Recently, Hillsong’s Brian Houston interacted with popular Australian rugby player, Israel Folau on social media. Israel Folau is well known for his biblical stance on homosexuality/gay marriage and although Brian Houston denies he is gay-affirming, his ultimate agenda in this area remains unclear. Houston has used Folau’s Christian stance to further the idea on social media that he’s as brave and conservative as Folau (the infamous Royal Commission back in 2014 demonstrated that Brian Houston is quite prepared to stand for nothing but his own interests).
In their interaction on Instagram, it appears that Folau has attempted to detach himself from Brian Houston’s false theology. What is interesting is that in Folau’s recent comments, he did not attack Houston – he simply spoke out against false prosperity teachers and megachurches (it could have been any megachurch). But did Brian Houston assume Israel Folau was talking about him by responding? Is Houston identifying himself as one of the very false prosperity teachers Folau was talking about?
Judging by Brian Houston’s reaction – he did identify himself as a false prosperity teacher.
Folau (without naming Houston), labelled those who don’t speak of sin, repentance or hell as false teachers. Again, Houston identified with this and bizarrely went on to refute Folau by twisting Romans 2:4 in his defense – Houston attempted to refute Falua’s claim that false teachers “never speak of sin, repentance or hell” by suggesting Romans 2:4 teaches that true teachers “never speak of sin, repentance or hell” because they focus on “the goodness of God.”
“Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” Romans 2:4
To those who don’t understand what Brian is doing here, his definition of repentance is not the same as the bible’s definition. Christianity teaches that repentance is a gift from God through the Holy Spirit.
The gift of repentance manifests when one is born again by the Holy Spirit because they are convicted by the wrath and goodness, justice and grace of God. But like false teachers outside of the Christian faith, they teach a carnal, works-based repentance definition of ‘to change one’s mind’.
So to Brian Houston, because he teaches a ‘Jesus died to make you rich’ message, his false gospel will convince someone to ‘change their mind’ or to ‘change their ways’ to get what they want from his ‘god’. Time and again Brian Houston fails to show he has any desire or capability to demonstrate he is a qualified Christian leader. All the evidence, signs and countless examples clearly place him into the category of someone who is a very dangerous false teacher. Sadly, this is to be expected as he continues to surround himself with people who also support his anti-biblical belief system.
To silence Israel Folau, Houston misused this scripture:
“But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” Titus 3:9-11
Unfortunately, Houston quoted a scripture that describes himself. This is Mr Inclusive ‘come-as-you-are’, Brian Houston. Folau rightly saw through the twisting of this verse and called Brian Houston’s bible twisting to account.
CONTROVERSIAL – The article below observed Houston wrote the book ‘You Need More Money’, where Houston confesses he did indeed write a controversial book to shock people. That’s controversial.
GENEALOGIES – Houston also relies on his family’s genealogy pointing out that just as his (pedophile) father was a great man of God and preacher, so is he and so too is Brian Houston’s son (You Can Change the Future, 2000),
DISSENSIONS – While Steven Furtick is often called the ‘King of the Narcigetes’, Brian Houston is the ‘King of Dissenters’. Since the inception of his father’s ministry and that of his own, their way of ‘doing church’ was never the biblical way. Nor has CLC/Hillsong ever started a church that could be recognized as a Christian or biblical one. For instance, the elders are members, not the congregation. This means the congregation has no say in any matter but only the elders (members) do. However these elders must submit to the ‘apostolic vision’ of Brian Houston.
Hillsog may call themselves a church – but they’ve never been one and have never stopped their attempt to take over the orthodox Christian church with their scheming leadership. This is because CLC/Hillsong have always regarded their ‘church’ as a movement while Christianity has historically taught that the church was instituted by Christ, founded by Apostles and Prophets.
Hillsong rejects this and holds to the teachings of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) cult, claiming that their church must be governed by Apostles (such as Brian Houston). To reject his teachings, to question his vision, to question Brian Houston’s ‘apostolic’ judgment is to question God Himself. He literally breathes out dissension every Sunday when he gets up to twist the bible to further his cause at the expense of the Christian faith.
QUARRELS ABOUT THE LAW – The last is the most obvious. Whether it be laws of the land or biblical laws, Brian Houston thinks he is above all laws. A good example of this is his church promoting the NAR mandate they call ‘The Seven Spheres’ (also called the Seven Mountain Mandate). In spite of Brian Houston being in trouble with the law in the past, he has made it his agenda to have those in his movement become part of, and be an influence over, government, law, media, arts and so on for his personal purposes. Frankly, this is frightening to consider what the implications of that would be. In fact, some could question if this is why the Royal Commission and Australian police have not investigated him further for covering up the crimes of his father.
Because Brian Houston preaches the prosperity gospel, you can examine how he twists God’s laws to financially exploit people. This means he teaches an unbiblical form of tithing so that people can ‘be blessed to be a blessing’. The tithe was a law for the Jews of the Old Covenant to practice while Christian giving is not to be forced but should be given out of careful thought and cheer. In doing this, he adds to the gospel of salvation the burden of an unbiblical tithe to rob struggling people of their hard earned money. Brian Houston’s ‘prosperity gospel’ and message prove he is prepared to quarrel over the minor things of the law, negating the finished work of Jesus Christ.
The fangs of a wolf are on full display in the world of social media. Those who do not care about truth and the true nature of Brian Houston are not Christians at all. They don’t want Jesus – they want myths that tickle their ears.
“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, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4
Brian Houston has made it very clear in the past that Hillsong exists not for Jesus.
Hillsong’s Brian Houston hits back at Israel Folau after the rugby star criticises the prosperity gospel
Last year Brian Houston, the founder of Hillsong Church, commended Israel Folau’s bravery for his stance on Same-Sex Marriage. Well, it seems now the rugby star may have fallen out of favour with the mega-church pastor after a series of Instagram posts criticising prosperity preachers.
Houston, author of ‘You Need More Money,’ took offense to at least four of Folau’s recent posts. The first stated, “The mega church preaches happiness not holiness. Without holiness no one shall see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14).”
In the comments section, Houston replied, “The message [is] not holiness or happiness. The message is JESUS. And its our focus on him that brings holiness.. And happiness. Sad post.”
The next post Houston objected to criticising pastors who soften the gospel message by removing difficult topics like sin and hell. The post reads: “There’s a name for pastors who never speak of sin, repentance or hell – they’re called false teachers.”
Houston responded, “ROMANS 2:4 (NKJV.) ‘[4] Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that THE GOODNESS OF GOD LEADS YOU TO REPENTANCE?’ > NB: The context is judging the sin in someone else while ignoring your own sinfulness.”
Next, Folau posted a message that warned, “Too many preachers today preach prosperity but not repentance, blessing but not obedience, abundance but not self-denial. Buyers beware!” To which Houston responded by simply directing Folau to Titus 3:9 which says, “Avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.”
Finally, Folau shared an image of a quote by evangelist Leonard Ravenhill which said, “If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today he would never have been crucified.” Surrounding the quote was images of well-known prosperity preachers such as, Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, T.D. Jakes, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, and Paula White, all of whom have been endorsed by Hillsong Church.
Houston again responded by citing Titus 3:9, including verses 10 and 11. Houston then added, “Ha Izzy. You are even including a man in your pics who is dead. What are you doing?” Houston was referring to Eddie Long, a prosperity preacher who died of cancer early last year.
Yesterday Folau responded to Houston’s comments in the caption of a post that reads, “False teaching: Come to Jesus to get health/wealth/prosperity. NO. Come to Jesus to get Jesus.”
Folau said: “Brian Houston head pastor of Hillsong church responded to my last few posts with Titus 3:9-11, which isn’t relevant and out of context to what I posted. Verses 9-11 are talking about people who are arguing about the LAW. Those who cause divisions in disagreement we need to reject, after they are warned once and twice. Read these scriptures EVERYONE and do not be deceived by these false pastors/preachers. Be very sober and spiritually discerned in who you listen to and watch out for such people…”
Folau then cited: Micah 3:8-11; 1 Timothy 6:5-6; Matthew 10:6-11; 1 Corinthians 9:18; Ezekiel 33:8
For those unsure about the “prosperity gospel” we suggest you take three minutes to listen to John Piper obliterate it in the video below.
Watch: https://youtu.be/G-V_91c5ojU
Source: Hillsong’s Brian Houston hits back at Israel Folau after the rugby star criticises the prosperity gospel, CaldronPool.Com, http://caldronpool.com/hillsongs-brian-houston-hits-back-at-israel-folau-after-the-rugby-star-criticises-the-prosperity-gospel/, Published June 14, 2018. (Accessed June 14, 2018.)
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Categories: Hillsong