Every false thing is revealed by the Truth. There are times when one sees things in the Light of Day, and there are times when the Light of Day speaks for Himself. It was the latter concerning George and Hazel Hill and their Victory Church.
In the spring of 1983, my wife and I were organizing a handyman business in Lethbridge. We printed fliers, and I headed out to distribute them door-to-door. On Third Avenue South (in Lethbridge, Alberta), I dropped into a building that had activity in the basement. It turned out to be Hazel Hill, the wife of George Hill – founder of Victory Churches International, leading what appeared to be a women’s Bible study.
When I met her, there was an instant clash. I saw black enmity, hatred in her eyes. I was told this was the Victory Christian Church she and her husband founded. When I got home, Marilyn and I prayed and received that Victory was “a witch’s coven.”
In December 1988, while passing through the Park Place Mall in Lethbridge, I dropped into a music store, where a salesman was demonstrating a Korg electronic piano. I found out he professed faith in Christ, and for some reason, I told him what the Lord had told me about Victory Christian Church, that it was a witch’s coven. He seemed rather disturbed by that.
I saw him again perhaps two weeks later, and he told me he had gone to Victory Church and asked them if they were a witch’s coven. They denied it, of course, and therefore I was wrong. “Would they have admitted it if they were?” I asked the foolish fellow. He did not wish to have any more to do with me.
The following Sunday, I happened to see George Hill preaching on TV. He was all worked up, preaching on 2 Peter 2, a passage about false prophets and those who spoke against dignities. The material he covered was quite coincidental with the subject matter the salesman and I had discussed. The Sunday after that was part two of the same subject. There seemed little doubt he was substantially disturbed as a result of the conversation, as the salesman reported it to him.
In years to come, by various peculiar circumstances, I got to meet some of the original co-founders with the Hills, one by one, and the Lord’s Word to me was confirmed, not that I sought confirmation. I believed what He had told me, knowing so, not because of Hazel and George only, but because of what God gave me to discern and understand from several perspectives.
Regarding the many Victory churches that have formed since the original founding, the fruit of the tree can never be anything but what begins with the root, no matter how far away the branches extend from the trunk. The fruit will always, in due season, reveal the original nature of the tree.
In this year of 2009, someone coming out of a Victory church came to us for advice. They were parting ways because of spiritual disagreement, and they wanted to know what to do about a covenant with the church they had signed. I responded:
“So why do men seek formal memberships, or in your case, a covenant? Putting it simply, they, in His Name, are building their own kingdoms and want guarantees, assurances from men for united activities and particularly financial endeavors, such as building projects and ministerial and staff salaries. In effect, they are not trusting and serving the Lord. They are trusting in themselves, usurping the glory and honor of God and, worse still, using His Name to do so.
Is that not ‘witchcraft,’ even as the Lord revealed to me of the Victory Christian Church in 1983? Of course it is! And of course, they are not the only ones guilty of independence from God. All formal church organizations are doing these things. But God was revealing more to me than what is mentioned here concerning Victory being a ‘coven of witches.’”
This should suffice for now as warning to all who have ears to hear.
Victor Hafichuk
Author’s Note: Dick Deweert, another of our false teachers, and his wife took over the leadership of the original Victory Church – Victory Christian Fellowship in Lethbridge, Alberta – from the Hills and then started The Miracle Channel, on which the Hills occasionally appeared.
The truth never speaks loudly enough for the willful deaf, who take the Name of the Lord in vain. But the fires of judgment come, swift and terrible.