“Immediately afterwards when that happens, when Warragamba Dam does spill over, that’s the time that the Lord will bring a fresh new move of the Holy Spirit all around Australia. And we’ll see a move of God like we have not seen before”. (Emphasis mine)
In Part 1, we encourage you to watch Pringle prophesy at the C3 Church at Oxford Falls, how revival was going to hit the building. In Part 4 we analysed the prophecy itself. In this final article, we will be looking to see if the prophecy was fulfilled at C3 Church Oxford Falls.
In looking at the above quote, when Warragamba Dam was reported full, was revival immediate? On the 4th of March 2012, Pringle preached a message titled Heartbeat – Servanthood. Their uploaded video showed us… There was no revival at the C3 Service. There is a LOT of seats behind Pringle.
In that night time service on the 4th of March 2012, Mark Kelsey preached a message titled Heartbeat – Servanthood. C3′s uploaded video showed us… There was no revival. Drat!
The following Sunday morning (11/03/2012), Pringle preached a sermon titled the The Engine Room. Was their a revival? Were there queues outside wanting to come into the house of God?
What about that night service on the same day (11/03/2012)? Pringle preached a similar sermon with the same name: The Engine Room.
For Philip Day’s Saturday night session ‘Let there be light‘ (17/04/2012), it looked as though C3 disabled the camera that gave us the shots we needed to see the audience. But the next day on the 18th, while Peter Paauwe preached Breakthrough Part1, we saw… No revival. Empty seats lay scattered around the room. (Note them in the foreground and at the back of the room.)
By now, this prophecy is already looking ridiculous. But just in case someone justifies from C3, “God’s ways are not our ways’, we must continue. Maybe, God was going to move that night? Nope.
By this stage you may be thinking this is tedious. But we have to do this. Either God is going to bring a national revival through C3 or Phil Pringle is a false prophet. The following week on the Sunday morning, 25th of March, Pringle preached a sermon titled ‘The Engine Room: Connect’.
C3 didn’t upload a sermon that night. But we figured if their was a revival in that meeting, they would have definitely filmed it to prove to every other church that their church was the one with God’s blessing. The following week on Sunday morning 1st of April 2012, the joke was on C3 as Pringle preached ‘The Engine Room: Revive’. There was still NO revival.
That night while Pringle preached another sermon, seats were still empty (see them in the background).
A month has passed and Presence Conference is about to hit C3… Was God going to show up at C3 Church so Presence could experience revival? It seems logical that if God was going to move, it would be before the before Presence Conference. Why? So the international audience can bring back ‘God’ to their country God.
This would fulfill the prophecy of Pringle because God told him when the Warragamba Dam floods, it wasn’t just C3 church and all of Australia that were to experience revival. It was going to be a global revival. So when John Bevere spoke on Resurrection Sunday morning… was… there… revival? (Look at all the empty seats behind Pringle.)
That is a LOT of people short of a revival. Cross your fingers for Pringle, tonight God must show up or else…
So there is no prophecy fufillment. None.
… A PROPHECY FAILS…
But maybe God DID move after Presence Conference? If you’ve seen footage from the Presence Conference scattered around C3 Church Watch, you know revival did not turn up. If revival broke out at C3 Presence Conference in Darling Harbour – then God would contradict himself in the prophecy as mentioned in Part 4.
So was there going to be revival AFTER the Presence Conference? Steven Furtick preached that Sunday morning (15/04/2012), a message titled ‘Stay Behind The Guide’. You can see empty seats straight at the back of the auditorium.
No. While the room is dark and smokey, if you look to the seat at back of the room, they are empty. More seats remained empty the following Sunday in Mark Kelsey’s sermon on the 29th of April. There was no revival.
When Mark Kelsey got up the following week to speak Sunday morning on the 20/05/2012, there was no revival.
However, he had this to say to the congregation in the giving message. Was he saying this because people were feeling cheated from Pringle’s false prophecy?
“I don’t know about you but I get frustrated sometimes. We have got one of the greatest churches in the world, one of the greatest worship teams. We’ve definitely got the greatest pastor in the world. We’ve got the greatest pastoral team. The greatest connect leaders, what have you. We’ve been given Christ. We have the bible. We have the New Testament. We have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And yet people sit there and go, “Yeah well. It’s not quite enough is it? You know we gotta…”.” - Mark Kelsey, Justin Richards, 35:47-36:19, http://www2.myc3church.net/videos/justin-richards, Night Service, 20/05/2012. (Accessed 11/06/2012.)
Of course it’s not enough Mark Kelsey. Didn’t you hear what the “greatest pastor in the world” prophesied? Didn’t you hear yourself say “I get frustrated sometimes”? Why is Mark Kelsey chastising the sheep in his congregation when it is his prophet that prophesied falsely that revival was going to come?
The following week (27th of May 2012), a speaker by the name of Jamie Haith, spoke at C3′s morning service… Where revival was still a no-show.
Jamie Haith spoke that night where revival still refused to turn up.
Then on the 3rd of June, Pringle gave his morning money fleecing sermon, where revival still remained absent. Ironic that Josh Kelsey made the claim of Phil Pringle “We have the best leader in the world” (23:25), when this was the video camera shot that followed:
In the continuation of Pringle’s groom-a-thon that night, the storm of revival did not turn up.
CONCLUSION
C3 said the dam overflowed on the 3rd of March. We have recorded the ‘spiritual’ status of each Sunday service to the 3rd of June. This is a three month period.
It is safe to say that:
God DID NOT say, ““Immediately afterwards when that happens, when Warragamba Dam does spill over, that’s the time that the Lord will bring a fresh new move of the Holy Spirit all around Australia”
God DID NOT say, ”Watch me. That thing is going to overflow. And as it overflows, a revival is going to come through the nation.”
God DID NOT say, “the power of God is gonna touch this city with revival”.
God DID NOT say, “the Spirit of God is gonna fall on this nation”.
God DID NOT say, “the power of God is gonna pour down out of heaven”.
God DID NOT say, “If you will build my house, if you will commit yourselves and not give yourselves comfort but will build the house, I will fill this place with my glory”.
God DID NOT say, “these [c3 church] seats will be full!”
God DID NOT say, “Every service you come, you will queue in line to be in the house of God”.
This prophecy is a lie. A scam. We have thoroughly examined in all five articles that Phil Pringle prophesied falsely. There is no escape room for Pringle.
Not only did he mislead his entire church, he mislead thousands of Christians around Sydney. Not only did he also mislead thousands of Christians around Sydney but also across Australia. Not only did he deceive thousands of Christians across Australia, he also mislead thousands of Christians across the world who attended his Presence Conference 2012 and watched him falsely prophesy online.
To recap all that we’ve explored in this series of articles, in:
Part 1 – we looked at how C3 purposely distorted information at their Sydney Presence Conference, taking snippets and screen grabs fromNews Articles and blogs to portray the world as wrong and Phil Pringle as some Godly prophet.
Part 2 - we looked at how C3 and Pringle mislead people to believe that God used Pringle against media and ‘false prophets’ to prophesy that the Warragamba Dam would be full again. We examined how C3 and Pringle used this prophecy twice to advertise and elevate their movement to Christians and churches locally and globally. We explored that it was highly likely that Pringle prophesied out of reaction against those he dislikes and pride.
Part 3 - we looked at Pringle’s further insight to his Warragamba Dam prophecy to help us understand the actual prophecy itself and what he thought this meant. He informed us that C3 met the conditions God said through him so C3 can experience revival.
Part 4 - we analysed the Warragamba Dam prophecy and proved it to be false.
Part 5 – we examined every service for three months to see if revival would break out “immediately”. This was from the time Warragamba Dam overflowed (03/03/2012) to June (03/06/2012). We have proven that the prophecy has not come to pass with it’s promise of a revival.
The right thing for Pringle to do is to humble himself, apologize and step down, admitting he has done Christianity a massive disservice. How many Christians will have their faith shaken or shipwrecked because C3 convinced them to put their faith and hope in the words of a false prophecy?
We would like to know if any information in our articles is wrong. If you find any information that is misleading in our investigation of Phil Pringle’s false Warragambe Dam prophecy, please Contact us at c3churchwatch@hotmail.com.
Part 1 contains the video of the Warragamba Dam prophecy. We encourage you to watch it. If you read Part 2 of this series, it is possible to understand why C3 tied this prophecy with Presence Conference 2012. If you read Part 3 of this series, you’ll see Pringle explain this prophecy a bit more for clarities sake which helps us understand this prophecy better for this article. This article will provide a transcript of Phil Pringle’s Warragamba Dam prophecy. We will pull apart the prophecy and examine it’s message.
WARRAGAMBA DAM TRANSCRIPT
The video records the ‘Warragamba Dam prophecy’ as follows:
“I’ll tell you another thing. That as I was standing here tonight, God spoke to me about a really weird thing. He said, “People have said that the Warragamba Dam will never be full again”.” - Phil Pringle, C3ChurchWatch – C3 Presence 2012 Exalts Pringle As A Prophet (Makes False Prophecy): 3:32, 15/06/2008.
Pringle continued his prophecy,
“He [God] said, “Watch me. That thing is going to overflow. And as it overflows, a revival is going to come through the nation. It’s like a sign. The power of God is gonna touch this city with revival. The Spirit of God is gonna fall on this nation, is gonna fall on this city. The power of God is gonna pour down out of heaven. Rains are gonna come. A storm is coming.
Two storms are coming on the earth. One storm is the storm of revival. One storm is the storm of the glory and the power of God. Another storm is the storm of nervous anxiety, of terror and of fear. But my glory will fill my house,” says the Lord.
“If you will build my house, if you will commit yourselves and not give yourselves comfort but will build the house, I will fill this place with my glory,” says the Almighty God.
“My power will fall on this place. My Spirit will fall on this place! My power will fall on the people. I will raise up an army of preachers and teachers and church buildings. I will raise up a people who will expand this house! These seats [motions with hands to seats in C3 OF building] will be full! Those [motions with hands to seats in C3 OF building] seats will be full! Every service you come, you will queue in line to be in the house of God! There will be playing many, MANY singers, musicians and people who will pronounce the glory of God! My glory will fill this house! I will fill the earth with all of my glory,” says the Almighty God.
Come on people! It’s time to shout!” - Phil Pringle, C3ChurchWatch – C3 Presence 2012 Exalts Pringle As A Prophet (Makes False Prophecy): 4:01, 15/06/2008.
THE STORM CONUNDRUM
Pringle claimed that God said,
“Watch me. That thing is going to overflow. And as it overflows, a revival is going to come through the nation. The power of God is gonna touch this city with revival. The Spirit of God is gonna fall on this nation, is gonna fall on this city. The power of God is gonna pour down out of heaven. Rains are gonna come. A storm is coming.”
This idea that a storm is coming seems to suggest a double meaning. On one hand, there is going to be a literal storm of rain to cause the Dam to overflow, and on the other hand, there is going to be a spiritual storm which will bring revival…
Pringle seems to confirm this idea as he continues to prophesy…
“Two storms are coming on the earth. One storm is the storm of revival. One storm is the storm of the glory and the power of God.”
Ok, yep. Seems straight forward enough, now here’s where is gets confusing….
“Another storm is the storm of nervous anxiety, of terror and of fear. But my glory will fill my house,”
Err… what? A “storm of nervous anxiety, of terror and of fear”? This doesn’t seem to make any sense in light of what came before it. Based on the previous imagery, everyone is expecting the other storm to be a literal storm of rain to overflow the dam.
Chris Rosebrough from Fighting for the Faith (who reviewed this prophecy on Kong Hee’s Fleecing of the Masses), was also confused by this. Responding to Pringle’s “storm of nervous anxiety, of terror and of fear,” Rosebrough states:
“Well that’s kind of a convoluted prophecy. I mean, he said two things. And which one was does the dam again?” - Chris Rosebrough, Kong Hee’s Fleecing of the Masses, Fighting For the Faith, http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F041112q.mp3, 1:16:44, 11/04/2012.
Good question. Now, do we have two or three storms? The storm of nervous anxiety makes no sense. Where is Pringle going with this? Has he simply lost his train of thought? Or is he suddenly second guessing himself and going back on his original statement that the Dam will literally overflow? After all, we heard Pringle in Part 3 point out that,
Can we claim this is a legitimate prophecy after Pringle’s performance already?
THE CATCHMENT AND THE CATCH
Pringle quickly derailed from prophesying about “the storm of nervous anxiety” and jumped straight into ‘prophesying’,
“If you will build my house, if you will commit yourselves and not give yourselves comfort but will build the house, I will fill this place with my glory,” says the Almighty God.”
Chris Rosebrough examined the prophecy and made this observation about the above ‘prophetic’ statement,
“Yeah! Now we got a condition!” - Chris Rosebrough, Kong Hee’s Fleecing of the Masses, Fighting For the Faith, http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F041112q.mp3, 1:17:00, 11/04/2012.
Pringle describes the revival,
“My power will fall on this place. My Spirit will fall on this place! My power will fall on the people. I will raise up an army of preachers and teachers and church buildings. I will raise up a people who will expand this house! These seats will be full! Those seats will be full! Every service you come, you will queue in line to be in the house of God! There will be playing many, MANY singers, musicians and people who will pronounce the glory of God! My glory will fill this house! I will fill the earth with all of my glory,” says the Almighty God.”
First off, if God was speaking to Pringle, God was using Pringle’s hands to point out that revival was going to hit the C3 Church building (‘Gods house’). This revival describes that all the c3 church auditorium “seats will be full”. Not to mention that every service C3 members attend, they “will queue in line to be in the house of God”. Indeed – that would be an impressive sight to see at the C3 Oxford Falls campus.
Secondly, because this prophecy is defining what is happening at C3 church, God specifically says He will raise an army of preachers, teachers and church buildings (ever seen a building join an army?). Pringle also says that there will be “many, MANY singers, musicians” … “AND” a convoluted “people” who will “pronounce the glory of God”.
So it is clear that this prophecy will happen at C3 Church and NOT at Presence Conference 2012. But what was the condition for all this? Commitment. The big ‘if’.
If people committed themselves to C3 Church, God will bring revival.
This is legalism. This is works. This is not the Spirit of Grace speaking to Christians. This is an insult to Jesus Christ and His finished work. Only Christ is perfectly obedient. Is any man perfectly obedient and committed to being in contract with God? The bible records that God couldn’t find one person who was faithful except Jesus.
But contrary to scripture, Pringle made the following claim to c3 a few days after the dam overflowed:
“Every week we turn up… seeing your faithfulness, your strength… those who’ve come through all the stuff and being faithful to Him and being true to Him – in spite of difficult circumstances and- I’m believing that there is definitely a breakthrough day coming up ahead of us.” (read fully in Part 3)
CONCLUSION
After reading Part 3, it seems clear that once the dam floods, ‘IF’ C3 was faithful to God, revival will come. Now Pringle has told his congregation revival WILL COME because he has seen his church’s “faithfulness” and “strength”. The reason their will be queues is because the church will have every seat full. And this amazing revival (glory) “will fill this house” (C3 Church) and trigger God to “fill the earth with all of my glory”. We will examine the ‘Revival’ that came to C3 in part 4.
But after examining the prophecy, we’ve highlighted two reasons why this is false:
1. The stuff up in prophesying about a third storm (which makes no logical sense).
2. The condition that C3 must fulfill to bring revival.
In closing, Chris Rosebrough states,
“You know, even if this was a so-called fulfilled prophecy, that doesn’t make him a prophet of God. Because according to the biblical test of a prophet, number one, they have to be one hundred per cent accurate in all of their prophecies. Period. Somebody who says “Thus sayeth the Lord” and the “Thus sayeth the Lord” doesn’t, well, come about- that person is a false prophet and they’re to be rejected. ” - Chris Rosebrough, Kong Hee’s Fleecing of the Masses, Fighting For the Faith, http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F041112q.mp3, 1:18:17, 11/04/2012.
Pringle has a track record of prophesying falsely:
“But there’s another test too. Even if what they prophesy comes true, the bible tells us in the book of Deuteronomy “and they have you follow after false God’s or false doctrine”, that is not a prophet of God. That’s somebody that God has sent to test.
See, just cos somebody can predict whether or not a dam’s gonna have water or not in it, doesn’t make him a prophet of God. What makes them truly a prophet in the biblical sense, is whether or not when they open their mouth, they rightly handle and proclaim God’s Word and preach Christ and Him crucified and raised again on the third day for our justification- salvation by grace alone, through faith alone by Christ’s work alone. If that’s not what the so-called prophet is preaching, he’s a false prophet.” - Chris Rosebrough, Kong Hee’s Fleecing of the Masses, Fighting For the Faith, http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F041112q.mp3, 1:18:43, 11/04/2012.
That’s alright. C3ChurchWatch has a page recording every single scripture Pringle has mangled, so far.
Can Phil Pringle or anyone in C3 claim they were faithful all the way to the end for God to go, “Yep! They’ve done what I told them to do – now I’ll do my part”? In spite of his prosperity gospel, false doctrine and bible garbling, Pringle thinks so. After all that we’ve researched on Phil Pringle, why should we trust him on this prophecy and coming revival?
“… We are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming…” Ephesians 4:14
Pringle says,
“Now here’s the thing, without wind that boat is going nowhere. A boat is just a boat going nowhere until its got wind in it; a Christian is just a Christian on earth doing nothing until the wind hits you. To get that wind, you gotta position yourself in the right place. And you know exactly what I’m gonna say: I mean, be in Presence, amen! If you’re there, it’ll happen! The touch of God can come on your life. Mark out all the other stuff, nothing is more important than you getting fresh wind in your life as a believer! And getting yourself carried by the greatest wave that you can ever have in your life! So suddenly you become effective and you’re doing things that you never did before.- Phil Pringle, “Get Ready For God”, Sunday 6pm Service, Oxford Falls Campus, 20/03/2011.
C3 pastors convert their sermons to bible study notes (connect notes). Here is a solid critique of Pringle’s appalling teaching on this sermon in 2011:
In video 1, before his sermon, Phil Pringle prophesies revival . As you watch this sermon, he is linking both the prophecy and sermon to the 2011 Presence Conference. A few months later in his sermon ‘Financial Excellence’, his outburst exposes that his prophecy regarding Presence Conference did not come to pass.
In video 2, Phil Pringle teaches he is a John the Baptist ushering in Jesus Christ to bring revival at His Presence Conference. Pringle the Baptist states that Jesus says to John, “I want to do it. I want to do what you’re doing. I want to get with the program. I want to get on the same page. I want to come to Presence. I want to be in church” (4:43).
In video 3, he tells people to catch the winds and the waves (thus the scripture above).
In video 4, Phil Pringle belittles Christians who are like doubting ‘whinging’ Thomas’ (6:32). Thus he butchers John 20:24-29 to market (and guilt) his congregation to attend Presence 2011, (3:44). Constantly throughout the sermon he is connecting his prophecy of revival to the Presence Conference. The scriptures are right in prophesying that “children [are] tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine”, by men like Phil Pringle who use the “the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming”.
NOTE: THE SCREEN GRAB WERE TAKEN BEFORE THE 11/02/2012.
To tackle the Warragamba Dam more fully, we will now be examining what Pringle said in his morning serviceon the 4th of March 2012. This commentary was made by Phil Pringle on the first Sunday after Warragamba Dam reached it’s full capacity.
Pringle says,
“On Wednesday morning, ah, we had our staff meeting (and because we were having a board meeting afterwards, Paul Macken was on our board). Ah, he ah. He was in the ah, staff meeting. And ah, he reminded me of something that ah, I had apparantly said three years ago in the middle of our seven year drought in New South Wales when Mr Flannery ah, announced that there was- the Warragambah Dam would never be full again. We could only ever hope for it to get to about 70% and so we better build a desalination plant at huge cost to the tax payer. Apparantly it’s a hundred dollars a year for everybody in New South Wales, ah, added on.
He should have come to church amen because, apparently I uh, (and I can remember this), uh standing up and I saw ah, Warragamba Dam overflowing.
Just ah, not long before that, I had been in a situation where the Lord had shown me something. And it was just very challenging to say it, because I was in a- I was in a huge auditorium of one hundred and fifty thousand people and I was about to ah, pray in that meeting. And as I stood up to pray the Lord said, “Prophesy the sun is gonna to shine”.
I said, “Give me a break God! We’ve been sitting in this freezing rain for eight hours and it’s been raining for days and it’s pouring down”. Black skies. I said, “There is no way it’s going to shine”. And he said, “Say it’s going to shine”. You know I couldn’t get rid of this conviction. So I stood up and I kinda did a mealy-mouth prayer and said, “Oh Lord! Let the sun shine! You know I’ll, you know, [fist pumps] I’ll believe God You’ll- North Korea will have revival, amen!” It was a great moment but then the- but when I opened my eyes, the whole sky had parted and it was shining. And I thought, “Awww! I should have said “Shine!” Amen”.
So. They called me the prophet of sunshine from then on up in Korea because, [word fumble] you know the guy from Australia brings the sunshine. And a- and so umm.
I made a commitment, “Lord, I’ll just say the stuff that I see and” and uh. And uh- And so that, you know, prompted me in that meeting and I said, “I can see Warragamaba Dam. It’s gonna flood over”. While I’m saying this I’m [like], “What are you saying? It’s like – we’ve been in this drought and it looked like it was never going to happen again”.
But on Friday, I think uh, Friday night, it overflowed. And uh- amen! That was- uh – got one hundred per cent full. And uh- we flowed over. Obviously if it hadn’t happened I wouldn’t be telling you this story but um… Haha. But thankfully it did.
But here’s the thing. Ok. So. Ah- You know occasionally- definitely- I see things and – it’s a gift that God gives to people, called the gift of prophecy and seeing things in the future. Ah, I find that most happens within individuals. I can see something going on in their future and whatever. But ah- with this, ah- that- the reason I tell you that is not for the sake of just telling you. You know like, “I said so”.
Because there was an addendum to that. Ah, that, ah, was quite ah, quite interesting for me. And, you know ah, in 1998 you’ll recall we had in an OZFIRE meeting, (Presence Meeting), I gave a similar thing about the two tallest buildings in the world coming to the ground and after that, a financial melt down. And ah- then streams of people would start coming into the house of God. And that actually happened in all kinds of ways.
But the point of the physical occurrence of these things was to indicate another thing that God was actually about to do. And I remember when I- when I actually announced that, that ah, “Immediately afterwards when that happens, when Warragamba Dam does spill over, that’s the time that the Lord will bring a fresh new move of the Holy Spirit all around Australia. And we’ll see a move of God like we have not seen before”.
And ah, with all my heart, I believe that we’re about to enter into all kinds of new days and a fresh anointing, a fresh oil- And I’m just so thrilled with you guys. Every week we turn up – you know seeing your faithfulness, your strength, you’re – we’ve been through so many different pieces of the landscape and the terrain of God that when we get to this point, when God’s about to do something He will build on, those who’ve come through all the stuff and being faithful to Him and being true to Him – in spite of difficult circumstances and- I’m believing that there is definitely a breakthrough day coming up ahead of us. And I think you and I have got to get ready in all kinds of ways. One of the new ways that will come upon us is the use of screen technology. And God will use that in all kinds of- and we’re getting ourselves very ready for that ah, in- which I’ll explain later in a later date. More about that.
But one of the things we are doing in our college, it would be one of the few colleges in Australia, (I don’t know anybody else, who’s got courses that train students in media and graphics and ah- short films and the acting and the presenting for all of that), so it’s such a great time to get ready, to actually uh, get ready for that new day. That new move of God. You might be watching on TV right now or ah, online and ah- just consider that. Think about actually getting yourself ready for- because, because God will be looking for people who are not gonna to get ready but who are actually in position, ready to catch the ball and run with whatever He’s gonna do.
We’re excited, man! I’m excited about you! I’m excited for all the great things that are gonna happen to some of you. Cos eventually, you gotta understand, trials finish. I know some of you have been in trials that seems like, forever. But eventually trials come over and then the blessing- the day of blessing comes through, when you get your breakthrough. Eventually, God does answer prayer. And ah- eventually it does come through. You can’t keep praying and praying and praying and praying and praying and nothing ever happens. Eventually the day comes when the sun comes up! And your days of mourning are over and the turtle dove sings in the land, amen!” - Phil Pringle, Ps Phil Pringle: Heartbeat – Servanthood, 34:09-40:41,http://www2.myc3church.net/videos/ps-phil-pringle-heartbeat-servanthood, C3 Oxford Falls, Morning Service, 04/03/2012.
Above in his own words, Pringle gives us very valuable insight. Before we continue, we encourage you to watch the Warragamba Dam prophecy in Part 1 in this series of articles before reading onwards.
ISN’T THIS DISDAIN?
1. “… when Mr Flannery ah, announced that there was- the Warragambah Dam would never be full again. We could only hope for it to get to about 70% and so we better build a desalination plant at huge cost to the tax payer. Apparantly it’s a hundred dollars a year for everybody in New South Wales, ah, added on.
He should have come to church amen because, apparently I ah, (and I can remember this), ah standing up and I saw ah, Warragamba Dam overflowing.”
Pringle clearly gets cocky about his prophecy and suggests Mr Flannery “should have come to church amen because, apparently I … remember … standing up and I saw ah, Warragamba Dam overflowing”. Should this be the attitude of a ‘prophet of God’? Does the spirit behind the prophet point us to God or the prophet? We looked at this attitude of Phil Pringle in Part 2, where Pringle also had a go at Flannery again on the last day of Presence Conference.
ISN’T THIS DISOBEDIENCE?
2. ”And as I stood up to pray the Lord said, ”Prophesy the sun is gonna to shine”.
I said, “Give me a break God! We’ve been sitting in this freezing rain for eight hours and it’s been raining for days and it’s pouring down”. Black skies. I said, “There is no way it’s going to shine”. And he said, “Say it’s going to shine”. You know I couldn’t get rid of this conviction. So I stood up and I kinda did a mealy-mouth prayer and said, “Oh Lord! Let the sun shine! You know I’ll, you know, [fist pumps] I’ll believe God You’ll- North Korea will have revival, amen!”. It was a great moment but then the- but when I opened my eyes, the whole sky had parted and it was shining. And I thought, “Awww! I should have said “Shine!” Amen”.
So. They called me the prophet of sunshine from then on up in Korea because, [word fumble] you know the guy from Australia brings the sunshine. And a- and so umm.”
Pringle points out another prophecy he made in Korea. If Pringle WAS a genuine prophet – his attitude is abysmal towards God. He was disobedient in three ways.
His attitude. (If you read His book ‘Faith’, Pringle will teach you that your PMA faith is what connects you to God. Negativity disconnects you from God. So what is speaking to him?)
Pringle didn’t do as God said and did it his way.
When God supposedly said, “Prophesy that the sun is going to shine” – Pringle not only disobeyed that instruction, he ‘prophesied’ saying, “I’ll believe God You’ll- North Korea will have revival, amen!” This only goes to show that Pringle wants to see revival happen in spite of God NOT even saying revival will happen.
How can C3 trust their prophet if Phil Pringle adds to God’s simple instruction like this? Did this revival come to North Korea?
This insight from Pringle only reveals that Pringle is a very disobedient prophet (even if he was somehow legitimate). However, if Yonggi Cho’s church called Pringle “the prophet of sunshine from then on”, then Pringle must have portrayed himself as a ‘prophet’ to them somehow. This is probably because he prophesied revival.
What was bad with Pringle’s approach to ‘prophecy’ was his comment that “North Korea will have revival”. He seemed to associate this revival to when the sun was meant to shine again in Korea. So did that prophecy of the North Korea revival come true? We will conclude that the answer is a fat out ‘no’ based on Pringle’s personal account on revival here:
So if Pringle was somehow a legitimate prophet, would you trust Phil Pringle who is openly disobedient to God in more ways then one, in regards to prophecy? Would you believe a man who prophesies ‘revival’ on everything, even if some-how God tells him to prophesy issues that aren’t connected to revival?
ISN’T THIS DISCOMBOBULATING?
3. “I made a commitment, “Lord, I’ll just say the stuff that I see and” and uh. And uh- And so that, you know, prompted me in that meeting and I said, “I can see Warragamaba Dam. It’s gonna flood over”. While I’m saying this I’m [like], “What are you saying? It’s like – we’ve been in this drought and it looked like it was never going to happen again”.”
It is interesting to note that while Pringle said earlier that he “can remember this”, he, “saw… Warragamba Dam overflowing”. After his prophetic account in Korea he says, “Lord, I’ll just say the stuff that I see”. He then goes on to describe what he saw in the Warragamba dam prophecy.
But now we have two different stories.
In the actual video, he said, “as I was standing here tonight, God spoke to me about a really weird thing”. In the video, he was continually speaking on behalf of God and not once mentioned a vision.
Above he says, “I can see Warragamaba Dam. It’s gonna flood over”. In fact, in his above blurb – Pringle has said continually he saw a vision of the Warragamba Dam full.
For someone who remembers giving this prophetic encounter, Pringle is giving us two very different stories. Did God speak to Pringle audibly or did God give Pringle a vision to speak from?
ISN’T THIS DISHONEST?
4. “Obviously if it hadn’t happened I wouldn’t be telling you this story but um… Haha. But thankfully it did.”
While Pringle treats this as a joke, this is what happens at C3. When a supposed vision from God does not come to pass or a prophecy fails to materialise, then it is swept aside by C3. They hope people don’t notice. We have. Expect more articles on these topics down the track.
ISN’T THIS DISPROVED?
5. ”Because there was an addendum to that. Ah, that, ah, was quite ah, quite interesting for me. And, you know ah, in 1998 you’ll recall we had in an OZFIRE meeting, (Presence Meeting), I gave a similar thing about the two tallest buildings in the world coming to the ground and after that, a financial melt down. And ah- then streams of people would start coming into the house of God. And that actually happened in all kinds of ways.”
There was indeed an addendum to the Warragamba Dam prophecy. In relation to the dam prophecy, Pringle brings up an old prophecy he made in 1998. He still insists that the twin towers in New York were “the two tallest buildings in the world”. They were not. We proved this prophecy to be false here.
This is clearly a false prophecy. Why would Pringle use a false prophecy to say that this Warragamba Dam prophecy is legitimate?
ISN’T THIS DISASTER?
6. “But the point of the physical occurrence of these things was to indicate another thing that God was actually about to do. And I remember when I- when I actually announced that, that ah, “Immediately afterwards when that happens, when Warragamba Dam does spill over, that’s the time that the Lord will bring a fresh new move of the Holy Spirit all around Australia. And we’ll see a move of God like we have not seen before”.” (Emphasis mine.)
Saying the above is risky on Pringle’s behalf. Phil has made this VERY clear by now stating “Immediately afterwards when that happens, when Warragamba Dam does spill over, that’s the time that the Lord will bring a fresh new move of the Holy Spirit all around Australia”. He has NOW set a time when revival is going to come.
It’s not a few months away. It’s not next year. This revival will be immediate. If this revival does not come, this could be disastrous to peoples faith.
ISN’T THIS DISAPPOINTING?
7. “And I’m just so thrilled with you guys. Every week we turn up – you know seeing your faithfulness, your strength, you’re – we’ve been through so many different pieces of the landscape and the terrain of God that when we get to this point, when God’s about to do something He will build on, those who’ve come through all the stuff and being faithful to Him and being true to Him – in spite of difficult circumstances and- I’m believing that there is definitely a breakthrough day coming up ahead of us. And I think you and I have got to get ready in all kinds of ways. One of the One of the new ways that will come upon us is the use of screen technology. And God will use that in all kinds of- and we’re getting ourselves very ready for that ah, in- which I’ll explain later in a later date. More about that.”
In the Warragamba Dam prophecy in Part 1, Pringle says in his prophecy that the dam will overflow and revival will come with a condition on C3. We will look more at this in Part 4. However, Phil Pringle also has explained the status of this condition very clearly in the above blurb.
Pringle said, “Every week we turn up” and praised C3 for their “faithfulness” and “strength”. He talks about C3′s endurance and how “God’s about to do something He will build on, those who’ve come through all the stuff and being faithful to Him and being true to Him”. Pringle is FULLY convinced that C3 has fulfilled their ‘if’ commitment to God. And the proof of their commitment to God is the Warragamba Dam overflowing. This means if the revival doesn’t come, Pringle does not have his congregation to blame. If the revival does not come, many who came expecting and fully convinced they were faithful, will become disappointed when the promised revival does not turn up.
This is dangerous on his behalf. Why? He cannot now back out and blame C3 church for not being committed. If he didn’t say the above and revival didn’t happen, Pringle could pull an Andrew Kubala by blaming the congregation for not being faithful. This means he could escape the consequences of prophesying falsely.
He didn’t.
ISN’T THIS DISPOSABLE?
8. “I’m believing that there is definitely a breakthrough day coming up ahead of us. And I think you and I have got to get ready in all kinds of ways. One of the new ways that will come upon us is the use of screen technology. And God will use that in all kinds of- and we’re getting ourselves very ready for that ah, in- which I’ll explain later in a later date. More about that.”
Pringle makes it clear that he is convinced that revival is coming because of C3′s faithful commitment. This means they need to “to get ready in all kinds of ways”. We will be looking more into this in Part 4 & 5.
Even by analysing the content of Pringle’s Warragamba Dam message on the 4th of March, it is clear this prophecy is false. Remember that C3 showed this prophecy at their C3 Presence Conference on the 10th of April and the 13th of April. That is more than a month later after the dam overflowed. If they were still waiting for the “breakthrough day coming up ahead of us”, then they ignored Pringle’s words that the revival was to be “immediately”.
Is it not clear enough already that this is a false prophecy? Why did C3 bother to pick up something that is disposable and parade it at Presence Conference 2012 in front of thousands of Christians? If it hadn’t come, why flog it?
In closing, we wish to thank Phil Pringle for his insights. He has helped clarify his ‘prophetic office’, how we should understand the Warragamba Dam prophecy and how it should work out.
Pringle has made it clear: if the prophecy is not fulfilled it is either God who got it wrong or Phil Pringle is a false prophet. Either way, this will be a disaster to C3 if revival does not come soon. What will happen to all those expecting revival who are getting “ready in all kinds of ways”?
These articles are tackling the false Warragamba Dam prophecy made by Phil Pringle. At Presence Conference 2012, C3 aired this Warragamba Dam prophecy twice on video.
THE DELUGE
It’s worth highlighting some articles that were published in 2007 onwards.
Reporters were pointing out how Flannery’s predictions were falling flat. Two years later from 2005, the media and other sources made the following reports. In 2007, news reports recorded Sydney and parts of NSW were deluged.
Bolt’s 2007 article ridiculed Flannery on another topic saying, “And forecasters in the US, meanwhile, downgraded predictions for hurricanes this year; for the second year contradicting claims by noted alarmist Tim Flannery that warming was making hurricanes worse.”
So it is clear that in 2007, (Flannery either taken out of context or not), many predictions Flannery made were wrong. The Australian media weren’t buying his claims. The rains came down and the floods came up. Journalists, bloggers and critics had their say on Flannery, climate change and how his predictions were wrong.
THE DELUSION
So Phil Pringle got a ‘prophecy’. So what? What was the point of broadcasting this twice at Presence Conference 2012? The Dam was brimming with water on the 3rd of March. So revival should have broken out the next day at C3 Church, right?
Not so. Phil Pringle and C3 seemed to link this prophecy to being fulfilled at C3 Presence Conference 2012. (We will examine the faults with this in Part 3.)
We have reason to believe that Pringle WAS involved in the editing process. In our article ‘Who Is The Liar? Phil Pringle Or God?‘, we have a screen grab of a tweet from Pringle saying,
“Can’t believe what our media guys have put 2gether to help with my mssg this wknd”.
This reveals Pringle has a say in how things are presented before being shown at church events. Obviously Pringle would have endorsed the Warragamba Dam Prophecy video before it aired. However, he also may have been with his “media guys” in the editing process.
In a below video snippet captured on the last day of Presence Conference 2012, you will see Pringle clearly pitting the news and Flannery against himself and God – they were wrong, he was right. It seems Pringle’s understanding of this entire escapade is what C3 portrayed in the Warragamba Dam video. We shall dare ask the question in this section: Was this really a reaction to something Phil Pringle doesn’t like OR an opportunity to make Pringle look good? Before tackling this question we need to look at what was said on the last day at Presence Conference 2012.
The Piper Playing The Sniper
On the last day of Presence Conference Pringle showed the prophecy video again. A bit later, Pringle then spoke in reaction to Flannery and the media. It is worth watching Pringle’s behaviour towards Flannery here:
“You’re thinking, you’re going to die. You’re thinking it’s impossible. You’ll never gonna make it through. But He’s got higher and deeper purposes going on, so that you can be a carrier of a power from another world. And the capacity to carry that power into people’s lives means that you need to flow with Him. So that when He tells you to do something ridiculous, like to say- when you’re looking everyday at the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald and saying, “The dam is empty. The dam is empty. We’re never gonna have it again…”
Mr Flannery says, “Guys. The governments paying me a hundred and eighty thousand a year to let you know what’s gonna happen in the future. It’s never ever gonna be full again. So we need to build a one billion dollar desalination plant (which they did build and now is in moth balls), and we need to tax everybody an extra hundred bucks to actually build the thing in Sydney.”
People should come to church. [Applause] People should come to church.
We got greenhouse people predicting all kinds of stuff today. But we need some prophets who are carrying a presence on them that can see into the future. People who can work miracles and break a drought. Who can speak to seas and storms and tsunamis and say “Stop!” Men and women of enormous power.” - Phil Pringle, Presence Conference 2012, Day 4, Day Sermon, Friday, 13/04/2012.
Did Pringle Prophesy Out of Reaction?
Did Pringle hide his prejudices and his own opinions behind the supposed prophecy of God?
Pringle believed that people had said that the Warragamba Dam would never be full again. With the failed predictions in 2007, it seems safe for Pringle at best to prophesy out of reaction that the dam would be full.
He is not happy with Flannery at all. To treat Flannery the way that Pringle did in the conference was VERY rude, critical and condescending. (The irony is Pringle vehemently opposes critics and those who judge him and his ministry. So who is Pringle to now criticise and judge?)
[On a side note, we observed that Pringle used powerful imagery with his words when he referred to the desalination plant as being "in moth balls". Over the hundred sermons we've examined, that turn of phrase seemed foreign to his speech, so we did a quick check to see if Pringle relied on his critics to glean this terminology. We found this:
Malcolm Holland reports in his article Professor Stuart White saying that "the desalination plant "should be put in moth balls until the next severe drought"." Did Pringle refer to a critic's comments in his criticism to Flannery?]
Even away from the outburst, Pringle was pitting himself against the “greenhouse people”. He clearly doesn’t like “Greenhouse people predicting all kinds of stuff.” So someone like Pringle had to come along to save the day.
We know that Phil Pringle has strong associations with the Liberal party. He’s expressed his liberal views from the pulpit before. Even in the above snipe, Pringle has shown disdain to the Liberal Party’s opposition. There is a good chance this prophecy was spoken out of irritation and reaction against his politically prejudice views against the ”greenhouse people.”
Therefore, one has to ask the question: how could he make the claim he made in 2008?
“That as I was standing here tonight, God spoke to me about a really weird thing. He said, “People have said that the Warragamba Dam will never be full again”.”
The above comment in the prophecy video contradicts his outburst above. How is what God’s said “weird” when Pringle clearly was irritated continually by “the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald and saying, “The dam is empty. The dam is empty. We’re never gonna have it again…”?”
Why would God say “People have said that the Warragamba Dam will never be full again,” when it’s fairly obvious that the media DID ridicule claims that the Warragamba Dam will never be full again? C3′s own media sources they used IN THEIR VIDEO proved this for us. For Pringle to be this narrow minded only highlight’s that he really had a bee in his bonnet; a bone to pick with the political spectrum he often disdains. It seems plausible he prophesied out of reaction against those he didn’t like.
Did Pringle Pridefully Prophesy?
It is evident that Pringle uses the prophecy to elevate himself.
In the above outburst, Pringle personally alludes to himself being the reason people should come to church (he was the one who gave the prophecy). The evidence suggests above that Pringle sincerely believes he broke the drought, otherwise he wouldn’t have said, ”we need some prophets who… can work miracles and break a drought”. The connection Pringle made was that ‘prophets’ like himself. can break droughts.
It’s also worth noting that at Presence Conferences and giving messages at his own C3, Pringle does teach people he is some amazing prophet, or even an ‘Elijah’. It is possible, he is glorifyng the fact in his mind that he broke the drought as Elijah did in the scriptures.
This year on the opening night Presence 2012, Pringle aired the Warragamaba Dam video. This only provided another reason why people should give money to ’prophet’ Pringle.
It becomes quite clear when you watch the prophecy video in his Friday session, that Pringle uses the prophecy to elevate himself and the C3 Movement. Don’t believe us? Watch the sermon here:
We will even further make the claim that this convenient prophecy helped market C3 Church to gullible Christians and churches who were enticed to the Presence 2012 event. Why? We recorded Pringle saying this in 2011.
It makes a lot of sense why Pringle wants C3 to “become more cross-denominational, not parochial about just being C3.” In pushing the video the way Pringle did at his Conference, his motive becomesmore and more questionable. One “motivation that [C3] have” is that other churches and Christians from other churches “get involved in what ]they’re] doing.” Pringle wants C3 Presence Conference to “be a blessing” to other churches alright! On the first Presence 2012 night, Pringle checked what denominations were present.
The question should then be asked: if the prophecy was of God, why is Pringle using it to elevate himself and his movement? Isn’t the Spirit of God behind the utterance of a prophecy meant to point us to Jesus (as Jesus Himself said in John 16 & as Pringle himself said in the sermon above)? Why is this spirit elevating Pringle and C3? Why is this spirit not pointing to Jesus?
THE DELAY
The video said that on the 15th of June 2008, according to Phil, God decided to act out of character. In the Warragamba Dam prophecy video at Presence Conference 2012, (in front of thousands of Christians around Sydney (and online webcasts)), Pringle said:
“… God spoke to me about a really weird thing. He said, “People have said that the Warragamba Dam will never be full again”.” (3:32)
Who exactly was saying “the Warragamba Dam will never be full again” after the deluge the previous year? As we covered in the previous article, no media that C3 covered said straight out “the Warragamba Dam will never be full again”. Flannery was quoted by Sheehan saying, “There’s only two years’ water supply in Warragamba Dam”. So we have Flannery (and his followers?). The above media articles in 2007 put to rest the Warragamba Dam fear.
But Phil Pringle said that God came to him in June 2008. Why?
Why did God delay to give His prophetic message to Pringle? Did Jesus really miss the boat here?
To demonstrate how absurd ‘God’s’ behaviour was to Pringle, observe the timeline in this diagram. This should help explain why ‘God’ delayed his message for so long.
It is rather a convenient prophecy to make don’t you think?
Tim Flannery’s prediction failed the year before. In Part 1 in this series of articles, we demonstrated that C3 mislead people by pitting the media and Flannery against Pringle’s Warragamba Dam prophecy. But when you examine when Pringle ‘prophesied’, there was no media or Flannery to oppose him. The media didn’t believe the predictions. 2007 came about and the rain came instead. Warragamba Dam didn’t dry up. The media criticised Flannery and all moved on… Except Pringle.
As we now see, the timing of this prophecy was very convenient. Instead of prophesying in 2005 when Flannery’s ‘predictions’ were initially made, he waited until 2008, several months after the critics were already having a go at Flannery. Prophet Pringle’s a bit late to the bus don’t you think?
This delay makes the prophecy that ‘God’ gave Pringle pointless and irrelevant. Anyone could say that one day that Warragamba Dam could be full. It doesn’t take a prophet of God to say that.
But this does raise the question: Does that make the media prophetic like Pringle? Of course not. They were on the case BEFORE Pringle prophesied in the first place (see articles above) and continued to do so after he prophesied (in the following articles below).
It seems that the Warragamba Dam prophecy video made Pringle out to be the only one opposing Flannery’s predictions. But all the above articles clearly demonstrate that this is simply not the case. He seemed to speak out of reaction and pride. In light of this information, Pringle’s ‘divine’ prophecy seems almost redundant.
While writing this article, our hands were continually connecting with our foreheads rather forcefully, in utter disbelief. The amount of distortion that occurred in Phil Pringle’s three minute at the C3 Presence Conference 2012 was mind-boggling. The more we examined the video, the more stunned we became in how deceiving this video really was. This is part 1 of a series of 3 articles, addressing the brilliant con artistry of Phil Pringle and the C3 Movement. And when we say con artistry, we really mean it. If anyone can show us how any of this was accidental, we would love to know. E-mail us at c3churchwatch@hotmail.com or feel free to discuss this article below.
C3 PITTING MEDIA & FLANNERY AGAINST PRINGLE’S PROPHECY
At the C3 Presence Conference 2012, Phil Pringle had a video made of himself about a ‘prophecy’ he spluttered on the 15th of June, 2008. In the video, C3 pitted Phil Pringle against the ‘voice of the media’ and Tim Flannery. However, the way they presented the information made it look as though Tim Flannery made the majority of the comments in support of the media. Here is a picture from the video:
We will be looking at the transcript, each snippet (from 1-5) to see if C3 Church gave a correct view of the information they presented and finally looking at a number of sources and a timeline of the prophecy that Pringle gave.
First off, C3 said this about Tim Flannery (3:00):
“In 2005, [Snippet 4B background of 'article' appears behind Flannery] Professor Tim Flannery predicted that [snippet 1] Sydney’s dams could be empty in as little as two years due to global warming. [Snippet 2]
Audio excerpt: “Mr Flannery has warned that Sydney will soon be facing extreme difficulties with water.”
[Snippet 3] Climate change expert Tim Flannery has sad that even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill [Snippet 4A] Sydney’s dams and river systems. He’s also stated that we are running out of water [Snippet 5]– and time.”
By reading the above transcript, we will demonstrate not only what is wrong with the 6 snippets but what is also untrue with the audio statements. Flannery did not say, “we are running out of water – and time”. Paul Sheehan did. Read ‘Snippet 1′ for more information.
Flannery did not say that, “even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill Sydney’s dams and river systems”. While he said something like it – Flannery did not specify that these dams and river system were either Sydney’s dams and river systems or specifically Warragamba Dam. What’s even worse is that this is a quote taken out of context, which will be addressed in ‘Snippet 5′. At best, C3 misrepresented Tim Flannery (Chief Commissioner of the Government’s new Climate Commission), in front of thousands of Christians. Watch the video below at 2:57 to see the ‘prophecy’.
SNIPPET 1
C3 had the snippet alongside the face of Tim Flannery,
“Running out of water – and time
April 25, 2005″
This was the shock-jock title of an article by Paul Sheehan from the Sydney Morning Herald. If there was anything C3 could have used, it could have been Sheehan’s article. This article quotes Flannery saying,
“There’s only two years’ water supply in Warragamba Dam,” says Flannery, “yet Frank Sartor [NSW Minister for Energy and Utilities] is talking about the situation being stable … If the computer models are right then drought conditions will become permanent in eastern Australia.” - Paul Sheehan, Running out of water – and time, http://www.smh.com.au/news/Opinion/Running-out-of-water–and-time/2005/04/24/1114281450815.html, 25/04/2005.
They could have quoted Flannery saying the above. However, C3 didn’t. It was also Sheehan that made the claim,
“The water restrictions now in force in Sydney are never going to be lifted, except after a run of freak conditions, just as Warragamba Dam is never again going to be full unless there is a freak period of high rainfall unlikely to be sustained.” - Paul Sheehan, Running out of water – and time, http://www.smh.com.au/news/Opinion/Running-out-of-water–and-time/2005/04/24/1114281450815.html, 25/04/2005.
Observe how Sheehan used the word ‘unless’ in the above quote. This article is speculative at best. This article did NOT say that the Warragamba dam will be empty. C3 simply grabbed the shock jock title to push their agenda for ‘Prophet’ Pringle’s sake. They distorted information for their gain.
SNIPPET 2
C3 also had up next to Tim Flannery the quote,
“Sydney’s dams dry in just two years.”
This may have been something Tim Flannery said. But once again lets look at the context,
“Leading environmentalist Professor Tim Flannery has warned that Australia is now entering long-term climate change, which could cause longer and more frequent droughts.
He also predicts that the ongoing drought could leave Sydney’s dams dry in just two years.
Professor Flannery, who is the director of the South Australian Museum, has told ABC TV’s Latelinethat global warming is threatening Australia’s chance of returning to a regular rainfall pattern.
“Three major phenomena are depriving Australia of its rainfall,” he said.
“One of them is just simply the shifting weather patterns as the planet warms up, so the tropics are expanding southwards and the winter rainfall zone is sort of dropping off the southern edge of the continent.”
He says the second phenomena is disturbances in the ozone layer.
“That is causing wind speeds around Antarctica to increase and, again, drawing that winter rainfall to the south,” he said.
The third phenomena, which Professor Flannery says is the most worrying, is the recurring El Nino weather pattern.
“That’s occurring as the Pacific Ocean warms up, and we’re seeing much longer El Ninos than we’ve seen before and often now back-to-back el Ninos with very little of the La Nina cycle, the flood cycle, in between,” he said.
Professor Flannery says that all adds up to back-to-back droughts, and if he had a say he would ration water use.
“If you think there’s only a 10 per cent chance that this rainfall deficit’s going to continue for another few years, you’d be pulling out all stops to preserve water,” he said.
The ABC reported Flannery supposedly saying, “ongoing drought could leave Sydney’s dams dry in just two years.” This could be ABC referring to Flannery’s out-of-context claim made on Lateline (read Snippet 3). Or it could be that ABC could be referring too Sheehan’s article. Flannery explains in this article, just like in Landline the importance of the ‘if’.
“If you think there’s only a 10 per cent chance that this rainfall deficit’s going to continue for another few years.”
“Professor Flannery says that if Sydney’s dams dry up, the city’s ground water supply would last just 10 days.”
There is nothing wrong with Flannery giving listeners a probability on drought conditions and hinging possibilities on an ‘if’. If Australia does’t behave resourcefully towards water, we naturally should expect water shortages. After examining the way the interview is conducted – the article comes across as speculative at best, especially with Flannery exploring, “the worst case scenario for Sydney”. Speculation after speculation.
At least with this article, C3 could have possibly claim one news article explored the option that the drought could be prolonged because of global warming. The article however, did not say that the Warragamba Dam would not be filled again. Global warming or not, C3 misquoted an article again. This article was not saying Warragamba Dam was never going to be full again. Once again, they distorted information for their gain. Strike 2.
SNIPPET 3
C3 then published another quote, this time not from Tim Flannery but from the Herald Sun:
“In 2005, Flannery predicted Sydney’s dams could be dry in as little as two years because global warming was drying up the rains, leaving the city “facing extreme difficulties with water”"
Here is the context:
“Small problem, though: after so many years of hearing Flannery’s predictions, we’re now able to see if some of the scariest have actually panned out.
“And we’re also able to see if people who bet real money on his advice have cleaned up or been cleaned out.
So before we buy a great green tax from Flannery, whose real expertise is actually in mammology, it may pay to check his record. Ready?
In 2005, Flannery predicted Sydney’s dams could be dry in as little as two years because global warming was drying up the rains, leaving the city “facing extreme difficulties with water”.
Andrew Bolt possibly misquoted Flannery from Lateline. McKew posed a hypothetical question to Flannery:
“MAXINE McKEW: Well, I’m not asking you to be alarmist, but in fact, what would you say is a plausible worst-case scenario that you and, say, other scientists in the Wentworth Group have come to agree on?
TIM FLANNERY: Well, the worst-case scenario for Sydney is that the climate that’s existed for the last seven years continues for another two years. In that case, Sydney will be facing extreme difficulties with water, and of course, large cities are the most vulnerable of all structures to water deficit because you’ve got 4 million people there who need water just for everyday survival, and in the case of Sydney, there’s very few back-up reserves. Sydney’s ground water supplies are only about 13 gigalitres, which is about 10 days’ worth of supply. So there are not many options for Sydney and, of course, without water you can’t make power, you can’t wash, you can’t clean your food, you can’t have industry. So there are some quite severe problems if the current trend continues. I really do hope that that doesn’t happen, but as I say, something will have to change in order for Sydney to get out of that predicted future.” - Landline, Flannery warns on global warming, http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2005/s1389827.htm, 10/06/2005. (Accessed 29/05/2012, Emphasis mine).
Flannery answers the hypothetical. He is speculative in this piece. C3 also ‘reported’ that Flannery said, “Sydney will be facing extreme difficulties with water”. They too, like Bolt, took Flannery out of context.
As you can see, Andrew Bolt from the Herald Sun was also taken out of context by C3 Church. Bolt’s article was criticising Flannery’s ‘prediction’. C3 misquoted Andrew Bolt’s misquote. It’s also worth noting that Bolt’s article was not written between 2005 and 2007. It was written in 2011.
Bolt’s did not write to promote Flannery, rather to criticise him and his prediction. C3 took this critics criticisms against Flannery by misquoting Bolt AND gave the impression that the was written in 2005. C3 used this visual aid along with the other misquotes to mislead Christians to believe their outstanding ‘prophet’ Phil Pringle is powerful against the oppositional media.
Fancy C3 Church twisting the words of a critic to validate Pringle’s office of ‘prophet’. AGAIN, C3 distorted information for their gain. Strike 3.
You’ll notice straight away that C3 grabbed this segment from a blog. The blog is JustMEinT’s General Blog.
We know they grabbed their quote from this blog because it is the same font, same italics, same linkage.
SNIPPET 4B (B for Background)
C3 Church not only twisted the article for their gain, they also used JustMEinT’s General blog article for the background of their portrayal of Tim Flannery and the five snippets in their video. In the below picture, you can see the segment of text C3 used for the background of their video on Pringle’s Warragamba Dam prophecy. The body of text that makes up the background is the following:
“He was chosen for this $3,000 a week (3 days a week) job for his expertise, his communication skills, and his track record in the competitive business of sounding alarms about the dire consequences of our “carbon polluting” ways. His alarms, he claims, are based on an anthropogenic global warming theory that has been confirmed by an overwhelming consensus of scientists to be ninety per cent probable – the implication being that there is only one chance in ten of him being wrong.
But how can his teachings and preaching ever be tested? Most of his apocalyptic prophesies are projected far enough into the future for him to be well and truly beyond accountability when they are proved right or wrong.
When it came to Australia’s rainfall, however, Flannery threw caution to the wind and declared that the apocalypse is now.
Compare the above text from the critics blog to the background of C3′s expose of Flannery and the media.
To make matters worse, the hyperlink on the snippet C3 took, takes you to Andrew Bolt’s article, ‘An excuse from Flannery and his dud prediction’, (written on the 01/03/2012). The link on the snippet takes you to Bolt’s article that is ridiculing Flannery. Strike 3 and 4.
This blog article was also published on the 2nd of March, 2012. This article was NOT written between 2005-2007. This contradicts the C3 report that Flannery (and others?) in 2005, were saying that the Warragamba Dam will never be full again. This article is NOT saying that the Dam will be empty. It is ridiculing Tim Flannery. They visually misrepresented the quote and the slab of text that made up the background.
C3 has no excuse for their distortion and misrepresentation of the facts. They are not afraid to mock, criticise and condemn bloggers and critics. So why are they now stooping lower then those they condemn, twisting their words and articles to elevate the prophetic status of their leader, Phil Pringle? AGAIN, C3 distorted information for their gain.
Who knew C3 Church would twist the words of a blogger and the bloggers article to validate Pringle’s office of ‘prophet’? Strike 5.
SNIPPET 5
C3 quotes,
“even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems…”
This is a quote from statement C3 used was taken from the ABC show Landline. The transcript reads:
“SALLY SARA: What will it mean for Australian farmers if the predictions of climate change are correct and little is done to stop it? What will that mean for a farmer?
PROFESSOR TIM FLANNERY: We’re already seeing the initial impacts and they include a decline in the winter rainfall zone across southern Australia, which is clearly an impact of climate change, but also a decrease in run-off. Although we’re getting say a 20 per cent decrease in rainfall in some areas of Australia, that’s translating to a 60 per cent decrease in the run-off into the dams and rivers. That’s because the soil is warmer because of global warming and the plants are under more stress and therefore using more moisture. So even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems, and that’s a real worry for the people in the bush. If that trend continues then I think we’re going to have serious problems, particularly for irrigation.” - Sally Sara, Landline, Interview with Professor Tim Flannery, http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2006/s1844398.htm, First published 11/02/2007. (Emphasis added. Accessed 20/04/2012)
An article that C3 could have used could have been the following:
Instead, we are given distortion after distortion for their gain. Strike 6.
Visual imagery is powerful when handled either correctly or incorrectly. How C3 and Pringle presented the information was deviant at best. Each media snippet was NOT saying (as the video suggested), that the Warragamba dam will never be full again.
Could this be an accident? If it was an accident somehow, C3 and Phil Pringle failed spectacularly. If anyone can prove this was an accident, we would be very keen to hear your take on this. It’s hard to fathom this was an accident at all. It seems more than reasonable to say this was deliberate. (Would C3 honestly think someone would record this video, go through their claims individually with all the hype going on and critically examine the snippets presented?)
We think it is personally safe to say that Phil Pringle and the C3 Movement went out of their way to handle these articles FALSELY to exalt the prophetic office of Phil Pringle.
They disregarded the dates these articles were published and took material out of context for convenience-sake to elevate Pringle before other churches. They wanted to parade their prophet. Instead – they paraded an amazing series of distortions before other church denominations on Presence Conference 2012 open night. But it get’s worse (and more absurd). Get ready for part 2.
From ‘Thoughts From My Reformed Self‘, Stokes writes this review on Chris Pringle’s Presence Conference Session on 13/04/2012.
C3’s Chris Pringle Butchers the Gospel In Job to Teach Prosperity Heresy
I’ve already reviewed one message from the Presence Conference in Sydney and have already seen enough to convince me that no one should attend this conference unless as a rescue mission to evangelize the lost that can only become more lost than they were before by believing anything that’s taught here. But we are building a case and making an argument and, keeping that goal in mind, there can never be too much evidence.
For more on the entire C3 Church Movement headed up by Phil Pringle and his wife, a great source is C3Churchwatch blog.
So this time I am reviewing a “sermon” that makes Steven Furtick seem like a breath of fresh air. Chris Pringle already has a strike against her as I consider her preaching because she is a woman who is not only defying the biblical mandate against women teaching groups including men, but further defies God’s word because she holds the office of co-pastor of C3 Church in Sydney with her husband Phil Pringle. Since the Bible clearly forbids women from holding this office in the church, we know right off what low regard Ms. Pringle has for the authority of God’s Word.
But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet, 13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.” (1 Tim. 2:12-13).
“Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach (1 Tim. 3:2)
So there’s one strike, but she has enough strikes to finish off a full lineup through all nine innings! These are the big strikes, which accompany the strikes against her throughout the sermon. First, this message is not about Jesus. It is not taken from the Bible. It is not about the gospel. It is, however, packed with narrative of the history of C3 church, with a heavy dose of anecdotes from the life of Phil and Chris Pringle.
The title of Chris Pringle’s message is “The Scent of Water”. Before you write off that title as ridiculous, in all fairness, that phrase does appear in Job 14, but she fails to present a message that really has anything to do with water or anything that water represents. Instead, she centers the message around the idea of seeds and trees. Sometimes the seed is a dream, sometimes it’s a person. Sometimes the tree is your dream, sometimes it’s you and sometimes it’s the church. Sometimes you’re supposed to bury your seed and let it die. Sometimes you’re supposed to be the seed and reach up to the “scent of water”. Sometimes you’re supposed to shut it in a woodshed and forget about it. (You think I’m kidding, don’t you. Just wait and see for yourself.) As erratic as her imagery may be, her speaking style is more so. I lost count of the times she interrupted herself. Chris Pringle is a world class bunny trailer.
I also sense much untruth in her little stories. I would lay bets that the anecdote supposedly pulled from their early marriage in the middle of this message is more of a yarn or a tall tale. I will make a case for that notion, but admittedly can’t prove it. But my suspicions are not unfounded.
Sidebar to Address an Annoying Habit Among Modern Worship Bands.
I’ve been told by my husband, who used to play keyboard for a worship band, that what I witness at the beginning of this video is called “vamping”. Here is what I’m talking about. The video opens with the end of a worship song. There is no telling what song, because the way they draw out the finale always comes out sounding the same. The female vocalist always wails emotionally above the sound of the band, following no particular melody and maybe repeating stock phrases such as “Oh, Lord” or “We love you, Jesus”. The guitars are pounding one or two chords over and over and over, and the drums draw out a final cymbal-crashing finale over several minutes. All of this is provided with a backdrop of a video of a glittery waterfall pattern, designed to mesmerize. Everyone on stage is most definitely caught up “in the Spirit” because they have their eyes squinched tight and hands raised. So this is called “vamping”? That’s appropriate, I think, considering it’s obviously designed to seduce.
vamp2 [vamp]
noun 1.a seductive woman who uses her sensuality to exploit men.
verb 2. to use feminine charms upon; seduce.
Here I’ll start the “play-by-pay” of Chris Pringle’s morning session. I started out making links that go straight to certain spots in the video, but that started becoming too time consuming so they cease about 20 minutes in:
0:40 Music leader asks everyone to pray for floodgates to open on their neighbor. Sounds dangerous! C3′s hazard insurance premiums are going to go through the roof!!
1:15 Music Leader starts speaking in “tongues”. No interpreter. And I know from personal experience that this is a skill that you can learn to exhibit on demand. Not buying it though he’s making it more believable than some do. Chris Pringle’s efforts, which are on display towards the end of this video, display a need for more practice to be convincing. The music leader follows his burst of babble with a series of bumper-sticker phrases back to back – altogether lacking in meaning or grammatical sense.
2:52 Finally winding down the “vamping” to outline agenda for the evening.
3:43 Encouraging crowd to applaud a pastor in the audience from Lausanne, Switzerland. Ahhhh, Lausanne, hometown of the ecumenical movement. He’s being congratulated for breaking 600 in attendance at their particular C3 site. These interludes between music and message are giving me flashback to my days in sales. They sound suspiciously like they’re conducting a sales rally, complete with shout-outs to the regional managers who put up the best numbers, etc.
Good grief. Pastor from Lausanne being called up to the stage and asked to pray for everyone, but could he do it in French.
5:22 Swiss Pastor prays in French. I guess we’re going back to the Dark Ages, where it’s acceptable to lead worship in a language the congregation doesn’t understand. He does follow with a separate prayer in English, not a translation, just a different prayer in English. He was way more excited while he prayed in French. Too bad we’ll never know what he was excited about. This was followed up with much silliness from the worship leader about how cool French sounds. Music leader actually instructed audience to make a silly French sound in unison.
8:03 Introduces “Pastor” Chris, listing her many amazing qualities.
10:20 He finally finishes praising “Pastor” Chris, who now takes the stage. She proceeds to pay it forward and praises the crowd for theirmany worthy qualities, and becoming verklempt out of love for her people.
11:30 ”I believe in you, all that God has for you,” she declares. Then she has a moment where she says something more honest than maybe she herself realizes: “This is not a teaching session so put away your notebook.” Kind of begs the question, just what kind of session is this?
“It’s going to start popping, out of the earth, out of your heart, out of your lives.” Will this require medical attention?
13:00 Introduces daughter, Rebecca, who “works like a Trojan horse”. Odd simile. She is aware, isn’t she, that Trojan horses are made of wood and require the effort of multiple other people just to get them point A to point B?
13:17 Presenting Pastor Phil’s paintings on stage up for sale. She says anyone who things they’re in “fat city” are under a delusion. They need to sell art to pay their bills. So we’re supposed to believe that Phil Pringle is a starving artist? Really? How about selling the Rolex on your wrist, Pastor Phil? That would pay a lot of bills.
14:14 She starts engraining the concept that money is a “supernatural seed”. Very smooth little insertion of the concept here. “We sow that supernatural seed, and now it’s your turn.”
Does sales pitch for Phil’s paintings, complete with the claim that they are “anointed” with the same power that rests on Phil. That’s a bold assertion. By the way, I am an amateur artist and have even painted some through the years. In my amateur opinion, these are not particularly spectacular paintings. I mean, they’re okay. They remind me of greeting cards. And I think I remember from the review I did of the Furtick sermon that they sold one of these for about $30,000. These definitely do not rate that kind of price tag. The only way people are paying that much is because they believe the Spirit of God will somehow come with paintings. Click here to view where she’s showing them on stage.
I am thinking that the punishment for actually has got to worse for collecting money claiming to sell the Spirit than for trying to buy it. And the punishment for the latter was certainly bad for Simon the magician:
18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money,19 saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are in the gall[c] of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.”
15:37 Chris introduces Bif and Kim Tyson, members of C3 whom I sense are about to be exploited to tug heart strings and to get emotion flowing in the room. The wife is in a wheel chair and is paralyzed from the waist down from a car accident a year ago. That is certainly horrible and sad but doesn’t it literally add insult to injury that they are about to let themselves be used like puppies are used to sell paper towels?
16:37 ”Bif’s story [the woman in the wheelchair], in my heart, has something to do with the supernatural seed” gushes Chris. She is working hard to insert that “seed” concept whenever possible. Later in the conference, Phil Pringle shamelessly uses this so-called principle to draw money from the attendees.
Chris says they are “sowing their supernatural seed” as she presents as a gift one of Phil’s paintings to the couple. Wow that’s a tiny painting! They chose one so small that I can’t recognize what it’s a painting of. Big applause though. Uh, Pastor Chris. There’s a verse I’d like to share with you:
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 6:1)”
18:03 Soundman Jordie comes to fix mic which is rattling against earring. Did she just make a pass at him?! She was obviously joking, but ew! He’s probably a quarter of her age and she’s the pastor’s wife… or actually she’s one of the pastors.
18:49 She says, apologetically, “I’m going to get to the Bible.” Promises, promises…
19:10 Gratuitous insertion of reference to her making love to her husband. She apparently received these particular earrings while they were… you know…. Thank you so much for that image. Where’s the Ambien? I’m going to need a dreamless sleep tonight. She also decides to share that the mic is caught in her bra. It’s kind of embarrassing the antics they go through to get it untangled. Raucous laughter from the audience.
20:29 ”It’s all about this seed—this relationship”. Oh, I forgot that one. The seed is also a relationship. Got it.
20:38 Okay, this is starting to bug me. She is using Jordie’s mom as an illustration but has forgotten her name. This is the fourth or fifth time within only about 20 minutes of combined Chris Pringle/Phil Pringle footage that I have witnessed them forgetting somebody’s name among those that works on their staff or are part of their church. This is supposed to be the flock they’re shepherding and they don’t even care enough about these people to remember their names! Each time they stumble like this, they try to whitewash over it with flattery. She immediately starts to refer to Helen, whose name she forgot, as her sister.
20:46 Tells story about Wendy (Jordie’s mom) and how she had brain cancer and wasn’t a Christian. She was brought to Jesus and healed of her brain cancer. Jesus did not receive any glory for this, but these things were credited to the life-changing power present in the connect groups at C3. Not a WORD about God, about Jesus, about his healing Power! This is going to be a very long message.
21:35 ”This awesome, supernatural seed is going va-va-va-va-va in the earth.” What is that word? Is that a va-va-va-va-verb?
21:53 Chris refers to the so-called prophecy regarding the filling of the Warragamba Dam.
I have to insert here that there is absolutely nothing so far that would clue anyone in that this is a Christian gathering. Chris is now talking about “God’s supernatural power”. What god? Which god? I think I’m going to stop capitalizing god (as well as her “holy spirit”) until she gives some reason to do otherwise.
22:06 She is just babbling at this point. She is making no sense, but she believes whatever she’s babbling “with all her heart”
22:26 ”You have literally been drawn here by the scent of water.” I think you need to look up what “literal” means. A few sentences later, “There’s something that happens in a seed that’s in the earth… something that’s hidden…. dark, black, possible even dead. I know that the holy spirit today is going to revive and turn things around, supernaturally as you and I lift up, look up to the scent of water.” I refuse to capitalize this woman’s holy spirit.
23:05 Chris Pringle has a severe case of A.D.D. She gets scattered and stalls and follows every possible bunny trail. For instance, she just came to an abrupt stop to address the band behind her. She realizes they had not been dismissed and wondered if they minded still being on stage. She then inquires of someone in the front row (Phil?) if the band is distracting. I have to answer for her not half so distracting as her self-inflicted interruptions! She then shows remorse for bringing up the subject, thinking they might feel unwanted and tells them that she loves having them up there because they’re her kids, all of them, and she’s “Momma Chris”. Then immediately admits to not knowing the name of the girl on the drums, which rather spoiled the effect of her little speech.
Informed of the drummer’s name, Chris is flustered as if she ought to have known her name. (Yes, she should have.) Chris then remarks on their striking resemblance to Erica and Darlene. This gives evidence that she doesn’t know any of them well or their faces would be quite distinct from one another. A brief attempt to get back on track lasted about two seconds before stops again inquire how she’s doing on time. At this point, this is a valid concern since her various self-inflicted interruptions have probably eaten up the clock. It shows a lack of respect for those in the audience who paid money for this conference. She seems quite unprepared and doesn’t seem to concerned, though, that she’s wasting the time they paid for.
24:28 Starts talking about Steven Furtick’s message and how she had a flashback to her life in the80s while Steven was preaching.
25:00 Chris asserts that that her holy spirit moves and speaks in those times our mind wanders. She’s making a case, it seems, that those with A.D.D. are spiritually gifted. She’s encouraging an undisciplined mind here and making it a virtue.
25:18 Chris says the holy spirit wants to get us to reach up to the scent of water. If this is true, her holy spirit is going to have to train me how I reach for a smell and what water smells like exactly.
25:44 Out of the blue, interrupts herself again to tell the audience that she has lost 10 kilos and not 12 as she had claimed yesterday. This couldn’t be more out of place. I think she has no ability to keep thoughts that pop into her had from popping right out of her mouth.
26:55 Another bunny trail to announce Phil’s 60th birthday is next month. Feels the need to share their vacation plans and says something that I gather is inappropriate, but she’s using Australian slang, with which I’m unfamiliar. It might be really bad for all I know, so I’m going to not quote her.
26:28 Says guiltily and apologetically, “I’ve got to get onto the message. I’ve almost read a scripture… It’s part of a scripture.” We’re almost a half-hour in. That would be nice. But is that all we’re probably going to get? A verse? Part of a verse? “Don’t worry about what I’m saying. Just pick up the good vibes. Okay?” Wow… she’s getting her theology from the Beach Boys?
26:56 ”I’m going to get to this little supernatural seed, and it’s a trick. There’s a trick in the supernatural seed. It’s actually in the natural seed as well.” This sentence makes absolutely no sense to me! I’m lost. Chris then circles back to continue to her earlier story about her flashback to the 80′s. Here, Chris talks at length about the history of C3 and its humble beginnings. ” Phil was, blah, blah, blah… and I was blah, blah, blah… and we were blah, blah, blah….” Can we have something more along the lines of “Jesus did…”, “God ordained…”, and “His Spirit has…” and pull from their story that’s already been recorded for us?
29:06 ”Some things, we can’t see but god can see. It’s hidden in the earth. We don’t know it yet. Some of your pastors and leaders are there right now.” I have a prediction that the magic trick for getting the seed out of its hiding place is to plant more seeds. In the world of rosperity preachers, “seed” always means money.
29:37 ”Every day, we were reading this book by T.L. and Daisy Osborne. A Daily Guide to Miracles.” Hmmm…. This is the title of a book by Oral Roberts. The actual title is A Daily Guide to Miracles and Successful Living through Seed-Faith. When I look up the authors she just cited, I find that T.L. Osborn was Roberts partner in street evangelistic meetings in the 1930′s. Here is my first piece of evidence that she’s making this story up. If this book had so much meaning to them, she would have remembered who wrote it. What I suspect really happened is that she pulled this quote off of Osborn’s website and assumed it was Osborn’s quote. Then decided to build an entire fictitious anecdote around the quote.
30:20 ”The holy spirit said to me ‘Go home and get that painting’” Claiming direct divine revelation, but as we’ve covered already, no reason to believe this is the Lord. She does this so many times in this hour-long message, it would make the review far too long to cite every instance.
30:44 ”T.L. had said in this chapter, ‘take your very best, the cream of your heart, and sow it to God.’” As we already covered, if this came from the book, Roberts said it, not T.L. This quote was hand-picked as words well-crafted to move the audience to take their “best” and give it away and this will unleash god’s blessing. She’s priming the pump to convince them to give away their best. She said this about the one finished painting and it really doesn’t make much sense: “Right then and there, I sowed Sydney. I sowed Sydney; I put it in the earth. I covered it up. And I shut the woodshed door.” Chris has stopped making sense. She sowed Sydney? Is Sydney the earth? Is Sydney a seed? How do you “sow” a city? I suppose Chris would accuse me of not seeing with my spiritual eyes. I don’t think that’s the problem though. This language, all of it, is foreign to the language I find in scripture.
31:50 ”I know, as I was praying this morning, the Lord said to me some of you have to shut the woodshed door. You’ve got to shut the door and trust god with that seed.” This cracks me up! I can’t help hearing now the recurring line from the movie Cold Comfort Farm: “I saw something NASTY in the woodshed!” And by the way, what she shut in the woodshed was Phil’s only finished painting, the only means by which they would possibly make any money. I have a REAL hard time believing that these people passed up the chance to auction off a painting like this. She has it up there as a prop on stage and I have a hard time believing that this painting survived all these years because of sentimentality. I’m thinking he painted this one for the occasion, or maybe to have many occasions where they use this same story.
32:50 Chris finally reads from Scripture:
John 12:24 “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
Now the Amplified: “I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just one grain, it never becomes more, but lives by itself alone, but if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest.”
The Message: Listen carefully. Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over.
33:55 And then, as if she’s summing up that one verse (do we really need a summary of one verse?) she says, “Even though you can’t see it, the tree is definitely in the seed”. I think she’s missed the point of the passage. This is wheat, not an acorn. It multiplies rather than grow into one big thing. But that doesn’t fit her purposes of preaching about big dreams, so she’d rather ignore that. Not to mention the whole passage surrounding this verse is about denying yourself and taking up your cross, which would sound quite foreign coming out of Chris Pringle’s mouth. Now she’s going back into their life story and talking about how attractive Phil was back then. Says something about Phil in bicycle shorts. Ugh! Please stop!
34:44 While riding his bike in 1980, god spoke to Phil and asked him to go to Littleton. The lesson here, apparently, is they let Sydney die (their desire to have the church in Sydney) and so a door opened in Littleton. This is law, not living under grace. It’s a quid pro quo.
35:30 She says that if the seed (and it’s left to your own creativity and imagination as to what your particular seed might be) is buried in the earth, “leave it dead because something’s about to happen. Here’s what I’m going to say. It’s not just about planting a church…. Growing a church… It’s the DNA, the supernatural connections of the DNA in that seed is what is going to cause that seed to go POP! Snap, Crackle, Pop in the earth!” Again, she’s speaking a foreign language.
36:30 Chris is still talking about her life and of trees and seeds. She keeps producing strange sound effects to describe the rumbling seed as well as many sentence fragments and incomplete thoughhts.
36:58 ”The lord said, I’ve given you this city.” This is a grand claim indeed. Sort of the opposite of what Jesus did when he turned down being given all the kingdoms of the world. This is not biblical language unless you go all the way back to Joshua where God commanded the Israelite army to commit entire cities to destruction. We have been given a very specific kind of authority, according to Matthew 28:18: To proclaim the gospel, to batize and to teach all Jesus commanded.
37:04 Chris makes a statement you can tell she’s proud of. She utters, as if an oracle of god, “When we want to, we’re not ready. When we’re ready, we don’t want to.” This amazing insight drew a round of applause. I guess it just sounded so deep and inscrutable, the audience decided that it must be amazingly wise. Phil is in the audience grinning, as if his wife has just proven her utter genius. She follows this up with, “When we’re cocky, god’s not interested. When we’re freaking out, crapping our pants. We’re ready. When we’re hiding in the wine press…That’s when god puts our hand on us.” Crass language aside, this is again a quid pro quo. We receive from God when we have our act straight.
37:55 We need to make sure we do it right. (More law, no grace, no gospel. It’s all about what we have to do. Have you got anything for someone who doesn’t have it all together?) We must do what god wants because we have to make sure the conditions are right for the seed to go “pop”. (Wow I’m glad to have exited this religious culture full of pressure to make sure we’re “doing it right” so that we don’t “miss God’s will”. It’s very freeing to know that we do not have the ability to get in God’s way. He’s quite a bit stronger than us.)
38:05 ”We need to listen to our leaders and make sure it’s the right place, the right time.” Okay, this is a biggie. She’s asserting that she and Phil are god’s mouthpiece and the populace had better listen to them or their seed’s not going to “pop”.
38:24 Getting Veklempt again, thanking her husband for listening to the holy spirit. “Thank you, babe!”
39:12 Still talking about the story of C3. Asks C3 Pastors to stand up to be honored with applause for, I guess, letting their seed die. It’s interesting that the one verse she’s read so far happens to be one that does not mention Jesus. This is natural since Jesus was the one who said it, but we the audience doesn’t know that because she didn’t read the verse in context.
39:49 ”Look at you! This is our seed! This is our DNA!” Veklempt.
39:58 Chris has an honest moment: “My message is in sort of bits. I’m sorry. But that’s just how I am. I’m all in bits.”
40:15 Chris introduces a little gum tree prop. Still talking about the story of the beginning of C3 church.
41:20 ”The supernatural seed is protected by the power of the holy spirit…. That’s why Habbakuk says, “Wait, wait, wait… keep your expectations high. Just wait…” Habbakuk says what?? Well, it could be she’s talking about this. It’s a popular verse among those who expect special revelation from God. But what this verse is talking about waiting for is God’s judgment, which is quickly approaching:
Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it
For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay. (Habakkuk 2:2-3)
Chris continues on to give the pastors there a pep talk. Chris says if they don’t have that “positive expectation”, then get with someone who does. This sounds like “Hitch your wagon to a star.” Again, this brings me back to my sales days, except it’s starting to be more reminiscent of my very first sales job in Mary Kay.
42:08 That’s why Habakkuk says, “Write it down. Make it real plain. Date it.” I see the write it down part, but not the “date it”. That sounds more like a quote from a book on setting goals. And Habakkuk was told something specific to write down. Is she claiming everyone there is to expect revelation with the same authority as what Habakkuk received?
42:40 Now talking about the original land purchase back in 1980. How is this not boring the audience to tears? But she’s treating it like some story that will effect life change: “The story of C3 church is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes”. Wait a minute. That doesn’t sound right.
42:50 Chris is now reminiscing about a tree-planting day C3 celebrated, which I predict will turn out to be a momentous event with great spiritual significant. Chris and Phil planted a tree which looked like it was going to die which, of course, is just like your vision which looks sick and dying.
44:07 ”He used to be a tree-hugger, my man, when he was on acid.” Niiiiiice.
44:30 Big picture of big tree put up onto the screen. This is supposedly proof that if you just believe, your dream can grow from a sickly little seed… or tree… or bad idea… or something… like… ummm… never mind.
44:54 The holy spirit said to her to get a painting and bring it today – a painting of two women fetching water. Chris assumed it must have special meaning for “someone here today” to not give up. “Draw water. Draw water from the wells of salvation.” What? Is that a verse? If it is, she must have just googled it so she could throw in a verse at this point. But she didn’t cite it so I’ll look it up. Here it is in context:
You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
that you might comfort me.
2 “Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.”
3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. (Isaiah 12:1-3)
Chris Pringle has managed to quote the one verse in the passage that implies our part in the matter. God as our savior is absent from anything she quotes.
45:17 Speaks for a while on how we should speak nice things to our little tree and hug it and don’t be mean to it and criticize our tree. Awww… poor little tree. /sigh/
46:15 Rains are coming, floodgates of heaven are open. This is really kind of boring me. This is boilerplate prosperity-speak. When did the sappy music start? I didn’t notice. But it’s apparently time for it, because she’s gotten to the “You could be here today…” part.
46:35 ”We want you in the family tree. Turn to your neighbor and say, ‘I’m in your family tree’” This is a versatile tree. She’s shifted her metaphor. The tree – it’s a dream, it’s a church, it’s everything but what was originally intended in the text.
46:51 ”Here’s my scripture, and it’s the scripture of my message.” She says in a tone of voice that says, oops, I sure got off track, because she proceeds to cite a verse that she hasn’t even mentioned yet: Job 14:7 “Even a tree has more hope.” What? Let me look up this verse:
For there is hope for a tree,
if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that its shoots will not cease.
What translation is she reading from? And she only read a third of one verse. She’s talking about this as if this verse is about giving encouragement to people who have been discouraged in their dreams. How dare she compare the type of thing she’s talking about with what Job went through. He lost all his children. He’s covered in boils. He lost his fortune in a moment.
47:28 Reaching up to the “scent of water” again, then proceeds to finish reading Job 14:7 and a few more verses following. Oh, so here’s where the “scent of water” came from. The plant reaches up to the scent of water. She said the “holy spirit quickened this verse to her.” In other words, she was reading this and suddenly was filled with her own bright ideas. Here is what she read:
For there is hope for a tree,
if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root grow old in the earth,
and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put out branches like a young plant. (Job 14:7-9)
Here is what follows it:
But a man dies and is laid low;
man breathes his last, and where is he? As waters fail from a lake
and a river wastes away and dries up, so a man lies down and rises not again;
till the heavens are no more he will not awake
or be roused out of his sleep. Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
that you would conceal me until your wrath be past,
that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man dies, shall he live again?
All the days of my service I would wait,
till my renewal should come. You would call, and I would answer you;
you would long for the work of your hands. For then you would number my steps;
you would not keep watch over my sin; my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
and you would cover over my iniquity. (Job 14:10-17)
This is the gospel! She’s right on its doorstep! This is about how we are like that tree, cut down, seemingly dead, but only asleep. And Job is trusting God to call him on the last day, but after his wrath has past and that his sins stay buried, but he will rise up at his voice. This is about the resurrection on the last day.
For we know Job says later in chapter 19:
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,(Job 19:25-26)
Wow, she’s right on the doorstep of a beautiful gospel passage, but she has absolutely no interest in that, because that will not help her and Phil build their C3 kingdom.
48:00 Getting crowd whipped up. She repeats various concepts about seeds, saplings, and scent of water and throws in some tongue babbling.
49:00 ”I’m going to tell you a little story”. Oh, goodie! It’s story time with Mama Chris. Oh my goodness, what comes next is just painful. She mentions someone in the band who she says she loves. Chris says she’s his “white mama”. And she says then that of course he’s got a mother. She proceeds to succumb to the irrational need to mention her ethnicity. She stumbles between whether to call her white or colored and you can tell Julian is uncomfortable and embarrassed for her. Why was that information even necessary? It just provided an opportunity to put her foot in her mouth. Chris goes on to explain that she has added him into her family tree and he’s now one of her sons. Julian just got married and apparently Chris performed the ceremony.
50:05 Chris says god wants us to see the invisible, supernatural seed of destiny in young men and young women. Okay… seed of destiny. Got it.
50:30 /sigh/ Now she’s talking to the little tree.
51:50 Starts singing snippet of some rain song.
51:40 She’s going to pray over Julian and he’s going to represent a seed of the future in our churches represented here to breathe upon this new seed.” She instructs all the musicians in the audience to stand up to be prayed over and she prays for god to “pop that seed in him.” She ends “In the name of Jesus.” First mention of Jesus.
53:00 Now talking more about C3 and what they do… blah, blah, blah. Then more about Chris’ life story. “God spoke to me… I had this revelation: everywhere I went, all the fruit, all the seed, all the trees, that were coming up with new life were through the church.” Scratch, scratch, scratch those itching ears. She then says she made a vow that she was not going to make Kone famous but make Jesus Christ famous. And may I say… epic fail. You are showing yourself inept at making Jesus famous. She spends the next several minutes telling Chris Pringle’s story. Also tells about some girl in Uganda with a tragic story, and C3 became her hero.
58:37 LOL! Is Phil Pringle asleep!?
59:05 Video about girl in Uganda. Apparently a testimonial of how much better her quality of life is now thanks to C3.
1:01:00 Instructing everyone to lift their hands to heaven to the “scent of water”.
1:01:25 Praying. Floodgates of heaven and more “pop, pop, pop”. “Up, up, up” over and over again. “Thank you Lord that you rebirth vision.” He does? Where do you find that in the Bible? “Let that dream flicker, flicker, flicker. Breath upon it holy spirit.” She’s apparently now seeing all sorts of things and relaying what’s in her mind’s eye.
1:03:19 Instructing everyone to pray in the spirit, then starts babbling. Making up her own repetitive song now, full up nonsense about rising and stretching and coming out of the earth. I’m so ready for this to be over. I’m pretty sure what she’s doing right now is supposedly prophetically singing, singing what are supposedly words from the lord over the people interspersed with tongue-babbling.
1:05:12 Now declaring seeds are popping and churches are coming out of oblivion. Coincidentally, I find myself wishing for oblivion at this point. “Send us to the graces of the earth.” Pardon? That sentence has no meaning. Music has been growing constantly in intensity. But soon softens. She’s getting ready for the hypnotic portion. She’s talking in that rhythmic way. It doesn’t matter what she says. It’s rocking the brain to sleep. “Paint your brush across our souls Lord, so that we’ll be attractive to others. So we’ll be irresistible.” That sounds just a bit like a description of the devil. He is covered in a disguise as an angel of light.
1:08:08 Putting in plug to register for a Women’s conference.
1:08:36 Music leader comes up. Giving instructions for stuff happening later that day aaaaand… we’re done.
Please pray for these people who have attended these conferences that they may hear the real gospel, that the Lord of the Harvest would send workers into the field. And pray for the wolves, these deceivers to be exposed.” - Cindy Stokes, C3’s Chris Pringle Butchers the Gospel In Job to Teach Prosperity Heresy, Thoughts From My Reformed Self, http://thoughtsfrommyreformedself.com/2012/05/12/c3s-chris-pringle-butchers-the-gospel-in-job-to-teach-prosperity-heresy/, 12/05/2012. (Accessed 19/05/2012.)
For a friend in Sydney (a city in which I had no friends until Facebook changed all that), I am venturing into uncharted territory on this blog. Jake Elliot, of http://c3churchwatch.wordpress.com/ is covering the C3 Presence Conference in Sydney Australia. C3 Church is led by Phil Pringle but has a global presence. So check out my friend’s web site. Chances are, there’s an extension of the “movement” near you. (See this map for all the churches connected to C3 in Australia: http://www.c3churchglobal.com/churCch)
The conference has thankfully wrapped up for this year, though as you can see at the beginning of this video, they’re already heavily recruiting for next year’s conference. Steven Furtick was the headliner for Friday the 13th, 2012. I have heard enough of both Pastor Pringle and Pastor Furtick in the past to know that Friday the 13th is an appropriate date for pairing these two. Goodie, goodie… Can’t wait! Here we go:
0:30 Opens with a plug for the hundreds you can spend on the C3 schlock in the “Resource Center”.
0:35 Montage full of sappy music and all the “best lines” from the conference. These guys are like Woody from Toy Story where the same 10 lines come out over and over again if you just pull the string. Montage includes Phil Pringle working the crowd into frenzy so that they can feel some sort of glory cloud, or whatever, descend on them to make them sway and close their eyes and…. Ew! What is that?!
1:27 … Pulling out all the stops I see. Emaciated “Jesus” hanging on cross, live on stage in apparent agony.
3:20 Montage over. Phil Pringle on stage.
3:40 Phil and Laura (Not sure who Laura is in all this) say they’re not tired at all and ready to go for another week. I’m sure they’re just kidding Jake. Don’t have a heart attack. Doing some giveaways now to “delegates”? What are “delegates”? I don’t speak C3 I guess.
4:30 Ovation for the delegates/volunteers. Got it. Apparently part of their volunteer duties was to serve coffee and give hand massages and baklava to attendees in the TLC lounge. Teaching them about taking up the cross I guess… not!
5:28 Laura just announced 1000 already registered for next year. Rather than saying, “Cool, way to go!” Phil Pringle said, “That’s great! Let’s make it 3000 by the end of the night. What do you say?” Reminds me of my days in sales at Dell. They announce deadline for early registration end of May. Price doubles after then. And Phil is showing his great faith by announcing he is booking a bigger place.
7:23 Here is the carrot they used to get people to register today: attendees got their name in a drawing for the prizes. This first giveaway is four nights in a five-star hotel. $300 in spending money vouchers and VIP seats at next year’s conference. Yep, that’s the way to deny the flesh which wars against our spirit.
9:40 Steven Furtick takes the stage.
10:15 Immediately starts praising all the audience for their many worthy qualities. Scratch, scratch, scratch.
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. (1 Timothy 4:3)
10:53 Gets big “Awww” from audience for confessing he missed his daughter’s first steps to be there. Should’ve stayed home, Steven. That’s time better spent.
11:33 Double-entendre. Just had to point out everything he misses being away from home and away from his wife.
12:06 Cues the audience to applaud their Pastor Phil, and his wife, Chris… the… co-… pastor…?
12:31 ”I’ve been thinking, what do I say about ______, [since] it’s the last session of the conference.” That blank ought to be filled with Jesus or God, right? No, he was meditating on what he should say about Pastor Phil. I’m curious how long before I time stamp a new subject before he stops talking about him. He’s got to pay it forward since Steven himself was honored so well by the speakers at his own Code Orange [scheduled] Revival.
13:28 Just getting started honoring Phil with a pithy saying. “God is not the God of either/or; He’s the God of both/and.” Chapter? Verse? Where is that in Scripture?
14:10 Summary so far: Pastor Phil and Chris, both “fun and focused”. I don’t recall that in Paul’s list of qualifications for overseers.
14:15 ”Spirit-led and smart”. A rare quality indeed. Got anything about Jesus? God? Bible? Almost 15 minutes in here.
15:00 Still sucking up to Phil. Now he’s “brilliant”, but not in the underwhelming Aussie sense. Makes joke about the Australian overuse of “brilliant”. Phil has to keep this in mind later as you’ll see at the end.
15:50 Says “Let’s get to it” and grabs Bible. Any bets on how long it takes to read from it?
16:15 Says he prayed for God to “lead him to the message” simultaneously with putting Bible back down. Ironic…
16:40 Moves away from Bible to little book of notes to announce title of message: “The Most Encouraging Message You’ve Never Heard.”
17:08 Segues back somehow to flattering Phil as well Bishop Dale Bronner (Word/Faith heretic), whom I predict he is about to quote.
17:30 ”Opening to Matthew 11:1-11″ he says… He’s reaching for the Bible and….
17:40 Fail. Now telling the audience “The Lord wants to give someone the courage to act.” That’s definitely not in Matthew 11.
17:50 Instructing on how to tell you’ve caught a vision. Is there a fever involved?
18:00 Vision – Action = Daydream. Got it. Now Matthew 11?
18:18 Reading Matthew 11 about John the Baptist in prison, asking “Are you the One?” Doesn’t even blink before making the passage about everyone there in Sydney and their “disappointed expectations.”
20:00 Got to give Pastor Furtick props. He catches that Jesus had announced earlier in Matthew that he was to fulfill the prophecy that he would “set prisoners free” and that John may have been tempted to doubt since that wasn’t happening for him. Not many people bring that up.
20:30 He thought Shawshank Redemption was a warm and endearing picture of prison?! Has he seen the movie?
21:00 Stand-up Comic Interlude (From here forward to be cited as SUCI): “Some of you are sitting next to your disappointed expectation.” Already had one regarding the use of “brilliant” in Australia and regarding missing his wife. So the SUCI count is up to three.
21:38 Talking about Steven’s life now.
22:15 SUCI #4, but sort of fell flat. Win some, lose some.
22:45 SUCI #5
23:00 Segue from Steven’s life to everyone else in audience now. Apparently we’ve all asked the question, “Is this it?” And you always need someone to encourage you.
23:45 First instance of “Turn to someone and say…”
23:50 Rest of passage he ends with “no one greater than John the Baptist” (and mumbles quickly yethteonewhoisleastinthekingdomofheavenisgreaterhthanhe…). Pastor Furtick says Jesus was giving John affirmation and encouragement. Strange. Neither John nor his disciples were even there to hear that. Talk about squishing a passage into a mold to fit your message.
25:50 Clears up that John’s disciples nor John were there. Where’s he going with this?
26:16 Seriously?? “It’s quite possible that Jesus has been talking about you… behind your back.” And may I say that’s some mighty wild speculation you’ve got going on there. Chapter? Verse? Scratch, scratch those itching ears.
26:55 ”Now why would he do that?” So now we’re going to speculate in order to find the possible reason for the fact you already arrived at by speculation. Brilliant. (See what a flexible word that is?)
28:00 ”Here’s my theory.” Okay, that’s not what you’re supposed to preach. [next breath] “1 Corinthians 2:5 says our faith shouldn’t rest in men’s wisdom but in God’s power… Maybe Jesus wanted John’s faith not to rest on how good John was doing, but in how good Jesus was.” Well, yes, that’s certainly true. Why did you say “maybe”? And what does this have to do with God talking behind our backs, and doesn’t obsessing about whether he is or not defeat Pastor Furtick’s own point he’s trying to make now about getting our eyes off of ourselves?
28:28 So much for the brief turn in the right direction. He shifts back… to talking about Steven Furtick. “There have been times in my life…”
29:00 ”God takes away affirmation to take us to a place of deeper affirmation in the Spirit.” Pastor Furtick, how in the world are you extracting this from John 11? Audience loves it though. Scratch, scratch, scratch.
29:50 ”Even though we don’t get to hear everything that Jesus said about John [because] this is a summary.” Where does it say this is a summary? “He says many more things about John. There’s a further discourse in Matthew 11.” (And of course he will not read it. Can’t blame Steven. I don’t think I’ve heard any two people interpret that passage that follows in the same manner. It’s a difficult passage and I don’t blame him for not wanting to tackle it, but a good pastor at least attempts it. Not worth a federal case though.)
30:00 Steven is going to share three affirmative statements that he believes God might be saying behind your back. How in the world does it help me to speculate on what God might be saying behind my back? Wouldn’t it be wise to focus on what we know he already said to me in his Word?!
30:24 ”I felt like the Lord put on my heart to tell somebody today.” Oh now, it’s the Holy Ghost answering machine. God is having trouble getting through to people so he has enlisted the help of Steven Furtick.
30:38 Yikes: “Hear the Word of the Lord; God wanted me to tell somebody…” That’s a bold statement
30:44 Affirmation #1: “You’re doing better than you think you are.” (Please note in link to Pooh bear quote below that I personally think two of these three points are inspired more by Pooh than the Bible.) In Romans 12:3, am I not exhorted not to think of myself more highly than I ought but instead with sober judgment? 2 Corinthians 4:4 says that the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers. Are you saying that our blindness is concerning not being able to see how good we are? But I guess I’d better make a way to get this to jibe with the rest of my Bible, because we’re adding a new book. Steven said this is the “Word of the Lord”.
31:35 SUCI #6
31:50 ”But then you’ve got to tap into that place, when Jesus says to John…” So when I am feeling poorly about my own performance, I need to tap into what Jesus said about John? Wow, this is twisted logic. He’s saying that Jesus had a good reason for not saying these things to John’s face, but is encouraging us to imagine Jesus is saying them about us? So what he’s arguing would have produced inordinate pride in John, we’re somehow going to handle better? And how do you know that those to whom you speak are “doing better than they think”? What if I’m a complete screw up? What if I’m a heretic? What if I’m a serial killer? You have thousands, probably millions, watching this conference. Odds are that you are proclaiming this to some sociopaths of the highest order!
32:30 Long general string of general affirmations proclaiming how very wonderful everyone is in the room. Everyone’s now applauding. Scratch, scratch, scratch. And apparently, if you say it loud enough, it really makes it true.
33:00 Back to Steven’s life. “Pastor Mickey” did better than he thinks because he poured into Stephen when Steven was young and now Mickey is flying all over the world vicariously through Steven Furtick. I don’t know if Pastor Mickey’s going to be bragging about that one on Judgment Day.
34:05 Called the audience a crowd of “world-changers”. Scratch, scratch, scratch.
33:22 SUCI #7 about teenagers being demon-possessed. I have a 14-year-old son and admit that’s actually kind of funny.
33:55 ”Find somebody and touch them and tell them, ‘You’re doing better than you think you are.’” There. My beagle is sleeping at my feet. I just told her. She’s duly affirmed and looks truly peaceful. But that’s actually is what she always looks like. Oh well. Don’t try this on a human, folks. You’ll do more damage than you think you will.
35:00 Getting loud and telling them to “clap by faith”. Really?
35:38 ”I get to preach a lot of places. You’re special!” Really, guys, tell me you’re not going to fall for that, are you? Now moving on to tell Phil Pringle how awesome his church is.
36:30 ”Please receive that from my heart.” He’s speaking of the encouragement, “You’re doing better than you think you are.” So is that from God or from your heart? Which is it? Then quotes but does not give reference. “It’s God’s kindness that leads you to repentance.” Tell us about that kindness please. Why is God so kind? How do we know it? Hint, you find it all in the Bible and it has nothing to do with self-affirmation but is seen on the cross, which actually only affirms our lost state and our need to be saved from our sins.
36:50 Affirmation #2: “You matter more than you think you do.” Scratch, scratch, scratch.
37:00 ”John felt completely discarded. I’m using a little bit of my imagination.” At least you admit it. But is that what you’re called to do as a pastor, to preach your imagination? Immediately also says, “Maybe, I’m reading a little too much into the text.” Yeeeeees. “That’s somebody in here [in the audience].” Bingo. You’ve just arrived at where you’re reading too much into the text.
37:25 Now talking about Steven’s childhood. Trading card story.
39:00 ”It took someone who knew the value to retrieve something that I’d given away too easily. Some of you are giving up on yourself too easily.” My response is only found a few verses before where he started tonight:
“And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:38, 39)
39:20 Now talking about our need to go into the “enemy’s camp to retrieve what you gave away too easily”. Wow, this is dangerous ground. Doesn’t this sound a lot like what Jesus did for us already? Where is he getting this from this passage?!
39:28 Assertion after assertion: “You can tell the value of something by the price that was paid for it.” Doesn’t that contradict the story he just told about the baseball cards. Steven didn’t pay much for them, thus disguising the value. And in our case, we are given value by the price paid for us on the Cross, but it doesn’t prove that we were valuable in the first place.
39:38 Steven just said Jesus’ blood was shed for us to prove our worth. /sigh/ Chapter? Verse? Got anything about our sin and the need for atonement?
39:45 ”You have infinite potential, in Jesus name!” Why does everyone keep tagging that onto the end of assertions as if it makes it better? It only makes it more blasphemous.
40:00 Launching into Code Orange testimonial of some sort; a horrible, sad story about boy who died in car accident while his parents were at revival. Ugh, It’s sounds like he turned that poor boy’s funeral into a Steven Furtick pep rally. He even made someone else’s funeral about him. Ick.
41:17 ”Do you want to know what I texted?” Actually, no. Can you tell us about the text in that beautiful leather-bound tome sitting useless on the podium there?
41:30 Story about God talking to him again. Put the bulletin from the funeral into the rocks in the valley where Joshua told the sun to stand still. Interesting. Take it from someone who knows. Pastor Furtick is carrying a whole lot of guilt over the fact that his parents were at his revival and not with their boy when he was killed in a car wreck. He’s acting like someone desperately trying to make some restitution. I know what it’s like to carry misplaced guilt over the death of a child and this man has it in spades. Pray for Pastor Furtick. I keep seeing signs of his heart softening in this sermon. I can’t put my finger on it, but…. something is just a bit different.
42:00 Oh dear, he is apparently trying to convince the parents that their son’s death “counted for something” and did make a difference, because people are starting Bible studies and such because of him. I have some personal experience with families who have lost children and this approach is usually not taken well. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure they don’t want to think God took their son to accomplish some purpose of his. But even if they did, it’s still probably not what they want to hear right after he dies. I understand what he’s trying to do, but I think it could be misguided.
And on a different note, he’s trying to comfort the audience with: “you matter so much more than you think you do.” (Throwing this in for free, but I found that I found a lot of peace when I learned that I matter less than I thought I did. It’s a comfort to know that God is big enough to keep me from screwing everything up. Just sayin’.)
43:00 ”I’m not leaving you [John] in that prison because I’ve forsaken you. I’m leaving you in that prison because you’re so strong; you’re so mighty!” May I point out the obvious here? Jesus left John in that prison because his purpose was not to free people in physical prisons but to free us from our Sin. He did not come to conquer the romans or Herod. He came to conquer death.
43:11 Again, he’s turning it around again to apply it to everyone listening to say that they are exactly like John the Baptist.
43:40 Affirmation (but not really) #3: “It’s less about you than you think it is.” Hmmmmmmm… Is he trying to get the Matt Chandler monkey off his back now? Trying to prove he doesn’t think the Bible is about himself?
Wow, now he’s saying he had to throw that third point in there or you’ll “take this message the wrong way” and is taking the time to mock his first two points. This is one weird schizoid sermon!
44:12 ”He must become greater; I must become less…” Yes… Yes…
44:20 ”Want you to leave this conference on affirmation overload, but we want it to be the right kind of affirmation, otherwise it will backfire.” Like giving ammunition to your critics?
44:45 Now quoting Hebrews 12: “Consider Jesus, who endured such hostility from sinners.” Encouraging the audience to step back and see there’s a bigger picture than your immediate surroundings.
45:00 ”I’ll bet John got his affirmation when he saw him face to face,” says Pastor Furtick. You don’t have to speculate there, Steven. We know that the righteous will be told “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21)
45:14 ”The Lord wanted me to tell you…” Again with the Holy Spirit answering machine! The Lord has already told you to proclaim his Word! You’re not doing that, so it’s hard for me to believe that he’s taking the time to speak to you personally when you’re ignoring what he’s already clearly commanded you: “Preach the Word, in season and out.” (2 Timothy 4:2)
45:40 ”Your dream is rotting in prison.” /gasp!/ Not that!
46:00 ”God can do anything in your life.”
46:07 Obligatory sports analogy. Oh my goodness. Is he going to make Jesus, our advocate, the referee challenging the ruling on the field? That’s a terrible analogy.
47:25 ”This is going to be a turning point in someone’s life right now.” Maybe so, but for the better?
47:53 ”Sometimes the official says” (after coaching audience that they need to get ready to get real loud and emotional soon “we’re going to take it through the roof in a second”.) [dramatically] “Upon… further… review… [cue sappy music] the ruling on the field is overturned.” Our situation is only hopeless because we’re looking at it from the wrong angle. Really?! That is NOT the solution for our lost condition proposed by the Bible. The truth is, we are to agree with God that it is hopeless and cry for mercy! Wow…
49:16 ”I believe the divine verdict for somebody tonight is, ‘Upon… further… review’” [music and audience getting louder and louder, and so is Pastor Furtick of course.]
49:30 Whipping up crowd. Band getting louder. Girl in band jumping up and down with arms up in the air, reminding me of high school pep rallies.
49:57 ”In His Presence, anything is possible!” Chapter? Verse? Crowd now “shouting to God with a voice of triumph.” What are they triumphing over and based on what?
50:11 Starts praying, sort of. Thanking him for all the encouragement he’s brought through the message tonight. His eyes are going in the exact same places they were when he was addressing the crowd. Who is he really talking to? Now asserting what God’s voice is telling them right now, and not quoting from God’s Word…
50:40 Wants to pray for specific people. “If you know God is speaking this message specifically to you… shoot your hand in the air and let me pray for you.” What do you want to bet these are going to get carefully counted as people making decisions for Jesus to boost those stats? And upon what are they basing their belief that God is speaking this message to them? Their gut feeling?
51:05 Making “positive confession” over the people with hands raised via recap of three points of message.
51:29 No, here’s the stats they’ll count. He told them to put their hands down and now he wants to pray for those who need a “brand new start with Jesus Christ.” I’ve heard this “gospel presentation” from Pastor Furtick before. The false gospel of the “God of the fresh start, of the second chance.”
52:00 ”Allow me the privilege me pray with you to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ. This is the gospel: that He lived the life you couldn’t live; He was sinless. He died the death you should have died.” (Wow, is he going to totally land on his feet here?) “They crucified him. The greatest agony he suffered on the cross; it was not the scourging; it was not the whip. All of that was terrible. It was the separation from his heavenly Father that he had to experience when he said, as we heard this week, ‘My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?’ When he prayed that, he was also making an announcement that because he was forsaken for you, you don’t have to be forsaken ever by your heavenly Father.”
(I have to insert here that this falls short. He did mention that Jesus was sinless but was not clear the he was forsaken because of taking our Sin upon himself and that’s why he was forsaken, because of our sin. And at this point, we don’t even know what a sin is, because the Law hasn’t been preached. As far as we know at this point, a sin is letting our dream rot in prison or not believing God is talking behind our back or something. We have no idea.)
“There’s a divine reunion, and the access to that is by faith, because here’s what happened: when he rose again on the third day (assuming the crowd knows this I guess) there’s a literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. It happened. He’s taken into heaven. Now he sits at the right hand of God.” (Covering the apostles creed, but I’ll bet he doesn’t get to the next part, that he will come again to judge the living and the dead.)
“His grace is available to anyone who will repent and believe. That’s it.” (Repent… from… what?! It’s like you’ve given someone the news the Governor commuted their death sentence and they didn’t even know they’d been convicted of a crime!) “To completely trust him with your life, place your faith in him.” No, placing your faith in him is not so much “trusting him with your life” as trust in His life, death and resurrection. I am not capable of perfectly trusting God with my life.
“By Grace you are Saved” (Pulled from context) “If you know you are not in a right relationship with the Lord tonight…” How would they know that? Y’all have done everything there at C3 to make sure that they feel “in tune with God” complete with altered state of consciousness that probably results from the loud repetitive music and rhythmic mantras Furtick cheered from the stage.
Gives instructions for magic prayer to bring them in right relationship with God, of course with “heads bowed, eyes closed” or the prayer won’t work I guess because that’s always part of the procedure. Instructing everyone to pray it out loud together, I guess so those who really need to pray it won’t be embarrassed or so maybe someone will accidentally get saved. Says this prayer will cause them to saved and cleansed and forgiven if they want to give their lives to Jesus Christ. Problem, the Bible says Jesus gave his life for us, not the other way around. And… Salvation, cleansing and forgiveness come, according to God’s Word, from baptism, receiving his body and blood through the Lord’s Supper, and through the proclamation of the gospel:
Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins…” (Acts 22:16)
“For this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28)
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes… (Romans 1:16)
54:00 Steven Furtick’s “Sinner’s Prayer”: “Heavenly Father, I come to you now. I confess that I’m a sinner. I need a Savior. I believe you died for me Jesus. I confess you rose again. I ask you now to give me new life. Change my heart. I want to follow you. I want to be like you.”
55:00 Asking crowd to shoot their hand in the air on the count of three (while eyes are still closed) to say they prayed that prayer. Saying he’s not trying to emotionally manipulate. Asks those with hands up to come forward to… altar? There’s an altar? I just see a stage. No manipulation? Furtick keeps prompting and flattering those who come forward for their boldness and the music is continuing to swell.
56:00 ”Come on, come on, run to this altar! Run to Jesus!”
57:05 Starts addressing people who have come forward regarding their “decision” and picks up Bible and tucks under arm. Interesting. Maybe he is just preparing for his exit of the stage. But he takes his Bible. Where’s his tablet he was using? I think that’s still on stage.
58:25 ”Repeat after me: I am a new creation in Jesus Christ; I am a new Creation in Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!” /band swells again/
58:38 Phil Pringle back on stage. Praying for God to fill everyone with the Holy Spirit and with peace and to let them have “an experience that is undeniable”. Yeah, they’ll at least have an experience. And we know that these guys teach you that no one can argue with your “experience”. Pastor Phil doing the thing with the low-talking, forcing everyone’s attention to be fixed on him because they have to strain to hear. Getting ready for a big crescendo. Keeps throwing out buzz words in rhythmic, mesmerizing way:
“Holy Spirit… the Anointing… Power of God from on High… Fills hearts…. And Changes worlds… in Jesus’ name” You can feel… yourself getting… sleepy and… very suggestible. Then says gently, “Hey guys, look this way.” (Still in gentle tone) This totally reminds me of when a hypnotist transitions from bringing the person into the altered state of consciousness to carefully placing whatever suggestion is needed. It will be very interesting to see what Phil Pringle chooses to say next:
Fixed his attention on a particular teen crying next to stage and asking, still rhythmically, why he’s crying. He just wants to be happy. He starts naming, still rhythmically, all the people that are near the stage that love him and that “we all love you. You matter more than you think.” Again addressing another teen. Boy this guy is good. I am mesmerized and I can’t stand the guy.
1:00 Phil Pringle starts singing Beatle’s song for no reason whatsoever, other than the kid saying he’s 17 and the age mentioned in the Beatle’s song is 17. Again, with a soft mesmerizing voice. Then talks to another teen. Why is he picking all the teens? Is that all that came forward? Telling him to stick to his decision, don’t let his friends drag him of. “You’re strong. A very powerful young man.” Mesmerizing, mesmerizing. I’m blissed out just listening to this. The dude freaks me out. How many more minutes of this? I might be catching a plane to Sidney if I’m not careful. Won’t bore you, more of the same. Only addresses the young people that came forward. “Do you feel different after praying that prayer? How do you feel? You feel incredible?! There’s a cartoon called The Incredibles, isn’t there?” How hip and relevant for you to know that, Phil. “They’re powerful. You’re more powerful.” And this imitator of C.S. Lewis’ green witch continued to mesmerize them. We need the stench of Puddleglum’s burning flesh to wake us up here. Wow.
Now flattering a 12-year-old saying he thought he was 18. “Are you a good boy? … Isn’t that nice… you look like a good boy. God’s proud of you. He’s very happy you’re out here tonight.” Wow. He’s now telling them about the “born-again motor” that’s been put inside of them to empower them to do all the things that God wants them to do. Wow, that’s a new one. Haven’t heard that one before.
1:05:25 Fail! Phil Pringle just calls one of his staff members by the wrong name when he calls her up on stage to tell everyone up front to follow her out. Then spends time flattering her to make up for the fact that he forgot her name. She seems to swallow it, laps it up. Ugh!
1:07:15 Band whipping things up again. Crowd goes while. Phil thanks crowd and tells them they’re “stellar”. He pauses before “stellar” because he probably wants to avoid “brilliant” since Steven Furtick so perceptively pointed out that that word has little meaning in Australia. So he pauses before “amazing” too. Probably a little irritated that Steven narrowed his already limited vocabulary of flattery, which he’s doing now, continuing to flatter the crowd. Scratch, scratch, scratch. Just announced a painting (found out later Phil Pringle is selling his own paintings. People ting they’re anointed or something.) is up to $30,000 (silent auction?), announced by Laura. Nice. So glad y’all are making even more money than you’ve already raked in tonight. Talking up next year’s conference, register now. Brags about 21-day fast they went on before this conference.
Okay, gladly that’s all. But I should insert one last disturbing note. I was informed by my friend Mr. Jake Elliot that this particular sermon was actually the bright spot in the whole conference. It was downright orthodox in comparison with what the other speakers put out there the rest of the week. And here is the Pooh Bear Clip I promised. I couldn’t help but be thinking of this particular clip and wondering if this is more where Steven Furtick got the inspiration for this sermon, more so than the Bible.
Chris Rosebrough has once again hit the airwaves on ‘Pirate Christian Radio’, slamming the behaviour of Phil Pringle and Steven Furtick at Presence Conference 2012. Listen to him at ‘Fighting For The Faith’ to critique Steven Furtick pulpit pimping at Presence Conference (12/04/2012) below:
• LCMS Seminary Prof Promotes Lectio Divina
• The Church’s Most Dangerous Enemies
• Steven Furtick Prosperity Pimps for Phil Pringle at Presence 2012
• Good Easter Sermon by Jonathan Hunt
Rosebrough states at the beginning of his program,
“… I’m going to be playing the audio from a video segment where they are- where Phil Pringle is basically getting people geared up to give for a miracle offering. Give money and you’ll receive a miracle. It’s – I mean it is- so, so blatantly obvious and just terrible as to how they are, you know, fleecing the people attending the Presence Conference! And using God as the pretense for it. It’s- it’s- uh-ah-ih- I don’t even want to say it borders on criminal. I think it’s flat-out criminal. I can’t see that this is not a crime in the Kingdom of God, what these men are doing. Steven Furtick and Phil Pringle, both.” – Chris Rosebrough, Fighting For The Faith, http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F041312.mp3, (8:20), 13/04/2012.
When Furtick says at 28:25 on Rosebrough’s show, that Elisha tells the widow in 2Kings 4 to give, Rosebrough responded,
“No! Elisha did NOT tell her to give. Not one red cent. He just lied and blasphemed the name of the one-true God by mis-using his Word, to pimp this people for money.” - Chris Rosebrough, Fighting For The Faith, http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F041312.mp3, (48:30), 13/04/2012.
Rosebrough correctly points out that Elisha asked the woman what was in her house. She said she had the oil. But Rosebrough points that she never gave that oil to Elisha. Instead he instructs her to keep the oil, get large containers and start filling. She was blessed with a miracle. A gift of grace. She did not give to get.
Rosebrough makes this claim about Steven Furtick,
“Steven Furtick is prosperity pimping here, priming the financial pump for Phil Pringle and the Presence Conference. And he’s doing it by mangling God’s Word.” - Chris Rosebrough, Fighting For The Faith, http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F041312.mp3, (46:48), 13/04/2012.
In critiquing Steven Furtick’s offering talk, Chris Rosebrough stated that Furtick’s talk was “unbelievable” and “just blasphemy” (50:00),
Rosebrough picked up on something Furtick said and re-quoted him saying,
“Did you hear that sentence? “I’ve got many things from God that money can’t buy but it started with what I had.” Money. BUY-YOUR-MIRACLE. This isn’t Christianity. This isn’t God, the Holy Spirit speaking through Steven Furtick. That’s a different spirit.” - Chris Rosebrough, Fighting For The Faith, http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F041312.mp3, (53:40), 13/04/2012.
Chris continued and critiqued Christian McCudden, the C3 worship band and the miracle offering promo. Rosebrough exposed the scam of this as it played and summarised the event saying,
“Steven Furtick has turned into a full-blown prosperity pimp, twisting God’s word and priming you know people to give large amounts of money. He’s a now a studious student of the a prosperity pimp, known as Phil Pringle down there in Australia. This is not Christianity. You can’t buy miracles from God. In fact, scripture talks specifically about those who would try to buy miracles from God.” - Chris Rosebrough, Fighting For The Faith, http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F041312.mp3, (1:03:52), 13/04/2012.
Chris Rosebrough highlights that Acts 8:4-24 deals with a similar issue with the C3 Presence Conference 2012. The point of Simon trying to buy the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit from Peter results in Rosebrough stating,
“These people think that they can BUY God’s gifts. Buy. BUY! Purchase God’s miracles. And what’s happened here is that Phil Pringle and Kong Hee and John Bevere and Steven Furtick- well they’ve turned themselves into- well, miracle men who can perform miracles or give miracles for a price. Just give money to them and God will somehow will be impressed. And they can purchase these wonderful gifts of God. God’s mercies and promises can’t be purchased. It shows that, well, Steven Furtick ‘n Kong Hee ‘n Phil Pringle… Well, they’re no different- NO different than Simon the Sorcerer. In fact, I think Peter’s words to Simon the Sorcerer apply perfectly to men like Phil Pringle, Steven Furtick and Kong Hee: “May your silver perish with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter for your heart is not right before God. Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord if possible the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity”. That’s right. That’s right – it applies.” - Chris Rosebrough, Fighting For The Faith, http://004f597.netsolhost.com/fftf/F4F041312.mp3, (1:06:45), 13/04/2012.
Some may make the claim, “Who is Chris Rosebrough to make such a claim against such men?” Chris Rosebrough has stated that he will be reviewing the Presence Conference. At the end of his review, we encourage those judging Chris Rosebrough (who criticised these preachers), to consider these questions:
1.Who has proven to be worthy in handling the teachings of God correctly?
2.Who represents the counsel and person of our Lord Jesus accurately?
3.Who then should have a higher or more respected position to judge rightly and correctly?
So far, Pringle unfortunately has proven again and again incompetence in handling God’s Word on C3ChurchWatch (please browse the archives).
Unfortunately, Kong Hee, Steven Furtick, Phil Pringle and John Bevere have disqualified themselves as teachers of Jesus Christ with their dishonesty, bad conduct, bad teaching methods and woeful scripture handling.
If you feel lead, please pray for the C3 Church Movement and the speakers at this Presence Conference. Please also pray for the victims who may have suffered from this ungodly teaching.
