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Regarding
Andrew Strom - RevivalSchool.com
A
"cult expert" certifies that FOTM and Doug Perry ARE NOT a
cult in any way, shape or form - and rebukes Andrew Strom. |
On July 12, 2008, Andrew Strom
published an open rebuke and warning on his discussion forum at
RevivalSchool.com about Fellowship Of The Martyrs and Doug
Perry. He made quite a number of assertions and
accusations. Doug (and others) responded back, but Andrew
closed the thread and deleted the final post from Doug. For a
long time, Andrew has withheld from making his feelings about Doug
and FOTM public. Likewise, for a long time, Doug has tried to
reason with him and not made it public. Andrew forced this
issue and the Lord says that it's time for all the shepherds (good
and bad) to have their skirts lifted so everyone can see. Below
are a long list of emails back and forth between Doug and Andrew
dating back to November 10, 2004. Other information is posted
here as well so that you can see.
Pray that the Lord God Almighty
would give you discernment and help you to see His TRUTH and nothing
but. Test and see if the public image and the private behavior
match up. Be sure that you are not following Man - not Andrew
and not Doug. Seek Jesus only! Pray real hard about if
you're even supposed to waste time with this can of worms or if
you're supposed to go spread the Gospel or feed the hungry or heal somebody.
Our goal here is not to call
Andrew a "cult leader" or scrub him out of the Body or hurt
the Sheep. The goal is simply for people to see that the accusations
made are not based on anything other than a personal pride problem
and a lack of discernment and ability to hear the voice of God. We
pray that if he will not hear after trying again and again to reach
him, then maybe the Body will show him the need for repentance and
humility. That he might be a useful vessel fit for real revival.
----- Original Message -----
From: Maribeth & Brian Curry
To: Andrew Strom
Cc: Doug Perry
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2008 11:37 PM
Subject: In conclusion
Dear Andrew.
Because of your allegations that fotm is a cult I have spent many,
many days investigating it very, very thoroughly.
Instead of responding to my honest questions, you hid behind the fact
that I'd not actually physically been to Liberty.
Since I am physically unable to actually go there though I would like
to, I talked to, corresponded with or listened very carefully to 8
people involved in this situation asking all the necessary questions
to discern if your accusations were in fact true..
I carefully weighed everything I heard, saw and read, asking Yeshua
the entire time what His truth was about each piece of the puzzle. I
repeatedly went back to Doug and made him explain his response to the
allegations. His were completely transparent and consistent with the
person and character he portrays on the internet. The others
continued their rants and poorly substantiated ideas which were full
of twisted reasonings and emotional, angry, and bitter tirades.
Someone has set these people up and convinced them that fotm is a
cult, taking advantage of their pain and confusion and is trying to
get them to twist enough of their memories to make them think they
were in a cult. They were not.
The thing is Doug answered all my questions openly and compliantly,
yet not once have you respected my questions to you and given
objective concrete answers for your assertions. Not when I came to
you about TACF, and not now.
As a professional deprogrammer who participated in over 100 cases
where we got the person completely free of their pseudo-Christian
cult, the exact kind of thing you are alleging fotm is, I am
here to tell you that you are WRONG!!!
We were supported by our church family and had pastoral oversight
every step of the way and as a result, though we got cult members out
of their cults in 19 countries on 4 continents, we had no legal
problems. We were the only deprogrammers we knew who didn't either
face huge court battles or spend time in jail for their work. We did
it scripturally; God blessed and protected us, even from threats
against our life. So I think my professional opinion carries some
weight in this discussion.
What you've done is take a conclusion and tried to twist the facts to
make it so.
Instead of making the angry, bitter, often irrational and hurt people
get their garbage cleaned up BEFORE their accusations were accepted
as fact, you have used their pain and confusion to build a case
against an anointed ministry.
Then you used that conclusion to blacken the name of what the Lord is
doing, to your audience worldwide. When called into account, you
locked down the forum, shutting out what you didn't want to hear.
That's more control than I've found in Doug.
Instead, the honest and respectful thing to do is ask the question,
"Is FOTM a cult?"
The activities and attitudes of Doug simply do not fit the definition
of cult.
If you truly want to stick by this, then you need to do some work
which you obviously haven't done because you've not been able to give
me one objective example of cult activity other than that you've
talked to him a few times, rebuking him mostly, without ever finding
out what he actually meant and what he felt God was saying. Instead
you disparage the few things you let him say and oh yes, you've
listened to some angry wounded people and weighted their ideas far
above Doug's. What you didn't do was investigate far enough to see
who actually did the wounding.
It wasn't Doug.
Read William Sargent's Battle for the Mind. He very clearly lays out
in point form, the classical definition of cult. Read the Divine
Principle by Sun Myung Moon or anything by former polygamous wives of
Mormons such as Escape by Carolyn Jessup or anything by Mary Baker
Eddy Smith. The mind-control is obvious.
Then take the classical definition, having seen how it applies to the
3 cults listed and try and find anything in Doug and fotm that fits
that model. Sorry, it's just NOT THERE.
And before you try to throw any more smoke in my face, we had many
people who came to us to get their kids back out of things like The
Church on the Rock and the Pentecostal Church... so we had to go to
Yeshua and ask for the wisdom to discern each time, what was and what
wasn't a cult. This is my specialty and I'm here to tell you,
you are completely wrong.
It's as though you were out walking at night and heard a baby
crying but couldn't find it. So you call the police and they come
with big lights and they can't find it either though they can hear it
too The only thing they find is a cat, in heat, still meowing and
sounding just like a human baby.
Well, you can say, "It sounds like a baby, has 4 limbs, eyes,
nose and mouth like a baby, it must be a baby!"
But no matter what you want to believe, when the LIGHT is shone on
it, it's obvious, it's a cat.
That's what you've done to Doug.
You've taken some peripheral activities without ever sitting down and
in the love of Yeshua, asking him respectfully to explain the things
you don't understand. Instead, you've twisted them all around to
support your conclusion without ever even thinking that your
conclusion might actually be wrong.
But at the core, not one fotm activity or attitude lines up with the
classical definition of cult.
Error in doctrine does not in itself define a cult. I am not calling
his doctrine error at this point because I haven't finished working
through his thoughts and understandings of them from start to finish.
But even if he has error, whatever. Even you have error. Case in
point: you're 100% convinced that 100% of the Toronto Blessing was
the enemy. It wasn't. But you won't even accept that someone who was
there every night for 6 months and followed on for over 3 years might
know just a bit more about what was and what wasn't Holy Spirit's
ministry there than you who wasn't.
So do I call you a cult and quit reading your stuff and post around
the world that you're in the enemy camp? NO of course not. You have
an anointed ministry and I wouldn't think of blackening your name.
But you are quite cavalier to do that very thing to Doug and his
anointed ministry.
I could go on but I will close with this.
There are thousands of people who will accept what you say, because
you say it.
You have used that respect to damage the work of The Lord Jesus
Christ and you will answer for it.
Scripture says. "Inasmuch as you have done this to one of the
least of my brethren, you have done it unto me."
You need to fall on your face and repent for coming against Jesus
Christ the Carpenter of Nazareth who was crucified for our sins and
rose that 3rd day to bring us to new life with Him.
The unforgivable sin is calling a work of Holy Spirit, a work of the
enemy and you skate very close to that.
I truly pray that you don't bring your house down around your head if
you ignore this Ezek 33 warning from me.
You've been warned and your blood is upon your own head. And because
I'm a prophetic voice that's been in total seclusion for 6 years, so
you can't damage my name or reputation. There's no one who would
care. That's why God raised me up to get in your face about
this. I truly pray that you will set aside your preconceptions and
let Him reveal what's going on in your heart.
The ball's in your court.
I'm done. Am not going to put any more of my time or energy into this
set of spurious allegations.
I've gone back to each person and told them my conclusions and that I
am now through. You were the last to be addressed because you were
the first, the one who started this witch hunt in your emails to me.
Sincerely,
Maribeth
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