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Truth Watch is a group of Evangelical Believers - dedicated to the need for a new reformation. Our purpose is founded in Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:21 exhorts all believers to, "Test Everything, Hold on to the Good."
Truth Watch believes the only hope for genuine revival lies in recapturing the central priority of the Gospel. The only alternative is churches where JESUS CHRIST is truly honoured and the Bible faithfully expounded and believed. Begin by recognising good leadership [see the profile of Ideal Biblical Leadership on this website] and actively encourage it in your church. Check everything against God's Word. Rediscover the Church's mission in Western Society, today!
Truth Watch Guiding Principles:- To contend for the faith, encouraging leaders and laity to return to essential biblical doctrines - the true gospel of our LORD Jesus Christ.
- To act as watchmen, awakening a complacent Christian community and encouraging evangelical leaders to model good biblical leadership.
- To support and encourage believers who are drifting or feel alienated due to unbiblical practices, teaching or leadership.
- To inform and challenge Christians to chose between correct doctrine and false doctrine, true prophets and false prophets.
This website has been established with the intention of challenging all followers of Jesus Christ to consider returning to the original mission of the Church. We encourage Christians everywhere, to return to Biblical Evangelism, Teaching and Discipleship, and to proclaim the true message of the Gospel to a lost and deceived World.
This website will continue to provide relevant information, based on sound Biblical principles in the hope that anyone who has questions regarding current events in the Church, will have a place where solutions may be found, and ideas can be shared. We hope to Network with anyone who is like-minded on these issues, and has a desire to see and hear the Truth proclaimed boldly in the World today.
Please email us if you want to contribute to the information offered here, make comments or suggestions, or if you want to find out more about Truth Watch.
Truth Watch New Zealand - A group of Evangelical Christians committed to Biblical Truth. |
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Letter to Elim National Leader - Luke Brough
Posted by: AdminMagill on Saturday, July 03, 2010 - 03:44 PM
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Recently New Zealand's national press was awash with a story about a disabled, wheel chair bound man who had given his life savings to an Elim Church. An appeal to the Elim church's pastor, by the management of the man's hospital care facility, fell on deaf ears. The witness to the world in general was of a rapacious church willing to take all the money it could get from a man they knew to be disabled and obviously in more need of the money than the Elim church. Truth Watch remonstrated directly with the pastor and also sent the following letter to each member of the Elim movement's national board. Meantime the church, smarting under the unwanted limelight, returned the bulk of the poor man's money, but the damage had been done. The best response we could get from the Elim Board was a stilted, ad hominen response, from the board's chair; "You guys must live sad lives". Of course, we are sad, but not in the sense intended by the Chair. Everytime the Gospel of Jesus Christ is trampled in the mud of church sponsored greed, we weep.
The letter sent to Elim's Board follows:
Dear Luke,
Truth Watch New Zealand was appalled to see media accounts of the blatant advantage taken of a man, Whetu Abrahams, by Napier Elim. Taking large amounts from a man, who clearly needed the money far more than any church, was appallingly bad judgment and defies the love thy neighbor command which should be the centre piece of the Church’s witness to the unsaved world.
The damage done to the cause of Christ and his Gospel will have been widespread, especially as there is a common belief among the unsaved that churches are ‘just after your money’.
Napier Elim took advantage of a man who is clearly unaware of the import of his actions. The witness to the world is awful, and the pastor’s inability to see the error of his ways is equally disturbing. Your 'in hindsight' argument, reported in the latest Challenge Weekly, to partially justify the pastor's actions, suggests you are not facing up to the problem as squarely as you should. In effect this sort of news story drives people away from a knowledge of the truth, the very thing Christians should avoid at all costs.
As you may have gathered we in Truth Watch do not accept contemporary teaching on the tithe as a New Testament imperative. There is no apostolic teaching to the first century Church about giving 10% of ones income to a local church. We do however acknowledge that giving to the poor, especially among the brethren, is good and proper. Supporting a ministry is also appropriate, but in acknowledging this we do not accept that having a paid ‘priesthood’ and large amounts of money spent on buildings is, in any sense, biblical. We should, however, be cheerful givers when the occasion, or God’s call on us, demands it.
It is not the first time Elim has been caught taking from those who can ill afford it. We well recall the wholesale stripping of people's assets by Wellington Elim at their Breakthrough Conferences about 10 years ago. Monies taken were then disbursed to a private television station to which the Elim pastor and church members had some connection. Despite the money given by Elim to prop up a shaky enterprise the TV station still became insolvent and closed shortly thereafter. The whole sorry affair was front page news.
We protested, but our pleas to do what was just and right fell on deaf ears. We note that the pastor behind this debacle is on your national leadership team. That scandal and this latest fiasco highlight some entrenched attitudes regarding church funding and tithing which are profoundly unbiblical. This latest public manifestation of church sponsored avarice at the expense of mercy and love only goes to show that the axe needs to be taken to the root of this sort of activity. It is clear that deep within the Elim movement there is a sharp divide between biblical principles and actual practice.
Truth Watch New Zealand would be greatly encouraged to hear how the Board of Elim New Zealand plan to ensure the sort of travesties to which we have referred do not happen again.
Chris Salt
For Truth Watch NZ
Authorised by TWNZ standing committee
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Mike Gendron South Island Tour (September 2010)
Posted by: AdminMagill on Saturday, June 12, 2010 - 06:02 PM
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Mike & Jane Gendron are touring the South Island of NZ during September. Mike is an evangelist especially reaching people in the Church of Rome - for more information please visit his website: pro-gospel.org
Christchurch Thursday 2nd September 7.30 pm
Middleton Grange School Hall
New Venue (New School Hall - Entrance from 50 Acacia Street)
Riccarton
Suggest you park in Acacia Ave as off street parking is limited. For further information, phone John or Margaret 0211782898
Blenheim Friday 3rd September
7:30 pm
Senior Citizens Hall
High Street
Blenheim
For further information, phone Peter Crosbie (03) 5785981
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Will there be Revival in the Last Days?
Posted by: AdminMagill on Sunday, July 08, 2007 - 06:32 PM
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This question was the title of a challenging address by Jacob Prasch, international teacher and evangelist, during a recent visit to Lower Hutt.
The following outlines his main points:
The current world-wide pattern of God’s grace being turned from rich to poor countries where Christianity is rapidly growing, indicates the failure of Toronto, the Charismatic Movement, Alpha, 40 Days Purpose Driven etc. to bring about revival in the west. For example, homosexuals are being ordained, an estimated 1,000 people leave the Anglican Church every week and Islam is increasing. Biblical revival is the turning back to “first love” which begins with weeping and repentance and not “a laughing revival” whose perpetrators continue to prophesy falsely of an outpouring of God’s Spirit. The Bible speaks mainly of end time apostasy not revival.
Read more... (about 410 words)
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95 Theses for a New Millennium
Posted by: AdminMagill on Monday, April 16, 2007 - 11:50 PM
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95 Theses for a New Millennium
When will the Church “dare to defy the World?” Truth Watch NZ calls for a 21st Century Reformation.
On 31st October 1517 Catholic theologian Dr Martin Luther pinned his famous ‘95 Thesis’ to a church door in Germany’s Wittenberg, sparking a reformation across a Europe then dominated by the Roman Catholic Church. Luther was branded a heretic by the church he sought to reform. Out of the conflict that followed emerged the protestant churches, new democratic nation states and unprecedented freedom for evangelical Christians.
On the 489th anniversary of Luther’s proclamation Truth Watch believes another reformation is needed!
Read more... (about 3970 words)
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Can They?
Posted by: AdminMagill on Monday, April 16, 2007 - 11:10 PM
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Truth Watch NZ asks some important CAN THEY questions of the Church in NEW ZEALAND
The Church will conquer worldly compromise when it can confidently answer YES to each of the following questions...
International youth evangelist Winkey Pratney correctly interpreted the ‘signs of the times’ when he recently stated; “New Zealand has gone to hell in a handcart… and the Church must come to grips with it” (Challenge Weekly, June 12, 2006, Issue 22).
Read more... (about 740 words)
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The Da Vinci Code and The Beast - How will Christians respond?
Posted by: AdminMagill on Monday, June 05, 2006 - 08:13 PM
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The recent crop of Hollywood movies continues the age old assault on truth, our Lord Jesus Christ and Christianity. The Passion, The Da Vinci Code and up-coming movies The Beast, Mother Theresa and Mary amount to little more than pop-culture twists of truth. The Passion failed to explain why Jesus had to die on the cross and one shudders to think what The Beast will convey. Dan Brown’s ‘Code’ does more than twist the truth, it ignores it altogether!
Read more... (about 240 words)
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Multi-Level Marketing within the Church
Posted by: AdminMagill on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - 10:05 PM
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A new category of home businesses emerged in the late 1950’s known as Multi-Level Marketing [MLM] which evolved from door-to-door salesmen selling to suburban housewives and these distribution systems have since grown into multi-billion dollar global enterprises that rival many Fortune 500 companies.
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Women in Eldership
Posted by: AdminGood on Sunday, July 31, 2005 - 07:22 PM
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In NZ society, many key positions in government, law, commerce and industry are held by women by virtue of their competence, dedication and capacity for hard work. Over the last two decades this trend has been reflected in Church leadership with women appointed as elders, pastors, vicars and bishops. Some churches however, based on their understanding of the Bible refuse to allow women to take such roles and as a result receive widespread criticism. Who is right?
Our article on “Women in Eldership” makes an exhaustive study of God’s Word, the Bible on the subject of women in leadership. It examines such issues as the roles and relationship of men and women to each other, to Christ and their function in His Body, the Church. Parallels are drawn from the relationship in the Godhead, the clarity of New Testament teaching and examples of prominent women in the Bible are studied. The questions of interpretation and obedience to God’s revealed will and personal holiness are brought to bear on the subject.
We ignore the clear teaching of scripture at our peril.
Next (Introduction)
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The Alpha Course
Posted by: AdminGood on Sunday, July 31, 2005 - 04:59 PM
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Statistics published in Challenge Weekly (14 February 2005) testify to the popularity of the Alpha course with, to date, 110,000 attendees from 1,032 churches representing every major denomination. Because the teaching of this popular evangelical course is acceptable to such a wide range of churches, an examination of it’s content seems an appropriate step to take.
Read more... (about 580 words)
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