Tag Archives: John MacArthur

Hillsong’s “trespasser” releases information on charges

10 Friday Jul 2015

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Brian Houston – shamed by God for his stupidity

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.

Brian Houston’s Inclusive Jesus rejects Tanya Levin

Tanya-Book-Brian-Houston-Live-Love-Leave

Tanya Levin wrote the following on Facebook,

“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.

tanya trespass fact sheet

Source: Tanya Levin, Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/ilikelevin/posts/989455431117061, Published 09/07/2015. (Accessed 09/07/2015.)

 

A staged protest against Mark Driscoll at Hillsong Conference 2015.

24 Sunday May 2015

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We have been emailed information about a certain event planned to take place at Hillsong Conference 2015.

Print, Promote & Protest

Print, Promote & Protest


 We would like to make it clear:

Mark Driscoll does NOT represent Fundamentalist Christianity but rather that of a cult leader. Although it appeared he began as a “fundamental Christian”, it was fundamental Christianity sounding the alarm of Mark Driscoll’s Emergent/Liberal progression. Not only does he still dabble in their liberal “tribal” notions and obfuscation games, Driscoll is firmly planted in the Purpose-Driven movement and had no problem espousing their vision casting and leadership-centered doctrines.

Mark Driscoll has run from discipline and now associates himself with Prosperity and Word of Faith churches such as Robert Morris’ Gateway Church, Brian Houston’s Hillsong and Joseph Prince’s New Creation Church. In fact, Mark Driscoll is now being discipled by the Word of Faith proponent Robert Morris of Gateway Church.

Even though Driscoll has marketed himself as fundamentally conservative, other conservative Christian leaders have stated, “It’s over. Marks [sic] should resign. Nobody should go to his church. He’s unqualified for ministry“.

We ask, is he switching camps to escape responsibility, accountability and discipline for his actions? Should we be surprised that Brian Houston has no problem with the ethical integrity of this man, by asking him to speak at Hillsong? This issue is not Fundamentalism – we are dealing with cult leaders abusing their positions and thus getting away with abusing people.

We hope Christians from all denominations speak out against the cult-like behaviour of Mark Driscoll and its apparent acceptance by Brian Houston.

Information about the Protest:

Press release:  Planned Protest against Hillsong Conference guest speaker Mark Driscoll at Hillsong’s Waterloo Campus in Sydney, 9:15 AM on Sunday May 31st

(for questions please contact Benjamin Ady on 0400048195 or peopleagainstfundamentalism@gmail.com)

People Against Fundamentalism are calling for a protest against Sydney’s Hillsong church’s invitation to former mega-church pastor Mark Driscoll, often accused of being a misogynist and a bully, to speak at their Sydney conference this winter. An online petition against Driscoll’s presence at Hillsong’s conference has gathered nearly 1,000 signatures (1)

People Against Fundamentalism have watched Mark Driscoll ongoingly hurt many people, especially women, in  Seattle, with his misogyny, bullying, and hardline complementarian teaching.

Last year Mars Hill, the 14,000 member megachurch Driscoll founded and led in Seattle, went down in flames because of his bad behaviour (2). The former church is currently facing a lawsuit for racketeering alleging misuse of funds designated for church planting in Ethiopia and India, including the use of those same funds to pay an agency US$210,000 to game the New York Times bestseller list to get Driscoll’s latest book, Real Marriage, on top (3, 4)

Brian Houston, Hillsong’s senior pastor, is himself potentially under investigation and facing legal repercussions for failing to report his own father and previous Hillsong pastor Frank Houston’s sexual abuse of minors. (5) Jim Henderson, one of the leaders of the protest that brought down Driscoll’s Mars Hill Church last year, and author of the book “Question Mark” about Driscoll and bullying in the church, said “Given Houston’s precarious position with the Royal Commission it seems a risk not worth taking to bring someone else on stage who is similarly under investigation for racketeering charges- What if some of the protesters begin linking the two of them together and accuse Brian of either attempting to divert attention away from his own legal allegations by focusing on Driscoll’s or of processing his own guilt in public using Driscoll as a surrogate”

Rachel Held Evans, a popular Christian blogger and author, says that Driscoll has an “alarming preoccupation with sex and masculinity”, and characterised his most recent book, “Real Marriage” as promoting the idea that “real marriage is to be based on a hierarchical pattern of submission” and as suggesting that it is “sinful” for a wife to withhold sex from her husband. (6)

Paul Tripp, executive director of the Centre for Pastoral Life and Care, and former board member at Mars Hill  said of  the culture created at by Mark at Mars Hill “This is without a doubt, the most abusive, coercive ministry culture I’ve ever been involved with.” (7)

Throughout his pastoral career at Mars Hill Church in Seattle Driscoll consistently generated controversy by speaking of women and the feminine with near contempt, referring to the church as “chickified”, saying the church needs dudes, saying dudes are and must be the leaders and denigrating “chicks” as being of no consequence. (8) Mark has ongoingly embraced and taught complementarianism, the doctrine that God gave men and women different roles, with men as the leaders and women as the followers. As such, women were precluded from the ranks of leadership at Mars Hill.

In 2011, Driscoll posted this status update to his facebook page “So, what story do you have about the most effeminate anatomically male worship leader you’ve ever personally witnessed?” (9)

Mark Driscoll has bragged about his bullying and casting aside of anyone who disagreed with him “There is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus, and by God’s grace it will be a mountain by the time we’re done. You either get on the bus or get run over by the bus.” (10)

The worldwide church-planting network (over 500 churches) which Mark Driscoll founded, Acts 29, kicked him AND his church Mars Hill out of their network last year, citing “ungodly and disqualifying behaviour”. They asked Mark to step down from ministry for an extended period of time and seek help. (11)

Mark has been accused by many of the pastors/elders of his own church of

  • Lack of self control

  • Verbally assaulting people

  • Slander

  • Creating a culture of fear

  • Being verbally abusive

  • Being arrogant (12)

The board of Elders who investigated these charges found that Mark Driscoll had a pattern of “persistent sin”, and they intended to rebuke him and ask him to enter a restoration process that would eventually lead to his restoration to leadership. The church’s elders were “deeply grieved” when Driscoll surprised them by resigning, thereby circumventing that process. This was followed very quickly by the dissolution of the megachurch he started. (13, 14)

Hillsong–please: don’t give this misogynistic, abusive, ex pastor a platform. Recently, a mere 4 months after the events culminating in his resignation and the dissolution of Mars Hill, Mark Driscoll has relaunched his ministry, still calling himself a “pastor”, and bragging that he’s speaking at Hillsong conference in Sydney this year. We don’t need or want his abusive version of Christianity in Australia.

  1. https://www.change.org/p/hillsong-remove-mark-driscoll-from-hillsong-europe-conference

  2. http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2014/october/goodbye-mars-hill-multisite-church-dissolve-mark-driscoll.html?paging=off

  3. http://www.worldmag.com/2014/03/unreal_sales_for_driscoll_s_real_marriage

  4. http://www.christiantoday.com/article/mars.hill.leaders.may.face.racketeering.charges/44073.htm

  5. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/senior-counsel-calls-for-hillsong-founder-to-be-referred-to-police/story-fngburq5-1227162370779

  6. http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/mark-driscoll-real-marriage

  7. http://www.religionnews.com/2014/08/28/mars-hill-pastors-letter-mark-driscoll-step-down-ministry-leadership/

  8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSrZVF3FEUQ

  9. http://www.christianpost.com/news/gay-ministry-upset-with-pastor-mark-driscolls-flippant-facebook-comment-52330/

  10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfTmgPhmlto

  11. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/08/08/acts-29-network-removes-co-founder-mark-driscoll-and-mars-hill-church-from-membership/

  12. http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/files/2014/03/Statement-of-Formal-Charges-and-Issues-by-Pastor-Dave-Kraft.pdf

  13. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/10/30/current-mars-hill-pastor-says-investigation-findings-showed-mark-driscoll-not-qualified-as-elder/

  14. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/10/19/mars-hill-church-board-of-elders-mark-driscoll-resigned-instead-of-enter-restoration-plan-to-deal/

Strange Fire Conference – Watch It! Don’t Miss It! Tell People About It!

12 Saturday Oct 2013

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strange fire conference c3 ccc hillsong

Are you over the false ministries polluting, (or brainwashing), the younger generations with a false Christianity? Are you sick of your local Charismatic/Seeker Sensitive churches misrepresenting Christianity? Do you want to get solid biblical teaching and understanding what Christianity is all about?

Once again, we would like to promote the Strange Fire Conference. Since starting, Hillsong & C3 Church Watch has grown in admins, authors and members. As a result of those involved, we have been pleased to discover that many are still involved in Pentecostal, Charismatic, Anglican, Baptist, Salvation Army, Uniting, Presbyterian, Simple Church and non-denominational church groups. We believe that this Strange Fire conference will be of huge benefit to you. We also think that this conference is also worth telling your friends and family about.

To all our Singaporean, Indian, African, Pacific Island, New Zealand and Australian readers, you can get the Strange Fire app. We’ve heard you can not only stream it live, you can watch the conference sessions again later.

To download the app or for more information, click here: http://www.tmstrangefire.org/app#.UlgibFBmiSo

WHAT IS SO IMPORTANT ABOUT STRANGE FIRE?

Pastor John MacArthur is hosting the Strange Conference and intends to address the spiritual nonsense within the Charismatic movement.

You do not have to agree with everything John MacArthur says or does. You do not have to like their presentations. What is important is that John MacArthur is calling for a spiritual clean up in the Charismatic movement. It is his desire to call people to repent of their Charismatic craziness and return to the sound truth of God’s Word.

Already, false teachers like Rodney Howard Browne (who have a major influence on Phil Pringle of the C3 Church Movement), has reacted publicly against the controversial event.

Strange Fire: How Much Will This Conference Impact Christianity?

From http://www.tmstrangefire.com:

Overview

The sons of Aaron…offered strange fire before the LORD…and fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them.
—Leviticus 10:1–2

The Lord calls His people to honor Him, to treat Him as holy. Leviticus 10 pictures the consequences of not doing so—of offering to Him strange fire.

For the last hundred years, the charismatic movement has been offering a strange fire of sorts to the third Person of the Godhead—the Holy Spirit. And evangelical churches have chosen to be silent or indifferent on the matter. This hasn’t served the church or the Spirit of the church with honor.

So what should be our response?

Strange Fire is a conference that will set forth what the Bible really says about the Holy Spirit, and how that squares with the charismatic movement. We’re going to address in a biblical, straightforward manner what many today see as a peripheral issue. On the contrary, your view of the Holy Spirit influences your relationship with God, your personal holiness, and your commitment to the church and evangelism.

  • Strange Fire is a Truth Matters conference, sponsored by Grace to You.
  • The conference will be held at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California.

Source: Main Page, http://www.tmstrangefire.org/, Accessed 12/10/2013.

Speakers worth noting are R.C. Sproul, Phil Johnson, Justin Peters, Steve Lawson, Todd Friel (from Wretched Radio), Nathan Busenitz (of the Cripplegate Blog) and Tony Eareckson Tada (from Joni and Friends Radio). We can guarantee you that this will be a conference that will be eye opening, ear opening and soul convicting.

More importantly, you will get the real gospel from real pastors with real credentials.

 

Strange Fire: How Much Will This Conference Impact Christianity?

21 Friday Jun 2013

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Recently, Phil Johnson wrote the following article:

NOT LAUGHING NOW
…

Rodney Howard-Browne, self-styled “Holy Ghost Bartender,” has taken notice of the Strange Fire conference sponsored by Grace to You (October 16-18, 2013). He seems unnerved by the prospect that twenty-first-century charismatic phenomena are going to be examined in light of Scripture. Howard-Browne’s trademark giddiness has gone missing. Recently, he wrote this stream-of-consciousness rant on his Facebook page:

There is coming a massive attack on the Pentecostal/ Charismatic movement by a group of individuals that don’t believe in the power of the Holy Spirit today – these men do not believe in speaking in tongues or the gifts of the spirit – they think that because of excesses in the church that they have a right to write off the fastest growing sector of Christianity – over 800 million in the earth today – that would be as bad as writing Jesus off because of one of the 12 was Judas Iscariot – if these individuals just adopted Gamaliel’s advice of Acts 5:38-39 that would be fine however they have no fear of God and are in grave danger of blaspheming the Holy Ghost – they think that because the movement has had scandals that have been publicised that this gives them leeway to do what they are doing – however the only reason why it gets the attention is because these individuals are on TV – everywhere I travel I hear of scandals outside of the Pentecostal charismatic realm but these are never publicised because no one knows them – they are calling their exposé strange fire however you better have the alternative if you are going to criticise something as counterfeit you have to produce the real – or else you had better shut up! The only ones who have the right to bring correction are the ones inside the camp not outside!

All the standard charismatic arguments are summarized there: He says critics of modern charismatic claims are unspiritual people motivated only by rank unbelief. He insists the weight of sheer numbers validates the modern charismatic movement (yet the high percentage of scandalous frauds, philanderers, and false teachers spawned by the movement means nothing). He emphatically declares that those outside the movement are not entitled to criticize charismatic abuses. And of course he includes the killer argument: The critics are people who “have no fear of God and are in grave danger of blaspheming the Holy Ghost.”

In reality, those who tout false prophecies, obscene bodily gyrations, and drunken behavior as gifts of the Holy Spirit are the ones blaspheming Him. In fact, no one is more notorious for that than Rodney Howard-Browne himself. For him to decry blasphemy and pretend to know anything about the fear of God is the very height of arrogant irony.

If you think that sounds unduly harsh, watch this video of a typical Rodney Howard-Browne “ministry” binge:

Source: Phil Johnson, Not Laughing Now, http://www.gty.org/blog/B130610, 10/06/2013. (Accessed 19/06/2013.)

What was Rodney Howard-Browne reacting against?

In October 2013, John MacArthur will be putting on a conference called ‘Strange Fire’. This event will explore what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit and how that reflects the spirit presented within the charismatic movement.

The ‘Strange Fire’ conference page has this to say about the event,

Overview

The sons of Aaron…offered strange fire before the LORD…and fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them.
—Leviticus 10:1–2

The Lord calls His people to honor Him, to treat Him as holy. Leviticus 10 pictures the consequences of not doing so—of offering to Him strange fire.

For the last hundred years, the charismatic movement has been offering a strange fire of sorts to the third Person of the Godhead—the Holy Spirit. And evangelical churches have chosen to be silent or indifferent on the matter. This hasn’t served the church or the Spirit of the church with honor.

So what should be our response?

Strange Fire is a conference that will set forth what the Bible really says about the Holy Spirit, and how that squares with the charismatic movement. We’re going to address in a biblical, straightforward manner what many today see as a peripheral issue. On the contrary, your view of the Holy Spirit influences your relationship with God, your personal holiness, and your commitment to the church and evangelism.

We want you to join us for Strange Fire. It really is for everyone—especially if you’re working through these issues with a friend, your family, or your church. Space is limited, register today.

  • Strange Fire is a Truth Matters conference, sponsored by Grace to You.
  • The conference will be held at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California.

Source: Overview, Strange Fire, http://www.tmstrangefire.org/. (Accessed 19/06/2013.)

If you would like to examine Rodney Howard-Browne’s credentials, you can read what we discovered about them here:

Congo Line Of Unqualified Ministers Endorsed By Phil Pringle

The Christian Post reports John MacArthur saying,

“Worship is a very serious matter. How you come before a Holy God is the most important thing you will ever do.”
– Nicola Menzie, Christian Post, John MacArthur Takes on Charismatic Movement With ‘Strange Fire’ Conference, http://www.christianpost.com/news/john-macarthur-takes-on-charismatic-movement-with-strange-fire-conference-97968/, 2:13pm, 15/06/2013. (Accessed 20/06/2013.)

In light of the issues being addressed at John Macarthur’s upcoming “Strange Fire” Conference, do churches like C3/Hillsong honor the Holy Spirit or blaspheme Him?