UNHOLY ALLIANCES: HAVING THOSE UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS WITH YOUR CHURCH
The 2013/2014 conference circuit makes for some strange bedfellows. We’re trying not to get worked up about “guilt by association,” but at some point you just have to wonder how teachers of different “gospels” can find unity?
Saddleback’s Rick Warren is teaming up with Joel Osteen and “Bishop” T.D. Jakes for the Hillsong Conferencein Sydney, Australia,London, New York and Los Angeles. Who is Hillsong? The premiere Word of Faith church in Sydney. Word of Faith, or Word-Faith, is the name-it-and-claim-it prosperity gospel, which is no Gospel at all.
The Hillsong Conference website says the event is about “being refreshed and inspired and finding great strength and unity amongst the diversity of the local church worldwide.”
The diversity is certainly represented in the speaker docket, uniting and melding Word of Faith (T.D. Jakes, the Osteens, Hillsong Church), Purpose Driven/Drucker-designed big business (Rick Warren), Craig Groeschel and Judah Smith.
The Church is God’s solution for the earth. Jesus commissioned us to be builders of the Church, and the Church to be builders of people.”
Jesus – not the local church – is the solution for the sin of the world. But it would be great if the unified churches were united around preparing the Bride of Christ and equipping her for Him, rather than syncretizing all the trends of the last 30 years into one wide swath of relevance.
“Our prayer is that the twelve months leading into the twenty-thirteen Hillsong Conference gathering will be ‘crowned with His goodness and favor’ (Psalm 65) – and that the depth, breadth, reach and richness of true REVIVAL will be your portion. Our prayer is that our magnificent 2013 guests will again unleash and water the potential within our collective lives.”
Collective? True revival happens individually when we hear the Word of God rightly preached, and we are convicted by the Holy Spirit to repent of our sins and trust only in Jesus’ shed blood on the cross for our full pardon of sin, and His resurrection.
So how about it, Church? Are we having those uncomfortable conversations yet with our elders and pastors about the dangers of forming unholy alliances?
In the US, a popular Christian rapper Shai Linne recently wrote a song called Fal$e Teacher$. Knowing the song was going to be provocative, Shai Linne thoughtfully explained why he wrote this song.
The song itself is biblical, inspiring and thought provoking. What Shai Linne didn’t realise is that his song slammed both the C3 & Hillsong Word of Faith cults. In past years, the C3 cult has endorsed and invited Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, TD Jakes, Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland and many other false teachers. We know that Brian Houston endorses Phil Pringle’s C3 Cult Movement.
Brian Houston is also in the past endorsed and invited just as many dangerous false teachers including Joel Osteen, infamous modalist TD Jakes and Joyce Meyer. This year, TD Jakes and Joel Osteen are speaking again at Hillsong Conference among other dangerous teachers including Rick Warren, Judah Smith and Craig Groeschel. If you would like to research their dangerous doctrines, please examine the resources in our side bar. Apprising and Fighting For the Faith are good resources to start your research.
At this point it is worth you listening to Shai Linn’s song. (And possibly researching the false teachers mentioned.)
If you listened to the lyrics, the song names the following false teachers that are wreaking havoc on our Lord’s church:
Joel Osteen – false teacher! (Let them know)
Creflo Dollar is a false teacher! (Who else? Who else?)
Benny Hinn is a false teacher! I know they’re popular but don’t let them deceive ya! (Talk to them)
TD Jakes is a false teacher! (Tell the Truth)
Joyce Meyer is a false teacher! (Let them know)
Paula White is a false teacher! Use your discernment, let the Bible lead ya! (Keep going)
Fred Price is a false teacher! (Tell the Truth)
Kenneth Copeland is a false teacher! (Who else? Who else?)
Robert Tilton is a false teacher! I know they’re popular but don’t let them deceive ya! (Talk to them)
Eddie Long is a false teacher! (Let them know)
Juanita Bynum is a false teacher! (Who else? Who else?)
Paul Crouch is a false teacher! Use your discernment, let the Bible lead ya!”
Paula White’s son reacted to the song and wrote a public letter that criticised Shai Linne. While Chris Rosebrough from ‘Fighting For The Faith’ did not interview Shai Linne, he did dialogue with Jovan MacKenzie who is good associates with Shai Linne. MacKenzie discussed Shai Linne’s controversial rap. Listen here.
Source: Fighting For The Faith, Full Circle, http://www.fightingforthefaith.com/2013/04/full-circle.html, 19/04/2013.
MacKenzie really emphasised the destructive nature of false teachers in the church and how their false teachings have trashed, demonised, marginalised and sensored Christians from various denominations. The Hillsong and C3 Word of Faith cults are no different.
MacKenzie does a good job addressing the spiritual crimes false teachers are committing on the church.
MacKenzie: You know if I went on TV- if there were ten schools in my city that were molesting children and I came out every day and exposed another school, do you think any of these people are gonna hit me up and cry, “Hey man! I don’t think you should- I know they’re molesting kids but you really shouldn’t- you just shouldn’t do it. Maybe you should hit them up privately-” Or you know, “We all sin. Who are we to judge somebody for molesting kids? You know, I know it’s wrong but maybe you shouldn’t warn their parents”. But nobody would say that because we know that’s foolish.
Rosebrough: Right.
MacKenzie: … If I just say, well, you know, “Hey! There’s a school out there molesting kids. I don’t want to name names though. I just want to drop-” A lot of people say, “Well, you should expose the doctrine but not the person.”
“Well wait a minute! I did that with your kids and say, “Hey man! I’m not wanting these schools to molester kids.”
You’ll be like, “No. You need to tell me what school. Cos my kid goes to school and I need to know who’s molesting kids and I want to get my kid out of there and I want to sue as well.”
Rosebrough: Right.
MacKenzie: You know what I’m saying? So, so- it’s funny we do that with false teachers where they’re not blessing kids, they’re doing a lot worse. They’re molesting souls.
Rosebrough: Yeah?
MacKenzie: They’re molesting the Word of God. They’re switching the Word of God and so- It’s like we’re called to stand in love and be like, “Yo! We need to warn people”. There’s too many people that claim to be of the reformed space but they don’t have a- I’ll try say it in as nice as I can- they don’t have a backbone when it comes to standing for truth…
… We need to make sure that our own heart is right as well. You know, we don’t just need to go on a rampage and just expose for the sake of exposing. But expose because we love God and we love souls. Yeah, I definitely see that. There is not enough people that are shouting and coming against these guys. And my thing is, the worst days, the false churches, they have no problem telling you exactly what they believe. They don’t have any problem with spewing heresy. They’re bold when it comes to speaking their lies. But we’re not bold in speaking the truth. And that’s my problem right there.
Rosebrough: You’re absolutely right.
These are sobering thoughts. Something to consider – is the church at large, or more particularly those attending churches like C3 and Hillsong, loving God and neighbor by tolerating men like Phil Pringle and Brian Houston?
