Unsettled Christianity

That was bait, now for the switch…

From here as well:

A full interview transcript is here, and I have highlighted some of the more outrageous claims below and examined them. The comments are from the above mentioned site. Why re-invent the will?

Outrageous Claim #1 — Joshua Mills learned to supernaturally play the piano, and continues to supernaturally be guided while he plays now.

“Sid: Now why did you start all of a sudden to move into worship, were you a musician before?

Joshua: I didn’t play the keyboard, I never really wrote a song before that time.

Sid: Did you ever take any music lessons?

Joshua: I had take some piano lessons, I was actually forced to take piano lessons when I was a little child in kindergarten, first grade, my mother…

Sid: For how long did you do this?

Joshua: I think about several months.

Sid: I see, did you force yourself to learn as little as possible?

Joshua: Actually I would sit at the piano and cry cause I really didn’t want to do it.

Sid: What a sense of humor, so how did you make that transition to worship leader from a crybaby, no I was just teasing.

Joshua: Well the day after I had that experience with the Holy Spirit it was like God just began imparting in me such a desire for praise and to worship, and He showed me that I could come into His presence through praise and worship, and I sat down at a piano, it is like it is so supernatural that I didn’t even, I can’t even hardly explain what happened exactly, I sat at a piano and I began to play songs and began to worship God.

Sid: You can’t play, you had a few, I had a few lessons when I was a kid, I was older than you, and I can’t do anything, so I mean you can’t play the piano if you have not been taught.

Joshua: Right.

Sid: It’s not; you don’t just walk up there and play it.

Joshua: the Bible says the Holy Spirit will teach us in all things, and so I was taught by God how to play the piano.

Sid: How long did it take from that point for you to become the worship leader of your church?

Joshua: Well within two and a half to three months I began leading worship in the church.

Sid: Now a little earlier we had you play the piano and worship God and something happened, gold dust was all over your hands and all over your jacket, why?

Joshua: Well it was a sign and a wonder how I came into praise, how I came into worship, how I came to learn to play the piano, and ever since that happened to me I find any time I am worshipping signs and wonders follow.

And signs and wonders just began to manifest during the praise and the worship.”

Endtimespropheticwords comment — It was NOT a ’sign and wonder’ how Joshua Mills came into praise. This is stretching the truth far further than it ought to be stretched, even if he were genuinely divinely inspired to worship God as a teen.

As to it being a sign and wonder he ‘learned to play the piano’, again this it not the case. Even by his own admission, Joshua Mills admits he had piano lessons as a child, the duration of which he is deliberately vague about. Regardless of what level he got to then of musical accomplishment, drummed into lessons learned as a youngster are NOT easily forgotten and are easily repicked up and then progressed as a teen. And it is no sign and wonder even for a teen with ZERO prior musical training to progress rapidly on a musical instrument of their choice to great accomplishment even when they are teaching themself.

Furthermore, IF Joshua Mills still insists that God has taught him this supernaturally, that his piano playing is a spiritual gift and a miraculous sign and wonder, then where is the sign and wonder manifest in the actual piano playing — apart from in Joshua Mills’ boasts and some cheap gold sparkle allegedly showing up on his clothes while he plays — easily faked along with the dripping oil? If God had so gifted Joshua Mills with the gift of music along with the gift of the gab, would he not be a much better musical maestro than he actually is now, receiving great critical acclaim, even from the secular press — packing the Albert Hall to stunned and rapt audiences to God’s glory and praise? Yet he does not.

Joshua Mills then claims that other signs and wonders manifest while he supernaturally plays including miraculous healings and instant weight loss and tooth whitening — yet he refuses to supply one documented miracle or verification for any of his far fetched claims – even when he has been repeatedly specifically asked to supply this. Furthermore, people who have attended Joshua Mills’ meetings will testify they saw nothing of the sort he claims manifest in their midst, except from easily faked tricks such as gold dust or feathers from the airvents [the amazing stuff is always happening somewhere else, to someone else, out of sight to be believed on the basis of Mills’ own claims rather than on actual experience and real testimony. And by the way, Joshua Mills is not alone in the NAR in this refusal to supply medical evidence or documented testimony for his amazing claims.]

Outrageous Claim #2 — Joshua Mills, Gold Dust and Oil

“Sid: What is the, I want you to pick one of the strangest signs and wonders that has occurred while you have worshipped God?

Joshua: Probably the oil beginning to flow out of my hands, because my fingers got slippery on the keyboard.

Sid: I will tell you what, this is not entertainment, this is a God experience, some of you have never had a God experience before, this is your moment.

[This is a ‘GOD experience’? Boy, Sid Roth is desperate and has fallen far away from the truths of the gospel.

The dripping oil is hardly some wonder either! Not only it it easily faked – any cheap stage magician could tell you how – but what does this sign and wonder actually point to – apart from allegedly making Joshua’s hands so slippery they could hardly play the keyboard as it was slippery – but wait! I thought his hands were guided supernaturally so what differance does the keyboard’s state and his fingers slippery state then make?! ]

“This is what you have been asking for, that God loves you so much, open yourself up as we hear Joshua who cannot play the piano, is not a musician, is not a singer, supernaturally goes to the piano and if you look real closely you may see some gold dust.

Joshua let’s go to that that you did earlier.”

Outrageous Claim # 3 — Joshua Mills claims that people who buy his worship CD get caught up into the third heaven, lifted up out of their bodies while driving

Sid: Now just out of curiosity, I understand, that happened here because I can sense the presence of God just as we are talking right now, however when people just listen to this CD are you getting reports of having third heaven experiences where they are caught up into the heavenlies?

Joshua: We are getting so many reports and testimonies from people, they will even be driving down the road and just feel themselves lifting up out of their body, they have to pull over to the side of the road just to take a break just to enjoy the glories of heaven.

[How to market a worship CD to today’s charismatic church, throw in some dubious third heaven claims – note also Joshua Mills talking about being lifted out of the body which is dubious in itself and is more akin to the occult. Oh, and the ‘lifted out of the body to the third heaven while driving’ claim is a popular one on the charlatans’ circuit – they think it sounds really impressive, lots of people linked to Todd Bentley use that one.]

“Sid: I think you know, Joshua is a sign and a wonder when he plays the piano, and when he sings …

[So it is a sign and wonder now when he sings too?!!]

Outrageous Claim # 4 — Joshua Mills claims people instantly lose weight in his meetings miraculously

“… but then signs and wonders occur because he ushers us into the glory, but this is outrageous, people actually instantly lose weight, when they move into the glory?

Joshua: Yes we have seen a lot…”

[The instant weight loss claim is one of the charlatan’s favorite ruses as let’s be honest, they ply on mainly well-fed Americans among whom obesity is an epidemic. Even for those not actually clinically obese, most in the Western church would like to, are desperate even, to lose some more pounds of flab to look better – especially women. And the desperate and the vain will contribute well to the offering buckets to this end – which these guys well know, hence the claim.

This instant weight loss miracle claim has been made by almost every Latter Rain healer I have ever known- and the same old story has been going around the rounds for years, about the huge woman shedding about one hundred pounds instantly. The claim almost univerally goes along with the putting hair on bald head anointing – in the same sentance usually. David Herzog of the Glory Zone whom Joshua Mills also runs with [and whom Sid Roth also promotes] seems to specialise in making weight loss miracle claims, yet David Herzog is another one who will not provide any verification for all the chatter. Oh yeah and Todd Bentley did too [another one Sid Roth pushed], and we all know by now how Todd has been outed for all his lies.

But specifically onto the weight loses claims by Mills. I am NOT saying this to be rude, to name call or to be personal, but to make a key point. They claim weight loss occurs in the ‘glory’. Yet just as Todd Bentley and Shonnah Bentley were overweight — as were many members of the worship team at Lakeland Outpouring overweight, and some like Roy Fields grew before our eyes over the summer [probably cos of the junk food and booze], so both Joshua Mills and his wife, Janet Angela Mills, are both obviously on the chubby side and could obviously do with losing some weight. They cannot manifest what they preach in instant weight loss on their own bodies – so what does this say then about the truth of their claims, and truth of their glory? David Herzog and his wife are both slim and good-looking so they can easily get away with it as pictures of [apparent] manifest health. Joshua and Janet Mills on the other hand ….]

“Sid: Oh, come on, now Josh don’t josh me.

Joshua: I know it sounds crazy Sid, but people are literally losing weight instantly in the meetings as they come.

Sid: How much?

Joshua: Well the first time I ever saw this it was the most dramatic experience I ever had with the supernatural weight loss, a lady lost one hundred pounds of weight on her body, she had a…

{Ah, the one hundred pound weight loss, there it is!]

Sid: How could she be wearing the same clothes if she lost a hundred pounds?

Joshua: Well by the end of the meeting her clothes were absolutely drenched, soaked, and I mean she smelt so bad they sent her to the back room wrapped her in a towel, send her home in a taxi, and she couldn’t wear the same clothes, we have had people in our conferences the next day bring us garbage bags full of their clothes, saying do you know somebody that can wear these clothes because they don’t fit on us anymore …

{Names, addresses of parties and witnesses along with physician’s reports please Joshua.]

Outrageous Claim # 5 — Joshua Mills claims another way to heaven and God

Sid: What is the best way that someone that has never experienced the manifest presence of God, what is the best way to start?

[I do not like the way this is worded by Sid Roth or focused on one bit. It is about experience seeking of alleged manifestations of God in alleged feelings and thrills and experiences, for the sake of one’s own titillation, rather than how we really should approach God.

But nonetheless, what an excellent chance for Joshua Mills to present the gospel message on “Christian” TV [a rare message nowadays] – of how one can know God to enter His throneroom boldly by grace….

But what do we get instead? — not preaching the cross and Christ crucified, rather plugging his own praise and worship CD for money as the ’start’ of the journey . How can a true worshipper of God even do such a dreadful thing? Let alone all the other outrageous lies Mills tells on top and the cheap tricks he manifests …]

Joshua: The best way to start is with your praise, the Bible  says that we enter into his court with praise, we come in with praise and then we move a little bit further into worship, and we let that worship carry us into His glory.

Sid: So if someone were to take this CD, would that be a good start.

Joshua: It would be a great start.”

{For who?]

Outrageous Claim # 6 — Joshua Mills claims dental whitening miracles

Sid: Okay, you thought that weight loss was outrageous, wait till you find out about people that have dental work done of all kinds even whitening of their teeth, I mean this sure beats any dentist I know of Joshua….

Sid: Now is it true that God did dental work on people, especially, this intrigues me as I never heard of it before Joshua, peoples teeth would be supernaturally whitened.

Joshua: We have seen different people receive gold and silver fillings, which a lot of ministries have seen,

[but we have got to go one further..]

but up in the Arctic where there are no dentists and there is no ability to go to a dentist we literally saw people getting their teeth cleaned, teeth whitened, straightened out, God just doing supernatural miracles in people’s mouths.

[It is no coincidence these guys focus on shallow surface cosmetic ‘fluffy’ things – it indicates their shallow side]

Outrageous Claim # 7 — Joshua Mills angler’s tale of the fish wearing new designer sunglasses [you gotta hear this one!]

“Sid: I know I am stretching some of you right now I might as well stretch you all the way, you see in the Arctic area you need sunglasses because the glare could blind you, and so there was a woman out, was she fishing or?

Joshua: She was going out on the water to go fishing, and she had these sunglasses on to keep her direction and when she went out into the water God began blessing her with such a wonderful catch of fish she just continued to pull them in, she was pulling up this big fish Sid, and as she leaned over the boat the glasses fell off her head into the water.

Sid: So this was dangerous, she could loose her eyesight.

Joshua: It was a big situation for her, but instead of being worried, she just knew that she served a miracle working

God and that He would take care of all the problems that she might have, and so she just continued fishing, just continued bringing in the wonderful catch of fish, she was ready to go back, she was pulling in the last catch of the day and as she was pulling in this big fish, she looked down on the fish, here he was wearing a pair of sunglasses on his face.

Joshua: The fish was wearing sunglasses.

Sid: I have never seen a fish with sunglasses, have you?

Joshua: The wonderful part about this testimony is that it wasn’t the same pair of sunglasses that she lost, but it was a brand new pair, a better pair of sunglasses than the ones she lost.

Sid: So are you really seeing these very strange signs and wonders in the Arctic?

Joshua: We are seeing so many unusual signs and wonders, not just in the Arctic, but all over the world.”

Yeah, right. As the scriptures say, these guys [that is false prophets, false teachers and false apostles aka wolves] make sport of their prey. They feast and delight and revel in making their sport on you, thinking themselves smart – why oh why, church that allows yourself to be deluded and to fall into apostasy, do you let them do this to you? Don’t you love God anymore? Do you like being joshed?