Jack Hayford
& John MacArthur
Miles
J. Stanford
Rick Miesel wrote the following in his BDM
Letter for July-September 1999:
Jack Hayford (born 1934)
is the hyper-charismatic pastor of the 9,000-member The Church on the Way, the foursquare
church of Van Nuys, California.
Hayford promotes the
"foursquare" doctrines of Pentecostalism--that Jesus is Saviour, Baptizer with
the Holy Spirit, Healer, and Coming King. He also teaches the false doctrine that
physical healing is promised in the atonement (Charisma, June 1992).
Hayford has authored more than two dozen
books, and is also a prolific "hymn" writer, composing more than 400 popular
charismatic "gospel songs, including "Majesty." The lyrics promote
the false charismatic "kingdom now" philosophy in which Christians are thought
to be able to exercise kingdom authority over sickness and the devil this present hour.
1991
In January of 1991 Jack Hayford told the
Pentecostal Fellowship of North America that God informed him that a new era was coming:
"Hayford... related a vision in which
he had seen Jesus on His throne at the right hand of the Father. In Hayford's vision,
Jesus began to lean forward and rise from His seat. As the anointing caught in the folds
of His garments, it began to splash out and fall over the Church.
"Jesus said, 'I am beginning to rise
now in preparation for My second coming. Those who will rise with Me will share in this
double portion of anointing.'" --Charisma (January 1991, p, 44).
1992 to 1997
In 1992, in his book, Charismatic
Chaos, pp. 48,49, John MacArthur repudiated that extra-revelatory claim of
Hayford's:
"Scripture is a closed system of
truth, complete, sufficient, and not to be added to (Jude 3; Rev. 22:18,19). It contains
all the scriptural truth God intended to reveal."
In 1997, in Jack Hayford's book, Pastors
of Promise: A Practical and Passionate Call for Faithful Shepherds (Gospel Light
Publications), John MacArthur is found praising Hayford along with 29 other so-called
"Christian" leaders (among whom are Neil Anderson, Robert Schuller, Bill Hypels,
Chuck Colson, Bill Bright, James Ryle, Greg Laurie, and the late John Wimber).
At the beginning of Hayford's book, under "Praise for
Pastors of Promise" (six pages of praise for Hayford and his book), MacArthur's
"praise" reads (on the fourth page of the quotes):
"Jack Hayford is a model of diligence,
faithfulness to the Lord, and enduring integrity and proven character. Many have
fallen in the battle. Hayford is still standing--a tribute to God's marvelous
grace."
Jack Hayford and the Promise
Keepers
PK's contradictory stand on homosexuality; its promotion
of secular psychology, its unscriptural feminizing of men, its depiction of Jesus as a
"phallic messiah" tempted to perform homosexual acts, and its ecumenical and
unbiblical teachings, should dissuade any true Christian from participating.
Nevertheless, Hayford is a promoter of this ecumenical,
charismatic, psychologized men's movement. He is on PK's board of directors (along
with Howard Hendricks, of DTS), and has spoken at all major events for Promise Keepers
every year since its inception (1991).
1994
On March 14th, 1994, Hayford spoke at a regional Promise
Keepers conference in Anaheim, California. During his message, Hayford gave three
reasons why God required circumcision in the OT:
[l] God wants to touch your very identity as a man.
[2] He wants to reach out and touch your secret and private parts. This
enables Him to better perform surgery on your hearts. [3] God wants to touch man's
creative parts. This represents the idea that since God has touched our creative
parts. This represents the idea that since God has touched our creative
parts, we as God's people need to be creative in our witnessing to others."
1997
Does John MacArthur object to this sickening blasphemy of
God's character? Evidently not, or why would he refer to Hayford three years later
as "a model of diligence, faithfulness to the Lord ... " who "manifests
integrity and proven character ... a tribute to God's marvelous grace"?
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