PRINGLES PREACH ON PRINCIPLES

On the 12th of February 2012, Pringle spoke at every service at C3 Sand Diego in the US. In the morning service Pingle said,

“So here’s the fascinating thing, we can understand the principle of how God does things. And often our hearts want to act independently of God using a principle of God.  And the difference between discovering principles that can be put in any motivational book, any sort of metaphysical book like ‘The Secret’ or ‘Understanding the Universe’, (you know these kind of references that have no references to the Lord but understand principles). Now there’s a principle of seed…” – Phil Pringle, God Creates With Words: 8:54, http://media.cccsandiego.com/Media/02%2012%2012%20AM.mp3, 12/02/12.

The continual push in this sermon was, “you’re involved with a person, not just a principle, living this Christian life is a whole lot different” (19:33). Sounds good right?

In one of the meetings on the 12th of February, Pringle starts promoting a book that opposes his morning message. Watch Pringle here market himself and promote his books:

http://vimeo.com/37288145

At 3:30, Pringle starts promoting his books. At 5:24 you see one of his books, ‘Faith’. This article will be examining this book. Pringle’s book ‘Faith’ encourages C3 Sandiego to do the exact opposite Pringle tells people to do.

ASK, BELIEVE, RECEIVE & FINALLY DECEIVE

To demonstrate how occult-driven Pringle’s teachings are, it is good to look at his works in comparison to modern-day New Age or New Thought material. We will compare Pringle’s book ‘Faith’ to a popular book called ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne, since he bought it up.

New Thought places great emphasis on what Byrne teaches as the ‘Law of Attraction’. Byrne also calls the ‘Law of the Attraction’ a genie, This principle has gained much popularity with  Ronda Byrne’s book ‘The Secret’, as Pringle mentioned. The principles discussed in the pages of Byrne’s book are straight out of New Thought. Pringle made the claim “these kind of things that have no references to the Lord but understand principles”. Really Pringle?

On page 47, Rhonda Byrne writes,

“The Creative Process used in The Secret, which was taken from the New Testament in the Bible, is an easy guideline for you to create what you want in three simple steps. Step 1: Ask… Step 2: Believe… Step 3: Receive…” – Rhonda Byrne, The Secret, 2006, pg. 47-51.

This creative process in ‘The Secret’ was based on this bible verse:

“And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” (Matthew 21:22)

‘The Secret’ emphasises very similar principles that Pringle does. This is the table of contents of Phil Pringle’s book ‘Faith’ (2001):

“Contents

INTRODUCTION

1. Faith Is A Feeling

2. Foundation Faith

3. Faith and Prayer

– Desire

– Decide

– Ask

– Receive

– Speak it

– Seem it

– Act it

4. Faith and Conscience

5. Faith and Self-Image

6. Faith and Provision

7. Trial of Faith

8. The Fight of Faith” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001.

Pringle says, “There are seven clear steps to answered prayer. Step one – desire… Step two – decide… Step three – ask… Step four – receive… Step five – speak it… Step six – see it dreams and visions… Step seven – act it.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 36-106.

In his revisited 2003 edition, even one of Pringle’s own church members reviewed his book. Clearly he taught them the practices of the New Age movement. (See thumb nail below or follow the link to read: http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Dr-Phil-Pringle/dp/0958582785.)

POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE

Rhonda Byrne teaches,

This is the classic Positive Mental Attitude that Pringle also associates with the ‘faith’ he teaches. Pringle boldly teaches,

“In the new Testament, Paul’s lifestyle left people on the sideline everywhere. It seems that the man had boundless energy, undeterred purpose and an attitude of pure drive that would send today’s most ardent PMA (positive mental attitude) experts to distraction! … He saw every circumstance through the attitude of faith. He had a feeling within him. He felt that he could not be conquered. He knew His God to be the truth. He made sure that his emotions and mentallity agreed with God’s Word. He would bring his attitudes and emotions into a reflection of what God was saying, no matter what the circumstance.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 23.”  – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 23.

Pringle then tries to justify his view on PMA and faith,

“I’m not talking here about some aneamic substitute for faith called ‘positive thinking’. That may be one of the fruits of faith, but understand clearly that it is not faith itself. Faith begins with an attitude, a spirit within us, a feeling of incredible confidence. A feeling of undefeatable victory over all the circumstances. This feeling makes impossible mountains appear like miniature hills. It makes you feel on top and not underneath.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 25-26.

POWER OF FOCUS, ATTRACTION, RECEPTION & DESIRE

Rhonda Byrne teaches,

“Even though his words were saying he wanted to date more women, his innermost thoughts did not reflect that in his paintings. By deliberately choosing to change his actions, it caused him to focus his entire thought on what he wanted. With such a simple shift, he was able to paint his life and call it into exist- ence through the law of attraction.

When you want to attract something into your life, make sure your actions don’t contradict your desires. Think about what you have asked for, and make sure that your actions are mirroring what you expect to receive, and that they’re not contradicting what you‘ve asked for. Act as if you are receiving it. Do exactly what you would do if you were receiving it today, and take actions in your life to reflect that powerful expectation. Make room to receive your desires, and as you do, you are sending out that powerful signal of expectation.” – Rhonda Byrne, The Secret, 2006, pg 115.

Pringle teaches,

“Let’s remember that faith involves the heart as well as the mouth. When people grasp the importance of possibilities of “speaking it” they may become excited about the possibilities of confession and ignore the fact that it needs to be a faith of the heart. This just leaves them with just a lot of positive statements and not necessarily a real faith… When our hearts believe one thing and our mouths are saying another we are deluding ourselves and lying to others.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 72-73.

“If a man knows what he wants, then he is in a position to decide that he will get it. This is faith. The determined decision of a man with desire.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 43.

“The promises of God become the power of God when they are believed and acted upon.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 149.

“The main point here is that we are to desire something before faith can come into play. Our desires are of value to God. It’s His will to fulfill our dreams. When we are delighting in the Lord, our dreams and desires are formed in His Spirit, timing and purpose.” – Phil Pringle Faith, 2001, pg 39.

What’s the difference? Forget God. Pringle teaches on the powers of his principles of faith that don’t require God at all. 

POWER OF VISION

‘The Secret’ says on vision:

“I always say, when the voice and the vision on the inside become more profound, clear, and loud than the opinions on the outside, you ‘ve mastered your life!” – Rhonda Byrne, The Secret, 2006, pg 146.

Pringle teaches on vision:

“To perceive is to see. The kind of vision and perception we are talking about is of the mind. A faith vision is an incredibly powerful creative force… This also relates to the realm of impossibility – a thing you can’t see ever happening because of the impossibility of it. Experience can tell you that it doesn’t happen. The Knowledge tells you that it can” happen. The facts tell you it wont happen. Yet your faith tells you that it’s a reality. It will happen. You can see it happening, against all the odds. You need faith for what you cannot see, not for what you can see.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 99-100.

POWER OF VISUALISATION

Finally, Ronda Byrne also teaches on visualisation:

“Visualization is the process of creating pictures in your mind of yourself enjoying what you want. When you visualize, you generate powerful thoughts and feelings of having it now. The law of attraction then returns that reality to you, just as you saw it in your mind.” – Rhonda Byrne, The Secret, 2006, pg 93.

Pringle also teaches on visualisation (watch how he approaches scriptures with his experiences):

“A long after that experience, I looked back and realized that many of the elements I had seem in the imaginations in my mind were a duplicate of what actually happened. I had stumbled on to a principle of God. As I investigated the Scriptures, it became obvious to me that God spoke to His servants from the beginning of time through visions and dreams. Here we’re looking at the vision of faith. As soon as a real faith for anything arrives in your heart, you will see that thing.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 94-97.

“In Ephesians 3:20 Paul says that “God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.” The Greek word for “think” here is “no’eo.” This literally means “to conceive and perceive.” Once we are visualizing some-thing, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above it.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 103.

“Gods movies. There is a screen within our mind upon which three projectors are jostling for prime time… He [God] has a projector with a preset, wonderful destiny as the main feature. As we enter the Spirit through praise and worship, God will form His vision within our thinking. We pray the prayer of faith. The vision of the answer comes to mind and we see it, in living colour… Once the vision of the fulfillment of your dream has been planted in your mind, bring it to your prayer life. Each time you pray bring the picture to mind and meditate on it. See it happening. Destroy all the images of failure. Replace them with the image of success.

Right now in my life I spend much time dreaming over my visions of faith. I know this works. I would be a fool to ignore it. Remember, one of the mightiest keys in the Kingdom of Heaven is faith. Vision is a major part of faith, for we walk by faith and not by sight. Faith is directly contrasted to natural eye sight.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 103.

WHY PRINGLE IS WORSE THAN BYRNE

It should be apparent by now. Pringle does not know the difference between putting confidence in the sinful flesh and putting faith in Jesus alone. What’s worse, Pringle’s teachings are more extreme than Byrne’s. Pringle is teaching the metaphysical cult teachings of New Thought (which is linked to occultism).

“Faith knows it’s there [the object of your desires] because it has the substance of the experience, or the thing, in itself. Faith is a substance of a “thing” it feels the “thing” existing within the heart right now. Because it exists inside me I know that it exists. Somehow my faith has rebelled against normal time restrictions, travelled out into the future, plugged into this thing and translated the substance of it back to me here in the now.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 55.

He also blatantly LIES with his handling of Hebrews 11:1. There is no amplified bible that translates Hebrews 11:1 the way he says it does.

“We believe that we have the answer to our prayer before our five senses tell us so. The Amplified Bible interprets Hebrews 11:1 as “Faith perceives as a reality what is not revealed to the five senses.”

Faith is like an additional sense. A spiritual sense… Thus we walk by faith, that is, an inner substance, an inner reality that cannot be seen by anyone else. The conclusion is that we don’t wait until we receive a thing before we believe that we have it. We get it before we get it.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 56.

PRINGLE’S PREPOSTEROUS PROSPERITY PRINCIPLES

Pringle simply is not putting a relationship with God first. As we see, he is not preaching anything from the bible that promotes the truths of God. Instead he is teaching lies to Christians to dabble in deism, (the metaphysical world view that the universe is governed by impersonal, spiritual laws rather than a personal, sovereign God).

“When this principle first began operating in my life I had never heard anyone so much mention the idea of receiving a thing before receiving it. If they had, I may have written them off as having had too much pizza the night before! It sounds strange to the natural man. But that’s always the way with the laws of God. They are indecipherable to the natural man. In Isaiah 55 God declares His “ways are not our ways”. He says that His ways are “higher” than our ways. Like the difference between heaven and earth, flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s Kingdom. It’s a spiritual Kingdom. It runs on spiritual principles. We must understand these principles and operate within them if we are ever to do anything of eternal value for God. Trying to build a spiritual Kingdom by means of the flesh is a sure recipe for burn-out and failure.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 58.

Because of his approach to his understanding of faith being prosperous, he can’t separate his more serious damaging teaching.

“When Paul told the Philippians that God would supply all their need… their generosity would trigger one of the most powerful spiritual laws in existence. It is the law that the widow of Zarephath discovered when Elijah told her to give away her last meal… For the provision of God constantly to be at work in our lives we must activate the laws of God.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 153.

These are the giving laws recognised in the Word of Faith Movement such as the ‘tithe’ and ‘seed faith’ heresies. Believers are taught to obey these so they may be graced or favoured with the Gods miracles. This is salvation by works. As a result, Pringle curses Christians by the very ‘faith’ he says we must live by.

“This especially applies in the world of tithing. Tithing in one sense is not actually giving. The tithe belongs to God, not to us. Malachi the prophet says that when we keep the tithe we are actually “robbing God”.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 155.

“When we withhold the tithe we bring upon ourselves a curse.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 156.

“Thirdly, WHEN we sow determines when we will reap. We need to sow well before we plan to reap. The time to sow is not when you have a need. You are to be constantly sowing your world with generous actions of faith. Oral Roberts has called this “seed faith”. Anyone who plants a seed has faith that it will become a plant in time. We all realize that it’s not going to happen overnight, but faith and patience inherit the promises of God.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 156-157.

CONCLUSION

As a result in dabbling between both the Christian and occult camps, he continually speaks with two tongues and condemns himself and others.

“The words we speak contain great power. However, it is important that we focus on the positive aspect of the power of the tongue rather than the negative… When we ignore the spirit of Scripture we reduce truth to formulae, empty ceremonies and at worst, superstitions. The Word of God is extremely powerful and must be “handled accurately”(2 Timothy 2:15).” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 70-72.

“Again we see the correlation between the heart and the mouth. The heart must be in harmony with the mouth and the mouth with the heart. Saying the right words is not like some magical formula that will make a thing happen. A positive confession is not like saying “Abracadabra, Open Sesame”. This thinking has the disastrous effect in the reverse.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 74.

“Faith is lifeless unless you act on it. T.L. Osbourne says: “When the promises of God are believed and acted upon they become the power of God”. We can do all the things we have previously talked about about: desire, decision, prayer, speaking faith, seeing the answer, but if we don’t act our faith it is all to no avail.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 

“The “fearful” are at the top of the list of those who are thrown into the lake of fire.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 108.

This is a pitiful faith that hopefully, no Christian should ever want. This is faith by works and laws. This is not faith. This is confidence in the flesh. As Paul says about true Christianity,

“… We are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh…” Philipians 3:3

If you feel lead to pray for the spiritual state of Phil Pringle and the C3 Movement please do so. No Christian should have to put with this kind of false teaching. No one should be bound by it.

EDIT: Not looking at his book faith, also compare the following teachings between Phil Pringle & Ronda Byrne:

Both teach that the writers of the bible were exceedingly wealthy,

“If you have been brought up to beheve that being wealthy is not
spiritual, then I highly recommend you read The Millionaires of
the Bible Series by Catherine Ponder. In these glorious books you
will discover that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Jesus
were not only prosperity teachers, but also millionaires them-
selves, with more affluent lifestyles than many present-day mil-
lionaires could conceive of.” – Ronda Byrne, The Secret, 2006, pg. 109. 

“And you need to understand. The bible, (this is kind of a shocking thought for some people), it’s been written by some of the wealthiest people in history. If you got Bill Gates to write a chapter, Warren Buffett to write a chapter, the telecommunications guy in Mexico  (I forgotten his name) to write a chapter, (the three richest men in the world), that’s what the bible is! It’s these unbelievably, extraordinary, successful people who’ve written this book and said, ‘Do these kind of things and life’s going to work for you’.” – Phil Pringle, Financial Excellence AM, 8:15, 22/05/2011.

Both encourage self talk,

And so immediately after you say, “I am tired” or “I am broke” or “I am sick” or “I am late” or “I am overweight” or “I am old,” the Genie says, “Your wish is my command.” Knowing this, wouldn’t it be a good idea to begin to use the two most powerful words, / AM, to your advantage? How about, “I AM receiving every good thing. I AM happy I AM abundant. I AM healthy. I AM love. I AM always on time. I AM eternal youth. I AM filled with energy every single day.” – Ronda Byrne, The Secret, 2006, pg. 168.

“Self talk has become fashionable in many circles of people attempting to improve themselves in any number of areas of their lives. It’s truth that has been in God’s Word for thousands of years. We should develop a set of statements that we regularly speak to ourselves. This creates a faith about who we are and what we can achieve. Here are some examples.

I like my life. I love my job… I’m a happy person. I’m a peaceful person… I speak the right kind of words. Inside the sun is shining everyday. I find solutions to problems. I find answers to questions. I find what I’m looking for. Doors open to me. My mind is healthy. My emotions are stable. I’m happy with the way I look… I love serving God. I’m a creative person. I’m a fit person. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I’m glad about my past. All things are working together for good in my life.” – Phil Pringle, Faith, 2001, pg 94-97.