I guess I never saw it in this light before. Teddy passed onto me these interesting sites:
http://wordnverse.com/2008/06/30/hillsong-says-reformers-fought-for-nothing/
http://www.symphonyofscripture.com/?p=1023
Hillsong Says: Reformers Fought for Nothing
Posted by on Tuesday, July 1, 2008
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. (2 Corinthians 11:3-4)
For many years now, Christians throughout the world have spoken out against the unbiblical gospel that is presented by Australia’s Hillsong church. However, time and time again, the popular organization has refused to reform their ways. Their apathy for truth and right doctrine has lead many to suspect that the leadership of Hillsong know very little of biblical doctrine and the historic faith. Well, it is now safe to say our suspicions have, unfortunately, been confirmed.
Hillsong church are promoting and uniting with the gospel of the Roman Catholic religion. On a poster advertising World Youth Day, Hillsong worship leader Darlene Zschech says:
“We see WYD08 as a great opportunity to serve the Catholic Church in its vision to present the gospel and reach out to our city, our nation and our world in unity.” (Source)
The gospel, Darlene? Which gospel would that be?
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
(Galatians 1:8-10)
… What’s your say in Hillsong’s involvement?
Signposts 02 
The Catholic Church says that we have no means of salvation except though Catholicism. Is this an opportunity for dialogue with young Catholics who don’t realise the foundation of their faith is at odds with ours?
“July 10, 2007 LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy – Pope Benedict XVI has reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches.
Benedict approved a document from his old offices at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that restates church teaching on relations with other Christians. It was the second time in a week the pope has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that modernized the church.
On Saturday, Benedict revisited another key aspect of Vatican II by reviving the old Latin Mass. Traditional Catholics cheered the move, but more liberal ones called it a step back from Vatican II.
Benedict, who attended Vatican II as a young theologian, has long complained about what he considers the erroneous interpretation of the council by liberals, saying it was not a break from the past but rather a renewal of church tradition.
In the latest document — formulated as five questions and answers — the Vatican seeks to set the record straight on Vatican II’s ecumenical intent, saying some contemporary theological interpretation had been “erroneous or ambiguous” and had prompted confusion and doubt.
It restates key sections of a 2000 document the pope wrote when he was prefect of the congregation, “Dominus Iesus,” which set off a firestorm of criticism among Protestant and other Christian denominations because it said they were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the “means of salvation.”
In the new document and an accompanying commentary, which were released as the pope vacations here in Italy’s Dolomite mountains, the Vatican repeated that position.
“Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one church,” the document said. The other communities “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” because they do not have apostolic succession — the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ’s original apostles”
I personally have no problem with the Hillsong UNITED Team singing and performing at the event. I’m going to be involved in the event.
It’s a dream come true for the churches in Sydney because it’s a great excuse to come together, meet new faces and be more open about our faith then we usually are. We are GIVEN PERMISSION to spread the good news about Jesus Christ! This is a RARE opportunity!
It’s a great opportunity to evangelise and teach people about the real loving Jesus. From what I’ve heard about what the pope wants to spread to these generations is on the book of Acts, 1:8.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
This is quite an amazing teaching to focus on. It’s pretty gospel centered. It’s uniting in every way with the community of Christian churches. I’m excited for any church to be involved. I’ve seen this event to be not about doctrine but a day of celebration and festivities with the greater church. Hope to see you there!
I’m sure doctrinal issues may creep up, but as long as the gospel message is preached, I’ll be more then willing to serve at this event. So far this is what Catholics are looking forward to be doing too.
Is Darlene so ignorant of Catholic doctrine? Perhaps, but a simple “google” reveals so much about the theology of Catholicism. Can it even be called Christianity if salvation is not by faith alone!
Is this another oppotunity to jump on the “religious bandwagon”, sell more CD’s? It’s a mystery to me because Darlene comes across quite sincere in her beliefs. Never had any reason to doubt her. But is that any excuse for not seeing “truth” as far as the Gospel is concerned.
My son-in-law’s parents are staunch Catholics who use Hillsong music at their church – they totally believe their son is going to spend time in purgatory (so he tells me, I wonder why?)
They believe the council of Trent, or anything the pope says ex cathedra, or anything determined by any other council, is as binding as holy writ. If the pope is the vicar of Christ and if Christ mediates his truth through the councils then tradition is the equivalent of Scripture to them. We have interesting discussions at times.
If the Pope is infallible can he deny himself? He is preserved from even the possibility of error! What is the Gospel then?
Given permission? By whom? (who?) Would we go to a big event organised by JW’s? Is their doctrine different to ours? I guarantee we wouldn’t unless it was to hand out Gospel tracts.
Yes, I agree that it’s an opportunity S&P, go for it if it’s the Lord’s leading. I have friends who go to the BodyMindSpirit deal at Darling Harbour and set up a booth to share the Gospel. That’s a very powerful witness!
S&P I’ve heard some seriously challenging teaching on the Catholic church, so it’s a tough one.
So they’re going to make some dead dude into a saint! Can you believe this? He’s dead. If he wasn’t a saint before he died, he ain’t gonna be one now! Where do they get these doctrines? This charade is likely to set Australian Christian witness back five years if we allow the media to be enthralled with it. And whose idea was it to ban protest activity, and thus promoted it? Naughty anti Jesus T-shirts will be the next big thing – for a while anyway. Lord help us!
Hmm… I find the Christian arts are different in a lot of ways. I think it’s great if the Hillsong UNITED team can have appealing music to OP, JW, Mormonism. Why not RC?
They have good music. If I had artistic talent, I’d use it to unite others with in the name of God. If we can put our differences aside for a few days, that would be great. Doctrine unfortunately does divide. The arts remind us that we’re all human and that we all feel and believe in one hope and one love. It brings down barriers. I think it’s in this time God can minister powerfully to individuals.
Doctrine can come later. Maybe we can set up our cynic booth in the city? We can encourage debates and highlight awareness that Christians and Catholics do think. “~”
I’ve just been informed that anyone wearing offensive material on the day, rude shirts, etc. will be fined up to $5000. Hmm… Interesting.
Thank you for dropping by my blog, SpecksandPlanks. 🙂
RE: this issue, I am very much against false unity or serving the interests of the Roman Catholic Church in any form or manner. What does Light have to do with darkness? They have built a twisted, works-based religion out of the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ, slaughtered the true saints throughout history, claimed to be God Himself and is even now working towards bringing all religions under its umbrella.
This is the Apostate Church, the Whore of Revelation. Even the Reformers understood that point, and it is only in recent times that, sadly, some Evangelicals deny what is plain to see and foolishly seek reconciliation at the expense of the Truth in the Bible with the Roman Whore.
Unfortunately, there have been a few Evangelical artistes selling out to the ecumenical movement, and Hillsong is just the latest participant. I like some of their songs, and still do, but I won’t go on supporting them in light of this.
Blessings to you, and Shalom!
Isaiah
A fellow bondservant of Christ Jesus in Singapore
But have you considered Isaiah, that even though there are differences, the fact that we can all be UNITED (lol), as a church body for a while can be a golden opportunity to share with Sydney the gospel message?
Like I said, from my understanding, there seems to be no focus on any major heresy (except Mary), being spoken about. The teaching focus on the event will be on Acts 1:8.
I can’t help but think that churches should get behind this and expect maybe God to move and bring non-believers into truth of who He is. I think this is a golden opportunity to see this as a massive outreach event, not a forum of division and protest.
I haven’t thought of this event being ‘false unity’ before. As far as I am concerned with doctrine, I myself can make ‘truth’ relevant on the day when I witness. But I’m with my Catholic, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Baptist, Uniting and ‘those who like Jesus’ friends who would be more then happy to outreach at such an outreach event.
Point taken though. I’ll be praying about my involvement now. I know some people who really wanted me to be apart of it. I was even invited to walk the wooden cross around the city. I still have the number and I know other people want me to help out with some areas of the city. I so don’t know… They won’t say no to volunteers.
I came out of the Catholic faith- yep its full of heresies, but most rank & file members know so little about Gods word & its meaning that they would readily believe ANYBODY in a cassock or collared black suit standing & preaching Gods word afresh to them!
This thought gives me plenty of hope;
“Whore”- yeh,probably,- but so was Rahab.
Goodnight all,
Z.
So we have to wait a year to have our best life now.
Pastor Brian’s 13 Commandments for Hillsong Conference. No this is not a joke
1. Thou shalt Be Diligent and have an eye for detail
2. Thou shalt Not rest on thine laurels
3. Thou shalt Be in all services
4. Thou shalt Not personally network
5. Thou shalt Sleep well and look after yourself
6. Thou shalt Go the extra mile
7. Thou shalt Remind yourself of the “why”
8. Thou shalt Not take notes with Blackberry/iPhoney/pda
9. Thou shalt Eliminate all queues and bureaucracies
10. Thou shalt Improve on everything you do everyday
11. Thou shalt Not play the blame game
12. Thou shalt Tell thyself everyday “I’m loving this”
13. Thou shalt Hear from God for yourself and be re-envigorated about your job
This is pure gold Mr Bogan. Sounds like a recipe for stressing out and over-work.
I particularly like “Thou shalt not personally network.” Not allowed to have fellowship? Or allowed to network for the church, but not for personal benefit?
I thought they were a joke, until I found them on a website elsewhere that appeared to be run by a Hillsong employee. So they are for real. Maybe they are for Hillsong employees and volunteers, so the networking would be basically ‘focus on your job and not your own agenda’. Understandable in that context. The eliminating queues and bureaucracies is good – we could do with more of that.
Still – to tell yourself each day that your loving it – surely unnecessary if its true! Little bit of NLP never hurt anyone – oh – but how to combine that with hearing from God for yourself?
quote “E: this issue, I am very much against false unity or serving the interests of the Roman Catholic Church in any form or manner. What does Light have to do with darkness? They have built a twisted, works-based religion out of the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ, slaughtered the true saints throughout history, claimed to be God Himself and is even now working towards bringing all religions under its umbrella.
This is the Apostate Church, the Whore of Revelation. Even the Reformers understood that point, and it is only in recent times that, sadly, some Evangelicals deny what is plain to see and foolishly seek reconciliation at the expense of the Truth in the Bible with the Roman Whore.
Unfortunately, there have been a few Evangelical artistes selling out to the ecumenical movement, and Hillsong is just the latest participant. I like some of their songs, and still do, but I won’t go on supporting them in light of this.
Blessings to you, and Shalom!” unquote
I agree with everything Isiah said except the whore of revelation thing. We don’t know who that is. Just because catholics have been slaughtering other chrisitans for centuries doesn’t mean they’re going to be it. Have to find out when it happens.
But yeah. Like Teddy said first off in his comment – it’s a religion that doesn’t recognise non-catholics as christains. So how is supporting a false doctrine going to be anything but compromise?
You have to compromise (or sell out) to support false teaching so under a banner of ‘unity’ – how is that supposed to fly?
You can love catholics as fellow christians, but supporting them in their heresy is unchristain. Who has to worship mary? They’re venerating the pope who is no more holy then anyone else and by supporting what is basically a marketing outreach for catholicism in australia. It’s not building the church at large, it’s building catholicism.
Forget it. Like Isiah said – what does light have to do with darkness? Love people, but don’t encourage them in and towards deception.
There was a night appparently where someone was going to pray for the infilling of the holy spirit for everybody at the event. I’m totally for that because the spirit leads us into all truth. But that’s the only thing I would have been supporting. (And I would have supported any denomination doing that – no matter how far off the track they were.)