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The following article appeared in The Times, 11 May
1996,
WOMAN LEADS CHURCH BOYCOTT IN ROW OVER EVANGELICAL PIG-SNORTING
A WOMAN has walked out of her church and is holding services
in her living room, because she says she cannot bring herself
to "snort like a pig and bark like a dog" on a Church
of England course. Angie Golding, 50, claims she was denied confirmation
unless she signed up for the Alpha course, which she says is
a "brainwashing" exercise where participants speak
in tongues, make animal noises and then fall over.
She has left the evangelical St Marks in Broadwater Down,
Kent, with 14 members of the congregation and founded a church
at home in Tunbridge Wells. She said: "I'll be a fool for
the Lord any day, but I won't be a fool for man."
However, the church last night denied that she had been refused
confirmation, and course organizers said she had misunderstood
the nature of the event... "St Mark's is running an Alpha
course at the moment which a number of people are attending.
Those being confirmed this summer are attending the course as
well."
Mark Elsdon-Drew, of Holy Trinity Brompton, said the Alpha
course included lectures on the Holy Spirit. "It affects
different people in different ways." He said the course
had the "overwhelming support" of Church leaders and
theologians: "The suggestion of animal noises in connection
with the course is unwarranted and could not have been made by
anyone who is familiar with the material." (The Times, May
11, 1996)
Everyone is asking "What about Alpha?" What is it,
and what are we to believe about it?
The Alpha course is an evangelistic initiative begun by Holy
Trinity Brompton - perhaps better known now for its promotion
of the Toronto Blessing.
The official history of the Alpha Course begins 16 years ago
when a member of HTB, Charles Marnham, set up an informal home
group to present answers to basic gospel questions. However,
HTB curate, Nicky Gumbel, transformed the course into what we
see today. [see endnote] It is designed to appeal to non-believers,
with every detail - the food, flowers, hospitality and questions
- aimed at disarming the unchurched.
The final weekend away is a vital part of the course - and
this has attracted the most criticism, as it gives a chance for
the leaders, if they are so disposed, to present the Holy Spirit
in an experimental fashion to a captive audience. The course
always ends with a Supper laid on to which more non-believers
are invited, and so the process continues.
Whatever else can be said about the Alpha Course, it has been
a runaway success. In 1991 there were just four courses involving
600 people; in 1993 there were fewer than 10 courses being held
in Britain. Now there are an estimated 3,000 being run regularly
three times a year, more than 500 of them overseas. These are
being run by every denomination, including Catholic.
One difficulty in pinning down the problems with the Alpha
Course is that each church running the course will use the materials
in a different way. Thus it is feasible, in theory at least,
that a church might avoid all controversy and simply use the
course to preach the gospel to unbelievers. This does leave unanswered
the question - why does any church need to buy a course to be
able to preach the gospel?
However, there are deep concerns. Below I present some thoughts
on the Alpha Course by a Christian (i) who grew alarmed when
viewing the course materials. It is a personal view but I believe
it speaks for many.
Alpha certainly starts by preaching the gospel; the first
three talks on Video One focus on the person and work of Jesus
Christ, and the three talks on video Two which cover fundamental
steps for new Christians, such as 'How can I be sure of my faith?',
'Why and how should I read the Bible?' and 'Why and how should
I pray?' are all good. But as the course progresses, some of
the talks tend to wander off into lengthy accounts of HTB's experiences
of the Toronto Blessing and associated ministries, novel exegeses
of various Biblical passages common amongst pro-Toronto preachers,
calls for unity despite truth and an over-emphasis on the Holy
Spirit, all of which are less than helpful, to say the least,
to potential Christians.
Clearly the aim is to bring as many into God's Kingdom as
possible but by the end of the course I cannot help feeling that
the Toronto Blessing may have been the greater beneficiary.
The Alpha course was virtually unknown until Eleanor Mumford
of the South-West London Vineyard church brought the Toronto
Blessing from the Toronto Airport Vineyard church in Canada to
HTB, via Nicky Gumbel in May 1994, (ii) and Nicky Gumbel spends
a substantial amount of time relating to Alpha participants in
video 3 talk 9, exactly how it occurred:
"Ellie Mumford told us a little bit of what she had seen
in Toronto... .it was obvious that Ellie was just dying to pray
for all of us.. then she said 'Now we'll invite the Holy Spirit
to come.' and the moment she said that one of the people there
was thrown, literally, across the room and was lying on the floor,
just howling and laughing....making the most incredible noise....I
experienced the power of the Spirit in a way I hadn't experienced
for years, like massive electricity going through my body...
One of the guys was prophesying. He was just lying there prophesying.
. ."
Gumbel's description of the antics that went on in the vestry
of HTB after their invocation of the Spirit seems to me to bear
no resemblance at all to what happened on the day of Pentecost.
(iii)
Yet Alpha participants are being taught all this as part of
an evangelistic/Christian Living course as though it is normal
and desirable, with absolutely no mention made of the need to
test the spirits (1 John 4:3), and at the end of this talk are
prayed for, corporately, to receive it. Thus, they are initiated
into the Toronto Blessing without a whimper of protest amongst
them.
"I believe it is no coincidence that the present movement
of the Holy Spirit [TB] has come at the same time as the explosion
of the Alpha Courses. I think the two go together." [Nicky
Gumbel, 'The Spirit and Evangelism', Renewal, May 1995, p15].
So one of my concerns is whether the TB, which is being experienced
at HTB, can possibly be divorced from the Alpha Initiative. In
view of the similarities of emphasis and content between the
two, I'm not sure that it can. Alpha also promotes, as does the
leadership of the TB, 'unity' between Protestants and Roman Catholics,
with no consideration, or perhaps realization, of the unreconcilable
doctrines of the two Churches, and so another concern is its
trend towards ecumenism.
POWER EVANGELISM
Heavily influenced by the 'Signs and Wonders' ministry of John
Wimber in the 1980s, power evangelism has been one of the preparation
grounds for the Toronto Experience. It focuses on a pragmatic/experiential
rather than a proclamatory/doctrinal approach to spreading the
gospel. As such it tends to shift the focus away from the shed
blood of Jesus on the cross and onto the supernatural works of
the Holy Spirit carried out by men. This is the method of evangelism
favoured by Alpha. [Telling Others pp21-24;29-31].
- ALPHA AND THE NEW AGE
- All of this heightened interest amongst Charismatic Christians
in 'Signs and Wonders' and the supernatural experiences of the
Toronto Blessing is a reflection of spiritual and cultural changes
going on outside Christianity, in which New Age experiential
mysticism predominates.
Nicky Gumbel is aware of this paradigm shift from reason to
experience: "In the Enlightenment reason ruled supreme and
explanation led to experience. In the present transitional culture,
with its 'pick-and-mix' worldview in which the New Age movement
is a potent strand, experiences lead to explanation". [Nicky
Gumbel, Telling Others, p19].
Post-Christian neo-mysticism is already so pervasive that
virtually every non-christian participant of Alpha - or any other
evangelistic initiative - will reflect to some degree New Age
thinking. In New Age philosophy "experiences lead to explanation"
yet, like the Toronto Experience, the thrust of Alpha is towards
the experiential, not the written Word. One pastor who has made
use of the Alpha course writes: "One of the problems of
proclaiming the gospel in a post-modern world is that culture
itself warms much more readily to lifestyle than to doctrine.
But the Christian lifestyle is not Christian faith... .I am sure
that many people are being converted through the Alpha course,
but I have a suspicion that some of those people are being converted
to a Christian lifestyle rather than to Christ.". [Ian Lewis,
'The Alpha Course', Evangelicals Now, Dec 1995].
The two testimonies given by Alpha participants at the beginning
of the first Alpha video are prime examples of this. There are
certain basic elements one would expect to hear in a classic
conversion testimony: the conviction of sin leading to repentance
and subsequent assurance of God's forgiveness and salvation through
the death on the cross of Jesus Christ. But these are not there
in any form in these two testimonies.
A relationship with God is referred to, as is the experience
of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, prayer, an interest in Bible
reading, church-going, Christianity and what Alpha has done for
them. But Jesus and what He has done for them and a relationship
with Him is not mentioned at all. Yet the Lord Jesus is the gospel,
He is salvation, He is their new life so how can He possibly
be so completely overlooked in a basic conversion testimony?
Adherents of false religions claim a relationship with God,
and a prayer life, but they are not saved. Many church goers
read their Bibles and have an interest in church and in Christianity,
but they are not saved.
Likewise, more compassion/understanding at work, more patience,
tolerance, confidence and deep feelings of contentment can equally
well be produced by a sense of psychological well-being. Without
the cross they do not constitute salvation. The attempt by Nicky
Gumbel to bring Jesus into the testimonies by asking exactly
what had made these differences, was met with a blank look and
the response: "Just the relationship that I've developed
with God. Simple as that."
These testimonies seemed to me to be, as Ian Lewis suggests,
only evidence of conversion to a Christian lifestyle, not to
Christ. And when the "Christian lifestyle" is an endless
round of blessings', supernatural 'experiences', spiritual 'parties'
[see video talk 14] and 'play'-times (iv), then the transition
from the counterfeit spirituality of the New Age to Christianity
is really only one of degree, not kind. In which case I would
echo the question of one evangelical minister who asked: "What
is it they are converted to?"
EVANGELISM OR CHRISTIAN LIVING?
"Scripture tells us that salvation comes through hearing
the gospel, and I would expect any course aimed at non-christians
to concentrate primarily on the facts of the gospel. The Alpha
course deals with the basics of the gospel in two sessions...
While these are unequivocal gospel presentations, the remainder
of the course deals essentially with what may be described as
Christian living... When we used an adapted version of the course
in our church, non-christians were left behind by about the sixth
week. They still had very fundamental questions about what Christians
believe, which were not answered by talking about how Christians
live and for this reason the course seemed more suited to people
who have already made a commitment to Christ." [Ian Lewis,
Evangelicals Now, Dec 1995].
THE HOLY SPIRIT WEEKEND
White Alpha training manual pp26-36/Video III talks 7-9 "We
live in the age of the Spirit." [p29].
Christians have always referred to the period of time between
the first and second advents as the age of Grace, or the Church
age. That has not changed. Why encourage now, in such a precarious
spiritual climate, the New Age concept of the Age of Aquarius
(the spirit)?
Continuing his observations on the New Age Nicky Gumbel writes:
"I have found on Alpha that those from an essentially enlightened
background feel at home with the parts of the course which appeal
to the mind, but often have difficulty in experiencing the Holy
Spirit. Others coming from the New Age movement find that rational
and historical explanations leave them cold, but at the weekend
away they are on more familiar territory in experiencing the
Holy Spirit." [Telling Others, p19].
But it is the "rational and historical explanations"
of sessions l and 2 which are the essence of the gospel (Acts
2:22-41; 6:9-7:60; 8:26-38; 17:16-33) and which the unbeliever
must grasp and accept with his mind, under the convicting and
illuminating power of the Holy Spirit, if he is to repent and
experience salvation in his heart (Romans 10:13,14). Nevertheless:
"At the end of the course I send out questionnaires... if
there is a change I ask when that change occurred. For many the
decisive moment is the Saturday evening of the weekend."
[Telling Others, p120]. This is the time when Nicky Gumbel invites
the Holy Spirit to come and participants are filled with the
Spirit. [Telling Others, pp117,120,123; Blue Alpha training manual
p18]
I find this extremely worrying. The "decisive moment"
should surely be the point at which a person steps over from
eternal death to eternal life through the conversion experience
(John 3:16; 5:24; Romans 10:9,10,13 and other refs). But most
of the testimonies in 'Telling Others' seem to confuse the experience
of conversion with the experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit.
But is this surprising when Nicky Gumbel himself seems to
treat conversion as a preliminary to the main event? The breath
of new life into a repentant sinner is taught in talk 7, but
Nicky Gumbel does not make it clear that this happens at conversion
(2 Cor 5:17). Rather, he suggests this is due to a second experience:
the baptism in the Spirit.
The following testimony is an alarming example of the confusion
between conversion and baptism in the Holy Spirit, but it is
by no means the only one:
"....my wife encouraged me to read an article in a magazine
about the Alpha course at HTB. What had stuck in my mind was
how the work of the Holy Spirit was described as of paramount
importance. I knew in my heart I had to have his power in my
life at any cost. So I... enrolled on the course and focused
on the weekend where the work of the Holy Spirit is discussed...
.Never mind the weeks of pre-med, I just had to get into the
operating theatre... .I looked at the order of play, saw that
the third session on 'How can I be filled with the Spirit (which
I identified as the main one) was at 4:30pm and simply hung on
like a marathon runner weaving his way up the finishing straight
with nothing but the finishing tape as the focus of his attention...
.the prize was so near but we were getting there so slowly. I
literally wanted to scream out 'Do it now! Do it now! I can't
hold out any longer' I'm not exaggerating when I say I was in
agony Then Nicky Gumbel invited the Spirit to come and oh, the
relief." [Interview in Renewal, Oct 1995, p16; Telling Others
pp36-37].
Though the prayer at the end of these talks includes repentance,
the gospel talks are not at this point uppermost in participants
minds, and the corporate request "inviting the Holy Spirit
to come and fill us" is then made by all in the room.
HOW CAN I RESIST EVIL?
Session 9 White Alpha training manual pp39-45/Video IV Talk 10.
In section II of this session Satan's tactics are listed: destroys;
blinds eyes; causes doubt; tempts; accuses. All of these Gumbel
applies to the area of Christian behaviour. Deception, the tactic
focusing on belief, is omitted. This oversight can be deadly.
Deception concerning doctrine is Satan's most powerful weapon
against the Church and new Christians need to be made aware just
how practiced Satan is at deceiving Christians through false
doctrines and false spiritual experiences. (v)
Gumbel points out in this talk that occult activity "always
comes under the guise of something good". The Toronto Blessing
is seen as "something good". How strange then that
neither he nor anyone else at HTB thought to test the Toronto
spirit before accepting it and then passing it on to everyone
else. (vi)
HOW DOES GOD GUIDE US?
Session 10 White Alpha training manual pp46-51/Video IV Talk
11
The "Guiding Spirit" and "more unusual ways"
of guidance referred to in this talk, especially guidance by
angels, need thorough testing against Scripture in today's religious
climate in which false prophets and occult 'spirit guides' masquerading
as angels of light abound.
A testimony in HTB in FOCUS: ALPHA NEWS, Aug 1995, in which
Jesus is referred to as "a guiding light" (p14), is
just an inkling of what may be to come.
DOES GOD HEAL TODAY?
Session 12 White Alpha training manual ppS8-62/Video V Talk 13
During this talk Nicky Gumbel tells Alpha participants of the
visit by John Wimber to HTB in 1982 to demonstrate God's power
to heal. He says: "John Wimber then said 'We've had words
of knowledge' these are supernatural revelations, things that
they couldn't have known otherwise about the conditions of people
in the room... specific details were given, accurately describing
the conditions... .as the list was responded to, the level of
faith in the room was rising."
Gumbel says that he still felt "cynical and hostile"
until the following evening when he was prayed for: "So
they prayed for the Spirit to come....I felt something like 10,000
volts going through my body....The American had a fairly limited
prayer. He just said 'more power'....it was the only thing he
ever prayed. I can't remember him ever praying anything else...
Now we've seen many kinds of these manifestations of the Spirit
on the weekends... these manifestations... and the physical healings
themselves are not the important thing... .the fruit of the Spirit...
these are the things that matter, the fruit that comes from these
experiences. So we began to realize that God heals miraculously...."
Nicky Gumbel gives no indication here that he or anyone else
attending that meeting tested the spirits to ensure that everything
came from the Holy Spirit.
And, of course, the fruit of the Holy Spirit does not come
from "these experiences" but from the daily sanctification
by the Holy Spirit through obedience to the Word (John 14:15;21;23-26;15:l-7;10;14-15).
Once again Alpha participants are not being warned of the
very serious dangers of accepting anything and everything from
anyone and everyone. So they will walk out of the cocoon of Alpha
and straight into the path of the "enemy the devil [who]
prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour".
(1 Peter 5:8).
- WHAT ABOUT THE CHURCH?
Session 13 White Alpha training manual pp63-68/Video V Talk 14
(1) ROMANISM - "The Alpha course is... adaptable across
tradition and denominations... .I know of its uses in Catholic...
churches." [Martin Cavender in Telling Others].
Adaptable in what sense exactly? Alpha's publications manager
advises that, while presentation of the material can be adapted
to suit, the content should be followed exactly. (He makes particular
reference to the weekend dealing with the Holy Spirit in this
respect) [Christian Herald, 9:12:1995].
If the content of the course teaches the fundamental historical
and theological facts and doctrines of the Christian faith as
recorded in Scripture, then, having tested and proved that to
be so, any Protestant church using Alpha could follow the course
exactly. But could a Catholic church do that?
In talk 8 and in section II of this talk Gumbel teaches Alpha
participants that the differences between Protestants and Catholics
are "totally insignificant compared to the things that unite
us... we need to unite around the death of Jesus, the resurrection
of Jesus; the absolute essential things at the core of the Christian
faith on which we are all agreed. We need to give people liberty
to disagree on the things which are secondary."
I agree wholeheartedly with the last sentence but that is
not the issue here. It is on the essentials that Protestants
and Catholics do not have unity. That was the whole point of
the Protestant Reformation. Discussing the price of unity in
the Church, Bishop Ryle wrote: "Our noble Reformers bought
the truth at the price of their own blood, and handed it down
to us. Let us take heed that we do not basely sell it for a mess
of pottage, under the specious names of unity and peace."
[Warnings to the Churches, 1877, p128].
Still Gumbel says: "We need to unite... there has been
some comment which is not helpful to unity. Let us drop that
and get on. It is wonderful that the movement of the Spirit will
always bring churches together. He is doing that right across
the denominations and within the traditions... we are seeing
Roman Catholics coming now... Nobody is suspicious of anybody
else... People are no longer 'labelling' themselves or others.
I long for the day when we drop all these labels and just regard
ourselves as Christians with a commission from Jesus Christ."
[Renewal, May 1995,p16]
'Adaptability' of the Alpha course to include Catholics, not
necessarily to convert them, is referred to in Alpha as 'unity'
and I am concerned that Alpha is contributing - albeit unintentionally
- to the undoing of the Protestant Reformation through the promulgation
of ecumenism disguised as Christian Unity.
- (2) UNITY AND FALSE DOCTRINE/TEACHERS
- "A disunited church, squabbling and criticizing makes
it very hard for the world to believe". [Gumbel, Renewal,
May 1995, p16]. Consequently "we make it a rule on Alpha
never to criticise another denomination, another Christian church
or a Christian leader." [Telling Others, p114; and this
talk, section II].
Yet there are times when failure to 'criticize' - or rather
to rebuke and correct (2 Tim 3:16; 4:2-5) - is actually to be
disobedient to the Word of God. Although in talk five Gumbel
only applied the rebuking and correcting to Christian behaviour,
it also applies to false teaching. We must certainly not judge
one another's sins or their hearts (e.g. Matt 7:1-5), or their
personalities, but we are to test all teachings prophesies and
practices against Scripture and judge whether they are true or
false (1 Cor 2:15;16; 1 John 4:1).
According to Ephesians 4:3-6 Christian unity comes through
our being baptized through one Spirit into "one Lord, one
faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all".
Unity is also essential to Latter-Rain doctrine, to enable
the incarnation of Christ into His physical body (the Church),
because He cannot incarnate a divided body. But Latter-Rain is
a "different gospel" (Gal 1:6-7) with a faulty eschatology
which is insinuating itself into Charismatic fellowships these
days; one of its most successful routes being the Toronto Blessing
(vii).
It is vital that we "earnestly contend for the faith
that was once for all entrusted to the saints" (Jude 3).
If not, we may find ourselves, and those new believers we have
nurtured, part of the Apostate church.
- (3) THE PARABLE OF THE PARTY
- In section IV, Gumbel says the Church, though God's Holy
Temple, so often loses "the sense of the presence of God
in its midst". He is making reference here to the Sunday
meetings of believers rather than to the Church as the body of
Christ and uses the parable of the Prodigal Son to explain that
Sunday services should be like a 'party'. "Jesus was saying
that....the Church is like....a feast and a celebration, and
at a party everyone has a good time. There's fun, there's laughter...
.Why shouldn't there be laughter at the biggest party of all?
and that's what we're seeing today, laughter and fun, and people
getting drunk - not with wine, Paul says 'don't get drunk with
wine - be filled with the Spirit, Come to a party where you can
get drunk on God... .I was at a party like that last night. It
was a whole load of church leaders, and we invited the Spirit
to come... It was a party thrown by the Holy Spirit. It was a
fun place to be. The Church is meant to be a party..."
- The Church will celebrate the marriage feast of the Lamb
when the Lord Jesus returns, but I find no references to "fun"
or "parties" anywhere in Scripture, except in denunciation.
In 1 Corinthians 10:1-11 for example. Until Jesus returns and
we attend the marriage feast of the Lamb, there is no place for
"parties" or "festivals"; not even "to
the Lord".
-
- CONCLUSION
It may only be part of Alpha's teaching which does not accord
with Scripture, but I would say with Paul: "A little yeast
works through the whole batch of dough." (Gal 5:9).
Every Christian and every fellowship is able to witness to
the gospel. Many fellowships create their own evangelistic courses
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It should not be necessary
to rely on the methods and techniques of another fellowship when
we have all the instruction and teaching material we need in
Scripture, all the experience we need in each of our relationships
with the Lord Jesus and are each empowered by the Holy Spirit
to go and do it. But if leaders do decide to use the Alpha course
they should at least consider the following points in light of
the concerns above:
That they ensure non-believing participants have fully understood
the meaning of the cross and are saved (sessions I and 2) before
propelling them into a course on Christian Living. (sessions
3-14).
That they ensure converts are fully aware of their conversion
experience and are becoming stable in their daily relationship
with the Lord Jesus before thrusting them into the baptism of
the Holy Spirit, for which they are not yet ready and which could
allow into their lives the influence of an alien spirit through
ground given, albeit unintentionally.
That they ensure participants understand the different nature
of the work of each person in the Trinity.
That they ensure the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and his convicting
and sanctifying work in a believer's life is not submerged beneath
the gifts and the power of the Holy Spirit.
That they ensure participants are taught to proceed from the
Word to experience, not from experience to the Word.
Following from this, that they ensure participants understand
that deception regarding doctrine and supernatural phenomena
has always been Satan's main weapon against the Church and that
knowing and standing fast in the Word is our weapon of defense,
as it was for Jesus (Matt 4:1-11).
That they ensure participants are taught to become Bereans
(Acts 17:11) able to test everything against Scripture for themselves,
not relying on leaders, who are not infallible (e.g. Gal 2:11-14),
to do their thinking and living for them.
That they revise the booklist on pp72-75 of the white Alpha
training manual as it tends to display a bias towards writers
sympathetic to the Vineyard/Toronto Experience/Restorationist
persuasion, while omitting other sound and more obvious choices
in several of the sessions.
In 1877 Bishop Ryle wrote: "The Lord Jesus Christ declares,
'I will build My Church'....Ministers may preach, and writers
may write, but the Lord Jesus Christ alone can build. And except
He builds, the work stands still....Sometimes the work goes on
fast, and sometimes it goes on slowly. Man is frequently impatient,
and thinks that nothing is doing. But man's time is not God's
time. A thousand years in His sight are but as a single day.
The great builder makes no mistakes. He knows what He is doing.
He sees the end from the beginning. He works by a perfect, unalterable
and certain plan." [J.C. Ryle 'The True Church' in Warnings
to the Churches, 1877, pp13-14].
[Note: Nicky Gumbel dates his call to evangelism (Tape
Five of the video set) to the 1982 incident in which he received
prayer from John Wimber. On that occasion, he experienced such
supernatural power that he had to call out for it to stop. Wimber
gave a "word" that Gumbel had been given "a gift
of telling people about Jesus".]
A much expanded version of this paper is presently available
from Jo Gardner, price £1.25 incl. postage. Write to: Adullam
Register/Alpha, 86 Manor Way, Croxley Green, Herts WD3 3LY. This
paper and other material will also shortly be produced in the
form of a booklet. Enquiries to Jo Gardner, not Banner!
- FOOTNOTES
- (i) Letters to the author should be directed to Banner Ministries.
- (ii) HTB in Focus: Alpha News, Aug 1995 p9. See also Wallace
Boulton, ed., The Impact Of Toronto, 1995 pp2O-24.
- (iii) See Richard Smith, "Spiritual Drunkenness",
Sept 1994.
- (iv) See Wallace Boulton, ed., The Impact Of Toronto, 1995,
p19.
- Also David Noakes, Dealing With Poison In The Pot, audio
tape, CFCM 95/04, side 1.
- And Johannes Facius, 'Laugh? I Nearly Cried' in Prophecy
Today, May/June 1995, p25.
- (v) See for example, Robert M. Bowman, Orthodoxy And Heresy:
A Biblical Guide To Doctrinal Discernment, 1993. And J.C. Ryle,
Warnings To The Churches, 1877.
- (vi) During the Leadership Consultation held in January and
March 1995, by the Centre for Contemporary Ministry, it was noted
that Wm Branham also practised impartation of the Spirit, which
others could then pass on. Arnott has likened the Toronto Blessing
to a virus. (See Haggai 2:10-14).
- (vii) See 'Birth of the Manchild' in Mainstream, Spring 1995,
ppi-5 for the eschatology being taught at some Vineyard churches.
[Source: http://www.banner.org.uk/ms/ms2962.html ]
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