Who Is More Prone to False Teaching – a Black or a White man?

Is a black man or a white man more prone to false teaching?

It is often said that black people are more predisposed to false teaching because their culture is steeped in wizardry, shamanism, sorcery and witchcraft. Can it be true that this man – who claims to be a man of God and needs to test his faith because the Word of God says it is impossible to please God without faith – actually believes that he is pleasing God?

Some sangomas (witch doctors) in South Africa and more frequently in Africa (so it seems) are turning to Christianity because it is far easier to practice their wizardry in the Name of Jesus Christ and make stacks of money than it is to prance around in witch doctors garb and drink blood to summon their ancestors (demons disguised as their ancestors. Read more here).

In stead of summoning their ancestors to heal, bless and protect them they now summon a demon called Jesus to heal and bless them and their followers (2 Corinthians 11:4). The younger generation in particular prefer to attend a church where so-called wonders and miracles are commonplace and where they can experience the euphoria of other worldliness. Are these so-called pastors and prophets any different from sangomas and witch doctors? Absolutely not!

Pastor Lesego Daniel Mosuoe, the founder of Rabboni Centre Ministries in Ga-Rankuwa, Zone 5 North Pretoria, is one of the most recent miracle working fads among black people. They flock to his church in their droves believing that the small pieces of paper he tears off a larger sheet can heal them. If that doesn’t work he has a backup which he dubbed a miracle wall, telling people tat they should rush up to it, touch it and receive their healing and deliverance because it is allegedly the will of God to touch or embrace the wall.

Point of contact or contact and transmission false teaching

This phenomenon is called a “point of contact” or “contact and transmission” where an object (in this case a wall) or a television set or the healer himself becomes the medium though which demons do their healing. Charismatics and Pentecostals are usually offended and immediately up in arms when you tell them Satan and his demons are equally adept in healing the sick.

Anton Mesmer combined the occult and medical science to heal the sick. Erika Fromm and Ronald Shor, says of Mesmer in “Hypnosis: Development in Research and New Perspectives.” (New York; Aldine Publishing Co., 1979, p. 20.) the following

Mesmer’s therapy and theory were minor variants of the teachings of many other faith healers throughout history. His therapy was a combination of the ancient procedure of laying on of hands with a disguised version of medieval demonic exorcism. His theory was a combination of ancient astrological concepts, medieval mysticism, and seventeenth-century vitalism. But Mesmer viewed himself as a thoroughgoing mechanist, and thus garbed his teachings in the terminology of eighteenth-century physical science, particularly of magnetism and electricity.

Health to Mesmer was the harmonious distribution in mind and body of an impalpable, ethereal fluid that permeated the universe; disease was fluidic imbalance. To some extent the cosmic fluid could be controlled by the human will, and even stored in inanimate objects. Mesmer’s clinical investigations soon led him to observe extreme agitation, convulsive seizure, and other temporarily deteriorated behaviours in his patients after therapeutic manipulations.’

From these observations he concluded that an indispensable first step in treatment was to cause some of his own stored cosmic fluid to flow into a receptive patient to provoke thereby an even more severe fluidic imbalance. [This is typical of the point of contact method of healing. T.B. Joshua and many other faith healers use the very same method. ]. The patient’s behaviour would then deteriorate into a violent convulsive seizure, meaning that the malady had reached a head or crisis, after which equilibrium would tend to become restored.

These convulsive crises became the pivotal event in Mesmer’s therapeutic system. We know today that they were purely artifacts of mutually shared expectations. But Mesmer, his disciples, and his patients became convinced that the crises were indispensable preliminaries to cure.

These very same convulsions and extreme shakings occur at miracle healing services of many false prophets and teachers.

Are white televangelists any different from their black counterparts? Absolutely not! In fact, they are even more dangerous and subtle in their approach to deceive people than their black compatriots. The late Kobus van Rensburg practiced the very same shamanic magic in his miracle pool which proves that both black and white are being deceived by the very same source of their so-called wonders and miracles – Satan and his minions of demons.

As you can see, there is absolutely no difference between a white miracle worker and a black miracle worker. They both have the same effect on people, whether black or white – DEMON POSSESSION.

T.B. Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) seems to have spawned many up and coming false prophets, apostles and teachers who have returned to their respective countries and are now spreading the very same spirit of deception among thousands of people worldwide.

Why do people, who call themselves Christians travel all the way to Lagos, Nigeria to receive something extraordinary from Joshua? Do his followers regard him as some kind of a Christ figure? Nowadays you don’t need to go all the way to visit T.B. Joshua to receive something extraordinary. T.B. Joshua has made it easier for you to receive something extraordinary from him.

All you need is a television set and a willing hand to touch the TV screen and you will be delivered from every possible disease (including Aids, cancer and Ebola), bareness, depression, poverty, hypertension, heart and kidney problems and just about every problem that confronts mankind. Wow! Do we need Jesus Christ to usher in the Kingdom of God on earth when T.B. Joshua is already doing it worldwide – by means of the shamanic phenomenon called “contact and transmission” or “point of contact?”

Todd Bentley who has been to South Africa several times says the following of the “touch screen healing” method many false teachers use to deceive their audiences.

“We’re seeing a healing explosion,”,  . . . “Holy Ghost power coming through the television screen, the computer screen . . . This is an outpouring of the glory of God that is not going to stop – it will continue from glory to glory. There is healing in the atmosphere, reach out and receive your healing in the Name of Jesus!” (Read more here).

Shamanism, as you can see, is colour blind. Black and white are equally deceived by these doctrines of demons.

And here lies the real crux of the problem – wantonness, greed, gullibility. In fact, the entire Word of Faith Movement is built on a foundation of bricks and mortar made of wantonness, greed and gullibility. “Faith is a force,” they say and when you’ve learnt to govern the spiritual laws you can have what you want. This is sheer divination and visualization, some of the most powerful occult practices in Shamanism.

Gail Thackray, an ex pornstar, who admits she is a medium and has the ability to contact the spirit world, claims she can manifest health, wealth and prosperity. The only difference between her and the Word of Faith cronies is that she manifests healing and prosperity in the name of her spirit guide called John of God whilst the WOF false prophets do it in the name of Jesus. The WOF teachers are nothing else than self-sanctified mediums.

Extremely sick patients who are infected with the deadly Ebola virus are treated and allegedly healed by T.B. Joshua and his SCOAN church members in an even more dramatic way than the “touch screen healing” method. He claims to have holy anointed water that heals Ebola patients or the church gathers en masse in his church to rebuke the devil because he is allegedly the one who created the Ebola virus and its devastating consequences.

And since then, the Ebola virus has spread like wildfire in Africa and has even made its way to America and Europe.

Did you hear that? Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea were miraculously released from their bondage to the deadly Ebola virus when T.B. Joshua prayed for them in the name of Jesus. (Read more here) Now, imagine only one person who heard T.B. Joshua and his SCOAN church’s declaration, having believed that he has been released from the bondage to the Ebola virus, leaves the confines of the quarantine tents set up for patients and crosses the border into another country . . . Wouldn’t T.B. Joshua be held responsible and even accused of potential murder when one patient infects thousands of others and they begin to die like flies of the deadly disease, just because he believes T.B. Joshua healed him of the deadly Ebola virus?

Hardly, because they all hail and worship him as a prophet of God. Stupendous! Incredible! Astounding! In the meantime the so-called prophet has heeded a very stern warning by the Nigerian Government and has indirectly rescinded his indiscriminate claim that he has released Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea for their bondage to the scourge of Ebola. He is now singing a completely different tune and warning citizens of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea not to leave their countries. (Read more here).

What happened to the miraculous prayers of release he and his SCOAN church members prayed for Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea? What happened to his holy anointed oil he sent to these countries to cure Ebola patients? How can anyone trust his anointed oil and prayers when he himself has now admitted that it would be better for them to remain in their own countries to curb the spread of the Ebola virus? His prayers and anointed oil doesn’t seem to have worked? This alone is ample proof that he is a false prophet and liable to be judged in the strongest biblical way possible.

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

FALSE TEACHERS – BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER

JANNIE PELSER’S RESPONSE IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE TRAGIC DISASTER AT T.B. JOSHUA’S SYNAGOGUE CHURCH OF ALL NATIONS IN NIGERIA

Some pastors who regularly took people on visits to T.B. Joshua’s church are still very adamant to admit that T.B. Joshua is a false prophet, despite the very sad incident of the late Springbok rugby player, Wium Basson, who died shortly after T.B. Joshua refused to pray for him because God allegedly withheld him from doing so.

In an interview the Afrikaans programme “Sondagjoernaal” had with Rev. Jannie Pelser of the Rant en Dal DRC Community Church in Krugersdorp on Sunday, 5 October 2014 they asked him why he visited the Synagogue Church of all Nations.

He was quick to remind listeners that he had been there many years ago – about 10 to 12 years – and that the radio station for whom he worked then, sent him to SCOAN on a fact finding mission. However, his fact finding excursion turned out to be more of a personal encounter with the Lord. It was a time when God turned him inside out, and to do this He had to bring him to a solitary place where He could “work with his gall,” as Jannie put it. In this sense it was a very positive experience because it presented an opportunity to get away from his normal everyday work load as a pastor and to come aside where God could work with him. Therefore, his experience in Lagos, was first and foremost an experience with the Lord and not with T.B. Joshua.

It is obvious that Jannie Pelser deliberately avoided the question to give an account of his own personal experience with T.B. Joshua and rather focused on his admiration for church congregants and also visitors from oversees who usually gathered at the church very early on Sunday mornings before the service began at nine o’clock..

This, he said, is something he never experienced in his own church and in any other churches in South Africa. What Jannie Pelser seems to have forgotten is that in the last days most people will flock together in their thousands to listen to false teachers because they have itching ears and lust after teachers who say things they want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3).

Huge crowds waiting to enter a church early in the morning does not spell “T-R-U-T-H.” In fact, the Bible says they will do this because they no longer endure sound doctrine. (Hennie Stander who also visited T.B. Joshua in 2001 confirms this as we shall see later on when I discuss his experience at SCOAN in Lagos).

To get a more truthful idea of Jannie Pelser’s adoration of T.B. Joshua and his so-called miracle healings, we need to recap what Pastor Bill Randles wrote to him in a letter, voicing his deep concern for Jannie’s aggressive response to his well-meant caveat.

1. The very first thing that strikes you when surveying Jannie Pelser’s response to Bill Randles’ letter, is his fervent and almost confrontational attitude in his defence of T.B. Joshua. In all my debates with Christians on the Internet who support false prophets and teachers they all have an obsessive urge to protect the person/s they follow and support. Never once and for one single moment do they presume that the false teachers they support are dishonouring God and his Gospel. They would rather defend the false teacher’s honour and prestige than that of God and his Christ. Many Christians forget that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the devil and his demons and that we – in obedience to Jesus – are obliged to test the spirits and to make sure that no man deceives us. This is very important because you might be defending the devil and his demons instead of contending for the faith that was once delivered to us by the apostles of Christ. It is exceptionally dangerous when you do this because you are making yourself liable for the indictment in Isaiah 5:20.
2. Jannie Pelser accused Bill Randles of finding T.B. Joshua guilty and hence of bearing false witness.
3. Pelser’s defence mechanisms are so typical of pastors and clergy who are bent on defending false teachers and their false doctrines. He asked Bill Randles:
   • “Have you been to T.B. Joshua’s church?” – suggesting that he can only make a true assessment of the man when he has met him personally. Bill’s responded as follows: “Do I need to meet the prophet personally, to prove as you assert that I am “serious about the Truth”? I disagree with you there, Jannie.I do not have to have personal contact to know where a prophet is coming from. I can read His words, I can watch the videos streaming out from the Synagogue and I can make judgements based upon what he says and the practices he promotes. Would you have to meet personally with the chief prophet of the Mormon church in order to make a judgement about Mormonism? You know that you don’t.”
   • One of the more insipid and most childish cards Jannie drew from his Mad Hatter bonnet was the “context and cultural” one, to which Bill responded: “You say that I am not putting things into an “African context” and that things like exhibitionism, vomiting, and nakedness are typical of African culture.I make no claim to understanding the “African context” so perhaps you are right. But doesn’t real Christianity transcend pagan aspects of all cultures? All I have asked people to do is consider these ‘miracles’ in the light of the miracles worked in the Bible. If we have to accept these things in the name of cultural context, where does Christianity sanctify?
   • Another nifty defence mechanism often used is to ask strategic questions such as “Have you read his/my books?” or “Have you seen all his videos?” suggesting that if you had not read all the books and not seen all the videos you cannot make a truthful assessment.BIll Randles dealt with Jannie Pelser’s defence in the following way: “Jannie you mention that the clips we used only represent about 15 minutes of services that can last all day long, therefore implying a biased representation. Why not answer for the video clips as they are?All we are doing is showing what the Synagogue itself presents as the ministry of a modern day prophet! What context are we withholding that would make Biblical sense of the practices of “Remote control”, Transubstantiation, “Vomiting problems away”, exhibitionism, etc.?” . . . “
   • The most distressing thing about Jannie Pelser’s defense of T.B. Joshua is his apparent and intentional reluctance to criticize and denounce TB Joshua’s extremely blasphemous “miracle” to turn water into the blood of Christ. Bill Randles made it abundantly clear to Jannie that this so-called miracle demeans God and his Christ to the point of blasphemy. He wrote: “One of the most alarming aspects of Joshua’s ministry that I raised is Transubstantiation, the heretical teaching that Joshua has power to transform water into the Blood of Jesus.This magical ritual demeans the true teaching of the precious blood, which Christ offered unto God for our salvation.” . . . “The blasphemous sight of people fighting to get under the spigots, that they might wash in it, swim in it, drink it, and the demoniacs going into a frenzy under it ought to revolt all true Christians. I believe personally that it is even an insult to African Christians, to relegate such paganism to an “African context.”

ISAK BURGER’S RESPONSE IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE TRAGIC DISASTER AT T.B. JOSHUA’S  SYNAGOGUE CHURCH OF ALL NATIONS IN NIGERIA

In an article written by Isak Burger on Netwerk24 on 17 September 2014, he intimates that T.B. Joshua is a Christian – instantly dismissing any charges that he is a false prophet.

And then there is the recent tragic disaster in Lagos where a guest house on the terrain of Pastor T.B. Joshua’s church collapsed and a large number of believers died – most of them South Africans.

Why does it happen to Christians who went there with sincere expectations, people who hoped and believed that they would receive something extraordinary from Joshua? (Read more here in Afrikaans.

Isak Burger, President of the Apostolic faith Mission of South Africa, haphazardly assumes that all those who died in T.B. Joshua’s guest house disaster were all Christians because they attended A “Christian Church” and indeed a man of God. Really?

Jude, the brother of Jesus, has a totally different view of T.B. Joshua who leads multitudes astray with his shamanic wizardry.

Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. (Jude 1:11-13)

And Isak Burger dares to call T.B. Joshua a Christian? This comes as no surprise because his yardstick to determine whether someone is a Christian is the phenomenon of speaking in tongues.

This is what Isak Burger said in an interview Jan de Wet had with him on Kruiskyk, an Afrikaans Christian TV channel.

Another very important thing is the emergence of the Pentecostal Charismatic movement. There is today, according to Peter Barrett, one of the most important statisticians, 630 million people in the world who can testify that they are filled with the Holy Spirit and also speak in tongues, of which 120 million – and this I heard from the head of an Order in the Roman Catholic Church – affirm that they are filled with the Spirit. So, this is the two main accents, the fruitful soil for the Gospel in the Third World and the emergence of, let us say, the Spirit driven or Spirit led churches.

Of course, today it is no longer limited to the traditional Pentecostal Church. To me it is so wonderful to see, when I travel throughout South Africa, and you (Jan de Wet) have experienced it many times. You know, in one of our traditional churches where I preached, some of the elders who sat in the back of the consistory who prayed for me, I heard some of them pray in tongues. Now, where would you have come across something like this in the earlier days in a Calvinistic church? So the Holy Spirit is busy filling the earth in a most wonderful way. (Emphasis added).

In their statement of faith SCOAN declares the following:

We believe:

• Water baptism and baptism in the Holy Spirit. We also believe in speaking in tongues as the Spirit of God gives utterance (Acts 2:4). All who enter into the number of the body of Christ do so because they are baptized in the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13; Romans 8:9). When you are baptized in the Holy Spirit, God’s power will come upon you as it did on the first disciples on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). When God’s power comes upon you, the Holy Spirit will affect everything about you. The Holy Spirit produces rivers of life, joy, love, peace and power to flow out of your spirit for the needs of others (John 7:37-38). (Emphasis added).

HENNIE STANDER’S RESPONSE IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE TRAGIC DISASTER AT T.B. JOSHUA’S SYNAGOGUE CHURCH OF ALL NATIONS IN NIGERIA

“Sondagjoernaal” also interviewed Hennie Stander on the 4th October 2014. Like Jannie Pelser, Radio Pulpit sent him to investigate the goings-on at SCOAN in 2001. He admits that he was rather sceptical and had mixed feelings about the whole matter because some folk phoned him and warned him not to go, fearing that he may be influenced by T.B. Joshua’s demonic wizardry. Others encouraged him to go and told him they wished they too could visit SCOAN in Lagos.

It is interesting to note that Hennie Stander expressed the wish that he had a special gift of discernment because he really wanted to know whether the things he experienced in Lagos were a genuine revival or just another scam. I too wish he had more discernment because now, since the guest house disaster, he seems to have changed his mind and is now more concerned about T.B. Joshua’s alleged fundamentalism than the so-called miracle he witnessed T.B. Joshua perform on he the rugby player, Ruben Kruger.

According to Hennie Stander, T.B. Joshua’s sermon on Sunday was very simplistic but extremely fundamental. He preached on holiness  but his interpretation of Scripture was terribly fundamental, Hennie said. It comes as no surprise that Hennie Stander has a sour penchant for fundamentalism because he has always held the opinion that people have grown tired of doctrinal or dogmatic issues in the church.

In one of his blog articles some years ago he said that “People are no longer interested in dogma and theology. They want help to cope with the daily demands of life.” Could this be the reason why he was so intrigued with the rugby player, Ruben Kruger’s alleged healing at the hands of T.B. Joshua and not particularly enthralled with his fundamentalist sermon?

In an article by Neels Jackson in Beeld (8 February 2001), Hennie Stander responded positively to Kruger’s alleged healing and even criticized Pastor. Denzel Dick who warned that “we are playing with fire when we send people there.” Stander was quick to quip that “we should measure someone’s work by its fruits. Look at the fruits in the life of Kruger.” he said. Ruben Kruger died of brain cancer in 2010.

Why are Hennie Stander and Jannie Pelser reluctant to admit that they felt very positive about T.B. Joshua’s alleged miracles when they visited him in 2001 but now appear to have changed their minds since the disaster in Lagos?

DOES GOD SEND DISEASE AND DEATH AS PUNISHMENT?

You will never hear a black or white miracle healer or any other Word of Faith preacher say that God often sent disease to punish or warn persons who go against his will, especially when they twist Scripture and lead others astray.

Consider the following passage from Scripture.

And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south. And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land. And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee. And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels. And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram’s wife. And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way. And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had. (Genesis 12:9-20).

The word for plague in the above passage is “nega” and means to strike someone down with sores, leprosy or wounds. Another example of God striking someone down with disease is in the book of Revelation.

And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass; I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. (Revelation 2:18-23).

The most distressing  thing about the above passage is that God not only sends disease but death to those who dare to follow false prophets. Christians love to focus on Jesus’ words “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10).

They conveniently forget that God killed Ananias and his wife Sapphira when they lied to the Holy Spirit. He also killed Nadab and Abihu, Noah’s sons, when they offered strange fire before the Lord (Leviticus 10:1). Today’s false prophets consistently offer strange fire before the Lord and they spew out lie after lie, and yet they and their children (followers) are not stricken with disease and death. Or could it be that God allowed T.B. Joshua’s guest house to collapse on his visitors and kill them because He is angry with the children (followers) of false prophets?

There is absolutely no difference between a black false prophet and a white false prophet because they are both energized by the same source – Satan, the deceiver, murderer and liar. Both are assisting the devil to usher in Antichrist and his signs and lying wonders. (2 Thessalonians 2:9).