“Through clear instruction and powerful testimonies, Listening for the Healing Word will help you implement listening prayer in small group settings.
“Simply put, Listening Prayer involves ‘hearing’ what God wants to reveal and conveying it humbly. Listening / healing prayer is our main task for Living Waters large and small group ministry times.
“We lay aside our understanding, our agendas, good ideas and advice. Rather than blurting out what we think is best or necessary, we choose to wait and listen.
“Our continual prayer rises to Him: “God come and do what only You can do!” As we are silent and give Him room, He comes. God speaks our language, through words, images, sensations, emotions; really any way He wants to. He comes in ways the one receiving prayer can truly hear, giving what He alone knows they need.
“In receiving these words of life and hope, men and women are healed and their lives transformed.”
Listening prayer is transcendental meditation, not prayer. This is prayer:
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
Desert Stream Ministries has redefined prayer to mean silent listening until one hears God’s voice. Silent listening is not prayer. Listening prayer is not prayer. Laying aside our understanding, our agendas, good ideas and advice is not a prerequisite to prayer. By its definition, prayer is bringing all that concerns us to God and making specific requests. Jesus taught us how to pray for our needs. “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins.... And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.” He did not tell us to lay aside our understanding, our agendas, good ideas and advice and be silent until we hear God’s voice.
Lexicon definition of “prayer” in Scripture:
Strong’s Greek Dictionary
δεησις deesis
from 1189; a petition:—prayer, request, supplication.Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary
8605. תְּפִלָּה t@phillahfrom 6419; intercession, supplication; by implication, a hymn:—prayer.
Desert Stream Living Waters program is a recommended resource of Lausanne affiliate, Exodus Global Alliance. The Lausanne Movement also promotes contemplative prayer, as the antidote to the social evils in the world. Lausanne’s recommended authorities on global transformation through contemplative living are Catholic mystics—Henri Nouwen, a priest, and Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk. (“Contemplative Activism as a Model for Mission”)
The Lausanne Congress convened in 1974 was the fountainhead of a movement that launched a host of Charismatic and Pentecostal ecumenical, contemplative, healing and evangelization organizations. First Stone Ministries was founded in 1976 as Fishers of Men Evangelistic Corporation. Exodus International was also founded in 1976. True Freedom Trust was founded in the UK in 1977. Desert Stream Ministries was founded at the Vineyard in 1980. First Stone Ministries was formed from Fishers of Men in 1981. The Council for National Policy was also started in 1981. Evangelical Ministries to Cultists was founded in 1982 and was converted to Evangelical Ministries to New Religions in 1984.
All of these offshoots of Lausanne are bound by the Lausanne Covenant which requires members to “cooperate in evangelism” and “socio-political involvement” with Roman Catholics and other religions. The vague language of the Lausanne Covenant also allows for the recommendation and promotion of many New Age spiritualities to their member organizations.
The Lausanne World Pulse, a publication of the Lausanne Movement, recommends Contemplative/ Listening Prayer, Spiritual Formation and Inner Healing to its members. The sources cited in the following excerpts from a Lausanne article on Spiritual Formation are Emergent Church heretics, Dallas Willard, Ruth Haley Barton and Gary Moon. Also cited is C. S. Lewis, who taught that Christians become “little Christs.”
“God’s Call to Spiritual Formation” [Please note that my comments are in brackets / BA]
“What is meant by the term “spiritual formation,’ and how do we cooperate with God’s intention to conform us to Christ? Spiritual formation refers to the Holy Spirit-driven process of refashioning the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes a reflection of the inner being of Christ himself.1 [Dallas Willard]
“God intends for this ‘metamorphosis’ to occur in every believer’s life.2 [Ancient Wisdom term “metamorphosis” means transformation to a higher level of consciousness]
“Since it is God’s intention, why do we not always experience ourselves or other Christians as ‘little Christs’?3 [C.S. Lewis]
“By faith, we are regenerated into a new birth, making us genuinely new, but not totally new.4 Why? Scripture reveals three dynamics of the progressive nature of spiritual formation.
We are like infants who must eat in order to grow (1 Peter 2:2).
We are insensitive to the presence of God and need continual awakening to his voice and initiatives (Hebrews 4:7-13; 2 Corinthians 3:18). [audibly hearing “God’s Voice” - title of the God's Voice Conference]
We are deformed through the effects of sin in our identities and relationships and we need ongoing healing (Colossians 3:5-17; Romans 12:1-2). [Inner Healing / Leanne Payne, Agnes Sanford in next section]
“Respectively, God calls us to learn, listen, and to live in the light. [occult illumination / “ye shall be as gods” Gen. 3:5]
Call to Listen
“The Holy Spirit whispers God’s invitation to know him intimately. It comes as a thirst or longing for the living God, and when he speaks, we are challenged to listen (Psalm 62 and 63).5 Our busyness and efforts as ‘agents for God’ prevent us from listening to the still, small voice (1 Kings 19:12). [audibly hear “God’s Voice”]
“Much of modern ministry substitutes God’s presence for a ‘functional culture that is driven by technology, schedules, and computers; a culture that moves at a faster and faster pace, driving out time for prayer and reflection.’ 6 God invites us into a conversational relationship of listening and responding, leading us back into a shared life with God.7 Listening is most effective in a secret place of intimate communion with God.8 Jesus showed us this ‘way’ through his practice of Sabbath rest and time alone in silence and solitude (John 14:6).”
A Lausanne Occasional Paper promotes the Healing Prayer of Anglican Charismatic, Leanne Payne, Contemplative Prayer of Quaker Spiritualist Richard Foster, and the Spiritual Warfare Prayer of Dick Eastman. (“Lausanne Occasional Paper 42. Prayer in Evangelism”)
The Lausanne Movement has radically changed the character of Protestant Christianity from its Reformation standard of Sola Scriptura to an ecumenical movement that is converting the global masses to a false social gospel, transforming local churches into the new corporate mega model and is moving the Christian Church into a one world religion of mystical occultism.
Theosophist Vera Alder disclosed the 3-sector strategy of “The Move Towards One World Religion”:
“Vera Alder, a teacher in esoteric knowledge says in her book ‘When Humanity Comes of Age’: ‘There is actually a Plan and a Purpose behind all creation. World unity is the goal towards which evolution is moving. The world plan includes: A World Organisation, a World Economy, a World Religion.’
“As radical liberal theologians were declaring the death of God and the Bible in the 60s, others were announcing the return of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome. Today’s Postmodern theologians declare that religion is not in decline, but simply in a process of reformation. As in ancient Rome social and religious forces are working together. Western capitalism is partnering with Eastern meditation.”
JOHN WIMBER & VINEYARD ARE THE SOURCE OF DESERT STREAM MINISTRIES
The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is the rebranded Latter Rain Revival—the Pentecostal and Charismatic “signs and wonders” movement started in the 1940s by William Branham and revived in the 1980s by C. Peter Wagner, Anglican minister, John Wimber, and the Kansas City Prophets who claimed to be New Testament apostles and prophets called by God to lead the Church to take dominion over the earth and to bring in the Kingdom of God. “New Apostolic Reformation” was the new name coined by C. Peter Wagner, for the Latter Rain Revival.
“I needed a name ... For a couple of years I experimented with ‘Post denominationalism.’ The name I have settled on for the movement is the New Apostolic Reformation.“ (C. Peter Wagner, The New Apostolic Churches 1998, p.18.)
“A National Symposium on the Post-Denominational Church was convened by Dr. C. Peter Wagner at Fuller Seminary, May 21-23, 1996. Bill Hamon said that ‘this was a historical occasion in God’s annals of Church history. It was prophetically orchestrated by the Holy Spirit to fulfill God’s progressive purposes of bringing His church to its ultimate destiny... the consensus of the panelists was that there are still apostles and prophets in the Church, and there is an emerging Apostolic Movement that will revolutionize the 21st Century Church.’” (Apostles Today)
These revivals, or rather revolutions, which Peter Wagner dubbed a “Church Quake,” rocked the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches in 1994 with demonic manifestations attributed to the Holy Spirit. The Latter Rain revivals encompassed the Toronto Blessing (John Arnott, Randy Clark, Mike Bickle), Pensacola Brownsville (John Kilpatrick, Steve Hill, Michael Brown), Lakeland (Todd Bentley). The aforementioned false apostles and prophets, who misled the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches to rely on supernatural experiences instead of God’s Word, claimed that they had heard God’s audible voice and had visions and visitations from Jesus and angels who commissioned them to lead the Church to take dominion and rule the world in the 21st century.
Peter Wagner had been a charter member of Lausanne Committee and chaired the Strategy Working Group, ostensibly to evangelize previously unreached people groups, but in reality to transform the doctrine and practice of the Church to conform it to the New World Religion. Wagner’s key position in launching the worldwide Lausanne movement is documented in the Papers of Peter Wagner archived at the Billy Graham Center of Wheaton College:
“In 1974 he conducted a demonstration workshop on evangelistic methods and church growth at the International Congress on World Evangelization, and was a member of the Lausanne Continuation Committee. With the formation of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE) in 1976, Wagner became a member of the LCWE Executive Committee. An integral part of Wagner’s role within the Lausanne Committee was serving as chairman of its Strategy Working Group (SWG). The group’s function was to compile information on distinct people groups throughout the world and facilitate the development of strategies to reach them with the Gospel. Wagner concluded his duties as chairman and member of the LCWE Executive Committee in 1981, but continued to serve as a member of the Lausanne Committee in 1988.”
An informative history of The New Apostolic Reformation: History of a Modern Charismatic Movement, by academic John Weaver, states that Wagner “invoked” Calvin and Kuyper as prototypes for his cultural mandate to transform society.
“Wagner sees Christians as having an ‘assignment from God to take dominion and transform society’ (Wagner, Dominion! 46). He refers to this as a ‘cultural mandate’ (Wagner, Dominion! 46). It is notable also that Wagner explicitly invokes both John Calvin and famous Reformed Calvinist theologian and politician Abraham Kuyper as examples of the power of dominion theology.” (Weaver, p. 98)
Prior to Lausanne, Wagner had brought Vineyard founder, John Wimber, on the leadership staff of the Fuller Evangelistic Association and, later, Fuller Theological Seminary. Wimber became the Founding Director of the Department of Church Growth at the Charles E. Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth, which was founded by the Fuller Theological Seminary and the Fuller Evangelistic Association. Wimber directed the department until 1978.
“In the mid 1970s, C. Peter Wagner realized that the Department of Church Growth of the Fuller Evangelistic Association needed an experienced leader. Wimber’s Charismatic personality, combined with the staggering growth of his church in the 1970s, gained Wagner’s attention. Wimber, therefore, became Director of the Department for Church Growth in 1975… In 1982, Wimber began teaching the first MC510 course (‘Signs, Wonders, and Church Growth’) at Fuller Seminary and simultaneously took on the leadership of the Vineyard movement, a group—though not really a denomination—of Charismatics that was committed to spreading the Charismatic message (Wagner, Wrestling 124).” (Weaver, pp. 58-59)
Templeton Foundation money again rained down from heaven to finance the Dominionist mandate of the New Apostolic Reformation. One Templeton grant for $2.3+ million was paid for a study led by a Catholic Charismatic scholar at the University of Akron who worked closely with Peter Wagner, John Wimber and John Arnott.
“The grant for this project totaled some $2,326,362 (‘The Flame of Love: Scientific Research on the Experience and Expression of Godly Love in the Pentecostal Tradition’ Grant ID: 12490). Among the co-directors of the project and arguably its most key figure is Margaret Poloma (‘Co-Directors’). Poloma is often portrayed as one of the leading sociologists examining Charismatic belief. What is less commonly emphasized is that Poloma (like a large number of scholars working in Pentecostal studies today) is herself Charismatic. Poloma’s pastors, Jeff and Beth Metzger, were involved in the Toronto Blessing (Poloma, Main Street Mystics 11). Poloma has herself received praise from C. Peter Wagner, who has called her one of the ‘greatest born again kingdom minded sociologists that we have’ (Wilson, ‘C. Peter Wagner Claims’).” (Weaver, pp. 13-14)
Margaret Poloma, the Catholic Charismatic scholar in the employ of the Templeton Foundation, was commissioned to produce “The Flame of Love: Scientific Research on the Experience and Expression of Godly Love in the Pentecostal Tradition,” to legitimize “experiences of the divine” as beneficial to human flourishing.
“For the past five years she has collaborated with some twenty other colleagues in the John Templeton Foundation-sponsored Flame of Love Project (www.godlyloveproject.org) to develop a model of ‘Godly Love’ that demonstrates the dynamic process in which experiences of the divine contribute to a better understanding human benevolence.” (Margaret Poloma)
This background is necessary to understand the New Apostolic Reformation roots of Stephen Black’s First Stone Ministries. Stephen’s partner in ministry, Andrew Comiskey, founded Desert Stream Ministries (First Stone’s healing program) “in 1980 while serving on staff at the Vineyard Church in West Los Angeles.”
“I founded Desert Stream Ministries in 1980 while serving on staff at the Vineyard West Los Angeles. Annette and I were engaged to be married that year, which also marked the start of our first healing group in West Hollywood. That one group evolved into the in-depth Living Waters program. These groups now flourish on every continent. God likes them because they help people grow to love Him and each other with integrity.
“Our family grew to six and we moved Desert Stream to the Vineyard Anaheim, the ‘mother’ church of that vital healing movement, and home of its founder John Wimber. We then moved from Southern California to Kansas City, Missouri in 2005 to serve alongside Mike Bickle at IHOP. Both the Vineyard and IHOP richly blessed and built us up, even as we imparted our healing offerings there. Recently, I confirmed my love for the Catholic Church by becoming a member. I now serve as an active lay minister at St. Thomas More’s Parish where I love to do Living Waters!” (About Andrew)
The Desert Stream Living Waters Listening prayer and meditation program—which Stephen Black coordinates and First Stone uses to heal homosexuals—was developed at John Wimber’s Vineyard Church, the same church which launched C. Peter Wagner’s Latter Rain Revival and the demonic Toronto Blessing led by Vineyard pastor, Randy Clark, into Pentecostal and Charismatic churches.
NAR Apostle Randy Clark, his Apostolic Network & his ‘Voice of the Apostles’ Conference
“Before the Toronto Blessing, NAR Apostle C. Peter Wagner described Randy Clark as a ‘relatively unknown Vineyard pastor’ (The Rising Revival, 1998, pg. 10). It is significant to note that Clark was a Vineyard pastor, worked closely with John Wimber and his Vineyard movement, heralding him as the ‘pioneer of the New Apostolic Reformation’ (The New Apostolic Churches, 1998). Wagner astutely observed that Vineyard (later known as the Association of Vineyard Churches), was ‘one of the early prototypes of the New Apostolic Reformation in the United States’ (ChurchQuake!, 1999). While at Vineyard, Randy Clark received a spiritual ‘impartation’ from NAR Apostle Rodney Howard-Browne, carried this ‘impartation’ to Toronto and released spiritual mayhem in John and Carol Arnott’s airport church. What you are about to read is a valuable insight into Clark’s relationship with Vineyard and John Wimber:
“A few days after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the Toronto Airport Vineyard, now called Catch the Fire, John Wimber called Randy. He said, ‘This is the fulfillment of what God showed me about your life ten years ago.’ The last time Randy met with Wimber, John gave him one more word, ‘God told me audibly that you and (one other) were the two Vineyard pastors who would go around the world, laying your hands upon pastors and leaders to impart gifts of the Holy Spirit to them and to impart the Holy Spirit to them.’ Global Awakening was birthed by Randy Clark in January 1994 as a result of God using him to bring the fire of revival to the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. This ministry was birthed in the greatest revival movement of the last half of the 20th Century, a move of God resulting in the longest protracted meeting in the history of North America. During the first year, the ‘Blessing’ spread to 55,000 churches around the world. Over three million people visited the church during those first few years; thousands were rededicated and saved and thousands more were empowered and equipped to minister more effectively. [Source]
“If you click on the source link above, you can read how his false revival impacted Heidi Baker and many other false apostles and prophets. This ‘revival’ soon spread to other countries and was responsible for the diabolical manifestations in 1994 at Holy Trinity Brompton (UK), in 1995 at Brownsville, Pensacola (US) and later Lakeland, Florida (2008.”
It was at John Wimber’s Vineyard Anaheim Church, where Andrew Comiskey moved his family from Vineyard West LA (following a Desert Stream sex abuse scandal that covered up the identity of the abuser and was settled in litigation), that Andrew was promoted to leadership by Wimber and developed the international strategy to disseminate the Vineyard Living Waters Listening Prayer program worldwide. This network included First Stone Ministries which was formed out of Fishers of Men in 1981, the year after Comiskey founded Desert Streams in 1980:
“Strength in weakness: could our little band of wounded healers step up and quicken our training of lay persons to make their churches such a merciful haven for the sexually broken? John [Wimber] said yes; DSM prayed: ‘Lord have mercy.’
“God had mercy and insisted we do it His way. John featured me in one of the annual conferences sponsored by the Vineyard Anaheim. This 5-day conference sold out and so another was slated for the next week: total conferees over two weeks? 10,000 people! (Desert Stream did daily workshops for hundreds and I was scheduled to address the large group a couple times each week.)
“The Vineyard Anaheim had become the hub of an international network of churches and Desert Stream benefited. Following the Vineyard model, we began to plan an international strategy for identifying and raising nationals to dig deep wells of Living Waters in their lands.” (Andrew Comiskey: Vineyard Anaheim)
As a co-worker of John Wimber, Andrew Comiskey was major player in the Vineyard movement for 20 years.
“I love the theology of Dr. George Eldon Ladd (The Presence of the Future, Eerdmans) who majored on healing and deliverance as evidence of God’s Kingdom come in Jesus, a key that John Wimber utilized unlike any other leader as he led the Vineyard movement (of which I was privileged to be a part for twenty years).” (Andrew Comiskey: John Wimber Archives)
George Eldon Ladd was a distinguished professor at Fuller Seminary who taught Kingdom Theology, that the Kingdom of God was already present and yet awaited future fulfillment as Christians invoked God's authority and the right to rule on earth. John Wimber taught a particular application of kingdom theology, emphasizing signs and wonders as the coming of the kingdom of God.
“Jesus’ proclamation of the presence of the Kingdom means that God has become redemptively active in history on behalf of his people... The Kingdom is primarily the dynamic reign or kingly rule of God, and derivatively, the sphere in which the rule is experienced.” (Ladd, Theology of the New Testament)
An article by a “Spiritual Director” at the Vineyard Aotearoa (Maori) New Zealand documents the use of the “contemplative model” of “Holy Listening” and “Ignatian spirituality” as the template developed by the Anaheim Vineyard “Spiritual Formation Community.” Also mentioned is the expectation that physical manifestations and other visible signs would accompany Holy Listening as indicators that God was speaking personally and moving on a person.
Buried Seed: Spiritual Direction and the Vineyard Movement
“Vineyard looks for the physical signs of God’s movement upon a person and expects God to speak personally in and through images and metaphors… The directors I interviewed all practise a contemplative model of spiritual direction. One specifically described her training and experience as being in Ignatian spirituality… Texts mentioned included Margaret Guenther’s ‘Holy Listening’… The Vineyard attitude of looking for what the Father is doing appeared quite clearly as directors put words to their ministry. ‘Spiritual direction is in line with an old Vineyard mantra that our goal is both to see and participate in what the Father is doing. We’ve normally used this in power-encounter contexts (healing prayer for individuals). I tell people we’re extending the trajectory of this mantra and trying to discern over the course of months ‘what the Father is doing’ in a person’s life. We do this through prayer and ‘holy listening’… Silence is used for ‘centering’ at the beginning of the session… Sometimes when things have gone ‘deep’ and there is lots of movement in the person, I might suggest that we just sit in silence for a time and together ‘hold’ what has been surfaced up to and before God… Anaheim Vineyard, the flagship church of the US, has a ‘Spiritual Formation Community’.”
“John Wimber believed that every man, woman, and child who is willing to be used by God can learn to hear His voice.” (5-Step Prayer Model)
These Vineyard creations – the Latter Rain, Toronto Blessing, Brownsville, Lakeland revivals, and Listening Prayer, which is Hindu Yoga – all lead to altered states of consciousness and are rooted in the occult. All involve pagan practices that are expressly forbidden in Scripture and provoke God’s most severe judgment.
“There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.” (Deut. 18:9-11)
“A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.” (Lev. 20:27)
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” (Exod. 22:18)
Notwithstanding their clear violation of God’s Word, divination, conjuring of spirits, casting of spells and other witchcraft practices have proliferated in churches worldwide through the network of Vineyard trained and ‘anointed’ apostles and prophets and their devotees in the “New Apostolic Reformation” (NAR) – a network in which Stephen Black and First Stone Ministries are firmly entrenched.
Andrew Comiskey was an early trainee of the late Leanne Payne and wrote of the profound healing influence she had on his life:
“As I reflect upon her personal influence, I realize I could write a book on it. May it suffice to share some events that shaped my reliance on the Healing Presence. No-one leader impacted me more.” (The Healing Power of Prayer)
Andrew Comiskey and Leanne Payne even coauthored a book, Healing Prayers.
Leanne Payne was a disciple of Agnes Sanford who acquired her meditation ritual and psychic powers from Buddhism. This false religion was the true source of the Sanford’s false teachings and her disciples, Leanne Payne, John Wimber and other leaders of the Inner Healing movement.
“Sanford’s preference for the experiential led her into worshiping in a Buddhist temple (which she conjectures resulted in her own demonization); teaching occult visualization; promoting Jungian psychotherapy; believing that Jesus became a part of the collective unconscious of the human race; characterizing God as a ‘Force’; seeing the makeup of the world in terms of thought vibrations; and claiming that through visualization we can create virtue in people, forgive them of their sins, and heal them, all from a distance and without their knowledge. In Sanford’s The Healing Light, she explains to a non-Christian mother how visualization in the name of Jesus can help her transform her troublesome youngster into the child she wants her to be.
“Sanford’s many books and School of Pastoral Care spread her false teachings and therapies throughout the church, greatly influencing leaders such as Richard Foster, John and Paula Sandford, Morton Kelsey, Francis MacNutt, Ruth Carter Stapleton, Leanne Payne, Karen Mains, Rita Bennett and David Seamonds. Agnes single handedly began the Inner Healing movement, with its terribly destructive healing-of-memories techniques. This not only became a chief therapy of many Christian psychologists but was highly promoted by the Vineyard Fellowships, initially by Kenn Gulliksen, the movement’s founder, and later by John Wimber, who recommended the writings of Sanford and her inner-healing disciples.” (Women of the Faith)
Leanne Payne patterned her own ministry after Agnes Sanford’s School of Pastoral Care. Leanne Paynes' Ministries of Pastoral Care, which Andrew Comiskey recommends as a ministry associate, credits the “Desert Fathers” for setting the example for Payne's perseverance in contemplative prayer in order to be “regenerated, transformed and made new.”
“The Desert Fathers were some of the Church’s earliest pastoral care experts. They were moved to seek communion with God in the quiet, rugged atmosphere of the Egyptian desert. In the first generations after Christ’s incarnation, thousands of men and women went to live in these tiny communities to pursue union with Him. Some of you belong to religious orders that are descendants of these groups, and what a privilege it is to have you join us at MPC schools! The scenic setting of these hermitages brings to mind Leanne’s description of the ‘rigorous but sternly magnificent work’ of becoming our true selves in Christ. And as for all who desire to abide in Christ, our spiritual ancestors’ most significant choice was not to go to the desert, but rather to stay...
“About sixteen centuries after the Desert Fathers started recommending the virtue of stabilitas, Leanne Payne was praying through Isaiah 58, ‘Is this not the fast that I choose,’ and asked the Lord, ‘What fast do you desire me to keep?’ His answer profoundly ordered her personal life and ministry: Persevere with Me as I have persevered with you. Leanne testified, ‘I have not arrived, but am still persevering, and find that all my joy and any wholeness as well as ministry that I have is in this fast.’ Truly, Christ calls all His followers to this practice, to keep the fast of stabilitas – remain in Me, abide with Me, persevere with Me, practice My presence.
“Our Lord longs for us to stay with Him and His regenerating, transforming work because He longs to make us new.” (On Perseverance: The Virtue of Stabilitas)
Contrary to the false teaching of the Desert Fathers and the Inner Healers, the born again Christian is already a new creation in Christ. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Jesus is the Savior of the born again Christian from the bondage of sin and He is the Healer of emotions. Nowhere in the Bible is there even a suggestion that those who have been born again must persevere in “practicing God’s presence” and “pursue union with Christ” for they are already “in Christ”!
FIRST STONE & DESERT STREAM “INNER HEALING” ARE THE ANCIENT GNOSTIC STREAM
Considering the profound influence of Leanne Payne on Andrew Comiskey, whose work is facilitating listening prayer, it makes sense that “Desert Stream” would be named after the “Desert Fathers,” paying homage to the “stream” of Gnostic heresy that inserted itself into Christianity in its earliest years and has continued throughout Church history. The persistence of this heresy is due to a fifth column of Gnostic heretics who regularly infiltrate the Christian Church to undermine its sound doctrine and draw away disciples into their deception.
The Desert Fathers identified by Leanne Payne’s School of Pastoral Ministries established monastic communities in the Egyptian desert in the 3rd century A.D. However, these were not the earliest Desert community to influence Christianity. Before the Desert Fathers of Egypt there existed the Essenes, a Jewish sect that left Jerusalem for the Qumran Desert in Judea west of the Dead Sea and formed a monastic community which existed from the 2nd century B.C. to the 1st century A.D.
According to the Theosophical Glossary, the Jewish Essenes adopted the pagan traditions of Buddhism and Chaldea.
“Essenes... They had many Buddhistic ideas and practices; and it is noteworthy that the priests of the Great Mother at Ephesus, Diana-Bhavani with many breasts, were also denominated... It was at Ephesus where was the great College of the Essenes and all the lore the Tanaim had brought from the Chaldees... Essenes, believed in reincarnation.” (Theosophical Glossary, pp. 113-14; The Secret Doctrine, Vol. II, p. 111n)
Robert Graves wrote in The White Goddess that the “Alexandrian Gnostics...were the spiritual heirs of the Essenes after Hadrian had suppressed the Order in 132 A.D.” (p.150) The Jewish Encyclopedia cites Philo’s treatise on The Contemplative Life regarding the mystical practices and origin of the Alexandrian Therapeutae: “The members of the sect seem to have branched off from the Essene brotherhood.” Philo Judaeus (30 BC-45 AD) was a member of the Alexandrian Pythagorean society of “contemplative Hellenist Jews” called the Therapeutae which meant “healers.”
“Therapeutae. (Gr.) or Therapeutes. A school of Esotericists, which was an inner group within Alexandrian Judaism... They were ‘healers’ in the sense that some ‘Christian’ and ‘Mental’ Scientists...are healers, while they are at the same time good Theosophists and students of the esoteric sciences. Philo Judeaus calls them ‘servants of god’...‘an esoteric circle of illuminati,’ of ‘wise men’... They were contemplative Hellenistic Jews.’” (Jewish Encyclopedia, p.329)
Alexandria, Egypt was a center of the interchange of religious ideas as well as the intellectual meeting point between the Jews and the Greeks. After the fall of Jerusalem, Alexandria was the city in which the Cabalist Jews, who had synthesized their Chaldean witchcraft with Neo-Platonic philosophy, would cloak the new Cabalism in Christian terminology and penetrate the fledgling Church with the Gnostic heresy. The origins of the Cabala were the Chaldean mystery religion, and the source of Gnosticism was Cabala:
“But especially does Gnosticism testify to the antiquity of the Cabala. Of Chaldean origin... Gnosticism was Jewish in character long before it became Christian... Gnosticism—that is, the cabalistic ‘Hokmah’ (wisdom)—seems to have been the first attempt on the part of the Jewish sages to give the empirical mystic lore, with the help of Platonic and Pythagorean or Stoic ideas, a speculative turn; hence the danger of heresy…of which the systems of Philo, an adept in Cabala...show many pitfalls...
“Jewish gnosticism unquestionably antedates Christianity, for Biblical exegesis had already reached an age of five hundred years by the first century C.E. Judaism had been in close contact with Babylonian-Persian ideas for at least that length of time, and for nearly as long a period with Hellenistic ideas. Magic, also, which...was a not unimportant part of the doctrines and manifestations of gnosticism, largely occupied Jewish thinkers. There is, in general, no circle of ideas to which elements of gnosticism have been traced, and with which the Jews were not acquainted.” (Jewish Encyclopedia)
Matthew 24:24-26 state that during the Tribulation period that false prophets would be living in the desert:
“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.”
The Desert contemplative mystical healers were the predecessors of the Catholic contemplative mystics who along with their Jesus mantra inducing altered states of consciousness are recommended by Leanne Payne in her book, Heaven’s Calling.
“To jubilate is to sing in the Spirit and with the understanding, with a supernatural gift of music received while sing our praises, or sometimes chanting simply, such as repeating the holy name of Jesus.
“St. Augustine, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. John Chrysostom, St. Jerome, Pope St. Gregory the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, St. Francis of Assisi, Jan Ruysbrock, John of the Cross, and Teresa Avila: these form a short list of those who not only wrote about jubilation but experienced it in their lives, both privately and publicly. The list also includes most of the leading theologians, philosophers, devotional writers, and Christian mystics down through the history of the church...” (Heaven’s Calling, p. 302)
Leanne Payne’s contemplative / inner healing teachings and techniques were “highly promoted by the Vineyard Fellowships, initially by Kenn Gulliksen, the movement’s founder, and later by John Wimber” who worked with Payne on a Healing Prayer team. A female member of this team wrote that the experience led her to train her own team in the UK:
“I have been involved in healing prayer since 1979. Having been on team with Frances MacNutt, John Wimber and Leanne Payne, I began to train my own team in the UK which became formalised as the ‘Healing Prayer School’ in the 1990s.” (Lin Button: The Team)
According to Andrew Comiskey’s Catholic/Buddhist spirituality, Leanne Payne and John Wimber were extending Jesus’ Kingdom Rule—raising the dead and healing lepers—into local churches by healing homosexuals.
“I draw courage from John Wimber who simply believed that the Jesus of the Gospels should be welcomed in the local church: he took every opportunity to honor Jesus’ desire to raise the dead and deliver lepers and provide for poor ones in the churches he oversaw. Similarly, Leanne Payne believed Jesus to extend His Kingdom rule to those suffering from gender disorders. As early as 1970, she saw the darkness seeking to take hold in the Episcopal Church and did something about it by offering profound insight and Kingdom power to heal the homosexual.
“Both Wimber and Payne suffered terribly for their commitment to offensive Jesus. Yet they never ceased to be true to His reign and to extend that reign to others. Blessed are those who take no offense in Him!” (Advent: Offensive Jesus)
In 2016, Andrew Comiskey wrote a critique of the “Spiritual Friendship movement,” the scheme of homosexual celibate Wesley Hill to promote the myth of “celibate Gay Christianity.” Hill’s friend, lesbian Eve Tushnet, admitted at the Revoice conference that the celibate gay Christians are, in reality, not celibate. However, Comiskey’s solution for homosexual bondage is hardly an improvement over the hypocritical Revoice “gay celibacy” narrative, for contemplative prayer, which is not prayer at all but transcendental meditation, lets in seven demons worse than the first. Comiskey’s listening prayer cure is more deadly than the disease of uncleanness, for it introduces homosexuals to a realm of deceiving spirits whose goal is take up residence in their minds and bodies.
“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.” Matt. 12:43-45
According to Leanne Payne, who is Comiskey’s authority, the “primary need” of the homosexual is, not repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, but to “practice the Presence of God”:
“Leanne Payne writes, ‘The primary need of every lonely suffering soul is to be ushered into familiar communion with God through His healing presence.’ Thus our task as a minister is to quiet the soul and ask for the Holy Spirit to come, come Holy Spirit, You Who searches out the deep things of the heart, we give You room to move on behalf of this one who does not know how to begin to cognitively figure out his or her life. Now this exquisite spiritual discipline is reduced to ‘praying away the gay.’ We’ve all heard that! Snide snarky truth bearers! In truth, no-one is claiming that prayer removes same sex attraction. Rather, we are relying upon the Real Presence of God, to continually to meet us in the core ‘gaps’ of our lives where there was trauma and where there was a lack of love and where we can see vulnerability to false solutions to secure the love we need. Learning to ‘practice His Presence’ and listen for the healing Word is how our entire being is turned toward the Lord in our deepest areas of need, how He becomes everything to us. These rich disciplines are now reduced to ‘Praying away the gay…’” (Scandalous Good News)
Comiskey’s article is posted on Stephen Black’s Blog and First Stone Ministries’ web site which also recommends two books by Leanne Payne, one being The Broken Image: Restoring Personal Wholeness through Healing Prayer. Payne’s teaching of self-esteem, quoted on First Stone, is tantamount to the Serpent’s lie:
“Self-hatred in the Christian is a substitute for humility. It belongs to pride. We are to repent of this focus on self, go to the Lord, listen to His words and grow into His image. We bring dysfunctional, sinful, prideful patterns in the thought life and imagination into submission to Christ. In listening prayer, every thought of the mind, every imagination of the heart, is brought captive to Christ.” (Meditations on Humility and Confession)
"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:4-5
God did not reprove Job's low self-esteem: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath." Job 42:5-7
Leanne’s books on homosexuality, which are recommended and cited on First Stone Ministries website, take the psychological approach to homosexual sin.
Offering Hope to Homosexuals: Broken Image and The Healing of the Homosexual (Crossway Books)
Recommended Books: Homosexuality: Broken Image and Crisis in Masculinity
Payne is also cited in the First Stone article article, “Transformation of Persons with Same-Sex Attraction: Becoming Who We Are.”
Payne’s book, Crisis in Masculinity, is based on the Gnostic doctrine that God is male and female and that all people, since they are made in God’s image, are both masculine and feminine.
“In the traditional and best sense of the word bisexual, ‘Man in his fullness is bisexual.’1 That is, man contains within himself at least the vestigial elements of both the masculine and the feminine. The Judaic creation account states that before Eve was taken from Adam’s body, Adam was created both male and female in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). The two, taken together, compose God’s image. (The marriage state, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, is a symbolic restitution of this, the bipolar nature of man.) (p. 17)
“Masculinity and femininity are attributes of God, and we, in His image, are most surely—in our spiritual, psychological, and physical being—bipolar creatures. Our Creator, holding all that is true and real within Himself, reflects both the masculine and the feminine, and so do we. The more nearly we function in His image, the more nearly we reflect both the masculine and feminine in their proper balance—that is, in the differing degrees and aptitudes appropriate to our sexual identities as male and female.
“The Hebrew word for woman is ish shah, and is apparently a word play by the sacred writer on the term for man, ish. Although the two words have different etymologies, even so this word play points to the fact that woman too is man—she man, womb-man, or female man... Man and woman are both healed in the same way—by seeing with the eyes of the heart (or the true imagination) the Unseen Real, by listening to God and doing what they hear Him say.” (p. 86)
Leanne Payne’s theology was Gnosticism. The following explanation of Gnostic doctrine is an excerpt from my expose of another neo-Gnostic Charismatic cult which sold Payne’s books:
“Gnosticism is based upon a radically different view of Creation than is found in Scripture. According to the Gnostic heresy, Adam was originally created as a ‘light body,’ a ‘spark’ of the ‘divine essence,’ a pure spirit. In his original, perfect state, he was called Adam-Kadmon, the Heavenly Adam. Adam-Kadmon was not male, but male-female, or androgynous. In the course of time, this ‘first Adam’ became attracted to materiality and incarnated into matter. As Adam-Kadmon descended into matter, this ‘divine androgyne’ was divided into two sexes which took on material bodies, becoming Adam and Eve. As a result of Adam-Kadmon’s ‘fall’ into the material realm, humanity is now trapped in matter. Adam’s fall was not eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, it was ‘falling’ from his heavenly state into the material realm.
“After the first Adam’s descent into matter, Lucifer, who was co-creator of the world with God, offered the fallen Adam and Eve a means of release from their bondage in matter. They needed only to eat of the tree of the ‘knowledge of good and evil’ which God had forbidden them to do. The forbidden fruit was ‘spiritual enlightenment’ with the power to become ‘gods,’ having the ability to transcend matter and to be reabsorbed into the ‘divine principle’ from which they originated. However, the other creator-God rudely intervened in Lucifer’s plan in order to keep man trapped in matter and subject to Himself. To prevent Adam from taking of the tree of life, that he might achieve immortality, ‘The Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.’ (Gen. 3:24)
“In Gnostic thought, this God is an ‘evil Demiurge’ and ‘Satan,’ whereas Lucifer is the true God who is in a continuing battle with the evil Demiurge for possession of planet Earth. And so, Lucifer’s offer still stands for those who will receive ‘spiritual enlightenment’— the delusion that they can become ‘gods’ and escape the control of the evil Demiurge.”
For more information on the Gnostic belief system, read: The Gnostic Gospel.
Leanne Payne further revealed her Gnostic belief system when she stated that the bondage of mankind is not sin but their inability to connect with their inner self, specifically, their opposite feminine or masculine principle.
“Men everywhere are separated from their own hearts, the ‘feminine’ within them and within their female counterparts, and are therefore unable to get in touch with the mystery of being.” (Crisis in Masculinity, p. 84)
“For a woman to be free to initiate—free, that is, to hear the word of the Lord and do what she hears Him say—is for her to be in touch with her masculine side.... She is a 27 balanced feminine maker in the image of her Creator Father.... Likewise, for a man to fully function as a masculine maker, he must be in touch with the feminine principle in him.” (Ibid. pg. 99)
Revoice worship leader, Gregory Coles, hints at this Gnostic doctrine in his book, author of Gay, Single, Christian. There Coles opines that his orientation before the Fall in Eden was same-sex attraction and, therefore, his SSA orientation was a gift from God whose own glory was His male-female nature.
“Is it too dangerous, too unorthodox, to believe that I am uniquely designed to reflect the glory of God? That my orientation, before the fall, was meant to be a gift in appreciating the beauty of my own sex as I celebrated the friendship of the opposite sex? That perhaps within God’s flawless original design there might have been eunuchs, people called to lives of holy singleness?
“We in the church recoil from the word gay, from the very notion of same-sex orientation, because we know what it looks like only outside of Eden, where everything has gone wrong. But what if there’s goodness hiding within the ruins? What if the calling to gay Christian celibacy is more than just a failure of straightness? What if God dreamed it for me, wove it into the fabric of my being as he knit me together and sang life into me.” (Gay, Single, Christian: A Personal Journey of Faith and Sexual Identity, pp. 46-47)
This is a Gnostic perversion of Scripture. God’s glory is His goodness which Gregory Coles is appropriating to himself as a homosexual. When Moses said to God, “I beseech You, show me Your glory,” the Lord said to him, “I will make all My goodness pass before you.” Vile affections are not “goodness” but a reprobate mind (Romans 1:26-28). Coles is likely getting his misinformation from Gnostic sources which glorify sexual perversion, such as the pseudepigraphic Gospel of Thomas, and the Jewish mysticism of the Talmud and Kabbalah, which is the subject of Part 3:
“(22)... Jesus said to them, “When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter the kingdom.” (Gospel of Thomas)
God’s opinion of the Gnostic teaching on homosexuality is found in Romans 1.
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.In addition to Leanne Payne, First Stone also promotes various Roman Catholic, New Age, and Medieval mystics: Thomas Merton, Thomas a Kempis, Marilyn Christensen, Madeline L’Engle, Francois Fenelon, St. Bernard and Mother Theresa.
If the reader is not familiar with contemplative prayer, Ray Yungen’s presentation, “The Mystical Revolution” is a very informative of the spiritual danger of communicating with the demonic realm, even when deceptively called prayer.
The objective of Contemplative / Listening prayer and meditation is to “empty the mind” even of thoughts of God so that one can audibly hear “God’s Voice” and receive direction from the supernatural realm. Ray Yungen warned that emptying the mind and vain repetition of mantras leads to a trance state in which familiar spirits are able to enter the mind and body. This altered state of consciousness is the much sought after and typical experience of Hindus in India who practice Yoga meditation. A "Live Recording of Intense Shaktipat Transmission" shows same demonic manifestations in India that characterized the Toronto, Brownsville and Lakeland Revivals, which the Hindus call “Kundalini Awakening” or “Serpent Awakening.”
“Kundalini (Sanskrit: ‘coiled one’), in Hinduism refers to a form of divine energy (or shakti) said to be located at the base of the spine (muladhara). It was originally an important concept in Śaiva Tantra, where it was seen as a force or power associated with the divine feminine, which when cultivated and awakened through tantric practice, could lead to spiritual liberation. Kundalini is associated with Paradevi or Adi Parashakti, the supreme being in Shaktism, as well as with the goddesses Bhairavi and Kubjika. The term along with practices associated with it, was adopted into Hatha yoga in the 11th century and other forms of Hinduism as well as modern spirituality and New age thought.
“Kundalini awakenings may happen through a variety of methods. Many systems of yoga focus on awakening Kundalini through: meditation; pranayama breathing; the practice of asana and chanting of mantras. Kundalini Yoga is influenced by Shaktism and Tantra schools of Hinduism. It derives its name through a focus on awakening kundalini energy through regular practice of Mantra, Tantra, Yantra, Asanas or Meditation. The Kundalini experience is frequently reported to be a distinct feeling of electric current running along the spine.”
“Kundalini” means “coiled serpent” and the deranged manifestations of Kundalini awakening are signs of demon possession. Needless to say, when evil spirits enter a person there are profound changes in the brain which interfere with spiritual discernment. This may explain why so many Christians today have little or no ability to discern false teaching or demonic activity as unbiblical. Ray Yungen gave two examples from the secular media of otherwise cautious personalities who failed to discern the demonic power of Yoga Mindfulness:
“ABC News Anchor, Nightline Dan Harris was skeptical but got into mindfulness and went from saying, ‘This is New Age mumbo jumbo, I’d never do this,’ but he got into it and started doing it and he got spirituality and he wrote the book, 10% Happier: How I Found the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and found Self-Help that Actually Works. A True Story. And he wrote in it that even Dianne Sawyer is open to doing meditation and Dianne Sawyer is the most skeptical person in the world. Nobody could con her, nobody could take her in. But she’s even open now to doing Buddhist meditation.” (The Mystical Revolution)
Unfortunately, there are many like these nonbelievers in Charismatic and Pentecostal churches who never thought to test the spirits to determine if NAR teachings agree with Scripture. In their ignorance they have made experiences the litmus test of the Holy Spirit. This is also the case with many Evangelicals who would never go to a Pentecostal church but are trusting teachers of Contemplative prayer in their churches, parachurch ministries, missionary organizations and even seminaries and universities.
Inner healing gurus teach that Christians need their wisdom, experience, guidance and spiritual experiences for the healing of emotional brokenness and freedom from sexual bondage. However, the Bible declares, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” God needs no human medium or priestly mediator to improve upon the new creation He has made through the new birth. The Protestant Reformation delivered the Church from human mediators. These “inner healers” and “contemplative prayer” channelers are not only not needed, they are dangerous in the extreme. They are acting as “spirit mediums” lifting the veil between humanity and the spirit realm – principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places.
“SPIRITUAL FORMATION” REQUIRED IN CHRISTIAN SEMINARIES
BY ROCKEFELLER-FUNDED ACCREDITING AGENCY
Listening Prayer is known by other terminology such as Contemplative Prayer, Mindfulness, Centering Prayer, Yoga meditation, Transcendental Meditation, Practicing the Presence of God, Coram Deo, Hesychasm, Positive Psychology, Lectio Divina, Theophostic Prayer, Spiritual Exercises, Spiritual Disciplines and Spiritual Formation. The last three terms are Ignatius of Loyola’s “Spiritual Exercises” for the Jesuits who enlisted in the Pope’s scheme to covertly draw the Protestant heretics back into the Roman Catholic fold.
Spiritual Formation is also found in Freemasonry, another secret society based on Gnostic doctrine which conspires to destroy Christianity.
“Masonic Formation is the overall intellectual and moral development of the Freemason.”
“...Masonic Formation as the ‘process of fitting the rough ashlar of our imperfect being into the perfect ashlar fit for the divine temple … a constant transformation through the use of Masonic symbols, rituals, and teachings on a journey of return to the center of our being.’”
Spiritual Formation is also found in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Emergent Church, Mormon Church, Reformed Church, Assemblies of God, Southern Baptist denomination, and all of the denominations and false religions. Spiritual Formation has been mainstreamed into Christianity through colleges and seminaries funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. The Rockefeller-funded Association of Theological Schools is the accrediting association for Catholic and Protestant seminaries. The goal of ATS is the merger of Protestant and Catholic theologies with other religions.
“Spiritual formation in general has been integral to most religions, including Christianity. The religious ideal typically presupposes that one be changed in some manner through interaction with spiritual realities. Therefore, to trace a historical origin of spiritual formation is to examine the history of religion in general.
“However, the history of spiritual formation as a specific movement within 20th century Protestantism is possible. James Houston traces the history of the movement to post-Vatican II reformers within the Roman Catholic church, who sought to find ways to educate and train new priests in a manner that was appropriate to Vatican II ideals. This formative perspective began to spread into and was adopted by the Association of Theological Schools, and as an increasing number of evangelical schools began joining them in the 1970s and 1980s, the ideals spread throughout the academic and theological strata of Christianity, particularly in the United States. While initially aimed at academic and pastoral leadership, Houston notes that the Protestant ideal of the priesthood of all believers pushed churches to expand this formative ideal to all individuals.” (Wikipedia: Spiritual Formation)
The history of the Association of Theological Schools is important because most Evangelical seminaries are accredited by ATS. In 1934, the Conference of Theological Schools voted to become an accrediting agency under the influence of Robert Lincoln Kelly, a Quaker college president who had been a student of John Dewey at the Rockefeller-funded University of Chicago. Kelly persuaded the CTS that a study published in 1924 “revealed that clinical training was lacking and that, ‘in general, the closer a particular denomination was to its European roots, the more likely its seminaries were to concentrate their teaching on the classical theological disciplines.’” (Classical theological disciplines are the teachings of the Greek philosophers, Plato and Socrates, whose pagan ideas were incorporated into Gnosticism by the Alexandrian Judaizers.)
“While he found some seminaries operating on a very high professional level, including Union Seminary (New York) and the University of Chicago Divinity School, he found many more to be under financed, under enrolled, and poorly equipped…. there were too many theological schools, operating with too low standards and too few resources, to produce the type of religious leaders that Kelly, a typical Protestant liberal, believed the churches needed.
“Enlisting the aid of the Institute for Social and Religious Research, a religious and philanthropic organization entirely funded and controlled by John D. Rockefeller Jr., they secured the funding for a more comprehensive, and, they hoped, more favorable, study. But there was a price to pay. In exchange for funding the study, Rockefeller’s staff insisted that the Conference become an accrediting agency, an American Association of Theological Schools.”
Among the Association of Theological Schools Approved Degrees are 10 degrees in Spiritual Formation/Christian Formation. The Masters of Divinity, Master of Arts in Christian Education degrees and MA degrees in other specialized areas of ministry require instruction in Spiritual Formation.
“The learning outcomes for the MDiv shall encompass the instructional areas of religious heritage, cultural context, personal and spiritual formation, and capacity for ministerial and public leadership.”
In 2016, the Rockefeller-funded Association of Theological Schools awarded David VanDrunen, Professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics at Westminster Theological Seminary, CA, a Henry Luce III Fellowship for his “political theology,” which is also the major field of Jonathan Leeman of 9Marks, author of Political Church: The Local Assembly as Embassy of Christ’s Rule. Leeman and VanDrunen make a case for ”natural law” in the Noahic Covenant, which is the pretext for claims that the anti-Christian Noahide Laws will bring the Kingdom of God on earth.
“Natural Law & Social Order: Justice, Commerce, and Community under Noah’s Rainbow
“VanDrunen has already presented a biblical-theological approach to natural law grounded especially in the Noahic covenant and the biblical wisdom literature. … the present project takes a practical turn and asks what the implications of a Reformed, covenantal, and sapiential natural law theory might be for some perennially central issues of legal and political philosophy.”
The Reformed denominations have long been far afield of Sola Scriptura and nearer to Roman Catholicism. In 2014, Dr. Albert Mohler gave an address at the LDS Brigham Young University. An announcement of the event in the BYU News stated that Mohler, having earned his various academic degrees, “pursued additional study at the St. Meinrad School of Theology.”
“Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler to speak at BYU forum Feb. 25”
“A native of Lakeland, Fla., Mohler was a Faculty Scholar at Florida Atlantic University before receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. He holds a master of divinity degree and the doctor of philosophy in systematic and historical theology from Southern Seminary. Mohler has pursued additional study at the St. Meinrad School of Theology and has researched at University of Oxford.”
St. Meinrad School of Theology is a Roman Catholic Benedictine Seminary whose mission is the Spiritual Formation of clergy and lay persons.
“The mission of Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology is the initial and ongoing formation of priests, permanent deacons, and laity to minister together effectively in the service and evangelization of the Roman Catholic Church and the world. The long tradition and rich Benedictine heritage of Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology...” (Mission Statement)
“In addition to participating in the Days of Prayer offered throughout the academic year and the twice-yearly Seminary Formation Day, the seminary community makes a group retreat each year. (First-year theologians make a separate eight-day, silent, directed retreat.)
“Seminarians are assisted in developing habits of private prayer, including lectio divina and faithfulness to the complete and daily prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, by information presented in the classroom and by the accountability offered through spiritual direction.” (Spiritual Formation)
St. Meinrad Seminary is run by the monastic Benedictine Order named after Benedict of Nursia who wrote the Rule of Saint Benedict.
“The Rule of Saint Benedict (Latin: Regula Benedicti) is a book of precepts written by Benedict of Nursia (c. AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot...
“The spirit of Saint Benedict’s Rule is summed up in the motto of the Benedictine Confederation: pax (”peace”) and the traditional ora et labora (“pray and work”). Compared to other precepts, the Rule provides a moderate path between individual zeal and formulaic institutionalism; because of this middle ground it has been widely popular. Benedict’s concerns were the needs of monks in a community environment: namely, to establish due order, to foster an understanding of the relational nature of human beings, and to provide a spiritual father to support and strengthen the individual’s ascetic effort and the spiritual growth that is required for the fulfillment of the human vocation, theosis.
“The Rule of Saint Benedict has been used by Benedictines for 15 centuries, and thus St. Benedict is sometimes regarded as the founder of Western monasticism due to reform that his rules had on the current Catholic hierarchy... His Rule was written as a guide for individual, autonomous communities, and all Benedictine Houses (and the Congregations in which they have grouped themselves) still remain self-governing. Advantages seen in retaining this unique Benedictine emphasis on autonomy include cultivating models of tightly bonded communities and contemplative lifestyles.” (The Rule of St. Benedict)
It now becomes clear why, in 2017, Albert Mohler was recommending Rod Dreher’s book The Benedict Option and a new Christian monasticism in Protestantism. Rod Dreher left the Catholic Church for the Eastern Orthodox Church which teaches theosis—the divinization of man through monastic asceticism. Dreher seems to be advising Christians, by which he means Catholics and Orthodox as well as Protestants, that their religions are on the verge of destruction; therefore it is time to leave their churches and start monastic communities where they can practice contemplative prayer.
The Benedict Option: A Conversation with Rod Dreher
“Rod Dreher: This is not a time for panic, but it is a time for Christians to take seriously the times we’re in, to read the signs of the times and to respond in a responsible way, in a clear way, in a patient way. And I use Saint Benedict of Nursia, the 6th century saint, who was a Christian who lived through the fall of the Roman Empire; he was born four years after the Empire officially fell. ...
“Al Mohler: You’ve raised a host of issues we need to talk about, but I want to get to the thesis of your book, The Benedict Option, and I want you to talk about the argument as you make it in the book. You’re calling for following the example of Benedict—by the way, you point back to MacIntyre saying that perhaps hope would come out of a rising of a new Benedict—and that you’re calling for a new mode of Christian monasticism.
“Rod Dreher: ...every Christian today—Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox—who lives in the West owes an incalculable debt to those Benedictine monks. But today we lay Christians are not called to be monks, we’re called to live in the world. How can we live in the world in such a way that is sufficiently countercultural, that enables us to hold on to the faith and not only to survive, but to thrive in a time of great chaos and hostility to the faith? What I call the Benedict Option is sort of a blanket term referring to Christians, the choice that we all have to make now to be countercultural, to quit trying to shore up the imperium and instead focus on building new forms of local community, churches, Christian schools, things like that that will thicken our relationship to each other and make our roots go deeper in the gospel, in the Christian tradition, so we can survive these dark ages to come. It’s important to add, too, to say Benedict did not go out to the forest seeking the Lord because he wanted to save Western civilization. He went out to seek the Lord because he wanted to seek the Lord, because he wanted to figure out, how can I live faithful to him in community? His answer for himself and others who felt the call to monasticism was a monastic movement. What I hope happens with the publication of this book is that serious Christians who can read the signs of the times, again Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox, will come together within their own communities and even across denominational lines and say, “Hey, we’re in a bad situation. How can we build the structures now that will enable us to live out the faith even under persecution and not lose it, keep it alive until such time as the dark age we’re entering now is over?
“You look at the rubble of our basilica, and that is Christianity in the West right now. Don’t let this happen to you. Get out of the city, so to speak, establish your place, your shelter, your monastery in a safe place so you can be there for the rebuilding.”
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the monastery at Mount Athos is the major center for the Gnostic tradition of hesychasm, a Byzantine form of contemplative prayer leading to ecstatic mystical experiences. A practice akin to Zen Buddhism and Hindu Yoga, hesychasm requires striving for ‘inner stillness’ as a means to visions of ‘the divine light.’
The following excerpts from our report on The False Prophet state that the practice of hesychasm involves the vain repetition of the mantra “Jesus have mercy on me” – an appeal to the counterfeit Jesus of the Catholic mystics Leanne Payne commended for chanting or repeating the “holy name of Jesus.”
“The monks of Mount Athos accepted Hesychasm. According to Gregory of Sinai, the founder of hesychia, monks could see the ‘uncreated light of God’, the light that shone about Christ at his Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, if they were virtuous and devoted themselves exclusively to prayer, seated from morn to eve in the same place, concentrating and repeating silently the prayer ‘Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me’. The hope that they could thus come close to God was perhaps a reaction to the ever increasing external dangers and the collapse of the Byzantine Empire.” (1026)
In Orthodox tradition, “spiritual wisdom” is contained in The Philokalia which means “love of the beautiful, the good,” that was written between the 4th and 15th centuries by the “Holy Fathers” of the Orthodox tradition and preserved within Mount Athos monasteries. Co-edited by Bishop Kallistos Ware, Philokalia: The Complete Text is a source book for the Orthodox on the practices of Hesychasm, the Jesus Prayer, Nepsis or Inner Attention, Asceticism and Theosis, which is the deification of man doctrine embraced by the Greek Orthodox Church. A book review of The Philokalia reveals that the objective of repeating the Jesus Prayer is personal deification—the Satanically-inspired lie, ‘ye shall be as gods’:
“The goal is to repeat without ceasing the Jesus Prayer, whether aloud or not. Literally without ceasing. The prayer should revolve in the mind even while eating, speaking with others, or sleeping. Thus perpetual communion with God, the purpose of human existence, can be fulfilled. Theosis, deification, partaking of the divine nature, gaining the divinity that God has extended to us, is the purpose of practicing the Jesus Prayer in this way, just as it is the purpose of asceticism, hesychasm, and other practices.”
Monastic communities were also notorious havens for homosexuals and pederasts. Perhaps this explains why Albert Mohler’s authority on homosexual orientation being unchangeable, APA member Mark Yarhouse, was the plenary speaker in a Regent University Spiritual Formation conference.
This may also explain why Dr. Mohler gave credence to Greg Cole’s Gnostic theology as mentioned in Thomas Littleton’s article, “Revoice: Albert Mohler and the Missing Link”:
“Once Dr. Mohler quoted the reference to ‘the treasures Queer Theory and Culture will bring into the New Jerusalem,’ he then asserted that we ‘must look from the end of the Biblical story back to the story of creation and we have to understand that at least some of the speakers at the conference are arguing hat in the garden, that is before the fall, there was some form of same sex sexual attraction, something that bears some kind of meaningful connection with what it now claimed to be LGBT identity.’
“WHAT is He saying? Why even go here? What other Same-Sex person existed in the Garden for Adam or Eve to be attracted to? We teeter HERE on the ugly verge of ‘Queer Theology’ which asserts that God Himself is some kind dual sexuality being. Why give voice to such heretical discussion in the name of giving clarity? This just got so CREEPY, that those Christians who think Biblically, per Dr. Mohler, likely all want to leave the room. Does he then resolve this bizarre idea he just introduced?
“Mohler quotes from Gregory Coles’ (worship leader for Revoice) book, Single Gay Christian, which is heartily endorsed by D.A. Carson, and then tosses in the statement ‘That is an astounding question.’
“‘One of the individuals involved in the conference and a book published just last year asked the question: ‘Is it too dangerous, too unorthodox, to believe that I am uniquely designed to reflect the glory of God? That my orientation, before the fall, was meant to be a gift in appreciating the beauty of my own sex as I celebrated the friendship of the opposite sex?’ That’s an astounding question.’”
STEPHEN BLACK & FIRST STONE ARE COUNTER-REFORMATION
In 2011, Andrew Comiskey converted to Roman Catholicism and announced his confirmation an article titled “Details Concerning My Conversion to Catholicism:”
“I wanted you to know that on Easter (April 2011) this past year I was confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. That significant decision began three years ago and involved two rounds of RCIA (the adult catechism course), wise counsel, and much prayer. I want to emphasize that my decision is a personal one. Desert Stream Ministries has not become Catholic; it remains ecumenical and will continue to serve a variety of churches, mostly evangelical, which seek to minister to broken ones...
“Confession to a priest? I see no conflict between confessing to a priest and the type of confession we do daily with one another in our ‘Living Waters’ world. A Catholic seeking sobriety in today’s idolatrous world needs both a good priest and good friends with whom to work out grace and truth-filled accountability.”
The difference is that, in Roman Catholicism, a priest acts as a mediator between God and man and has authority to forgive sins. According to Scripture, such authority is never given to a man. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5)
Elsewhere Andrew Comiskey speaks favorably of the Jesuits:
“St. Peter Claver, Jesuit missionary to Africans enslaved to landowners in 17th century Colombia, would descend into the holds of slave ships and welcome those barely alive with a crucifix in one hand and medicine and food in the other. ‘This Jesus will love you better than any person ever could…’ He loved 300,000 slaves into the new life only Christ Jesus gives.” (Three Times a Slave)
“I followed the same highway that the Franciscans and Jesuits took as they moved south to establish churches and schools throughout Argentina.” (The Cleansing Flood)
According to Stephen Black’s profile, he was raised in the Roman Catholic Church from 1961 to 1983 and attended a Catholic school, St. Philip Neri Parish in Midwest City, Oklahoma. In his book, Freedom Realized, Stephen praises the nuns in the parochial school and endorses the sacrament of Catholic confession to a priest.
“True transparency brings all hidden weakness into the light with safe accountability. This is why confession is considered a sacrament by many in the church, especially Catholics. Confession is a means of grace for holiness for all believers.”
President of the Theosophical Society, Annie Besant, wrote of the occult power of the Roman Catholic sacraments and their rejection by the Reformers except for those required in Scripture.
“The Sacraments of the Christian Church lost much of their dignity and of the recognition of their occult power among those who separated from the Roman Catholic Church at the time of the “Reformation.” The previous separation between the East and the West, leaving the Greek Orthodox Church on the one side and the Roman Church on the other, in no way affected belief in the Sacraments. They remained in both great communities as the recognized links between the seen and the unseen, and sanctified the life of the believer from cradle to grave. The Seven Sacraments of Christianity cover the whole of life, from the welcome of Baptism to the farewell of Extreme Unction. They were established by Occultists, by men who knew the invisible worlds; and the materials used, the words spoken, the signs made, were all deliberately chosen and arranged with a view to bringing about certain results.
“At the time of the Reformation, the seceding Churches, which threw off the yoke of Rome, were not led by Occultists, but by ordinary men of the world, some good and some bad, but all profoundly ignorant of the facts of the invisible worlds, and conscious only of the outer shell of Christianity, its literal dogmas and exoteric worship. The consequence of this was that the Sacraments lost their supreme place in Christian worship, and in most Protestant communities were reduced to two, Baptism and the Eucharist.” (Esoteric Christianity, p. 104)
Stephen Black’s Blog greets visitors with the Roman Catholic false gospel of works (meditation) added to the finished work of the Cross:
“Only through meditations of The Passion and believing on the finished work of the cross can we ever hope to be really free.”
In Freedom Realized, Stephen credits Catholic, New Apostolic Reformation, which is Counter-Reformation, and other mystics with his own “Spiritual Formation.”
Grateful to God for Spiritual Formation
“I also acknowledge many other major spiritual formation leaders who have poured into my life as I have spent many hours listening and reading, beginning with many humble Catholic nuns in parochial school, who deposited the truth of eternity. I am so grateful for those who poured into my soul after my born-again experience. I wish to acknowledge and thank all the names above. All of you guided my spiritual foundation and gave me a thorough education in theology and church history.
“From the lives of the following saints: Francois Fenelon, John Wesley, A.W. Tozer, Charles Finney, C.H. Spurgeon, George Whitefield, John Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards, George Muller, John Owen, Watchman Nee, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Corrie Ten Boom, Hudson Taylor, Reese Howell, Derek Prince, David Wilkerson, Bob Phillips, Leonard Ravenhill, James Robison, Andrew Murray, G.D. Watson, Oswald Chambers, E.M. Bounds, William Grunall, Jesse Penn-Lewis, Mike Bickle, Johnny Duncan, John Piper, John Wimber, Andrew Comiskey, David K. Foster, Sy Rogers, Michael Brown, Robert A.J. Gagnon, Larry Crabb, Neill T. Anderson, June Hunt, Kay Arthur, and many other leaders in the Southern Baptist and Assembly of God Churches in Oklahoma.” /
The following are brief descriptions of some of the “Spiritual Formation” leaders for whom Stephen Black is grateful. More detailed information about David Kyle Foster, David Wilkerson and John Wimber will follow, with Michael Brown covered in Part 3.
Francois Fenelon - 17th C. Roman Catholic Archbishop and mystic; confessor of mystic Madame Guyon, author of Spiritual Torrents which described her ecstatic states.
W. Tozer – God Still Speaks: Are We Listening; The Pursuit of God: “I have no home until I am in the realized presence of God. This holy presence is my inward home, and until I experience it, I am a homeless wanderer and a straying sheep and a waste howling wilderness.” / “I want the presence of God Himself, or I don’t want anything at all to do with religion... I want all that God has or I don’t want any.”
Jonathan Edwards - Contemplative mysticDietrich Bonhoeffer - Liberal German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Meditation and Prayer (Spiritual Formation)
Rees Howells – Rees Howells Intercessor had visions and communication with familiar spirits impersonating 3 persons of the Trinity
David Wilkerson - Listening prayer / Presence of God (more info below)
Leonard Ravenhill – Chaplain for Teen Challenge (Wilkerson), Mentor of Steve Hill, leader of Brownsville Revival / Pensacola Outpouring
James Robison – CNP Board of Governors (1982), Sun Myung Moon, Coalition on Religious Freedom, endorsed John Wimber, Katherine Kuhlman; Paul Cain put Robison in category with John Wimber and Mike Bickle as leaders of the “new breed.” (Weaver, The New Apostolic Reformation, p. 64)
Mike Bickle - Vineyard/Kansas City false prophet; Latter Rain Revival leader, President, International House of Prayer (IHOP) (New Apostolic Reformation)
John Piper - Charismatic hedonist; recommends Contemplative books
John Wimber - Vineyard Movement founder / promoted Randy Clark to Vineyard Leadership Council / Toronto BlessingDavid Kyle Foster - Charismatic Episcopal priest, endorses Catholic popes, Toronto Blessing, Leanne Payne, various mystics, supernatural experiences (vision of Heaven)
Andrew Comiskey – Vineyard founder of Desert Stream Living Waters Training Program, Contemplative Prayer, Catholic
Michael Brown - Charismatic Messianic Jew, Brownsville Revival leader / Randy Clark wrote Forward to Brown’s book, “Playing With Holy Fire” (See Part 2)
Larry Crabb - Charismatic ecumenical psychologist; speaker at Richard Foster’s Renovaré Contemplative Conference
Neill T. Anderson - Talbot School of Theology / psychology / Christian demon possession
June Hunt - Hope for the Heart Board of Reference: Henry Blackaby, Rick Warren, Tony Evans, Larry Crabb, Richard Land / Restored Hope Network Board of Reference.
Kay Arthur - promotes Talmud, Mishnah, Zionism
Assemblies of God - Pentecostal / Contemplative prayer practiced by most AOG pastors (Ray Yungen)David Kyle Foster, M Div Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, founder of Pure Passion Ministries, on whose Board of Advisors we note Doris and C. Peter Wagner, Emeritus, who was a charter member of the Lausanne Committee and launched the “Sign and Wonders” revival movement; also, Bill Bright of the Lausanne Congress, and Steve Berger, who authored book on his communications with his dead son. Foster recorded “Conversations with Leanne Payne” which is no longer available. In fact, it is impossible to locate any videos of Leanne Payne.
“From Preacher’s Kid to Prostitute to PRIEST” (1995)
“God is on the move today. You see it in ‘Promise Keepers’, the ‘Concerts of Prayer’, the ‘Marches for Jesus’, the racial reconciliation among churches, the ‘Toronto Blessing’, the ex-gay movement itself and in the massive numbers who are coming to Christ through evangelism worldwide - unprecedented!”
“Transformed Into His Image: Hidden Steps on the Journey to Christlikeness” (2005)
“This book has been written as a course correction for those who are on the journey to Christlikeness and those who are in the ministry of ‘spiritual formation.’ The cardinal error in modern catechesis is that we have been telling people to be pure without teaching them how to be intimate with God. We have made holiness a rational proposition unsupported by the means for practical empowerment.”
David Wilkerson was the founder of Teen Challenge and the Mount Zion School of Ministry. On the Board of Teen Challenge was Ed McAteer, an official delegate to the Global Congress on World Evangelism in Lausanne, Switzerland and the founder of the Religious Roundtable which became the Council for National Policy.
David Wilkerson had extensive periods of prayer during which “a spirit of prayer came on him” and “he would see vivid inner visions during these times of prayer.” His book, The Vision: A Horrifying Vision of Doomsday That is Starting to Happen Now published in 1973, prophesied imminent end-time disasters and persecution of Christians that have not yet occurred 46 years later. Leonard Ravenhill served as Chaplain for Wilkerson’s Teen Challenge and was the mentor of Steve Hill, leader of Brownsville Revival / Pensacola Outpouring. Wilkerson’s book, The Vision, is regarded by some Charismatics as a precursor of the prophetic movement of the Kansas City Prophets, Mike Bickle, Bob Jones and Paul Cain, who prepared the way for the demonic spectacles that passed for revivals in the 90s.
“David Wilkerson: Pentecostal Evangelist, Prophet & Pastor”
“What good he did do in this time was, under the influence of Kathryn Kuhlman, as he came to imitate her healing ministry; and for a time, operated in words of knowledge and healing, and even had a local televangelism ministry called ‘The Hour of Deliverance.’...
“...word about Teen Challenge began to spread through Christian Life magazine, and caught the eye of leaders such as Pat Robertson, David du Plessis, Kathryn Kuhlman, and Leonard Ravenhill. After getting to personally know Ravenhill a bit, Wilkerson asked him to be the chaplain for Teen Challenge, which he graciously accepted.
“Harald Bredesen, a Lutheran pastor who experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues, came to work with Teen Challenge. One night when he was at dinner with Norman and Ruth Peale, he began to tell them about his experiences. Ruth was very impressed. Soon afterwards, she went to go tell her friends, John and Elizabeth Sherrill. They were very interested, because even though they were upper class Episcopalians, they had been doing research on an international and cross-denominational tongue-speaking phenomenon, called the Charismatic Movement. This would eventually be put into their book They Speak with Other Tongues (1964). As well established writers for Guideposts magazine, they had publishing connections; they started reporting on Teen Challenge, and it eventually led to the publication of The Cross and the Switchblade (1962). The book was such a publishing success, that it launched David Wilkerson into international fame, at least in the church and ministry world: especially with Assemblies of God and the Southern Baptist Convention.”...
Harald Bredesen was a British intelligence operative who mentored Pat Robertson. Norman Vincent Peale was a 33° Freemason and his wife Ruth was a friend of John and Elizabeth Sherill, the couple who co-authored Wilkerson’s book, The Cross & The Switchblade.
“David Wilkerson: Pentecostal Evangelist, Prophet & Pastor” (continued)
“His crusade ministry continued to go on, but gradually lost its popularity over the years, as the Jesus Movement ended, and evangelistic crusades generally gave way to televangelism. At the same time, he started to have a spirit of prayer come on him, and he would seek God for long periods of time, shut up in his bedroom (Zechariah 12:10; Matthew 6:6). He would see vivid inner visions during these times of prayer, that would all share common themes, and eventually formed a sort of collage, a complete series of messages. The main theme he saw was that persecution and trials were coming to the body of Christ in America. He actually prophesied this collective revelation at a charismatic conference, which he called ‘The Coming Persecution.’ The Vision (1973), the book that made him in the popular Pentecostal and Charismatic mind, a prophet–although he cringed at that title, and refused to be publicly called one due to the prevalent accusation of ‘fanaticism’–prophesied things that came to pass in the next 10 to 40 years, with striking specificity and detail: such as ‘Economic Confusion,’ ‘Drastic Weather Changes and Earthquakes,’ ‘A Flood of Filth,’ ‘Persecution Madness,’ ‘The Number One Youth Problem of the Future: Rebellion Against Parents,’ the rise of homosexuality in the church, etc. (p. 172)….
“The Vision separated the wheat from the chaff in the Charismatic Movement: local Pentecostal pastors and independent charismatic churches were the most accepting of this new message. It was seen as a signs of the end-times message (p. 176). Some believe that this book played a forerunner role for the gift of prophecy, the prophetic movement, and prophetic ministry coming into being among independent, non-denominational charismatics–several years before the ‘Kansas City prophets’ showed up: Mike Bickle, Bob Jones, Paul Cain, etc. [John and Paula Sandford, The Elijah Task (Victory House Publishers, 1977), pp. 90-91]. In response to his visions, David wondered if there would be an immediate economic collapse in America, and so he sought to protect his family and staff. In an almost classic survivalist-prepper style, but at the leading of the Holy Spirit, he moved out to Possum Kingdom Lake in Lindale, Texas:–literally in the middle of nowhere.”
The following are excerpts from Wilkerson’s 1996 article “Prayer That Is Pleasing to The Lord” which is classic NAR false teaching on remaining in the presence of God to hear his voice.
“Most Christians don’t listen to God. They go to Him only to talk! Yet the Scriptures reveal that any person who was ever used of God learned to remain in His presence until hearing from Him. Scripture makes it clear the Lord wants to talk to every one of us:
“And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:21). …
“There is no way through your trial, except to get alone with Jesus and cry, ‘Lord, You’re the only One on this earth who can help me. Only You know the way through this trial. So I’m going to stay here till You tell me what to do. I’m not going anywhere until You speak to my heart!”
“This is the kind of ‘praying through’ that is pleasing to God! It means stopping everything, all activity, until you hear His voice. Only then will you hear Him speak clearly to your heart: ‘You’ve got to make things right with this person...’ Or, ‘You’ve got to make restitution here...’ Or, ‘Just stand still till next week. Don’t get in a hurry. Sit in My presence and trust Me...’ He will give you clear directions! ...
“Right now, there are many Christians reading this message who simply have to hear a word from the Lord. Nobody on earth can help them. There is but one way for them to get through their trial - and that is by staying in Christ’s presence until He gives them direction! He must tell them the way through - what to do, and when and how to act. His exclusive direction to them won’t come one minute too early or too late. It will all be in the Holy Ghost’s timing!
“God, put in all of us a heart that is easily wooed to Your presence.... to listen closely to Your Spirit in our secret time of communion with You...”
Excerpts from Wilkerson’s sermon, “Hearing the Voice of God!:
“One of the greatest blessings a true believer has is to hear and know the voice of God. It is possible to hear God’s voice today as certainly and clearly as did Abraham and Moses - as clearly as did Samuel and David - as clearly as did Paul, Peter, the apostles, and John on the isle of Patmos! God has promised to make His voice clearly known for one last time during these end days. He has given us a promise and a warning about hearing His voice. God is going to bring together a holy, separated remnant into spiritual Zion and make His voice known to them. “But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22).”
“There are many today who do not believe God still talks to men. They say He speaks only through His Word, that all God ever wants or needs to say is locked up in the canon of the Scriptures. Certainly, God will never speak a word contrary to Scripture, but “God...hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son...” (Heb. 1:1-2).
How many who heard or read this sermon noticed that Wilkerson omitted all but one word in Hebrews 1:1? The words omitted disproved his teaching that prayer which pleases the Lord requires waiting on God until one hears His voice. The writer of Hebrews contrasted how God “spake in time past” (in diverse manners) with how He “hath spoken these last days” (by his Son). Both communications of God with His people are past tense. God “spake” in the Old Testament and already “hath spoken by His Son” in the New Testament.
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;” (Hebrews 1:1-2)
New Reformation Apostles misinterpret Bible prophecy to promote the Zionist agenda. David Wilkerson’s false teaching conditioned the Church for the deception of the Latter Rain signs and lying wonders—that the Messianic prophecy Zechariah 12:9-10 applied to the Jews and to the Church:
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn” (Zechariah 12:9-10).
“This prophecy from Zechariah is about a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will take place in the last days... I believe many of these prophecies have dual applications. I also believe that God is going to pour out His Spirit upon the Jews in the last hour. There will be a revelation of Jesus Christ to Israel and to all Jews.
“Zechariah 12:10, however, is a prophecy spoken directly to the church of Jesus Christ. It speaks of the house of David - and that means the church. You see, Christ is the seed of David’s house. And that house is comprised of all believers in Christ, both Jewish and Gentile.” (Latter Rain Revival!)
For some of the history of the Latter Rain Revival read:
The Latter Rain Revival
The Elijah Revolution: Joel’s Army Coming of Age
The Spirit of Elijah
Pseudo-Elijah in Israel
John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard movement, promoted Vineyard pastor Randy Clark to a position on the Vineyard Leadership Council. In 1984, Wimber “prophesied” to Clark “You are a prince in the Kingdom of God” who would impart the “Holy Spirit” to pastors and leaders around the world. Ten years later Wimber told Clark that the Toronto Blessing was the fulfillment of God’s audible words to him:
NAR Apostle Randy Clark, his Apostolic Network & his ‘Voice of the Apostles’ Conference
“While at Vineyard, Randy Clark received a spiritual ‘impartation’ from NAR Apostle Rodney Howard-Browne, carried this ‘impartation’ to Toronto and released spiritual mayhem in John and Carol Arnott’s airport church. What you are about to read is a valuable insight into Clark’s relationship with Vineyard and John Wimber:
“’In January 1984, Randy Clark met John Wimber (founder of the Vineyard Movement) for the first time. John prayed for him and prophesied many encouraging words. Among those words, which Randy has never forgotten, were: ‘You are a prince in the Kingdom of God.’ Although discouraged prior to receiving this prophecy, Randy was greatly encouraged afterward. A few months later, Randy discovered what else God spoke audibly to John that night. When Randy asked why he had been put on the Leadership Council of the Vineyard when he had less than 50 people in the new church he was starting, and everyone else on the council had churches from 500-5,000, a close confidante of John Wimber told him, “John didn’t invite you onto the council because of what you have done, but because of what God told him audibly you will do. You are going to go around the world and lay your hands upon pastors and leaders for impartation of the Holy Spirit, and to stir up and impart the gifts of the Spirit.
“Ten difficult years passed before this word from God was fulfilled. A few days after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the Toronto Airport Vineyard, now called Catch the Fire, John Wimber called Randy. He said, ‘This is the fulfillment of what God showed me about your life ten years ago.’ The last time Randy met with Wimber, John gave him one more word, ‘God told me audibly that you and (one other) were the two Vineyard pastors who would go around the world, laying your hands upon pastors and leaders to impart gifts of the Holy Spirit to them and to impart the Holy Spirit to them.’”
“Global Awakening was birthed by Randy Clark in January 1994 as a result of God using him to bring the fire of revival to the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. This ministry was birthed in the greatest revival movement of the last half of the 20th Century, a move of God resulting in the longest protracted meeting in the history of North America. During the first year, the ‘Blessing’ spread to 55,000 churches around the world. Over three million people visited the church during those first few years; thousands were rededicated and saved and thousands more were empowered and equipped to minister more effectively.” “A History of Revival”
Here Randy Clark is banishing the Holy Spirit before he imparts evil spirits to Pentecostal pastors and leaders who will take these demons around the world.
In May of 2008, Randy Clark gave a word of knowledge about Todd Bentley at the Lakeland Revival saying there was nothing negative in Bentley’s past for anyone to find fault. This “word of knowledge” was far from the reality. Randy Clark may have gone to Lakeland to do damage control.
“Bentley’s ministry eventually imploded once it was revealed he was having an affair with a staffer (Charisma, ‘Todd Bentley Enters’). The fact that Bentley had committed sexual assault while a teenager—a fact that had been well known since at least 2002—apparently did not faze the NAR leadership, but adultery did (Billy Bruce). However, since Bentley’s name was now tied to a vast swathe of the NAR leadership in the States, as well as several leaders in Canada, the movement decided to try to rehabilitate him, and after a three-year restoration process, Rick Joyner tentatively brought Bentley back as a revivalist (Joyner, ‘Rory and Wendy Alec Interview’). The movement had not really had a choice. With a leader as tied to them all as Bentley, forgiveness was the better part of valor.” (Weaver, p. 223)
Undeterred by a revival leader’s perversion and the NAR Apostles’ cover up, Templeton funding continued to flow into the New Apostolic Reformation. In 2010, the Templeton Foundation gave a grant of $150,000 for a study requested by Randy Clark of Global Awakening and Heidi Baker of Iris Ministries, to confirm that “intercessory prayer involving touch” increased the number of faith healings in Mozambique. (Weaver, pp. 15-16) This “Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Proximal Intercessory Prayer (STEPP) on Auditory and Visual Impairments in Rural Mozambique” also received $50,000 in funding from the Lily Endowment.
The New Apostolic Reformation with funding from the Templeton Foundation is the polluted source of those who influenced Stephen Black’s “Spiritual Formation.” Other preachers and facilitators of Transcendental meditation are found at First Stone Ministries. Besides John Wimber, David Wilkerson and Leonard Ravenhill there was another popular youth revivalist with a mystical message to the Jesus Movement.
On the website of First Stone Ministries there is a disturbing article by Winkie Pratney who encourages readers to seek revelations and manifestations from the spirit world, and even from “direct contact” with the “Divine.” Winkie Pratney is leading his followers to consult familiar spirits, through visions, angelic visitations, hearing “God’s Voice” and angelic voices, which are known to lead to demon possession. Winkie has been a youth revivalist for decades and has led many young Christians into the occult by christening the forbidden practice of consulting familiar spirits. This abomination, according to God’s Word, Pratney misrepresents as receiving “supernatural guidance” from “Divine channels” via “direct contact” which, he avers, is an exalted state to which many aspire but only few (adepts) have attained.
September 26, 1997 by Pratney, Winkie
“III. SUPERNATURAL
“In fact, God may sometimes choose to act in this way because those on the receiving end are so spiritually insensitive and dull that they might otherwise never hear or understand! Although it is not wise to generalize principles from such occasional interventions, it is certainly clear through Scripture and history that men and women have received authentic direction from such Divine channels of contact
- THE AUDIBLE VOICE OF GOD. God can and has spoken to people audibly. I know a very trustworthy person who became a Christian as a result of God answering his prayer for help in this way. He described the voice like this: ‘Like everyone I had ever loved in my life all rolled up into one, like someone I had known all my life, yet I knew I had never met’ As in the case of Saul and the crowd that witnessed the Lord’s baptism, it is apparently a real sound and not just a mental impression. Examples: Samuel (I Samuel 3:1-10); Elijah (I Kings19:9-13); Saul (Acts 9:1-7); the Lord Jesus and the multitude (John 12:2730).
- VISIONS AND DREAMS. The early Church gave much more attention to this subject than do most Christians today. A dream is like a spiritual TV commercial - short, easy to understand, and given at the time when our whole attention is undistracted. Visions, on the other hand, are superimposed over the normal visual reality around us, and do not have to happen when we are asleep. If you believe that God may be trying to speak to you in this way, prayerfully consider the details of your dream or vision, remembering that they may represent symbols or principles - not necessarily absolutes. And finally, talk it over with a trusted and mature friend in Christ. Both dreams and visions, when inspired by the Holy Spirit, can be powerful means by which God speaks to His people. Examples: Peter (Acts10:9-16); Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1-8); Daniel (Daniel 8:1-27, 7:1-28,10:1-9); John (Rev. 1-20); Elihu (Job 33:14-18); Joseph (Matt. 1:19-21).
- VISITATION. It appears that angels in Scripture do not ‘guide’ in the same way as the Holy Spirit Himself does, but they have been sent to warn believers of danger, as well as provide for their physical needs and safety. They also have made significant announcements, as in the case of Mary. Many believers throughout history have had authentic vision or visitations - and many numbers of Christians have seen either Jesus or ministering angels at their deathbeds. Examples: Abraham (Genesis 18:1-33); Moses (Exodus33:19-23); Joshua (Joshua 5:13-15); Jacob (Genesis 32:24-30); Manoah (Judges 13:2-23); Zacherias (Luke 1:8-20); Mary (Luke 1:26-38).” [end quote]
What does God’s Word say about Winkie Pratney?
Deuteronomy 18
10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.Winkie Pratney supported his false teaching by citing great men in the Bible who experienced supernatural manifestations of God to make His will known to them. However, as previously noted, the New Testament epistles are clear that God no longer speaks to His people as He did the Old Testament prophets, through supernatural experiences such as His audible voice, visions or visitations of Jesus and angels:
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8
Winkie Pratney was highly esteemed by such teachers as Leonard Ravenhill and David Wilkerson whose book, The Vision, based on “vivid inner visions” of imminent doomsday catastrophic events, paved the way for the prophetic movement in Pentecostal and Charismatic churches. Pratney is a leader in the New Apostolic Reformation which is leading the Church to take dominion and rule the world in the 21st century. Winkie, in fact, wrote a book titled Star Wars, Star Trek, and the 21st Century Christians: Discover the Secret of the Force. He was also an Editor of The Revival Study Bible with Steve Hill who, from 1995 to 2003, led multitudes into altered states of consciousness attended by demonic manifestations at the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, FL. The Revival Study Bible description of Pratney, “His writings (Youth Aflame! Revival— Principles to Change the World and Fire On The Horizon) reflect a lifelong passion to see each new generation have an ongoing and transforming encounter with the living God.”
On his Galactic Management Associates website, Winkie Pratney identifies himself as a “Mavin” which he defines as “a researcher and public communicator with the ability to take existing ideas, break them down to simpler forms and make them practical and freely available to others.”
The term mavin is the Hebrew word that means “one who understands.”
Word Origin and History for maven n.
1965, from Yiddish meyvn , from Hebrew mebhin , literally “one who understands.” Plural is mayvinim .
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
According to Merriam-Webster, “mavin” is a synonym for wizard. The Hebrew word for wizard is “yidd” which also means a “conjurer.”
Strongs 3049. יִדְעֹנִי yidd@`oniy
from 3045; properly, a knowing one; specifically, a conjurer; (by impl) a ghost:—wizard.
See Hebrew 3045
The Hebrew word “yidd,” meaning “wizard,” is derived from the word “yada” which means “knowing” or “gnosis.”
Strongs 3045 יָדַע yada`
a primitive root; to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing); Yiddish (n.)
“1875, from Yiddish yidish, from Middle High German jüdisch ‘Jewish’ (in phrase jüdisch deutsch ‘Jewish-German’), from jude ‘Jew,’ from Old High German judo, from Latin Iudaeus (see Jew). The English word has been re-borrowed in German as jiddisch. As an adjective from 1886. Related: Yiddishism.”
Genesis 3:5 records Satan’s first offer of “gnosis” to Eve in the garden of Eden:
“For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Leviticus 20:27 records God’s punishment:
“A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death.”
Winkie Pratney defines the term “mavin” as “a researcher and public communicator with the ability to take existing ideas, break them down to simpler forms and make them practical and freely available to others.” (Meet Winkie) This definition sounds quite harmless, however, Pratney's article on the Supernatural, “Knowing God’s Will,” does not recommend harmless activities but dangerous occult practices which God has strictly forbidden under penalty of death and damnation. Based on his teaching that seeking visions, angelic visitations, hearing “God’s Voice” and angelic voices is the way to know God’s will, and the Hebrew etymology of the word, mavin, Winkie Pratney would be a wizard, that is “one who understands” how to conjure spirits and he is making this hidden knowledge (“gnosis”) of Jewish mysticism “practical and freely available to others.”
JESUIT SPIRITUAL FORMATION REPRESENTED AT GOD’S VOICE IS COUNTER-REFORMATION
For an Evangelical Christian conference, there was a notable Catholic and ecumenical presence among the God’s Voice speakers. Besides Stephen Black, Peter LaBarbera whose organization, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, interacts largely with Catholic organizations such as LifeSite News, Catholic Action, etc.
“Americans For Truth About Homosexuality works closely with conservative Catholics from across the nation, indeed the world, in opposition to the homosexual activist movement. It is my experience that wherever the Catholic Church still has influence, if the Church or its leaders takes a strong stand against pro-gay’ legislation, the bills usually fail — but if Church leaders compromise on doctrine or go AWOL (public policy-speaking), homosexual activists triumph.”
In his articles, Peter LaBarbera cites Catholic authors, such as Paul Johnson (The Quest for God), who quotes Karl Rahner, a renowned Jesuit priest and ‘spiritual master’ who, according to his biographer, Philip Endean, was “one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th century, and a major force at Vatican II, whose writings effected a paradigm shift in modern theology. Yet it was his experience of prayer and deeply mystical faith that animated and inspired his scholarly activity.” Another source states that Rahner gave credit for his “Spiritual Formation” to his practice of mystical prayer more than learning Jesuit philosophy and theology – which would also be false teaching. Having never learned the Word of God in his Jesuit education, which is often the case with Catholics, Rahner turned to the mysticism of the Gnostics to “experience God.”
“As a Jesuit novice Rahner was formed in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. This formation had a lasting influence on his spiritual and intellectual development.
“‘But I think that the spirituality of Ignatius himself, which one learned through the practice of prayer and religious formation, was more significant to me than all the learned philosophy and theology inside and outside of the Order.
“In his studies Rahner also became thoroughly conversant with the thinking of the Fathers of the Church, especially on topics such as grace, the sacraments, spirituality, and mysticism.’” (Karl Rahner, William Dych...) (Ignatian Spirituality)
In one of his theological treatises, Karl Rahner predicted, “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist at all.”
“Eminent theologian Karl Rahner produced volumes and volumes of commentary on God, redemption, the life of grace. Scattered throughout the tomes of long and often convoluted sentences are short and clear statements recognized as seminal insights which continue to be much quoted. One of those statements bears a relationship to what the Christian must be today. ‘The Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist at all’ (Theol. Invent. XX, 149). By mysticism, Rahner explains, he does not mean some esoteric phenomenon but ‘a genuine experience of God emerging from the very heart of our existence.’ He goes on to comment that the source of spiritual conviction comes not from theology but from the personal experience of God. This statement, made late in Rahner’s career, is similar to the comment reported of Thomas Aquinas at the end of his life about his volumes of theology being so much straw.” Western Mystics)
Pastor John S. Torrell, founder of the European-American Evangelistic Crusades, has written an excellent expose of the Jesuits in which he reveals their Jewish origins and identified the Jewish source of the “spirituality of Ignatius... which he learned through the practice of prayer and religious formation”:
“I want to share the following information: The Illuminati Order was not invented by Adam Weishaupt, but rather renewed and reformed. The first known Illuminati order (Alumbrado) was founded in 1492 by Spanish Jews, called ‘Marranos,’ who were also known as ‘crypto-Jews.’ With violent persecution in Spain and Portugal beginning in 1391, hundreds of thousands of Jews had been forced to convert to the faith of the Roman Catholic Church. Publicly they were now Roman Catholics, but secretly they practiced Judaism, including following the Talmud and the Cabala. The Marranos were able to teach their children secretly about Judaism, but in particular the Talmud and the Cabala, and this huge group of Jews has survived to this very day. After 1540 many Marranos opted to flee to England, Holland, France, the Ottoman empire (Turkey), Brazil and other places in South and Central America. The Marranos kept strong family ties and they became very wealthy and influential in the nations where they lived. But as is the custom with all Jewish people, it did not matter in what nation they lived, their loyalty was to themselves and Judaism.
“The following information is going to be a ‘shock’ to all Roman Catholics. In 1491 San Ignacio De Loyola was born in the Basque province of Guipuzcoa, Spain. His parents were Marranos and at the time of his birth the family was very wealthy. As a young man he became a member of the Jewish Illuminati Order in Spain. As a cover for his crypto Jewish activities, he became very active as a Roman Catholic. On May 20, 1521 Ignatius (as he was now called) was wounded in a battle, and became a semi-cripple. Unable to succeed in the military and political arena, he started a quest for holiness and eventually ended up in Paris where he studied for the priesthood. In 1539 he had moved to Rome where he founded the ‘Jesuit Order,’ which was to become the most vile, bloody and persecuting order in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1540, the current Pope Paul III approved the order. At Loyola’s death in 1556 there were more than 1000 members in the Jesuit order, located in a number of nations.
“Setting up the Jesuit order, Ignatius Loyola devised an elaborate spy system, so that no one in the order was safe. If there was any opposition, death would come swiftly. The Jesuit order not only became a destructive arm of the Roman Catholic Church; it also developed into a secret intelligence service. While the Popes relied more and more on the Jesuits, they were unaware that the hardcore leadership were Jewish, and that these Jews held membership in the Illuminati Order which despised and hated the Roman Catholic Church.” (EAEC July 1999 Newsletter)
Pastor Torrell also identified the primary reason for general ignorance of the Cabala/Kabbalah among Christians.
“It is sad that the majority of Christian pastors have never heard of the Cabala. I can personally testify to this fact, having attended a Southern Baptist Seminary where I received a Master’s Degree of Divinity. I never once heard any teaching or material disclosing the existence of the Cabala. Thus, the people in the Christian churches will never know, since pastors cannot teach something of which they have no knowledge.”
There is a reason the seminaries are not informing future ministers about the evils of Cabala/Kabbalah. They are reeducating their students in the Gnostic doctrines found in Kabbalah and training them in the practice of contemplative prayer, which is not prayer but Transcendental meditation. Spiritual Formation is indoctrination in Gnostic doctrine and practices, “the spirituality of Ignatius... which he learned through the practice of prayer and religious formation.”
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first...” 2 Thess. 2:3
Sam Allberry, the founder and president of Living Out, studied theology at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University. The founder and president of Revoice is Nate Collins who received his degrees at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Stephen Black was mentored by Andrew Comiskey who was mentored by John Wimber, a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary. Though it appears these leaders are on opposing sides of the LGBTQ controversy, they are not. All are connected to the Evangelical Alliance and/or Lausanne which are restructuring and reprogramming the Christian Church to be assimilated into the One World Religion.
Sam Allberry’s Living Out organization belongs to the Evangelical Alliance. Nate Collins’ alma mater, SBTS, employed C. Peter Wagner, of the Lausanne Committee according to Ed Stetzer, who is now on Lausanne’s Board of Directors. Ed Stetzer is also the Lausanne Regional Director for North America and Billy Graham Distinguished Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.
Stephen Black co-founded Restore Hope Network whose ties to Exodus Global Alliance and True Freedom Trust connect RHN to Lausanne and the Evangelical Alliance. Andrew Comiskey’s Desert Stream Ministries Living Waters program, which Black coordinates and uses to heal homosexuals, was founded at the Vineyard Anaheim of John Wimber, who was hired by Lausanne Committee member, Peter Wagner, to be Director of Church Growth at Fuller Evangelistic Association and teach courses at Fuller Theological Seminary. And so all sides of the LGBT controversy — Conservative and Liberal, God’s Voice and Revoice, Reformed, Evangelical, Pentecostal and Catholic — all are mainstreaming the Gnostic doctrine with its mystical practices to achieve the goal of the Evangelical Alliance and Lausanne Movement — the transformation of the Christian Church from sound doctrine to Gnostic doctrine.
The re-indoctrination of the Christian Church by means of infiltration was planned centuries ago by International Freemasonry, i.e., International Jewry, which is dedicated to the overthrow of Christianity and the reestablishment of the kingdom of Solomon whose witchcraft and idolatry led Israel into apostasy. The Masonic plan was officially launched by the United Grand Lodge of England in the mid-19th century with the founding of the Evangelical Alliance. In 1905, the Theosophical Society revealed the Masonic plan to its members — to gut Christianity of Bible doctrines (“shattering the old forms in which they are expressed and held“) and to indoctrinate Christians in mystical and occult teachings. Two leaders of the Theosophical Society, Annie Besant and Alice Bailey, wrote extensively in their books about the Masonic plan. The promo for Besant’s Esoteric Christianity states the false premise of her book—that the doctrine of early Christianity was Gnosticism.
“Religious historian Annie Besant offers a new take on standard Christian doctrine and practice in Esoteric Christianity. Building on the precept that Christianity is actually a mystery religion (i.e., one that relies on the inner knowledge or Gnosis of a spiritual teacher or mystic), this book explores some of the connections between Christianity and practices such as alchemy, astrology, and ritual magic, and discusses the implications of these points of correspondence.” (book promo)
The following excerpts from Besant’s Esoteric Christianity and Bailey’s Externalisation of the Hierarchy prove that “Esoteric” Christianity was not the doctrine of early Christianity but ancient Gnosticism masquerading as Christianity.
“Is Christianity to survive as the religion of the West? Is it to live through the centuries of the future, and to continue to play a part in moulding the thought of the evolving western races? If it is to live, it must regain the knowledge it has lost, and again have its mystic and its occult teachings; it must again stand forth as an authoritative teacher of spiritual verities, clothed with the only authority worth anything, the authority of knowledge. If these teachings be regained, their influence will soon be seen in wider and deeper views of truth; dogmas, which now seem like mere shells and fetters, shall again be seen to partial presentments of fundamental realities. First, Esoteric Christianity will reappear in the ‘Holy Place’, in the Temple so that all who are capable of receiving it may follow its lines of published thought; and secondly, Occult Christianity will again descend into the adytum, dwelling behind the veil which guards the ‘Holy of Holies’, into which only the Initiate may enter.” (Annie Besant, Esoteric Christianity, pp. 36-37)
“The church as a teaching factor should take the great basic doctrines and (shattering the old forms in which they are expressed and held) show their true and inner spiritual significance. The prime work of the church is to teach, and teach ceaselessly, preserving the outer appearance in order to reach the many who are accustomed to church usages. Teachers must be trained; Bible knowledge must be spread; the sacraments must be mystically interpreted, and the power of the church to heal must be demonstrated.
“The three main channels through which the preparation for the new age is going on might be regarded as the Church, the Masonic Fraternity and the educational field. All of them are as yet in relatively static condition, and all are as yet failing to meet the need and to respond to the inner pressure. But in all of these three movements, disciples of the Great Ones are to be found and they are steadily gathering momentum and will before long enter upon their designated task.” (Alice Bailey, Externalization of the Hierarchy, “The Subjective Basis of the New World Religion”)
PART III
