Rodney and Adonica Howard-Browne at the opening of the C3 Oxford Falls building.
Back in the 1990s Phil Pringle invited Rodney Howard-Browne numerous times to “speak” at C3 Church Brookvale and later at Oxford Falls, Sydney. Rodney Howard-Browne is famous for bringing the “laughing revival” and gaining the nickname, the Holy-Ghost bar tender. He has been seen as the catatylst (through his “revival” at Lakeland, Florida), of what is now known as the Toronto Blessing.
Not only did Phil Pringle and C3 endorse this man, they actively promoted the Toronto Blessing at a week-long event at the former Brookvale church site. And we have photos that document the C3 Goldstore promoting books that defended the Toronto Blessing. Furthermore, we have documented proof that C3 even promotes the materials of Rodney Howard-Browne in their college libraries.
New Blessing or old heresy?
It has been correctly stated that the Toronto Blessing,
“is a mix of Gnosticism, Pelagianism, mysticism and even Arianism. Of Gnosticism, through claims of special spiritual enlightenment in the form of bogus prophetic insight and dubious words of knowledge. Of Pelagianism, through an emphasis on self-effort in finding and maintaining peace, joy and fulfilment in daily life (a recipe for mental breakdown and spiritual collapse if ever there were one). Of mysticism, by an emphasis on subjective experience denying the objectivity of God’s Word. Of Arianism, through an over emphasis on one member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, at the expense of the others, thus denying the fulness of the deity of each member.” [Source]
And it seems the time HAS come when men (and women) will not put up with sound doctrine (2Tim 4:3). Instead of reflecting on the peace, hope and joy that Christ’s finished work has done for them by His life, death and resurrection, instead we are seeing so many experience-driven churches and so few where Christ is honored and His Word obeyed.
Clearing the muddy waters of charismatic “renewal”:
We would like to thank one of our discerning readers for posting this below resource over on Hillsong Church Watch. This was a series of conference lectures from Crich Baptist Church Derbyshire. (http://www.crichbaptist.org/online-sermons/)
1: The Toronto Blessing – What Was It and Why Did It Happen?
2: The Toronto Blessing Twenty Years On: Perspectives On the Church and Society
3: The ‘Toronto Blessing’: Its Impact on the Charismatic and the Reformed Churches
We hope you enjoy these resources.
True revival or truly demonic-possession?
If the attached Toronto Blessing clip above, and its manifestations, are held to the light of Scripture, it can scarcely be called such. Absolutely nowhere in Scripture can one find a precedent for what was happening at the Toronto Airport church. The nearest that Scripture comes to describing the paralysis and bizarre behavior prompted by the Toronto Blessing are its documented effects of demonic possession (see Mark 9:18).
To quote Phil Johnson of Gracelife Church,
“We don’t need more hype and activity and mass movements. We need the pure light of God’s Word—”the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises” (2 Peter 1:19).” [Source]
C3 Church Watch 
Am I reading this correctly?
Have you really quoted Phil Johnson as a positive source for this story?
Isn’t he the pelican who endorses that IDIOT Wells and her hysterical ravings and has her as a guest speaker in his Church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Isn’t he the guy on the false prophecy bandwagon waving furiously to the huddles masses as he rolls along!
Or am I reading it incorrectly and you were being sarcastic?
Please tell me I have something wrong here.
Yes you have it wrong! Phil Johnson is NOT Bill Johnson. Phil is an executive pastor at John Macarthur’s church
http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/TM13-9/is-there-a-baby-in-the-charismatic-bathwater-phil-johnson
Maybe it’s not _a baby but just a plastic doll after all?
Highly recommend our readers take the time to listen to the lecture series from Crich Baptist Church.
Cheers Team ChurchWatch.
If people don’t want to watch/ listen to whole series probably the third one is best. He spoke more specifically e.g. examples of practices than general issues.
Very similar name, totally different end of the spectrum RE signs and wonders.
Compare above link with Brannon House’s exposé of Bill Johnson.
If anyone decides to youtube Bill Johnson directly please get out your bible and compare everything he says with the bible. He loves using out-of-context passages and messages focused on weird experiences etc.
in the video around 2:00 master Bible contortionist bill johnson gives his usual ‘glory cloud’ talk..
but accd to the OT the real glory cloud wasnt a casual event.. heres what happened when the real glory cloud appeared..
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“34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” (ex 40:34-35)
“16 The LORD said to Moses: ‘Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.'” (lev 16:2)
“42 But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the tent of meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the LORD appeared.” (numbers 16:42)
“11 So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.” (1 kings 8:11)
“14 So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.” (2 chron 5:14)
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no “gold dust”, everything else stopped, & it was a very big deal.
nfg
There was gold dust in the Old Testament, when Moses came down from the mountain and saw the people worshipping the golden calf, he destroyed it, ground it to dust and made them drink it.
Exodus 32:20 “He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.”
Do you think Bill Johnson ever tells the people at Bethel that story?
good point. i doubt bill ever tells them about the true gold dust event in exodus.
nor does bill ever talk about all the gold dust thats lined his pockets..
nfg
“11 So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.” (1 kings 8:11)
This particular verse is also used as a justification for the “slaying in the spirit” that often accompanies false prophet ministries and their campaigns. Since the priests could not ‘stand to minister’, they must have fallen over too!
This is only something that the Lord could do. In Acts 2, cloven tongues of fire appeared – in Acts 4, the building shook, but how often do such manifestations occur in modern times?
Even when genuine revivals occur (repentance followed by fruit in the lives of the new converts), true manifestations of a supernatural nature seem to be few and far between, if they occur at all. Johnson and his NAR compatriots do not have a leg to stand on.
and this.. apparently johnson teaches additional nonsense about a ‘portal’ over bethel redding which assists doing the miraculous there.
i have done a little research of my own on these ‘portals’ and what johnson’s advocating is occult & not something a so-called ‘Christian’ should be instructing..
nfg
nfg : Seems to be a lot of “dust” at Bethel !
Gold and Bull !
youre right ziggy. its interesting to us these teachers spreading these heresies seem obvious and probably takes us a short time to spot, but bethel members could spend a couple years spinning their wheels trying to figure out the same thing.
another reason these teachers are bad.. when someone sits under them for a long time, they have picked up a mishmash of ideas. it could be frustrating & take time to “unlearn” all the bad stuff. even to “identify” & separate good from the bad. once someone gets a false teaching in their mind, though they may realize its incorrect, they might still struggle with it for awhile..
nfg
thor, thats interesting and now that you mention it, i believe youre right.
the verse i had pulled on me a few times as justification for the “slaying in the spirit” was john 18:6,
nfg
i noticed a few weeks ago bill j was on sid roth. they tag-teamed the audience on bill’s ‘heaven to earth’ revelation at 1:00 – 4:00..
im sure we’ll hear more about ‘heaven to earth’ from all ‘the super-apostles’.
this audience should know better than to listen to bill johnson.. i have never once seen bill johnson make sense.. bill’s interview here is filled with his typical style of religio-babble. he impresses audiences by “dropping” lots of buzzwords & making claims, all very rapid-fire. it doesnt give them time to stop and ponder the kook-aid they’re drinking.
“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober,” (1 peter 1:13 a)
nfg
Hey NFG – this ‘portal’ stuff comes from an interpretation of the Book of Enoch. Apparently Enoch was supposed to have traveled from Earth to Heaven and back on a number of occasions using these ‘portals’ – a bit like some kind of conduit, and although the word ‘portal’ was not in existence in those early pre flood days, the same kind of concept is intimated by some who have studied the book.
The word ‘portal’ is also used by those (NAR and LRM) proponents, who believe that ‘the great cloud of witnesses’ from the book of Hebrews, is in fact just about to burst on the scene – it will, according to some, become visible to some of us who are still on the “Earthly plane” – and will allegedly contain the saints of God who have died – people whom you and I will recognise…
I do not believe that the current ‘Book of Enoch’ is inspired, and may well be a fake, or could contain some original text, but with embellishments. At best, it may hold some historical parts, but it is in no way inspired. The canon of scripture is complete without it.
thor, thanks for mentioning about this.. since enoch & elijah never died but were taken to Heaven, i have anticipated nar to start claiming ‘portals’ for both of them.
ive also seen nar claim there was a portal wherever lots of NT miracles occurred in the Bible.
i too dont believe the ‘book of enoch’ is valid either, & i have decided to avoid anything outside of the traiditonal canon.
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a bunch of occult-witchcraft teachings are gaining ‘Christian’ popularity in nar.
randy demain says he was listening to Christian music with headphones on, he heard a voice say “I HAVE A GIFT FOR YOU.. WILL YOU RECEIVE IT?” coming thru his headphones, he acknowleged he wanted it, a light appeared, a veil opened, & Jesus walked thru the veil and stood 2 feet in front of him.
i think the visitiation thing has become the strongest “death in the pot” to impact the Body of Christ yet. whoever gets a ‘visitation’ becomes the next oracle to speak ‘for God’..
heres demain with his new-found authority promoting occult-witchcraft in church..
look how eager these Christians are to accept randy’s golden calf. shocking..
(its complete with that new TRIBAL drumming that nar’s also promoting now too !)
nfg
Wow – that’s just religious nonsense – as if a bell/tuning fork could summon a ‘blessing’ or an ‘anointing’! I wonder how many bottles of snake oil this man sold that day???
Bells, drums and incantations were specifically used by pagans for the summoning of demons – that was their “cue” to come and take possession of the intended ‘victim’ – just ask any witch doctor!
As a Catholic child, I remember being sent out to the playground to ring the ‘Angelus’ bell once a week (when I was a good boy) to summon Gabriel, so that he could take the prayers of the school kids straight back to Mary… What’s the difference?
It looks like good old fashioned paganism to me!
Reminds me of some information I received from a reliable source inside C3OF concerning this nonsense. At the time all this was going on, someone sent information to C3 pointing out what a load of rubbish the so-called “Toronto Blessing” was, and Mark “Sheepdog” Saundercock had a major dummy-spit from behind the lectern – apparently in his esteemed opinion, this “Toronto Blessing” was the real deal: it was the long-awaited “revival” finally breaking out, and woe betide anyone who dared to speak a word against it.
Fast-forward twenty years, and the mirth has well and truly subsided. No longer can one attend a “service” at C3OF that looks for all the world like a cross between a barnyard and an asylum, and there is no tangible fruit that remains – the revolving door at C3OF is working as well as ever (the “congregation” having hardly grown in all this time), and Phil doesn’t look any closer to “taking the city of Sydney” than he ever did.
Poor old Mark Saundercock is still running around trying to track down naysayers, but he must be wondering how he could have got it all so wrong, and when it’s all going to happen for real. After all, he has invested his life in C3 without seeing what Phil has been promising and promising and promising, and he is, like Phil himself, almost of pensionable age. Maybe if “pastor” Mark could better do his job of eliminating negative people from C3OF, God would *finally* pour out his Spirit – or maybe Mark has simply backed the wrong horse, and all those years of spinning his wheels have been nothing more than a monumental waste of time.
All I’ve got to say is this: I think there’s a very fine line between the Spirit and the flesh/emotions.
That hitting the C tuning fork would hurt your ears. Don’t know if he was still hitting it when the song went up to D…..blues anyone?
In other news, I can’t see what hitting a tuning fork does. Hey, maybe he wants to encourage piano tuners.
I have seen people do that sound with wine glasses. Honestly, just when i think things can’t get sillier, along comes randy demain and his pitchfork..er..tuning fork.