The Jerusalem Passion (Oratorio)

While writing my post on Murray Wylie, I played his beautiful oratorio on YouTube. At this point of the clip I burst into weeping:

I wept for the loss and waste. For Murray and his depression. The lost friends. The remembrance of the purity of that presentation. It’s lost vision. The original promise. Of the unity of the Body of Christ (read John 17).

I beg you MCF & BCF to return to Christendom and Biblical restoration. Repent. Your lampstand is long since gone.

View my father Charles’ first vision, and his second vision he had THIS WEEK in 2019.

The Curse of the Golden Lampstand (Part II)

Following on from part I, where I covered David Falk, today I want to continue discussing what happened to the three primary messengers to MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship) of Vic Hall’s insidious cult teachings. Because all three of them mysteriously disappeared: one fell, one had a nervous breakdown and the other got sacked. And all hush-hushed. They just stopped visiting us 2014-2016!

I propose that the Lord has allowed this as the reapings of senior Bible teachers teaching . . crap. At least they did announce that they came as ‘Proclaimers’ rather than teachers which should have warned us. In MCF parlance, ‘Proclaimer’ effectively means ‘we don’t have to justify it’. But that’s no excuse.

Murray Wylie

The much loved Murray Wylie, of Jerusalem Passion fame, and BCF (Brisbane Christian Fellowship) would come, like the other two primary messengers, once every 3 months or so and deposit more of Vic Hall’s teachings on us.

But, it was so poorly supported by Scripture.

Whether it was Vic’s version of headship which placed elders between man and Christ in such a debilitating manner that we men were no longer men. We second-guessed everything we ever did. And mostly got banned from our plans, dreams and joys. And the women had it worse.

Or the dozens of teachings that . . amounted to the same thing. Laying it down. Emptying. Piercing by your friends. Farmer not prophet. Rich Young Ruler. Worthy homes. Chastisement. Master & Slave. Etc, etc.

Well, Murray Wylie brought it with such Murray-like love but with the warning of hellfire if we didn’t live it. That we just couldn’t say no.

But Murray! The Scriptures are barely relevant to the topic, let alone your cultish teachings. And you took advantage of us as a captive audience, all interconnected by friendship or family, in the otherwise lovely environment of MCF.

Murray, did it not scare you that the plain meaning of the Scriptures, and the way the early church lived, did not support the ‘messenger‘ teachings?

A year after we left I called Murray, and was shocked that I could actually get through to him. He admitted that he’d had a nervous breakdown and was no longer in leadership. I wished him all the best in his recovery.

But I did challenge him about the lack of Scriptural support for the BCF teachings and the list of carnage of damaged families across the nation.

All Murray could reply was:

Paul, didn’t you understand that these were all just theories?

Murray Wylie, 2017

I was shocked.

I replied: “No Murray. You taught it so forcefully and yet lovingly and as a ‘Fathered Word’, that we were under the impression that you had tested it in scholarship and spirit.”

In the end he got quite pathetic and would not apologise for it or take any accountability. I had to tell him that

MCF under Vic Hall and yourself has been the most bullying and destructive experience of my life

Paul ‘Kovaks’ (to Murray Wylie) 2017

And I love this gentleman and his music.

Murray, I hope you come to your senses about what you did to us.

Then, maybe, then, God will heal your depression.

See also: my reaction to playing Murray’s beautiful Jerusalem Passion Oratorio.

Part III tomorrow.

The Curse of the Golden Lampstand (Part I)

Just a silly title. But it’s true.

The three men who most force-fed us the ‘messenger‘ word at MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship), in the kindly or most enthusiastic manner, but giving us the least wriggle room to live our lives in, were:

  1. David Falk (BCF)
  2. Murray Wylie (BCF)
  3. Keith Tucker (MCF)

followed by people like Vic Hall (BCF) himself, Peter Hay (BCF) and Jona Wills (MCF).

But these more senior ones, 1-3 should have known better.

They would remember the days when we always asked when someone made a statement in homegroup ‘What’s the Scripture for that?’ From the days when we were a teaching and learning church.

Well, I’ve mentioned what happened to them in the Letter.

Without any explanation, these visiting proclaimers and teachers disappeared from our lives.

In the past one of them would come once every 3 months, as a five-fold travelling ministry type, and minister the latest Vic Hall . . cra. . teachings. It was taught. It was proclaimed. As always, the Scriptures quoted only dubiously related to the topic matter let alone the sentiment and twisted theology.

They begged us to take it on with testimonies and stories of blessings and, alternatively, damnation, nashing of teeth and so on if we didn’t put it into practice.

David Falk

David Falk would tell stories of amazing business successes to men who were putting the literal-ism of the Levitical five offerings into practice.

He would make confident statements something like:

If you make a Thanksgiving offering, make sure you test it with a Free Will Offering first . .

David Falk (as remembered) 2014

When you make your Vow be careful whether it is binding or not . .

David Falk (as remembered) 2014

We should all be moving into making Heave offerings of our time or money .so that we move forward in the euconemia of God and enable further talent or mina opportunities . .

David Falk (as remembered) 2014

I can hear his voice booming right now. Every young man (and the rest of us) wanted the blessings of these types of feats. They called him ‘Falky’.

LIttle did they know he had fallen into enormous sins of financial deception and theft as he was proclaiming these legalistic and rather dubious teachings.

And at MCF we were NEVER told.

He just . . disappeared.

But the young men in MCF still call him ‘Falky’. And the young men and women are ‘heaving’ their time in droves on Tuesday nights (2016 at least). At these workathons they learn to be good slaves that never dare to ask a question or take initiative. I heard what happens if you close a door between offices to cut down the noise spread. Literally told not to even take that simple initiative.

No wonder Falky has been shut down by God. Such disregard for scholarship. Such reading between the lines. Such legalism as never heard before. Such presumption. Such waste of human life.

Part II tomorrow . .

Humanity was the forgotten variable at MCF

What MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship) forgot, as they taught their new theology and, dangerously, put it into practice, was the human factor.

What I mean is that they thought that elders could just tell people to drop all their interests and plans (under threat of going to hell) and that we would all remain sane because ‘God would take care of it’.

But, no, God did not take care of it. Because God lets us all – victims and perpetrators – reap what we sow or what was done to us, notwithstanding answers to prayer.

That meant that the elders became utter . . bastards. They were able to ban you from your favorite activities, whether it be a sport, a musical instrument or a business plan or a girl friend. And think that we could just continue living in church alongside them.

A classic example was when I went to the football with my elder. Apart from cheering for the same team, over a 2hr period we had almost nothing to talk about. Because he had banned me from all my interests and plans. And his work was too untouchable for me to ask about. So there was nothing to talk about!

Vic’s loony theology destroyed relationship.

So it turned the elders and their apprentices into bastards. Destroyed our relationships.

And destroyed my life. I became a depressed wreck.

There was no room for common decency. They would deny all of my explanations. Their ‘sight’ was always 100% right.

It also became an official policy that if you did any work for the church – practical or spiritual – you were to never expect praise because you were doing it as a slave to Christ. A slave does not expect or get praise.

So it was all forgotten that we were human. That we had interests and plans. Our careers were always rubbished as ‘natural’. So who cares if you are a cancer-therapy creating scientist or a garbage collector. Of course it makes no difference to God. But it does affect us to not live up to our potential, or for that matter, what we are supposed to be.

The Bible is full of Scriptures showing God’s interest in all aspects of our lives. We still have to live. Life is not just going to church.

The wonder of salvation is that we are saved and made ‘partakers of the divine nature’ while we are human. Eating, sleeping, TV-watching, creative, inventive, hard-working and sometimes slack and imperfect . . humans.

MCF forgot about that.

Another story. When i was leaving in 2016, I pointed out how we always rejoiced in the achievements of our kids in sport or carpentry or science. But why should we rejoice in each other’s kid’s achievements if it’s all going to be rubbished and torn to shreds and laid down in a few years when they get older?

The elders had very satisfying careers in the church doing exactly what they wanted. Precisely as they forbade us from contributing at church, unless we were of a special few, they would tell us our natural lives were of no worth and expect us to live out there without any plans or achievements!

So, what are we saying MCF?

MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship) and BCF (Brisbane Christian Fellowship), you were a standard bearer in the modern day return-to-Biblical teachings move, despite your earlier cultish ways.

Come back to Scripture! Give up Vic Hall’s heresies which are simply not in the Bible.

We implore you. We miss you.

The Body of Christ needs you.

For now, Jeff & Annette Hammond, Phil & Jenny Baird, Justine & I and my father Charles will stand true to the restorationist word you have chosen to ignore. A word of Priesthood of All Believers and edification of the Body of Christ.

You cannot trust an eldership that systematically practices or preaches:

  • This is a ‘fathered word’. We have tested it. You cannot question it or ask us to theologically defend it or prove it to you.
  • You can’t properly understand it because you use Greek thinking. I, as Vic Hall, have a much more Jewish mind and I can understand it.
  • You are not accountable because you are not in leadership. You just deal with your accountabilities.
  • This is the present truth, we don’t need to preach on general Christian topics
  • Don’t use commentaries or read books by other Churches, non-BCF writers or para-ministries
  • Don’t steward your ministries. Just obey your admin leaders. We are hidden in Christ.

All of that is, lets be frank, utter garbage.

It’s only place is in a cult.

All self-controlled Christians understand that a leadership needs to be trusted in its decisions. But not when there is absolutely no transparency, codes of silence and no way to test whats coming out without gaining a black mark.

The alternative?

Believe me, we are loving our new church despite it only vaguely following on in a restorationist word.

I am Truman

I realized today, or re-realized it, that I am Truman from the movie The Truman Show.

The show about the poor guy, played by Jim Carey, who is living his entire life in a reality TV show. And he’s the only one that doesn’t know.

Don’t worry, I’m not going delusional. I don’t have Truman Syndrome. I’ve just realized how much of that show applies to me. Like the waste of life. And how I was trapped in Melbourne, and couldn’t leave the ‘island’, despite wanting to work in the UK or USA for a year or two. Or do a postdoc in ACT. Trapped like Truman.

Like the way the creator of the show in the movie, played by Ed Harris, wants perfection rather than reality.

Well, I would rather have reality than the forced perfection of MCF. Any day. I go to a church which isn’t perfect. Some of the home group leaders are even divorced. But we make mistakes. Life goes on folks!

Everything at my new church is real. The people are doing it because they really want to be there! They’re not trying to please someone.

At least I know that everything around me now is real.

I just watched the end of the movie. I felt EXACTLY the same way as Truman when I learned the truth.

That I had sacrificed 25 years of my life to, in my case, Vic Hall’s ego.

To the altar of Vic Hall.

And then there was the way everyone else seemed to know what was going on. Sometimes Justine and I would be talking about how genuine we were about the beliefs of MCF and I got the feeling that the other stalwarts were not actual true believers but there out of some sort of convenience.

I was quite sure about it.

By 1994 or so, almost everyone who had ever wanted to do anything, OR had any doubts about MCF, had left, IF they had few family/friend ties there. So, MCFers, I’m not going to pigeon-hole you too much, but I believe you are still there for one of those three reasons.

Plus a forth, you were a very strong believer in the original promise of MCF which is why I was still there.

So, for most of my thirties and forties, I’ve realized I was there with people who, either, were 100% true believers somehow or, realized it was a croc, but couldn’t get out and, instead, tried to make the best of it.

Lots of you at MCF wouldn’t talk Scripture with me when I was desperately trying to work out what was going on. I think you know deep down that Vic Hall is off his rocker. But you’ve brought up your families there and your kids are going to marry kids there and you know it’s too hard to leave.

I feel sorry for you because the original promise of MCF was so much greater and continues on in my and Justine’s hearts and Jeff and Annette Hammonds’ and Phil and Jenny Bairds’ hearts.

Well, back to Truman.

I feel that almost nobody else at MCF that wanted to achieve anything stayed. And I was left with all of you that just didn’t have any plans or didn’t think deeply about whether or not MCF was ‘right’.

So, some of you watched me struggle, all those years, like Truman in that show. But we could never talk about it because of the code-of-silence.

Code of silence? Just like in the Truman Show.

When I did ask other people early on, what sort of crosses are the elders bringing you to? I got strange looks. So I stopped talking about it.

Of course, most of the 25+ families that were destroyed all left early on in the 1990s or early 2000s. I was one of the only idiots who was being destroyed that stayed.

Somehow the rest of you have just worked out how to live contently in a prison, or you just had few plans the elders were against.

I’m really sorry for that pigeon-holing. It is a generalization.

But consider it.

And if that kind of subtle abuse didn’t affect you . . that, wow, it did affect hundreds of us.

It destroyed me.

The MCF community itself was a utopian society

The cultish MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship) congregation, of post-1992, live in a kind of utopian community that we really miss (in addition to the people themselves).

The closeness. The sense we were all going through everything together is unmatched by anything else I’ve ever seen or heard about. Except perhaps the early church.

Almost everyone was at every meeting, every home-group BIble Study, every working bee, every camp conference. If you were sick you knew people were praying for you.

The young people were just as dedicated and didn’t insist on ‘tailored meetings’ with ultra-modern music etc. In fact the music was beautiful, if a little unenergetic.

Homegroups were fantastic with all age groups mixing and contributing (although the contributing was of a certain allowed type post-1992). As couples, you knew all the other families AND their kids and their parents

The youth gave fantastic testimonies.

It was utopia.

But it wasn’t real.

It was forced. It was horrifically partial. It was presumptuous. It was insular. It was un-Biblical. It accepted shunnings, secrets and codes of silence and didn’t question anything doctrinally which ultimately led to its dysfunction.

Everyone was held in by fear, and a lie, that there was no salvation, or a lower quality salvation, outside of MCF/BCF. And, in the end, it locked everyone up to having very limited (close to zero) goals in life, career or ministry. It was like a death camp really.

But everywhere else has a lot to learn from the positive aspects of MCF/BCF.

What we want of course is the utopia without the cult.

How the cult of 1992 actually began

The cultish new theology all began, as far as I can remember, with a new emphasis on Headship, Family Order and a seemingly innocuous little booklet on Abraham and Sarah from Vic Hall. We had just been doing ‘fatherhood’ with the interim regime for three or four years and it seemed like the next step.

Then came ‘guru headship’.

Headship

To the uninitiated, Headship is the Biblical principle that

But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

1 Cor 11:3

It’s well known, no surprise to many, and much hated by feminists no doubt.

Initially it led to much chauvinistic behaviour by men at MCF. Women were to ‘stand on their husband’s ‘holy ground’ and support his work and ministry. Random men could counsel random women. Women would ask random men for their opinions on their life situations.

Men’s ministries were highlighted.

Women only ministered in Church if ‘covered’ by their husband or an elder.

Later this was somewhat corrected by eg:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

Eph 5:25

Clearly Biblical headship is not really about bossing people around!

Family Order

We were taught that if we were not living in correct headship order, men to Christ and women to husbands that we were not living in ‘Family Order’ and we could expect all sorts of disasters including giving birth to children with birth defects.

True. Vic Hall told us personally about what had occurred to two of his grandchildren and accounted it to living out of Family Order.

The women stopped short of wearing Amish head scarves.

Once my wife, in the choir, sitting next to Murray Wylie’s wife Kate, of Jerusalem Passion fame (Murray’s beautiful Oratorio on Christian unity performed at the Sydney Opera House), tried to pass on a message to the AV guys about no mics for the 2nd Sopranos. Not only did she get told off ‘How dare you correct me in front of Murray Wylie’, but I got told off by my homegroup leader the next day for not having my wife in line!

A silly little story. But indicative.

We had become a cult. I was wondering when I would be suiting up in Amish plain clothes.

Abraham and Sarah

The teachings in the Abraham and Sarah book shocked me.

Everything was taken as a symbol, rather than face value.

Now, I am very aware, and very interested in Old Testament symbology, and appreciate its value. For example, The Passover Lamb is Christ. The walk through the Red Sea was baptism. And so on.

But we were taught that when Abraham asked Sarah to say that ‘I am your sister’ to Pharaoh, it was prophetic of us men to treat our wives ministries as separate to our ministries, as if they are, no more than sisters (in that aspect). Abraham was honouring her.

But we all know that Abraham did it because he was scared of Pharaoh because Sarah was a beautiful woman.

But our leaders would have none of that.

Abraham did it to honour her ministry as we are to honour our wive’s ministries as separate to our own. (The teaching itself is great, but is it supported by this Abraham and Sarah story?)

We all ingored the plainly indicated reading:

Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.

Gen 12:13

Maybe, the spiritual meaning is what Vic was saying. But who knows?

Women were taught to treat their husbands as Sarah did, virtually calling them ‘lord’.

It was brought in with much testimony from multiple Brisbane couples including Vic and Lorraine Hall.

Well, I started to doubt, but as booklet after booklet came in, and the elders all went on about how revelatory it all was, I gradually joined in and accepted that Vic Hall was bringing in ‘an administration for the fullness of times’ and we should expect to be shocked and challenged, just as the Jews were shocked when Jesus turned up with his occasional strange re-interpretaiton of the Scriptures.

Guru Headship

The next booklet was the clincher: Light in the Face of Christ.

In that one it was revealed that elders were the Face of Christ to men.

Elders were inserted in-between Christ and men. And women would get their headship from their husbands and fathers or an elder in the case of grown-up singles.

The supporting Scriptures never got better than:

For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them

Matt 18:20

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

2 Cor 4:6

As I’ve asked before, do those Scriptures at all suggest that elders are the face of Christ?

There was no better Scripture than these that I or they ever found. Yet we fell for it. If anything the Corinthians Scripture suggests the opposite: Christ gives us light directly in our hearts!

But somehow they twisted it to mean that it was the light shining in the elders’ hearts that were like the face of Christ to us . . plebs.

Naming

The next books and songs covered ‘Naming’ and the evils of naming yourself (to a ministry or job or business or house or life plan).

It became clear that if you didn’t obey your elder you would go to hell.

At one point the elders would travel around with you looking for a house to live in. And you even had to OK your holiday plans with them. Not to mention being banned from job changes or business plans.

A Fathered Word

And the companion message was that this was a ‘Fathered’ word that was being ‘proclaimed’ like in Acts 2. It was not to be doubted or questioned and needed no defence. The presbytery up in Brisbane had already checked it.

That’s how it started.

Cultish teachings, very poorly supported by Scripture. And very dangerous.

And it’s hard not to see it as all designed by Vic Hall to control us and worded so that it seems distinctive and yet reasonable to justify it’s exclusivity. But it was nothing but a twisting of Scriptures on headship and a re-packaged Shepherding movement.

And absolutely nowhere in the New Testament does it suggest that elders should be controlling people’s lives.

I thought I would document it for posterity.

We were gagged for 25 years

At MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship), in addition to controlling our personal lives, they gagged our contributions in church and home groups.

The prophecies during ‘body ministry time’ were almost without exception related to the ‘present word’ of that month or year.

Does God really work like that?

And at home group, on a Wednesday night, post-1992, we very quickly lost the ability to share what was on our hearts. Instead, we learned from the local elder and his apprentices, what were the kosher contributions.

Early on it was just answering questions that matched what we’d heard in church that month, or what happened to be in the elders cheat sheet from Vic Hall and his buddies at BCF (Brisbane Christian Fellowship) headquarters.

Everyone joked about trying to luck out the right answers. But it wasn’t funny.

Then later, regurgitation of Sunday’s stuff became disencouraged and, instead, we were told to bring testimonies of how our life was living the latest Vic Hall revelations, whether it be laying down all our prerogatives or taking up our cross or learning to put away our idols.

We lived together in home groups in a varying mix of those modes for 25 years.

There was no room for any Priesthood of All Believers ministry. No sharing what was on our hearts. No room for the leader to choose a topic of need or interest of the group. Just scripted from BCF for 25 years.

When someone would move out of ‘order’ they were castigated for having learned nothing ‘these last X years’. In front of everyone.

We were gagged, and, as men, largely emasculated. And the women got it worse.

At the end the only roles handed out, were to young people, trained as puppets in front of our eyes, to take over from us 30-50 yo men and women who had wanted to contribute in teaching or testimony what was on our hearts.

The young 20s picked up the lingo really fast. It was like living in a communist country.

Sometimes we were told plainly that we had ‘missed it’, as if life was already over!

That was the lovely environment of MCF.

And, like young communists, much of the youth there must think it’s normal for their parents’ generation to be skipped over, shut down for 25+ years.

How are we supposed to hear from the Lord?

In the aftermath of my leaving MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship) in 2016, and its ‘guru headship‘ model of hearing from God, obviously I needed to get back to basics and hear from the Lord the way we are supposed to.

Of course I had never stopped praying or reading the Bible. But, as most Christians know, if they are really honest, we rarely get clear, direct answers.

Really? It’s true in my case, and I think a lot of other Christians too.

But, in my opinion, I think this is how it’s meant to be.

God wants to enjoy watching us live our lives! He rejoices in our living.

The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers,

Deut 30:9

The Lord is not wanting to control us minute by minute. And he rejoices in our uncontrolled living!

Of course, He desires fellowship with us, and we trust that as we daily live by HIs word and prayer, several things happen.

Firstly, HIs word is a light to us.

But that does not mean a minute by minute guide. He is teaching us how to live as ourselves:

Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.

Ps 119:105

The entire context of Ps 119 makes it clear that God is shining a light into our hearts so that we will live according to his ‘precepts’, but live as ourselves, not like robots:

How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word.
10 With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
11 Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You.
12 Blessed are You, O Lord!
Teach me Your statutes.
13 With my lips I have declared
All the judgments of Your mouth.
14 I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies,
As much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on Your precepts,
And contemplate Your ways.
16 I will delight myself in Your statutes;
I will not forget Your word.

Ps 119:9-16

‘Taking heed’ and ‘seeking’ and ‘delighting . . in Your statutes’ are not robotic executions of commands! It’s loving God and his precepts and, day by day, making our own decisions consistent with what God is teaching us.

The guru elder messenger model was robotic.

It wasn’t living.

It was no longer human. It was imprisonment.

Secondly, as much as God is teaching us, in the New Testament we find God is, now, transforming us so that we can live Godly lives even more divinely, yet whilst human. Again not as robots in remote control mode, but due to transformation.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Rom 12:1,2

This may be no surprise to most Christians, but as an ex-MCFer, it’s important to deprogram ourselves back to Scripture.

Regardless, I think it is interesting, and beneficial, to contemplate how we are to hear from the Lord.

We get this feeling that God was talking to Abraham all the time. But, you know what, I think it was only four or five times. Like once every ten years that he got a direct answer or visitation.

That’s like the (rare!) times when we get a really direct answer to prayer.

In between, Abraham lived by the light he found in his prayers and offerings to the Lord.

God gave us hearts and minds to live with that He is transforming, not controlling. He was well pleased with Abraham and other heroes of faith. He will be well pleased with us when we simply live, day by day, by his precepts because we want to.

We are not to seek seance-like advice from a guru every five minutes. That’s not what God intended.

It means we don’t need to beat ourselves up, or second guess, our decisions! We don’t need to worry about ‘dead-works’ or ‘taking the wrong path’ as abusively taught to us by MCF.

Even if we make the wrong decision, it’s OK. Just think again about Abraham. How many mistakes did he make!

If we are in prayer, and connected to Christ, we needn’t worry. In the absence of direct answers to prayer we are supposed to make our own decisions!

It’s called . . life.