Sunday, December 16, 2007
MATTHEW MURRAY
The Christian Post reports:
The troubled young man that killed four Christians in Colorado this past week shocked the nation when it was discovered that he formerly attended a young discipleship training program for overseas mission.
The missionary group, Youth With a Mission, is a well-respected organization working in nearly every country in the world and sends out over 25,000 short-term missionaries each year. Murray had been dismissed from the YWAM training program for an unexplained “health” reason, according to the group’s statement after the shooting.
Yet in light of the tragedy, some have looked into the mission group and found several former YWAM missionaries accusing the group of being a cult that brainwashes young Christians.
An anonymous former YWAMer said the group knew how to “manipulate every penny out of its cash strapped workers and students,” in a letter posted on The Rick A. Ross Institute Web site, an organization which studies destructive cults and controversial groups and movements.
According to the article Rick Ross, however, claims that YWAM is not a cult, though he indicates he receives complaints about the group weekly from parents and Christian clergy.
Coverage on YWAM at the Ross Institute can be found here.
According to the YWAM website, they use the course ALPHA in their training program at least in Luzanne.
Christian Order reports on Alpha, associating it with Toronto Blessing:
January 1999
The latest in the long line of New Age/Protestant trojan horses to be wheeled into Catholic parishes with episcopal blessing is ALPHA. Zealous in its application of commercial principles to feel-good evangelisation, ALPHA is big business - built on copyrights, target figures, line charts and multi-million pound advertising campaigns. It emerged from Holy Trinity Brompton [HTB], an Anglican church behind the Brompton Oratory in London. In recent years this church has ventured to the furthest edge of the charismatic movement in its promotion of the Toronto Blessing - a so-called Baptism of the Holy Spirit which induces hysterical, animal-like behaviour (uncontrolled laughter, shaking, gibberish, grunting, howling etc.) among congregations. Mr. Nicky Gumbel, who introduced this alien 'spirit' into England via HTB in 1994, is the prime mover behind ALPHA: "I believe it is no coincidence," he stated in May 1995, "that the present movement of the Holy Spirit [Toronto Blessing] has come at the same time as the explosion of the ALPHA Course. I think the two go together."
So, did Matthew Murray move from the spirit channeling Alpha to the spirit channeling O.T.O.? Inquiring minds want to know...
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UPDATE
YWAM and Alpha
From the Mission Ethiopia website:
YWAM Youth With a Mission, headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO, has been a major help in getting the mission program in Ethiopia off the ground.
Alpha The Alpha Course was developed by an Anglican Priest in London. Over a million people have taken the Alpha course, and thousand have become believers. The beauty of the Alpha Course is that it teaches core Christian Doctrine that all Christians agree upon. It can be used by Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals, and Orthodox believers to bring unsaved friends into a relationship with Jesus.
Alpha In Ethiopia Mission Ethiopia with the support of the Ethiopian Evangelical Churches Fellowship, the Catholic Church, and (we are praying that the Ethiopian Orthodox) are joining in an effort to fulfill the prayer of Jesus---that we would be perfectly one.
