I am 100% in favour of people who inspire men, women and children to seek the Lord with all their heart but I am not in favour of the ways and means some have adopted to seek the Lord that are not in tune with the Word of God.
I must admit at first I didn’t know what to think of Angus Buchan’s YouTube video series “Seek the Lord” which he delivered in the wake of the terrible murder on Eugene Terreblanche and the subsequent threats of revenge. Is it a motivational speech like any other by Tony Robbins or is it a Godly inspired sermon to inspire the Christians in South Africa to remain steadfast in times of austere peril? Or is it a clever mixture of both?
First we need to ask ourselves: “What is a motivational speech?” What is it that motivates people in motivational speeches? The ultimate goal of motivational speeches may be summed up as follows:
- To make an appeal to peoples’ inherent goodness, expertise and creativity and to awaken these often slumbering virtues through positive speech and positive thinking. One of the most often quoted clichés that pop up ever so frequently in motivational speakers speeches is “Stand up and be counted.”
- To make an appeal to your self-esteem. Pep-talk is one of the quickest ways to win peoples’ confidence and to get them on your side. The natural inclination of man’s self-esteem is to avoid all kinds of negativity and to embrace positivity. Who wants to be negative anyway, so let’s follow and support the guys who give us hope and do everything in their power for peace and prosperity in our country, our homes and our businesses.
- To make an appeal to your natural inclination for safety, security, happiness and success.
Many preachers, including Angus Buchan, who have been moulded by the Transformational, Manifest Sons of God, Dominionist movement will always refer you to the positive promises in Scripture and very often twist Scripture to suit their agenda. They do this not by telling you an outright lie but by changing the context in which biblical truths are embedded. Allow me to give you an example by quoting Angus Buchan.
You know the Bible is very clear when it says in Romans chapter 8 verse 19 that all creation is waiting with expectation for the manifestation of the sons, and the daughters, of God. So I don’t know where you really stand with the Lord at the moment but my dear friend this is a very serious message. I have never before; I have never in my life been so challenged as I am at the moment that we as believers need to stand up and be counted. [Thomas' comment: Jesus never told his disciples to "stand up and be counted." He said: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves." Paul said that Jesus' true disciples are "defamed . . . and are treated as the filth of the world and are the offscouring of all things unto this day." - 1 Corinthians 4:13.] Our nation of South Africa is 90 % Christian, maybe only in name, maybe in different degrees; not maybe, we know there are. [Thomas' comment: What in the name of sanity does Angus Buchan mean by "different degrees?" Are you a 20% degree Christian, or a 40% or an 85% degree Christian?" Are these "degree Christians" also the "manifest sons and daughters of God?" ] But every person who knows Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour needs to stand up and be counted. You say to me: What do you mean by that Angus? Well, at the moment there is a move going through our nation of fear, of desperation. People are angry. People don’t know what to do. We need to stand up and say: Thus says the Lord! because in the heavenlies nothing has changed. OK! but we as ambassadors for Christ need to stand firm; we need to call those things that aren’t as if they were; we need to walk by faith and not by sight. We need to turn our backs on negative talking. Right? Jesus Christ came to give us hope, and love and joy and peace and He wants to give it to us,. We have it. (Emphasis added)
That’s a lie! Jesus did not come to this earth to give whole nations and countries such as South Africa peace and joy just because 90% of the population is supposedly Christian of which some are “degree Christians.”. Jesus said:
Matthew 10:34-37 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
He only gives HIS peace to his true disipcles or followers.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
He cannot possibly give his peace and joy to those who reject his cross because it was through his cross that He makes peace.
1 Corinthians 1: 18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
In fact, God says there is no peace and joy for the wicked.
Isaiah 57: 20-21 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
The main reason why Jesus came to this earth was to seek and to save those that are lost.
Luke 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
If we were to say “Thus says the Lord” we must be very sure of what He is actually saying and I’m afraid that oom Angus is not telling the truth about what God is saying to us in Romans 8:19. But before I continue we must briefly look at the so-called “Manifest Sons of God” doctrine. You can read the entire article here.
- The charismatic dominionist movement which is expressed mainly in the spiritual warfare and signs and wonders movement had its origin in the Manifest Sons of God doctrine which in turn was birthed by the Latter Rain Movement in the late 40’s. John Robert Stevens, who like Paul Cain and others was a William Branham disciple, established “The Walk,” one of the two sects that came out of the original Manifest Sons of God movement. The other splinter group from the movement was called “The Body of Christ.”
- Eschatology or end time prophecies have no place in dominianst doctrine, mainly because of their “Replacement Theology” that says the church has replaced Israel. Hence their erroneous interpretation of many end time passages in Scripture such as Romans 8:19. Its main agenda is the restoration of the Church, restoration of the 5 fold ministry with the offices of apostles and prophets, having authority through its leaders by strong shepherding and discipleship. A perfection of the saints, immortalization, and the attainment of being Christ as we become just like Christ in nature and ability. The Manifest Sons of God doctrine has an eschatology of Dominionism through the perfecting of the saints under the leadership guidance of the latter-day prophets and apostles. They mostly deny a rapture in the classic sense. Some replace it with individual raptures, a collective transformation to immortality on earth, or none at all. This quote is representative of the teaching “the doctrine of the Rapture was a great and effective ruse of the enemy to implant in the Church a retreat mentality … already this yoke has been cast off by the majority in the advancing church, and it will soon be cast off by all.” (Rick Joyner, THE HARVEST 1989 /1990 revised booklet on pg.121)
- The transformational Spiritual warfare practice that is an attachment to the signs and wonders movement finds its roots in the Latter Rain as well. The revival will come by the Church being led by these leaders in defeating demonic spirits through spiritual warfare prayer, fasting. The spiritual warfare conducted through intense worship and praise, and by spiritual mapping, identifying strongholds, rebuking demonic powers and binding territorial spirits.
“God’s people are going to start to exercise rule, and they’re going to take dominion over the Power of Satan. They’re going to bring diabolical princes down. The dark powers that hover over the Parliament buildings of the nations are going to be paralyzed by the corporate prayer of an authoritative community. As the rod of His strength goes out of Zion, He’ll change legislation. He’ll chase the devil off the face of God’s earth, and God’s people together, doing the will of God, will bring about God’s purposes and Gods reign. “ (Ern Baxter, National Men’s Shepherds Conference, Kansas City, Missouri, 1975)
- The apostles will rule the Church through establishing independent churches, unaffiliated with the corrupt denominations (Branham’s teaching). The exception which is currently underway, is that denominational churches would abandon being separate, join the movement coming under their leadership. It is essential to the Latter Rain movement for the church to be unified as one, under a central leadership. Otherwise Christ cannot be incarnated (manifested) in the Church and give his power to conquer the world for Christ.
Angus Buchan’s interpretation of Romans 8:19, as it is with that of the Manifest Sons of God, is distorted and unbiblical and must therefore be rejected. The verb for “eagerly awaits” (apekdechomai) is used seven times in the New Testament and in every single instance it refers to Christ’s return, not at the Rapture, but at his Second Advent to the earth when He is going to establish his Millennium Kingdom on earth and restore the entire earth to an Edenic Garden of peace and prosperity (Romans 8:19, 23, 25; 1 Corinthians 1:7; Galatians 5:5; Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 9:28). Nature (animate and inanimate) is waiting with great anticipation and expectation for this magnanimous event. So, oom Angus, the sons and daughters of God are not going to be manifested at your Mighty Men Conference in April of 2010 when 400 000 men are going to come together on your farm and stand to be counted. Neither will it happen at any of Graham Power’s transformational rallies in Cape Town or any other city in our beloved country.
What Angus Buchan fails to convey to his Mighty Men and all the people who listen to him is that the believers are presently prone to much suffering and tribulation for they “know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28), and because of their present sufferings (Romans 8:18) they are eagerly waiting, like the Creation, for that day.
But we shouldn’t be that negative, should we?. No! of course not because oom Angus says: “We need to turn our backs on negative talking. Right? Jesus Christ came to give us hope, and love and joy and peace and He wants to give it to us.” What is oom Angus actually promulgating? Positive confession? Well Yes! “we need to call those things that aren’t as if they were; we need to walk by faith and not by sight.” How sure are you, oom Angus, that Jesus never spoke negative things to his disciples? Maybe we should just tear out the following passages from Scripture in order to be positive in our religion.
John 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
Romans 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Matthew 24: 9-12 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
Revelation 2:10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. (Emphasis added throughout).
Ah! but never fear when oom Angus is near. We only “need to call those things that aren’t as if they were; we need to walk by faith and not by sight. We need to turn our backs on negative talking. Right?” and Jesus’ words in the above quoted passages will be changed from negative to positive in a jiffy.
Not only does oom Angus and his Manifest Sons and Daughters of God have an erroneous view of the end-times; he also has a strange view of what hope, joy and peace are in the lives of God’s children. Joy is when you can sing a song of praise to God at midnight after you had been beaten 49 lashes on your bare back. Peace is when you have the peace that surpasses all understanding while the world is in utter chaos and turmoil around you. Hope is to turn your eyes upward from whence your redemption is and to long for the soon return of Jesus Christ because He and He alone is a believer’s hope.
Luke 21:28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws near.
I would like to draw your attention to Angus Buchan’s statement “We need to stand up and say: Thus says the Lord! because in the heavenlies nothing has changed.” The intimation here is that because nothing has changed in the heavenlies and God desires that the things in heaven should be manifested on earth, the things that have changed here below because of negative confessions and negative thinking must and can be changed by faith and particularly spiritual warfare. In the third video of this series Angus Buchan took authority over the anarchy, crime, blood shedding and murder in our country.
God is waiting to visit this nation . . . Negativity! we have to stop it, gentlemen, ladies, we have to stop it. It doesn’t matter what you think; its what God says that counts from now on. And when a young person comes to you and says: But God said that we can have life abundantly, who are you to say: Well I’ve seen this all before. No you haven’t because it’s never happened before, not in the way that God’s going to do it. . . . God is going to move sovereignly in this nation.
We’ve got people coming from Australia, people coming from Britain, people coming from America. What are they coming for? To come and hear my preaching? No! To come and see what God is going to do in two weeks time. This is our greatest opportunity and we need to use it. I’m not talking about a church camp. This is not a church camp. This is coming before the Lord, hey! Falling on our faces before God and saying: Lord we will not leave you, we will not let you go until you bless us and our nation. We are calling anarchy and we’re calling murder and we’re calling blood shedding, we are calling it to nought in the Name of Jesus Christ. We are calling it to nought. We are cutting across all those negative comments in Jesus Name. We are calling the things that God says into being today. We are talking about love and hope and faith in this nation. There is enough in this nation for everybody. There is enough in this nation for the whole continent of Africa.
Oom Angus never once mentioned the things God said which he claims to call down upon South Africa. Was he calling down the things Jesus said in John 15:18, Romans 8:36, Matthew 24:9-12 and Revelation 2:10? I would like to suggest that oom Angus go to places like the Sudan where Christians are murdered in droves because they truly love the Man from Galilee and to “call those things that aren’t as if they were” so as to alleviate or even “bring to nought” their intense suffering. As Bugs Bunny would say: “What’s up Doc?” What’s up with Doc Angus who seems to think the heinous murders, especially of farmers in South Africa, are brought about by our negative talks and thoughts. How many farmers who may have attended his Mighty Men Conferences in the passed have since been murdered? Has oom Angus ever declared his solidairty with the farmers who are constantly under siege or is he just trying to be positive in a vastly negative South Africa who is mourning for the producers of our bread and butter?
While listening to Angus, I began to surmise how the twelve apostles and Paul would have reacted to his words: “And when a young person comes to you and says: But God said that we can have life abundantly, who are you to say: Well, I’ve seen this all before. No you haven’t because it’s never happened before, not in the way that God’s going to do it. . . .” If God had never worked in the way He is allegedly going to work at the Mighty Men Conference from 16-18 April, then the poor apostles and many men of God in the past have missed something that only oom Angus and his mighty men are going to experience.
The abundant life of which the apostle John speaks in John 10:10 does not refer to a life of material abundance and prosperity; he speaks of the glorious and blessed life and all those exalted means of felicity which are prepared for God’s children in the world of glory. Material abundance and prosperity are temporal and not safe because Satan can easily rob you of it and that is precisely why we are admonished not to Lay up for ourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:19-21). Satan and his host cannot rob God’s children of the abundant life (eternal life) they have in the Lord. Paul and the apostles experienced this life in abundance despite the many hardships, blood, sweat and toil and the fiercest persecution they so very often endured. And yet they never convened a crowd to call to nought the anarchy, murder and blood shedding in Rome in the Name of Jesus and neither did they call into being the things God says in his Word. In fact, the hardship and persecution they endured was very often the stepping stone God used to spread the Gospel amongst the heathen so that they too may receive the abundant life through Jesus Christ.
The realties in the heavenlies must be called down upon the earth by speaking into existence (“rehma”) peace, joy, hope and prosperity. This is akin to the New Age maxim “As above, so below.” It is nothing else than a grossly distorted rendition of our Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Ultimately this will only happen when Jesus returns to set up his Millennial Kingdom on earth.
How does Angus Buchan and his Mighty Men aim to bring the realities in the heavenlies down to earth or to speak into being God’s Word on earth?. Listen carefully to the piece de resistance in his short message.
We need to come together. We have to put our petty differences aside. I’m talking about doctrinal issues. We need to put them aside. We need to come as a people of God.
The call to put our petty differences, our doctrinal issues aside is a very dangerous thing to do. First of all, there are no petty (trivial) doctrines in the Bible and anyone who disregards God’s doctrines are showing their true colours. It proves that they are not true disciples or followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus said: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;” John, the apostle of love, wrote:
2 John verse 9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
Some may argue that Angus Buchan’s reference to petty doctrines relates to the non-essential doctrines. What are the non-essentials? I’m very sure that all will agree that salvation and sanctification are the two most important doctrines in Scripture. God very distinctly warns that no one will see Him without sanctification (Hebrews 12:14) and the latter can only be followed by salvation. No one can be sanctified without first having been born from above. There are those who believe that baptism by immersion is an integral part of salvation which makes it extremely difficult for them to divorce baptism from salvation and sanctification. It is obvious that they will never regard baptism as a petty doctrine but just as important as salvation. In the March 1995 edition of The Berean call, Dave Hunt wrote:
The Council of Trent (1545-63) stated that while Christ “merited for us justification by His most holy passion . . . the instrumental cause [of justification/regeneration] is the sacrament of baptism . . . If anyone says that baptism is . . . not necessary for salvation, let him be anathema.”1 Vatican II (1962-65) reconfirms all of Trent2 and reiterates the necessity of baptism for salvation,3 as does the universal Catechism of the Catholic Church released by the Vatican in 1993: “Baptism is necessary for salvation . . . the Church does not know of any [other] means . . . that assures entry into eternal beatitude . . .” 4
Whether we want to believe it or not, the Protestant Reformation has to this very day never discarded some of the Roman Catholic doctrines; baptismal regeneration is one of them. Many Charismatic and Pentecostal churches still strongly believe that baptism by immersion is necessary for your salvation.
Similarly the doctrine of speaking in tongues is regarded in some circles as the evidence for having the Holy Spirit. Will they be prepared to discard this doctrine as a petty thing in favour of union with other denominations? Angus Buchan boasts that 90% of South African citizens are Christians although he admits that many of them are only Christian in name. To whom is he referring? Most of them belong to a church. Below are the most reliable statistics on trends in religion in South Africa according to the national censuses held in 1996 and 2001.
It shows that there was a steady decline in membership numbers between 1996 and 2001 in all the denominations with the exception of “other churches.” What these other churches are, is not stipulated but one can with reasonable assurance say it refers to churches such as the Mormon Church or the Later Day Saints Church and the Seventh Day Adventists who believe they are the one true church in these end-times. Many disillusioned people in the Reformed Churches have joined the Seventh Day Adventist Church in the past few years, simply because they take a firm stand against Roman Catholicism and the many unbiblical doctrines that have overtaken the Reformed Churches. How Angus Buchan and his Mighty Men conferences are going to bring these churches together as a unified army of manifest sons and daughters of God is an open book. Four hundred thousand men from every conceivable denomination in South Africa may indeed come together on Buchan’s farm to listen to him and perhaps even witness some miracles (such as a heart-shaped cloud in the sky which supposedly evidences God’s love for his sons and his daughters). The fact remains, the outcome of his Mighty Men Conferences is not going to be determined by the huge numbers who attend these conferences but by the hierarchical institutions who authoritatively determine what doctrines their congregants should adhere to. In other words, after an euphoric weekend of “great preaching,” praise and worship and “miracles” and “signs and wonders” most of the men will return to their churches only to continue upholding their own pet doctrines. It is precisely what happened in the days of Billy Graham’s mass rallies – the folk (men and women) were sent back to their respective churches (including the Romans Cahtolic Church) after the so-called great revivals.
Preachers who go around promising people that we are smack bang in the midst of a revival are not teaching the true counsels of God. The so-called mighty revivals popping up everywhere are not revivals but the result of motivational strategies to unify all the churches (including the non-Christian religions) with very little or no regard for God’s doctrines. The buzz word is transformations — the transformation of whole cities and nations, a movement that is gaining momentum throughout the world under the auspices of people like C. Peter Wagner and George Otis. For more information on this subject please read here.
The Bible is very explicit in its description of the end-times. It never mentions any great revivals for the end-times. In fact it warns that there will be a great falling away from the faith.
1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
1 H. J. Schroeder, trans., The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent (Tan Books, 1978), 33, 53.
2 Vatican Council II, The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, ed. Austin Flannery, O.P., (Costello Publishing Company, 1988), rev. ed., 412.
3 Ibid, 365.
4 Catechism of the Catholic Church (The Wanderer Press, 1994), 224, 320.
