Peeps around the World

Blog Stats

wordpress stat

45 Most Recent Comments

Map o’ Visitors

Locations of visitors to this page
ClustrMaps Visitor Count Started: 02/08/2009

Blog Bling

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work by Discerning The World is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License

No portion of this site is to be copied or used UNLESS kept in its original format - the way it appears. You are requested to put a LIVE link on the article you use back to our website and the original page the article comes from. Please note that articles on Discerning the World can be updated.

Anything that falls outside of the above mentioned Fair Use Copyright, please contact us for permission. Thank you.

Church Team Ministries International (CTMI) – Preaches like a Cult, Acts like a Cult, Must be a Cult

New Jo’burg church has more than a whiff of cult

21 DEC 2012 04:00 – VICTORIA JOHN - Mail and Guardian – mg.co.za

Victoria John reported on an infamous Mauritius institution in 2009. When a new branch opened in Johannesburg, she took another look.

If you attend a church service at Jo’burg North Christian Church in the Robin Hills Scout Hall you will be welcomed with open arms. At that first ­service you will not hear chilling stories  about the powerful mother church, Church Team Ministries International (CTMI), under whose umbrella this church sits. Instead, you will find a gathering of about 50 people of different ages and races listening attentively to their preacher.

You will not have an inkling of its alleged involvement in rape, the surgical sterilisation of congregants and arranged marriages. Because, on the outside, it looks like any other charismatic church, not one that has crossed the line between radical Christianity and a cult.

CTMI is a Christian group based in Mauritius with partner churches in France, Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom, the United States, Kenya and India. It claims to work “with more than 1000 churches in 25 countries, mainly in Africa”, according to its website.

The group’s Durban affiliate, Grace Gospel Church, opened in 2003 under the leadership of Basil O’Connell Jones. In 2011, the Jo’burg North Christian Church opened its doors in a leafy middle-class suburb not far from Randburg’s Cresta ­shopping mall.

Little is known about CTMI’s Mauritian founders, Miki and Audrey Hardy, who look like your average middle-aged couple, the sort at whom you would not look twice if you walked past them in a grocery store. The couple maintains a wary distance from everyone and everything outside the church that might hamper the recruitment of new members, so they are shrouded in mystery.

Stocked with deer for hunting
According to their website, the Hardys graduated from bible school in South Africa in 1980 and returned to their native Mauritius where they founded CTMI. They have two grown-up daughters who are also part of the church.

The Robin Hills Scout Hall in Robindale, the location of CTMI’s new Jo’burg affiliate. (Madelene Cronjé, M&G)
M&G Image

The Hardys live in what former church member Howard Silk, who has been to their home, describes as a “palatial estate with tennis courts, stables, an infinity pool and a hill behind the house stocked with deer for hunting”.

Silk claims that the Hardys’ homes, including their beach villa in the Black River district of the island, were mostly built by artisans in the church, some of whom did the work “out of love” and for no pay. He says church members were also used to build the two church auditoriums in Trianon and Curepipe at the centre of the tropical island. Ex-members say they are dome-shaped, with state-of-the-art sound systems and seating for 3 200 and about 1 000 people respectively.

I first heard about the cult in 2009 when working as an intern journalist at the Independent on Saturday in Durban.

I was ­living with my parents and my father brought home a letter that a colleague showed him. It was doing the rounds of traditional, well-established Christian churches in the city’s affluent northern ­suburbs and warned about the “dangers” of CTMI.

At the office the next day I called one of the writers of that letter. It was the beginning of weeks of investigation and a four-year-long interest in a church that allegedly brainwashes young, educated people, encouraging them to abandon their families and studies and move to its headquarters in Mauritius.

Serious allegations
This church was different to the ones whose members might raise a few eyebrows when, in passionate moments, they speak in tongues and think the Twilight movies are evil. The allegations against CTMI were serious. In fact, the accusations made over the years in local Mauritian media had been so serious that they had prompted the government to launch an inquiry into the church in the late 1990s, but it seemed to lose momentum in 2000 with a change of government.

In November 2009 I wrote an article about the church and the heartbroken parents whose children had shunned them and their bright futures to give their lives to the church.

After it was published, Carte Blanche went to Mauritius to investigate an allegation by a Mauritian man that a non-governmental organisation linked to CTMI had kidnapped his children and other NGOs had been set up as fronts to raise money for the church.

But the extensive media coverage that followed, including interviews with church leaders, produced more questions than answers.

CTMI’s founders, Miki and Audrey Hardy, who allegedly live in luxury in Mauritius. (Supplied)
M&G Image

CTMI’s founders, Miki and Audrey Hardy, who allegedly live in luxury in Mauritius. 

The church members I interviewed in 2009 were young, spirited people desperate to defend it against allegations of mind control.

“The church saved my life,” several told me, and the church leaders, who were polite, even warm, towards me, firmly denied the allegations.

Yet, as the weeks progressed, I began to get Facebook messages, phone calls and SMSes from church members imploring me to “do the right thing”, saying I had to open my eyes to the “bitterness in the hearts” of the concerned parents I had spoken to. They questioned my­ ­journalistic integrity as well as my personal values.

Happy now
One email, from a former fellow university student, said: “Vic, you know me.” He reminded me about what he was like with “drinking and … all that stuff at Rhodes [University]” where we had both studied and said he had changed and was happy now. I believed him. A former school friend harassed me with SMSes saying church members had prayed for me. “We spoke about you in the service today” and “I’m just trying to help you … what you’re doing is evil”. She did not want me to go to hell. I blocked her number.

I heard that church leaders, in response to my article, welcomed the “persecution” as a sign that members were living according to God’s plan.
But when I found out that the church had opened its doors in Johannesburg, where I now live, I had to take a second look. And so I headed off to the Robin Hills Scout Hall, where I was told by church leaders that God had brought me there.It was also evident that, apart from the disturbing accusations whipping around, many of the church’s members had not had any damaging experiences. The members in question were, in fact, over the age of 18 and some of their jobless, drug-addicted lives had been rescued from destruction because of their involvement in the church.

There was no unusual ritual or preaching. I was, however, approached by at least five church leaders who wanted my contact details and an explanation for my being there. Just “checking it out” was not good enough. I was early and in the half hour before the service started I was not left alone for more than a few seconds.

Were they excited about recruiting a new member? Or were they just being friendly and welcoming? One congregant told me over the phone weeks later: “These allegations you talk about are false. It’s just like any normal church. About the manipulation – it has not been like that for me.”

I went to Durban in September and called a church leader to arrange a meeting. He refused to comment, returning my questions with: “Are you married, Victoria? No? Do you have a boyfriend? If you are not prepared to answer these questions, then how can you ask us such personal questions about our lives? You need to question your own heart.”

Formal questions sent to the church’s headquarters in Mauritius about ongoing as well as more recent allegations went unanswered.

So where does a church end and a cult begin? Experts reel off characteristics: zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leaders, distance from family and friends, members radically changing their personal goals and activities after joining the group, unreasonable fear of outside views, leadership dictating how members should act, such as getting permission to marry, ­prescrib­ing what types of clothes to wear, where to live and how to discipline children, and the expectation that members devote excessive amounts of time and energy to the group.Absolute control
That is exactly the sort of behaviour that former church members and their family describe in excruciating detail. Diana Bradford, a South African, moved to Mauritius with her husband in 1990 to join the church. She posted on the Concerned Parents Forum – a site set up to educate people about CTMI – about how members were told to give at least 60% of their salary to the Hardys and were even encouraged to hand over signing powers to their bank accounts. Members had to get permission to go on holiday, wives had to be totally subservient and children were to be disciplined with corporal ­punishment. Former members said that girls were not allowed to wear skirts or shorts above the knee and had to swim in the sea fully clothed.
But one of the most startling accusations involves a group of men and women who allegedly underwent surgical sterilisation in 1997. Under pressure from church leaders, Mauritian Patrick Monasie told me he had encouraged his wife to be sterilised. She eventually complied. She was 30 years old.Couples could then be free to “serve the Lord, to have place in our homes to take other children from the church who came from outside”, said Monasie, who was a member for more than 20 years before he left three years ago. He and his wife, unable to come to terms with what he had pressured her to do, separated in 2007.Another woman, who is now in her 40s, recalled how she had been raped when she was a teenager by a CTMI church elder.

Keith Brown (front row, second from left) poses with his arm around his wife Barbara. Next to her is son Geoffrey, who joined CTMI church with his brother Stuart (standing behind him to the left). (Supplied)
M&G Image

Keith Brown (front row, second from left) poses with his arm around his wife Barbara. Next to her is son Geoffrey, who joined CTMI church with his brother Stuart (standing behind him to the left). 

She had moved in with the elder and his wife in Mauritius when she was orphaned as a teenager. The man began molesting her when she was 17, she said, and in the same year she was forced to marry a man 20 years her senior. On the night of the wedding, the elder allegedly raped her in a garage. After she told her husband and church leaders what had happened, the church elder was sent to the neighbouring island of Rodrigues. Criminal charges were never laid.

I recalled a meeting I had with Steve and Heather Goddard in 2009. It was the year after their 18-year-old daughter, Hayley, had joined Grace Gospel Church. She gave up offers to study at two Cape Town universities and eventually moved to Mauritius.

I sat down with the Goddards in their comfortable home in Kloof, Durban, within walking distance of the private St Mary’s Diocesan School for Girls, which Hayley and I had both attended. The Goddards’ dogs lay at my feet and family members smiled from photos hung on the walls. Heather told me that “losing” a child to the church was “worse than death”.

The Goddards stopped speaking to the media after recent tentative contact was made with their daughter and I was unable to ascertain where they stood with her. But Keith Brown, who “lost” two sons to the church, filled me in in September.

Weeks after my meeting with the Goddards the couple received a phone call from their daughter saying she planned to marry a man they had never met. When they asked to meet the man before they gave the marriage their blessing, everything went silent. According to Brown, Steve Goddard eventually flew to Mauritius to try to speak to his daughter, but while he was there and without him knowing she got married.

When the couple eventually returned to South Africa, Steve wrote regular letters of love and affection to his daughter until a big envelope from her arrived one day last year, returning all the letters unopened.

Heartbroken family
Brown, of course, had his own heartbreaking story. He told me how his 30-year-old son, Stuart, was diagnosed with cancer in 2006 and joined the church shortly afterwards. Stuart’s wife, Louise, and Brown’s younger son, Geoffrey, also became members.

In May 2007, after receiving medical treatment, Stuart left behind a successful career as a copywriter in Durban and moved to Mauritius. His family was baffled by his sudden decision, but was comforted by fairly regular emails from him and calls on Skype.

Eighteen months later and now very ill with a brain tumour, Stuart returned to South Africa. He was cared for in his family’s home and received treatment for five months,  after which he “mysteriously left, never to return”, said his father.

Brown said that his son had been led by church members to believe that his open questions about the church were perceived as “active persecution” of it and had decided rather to be cared for in fellow church members’ homes.

The day Stuart died in a local hospice the family was there.

“The next thing,” said Brown, “there were a whole lot of church people we’d never met before standing in the room of my dying son.” It will be a “wound for life that, while my son was dying, the church estranged him from his family”, he said.

His son Geoffrey and his family and Stuart’s wife, Louise, are all still with the church and living in Mauritius. Keith and Geoffrey remained in “reasonable contact” but Louise had nothing to do with Keith’s family anymore, he said.

Keith and I went for a drive while I was in Durban. Ten years ago, he said, he could never have predicted that he would be “sitting with a journalist telling her how a cult church had derailed relationships in the family I love so much. Never in my wildest dreams.”

Victoria John is a Mail & Guardian staff reporter

source:  http://mg.co.za/article/2012-12-21-00-new-joburg-church-has-more-than-a-whiff-of-cult

—————————-

Here is a chilling testimony by a lady by the name of Catriona’s, who was abused and manipulated by CTMI “Centre Chretien Team” and leader Jean-Claude Lajeunesse source

I was only 14 years old when I met the ‘Centre Chretien’ team. I’m an orphan, I grew up with my grandmother who is a catholic and she could not accept that I could change religion and I was persecuted. When I talked with Jean-Claude, he said that if I can no longer remain at my grand-mother’s place that he is willing to give me a place in his house. The case went to court. Being a minor, the magistrate gave Centre Chretien the right to take me in charge. I was studying for my School Certificate but with all the meetings that there were in the morning and late in the evening, I was neglecting my studies and my results were not so good.

When I was 16, I was working in the Bible School as secretary. I met a junior pastor who wanted to marry me but Jean-Claude said that it was not God’s will even if I also loved this junior pastor. I was forced to leave the junior pastor. A man(who later will become my husband) in the same period of time joined this church after attempt to suicide(his fiancee left him few days before the wedding to go with someone else). He was deeply depressed and met Audrey and Miki. Audrey and Miki supported him.

Jean-Claude found that it was God’s plan for this man to marry me. Jean-Claude’s wife told me that if I do not marry this man that I’ll have to leave her house. Since I was an orphan and did not have any place to go, I had no alternatives than obeying. I did not know him at all and I refused to marry this guy(my husband). He threatened to commit suicide if I do not marry him and the wedding was scheduled 3 months later.

On the day of my Civil Marriage, Jean-Claude abused me sexually in a garage(I told him not to do that) and he said that he will always be there to get me out of any problem I could face (he was like a father to me and I trusted him a lot). After 1 week he did it again in my own house!! 5 months after my wedding, I told everything to my husband and hell started for me. Jean-Claude said that it was not him who did that but an uncle of mine. He never ceased to lie and this brought me a lot of deception. My husband and I left Centre Chretien and my husband did not want to hear about Centre chretien again. We did not go to church anymore for about 11 years(we joined the catholic church). I desired to return to a Christian church and I went several times to the AoG. During all these years(24 years), my husband and I were deeply hurt of what happened. We even tried to divorce twice but we stopped because of the children.

Other information:

1. While building the church in Curepipe, people were asked to give 1 month salary. Each person was asked to buy his chair in advance to get a place.

2. Jean-Claude Lajeunesse was asked to sell his property in Grand-Baie and leave his work.

3. I recently heard that Christians who leave their previous church have to be re-baptised when joining CTMI. Does this mean that they were not born again before?

4. The Hardys and the elders were well aware of the risk which could happen before the incident but they left me in Jean-Claude’s house. They did not take preventive measures. There were also dangerous thieves, drug addicts etc living in Jean-Claude’s house.

5. It was an abuse from Jean-Claude who was a senior pastor. But what about the leaders??? Why did they try to conceal everything? If they were righteous people, they should have acted differently. Why did they protect the reputation of the church instead of helping me? For example, Audrey sent Jean-Claude to Rodrigues for more than 1 year to avoid further problems because my husband put it on 3 newspapers. Jean-Claude invented a story saying that I was not a virgin(when he abused me) but that my uncle abused me before. How could he dare inventing such a story!!

6. Where was CTMI when I was in depression, suicidal etc? My family suffered a lot for more than 20 years because of what happened in CTMI.
7.Jean-Claude knew that I did not like the guy (my husband). He said that it was God’s will for me to marry him. He said that the guy is rich and that I will be happy with him. He added that he will always be there for me. I was still a minor(17).

I would like to tell everyone not to marry someone whom you do not love and do not let the leaders of the CTMI to arrange a wedding for you.

—————————-

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

10 comments to Church Team Ministries International (CTMI) – Preaches like a Cult, Acts like a Cult, Must be a Cult

  • A great article by Victoria John and a really insightful testimony by Catriona!
    CTMI is a classic cult.
    All cult people at the top–in the image of Benny Hinn, Katherine Kuhlman, Herbert W. Armsrong, &c., &c., &c.,–have luxurious lifestyles, pay their workers little or nothing and have all their minions believing that they are next to God and that it is only through them they can get to God.
    This makes their disciples feel that their manipulation is NOT manipulation but a God-send and that they have a corner on truth no-one else has. They imagine that everything they give up in time, labour and money is for God. So they cannot see that they are serving a person, or persons, and are puting them on a par with God. They are unwittingly making themselves idolaters.
    I hasten to add that these cult leaders pay their inner circles of leaders top salaries. That “proves” to their minions that the cult’s inner circle are also well-beloved and blessed of God by their financial prosperity. It is also an impetus to each member that, if they work hard to serve their leaders through such devotion and sacrifice, God may well find them a place in that elite.
    They make sure that their minions don’t think objectively by claiming through sermons, and in their own publications, that all critical thoughts are of the devil and must be rejected. That’s not my opinion. It is taken from my personal observations as a former member of the Worldwide Church of God.
    It is also interesting that CTMI recruit those from well-off and “educated” families. That’s because they know that “educated” people are often not objective. The leaders of CTMI, as the leaders of other cults, can see how many educated people believe in an unproven and unprovable theory like evolution, how many of them listen to and believe politicians who have lied to them over and over, and how many educated people go to universities to come out of them with lots of knowledge but without any discernment or objectivity. And the plus for the cult leaders is that the masses generally are unaware of those things and are impressed with people who have academic qualifications. So, having roped in educated people–and wealthy people who are equally subjective–it gives a show of respectability to outsiders and can even attract them to want to be part of their elite club. It also gives them credibility.
    CTMI leadership and the leaders of all cults think along the same lines.
    You will never find a cult member who thinks they are brainwashed or deceived.
    When I was a member of the Worldwide Church of God, Herbert W. Armstrong would forever state and publish his mantra: “A deceived person doesn’t know he/she is deceived or they wouldn’t be deceived.” And it not only made his disciples think that all the world was deceived except for them, but it made them think that they could never be deceived.
    That’s how subtle the serpent is.
    It’s interesting that CTMI are so secretive to outsiders. Benny Hinn (see book, “The Confusing World of Benny Hinn”), Bonke, Armstrongites, and all other cults, work in the same way. They are on the lookout for outside spies and weed them out promptly. Paranoia is the fruit of being deceitful. Also, when people are manipulators they think everyone else is out to manipulate them.
    It doesn’t matter who or what the cult is. They all work alike.
    Satan knows how to use the things that always work for him. That’s why he loves religion. All religion appeals to the senses–for all religions, unlike real Christianity, are based on Satan’s ways of doing things. True Christianity is not religious. It was the religious elite of Jesus’ Own day that handed Him over to be crucified by another religious people.
    No religion has grace. It’s all about works. CTMI is one of the many examples. Some cults, however, are more subtle than others.
    But Satan doesn’t only work in religion as such. He works in politics too. Even so, there is a religous element to those political systems.
    A study of Nazi-ism and Communism exposes that Spirit at work. For example, many of the Nazis were religious men as you can see by a cursory study of that “philosophy”. Many of the top Nazis were occultists and had gone to Jesuit schools. Indeed, Hitler publicly called Goebels his “Ignatius of Loyola” and the elite of the Catholic church endorsed his work. Indeed, so did some German Protestant churches.
    However, Communism works in a similar way. It claims to be atheist but we shouldn’t let that fool us. Buddhism is an atheistic religion. (Some of its proponents foolishly claim that it is not a religion when it is very obviously a religion. In fact, all of its schools are religions.) And Communism is still a kind of religious atheism. One has only to think back to the idolatry of Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism and Maoism and the mindless parading of their masses under massive portraits, banners and flags. Their leaders–cruel despots and psychopaths–were idolised long after their deaths.
    Daily, masses of Russians would be in endless queues to pass Lenin’s entombed body in the Kremlin. They often did so in sub-zero temperatures, to get a mere glimpse of their dead god. Now, if that’s not religion and idol worship, then what is?
    The point I am trying to make, is that religion is deep in the heart of man and it is a hard thing to eradicate. Cults of all kinds, whether secular or so-called sacred, know how to appeal to the religious spirit in human beings–whether they know they are doing so or not. One thing is sure: Satan, who controls these mind manipulators, does know.
    I am not saying that all cult leaders know they are actually doing the Satan’s work or know they are are manipulated by the devil. I’m fairly sure that some will genuinely think they are doing the Lord’s work [Matt 7:21-23]. But I reckon most of those leaders are as atheist as Lenin and Stalin. Otherwise they could not act as overtly as they do in such blatant defiance of God.
    The truly sad thing is, the people who are deceived and trapped in these cults believe that they are doing God’s will. The scary thing, apparently, is that being deceived is no less a sin than being a deceiver [2 Tim 3:13].
    I enjoyed the way the article handled CTMI as it was an excellent exposure–though it was sad to see how it ruins people’s lives. The more exposure of cults the better.
    The thing that is very difficult is getting people out of cults once they are in them. The article shows that.
    I have read lots of great exposures on cults, even when I was in one. But the odd thing was, I never applied what I’d read to the cult I was in!
    And there’s the rub. People in cults do read about other cults and agree with those exposures. What they cannot agree about is any exposures relating to their own cult. They simply see them as satanic attacks. That’s what we have to deal with. And it is a really difficult thing to deal with anyone’s subjectivity, let alone when it is regarding their own cult.
    For example, there was a famous writer called Dr Walter Martin who exposed cults. While he wrote many books on cults, he refused to write anything bad about the world’s largest and most infulential cult–Roman Catholicism. Having been educated at Roman Catholic schools it struck me as surprising, to say the least, that he would never write anything against the Catholic Church. Many cults themselves expose Catholicism, so members of those cults would see Martin’s exposing of theirs as selective, if not hypocritical. And I agree with them; certainly to his being seclective.
    To my mind the world’s largest cult ought to have been high on Martin’s priorities and it was not. So we have to be careful in dealing with cults especially if they what they consider to be a worse cult than their own being ignored. Still, any cult must be dealt with nevertheless.
    One thing about the above exposure on CTMI is that it cannot be seen to be selective. DTW deals with every movement that is false!
    Anyway, having been educated in the world’s largest cult, and a member of another for around twenty years, I have often thought it may be a good thing to write on reasons WHY people join cults. I did write a book on why folk join cults and sent it to a publisher who sent me a few relevant points where I could change it. After reading the above article, I realize I need to get back to completing it and make the changes as I think it could help people to relate to cult members–to know where they are coming from.
    So the article and testimony have inspired me to get down to it.
    Meanwhile, though, the deception goes on and it’s good to see it is still being challenged. Cults still divide families and ruin lives where those in them think they are being saved–tragically! That’s perhaps the worst thing they actually do.
    It is depressing to see that cults still flourish, especially as we get nearer to the end. But we have to look to Jesus Christ. He is still in charge, not Satan. At least we know his time gets shorter by the minute.

  • Lisa

    Can I or you tell if an organization is a cult?
    It is an international missions organization that sends teenagers to various sites in the world to do missions work. they do other missions work too.
    How will I know?

  • Carolyn

    @Martin – read through your comment yesterday. Just a few thoughts as I can identify with much of what you are saying about cults:

    You said, “When I was a member of the Worldwide Church of God, Herbert W. Armstrong would forever state and publish his mantra: “A deceived person doesn’t know he/she is deceived or they wouldn’t be deceived.” And it not only made his disciples think that all the world was deceived except for them, but it made them think that they could never be deceived.”

    Elitism is deception…been there.

    When I was caught in the 7th Day heresies, I was listening to their seminars and then coming home and pouring over what Walter Martin said about “the Christian cult” 7th Day. The arguments that he made were not as good as their arguments in my thinking. So it was not Walter Martin that set me free…it was Christ revealing his Word to me after much prayer. My eyes were opened!

    You said: “I am not saying that all cult leaders know they are actually doing the Satan’s work or know they are are manipulated by the devil. I’m fairly sure that some will genuinely think they are doing the Lord’s work [Matt 7:21-23].”

    I think most false prophets are themselves deceived which is why they are so convincing. They have believed their own lies. Then of course there are the con artists who have discovered how easy it is to make money off scamming the gullible sheep.

    One thing that simplifies avoiding those who would lead into error or cults is watching what they do with the Word. Do they supersede it? Do they replace it? Do they change it? Do they add to it? Do they subtract from it? Are they afraid of it? No Christian leader who is a true Shepherd will be afraid to study the word and encourage everyone around him to do the same (for themselves). Satan’s agenda depends on a unified, concerted effort to diminish, disqualify, disassemble, disdain and distort the Word of God. By then no one has a chance of being saved by faith, for it is only through hearing the Word that faith is empowered.

    Revelation 19:9
    Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

    Revelation 22:18
    I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll.

    The Word that has revealed himself to mankind and cannot be tampered with by man or angel on penalty of eternal punishment. Take heed!

  • Carolyn

    This addendum is thanks to Marion…there I go using the NIV again…I spent a lot of time in the NIV and it’s a habit that’s hard to break…

    Anyhow, here is the more complete KJV of Revelation 22:18-19 (KJV) For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

  • Deborah (Discerning the World)

    Lisa

    Yes you can by what they preach and how they behave towards their congregation. Who are you referring to?

  • Zoe Mlangeni

    Wow!!! I was searching for something under false teachers and came across your website. My question is how does one leave these type of churches, I am currently stuck in one such ministry, money is demanded ofcourse subtley in the ‘do something for your fathers house’ sermons and time Oh my word there are activties 6 of the 7 days of the week and its mandatory if youre a ‘worker’. What started me out on this journey is the toxic relationship I have with the senior pastor. I only realise now that it was all minupilation at its best and all conversations always started with ‘you know I am close with you’. I really just want to get out and I dont want to leave in a pile of hatred and bitterness. Please help

  • Deborah (Discerning the World)

    Dear Dear Zoe

    No where in the bible are you forced to be in a situation like this, as you know yourself it’s wrong. Because these people follow false teaching and their hearts are already full of hatred and bitterness so there is nothing you can do to change the situation. I strongly suggest you pray and ask Jesus’ protection over you and then just do it, hand in your resignation if you must hand in a resignation, pack your stuff and leave. Get out, do not let them try and convince you otherwise. Arrange for someone to pick you up, or if you have a car, get it in a drive and do not look back. You are dealing with people who are maligned with evil spirits, and the bible says you need to get away from people like this… so, make a run for it.

    Once you are out, come back here and we can deal with the after effects, the trauma of what you have gone through ok?

    much love to you
    Debs

  • Redeemed

    Zoe, I pray God’s protection over you and that He would give you courage and a peace and trust in Him that you are obeying Him and fleeing from evil as the Bible tells us to do.

    Do not fear what man can do to you, it is the Lord we are to please. We must be wise, and Deborah has given you good counsel.

    Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing. You will find this a safe place where people care about you.

  • Zoe

    Thank you, thank you, thank you all for your advise I will certainly lean on the wonderful articles on this website.

Leave a Reply

  

  

  

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>