City Harvest Church

Over the next five days, starting today, thousands of delegates will be descending upon this small island to be part of the Asia Conference 2008 where one of the highlights of the convention will be Benny Hinn and his fleecing healing session on Saturday evening.

I had meant to go to that particular session to attempt to give a first-hand report but I’m going to heed the advice of my wife, who upon hearing about my intentions earlier, asked if I was indeed mad. I still have half a mind to just go and get a first-hand look at Saint Hinn myself but there’s no other good excuse I could come up with to sneak in.

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I have been debating some proponents of the prosperity “gospel” on a local forum and got to know about this particular piece on popular culture written by Kong Hee, the senior pastor at City Harvest Church (a mega church in Singapore) in the church’s quarterly newsletter Harvest Times.

To say that I am saddened and very much worried by what I read in the article would be an understatement, so I’m going to do a rebuttal of the article in response, in the hope that the same young people who have read and taken the advice within to heart will look at the article again, this time with the Bible as the final authority and not the words of a man.

Text referenced from the article will be in italics and in blockquotes.
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Well, hello there, Circus Church!

A report in CityNews, City Harvest Church’s online newsletter (I think) tells us that, following the immense success a Manhunt and Beauty Pageant held during their Emerge! Conference in 2007, a “search has now begun for the next king and queen of good looks to be crowned at the upcoming Asia Conference 2008 this November”.

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I just stumbled upon this site a few days ago and was smiling to myself — thank you, whoever you are who put up the blog and page on YouTube with a whole load of sermon excerpts; it will now be easier to use the resources to warn of the dangers of Kong Hee’s Word of Faith theology and prosperity message!

Technology is wonderful, heh!

Here’s just a couple of samples of Kong Hee’s theology — the first is his vision of a stadium in the marketplace, and the second a very succinct summation of the prosperity message taught at City Harvest Church.

My thanks to Yongchun at All of Grace for bringing this to my attention.

To mark the 80th anniversary of the Assemblies of God (AoG) in Singapore, a “Fresh Fire Conference” will be held in November when the organizers believe that “… the LORD will release a fresh prophetic word over the Assemblies of God churches as well as other churches in Singapore and release His anointing in a brand new way!”.

The website announcing the conference goes on to say:

We live in exciting times. The promise of a new era is upon us. As the Assemblies of God of Singapore moves beyond our 80th year, let us catch the fresh fire of the Lord - one that is greater than what we have experienced before - and let us come together to be equipped and empowered to impact this world for the glory of God. Catch the “Fresh Fire” of God as you listen to what God has to say to us through His chosen servants at this Conference.

Speakers at the conference include female apostle Naomi Dowdy (formerly from Trinity Christian Centre), Kong Hee (City Harvest Church), two other female reverends, and a healer/prophet.

Now, I can’t say that I am familiar with the AoG in Singapore, but I would also wonder aloud with Yongchun as to why we are seeing them yoked with the Third Wave and Word of Faith movements. Plus, while I might be seen as being a skeptic, I’m of the opinion that people won’t be hearing a very Biblical message at the conference — I just get very wary when folks claim that there’ll be new prophetic words and anointings.

Picture taken from the Fresh Fire Conference website.

A good brother highlighted this particular segment to me, and I managed to obtain the video and am now sharing it via YouTube.

You’ll see Kong Hee, the senior pastor of City Harvest Church, being “anointed” here by Alex Abraham of Indonesia to “replace myself; to replace Dr. Cho Yonggi”. My question, then, is who is being glorified here — God or man?

Besides, is it me, or does it remind you of the same sort of “anointing” that leaders in the false Apostolic movement love to heap on one another (remember Todd Bentley’s not so long ago)?

The State-controlled local broadsheet — The Straits Times — published a special report¹ on religion on 9 August, which was also our National (or Independence) day.

The report noted a major shift in the professed religion/faith of many who were born Taoists to Christianity. For those who are not familiar with the religious landscape in Singapore, Taoism is the traditional religion of choice, so to speak, of many Chinese here. In fact, I was born into a Taoist family myself and had even considered myself a Buddhist/Taoist when asked to declare my religion/faith in primary school.

While seven out of 10 people would consider themselves to be Taoists 90 years ago, that percentage has taken a big hit through the years with recent census figures taken in the year 2000 putting this figure at just 8.5 per cent of the population surveyed. Conversely, Christianity has seen an impressive growth — from just 12.7 per cent of the population in the census taken in the year 1990 to 14.6 per cent in 2000. Given that numbers in the other major religions recognized in Singapore (Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam) held steady, the conclusion was that most Christian converts hail from a Taoist background.

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Sharing a few interesting bits of news from around the world:

• Masab, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, is now a Christian and calls himself Joseph. (Haaretz)
• British Newspaper Readers Vote To Keep Todd Bentley out of UK. At least it’s not all bad in the UK! (End Times Prophetic)
• Ken Silva was on Crosstalk Radio filling listeners in on what has been happening to him and his site since the threat of a lawsuit from Richard Abanes. (Crosstalk Radio)
• My good brother, Yong Chun, writing on City Harvest Church, has a great sermon-by-sermon MP3 comparison of how the same parable — The Sower — has been badly mangled and interpreted by three pastors of the church. (All of Grace)
• New Christian radio stations worth a listen-to: Pirate Christian Radio and Fighting for the Faith.
• I’ve put up a new poll — have fun!
• And, finally, some humor for the weekend: Introducing the Evolution Mix…

One fine Sunday morning, at a well-known WoF church in Singapore…

My apologies about the quality, I recorded it off the streaming video of the service.

If you were one of those who claimed to have been healed during the recent service at City Harvest Church where Che Ahn was the guest pastor and administering healing, I’d like to hear from you!

I remember that there were a few healed of their stomach ailments; someone with a condition with his left hand where it’s in perpetual pain even after surgery was also apparently healed, as well as one with a terminal disease (cancer if I do not remember wrongly).

Reason I am asking is that I’m doing an investigative story on this episode, so if anyone would like to offer any testimonies, good or bad, I’d love to hear from you. Do not leave your experience(s) here as comments, but email me directly at ikechua[at]gmail[dot]com.

My thanks in advance.

You know what? If this sort of story was told to a group of villagers in some remote part of the world, I think they might even laugh it off as a bad joke or silly superstition at best.

But, mix it up with a little “revival” and put the Christian tag above it, and suddenly there’ll be Christians who will believe this nonsense. Just watch how the man is struggling to constrain himself and trying to come up with something credible as he goes along. This incident never actually happened, of course, if you can catch how much hesitation and fabrication there is in his account.

For those who have attended the service at City Harvest Church where Che Ahn was the guest pastor, please re-examine what you have heard, seen and perhaps believe. This man is a liar and a false prophet, and I hope some of you will take the time to ask the church management why they decided to bring in such heresy.

While doing some research on Che Ahn, the pastor who recently spoke at City Harvest Church as a guest pastor and administered “healing”, I was troubled to find out that Che Ahn is very closely associated with Bentley, and has even pronounced a “prophecy”¹ on the latter.

The more troubling issue is this: why would City Harvest Church, having knowledge of this close relationship between Che Ahn and Bentley (who is obviously a liar, charlatan and false prophet) invite the former to guest-speak to their congregation?

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Please bear in mind as you read this that I am warning you in good faith and Christian love.

I am not too sure how to put it, but just last night (Saturday), I had a dream where I had a prompting that somehow one of the two guest pastors speaking at City Harvest Church this weekend would come out in support of Todd Bentley, thereby favorably introducing Bentley to an unsuspecting congregation in Singapore.

(The other guest pastor was Robb Thompson, who, in my opinion, executed a classic bait-and-switch at the end of his sermon, urging the many youths in the congregation to tithe beyond what they have normally given. In other words, he’s another prosperity preacher selling the “sow and reap” principle for success in life).

Moreover, this morning I just had an urge to catch the “live” sermon on the church’s web site.

Not only did I discover that this pastor Che Ahn helms Harvest Rock Church — a church that supports the Florida Outpouring, but he himself knows Todd personally and was enthusiastically promoting Todd’s ministry during the service in question.

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A brother calling himself “Lee” left a comment in response to my testimony on the blog, urging me to “focus on love” and not to “bring division” with my previous posts on teachings at City Harvest Church.

Now, I am going to reproduce the comment here with my response, because I will be deleting it. Not because it’s any form of censorship or whatever, but that comment is inappropriate as a response to my testimony. I don’t blame Lee, though, as I gathered he couldn’t figure where it would be best to leave such a comment as there aren’t such posts on this new blog (yet).

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I recently caught another sermon by pastor Kong Hee of City Harvest Church. Speaking on prayer and quoting Mark 16:17-18, he advised that “the key to power and protection, to the wisdom of God, to solve society’s problem, to shine for the kingdom is praying in tongues.”

Uh, no, pastor, it’s not.

Society’s problems cannot be solved by Christians praying in tongues. The world needs to hear the Gospel, repent and turn to Christ, not through humanist efforts. You can build the best hospitals, have the best doctors but there will always be disease and death, and the eternal fates of people are more important.

Yes, you can and should take care of people’s physical needs for we are to feed the poor and take care of widows, but that must come after the Gospel is preached. Did Paul build hospitals to help the heathen turn from their false gods and pagan practices? No, he preached the Gospel and the Gospel only.

Here’s an excerpt from the sermon which you can watch here (Jabez 2: Prayer Part B):

So what is Jesus saying? As you engage culture, God’s power will ensure you’ll solve society’s problem. You’ll find solution for people that are sick, you’ll find solution for people who are oppressed, you’ll do miraculous work. You’ll find the solution for every answer the world is looking for.

…

How to get into that kind of power?

…

You see, right in the middle of Jesus’ command here, He gave us a little key. He said “In my name, you gotta speak with new tongues.”

That means the key to power and protection, to the wisdom of God, to solve society’s problem, to shine for the kingdom is praying in tongues.

And I didn’t say that; Jesus said that!

I am quite sure that our Lord Jesus Christ didn’t say that at all, meaning this pastor is putting words into God’s mouth.

Seriously, I am warning that one be careful not to follow after such teachings.

You’ll notice that, if you fast forward the sermon, the entire congregation was told to break forth and speak in tongues, which is an obvious disregard to the instructions given by Paul for orderly worship.

What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.

1 Corinthians 14:26-28

Worse yet, there was an altar call right after. I wonder how true Paul’s words earlier in 1 Corinthians would be for some unbelievers there!

If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?

1 Corinthians 14:23

It saddens me that so many are led astray…

Foreword: this is a word out to Christians out there, and please understand that I do it in all love as I care about your salvation and what you’re learning from church. Sure, I might not know you from Adam, but my concern for you as a brother or sister-in-Christ compels me to write this even as I know it might draw a ton of flak.

Listen to me, and listen well: if you desire a true relationship with God and a real Christian walk, stop listening to the filth that is coming out of that pulpit at City Harvest Church!

This is my personal comment on the teachings of the pastor Kong Hee, after watching his sermon presented this morning (Sunday, January 6, 2008) via the net.

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I just watched a sermon at a church’s web site, and have been frantically searching for the Biblical basis for what the pastor preached on tithing and prayer.

To emphasize the point, the reading was taken from Malachi chapters 1 and 3.

Anyhow, one point that the pastor made about how men can have their prayers answered was that they need to present gifts to their wives (which is one form of honoring one’s wife).

Excuse me, but what?

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