Rapsta Shai Linne Does a Smackdown/Slapdown of TBN's Paula White

http://wadeoradio.com/shai-linne-responds-to-paula-white-ministries-open-letter/

Shai Linne Responds To Paula White Ministries’ Open Letter

 

In a letter e-mailed to Wade-O Radio on Tuesday night, Shai Linne answered Bradley Knight’s defense of his mother, Paula White, who the rapper accused of being a false teacher.

Shai had tweeted three days earlier that prayer and guidance would precede his reply. He wrote the response while traveling on Clear Sight Music’s Black Out Circuit Tour which has been on the road since April 5. The unedited letter is below.

(For all blogs and website’s wishing to repost this, please refrain from posting the letter in its entirety. We ask that you publish a portion and link back to this article. For more info please see our permissions policy – Thanks)

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Hey Brad,

This is Shai Linne. I’m writing to reply to the recent open letter you wrote in response to my song, “Fal$e Teacher$“. In that song, I referred to Paula White, among others, as a false teacher. I’m glad that you responded because it serves as a reminder to us all that this discussion involves real people with real families and real souls. Therefore, this is not something that should be taken lightly. It’s very serious. Before I directly address the substance of your open letter, I first want to commend you for a few things that encouraged me as I read it.


1. I was encouraged to read your confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I loved hearing you affirm the blessed Trinity, the deity of Christ, His atoning sacrifice and salvation by grace through faith in Christ. I can’t even type that last sentence without it affecting me. Beautiful truths, indeed! Those truths are the foundation of my hope and joy. My soul leaps when I hear someone affirm these things as you did. Amen and amen.


2. I was encouraged to read of your obvious love for your mother. What son couldn’t relate to the passion behind what you wrote? If someone said anything that I perceived as negative or untrue about my mom, I would be the first to defend her. As a son who dearly loves his own mom, I could identify with you. Thank you for setting a good example for sons out there in stepping up to defend your mother.


3. I was encouraged to hear of your mother praying for your salvation, as well as teaching you the faith. Again, I can relate. I myself am the result of a praying mother. In fact, I once told my mom that I would never become a Christian. Even as I entered adulthood while continuing in rebellion against God, she never stopped praying for me. I am eternally grateful to her for crying out to God on my behalf when I was dead in my sins! So I was glad to hear you mention what you did about your mother. It’s a good model for other mothers to emulate.

The Real Issue

With that said, Brad, I don’t think your letter actually addresses the real issue. My song was not about you, your financial status, the genuineness of your faith, your mother’s prayers for you or the good things that Paula White Ministries does. The song was about the false doctrine that Paula White and others have publicly taught for many years and continue to teach.


Speaking of public teaching, you mentioned Matthew 18:15-17 to support the idea that I should have contacted you privately first. The irony, of course, is that you made this claim in a letter that is open for the public to read without contacting me privately first. Why did you choose to go about things in this way? Is it because I came out and said something about Paula White publicly and therefore you felt it deserved a public response? If that’s how you thought about it, you would be right. And that’s exactly why I addressed Paula White’s public teachings publicly. Here is a helpful article by noted New Testament scholar D.A. Carson on why Matthew 18 doesn’t apply in situations like this.


I want to address a few of the false teachings themselves. I went straight to the Paula White Ministries website and your Youtube page so I could hear what you have released as representative of Paula White’s teaching. There are many things I could speak on, but I’ll highlight three here.

1. False View of the Atonement

Paula White did a series called 8 Promises of the Atonement, that at the time of my writing this, is currently featured on your ministry website. In it, she states that physical healing and financial abundance in this life are provided for in the atonement of Christ. See the following video at the 25:00 mark where Paula White teaches “salvation includes healing.” She says it again at 28:30. But then she goes even further. If you keep listening, she talks about commanding her body not to be sick because of the blood of Christ. She ends this section by boldly declaring around 29:40:
“You are not going to die of sickness. When you go, it’s going to be because of your appointed time of old age and full of life”



For Paula White to say this to a large crowd of people is both false and irresponsible. She has no idea how those people are going to die. The truth is that Christians do get sick. Many godly believers die at young ages from sickness and it is not due to their lack of faith or because they haven’t embraced what’s theirs through the atonement. It’s because God is sovereign.


As He says in Deut. 32:39, “‘See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.”


Psalm 139:14 says “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be”.


God sovereignly determines when we live and when we die. And if He appoints or allows a sickness to take our lives, it is because His infinite wisdom determined that it be so.


At the 2:00 mark of this video on your website, Paula White lists “financial abundance” as one of the promises of the atonement. This is false. It is also a slap in the face to the millions godly saints throughout the world today (and church history) who do not live in “financial abundance” like many of us live here in America. Jesus commends the church in Smyrna when He says:

“‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan” - Rev. 2:9

In His kindness and care, the risen Savior tells the church in Smyrna that He is aware of their poverty. What does He say after that? Does He tell them that they’re poor because they haven’t fully embraced the promise of His atonement? Does He say they’re poor because of a generational curse, as Paula White teaches at 13:20 in this video? No. He reminds them that though they are materially poor in this world, they are actually rich in God’s eyes because of their union with Jesus Christ! Like C.S. Lewis once famously said, “He who has God and everything else has no more than He who has God only.”


In 1 Timothy 6:7-8, which is in the same context of a passage I mentioned in the song, it says “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” This is consistent with the New Testament emphasis on contentment, which is almost always mentioned in contrast to the love of money (Heb. 13:5). I’m encouraged to see that you try to put that into practice in your own life, Brad. But in doing so, you’re actually contradicting the teaching of Paula White, who says that the atonement promises your financial abundance. She obviously embraces this teaching herself. It is well documented that she, along with others mentioned in the song, was investigated by the U.S. Senate for financial impropriety due to their extravagant lifestyles. Much more could be said about this, but let me get to the next false teaching.

2. False “Sow a Seed” Teaching

This is something that is common among the people I named in the song, including Paula White. The premise is that if you give a certain amount of money, God will multiply it and you’ll get more money back in return. As I studied the prosperity teachers, I noticed that they often used this tactic when taking an offering. But when you study the Scriptures, you find that the “sow a seed” passages that are usually referred to are not talking about money at all, but the knowledge of the kingdom of God, which leads to salvation (See Matthew 13:1-23). Even in 2 Cor. 9:6-15, where seed is used in connection with financial gifts, the emphasis is on generously supplying the needs of other churches (vs. 12) and having what you need to serve others effectively (vs. 8). Living out the American Dream is not in view there.


In the following video, Paula White gives an appeal for money at The Potter’s House, the church pastored by T.D. Jakes. Around 2:10 she says, “God is speaking to many”. She then tells them what God is supposedly saying, “Give a $126 dollar offering. For some it may be $1,260, for some it may be $12,600”.



Now if I’m sitting in that audience that day and Paula White says, “God is saying give $126 or $1,260 or $12,600”, what am I supposed to do? If God is saying it and I don’t do it, I’m being disobedient. But here’s the thing. I don’t have to wonder whether or not God is saying that through Paula White because God has already spoken in His Word, the Bible. And in the Bible, God said:


“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor. 9:7)


What Paula White does in that video absolutely qualifies as compulsion and it actually made me sad for her as I watched it. In this video at 25:08, in the middle of an appeal for money (Start it at 22:28 to get the full context), Paula White promises that “Your seed today is gonna turn everything around for your children, your grandchildren, your family, your spouse, everyone in relation to you. But you have to activate it. Call that toll-free number.” There is no way that that statement could be true for each of the thousands of Christians and non-Christians watching the show that day! What makes it worse is that she’s claiming to speak for God as she does it. And that brings me to the final and perhaps most serious falsehood.

3. Falsely Claiming to Speak For God

As I’m sure you know, Brad, God takes speaking in His name very seriously. To say that God said something that He didn’t say is to lie on God. God takes this sin so seriously that in the Old Testament, the person found guilty of this was to be executed. Check out Deuteronomy 18:20:


“But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’”


The verses following that one give the litmus test for how we can determine whether or not someone is speaking for God:
“And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’—when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously.” (Deut. 18:21-22)


There is nothing new under the sun. People have been falsely claiming to speak for God for thousands of years. Here’s what God said when it was happening in Jeremiah’s day.


“Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the Lord, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the Lord.” - Jeremiah 23:32


As sincere as Paula White may be, she is extremely reckless in the many false things that she says God told her to tell her listeners. The videos I provided are enough. Just go back and listen to how often she says God is saying something that He could not possibly be saying to everyone listening to her at the time. “You are not going to die of sickness” is just one of many examples I could give. Sadly, her teaching is characterized by this falsehood. She and the other people I mentioned in the song do this all the time.Conclusion
This is getting long, so I’ll bring it to a close. I know you love your mother, Brad. I love mine as well. I made Fal$e Teacher$ because there are many other sons out there whose mothers have had their lives greatly damaged by the false teachings of Paula White and the others mentioned in the song. I would love to hear that Paula White has repented and renounced the many false things that she has taught. I am praying to that end. But until she does that, I must soberly maintain that the Biblical category of “False Teacher” does, in fact, apply her. And those who follow her must be warned. And just so you know, I have your email address and will gladly take this conversation offline with you if you’d like.


grace and peace,
shai

TBN Bimbo, Paula White: ER2, TD Jakes, & Baptacostals

Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries offers his assessment of ER2, TD Jakes, and Benny Hinn’s girl-friend, Paul White.  We offer our comments in red.

http://apprising.org/2012/03/30/elephant-room-2s-t-d-jakes-spiritual-daughter-paula-white-in-the-news/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+apprising%2F2+%28Apprising+Ministries%29

ELEPHANT ROOM 2′S T.D. JAKES’ SPIRITUAL DAUGHTER PAULA WHITE IN THE NEWS

RA:  After Paula White’s involvement with Benny Hinn in Rome last year, with all the hand-holding and the divorce in suspense, what’s going on currently?  We know, as of last year, that old Benny got divorced from his wife.  Benny ditched her and his wife ditched him.  So much for Biblical marriage amongst the Yappaholics.  We covered Benny’s divorce at: http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2011/05/update-on-benny-hinn-divorce-from.html.

By Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Mar 30, 2012 in AM Missives, Current Issues, Features, T.D. Jakes, Word Faith 

Apprising Ministries continues covering the aftermath of the Elephant Room 2, which was put on by former Gospel Coalition members James MacDonald and Mark Driscoll. [RA:  Apparently, Driscoll and the Gospel Coalition have been involved.  As Confessional Anglicans, we’ve not followed the ins-and-outs of these Baptacostals, except at a well-advised distance.  They offer so little. Our distance is suitable and well-advised.] 

I told you in There’s More To The Resignation Of James MacDonald From Gospel Coalition that MacDonald would resign from TGC because he didn’t want to “pull the plug” on T.D. Jakes coming to the ER2. 

[RA:  We’re still not following all the chaos of these sectarians like Harvest Chapellers, Acts 29, Driscoll and others.  We are not schismatics and sectarians without confessional or creedal roots.  Who is Jakes?  MacDonald?  TGC?  Baptacostalist sectarians?] 

Then on Wednesday of this week we suddenly saw Mark Driscoll Resigns From The Gospel Coalition [RA: We note this/] right on the heels of Matt Chandler To Be New President OfFActs 29 Network as Driscoll decided to step down. Sources within Acts 29 tell me these are related, at least in part, to ER2. [RA:  Sectarians and schismatics from the beginning.  They are Baptacostals and Baptacholics.] Fallout from ER2 will likely continue to be seen within the contemporary evangelicalism [RA:  What is “contemporary evangelicalism”?] this year because the main claim to fame for this conference was, in my opinion, the pass given to Word Faith mogul T.D. Jakes. [RA:  What has been, if ever, the Confessional, liturgical and creedal benchmark for McDonald or the other schismatics?  Ditto for all TBN exhorters?  Or SBCers without a Confession?] As I see it, led by Mark Driscoll, Jakes was essentially allowed to say, “I’m a trinitarian-modalist.”  [RA:  Since when has the Creed, or Creeds, meant much to SBC exhorters like Silva?  At least Anglicans have retained the Creeds.] Jakes’ obvious Word Faith prosperity teachings were never even mentioned, let alone addressed. [OK, is this it?]

The net result is ER2 was successful in mainstreaming T.D. Jakes [RA: So?]; and then James MacDonald would go on the offensive on the Chris Fabry Live (CFL) program to imply that in their private dialogues Jakes does not accept the label of a Word Faith prosperity preacher. However from years of involvement with, and study of, the WF movement I can tell you that no WF preacher wants to be branded with that particular label. [RA: So, put the question in full and in the particulars to Jakes.  At this point, McDonald is just another sectarian, schismatic, Anabaptistic, and
Baptacostal revivalist.] 

Unfortunately for James MacDonald et al the facts simply don’t line up with his assertion that T.D. Jakes is not a WF prosperity preacher. [RA:  It would appear that Jakes is a full-breed Pelagian, to wit, that children imitate and follow their parents’ behaviours, rather than inherit sin natures. We’ve always understood Jakes to be a Word-Prosperity-Pimp.  Why any discussion of it by MacDonald?]  For example there’s Megachurch Pastors Joel Osteen And T.D. Jakes Unite And Why You Should Care and T.D. Jakes May 2012 Leadership Conference To Feature Joel Osteen. Then just a couple of weeks ago T.D. Jakes Speaker This Month For Paula White’s A God Encounter. [RA:  Has Jakes ever postulated or presented his “Confession of Faith,” like the Westminsterians?  If not, why not?  Where is Jakes’s confession to the world?] While Osteen sugarcoats his Word Faith prosperity [RA: Osteen has to be the most ignorant cleric on TV today]  preaching by mixing in self-help jargon ala Robert Schueller [RA:  While at it, where is Osteen’s “Confession of Faith,” like the Westminsterians.  Does the old boy have one?  One that can be examined?  Osteen’s ignorance is legendary.] , there is no doubt that Pastrix Paula [Ditto for White’s “Confession of Faith”] White is basically a female version of T.D. Jakes. If you didn’t know, there’s good reason for this as White often speaks of Jakes as her “spiritual father,” which you can hear for yourself in Elephant In The Room: T.D. Jakes And Paula White. To point this out is not merely guilt by association.

To look at this in a legal sense, it goes to the credibility of T.D. Jakes. It was James MacDonald who called Jakes to the witness stand in ER2 and he’s attempted to defend his brother Jakes. We then have every right to cross examine the record of T.D. Jakes [RA:  This is always the right of a
Biblical analyst] who stated on the record that he holds an orthodox view of the Holy Trinity and, according to his spiritual defense attorney [RA” Spiritual attorney?}  now apparently claims not to be Word Faith. 

Since Paula White claims Jakes was her mentor [RA:  Jakes?  White claims this?  Where is the scholarly bibliography of several hundred volumes?  Jakes?  How about the scholars of the ages?], which he also acknowledges, then we are within our right to examine her teachings and lifestyle because they also reflect upon her spiritual father T.D. Jakes. In closing this, for now, I point you to an Orlando Sentinel piece from January of this year called New Destiny’s Paula White preaches from life of ups, downs. Jeff Kunerth begins: 

In her first sermon as the new pastor [RA” Pastor?”  Ahem.] of New Destiny Christian Center, Paula White described herself as a “messed up Mississippi girl” who was picked on as a child. [RA: Irrelevant to Biblical exposition, Biblical Churchmanship, doctrine, worship and piety.] But don’t let this blond hair fool you, she told the congregation, this girl knows how to fight [RA: A bit of a yawner for retired and active duty U.S. Marines.  Sorry, Paula, but not very impressive].

“I came out of my momma’s womb fighting,” [RA: You’re alone?  Do you think 1000s upon 1000s came foreward without a struggle, Paula?  And you are special because of….?] she said. “That’s why I will go to war. I will fight.” (Online source)  [RA:  What a bizarre claim.  The issue is harmartiology in the classical sense, not your forlorn experience amongst southern Enthusiasts.]

Obviously, by claiming to be a pastor White is already in violation of God’s Word (cf. 1 Timothy 2:12). [RA: After all, what is this gal’s theological background?  A 90-hour MDiv?  A 30-hour Th.M.?  A Ph.D.?  Or, much less?] You might be saying, “Wait a minute she’s supposed to be the senior pastor of Without Walls Church.” That’s right, she is; and she found a way to become pastrix of New Destiny Christian Center (NDCC) as well. [RA:  Just another loud-mouthed hack and Baptacostalist without an education and with a lot of vigour.  What else might be expected of individualistic Anabaptistic enthusiasts?] You might recall in August of last year I told you that Florida Megachurch Pastor Zachery Tims Found Dead, NDCC was his church.

Well, pastrix Paula White claims that she was Tims’ spiritual mentor. [RA” White, a pastoral mentor, without degrees? ] For more on the controversy surrounding just how White came to be appointed pastor at NDCC I refer you to Paula White Officially Appointed Senior Pastor of Zachery Tims’ Fla. Church. [RA:  More hackeries and loondoms.] Right now we return to our look at the teachings of pastrix White as Orlando Sentinel reporter Jeff Kunerth continues:

White often refers to her past personal hardships as examples of how faith and determination have elevated her into the pulpit. Her rags-to-riches travails inspire those in the congregation who have experienced difficulties in their lives. [RA: Yawn. Where’s the exposition of Sacred Scriptures?]

“Part of her appeal is the success theology [RA:  Holy moly, as a retired Marine and as a retired senior officer, I can preach my successes in the military?  Holy moly, let me write a book and get on TV too…] she preaches,” [RA: Sheer crap.] said Sheila Strobel Smith, an expert on leadership transition in mega-churches like Apopka’s New Destiny. “For people feeling down and out, they can see she has picked herself up and made a success of herself. And her life continues to play that out.” (Online source) [RA: More yawning.]

As you can see, just as her spiritual father T.D. Jakes, White’s message is herself; typical of Word Faith prosperity preachers. [RA:  Suitable to half-wits and illiterates.] As with other WF snake oil salesmen [RA: Including the entire TBN crowd and Benny Hinn] Kunerth also tells us that Without Walls Church, which White co-founded with her then husband Randy White [RA Whoa, Paula White, the scholar, the diva, the august, the Bimbo, the magnificent, the PhD,. and the boyfriend of Benny Hinn. The two magisters  and examples of illustration, the divorced Paul and Randy, examples of Christian doctrine, worship and piety (tongue in cheek[ got divorced, yet without a whimper from TBN]: became the focus of a congressional investigation into several high-profile preachers suspected of living lavish lifestyles at the expense of their congregations. (Online source) [RA:  Have we ever seen Paula’s financial records?  In full?  The whole and entire matter is still unresolved, including Paul Crouch Sr.’s manifestations.]

Kunerth also tells us, as it concerns her taking over NDCC, that White:

 

has plenty of detractors, including R. Douglas Chukwuemeka, who came out of the same Baltimore church as Zachery Tims and pastors New Destiny’s sister church in Arizona. Chukwuemeka challenges White’s assertions that she was the close spiritual mother of Tims. [RA: Baptacostalist yappings] 

“She’s making it up and playing on the people’s feelings,” said Chukwuemeka, senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Church in Laveen, Ariz. “She definitely would not be the one he would want to succeed him.” (Online source)  [RA:  For the youths, young people, new inquirers after Christ, non-catechetized but learning, and new joins, keep your hand on the wallet, firmly.  Think, read, mark and decide, but never follow these half-wits.] 

§  Then finally Jeff Kunerth shares the following, which comes as absolutely no surprise to those of us familiar with the preaching stylings of pastrix Paula White [RA:  Silva, start getting your subject and verb agreements together, otherwise, you look like an uneducated Baptistic rubarb...that's what we expect from Baptacostals]: 

Tall and slender, she appears more model than minister — until she opens her mouth and begins to preach. In a style borrowed from black pastors, including her “spiritual father” T.D. Jakes, White preaches with a breathless delivery of nonstop sentences that rise to an emotional peak just short of exhaustion. (Online source) [RA:  The few times we’ve heard Paula speak, she sounds like a Baptacostalist loon.  No depth.  No Confessionalism.  Certainly, no liturgy.  No Creedalism.  What does she offer but her ignorance?  Does she even have a credible and basic 90-hour degree in theology, a “starters” degree?] 

I’ll leave you with the following demonstration of pastrix Paula White in action so you can see part of “the show” for yourself. Below is White preaching the classic Word Faith sow a seed of money [RA: “Send dem dollas in you folks” preaches the huckster] so God will be obligated to bless you; and this she does for her spiritual father T.D. Jakes at his Potter’s House in December of 2010:

00:00

RA:  For new inquirers to Christendom, teenagers, non-Catechetized, or young adults without a background.  Paula White, T.D. Jakes, TBN, Paul Crouch and Benny Hinn should be avoided.  On our end, we need to develop a basic bibliography for new joins.  After these exercises about “Witless Wonders,” like White, we will get to the issues of providing a basic bibliography. 00:00

07:04

See also:

PASTRIX PAULA WHITE AND SCROLL-WRAPPING “RABBI” RALPH MESSER

DUNG DROPPINGS IN THE ELEPHANT ROOM: T.D. JAKES—JESUS IS THE PRODUCT

T.D. JAKES PREACHING HERETICAL WORD FAITH POSITIVE CONFESSION

2 Stories: Husband and Wife Get Free of TBN Pentecostalist Prosperity Pimps

A couple gives their account of getting free of the Baptacostalist TBN crowd.  http://apprising.org/2012/03/26/falsified-word-faith-prosperity-gospel/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+apprising%2F2+%28Apprising+Ministries%29

Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Mar 26, 2012 in Current Issues, Features, Word Faith

For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. (Titus 1:10-11)

They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.
(Titus 1:16)

Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (Jude 3-4)

[Vincent] TV preachers are very slick, and the majority of them are leading masses astray, supposedly using Scripture to back up their claims. Men and women are on national and worldwide television “preaching” that God wants everyone to always be healthy and wealthy therefore resulting in prosperity in all things, all the time. many of them teach that we are actually “little gods” because, after all, we were created in the image of God. Some actually going so far as to say that we are everything God is and was and will ever be.

Most of them claim to be able to physically heal people, cast out demons, make futuristic prophecies [most prophecies of which have never happened). Some claim to have taken trips to Heaven and back, receive direct and extra-Biblical revelations from God, and even supposedly had personal conversations with God. As the verses at the beginning of this chapter say, these "preachers" profess to know God, but deny Him by what they do.

They are deceivers who should not teach but do so for one reason and one reason alone. Money.

[My wife] Lori was duped by two of these false teachers, Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer. Two of the lesser recognized false teachers, especially amongst evangelical Christians. I went through a time where I was sick, nothing life threatening but was a season of life where illness did plague the body for the good part of a year. I fell into the trap of watching Joel Osteen every Tuesday night and reading his book. I bought into the lie of if I just quoted to myself that “I am a victor and not a victim” that I would start to overcome this illness eventually.

I would continually do self-affirmations that Joel was pumping at me from the television screen, all the while living in total rebellion to my Lord. I had no real understanding of God’s sovereignty and that possibly the reason I was sick was that it was the work of God in my life for a reason. That thought never crossed into my mind. I heard over and over that God doesn’t want us to be sick and miserable. but that He wants us to live a victorious life. Had I been in the word of God I would [have] quickly realized this wasn’t lining up with the life of the apostles at all and those men were hand picked by the Lord.

Their lives got worse as it wen ton, they were persecuted, they were homeless, poor, in prison, and yet they were blessed and cared for. These were the truths I needed to be rooted in, yet I wasn’t. I was busy letting a self-help guru on the screen tell me that I was going to feel better if I just believed enough. Where is there any valid Scripture that backs that up? There isn’t. We are not promised a good and easy life on this side of eternity, but we are promised in Matthew 28:20 that “lo I am with you always even to the end of the age.”

After the Lord eventually healed me over time, nothing that I did obviously, I turned to another false teacher unknowingly. This time not only was truth being twisted but it was from an authority who was not even fit to be teaching, Joyce Meyer. [W]omen [should not be] acting as pastors as defined in 1 Timothy 3:2 [and] are not to be exercising the authority of that role. Titus 1:6 states clearly the qualifications of a pastor, see below the text and how a woman cannot fit into this criteria for the office of pastor:

“namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion.”

[Lori] I used to watch Joyce Meyer every morning before I was saved and [fed] on her quick wit and sassy style. I used to think, “she’s just telling it like it is!” I remember thinking her “sermons” on the battle in your mind were just phenomenal. She was telling me how to just get over it and move on. It was a much starker difference than Joel. Joel was happy and feel good. Joyce was no-nonsense no frills just cut to the core motivation. She was teaching a false gospel of the little gods lesson as Vince mentioned above.

I had emailed asking for prayer during that time and not but a few weeks later did I get things in the mail from her ministry basically forcing an “offering” and that in order to continue being blessed, I needed to return money in the envelope that was sent. That happened repeatedly until I moved from that address. Many women who love that strong willed nature in a female buy into Joyce Meyer and all that she is selling. That is not the character of a godly woman,… Vince never really had any interest in most of the TV preachers. I never watched much TV anyway.
I did watch some of the more minor, non-heretical, not as popular teachers, but I never got into Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, Jesse Duplantis, or any of the other heretics on TV. However, before God graciously saved me, I could have watched them and probably not have given much thought to it. I probably would have thought some of it was strange…but heresy? I didn’t even know the word “heresy” existed until a couple of years ago. I surely did not know how deep and dark their teaching really goes, and how especially evil these men and women are. Justin Peters and his ministry [Justin Peters Ministries] really opened my eyes to most of that.

This movement is not only dangerous to the souls of many who are being falsely converted, but who are also being led in universal communions. We were witness to this concept at a Benny Hinn Crusade in Dallas, Texas in September. People were coming down the aisle in droves to get saved and were led in a universalistic communion. They were not told to examine themselves in light of Scripture in the biblical sense; it was completely twisted into believing that if you took the sacraments it would heal you from within. Dangerous beyond words.

There was a two-fold problem with this event, turning out false converts and then in the next minute leading them into communion that was not understood in the purest sense. This movement is sweeping the nation and the world and the people are so hungry for “something more” in their lives, they buy into this culture of health, wealth, and even fame for the exchange of all that they have. Among those already listed, a few of the more well known television preachers supporting this movement are as follows: Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Creflo Dollar, T.D. Jakes, Paula White, Jessie Duplantis and several others.[1]

Vincent and Lori Williams www.vinceandloriministries.blogspot.com

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End notes:
[1] Vincent and Lori Williams, Falsified: The Danger Of False Conversion [Bloomington: WestBow Press, 2012], 36, 37, 38, 39.
See also:
T.D. JAKES SPEAKER THIS MONTH FOR PAULA WHITE’S A GOD ENCOUNTER
EMERGING ECUMENICAL EVANGELEPHANTS AND THE WORD FAITH MOVEMENT
SBC PASTOR ED YOUNG, JR PAYS HOMAGE TO JOEL OSTEEN

CBN: Benny Hinn Opens Up

Benny Hinn, "I gotta get outta Rome fast and, oh, oh, that National Enquirer article. I'm outta here."

Although a sleazy rag, "The National Enquirer," in fact, successfully discovered that the Rev. Mr. Jesse Jackson had an illegitimate child, that Rush Limbaugh had a painkiller addiction, that Tiger Woods was having an affair or two, that the former Presidential candidate and NC Senator, John Edwards had an affair and love child, and, recently, that former VP Al Gore's attempted trysts at midnight.

Neither Benny nor Paula denied the authenticated photos.

Benny, "I'm outta here and outta Rome on my ministry Learjet. Gotta lay low now. Still got the divorce pending too. But I need $2 million dollars, but my dear followers for ministry expenses like this jet, the $10,000/night hotel costs and associated costs...all this, my dear followers, so I can serve the Gospel around the world (oops, don't mention `forgetting my dysfunctional family for years')."

Benny Hinn, "I gotta get outta Rome fast and, oh, oh, that National Enquirer article. I'm outta here."

Although a sleazy rag, "The National Enquirer," in fact, successfully discovered that the Rev. Mr. Jesse Jackson had an illegitimate child, that Rush Limbaugh had a painkiller addiction, that Tiger Woods was having an affair or two, that the former Presidential candidate and NC Senator, John Edwards had an affair and love child, and, recently, that former VP Al Gore's attempted trysts at midnight.

Neither Benny nor Paula denied the authenticated photos.

Benny, "I'm outta here and outta Rome on my ministry Learjet. Gotta lay low now. Still got the divorce pending too. But I need $2 million dollars, but my dear followers for ministry expenses like this jet, the $10,000/night hotel costs and associated costs...all this, my dear followers, so I can serve the Gospel."

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"This is Your Day," Benny's TBN-broadcast, 5 Aug 10, appears to have pulled the program from Benny's website (http://www.bennyhinn.org/television/default.cfm). Although CBN reports on the now-long-gone-1-day-gone telecast of 5 Aug. It disappeared from Hinn's site 6 Aug. Hinn's "handlers" (snake handlers) were atop the media game and had it pulled for--as we would say aboard a ship--DC, that is, "Damage Control." It will work for those not watching closely

We have a factual conflict between Benny's website and CBN's report. Below is the CBN report.
We believe CBN's coverage.

http://search.cbn.com/search?q=cache:EpPABUzwfVEJ:www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2010/August/Evangelist-Benny-Hinn-Opens-Heart-to-Viewers/+benny+hinn&output=xml_no_dtd&client=cbn_default&ie=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=cbn_default&site=CBNNews&access=p&oe=UTF-8

Evangelist Benny Hinn opened up to his viewers Thursday, talking about his marriage, mistakes he's made and the recent accusation against him of an affair.

Hinn's wife, Suzanne, filed for divorce in February. On the Aug. 5 edition of his show "This is your Day," Hinn admitted the two had "challenges," but that he never expected her decision to end things.

"We had troubles for a long time. And I would ask her often... 'Would you ever divorce me?'" Hinn shared. "She said, 'Never because I fear God too much. She said, 'My covenant is with God, not you.'"

"And I guess she could no longer handle it. One day she did it to my shock," he added.

Painful Admission

The pair married in 1979 and have three daughters and a son.

Hinn said it's often painful to talk about their separation, which began well before the divorce was announced.

"We've had to be very quiet to protect the ministry, the work of the Lord," he said. "But sadly when you are a public person, everything you do becomes public."

"I don't care how strong you are," Hinn continued. "I don't care if the anointing of God is mighty on you. Nobody wants to be alone. I don't care who you are. I am a human being just like you."

In a heartfelt moment after his children joined him on stage during the show, Hinn said he was oftentimes so "busy in the ministry" that he forgot about his family.

"That's probably what broke the whole thing up. And they've said to me... 'hey daddy, you've never been here,'" Hinn said. "So I've made mistakes because I wasn't the perfect husband and the perfect dad because I was always gone traveling the world."

He urged those watching to focus on their family an not lose sight of what's important.

"Because if you neglect your family you'll suffer pain. You got to focus on your family," Hinn said.

No Infidelity 'And That's a Fact'

The televangelist firmly maintained that no infidelity was involved in his divorce and denounced a recent story by the National Enquirer suggesting otherwise.

"She and I kept a clean life, that's a fact," Hinn said. "We kept our marriage vows. There was nothing immoral ever on her part or my part. And I want you to know to this minute, I am clean and so is she."

In a July 23 article, the National Enquirer claimed Hinn was having an affair with fellow evangelist Paula White and published photos of the two leaving a Rome hotel together holding hands.

Hinn called the article a "pure lie."

"They did not even call me to ask me questions. They simply came up with their own story," he said. "That's wicked. It's totally wicked."

Hinn explained that he was appointed "Patron of the Arts" by the Vatican and asked to find donors so their art collections could be maintained. He chose White as one of those donors.

"I let her come with me to Rome so she can donate money. That was stupid on my part. And for that, I do ask forgiveness," he said. "But that was an innocent mistake -- nothing to do with stupid stuff."

Hinn added that it was "sad" that even some ministers believed the article.

Communing with Christ

The teevangelist has spent more than 30 years in worldwide ministry and says he's using prayer time to focus his attention even more on God.

"Now, I'm going to go on serving Jesus with all my being," Hinn said. "And whatever the future holds, that's His business.

Hinn asked for prayer as he continues his journey and also prayer for his family.

"This Is Your Day" is a widely watched Christian program, broadcast daily in 200 countries.

Related Stories:
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Evangelists Hinn, White Deny Affair Allegations