HEAVEN, HILLSONG & HERESY
BY COSTI HINN
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The 2017 church conference circuit is in
full swing and with it comes a plethora of unholy alliances. No
surprise, Hillsong and Jesus Culture will headline the apostasy this
year. In keeping with Paul’s exhortation from Romans 16:17-18,
it behooves pastors and Christians to be aware of the sort of tactics
that mainstream movements are using to draw young people to their
blasphemous ministries. Two of the more prominent events to be aware
of will take place this fall, on back-to-back weekends, on two sides of
the country. Each will feature lineups full of known false teachers, and
music by Hillsong and Jesus Culture. These alliances allow powerhouse
music ministries and their teachers to team up and target millennials
with their sensual brand of worship and dangerous theology.
On September 21-23, Los Angeles will
play host to the first conference titled, “Heaven Come”, featuring Bill
Johnson, his Bethel crew, Lou Engle, and Kris Vallaton; along with Carl
Lentz and the Hillsong usuals. It promises to be an epic show. With
ticket sales running around $200-$250 a head, and a Microsoft Theater
capacity of 7,100, the event will certainly make the gang a pretty
penny.
The following week on September 27-30,
Jesus Culture will travel south to Orlando, FL to headline the smaller
but no less heretical, “Jesus Conference”, where Todd White, Kenneth
Copeland, Benny Hinn, and Marilyn Hickey, will join a speaker lineup
akin to the backstreet boys. Both of these conferences are designed to
mix the old school with the new school as a sort of heretical hand off.
It’s as though Satan is casting a net into the population of 80 million
millennials and trying to drag out as many as he can by using the old
guard.
So why are the 2017 heretical hangouts
something you ought to be aware of? Because Christians who are clueless
to enemy strategies are sitting ducks and churches who can’t confidently
explain to their young people why they must avoid these types of
conferences are unable to effectively keep watch over the souls of their
sheep (Hebrews 13:17).
Cowering in fear is not an option. Hoping it will all blow over is not
an option. Not giving answers is not an option. If you aren’t sure what
false doctrines are in play here, study the essential beliefs of
historical Christianity in relation to the Deity of Christ, Salvation,
the Trinity (particularly the work of the Holy Spirit), according to
Scripture. Next, compare that to what “word of faith theology”, “little
god theology”, “prosperity gospel theology”, and the “NAR”, teach and do
in the name of “Jesus Christ.” That will get you all caught up on why
these groups are heretical.
I recently spent time with a friend who
attends a bible teaching church in the LA area and he was sharing with
me some troubling news. His church was losing young people in droves to
Hillsong LA and other more “attractional” music-driven venues. They
couldn’t stop it. Their youth and young adults had found something that
tapped into their emotions, made them feel good, and seemed to be full
of love. Ignorant of the deadly doctrines that Hillsong teaches and
supports, indifference had swept over many of the young people in the
church and they were simply buying in to the cool vibe of the music and
ecumenical vision. I could sense the strain in his voice as he explained
that this was his fear all along. Plenty of churches have spent wasted
time voicing their displeasure over the methods and style of Hillsong,
but few have effectively pinpointed them as outright false teachers.
Perhaps out of fear of taking on the most famous business in the
evangelical world, the body of Christ at large has stayed relatively
divided on what to do about these popular preachers.
Many pastors struggle to find a balance.
Should they bring up these issues publically and risk exposing the
sheep to things they may have never even heard of? How soon is too soon
to start sounding the alarm about certain movements? Do first-time
visitors really want to come back to a church that just harps on false
teachers all the time? Is the best way to deal with a counterfeit to
study and know the real thing? How many well-prepared sermons would be
derailed if we had to spend time going “heretic hunting” on Sunday
mornings?
All of these are valid questions that
pastors and people must face head on. The church needs to consistently
provide answers and must avoid wasting valuable time cowering in fear,
while still being careful of over-emphasizing the latest heretical
gossip without providing solutions (something we can all be guilty of).
As church leaders navigate the
theological chaos that movements like Jesus Culture and Hillsong pump
into the evangelical ecosystem, here are five ways to protect our young
people, and the rest of the church for that matter. Keep in mind, this
list will apply directly to pastors, but can be useful for any Christian
and parent.
- PREACH THE WORD AND PRIORITIZE TRUTH
Nothing equips and empowers God’s people
like His word. You don’t learn to identify counterfeit money by
studying the counterfeits. If you study genuine currency and become
highly familiar with the qualities of the real thing, then you’ll be
able to spot a fake from a mile away. In order to best equip the people
of God to contend for the truths of God, they must be faithfully taught
the Scriptures in the fullest sense. A church must place a premium on
its preaching ministry. The pastor can let a missionary share stories
from the mission field, make a few announcements, and grant the odd
request from the nursery leader to ask for more volunteers, but such
things are frivolous when compared to the purpose of the pulpit. He must
be undeterred in his task and the people must be ready to feast on the
word. The elders of the church must ensure nothing takes away from the
preaching ministry of a church. The people need it. They must have it.
As for strategies against false teaching, sermon series’ and seminars on
heretical teaching can be incredibly helpful for people, but are only
as helpful as their application. In other words, if you’re doing any
type of teaching on this issue, you must focus on what the Bible says,
not just how ridiculous a false teacher looks, or how rich they
are – that’s tabloid fare. Make no mistake, preaching the truth and
prioritizing the pulpit ministry is the best way to protect people
against error.
- PREPARE FOR APOSTASY WITH CONFIDENCE
One of my college coaches used to yell
in his pre-game speech, “Preparation is confidence!” It was true on the
baseball field and it’s true in shepherding the flock of God. When
dealing with a certain error or heresy that Hillsong or Jesus Culture
teach, know your stuff and be prepared. People can sniff out a phony
from miles away so if pastors are even slightly unclear in their own
understanding of the issues, it will be a fog to their listeners. If a
pastor hasn’t been praying, preparing, and prudent with the
responsibility to rightly divide the word and shepherd God’s people
through times of apostasy, they’re going to react fearfully, not
confidently on game day. It’s a leader’s job to be out front of those
they lead – and it’s advisable that every Christian parent take this
strategy for the sake of their children. When people ask theological
questions about a certain celebrity pastor, a conference, or a certain
book, they need leaders to calmly, lovingly, and biblically state the
answer to their question. This will of course mean that leaders have
studied the issue, studied their bible, and have taken the time to
emotionally process the issue before helping others deal with it. If you
don’t know the answer, know how to find the answer for
someone. Be unwavering and confident because you’re prepared for what
the bible said would happen in the last days (2 Timothy 3:1-17).
- PROTECT THE FLOCK WITH RIGHTEOUS PASSION
If a boy pulls up to my house in a
Mustang one day and honks from the curb while my daughter comes down the
stairs in a short skirt saying, “Bye dad, be home around midnight”,
you’re going to see some righteous passion. Beyond that, I’ve likely
failed in my duty prior to that moment. If a false teacher is targeting
our young people with sensual music undergirded by deadly theology about
a false version of Christ, pastors need to have some passion and
proactively guard against this! We’ve seen far too many pastors get more
excited over new state-of-the-art buildings, new children’s ministry
playgrounds, new books, and their elaborate libraries than over
contending for the faith. There is nothing wrong with any of those
things but they are still superficial. Too many pastors shelf
their passion and cower in fear when it comes time to protect the flock
from wolves. Controversy should never deter a pastor from protecting the
sheep. Wolves love a weak shepherd who is content to collect a paycheck
but too lazy to gird his loins for battle. Far too many pastors skirt
around issues, refuse to name a name, or prefer to talk about these sort
of issues in a passive aggressive way. Ignorant sheep are one thing,
slothful pastors are another. There is no place for this in a biblical
church.
- PUT OUT BIBLICAL MATERIAL ON RELEVANT ISSUES
As previously stated, the majority of
Sunday sermons cannot just be a heresy hunt. That’s where many
well-meaning churches have gone too extreme these days. In order to help
people get educated about the larger doctrinal issues facing the church
consider the following options:
- Starting a blog for your church
- Writing a short booklet or book(s) to help your people navigate apostasy and more
- Do a weekly or monthly podcast about current events and theology
- Start a YouTube channel
- Do a short series on deadly doctrines, film it, and use the DVD as a resource for years
- Write a distinctive or church document stating your church’s position and distribute
- Mention divergence in the church when your preaching text does – this is plenty of times.
This is just a short list of ways to put
out helpful material for your people and deal with important issues
without taking two weeks off from your verse-by-verse journey through
John to vent about Steven Furtick’s latest antics. If your schedule or
ability doesn’t allow you to protect the flock through any of these
means, you always have books, seminars, and blogs by faithful
bible-teachers at your disposal. No matter what a pastor decides to do,
he must do something. People need good, biblical preaching from
the pulpit and material that helps them contend for the faith in
today’s culture. Keep the juicy venting to a minimum and stick to high
application in your material. Your people will thank you because they
won’t just know about the latest heretical gossip, they’ll actually know
what to do about it.
- PRAY FOR THE FAITH OF THE FLOCK
For all his passionate zeal and
willingness to take on false teachers, Paul was diligent in his prayer
life. It wasn’t just his warnings, just his teaching, or just his
appointment of faithful men to church oversight – it was his prayers
that protected the faith of the church. For the church’s best results,
prayer is the highest priority. Paul wrote,
For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:15-23).
There will be no slowing down of
apostasy in these last days. Our adversary takes no day off. Still, the
church must remain diligent in its task and preachers must be resolute
in trusting the power of prayer, the power of truth, and the power of
God to draw every last one of His sheep into the fold until Christ
returns.
If you would like to help us out, please consider donating here.
[Contributed by Costi Hinn]
See Also:
- Why Hillsong Music is Dangerous for Your Church
- Popular Charismatic Worship Artist, Kari Jobe, Teaching Dangerous Theology
- Bethel Music: Unfruitful Works of Darkness
SEE ALSO:
http://pulpitandpen.org/2017/02/17/stop-calling-error-anointed/
