KENNETH COPELAND'S WELSH COHORTS:- ROBBIE AND DONNA HOWELLS, LEADERS OF THE WAREHOUSE CHURCH IN NEWPORT.

"Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name:

I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them:

they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination,

and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart."

(Jeremiah 14:14)

When I read in the Bible where He says, "I AM," I just

smile and say, "Yes, I AM too!" - Kenneth Copeland.

Just what is it about so very many professing Christian leaders that, despite their most determined misuse and abuse of the Gospel in every which way, they somehow expect God to pour out His richest blessings upon them and their fellow purveyors of spiritual putridity? That in the midst of their prideful peddling of apostate alternatives to His Truth, He will greatly exalt them and cause them to become the bringers of revival to the land? Assuredly, any such claimed "revival" will be only a shoddy counterfeit one of their own manufacture, a shameful sham marked by a delight in the death of discernment, a reinforced concrete refusal to test the spirits, and an unrestrained fleshly enthusiasm for strong delusion.

In this very context, I wrote recently about Paul Button and the Wales Revival Alliance that he founded, warning about its roots being deep in the New Apostolic Reformation and Toronto "Blessing" deceptions, and yet in all its Biblical unfaithfulness promising a great outpouring of God's blessings. See: 

https://watchman4wales.blogspot.com/2023/07/wales-revival-alliance-its-origins-and.html

Very sadly, there are of course other most virulent Scripture-debasing diseases in the Body that so many have either willingly or quite wilfully contracted, incredibly actually preferring spiritual malaise to spiritual health. One such Christian cancer, if I might use that term, is the Word of Faith movement, with one of its largest and most aggressive tumours manifesting itself as the so-called "prosperity gospel." On this note, let us now turn to another Welsh operation having false revival firmly in its cross hairs, this being the Warehouse Church in the city of Newport as (mis)led by its husband-and-wife "pastors" Robbie and Donna Howells. Such a completely unscriptural arrangement was flagged up in another article on this site:

https://watchman4wales.blogspot.com/2022/09/ladies-in-leadership-husband-and-wife.html

Dear friends and readers, what I wish to alert you to here in this new piece is the fact that this ear-tickling couple are the Welsh cohorts of that wolf among wolves, the fleet- of-jets-and-private-airport-owning and foremost fat-cat profiteer from "Christian" entrepreneurism, "Mr. Prosperity Gospel" himself... Kenneth Copeland! Since 18 June 2015, Robbie (Robert) Howells has been a Trustee of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, one of the 6 such appointees overseeing its UK wing. Furthermore, this very organization's accounts for the year ended 31 December 2021 show that it gifted the Howells' Warehouse Church £10,300 that year; this was for the purchase of equipment for their TV ministry project. (Warehouse Church accounts state £10,000. Interestingly, the accounts reveal a £10,919 hike in its ministers' salary from the previous year, from £59,000 to £69,919; make of that what you will. All figures given are easily verifiable via the official records of the  Charity Commission). Filming of their 'Taking You Forward' programme began in the latter part of that year, with episodes being aired on the 'Victory Channel' of - yes, you must have guessed! - Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Stars of this show? Surely you'll have guessed this too? Robbie and Donna Howells, of course! Please refer to: https://www.govictory.com/show/taking-you-forward/

That the Howells are dyed-in-the-wool adherents of the "greed is good" heinous mockery of the Faith once delivered that is the "prosperity gospel" can be in no shadow of doubt, given the proof that they are joined at the hip to Kenneth Copeland. For evidence of just how amazingly far removed this dollar-adoring deceiver is from sound doctrine, and how twisted is his theology, please read the long list of Copeland quotes I supply below as an appendix to this article. You could only ally yourself - and so deeply - to such a man if you are similarly following a different "Jesus" and have a different gospel and a different spirit, things which were warned about by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:4. 

With all this firmly in mind, we will now move on to look at how Mr. and Mrs. Howells and their Warehouse Church, like Paul Button and his Wales Revival Alliance, see themselves as "movers and shakers" in the bringing of revival to the land... all when the Scriptures tell us that the End Times are marked not by a great awakening but by great apostasy! Extremely ambitious plans have been formulated for creating a huge Revival Centre in Newport, as can be seen at https://www.thewarehousechurch.tv/newbuildingproject. This "prosperity gospel" megachurch will naturally have Robbie and Donna both directing and starring in the show, the Welsh equivalent you might say of Joel ("Your Best Life Now") and Victoria Osteen. We can only hope and pray that the project never gets off the ground; it's the very last thing that Wales wants, being well awash with counterfeit Christianity already!

We might well note here that Mission 24, of which Paul Button is the lead in Wales, has partnered with the Warehouse Church for a 'Connect Day' on 25 November. Salvation is free, but unless you're a student you'll have to pay £16.96 advance booking (£20 on the door) to hear Mission 24 chief Jonathan Conrathe preach the Good News. I'll only say that you can draw your own conclusions about this event and what it signifies.

The institutional "Church" has no excuse for her endless infidelity. The Word of God in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 clearly reveals that the time would come when professing Christians would not hold to sound doctrine but turn to fables, heaping to themselves teachers who would tickle itching ears with words to delight and not to dismay, things they want to hear rather than what they need to hear. Isaiah once lamented of the people that their demand was this: "Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits." (Is. 30:10). As then, so today; as the wise Preacher declared: "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Deception is both the desire and the delivery of the hour we find ourselves in.

What is so urgently needed to be heard is that it is not thoroughly undeserved revival but fully deserved judgment that is coming down the line. Time is short; the last grains of sand are streaming through the glass, and all of us need to be completely awake to eschatological reality, not slumbering on in the comfy eiderdown of illusion. As Peter put it, so succinctly:

"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God:

and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them

that obey not the gospel of God?"

(1 Peter 4:17)

EPILOGUE: WRECKERS AND FALSE LIGHTS

Centuries ago, so legend says, ruthless coast-dwellers would lure passing ships onto the rocks, then plunder the hapless wrecks of whatever cargo they might be carrying, even bludgeoning surviving sailors to death so they could carry no tales of what had befallen them. Tying a lantern around a horse's or mule's neck, they'd lead the animal along the clifftop; upon seeing the swaying light and mistaking it for the stern lamp of another vessel, a captain would think that he was a lot further out at sea than he really was; he'd only know otherwise when he heard the ship's timbers splinter on the jagged rocks and it was all too late.

Please, my friends and readers, hear this warning and take it to heart: there are false lights out there, projecting an illusion of safety while in reality they are treacherous in the extreme. A new religious Babylon is arising, a darkness masquerading as light that can lead to the wreckage of your souls and the looting of all that is held in your hold of hope. Discernment and wisdom is of paramount importance in these perilous times, an age we were told would come and has now arrived. Exercise these vital gifts that God will freely give if you would but ask and receive, and in so doing steer well clear of each and every hull-shredding reef! As Paul adjured Timothy, his "son in the faith":

"This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy,

according to the prophecies which went before on thee,

that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;

Holding faith, and a good conscience;

which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck."

(1 Timothy 1:18-19)

* * * * * * *

APPENDIX: A COMPILATION OF SHOCKING KENNETH COPELAND QUOTES

First published here: 

https://watchman4wales.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-compilation-of-shocking-kenneth.html

KENNETH COPELAND'S ELEVATION OF HIMSELF TO GODHOOD:
When I read in the Bible where He says, "I AM," I just smile and say, "Yes, I AM too!"

KENNETH COPELAND'S ELEVATION OF ALL BELIEVERS TO GODHOOD:
1) Every Christian is a god.


2) You don't have a god in you - you are one!

3) Now Peter said, "By exceeding great and precious promises you become partakers of the divine nature." Alright. Are we gods? We are a class of gods!

KENNETH COPELAND'S INSTRUCTION TO MEN TO PRAY TO THEMSELVES, AS BEING ONE WITH THE GODHEAD:
Pray to your self, because I'm in your self and you're in my Self. We are one Spirit, saith the Lord.

KENNETH COPELAND, CONCERNING MEN'S ABILITY:
You have the same creative faith and ability on the inside of you that God used when He created the heavens and the earth.

KENNETH COPELAND'S CLAIM THAT ADAM WAS GOD INCARNATE: 
God's reason for creating Adam was His desire to reproduce Himself. I mean a reproduction of Himself, and in the Garden of Eden He did just that. He was not a little like God. He was not almost like God. He was not subordinate to God even... Adam is as much like God as you could get, just the same as Jesus... Adam, in the Garden of Eden, was God manifested in the flesh.

KENNETH COPELAND'S TEACHING THAT GOD REPLICATED HIMSELF IN ADAM: 
1) God spoke Adam into existence in authority with words. These words struck Adam's body in the face. His body and God were exactly the same size.

2) If you stood Adam upside God, they look just exactly alike. If you stood Jesus and Adam side-by-side, they would look and sound exactly alike.

KENNETH COPELAND'S ASSERTION THAT GOD HAS A (HUMAN-SIZED) PHYSICAL BODY:
1) So you see, that faith didn't come billowing out of some giant monster somewhere. It came out of the heart of a being that is very uncanny the way He's very much like you and me. A being that stands somewhere around 6' 2, 6' 3, that weighs somewhere in the neighbourhood of a couple of hundred pounds, little better...

2) God is a spirit-being with a body, complete with eyes, and eyelids, ears, nostrils, a mouth, hands and fingers, and feet.

KENNETH COPELAND'S ANDROGYNOUS ADAM AND ANDROGYNOUS GOD:
And then He created Eve out of Adam... When God said "Adam!" they both came... They had always been together. Even when she was still a part of him, he was as much female as he was male, like God is!

KENNETH COPELAND'S BELIEF THAT FAITH IS A FORCE:
Faith is a power force. It is a tangible force. It is a conductive force.

KENNETH COPELAND'S TEACHING OF (OCCULT) VISUALIZATION:
Words create pictures, and pictures in your mind create words. And then the words come back out your mouth... And when that spiritual force comes out it is going to give substance to the image that's on the inside of you. Aw, that's that visualization stuff! Aw, that's that New Age! No, New Age is trying to do this, and they'd get somewhat results out of it because this is spiritual law, brother!

KENNETH COPELAND'S DENIAL OF THE ETERNAL PRE-EXISTENCE OF JESUS:
1) Jesus existed only as an image in the heart of God, until such time as the prophets of the Old Testament could positively confess Jesus into existence through their constant prophecies.

2) Jesus has a beginning and an end.

KENNETH COPELAND'S DESCRIPTION OF JESUS AS A "FAITH" PRODUCT OF GOD:
The faith it took to make fingers was loosed, the faith it took to make arms was loosed in the earth, and now God had a way to hover over a little woman by the name of Mary. And there was born of that virgin woman a product of God. Once again, something has happened from the insides of God.

Now, you see, God is injecting His Word into the earth to produce this Jesus - these faith-filled words that framed the image that's in Him. .. He can't just walk onto the earth and say, "Let it be!" because He doesn't have the right! He had to sneak it in here around the god of this world that was blocking every way that he possibly could.

God was making promises to Jesus, and Jesus wasn't even there. But, you see, God deals with things that are not yet as though they already were. That's the way He gets them to come to pass.

KENNETH COPELAND'S ASSERTION THAT GOD HAS NO RIGHT OF ACCESS TO THE EARTH:
God's on the outside looking in. He doesn't have any legal entree into the earth. The thing don't belong to Him. You see how sassy the Devil was in the presence of God in the book of Job? God said, "Where have you been?" Wasn't any of God's business. He didn't even have to answer if he didn't want to... God didn't argue with him a bit. You see, this is the position that God's been in... Might say, "Well, if God's running things He's doing a lousy job of it." He hadn't been running 'em, except when He's just got, you know, a little bit of a chance!

KENNETH COPELAND'S DENIAL OF THE SUFFICIENCY OF CALVARY:
When Jesus cried, "It is finished!" He was not speaking of the plan of redemption. There were still three days and nights to go through before He went to the throne... Jesus' death on the cross was only the beginning of the complete work of redemption.

KENNETH COPELAND'S BELITTLING OF CALVARY:
Now it wasn't the physical death on the cross that paid the price for sin... Anybody could do that.

KENNETH COPELAND'S ASSERTION THAT IT WAS NOT JESUS ALONE WHO COULD HAVE ATONED FOR SIN:
Any O.T. prophet could have atoned for our sins, if they knew what Jesus knew.  

KENNETH COPELAND'S WEAK JESUS:
We are the body of His Word. We are carriers of faith. Without us, people die and go to Hell. Without us being strong, Jesus is not strong.

KENNETH COPELAND'S DENIAL THAT JESUS IS THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD:
Jesus is no longer the only begotten Son of God. 

KENNETH COPELAND'S CONTRADICTION OF HEBREWS 13:8:
Jesus has not remained the same, He has changed.

KENNETH COPELAND ON JESUS' RIGHTEOUSNESS:
Jesus had to give up His righteousness.

KENNETH COPELAND ON JESUS BECOMING SATANIC:
Jesus took on the nature of Satan when He was on the cross.

KENNETH COPELAND'S PRONOUNCEMENT THAT IT WAS SATAN WHO HAD THE VICTORY AT CALVARY:
Satan conquered Jesus on the Cross and took His spirit to the dark regions of Hell.

KENNETH COPELAND'S TEACHING ON JESUS IN HELL:
Jesus was dragged down into the bowels of Hell, where He was beaten and bruised by Satan and his demons until Jesus could finally fight His way out of Hell three days later.

KENNETH COPELAND'S "BORN AGAIN" JESUS:
1) Jesus was reborn in the pits of Hell.

2) Jesus was born again - the firstborn from the dead the Word calls Him - and He whipped the Devil in his own backyard.

KENNETH COPELAND'S DECLARATION THAT JESUS NEVER CLAIMED TO BE GOD:
They crucified me for claiming I was God. I didn't claim that I was God. I just claimed that I walked with Him and that He was in me. Hallelujah! That's what you're doing!

KENNETH COPELAND'S CLAIM THAT HEAVEN IS A PLANET:
1) You don't think earth was first, do you? Huh? Well, you don't think that God made man in His image, and then made earth in some other image? ... This is all a copy. It's a copy of home. It's a copy of the Mother Planet. Where God lives. He made a little one just like His and put us on it.

2) Heaven has a north and a south and an east and a west. Consequently it must be a planet.

KENNETH COPELAND'S MAJORING ON MATERIALISM:
1) Prosperity is a major requirement in the establishment of God's will.

2) God's will for His people today is abundance.

3) God... needs you rich.

4) Clearly, our prosperity is important to God. It's so central to His will that He included it in the price Jesus paid for our redemption. So it doesn't matter whether or not we think we need it. What matters is that God needs it!

KENNETH COPELAND'S FALSE PROPHECY RE ISLAM:
And we're going to see the move of God like we've never seen it before... Because, you mark my word, 1995 is the beginning of the "Beyond what we are able to ask or think." 1995 is that beginning. It has come. There are many Muslims that while they are trying to worship what they think is God, Jesus is going to appear right in the middle of it. And under the influence of the power of the Holy Ghost, Islam will fall. Islam will become nothing. (Published 25/12/94).

KENNETH COPELAND'S ECUMENICAL ACCORD WITH THE POPE:
Thank you, sir. We do bless you. We receive your blessing. It's very, very important to us, and we bless you with all of our hearts, we bless you with all of our souls, we bless you with all of our might, and we thank you, sir. We thank God for you. And so all of us declare together, "Be blessed!" Once again, altogether, "Be blessed!" Amen.

KENNETH COPELAND'S DENUNCIATION OF GOD AS A FAILURE:
I was shocked when I found out who the biggest failure in the Bible actually is... The biggest in all the Bible is God!
He lost His top-ranking, most anointed angel, the first man He ever created, the first woman He ever created, the whole earth and all the fullness therein, a third of the angels at least! That's a big loss, man! I mean, you figure it all, that's a lot of real estate, brother, gone down the drain. Now the reason you don't think of God as a failure is He never said He's a failure. And you're not a failure till you say you're one!

* * * * * * *

RODNEY HOWARD-BROWNE, THE HOLY GHOST BARTENDER, AT THE WAREHOUSE CHURCH IN NEWPORT ON 13 FEBRUARY 2019.

"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, 

but rather reprove them." 

(Ephesians 5:8-11)

"Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord." These words resonate deep in my spirit as I consider the darkness masquerading as light that is about to descend on Newport, South Wales, courtesy of Robbie and Donna Howells, the 'Word of Faith' MISleaders of The Warehouse Church (this being the recent re-branding of Newport City Church).

We who walk as children of light have a duty to declare and show what is acceptable to God, and by the same token also to declare and show what is UNacceptable to Him. And what is most definitely UNacceptable to Him is "strange fire!" Few in the contemporary Church have been as prominent in the igniting and fanning the flames of such "strange fire" as Rodney Howard-Browne, the self-proclaimed "Holy Ghost  Bartender." I wrote a synopsis of this great deceiver's background and his pivotal role in the so-called 'Toronto Blessing' in my piece warning about 'The Turning' in 2017 (see Topics list), and it will be pertinent to repeat that information here in the context of his forthcoming 'Europe Ablaze' tour, with its eight dates across the UK and Ireland including the one in Wales at The Warehouse Church.

A South African now resident in the USA, Howard-Browne was a key figure in the "holy laughter" movement; from a Word of Faith background in his homeland, he rose to prominence when invited to preach at an AOG church in Lakeland, Florida in the Spring of 1993. It was there that the "holy laughter" phenomenon broke out big-time. Notorious charlatan Oral Roberts, inventor of the "seed-faith" scam, and his son Richard went to Lakeland to check this out, and were so impressed by what was being served at "Joel's Bar" that they invited him to hold meetings at the Oral Roberts University, where the same uncontrollable laughter was experienced.

Even more significantly, while "ministering" at that hot-bed of Word of Faith theology, Kenneth "Dad" Hagin's 'Rhema Bible Training Center' near Tulsa, Oklahoma, a Vineyard pastor named Randy Clark received "the anointing" from Howard-Browne. Hearing of Clark's being tremendously touched, fellow Vineyard pastor John Arnott of the Toronto Airport church invited him to bring the drunken partying to Canada in January, 1994. He did just that, and the rest is history. Dark, dark history. 'The Toronto Blessing' as it became known went global practically overnight, and thousands of discernment-devoid people were soon rolling in the aisles and barking like dogs, laughing hysterically when they should have been weeping with grief for the huge Satanic delusion that had so incredibly infiltrated and overtaken the professing Church of Jesus Christ.

The central role of Howard-Browne in delivering what was probably the most demonic delusion ever unleashed upon the Church cannot be emphasized enough. Charismania was to run rampant across the planet, and a subjective, experiential and experimental faith rather than an objective, Bible-based and immutable Faith has been the grim accepted norm ever since, as "the anointing" like a virus mutated and multiplied and insidiously infected the Body to a pandemic degree. As Jesus declared, "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign" - and as in His time on Earth, so in ours too!

Seeing is believing as the old saying goes, so I have posted below a few short and sharp and shocking videos of Howard-Browne in action, for the benefit of those who may not have seen anything of his shamanistic showmanship before, just for them to have a taster of what happens when he's in town - and nothing has changed about his occultic, stage hypnotist's mind manipulation techniques from the early days to the present time.

https://youtu.be/VhwlvFKHFvQ

https://youtu.be/evMVlyQ5G5o

https://youtu.be/RnuSoPj37oA

https://youtu.be/2zB7M9VkRdM

If anyone can watch these clips and not be thoroughly disturbed by what they see and hear, then the needle on their discernment meter must be registering an absolute zero! If any professing believer can observe such appalling antics and not be completely disgusted, then serious questions would be needful as to the reality of their declared faith. Could any genuinely born-again, God-fearing and Scripture-upholding Christian, being indwelt by the Holy Spirit who instructs us on righteous orderliness and sobriety, bear witness to these manifestations being of God? They are so utterly contradictory to the conduct He expects of His people as spelled out in His unchangeable Word! The likes of Howard-Browne eagerly eggs folk on to become blind drunk at "Joel's Bar," and to take unashamed delight in their iniquitous intoxication, in absolute defiance of God's clear teaching on sobriety and decorum. Consider such Scriptural admonitions as:

"Let all things be done decently and in order."

(1 Corinthians 14:40)

"Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."

(1 Thessalonians 5:6)

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, 

walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."

(1 Peter 5:8)

Vigilance demands sobriety - a completely unclouded and properly analytical mind - which coupled to the Holy Spirit's gifting of spiritual discernment alerts you to real and present danger. Do we really want a befuddled brain to be thinking that the roaring lion is just a purring pussy-cat? Our Enemy's appetite is voracious, and Howard-Browne is nothing if not a well-practiced big-name bait to bring in his next ready-meal. The claws go out, the prey is seized, and another inebriated hyena ends up hanging on a hook in the lion's larder!

With a fanfare of trumpets and a loud beating drum, the Howard-Browne circus rolls into town, with its acrobats and clowns and fire-eaters and pawing lion roaring at the cheering crowds. The ringmaster beams at their laughs and their screams... Roll up! Roll up! It's the greatest show on Earth...

Before we conclude, it will be more than relevant to highlight another of Robbie Howells' apostate connections, namely Kenneth Copeland, whose demonic double-act with Howard-Browne features in the first video clip above. Together with fellow South Walian 'Word of Faith' adherent Alex Ashton of the Vine Christian Centre in Bridgend, Mr. Howells acts as a Trustee of Kenneth Copeland Ministries' UK/Europe operation - Charity No. 326392. (Source: The Charity Commission for England and Wales). Both are also active Officers of the Private Limited Company, Kenneth Copeland Ministries - Company No. 01722542. (Source: Companies House). Thus it can be clearly seen that they very closely collude with one of the greatest heretics on the face of the planet! If anyone doubts this assertion, I have previously compiled and published a long list of Mr. Copeland's rank heresies, which can be found here:

https://watchman4wales.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-compilation-of-shocking-kenneth.html


My friends, please keep a close guard on your mind, your emotions and your spirit! 'Hyper-Charismatic'/'Word of Faith'/'Prosperity gospel' preachers, whether they be local Laodiceans like Howells or Ashton, or international traffickers of counterfeit Christianity like Copeland or Howard-Browne, are to be as carefully avoided as any infectious disease you might come across in the natural, for a plague they most certainly are in the spiritual! 

Rodney Howard-Browne is quite simply one of Satan's most effective and efficient incendiary devices. Aided and abetted by hireling pastors like Robbie and Donna Howells, he is intent on setting the British Isles ablaze with a falsified faith which presents, for the delectation of the deluded, "another Jesus... another spirit... another gospel." (2 Corinthians 11:4). The hype for this planned conflagration is:

"There will be powerful preaching, teaching, and demonstration of the Holy Ghost. The hearts of many will be touched and changed forever by the Spirit of God." (Source: https://revival.lpages.co/europe-ablaze-2019/?fbclid=IwAR2wD8jmQ5Jmmo19qRS-3MZFdYSVBy9ivOiP1uTCvqH1sWRenecKD15JSTo)

If you go anywhere near the "strange fire" raised by this most infamous of arsonists, you will be putting yourself at huge risk of being at best badly spiritually blistered, and at worst having your heart indeed touched and changed forever - not by the Spirit of God, but by the deadly seductive spirit of antichrist!

"But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer."

(1 Peter 4:7)

KEEP SAFE! KEEP AWAY!

FLEECING THE FLOCK - THE INIQUITOUS IMPOSITION OF TITHING IN WELSH "WORD OF FAITH / PROSPERITY GOSPEL" CHURCHES.

"But before faith came, we were kept under the law, 
shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, 
that we might be justified by faith. 
But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."
(Galatians 3:23-26)

But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law."
(Galatians 5:18)

One of the most far-reaching and malignant of maladies in contemporary Christianity has been the gangrenous growth of what has become known as the Word of Faith (or simply Word-Faith) movement, which preaches the so-called "prosperity gospel." This, it is critically important to observe, is "another gospel" and so no Gospel at all! (Galatians 1:6-8). Not Good News for sure, but exceedingly Bad News!

Many are the spiritual deviances promoted by Word of Faith adherents, but one particular practice that is the nefarious norm in such churches and which I want to focus on in this article is the iniquitous imposition of tithing.

Iniquitous? Yes, indeed! Any teaching that runs contrary to Biblical truth is iniquitous! Firstly, I must emphasize that I am in no way speaking here against the principle of giving, for righteous and proper purposes, which is something that the New Testament most certainly supports and encourages. What I am highlighting here is the legalistic and completely unscriptural application of a church members' taxation system.

THE BIBLICAL TITHE

"And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham."

(Hebrews 7:5)

So what exactly was the tithe, from a correct Biblical perspective? Well, the first thing to take note of is that MONEY did not come into the equation! The tithe was all about EDIBLE assets! The Levites, comprising the Kohanim (the priests) and those of the tribe who were not Kohanim but had other religious or political duties, were not allocated any territory of their own as was the case with all the other tribes. They were instead granted a total of 48 cities across Israel, each set within a narrow verge of "borrowed" land extending a mere 1000 cubits - approximately 500 yards - around the walls, a small area which would allow some grazing space for the tithed animals brought to them. (See Numbers 35 and Joshua 21). Being thus unable to produce their own foodstuffs, God instituted the tithing system whereby the farming tribes were to give a tenth part of their meat, fruit and crops to sustain the Levites, who were not to be distracted from their designated duties by more mundane considerations. Tithes were taken to the Levite cities, from where a portion was delivered to Jerusalem to feed those engaged in Temple activities. (See Nehemiah 10).

Please don't take my word for it. Follow the Bereans' good example, and search out the Scriptures for yourself. Fact is, ALL Biblical references to tithing confirm it was FOOD! Here are a few examples to prove this important point:

"And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, 

or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD'S: it is holy unto the LORD." 

(Leviticus 27:30)

"And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD."

(Leviticus 27:32)

"Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, 

that the field bringeth forth year by year."

(Deuteronomy 14:22)

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, 

that there may be meat in mine house..."

(Malachi 3:10)

QUITE APART FROM THIS CONSIDERATION THAT THE TITHE WAS ONLY FOOD, WE SHOULD WELL NOTE THAT TITHING ONLY EVER APPLIED TO THE HISTORICAL NATION OF ISRAEL. IT HAS NEVER BEEN APPLICABLE TO GENTILES OF ANY ERA. 

Nowhere in the New Testament is to be found any justification whatsoever for transferring this Israelite, tribe-specific arrangement to the Church. Nowhere. The plain truth of the matter is that with the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. and the Diaspora, tithing had become a completely redundant institution. It had served its purpose, until that purpose ceased to exist. A New Covenant had been established, and post-Calvary the Mosaic Law of tithing had no place.

We pay tax to the Government of the land, a statutory obligation; we render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. The imposition of a second income tax payable by church members to the church leadership is a very convenient and most lucrative fund-raising contrivance, a word we might just shorten to con. I'm not mincing my words here; I'm saying it as it is. Anyone who teaches that tithing is a requirement of members of the Body is not upholding Scripture but perverting it, and no, that is not too strong a word to use. This is a different gospel, a most incredibly serious matter!

THERE IS NO LEVY ON BELONGING TO THE LORD!

Give by all means, from your means, as you are so led and able. But it must be clearly understood that such contribution is firmly a free-will offering, which when given in the right spirit for correct Christian purposes is pleasing to God and fully in accordance with His Word. Tithing is something altogether different: it's symptomatic of the empire-building of today's Laodicean leaders, and alien to the Kingdom-building of Christ. Any church that is misappropriating funds from the flock in this way should be studiously marked and carefully avoided.

THE TITHE IN WELSH "WORD OF FAITH / PROSPERITY GOSPEL" CHURCHES

Newport is undoubtedly the epicentre of the Word of Faith movement's alternative gospel in Wales, with notable tremors extending along the M4 corridor at least as far as Bridgend, which we'll come to presently. Firstly, though, we need to look at the central role played by King's Church and the man who was its long-time Senior Pastor, Ray Bevan, in the advance of Word of Faith concepts here in Wales. (His then Associate Pastor Dave Edwards has now taken charge, while Mr. Bevan has gone on to broadcast his own show with TBN, which is without a doubt the loudest echoing voice of the so-called "prosperity gospel" on the planet).

I'd like for a moment, if I may, to digress slightly from my focus on tithing in order to emphasize Ray Bevan's proven embrace of and regurgitating of Word of Faith beliefs, by reference to his recent book, 'Grace Shouts Louder.' (Rayla Ministries, 2015). Whilst I'd like to quote directly from this work, I have to avoid the possibility of being charged with copyright infringement. (Mr. Bevan has previously impressed upon me that - regardless of 1 Corinthians 6:1 - he is not averse to threatening people with legal action!) But I can refer my readers to an online source where his exact words can be found, if you would wish to verify the facts of the matter:

Google Books - Grace Shouts Louder excerpts

In a nutshell, the author here teaches one of the central tenets of Word of Faith theology, that when Adam sinned in Eden, Satan was thereby given legal right to rule the earth. Satan now had very much the upper hand, and God had completely lost His authority and somehow had to find a way to reclaim it. And so He devised a cunning plan to win his sovereignty back, kicking off with the Incarnation...

FRIENDS, IF FOR EVEN ONE NANO-SECOND GOD LOST HIS AUTHORITY, HE WOULD NOT BE GOD! IF HE WAS FOR ONE NANO-SECOND PUSHED INTO A CORNER, HIS BACK UP AGAINST THE WALL, AND FORCED TO DREAM UP SOME SCHEME TO RECLAIM LEGAL RIGHT TO THE EARTH AND HUMANITY, HE WOULD NOT BE GOD! HE IS THE ALMIGHTY, OMNISCIENT, TRANSCENDENT CREATOR AND PERMANENT LEGAL OWNER OF ALL THAT IS, AND WAS, AND WILL BE! HIS WORD UNEQUIVOCALLY PROCLAIMS THIS GREAT TRUTH:

"The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof;

the world, and they that dwell therein."

(Psalm 24:1)

To declare that it has ever been otherwise, is quite simply a denial of the eternal complete Sovereignty of God, and a most heinous heresy. Did the Psalmist, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the period between the Fall and the Incarnation, record a LIE when he wrote this testimony? For if Mr. Bevan's WoF theology is correct, then the wording should have been, "The earth is SATAN'S, and the fulness thereof..." 

But playing fast and loose with the Scriptures does not trouble such a man as this. He goes on to declare, in respect of the supposed power of believers, that we can call those things which are not as though they are. No, Mr. Bevan, only God Himself can do that! Besides which, to make this assertion, you have wretchedly twisted the relevant verse, which actually reads:

"And base things of the world, and things which are despised, 

hath God chosen, yea, 

and things which are not, TO BRING TO NOUGHT things that are."

(1 Corinthians 1:28 - my capitalization)

Having so blasphemously demoted God to the position of being an impotent mere spectator of world affairs until He was able to concoct a cunning plan to regain control, Ray Bevan proceeds to teach the validity of tithing and to slur anyone who would dare to challenge this. The point here is that if Ray Bevan cannot be trusted to even teach properly on the eternally immutable nature of God Himself, how can he possibly be trusted to teach properly on the things of God? The sad and simple answer is that he can't be.

More wrong teaching pours from the pages of 'Grace Shouts Louder' as the author attempts to synthesize grace and law, calling tithing grace-based which is an utter contradiction in terms. Tithing is law, and binding. Grace is, well, grace, and liberating... allowing one to give freely according to the decisions of one's own heart, not the dictates of a leadership which thinks nothing of abusing the Word of God to re-activate rules which were completely superseded  by the Cross! 

Notable is Mr. Bevan's scathing and self-righteous condemnation of those who would rightly question the correctness of 21st. century tithing, as being Word-ignorant misers who do not trust God. This is pure - actually IMpure - emotional blackmail. For who would wish to have their Pastor and fellow-worshipers see them as being mean and immature Christians? To avoid being branded as such, folks are thus cynically manipulated into doing something to please men rather than to please God, the absolute reversal of how things should be. (See Galatians 1:10). If truth be told, this is not grace shouting louder; this is Ray Bevan shouting louder than grace!

Oh, and BTW Mr. Bevan, true grace never shouts. True grace speaks only in a still small voice... no thundering, just the gentlest of whispers...

ROBBIE HOWELLS AND HEATH VAN STADEN - TWO "PROSPERITY PIPPINS!"

I have given some emphasis here in this article to the skewed teachings of Ray Bevan, not just to draw attention to how King's was shaped under his controlling influence, but to alert people to how this has birthed two other similar operations in the same city.

As the old saying goes, the apple never falls far from the tree, and two such apples dropped off the King's bough, only to land elsewhere in Newport! The first such apple to feel the gravitational pull was Robbie Howells, who established his own Word of Faith operation called Newport City Church, to all intents and purposes a clone of King's complete with the inevitable tithing policy. An article on Robbie Howells and NCC, highlighting the very real concerns about them can be found here:

http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/newport-city-church-robbie-howells.html

The second "Prosperity Pippin" to more recently branch out on his own (if you'll excuse the extended apple tree metaphor) was Heath Van Staden, who had been the Youth and Children's Pastor at King's. His Liberty Church was launched 31/1/15 with himself and wife Leah installed as Lead Elders, an outfit again aping King's and rather unsurprisingly implementing tithing as the essential basis of its finances.

(Who someone follows on Twitter can be very revealing as to their theological leanings, and when Mr. Van Staden follows the likes of Mark Driscoll, Bill Hybels, Joyce Meyer, Rick Warren, Richard Branson (!), Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton, Casey Treat... need I say more?)

ALEX ASHTON AND THE VINE CHRISTIAN CENTRE IN BRIDGEND

A little way west along the M4 and we come to Bridgend and The Vine Christian Centre, Alex Ashton's own bastion of the Word of Faith/Prosperity gospel. I have had previous occasion to write of Mr. Ashton's apostate partnering with Kenneth Copeland - probably the biggest name in the whole "name-it-and-claim-it" brigade - and his complete lack of any response to my approaches to him on the subject. Please see:

http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/a-compilation-of-shocking-kenneth.html

http://watchman4wales.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/alex-ashton-vine-in-bridgend-copeland.html

The Vine operates tithing, and the "give-to-get" ethos typically engendered by Word of Faith false teaching on "health and wealth" is so very sadly evidenced here in The Vine's 'Tithe and Offering Confession,' this information being garnered from a visitor who personally witnessed a congregational chant along the following lines in a service there a few years ago:

Tithe and Offering Confession:

As we give today's offering,

We are believing the Lord for:

Jobs and better jobs,

Raises and bonuses,

Benefits and settlements,

Sales and commissions,

Estates and inheritances,

Interests and income,

Rebates and returns,

Cheques in the mail,

Gifts and surprises,

Find money,

Debts paid off,

Royalties received.

It's offering time -

Hallelujah!

Nothing whatsoever of believing the Lord for the advance of His Kingdom, only for the furtherance of one's own self-interests; the Gospel of grace has here grotesquely morphed into a gospel of greed.

JERRY SAVELLE AT THE VINE, BRIDGEND AND NEWPORT CITY CHURCH

As the guest of Welsh Word of Faith frontmen Robbie Howells and Alex Ashton, one of the Prosperity wolf-pack's hungriest wool-wearers is about to trot through the wide open doors of their respective sheepfolds. As part of his UK tour, Jerry Savelle will be at Newport City Church on 3rd. April, and at The Vine on 4th. April. If I might resort to using a musical analogy, Savelle is a one man Copeland tribute band, playing all the superstar's tunes with great gusto; if you can't get to a Copeland gig, Savelle would be the next best (worst!) thing.

If you should doubt for one moment Savelle's allegiances, see his fawning "Beautiful Are Their Feet" December 2016 tribute to Ken and Gloria Copeland here:

http://kennethcopelandministries.org/50-years-tribute-jerry-savelle/

Birds of a feather indeed flock together, and that includes vultures...

It's more than interesting and relevant to record that Robbie Howells (full name Robert George Howells), like Alex Ashton before him, can now record on his CV a close collaboration with Copeland. He has been a Director on the Board of Kenneth Copeland Ministries (UK and Europe) since June, 2015. He also holds a Directorship in John Bevere's Messenger International Limited (UK and Europe); Mr. Bevere, it goes without saying, also perches on the selfsame rotten Word of Faith/Prosperity gospel branch. Mr. Howells' CV, you will find, tells us that he's a graduate of a certain Bible Institute and School of World Evangelism. Yes, it's the one run by Jerry Savelle Ministries International... 'Nuff said!

Very interesting to note too is that Jerry Savelle's UK and Europe office is located just a few miles to the east in Chepstow, and banks in Newport. The Administrator and UK Senior Pastor is Geoffrey Howard Rouch, a one-time business partner of Ray Bevan. One of the 5 trustees is Damian Pugh, who plays drums at Robbie Howells' Newport City Church. In such ways it can be glimpsed how the strands of the same WoF web interconnect, both historically and contemporaneously.

CONCLUSION

Of course, it's not only Word of Faith churches that have implemented tithing. In the Restorationist camp, for example, churches like the grandly-named 'Nationchangers' here in Merthyr Tydfil, have taken the same wrong route. We might note that none of these leaders who are so avidly applying the Mosaic Law of tithing are anything like as keen to apply the Mosaic Law of circumcision. Somehow, persuading people to part with their foreskin doesn't seem to have quite the same attractiveness as persuading them to part with their cash!

Through Christ's finished work on the Cross, we live under grace and not under law. The old has been superseded by the new. As the Scriptures gloriously declare:

"For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; 

by the which we draw nigh unto God...

But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises."

(Hebrews 7:19, 8:6)

AND SO, MY FRIENDS, LET US REJOICE IN AND CLEAVE TO THAT WHICH IS BETTER! FOR THE LAW IS OUR PAST CONDEMNATION, BUT GRACE IS OUR PRESENT ABSOLUTION. AND IF THE SON HAS MADE US FREE, THEN WE ARE FREE INDEED! (John 8:36)

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One final thought. I could suggest referring to Word of Faith as Word of LAODICEAN Faith, from which accurate appellation we'd derive the most appropriate acronym:

         

    

"WOLF!"

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