Report From Gordon Williams To Karl Strader Concerning Lakeland
Dear Karl:
Thank you for your letter., However, I have viewed some of the meetings., And, quite frankly, I have not been impressed., I have been involved in ministry for many years., And, I have observed that if a pastor or Christian cannot tell the difference between the work of the Holy Spirit and the works of the devil, then that person has been completely deceived., While being a pastor and member of the 100 Huntley Street Television Ministry located in Canada , I was asked to do a “Scriptural Check-up” of all of our guests who shared their teachings and the testimonies., I would make an on-air Scriptural evaluation of what they said., It was then, that I discovered that many teachings and doctrines that well-meaning pastors and Christians shared sounded alright but when examined by the Scriptures, they were unscriptural and wrong., I discovered that people whom I respected could not tell the difference between the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of the enemy., Demons give people a religious experience that causes them to throw aside everything Biblical., They possess people who are not Baptized with the Holy Spirit and they will torment those who have been Baptized with the Holy Spirit., ,
The Toronto Airport Ministry has been doing the same things, for the most part, as what has been happening in Lakeland . ‚ The leadership there cannot tell the difference between the work of the Holy Spirit and demons. ‚ For over more than 10 years, we have had to cast demons out of people who received them by transference of spirits in those meetings. ‚ The numbers have been too large to count. The victimized people have the symptoms of possession which people like yourself seem to be unable to recognize. ‚ They have no control over their physical bodies and since demons will imitate the symptoms of various physical, mental and emotion disorders. ‚ Most of them look like they are suffering from epilepsy with uncontrollable shaking and twitching, constantly doubling over . ‚ They do not speak in tongues but make strange noises which mimic the gift of tongues just as I have observed in the meetings in Lakeland : ‚ barking like dogs and making other animalistic sounds. ‚ The so-called prophecy is unscriptural and false when examined by Scripture. ‚ The violence of belly bumping is not ministry. ‚ The kicking people as a method of healing is not done by the encouragement of the Holy Spirit but rather from the one of whom Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they might have life , and have it abundantly” (Jn. 10: 10). ‚ What is being portrayed on the platform by Bentley and those who encourage him is NOT ABUNDANT LIFE.
The so-called people who were raised from the dead have been investigated and found to be a lie. ‚ I have the reports. ‚ The reports of healings have, for the most part, also been lies. ‚ And, for you to even discount the truth that Bentley talks to a so-called angel, which is obviously an evil spirit, named Emma shows me that you, regardless of your “ministry history”, ‚ you have turned a blind eye to the source of this imitation ministry. ‚ The heart of the problems coming out of Lakeland , is that you and others have been deceived. ‚ He has also said that his deceased mother comes to him in the spirit to talk with him. ‚ This is spiritualism. ‚ Paul wrote, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared” (1 Tim. 4: 1). ‚ The very fact that Bentley has talked about getting advice from these spirits should have caused you to condemn everything that he was doing and like Joseph when Potiphar’s wife tried to entrap him, you should have run for your life. ‚ When a pastor, like yourself, can overlook such important details, you are in the process, if it has not happened yet, as Jesus warned, that He will “blot his name out of the book of life” (Rev. 3: 5). ‚ This is what Judson Cornwall wrote about in his book, “Let Us Praise”, which he called “the worship of demons” ‚ (1 Cor. 10: 20; Rev. 9: 20). ‚ This is what is called a “familiar spirit” or plainly a demon. ‚ I have cast these kinds of demons into the abyss who have come to people’s home pretending to be the spirits of the dead relatives.
The Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 14: 26f. tells us what a service or meeting guided by the Holy Spirit is supposed to be like and there is nothing in those meetings that shows or demonstrates that what is occurring is being done “decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14: 40). ‚ Everything that happens in those 127 days has been “indecent and out of order”.
Sir, you had better read what Paul writes in 2 Thess. 4: 11: “Therefore Gods sends them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” ‚ You people who have been deluded are not the people, like myself who have already been casting demons out of people who received them in those meetings. ‚ We have prayed with people who were told that they had been healed but, in fact, were not. ‚ You may be “a strong believer in the Kingdom of God “ but you are also “a strongly deceived believer in the Kingdom of God “. It has always puzzled me how people who have supposedly had a long ministry cannot tell the difference between the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of demons. ‚ I mentioned Kathryn Kuhlman in my report. ‚ If you can obtain a video of her ministry, look at it carefully and compare her ministry to that of what is going on in Lakeland and other places and maybe your eyes will be opened to see that there is a reason why she said, “The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He will never do anything to embarrass of hurt you.” ‚ ‚ What is going on in those meetings is not from Jesus Christ.
And, these meetings are showing us clearly who is not “the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time” (Matt. 24: 45). ‚ What we are seeing here a devilish entertainment counterfeit of the work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. ‚ Your testimony tells me that you are one of those whom Paul talked to when he wrote, “O FOOLISH Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?” (Gal. 3: 1). ‚ “Bewitched” is the word. ‚ I have a ministry in which we minister salvation, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, equip Christians with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 1: 11), healing and deliverance. ‚ I listen to men like David Wilkerson, of whom you might have heard, who know the Scriptures and the power of God and who says and writes the same things about this abomination that has accepted everything that is a denial of the New Testament and ends up in the “love of money” with ATM machines available so well-meaning seekers can be milked of their money.
Karl, I would suggest that you had better repent for your involvement because your acceptance of this counterfeit of the work of the Holy Spirit and distance yourself as far as you can or it will land you in hell (Matt. 21 ““ 23). ‚ This is not a revival from Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. ‚ When I started in ministry, I would never have believed that so many people who are desperate for a legitimate revival could be so easily deceived and over-look the work of the devil who provides them with a “form of religion” which when closely examined, “lacking the power thereof”. ‚ “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. ‚ So it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. ‚ Their end will correspond to their deeds” ‚ (2 Cor. 11: 15).
I have always taught that when you know the Holy Spirit and His works and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and learn to use them skillfully under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the counterfeits are easily recognized. ‚ When, the same things that are happening in Lakeland started happening in Toronto , I asked my wife to come and see what was going on there. ‚ She walked in looked around and said, “This is not the work of the Holy Spirit. ‚ Let’s leave right away.” ‚ And, we did. ‚ I have written three reports about the Toronto Airport and these manifestations that are not from the Holy Spirit and not Scriptural. You apparently have lost that ability because you do not have the gift of “discerning of spirits” (1 Cor. 12: 10) or you would have seen through the deception of Bentley and those who are using him in works that produce people possessed with demons. ‚ Open your Bible and see if there is anything the New Testament like what you are trying to defend. ‚ I also know, that because of people like yourself, perpetuating a work from the devil which is victimizing people who are seeking Salvation and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the Biblical ministry, Christians like myself will have to cast the demons out of them because you, are like the Sadducees, to whom Jesus said, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God” (Matt. 22: 29). It is because of people like yourself and those that support fraudulent spiritual ministry that Paul wrote, “I have applied all this to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brethren, that you may learn from us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. ‚ For who sees anything different in you? What have you that you did not receive? ‚ If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift? (1 Cor. 4: 6 ““ 7).
What you have told me in your testimony is that after all of those years of being a pastor, you have failed in the end because you are more interested in numbers and not in the quality and Scriptural correctness ministry that is done in the Name of Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit according to our Heavenly Father’s will. ‚ Your letter has confirmed what the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures have proven to me that what is going on in Lakeland is not from Jesus Christ. ‚ I have taken the time to write you because, you still have time to repent and have your ‚ eyes opened to what Lakeland and Toronto Airport ‚ is really about. ‚ And so, my final word to you is what Jesus said to each of the Seven Churches in Revelation, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2: 7, 11, 17, 29; 3: 6, 13, 22).
Yours in Jesus Christ, ‚ ‚ Gordon
From: Karl Strader
Sent: August 7, 2008 11:36 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: report
It’s most unfortunate that you have not been able to be here in Lakeland , or at least checked with your brethren here in Lakeland , ‚ before you made your analysis of the Lakeland “Outpouring”. ‚ One of my parishioners handed me a copy of your August “Report”.
Could I give you my testimony?
First of all, I am an Assembly of God minister, 79 years old. ‚ Even though I’m in my retirement years, I have my own Web Site, KarlStrader.com. ‚ (Last month, we received more than 50,000 hits from all over the world.) ‚ I also am on TV, all over South America, and North America , as well as the Russian Satellite which means I am still preaching to well over 100,000 people each Sunday morning, counting the recordings I’m sending out. ‚ I’ve written a number of books, and have been in the ministry since 1951. ‚ I gave my heart to God as a Methodist when I was eight years old. ‚ I went to school at an Ultra-Fundamentalist University with mostly Bible Presbyterians as my teachers and my fellow students mostly Bible-believing Baptists, earning ‚ a B.A. degree in Radio Speech, and my B.D. degree in their seminary. ‚ In 1954 I received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. ‚ Since then I have pastored in Indiana as well as here in Lakeland for a 40 year stretch with the Carpenter’s Home Church , which is affliated with the Assemblies of God. ‚ A couple of years ago, I retired as Senior Pastor, sold our 10,000 seat building and made two churches out of it, one in Auburndale, pastored by my son-in-law who has been with me for over 20 years, ‚ and one here in Lakeland pastored by my son who worked for ‚ me for over 30 years here in Lakeland. ‚ His is the church that sponsored Todd Bentley. ‚ Most significant, is the fact that I made Jesus the Lord of my life at sixteen, and am a strong ‚ believer in the Kingdom of God .
My testimony
I have been in the Lakeland Revival almost every service for the past 127 days, sometimes at the venue, most of the time watching on my computer or on TV. ‚ What I have seen is all positive! ‚ I’ve heard scores of sermons from Todd and his many associates and interns. ‚ THEY HAVE LIFTED UP JESUS AS LORD AND GOD IN EVERY SERVICE. ‚ (There as been little mention about angels…about the same percentage as is in the Bible.) ‚ I have watched as literally thousands of people off the street, including ‚ drug addicts, and many back-slidden believers ‚ come to the Lord. ‚ (He baptised in water a couple thousand converts in one night). ‚ I have watched each night the testimonies of ‚ literally thousands of people who have said they were healed, more than any other healing evangelist in my life-time. ‚ About 35 people had their loved ones ‚ testify that they were raised from the dead. There have been unusual, notable, remarkable miracles that were evident to anyone who is a true believer. ‚ I’ve watched as Todd cast out devils on the platform. ‚ One of the most amazing things is the young people that have been attracted to these meetings. ‚ Some nights the audience of literally thousands of people would worship non-stop for hours on end. ‚ There has been the most ‚ intense worship of God ‚ I’ve ever witnessed! ‚ All of the musicians and speakers have expressed their hatred of Satan and all of his demons.
To further let you know of my credentials, I ‚ have been a member of Dr. Cho’s Church Growth Board, an Oral Roberts Regent, a member of the Charismatic Concerns Committee, a Trustee of International Charismatic Bible Ministries, and I have served as an official with the A/G fellowship for over 20 years…the other boards mentioned above for 25 years. ‚ (The only reason I have given you my background is because I’m not trying to impress you, but ‚ I have to ‚ assume you probably have never heard of me.) ‚ I, actually, if the truth were known, feel quite inferior to the rest of my brethren, including you!
It’s obvious ‚ from ‚ your report that you have great respect for God’s Word. ‚ Please read Matt. ‚ 18:15-17; ‚ Mk. 3:28-30; Mk. 9:38-40; Rom. 8:33,34; 1 Tim. 5:19-22, and Gal. 6:1. ‚ ‚ Please compare these scriptures to ‚ what you have written in your report.
Frankly, I believe you are a good man and want what God wants! ‚ I’m not attempting to correct anyone at this point. ‚ However, I would like to reach out to you in love. ‚ I challenge you to reconsider what you have written in the light of my testimony and the Word of God.
