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Allah, Brian Houston, Chrislam, critics, Hillslam, Hillslam controversy, houston, Muslim, Muslims, sermon
In light of the Hillslam controversy, why did Hillsong pull their sermon ‘Living for the Master’s Well Done’ from YouTube? Brian Houston is telling the truth and has nothing to hide… right?
This series of articles will be examining Houston’s “clarification” and why Houston pulled his sermon.
Brian Houston said in his clarification:
For further clarification, here is the context of my message:
King David said about His God in Psalm 119:68, “you ARE good and you DO good”. Who David believed God IS, determined what He Believed God DOES.
The spirit of the message was exactly the opposite of what some critics are claiming. If you listened to the message in its entirety, my point was that; who a Muslim extremist believes God is, determines what they believe God does, and what they believe God loves.
I was contrasting their harsh perspective of (their) god, with who I believe God is – (a Loving God, the Father of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ) and therefore what I believe God does and what I believe God loves. The ONE sentence that critics are drawing huge conclusions from was clearly a (clumsy) way of me explaining that though both Christians and Muslims believe they serve the God of Abraham, they are very DIFFERENT ‘entities’ or ‘deities’ in both nature and action.
Source: Brian Houston, 2014 March, Hillsong, https://hillsong.com/media/2014-March-Correction, Accessed 18/07/2015.
This is a lie which we will be addressing in this article. He deliberately pulled the sermon, hoping no one could examine his claims. We have watched the sermon again and have transcribed the majority of the message leading up to his claims about Allah. Once we dissect what Brian says in his “clarification”, it will become evident that Houston is lying to his church and the general public. The context of his message was not on Psalm 119:68. The sermon was titled ‘Living for the Master’s Well Done’ for a reason. It was the parable of the talents that this sermon is founded on and this is what we will be examining.
Thanks to Ken Silva from Apprising Ministries, you can watch ‘the ‘Living for the Master’s Well Done” sermon here:
WF PREACHER BRIAN HOUSTON SAYS CHRISTIANS SERVE SAME GOD AS MUSLIMS
Here are some important quotes from his sermon:
I feel like I am in my zone when I have the chance to talk to church pastors and church leaders.
Source: Brian Houston, Hillsong TV // Living For The Master’s Well Done, Pt1 with Brian Houston: 1:40, Sermon: Living For The Master’s Well Done, YouTube, Pt1, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVE2j_aeZ8M, Published on Jan 5, 2014. (Accessed 17/03/2014.)
In this quote, we will insert diagrams so you can see how just how Houston constructed his line of reason.
The difference is that the first two were purposeful, the third one was purposeless. And this is where I want you to think about this contrast.
You see, the first two, they knew their master. The third one had an entirely different view of the master. Listen to what the first two experienced with the master: they came to the master and said, “Here! I took what you had and I invested it. Here is your Lord’s money. And they’d increased it and doubled it. And this is what they heard from the master: “Well done!”
They heard encouragement: Good and faithful servant. They heard positive reinforcement: You’ve been faithful with a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. They were given god-given opportunity – many things! They experienced abundance! Enter into the joy of the Lord! They experienced joy!
The third one. Same master, talking about exactly the same master: “I knew you to be a hard man who had gathered where you hadn’t scattered seed and reaped where you hadn’t sown.” He said, “I knew- I knew-” He knew he had that perception of His master. “I knew you to be a hard man”.
“Well done! Good and faithful servant!” Encouragement. Positive reinforcement. Abundance. Joy.
“I knew you to be a hard man.”
They are describing the same Master.
We all serve the same God but not everyone in the room sees God the same way. And nothing would determine the culture of your church more than your view of God. So our view of God is so important.
Without walking around judging churches, to go into a church, experience the worship, sense the atmosphere, maybe walk in the corridors, I think that I can soon see a pastors view of God. If a pastor believes that God is free-Spirited and live their life free-spirited their church will be free-spirited. Sometimes a church is stiff. Sometimes a church is conservative. Sometimes a church is legalistic. Sometimes a church is rigid. Sometimes a church is just lacking any kind of sense of rules or any semblance of any kind of order. Some churches, they just reflect in different ways but you should never underestimate your view of God.
And if your background, if your religious background, if your denominational background, if your church school background, if maybe just some of your own condemnation and guilt that your parents put into you that is determining your view of God, it will always affect your ability to live purposefully. The one who lived purposeless, he took what he was given and he hid it in the ground.
The two who knew the Master, they took what they were given and they doubled it. Nothing would determine the way we treat people more than our view of the Master, of Jesus.
Nothing would decide the way we conduct ourselves in our marriage and the way we raise our children than the way we view God.
David said in Psalm 119 verse 68 about the Lord, “You are Good, and you do good”. You see, who you believe God is, will determine what you believe God does. You are good and you do good. Psalm 11:7 is similar. It says, “the Lord IS righteous. He loves righteousness; and his countenance beholds His favour”. His face is favour. His smile is on the upright or the righteous.
The way you see God, decides what you believe God does, what you believe God loves and what you believe God blesses, where His favour will be.
So I couldn’t encourage any leader who wants to live purposefully and who wants to build a church that reflects the heart of God, I couldn’t encourage you more to make sure that your view of the Master is through a New Covenant, New Testament lens. That we look at the Old Testament, which is so full of beauty and power and example and wonder and is so much of the whole tenor of God’s message, that we need to look at it through the lens of the resurrection and the cross and back into it from where we stand now and not from where they stood then. Because otherwise it’s going to affect your ability to be purposeful in building and leading and bringing release and bringing freedom and seeing those things God puts in your heart come to pass.
“How do you view God? In a desert there’s two types of birds: there’s vultures and there’s hummingbirds. One lives off dead carcasses, rotting meat. The other lives off the beautiful, sweet nectar in a particular flower on a particular desert plant. In the same desert, they both find what they’re looking for.
Do you know – take it all the way back into the Old Testament and the Muslim and you, we actually serve the same God. Allah to a Muslim, to us Abba Father God. And of course through history, those views have changed greatly. But lets make sure that we view God through the eyes of Jesus, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the beauty of a Saviour, the loving open inclusive arms of a loving God.
And that way we’ll lead out of that and you’ll be purposeful about your leadership and you’ll draw people just like the Lord Jesus always does through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Source: Brian Houston, Hillsong TV // Living For The Master’s Well Done, Pt1 with Brian Houston: 7:06, Sermon: Living For The Master’s Well Done, YouTube, Pt1, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVE2j_aeZ8M, Published on Jan 5, 2014. (Accessed 17/03/2014.)
Finally, Brian Houston seems to embrace Muslim believers and not tolerate bible-believing Christians.
“The person who is legalistic, critical, negative in the name of God, they just don’t know God. That’s the way it seems.”
Source: Brian Houston, Hillsong TV // Living For The Master’s Well Done, Pt1 with Brian Houston: 21:30, Sermon: Living For The Master’s Well Done, YouTube, Pt1, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVE2j_aeZ8M, Published on Jan 5, 2014. (Accessed 17/03/2014.)
To end, we would like to point this glaring fault in his “clarification” in our diagram:
Hillsong Church Watch 
And you purposely left off the part of Brian Houston’s correction where he wrote:
“I have always believed and will always believe that there is only one Way to God and that is through His Son, Christ Jesus. I also believe that anyone – irrespective of their religious upbringing, culture or background – can find grace, peace, freedom and eternal life through Christ.”
Because to leave it in would have demolished the thrust of your post, that you claim that Brian Houston embraces Islam. Houston has clearly written that he believes Jesus is the only way to God the Father, a belief that Islam categorically rejects.
Houston made a mistake and took action to address his mistake. End of story. Everyone else has moved on – but you.
From the International Trademark Association website:
” 2. When can I use another person’s or company’s trademark without the owner’s consent?
It is usually permissible to use another company’s trademark when referring to that company’s product in text, where it is being used to truthfully refer to that a product or service affiliated with that trademark.
http://inta.org/TrademarkBasics/FactSheets/Pages/TrademarkUseFactSheet.aspx ”
Since you have not told the truth, you have manipulated a trademark that the Hills Christian Life Centre (Hillsong) owns to imply a relationship that does not exist, means that you have probably broken trademark laws. And lied. Isn’t it a sin to covet some else’s property?
When I have previously pointed out your blatant disregard for stealing other people’s property, being your practice of copying and pasting news articles in their entirety without permission, you have just deleted my comment presumably hoping no one will notice. Ironic considering what you are implying of Brian Houston.
Newtaste – it would help if you actually addressed the substance of the article (and this is only part 1). Houston did not make a mistake. He was caught and you can’t accept that. His clarification was an excuse, not to apologize, but to attack critics.
Your “jihad” against Christian critique is duly noted, Newtaste.
Ahem! er – @Newtaste – have you got permission to use the Hillsong logo yourself (as part of your online ‘gravatar’)?
If so, please post a link to your written permission note – or say nothing about contravening ‘trademark’ laws…
Pot calling the kettle black – maybe?!
You need to have your eyes checked. There is no Hillsong logo there, just the word Jesus.
Probably shouldn’t surprise anyone as Rick Warren came up with this christlam nonsense before Houston, he just regurgitated the same old lie in a slightly different way.
This false teaching is just the product of these seeker sensitive, ‘purpose driven churches.’
Here is a church leader preaching things to his congregation that he knows nothing about and just plain out lazy to do any research. He seems to be equating the God of the Old Testament with The Muslim (Arabic) Allah. Islam came 600 years after Jesus, and although Muslims make the connection to Abraham and Ishmael it is still false, and deserves no credit!
If Brian Houston bothered to check with the Bible he would have noticed Ishmael’s mother Hagar was Egyptian and not Arabic! Proving that Muslims did not decend from Ishmael.
Good blog by the way, keep up the good work
Acts 17:11 – Explains why Brian Houston was given the opportunity to “preach” at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church – he’s a perfect fit!
Thanks church watcher, hopefully get around to watching it sometime soon.
anyone who is supporting RW is selling out for Satan. end of story.
nfg
@newtaste – Actually I had my eyes checked and received new glasses back in January – the picture clearly shows the front of Hillsong church – even if you deleted or cropped out the logo, the image is still proprietary property…
“Did we get our facts wrong in an article?”
I would tell you, but you don’t listen.
And it’s been duly noted that YOU usually never respond to questions, regardless of the topic Newtaste. Unless it’s about Phil Pringle who you seem to dislike, which is weird given the “parallel” worlds he and Houston move in.
“Brian Houston seems to embrace Muslim believers”. That is the substance of your article. I addressed that. Houston said he doesn’t believe what Muslims believe. Anything else in your article is just padding to push your point.
I don’t necessarily agree with everything Houston said about the parable of the talents. But your deductions that it all leads to him being an Oprah-type all spiritual embracing mystic who gets their lucky numbers and colours from Sharina late Sunday night and prays at every temple, mosque, synagogue, prayer hall, and church and that Jesus is just one of many ways to spiritual fulfilment, is a lie. There’s no doubt you think that he believes anything and everything. He says he doesn’t. He believes that Jesus Christ is the only way. Your continued statements that Brian Houston and Hillsong are “grooming” people to accept Islam as part of Christianity is a lie.
“But your deductions that it all leads to him being an Oprah-type all spiritual embracing mystic”
We have never made links of Brian Houston “being an Oprah-type all spiritual embracing mystic”. For someone who love and attends Hillsong, that is a rather insightful observation newtaste.
Actually @Newtaste – what Brian Houston is preaching is a lie – just about all of it.
If you single out any one issue or topic, then yes, it may be possible to find elements of Bible truth here and there, but when Brian does the ‘bulk padding’ by adding to the scriptures mere humanistic thoughts, (or simply leaving the Bible out of it all together and giving a purely ‘motivational speech) aside from any obvious errors in judgement and/or lack of research, that’s OK by you…?
Honestly @Newtaste – do you really believe that Hillsong could pack in excess of 20,000 congregants per week into its bulging headquarters alone, by preaching a simple Gospel of salvation based on true repentance without the added trimmings and trappings of Hyper Faith (health, wealth and ongoing prosperity,) and all the ‘feel good’ rubbish that goes with that?
So who’s really doing the ‘padding’ here, and who’s really lying to tens of thousands of people every week @Newtaste?
Every single scripture in that sermon was twisted. It’s disturbing to see newtaste defend a man who has no shame twisting God’s Word for shameful gain.
Yes Churchwatcher, ‘twisted’ seems to be the name of the game – it kind of reminds me of an old party game from the 1970’s called “Twister” – I’m sure you could have some fun ‘airbrushing’ some appropriate faces onto this old promo for it…:
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ6eQUzL2LAGI1ppZK_OTw4GuIS9w_p6HcB_Mz8kX9BUp-iMgte
you’re right austin, i’m not sure why newtaste always keeps nitpicking at churchwatcher’s articles here and there, when newtaste should know that brian houston is not one of the real sheep.
That’s right NFG – that’s why they invented ‘goat pens’ – so that the true sheep could be easily separated from those mangy old goats, who are desperately trying to make it look like they are a part of God’s kingdom…
Some of the interesting contrasts between sheep and goats may be worth noting here:
1.) sheep are docile and need a ‘good shepherd’ to watch over them – there are definitely NO VACANCIES for hirelings – those vacancies are reserved for the goat’s pen only. Goats on the other hand, like hirelings, because there is no real commitment from one to the other anyway…
2) generally speaking, sheep are obedient and travel in flocks, and while goats can be herded, they typically display a far more independent nature – even to the point of being openly rebellious. It’s no wonder that many Satanic cults use the ‘goats head’ symbol (known in the occult world as “Mendes” or “Baphomet”) as a sign of their rebellion towards God. It’s such a give away…
3) sheep need the reassurance that they will be cared for (a la ‘still waters and green pastures’) and they look to their good shepherds for that provision. Goats are often found lurking in high places, independent to the last – they feed on rubbish and have no problems locking horns with other goats over trifling issues (know anyone like that from around here???)
Middle Eastern sheep are not like our Merino sheep here in Australia – they look very similar to the Greek Angora goats, and thus you can’t tell the difference just by looking at a group of intermingled sheep and goats – you have to take some time out, in order to watch the herds, and be discerning – to ‘test the spirits’ (1 John 4:1…) in order to see who really is a sheep and who is a goat…
They reveal themselves by their true nature and character – looks can be deceiving and it is self evident that in our day and age, those with ‘big ministries’ may just be “managing large goat pens” and not “shepherding true sheepfolds”…
4)
Sheep eat from the shepherds hand.
Goats eat up any garbage they find.
@ austin, i know what you mean about baphomet. i don’t listen to secular music anymore (trying to live a holy lifestyle), but the rolling stones did an album called “goat’s head soup.” celebs and musicians do their little baphomet hand sign and wear that baphomet jewelry.
celebs-musicians-politicians like the 666 hand sign too. sometimes it could be innocent. but when they’re all doing it, & its so well known by now, its another give away. googling ‘666 hand sign’ shows interesting people acknowledging their master.
nfg
@NFG – there are many people out there who serve Lucifer, but don’t know it – they are not the obvious ‘servants of Satan’ but nevertheless they help to build his kingdom one way or another – through their ignorance and/or arrogance…
Jesus stated it quite clearly when He said :
“He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.”
(Luke 11:23)
and again in Matthew 12:30 :
“He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.”
When you consider all the nonsense that goes on in such places, in the name of God, you don’t have to think too hard to see just who is ‘gathering’ and who is ‘scattering’…
In bible times, when the harvest was brought into the barn for safe keeping, it was ‘threshed’ – literally dashed onto the ground in bundles, so as to separate the wheat from the stalks, but there was another task to yet perform before the farmer could claim that he had “the finest of the wheat”.
When the wind was up, they’d open the barn doors at either end and gather the grain into special baskets. then they’d swirl it around and around and then when the outer husks had become loose, they’d toss it up in the air – the grain (that which had form and substance), fell straight back down into the basket and was counted as the end product – the wheat.
But the chaff, (that which separated from the kernel of wheat because it had no weight or substance,) was blown away in the wind, never to see the inside of the basket, or the barn again… so we can conclude two things:
1. Just because you made it inside the barn, doesn’t mean you’re going to be staying for any length of time… and
2. The winds of strange doctrine and practice (Ephesians 4:14,) do have their uses on the inside of the barn doors… 🙂
@ austin, i know what you mean.
also i wasnt saying rick warren & brian houston are part of that rediculous hollywood nonsense etc. but if for whatever reason, one is not truly among the wheat, then they are chaff. it doesnt matter which part of the lie they bought, whoever forsakes the Truth for any reason and is not truly on the narrow path, sadly they will all end up in the same irreversible bad place.
ever since i got the “wool pulled over my eyes” at my old church (since not one but several pastors including my direct pastor were lying, yes actually chose to cover up a major sex scandal and risk it continue which it did FOR YEARS). you’ve probably read about it. they were bad news to many people. and lots of families who even supported them financially got hurt. it appears fallout is still ongoing.
anyway, now i examine everything and everyone.
i am aamazed at how many Christians choose to never ask any questions. word faith churches are notorious for that. it seems many feel its easier to just let someone else read the Bible, than to read it for theirselves.
i dont trust anyone else to tell me what it says, i chedk it out for myself.
nfg
Hey NFG – I understand – I was part of a ‘church that fell apart’ interstate many years ago – the ‘pastor’ and his so called chosen ‘elder’ turned out to be a couple of crooks – and unsavoury ones at that. Locals used to call those kind of people ‘boundary riders’ – accountable to no one, and as far from headquarters as they could get…
The pastor was a heavy drinker behind the scenes, a dodgy dealer in his business affairs, and was regularly giving some of our offering money to a known false prophet (who had been disfellowshipped some 10 years before from that denomination – for being a false prophet!) He was publicly defrocked for those sins and for mishandling the churches money in particular…
The ‘elder’ had already been asked to leave one church in the town, while parachurch organisations passing through town avoided him like the plague…
His own sordid past came to light during a visit from the “headquarters” people,, and he was put going from that church too.
Some 2/3rds of the congregation bailed out and it took the appointment of another pastoral couple and some 2 years to restore that church to what it had been, before the ‘dynamic duo’ came along and upset the sheep with their ungodly antics.
At least the HQ leaders had enough discernment to see through the deceptions back then (mid 1990’s) but nowadays the same kind of people would have been blinded to many things, and all because of the false doctrines and practices prevailing in the churches of our day.
The blind, leading the blind, will always fall into the nearest doctrinal ‘ditch’…
austin, your story is sad too. that’s terrible.
spiritual deception & lies of all kinds are everywhere.
a married Christian couple i know recently told me they visited (how i’m not sure) that main mormon temple in utah. then they said…. “we know everyone says mormonism is a cult, but we found nothing wrong there”. i was like “huh? say what?” they are saved, but they dont think they need to study that much for themselves.
here’s part of the problem (other than laziness). most brethren think they’re too smart spiritually to be fooled. they think, if there’s a problem, they will spot it immediately. thats probably why some who might know better, think they can continue going to Hillsong/C3, because they think they can immediately spot any lies. i now take the opposite approach, why expose yourself to known lies in the first place? it doesnt make sense. go somewhere untainted.
i read in part 1 of your testimony how the Children of God tried to pull you in. i’ve read about them, but youre the 1st person i know who actually dealt with them. that group was/is creepy. i’m glad you knew better.
nfg
Yes NFG – the Children of God (the ‘COG’ as they have been known,) now go under different names, such “The Family” or even more deceptively “The Family Of Love” – but they never tell their converts just what kind of ‘love’ is on offer!
They were investigated years ago down in Victoria for alleged child abuse, but for some strange reason, the cases never go to court… and the Media Machine went silent on them too, all of a sudden. Money talks? Maybe…
And just to make the conversation relevant – there are many things that have been covered up by certain ‘churches’ and their senior ‘pastors’. Don’t they know that there’s a judgement day coming? Aren’t they in fear of a holy God?
What could possibly persuade them to ignore the dire warnings contained in scripture? Spiritual blindness – or the same kind of mocking attitude displayed by the COG and other cults, just like them. That’s why they receive a “strong delusion” – they don’t love the truth.
That truth has been embodied in a person – Jesus Christ. It is Him they do not love, and the ‘strong delusion’? A false ‘Jesus’, another ‘spirit’ and a different ‘gospel’. They are actually deluded into believing that their “faith” is true, and that their “jesus” is genuine – but they are not. they are false…
I think that the apostle Jude summed it all up when he said:
“14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
17 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;
18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.”
I actually ‘bumped into’ some of the COG people some 2 years later (when I had become much stronger in my faith,) and told them what I thought of them and that if they didn’t repent, then God would judge them. They laughed at me, and mocked me (see above – same kind of people,) but they won’t be laughing after judgement day…
austin, i think read about them in some bok i got ahold of, i think it was kingdom of the cults. they had a chapter on the usual mormons, moonies etc. anyways i think there was a whole chapter dedicatd to Children of God. and another weird rare cult that i think had their own chapter the cult was called “The Way”.
i think kingdom of the cults is recommended reading for every Christian. lots of good info. i keep running into moonies lately at the shopping center.
also i was going to post a link for you of an interesting video someone put online called “False Christs” but now its another cancelled youtube account. it listed about FORTY of them (all modern ones). sun myung moon was one of them. im not sure if this is true but i keep reading jerry falwell accepted money from moon. i’ve run across pictures of moon & falwell together. pretty weird.
nfg
@NFG – ‘Kingdom of the Cults’ – I believe was written by Walter Martin? He’s dead now, but Hank Hanegraaff took over his ministry, but proceeded to make a hash of it… so there’s not too many time honoured resources online nowadays like there used to be…
One organisation that neither of them ever went after was the RC ‘church’ – strange isn’t it? Strange also that all of those online Youtube videos are disappearing all of a sudden?
The ‘silence’ is deafening, and there may also be plans afoot to go after their detractors (maybe even some of us?) but so be it – the first thing they’d have to do would be to bury all of the evidence, and then falsely claim that “there is no proof”…
Typical cult tactics – use and abuse people, indulge in multiple coverups, bury the evidence and then bury your opponents…
“One organisation that neither of them ever went after was the RC ‘church’ – strange isn’t it?”
Walter Martin and the Ankerburg group have been outspoken on the RCC cult. Rosebrough from Fighting for the Faith, Matt Slick from CARM.rg, Michael Horton and his gang from White Horse Inn and James White from the Dividing Line are also outspoken on the RCC cult.
Walter Martin mode no mention of the RCC in that particular book at all and Hank Hanegraaff has turned out to be more of an eccumenicist than most people would have expected or even thought.
It’s the book I was talking about, and while I recognise that there are still a few outspoken ones who stand against the cults, it’s nothing like it used to be back in the 1980’s and 90’s…
“Walter Martin mode no mention of the RCC in that particular book at all…”
True – but he was an outspoken critic on it in the public forum.
“… and Hank Hanegraaff has turned out to be more of an eccumenicist than most people would have expected or even thought.”
True again – we didn’t mention his name.
“… it’s nothing like it used to be back in the 1980′s and 90′s…”
We agree.
This is just one source that explains the silence regarding Rome and the compromise that it entailed:
http://elshaddaireigns.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/late-walter-martins-compromise-with.html
There are some references beside the quotes in the linked article…
wow. austin i read that book and it was a leading source on cults. a lot of ppl still rate walter martin highly. i still think that book has some important info, but now i need to look more at this website you posted which i’ve never seen before.
also i’ve heard the way hank hanegraaff took over martin’s ministry was very questionable (as you said “made a hash of it”), so i never trusted hanegraaff. even though i know lots of ppl rate hanegraaff highly too. i always have put hanegraaff in the questionable list.
nfg
It’s very hard nowadays NFG to ‘prove’ anything, as one of last week’s online stouches actually ‘proved’.
It really does depend on the sources you have come to know and trust – I actually have an original copy of Martin’s book stashed away in my boxes somewhere (looked at it a year ago) and admittedly, it did contain good information, but omitting the the RC from the book certainly did raise questions (and eyebrows) at the time – and it still does.
People are still questioning why they never rated a mention. Having been brought up Catholic, I would have to say, that cultishness occurs at the leadership level, (priests, nuns, monks and other ranks etc, being turned into the ‘religious slaves’ of Rome) with most of the congregants being oblivious to that side of it.
Of course, they are still the victims of paganism and false hope, and they certainly cannot offer salvation through Christ to the masses of Catholics around the world – it is a dead, works based religion – it is not Christianity…
Back to Walter Martin – sometimes an issue like this can spin out of control and sometimes we may never know the truth, so it’s best to say our piece and then let it go – I didn’t trust Hanegraaff either, for what it’s worth…
!John 4:1 “Test the spirits…” the false prophets of John’s day “went out from us” the church – they left the church, they didn’t start up in the foothills and work their way down to the city – they were right inside the four walls of the local church…
That’s why we need to test everything – every doctrine, every practice, every everything, and make sure that it lines up with the Word of God, and get the brethren you know and trust, to vett it for you if you have any doubts so that “in the mouths of 2 or 3 witnesses, everything is established” – credible, reliable witnesses – people who have a life in God that is actually on display, and not just talked about from the pulpit…
ok, i couldnt think of the 2nd book i read that i liked, but i knew it had a red cover. now i know who it was bob larson.
but, here’s the thing. bob larson seems to have really changed from the first time i heard of him. maybe i’m wrong but he seems to me like he’s kind of gotten way out there now.
nfg
I recently revisited this sermon and I still don’t get how anyone from Hillsong can just blindly say, ‘Brian explained what he meant in his statement & he was misquoted’ (a comment I hear far too often!) Brian was clearly using his whole sermon to built up to his point of ‘the Muslim and you serve the same God’ – Brian really does have the Hillsong sheep in the palm of his hand! Great article!