Eccumenical Monday - IHOP and Their Adoration of the Papist Church

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what
partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or
what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Cor. 6:14)

Sola Scriptura (by Scripture alone) is the foundational doctrinal principle of the Protestant Reformation. It is held by we Reformers, who know that Scripture is self-authenticating, clear to the rational reader, is its own interpreter, and sufficient of itself to be the final authority of Christian doctrine. However some denominations prefer Prima Scriptura which states that scripture is pretty good, but needs man's help through revelation and Tradition. Denominations that encourage this kind of thing are Anglican, Wesleyan Methodists, Seventh-day Adventists, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Quakers, Pentecostals, Charismatics and Roman Catholics

The International House of Prayer (IHOP) claims to be all about Prima Scriptura, but may be Secundum Scriptura (Scripture is Secondary), but probably Alia Scriptura (Another Scripture). Regardless of what they are, what they are not is evangelical Christian. At the very best what they are is a Christian flavored cult. With much more focus on mysticism and contemplative spirituality than on worshipping the Lord in prayer and interceding for others through prayer, and the expectation that healings, visions, dreams, prophecies, tongues, words of knowledge, signs, wonders, etc become commonplace, IHOP sets itself apart from biblical Christianity. Which is probably why IHOP simply adores the Roman Catholic Church. Consider this quote from the Franciscan University of Steubenville: 

“The International House of Prayer (IHOP) was founded in 1999 by Mike Bickle, who says that many IHOP teachings draw upon the works of St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, as well as contemporary Catholics including Father Henri Nouwen and Father Thomas Dubay, SM. The IHOP 24 hour prayer room, he says, was inspired by the spiritual practices of  Catholic European monks, such as St. Bernard of Clairvaux. 

‘I’ve always had a passion for Catholic-Christian unity, and enthusiastically welcome this years Catholic track,’ says Bickle. ‘We may have different religious traditions, but we focus on fellowship, and unity and Jesus being glorified in prayer, worship, and teaching.’”

Why do I find this disturbing? Primarily because the Roman Catholic Church believes that  faith in Christ is not sufficient for salvation. The Bible is very clear on the fact that grace through faith is the only way to salvation (John 1:12; 3:16,18,36; Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9-10,13; Ephesians 2:8-9), while the RCC demands that the adherent also depend on faith in the Roman Catholic Church for salvation. The RCC goes full Secundum Scriptura and requires that a person must believe in Jesus Christ and be baptized in the church and be confirmed in the church, and receive the Eucharist and confess their sins to a human, and perform assigned penance, and obey the decrees of the Roman Catholic Church, and receive even more sacraments, and perform meritorious works, and not die with any mortal sins, and spend time in purgatory... and so on and so on...


With their profundity of man centered rules and regulations I'm surprised that the RCC doesn't have a secret handshake (then again, maybe they do). This is not a faith, it's a fraternal organization on the order of the Knights of Pythias or the Sovereign Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. It's a shame that the name "Odd Fellows" has been taken, because the fellows in the Catholic Church can generate some very odd stuff.

Take the book Fire Within: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel–On Prayer by Catholic priest, Father Thomas Dubay. It's a study of contemplative prayer, and the superstar of contemplative prayer: Teresa of Avila. Teresa was a nun who was practicing mysticism to try to escape the pains of some physical disease or deformity that only a dead man (St. Joseph) could cure. Teresa wanted to be a martyr, not for the love of God but so she could go to heaven quickly. (Source) She fell under the discipleship of Jesuits who, as you know, are the strong-arm enforcers of the counter-reformation. The counter reformation used several tools in their attempt to overthrow the biblical belief of the protestants. These tools are:

• Dispensationalism. This started with the writings of Jesuit priest Franciso Ribera whose vision included a Post Rapture tribulation. So, yeah - when you talk of a pre-trib rapture, you're quoting 16th century Roman Catholic counter reformation dogma.
• Negation of Creation. The Catholic Church has officially negated the Creation account of the Bible. The official declaration by Pope John Paul II was heralded in the international press.
• Elevation of Tradition over Scripture. The Catholic Church could no longer ban reading the bible due to the bible being printed mechanically (And yes, Pope Paul IV listed the bible in the Index of Prohibited Books in 1599) So the RCC just made the authority of tradition more important that scripture.
• Making the Pope Infallable. It's like saying "You got one God? well, we got two. Nyaaa."

Being raised catholic most of this isn't much of a surprise to me, and I'm so grateful to the Lord that He lifted me from this man made mire of false teaching. So why did I bring all this up? Because this is the stuff Mike Bickle just loves. Mike Bickle said this about Fire Within: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel–On Prayer:

I want this book to be the manual for IHOP-KC. (source)

And he offers this book for sale in the International House of Prayer’s online Forerunner Bookstore. along with The Forgotten Desert Mothers by Laura Swan which says to discard the old ways of prayer (meaning prayer the way that Jesus taught) and take on new ways such as centering prayer, lectio divina (think: contemplative reading), meditation, Taize (silence, icons, candles, incense and prayer stations, old school Catholic High Mass stuff)  and the Divine Office. The Forerunner bookstore also offers Celebration of Discipline, The Way of the Heart, Clowning In Rome, Dream Language, all a celebration of man centered self hypnosis and Roman Catholic mysticism. I can picture these books sitting in a book store in Boulder Colorado amid the incense smoke, hemp fumes, and sitar music, but in a supposedly Christian bookstore?

Lets look at ONETHING - it's a is an annual Christian conference put on by the International House of Prayer every December at the Bartle Hall Convention Center in Kansas City, MO. The conference was initially inspired when Paul Cain had a "spiritual experience" in which he saw thousands of young people gathering in Kansas City. Paul Cain was part of William Branham's traveling show and kept the strange fire of Latter Rain movement alive. (As a side note, Cain confessed to being a practicing homosexual and an accomplished alcoholic and was removed from IHOP. He was considered 'restored' in 2007 but  his rehabilitation was questioned by Rick Joyner, Jack Deere, and Mike Bickle. Odd how they didn't question Todd Bentley's rehabilitation.)

Regardless of the Peter Cain involvement, ONETHING is a celebration of all things IHOPy, and what better way to celebrate a Protestant revival meeting than by inviting the Catholic church to be a major part of the proceedings. The Catholics were invited in 2012 but chose to back out, and many people believe it was due to the suicide/murder of Bethany Deaton. However the Catholics were invited again in 2015, yet Mike Bickle kept the information of their participation off of the ONETHING website and promotional material.

The Catholics however were more than expressive with their website, and from their website you can see that their participation was pretty extensive. From my admittedly jaundiced point of view this is a bait and switch scam. At $50+ per head Mike Bickle raked in $750,000 promising these children prayer and revival and delivering Catholic heresy. So how did the Catholic church get such prominent stage time at what was advertised as a Protestant revival meeting? Simple, the organizers of the Catholic eccumenical track which was presented at ONETHING, Keith Major & Iwona Bednarz-Major, are staff members at IHOP.

I'm not even going to mention Francis Chan.

By the way - the Catholic group that put on the Catholic eccumenical track at ONETHING USA also put on a show at Azusa Now. Who will be able to erase the shame of seeing Lou Engle, false teacher or not, throwing himself on the ground and kissing the feet of Papal appointed Catholic representative  Matteo Calisi live on stage before 100,000 people?