Since the C3 Presence Conference 2013 is on this week, we thought it might be wise that Christians discern what is being said in the name of God to the Word of God.
If C3 Presence Conference is anything like the last few years, you will not be getting anything that resembles biblical Christianity. For this reason, we would like to provide our listeners with this fantastic resource so you can see through the lies of Phil Pringle, Chris Pringle, Steven Furtick and the notorious Kong Hee.
We managed to capture this audio in Phil Pringle’s C3 Presence Conference, 2011.
In this audio we have Kong Hee’s Advisory Pastor Phil Pringle ‘prophesying’ over Kong Hee. Pringle informs the audience about Kong Hee’s circumstances and is caught encouraging people to give money to Kong’s cause in court. Conveniently, Pringle does not explain why Kong Hee was being investigated. What was said was very revealing about Phil Pringle and Kong Hee. We will look at tackling some of the things said in this audio in another articles. Feel free to share this article or audio.
Hear it below or read the transcript underneath the audio.
Kong Hee: “Tonight, can we do two more things before I give the stage back to Pastor Phil? First of all, could – could Pastor Phil, could Pastor Chris and Sun come up to the stage for a moment right now. You know what? God shows his love through people. That’s why we need one another. And could you just take a moment? I just – two things, right? Just – and can you just turn around and give somebody a big hug? And just say that, ‘God really loves you’. ‘God really loves you’. ‘He really, really loves you’. Amen! Amen! Amen!
Tonight, the second thing; how many of you are glad that you came tonight? Let’s give the Lord a big clap offering. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen!
Tonight is it possible- past these eleven months, I don’t know what the future holds. I believe in God for complete deliverance. I believe in God to come through. Not one night but I believe in the blessing of the house. Sun and I, we believe in Apostolic proclamation and blessing. Tonight, as the Advisory Pastor of City Harvest Church, as the Apostle of our church, will you just, could you- Pastor Chris just lay hands on both of us. And can you just pray for us? Amen.”
Phil Pringle: “Amen, Father. Here right now. Father in heaven, deliverance is there’s. [Chris Pringle: “Yes!”] You’ve circled us with songs of deliverance. You’ve turned our mourning into dancing. The oil of just- the feelings of despair, the ashes are replaced with the oil of joy. What a victory this will be. Though it’s dragged on, it’s only for a greater rope to hang the devil by. In Jesus name, Father we pronounce victory. [Crowd cheers]. We pronounce [Chris Pringle: “Yes!”] conquering. We pronounce deliverance in JESUS NAME. NOT ONE NIGHT WILL THIS FAIR HEAD SPEND BEHIND BARS. LORD GOD YOUR NAME IS EXALTED. YOU WILL GLORIFY THE NAME OF JESUS to this great man and his wife and that awesome church that they have built by the power of God and in the name of Jesus.
So here tonight Father, all of us stand together as the body of Christ, as the Kingdom of God. We can invoke things on this earth in that name above every other name. We have a power. We declare it in Jesus name.
SALVATION! VICTORY AND DELIVERANCE! In Jesus mighty name! Hahaha! Oh bless him! The blessings in heaven, bessings of the mountains, blessings of the hills, blessings of the valleys, blessings of the city, blessings of the country, blessings of the people, blessings of the nations – rest upon you. You’ll speak to those who sit on thrones. You’ll stand before those who command the affairs of men. You’ll speak from a broken heart and win those who are proud and they will break and kneel before you. And those who’ve attacked you will be at your feet, seeking forgiveness. And you will show the grace of God and the hand of Heaven and the reconciliation of the Spirit of the Lord.
“Kings will come to Christ. Men who have opposed with their proud mind the things of God will be bent towards God, blown by a wind greater than themselves. God is raising you up. Once you have come through this, you’ll stand and strengthen the church.
Not only in Singapore, not only in Asia but through-out the world,” says the Lord. “You’ll strengthen the hearts of pastors everywhere, prophets everywhere, apostles everywhere, preachers, evangelists.”
So bless this man Lord. As he builds a massive bridge into China, that nation will come to Christ. The price of China is being paid in your world right now. An anointing for a nation yet to come to Christ. Jesus!
CHINA! TURN! And oil, none other has carried, will be placed upon you that you will share with many thousands of evangelists [that] will travel to the nation of China, like messengers carrying the message of the king – and that I will put the trumpet to your lips. You will grow an army. A vast army will gather.
“Your hour is yet to come,” says the Lord, “But I will bless you in Jesus name”.
Pringle: “And those who’ve attacked you will be at your feet, seeking forgiveness”
Then Pringle goes on to say this,
“Alrighty. Can I ask you to find your seats again? Is that alright? If you can just return to your seats. I want to let you know about a couple of things.
I’m wondering if- thank you Kari. I’m wondering if i can do something that ah- we don’t do here normally. (And I’ve only got about five minutes because the buses are leaving at ten o’clock.)
I’m wondering, as I was sitting there just wrestling with a thought, because I really ah, appreciate everybody here and their sacrifice in getting here. But I’m feeling like I just would like us to show love in a very real and a practical way for Kong and Sun.
So I’m just going to ask this question. If you would like to help them financially then we’re going to pass the container one more time here. I don’t want you to feel that you have to. I don’t want you to feel that there’s any great drive for this on you at all.
But I just feel that maybe some of you who would like to do this. We normally don’t receive offerings for preachers because it’s a very big conference and it’s a- and we build it into our overall thinking and budget to look after our speakers. But right now, if you need a card and you want to help these guys, just raise your hand.
You need to understand that they- I’m- I’m not quite sure I can say this, are they- are they- they’re gone? Okay. Umm…
To actually even be here, because their passports were confiscated, they had to pay bail to get those passports back. The bail was set at one million dollars. Each. Uh- oh, for Kong Hee I’m sorry.
Then, I think it was even more for him. I can’t remember the figures. But I know that for- they had to raise seven million dollars for members of staff and others to travel. That’s just that area. If you’ve ever been to Singapore, you know how expensive this place is. To fight the case he has had to employ a legal firm. And I know what the bills are. They are nearly a million dollars each time they come. Between half a million and a million dollars each time those bills come. His church is not allowed to pay one cent of his personal cost that he is incurring in this battle. He has to find it himself.
He’s sold his house. He has scratched together everything he can. One of the things that I’m doing is going there. I’ve made a commitment to be there once every two weeks. Normally it ends up being once every three weeks because of a variety of commitments that I’ve already got and doing things. But when I’m gone, he’s able to travel. And when I’m their, he’s able to travel and preach and find support amongst Asia and other churches.
Uh- I know that he was finding it hard to put some money together to get a cup of Starbucks at one stage. And uh- it’s a challenge. There’s been new legislation passed on the use of commercial spaces in Singapore since this case has come. So the religio- the restriction on his church is severe, ah, in that area [inaudible] after their purchase, go into co-ownership with ah, SunTec. And we’re in there. I will be speaking there in a couple days time. I will be on Friday to speak there happily.
We’ve got another great preacher here called Kevin Loo, who will be speaking here ah, in our church on Sunday. And I want you to meet him tomorrow night, ah, in church- ah in our meetings here.
But I’m just wondering, there may be some people here who feel- and you would like to put something, anything, in to help pastor Kong and Sun. And these are mighty, mighty men and women of God. Unbelievable in what they have accomplished. I can’t even begin to tell you the impact they’ve had on so many nations around Asia. Ah- I think Andrew Kubalah was it- one meeting there where I might have prayed for sixty different nations? Sometimes praying for a thousand pastors from one nation. I didn’t even preach. I just called nation after nation up on the stage.
We would pray for a thousand Indians. And we’d call another nation up. Vietnam. Cambodia. And one after the other, we were all at this Asia Conference, prophesying over them, speaking into their world, touched that.
Two thirds of the worlds population was just there. You cannot ignore that. God is raising up a voice to go into the city so-
I always think of these things is not just time to play around, kind of mess around and think, “Oh you know! We’re just here for a nice little sermon!” This is a place where we would do something and achieve things. And so I’m wondering if ah- if those ushers could just- right now- let me pray- and we’ll pass those containers. If you need a- if you need a card, please don’t feel embarrassed.
If you’re just thinking, “Ok! I’ll let it go,” don’t feel guilty. Don’t feel embarrassed. I do not want you to feel any pressure at all on- this is simply an opportunity for you to say, “I would like to help… uh- in support of these guys.”
Father right now I’m praying that you will help us be a blessing [to] Pastor Kong. Every cent that it goes into this offering will go to them. And probably more that we will try and add out of the budget of this conference. Father! Right now I’m praying for blessing on that dear couple, in Jesus mighty name. And everybody said, amen!
God bless you as you give and thank you very much.
I had to think deeply about getting involved in this because I know where I go. I take a lot of people with me. I don’t mean not just my family but our church and a whole movement. Ah- but I’m a slight risk taker and- you know like- I like the idea of standing for people. It’s easy to say I’m standing for Jesus. For once, one of his servants is suffering. Front page attack. I’ve been there. I know what it feels like plenty of times. But I’m a little older now. A little browner. It doesn’t matter so much. Standing with a guy when I know what it feels like to put on your shades, going to a supermarket. And your kids take a beating at school, cos their father’s the pastor. Some of your people are looking. They’ll talk to me about the church I go to. You feel that and hold your head up high. You keep marching.
You need a great church. You need a great people standing with you- easy to be a fair-weathered friend. When that foul weather comes, God’s looking at them to be faithful. In Jesus name, amen! Thank you so much for giving right there. I really do appreciate that.”
We now wish to inform you of a group called Pathfinders.
Pathfinders says about itself:
“Pathfinders is the marketplace ministry arm of C3 Church. Equipping our people to thrive in the marketplace is one of the core strands of the C3 Church DNA. This includes people in business, professions, government, education, the arts, sports and entertainment.
Our objectives in Pathfinders are that all of our marketplace people:
1. prosper in their career or business,
2. bring light and life to their work and business environment,
3. bring Godly wisdom and influence to change their corner of the world for God” - http://www.pathfinders.org.au/#/about-us, (Accessed 28/08/2012.)
In C3 Presence Conference this year, it is important to know that C3 targets the rich in their church and financially manipulates them to financially invest in the C3 movement. Strong words? Then you need to watch how cunning Pringle is when he chooses to target people to give money for the building fund here. This link will play this video. (Transcript below.)
Terrence [To audience]: “… But one thing we [C3] are about, (and which I’m sure you know), we’re all about the market place. Now there’s certain people in the House of God which fund the House of God because they do so well and they’re so successful in business that they have the mulah to be able to fund the Kingdom. And one of those kings we have right here is Mr Andrew Tyndale. Come and join us Andrew! How are you today?”
Emma: “We love you Andrew.”
Tyndale: “I’m sure I’m here under false pretences but that’s all right.”
Terrence: “There’s no false pretences here at all. Now Andrew, you look after and head up Pathfinders. Can you tell us a little bit about what Pathfinders is, for those who may not know.”
Tyndale: “Sure! Well Pathfinders is one of the three DNA strands that we have. So we have community partnerships- sorry. Kingdom partnerships, community heroes and the marketplace. So Pathfinders is our marketplace ministry. So that serves people in business skills. It serves them with ah, success skills and empowerment for their job, their career, their- and to make a difference in their world.”
Terrence: “Ooo we like that. So it’s building people up so they can go and make a difference in the community and also in church in their business. Yeah?
Tyndale: “Absolutely! So firstly so that they can thrive. Secondly, so that they can touch people who will never otherwise come to church. And thirdly, so that they can use their influence to change the world for the better.”
Terrence: “Ooh! We like that! So we just had a Pathfinders Conference ah- well you can say meeting just before. Can you tell those who are watching, maybe they’re watching from overseas, and would like to implement a sort of business meeting in their church; how can they get involved with a Pathfinders? Or kick off something like Pathfinders?”
Tyndale: “Well we would encourage everybody in the C3 movement to have a Pathfinders group; a Pathfinders program. And Pastor Phil in fact laid out a program where each pastor who doesn’t yet have a Pathfinders could- should start a business connect group. Start a connect group of business people and really speak into their worlds. Just as a start. And let that kick it off and roll. We have a whole series of programs we’d be very pleased to share. So anybody who’s actually out there in the world watching this, we’d be delighted to share with other churches and really roll the programs out throughout the network.” . . .
Terrence: “Fantastic. Now. I want to inspire people. Cos we normally don’t talk- I mean when we have our business- ah sorry- our building fund, we sort of talk about the numbers that people give to the church. Can you talk about some of the people that come to Pathfinders and how much they contribute to the house of God. Just to inspire people what’s possible?”
Tyndale: “I would but I’d have to kill you.”
Terrence: “Oh Lord! Don’t do that!”
Tyndale: “Look. It’s clear that the largest givers in any building program are the business people, in most cases. And they’re the people who both- both give to begin with and grow in their giving as their career prospers as a result of the giving. So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. A self-sustaining cycle so that ah- it ultimately- then you get leaders who are drawing other peoples- ah examples for other people to draw them through. And the cycle continues. But ah- for those who are running building programs, you’re business people are the core and the key to it.”
So what’s this got to do with Kong Hee?
Here is a photo of Kong Hee with guest speaker Marcos Witt in Presence Conference 2011. It seems innocent enough.
Until the photographer takes another photo further back. This time Phil Pringle is with the other two.
What was talked about? We don’t know. Going on what Tyndale stated above, there is a good chance Kong Hee would have talked about peoples “success skills and empowerment for their job, their career… and to make a difference in their world.” If this is true then readers need to be concerned that C3 is targeting “people in business, professions, government.” Especially since The Hon. Andrew Stoner MP (Minister for Trade and Investment), is involved with C3 and their Presence Conferences.
Pringle’s behaviour from the beginning of Kong Hee’s investigations to now raises some hairy questions.
If Stoner attended the Pathfinders meeting(s), did Pringle honestly inform Stoner the current status of Kong Hee?
Because we don’t know what was said at the Pathfinders event at Presence, did Pringle state the current circumstances about Kong Hee honestly to those attending? But did Kong Hee speak at Pathfinders in Presence Conference 2010? Did Kong Hee speak at Pathfinders in Presence Conference 2012? Did Pringle honestly give people the facts then at these events if Kong Hee spoke?
Is it possible that people in the Australian government were not aware that Pringle invited a man that was under investigation by Singaporeon authorities for the possible mishandling of about fifty million dollars?
NOTE: ALL SCREEN GRABS WERE TAKEN ON THE 28/08/2012.
“Immediately afterwards when that happens, when Warragamba Dam does spill over, that’s the time that the Lord will bring a fresh new move of the Holy Spirit all around Australia. And we’ll see a move of God like we have not seen before”. (Emphasis mine)
In Part 1, we encourage you to watch Pringle prophesy at the C3 Church at Oxford Falls, how revival was going to hit the building. In Part 4 we analysed the prophecy itself. In this final article, we will be looking to see if the prophecy was fulfilled at C3 Church Oxford Falls.
In looking at the above quote, when Warragamba Dam was reported full, was revival immediate? On the 4th of March 2012, Pringle preached a message titled Heartbeat – Servanthood. Their uploaded video showed us… There was no revival at the C3 Service. There is a LOT of seats behind Pringle.
In that night time service on the 4th of March 2012, Mark Kelsey preached a message titled Heartbeat – Servanthood. C3′s uploaded video showed us… There was no revival. Drat!
The following Sunday morning (11/03/2012), Pringle preached a sermon titled the The Engine Room. Was their a revival? Were there queues outside wanting to come into the house of God?
What about that night service on the same day (11/03/2012)? Pringle preached a similar sermon with the same name: The Engine Room.
For Philip Day’s Saturday night session ‘Let there be light‘ (17/04/2012), it looked as though C3 disabled the camera that gave us the shots we needed to see the audience. But the next day on the 18th, while Peter Paauwe preached Breakthrough Part1, we saw… No revival. Empty seats lay scattered around the room. (Note them in the foreground and at the back of the room.)
By now, this prophecy is already looking ridiculous. But just in case someone justifies from C3, “God’s ways are not our ways’, we must continue. Maybe, God was going to move that night? Nope.
By this stage you may be thinking this is tedious. But we have to do this. Either God is going to bring a national revival through C3 or Phil Pringle is a false prophet. The following week on the Sunday morning, 25th of March, Pringle preached a sermon titled ‘The Engine Room: Connect’.
C3 didn’t upload a sermon that night. But we figured if their was a revival in that meeting, they would have definitely filmed it to prove to every other church that their church was the one with God’s blessing. The following week on Sunday morning 1st of April 2012, the joke was on C3 as Pringle preached ‘The Engine Room: Revive’. There was still NO revival.
That night while Pringle preached another sermon, seats were still empty (see them in the background).
A month has passed and Presence Conference is about to hit C3… Was God going to show up at C3 Church so Presence could experience revival? It seems logical that if God was going to move, it would be before the before Presence Conference. Why? So the international audience can bring back ‘God’ to their country God.
This would fulfill the prophecy of Pringle because God told him when the Warragamba Dam floods, it wasn’t just C3 church and all of Australia that were to experience revival. It was going to be a global revival. So when John Bevere spoke on Resurrection Sunday morning… was… there… revival? (Look at all the empty seats behind Pringle.)
That is a LOT of people short of a revival. Cross your fingers for Pringle, tonight God must show up or else…
So there is no prophecy fufillment. None.
… A PROPHECY FAILS…
But maybe God DID move after Presence Conference? If you’ve seen footage from the Presence Conference scattered around C3 Church Watch, you know revival did not turn up. If revival broke out at C3 Presence Conference in Darling Harbour – then God would contradict himself in the prophecy as mentioned in Part 4.
So was there going to be revival AFTER the Presence Conference? Steven Furtick preached that Sunday morning (15/04/2012), a message titled ‘Stay Behind The Guide’. You can see empty seats straight at the back of the auditorium.
No. While the room is dark and smokey, if you look to the seat at back of the room, they are empty. More seats remained empty the following Sunday in Mark Kelsey’s sermon on the 29th of April. There was no revival.
When Mark Kelsey got up the following week to speak Sunday morning on the 20/05/2012, there was no revival.
However, he had this to say to the congregation in the giving message. Was he saying this because people were feeling cheated from Pringle’s false prophecy?
“I don’t know about you but I get frustrated sometimes. We have got one of the greatest churches in the world, one of the greatest worship teams. We’ve definitely got the greatest pastor in the world. We’ve got the greatest pastoral team. The greatest connect leaders, what have you. We’ve been given Christ. We have the bible. We have the New Testament. We have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And yet people sit there and go, “Yeah well. It’s not quite enough is it? You know we gotta…”.” - Mark Kelsey, Justin Richards, 35:47-36:19, http://www2.myc3church.net/videos/justin-richards, Night Service, 20/05/2012. (Accessed 11/06/2012.)
Of course it’s not enough Mark Kelsey. Didn’t you hear what the “greatest pastor in the world” prophesied? Didn’t you hear yourself say “I get frustrated sometimes”? Why is Mark Kelsey chastising the sheep in his congregation when it is his prophet that prophesied falsely that revival was going to come?
The following week (27th of May 2012), a speaker by the name of Jamie Haith, spoke at C3′s morning service… Where revival was still a no-show.
Jamie Haith spoke that night where revival still refused to turn up.
Then on the 3rd of June, Pringle gave his morning money fleecing sermon, where revival still remained absent. Ironic that Josh Kelsey made the claim of Phil Pringle “We have the best leader in the world” (23:25), when this was the video camera shot that followed:
In the continuation of Pringle’s groom-a-thon that night, the storm of revival did not turn up.
CONCLUSION
C3 said the dam overflowed on the 3rd of March. We have recorded the ‘spiritual’ status of each Sunday service to the 3rd of June. This is a three month period.
It is safe to say that:
God DID NOT say, ““Immediately afterwards when that happens, when Warragamba Dam does spill over, that’s the time that the Lord will bring a fresh new move of the Holy Spirit all around Australia”
God DID NOT say, ”Watch me. That thing is going to overflow. And as it overflows, a revival is going to come through the nation.”
God DID NOT say, “the power of God is gonna touch this city with revival”.
God DID NOT say, “the Spirit of God is gonna fall on this nation”.
God DID NOT say, “the power of God is gonna pour down out of heaven”.
God DID NOT say, “If you will build my house, if you will commit yourselves and not give yourselves comfort but will build the house, I will fill this place with my glory”.
God DID NOT say, “these [c3 church] seats will be full!”
God DID NOT say, “Every service you come, you will queue in line to be in the house of God”.
This prophecy is a lie. A scam. We have thoroughly examined in all five articles that Phil Pringle prophesied falsely. There is no escape room for Pringle.
Not only did he mislead his entire church, he mislead thousands of Christians around Sydney. Not only did he also mislead thousands of Christians around Sydney but also across Australia. Not only did he deceive thousands of Christians across Australia, he also mislead thousands of Christians across the world who attended his Presence Conference 2012 and watched him falsely prophesy online.
To recap all that we’ve explored in this series of articles, in:
Part 1 – we looked at how C3 purposely distorted information at their Sydney Presence Conference, taking snippets and screen grabs fromNews Articles and blogs to portray the world as wrong and Phil Pringle as some Godly prophet.
Part 2 - we looked at how C3 and Pringle mislead people to believe that God used Pringle against media and ‘false prophets’ to prophesy that the Warragamba Dam would be full again. We examined how C3 and Pringle used this prophecy twice to advertise and elevate their movement to Christians and churches locally and globally. We explored that it was highly likely that Pringle prophesied out of reaction against those he dislikes and pride.
Part 3 - we looked at Pringle’s further insight to his Warragamba Dam prophecy to help us understand the actual prophecy itself and what he thought this meant. He informed us that C3 met the conditions God said through him so C3 can experience revival.
Part 4 - we analysed the Warragamba Dam prophecy and proved it to be false.
Part 5 – we examined every service for three months to see if revival would break out “immediately”. This was from the time Warragamba Dam overflowed (03/03/2012) to June (03/06/2012). We have proven that the prophecy has not come to pass with it’s promise of a revival.
The right thing for Pringle to do is to humble himself, apologize and step down, admitting he has done Christianity a massive disservice. How many Christians will have their faith shaken or shipwrecked because C3 convinced them to put their faith and hope in the words of a false prophecy?
We would like to know if any information in our articles is wrong. If you find any information that is misleading in our investigation of Phil Pringle’s false Warragambe Dam prophecy, please Contact us at c3churchwatch@hotmail.com.
Part 1 contains the video of the Warragamba Dam prophecy. We encourage you to watch it. If you read Part 2 of this series, it is possible to understand why C3 tied this prophecy with Presence Conference 2012. If you read Part 3 of this series, you’ll see Pringle explain this prophecy a bit more for clarities sake which helps us understand this prophecy better for this article. This article will provide a transcript of Phil Pringle’s Warragamba Dam prophecy. We will pull apart the prophecy and examine it’s message.
WARRAGAMBA DAM TRANSCRIPT
The video records the ‘Warragamba Dam prophecy’ as follows:
“I’ll tell you another thing. That as I was standing here tonight, God spoke to me about a really weird thing. He said, “People have said that the Warragamba Dam will never be full again”.” - Phil Pringle, C3ChurchWatch – C3 Presence 2012 Exalts Pringle As A Prophet (Makes False Prophecy): 3:32, 15/06/2008.
Pringle continued his prophecy,
“He [God] said, “Watch me. That thing is going to overflow. And as it overflows, a revival is going to come through the nation. It’s like a sign. The power of God is gonna touch this city with revival. The Spirit of God is gonna fall on this nation, is gonna fall on this city. The power of God is gonna pour down out of heaven. Rains are gonna come. A storm is coming.
Two storms are coming on the earth. One storm is the storm of revival. One storm is the storm of the glory and the power of God. Another storm is the storm of nervous anxiety, of terror and of fear. But my glory will fill my house,” says the Lord.
“If you will build my house, if you will commit yourselves and not give yourselves comfort but will build the house, I will fill this place with my glory,” says the Almighty God.
“My power will fall on this place. My Spirit will fall on this place! My power will fall on the people. I will raise up an army of preachers and teachers and church buildings. I will raise up a people who will expand this house! These seats [motions with hands to seats in C3 OF building] will be full! Those [motions with hands to seats in C3 OF building] seats will be full! Every service you come, you will queue in line to be in the house of God! There will be playing many, MANY singers, musicians and people who will pronounce the glory of God! My glory will fill this house! I will fill the earth with all of my glory,” says the Almighty God.
Come on people! It’s time to shout!” - Phil Pringle, C3ChurchWatch – C3 Presence 2012 Exalts Pringle As A Prophet (Makes False Prophecy): 4:01, 15/06/2008.
THE STORM CONUNDRUM
Pringle claimed that God said,
“Watch me. That thing is going to overflow. And as it overflows, a revival is going to come through the nation. The power of God is gonna touch this city with revival. The Spirit of God is gonna fall on this nation, is gonna fall on this city. The power of God is gonna pour down out of heaven. Rains are gonna come. A storm is coming.”
This idea that a storm is coming seems to suggest a double meaning. On one hand, there is going to be a literal storm of rain to cause the Dam to overflow, and on the other hand, there is going to be a spiritual storm which will bring revival…
Pringle seems to confirm this idea as he continues to prophesy…
“Two storms are coming on the earth. One storm is the storm of revival. One storm is the storm of the glory and the power of God.”
Ok, yep. Seems straight forward enough, now here’s where is gets confusing….
“Another storm is the storm of nervous anxiety, of terror and of fear. But my glory will fill my house,”
Err… what? A “storm of nervous anxiety, of terror and of fear”? This doesn’t seem to make any sense in light of what came before it. Based on the previous imagery, everyone is expecting the other storm to be a literal storm of rain to overflow the dam.
Chris Rosebrough from Fighting for the Faith (who reviewed this prophecy on Kong Hee’s Fleecing of the Masses), was also confused by this. Responding to Pringle’s “storm of nervous anxiety, of terror and of fear,” Rosebrough states:
“Well that’s kind of a convoluted prophecy. I mean, he said two things. And which one was does the dam again?” - Chris Rosebrough, Kong Hee’s Fleecing of the Masses, Fighting For the Faith, http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F041112q.mp3, 1:16:44, 11/04/2012.
Good question. Now, do we have two or three storms? The storm of nervous anxiety makes no sense. Where is Pringle going with this? Has he simply lost his train of thought? Or is he suddenly second guessing himself and going back on his original statement that the Dam will literally overflow? After all, we heard Pringle in Part 3 point out that,
Can we claim this is a legitimate prophecy after Pringle’s performance already?
THE CATCHMENT AND THE CATCH
Pringle quickly derailed from prophesying about “the storm of nervous anxiety” and jumped straight into ‘prophesying’,
“If you will build my house, if you will commit yourselves and not give yourselves comfort but will build the house, I will fill this place with my glory,” says the Almighty God.”
Chris Rosebrough examined the prophecy and made this observation about the above ‘prophetic’ statement,
“Yeah! Now we got a condition!” - Chris Rosebrough, Kong Hee’s Fleecing of the Masses, Fighting For the Faith, http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F041112q.mp3, 1:17:00, 11/04/2012.
Pringle describes the revival,
“My power will fall on this place. My Spirit will fall on this place! My power will fall on the people. I will raise up an army of preachers and teachers and church buildings. I will raise up a people who will expand this house! These seats will be full! Those seats will be full! Every service you come, you will queue in line to be in the house of God! There will be playing many, MANY singers, musicians and people who will pronounce the glory of God! My glory will fill this house! I will fill the earth with all of my glory,” says the Almighty God.”
First off, if God was speaking to Pringle, God was using Pringle’s hands to point out that revival was going to hit the C3 Church building (‘Gods house’). This revival describes that all the c3 church auditorium “seats will be full”. Not to mention that every service C3 members attend, they “will queue in line to be in the house of God”. Indeed – that would be an impressive sight to see at the C3 Oxford Falls campus.
Secondly, because this prophecy is defining what is happening at C3 church, God specifically says He will raise an army of preachers, teachers and church buildings (ever seen a building join an army?). Pringle also says that there will be “many, MANY singers, musicians” … “AND” a convoluted “people” who will “pronounce the glory of God”.
So it is clear that this prophecy will happen at C3 Church and NOT at Presence Conference 2012. But what was the condition for all this? Commitment. The big ‘if’.
If people committed themselves to C3 Church, God will bring revival.
This is legalism. This is works. This is not the Spirit of Grace speaking to Christians. This is an insult to Jesus Christ and His finished work. Only Christ is perfectly obedient. Is any man perfectly obedient and committed to being in contract with God? The bible records that God couldn’t find one person who was faithful except Jesus.
But contrary to scripture, Pringle made the following claim to c3 a few days after the dam overflowed:
“Every week we turn up… seeing your faithfulness, your strength… those who’ve come through all the stuff and being faithful to Him and being true to Him – in spite of difficult circumstances and- I’m believing that there is definitely a breakthrough day coming up ahead of us.” (read fully in Part 3)
CONCLUSION
After reading Part 3, it seems clear that once the dam floods, ‘IF’ C3 was faithful to God, revival will come. Now Pringle has told his congregation revival WILL COME because he has seen his church’s “faithfulness” and “strength”. The reason their will be queues is because the church will have every seat full. And this amazing revival (glory) “will fill this house” (C3 Church) and trigger God to “fill the earth with all of my glory”. We will examine the ‘Revival’ that came to C3 in part 4.
But after examining the prophecy, we’ve highlighted two reasons why this is false:
1. The stuff up in prophesying about a third storm (which makes no logical sense).
2. The condition that C3 must fulfill to bring revival.
In closing, Chris Rosebrough states,
“You know, even if this was a so-called fulfilled prophecy, that doesn’t make him a prophet of God. Because according to the biblical test of a prophet, number one, they have to be one hundred per cent accurate in all of their prophecies. Period. Somebody who says “Thus sayeth the Lord” and the “Thus sayeth the Lord” doesn’t, well, come about- that person is a false prophet and they’re to be rejected. ” - Chris Rosebrough, Kong Hee’s Fleecing of the Masses, Fighting For the Faith, http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F041112q.mp3, 1:18:17, 11/04/2012.
Pringle has a track record of prophesying falsely:
“But there’s another test too. Even if what they prophesy comes true, the bible tells us in the book of Deuteronomy “and they have you follow after false God’s or false doctrine”, that is not a prophet of God. That’s somebody that God has sent to test.
See, just cos somebody can predict whether or not a dam’s gonna have water or not in it, doesn’t make him a prophet of God. What makes them truly a prophet in the biblical sense, is whether or not when they open their mouth, they rightly handle and proclaim God’s Word and preach Christ and Him crucified and raised again on the third day for our justification- salvation by grace alone, through faith alone by Christ’s work alone. If that’s not what the so-called prophet is preaching, he’s a false prophet.” - Chris Rosebrough, Kong Hee’s Fleecing of the Masses, Fighting For the Faith, http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F041112q.mp3, 1:18:43, 11/04/2012.
That’s alright. C3ChurchWatch has a page recording every single scripture Pringle has mangled, so far.
Can Phil Pringle or anyone in C3 claim they were faithful all the way to the end for God to go, “Yep! They’ve done what I told them to do – now I’ll do my part”? In spite of his prosperity gospel, false doctrine and bible garbling, Pringle thinks so. After all that we’ve researched on Phil Pringle, why should we trust him on this prophecy and coming revival?
“… We are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming…” Ephesians 4:14
Pringle says,
“Now here’s the thing, without wind that boat is going nowhere. A boat is just a boat going nowhere until its got wind in it; a Christian is just a Christian on earth doing nothing until the wind hits you. To get that wind, you gotta position yourself in the right place. And you know exactly what I’m gonna say: I mean, be in Presence, amen! If you’re there, it’ll happen! The touch of God can come on your life. Mark out all the other stuff, nothing is more important than you getting fresh wind in your life as a believer! And getting yourself carried by the greatest wave that you can ever have in your life! So suddenly you become effective and you’re doing things that you never did before.- Phil Pringle, “Get Ready For God”, Sunday 6pm Service, Oxford Falls Campus, 20/03/2011.
C3 pastors convert their sermons to bible study notes (connect notes). Here is a solid critique of Pringle’s appalling teaching on this sermon in 2011:
In video 1, before his sermon, Phil Pringle prophesies revival . As you watch this sermon, he is linking both the prophecy and sermon to the 2011 Presence Conference. A few months later in his sermon ‘Financial Excellence’, his outburst exposes that his prophecy regarding Presence Conference did not come to pass.
In video 2, Phil Pringle teaches he is a John the Baptist ushering in Jesus Christ to bring revival at His Presence Conference. Pringle the Baptist states that Jesus says to John, “I want to do it. I want to do what you’re doing. I want to get with the program. I want to get on the same page. I want to come to Presence. I want to be in church” (4:43).
In video 3, he tells people to catch the winds and the waves (thus the scripture above).
In video 4, Phil Pringle belittles Christians who are like doubting ‘whinging’ Thomas’ (6:32). Thus he butchers John 20:24-29 to market (and guilt) his congregation to attend Presence 2011, (3:44). Constantly throughout the sermon he is connecting his prophecy of revival to the Presence Conference. The scriptures are right in prophesying that “children [are] tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine”, by men like Phil Pringle who use the “the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming”.
NOTE: THE SCREEN GRAB WERE TAKEN BEFORE THE 11/02/2012.
To tackle the Warragamba Dam more fully, we will now be examining what Pringle said in his morning serviceon the 4th of March 2012. This commentary was made by Phil Pringle on the first Sunday after Warragamba Dam reached it’s full capacity.
Pringle says,
“On Wednesday morning, ah, we had our staff meeting (and because we were having a board meeting afterwards, Paul Macken was on our board). Ah, he ah. He was in the ah, staff meeting. And ah, he reminded me of something that ah, I had apparantly said three years ago in the middle of our seven year drought in New South Wales when Mr Flannery ah, announced that there was- the Warragambah Dam would never be full again. We could only ever hope for it to get to about 70% and so we better build a desalination plant at huge cost to the tax payer. Apparantly it’s a hundred dollars a year for everybody in New South Wales, ah, added on.
He should have come to church amen because, apparently I uh, (and I can remember this), uh standing up and I saw ah, Warragamba Dam overflowing.
Just ah, not long before that, I had been in a situation where the Lord had shown me something. And it was just very challenging to say it, because I was in a- I was in a huge auditorium of one hundred and fifty thousand people and I was about to ah, pray in that meeting. And as I stood up to pray the Lord said, “Prophesy the sun is gonna to shine”.
I said, “Give me a break God! We’ve been sitting in this freezing rain for eight hours and it’s been raining for days and it’s pouring down”. Black skies. I said, “There is no way it’s going to shine”. And he said, “Say it’s going to shine”. You know I couldn’t get rid of this conviction. So I stood up and I kinda did a mealy-mouth prayer and said, “Oh Lord! Let the sun shine! You know I’ll, you know, [fist pumps] I’ll believe God You’ll- North Korea will have revival, amen!” It was a great moment but then the- but when I opened my eyes, the whole sky had parted and it was shining. And I thought, “Awww! I should have said “Shine!” Amen”.
So. They called me the prophet of sunshine from then on up in Korea because, [word fumble] you know the guy from Australia brings the sunshine. And a- and so umm.
I made a commitment, “Lord, I’ll just say the stuff that I see and” and uh. And uh- And so that, you know, prompted me in that meeting and I said, “I can see Warragamaba Dam. It’s gonna flood over”. While I’m saying this I’m [like], “What are you saying? It’s like – we’ve been in this drought and it looked like it was never going to happen again”.
But on Friday, I think uh, Friday night, it overflowed. And uh- amen! That was- uh – got one hundred per cent full. And uh- we flowed over. Obviously if it hadn’t happened I wouldn’t be telling you this story but um… Haha. But thankfully it did.
But here’s the thing. Ok. So. Ah- You know occasionally- definitely- I see things and – it’s a gift that God gives to people, called the gift of prophecy and seeing things in the future. Ah, I find that most happens within individuals. I can see something going on in their future and whatever. But ah- with this, ah- that- the reason I tell you that is not for the sake of just telling you. You know like, “I said so”.
Because there was an addendum to that. Ah, that, ah, was quite ah, quite interesting for me. And, you know ah, in 1998 you’ll recall we had in an OZFIRE meeting, (Presence Meeting), I gave a similar thing about the two tallest buildings in the world coming to the ground and after that, a financial melt down. And ah- then streams of people would start coming into the house of God. And that actually happened in all kinds of ways.
But the point of the physical occurrence of these things was to indicate another thing that God was actually about to do. And I remember when I- when I actually announced that, that ah, “Immediately afterwards when that happens, when Warragamba Dam does spill over, that’s the time that the Lord will bring a fresh new move of the Holy Spirit all around Australia. And we’ll see a move of God like we have not seen before”.
And ah, with all my heart, I believe that we’re about to enter into all kinds of new days and a fresh anointing, a fresh oil- And I’m just so thrilled with you guys. Every week we turn up – you know seeing your faithfulness, your strength, you’re – we’ve been through so many different pieces of the landscape and the terrain of God that when we get to this point, when God’s about to do something He will build on, those who’ve come through all the stuff and being faithful to Him and being true to Him – in spite of difficult circumstances and- I’m believing that there is definitely a breakthrough day coming up ahead of us. And I think you and I have got to get ready in all kinds of ways. One of the new ways that will come upon us is the use of screen technology. And God will use that in all kinds of- and we’re getting ourselves very ready for that ah, in- which I’ll explain later in a later date. More about that.
But one of the things we are doing in our college, it would be one of the few colleges in Australia, (I don’t know anybody else, who’s got courses that train students in media and graphics and ah- short films and the acting and the presenting for all of that), so it’s such a great time to get ready, to actually uh, get ready for that new day. That new move of God. You might be watching on TV right now or ah, online and ah- just consider that. Think about actually getting yourself ready for- because, because God will be looking for people who are not gonna to get ready but who are actually in position, ready to catch the ball and run with whatever He’s gonna do.
We’re excited, man! I’m excited about you! I’m excited for all the great things that are gonna happen to some of you. Cos eventually, you gotta understand, trials finish. I know some of you have been in trials that seems like, forever. But eventually trials come over and then the blessing- the day of blessing comes through, when you get your breakthrough. Eventually, God does answer prayer. And ah- eventually it does come through. You can’t keep praying and praying and praying and praying and praying and nothing ever happens. Eventually the day comes when the sun comes up! And your days of mourning are over and the turtle dove sings in the land, amen!” - Phil Pringle, Ps Phil Pringle: Heartbeat – Servanthood, 34:09-40:41,http://www2.myc3church.net/videos/ps-phil-pringle-heartbeat-servanthood, C3 Oxford Falls, Morning Service, 04/03/2012.
Above in his own words, Pringle gives us very valuable insight. Before we continue, we encourage you to watch the Warragamba Dam prophecy in Part 1 in this series of articles before reading onwards.
ISN’T THIS DISDAIN?
1. “… when Mr Flannery ah, announced that there was- the Warragambah Dam would never be full again. We could only hope for it to get to about 70% and so we better build a desalination plant at huge cost to the tax payer. Apparantly it’s a hundred dollars a year for everybody in New South Wales, ah, added on.
He should have come to church amen because, apparently I ah, (and I can remember this), ah standing up and I saw ah, Warragamba Dam overflowing.”
Pringle clearly gets cocky about his prophecy and suggests Mr Flannery “should have come to church amen because, apparently I … remember … standing up and I saw ah, Warragamba Dam overflowing”. Should this be the attitude of a ‘prophet of God’? Does the spirit behind the prophet point us to God or the prophet? We looked at this attitude of Phil Pringle in Part 2, where Pringle also had a go at Flannery again on the last day of Presence Conference.
ISN’T THIS DISOBEDIENCE?
2. ”And as I stood up to pray the Lord said, ”Prophesy the sun is gonna to shine”.
I said, “Give me a break God! We’ve been sitting in this freezing rain for eight hours and it’s been raining for days and it’s pouring down”. Black skies. I said, “There is no way it’s going to shine”. And he said, “Say it’s going to shine”. You know I couldn’t get rid of this conviction. So I stood up and I kinda did a mealy-mouth prayer and said, “Oh Lord! Let the sun shine! You know I’ll, you know, [fist pumps] I’ll believe God You’ll- North Korea will have revival, amen!”. It was a great moment but then the- but when I opened my eyes, the whole sky had parted and it was shining. And I thought, “Awww! I should have said “Shine!” Amen”.
So. They called me the prophet of sunshine from then on up in Korea because, [word fumble] you know the guy from Australia brings the sunshine. And a- and so umm.”
Pringle points out another prophecy he made in Korea. If Pringle WAS a genuine prophet – his attitude is abysmal towards God. He was disobedient in three ways.
His attitude. (If you read His book ‘Faith’, Pringle will teach you that your PMA faith is what connects you to God. Negativity disconnects you from God. So what is speaking to him?)
Pringle didn’t do as God said and did it his way.
When God supposedly said, “Prophesy that the sun is going to shine” – Pringle not only disobeyed that instruction, he ‘prophesied’ saying, “I’ll believe God You’ll- North Korea will have revival, amen!” This only goes to show that Pringle wants to see revival happen in spite of God NOT even saying revival will happen.
How can C3 trust their prophet if Phil Pringle adds to God’s simple instruction like this? Did this revival come to North Korea?
This insight from Pringle only reveals that Pringle is a very disobedient prophet (even if he was somehow legitimate). However, if Yonggi Cho’s church called Pringle “the prophet of sunshine from then on”, then Pringle must have portrayed himself as a ‘prophet’ to them somehow. This is probably because he prophesied revival.
What was bad with Pringle’s approach to ‘prophecy’ was his comment that “North Korea will have revival”. He seemed to associate this revival to when the sun was meant to shine again in Korea. So did that prophecy of the North Korea revival come true? We will conclude that the answer is a fat out ‘no’ based on Pringle’s personal account on revival here:
So if Pringle was somehow a legitimate prophet, would you trust Phil Pringle who is openly disobedient to God in more ways then one, in regards to prophecy? Would you believe a man who prophesies ‘revival’ on everything, even if some-how God tells him to prophesy issues that aren’t connected to revival?
ISN’T THIS DISCOMBOBULATING?
3. “I made a commitment, “Lord, I’ll just say the stuff that I see and” and uh. And uh- And so that, you know, prompted me in that meeting and I said, “I can see Warragamaba Dam. It’s gonna flood over”. While I’m saying this I’m [like], “What are you saying? It’s like – we’ve been in this drought and it looked like it was never going to happen again”.”
It is interesting to note that while Pringle said earlier that he “can remember this”, he, “saw… Warragamba Dam overflowing”. After his prophetic account in Korea he says, “Lord, I’ll just say the stuff that I see”. He then goes on to describe what he saw in the Warragamba dam prophecy.
But now we have two different stories.
In the actual video, he said, “as I was standing here tonight, God spoke to me about a really weird thing”. In the video, he was continually speaking on behalf of God and not once mentioned a vision.
Above he says, “I can see Warragamaba Dam. It’s gonna flood over”. In fact, in his above blurb – Pringle has said continually he saw a vision of the Warragamba Dam full.
For someone who remembers giving this prophetic encounter, Pringle is giving us two very different stories. Did God speak to Pringle audibly or did God give Pringle a vision to speak from?
ISN’T THIS DISHONEST?
4. “Obviously if it hadn’t happened I wouldn’t be telling you this story but um… Haha. But thankfully it did.”
While Pringle treats this as a joke, this is what happens at C3. When a supposed vision from God does not come to pass or a prophecy fails to materialise, then it is swept aside by C3. They hope people don’t notice. We have. Expect more articles on these topics down the track.
ISN’T THIS DISPROVED?
5. ”Because there was an addendum to that. Ah, that, ah, was quite ah, quite interesting for me. And, you know ah, in 1998 you’ll recall we had in an OZFIRE meeting, (Presence Meeting), I gave a similar thing about the two tallest buildings in the world coming to the ground and after that, a financial melt down. And ah- then streams of people would start coming into the house of God. And that actually happened in all kinds of ways.”
There was indeed an addendum to the Warragamba Dam prophecy. In relation to the dam prophecy, Pringle brings up an old prophecy he made in 1998. He still insists that the twin towers in New York were “the two tallest buildings in the world”. They were not. We proved this prophecy to be false here.
This is clearly a false prophecy. Why would Pringle use a false prophecy to say that this Warragamba Dam prophecy is legitimate?
ISN’T THIS DISASTER?
6. “But the point of the physical occurrence of these things was to indicate another thing that God was actually about to do. And I remember when I- when I actually announced that, that ah, “Immediately afterwards when that happens, when Warragamba Dam does spill over, that’s the time that the Lord will bring a fresh new move of the Holy Spirit all around Australia. And we’ll see a move of God like we have not seen before”.” (Emphasis mine.)
Saying the above is risky on Pringle’s behalf. Phil has made this VERY clear by now stating “Immediately afterwards when that happens, when Warragamba Dam does spill over, that’s the time that the Lord will bring a fresh new move of the Holy Spirit all around Australia”. He has NOW set a time when revival is going to come.
It’s not a few months away. It’s not next year. This revival will be immediate. If this revival does not come, this could be disastrous to peoples faith.
ISN’T THIS DISAPPOINTING?
7. “And I’m just so thrilled with you guys. Every week we turn up – you know seeing your faithfulness, your strength, you’re – we’ve been through so many different pieces of the landscape and the terrain of God that when we get to this point, when God’s about to do something He will build on, those who’ve come through all the stuff and being faithful to Him and being true to Him – in spite of difficult circumstances and- I’m believing that there is definitely a breakthrough day coming up ahead of us. And I think you and I have got to get ready in all kinds of ways. One of the One of the new ways that will come upon us is the use of screen technology. And God will use that in all kinds of- and we’re getting ourselves very ready for that ah, in- which I’ll explain later in a later date. More about that.”
In the Warragamba Dam prophecy in Part 1, Pringle says in his prophecy that the dam will overflow and revival will come with a condition on C3. We will look more at this in Part 4. However, Phil Pringle also has explained the status of this condition very clearly in the above blurb.
Pringle said, “Every week we turn up” and praised C3 for their “faithfulness” and “strength”. He talks about C3′s endurance and how “God’s about to do something He will build on, those who’ve come through all the stuff and being faithful to Him and being true to Him”. Pringle is FULLY convinced that C3 has fulfilled their ‘if’ commitment to God. And the proof of their commitment to God is the Warragamba Dam overflowing. This means if the revival doesn’t come, Pringle does not have his congregation to blame. If the revival does not come, many who came expecting and fully convinced they were faithful, will become disappointed when the promised revival does not turn up.
This is dangerous on his behalf. Why? He cannot now back out and blame C3 church for not being committed. If he didn’t say the above and revival didn’t happen, Pringle could pull an Andrew Kubala by blaming the congregation for not being faithful. This means he could escape the consequences of prophesying falsely.
He didn’t.
ISN’T THIS DISPOSABLE?
8. “I’m believing that there is definitely a breakthrough day coming up ahead of us. And I think you and I have got to get ready in all kinds of ways. One of the new ways that will come upon us is the use of screen technology. And God will use that in all kinds of- and we’re getting ourselves very ready for that ah, in- which I’ll explain later in a later date. More about that.”
Pringle makes it clear that he is convinced that revival is coming because of C3′s faithful commitment. This means they need to “to get ready in all kinds of ways”. We will be looking more into this in Part 4 & 5.
Even by analysing the content of Pringle’s Warragamba Dam message on the 4th of March, it is clear this prophecy is false. Remember that C3 showed this prophecy at their C3 Presence Conference on the 10th of April and the 13th of April. That is more than a month later after the dam overflowed. If they were still waiting for the “breakthrough day coming up ahead of us”, then they ignored Pringle’s words that the revival was to be “immediately”.
Is it not clear enough already that this is a false prophecy? Why did C3 bother to pick up something that is disposable and parade it at Presence Conference 2012 in front of thousands of Christians? If it hadn’t come, why flog it?
In closing, we wish to thank Phil Pringle for his insights. He has helped clarify his ‘prophetic office’, how we should understand the Warragamba Dam prophecy and how it should work out.
Pringle has made it clear: if the prophecy is not fulfilled it is either God who got it wrong or Phil Pringle is a false prophet. Either way, this will be a disaster to C3 if revival does not come soon. What will happen to all those expecting revival who are getting “ready in all kinds of ways”?
This time we managed to get both visual and audio from Phil Pringle’s Presence Conference 2012 fleece-a-thon.
We encourage people who watch this video to research shamanism. Please compare shamanism to the second half of this video, where Pringle is breaking financial spirits/demons off people as they give him money.
You will also see TV presenter Jamie Malcolm caught in this financial rort.
We have been recording Pringle’s wake of fleecing the masses here:
This article will look at the Presence Conference 2012 speaker line-up at the Presence Conference website (Phil Pringle, Steven Furtick, Kong Hee, John Bevere). Consider this article as a platter of resources, that can allow people to look at the speakers themselves.
We regret writing so harshly on the speakers. However, the purpose of this article is to warn Christians in love about these men and the dangers of the Presence Conference 2012. Unfortunately, every invited speaker has revealed they are both heretical and dishonest to say the least.
PHIL PRINGLE
Pringle says on his Presence Conference website,
“BE CLEANSED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT AND LET A POWER COME UPON YOU THAT WILL CHANGE THIS WORLD”
You will never forget a Presence Conference with Phil Pringle. His sessions on miracles, anointing, vision and freedom are life changing. Phil is the author of 10 books, a speaker, television host, successful artist and President of C3 Global, an international network of nearly 400 churches. He is the Senior Minister of one of Australia’s fastest growing churches, C3 Church and he has spent over 30 years pastoring and equiping hundreds of ministers to plant churches around the world. Phil has seen powerful moves of God and the glory of God filling the atmosphere.
We have made it clear in the past that Phil Pringle is a prosperity preacher and connected to the heretic Kenneth Copeland.
Just like famous heretics Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Hagin, Jess Duplantis, Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland (ministers Pringle likes to be associated with), Pringle also teaches that Jesus went to hell and suggests that Jesus lost his divinity on the cross.
Pringle also manipulates church statistics and words to convince people he is a legitimate Christian minister and to convince Christians to give him money. He’s also convinced people he has churches that aren’t even part of C3 yet and worse – don’t even exist.
He’s made claims that he oversees 1,200 C3 churches or around 500 C3 churches. His website still says he runs 258 churches or oversees around 300. The above blurb says he now has 400 churches. Is Phil Pringle lying to convince anyone to come to his Presence 2012 Conference? You decide.
… and have observed Pringle using the church as a business tool to sell his paintings and merchandise (more will be written about this). He also reveals his motivation to get other Christians and their churches to join his movement.
Finally, we have faithfully demonstrated his ability to twist words and scriptures to convince Christians to BUY their miracles from God at His miracle offerings.
In his own words, Christians must “distrust those who flatter us” as he continually markets and flatters vulnerable Christians be involved in his Presence Conference 2012.
One has to wonder not only what he will preach on this year but what type of speakers he has invited to his conference this year.
STEVEN FURTICK
The C3 Website has a photo of Steven Furtick with a quote next to his face. How can Furtick supposedly state “There is a lost, hurting, broken dying, desperate, sorry world without Christ”, when he himself abuses Christians, sensors the gospel and elevates himself to some type of messianic figure?
If Steve Furtick is indeed saying this, he needs to explain his track record of bad behaviour and appalling teaching. Why does he openly condemn Christians who want to know Jesus? Why did he sensor the gospel at his 2012 Code Orange Revival?
If Christ is so important, then why does he say the church is the answer and not Christ? If the church is the answer, then why does he say that his church is not for people who want to know Jesus? Why was he hostile against the gospel at his revival by sensoring it? If Christ is important at all, why did Furtick cheer Perry Noble on for promoting him as Messiah?
It’s disturbing that Phil Pringle is STILL endorsing Steve Furtick to give him the platform to thousands of Australian Christians. Long-term critic of Steve Furtick, Chris Rosebrough has labeled Steve Furtick and Elevation Church a cult.
Rosebrough also received a personal letter from a member of Steve Furtick’s Elevation Church. They seem to agree with Rosebrough’s assessmnet of Furtick’s church.
After examining the articles that C3ChurchWtach have written, it becomes quite apparent that Furtick is not telling the truth. If you examine the evidence that Rosebrough puts before you, it’s easy to come to the same conclusion – Steve Furtick is not a truthful minister. In fact, it is safe to say that Steven Furtick is creating a
KONG HEE
It should be made known that Kong Hee has been exposed in his country as an alleged plagiarist. This was the blog that exposed Kong Hee,
As ‘Transitioning’ points out, Kong Hee’s publisher has many loopholes in their explanation and says Kong Hee’s “alleged plagiarism issue is no big deal now compared to the CAD probe into CHC’s financial affairs”. This latter issue still seems to be ongoing, Phil Pringle helping in KH’s effort to support his ministry.
In spite of all this, the people Kong Hee endorses are issues themselves (Steve Munsey, John Avanzini, Yonngi Cho, etc).
His use of scripture in his sermons are manipulative and misleading at best, sprinkled with heresy, pagan philosophies and vain imaginings. Kong Hee has proven to be a faithful disciple under Pringle’s prophetic direction and is just as ruthless exploiting those in his church that are unemployed like Pringle.
With this background knowledge, why is Phil Pringle inviting the cult-like leader Kong Hee to speak at this years Presence Conference? He is not faithful to scripture, faithful to the church, faithful to the poor or faithful to the community. Hee is continually misrepresenting Jesus for worldly reasons.
This brings up an important issue regarding Hee’s wife. Kong Hee loves his wife Sun Hee (and fellow pastor at his church).
After much deliberation on what to write about Sun Hee we’ve finally concluded that you can decide for yourself by watching her music video ‘China Wine’. (She is the female singer of this video clip (00:20).)
(Edit 18/04/2012: Kong Hee justified his wife’s role and played down the intelligence of pastors who criticised them both:
“I think the struggle many pastors have is the difficulty to separate her association with me (as a pastor’ wife) and her career as a singer. I agree that if she is a “pastor” or “preacher,” perhaps the video would have been inappropriate. But Sun is not a pastor…
Some [Pastors] said she was promoting free sex and immorality. But any intelligent, objective viewer would know that the whole drama is not about sex; if anything, it portrays the reality of a fallen secular world…”
After examining Kong Hee, his wife and his controversial ministry, one must ask: What kind of message will Kong Hee bring to Presence Conference?
JOHN BEVERE
C3 seems to suggest that Bevere said, “We need men and women who will speak the word of his grace. The word of his power and bring change.” They also mention his books,
“(The Bait of Satan, Drawing Near, Driven by Eternity, The Fear of the Lord and others)”
It’s odd they didn’t mention this ‘grace’ preachers book, “Honor’s Reward: How To Attract God’s Favor And Blessing” (2007). The book title says it all; how can you attract (earn) the favor (grace) of God on your life? It’s odd he says we need men and women who “speak the word of his grace” but promotes the exact opposite in his mentioned book.
We’ve discussed Bevere’s doctrine of tithing and his belief that if you submit to leaders like himself, God will make you rich and receive double portions of God’s Spirit. Read it here:
While it is good to biblically submit to Godly authorities, Bevere confuses it and delivers a burden-binding ‘gospel’ message. While his book seems to promote a lot of truth, there are concerns that should be bought to light on his false gospel of salvation-by-submission.
To preach the message of the gospel is the central mission of the church for all people to hear and know about Christ crucified. If anything contrary is added to the gospel or any truth taken away from it, then one must question the legitimate authority of that teacher, prophet or shepherd.
But we can safely say the hidden gnostic principle on ‘honor’, (John Bevere says he has discovered), has made him deviate from the central gospel of salvation.
“I didn’t understand the honor principle. I was in the process of learning. Now I want everyone to know!” - John Bevere, Honor’s Reward: How To Attract God’s Favor And Blessing, 2007, pg. 37.
To make matters worse, Bevere reveals he is a word of faith teacher by stating On page 102,
“Simply put, the promises of God are not automatic; they must be acquired by faith.” - John Bevere, Honor’s Reward: How To Attract God’s Favor And Blessing, 2007, pg. 102.
What else are we meant to gain if Christ has already “blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing” (Eph 1:3)? What else are we to acquire if we are told to ”count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:8). What are we to gain that we haven’t gained already?
We will see Bevere is promoting himself, his authority and his gospel of works-by-faith. Paul, in imitating Christ’s authoritative nature (Philippians 2:5-11), uses his Godly apostolic authority in this way towards the Thessalonians (emphasis mine).
“… Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority” Thes 2:6
And as Jesus said (our highest authority),
“Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me.” John 8:54
A quick reading of John Bevere’s book gives a strong impression that Bevere is lacking in humility and loves to be recognised by the world (pg. 34-35, 36, 45). He’s bold enough to claim,
“I learned that day it had nothing to do with me but how I am received as one sent by God. The prisoners valued, honored, esteemed me. The church members said with their body language, “We’ve heard it all. We’ve heard it all. We’ve heard many guest ministers; what do you have to say that’s any different?” The vast difference of results stemmed from one word-honor.” - John Bevere, Honor’s Reward: How To Attract God’s Favor And Blessing, 2007, pg. 38.
So Bevere likes to be honored. Like this?
“Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets,” Luke 20:46
His message through out the book is that God CANNOT bless or favour you unless you earn it through submitting to leaders like himself. Convinced about his faith-by-works message, Bevere shows hostility to Christians who do not submit to church leaders. He attacks biblical reason by convincing Christians that they,”are a people trying to understand Kingdom principles with a democratic mindset.” (Pg. 44.) In saying that the democratic mindset is the problem, he leads us to believe that the honor principle, (which he believes is the key kingdom principle), is the solution to earning God’s grace and blessing. (That’s what this whole book is about.)
“The kingdom of God is not a democracy. So if we relate to God with a democratic mindset we will not connect with Him. We will be without the protection of His authority and can be easily misled. Could this be why Jesus said so many in our generation would be deceived?” - John Bevere, Honor’s Reward: How To Attract God’s Favor And Blessing, 2007, pg. 44.
He is saying that the kingdom of God is not characterised by equality. Furthermore, if we relate to God with a mindset of being equal with one another or approach the kingdom of God with a democratic mindset, Bevere says we cannot connect with God. What is the alternative of being democratic that Bevere is insinuating? Dictatorship? Thou-shalt-not-question-me?
Has Bevere not read Paul say the following?
“On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.” 1Corinthians 12:22-25
Bevere is also insinuating that Jesus says that many will be deceived by this faulty democratic thinking in regards to the kingdom of God.
No John. People become deceived by following false teachers, leaders and self-proclaiming prophets (pg. 37) like yourself with your false gospel of works. The gospel saves the simpleton. And Christ is the protector of His disciples (John 17:12) and the guardian and true shepherd of His sheep (Psalm 23, John 10). Those who don’t want Jesus chase after false ministers like yourself.
Observe how prejudice and hostile Bevere gets towards Christians who prefer house churches,
“This Western mind-set is the cause for most church splits in America, and why so many people are resorting to home churches. These professing believers do not want to be under the authority established by Jesus Christ Himself.” - John Bevere, Honor’s Reward: How To Attract God’s Favor And Blessing, 2007, pg. 45.
Professing believers? Why is he implying they are not under the authority and lordship of Jesus Himself, or even saved? Why is he alluding to them being the ones causing division? Is Bevere not acting as judge concerning trivial things (Colossians 2).
Only those who do no Only those peddling a false gospel with false doctrines based on the traditions of men are causing division. Bevere claims “They lack true New Testament government and accountability” (pg. 45). New Testament government? Like a dictatorship? After all, he’s not teaching about a kingdom based on 1 Corinthians 12. His attack on Christians continue,
“… you find many believers who have been hurt or offended and are therefore disillusioned with church structure. They’ve resorted to home churches in order to live without accountability.” - John Bevere, Honor’s Reward: How To Attract God’s Favor And Blessing, 2007, pg. 45.
The proof of his false teaching is constant throughout his book, deviating from scripture and replacing words in scripture with the word ‘honor’ to support the teachings in his book. (eg. replacing words like blessing, time, praise, esteem, submit with honor). This is not how you treat the teachings of God. This ‘man of grace’ starts attacking the gospel of grace. Bevere says,
“There are three benefits for honoring these [abusive] leaders. First, if treated unfairly, our obedience to submit puts our case in the hands of God who will judge justly (see Pet. 2:21-23). If we take matters into our own hands, God steps back and we are on our own, a miserable place to be.” - John Bevere, Honor’s Reward: How To Attract God’s Favor And Blessing, 2007, pg. 58.
What does he mean if we react to bad leadership that “God steps back and we are on our own”? What do we do if we are obedient to bad leadership? Why should we be called to submit to bad leadership? Bevere explains,
“Why are we called to do this? To position ourselves to receive a blessing (reward). So when you are mistreated, especially by someone in authority, you can get very excited because you are being set up for a reward.” - John Bevere, Honor’s Reward: How To Attract God’s Favor And Blessing, 2007, pg. 58.
Once again, aren’t we already blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ? If we aren’t seeking this blessing in submission, does that mean we are not saved? Is Bevere implying we can lose our salvation since he blurs the lines, scriptures, definitions and contexts? If anyone critiques Bevere or has issues with him speaking at Presence Conference (or any leader speaking at the event), would he even consider them Christian or saved? Bevere makes this claim,
“If you are truly born of the Spirit of God, you will recognize and esteem authority. In fact, show me a person who has no regard for authority and I will show you a person who is not a child of God. It doesn’t matter if he’s prayed the sinner’s prayer and goes to church weekly. He who has no honor in his heart is not saved.” - John Bevere, Honor’s Reward: How To Attract God’s Favor And Blessing, 2007, pg. 46.
We can conclude that people who suffer from Oppositional Defiance Disorder cannot ever be saved according to Bevere. However we can agree with Bevere on this.
“There is only one time-I repeat, one time-the bible tells us not to obey an authority; and that is when authority tells us to sin (do something contrary to the written Word of God.” - John Bevere, Honor’s Reward: How To Attract God’s Favor And Blessing, 2007, pg. 46.
The issue now is who’s authority we need to submit too; Bevere’s authority or God’s authority? Is Bevere confused or is he enticing us to sin by following a gospel contrary to the one the Apostles preached? The bible teaches us that Satan is the god of this age and even he has authority. Wouldn’t that make those who come under his authority false prophets? False teachers? Perverters of God’s Word? Many will claim to come with an authority and a message of authority. But who is teaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ? The point we’re trying to make is the same point Paul makes.
“… even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” Galatians 1:8-9
To imply Bevere wants to see “men and women who will speak the word of his grace” while promoting a different gospel that damns is clearly hypocritical as his ‘honour principle’ is a different gospel (different message). It was Paul that placed an anathema on those who preached a false gospel like the works-based gospel of the false teachers back in the Galatian province. We suggest any reader takes Bevere’s advice and “not… obey [Bevere's] authority.” How can his authority cannot be from God if Bevere is not honestly representing the God of the bible?
Just like Phil Pringle, Steven Furtick and Kong Hee, John Bevere is another dishonest minister speaking into the lives of thousands of Christians at Phil Pringle’s Presence Conference 2012.
‘Do Not Be Surprised’ has mentioned C3 Church Watch in an article on the Presence Conference 2012. Their article addresses the issues of the ministers speaking at the event like John Bevere, Kong Hee and of course Phil Pringle.
‘Do Not Be Surprised’ writes,
Steven Furtick and the Presence 2012 Conference
It seems that April 10-13 will be a time of “fresh anointing, enlarged vision and amazing empowerment” in Sydney, Australia. The Presence Conference, sponsored by Phil Pringle and C3 Church, plans to make waves at Darling Harbour during these days. The powers behind Presence describe their expectations thusly:
We believe that as we gather together at Presence the heavens will be opened over your life and you will experience a greater outpouring of his anointing, blessing, vision and miracles. (Online Source)
This offers a vivid picture of the event and is in fact very telling of the direction in which the speakers at Presence will likely wander. Scheduled speakers for Presence 2012 include Phil and Chris Pringle, Kong Hee, John Bevere and Steven Furtick. In understanding the doctrine that is held by the Pringles, Hee and Bevere, it may cause one to question why Steven Furtick, who has been embraced by leaders within America’s evangelical community, would choose to participate in this event. The description provided above already betrays its Word Faith intentions, and Furtick’s fellow speakers undoubtedly perpetuate these erroneous doctrines in their own ministries.
Phil Pringle, senior pastor of C3 Church and the architect behind Presence, clearly and unashamedly teaches things such as positive confession, visualization, the power of attraction and the prosperity gospel. At the blog C3 Church Watch, Pringle’s teachings are compared against those of Rhonda Byrne, author of the New Age bestseller The Secret. The similarities are startling, and should cause concern to rise within any Christian. Below, Pringle’s teaching on visualization is compared with that of Byrne:
Ronda Byrne also teaches on visualisation:
“Visualization is the process of creating pictures in your mind of yourself enjoying what you want. When you visualize, you generate powerful thoughts and feelings of having it now. The law of attraction then returns that reality to you, just as you saw it in your mind.” – Rhonda Byrne, The Secret, 2006, pg 93.
Pringle also teaches on visualisation (watch how he approaches scriptures with his experiences):
“A long after that experience, I looked back and realized that many of the elements I had seem in the imaginations in my mind were a duplicate of what actually happened [sic]. I had stumbled on to a principle of God. As I investigated the Scriptures, it became obvious to me that God spoke to His servants from the beginning of time through visions and dreams. Here we’re looking at the vision of faith. As soon as a real faith for anything arrives in your heart, you will see that thing.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 94-97.
“In Ephesians 3:20 Paul says that “God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.” The Greek word for “think” here is “no’eo.” This literally means “to conceive and perceive.” Once we are visualizing some-thing, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above it.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 103.
“Gods movies [sic]. There is a screen within our mind upon which three projectors are jostling for prime time… He [God] has a projector with a preset, wonderful destiny as the main feature. As we enter the Spirit through praise and worship, God will form His vision within our thinking. We pray the prayer of faith. The vision of the answer comes to mind and we see it, in living colour… Once the vision of the fulfillment of your dream has been planted in your mind, bring it to your prayer life. Each time you pray bring the picture to mind and meditate on it. See it happening. Destroy all the images of failure. Replace them with the image of success.
Right now in my life I spend much time dreaming over my visions of faith. I know this works. I would be a fool to ignore it. Remember, one of the mightiest keys in the Kingdom of Heaven is faith. Vision is a major part of faith, for we walk by faith and not by sight. Faith is directly contrasted to natural eye sight.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 103.
C3 Church Watch also offers insight into some of Phil Pringle’s teaching on prosperity and tithing. Unsurprisingly, he falls in line with so many seeker-driven pastors today who teach that one’s money is cursed until it is redeemed with the tithe:
“When Paul told the Philippians that God would supply all their need… their generosity would trigger one of the most powerful spiritual laws in existence. It is the law that the widow of Zarephath discovered when Elijah told her to give away her last meal… For the provision of God constantly to be at work in our lives we must activate the laws of God.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 153.
These are the giving laws recognised in the Word of Faith Movement such as the ‘tithe’ and ‘seed faith’ heresies. Believers are taught to obey these so they may be graced or favoured with the Gods miracles. This is salvation by works. As a result, Pringle curses Christians by the very ‘faith’ he says we must live by.
“This especially applies in the world of tithing. Tithing in one sense is not actually giving. The tithe belongs to God, not to us. Malachi the prophet says that when we keep the tithe we are actually “robbing God”.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 155.
“When we withhold the tithe we bring upon ourselves a curse.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 156.
“Thirdly, WHEN we sow determines when we will reap. We need to sow well before we plan to reap. The time to sow is not when you have a need. You are to be constantly sowing your world with generous actions of faith. Oral Roberts has called this “seed faith”. Anyone who plants a seed has faith that it will become a plant in time. We all realize that it’s not going to happen overnight, but faith and patience inherit the promises of God.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 156-157.
(Online Source)
The teachings of Phil Pringle, then, are indeed some to be carefully watched. In the March 17, 2012 episode of Fighting for the Faith, Christian apologist Chris Rosebrough offers a helpful critique of a recent Phil Pringle sermon (the sermon review begins about 1 hour in). The reader is encouraged to listen and come to understand the methods being employed by Pringle in his teaching.
Hee pastors City Harvest Church in Singapore. His biography on the Vision 2012 website reads as follows:
Kong Hee is the founder and senior pastor of City Harvest Church (CHC), Singapore—a Spirit-filled Pentecostal church that was birthed in 1989. With just 20 members at its inception, the church has grown to an average weekly attendance of over 24,000 members today with 71 percent first-time converts.
Through his visionary leadership, CHC has become widely known as one of the most dynamic and innovative churches in the Far East. The keys to the remarkable growth experienced by City Harvest Church are vision, faith, commitment, a desire for excellence and effective discipleship.
After more than two decades of pastoral ministry and training disciples for the kingdom of Christ, Kong maintains a passion to see lives changed by building contemporary, relevant and anointed strong local churches in Asia. (Online Source)
It is not difficult to see why Hee’s church grew to such a large capacity. Clearly he is a man who teaches exactly what the people want to hear. The video below shares a full-length message delivered by Kong Hee entitled, “Nine Reasons Why Jesus Was Not Poor:”
Some interesting points to note in this “sermon” are Hee’s claims at approximately the 7:50 minute mark that, “[Jesus] would take you out to a nice restaurant! [Our Jesus] is not a cheapskate Jesus!” Or perhaps the reader would be curious to hear Hee’s rather interesting interpretation of the feeding of the 5,000 (approximately 9 minutes in).
Some more notable Scripture twists in this message are: at approximately 24 minutes in, Hee perverts 2 Corinthians 8:9; and at 31 minutes and following, Hee declares, “If we worship a poor Savior, we will always be poor.” Not long after this, he says, “prosperity and wealth are our rightful inheritance,” and, “a poor Savior can’t get you out of poverty,” to which Hee adds a familiar distortion of the promise of the 30, 60 and 100-fold harvest (Matthew 13:8ff). Indeed, throughout the entirety of this sermon, Hee unapologetically, unflinchingly and unconscionably twists the holy Word of God.
Not surprisingly, Phil Pringle has preached at and even sits on the advisory board of Kong Hee’s church in Singapore. It is clear that these two men share a similar theology, as well as corresponding goals and a shared “vision” for the church.
This brings us to John Bevere who, along with Steven Furtick, is named as a “featured guest” for Presence 2012. Bevere and his wife, Lisa, founded Messenger International. According to the website,
Messenger International exists to help individuals, families, churches, and nations realize and experience the transforming power of God’s Word. This realization will result in lives empowered, communities transformed, and a dynamic response to the injustices plaguing our world. (Online Source)
John Bevere has authored numerous books, including one entitled Relentless: The Power You Need to Never Give Up. Throughout this book, Bevere is found to consistently point the reader not to Jesus, but to him or herself. Greatly exaggerating the idea of the Christian’s unity with Christ, Bevere states:
So the question now becomes, Who is Christ? this is where an unrenewed mind once again steals from the children of God. when many think of Christ, they think of only Jesus Christ, almost as if Christ is His last name. These dear people don’t think of anyone else other than our Great King who died on the cross and was resurrected. yes, the name Christ does refer to our Lord and Savior, but let’s see what God’s Word says.
Paul tells us, “Now all of you together are Christ’s body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27, NLT). We believers, together, are Christ’s body. Each of us is a vital “body part.” Jesus is the head, we are the body; it’s that simple!
… When you think of yourself, do you think of your head as being separate from or different from your body? Would you call your head by one proper name and your body by a different proper name? Of course not. You are one being – one person.
In the same way, Christ’s head and His body are one. Jesus is the head, and we are different parts of His body, so we are one in Christ. So when you read Christ in the New Testament, you need to see not just the One who died on the cross but also yourself. (John Bevere, Relentless, 18, emphasis added)
In the book, Relentless, when Bevere describes a characteristic or function of Christ, he follows it up with some form of the question, “would you say the same thing about yourself?” This gives the impression of elevating the Christian nearly to a place of deity. Indeed, it tends to remind one of the blasphemous and heretical “little gods” doctrine of the Word Faith teachers.
In his well-known book, Charismatic Chaos, John MacArthur exposes the erroneous “little gods” doctrine.
[Kenneth] Hagin, whom most major Word Faith teachers acknowledge as a major influence in shaping their theology, has said, “If we ever wake up and realize who we are, we’ll start doing the work that we’re supposed to do. Because the church hasn’t realized yet that they are Christ. That’s who they are. They are Christ. (MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos, 334).
It certainly seems from Bevere’s quote above, and from even a brief perusal of his book, that he believes the Christian to be Christ, just as Hagin has asserted. MacArthur continues,
Thus have the Word Faith teachers deposed God and put the believer in his place. From that basic error nearly all their other fallacies flow. Why do they teach that health and prosperity are every Christian’s divine right? Because in their system, Christians are gods, deserving of those things. Why do they teach that a believer’s words have creative and determinative force? Because in their system, the believer is sovereign, not God. (Charismatic Chaos, 335)
Indeed, at the very least, Bevere believes that man is sovereign over the earth. While God has commanded man to “fill the earth, and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28), on page 16 of Relentless, Bevere takes this to mean that, “You and I, not God, are in control of how life is run on this planet.” Yet, the Christian knows, and the Psalmist reminds us that,
The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. (Psalm 24:1-2)
Herein lies the great danger of Bevere’s earlier statement, that the believer actually is Christ. For if the earth is the Lord’s, and the Christian is equal with God, then the logical conclusion is that man is sovereign over the earth. Indeed, if man is Christ, how much more authority must he possess? And thus we find one of the obvious thrusts of Relentless, that man must come to recognize, acknowledge and use the authority that has been granted him as one who is, in essence, Christ.
Knowing all of this, then, what ought one think of Steven Furtick’s involvement in Presence 2012? Furtick has been lovingly embraced by leaders such as James MacDonald and Mark Driscoll. Yet, he has done little to hide his desire to grow his skills and influence among the Word Faith crowd. Furtick has lauded the work of infamous Word Faith teachers T.D. Jakes and Joyce Meyer. Many of Furtick’s own sermons either hint at or in some instances, blatantly promote dangerous Word Faith teachings (examples of this can be found by visiting some of the links below). His special invitation to speak at Presence 2012, then, ought not surprise. However, it still should elicit concern. With its language of a “fresh anointing,” and “vision and miracles,” Presence 2012 appears to go beyond the familiar Word Faith teachings of “health and wealth,” and into the realm of signs, wonders and manifestations.
It would most certainly be encouraging if those who who have embraced and promoted Steven Furtick as a trusted teacher of God’s Word were to express concern and apprehension over his appearance at Presence. Yet those same men have themselves embraced another, T.D. Jakes, who for years has taught the heretical doctrines of the Word Faith movement. Thus the cry for “unity” continues to come at the expense of truth, and so the silence, though deafening, does not come unexpectedly.
