Did you know that right after the Royal Commission (RC) in 2014, Brian Houston tried to claim clergy privilege, in order to protect himself from a possible police investigation (45)? Hillsong and Australian Christian Churches (ACC) are also joining this claim.
Did Brian not realise this undermines his testimony at the Royal Commission, his media statements and his book, “Live, Love, Lead”?
Rick Warren is famous for coining the phrase “Deeds not Creeds.” This anti-creedal statement of Warren indicates that he shows very little regard of the creeds. That is unless he can use them to give the impression he is a legitimate Christian minister.
In 2014, Hillsong leadership were quite relaxed in confessing that Hillsong is a non-creedal church. It was at Hillsong Conference 2015 this year where Rick Warren preached a rather anti-Christian message on how to hear from his god.
After Pulpit and Pen exposed Warren’s pagan teachings, Rick Warren now appeals that he does indeed affirm the Nicene Creed. This is just another slick attempt to keep his sheepskin in tact while he continues to destroy Christ’s church for his own selfish gain.
Nevertheless, Christianity Today continually fails to care about integrity when it comes to journalism or the Christian faith and allowed Justin S. Holcomb to use nice sounding arguments to say not much at all in defense of Rick Warren. If anything, it has only created more confusion over church history and clear definitions on words such as ‘heresy’ and ‘heterodoxy’. Thank you Christianity Today.
The below well written article exposes the game of Holcomb and Warren and calls out the deceit behind Christianity Today:
“It seems to be just another attempt by the Evangelical Intelligentsia to distract from the real issues–issues that are bringing destruction in the church, further leading Christianity astray. It’s their typical game strategy.” [Link added]
Paul warns the church that ravenous wolves will emerge from inside the church. The evil intentions of these men will only stop when God fearing Christians says enough is enough and call them out. Thank God for Maples.
Jeff Maples writes,
Christianity Today says Rick Warren’s Mysticism isn’t Heresy Because he affirms the Nicene Creed
Recently, I wrote an article addressing serious theological issues that the CEO of Saddleback Church, Rick Warren, preached at the Hillsong 2015 Conference. Apparently this article ruffled quite a few feathers, since it has almost five-thousand Facebook shares, and Hillsong even contacted me requesting that I remove the video of Rick Warren’s sermon from Youtube (even though it’s protected under the fair use act). Now it appears that Justin Holcomb at Christianity Astray Today has taken an opportunity to lash out at Pulpit & Pen, though without any substance. Though he didn’t mention our blog or my name, my article would seem to fit the description, along with his passive aggressive, stereotypical depiction of Pulpit & Pen. He writes:
A group of bloggers seeking reform in Southern Baptist circles recently decried pastor Rick Warren for teaching that God communicates to believers via dreams. The bloggers named Warren and other speakers at a 2015 Hillsong conference “heretical preachers that claim extra-biblical revelation from God.” To be sure, the nature of God’s revelation has been debated throughout church history, and overemphasis on dream interpretation can be theologically dangerous.
He then goes on into a rant about some British guy, of which I know nothing about, and will not comment on. However, his beef with us seems to be more about semantics than anything else. His approximately 3600-word article is dedicated to attacking Pulpit & Pen (and this other guy) about the use of the word “heresy.”
The article I penned at P&P in which appears to be the focus of Holcomb’s harangue is titled “Rick Warren Preaching Heresy at Hillsong 2015 Conference.” He then spends the rest of the article attempting to define the word, “heresy,” as well as trying to prove that what Rick Warren was teaching is, in fact, not heresy. He says:
But are these problems of heresy? Both complementarian and egalitarian leaders have taken to the Internet to call each other’s views on gender and leadership heresy. That, though their respective movements have officially existed for about 30 years.
If we stopped reading his article here, one might conclude that in order for a theological teaching to be considered heresy, it must be relatively new. However, we will see by continuing that that isn’t what he thinks. So my question would be, why mention it? If the length of existence of a given theological teaching had anything to do with it’s being considered heresy, then that would have made all of Jesus’ teachings “heresy,” in which we know is not the case–at least not from a Biblical believer’s point of view.
However, Mr. Holcomb later asserts his definition of the word as follows:
Heresy, as historian David Christie-Murray explains, is a belief that denies a doctrine “officially defined” as orthodoxy…For example, according to Protestants, the Catholic teaching that Mary was born without original sin and remained a virgin for life is heterodox. It’s not heresy, because Catholics affirm orthodox Christology…However, Oneness Pentecostalism is an example of heresy, because it rejects historic orthodox Trinitarian theology.
And then goes on to conclude,
If a believer genuinely accepts the Nicene Creed, they should not be dubbed a heretic.
Okay, there are a number of problems with this. First, I would ask him that since the pope of the Catholic Church affirms the Nicene Creed, should he not then be labeled a heretic? This is assuming, of course, that he believes the Catholic Church to be a false church that teaches a false gospel. However, according to his definition, the pope affirms the trinity and other “orthodox” teachings set out at the council of Nicea, and, therefore, should not be labeled a heretic.
But is this the proper, biblical use of the word heresy?
First of all, let’s be clear, there was no Nicene Creed while the New Testament was being written. It did not exist. The Nicene Creed was established about 300 years later after the New Testament Canon was closed. So when Paul referred to heretics in his epistles, he wasn’t referring to people who didn’t affirm the Nicene Creed. Paul says in Titus 3:10m
As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, (ESV)
and the KVJ translates it as,
A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;
The Greek word translated here as one who stirs up division, or “heretick,” (as the KJV translates it), is “αἱρετικός,” or “hairetikos.” Thayer’s Greek Lexicon defines the word as:
1. fitted or able to take or choose a thing
2. schismatic, factious, a follower of a false doctrine
3. heretic
So what is “false doctrine?” Obviously Paul isn’t referring to simple disagreements over non-essentials in Titus 3:10. But Holcomb is attempting to make a biblical definition of the word “heresy” that equates to a more distinguished use of the word than that of the standard definition, which is basically, “a choice.” This is fine, as I am attempting to do the same thing, however, Holcomb’s “biblical” definition fails, as it is not consistent with biblical usage. He has narrowed the term down too far in order to avoid usage on those whom it should apply biblically.
Peter actually gives us a better picture of the biblical usage of the word in 2 Peter 2:1,
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
So basically, a heresy, according to Peter, is a “destructive doctrine,” or a doctrine that will lead someone to “destruction.” Again, there was no Nicene Creed during this time, and I simply don’t see any biblical support for limiting Paul and Peter’s usage of the word to those who would only deny certain declarations of it. For example, the Nicene Creed doesn’t even touch upon soteriology, yet the doctrine of salvation is by far the most important doctrine of the Christian faith. While all aspects of the Nicene Creed are important and essential, it is rather limited in its scope. The Roman Catholic Church, as well as any other sect that asserts a false gospel, or a false way of salvation, or any other teaching that could lead one down the wrong road to destruction, would clearly be considered heretical by biblical standards.
So back to Rick Warren, in whom Mr. Holcomb believes should not be referred to as a heretic. I would then ask, why not? Is not what he teaches dangerous? Is not teaching that the Bible is insufficient for hearing from God a destructive doctrine (2 Timothy 3:16-17)? Is not contemplative prayer, and other practices of mysticism and divination strictly forbidden in Scripture? Are these practices not linked with idolatry and rejection of God (1 Samuel 15:23)?
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. – Matthew 7:13
Perhaps Mr. Holcomb doesn’t see Rick Warren’s teachings as dangerous. To his credit, he does say “Traditionally a heretic is someone who has compromised an essential doctrine, usually by oversimplification, and has thus lost sight of who God truly is or what he has done for us.” I would agree with him on that statement, however, it appears he doesn’t see mysticism, contemplative/centering prayer or denying the sufficiency of Scripture as an essential doctrine.
Or does he?
It’s unclear because he goes through a number of false teachings that, although he refuses to call them “heresy,” he refers to them as “heterodox.” Is there practically any distinction between the two words? Traditionally, historically, maybe–slightly. But Holcomb, again, writes a 3600-word article refuting my use of the word “heresy” in favor of the word “heterodox,” in which there is no practical argument to be made. It’s clear that the biblical definition of the word fits much more than he is willing to acknowledge and is a proper term to fit Rick Warren’s practices. But even if it weren’t, what is the point of his article? What purpose did it serve? It seems to be just another attempt by the Evangelical Intelligentsia to distract from the real issues–issues that are bringing destruction in the church, further leading Christianity astray. It’s their typical game strategy.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. – Proverbs 14:12
A few months ago, Jeff Maples from Pulpit and Pen did an article exposing Rick Warren’s heresy at Hillsong Conference 2015.
As usual, whenever someone critiques Hillsong and it’s teachers, Hillsong attempts to hide or remove the content at whatever cost. You will notice that Hillsong have removed Rick Warren’s message from YouTube.
Quick reminder on how Hillsong works:
If you expose Hillsong (or CHC) of heresy with sound bites – they accuse you of maliciously slandering them by taking crying someone has taken them out of context. They then put defamation notices against their critics.
If you put up entire messages in context – they accuse you of breach of copyright and do everything they can to shut you down so that the content is removed.
If they can’t get you this way, they will attempt other means necessary to silence or discredit you.
Maples writes,
Rick Warren Preaching Heresy at Hillsong 2015 Conference
At the Hillsong 2015 Conference in Sydney, Australia, where Rick Warren shared a stage with other heretics such as Joseph Prince, Warren teaches that he receives extra-biblical revelations through subconscious dreams. The theme of the Word of Faith conference that Rick is speaking at is “Speak Lord, I’m listening.” This is fitting since all of the speakers at this conference are heretical preachers that claim extra-biblical revelation from God.
He starts out by twisting Exodus 4:3 regarding Moses’ encounter with God, and God commanding Moses to throw down his staff while God miraculously turns it into a serpent, and then pick it back. He says that this passage represents that Christians today need to throw down their income and identity and let God do something miraculously with it. He says:
Hearing the voice of God starts with a willingness to give up his identity, his income, and his influence, for the global Glory of God. When you do that, you are now in a position to hear God speak.
He says that the prerequisites to hearing from God are “believing that he cares about the details of your life,” and that you must “believe that God wants to answer your questions, confusions, quandaries and problems.” He then reads Habakkuk Chapter 1 and 2 and says that this passage lays out a strategy for hearing from God. While reading, and holding up his counting fingers while reading, he says the following:
In Habakkuk, we find the model for hearing the voice of God…These are the five things you do to hear the voice of God… [1] I will climb up in my watchtower, [2] and I will wait, [3] and I will look to see what the Lord will say, then the Lord gave me this answer [4] write down what I reveal to you, [5] so that you may read it.
Watch, as he tells the audience that he often asks God questions before he goes to bed, the Holy Spirit works on him, then he wakes up with an answer.
While emotionally and repeatedly restating the conference theme, “Speak Lord, I’m listening,” in an effort to draw the crowd into an emotionally submissive state of mind, he goes on to say that these will become second nature to you if you practice all your life. “You must station yourself,” he says, “you don’t move… God speaks to those who wait on him.” “You calm your body, you calm your mind, and you calm your emotions… you relax your body.” He then recites Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God,” as a proof for this. He then teaches taking deep breaths while stretching and relaxing your muscles, and getting comfortable. His next statement says it all:
Until you get comfortable with silence, you will never, ever, ever, hear the voice of God…the inner-calm gives me the intercom to God…the inner channel to hearing the voice of God.
He goes on expounding on this for quite some time. Then, surprisingly he says that God speaks to us through his Word, however, he then contradicts himself by saying that in addition to this, God speaks to us through mental images and visions. This isn’t Christianity, this is mysticism. Rick Warren has been on a downhill path for a number of years, but this is outright heretical teaching.
And to the angel of the church in Sardis [Hillsong, Saddleback, Lakewood, etc.] write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.’ – Revelation 3:1
You can see the entire “sermon” below.
Source: By Jeff Maples, Rick Warren Preaching Heresy at Hillsong 2015 Conference, Pulpit & Pen, Published 05/07/2015. (Accessed 09/05/2015.)
“[…] and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD your God.” Numbers 15:39-41 (Emphasis ours)
Hillsong is a classic example of what idolatrous Israel looked like in the Old Testament. In similar fashion, Hillsong are following after their own hearts and their own eyes, which they have inclined to “whore after”. The result of this never ends well.
In departing from the Word of God, they are prone to wonder into paganism, which sadly, this article will examine. Which pagan religion is Hillsong whoring after? The answer is the pagan religion of Roman Catholicism.
If Hillsong really take their worship “in spirit and in truth” seriously and want to be considered a Christian church, they will need to start cleaning up their beliefs and those they invite to speak at their conferences.
We really do hope Brian Houston and Hillsong really are listening, because at the moment, nothing can be further from the truth. This article will be looking at the speakers that “preached” at Hillsong Conference 2015, proving that Hillsong do not hear from God as their advertising suggests.
Before reading this article, we strongly suggest that you read Hillsong unashamedly and unethically manipulating Christians to embrace pagan Roman Catholicism (often through ecumenism):
Rick Warren recently spoke at Hillsong Conference 2015.
He said the following shocking statement in a Catholic video while referring to Catholics and Protestants, (see link to previous article):
“The most important thing is, if you love Jesus we’re on the same team.” [Source]
Muslims love ‘Jesus’ and Mormon’s love ‘Jesus’. Does this mean that Warren includes them on his team? Catholics also love ‘Jesus’, in fact this is a picture of the Catholic ‘Jesus’ (Eucharist) in the flesh, in a golden Monstrance.
Warren seems to think that this is the same Jesus of the Bible. However, if you love the Catholic ‘Jesus’ then you love an idol.
All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame. Isaiah 44:9
We showed in a previous article that the Roman Catholic Church teaches that the Eucharist turns into the actual flesh of Jesus.
Rick Warren is openly supporting the Catholic Church and Hillsong openly embrace him. Surely Warren would have nothing to do with the worship of an idol like the Monstrance right?
Wrong! This photo is from the ‘Proclaiming the Gospel’ Newsletter, September 2014 issue and it clearly shows that Warren has no problem in watching Catholic television and the worship of the Monstrance!
Here is the full video that shows Warren’s shocking support for the Catholic Church including calling Pope Francis, ‘our Pope’ and saying, ‘If you love Pope Francis, you’ll love Jesus”! This video is worth watching in full.
This is an example of Warren’s favourite TV show, ‘The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy’. Notice how the entire show revolves around praying to the blasphemous idol Monstrance, another Jesus.
So the question needs to keep being asked why Hillsong keeps Rick Warren to teach in their church?
This Twitter post is another example of Warren’s true position on how he views the Pope. Is not God our Father?
“And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.” Matthew 23:9
This Twitter post shows Warren promoting ‘Evangelical Catholicism’, saying that it should be read by all Christian leaders!
Source: Stand Up For the Truth, http://standupforthetruth.com/2013/03/is-rick-warren-promoting-catholic-evangelicalism/. (Accessed 03/12/14.)
So what is Rick Warren? Is he a Christian or a Roman Catholic? For him to flipflop over something this important only reveals that he is “unstable in all his ways”.
“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:8
This next video shows Warren supporting the ‘Catholic come home’ campaign.
So what is Rick Warren? A Christian or a pagan Roman Catholic? This is important to consider when you read these next twitter posts from Rick Warren
This shows that Warren believes leadership has nothing to do with ‘what you do’, or leading by example. (This teaching would have suited Frank Houston’s ministry, no accountability for any actions. It also suits Brian Houston’s approach in dealing with his father and his choice to preach a twisted gospel.)
JOSEPH PRINCE
Hillsong Conference 2015 also had Joseph Prince speak. Brian Houston’s close friend is also leaning toward Catholicism.
Watch this next video as Joseph introduces blasphemous ‘Mother Grace’ doctrine. Joseph Prince is more subtle than Warren when it comes to promoting Catholicism; however he is just as dangerous.
Prince”…Having the same mother. We have the same Heavenly Father and the same mother grace, and our mother is not law.”
This is what Prince says about repentance in one of his best sellers, “Destined to reign, The secret to effortless success, wholeness and victorious living”.
“Stop examining yourself and searching your heart for sin” [Page 187]
“There are still people who insist that we have to preach on repentance. Well, I disagree!” [Page 232]
Please watch this wonderful video of Justin Peters explaining how speaking things into existence is blasphemous. The video at 37:30, includes Joseph Prince explaining his version of repentance.
According to Joseph Prince, we receive everything back even to overcome death itself, by the work of ‘eating’!
“One time the Lord spoke to me… How can a small piece of bread and a cup make all the difference in the world? The simple act of eating and the Lord says, ‘All the tragedies known to men, all the cancer, the diabetes, the heart disease, high blood pressure, depression, even poverty even death it’s self all came about because of Adam simple act of eating from the wrong tree’. If that is so doesn’t it stand to Holy reason then that God would, through the last Adam, Jesus Christ, cause us to receive everything back from the simple act of eating, mmmmm Amen.” Source: Joseph Prince, Sermon: ‘Health and wholeness through the Holy Communion’, (Disc 5 DVD series.)
“Only those who are saved are the ones chewing His flesh, drinking His blood”. Source: Joseph Prince, Sermon: ‘Health and wholeness through the Holy Communion’, (Disc 5 DVD series.)
We do need to keep in mind that this may be a language issue. However, the parallels are there. Joseph Prince is again pushing pagan Roman Catholic doctrine, as the Roman Catholic Church teach that the Eucharist becomes Jesus in the flesh and that salvation is through the Eucharist.
MARTIN SMITH
Next we come to Martin Smith the former singer of Delirious, who was invited as a guest to Hillsong Conference 2015.
Smith fits right into Hillsong culture as Delirious performed at World Youth Day 2005, just as Hillsong did in 2008.
Not only did they perform but they were even included in the official Catholic, World Youth Day CD ‘Building One World’. (Note: the last time anyone tried to build ‘one world’ God intervened at the Tower of Babel.)
The Catholic building of ‘one world’ is all part of their ecumenical agenda of uniting all religions under themselves (and with a spokes person like Warren; they are well on their way of achieving their goals).
This is a screen shot from the Delirious? Web site promoting their performance and also showing the ‘Building One World’ album cover.
In a previous article we showed that Hillsong assisted the Catholics in worship to a false god and idol in 2008. Below are photos from World Youth Day 2005, showing the idol god that Martin Smith and Delirious? helped Catholic’s worship.
“At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.” Matthew 24:23
These are some blasphemous quotes that were spoken by the Pope at that same World Youth Day about the false god in the Eucharist and Monstrance. This is what Martin Smith is aligning himself with and supporting.
Prior to Mass, the Pope said the following:On Sunday 21st August 2005, the same day that Martin Smith performed.
“The new prayer – which the Church calls the “Eucharistic Prayer” – brings the Eucharist into being.”
“The Eucharist must become the centre of our lives.”
“This is because the Eucharist releases the joy that we need so much, and we must learn to grasp it ever more deeply, we must learn to love it.”
“Let us pledge ourselves to do this – it is worth the effort! Let us discover the intimate riches of the Church’s liturgy and its true greatness…”
“Through your love for the Eucharist you will also rediscover the Sacrament of Reconciliation, in which the merciful goodness of God always allows us to make a fresh start in our lives.”
Source of quotes: Pope, The Vatican, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2005/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20050821_20th-world-youth-day_en.html, Published 21/08/2005. (Accessed 26/07/2015.)
SO WHAT ARE WE SEEING AT HILLSONG?
Essentially what we are seeing at Hillsong are leaders leading with closed minds and closed bibles, following after pagan mystical experiences and slapping “Jesus” on anything that sounds spiritual. This is incredibly dangerous considering the men that he Houston family like to snuggle up to.
If Hillsong wants to be considered Christian in any way, shape or form, they need to break their Roman Catholic church connections.
This is an important thing to do considering the fact that Hillsong are sidelining Jesus at the expense of being in the “divine” presence of the pope himself.
Below are some recent comments of Bobbie Houston from her instagram page, showing that she thinks it’s “sweet” when one of her followers says how great it is that the Pope is reaching out to Hillsong and “we are one church in Christ. Makes me proud to be Catholic.”
Interestingly, it also shows that Brian and Joel Houston did in fact meet the Pope in 2008.
Hillsong continues to support and embrace Catholicism by not speaking out against it and embracing other “Christian” leaders who promote it.
If this is not enough, the Hillsong Conference FaceBook post shows that Hillsong are ‘excited’ to unite with Catholicism and that Hillsong are championing the cause of the local Catholic church.
If Hillsong is truly a Christian and Protestant church they would make a stand. Instead, they remain as “infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14).
Again and again, we have proven that Hillsong only care about accumulating people who “will not endure sound doctrine,”are only “wanting to have their ears tickled” and accumulating “for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires”.
So who was listening to God at Hillsong Conference 2015? The answer is: none.
“… preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” 2 Tim 4:2-4
NOTE: ALL SCREEN GRABS WERE TAKEN BEFORE 27/07/2015.
The Evangelical Industrial Complex interviewed Brian Houston while his Hillsong Conference was underway. This interview was a clear plug for Houston’s Conference and to bolster the Bible Society’s status.
A few important issues emerged while Mr Sandeman interviewed Brian Houston:
To be honest, we don’t like focusing on the celebrity world.
Sadly, because Hillsong makes a big deal of it, some people have contacted us privately and want us to start looking at the issues emerging with Hillsong and their desperate attempts to drag celebrities into their New Age movement. Many people have observed that Hillsong are leeching off the credibility of the celebrity to bolster their street cred in both the secular and Christian worlds.
Our apologies if this is not your type of article.
CARL LENTZ’ UNCHRISTIAN FOCUS ON BEIBER
The sin of Hillsong is made more apparent when you see they lack any form of Christian understanding of the Holy Spirit and biblical authority when dealing with celebrities that want to live their own way. While we hope people like Justin Beiber can find faithful churches that don’t flaunt their celebrity status and encourage them to live upright and normal lives, it is in the interest of our readers to see how Hillsong is failing in this duty. We can observe Hillsong’s floundering in being Christian leaders when we examine what their celebrities behave like.
The below article reveals how poor Hillsong’s “Christianity” is to people like Beiber. After making “spectacular mistakes”, Carl Lentz has been reported saying that Beiber had come halfway around the world to make sure “his heart is right” to attend the annual Hillsong Mecca conference.
So according to Lentz, Beiber is going to Hillsong Conference to make sure “his heart is right?”
Lentz is out of line
First of all, Lentz is out of line from Hillsong’s standards in judging the heart. According to Hillsong’s idea of God only judging the heart, Lentz is now playing God.
Hillsong continually reinforces the idea that no one can judge another person because only God can judge the heart. Once again, Hillsong has exposed themselves of this double standard where only the leaders are a type of “God,” judging the hearts of their followers. This time, it was Carl Lentz publicly announcing his judgment on Justin Beiber’s heart. This is a form of spiritual abuse that can manipulate members to do what the pastor wants. In this case Lentz is using Beiber’s heart to manipulate him to come to Hillsong Conference Australia. Our opinion is that he is using him to sell Hillsong Conference Australia (which worked).
The reason why we say this is because Hillsong Conference is also in America. Why couldn’t Beiber have simply attended that Conference and not the Sydney Conference?
Secondly, Lentz is out of line for disclosing personal information as Beiber’s pastor. His comment does not respect the privacy of Justin Beiber’s “spiritual walk.” It only makes Lentz look as though he enjoys this tabloid journalism experience.
RIghteousness taught by Christianity
The above is a very revealing comment considering Christians go to church to learn how God has made us right before Him through Christ and His finished work (the gospel). Christians rely on Christ’s work not just to make their hearts right before God but their entire lives. This is called sanctification and this means our spirit, mind, heart, soul and our lives are transformed for the glory of God.
Righteousness taught by Hillsong
Carl Lentz is promoting not the gospel but legalism which is the antithesis of the Christian message (salvation by works). We can’t make our hearts right before God on our own. Beiber flying to his spiritual Mecca to make his heart right before God is a useless ritual that can send him to hell and will still make him live a life of unrepentance. Lentz spouted nothing but neo-pagan mysticism, a worldly teaching which Hillsong is guilty of promoting for decades through their “worship experiences”. And thankfully, some seculiar media outlets are now seeing that Beiber is involved in a New Age movement.
As you can see, holiness and repentance of sins was NOT preached at Hillsong Conference and Beiber clearly made “his heart right” on his own terms. Tell us, can you see God working in his life after his Mecca experience?
One has to ask how on earth Carl Lentz is pastoring this poor soul.
The Daily Telegraph reports,
Justin Bieber just ‘wants to make his heart right’ says Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz
JUSTIN Bieber revealed his renewed religious fervour yesterday, declaring at Sydney’s Hillsong conference: “I was blind but now I see.”
The pop megastar came to Australia to be part of the congregation and not to preach but, as well as quoting the lines from John 9:25, Bieber spoke to #hillsong-backstage, telling its online audience: “I love you guys. Jesus loves you.”
The man behind Bieber’s surprise visit, New York’s Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz, said, after making “spectacular mistakes”, the 21-year-old had come halfway round the world to make sure “his heart is right”.
Speaking at the Hillsong Sydney Conference the pastor, who counts stars like Bono, Vanessa Hudgens and Stephen Baldwin among his church members, described his relationship with Bieber as like “regular friends who talk all the time”.
The ‘rock star’ Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz. Picture: Instagram
Justin Bieber at Hillsong in Sydney. Picture: Instagram
The former college dropout who found God in Sydney and went on to be named as one of 37 people under the age of 35 reshaping the world by Esquire magazine, spoke candidly about his relationship with Bieber, who was brought up a Christian.
“We met when Justin was 14 after his mum reached out and we’ve become close from that day. He’s a part of our lives and has lived with us for weeks on end,” Lentz, 36, said.
Attendees gather outside Acer Arena where the Hillsong Church is holding a week long convention.
Lentz, whose met his Australian wife in Sydney, said it was amazing Bieber was so “kind and normal”.
“I can’t even explain the suffocating nature of the kind of fame that he has. If he’s going through something horrible, we’ll talk about it. If he makes a decision where I think he could have done something wiser, we’ll talk about it,” he said.
Lentz was adamant his 21-year-old pal was on the right path: “He flew halfway round the world at the busiest time of the year for him just for a church conference. It shows you what matters to him.”
Justin Bieber yesterday told #hillsongbackstage that Lentz had changed his life. Picture: Instagram
Justin Bieber and Carl Lentz have known each other since Justin was 14. Picture: Instagram/Judah Smith
Sydney Olympic Park is not known as a rock star hangout but Bieber has made the five-star Pullman hotel at Homebush his low-key base for his low-key visit, next to the Allphones Arena where the conference has attracted delegates from around the world at $350 each.
Hillsong founder Brian Houston told the congregation that it left a $1.3 million shortfall in the cost and prayed for people to be generous and donate. The church he set up in Sydney 30 years ago is now bigger in the US than Australia.
Bieber yesterday told #hillsongbackstage that Lentz had changed his life and, while this was his first Hillsong conference, it would not be his last: “I’m having a great time. It’s pretty awesome.
“The music is incredible. What they are doing is incredible, I support it 100 per cent.”
I want to say thank you to Church Watch for inviting me to write about my experience protesting Brian Houston’s deception at Hillsong Melbourne today. I hadn’t been planning to do so, but the exercise was useful for me in processing my own experience. Also, I just want to be really clear that I’m not a Christian, do not attend any church, and am not affiliated with Church Watch, but instead have graciously been asked to write a guest post.
Hillsong protester: Benjamin Ady
For a bit of background, feel free to read my post about my experience of being deceived by Brian Houston, Australia’s most powerful celebrity pastor, here http://burningreligion.com/2015/07/07/my-experience-of-being-deceived-by-australias-most-powerful-celebrity-pastor/ . In short, I spearheaded what grew into a massive media campaign in Australia to protest Hillsong Church giving misogynist and abusive ex-megachurch-pastor Mark Driscoll a gigantic public platform at Hillsong Conference in Sydney a couple of weeks ago. Under gigantic pressure, Hillsong’s senior pastor Mr. Houston agreed to not have Mr. Driscoll appear at the conference. Then he went ahead and interviewed Mr. Driscoll at the conference anyway. In retrospect, one can see that his public announcement that he was cancelling Mr. Driscoll’s appearance was very carefully worded so as to lead protestors and Australian media to believe Mr. Driscoll would no longer be appearing at the conference at all, whereas hidden in the details of his deceptive and misleading language was a loophole he’d left himself whereby he could interview Driscoll on camera, offsite from the conference, and then broadcast the interview at the conference and still not have technically “lied”.
I found this obvious deception quite outrageous, and given that I’d actually shown up at Hillsong Melbourne services with a gigantic “Thank you for listening and cancelling Driscoll’s appearance” sign, I felt I really couldn’t just let the deception go, but for my own sake, and because I want to live in a world where popular spiritual leaders can’t just completely get away with lying to the public, I felt I had to go back one more time to retract my thanks and publicly say “Brian Houston lied to me”. Some friends of mine in Melbourne, 3 Christians including one pastor, also found the deception outrageous and agreed to join me in protesting it. So the four of us stood outside Hillsong Melbourne Worship services this morning with our protest signs. Here’s a photo of us.
The fourth member of our little group, my wife Meg, is taking the photo. Here’s another including her.
Here’s the protest signs right after they were made the other night
And here’s the other very silly one referencing Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” we made a bit later.
As you can see, we intended to protest with good humor =).
Some things I realised/noted/learned:
One thing that struck me today was the gigantic gulf between the take of so many people I know, who found Mr. Houston’s deception quite outrageous, and the take of every single Hillsong insider to whom I spoke today, which involved justifying and minimising and denying Mr. Houston’s deception. My brilliant friend Alister Pate helped me understand this gulf in terms of M. Scott Peck’s framework from “The Road Less Traveled”, which proposes 4 stages of human spiritual development.
As at my previous protests at Hillsong, 98%+ of people going into and out of Hillsong services basically entirely ignored us. I’m trying to understand this from their perspective, and it makes sense to me. I think most people probably just aren’t in the psycho-emotional space, most of the time, to engage with protestors. I mean I think the vast majority of Hillsong Church goers are probably reasonably nice people who are involved with Hillsong each for their own reasons, and that likely most of these reasons are fairly excellent and reasonable. Most people just aren’t like me. If I see a protester at something, I’m instantly overwhelmed with curiosity, and massively attracted to that person, whatever they might be protesting, because I see in them a kindred spirit who has the psycho-emotional capacity to be an unafraid outspoken outsider. It takes a certain amount of fortitude and energy to do this sort of thing and ask people to engage with you when you know most of them are going to disagree. I’m okay with most people being different from me and not wanting to engage.
My other realisation, about myself, this morning, is that I’m totally done with Hillsong/Mr. Houston now. I’ve spent the last 10 weeks or so engaging with them, to the best of my ability–first in asking them not to give this abusive ex-pastor, Mr. Driscoll, a platform, then in saying thank you when they acquiesced, then finally in publicly calling them out when it turns out they lied. This has sucked up a lot of my energy and time, and a chunk of my money as well. I thought for a long time that Hillsong/Mr. Houston and I were having a civil conversation of sorts. But when Mr. Houston lied, and then when all the insiders I spoke to at Hillsong Melbourne this morning (the <2% of folks who did engage) mostly spent the conversation defending, minimising, and denying Mr. Houston’s deception, as well as trying to proselytise me, psychoanalyse me, tell me I was robbing myself, and changing the subject, I realised I’m no longer willing to keep trying to have a civil conversation with these folks. I’m very happy to gently cut them right out of my life, in order to create space for more delicious, engaging, authentic folks. So you likely won’t see me writing/posting about, protesting, or otherwise engaging with Hillsong Church any further for the foreseeable future, unless something changes quite radically on their side of the conversation. I’m usually fairly happy to, as my friend Jim Henderson (author of “Question Mark, Why the Church Welcomes Bullies and How to Stop It”, which I highly recommend) puts it, stay in the room with difference. But not indefinitely with toxic difference.
Hillsong prides itself in being “relevant.” Brian Houston insists that the church must change it’s methods, or die. Yet it is because of this very reason that there is no accountability for “Pastors” in these institutions. After Brian Houston’s deceitful stunt by misleading people into believing he uninvited Driscoll to speak only to have him speak in a prerecorded interview at Hillsong Conference 2015, many believers and non-believers alike feel they can’t trust these so-called “religious leaders.”
The reason why we do give non-believing voices on this site is because so few Christians are standing up to this corrupt new religion that masquerades itself as Christianity. When you read this piece below by Benjamin Ady, please note how this way of doing “new church” is actually no church at all. Ady’s observations about Houston are spot on.
My experience of being deceived by Australia’s most powerful celebrity pastor
This is a guest post from my friend Benjamin Ady. Benjamin lives in Australia. He is an atheist. He is an honest, caring and extremely intelligent guy. He also spearheaded the campaign to remove Mark Driscoll from the Hillsong Conference, which is something concerned Christians should have done. The campaign worked, that is, until the senior pastor of Hillsong reneged on his promise, and interviewed Driscoll anyway. I asked Benjamin to tell the story.
My name is Benjamin Ady. I lived in Seattle Washington from the age of 13, in 1987, almost continuously until late 2009, when I and my small family moved to Melbourne, Australia. I grew up as part of a very small, very sectarian Christian church which was part of a large, loose network of such churches in the United States call the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist churches–known to survivors of such churches as IFB. I grew up inundated and surrounded by the Christian Scriptures, which were of great import to my small community, and memorised large sections of the New Testament and some from the Old Testament. I realised years later, when I got a slightly wider view of the world, that I’d been given a really delicious educational gift, as the entire literature and history of the US/Anglo culture is infused with the stories of the Old and New Testaments, and I recognise every single allusion.
In 2007/2008, I gradually completed a transition/deconversion out of Christianity. I had been aware of this deconversion process for a while, and one day while in conversation with my good friend Nathalie, I realised I no longer believed Jesus rose from the dead, and that as such, I could really no longer in any sense call myself a Christian. (I acknowledge here that there are of course very small communities of people within worldwide Christianity who do call themselves Christians and yet don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead, and I don’t have any argument with or judgement against these people.) For me, the transition out of Christianity correlated with a much larger internal transition from the long term personal experience of fairly high levels of anxiety and depression and a sense of worthlessness and purposelessness toward my experience now, which is one of rather an enormous amount of joy and a much greater skill in loving myself and other people.
Now that I’ve given a tiny bit of context–on to the story! Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, I and a number of both Christian and not-Christian friends of mine in Seattle were keeping our eyes on a growingly successful megachurch pastor in Seattle–Mark Driscoll. Mark’s church, Mars Hill, grew to 15,000 members across more than a dozen campuses mostly in Seattle by 2013/2014. This all happened in the 2nd least churched city in the United States. As my friend Jim Henderson points out in his book “Question Mark: Why the church Welcomes Bullies and How to Stop It”, Mark was almost entirely attracting young people who had a lot of desire for certainty and black/whiteness in a culture and more specifically in a city that was increasingly embracing post-modernism and rather a gigantic palette of shades of gray. The problem was that as young people, these folks mostly lacked the life-experience to recognise in Mark Driscoll an abusive, violent bully–something which was exceedingly and increasingly obvious to those of us with a bit more life experience.
In 2014, much of Mark Driscoll’s long term pattern of terrible, abusive behaviour became, through a series of events, much much more public. Among the scores of former staff members and thousands of former church members who had been treated really hideously, a brave and amazing group of folks emerged who decided that they were done with seeing ever more young people who were abused and driven right out of Christianity and would probably never return. In 2014 these folks finally gained enough of a voice and enough exposure that by the end of 2014, Mars Hill Church literally disintegrated and ceased to exist as an entity. An internal group of pastors were tasked with investigating formal charges which were brought against Mr. Driscoll, and just before the results of the their investigation could be made public, Mark Driscoll “audibly heard the voice of God” telling him to resign. The results of that investigation were suppressed (and still haven’t been made public) by a tiny group of wealthy powerful men whom Mark Driscoll had connived to leave holding all the power in this gigantic, multi-million dollar organisation.
Almost immediately after the disintegration of Mars Hill, Mark Driscoll began his clearly well planned comeback. Ignoring the trauma and pleas of his thousands of victims, a number of powerful mega-church pastors throughout the US began inviting Driscoll to speak at their churches. He and they worked together to spin a narrative in which Driscoll himself was the victim, and all those people he had abused were themselves the abusers, refusing to forgive him and therefore obviously not genuine followers of Jesus. Mega-church pastors even broke down in tears as they empathised with the terrible way this multi-millionaire former mega-church pastor had so narrowly escaped the results of the investigation by his own church’s pastors via God audibly speaking to him telling him to resign.
The crown jewel of Mark Driscoll’s comeback tour was an appearance at the conference of the most powerful and popular church in Australia–Hillsong. It’s widely known in Australia that Hillsong has inroads to the highest level of both NSW state government and the federal Australian government, with the prime minister and other highly placed politicians having attended and spoken at their annual conference in years past. In fact, so great is their power that when the senior lawyer for the Royal Commission into Institutional child sexual abuse recommended last year that their senior pastor, Brian Houston, be investigated by the NSW police for breaking the law in failing to report his pedophile father, HIllsong’s founding pastor Frank Houston, to the police, he was utterly ignored. It’s very convenient for Hillsong and Brian Houston that the NSW police commissioner is a friend of the Houston family who attended Frank Houston’s funeral, during which Frank was lionised, and during which Frank’s history of sexually abusing minors in the church was described as “some big mistakes”.
Not only is Hillsong powerful in Australia–they’re also gigantic in the United States, where hundreds of thousand of churches and scores of millions of Christians sing and buy Hillsong’s enormously popular praise and worship music. Long before moving to Australia myself, I had heard of Hillsong because I myself, and the super-conservative, fundamentalist church I grew up in, loved their worship music and used it regularly during worship services. Given all this–one can easily see why an appearance at Hillsong’s annual conference was all Mark Driscoll could have imagined in his sweetest dreams, as part of his comeback tour. This appearance would grant him a level of kudos, glory, and religious power-currency unavailable almost anywhere else on the planet. It would be akin to a disgraced band being invited to open for U2 or Taylor Swift.
As a person from Seattle now living in Australia, and with personal friends who had been terribly abused and hurt by Mark Driscoll, I felt very unhappy about Driscoll’s appearance at Hillsong Conference here in Australia. It was almost as if this toxic ex-pastor, having been basically kicked out of Seattle, was now following me with his toxic, abusive Christianity all the way down here to Australia. So I decided to see if I couldn’t get his appearance cancelled. Honestly, I thought chances were slim to zilch. I’m just a regular working fellow with a middling income and hardly any wealth, and putting myself up against the gigantic power structure and vast wealth of Hillsong, coupled with the wealth, power, and still-in-some-circles popularity of Mark Driscoll seemed fairly futile. Nevertheless, I decided to give it my best go.
In the 8-10 weeks before the HIllsong Conference in Sydney in late June this year, I devoted about 100 hours and about $500, along with all the creativity and networking I could muster, towards this end. I ended up connecting with a number of Hillsong insiders and outsiders who seemed to be very much on board with the idea of getting Driscoll’s appearance cancelled. Finally, much to my surprise, delight, and amazement, just a few weeks before the conference, a media firestorm erupted. Suddenly, there were gigantic, powerful groups jumping in on my side, and again, amazingly, much to my enormous surprise and delight, and under enormous pressure from pro-women groups and powerful media figures, as well as, no doubt, a number of highly placed people including leaders within his own church, Brian Houston acquiesced to our request and agreed to cancel Driscoll’s appearance at the conference. His decision to cancel Driscoll’s appearance was widely reported in newspapers in both Australia, the United States, and the UK.
As you can imagine, Driscoll’s many victims in Seattle were amazed and delighted, as were the many pro-women Hillsong Insiders and Outsiders who had joined our campaign. Just as his appearance at Hillsong Conference was the crown jewel in Driscoll’s comeback plan, his rejection from that same conference represented a gigantic speed bump in his comeback. Given Hillsong’s vast popularity in the United States, their cancellation of his appearance would certainly very much mute plans for his appearance at even more megachurches in the US in the future. We were actually genuinely delighted for Driscoll himself, as we hoped that the cancellation of his appearance would provide a space and opportunity for him to more fully appreciate and understand the breadth and depth of his abusive behaviour and to move towards genuine change and genuine apologies to and reconciliation with his victims, many of whom he has ongoingly refused to interact with despite their ongoing attempts to reach out to him over the years.
In the context of all of the above, you can imagine my shock upon hearing, on the 3rd day of my annual vacation time with my little family, that Brian Houston had actually decided to go ahead with an interview with Mr. Driscoll at Hillsong Conference anyway. It turns out in the end he had actively deceived me and the many other Australians who had jumped on board to pressure him to cancel Driscoll’s appearance, as well as the media, with a carefully worded announcement which we all understood to mean that Driscoll’s appearance was being cancelled, whereas technically reading the letter of the announcement Houston had left open a loophole, as it were, by means of which he could still record an interview with Driscoll and then broadcast it at the conference without having technically “lied”.
After having had a few days to get over my initial shock, and even to notice and gently laugh at myself for a certain amount of judgement towards Houston’s deception, I have reached the point where I can look at it slightly more dispassionately and ask with curiosity “Hmmmm. I wonder why he did that?”
Of course ultimately such a question can only be answered by Houston himself. But I have some thoughts on it. My initial conjecture involves cowardice. He wanted to do the interview, but didn’t want to have to face and deal with the public outrage–so he just lied. This seems quite a plausible explanation to me.
However, I don’t think it might be the whole story. This because having developed a few channels with Hillsong Insiders, I’ve heard another explanation. I’ve heard that Houston has communicated to high-level Hillsong insiders that the reasons revolve around a framework of insiders and outsiders. What I’ve heard is that Brian has expressed that if it had been church insiders who had run the campaign against Driscoll’s appearance, he would have been more open to actually cancelling Driscoll’s appearance. But instead, because the bulk of the pressure was brought by folks who were obviously church-outsiders, Houston felt that A. He didn’t really have to listen to a word we said and B. It was totally okay to intentionally deceive us.
Obviously I have no idea whether this latter explanation is true or not. But it strikes me as even more plausible than my first conjecture. It makes enormous sense to me. Houston is operating the largest, most powerful, and most successful church in a nation mostly composed of church outsiders–a nation where much more so than in the US most people look down a bit at the church and Christianity. It’s like the unchurchiness of Seattle, which is already very unusual for the United States, multiplied by 100 and made nationwide. To wit, the most recent prime minister of Australia was an openly declared atheist. It makes sense to me that in such a context, Houston would both enormously identify with and like Driscoll, and would have a kind of “f*** you” attitude towards critical church-outsiders trying to pressure him to do things in a certain way–an attitude that matches up quite well with Driscoll’s own attitude.
This is a bit of an eye opener for me. I had been operating from the belief that I was the underdog trying to have a conversation with the very powerful person. But it seems to me that at least in this interaction, he has seen himself as the underdog, and more-than-that, from that mindset, rather than trying to have a conversation with those of us he sees as critical bullies, he has kind of written us off–not worth trying to talk to. I honestly don’t know where that leaves us, but I have to say it’s really really not attractive, and really doesn’t seem at all like Jesus, who was at least willing to converse authentically with both outsiders and insiders, and who never, as best I can tell, acted out of cowardice.
Time and time again we have caught Brian Houston lying. We have caught him lying in his sermons, lying about God, lying about what the bible says, lying about what the gospel is, lying to the media about his church, lying about us and his critics, lying at the Royal Commission and lying in his media statements. (And Brian Houston wonders why no one understands him and his movement?)
So when we read his media statement regarding him supposedly dropping Mark Driscoll from speaking at his annual Hillsong Conference 2015, we saw right through his word games. We knew he was getting Mark Driscoll to speak somehow.
Now that Houston was publicly exposed of lying and not advertising Driscoll speaking at his conference, there is a new protest happening outside Hillsong Church, Melbourne this Sunday. This flyer gives more details.
The organiser of this protest writes,
Please bring protest signs. We will be protesting peacefully!
Under enormous pressure from pro women groups and others, Hillsong senior pastor Brian Houston was very deceptive about cancelling an interview with misogynist and abuser Mark Driscoll at Hillsong Conference. We demand that Brian Houston publicly fully admit his intentional deceit and publicly apologise both for his deceit as well as for giving a gigantic platform to abusive power monger Mark Driscoll.
As people can see, placards are being made for this event.
This information is also supplied from the Facebook page,
We’re here protesting today because Hillsong’s senior pastor, Brian Houston, deceived protestors and world-wide media about interviewing abusive and arrogant ex-pastor Mark Driscoll at Hillsong Conference in Sydney!
“And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk … You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong”
~Jesus, in Matthew 5:33-37, The Message
Under enormous pressure from pro-women groups and others, Hillsong senior pastor Brian Houston was very deceptive about cancelling an interview with misogynist and abuser Mark Driscoll at Hillsong Conference. We humbly request that Brian Houston publicly fully admit his intentional deceit and publicly apologise both for his deceit as well as for giving a gigantic platform to abusive power-monger Mark Driscoll.
Worldwide media reporting on this statement made it obvious that everyone understood this to mean that Mr. Driscoll would no longer be appearing at all at Hillsong’s Sydney Conference. However, Brian Houston deceitfully went ahead and interviewed Mr. Driscoll on camera and broadcast it at Hillsong Conference anyway, going back on the obvious intent and spirit of his statement. Mr. Houston allowed Mr. Driscoll to re-iterate Mr. Driscoll’s previous lie that most of his critics have been anonymous.
On behalf of people from various churches around Melbourne and others protesting here today, and people throughout the world who’ve told us they wish they could be here, thank you for taking the time to read this, Benjamin Ady — peopleagainstfundamentalism@gmail.com
Source: Handout Hillsong Mark Driscoll 2, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GYQHcbO4mmqq9OTkPY3ShF4fpWCHeHd7vgjzOd1h75I/edit, Accessed 11/07/2015.
It’s interesting that the offenses of Mark Driscoll are court-worthy considering his defamation, plagiarism and alleged misuse of church building funds, while Tanya Levin’s questionable minor offense against Hillsong has landed her in court.
The scriptures say,
“If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!” 1 Corinthians 6: 1-6
The anti-biblical stance of Brian Houston on such issues is rather telling of where he stands with biblical Christianity, Once again Houston exposes himself as a law unto himself.
Recently, Tanya Levin was arrested for supposedly trespassing on Hillsong property.
“Yesterday I was contacted by NSW Police and informed that the Fact Sheets following my arrest last week at Hillsong Conference were ready for collection, and that a court date has been set in around 6 weeks’ time.
Below is a copy of the charges, which is a matter of public record. It’s not for me to comment on the details of the fact sheets at this stage. What I can say is that police have monitored my social media activity and one needs to be wary about such things.
And that I never thought that ‘The Accused’ would ever really mean anything more to me than a fine Jodie Foster film.
Source: Tanya Levin, Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/ilikelevin/posts/989455431117061, Published 09/07/2015. (Accessed 09/07/2015.)
Hillsong is a classic example of what idolatrous Israel looked like in the Old Testament. In similar fashion, Hillsong are following after their own hearts and their own eyes, which they have inclined to “whore after”. The result of this never ends well.
As you can see, we intended to protest with good humor =).
Hillsong Church Watch 