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A Discussion on the Credibility of David Hogan I've dealt with a lot of critical mail from people who believe that I have no right to challenge the claims of one David Hogan. A common thread among my critics is the belief that anyone like Hogan who claims to be God's healer should be accepted without question and anyone like myself who questions such a person is a misled Pharisee type. Those who believe this way neglect to "examine everything carefully" (1 Thess. 5:21) and "put to the test those who call themselves apostles" (Rev. 2:2), believing that to do so is tantamount to expressing God-displeasing doubt when in reality, as I've just demonstrated, the Scriptures show that operating with caution is biblical (and of the utmost importance in our time of unprecedented deception). If you are not familiar with modern-day Charismatic thought (as opposed to the true charisma mentioned in the Scriptures from which it differs) then allow me to "enlighten" you with one of the letters I received (in 2002) from a Pentecostal-style believer. I'm publishing this particular letter because it contains within it all of the basic elements I frequently hear from Hogan's most devoted supporters. There's a pattern seen in this letter and its condescending and presumptuous tone recycles itself over and over again on a regular basis in the form of different people who write to me. Below is the letter followed by my response to it. This is how the spirit of error operates: From: Rondee Subject: religion is a demon Brian Dear Brian, I have written you to hopefully help you a little. I found many of the things that you had to say about Brother David disturbing not just because they were not founded in correct doctrine and do not aline with Gods Word, but because you cast this judgment not only in the face of God,(who by the way is the only one just enough to make such a judgment).,but on line for the whole world to read. It is obvious that your background is very religion oriented. I hope that you will be able to recieve this rebuke as a wise man rather than a fool. Have you ever wondered why the Pharisees and Sadducees hated Jesus the way that they did? Even to the point of murder to get rid of him? It was because they considered themselfs to be just about as righteous as one could get, and they were, but only on the outside. When Jesus came talking about a kind of righteousness that didn't come from one's keeping of the law and one's own works, but rather from the inside out. The result of God literaly writting his word on our hearts. Also it was the spirit of the way he conducted himself perfectly, but in opposition to what they belived to be Godly. They were inraged that he called their outward displays of righeousness wickedness and said that they were white washed tombs with dead mens bones inside of them. After all they knew Gods word better than anyone, they dressed the right way, talked the rightway they would never do anything like laugh with joy unspeakable full of glory, never be drunk with spirit rather than wine,never be vulnerable to something like the Holyspirit and do something like fall on the floor (how undignified would that be?) Not only was every thing they did right with the law they even crucified the very Lamb of God on the right day keeping it inline with the Word, making sure that they didn't do it on the Sabbath. If you think that the religious spirit that drove people to kill Jesus is anything different than the one that controls and dominates many of todays churches and does resist the spirit of God, just take a closer look. It wasn't what you think that you diserned to see in his eyes, it was what he did disern in yours. I think that it would be very interesting to see how long you could stant up under the kind of anointing that that man carries. I have personally seen many great ministers minister to the point that they nearly collasped. They have no power to do anything of themselfs anyway its the Holy Spirit who heals, nobody has the ability to stand under that forever. If someone has the spirit of God in them they are able to disern what is of God and what is not,but if someone has a religeous spirit (which is a demon, which does lie and distort the truth to keep the spirit of God out of people and out of churches) they do thing like mistake the work of the Holy Spirit for the work of the devil. Brian God loves you very much and their is nothing that other people see that he doesen't want to show you,but you will have to let him out of the little box that you have designed for him. God raises the dead all the time and heals the sick too, but it will never happen in a croud of people where there is a great deal of unbelief. There was a reason Jesus WAS NOT ABLE to do a great number of miricles in his hometown, and it wasn't from his lack of ability to do Gods work. It was because of their UNBELIEF. I will be praying that you will truly come to know that Fathers love and that the Lord open your eyes to what has blinded you spiritually and kept you at a distance from true freedom in Christ. Believe it or not this message comes in love, I was set free from a religious spirit that dominated my family generationaly for years and still does. My family still thinks God is like somekind of guy with a really big stick just waiting for them to screw up so he can punish them. Insted of the loving Daddy kind of guy with unconditional love. God be with you brother Rondee, There's a lot of problems with what you've written to me and I'd like to respond to them. First and foremost, you did not read my article on David Hogan very carefully. Or, if you did, you are purposely misrepresenting my beliefs. I indicated at the beginning of my article that I came to the church believing in the power of God to raise the dead. There was no doubt or unbelief on my part going into the church service. So no, it was not a lack of faith on my part or on the part of the other people present at the service who received nothing of value or worth from the man. Hogan must have touched many dozens if not over a hundred people at the service I attended but it's worth noting that afterwards the church leadership never reported one account of healing that came about as a result of Hogan's visit. If just one account of verifiable healing had taken place the local newspaper would have been contacted. So are you going to claim that no one at the service had any real belief? That's the rationalization you will be forced to use if you are bent on protecting Hogan's crumbling reputation as a faith healer. You wrote: I found many of the things that you had to say about Brother David disturbing not just because they were not founded in correct doctrine and do not aline with Gods Word What did I say that was not founded in correct doctrine and did not align with God's Word? You wrote about the Pharisees and tried to compare them to me but neglected to give any specific examples as to how I have opposed sound doctrine as you allege I have done. And don't think the Pharisee argument will work on me. I've known for most of my life that anyone who dares to question the credibility of today's self-proclaimed healers is going to be compared to the Pharisees and the Sadducees by the supporters of these holier-than-thou "healers." So how am I like the religious leaders who opposed Jesus? Tell me. You listed a lot of reasons why I am NOT like them. ...you cast this judgment not only in the face of God,(who by the way is the only one just enough to make such a judgment). When a Christian uses discernment he or she is not usurping the role of God. By calling Hogan's character into question I am obeying the command of the apostle Paul who told believers to examine all things carefully. The Lord Jesus Himself instructed us to apply a righteous standard of judging (see Matt. 7:15-23). Do you believe that people should be allowed to ask questions in order to do as they are commanded in Scripture? Christians are exhorted to test those who come to us in the name of God: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). You criticize me for judging someone when you claim that only God has the right to judge . . . yet you showed no hesitation in slandering my character with your so-called rubuke where you assert that I have a religious spirit. If you think that the religious spirit that drove people to kill Jesus is anything different than the one that controls and dominates many of todays churches and does resist the spirit of God, just take a closer look. I have, and you're right on this point. You are just unable to see that David Hogan embodies the religious spirit you have described. Men like Hogan who dominate today's Charismatic religious scene very much show a need for control and domination. And they act out their insecurity using the name of God. It wasn't what you think that you diserned to see in his eyes, it was what he did disern in yours. Oh? And you can speak for what Hogan was thinking when he looked into my eyes? That's more unfounded speculation on your part. You're alleging that I had something within me that Hogan found deplorable (let me guess, a demon?). Let's suppose for a moment that a demon inside of me is what caused Hogan to resist my presence. Why then did he cower away from me and act like a frightened animal? I thought he wasn't afraid of demons! There's an opposing force between me and Hogan. So who's the real Christian? Me or David? Let's compare the two of us . . . Hogan has very little respect for the Word of God. He rarely teaches from it and is even known to distort the Word. Most of the time he prefers instead to highlight his man-made teachings (or religion) and loosely attach verses from the Bible to whatever idea he is trying to promote at the time. He has placed his own "revelations" and story-telling above the words in the Bible. I, on the other hand, direct people to the Word of God. Hogan directs people to himself. By promoting himself as a very unique teacher and healer an unhealthy and dangerous dependence upon him is created which exploits the desperate and the undiscerning who are looking for a hero to believe in. In my article I state that at one point in the church service Hogan started laughing uncontrollably, behavior which some in the congregation found amusing. That happened when he was trying to read from the Scriptures. You interpreted his laughter as being a laugh with joy unspeakable full of glory. You weren't there to know so how can you make this comment? In reality, the laughter was out of place and resembled the mocking sort, certainly not the kind of laughter most people would associate with joy. We have to ask ourselves this: Why would the laughter suddenly come over him at a time when he was trying to read from the Word? Was it really Holy Spirit-inspired laughter? Would the Holy Spirit be responsible for preventing the Word of God from being read? The Spirit of God enhances the reading of Scripture; He does not oppose it. THE HOLY SPIRIT DOES NOT COMPETE AGAINST HIMSELF. You said I should not put God in the little box you accuse me of designing for him. You're implying that I have deceived myself by refusing to acknowledge that God can work through anyone. This much is certain: God's mighty healing power cannot be contained, but know also that His workings are consistent with His holiness and with His will. If you're saying that an undignified man like David Hogan, a man who relegates the Scriptures as secondary to his own heretical teachings, who refuses to show proof of his miraculous claims, who refuses to answer questions relating to the abuses of the people who have been in his care, a lover of money and self . . . If you say that such a man is being empowered by God then you are guilty of trying to fit God into the box of sin. Have you considered that "Brother David" may not be who he says he is? It's alright to ask questions in order to satisfy any suspicion we might have because asking questions is how we determine what it is we're dealing with. The Bible instructs us to examine ourselves and others using the Scriptures as our guide so that we can know who is true to God. Without relying on the Bible to help us know what defines a Christian how would we determine what is right and what is wrong? Just because a person claims to be a healer and "Spirit-filled" does not make it so. It is obvious that your background is very religion oriented. Is that supposed to mean that I come from a background where the miraculous is rejected? No, I come from a Charismatic background where I was taught to believe in the miraculous and still do. It is indeed possible to believe in the power of God and also believe that there are false teachers active in the church scene today. Doubting Hogan's claims does not necessarily translate to disbelief in the miraculous. So what good is David Hogan? He hasn't produced any evidence that he is a miracle worker and he leaves a lot of disappointed and disillusioned people in his wake. You will just claim that people who have been disappointed by the man never had enough faith to allow them to be healed in the first place (as seen in this next statement): There was a reason Jesus WAS NOT ABLE to do a great number of miricles in his hometown, and it wasn't from his lack of ability to do Gods work. It was because of their UNBELIEF. Every person Jesus laid His hands upon was healed. Hogan lays hands on [or waves his hanky at] many people with absolutely no positive results. Jesus knew who believed and He healed those people in accordance with His will. Apparently Hogan doesn't know the will of God or have God's power working through him because, if we are consistent with your theory, Hogan is trying to heal people who are stricken with unbelief. This unbelief argument doesn't work very well. Would people really approach Hogan and seek his touch if they did not believe he was God's servant? They do believe! You must consider the possibility that Hogan is a false healer who is out of touch with God. Hogan needs to be accountable. A lot of questions need to be answered and he doesn't seem to be interested in answering any of them (never a good sign). He alone knowns the answers when it comes to the shady issues of his life and only he has the ability to answer these questions (like, for example, how he spends the money entrusted to him by churches). Please do not try to answer for him because all you're doing is offering guesswork and speculation. In the process you have unnecessarily maligned my character and, if you continue to believe and act as you do, will no doubt dump your nonsense onto every other person who seeks answers concerning who he really is. The secret life of David Hogan is not admirable. If he wants to be a public figure then he needs to be accountable to the very public which supports him. His refusal to answer questions is a major red flag and his elusive behavior works to obscure the truth. WE ALL should be accountable to one another. Brian Before opening an e-mail to read it I can usually tell from the subject line what kind of message I'm going to get. If someone writes... "religion is a demon Brian" I'm almost certain it is a message from a Pentecostal who is going to scold me for believing in a way the person thinks is comparable to a demon. Some Pentecostals will tell me that they do not classify everything they perceive as negative to be a demon as Rondee has done, and they don't, but the fact that I continue to get this kind of message from Pentecostal believers shows that there is a lot of confusion within this camp that their pastors are not working to correct. A religion is a belief system; it is not in and of itself a demon. A system of belief may be influenced by the demonic (see 1 Tim. 4:1), but it is wrong and reckless to teach that a belief or an idea is a spiritual entity. I think the supporters of David Hogan reveal what effect the man produces in their lives. Consider the belittling mindset from Rondee. Her message is that David Hogan is better than I am: I think that it would be very interesting to see how long you could stant up under the kind of anointing that that man carries. She believes that Hogan possesses an anointing from God that I do not. She describes this "anointing" as something that causes someone to stumble and fall while in the act of trying to heal or minister to others. What she describes has nothing to do with God's empowered will given to an individual for the purpose of ministry. She has defined what she calls an anointing as something that represents the overwhelming presence of God which, as she and her crowd assert, is the reason people "fall out under the power." She is actually describing an encounter and not an anointing. But would God "strike down" a minister by His power and prevent that minister from engaging others in ministry? If a minister is in fact an enemy of the cross who promotes occult practices then I do believe that God may commit that kind of act against such a person. Experiencing the kind of phenomenon that Hogan experienced is a curse and not a blessing. At the end of the service I attended Hogan had even lost the ability to speak. I never heard back from Rondee. It's sad to know that she and many others are not being trained and disciplined to operate with thinking minds (or loving hearts). They really do not know how to do anything other than spew out the same old Charismatic cliches' that have been fed to them. In many Pentecostal/Charismatic camps the mind is taught to be something that is an obstacle to enlightenment. In these goups it is taught that the mind must cease its workings before people can "receive" the "higher things" of what is said to be from the Holy Spirit. In order to manifest the Pentecostal/Charismatic "blessings" you first have to be worked into an altered state of consciousness. The manipulators know from experience that the bizarre physical manifestations occur only when people become disoriented and emotionally conditioned to expect promises of wild expectation. Music plays a key role in this process. In some church services, for example, it is common to have one song played and sung over and over again until people start experiencing dizziness which may even cause a few people to fall to the ground. Those who fall down are said to be "overcome by the power of God." The believers in the world of Charismania will spin any event into something positive in their attempt to make these events appear to be real experiences from God. When things deteriorate into the goofy and the obscene these people explain away their weird behavior and try to justify it all by saying that God sometimes moves in an undignified way that might look a little strange to others. They completely disregard the standards of holiness given to us in the Scriptures. Anything goes. When people belittle God's Word and tarnish His name by associating His Spirit with the work of the flesh the door to the occult is "opened." The Pharisees in Jesus' day resisted the Word of God in favor of their man-made teachings. Today's spiritual Pharisees operate the very same way. They spend more time building up men like David Hogan than they do the person of Jesus Christ. Some have made David Hogan the litmus test for determining who is and who is not a Christian. They deny my salvation and question my love of God and will not change their view of me until I agree with their position on the man. Telling them that I've been hurt by false teachers means nothing to them. They are devoid of any compassion. (And to these people there is no such thing as an apostasy.) These people aggressively resist and slander the character of anyone who challenges the legitimacy of the Charismatic religious system they support. The Pharisees in the time of Jesus staunchly defended their system of worship and today's self-promoting Charismatic believers do the same. We must take a stand against this apostate religious system and remain true to the faith. We cannot allow the Christian faith to be redefined to our harm and destruction. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). This is not the time to relax our guard. Many are calling for unity at all costs (even at the expense of truth). They believe this call of unity represents a true expression of love. But love in the absence of truth is not real love. "Let love be without hypocrisy" (Romans 12:9).
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