In Part 1, the ecumenical agenda of the Alpha Course was laid bare, with its utterly apostate accord with the Church of Rome:
http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/alpha-course-in-wales-broad-road-back.html
I will open Part 2 of this investigation with two very pertinent Scriptural quotations:
http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/alpha-course-in-wales-broad-road-back.html
"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."
(Matthew 24:24)
"For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect."
(Mark 13:22)
(Mark 13:22)
This specific warning, given by the Lord himself, was so very important, it was recorded in the Gospels of both Matthew and Mark - with one interesting difference: in Matthew, the slant is DECEPTION, while in Mark the slant is SEDUCTION.
One warning. One issue. Two spotlights directing their own distinctive and very revealing beam onto both sides of a single issue, to give it greater clarity. That issue? The demonstration of "signs and wonders" by "false Christs and false prophets," which can thus be very clearly seen to be:
1) MISLEADING BY LYING (the dictionary definition of deception) and
2) TEMPTATION INTO WRONGDOING (the dictionary definition of seduction).
One warning. One issue. Two spotlights directing their own distinctive and very revealing beam onto both sides of a single issue, to give it greater clarity. That issue? The demonstration of "signs and wonders" by "false Christs and false prophets," which can thus be very clearly seen to be:
1) MISLEADING BY LYING (the dictionary definition of deception) and
2) TEMPTATION INTO WRONGDOING (the dictionary definition of seduction).
The word "christ" is derived from the Greek "christos" meaning "the anointed one." It is vital to grasp the full import of what these verses are effectively saying when taken together:
MEN (AND WOMEN) WHO HAVE A FALSE ANOINTING, AND MEN (AND WOMEN) WHO ARE FALSE PROPHETS, WILL USE LYING "SIGNS AND WONDERS" TO MISLEAD PEOPLE AND TEMPT THEM INTO DOING WHAT IS WRONG!
We will now explore how a FULL and proper understanding of Jesus' stark warning is so crucial for perceiving the unholy counterfeit spirit behind the Alpha Course, and for its very necessary complete rejection and righteous condemnation by Bible-believing Christians who will have nothing to do with such Devilish devices!
HOLY TRINITY BROMPTON, NICKY GUMBEL AND JOHN WIMBER
John Wimber
As a young man, Nicky Gumbel had attended some of Wimber's meetings, and in so doing "not only had his theological world, but also his experiential world rocked." (NOTE: Not so rocked that his adherence to the apostate Church of England was challenged in any way!) He hails the so-called "Third Wave" leader as the most influential person in his life, which speaks volumes for the Gumbel worldview and how his Alpha Course is actually presenting "another Gospel" (see Galatians 1:6-7), based on the experiential regardless of what the Word of God might have to say (or NOT, as the case may be!) about such an experience-based faith.
When Holy Trinity Brompton hosted Wimber in 1982, Gumbel was prayed for by a member of his team, and felt what he described as an incredible power, like 10,000 volts, going through his body; he had to be carried out of the meeting! Wimber returned year after year to HTB to do these conferences. Not without significance, this was all before Gumbel took over the running of the Alpha Course in 1990, and had set the stage for what was to explode in HTB in May,1994, of which more anon.
As recorded in Part 1, Gumbel harbours pro-Vatican sympathies, sympathies which were also shared by Wimber, who wanted all Christians to come under Papal authority! This deplorable accord with Rome is a further demonstration of their unholy likemindedness, and testifies to both men's gross lack of wisdom and discernment and an underlying penchant for apostate ecumenism. Wimber's lamentable lack of discernment can be further evidenced by his great attraction to and enthusiastic promotion in his Vineyard churches of the glaringly false 'Kansas City Prophets'; he was also a close associate of and a man very much influenced by C. Peter Wagner, the great Dominionist deceiver and leader of the New Apostolic Reformation.
John Wimber can in so many ways be regarded as the "father" of the "Signs & Wonders" movement, with his Vineyard Association of Churches being at the very forefront of motoring this incredibly suspect predilection along. But it was not always so, for Wimber originally had no time whatsoever for such Charismatic phenomena. So what, or who, changed his whole outlook so drastically, and caused such a lasting legacy of delusion with its consequent enormous impact on so much of the contemporary Church? The answer can be found in the person of Lonnie Frisbee, the "Hippy Preacher!"
Lonnie Frisbee's key role in the saga of Wimber's radical change of heart concerning the manifestation of "Signs & Wonders," and such things becoming integral to the whole ethos of the Vineyard and its brand of "modern" Charismatic Christianity, has been so carefully written out of the history books that it has been virtually (and very conveniently!) forgotten. We need to remember and highlight Lonnie Frisbee's vital involvement, for it sheds a huge amount of much needed light on the background to what John Wimber and his Vineyard movement would carefully cultivate and propagate across the world.
As recorded in Part 1, Gumbel harbours pro-Vatican sympathies, sympathies which were also shared by Wimber, who wanted all Christians to come under Papal authority! This deplorable accord with Rome is a further demonstration of their unholy likemindedness, and testifies to both men's gross lack of wisdom and discernment and an underlying penchant for apostate ecumenism. Wimber's lamentable lack of discernment can be further evidenced by his great attraction to and enthusiastic promotion in his Vineyard churches of the glaringly false 'Kansas City Prophets'; he was also a close associate of and a man very much influenced by C. Peter Wagner, the great Dominionist deceiver and leader of the New Apostolic Reformation.
John Wimber can in so many ways be regarded as the "father" of the "Signs & Wonders" movement, with his Vineyard Association of Churches being at the very forefront of motoring this incredibly suspect predilection along. But it was not always so, for Wimber originally had no time whatsoever for such Charismatic phenomena. So what, or who, changed his whole outlook so drastically, and caused such a lasting legacy of delusion with its consequent enormous impact on so much of the contemporary Church? The answer can be found in the person of Lonnie Frisbee, the "Hippy Preacher!"
LONNIE WHO?
Lonnie Frisbee
The "nudist-vegetarian-hippy" - as Lonnie Frisbee described himself - had encountered "God" and was given his commission to preach in a "vision" while stripped naked and high on an LSD "acid trip" in the desert! Despite his extremely dubious "conversion" and his strange perceptions and methods of working, he was able to achieve a remarkably high standing in the Christian community and frequently ministered. He had a deerskin coat, which was supposedly imbued with an "anointing" which he cast as his "mantle" upon people. In this context, it should be well noted that wearing animal skins and the use of mind-altering drugs are part and parcel of a shaman's communion with familiar spirits!
John Wimber invited Frisbee to speak at his Yorba Linda, California branch of the Calvary Chapel movement on Mother's Day, 11 May, 1980, which proved to be the defining moment in launching the Vineyard and its intrinsic "Signs & Wonders" values. (Yorba Linda became a Vineyard precisely two years later, on Mother's Day in 1982, moving to Anaheim the following year). Wimber's widow, Carol, recalled the seminal event as follows, though significantly refers to Frisbee not by name but only as "a young man." (Year is incorrectly given as 1981).
. We had four children between the ages of 15-21. We knew the young people well. One fellow, Tim, started bouncing. His arms flung out and he fell over, but one of his hands accidentally hit a mike stand and he took it down with him. He was tangled up in the cord with the mike next to his mouth. The he began speaking in tongues, so the sound went throughout the gymnasium. We had never considered ourselves Charismatics, and certainly had never placed emphasis on the gift of tongues. We had seen a few people tremble and fall over before, and we had seen many healings. But, this was different. The majority of the young people were shaking and falling over. At one point it looked like a battlefield scene, bodies everywhere, people weeping, wailing, speaking in tongues. And Tim in the middle of it all, babbling into the microphone. There was much shouting and loud behavior!"Sadly, after this "watershed experience" there was no going back. And things were only to get worse and worse...
Whilst God alone knows the ultimate condition of Frisbee's soul, we simply have to question the legitimacy of his ministry, for we are bound by Scripture to test the spirits. And the sober conclusion we have to draw, if we are honest and objective in our analysis, is that not only was his meeting with "God" questionable in the extreme, but that the whole of his ministry was based upon a lie. For Lonnie Frisbee was a practising homosexual, not only before his supposed acceptance of the Faith, but right through his "Christian" walk and ministry. His persistent and willful promiscuous activity in this Biblically-banned area ultimately led to him contracting AIDS, which caused his death in 1993. It is inconceivable that his ministry was God-ordained, as Frisbee's lifestyle choice - an abomination to God - would completely debar him from such true ministry. And if what he did was not of the Holy Spirit, then it could only have been of an unholy, counterfeit spirit, and that the "anointing" and "gifts" came not from the One True God, but from the one who desires to "ascend above the heights of the clouds" and to "be like the most High!" (Isaiah 14:14)
Wimber's increasing deviance from sound doctrine and his willingness to accept, embrace and promote phenomena which cannot be validated by the Word of God put him on an incredibly dangerous and uncharted course, leaving him, the Vineyard and all others accepting his teaching - like Holy Trinity Brompton - open to all manner of error and deception.
Wimber placed great emphasis on a need for a "paradigm shift," by which he meant moving from a Western mindset to an Eastern one. In other words, he advocated the abandonment of a rational, logical, OBJECTIVE point of view and the adoption instead of an experiential, SUBJECTIVE viewpoint. Of course, the plain fact is that if a person's EXPERIENCE is evaluated and validated only in terms of a very imperfect human's own SUBJECTIVE perception of it, and not by rationale, logic and Scriptural confirmation, we have every chance of our senses deceiving us into believing that what is actually a seductive Satanic lie is a Godly truth. The serpent is nothing if not subtle!
HOLY TRINITY BROMPTON, THE MUMFORDS, VINEYARD UK AND THE 'TORONTO BLESSING.'
Not only Nicky Gumbel, but fellow Anglicans John and Eleanor Mumford were bowled over when John Wimber visited Holy Trinity Brompton in 1982. Enraptured by Wimber's ministry, the Mumfords became frequent visitors to his Anaheim Vineyard in California, eventually joining the staff there on an 18-month internship and working directly alongside Wimber. On their return to the UK in June, 1987, they established the South West London Vineyard, the very first such church in Britain. They have been the National Leaders of the movement here ever since.
Welsh connection: the Vineyard movement arrived in Wales in August, 2008, with the Cardiff Vineyard being planted from Nottingham. Unsurprisingly, it is an enthusiastic supporter of Alpha. Most interestingly, Jane Schroeder, the "lead intercessor" of Cardiff''s occultic Company of Burning Hearts has a background in the Vineyard movement. COBH boast of her that "she is a 'seer' and engages with the unseen world of angels and heaven, signs and wonders..." For more information on COBH go to:
http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/company-of-burning-hearts-cardiff-based.html
Fast-forward a few years, and the scene of our story now shifts to Canada. On 20 January,1994, the Vineyard's Toronto Airport church hosted a speaker by the name of Randy Clark (a Vineyard pastor from St. Louis) who had received "the anointing" from self-proclaimed "Holy Ghost Bartender," Rodney Howard-Browne. Clark testified how he would get "drunk in the spirit" and laugh uncontrollably, and in response absolute bedlam broke out, with the congregation laughing, dancing, shaking, growling and barking like dogs, some folk even being locked in a state of paralysis.
Dubbed the "Toronto Blessing" this totally unbiblical and fleshly pantomime was hailed as a great move of God to revive the Church, when the reality of the matter was that the perceived "blessing" was actually a demonic curse and an absolute abomination straight from the pit of Hell! The Vineyard had just produced the most unwholesome crop imaginable, and was now to yield a bumper harvest of rotten fruit far and wide.
Not only Nicky Gumbel, but fellow Anglicans John and Eleanor Mumford were bowled over when John Wimber visited Holy Trinity Brompton in 1982. Enraptured by Wimber's ministry, the Mumfords became frequent visitors to his Anaheim Vineyard in California, eventually joining the staff there on an 18-month internship and working directly alongside Wimber. On their return to the UK in June, 1987, they established the South West London Vineyard, the very first such church in Britain. They have been the National Leaders of the movement here ever since.
John and Eleanor Mumford
Welsh connection: the Vineyard movement arrived in Wales in August, 2008, with the Cardiff Vineyard being planted from Nottingham. Unsurprisingly, it is an enthusiastic supporter of Alpha. Most interestingly, Jane Schroeder, the "lead intercessor" of Cardiff''s occultic Company of Burning Hearts has a background in the Vineyard movement. COBH boast of her that "she is a 'seer' and engages with the unseen world of angels and heaven, signs and wonders..." For more information on COBH go to:
http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/company-of-burning-hearts-cardiff-based.html
Dubbed the "Toronto Blessing" this totally unbiblical and fleshly pantomime was hailed as a great move of God to revive the Church, when the reality of the matter was that the perceived "blessing" was actually a demonic curse and an absolute abomination straight from the pit of Hell! The Vineyard had just produced the most unwholesome crop imaginable, and was now to yield a bumper harvest of rotten fruit far and wide.
Now known as 'Catch The Fire' this church actually boasts on its website:
The Toronto Blessing is a transferable anointing. In its most visible form it overcomes worshippers with outbreaks of laughter, weeping, groaning, shaking, falling, "drunkenness," and even behaviours that have been described as a "cross between a jungle and a farmyard."
THE SCRIPTURAL TEACHING ON HOW OUR BEHAVIOUR SHOULD BE?
"LET ALL THINGS BE DONE DECENTLY AND IN ORDER."
(1 Corinthians 14:40)
As Jesus Himself observed, "a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign" and before anyone could scarcely draw breath for their next bout of barking madness, the world and his wife were winging their way to Toronto Airport seeking a sign and a wonder (while leaving any discernment and powers of reasoning they may have possessed safely at home!)
Welsh connection: Steve Morgan, Anglican vicar of Christchurch Cyfarthfa in Merthyr Tydfil, was one church leader with Charismatic leanings who saw fit to send members of his congregation to Toronto to sample and bring back the "blessing." He was later to serve on the leadership team of New Wine Cymru, who are at the forefront of promoting the whole Signs & Wonders deception in Wales. A permanent sign outside Christchurch advertises Alpha.
One of those to make such a pilgrimage and "catch the fire" was Eleanor Mumford, and back in the UK she testified to her experiences. At a house meeting on May 24, 1994, Nicky Gumbel was present when she gave such an account, and after praying for the spirit to come, everyone present was "powerfully touched." One person was actually thrown across the room, and lay howling and laughing on the floor. Racing back to Holy Trinity Brompton, Gumbel was just in time to give the closing prayer at a staff meeting there, the result of which was that all the staff ended up incapacitated and lying on the floor!
As a direct result of these happenings on May 24, Eleanor Mumford was invited to speak at the HTB Sunday meetings five days later. Again, she shared her Toronto adventures with the congregation, and as her team and church ministry team members prayed, people began to fall. Soon the whole church was affected, and "there were scenes that few had ever seen before." The 'Toronto Blessing' had just arrived 'big time' in the UK! FROM THIS TIME FORWARD, HOLY TRINITY BROMPTON, THE 'TORONTO BLESSING' AND NICKY GUMBEL'S ALPHA COURSE WOULD BE TOTALLY INSEPARABLE!
Welsh connection: Steve Morgan, Anglican vicar of Christchurch Cyfarthfa in Merthyr Tydfil, was one church leader with Charismatic leanings who saw fit to send members of his congregation to Toronto to sample and bring back the "blessing." He was later to serve on the leadership team of New Wine Cymru, who are at the forefront of promoting the whole Signs & Wonders deception in Wales. A permanent sign outside Christchurch advertises Alpha.
One of those to make such a pilgrimage and "catch the fire" was Eleanor Mumford, and back in the UK she testified to her experiences. At a house meeting on May 24, 1994, Nicky Gumbel was present when she gave such an account, and after praying for the spirit to come, everyone present was "powerfully touched." One person was actually thrown across the room, and lay howling and laughing on the floor. Racing back to Holy Trinity Brompton, Gumbel was just in time to give the closing prayer at a staff meeting there, the result of which was that all the staff ended up incapacitated and lying on the floor!
As a direct result of these happenings on May 24, Eleanor Mumford was invited to speak at the HTB Sunday meetings five days later. Again, she shared her Toronto adventures with the congregation, and as her team and church ministry team members prayed, people began to fall. Soon the whole church was affected, and "there were scenes that few had ever seen before." The 'Toronto Blessing' had just arrived 'big time' in the UK! FROM THIS TIME FORWARD, HOLY TRINITY BROMPTON, THE 'TORONTO BLESSING' AND NICKY GUMBEL'S ALPHA COURSE WOULD BE TOTALLY INSEPARABLE!
Somehow, I think the 'NO ENTRY' sign
is the most relevant part of this picture!
The following first-hand account of "Toronto" manifestations at Holy Trinity Brompton, during the 1995 'Times of Refreshing' conference, is reproduced here with the full and kind permission of Sally Richardson:
"One particular meeting, out of all the Toronto meetings I attended, stands out in my mind. This was the Times of Refreshing Conference at HTB in 1995, and at which Nicky Gumbel was taking one session. I remember, I was sitting with my friend Mandy just in front of the recording desk, when I began to jerk and shake and jump up and down from my chair. I didn’t seem able to stop myself, despite holding tightly to the back of the chair in front of me. The next thing I knew, I was jumping higher and higher each time. One or two others, I noticed, were doing the same. At this point, Nicky Gumbel stopped speaking and said, ‘There are people here that God wants to anoint for a ministry of evangelism!’ He beckoned for us to come forward, which we did, I being the first to reach the front. Nicky Gumbel laid hands on me and prayed for me, whereupon I collapsed in a heap on the floor.
Later, at that same conference, John and Eleanor Mumford from the sw London Vineyard Church led a session. There was no preaching or teaching - instead it was mostly Eleanor Mumford sharing her testimony of how she had brought the Toronto Experience over from the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church (as it was known then). It was following this that Sandy Millar stepped forward and asked all present (over 1,000) to take their chairs, and stack them up against the walls so that ministry could begin. This having been done, he then invited the Holy Spirit to come. Immediately, order flew out of the window and complete and utter pandemonium reigned - people began falling like ninepins, including myself, laughing, screaming and making various animal noises as they went. Various anointings for various ministries were announced as the meeting progressed, and there was total chaos as people tried to make their way to the places where the various anointings were taking place, pushing their way through the sea of bodies lying prostrate on the floor jerking, convulsing, rolling and shaking. It was at this point that I experienced some stirrings of doubt and misgiving, but I quickly pushed them away and went off to receive my anointing or yet another ministry."
Sally Richardson's full testimony of her "Toronto" experiences at HTB can be found at:
http://www.letusreason.org/Pent59.htm Very enlightening and highly recommended!
It is abundantly clear that the Alpha Course is shot through with End-Times deception, with a central (and utterly Satanic!) aim being the widespread introduction and acceptance of lying Signs & Wonders, designed - as was observed at the start of this article - to deceive and seduce people. The focus is subtly taken off Jesus and onto the (supposed) Third Person of the Trinity instead.
The highlight of the 10-week course is the "Holy Spirit Day" or the "Holy Spirit Weekend," which is essentially the springboard for initiating unsuspecting participants into a Charismatic 'Toronto Blessing' "transferable anointing" experience. Using the classic cult technique of taking people out of their normal routine and surroundings, and placing them into a new and super-charged environment of intense expectation of Signs & Wonders, the candidates are ripe to receive WHATEVER comes their way! They are urged to be open to being "slain in the spirit" and experiencing strange physical sensations like shaking and heat. In short, persons are being taught and encouraged to receive a most UNHOLY type of spirit with attendant fleshly manifestations known in Eastern occultism as KUNDALINI,
"Alpha’s ‘Spirit’ appears to work in ways that lie outside the confines of Scripture. Whoever it is that people are ‘introduced’ to at the Alpha Weekend, it is not the Holy Spirit. But whoever this mysterious guest is, he is equally at home with the ecstatic gatherings of New Age enthusiasts and non-Christian religions alike."
(Source: The Christian Research Network Journal)
JESUS DESCRIBED THE HOLY SPIRIT AS 'THE COMFORTER,' A VERY FAR CRY INDEED FROM THE MANIC, IN-YOUR-FACE, THEATRICAL 'PARTY ANIMAL' OF TORONTO AND THE ALPHA COURSE, WHO DELIGHTS IN EXHIBITIONS OF "DRUNKENNESS" AND CAUSING ABSOLUTE MAYHEM!
THE TRUE AND GENTLE HOLY SPIRIT NEVER DRAWS ATTENTION TO HIMSELF, HE ALWAYS POINTS TO THE SON, AS THE SON IN TURN POINTS TO THE FATHER. THIS IS THE PROPER ORDER OF THINGS; IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN SO, AND ALWAYS WILL BE!
"PRIMING THE PUMP"
In conclusion, I feel that I can do no better than to reproduce here this most insightful synopsis of the great Alpha Course deception, by the Rev. Paul Fitton:
"The Alpha course is being used to prime the pump. To condition the thinking of church people to accept the teachings and phenomena which we associate with the Toronto blessing. Phenomena which have no anchorage in the Scripture. Doctrines which otherwise would be rejected out of hand.
These phenomena are unbiblical. There is no ground in Scripture upon which to anchor them. The Alpha course in Philosophy is New Age; it relies heavily upon experience. In Practice it leads to experiences that are rooted in the occult. If they are calling down the spirit and they are possessed by that spirit, and that spirit is not the Spirit of God then they have opened their minds to other spirits, to evil spirits. It promotes humanism, Arminianism, Ecumenism, and Charismaticism. There is evil being done in the name of Christ, wickedness being practised and taught in the name of the Lord. The Alpha course is only conditioning people to accept these errors, to tolerate and to take on these evils.
Lucifer, who can still appear as an angel of light!
The Alpha course is not Bible-based; it does not rest firmly upon the Book. It leads people away from truth and into error therefore it is Hell inspired. As Christians we must stand apart from that which is the vehicle for propagating false doctrine and false experience. The Christian is told to reject error, to withdraw from those who teach and practise falsehood. God says, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate... and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you". On the basis of God`s Word I say we must reject the Alpha course and all that is associated with it.
May God help us therefore to fulfil our duty and responsibility to reject this error and to speak out boldly against it."
(Full article: http://grace-gospel.org/alphacourse2.htm )
"Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.
Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD."
(Jeremiah 8:5-7)
Some selective further reading:
Alpha Course:
John Wimber:
Lonnie Frisbee:
http://www.inplainsite.org/html/vineyard_lonnie_frisbee.html
Toronto Blessing:
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/blessing.html
Kundalini and Toronto Blessing comparison:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050309020450/http://www.niksula.cs.hut.fi/~ahuima/toronto/kundalini.html
Toronto Blessing:
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/blessing.html
Kundalini and Toronto Blessing comparison:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050309020450/http://www.niksula.cs.hut.fi/~ahuima/toronto/kundalini.html
