STOP Sending Your Kids To YWAM?!

Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where the Bible and critical thinking meet to give you real Christian commentary about the things that matter. Thanks so much for watching, let's get into the video.

So recently, a viewer named Jacob sent me a great topic to review, and he asked me to talk about the organization called YWAM. Now, for those of you who don't know, YWAM is an acronym that stands for Youth With A Mission, and it is by far the largest Christian youth organization in the world.

It might even be the biggest missions organization in the world. YWAM receives thousands and thousands of young people every year, and they take these high school and college age kids, and they offer them ministry opportunities across the United States and the world.

Of course, for many Christian parents, this organization seems like a perfect fit, a great opportunity for their son or daughter to get practical experience in sharing the gospel and helping local people in godly ways.

And these are both biblical goals, in my estimation, but there is something a little bit more concerning about YWAM, and it's something that they probably won't tell you. You see, YWAM is an organization with many theological practices that are shady at best, but at worst, they're heretical and dangerous.

YWAM presents itself as an innocent organization of mainstream Christian evangelicalism and conservatism, the type of Christianity that the average Christian is familiar with. However, once your kids actually go to YWAM, they will find that the organization uses just about every hypercharismatic trick in the book.

The hypercharismatic movement, by the way, is closely associated with the New Apostolic Reformation, and it is an allegedly Christian movement that emphasizes the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, like tongues or healing or prophecy, in ways that go beyond Scripture and that are harmful to the Church.

One example of a hypercharismatic Church would be Bethel Church in Redding, California, who are led by Pastor Bill Johnson. This Church regularly engages in bizarre practices like uncontrollable holy laughter, for instance, and then the Church turns around and declares that this experience or these experiences are a result of the Spirit of God, regardless of the fact that they are found absolutely nowhere in Scripture.

Biblical Responsibility Toward the Young

So to Christian parents who are interested in sending their kids to YWAM, and to Christian students interested in being sent, let me offer you two simple biblical reasons to stay far away from this organization.

Number 1. Being in charge of a youth organization is a serious responsibility, and the Bible makes this clear. Matthew 18, 6 says, "...but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.".

The Bible warns strongly against offering false teaching to young, impressionable people. Of course, offering false teaching of any kind to any age group is both dangerous and prohibited, but there is something especially insidious in Scripture about someone who uses their false doctrine on young people.

So we know that YWAM is a youth organization that has a serious biblical responsibility to exercise discernment in how they lead these children. After all, because of the fallen nature of human beings, unless we commit ourselves daily to the Scriptures and stand firm on them constantly, we are naturally going to be led astray, and we are naturally going to want to concoct and believe all sorts of dreadful heresies.

Hebrews 5, 14 praises, "...those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.". In other words, it is biblically commanded that an organization like YWAM ought to have sound doctrine and defend that doctrine to the children they claim to be leading spiritually.

YWAM's Associations With Mike Bickle and IHOP

This brings me to point number two. When you send your kids to YWAM, they are entering into an organization that has a serious lack of discernment when it comes to their doctrinal associations and practices.

In fact, the evidence that I'm about to show you indicates that they are actually deceiving your children and leading them into falsehood. Let me show you the evidence of this. I'm not trying to be mean or to pick on anybody I mention in this video, by the way.

I'm simply trying to protect the Church and its young people from false teaching. And a lot of the work and research for this video was done by a friend of the channel named Jacob, the same one who recommended this topic.

So I just want to make sure I give him credit for that. Thank you, Jacob. So here is a Facebook post written by YWAM Kona in which they say, quote, "...Mike Bickle took the challenge from Lauren Cunningham, co-founder of YWAM, to help raise up one million intercessors to cover their global missions in prayer.".

End quote. YWAM has partnered with Mike Bickle in ministry. So just to recap, I just want to absolutely hammer this point home. Parents, when you send your kids to YWAM, you are sending them to an organization whose leaders run in the same circles as Mike Bickle.

Now I am going to answer the obvious question here, because I know what you're thinking. What's the problem here and who the heck is Mike Bickle? I get it. Well, Mike Bickle is the head of IHOP, the International House of Prayer.

This all sounds very innocent and very Christian until you look into the theology of Bickle and his organization. For instance, when Mike Bickle talked about the supposed manifestations of the spirit that organizations like YWAM and IHOP regularly claim to experience and participate in, he said that over 80 of them are not real.

Don't believe me?

Check out this video. It really does liberate a lot of people, but it bugs a lot of people, so I'll live with it. I think it's more helpful than it is hurtful. Is that in the last 20 years, I have concluded in manifestation meetings all over the world, again I've been to several thousand of them, a couple thousand at least, that 80 of them are not real, but 20 of them are.

That's right, folks. The hyper-charismatic ministry that YWAM offers is literally 80 fake according to the guy that they themselves see as an expert on the topic, and they themselves partner with this man in ministry.

In other words, when you send your kids to YWAM, you are actually sending them to an organization that actively helps them pretend to exercise fake manifestations of the Spirit of God. Does that sound like a solid group of Bible teachers that you want involved in the spiritual education of your child?

No, of course not. In fact, it sounds like a group of wacky people who are convincing young people to dishonor God and believe false teaching as they call themselves a ministry. Here's why this is all biblically concerning.

False Prophets, False Manifestations, and Deception

Matthew 24, 11 says this, "...and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.". According to this passage, most of the time, when someone presents a false manifestation of the Spirit or a false revelation or prophecy and encourages others to exercise this as well, that person is 9 times out of 10 leading people astray, as the text says, rather than leading them into sound teaching, for instance.

And this shouldn't be surprising, because people who have fake revelations are probably not getting those revelations from God, they're getting it from their own sinful minds. So we shouldn't expect that those revelations will have a positive effect.

Jesus says in Matthew 7, 15, "...beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.". Anyone who offers false prophecy is a false prophet, and these are people who we are commanded to beware of or to avoid.

Mike Bickle admits to giving false prophecy, and he admits that his organization encourages that kind of environment, so by definition, he is a false prophet and ought to be avoided. So what does it tell you then?

That the most popular Christian youth organization, YWAM, regularly partners with Mike and uses many of the same ministry techniques that he does? Well unfortunately, it tells you that YWAM is, for all intents and purposes, a school that is literally making your children into miniature false prophets.

Think about that. Is that really the type of organization you want to support? And another problem with this is that Ephesians 4, 25 says, "...having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor.".

As Christians, we are commanded by God to tell the truth. And given that YWAM is a missions organization and their goal is to be ambassadors for Christ, as 2 Corinthians 5, 20 puts it, shouldn't it be concerning that they represent Christ through signs and wonders that are fake 80 of the time at best?

And isn't it deceptive for the spiritual leaders of these movements to continue perpetuating and exalting a system like this, even though they know it's not nearly as truthful as it claims to be? This whole thing is just deceptive and unbiblical and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and I don't want Christian families or their children to have anything to do with it.

The Sufficiency of the Word of God

Allow me to leave you with this. Hypercharismatic Christians and their spiritual signs and wonders and revelations are at least 80 fake. But you know what's 0 false? The Word of God. Psalm 19, 7 says, "...the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.". So rather than join hypercharismatic churches and send your kids to organizations like YWAM, I have an alternative for you, and it may be groundbreaking.

Follow the Word of God. Stay away from these false prophets and stick with what's 100 correct rather than what's 20 correct at best. Meditate on, memorize, and study the Word of the Living God so that you don't wander into this horrendous false doctrine.

Then, teach your children to do the very same thing. This will be significantly better for their spiritual walk, rather than sending them to YWAM so that a bunch of wacky false prophets can show them how to do fake signs and wonders.

It just makes no sense. And please, pray for the people who are involved with YWAM and IHOP that they would turn away from this falsehood and go back to the truth of Scripture. Thanks so much for watching.

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