These books can be obtained at various sources. Some can be purchased at your local Christian bookstore, amazon.com, Chapters Bookstore, or the ministry website of the author. The Grand Poo-Bah will be publishing the websites of the various authors in the near future. There is lots of information available on false teaching and it's easier than you think to know for certain that you are not in a true Christian church but you must do some research.
More Comments From Our Readers:
Corine McIntosh says -- Boy, I am really glad that I have found your blog. The comments and the research that you have done make me realize how easy it is to get taken in by the "health and wealth" gospel teachers. I am sure that God will touch your boys and that they will see the hidden agenda of their pastor.
Tammy Smith-Redmond says -- Some of these stories are tragic. So is mine.. I lost my sister to these "Pastors" and I use the term loosely. I haven't seen her for over 9 years. Please pray for a safe return of Donna Smith.
Andrea Boisvert says -- It is sad to read some of these people's stories. My husband was dabbling in the "health & wealth" gospel (as a lay preacher) when God opened his eyes to what he was doing. Taking offerings from people who could ill afford to feed their families. He has now stopped doing any preaching but we are finding it very difficult to get out of our church without losing all of our friends.
The Grand Poo-Bah says -- I know for a fact my son Glenn gave $1,000 "seed faith" offering to Barrie Victory Centre at a time when I know, he did not have a pot to p_ _ _ _ in. Instead of saying I'm sorry, we cannot take this money from you, you need it more than we do, they took it! These churches have no shame when it comes to money. Fear of losing all your friends is what the cult leader is counting on. This is how cults function to hold onto their people. It will take a lot of courage but you must get out of the cult ASAP.
Brian Campbell says -- What a terrible time to be in such a mess with your family. Our prayers will be with you. Do not lose hope.
Robert & Maisie Kennelley says -- We are very thankful that such a Godly man as you is fighting on behalf of those who are so taken in by these "cults." In our state, there are new ones springing up every month. Our children have gone from one bad one to another -- now it's the trust God for everything. They no longer go to doctors (prayer over the sick person only is allowed); and so on. Our children were raised in a Methodist Bible-believing church -- where did we go wrong?
The Grand Poo-Bah says -- If you think we are living in the latter days, and many people do, including Dr. David Jeremiah. He did a series of sermons on this recently and has written two books on the subject. I relate to this situation but I don't think we should blame ourselves. We taught our children the truth and we raised them in a Bible-believing church. The thing that this generation is dealing with that previous generations did not have to deal with is the huge proliferation of cults around the world including cults claiming to be Christian. The number of new cults rising up is astronomical. The largest and the easiest ones to get involved with are the ones that come into your home every week or some of them every day on television. When people see large crowds coming to hear a certain individual or a massively huge church filled with people, it tends to give the message credibility so people are drawn to it. Most of the people who get involved with these modern-day Christian cults are unsuspecting Christians who likely are lacking knowledge about the cult problem. Scripture teaches that we are to train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. You and I have to trust that this Scripture is true and that our children will all return to the fold; hopefully sooner rather than later. We have personal experience with a friend of ours, who attended an extreme Pentecostal church, who's wife passed away at age 40 simply because she would not take the cancer treatment the doctors were offering. Instead they were expecting a healing miracle from God which never came. Also, this current generation doesn't seem to have any understanding of the concept of "common sense."
Maurey Davis says -- How did Christianity become so perverted as being taught by the list of those pastors? We should be praying for all of them to see the light; even though some of them are unknown to us. The scariest one of all is Joel Osteen -- no Bible-training whatsoever -- and have your best life now? Where does it say that in Scripture? IT DOESN'T! Keep pressing on, Brother, keep pressing on.
The Grand Poo-Bah says -- You are definitely right about Joel Osteen. It is frightening to realize that so many people are sitting under the weekly tutelage of someone who has no Bible-training whatsoever. Most of what Joel Osteen says is not in Scripture. It is just more "possibility thinking" which Robert Schuller is well-known for. A non-Christian could write most of his sermons. We need to pray for all those people sitting in the pews at Lakewood Church in Florida with those blank looks on their faces because they are being sold a "bill of goods" and what he is teaching is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Sadie Krostolous says -- Have been following your blog for some time, I find it refreshing that you are prepared to publish comments of all sorts. It makes you look like a very objective person which makes some of the things you say more believable to someone who might be mixed up in one of these "churches." Some of the stories are heartbreaking like the man who lost his wife. I don't have any such stories to share but I enjoy reading someone else's. God bless you for trying to make a difference.
R.W. Abbotteye says -- Having accidently found your blog when I was looking up one of your "false" teachers, it was interesting to see the different perspectives from both you and your readers. I have huge concerns about the teachings of these people and was amazed to see how many of these TV evangelists are involved. Then I did some further investigation and learned about some of the lavish lifestyles. Appalling. Keep it up as sometimes it is the squeeky wheel that gets results.
The Grand Poo-Bah says -- The Copelands, Benny Hinn, T.D. Jakes, Oral & Richard Roberts, Joyce Meyers and others -- it is a well-known fact that they all have amassed huge fortunes from their "ministries." People think they are sending money to help spread the Gospel but a large portion of their giving ends up in the pockets of the leaders. To my knowledge, Billy Graham never took more than $70,000 in salary out of his ministry. These people are not accountable to anybody and therein lies a serious problem with TV evangelists.
Sherry Tamblyn says -- Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is an amazing resource for our family. We have two nephews and their families who have gotten involved in one of these. We would not have known where to start getting information without the Grand Poo-Bah blog. We are starting with Christianity in Crisis. Thank you.
The Grand Poo-Bah says -- You made a very wise choice. Christianity in Crisis is the absolutely best place to start for information about the Faith Movement or Word of Faith teachings.
Graydon & Ruby Pount say -- We wish you all the best at this Christmas time. It took us many many years and thousands of dollars to have an intervention done which only lasted less than six months. We wish we had found you earlier.
Pat & Pearl Poppins say -- Our daughter thought she was going to be given the husband of her dreams after attending a Joyce Meyer Christian Women's Conference. She didn't think anything through but went blindly down a bad road (in the name of Christianity). The first guy she met at church -- that was it! Needless to say, it has been a disaster. Somebody ought to get these people off TV because that's how Dora found her [Joyce Meyers]. We now have not seen our daugher for over five years but we understand that she has no mind of her own anymore. As others are adding their names for prayer, please add ours. Thank You.
Melanie Hopwood says -- I hope that your sons read some of the horror stories here. I could not even imagine some of these things happening inside a church. I guess I was lucky. I started attending a Word of Faith church in BC and the kicker for me was when everyone would go down to the front and end up flat on their backs moaning because the pastor touched them. I now know it was mass hysteria because we sang the same monotone songs over and over again until we lost touch with reality. If you didn't go to the front and fall down (they had catcher people), you were brought up on stage and ridiculed for not having enough faith. I never fell down and after the 2nd bout on stage, I walked and never went back. I guess God had other plans for me and I am now attending a Bible-preaching church in Washington. Keep praying and remember that God is in control.
The Grand Poo-Bah says --Thank you for your comments and I would like to take this opportunity to say Thank You to my lovely wife, Gail, who has spent hours and hours with me working on this blog. Thanks, Honey!
8 comments:
The more I read about what is going on with different families, the more worried I am about my children. They are involved in different churches in different parts of the world but all seem to have a similar slant on Biblical truth. They can tell God what to do and expect Him to provide exactly what they ask. They can all be healthy (fortunately, none of my family has any illnesses) and that they will have little or no opposition to becoming wealthy or whatever else they desire. This is so non-Scriptural. Christians are supposed to have trials. We do not get our reward until heaven and material blessings have never been part of the Apostles or Jesus' life. Bless you for sharing your storie and the stories of your readers. I have noted some of the books from the photo and will try to purchase them so that I can read for myself. Thank you.
These stories are almost beyond beief except for the fact that we are in the midst of a similar situation. Our grandchildren were invited to one of these "cults" by some friends. Our children had not gone to church in years and all of a sudden, the family means nothing and their church family is everything. We are beside ourselves about how this could have happened that we have now been told that we are not welcome in their homes at Christmas because their spiritual moms and dads are going to be there and we would be out of place. How did this happen? We know that you don't have the answer but please print out story so that others can be aware of how easy it is for children to be duped by these cults. We did not realize that they were involved in a cult til we started reading your blog. Thank you. We hope you can stay strong so that your family will eventually see the light.
Given all of the stuff going on with these fringe churches or cults, why are the main-stream churches doing something? Aren't they interested in protecting people from this type of influence? I guess as Canadians we are too "polite" to interfere but what does that say about our Christianity? My rant for the day.
I am very interested in this subject. We have had one of these "cult" churches open in our small town and they have been actively recruiting at our local high school by inviting the teenagers to "fun nights". My daughter went to one because her friends were going and when she came home, she was very concerned about what she had heard at this "fun" night - that this was the only place in town where the Spirit of the Lord was at work and that all other churches are dying. She was also assigned a "buddy" who has not stopped phoning her for weeks. We are going to have to change our phone number because they just won't quit. We are now reading Christianity in Crisis -- thanks to the Grand Poo-Bah. Forewarned is forearmed! Thank you.
Yes. John McArthur is a wonderful author and very knowledgable about this frightening phenomenon that is sweeping the world today. The sad part is the people get caught up in wanting everything now and not having to wait for anything. This puts them as prime candidates for this false Christianity like "health and wealth" theology. We as Christians need to pray that God will open the eyes of the foolish to where they are going to end up if they continue to follow this path.
My parents are involved in one of these places. I didn't know it until I was researching a paper on Joel Osteen and your blog came up. After reading some of the stories, I am very frightened for my parents' financial future. Thank you.
Keep plugging on. Eventually, your sons will become disallusioned with the lack of fulfilled promises and get out.
What awful problems these false teachers create. I am glad that I do not have any children that I have to raise in these end times.
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