Prosperity Pimps

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Charismania unrestrained: Africa’s witch children.

This is one of the most disturbing and heart-wrenching documentaries I’ve ever seen. This shocking six-part video depicts what I view as simply the Word of Faith heresy taken to its logical conclusion (and perpetuated in the fertile soil of pagan superstition) in a land where no laws exist to protect children. You can’t help but be moved to tears by the human wreckage left in the wake of Pentecostalism’s sweep across Nigeria as children are starved, tortured, beaten, and killed because some “prophet” or “prophetess” labels them a witch. Stepping Stones (the only known organization helping these children) said the following on their website:

“Stepping Stones Nigeria does not wish to denounce any faith organisation. However the role of the church, especially some of the new Pentecostals, in spreading the belief in child witches cannot be underestimated. There are numerous so-called pastors in the region who are wrongly branding children as ‘witches’ mainly for economic self gain and personal recognition.”

This is a documentary that you must see, but be warned, it contains some graphic and disturbing images and material.

I’ve posted my own title/description preceding each video.

One:

The false prophet’s gold wrist watch (seen at 4:44 in the video) reveals his true intentions

Two:

Inside the churches of the ravenous wolves

Three:

Meeting Mary; the five-year old rejected by a whole village

Four:

Helen Ukpabio identified as the lead false prophetess

Five:

Helen Ukpabio’s true self comes out

Six:

A child’s heart-wrenching anguish of abandonment

Also see DefCon’s related posts:

The Hell-bound false prophetess Helen Ukpabio of Liberty Gospel Church in Liberia

and

Church Planting in Liberia, West Africa

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Prayer Cloths Coming to a Mailbox Near You!

Some continue to question why we share videos, comments, blogs, etc. about those who are teaching heresy.  I believe that if more Christians were discerning, submissive to the Holy Spirit, and Berean Christians in their study of God’s Word that charlatans like those mentioned in this particular video would not have the time of day.

Sadly, it is easier to let somebody else do the “studying” (if that’s what you want to call it) for most who claim the name of Christ.  Instead of testing the spirits to see whether they are of God, thousands upon thousands are swallowing the bait put out by the enemy of our souls.

Then despite the truth of Scripture to lay up treasures in heaven and not on earth, and Colossians which tells us NOT to set our affections on things of this earth – you have videos like this showing one preacher “blessing another” by praying the blessing of a private airplane (for ministry purposes of course).

And if you can’t have your own airplane, then the least you can do is to get a prayer cloth prayed and sweated over personally for your point of contact between you and whatever your little heart desires!

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Bezel333 on Kim Clement, TBN’s “prophet for profit”

Bezel333 takes on TBN’s favorite false prophet, Kim Clement. Clement puts on one heck of a show, very entertaining, very ear-tickling. Not a lick of the presence of God, and nothing is done for the glory of Christ. But very entertaining, in a heretical, blaspheming kind of way.

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These Are ‘Want’ Ads For Pastors?!

Is it any surprise that we have need for such open letters for pastoral repentance and bad, bad, bad church signs when churches are actually listing mostly worldly requirements for pastors?

These actual ‘want’ ads are taken off a good sister’s blog:

Executive Pastor
MCC is looking for an Executive Pastor (i.e. acting as the Chief Operating Officer) who will manage the operations of the church and will report to the Senior Pastor. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of effective staff leadership and development and will be a person of integrity committed to the mission and vision of the church. The individual will possess exceptional organizational skills and excellent oral and written communications skills. He/she will be able to manage multiple priorities. The Executive Pastor will supervise all senior staff at MCC and will lead the development of integrated plans across ministries/staff to deliver the church vision. This candidate will have a close personal relationship with Jesus Christ. MCC is a 2300 member church that is mission oriented and has a passion to reach the community and the world with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Executive Pastor will embrace this mission and share this passion. This is a full time position with a full benefit package. The ideal candidate will have a Bachelors degree and a strong background in business and organization management. A minimum of 10 years experience in a leadership capacity with responsibility for delivering a vision is required. Executive Pastor Experience desirable (but not required).

Just one Biblical requirement — a close relationship with Jesus Christ?!

Worship Pastor
Emmanuel Baptist Church is seeking a man to serve as full-time Worship Pastor. Candidates must be comfortable leading a “blended” style service. EBC leans toward the contemporary side of “blended,” but we need someone who truly loves and uses both traditional and contemporary music to unite people of all age categories in worship. A little history of our church may help… EBC has more than doubled in worship attendance over the past 5 years to a weekly attendance of 600+. Last year, we saw 251 salvations, 50 baptisms, and 136 new members added to our church family. EBC has grown at an average of 100 people per year in a small town setting. In addition, Emmanuel Christian School has 450+/- students enrolled in grades PreK-12. We also opened a School of Fine Arts teaching music, voice and drama. Emmanuel Baptist Church is balanced, growing, financially sound, and known as “A Place of Grace” in our community. Emmanuel is truly experiencing a modern-day miracle! Candidates for this position should have at least a Bachelor’s degree in Music, a minimum of 3 years experience, and be proficient in piano.

Wow, no mention of any spiritual status at all! One just has to know how to lead a “blended” style service. What that is can be very open to interpretation, especially if we see the word “contemporary”, no?

Senior Pastor – Life Groups
PURPOSE OF THE POSITION
This purpose of this position is to create “Raving Fan” small groups where people can learn, change, grow, connect, support and experience God together.

PRIMARY STRENGTHS/GIFTS/TALENTS REQUIRED

  • Vision Caster – Able to communicate the LG vision effectively so that people buy in and embrace it.
  • Strategic & Systems Thinking – Able to develop effective systems (both administrative & leadership) to make sure the LG’s are on track and achieving their goals.
  • Up Front Teaching Gifts – Able to design and deliver effective leadership training in a way that creates Raving Fans.

Are raving fans an euphemism for raving lunatics? Oh, and by the way, no mention of Biblical requirements for shepherds either.

I rest my case.

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Chuck Smith on suffering

From his commentary on 2nd Kings 13:14-19–

Let me tell you something; people of great faith get sick. People of tremendous faith die. And it is folly to believe that sickness or death results from a lack of faith or commitment to God. Sickness and death happen to everybody. But there are always those who are trying to sell snake oil. From the days of the early prairie. The cure-all. From bunions to earaches. And there always seems to be someone offering the spiritual snake oil or the panacea or the cure-all to all of the problems that a Christian faces. And these panaceas are offered to people and they go through various stages…people are offering these cure-alls. Enough faith, you never need to be sick. Enough faith, you’ll always be prosperous. And the spiritual cure-alls that are offered. And they go for a while, but soon there are people who try it and it doesn’t work and then all of a sudden as they share their failure, they find that other people have experienced the same failures. They’ve been praising the Lord for a long time, nothing’s happening to their situation and they’ve been believing; nothing’s happened. Who really can understand the ways of God?

I will frankly confess I don’t understand the ways of God. Now don’t let that surprise you. If I stood up here and told you I understood the ways of God, then I would be a first-class liar. Any man tells you, “Well, I understand the ways of God,” he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. And he is contradicting God because God said, “My ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8,9). For “my ways are beyond your finding out” (Romans 11:33).

And I frankly confess I do not know the mysteries of God. I do not know why God allows certain beautiful Christians to be sick. I do not know why God allows many beautiful Christians to suffer. I do not know why many beautiful Christians are in prison in Siberia and in China and been tortured for their faith. I do not know why James was beheaded and Peter was crucified upside down. And Paul was beheaded and the early disciples all suffered martyrdom, because they believed God just as much as any of these pseudo prophets today. And if God wanted us to all be wealthy and prosperous and all, then He would have declared it plainly in the Scripture, and there would be a consistency to it within the Christian body.

It’s a tragedy the way that these doctrines have proliferated through the country. People so anxious to believe. Let me tell you something, these doctrines haven’t really had an effect upon the Siberian Christians yet. If you went up there and said, “Hey, you know, God wants you all to be prosperous and wealthy. You all ought to be driving Cadillacs up here.” And yet, because of the hardships, they have been forced to a much deeper commitment than we even dream about. Their commitment to Christ caused them the slavery that they experience in Siberia. And there are thousands of Christians enslaved in Siberia today because they dare to proclaim their faith and commitment to Jesus Christ.

I wonder just how strong the commitment would be if God began to take away some of the Cadillacs…too many people who went out on the basis on this and began to charge their Cadillacs and their caviar and all, and when the bills came due, they didn’t have enough faith to pay them.

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What’s in a name? Just ask Creflo DOLLAR

Skimming through the blogosphere, I ran across this article by PJ Miller at Sola Dei Gloria. Not content to let todd Bentley be the only one commanding angels, Cashflow Creflo has decided to ratchet up his heretical pattern of demanding that God do what Creflo commands Him to do:

Angel Power Confession

Because I am the righteousness of God, angels have been sent to minister to me. They respond to the Word of God which I speak. Therefore, I loose angels with the words of my mouth. I say today, let the Lord be magnified who takes pleasure in my prosperity. In the name of Jesus, I command the angels to bring to me prosperity in my spirit, in my home, in my body, in my family life, and in my finances.

I declare promotion and command the angels to bring promotion into my life. I have a blood-bought covenant promise from God Almighty to multiply exceedingly. Therefore, I confess I am exceedingly fruitful and blessed, right now, in Jesus’ name! I command the angels of God to go and bring this covenant to pass in my life now! I have the power to get wealth, and release the angels to bring wealth into my life.

I declare right now that I am healthy, healed, delivered, and freed from the bondage of sin. I am the head always, and never the tail. I am above only, and never beneath. I lend, not borrow, and everything I put my hands to prospers.

I walk in the favor of God and my favor is increased even as I am speaking. I have more than enough money to pay every bill that comes in, and I declare I am totally debt-free now! I have the authority of Heaven and in the name of Jesus, I declare that whatever I bind on the Earth, is bound in Heaven, and whatever I loose on the Earth, is loosed in Heaven.(source)

I don’t even know where to begin with this nonsense. The angels are NOT at our command. We can no more command angels than we can command God. We are never promised health or wealth. I wonder why it is that all thse heretics who love to go around spouting about how Abraham was rich, David was rich, Solomon was rich–but they never once talk about how the apostles, after they started spreading the gospel, were never rich. They lost everything. All of them–save John–were martyred insome of the most gruesome ways possible. We could spend all day talking about how the apostle Paul’s life wasn’t always sunshine and puppies after he started preaching the gospel. But these robbers and thieves won’t tell you these things. They’ll just cherry-pick a few verses, twist them in the molst abominable ways, and abscond with your cash.

As they command angels. Hogwash.

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“Don’t bother reading your Bible”

Over the last few years, I’ve noticed a pattern among many false religions and false teachers of the Word.

Catholicism–Don’t bother reading your Bible. You can’t understand it. Let the Magisterium tell you what it means.

Mormonism–Don’t bother reading your Bible. You can’t trust it, it’s been corrupted. Just let the General Authorities tell you what it means.

Jehovah’s Witnesses–Don’t bother reading your Bible. You can’t interpret it. Just let the Watchtower tell you what it means.

Postmodernism–Don’t bother reading your Bible. Nobody can understand. No one knows what it means.

Warrenism–Don’t bother reading your Bible. Unless it’s “The Message” because that’s the only one anybody can understand. Just read your “Purpose Driven Life” and let Rick Warren tell you your purose.

Prosperity “Gospel”–Don’t bother reading your Bible. Satan won’t let you understand it. Just blindly swallow the verses we cherry-pick and take out of context.

Lying Signs and Satanic Wonders Movement–Don’t bother reading your Bible. Only Pharisees try to undertsand it. Just trust the dog-and-pony-show, I mean sleight-of-hand, I mean signs and wonders we perform on stage every night.

On the other hand, the Bible tells us that even the words of the Old Testament alone are enough to lead us into truth. “from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2nd Timothy 3:15). And we have the Holy Spirit, of whom Jesus said, “He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). So we don’t need a Magistreium, or General Authorities, or a Watchtower, or lying signs and Satanic wonders to lead us into truth. By the leading of the Holy Spirit in opening His Scripture to us, He will lead us into the truth.

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Does your bookstore carry this man’s material?

Some people may wonder, “Why do you guys worry so much about what bookstores are selling? So they sell TD Jakes’ books. What’s wrong with that? A lot of people like TD Jakes!” So, what IS wrong with TD Jakes? (Actually, the easier question to answer is “What ISN’T wrong with him?)

Here are a few quote, courtesy of Symphony of Scripture:

“And God said, ‘Let us. Let usssssss…’” says Jakes, and then digresses: “…One God, but manifest in…three different ways, Father in creation, Son in redemption, Holy Spirit in regeneration.” (“Spirit Raiser,” Time Magazine, September 17, 2001)

“My brothers and sisters the power of life and death is in the tongue. You can have whatever you say.” (Intermission of “The Bone Collector Part II,” TBN, August 12, 2004)

“You’re entitled to have wellness in your body. Stop begging for what you’re entitled to.” (T. D. Jakes, “God Never Meant For You To Lose,” TBN, July 29, 2004)

“You gotta speak to stuff or it won’t change. Are you following what I’m saying?” (“The Bone Collector Part II,” TBN, August 12, 2004)

“I want to challenge you to sow and come into agreement with me. I believe you don’t have to go for it, you can sow for it! And God will bring it to pass in your life. I want you to write me, put in your prayer request and sow a special seed. Believe God for supernatural resurrection harvest in your life!” (“Heirs of The Promise I,” After the sermon T. D. Jakes said this while in the studio, March 21, 2005)

“His holiness, John Paul II was truly a dedicated and courageous messenger of God. His legacy will be a model that all of us should follow. His Holiness was not only a leader of the church, but also a leader of the world. His life was an example everyone can learn from. His mission to spread the Good News of faith throughout the world, and his dedication to human rights was an inspiration.” (“Bishop T. D. Jakes Statement on The Passing of Pope John Paul II”)

Well, I guess other than the fact that he is a Word-of-Faith, Name-It-And-Claim-It Prosperity huckster who denies the deity of Christ while glorifying a pope who dedicated his life to glorifying the Virgin Mary over Christ–I guess he’s not such a bad guy 😉

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Smells Like TBN Spirit

A ripoff of the Nirvana song, inspired by the jackals featured every hour on TBN.

I saw this guy
On my TV
And he was staring
Straight at me
He said he’d heal
My disease
If I would send
Him money please

Don’t know don’t know
Don’t know don’t know
Don’t know don’t know don’t know

Well he’s yellin!
And he’s screamin!
Could it be that
He’s blasphemin?
Send him money
I don’t wanna!
But he told me
That I gotta!
If I do and
God is willing
I’ll find gold in
All my fillings!
Yeah!

As I wait for
My miracle
And migraines still
Pound in my skull
I must admit
The waiting’s tough
Oh is my faith
Not strong enough?

Don’t know don’t know
Don’t know don’t know
Don’t know don’t know don’t know

Dontcha dis the
Path I’ve chosen!
Even though the
Bank’s foreclosin!
And my mortgage
I can’t pay now!
“Money Comin!”
Any day now!
Though by sight you’d
Never guess it!
It’ll come if
I confess it!
Yeah!

I pawned my watch
And sold my car
And I maxed out
My credit cards
But I know I’ll
Get what I need
With one more
Thousand-dollar seed

Don’t know don’t know
Don’t know don’t know
Don’t know don’t know don’t know

Brother Benny
Wants to help me!
If my checkbook
I will empty!
Send it in now!
No delayin!
In the Spirit
He’s a-slayin!
Slingin’ jackets!
Quotin’ verses!
Calling down all
Kinds of curses!

Avanzini!
Pastor TD!
Creflo Taffy!
Stevie Munsey!
Kenny Benny!
Joyce and Jesse!
Drivin’ Bentleys!
Charley Grassley!
Penitentiary!

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How to tell if you’re “word of faith.”

HOW TO TELL IF YOU’RE WORD OF FAITH:
13. You’ve been overheard saying, “Touch not God’s anointed” at least twice this week.
12 You stand in front of the water cool for seven hours praying in tongues, rebuking the spirit of emptiness, and then shout praises to God for his provision because the Sparkletts delivery driver showed up.
11 Joni Erickson Tada must be a filthy sinner. If only that poor woman would eat some of that Miracle Manna you’ve been sending her.
10 You lay hands on the TV and pray every time you see a pet talking in a show, knowing you can cast out that demon!
09 You’ve read and memorized and freely quote Your Best Life Now and Becoming A Better You. The Bible? Not so much.
08 You threaten those faithless heresy-hunters with law suits.
07 You think Joyce Meyers is a sell-out for having a study bible.
06 Your pastor sells his sweaty hankies on eBay as points of contact.
05 $150 for Calvin’s Institutes is a waste of money, but that seed gift of $599.95 to Benny Hinn is gonna pay off!
04 The license plate on your primer colored 1987 Toyota Corolla says “LTLGOD” and the frame says “WITH FAITH THIS CAR IS A BMW.”
03 The only Trinity you care about involves a guy with bad theology and a woman with worse hair.
02 Evangelism is telling someone about Joel Osteen.
01 You think Family Christian Bookstores and Christian Book Distributors are too conservative.
Thanks to Berry for all the material and M&M’s.
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Selling a counterfeit faith to a biblically illiterate people. It’s like taking candy from a baby.

This kind of tomfoolery would vanish overnight if people knew the Scriptures. If people would actually read their Bibles these purveyors of another gospel would be out of business faster than they could say, “God wants you to sow a financial seed-of-faith offering.”

Miracle Real Estate:

Miracle Manna:

Anointed Prayer Handkerchiefs and Miracle Spring Water:

More Miracle Handkerchiefs:

More Miracle Spring Water:

Miracle Spring Water Examined and Exposed: