A Brother's Journey To Expose Deception in the Church

 

Dear Saints, This is quite a long post, but an important one. This comes from a dear Brother in Christ whom God sent on a journey of discovery and faith when he began to question certain doctrines in his church. I think you'll enjoy his story and toward the bottom, he exposes several false doctrines and their leaders. What's vitally important here is that these "false doctrines" are not blatant, in your face lies. These "pastors" use Scriptures to prove their points and this makes people who don't really know the Bible in DEPTH very susceptible to being deceived. Why is this important? Because if you are led too far off the path, you will most likely be left behind at the rapture.  Or worse. So, I encourage you to take the time to read through this at your leisure. 

Thank you, Joe, for taking the time to put this together for us!

 As a boy I attended the neighborhood Catholic Church, and school. The Nuns taught us about the love of Jesus, and I learned at a very young age to hold God's name as Holy. At 6 years old I fell in love with Jesus, and not fully understanding, yet knowing He was may Savior. The Sisters had great love and honor for Jesus. And they spread their untethered love on us kids as well. I didn't know much doctrine back then, but I did know their love was a pure love. Sweet Ladies, everyone.

 I left the church in my teens thru early 30's. But a great turn of miraculous events, at 33, I returned to the Lord. Found a Pentecostal church, Baptized into Jesus, amen, amen. I was there many years. I became fast friends with the Pastor and adopted him as my mentor. He was a rugged old character, and so in love with Jesus, it was contagious. I never saw a people so in love with Christ, in sincerity and devotionally. Jesus was their center of honor and true worship. I studied under the Old Pastor for years. Spent his last days on this old earth together. I had great love for him. A true man of God. When he retired, I left that church. It was just not the same without him.

After visiting a few churches, and disappointed with their easy preaching, I eventually I found a non-denominational church. Their mission statement seemed agreeable, so I went. Their worship was heavenly. And people were friendly. The preaching was somewhat different but sounded Biblical.

 After a few months I was struggling to grasp all of the preaching. I questioned it a bit, and was encouraged to stay, to learn more. I wondered if maybe I had been missing some of what seemed like a higher understanding, so I stayed. I was on almost every board: started a men's fellowship, prayer team, alter prayer, and prophetic team. Again these things were a little different from what I had been taught as a Pentecostal.

As time went on the teaching became more difficult to agree with. The non-denominational title turned out to be a goulash of Word of Faith, Super Charismatic, Evangelical, and uh oh, Prosperity Gospel!!! The prosperity thing really set off all my spiritual and emotional alarms. At this point it all started to make sense to me. The Holy Spirit was  opening my eyes and confirming my uneasiness.

Feeling "uneasy" when you hear something a preacher is saying, should not be taken lightly. If you feel this way in a church, you need to bring it to God in prayer. After His counsel, take legitimate questions to your Pastor. A true Pastore should welcome all questions. A good shepherd will be glad his pupils are paying attention to what is being said in the church.

 I attended our regular weekly study one night, where the pastor made a rare appearance to teach. Now I had been invited to attend Elders meeting, which I only did for a short while. I learned a lot about that pastor in these meetings. He was politely overbearing, often forceful to the point of talking over someone's voice, very authoritative. And that's why I stopped going to those meetings. Anyway, these Wednesday night studies, which I also taught at, were usually a relaxed, open to question and discussion friendly atmosphere. But at the end of the pastor's study, he asked "anyone have a question"? I had a few, as I started to raise my hand he slammed his Bible shut and said, good because you'd be wrong. ! wow, that's arrogant. But it was becoming increasingly clear, you were not to cross anything he said.

If you hear or see this attitude in your church, you should question it. And don't wait too long so it gets played down.

A short while later, in another study, I heard a "brother", who I had become friends with, teaching. Suddenly he said, "and we are gods".  That was literally like a shot gun blast going off. And I questioned him. I think everyone in the room was a little embarrassed. I was shocked. He got this from John 10:34 where Jesus is rebuking the Pharisee's at their outrage after He said: I and the Father are one. Jesus was being sarcastic by quoting this scripture from Psalm 82:6 where God is actually rebuking the judges for being unfair in their judgments. We had this conversation and I though he understood it. A few weeks later, I heard someone else in a study use this same little god's term misquoted. This time the assistant pastor was sitting next to me. I asked him; do you agree with this. And he did!

 That made 3 people who had all attended the pastoral school the pastor was teaching, all agree with the statement "we are gods"! When I confronted the pastor, his first reaction was "you never heard me say that". Later he said he had dealt with the situation. Yet after I left the church, I heard people there still saying it.

I knew I was going to have to leave. It was not that I had been missing all these "new" teachings, as I had thought in the beginning. The fact is that I was correct in seeing these things as off, wrong.

 We have to learn to trust the Holy Spirit, when He gives us that cringe. And take it to God, our Authority, in prayer. If we've studied scripture, then we know the word of truth. You don't have to be some great scholar. You don't have to know every line and verse by heart. This is exactly why God gives us the Holy Spirit. He will quicken your heart with a cringe, and He will lead you to the Scriptures to find your answers. No, we won't know everything. But will know more and more as we walk with God. Don't let what seems to you to be ungodly things said in your church be unaccounted for!

A few weeks later a confrontation came. I was at the church doing maintenance. The pastor was on the stage packing up his music equipment to visit another church. He had about 6 or 8 churches at this time. A week earlier the pastor had sent out a video to all on the prophetic team with instruction on how to prophecy. We were supposed to read this and acknowledge it.  The assistant pastor come up to me and asked why I didn't acknowledge the instruction which consisted of, only speaking good and edifying words. Holding hands out and looking up angelically, I told him I didn't agree with it. He said, I didn't agree with it the first time, so I read it five times, now I agree. Just read it again. I told him I didn't agree with it the first time, why would I read it again.

In other words, I wasn't going to be brained washed into believing something I knew was wrong. Then I told him to take me off the prophetic team. Now the pastor heard all this and grabbed up hos equipment and scurried out the door.

 A couple of weeks later the pastor tried to force me into a confrontation forcefully, so I gave him back the keys to the church and left.

Listen, prophecy doesn't come from man, but from God. If it's not from above, it is only a practice of this soothsaying, easy going gospel being taught in the churches today. Yes it is Scriptural to edify the body of Christ. But edification isn't always sugar and honey. It can often come in the for of rebuke or correction.

Hebrews 12:6 My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, for the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son!

You wont hear this scripture preached much in the prosperity circles. It doesn't market well. People won't buy books so they can be chastised. But God thought it important enough to make the cut in His book of life ;)

You probably guessed by now, I left that church and brushed the dust from my feet. It was a relief and a sorrow, because my family remained there.

You may get the idea, I'm writing this from a place of hurt. You'd be right to think that way. I am hurt I left so many God loving friends behind. And I'm devastated that my family remained. But what breaks my heart most is that the church has forsaken the God they claim to love. They have left their first love in their quest for a higher ground. They believe they can literally become like God.

I heard many other things that X-pastor said that made me cringe ; At the beginning of service he would call us all to hold up our Bibles and repeat after him, this is my Bible, God is who He says He is, I Am who He says I Am, I can do what He says I can do, I can do all things, I Am powerful, and he goes on with more I Am affirmation.

Other things he says

I don't know if I believe in the rapture

God doesn't want you sick

God doesn't want you poor

God want to prosper you

By the way, that pastor is writing books now and sending his false teachings all over the world.

It took me a couple of months to sort all these things out. Was I right or wrong? Was I lacking in knowledge of God's word? Was I the one misinterpreting Scripture, or was it those supper saints who seemed so godly and Spiritual?

After a couple months of grieving, the Lord picked me up and brought me to the Scriptures, which I dug into like never before. I was headed on a quest to find the root of what I call "the little god syndrome".

I asked myself these questions:

• Who is God
• Why is God.
• God is above all Holy, and Holy above all!
• God is one
• How do we fit into God's plan
• The Creator, and the creature
• Who are we

I was compelled to find the answers! This led me down a very dark path that has been at times extremely difficult to travel but necessary for myself and the church to see.

Many of you might be in a small church or home church. Most of these tend to be on the right path. They teach the Word, proclaim the Gospels and tend not to get caught up in what the worldly church and society are doing. My Sister goes to such a church. Nothing fancy. They love the Word of God, and the Pastor doesn't go off on his own tangents. Pure Gospel. If you are in a church like this give thanks for it!

 But what I'm going to talk may shock you. It should. I hope it does. But the vast majority of the church today is accepting these new world teachings I'm going to show you at an alarming rate. These false and dangerous doctrines are growing exponentially as the coming of Jesus is also accelerating.

Ok, the journey.

 The little god's thing was stuck in my craw. So I set out to find its origin. It comes from many different places, but 6 groups stand out, as being the most influential, reaching the biggest audiences, selling the most books, becoming some of the wealthiest people in the world. The big ministries, the TV Evangelists etc. 

• They are Word of Faith (Haggan-Copeland)
• Evangelical, some, not all 
• (Hyper)Charismatic, Benny Hinn, Todd White, again, some not all
• Prosperity gospel
• NAR with Brian Simmons, Bill Johnson, the Super Apostles. 
• New Thought, Richard Rorr.

These churches all cross paths in one way or another.

When I am speaking about any of these 6 I will just call them the Group.

Before we begin let's define God's Name I AM

Ex 3:14   I AM WHO I AM. (NIV)  or I AM THAT I AM (KJV)

 I AM, is a noun or a verb. When Moses asks "who" shall I say sent me, God answers I AM has sent me to you.

 I AM WHO I AM as being one word, YHWH. I believe this is the ultimate and Most Holy name God uses to declare who He is. He is, the all existing one, The one who was and is and is to come. He is Creator, and we are His creation.  God is transcendent, far above and beyond any thing, or anyone that we can imagine.

 In Deut we learn what God is 6:4 Hear O Israel, The LORD our God is one Lord.  I was trying to understand this word some years ago, and if you go to the lexicon you will find a number of words describing the word "one". So I went to the source, a Rabbi. He said the "one" means, alone. That God was revealing to his people that, He ALONE is God, and of course, warning us that we shall have no others god's before Him. When I told the Rabbi the reason for my question, he said you westerners do not have the proper reverence for God.

 If we don't get this right, if we don't believe that there is only one God, Sovereign over all, that He ALONE is God, then our faith is futile. And it will leave us open to all kinds of deception and false teachings.

  Heb 11:6 Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must first believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.

 How does God reward us? Not with silver, not with gold, but with something far more precious. He rewards us by revealing "Who He is", The Divine, Triune God, Father Son and Holy Spirit. God.

 The I AM, is the name of God and He shares it with no other! I once had a wise old Pastor friend who said; three things that God does not share with anyone, His omniscience, omnipresence and His omnipotence! These three belong only to God.  These three attributes describe who the I AM is. They set God apart from all of His creations.

1. The I AM 

 So I started looking up anything related to the little god issue, and it brought me to Copeland Word of Faith.

Copeland tells his audience, we are all little god's. In fact he says; we are not just a little like Jesus we are exactly like Jesus.

Copeland partially quotes Phil 2:6 who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal to God.

I've listened to Copeland preach this, his take on it is; that God is saying, it is not robbery to take from God. Not robbery to take His name and be equal to Him!

Copeland also says, and I quote, You know that part in the Bible where God tells Moses, I AM, he say's, I just look at Him and say, I AM too !!!

 I have a video, an old one where he proclaims both these blasphemies recently in a 2021 WOF conference in Ethiopia. The video has since been removed. Wonder why? I'll leave that video at the end of the post. It contains many of the false teachings he's said.

When I had argued with my X-church about the little god's thing, their response was, well they don't mean it that way. Hmm, how could they mean it?

 But when you watch the video of Copeland going from the little god's, he then convicts himself with his affirmation that he is "I AM".

 So they don't just say this jokingly, or harmlessly, though that is blasphemous in itself, they then confirm exactly what they mean, they are god's!

Steven Furtic, very wealthy and influential pastor of Elevation Church. A big producer of worship songs, many of which are controversial as to content. Known for his lifting up of man sermons he once got so full of himself in a steroid rage, pounding his chest, screamed out " I am Almighty God"!

 Yup, that's on video too.

You can plainly see they are deadly serious about this being equal to God theology.

1 Timothy 4: But the Holy Spirit explicitly and unmistakenly declares that in later times some will turn away from the faith, paying attention instead to deceitful and seductive spirits and doctrines of demons.

This calling ourselves god, exalting man, envious of God and His uniqueness. It is the very first sin perpetrated against God before man was even created. It was a tool satan used against Adam and Eve in the garden that caused the fall of man. Yet we have not learned a thing. It has become a favorite tool of satan. Why? Because humans are self-centered and love thinking we are something special! 

 The men I mentioned here are an evil brew. Anti Christ's I'd say. They peddle the word of God for prophet. Like Simon the sorcerer. That try to steal that which belongs to God alone. They trample the name of the Holy One. And they lead others to do the same. These men are filthy rich, making a show of good deed for their audiences. They slander the Lord of Glory, and the huge crowds they draw applaud them and open their wallets wide to support their evil folly. Don't the people know that when they agree with them, support them, that they have entered into fellowship with these robbers, and so become one of them.

I can almost hear the crowd screaming, crucify Him, Barrabas! give us Barrabas! 

Isaiah 14: 12-14 How you have fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning star, How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations. For you have said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest side of the North. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.

So the little god's syndrome led me to the bigger picture, the "I AM"

Surely you are convinced that the church at large has gone off the rails. Our great intellect, the rise of self, and soon the machine and transhumanism have led us to say it is we who "create". If you are not yet convinced, then let me lead into this next section of deception. You ain't seen nothing yet!

2. The Divinity 

 Before I get started I want to make you aware of some catch words that these false preachers use to draw you into their deception. It is, in my view, a sense of hypnosis, a psychological method to gain agreement before they've even said anything. Beware of terms like;

 * This is only for the mature

 (those who consider themselves mature will sit up straight and smile at each other. This term also gives the speaker a way out, because if you don't agree with him, then your simply not mature yet! What deception !)

* You must learn to see thru the lens of...

( again, they will tell you that you "must" see it the way they are about to explain it)

* Truth ( they use this word frequently, to give a sense of authority, to prove the untruth they are about to speak)

 Here is a line from a teaching in his book "Personal Vision" by my x pastor. First he quotes just a portion of the scripture from 2 Peter 1:4 the new creation has the nature of God. ( this isn't even a quote, its just what he wants you to see).

Let's look at why he only uses a portion of the script, he adds; to function as a citizen of the kingdom of God we must learn the language of the kingdom and the language of promise. ( 2 Cor 1:20)

 And; God declares Himself as the I AM (Ex 3:14)

 And; We must learn to declare who we are using this same truth.

  See how he uses the word "truth", catch phrase! The scripture is true, yes, but his application is dead wrong, even deadly wrong. This whole little gods, I AM and like statements are based in pagan religions. Hindu and Buddists (although not identical) believe that everything is God. There is no separation between God and what He created.

Something to know about the prosperity gospel's way of thinking is that it always needs to gain something. It always seeks a gift, or something that is benefitting them personally in some way. That is the healthy, wealthy and wise doctrine.

Now let's look at this script in context. 2 Peter 1:3-8 

Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 v3 seeing "His divine power", does what- grants us everything "pertaining to life and godliness" through the true knowledge. ( I have noticed lately this thread of "knowledge of Him". Paul uses it often when he speaks about a truth, an understanding, or a promise. It is all about the knowing of Him, Christ Jesus our Savior)

v 4 " partakers of the divine nature". They want you to believe that you yourselves are divine! So what does it mean to be partakers ? It simply means to have the knowledge of the characteristics which describe the nature of God. This knowledge shows us how we should live and show godliness. Look at the rest of the verses, add diligence to your faith and moral excellence etc. These are the qualities of the Divine Nature of God. Not that we have become divine. See how this relates to little god's, I AM etc.

What this pastor is trying to teach is this growing theology that we are identical to God in every way. Equal to God. They are possessed with the 'oneness' theology. That we are the same kind, as God. We are not. God is the creator and we are the created. Without God we don't even exist. We are dependent on God for everything, even the air we breathe. God is not dependent on us, or anything we know.

 God does not wake up in the morning and wonder if what He did yesterday was right or wrong. He doesn't look into a mirror to examine Himself. But we do have to examine our actions. We are the created.

Another verse this x-pastor loves to use is John 19:30 it is finished. The group firmly believe that, I'll quote; everything that God was ever going to do, He's already done.  This is how they claim that we have already received the "fulfillment" of every promise. Perfect example of prosperity thinking. Listen, the promises are all ours. We have received some in this present age, but eye cannot see nor the mind imagine what the Lord has waiting for those who love Him. If we think there is nothing more to come we are a sorry lot. The group doesn't believe in the millennial reign of Jesus. Most being post millennialists think this is the age when Christ rules the earth. Thats why they are so fixed on having everything now. They are afraid they will miss out on something.

I'll agree with what I heard another, wiser Pastor say, when Jesus said he was finished on the cross, He meant the work of the cross was finished, and he said, heck, Jesus is just getting started. Jesus was raised, after He made that statement, He ascended, seated at the right hand of the Father, preparing a place for us, coming for us, and gathering His army together and on and on.

Another quote from the x-pastor's book, we need to learn the glorious daily discipline of enjoying our relationship with God. ( I'll agree with this part, but wait here it comes) to do that, we must acknowledge the " reality" that we have arrived, and we have it. We are seated in heavenly places. To be seated carries the idea that there is no more work to be done. Everything is finished and accomplished in Christ Jesus. If we would begin every day that we have "completely arrived", we have nothing left to do, to attain, to add to our Christain relationship. we would realize we have been accepted in the beloved. We are joined in God with Christ and we are engaged in the lifestyle of enjoying our placement in Christ Jesus.

 I'll let you chew on that a while. I think it was RC Sproul ? who said, I don't like the idea by some pastors that when someone says something, is off about a teaching, they respond by saying " chew the meat and spit out the bones". Trouble is they chew the meat and spit out the doctrine!

 3. NAR  Ok last stretch here is to bring to you attention an NAR guy, Brain Simmons. He is the author of The Passion Translation. These guys have exalted themselves above all other Christians claiming to be a new order of Apostles, a revival of apostles if you will., claiming special power and authority over the church. They receive new revelations for the church. 

They have erected a 7 mountain mandate in which the church is supposed to take control It holds that there are seven aspects of society that believers seek to dominate: family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business. This is their theology to replace the millennial reign. They believe it is the church that is supposed to get the earth ready so that Christ can return! Jesus does not need our help. We are commissioned to preach the gospel. And to lead quiet and peaceful lives while we wait for our blessed Lord to return. There was only one place in the Bible where we are instructed to subdue the earth, and we blew it. So now we think we should try it again on our own.

This reminded me of Deut 1, i think it was, where the Israelites were instructed to go and fight the Amorites for the land. But they would not go. Joshua scolds them, then they have a change of heart and decide to go on their own. But God had not told them to go. In fact He told them He would not go with them But they went anyway. And they got their butts kicked. 

I'm just going to quote a few things that Brian Simmons say's in his teaching; Glory to Glory. You can decide for yourselves whether or not he is real or a false teacher. Here is a link to this teaching. Its 40 minutes long.

He starts out quoting the same scripture from above, 2 Peter 1:4 we are partakers of the divine nature. He say's few understand his vision of it. (Thank God for that.)

 He says; we've been brought into the triune glory. we are partakers. we have been invited inside the Trinty. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and you!

Throughout this video he claims that there are 7 steps to glory. That when we hit step 7, that means we have obtained the glory of God.  I have news for him, Isaiah 42:8 “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to anyone else, nor share my praise with carved idols.

We were made of God. We were made of the earth. The whole earth is filled with His Glory. See how this leads into the Hindu belief that God is in everything. Trees, rocks, rivers, all He created is Him. Oprah Winfrey and her entourage of false preachers teach these things.

 The hope of glory is in you now. You don't have to wait for heaven. The hope of glory is not in heaven, it's in you.

After each of these steps he baptizes the audience into what he just said. Yeah, this is definitely New Thought.

You must get in the glory before you can get to the next step.

Every Spiritual blessing that heaven contains is already deposited into your inner most being, you just need to activate it.

Think of the ways the Holy Spirit gives you access to the fulness into your inheritance now.

Then we'll stop putting off to a make believe millennial all the promises that are going to come someday! Now is the day of salvation, now if you hear His voice, we can access all of the promises right now.

Oh my Lord, that's a trip I didn't want to revisit. I think that some of these evangelists who visit pagan countries are bring back more doctrine than their leaving.

All these people I've talked about have huge followings. The masses line up to hear then like they are rock stars. They idolize them. And many are being deceived.

 Again if you see or hear any of what I've posted ask. If you hear something that quickens you, be suspicious.

2 Timothy 4: I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 

Matt 10:16 Listen carefully: I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves [have no self-serving agenda].