

This last Encounter thing is almost too good to be true, I hesitate to even mention it because unless you live in Nashville you'll never get to experience it for yourself. What is it? It's a church full of worship leader/rock stars! And if that isn't enough, they have Encounter Classes!!

In summary, here are the key points to understand:

• If your church doesn't have a rock concert of hypnotic worship music you cannot expect the Holy Spirit to make an appearance.
• The best way to Encounter God through worship is to purchase, perform and promote Bethel Music, Hillsong Music and whatever other new music is most popular at the moment.
• Old people who don't agree to the previous two points can still participate, but they must keep their outdated opinions to themselves.
• Young people are incapable of reading and comprehending the Bible, unless it is chopped up into tiny pieces and used as lyrical filler for modern worship music or as proof texts for speeches dramatically performed by appropriately attired pastors whose relatability is insured by their slavish devotion to cultural styles and trends...

Lastly, here are some important things to remember: 

• "Encountering God" through modern hypnotic worship music was never modeled or taught to the church in the New Testament... so just ignore that.

• "Encountering God" as an emotional experience induced by an emotionally manipulative environment was never modeled or taught to the church in the New Testament... so just ignore that.
• "Feeling the Presence of God" was never modeled or taught to the church in the New Testament... so just ignore that.
• The Holy Bible (God's Word) can be used as a prop to wave around in one's hand as verses get strip-mined to validate life lessons, but it must never command too much attention for itself and cause anyone to become overly religious. In doubt about how to use the Bible? Just ignore it. 

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Seriously, this is a very important topic; the hope of this article was to grab your attention and cause you to consider things that you might have overlooked and encourage you to more carefully delve into what the Bible actually teaches.

Here's a video with some sobering thoughts:

Here is a related episode of Fighting for the Faith with links to a lot of articles on this topic:

Heresy Hiding in Plain Site-A Pirate Gang Conversation

Dr. Michael Brown, Here's Some Heresy Information For Your Upcoming Book

Recently Dr. Michael Brown was on James White's program "The Dividing Line" and he took a very clear stand against the heresy that Jesus died and went to hell to be punished by Satan. Good job, Dr. Brown! It was great to hear such a clear proclamation of truth. 

“The heretical Word of Faith teaching that Jesus died in Hell... became sin and was born again as a glorified man, that’s a heretical belief that I categorically reject.”

— Dr. Michael Brown on The Dividing Line Jan. 2, 2018

In that same program, Dr. Brown mentioned that he knew nothing about Todd White or what he teaches (we understand that even though he recently spoke at a "One Thing" conference, Dr. Brown wasn't there for Todd's speech). Dr. Brown also mentioned that he's working on a new book about correcting bad teaching in the Charismatic movement, which we applaud.

We want to help Dr. Brown with his new book and sincerely hope it reaches many people with the clear Gospel message of repentance and the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ.

So here's a video of Todd White clearly teaching the exact heresy that Dr. Brown spoke against. You can also see Todd's mentor Kenneth Copeland yelling out this disturbing false doctrine to a nodding and approving Todd White:

“Jesus goes to Hell-I believe-He went to Hades, He went down and descended into the depths of the earth for three days and He pays for the sin of mankind”

— Todd White

“One! One! One born again human being defeated all of Hell! ALL OF IT!!”

— Kenneth Copeland

In summary, we are glad that Dr. Michael Brown wants to curb false teaching within the Charismatic movement and hope that these examples of contemporary leaders (like Todd White) teaching Word of Faith heresy helps in that cause.

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For further research:

The Word of Faith Cornucopia of False Doctrine

Dr. Michael Brown Ruins His Credibility on His Own Facebook Wall, Then Deletes All the Evidence

A "Blackface" Pastor and His Jam: Young Christians are in Trouble

Here's another informative and disturbing video from the great YouTube channel BezelT3. This time he's reviewing video footage from (yet another) conference, "The Awakening Conference" and this embarrassing speech from Chad Veach:

The Fortune-Telling "Encounter Gospel" of Bethel & the NAR Explained

Tired of getting no results with old-fashioned, Bible-based Christianity? It's time to go off the map with Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton and all of their New Apostolic Reformation friends! In this first episode of this series we will focus on the fortune-telling aspect of the "Encounter Gospel," so get out your tarot cards, oops... I mean get out your Destiny Cards and let's get started! Here's a quick summary of the new and better Gospel of the Kingdom:

• People aren't really that bad, they just need to be convinced of how special they are-they need to understand their "true identity."

• Religion is the real source of people's problems, not rebellion against God (sin).

• God is desperately trying to get people to "accept" Him, but He's been hindered by the historic Christian Church, with its specific, Biblical teachings about Salvation, Heaven and Hell, The Atonement of Jesus Christ, and all other forms of unnecessary "head knowledge" found in the Bible.

• People would believe in God if they could just see some proof for themselves.

• Bethel teaches how to give people the proof they need to believe that God is real, He loves them, and He wants all of their dreams to come true so they can fulfill their "Destiny."

How does Bethel teach you to provide proof of God's existence? How can you convert anyone you want? 

Give people an "encounter with God." This is the new and better "Gospel of the Kingdom!"

• Tell them something about themselves that can only be known supernaturally, exactly like a psychic, only much better!

• Always tell them something good about themselves; especially about how they have a great "Destiny" and how God thinks they're amazing.

• Do NOT call this fortune-telling, call it prophecy. Examples: "I operate in the prophetic," or "I have a prophetic gifting/anointing/mantle/office," or "Wow! I received a prophecy from Theresa and it was dead-on!" or "These aren't tarot cards-they're prophecy cards!"

• It helps if you have some stock phrases memorized ahead of time, like these: "I'm sensing a shift in the atmosphere," or "You've been waiting for a breakthrough, haven't you?" or "God wants you to know that you're very special and He hasn't forgotten about you."

• If your prospect appears skeptical or nervous, assure them that you're getting direct downloads from the third heaven realm.

• Remember, you want people to feel confirmed, accepted and convinced of their value as unregenerate and unreconciled people ("sinners"); so do NOT mention outdated ideas like the need to repent before a Holy and Sovereign God who is angry at their sin. This means that Jesus dying on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins can (and should) be ignored.

• If you don't have effective fortune-telling skills you can always bring people to a manipulative "church" service (the bigger the better!), where highly emotional music is performed, theatrical stagecraft with dramatic lighting is utilized, and unverifiable stories are repeated by skillful speakers who can sell God's "Presence" and convince audience members to make "decisions" for Jesus.

• Our next installment in this series will explain the Hypnotic Worship "Encounter Gospel"

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Topless Dancing at Christalignment "Workshop"-Does Kris Vallotton Approve?

Bethel Church Tells Witch that She's "On the Right Path" and "God is So Proud of Her!"

Cindy Jacobs Explains Her Psychic Ability as "Spiritual Reading"

Here are some NAR filmmakers and pastors talking about the Encounter Gospel that they gladly teach and promote:

“John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

— Mark 1:4

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

— Matthew 3:11

“And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

— Luke 3:3

“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

— Luke 5:32

“And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

— Luke 24:47

“And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.””

— Acts 2:38

“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.”

— Acts 3:19

“But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.”

— Romans 2:5

“As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

— 2 Corinthians 7:9-10

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

— 2 Peter 2:9

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”

— Proverbs 28:13

The Hyper-Charismatic House of Cards: Let It Fall and Be Free

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This article by Steven Kozar; check out his new and improved: The Messed Up Church website!

Kris Vallotton LIES About the Bible (And Carey Nieuwhof Loves It)

Carey Nieuwhof is an evangelical "leadership expert" who has various guests on his podcast to share their stories and ideas. In episode 149 he interviewed Bethel pastor Kris Vallotton. After telling stories of supernatural miracles at Bethel ("thousands!"), Vallotton tells Nieuwhof that "three-quarters of the book of Acts is miracles... if you took out all the miracles, most of the book would be gone." It appears that Nieuwhof has never read the book of Acts, because he totally agrees and does his best surfer-dude "Woooow!"

Listen to this ridiculous lie for yourself: 

The book of Acts is not three-quarters miracles, not even close. Kris Vallotton either doesn't actually read the Bible, or he's willfully lying about it. Is there another option? Is it possible that what he said is "sort of" true?

Nope.

Kris Vallotton is ignoring the mathematical fact that most of the book of Acts is not about miracles. Go ahead and read it for yourself. There are some amazing miracles, for sure, and those miracles helped to establish the Christian Church before we had the completed Bible. But the book of Acts is just one book in the New Testament, and the New Testament is just part of the whole Bible, and the whole Bible is really about God redeeming mankind through the atoning death of his son, Jesus Christ, who took our place on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. That is the focal point of the entire Bible!

Here is a chart (found online) of the miracles in the book of Acts:

Notice how that list is not 75% of the book of Acts? In the Reformation Study Bible the introduction to the book of Acts says this: "The centrality of the preached word to the church's growth is illustrated by the abundance of sermonic material in Acts. At least 30% of the words in Acts are found in the speeches of Apostles and other Christian witnesses."  Do the math...

New Apostolic Reformation

Vallotton and many NAR people like him, believe that the church should take dominion over the earth, and in order to do so we must provide people with "encounters with God." According to this belief system, God is waiting for us to become just like Jesus and supernaturally cause non-believers to become believers, based on how we prove God is real. How do we "prove" God is real? We either "prophecy over them" (like a fortune-teller or psychic), or we miraculously heal them. Here's an article about the crazy "prophetic" ministry at Bethel: Bethel Church Tells Witch that She's "On the Right Path" and "God is So Proud of Her!"

But in the book of Acts we see the (real) Apostles primarily preaching about Jesus. Wanna hear some great sermons? Go read the book of Acts! You will also notice that plenty of people did not believe the Gospel message, in spite of the miracles that had been taking place. The (real) Apostles are shown primarily preaching and teaching from the Scriptures-not doing personalized miracles or pseudo-fortune-telling for everyone they meet. There were no "Schools of Supernatural Ministry," either. The (real) Apostles didn't try to heal people until they got better at it-they just did it. By the end of the book of Acts we see a decline in miraculous activity, and we read of the Gospel message being spread by preaching and teaching through establishing churches. Although Bill Johnson built Bethel Church on his "only revival, all the time" philosophy, which he brought from the Toronto Blessing, he (and Vallotton) are actually ignoring much of what the book of Acts says-not to mention the entire Bible-and they are adding new teachings of men. Here are many Bible passages that Kris Vallotton probably hopes you ignore: Shocking Stuff you're Not Supposed to Know!

Carey Nieuwhof began his interview by saying that all Christians should get along with each other regardless of their "minor" differences, and he sets the stage for Kris Vallotton to push his hyper-charismatic "New Apostolic Reformation" agenda without question. Why? I would guess that Nieuwhof had good intentions, but he's incredibly gullible and it seems he hasn't done any research on Bethel-he just assumes that we can all learn something from Kris Vallotton because he's so successful, his church is really big and it claims to be experiencing thousands of miracles. Nieuwhof did not want his podcast to go off into the Cessationist versus Continuationist debate, but he went to the other extreme and just let Kris Vallotton spread his Latter Rain/NAR doctrine as if it was irrefutable, and he wholeheartedly agreed as Vallotton lied about the very Word of God.

In this interview we see a NAR leader (Vallotton) gaining prominence over a Seeker-Friendly leader (Nieuwhof), because apparently "numbers don't lie" and we can't question anyone who sounds sincere and makes great claims about himself, especially if he's got 13 books on the market.

The New Apostolic Reformation is merging with the Seeker-Friendly Church-Growth Movement, and it seems that everyone is consumed with leadership:

• "Leadership" demands results above doctrine, so there's no reason to question Vallotton.
• "Leadership" admires innovation above doctrine, and Bethel is certainly "innovative" (just like the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses).
• "Leadership" strip mines the Bible to find random verses that comply with contemporary business and growth ideas, so anyone can twist the Bible in order to "gets results."
• "Leadership" gladly looks to the pagan world for new ideas to promote growth or success.     

Want to see an example of how far from biblical Christianity this "leadership" thing goes? Here's an article from Carey Nieuwhof that seems like satire, but it's not: 5 Things The New IPhone X Can Teach You About Leadership (Whatever You Lead)

Here are a bunch of memes from (Pastor?) Kris Vallotton's facebook page; notice how he gladly quotes the success and motivational ideas from these non-Christians:

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Please do your homework on these serious issues facing the church:

Kris Vallotton RUNS From His Own Facebook Post!!

Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton Want the Mantle of False Teacher William Branham

Kris Vallotton: Prosperity Preacher Exchanging Love for Wealth

Listen to Kris Vallotton twist the daylights out of God's Word in the second half of this episode of Fighting for the Faith

Here's a perspective on healing that you'll never hear from Kris Vallotton: A Deeper Healing (Joni Eareckson Tada) 

Here's a gigantic compilation of articles: The Bill Johnson Cornucopia of False Teaching, Bible-Twisting and General Absurdity

Bill Johnson and the NAR "Super Apostles" don't want you to know about their involvement in the Charismatic Day of Infamy.

Finally, here's an important article that will help you be more discerning and a lot less gullible: Defusing Demonic Dirty Bombs.

The "Bethel Board"-Encounter God With This New Game! (No, it's NOT a Ouija Board, You Religious Pharisee)

(Please read this entire article)

We all know how important it is to have massive encounters with God, right? Well, now it can be fun, too! Introducing the brand new board game from Bethel Church in Redding, California: "The Bethel Board!" (And it's just in time for Christmas!)

Since the prophet Kris Vallotton decided that "Christian Tarot Cards" were okay (as long as we call them "Destiny Cards") we are now free to welcome any Occult, New Age, or fortunetelling practices into the church and into our living rooms! Imagine all the fun you'll have as you get direct downloads from the Third Heaven! With this spiritual-but-not-religious new board game, you'll be just like Bill Johnson himself (and without his vacuous, rambling and incoherent speeches to spoil all the fun).

And don't keep all the fun to yourself, invite your pagan friends over to play the game so they can get a "reading" on their "destiny!" They'll never know you're a Christian! What a great way to reach the lost with the message of Destiny, Presence Therapy, Dream Interpretation and Relationship Alignment.

For all of you narrow-minded people who think this is just a re-packaged Ouija board, you have nothing to fear because this game draws from the same divine energy of the Christ spirit, as ancient followers did and it operates only out of the third heaven realm to gain insight and revelation. Don't worry, Bethel Board encounters coming from the third heaven realm bring lasting life transformation and guidance! 

So pick up this supernaturally exciting new game at your local Christian Bookstore today!

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This whole article is fake, it's a crazy over-the-top satire piece. Or is it really "over-the-top?"

The language used in this article comes from Bethel Church and from Christalignment.org, in fact, the last paragraph simply inserts "Bethel board" into sentences taken word for word from the home page of Christalignment (note the bottom two paragraphs):

The people at Christalignment are serious about going undercover so they can use Destiny Card readings to tell people their "Destiny" (and not preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ). Here are some examples from the Christalignment website:

Christalignment and Bethel Church teach the same things! Here's a story written by a student of Bethel's "School of Supernatural Ministry" where students are encouraged to operate undercover at New Age/Psychic  fairs: Are You More Religious Than Jesus?

Here's a screenshot of the article:

Global Awakening, which was founded by Randy Clark (a very close friend of Bill Johnson and Bethel) produced a movie called Witch City that features their students doing exactly the same thing as Christalignment:

Please, read more about this important topic:

Kris Vallotton and Bethel Cannot Escape Link to New Age Occultism

Jen Hodge – trained in ‘using divine energy’, in touch with her ‘inner gypsy’ & ‘in the hands of the spirits’?

Bethelgate – looking under the rug of Bethel administration.

Hodge connects ChristAlignment to Bethel; Bethel retracts statement.

Kris Vallotton RUNS From His Own Facebook Post!!

The "Christian" Tarot Card Controversy at Bethel Redding

Read about witches getting positive "prophetic words" at Bethel Church: Bethel Church Tells Witch that She's "On the Right Path" and "God is So Proud of Her!"

“I used to preach Christ and Him crucified for sinners, but now I do readings on people so I can tell them their destiny.”

— NOT a Real Apostle from the Holy Bible

This article by Steven Kozar; check out his new and improved: The Messed Up Church website!

"Leviathan Spirit"-Biting Satire Aimed at LeClaire's "Sneaky Squid" Fails to Hit Target

Satirical writer, R. Loren Sandford, has tried to grab people's attention with another over-the-top article at CharismaMag.com, and this time he's set his sights on the writings of fellow Charisma writer (and former Senior Editor), Jennifer LeClaire. Unfortunately, it appears the gullible readers of this online magazine have failed to see the biting humor, and might actually believe this to be useful information:

Block the Leviathan Spirit's Deadly Attacks With This Spiritual Insight

Sandford begins his article by saying this:

"Recently, at a national level, as well as in the church, we have suffered an attack of the Leviathan spirit. Before you get too mystical about all that, understand that Leviathan is a metaphorical reference Scripture draws from the image of a great serpentine sea creature. It describes a spirit that works to twist words and perceptions in order to disrupt and destroy the people of God."

Being the clever writer that he is, Sandford then goes on to disprove his previous paragraph, by showing that the few Bible passages that even mention Leviathan at all make no claims about it being a dangerous spirit-being. 

In his provocative prose, (surely intended as a literary jab at LeClaire) Sandford begins to write about Leviathan as a metaphorical device and then gradually confuses the reader by turning it into an actual being-exactly the kind of mystical mumbo-jumbo that Jennifer LeClaire propagates! Check out these crazy quotes from Sandford:

• "In recent days, Leviathan has been at work in the body of Christ, as well as in the realm of government and society."
• "Incredibly difficult to dislodge, Leviathan feeds on pride, the assertion, first, that we are "right" in our perceptions and judgments and, second, that we are so holy, loving and in touch with God as to be immune to its influence."
• "Let us reject this poisonous, twisting serpent, pray it out of our lives and fellowships and stand on the principles of the kingdom of God in glory."

See how Sandford has demonstrated the total confusion that permeates the modern "prophetic" movement? It seems like every other article on CharismaMag.com is about some newly discovered demon, monster or secret "prophetic" something-or-other...

Sandford has written many of these silly and far-fetched articles in an attempt to show how far from Biblical Christianity these readers have strayed. Previous articles like "How to Discern Truth Amid a Sea of False Prophesies" and "Flood of Aberrant Doctrines Endangering True Faith" are bold, self-refuting satire articles intended to demonstrate the incoherence of having such articles alongside Charisma Magazine's constant flow of false prophets, misguided amateurs, and "Christian" fortune-tellers. 

Sadly, Sandford's clever use of satire was just too subtle, and it remains doubtful that CharismaMag.com readers will understand his intended meaning, which is this:

Charisma Magazine has abandoned Biblical Christianity in favor of publishing the vain imaginations of fallible people who spout nonsense in order to tickle itching ears and draw attention away from the true and unchanging Gospel message of Jesus Christ. 

That's a great message, so keep trying Mr. Sandford, and maybe next time you'll finally get through to these people!

Podcast Interview with Marcia Montenegro About "Jesus Calling"

Christian Answers for the New Age home page for Marcia Montenegro's ministry

Some of Marcia Montenegro's articles that were mentioned in this podcast:

Contemplative Prayer article

Jesus Calling by Sarah Young: A False Jesus?

One Thousand Gifts article

Rob Bell article

Jesus Calling By Sarah Young: WUI (Writing Under The Influence)

New Thought article

Other articles on this topic:

Multiple Articles about Jesus Calling from the Berean Examiner

10 Serious Problems with Jesus Calling by Tim Challies

About That Jesus Calling-10 Things You Might Not Know by Warren Smith (with links to more articles)

"The Ministerial Vs Magisterial Use of Feelings"-Guest Post by Pastor Wolfmueller

Here's a really informative and helpful article from Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller:

The Ministerial Vs Magisterial Use of Feelings

On this same topic, here's an interview with Pastor Wolfmueller on Issues, Etc: 

The Proper Role of Emotions, 11/30/11 Issues, Etc.