Recommendation: Before Brian Houston/Hillsong removes this controversial sermon from the internet; once again defames his critics for taking him out of context and uses his authority to remove/sensor his own material, please watch the full sermon at the end of this article. Then, click below to read an article that examines what Brian Houston actually said and how to realistically interpret his words.
Brian Houston’s controversial concepts on Muslims & Homosexuals
In this article, a segment of Brian Houston’s controversial “God-given Vision” for 2014 will be reviewed. We will then do a very quick overview of how Brian Houston and Hillsong have progressed toward achieving this vision throughout the course of 2014. Lastly, we will publish Chris Rosebrough’s critique as well as the transcript of the video below. We will personally review this sermon in articles to come.
DID BRIAN HOUSTON ACHIEVE HIS GOD-GIVEN VISION FOR 2014?
For people to understand how controlling Hillsong is, it is important to understand what it means when a “pastor” casts “vision” over their movement. It is important to note that Hillsong supporters see the vision Brian Houston casts is a vision supposedly given to him by God.
“Hillsong Church has a great vision that was given by God. This vision is inspiring a lot of people and churches all around the world. Thank you for this great work. I’m watching from Sao Paulo, Brazil. God bless you all. ;)”
Source: Eduardo Godoi, Vision Sunday 2014, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPnikhaDwDw&google_comment_id=z13vd1mgcsibi5y5x04cddnixpy2vjjhusg0k, Published 10 months ago. (Accessed 16/12/2014.)
This means, Brian Houston is considered a prophet of God. To question the vision of the prophet is to question God Himself. Paul Nevison (a member “of the creative team at Hillsong Church for over 14 years, first in London and now in Sydney, Australia with the Hillsong Film & Television team“), states,
“At the start of every year, we have what’s called Vision Sunday. It’s always a highlight for our church, as Brian and Bobbie cast the vision for the coming year.”
Source: By Paul Nevison, PIONEER AGAIN: Behind Our Vision Presentation, Hillsong, http://hillsong.com/blogs/collected/2014/march/pioneer-again-behind-our-vision-presentation, Published 05/03/2014. (Accessed 07/09/2014.)
This above quote is taken from a Hillsong article that promotes Houston’s controversial 2014 Vision. In this video it appears Brian Houston wants his church to accept his God-given vision/idea that unrepentant occultists, “minority groups” and terrorists should be embraced by Hillsong church.
We encourage you to carefully watch Brian Houston’s body language in this controversial video snippet. (Note: This was the video we uploaded earlier this year that caused Hillsong to launch an official complaint to YouTube which resulted in our account shut down.)
[Click here to download video]
This video is up for ‘research or study, criticism or review’ and ‘reporting of news’ under ‘Fair Dealing’ under Australian Law. This video is up for high public and international interest.
Considering this “God-given” vision was cast at the beginning of this year, it is worth quickly reviewing Brian Houston’s agenda to see if his “New Grace” vision panned out.
Occultism
Not only does Brian Houston push his occultic Word of Faith Doctrine, this year Brian Houston has promoted and encouraged Christians to embrace the gnostic, neo-pagan film, ‘Noah’ by Darren Aronofsky. There was a bit of backlash against leaders who promoted this film.
Gnostic Brian Houston (Part 1) What ‘Ps’ Brian Endorses Dr Brian shames
We will be producing further articles examining Hillsong pushing occultism in their movement.
Queerstianity
Through our Hillsong Queerstianity coverage, Brian Houston and Carl Lentz received Christian backlash in America over their remarks on same sex issues, and rightly so.
The truth is, although Hillsong is blatantly grooming Christianity to embrace Queerstianity, Brian Houston has decided to pull out his sheep skin to hide his agenda before the Christian media. He stated,
“My personal view on the subject of homosexuality would line up with most traditionally held Christian views. I believe the writings of Paul are clear on this subject.”[Source]
After watching the above vision, which Brian Houston do you believe?
Chrislam
Brian Houston earlier this year also allowed Hillsong TV to produce one of his messages where he claims that Christians and Muslims serve/worship the same God. When caught, he did not repent but deceitfully mislead his readers into believing that he was maligned by critics and that he didn’t mean what he said.
“Pull the Allah one, Brian” (Part 2)
Hillsong’s “New Grace” agenda
What makes the above footage even more disturbing is the fact that Brian Houston challenges his congregation with these unrepentant men by asking them, “How’s that for an encouraging front row in church?”
It is important to consider this challenging concept. Who sits on the front row of Hillsong Church? Do visitors? Members? Or do we usually see leaders sit in the front row of Hillsong?
If people still honestly think that Brian Houston is not pushing his own “new grace” agenda, can someone please explain his eight second innuendo in the above snippet. (*nudge-nudge, wink-wink* Is that what it looks like to you?)
What Christian minister does that? What is this? What is Brian Houston pushing?
CHRIS ROSEBROUGH’S REVIEW
Thankfully, Chris Rosebrough has weighed in to review Brian Houston’s “vision”. Listen below to Chris Rosebrough’s critique on the above controversial vision segment of Brian Houston.
DECEMBER 15, 2014
The Pioneer Spirit?
Click Here to Download this episode
Program segments:
• David Herzog Teaches How to Walk Into Your Future
• Creflo Dollar’s Dream About Miles Munroe
• Miles Munroe’s Interview With Benny Hinn
• Brian Houston on the Pioneer Spirit
• Sermon Review: A Peace of Christmas – Joseph by Paul Richardson of West Ridge Church
Source: Chris Rosebrough, The Pioneer Spirit?, Fighting for the Faith, http://www.fightingforthefaith.com/2014/12/the-pioneer-spirit.html, Published 15/12/2014. (Accessed 16/12/2014.)
TRANSCRIPT
“Second thing, is a pioneer reaches the unreachable and includes the excluded. I LOVE THIS THOUGHT! Think about this: the first three individuals, when the gospel goes beyond Jerusalem and Judea to Samaria and then ultimately to the uttermost parts of the end- the first three individual con- uh converts that are mentioned. In other words, new believers.
The first one is a wizard. His name’s Simon who confounded the people with magic tricks. They were astonished with his magic. He’s a sorcerer. A wizard.
The second one, (later in Acts chapter eight), is an Ethiopian eunuch. Putting it bluntly, he was castrated. Which I guess made him a part of a minority group. [8 second pause, looking to see if people understood what he was implying].
The third one was a terrorist. [Laughter] His name was Saul in Acts chapter nine. The bible literally describes Saul as breathing threats and slaughter against Christians. And not only that, he was described as being f- in full agreement with Steven being put to death.
How’s that for an encouraging front row in church? The first three, what have you got?
You’ve got a guy who’s still got his tarot cards in one hand and his astrology charts in the other hands. You’ve got a guy with real sexual identity problems; he’s not sure who he is. He’s not sure who he is. And then you’ve got a third person who’s a terrorist! That’s pretty encouraging for the worship team when they look down. I love the fact that maybe, not terrorists, but I love the fact that still our church is church for whosoever will to the Lord may come, should never be built on superstars necessarily or people who’ve got it all together. It’s rarely reached people at all walks of life: the down and out, the up and out, everything in between. And I pray we always be that kind of church. And a pioneering spirit keeps that kind of spirit happening in the church.
Third thing about a pioneering spirit is a pioneer sings a song that is music to the uninitiated but sounding brass to the establishment, in other words stepping forward into new ground, not everyone who represents the statuesque or the establishment gets excited about the new thing that God is doing.
In the bible you can see that the uninitiated, those who have just been literally connected to Jesus, there was great joy in the setting. Acts chapter 8, verse 7, there was great joy in the city the bible says, its verse 8 I think.
Great joy, but not everyone thought that way. Couple of chapters before in Acts chapter 6, God was doing an amazing thing, the church was multiplying. They were having quickly to keep up with all that God was doing and so there was a little bit of reorganising the way things could be done so the Apostles could keep in the Word and keep in prayer. And in the middle of that it describes Stephen, Stephen is described as being full of faith.
Listen to it, it’s in Acts chapter 6, verse 8, it says, “Stephen full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people”. And then it says there arose some from what is called, (it’s important you think about this)- they were from what? – the Synagogue of the Freed Man. Tells us where those people were from, so Alexandrians etc, who were disputing with Stephen.
In other words they were angry about the new grace, about what God was doing.
And who are they? They were the Synagogue of the Freed Man, literally former slaves who had come into new found freedom and had encountered a grace for themselves and yet were opposed to the new thing that God has done.
Often with the spirit of a pioneer you start taking new ground, you start occupying all streets- and it’s incredible how often- it’s not the people out there in the world that get upset about what Gods doing, in fact they’ve got a heart that’s open to it. It’s often people who experience grace themselves, who have known the freedom of Jesus Christ themselves and yet when grace goes into something new, God begins a new thing, it’s amazing how they are the people that are quite often the blindest and the ones that find it the most difficult to see.
Music to the ears of the uninitiated sounding brass, sometimes to the statuesque. I don’t what to be one who has encountered the grace of Jesus myself and misses out when God begins to do new things. I want to keep that pioneer again spirit, so I stay on the edge. I was pioneering when I was 25, 26, 29 years of age and I’m almost 60 and I want to keep looking forward and I want to keep the same pioneering spirit today. Because once a pioneer, always a pioneer.”
Source: Published by Hillsong Church, Brian Houston, Vision Sunday 2014, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPnikhaDwDw, Published 02/02/2014. (Accessed 05/09/2014.)
Here is the full sermon:
The above unedited January 2014 vision sermon was replayed and streamed online across the world at Hillsong Conference 2014. However, it was not not surprising that Hillsong TV edited out most of the controversial segments and published their edited sermon on their Hillsong TV YouTube channel.
His edited sermon can be seen below on YouTube.
Hillsong TV // The Spirit Of A Pioneer, Pt1 with Brian Houston
Published on Apr 13, 2014
Published: Hillsong TV
A pioneer is a person who is among those who first enter or settle a region, thus opening up for occupation and development by others. In this message, Pastor Brian Houston shares the Vision for Hillsong Church, urging the Church to pioneer again.
For more information about Hillsong TV with Brian Houston follow us on Twitter, Facebook and our Website – https://twitter.com/Hillsongtv |http://www.facebook.com/hillsongtelev… | http://hillsong.com/tv
Hillsong TV // The Spirit Of A Pioneer, Pt2 with Brian Houston
Published on Apr 20, 2014
Published: Hillsong TV
A pioneer is a person who is among those who first enter or settle a region, thus opening up for occupation and development by others. In this message, Pastor Brian Houston shares the Vision for Hillsong Church, urging the Church to pioneer again.
For more information about Hillsong TV with Brian Houston follow us on Twitter, Facebook and our Website – https://twitter.com/Hillsongtv |http://www.facebook.com/hillsongtv | http://hillsong.com/tv
” Here is the full sermon:
The above unedited January 2014 vision sermon was replayed and streamed online across the world at Hillsong Conference 2014. However, it was not not surprising that Hillsong TV edited out most of the controversial segments and published their edited sermon on their Hillsong TV YouTube channel. ”
All this year every time Brian Houston has preached on a Sunday morning at the Hills one of the services has been live streamed and then uploaded to YouTube in full. The only service that has been edited for YouTube to my knowledge is the one the Sunday after the Royal Commission. However, it is obvious to anyone who has ever watched Hillsong Television that Houston’s sermons are edited for that program, that it is an amalgamation of sermons from two services from the same Sunday morning and stretched over two or three weeks for television, and I seriously doubt that he would claim otherwise.
So a Houston sermon is on the Hillsong Church channel on YouTube in full and you claim that because there is an edited version on another Hillsong channel on YouTube that Houston has something to hide by having ”controversial” comments removed. You guys need to get out of Rosebrough’s basement and get some air.
“However, it is obvious to anyone who has ever watched Hillsong Television that Houston’s sermons are edited for that program”
Thanks for this comment NT.
Brian Houston’s Christmas message:
https://fbcdn-photos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-0/10395828_10152460044291175_1002027052284090397_n.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoiYiJ9&oh=d29ab09701443799a9d27de900bf1e4d&oe=5501BD12&__gda__=1429685357_573d1d37c923da663d44aeada28e2db3
https://fbcdn-photos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-0/63785_10152460054181175_1676400235190865939_n.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoiYiJ9&oh=3af2ae00397f259ab39578fa48b10f62&oe=553EA7CB&__gda__=1425941750_1f12d80e124b7aaf9250603142907f63
Someone who attended Hillsong managed to give us that document. We were planning to do an article on that document you gave. It’s a false gospel.
Thank you for exposing another one of Brian Houston’s false gospels. That mamby-pamby nonsense you just put up was nothing but the damnable social gospel, which you failed to recognise.
You offered this as a defense of Houston, not knowing you fell for Houston’s false gospel. What is so wrong with Houston’s piece is what he continually omits. Face it – Hillsong is for people not for God.
I just posted links from someone’s Facebook. I made no comment. But yes, there is more theological depth in the Boney M song “Mary’s Boy Child – Oh My Lord”.
Wow. How on earth could anyone provide such a shallow, insipid and off-target “message” if they are supposed to be a “man of God”! Any non-Christian religion and cult which approves of the Christmas message could provide that.
Compare Houston’s message with the Gospel of Luke’s message. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1%3A26-2%3A21&version=KJV
Q. Did the Angel tell Mary Jesus was to be a peacemaker, or the “Son of the Most Highest”?
A. Luke 1:28-33
Did the angels proclaim “the way for all cultures and nations to be reconciled back to peace eternal”, or praise *God Himself* “glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men”?
A. Luke 2: 13-14
Houston clearly preaches a different Gospel. (Galatians 1:8-9).
Sincere Christians (who love God and the bible but still follow Hillsong) – it is time to stop making allowances for this shockingly poor preacher. You will be held accountable to God if you knowingly choose worship experiences instead of scriptural truth. If Houston cannot even get the basic Christmas message right you need to move on for your own spiritual life. You are at best getting empty calories with no vitamins and proteins essential for spiritual growth.
@ Newtaste,
You had promised you were done here… Too bad you’re not a man of your word.
Brian houston: “You’ve got a guy who’s still got his tarot cards in one hand and his astrology charts in the other hands. You’ve got a guy with real sexual identity problems; he’s not sure who he is. He’s not sure who he is. And then you’ve got a third person who’s a terrorist! That’s pretty encouraging for the worship team when they look down.”
Brian..that wasn’t a ‘worship team’, whatever that was.
Would there be something about Jesus Christ in all of this ? For the unsaved? Thought not.
Is this about Christianity or new-age nonsense? Weird stuff.
Has Brian Houston removed the controversial sermon yet?
Brian Houston is recycling a sermon series “My Spirit – My Responsibility” for a ‘devotional’ to start off 2015. I compared Day 1 http://hillsong.com/blogs/collected/2015/january/day-1-guard-your-spirit#.VKSc5CMzHqA with a post by John MacArthur http://www.gty.org/blog/B140707/who-is-responsible-for-your-spiritual-growth . Brian Houston puts all the responsibility on me. John MacArthur says that I am responsible but my response comes through strength from and faith in Jesus. MacArthur is right.
In that devotional Bryan Houston did not use one reference from the New Testament – all three verses were from Old Testament.
Like you say Newtaste, it was half the message “You must… if you …. we should …. you can” with no mention of God’s mercy and love via *Him* giving *us* the strength to do what He commands.
Did you notice “….if you allow other things to take hold of your spirit, they will stop you from entering into all that God has planned for you.”? Does Houston really believe God is such a weakling that a struggling Christian (e.g. with personal doubts) can prevent GOD from doing what HE wills in their life?
Thank you Thinker for the reply. Yes, all Law and no Grace.
Jonathon Douglass of Hillsong following the Vision:
” 5 Things That Should Matter to a Worship
Pastor
…
2. We are about fulfilling our senior pastor’s vision (not our own)
It is so important that as amazing as our creative ideas might be, if they don’t ultimately line up with what our senior pastor and leaders want, then we happily put them aside. The church doesn’t exist to build our worship teams… our worship teams exist to build the Church!! ”
http://hillsong.com/blogs/collected/2015/january/5-things-that-should-matter-to-a-worship-pastor
“We are about fulfilling our senior pastor’s vision (not our own).”
Did God really give the senior pastor a “vision” or is he just the latest in a long line of self-deluded false teachers? In other words, a religious predator. Unfortunately this particular senior pastor isn’t the first and won’t be the last to have this sort of “submission to the vision”. This is the environment where the seeds of spiritual abuse are planted.
Mark Driscoll (upcoming keynote speaker at 2015 Hillsong Conference) comes to mind.
Newtaste – more on “We are about fulfilling our senior pastor’s vision (not our own).”
Reminds me of the much reported story about the Crossing Church and Ps. Eric Dykstra. His associate pastor Jason Keech says “We are united under the visionary”. Keech makes it clear that: “the visionary here [at Cc] is Eric. The Crossing is the vision God gave to Eric, and we will aggressively defend that vision.” Right; and earlier Dykstra had made the claim that CC isn’t a cult.
That’s pretty cult-like. Keech tells us Eric Dykstra (insert Houston/Pringle) had a personal direct revelation from God. How would we be able to challenge anything Dykstra (insert Houston/Pringle) claims in that regard? That would mean we’re at odds with God Himself.
And Dykstra’s (insert Houston/Pringle), (insert Hillsong/C3) disciples will “aggressively defend” him (insert Houston/Pringle) if we did try and challenge that vision. This is a spiritual recipe for disaster for that congregation despite the later caveat that if we don’t like it, we are free to leave.”
http://apprising.org/2012/06/24/crossing-church-swearing-allegiance-to-eric-dykstra-just-as-ignatius-jesuits-to-the-pope/
Good points newtaste and CW.
Houston/pringle and their ilk, and so, so many ‘hip leaders’ barely able to grow a beard are implying to their followers that to doubt the pastor’s self-originating ‘vision’ is to doubt God Himself.
What a magnificent antidote to self-esteem problems!…and goes someway to explaining their over-the-top lifestyles, false prophecies, hidden pasts, abysmal Bible education, merchandising of The Word and their worldly need to be seen as far more anointed than the humble seeker of Jesus Christ.
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Hi.
You seem to have too much free time. Or is it your job writing for this blog?
Bruno, do you think Jesus had ‘too much free time’ when he preached about FALSE TEACHERS?
Bruno, perhaps you have too much free time yourself? It takes lots of research and lots ot time for people to respond to these articles, and even more time for posters to respond to those who visit the sites.
Churchwatcher gets a lot of help with all of that, so I suppose that many of us also have ‘lots of free time’… 🙂
But it is worth it, as we often see folks coming back to say ‘thanks’ for the effort, as lots of false teachers and prophets are exposed for their false doctrines, fake prophecies, chequered histories and immoral lifestyles… Those folks let us know that they have left those false church organisations for greener pastures from time to time too.
We never had anything like this when I was a young believer, except for a few grass roots newsletters that did the rounds, so I and many others appreciate the “connectivity” that the Internet brings, with the ability to share news and info about ‘pastor disaster’ and his/her entourouge… dont you???
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