Phil and Chris Pringle, Dean Rush, Dean and Jill Sweetman, and Simon and Valerie McIntyre are all what the world would deem to be nice people. And that’s just it. They are all about the things and the love of this world; their promotional sites and videos are all about hype and carnal enthusiasm.
One small example of many: In a promotional video, Dean Rush artificially stimulates the gathering behind him for the camera. This is not God’s spontaneity but Satan’s reasoning and subtlety, a flesh-oriented and flesh-generated enthusiasm. While the world operates this way, the Kingdom of God and His children do not.
Pringle boasts statistics – 300 churches, 74,000 people, places “booming,” 1 church to 84 churches in parts of Africa, with Pringle shooting for 1,000 churches around the world by 2020. They are all about growth of numbers – numbers of people, churches, church plants, and countries. Their emphasis is plainly of their expansionist ambitions. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the Kingdom of Heaven or its King.
Did Jesus care about the sizes and numbers of the seven churches in Revelation, or was His concern the quality of life – of righteousness and holiness? Did He talk to them about winning souls, or about faith and obedience?
As “Pastor” Dean Sweetman declares with his wife, they are “pumped.”
“Pumped” is not a godly inspiration, but a carnal stimulation, a fleshly enthusiasm. This is not a matter of semantics. These people know nothing of the Spirit of God, nothing at all.
They have a “2020 vision.” This isn’t the direction of the Spirit of God, Who guides one day at a time. This is the ambition of man, the ways of the serpent. Do they know what awaits them tomorrow, never mind in 2020? Truly, I fear for these people in the shortly-coming years. What does our brother James say about this kind of thinking?
James 4:13-16 ESV
(13) Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” —
(14) yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
(15) Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
(16) As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Does God care for numbers? David numbered Israel and got into trouble for it (1 Chronicles 21). As a result, many perished. God cares only for hearts. He wants your heart.
These people boast of the thousands worshipping the Lord. Are they really worshipping Him, or are they worshipping joy of life, fun, pleasures, entertainment, social benefits, belonging, purpose, mission, self-importance, and identification with others? They climb up another way, only to be cast out of the wedding feast in the end.
Where’s Jesus Christ? He’s nowhere to be found. There is no “sign of the Son of Man in Heaven” (Matthew 24:30).
These people have perversely distorted the truth of reaching out in the Name of Jesus Christ. This is nothing but a promotional campaign engineered and driven by the prince of this world who comes as an angel of light to befriend, flatter, deceive, and destroy.
As Satan did with Jesus, so he has come to these people saying, “All these things [kingdoms of the world] I will give you if you will fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:9 MKJV), and these people have fallen for it.
The telltale marks of falsehood are legion at their site and so many others like theirs. Besides the worldly and fleshly allurements these people brazenly present, read The True Marks of a Cult and Diabolical Doctrines, and you’ll know better the error these people propagate to draw people to themselves, doing so in the Name of the Lord.
Yes, they are friendly, enthusiastic, motivating, sociable, smiling, and outgoing people, attractive as friends and associates, even apparently sincere and well-meaning, but wrong, wrong, wrong. Jesus Christ is nowhere to be found with them. By Him, we sound the warning and declare the truth. He who has ears, let him hear.
There’s no mention of repentance from sin, no talk of taking up the cross, no sobriety – just cheering, happy, clapping, smiling, reveling people doing their thing to attract still others to do the same. Is this of God? We solemnly say, “No, this is Satan in all his power and glory.” This is all of the world.
And we also say to you: “Flee fornication and idols, all of you who would save yourselves from this ‘untoward generation’ (Acts 2:40) and have the true and eternal life of Jesus Christ.”
You can’t have it both ways, people. The cross alone is the way to life. There’s no other way. Does anyone see the cross with these promoters? Be honest, for only by honesty about yourself and God and fully surrendering to Him will you live.
Victor Hafichuk