My Trip to Cult Country

Hello and thank you for listening to the testing the spirits podcast in this episode I'm going to talk to you about my trip

to cult country.

That's right.

I took a trip to what I'm calling cult country.

I'll explain in a moment, but let's first start with the definition of a cult.

What am I talking about here a lot of interest in cults?

I think it's my most popular.

Well, it is my most popular video on YouTube Kingdom of the cults with over 1 million views and

some of my other videos On the cults have gotten quite a few views so this is a subject that people care

about people are interested in the the cults and In this video or this

podcast depending on how you're listening on YouTube or Spotify.

But we're not talking about the Mormons, although one of these groups affirms the Mormons.

Not talking about the Jehovah's Witnesses not talking about Christian science.

But there are churches where the pastor is set up.

He's given way too much authority in some cases these guys are totally unaccountable because in one case

they went to prison and they came back and Jump right back into ministry and it's like none of it ever happens.

So the definition I'm working on is when a man is propped up and he has too much

authority.

He's unaccountable, but more specifically when a man claims to have direct revelation from

God or a woman, you know.

Anytime there's a person who now in the 21st century.

They are claiming to hear the voice of God.

They're giving prophecies.

God is talking to them all the time.

They're constantly hearing the voice.

They have a direct pipeline to God my friends.

That's a cult.

These people are not hearing from God and we could go through the list of the false prophecies given by

you know Bethel Church and Benny Hinn and all the rest people who claim to hear the voice of God and it's either

God's wrong or You know, they're not hearing God's voice which obviously they're not but they say they do and that's

why I'm labeling them a cult anyways, I took a trip to Missouri and if you want to

disagree with that, well, I don't think this group is a cult.

That's fine.

You can disagree if you want, but I'm gonna show you why this is dangerous.

It's not biblical at all.

And if it is we should add their writings tack them on to the Bible.

But I took a trip to Missouri Branson, Missouri.

Specifically and on the way to Branson driving down the interstate and I see this massive

building it looks like Headquarters for a fortune 500 company and I look at the

side of the building and it says James River Church.

I'm like, hey, I've heard of that place a few months ago.

There's that debacle where the pastor there John Lindell who claims to hear directly from God.

John Lindell invited something like a male stripper to a men's conference and then Mark Driscoll rebuked

then there's this whole Whole, like I said, it's a total debacle.

John Lindell if he's receiving guidance from the Holy Spirit and direct messages from God

God is leading him astray which you know, that's how we know it's not actually from God.

But let's just play the video or play the audio if you're listening on Spotify.

This guy claims to hear the voice of God and he's telling you how you can hear

God's voice to it.

I'm gonna show you the problem of this and listen if someone claims to hear God's voice and they're claiming

to speak for God.

And they're not that makes them a false prophet and you know the line between false prophet and cult leader.

I mean at this point, what's the difference but listen to what John Lindell has to say?

I want to give you some tips on hearing the spirits voice in our life.

The first thing is if you're not going to hear the voice of the Spirit we have to believe what God has already

spoken.

In other words if we're not going to pay attention to the Word of God and the Revealed

will of God why is God going to tell us things that aren't revealed in?

In his word if we don't care about the things that are revealed in his word.

You know, God's not going to tell us something new if we haven't believed what he's already said.

So God is going to give you new Revelations.

God is going to speak to you and he's going to reveal things.

That's why I say revelation because he said God is going to reveal things to you that are not in Scripture.

So if you pay attention to the Bible which these guys rip the Bible out of context and twist

the scripture all the time.

But they say if you just pay attention to the Bible then God will reveal more to you.

Well, wait a minute if God is speaking speaking to you if this is really God's voice and God is

revealing more New revelation, then why wouldn't you add that to the Word of God?

I mean, why not add John Lindell's writings to the Bible?

He's gonna talk about writing them down.

Listen to what he says now.

It's the voice of the Lord.

Where it really is the voice and and we are hearing his voice.

In that sense, I mean one of the things that I think is very helpful when you when you feel that you've gotten a very

Definite word from the Lord write it down.

See what happens if it doesn't come true and It's

time -sensitive.

Then you have to conclude, huh?

Either I Didn't hear God or I misinterpreted and and you over time

you watch How that plays out in your life and you look at different things and over time you learn

to understand and interpret God's voice.

Okay, so if you hear God's voice you should write it down and then if it if it's time -sensitive and it doesn't

come to pass.

Well, then you just misinterpreted what God had to say or maybe God didn't speak to you.

Which obviously is what happened, but but he says maybe you just misinterpreted it.

Do you ever see that in the Bible when God spoke to the Prophet Elijah?

Elijah wrote it down and then it turned out to be a false prophecy and Elijah's like sorry God I just

misinterpreted what you had to say that never happened a single time matter of fact Moses

said and Moses received this from God in the book of Deuteronomy if a man makes a false

prophecy if he Presumes to speak in the name of the Lord and that thing does not come to pass.

What are you supposed to do with false prophets who claim to speak for God when clearly God has not spoken to

them.

Moses said God said God told Moses they should be stoned.

So.

And obviously we're living under the New Covenant.

This is an ancient Israel.

So we don't do that today.

I mean who would do it?

All right, although the Catholic Church did torture people and kill people for Stuff

similar to that, but of course they killed a lot of innocent people too.

But you know, the point is John Lindell is not hearing from God.

He's not getting new revelations the people in his church that he's trying to get.

Hey, you can hear from God, too.

No, you can't you can hear from God.

When you open his word and you rightly handle God's Word, right?

Where's the Bible say present yourself approved unto God a workman who need it not to be ashamed rightly

Dividing or rightly handling the word of truth.

We need to Understand rightly handle God's Word and these guys are not doing that.

They're claiming on top of that.

They're claiming so they're mishandling scripture and then they're claiming new revelations and

it's simply not of God.

So that's why I'm calling James River Church.

You know at least cultic in the sense that their leader John Lindell.

He claims to hear God's voice and then when it's time -sensitive and he writes it down and it

turned out not to be true.

Oh imagine that so this is very very dangerous anyone who says God spoke to me

this is Today the the term is NAR new apostolic Reformation, so

these are people who claim that God is still speaking.

If God is talking to you like directly and really giving you new revelations that makes you a prophet

or an apostle because that's who the Apostles and prophets were they were people who had

that relationship with God that God spoke to them and they relayed God's message.

And this is the idea of the new apostolic Reformation.

There are modern -day prophets and apostles and here is another guy joiner.

He's talking to Jim Baker.

I'm gonna play this clip.

You know these guys claim to hear from God, too.

But as I was traveling through Missouri in and around Branson I saw

James River Church.

And then I was driving just outside of Branson and we passed a big billboard with Jim Baker's face on

it.

And so this is home of the Jim Baker show and I realized this is Jim Baker's compound

all of his followers or his cult lives on this compound and Jim Baker is their leader

and he hosts a TV show and He sells these like doomsday food buckets like

frozen freeze -dried, you know food that lasts for a long time.

I guess if you're gonna survive the tribulation or you're gonna survive Armageddon you need this.

You know.

You need this bucket of food and you need to prep so you can live through the tribulation or whatever he

teaches.

But so this is sort of like a doomsday cult to some degree but Jim Baker I mean this guy so Jay

if you don't think James River Church is a cult Jim Baker and his fault.

This is definitely a cult and I'm gonna prove just this short clip to prove

how bad Jim Baker's theology is.

Well, let's just watch and then I think you'll see the problem.

I mean look at the response now I know one of the big issues that we have in the

presidential election is Romney is an woman in scripture.

The people who had a mixture.

Who were the Samaritans were the most responsive to the gospel?

The woman.

The woman at the well, here's one woman living in adultery had five divorces.

Goes out and preach the entire city.

Comes in.

Okay, Philip goes to Samaria.

What happens?

I mean here are the people who are the most responsive to the gospel.

Now I do believe Mormonism is a mixture.

I mean many of them are solid believers and Jesus Christ is their tone.

Yes, I know one of my dear Mormon friends.

I said, what about Jesus?

He said I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

He died on the cross for us.

He's my Savior.

I said man, that's good enough for me, you know, and I know we all want to fight because

Church people love to fight.

I don't want to fight.

I want to find out where we can agree together.

Okay, so Mormons are true Christians.

Obviously Mormonism if there's any group that's a cult.

It's Mormonism like the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons are the two most clear cults them in

Christian science.

The most obvious cult groups, but according to Jim Baker, no, no, they really love Jesus.

They're true Christians.

Now this NAR false prophet joiner here, or is it Rick joiner?

I don't.

I should have checked.

I was thinking Wally joiner, but I think that was a baseball player.

I think his name is Rick joiner.

Don't quote me on that though.

But anyways, he's talking to Jim Baker and Jim Baker is like Yeah, I mean the

Mormons are say they say they believe in Jesus.

That's good enough for me.

That's the exact same thing Joel Osteen said and I've talked about this before all these New

even evangelical quote -unquote leaders who affirm Mormonism.

Well, you saw that Jim Baker affirms Mormonism well as one

cult to you know, one cult leader to another.

They defend each other because Jim Baker is a cult leader.

Jim Baker claims to hear from hear from God.

And here's the thing about Jim Baker.

His yeah, his theology is so bad that he thinks Mormons are true Christians.

I mean, that's that says it all but Jim Baker.

Here's the thing about him.

Jim Baker and Jimmy swaggered back in the 1980s.

They were like the poster children for corrupt televangelists, right as

far as televangelists who committed crimes.

Went to prison in the case of Jim Baker.

He actually went to prison.

He was embezzling money.

He was accused of rape him and his buddy were accused of drugging a woman and raping her and

then they paid her $300 ,000 or almost that to keep her quiet, which seems like

an admission of guilt to me.

And yeah, basically Jimmy swaggered who again?

He solicited a prostitute got busted did his tearful apology and then he got busted again.

And I think the second or third time he got busted, you know.

He didn't apologize and he say this is nobody's business.

But these guys just continue on in the ministry after embezzling money caught in scandal after

scandal Jim Baker was accused of homosexuality all this stuff.

He goes to prison and then he gets out of jail.

Gets out of prison and then he starts right back up with his ministry and you're like, how do people follow this guy?

Because they're in a cult.

This is this is what you have to realize when as soon as The followers here.

This whether it's 30 people or 300 people or you know 18 million or however

many of the Mormons have as soon as you believe that your leader hears directly from God.

You know if he goes to prison, well, he's just being persecuted like Jesus was he's really innocent

didn't you know?

I mean basically he can get away with anything and His followers will believe him no matter what.

So he goes to prison comes out and he lives on a compound now with his cult cult followers

and They think because Jim Baker's the anointed man of God.

He hears directly from God.

Once you buy into that these men become unaccountable, you know, I mean Robert Morris another

guy I'm pretty sure he claims to hear from God, too.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if a few years from now Robert Morris made a comeback.

There will always be people who follow these men because they have too much authority in the

end.

The evidence shows that there's little accountability sometimes no accountability and they just come

right back into minute.

They're like a cockroach.

You just can't kill these guys not like kill them literally, but you know, they just keep coming back.

You can't get rid of them.

Jimmy swaggered as bad as he was he said about Jim Baker.

He is a cancer in the body of Christ.

I mean when you have Jimmy swaggered saying that about you, I mean, that's pretty bad.

Jerry Falwell said that Jim Baker is the greatest

scab and Cancer that the Christian Church has seen in 2 ,000 years.

So according to Jerry Falwell Jim Baker is the biggest dirtball the church has ever seen.

I mean that says something so This is cult country again

Missouri.

Missouri is a great place in the sense that I didn't see a single rainbow flag.

There's tons of Christians a lot of good churches, but you have to take the good with the bad.

There's a lot of cults.

There's a lot of religious fervor.

So people end up in the good churches, but they also end up in these bad churches.

Which you really can't even call them churches and then the final cult.

So we talked about James River and if you don't consider James River a cult, that's fine.

But their leader claims to have a direct pipeline to God.

I think that's cultic Jim Baker.

That's definitely a cult.

No question my mind about that and then I passed another church.

No, this is a smaller church, but there is a sign out front that said we pray we have the full gospel.

We're a full gospel church and I thought what's that?

I was not certain about that Label and I was talking to a pastor last night

who reminded me.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah I guess I have heard of this.

So basically this is a Pentecostal Church that says that they preach the full gospel

well.

If you pay attention to discernment and the news that gets reported by outlets like the center and

Protestia you heard.

What Bethel Church's pastor Bill Johnson said if you don't preach if you're not operating and

signs and wonders.

You don't have the full gospel.

So this Pentecostal group, what are they doing?

They're adding to the gospel.

And this is a sure sign of a cult where they think we're the only group that's saved if

you're not part of our group.

You're not saved because my friends if you don't have the full gospel, you're not saved.

If you have a false gospel or a deficient guy, oh, you he only has half the gospel.

You're saying these people are not saved.

So the Pentecostals this is common.

The early Pentecostal said if you can't be saved unless you speak in tongues.

Well, that's adding to the gospel.

But these guys the full gospel churches Bill Johnson Bethel if you're not operating

and signs and wonders.

Then you don't have the full gospel.

What are they doing?

They're adding something to the gospel, which is simply a faith and trust

in the Lord Jesus Christ and his death burial and resurrection you repent and trust fully in Jesus for the

remission of your sin.

That's the simplicity of the gospel but these guys say no you need to be operating and

signs and wonders they add that to the gospel and That's a corruption of the gospel

because here's the thing.

None of these guys are actually performing miracles.

They'll claim that they are Benny Hinn says that he's raised the dead.

There's no evidence because he hasn't actually done it just like these guys aren't actually hearing from God but they tell people

these things these sensational stories because that's how they Quite frankly, that's how they

deceive this simple -minded.

So these people out there.

They're searching for something and then this guy comes along says God is speaking to me.

God told me this God told me that by the way, I raised the dead last week.

So you you want to follow me?

I bet you attend a Baptist Church or has your pastor ever raised the dead come and follow me and that's the kind of stuff that.

Some of these you know, the more extreme Pentecostals will do this the more extreme

Charismatics, but some a church like this that we have the full gospel because we're operating and signs and

wonders.

What does that mean every Christian who has never seen a miracle?

I guess you don't have the true gospel.

You have like half a gospel.

I guess you're not even a true Christian.

I mean this this is cultic.

So adding to Scripture twisting Scripture.

Claiming new fresh revelations a direct pipeline to God.

We have the full gospel because we have signs and wonders then you look at their signs and wonders and they're false.

Signs and wonders is what they are and my friends this is Why I'm

calling it cult country.

So I listen if you live in Missouri in and around Branson I'm sure you probably

there's people attend good churches and there's tons of faithful saints out there.

I have no doubt but there's a lot of bad cults and these are some of the ones to avoid

so and Going forward if you listen to a guy on YouTube and he claims to receive

direct revelations from God.

That's just a non -starter.

Don't listen to these people.

We know what God's Word is.

It's in the Bible stick to the Bible and all God's people said Amen.

Thanks for listening.

And until next time may the Lord be with you.

Have a great day.