This is the story of a run-of-the-mill religious hireling who encountered extraordinary circumstances in his formative stages. Years ago, his reaction to running across a man of God set the stage for this posting and fulfillment of the Lord’s words: “Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have practiced evil to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28-29 MKJV).
John Albiston is an associate pastor at Victory Church, which has been posted on our site under Victory Church (VCI) and The Exposure of Dick Deweert. John wouldn’t be noteworthy except for some actions he took 19 years ago when he, along with a few other fellow idol worshippers, initiated a smear campaign against Victor Hafichuk, described in the following particles of an upcoming installment (Part VI) of wHaT tHe LoRd HaS dOnE wItH mE.
Particle – A “Cult” Is Born
On March 15, 1997, we received a 17-page copy of “Exposing the Moon River Cult,” written by John Albiston, a member of First Baptist Church in Lethbridge, in reaction to Sean Fife having left them by my influence. I quote the introduction to give the reader the spirit and substance of the paper:
Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious as wolves (Matthew 7:15).
We have all heard of the terrible dangers of false prophets and the cults they dominate. Visions of David Koresh’s fiery inferno, the hundreds of bloated bodies left behind by Rev. Jim Jones, the Tokyo subway deaths engineered by the Aum Shinriko cult, and the bloody remains of the Solar Temple Cult, are all still fresh in our minds. But we have always been able to console ourselves that these false prophets are located so far away from us. That time is now over. For a cult no less dangerous than the ones we have seen in the news is located in Moon River Estates, just a few miles outside of Lethbridge. This ‘Moon River Cult’ as it is sometimes called, is dominated by a very hateful man named Victor Hafichuk.
All I did was persuade an intelligent young man to leave the wishy-washy, dead, lukewarm, pretentious, social day-time nightclub called a church, according to the commandment of Scripture, saying, “Come out from among them and be ye separate….” So suddenly, I’m very hateful and dangerous – David Koresh and Jim Jones rolled into one? I ask you: Was this a “loving Christian” reaction by those professing to be His? Was this paper not beginning to vindicate my counsel to Sean?
From what I understand, we had never been known as a cult until Albiston designated us as “Moon River Cult.” I suppose it was a catchy, red-flag name for obvious reasons, identifying my residential community name (my wife and I live in Moon River Estates) with yet another flower-peddling, mesmerizing cult organization, founded by Sun Myung Moon of Korea, called the “Moonies,” despised and feared by nominal Christians.
Continuing with their introduction:
Victor Hafichuk does not prey on people far outside our church doors, he preys on people WITHIN them. Victor SPECIFICALLY targets young, church attending Christians for his cult. He has admitted to attending and infiltrating Churches for the sole purpose of getting people OUT of the Church and INTO his cult group (Counterfeit Christianity, p. 6).
Here is my alleged “admission of infiltration,” as far as I can tell, from Counterfeit Christianity:
“We once went to a church service to try to reach some people we knew.”
Of course, that says nothing of the kind of thing of which they accuse. Here is something on my objective, according to reality:
“Does anyone in these churches believe? God hurts for His people who suffer in these manmade systems formed in His Name. Come out! Come out from among the false, the idolaters, adulterers, and pretenders. Save yourselves from the wrath of the Lord that is now poured out upon the hypocrites and upon their ways. Follow the Lord outside the city, without the gate, and suffer what you must, but deliver your souls from hell and death. Stop deceiving yourselves! You cannot deceive God or escape the consequences for playing games. Even now, you suffer for that very thing.”
I suggest readers search the document for themselves to see what these people have concocted from nothing more than their fears and prejudices run amok, being given over to the very things against which I spoke while I was offering the only sure hope of their deliverance. Their introduction continues:
This false prophet and self-styled messiah is no mere threat to our churches, he has already drawn blood. One of his prominent converts was a Sunday School teacher, Bible study leader, and worship service leader at First Baptist Church, as well as club president of the University of Lethbridge’s chapter of Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship. Victor has not failed to use his convert’s former contacts and influence to wreak even further havoc on the Christian community. We as Christians need to arm ourselves and warn others about the danger this man presents.
The intent of this report is to warn the Christian community about the practices and beliefs of Victor Hafichuk and the Moon River Cult. The research for this paper has been done by Pat Schoenberger, Al Deleeuw, and John Albiston, with special support from Chris Heynen. Our research has included personal interviews with Victor Hafichuk, Sean Fife (one of Victor’s followers), former followers of Victor, and many people Victor has attempted to control. Along with these interviews, this report is based on the following essays written by Victor Hafichuk himself:
Here Is the Way It Is
Prophecy (March 17, 1984)
The Wrath of God
So You Want to Talk with Jesus [should be ‘Walk’]
Counterfeit Christianity
Baptism with the Holy Spirit
Diabolical Doctrines
These documents are available from Pastor Doug Whelpton, at First Baptist Church, Lethbridge.
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.” – 2 Peter 2:1
Albiston’s paper is filled with falsehood, hate, opinion, misinterpretation, misrepresentation, misunderstanding, disinformation, speculation, ignorance, pretense, proud declaration, vindictiveness, contradiction, false accusation, and slander. And today, John is a “pastor”!
John’s document is a product of nominal evangelical Christendom condemning me for counseling someone to leave its influence. One couldn’t ask for a better confirmation and justification for my stance.
What do they think I should be doing? Supporting their ways? Does God support their ways? No, His wrath is on them for their wickedness and hypocrisy. There’s urgent necessity for people to come out from among them.
John Albiston and company did a background check on me and found those from whom my wife and I had to part many years before, those from whose company the Lord separated us, so of course those people weren’t about to give a true or agreeable assessment of our spirituality in Christ.
I was surprised by the lies and distortions because I didn’t really expect they would stoop so low, professing faith in Christ. Again, they only served to confirm the validity and wisdom of our steps away from them, not that we needed a confirmation. (And given the abject lack of truthfulness in the rest of the paper, who knows how accurate Albiston’s “background” reporting was.)
They had some things right, however. For example, they write: “1975 was a dramatic year for Victor. He began the year appearing as a struggling, misguided, new Christian….” I agree, but it wasn’t at all as they, in their faultfinding ignorance, make it out to be. It was a traumatic experience coming to know the truth when receiving the Spirit of God because it was a sharp contrast to what we had been taught as truth in the church systems.
I had great struggles with unbelief at what the Lord was revealing to us. It was very hard parting from friends and loved ones time and again, as we entered new dimensions in Christ, Feast by Feast. It was hard accepting the fact that the religious people were wrong in so many basic ways before God, but we had to face the facts and decide whether we would forsake all for Christ or continue in the ways of the destroyer, the works of men (Psalm 17:4 KJV).
With sorrow and tears, yet with an inner peace and joy, He gave us the grace to take up the cross and forsake all for His Name’s sake, thankfully. Not for a moment has there been an ounce of regret – sorrow and suffering for a time, but no regret whatsoever – all praise and thanks to God, a merciful and faithful Savior, Lord of all.
When you think about it, it’s interesting that most of the criteria these people and others use to define or describe a cult would summarily, specifically, and categorically condemn the Lord Jesus Christ and His disciples, without question or debate. To see how, read The True Marks of a Cult.
Particle – Why I Report This Cult Paper
I could so easily reply to their many accusations and will, Lord willing, though I expect it’s all history now. While I feel petty about reporting others’ wrongs against me, I continue to be persuaded that there’s good purpose in doing so.
In this case, I report Albiston and company’s actions to tell the world how corrupt evangelical Christianity really is. While it glories over mainline Christian denominations, which are as dead as maggot-infested corpses, evangelicals, with Bible under arm, are little better – the maggots are well on their way, some already stimulating their palates.
Those presuming to preach the Bible need exposure, not that they aren’t getting it everywhere already. Both their doctrine and practice are in great and destructive error. They need the truth to make them free, and so I write. [END]
We make the complete Albiston document available , and as Victor noted, we could easily answer the many lies presented in every sentence. I will give an example here, so you, the reader, can see for yourself what we’re talking about.
Albiston repeatedly tries to paint Victor as a hater of Christians. In one section entitled “Scripture Twisting,” he writes:
Victor’s misrepresentation of Christians can reach ridiculous levels. At one point he accuses Christians of professing atheism!
“Damned fools and wicked!… Damned because you don’t believe and fools because you say there is no God” (Counterfeit Christianity. p. 6).
Again, atheism is NOT a Christian belief, but if Victor can persuade you that it is, then he can then easily persuade you that Christianity is false, and that he, alone, offers the true path.
Is a 17-page research paper necessary to prove to you that a man who says many Christians consider themselves atheists isn’t credible? Either Albiston overestimates his understanding and underestimates yours, or he’s just plain wrong in what he thinks Victor was saying. He doesn’t understand and worse yet, what he does understand he twists to fulfill his agenda to condemn. Here are all of Victor’s words, with the ones Albiston omitted italicized:
“Damned fools and wicked! Loose words? No. Damned because you don’t believe, and fools because you say there is no God, though you profess to believe in Him and to know Him, just as the Pharisees professed to have had God for their father.”
You can see that Victor wasn’t saying atheism is a Christian belief, but rather that there are those who profess Christian belief and don’t believe or know Him. Didn’t Jesus say the same about many of the professors of God in His day?
“If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father Who glorifies Me, of Whom you say that He is your God. Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I should say I do not know Him, I would be a liar like you. But I know Him and I keep His Word” (John 8:54-55 MKJV).
John 8:42-44 EMTV
(42) Therefore Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would have loved Me, for I came forth and have come from God; nor have I come from Myself, but He sent Me.
(43) Why do you not understand what I say? Because you are unable to hear My word.
(44) You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you desire to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar, and the father of lies.”
“But He answered and said to them, ‘Well has Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me”’” (Mark 7:6 MKJV).
Nowhere in Counterfeit Christianity is it said or even intimated that the phonies described therein are professing themselves atheists, as Albiston foolishly and wickedly charges. Foolishly, because he readily exposes himself as one lacking understanding. Wickedly, because it doesn’t get any lower than lying to destroy another person who represents the Truth in Christ, while claiming to represent the Lord.
Furthermore, Victor describes the actions of those for whom the shoe fits. Criteria are given; it’s not wholesale judgment of those who profess faith in Christ. Otherwise, Victor would be condemning himself and his companions. Again, who needs research and a long paper to dismiss the credibility of such a lunatic as Albiston describes? Why even discuss it?
Here’s why: This long paper wasn’t written to prove Victor wrong so much as to persuade Albiston and his companions into believing they were right. They were all convicted by the Truth Victor spoke and tried to bury the Truth by burying Victor. Today is resurrection day for these spiritual thugs, though not to life. They are called out of their graves for exposure and judgment.
“Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have practiced evil to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28-29 MKJV).
The Truth will not be suppressed forever. The Truth always prevails.
“For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest, nor anything concealed which will not be known and come to light” (Luke 8:17 EMTV).