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Tag Archives: Cameron Buettel

Grace To You weighs in regarding Hillsong’s “Worship”

29 Tuesday Nov 2016

Posted by Nailed Truth in Hillsong worship

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

Cameron Buettel, Grace To You, Hillsong, Jeremiah Johnson, music, worship

John MacArthur and the folks from Grace to You (GTY) have done the body of Christ a great service by continually warning Christianity against the growing dangers within the Charismatic movement. One such person who has joined the ranks of GTY is Cameron Buettel, author of Once Upon A Cross | The Bottom Line.

cameron-buettel

Recently, Buettel teamed up with Jeremiah Johnson to do an expose on the dangers of Hillsong worship. However, Justin Peters (of JustinPetersMinistries.org), also weighed in to the important discussion below the article. We wish to acknowledge his comments on Hillsong before you read GTY’s article.

 

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Hillsong scrutinised on Echo Zoe Radio

13 Saturday Sep 2014

Posted by Nailed Truth in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Andy Olson, Cameron, Cameron Buettel, Echo Zoe, Hillsong, Olson

Andy Olson from Echo Zoe radio recently had Cameron Buettel on the program to discuss the problems with Hillsong.

Cameron Buettel: Hillsong

Cameron is a seminary student at the Master’s Seminary in the greater Los Angeles area. He also works at Grace to You, the media ministry of pastor John MacArthur. Cameron has a blog called “The Bottom Line“, and he also has a website at onceuponacross.com. It was on that blog that Cameron published years worth of correspondence and critique of Hillsong, which is a mega church movement and franchise based in Sydney, Australia. Cameron joins me to discuss Hillsong.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:18:02 — 35.8MB)

An Outline of the Discussion

– Cameron began his Christian life in an Assemblies of God church in Australia in the early 1990s.

– Hillsong began about the same time, and gained popularity because of their music. Just a few years later, the Assemblies of God amalgamated into a denomination called the Australian Churches of God, a conglomeration of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. It was headed by Brian Houston, the pastor of Hillsong church. The definint traits of charismatic churches (tongues speaking, etc.) was pushed to the periphery, and positive thinking began to be pushed much more. They also had a greater focus on marketing, and grew in popularity with their conferences.

– Cameron began to notice their failure to talk about key aspects of the gospel, particularly sin and repentance. He began to write to them to question the message they were preaching, and seemed to get nowhere.

– Eventually, Cameron received a reply from Robert Fergusson. The correspondence they had is posted at Cameron’s blog.

– An example of Hillsong deleting sin and repentance from their preaching and materials is their deletion of “turn from their wicked ways” from a quotation of 2 Chronicles 7:14 found on the CD cover of their album “Hillsong Live – Mighty To Save”

– Cameron wants people to know about the problems with the gospel that Hillsong preaches especially because they have a number of churches found all over the world.

– Even Hillsong’s good songs leave huge gaps in a person’s understanding of the gospel.

– Hillsong has such a strong focus on marketing that they will have just about any big name out to speak at their conferences. Past speakers include: Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, TD Jakes, Bill Johnson, and Steven Furtick. It appears that the only common thread is a big name. The leadership of Hillsong is very pragmatic.

– A strong-sounding statement of faith can be a trojan horse to bring in bad doctrine. This is the greatest danger that Cameron worries about in regard to Hillsong.

– A couple of listener questions: Cameron’s analysis of this video, and what would Cameron suggest people who attend a Hillsong church (or similar) do, in light of God’s word. Also, what does think of some of Hillsong’s better songs?

Scriptures Referenced

– 2 Chronicles 7:14

– Titus 1:9

– Romans 16:17

– Galatians 1:8-9

Additional Resources

– The Bottom Line – Cameron’s Blog

– Once upon a Cross – Cameron’s ministry website

– Bob DeWaay: Bill Johnson, IHOP, & Ancient Heresy Reborn – Echo Zoe Radio Episode 46

– Debunking the Holy Ghost Movie – Chris Rosebrough (podcast)

Source: Cameron Buettel: Hillsong, Echo Zoe, http://www.echozoe.com/archives/3028#sthash.ZIrMakUz.dpuf, Published 13/09/2014. (Accessed 14/09/2014.)

Brian Houston Accused Of His “Continual Avoidance Of The Subject Of Repentance” (Part 1)

20 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by Nailed Truth in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Brian Houston Accused Of His “Continual Avoidance Of The Subject Of Repentance” (Part 1)

Tags

2 Corinthians, Brian Houston, Buettel, Cameron, Cameron Buettel, Corinthians, doctrine, Hillsong, houston, rat, repentance, rick warren, Saddleback, warren

Cameron Buettel writes,

Hillsong Pastor Brian Houston’s Continual Abuse Of Scripture

Brian Houston, senior pastor of Hillsong Church in Australia (and it’s rapidly expanding global empire) has just visited Saddleback Church in California which is just a couple of hours down the road from my current address. I became immediately interested when I found out that Houston would be preaching from 2 Corinthians 7:8-10. I had to ask myself how Brian Houston would preach from a passage explicitly about repentance:For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it – though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. 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 7:8-10).

Those who know me or are regular readers here know of the years I have spent pursuing Hillsong Church and its leaders over their relentless failure to preach the core salvation doctrine of repentance. Not only is this doctrine historically recognized as the necessary correlating partner to saving faith, it is also a core element of Hillsong Church’s very own doctrine statement (which is somewhat difficult to find, although this may be due to my severe lack of nerd capabilities). To quote from their “What We Believe” page:

We believe that in order to receive forgiveness and the ‘new birth’ we must repent of our sins, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and submit to His will for our lives.

Time and time again I have cited example afterexample of this violation of their own doctrine statement (several of the videos previously cited have since been removed). In fact, of the services I and others have attended, the books we have read, the CDs we have heard, and the videos we have downloaded or streamed, none of us have ever heard anything about repentance coming from any Hillsong source. Even if it has been preached on an occasion that I am not aware of (and I gave an open invitation to my many critics to prove me wrong with nothing ever forthcoming), such a core doctrine essential to salvation should be strongly evident in all their outreach arms. Hillsong even had the audacity to edit the Bible verse on the back cover of their “Mighty to Save” CD to sanitize repentance out of it (yes, they REMOVED the line from 2 Chronicles 7:14 that says “turn from their wicked ways”). Can anybody else smell a rat?

Fast forward to the Pastor Brian Houston’s sermon at Saddleback. I polled several friends and colleagues of mine at the Master’s Seminary (where I am a student) and asked them if they thought it was possible to preach a sermon out of 2 Corinthians 7:8-10 without mentioning the word repentance. None of them thought this to be possible but Brian Houston proved them all wrong. That’s right, he preached directly out of a passage that explicitly and obviously centers on repentance without even once talking about it. How did he get out of even mentioning repentance when reading the text itself? By switching to a very liberal translation (The Message) when he got to verse 9! Preachers are called to submit to the biblical text, not submit the biblical text to their own agenda. If you don’t believe me then you can see it for yourself (the translation switch happens at the 15:30 mark). Chris Rosebrough’s brutal review of the sermon can be heard here (start listening to the program at the 93 minute mark).

I cannot put into words my personal grief at seeing Houston butcher and pervert a passage of such immense beauty that describes the godly sorrow over sin that leads to repentance and salvation. Furthermore, he twisted the passage into something completely irrelevant to its obvious meaning from a plain reading. Brian Houston believes that the problems at Corinth were caused by Paul’s angry letter and that the Corinthians needed to make the decision to stop being bitter and wounded about it so that their pain would be “only for a while”. Earth to Brian! Houston we have a problem! Hello!!!!! Paul’s angry letter was written because of the incest (1 Corinthians 5:1), immorality (1 Corinthians 6:12-20), lawsuits between brethren (1 Corinthians 6:1-8), idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:1-14), and turning the communion table into a place of drunkenness and gluttony (1 Corinthians 11:17-22). The Corinthians grieved “only for a while” because Paul’s rebuke had brought about deep conviction and saving repentance in their lives. As I watched Houston’s sermon I was left wondering if he had even read Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. My criticism is not the deep theological insight of a Seminary student. It is the obvious conclusions of anyone who would take the time to read these letters in the same way that they read their own mail. It’s just not that difficult . . . unless you are determined to avoid the subject of repentance.

Oh how tragic that a church would pay a lot of money for a man to fly a long way and then obscure the glorious truth that is so obvious to anyone who would read that passage. It is perhaps almost as tragic that Brian Houston’s continual avoidance of the subject of repentance makes him oblivious to his own need to repent. And repentance of the unbiblical nonsense he is preaching is the single greatest contribution he could presently make to the Body of Christ . . . . . that and keeping his mouth shut until he takes the time to read his Bible.

(Source: Cameron Buettel, Hillsong Pastor Brian Houston’s Continual Abuse Of Scripture, 
http://onceuponacross.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/hillsong-pastor-brian-houstons.html, 17/01/2013. Accessed 21/01/2013.)

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