The dangerous and unBiblical Youth with a Mission (YWAM) was founded in 1960 by a 20 year old wolf in sheep's clothing Loren Cunningham (who died last year, Oct 6 2023) while an Assemblies of God college student, a deeply compromised and heretical pentecostal denomination. Cunningham proclaims that in 1956 he had a vision of waves breaking over the earth, and when he looked closer the waves became people carrying the gospel to the nations. He determined to start a missions movement that “would welcome Christians of all denominations.”
We see from its earliest days, right out of the starting blocks, that YWAM was plagued by outright heretical theology, representing “another spirit” and “another Jesus” (2 Cor 11:4), noted not only in the unBiblical and heretical denomination which had formed his beliefs and practices, but also in the founders purpose. (1) Firstly, God doesn’t work through visions, but through His Word alone. What this unregenerate heretic and false teacher concluded from his “vision” is already written and commanded in the Word of God (e.g. Matt 28:18-19; Mk 16:15; Ac 1:8), so why would he need a “vision” to do what God had already commanded? The answer of course is both simple and profound: Gods Word was closed to him, it had no value to this man and thus he, like all other false believers, looked for confirmation of his false beliefs and practices through other means, in this case a vision. Whether it be friends, family, the majority, their church or denomination, popular speakers and preachers, books, or dreams, visions and voices, the strategic confirmation of purpose for hypocrites is always in some form outside of the Bible (which is the King James Bible for the English language). The Bible really was just a centre piece for his China cabinet, powerless to an unregenerate false teacher. More so, there is a second reason, and that is because unsaved men do not glory in God but in self. They do not pursue Gods glory, but selfish glory. Their chief end is not for God to be exalted but for self to be exalted (Rom 16:18), regardless of lip service to service of Jesus Christ. They sit on the throne, not God. That is why they need visions and dreams and voices or their church or majority, etc. The Bible is only used as a crutch to further their ungodly and heretical agenda and desires, which is power, popularity, control and money. The attention is never on God in these situations, but in man. There are no visions or dreams post canonization of Scripture in the 1st century, so these manifestations are all about the man. (2) Secondly, God is also not ecumenical like this heretic was. He does not “welcome Christians of all denominations,” but rather those who are truly regenerate, who will for the most part be of a local church that is a pillar and ground of the truth (if able). There will be also be true believers that are attending apostate denominations, but they are rare exceptions, definitely not the rule. It is the new birth that gives us eternal life and God welcomes into His kingdom, not the church we attend, but true born again believers will grow in wisdom, grace, godliness, holiness and righteousness, and thus will separate themselves from heretical churches and people, and align with doctrinally sound, pillars and grounds of the truth congregations. That is how the Spirit of God works in those He indwells. They are guided and directed into conforming to the image of the Father's Son. Every single “Christian” denomination is heretical to some degree, but most are completely apostate. Conservatively, >90% of the people that attend denominations are very likely unsaved, but that number is likely closer to 100 in our day of great apostasy.
From its heretical beginnings, YWAM became one of the largest “mission” agencies in the world with roughly 16,000 full-time volunteer workers and 25,000 annual short-term workers, operating in 180 countries. These are unregenerate charlatans wreaking havoc and corrupting the little faith that the simple have, making false professors two-fold more the children of hell than themselves, hence the critical necessity to expose them before all.
"Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." (Rom 16:17-18)
There is of course a reason for their popularity:
“Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.” (Lk 6:26)
The world hates true born again Christians but has little issue with false believers. The former will preach the truth, while the latter will compromise and conform like chameleons, tickling the ears of those they come into contact. YWAM people are of the world since practically everyone involved in this organization is unsaved. This is why people gravitate towards false Christianity, the natural course of the natural man (1 Cor 2:14). Jesus said,
“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (Jn 15:18-19)
In spite of the unBiblical beliefs and practices, heresy, worldliness, ecumenicalism and straying from God's Word, this doesn’t stop “evangelicals” from associating with YWAM, or supporting them or using their programs or going on their "mission" trips, including apostate Mennonite groups such as EBMC and EMC, both of which shamefully and unBiblically support YWAM “missionaries.” The question could be asked of these groups, that Jehu the son of Hanani asked of king Jehoshaphat,
"Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD." (2 Ch 19:2)
The true Christianity that produces hatred from the world is a world of difference than that found in heretical “evangelical” groups like YWAM, a dangerous parachurch organization. Here are some reasons for that analysis and why YWAM is thoroughly heretical and ungodly.
1. YWAM Embraces and Promotes a False Gospel.
I can’t say preach but promote, because they don’t actually preach. Preaching goes against their snowflake mental capacity.
The “gospel” embraced, tolerated, and promoted by YWAM is a false social-gospel of easy believism, no repentance, no Lordship, quick prayerism, ask Jesus into your heart heresy, even all-religions-and-cultures-have-their-own-pathway-to-God false “gospel,” come-as-you-are-and-stay-as-you-are corrupted fruitless “gospel”, with no actual evidence or fruit necessary.
The proof for this is endless and beyond the space of this report. Look in any of their tracts, messages, articles, public speeches and acts, etc. An encyclopedia volume would only scratch the surface for evidence of this heretical groups false gospel. Here is one such example:
YWAM's gospel (above) changes Jesus' "everlasting" life into "abundant" life, and mentions neither sin, nor the need to repent from sin, nor the reason Jesus died, nor the torment in hell that awaits those who "simply admit" their "faults" and continue to sin while claiming Jesus rose from the dead "for" us. He rose from the dead because He is God and because He is God He demands repentance and submission to His Lordship.
They have also bought into the heretical and evil false teaching of New Missiology, which is the corrupted mentality that we should be less intrusive about sharing the Gospel and that God allegedly accepts any and all man-made plans of salvation. Of course that fits into the heretical, compromised, worldly, spineless, anything goes, lifestyle these heretics already live.
The true Gospel of Jesus Christ on the other hand is very intrusive in calling all wicked sinners everywhere to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, as noted in our gospel tract. Jesus Christ the Lord came as Saviour to the whole world, and people from all tribes and nations are offered ONLY one way to God and ONLY through one means.
But organizations like YWAM have been taking a more politically correct approach in assuming that every culture already has within their religious traditions an acceptable pathway to God, and the Christian’s only duty is to encourage them in what they already believe and are already doing with little more than perhaps an occasional reference to the Jesus Christ of the Bible. This is utter heresy and extreme ungodliness and no person will ever be truly saved in such a fashion, yet may well be “confirmed” in their false faith to be a Christian by these charlatan ministries, making these naive (Pr 14:15) souls two-fold more children of hell than themselves. They are guilty of the very evil that Jesus exposed among the unsaved, degenerate Pharisees:
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.” (Matt 23:15)
Is it any surprise that God the Son said it would be more tolerable in hell for ungodly, wicked cities with no religious pretence, such as the Gentile cities of Tyre, Sidon and the land of Sodom, then heretical, hypocritical cities flouting religious pretence, such as the Jewish cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum.
“Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.” (Matt 11:21-24)
2. YWAM Is Laden with Heresy and False Teachings.
Everyone who joins YWAM must start at its Discipleship Training School (DTS) to spend three months in class, and then two to three months applying what was taught. YWAM widely taught in the past and continues to teach at many of its Discipleship Training Schools the ungodly and unBiblical "Moral Government" heresy that claims God can sin and is neither omniscient nor omnipotent, Jesus' death on the cross didn't pay the penalty for our sins, we can attain a state of sinlessness by our own efforts and attain heaven by our own righteousness. For YWAM's own quotes and a side-by-side comparison of this damnable heresy with the Bible, see the following linked report: Moral Government.
Many of YWAM's heresies are noted in their Bible courses including the one called Introduction to Systematic Theology, which was taught shamefully at the EBMC denomination in Dec of 2018, and though the course itself was facilitated by one of the men in the church, a professing reformed Calvinist, the content of the course came from YWAM. Here are some examples of the unbiblical theology and heresy that was taught in this course:
False philosophy of learning Gods Word. Has to be done cooperatively, not individually, a heresy derived from the protestant pope John Calvin and his mentors (the Roman Catholic Church, Augustine), and completely contrary to God's Word (e.g. 1 Jn 2:27).
Promoting false believers and teachers, especially the “church fathers” and popular reformed Calvinist, while the evidence is clear that The Protestant Reformers Were Wolves in Sheep's Clothing.
Endorsing and exalting the heretics and ungodly John Calvin and Martin Luther, continuously throughout the program.
Scripture is apparently not the only means of authority, and dogmatism and sound doctrine is ridiculed. Relativism is celebrated, which rejects the absolutism of Scripture and Scripture itself.
Seriously false and corrupted teachings on church history, claiming that Roman Catholicism was once the keeper of the true gospel, but when they went apostate and the gospel was lost (i.e. the dark ages), the protestant reformers came along and rescued the gospel (i.e. the protestant reformation). This is a complete and utterly deplorable lie. The Roman Catholic Church has never been the stewards of the true gospel. The true gospel was never lost. The true church has never been found in either the Catholic denomination or any Protestant denomination but in the minuscule, seemingly irrelevant and persecuted local Baptist/Anabaptist churches which trace their beginnings to John the Baptist.
Embracing and exalting modern Bible perversions and their confusion.
A pathetic desire for academic notoriety and scholarship.
Tolerating and propagating error and false teachings continually.
Naturally they zealously embrace ungodly and worldly CCM music, with all its genres, in their false worship of self.
This is MERELY the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the heretical and false teachings of YWAM.
3. YWAM is Horribly Ecumenical, Helping Build the One-World Church of the Antichrist, a Pogram Already in Full Swing.
With Roman Catholicism. YWAM is in fellowship and yoke with the unBiblical, ungodly and apostate Roman Catholicism.
Jerry Huffman from the Calvary Contender reports,
“Since the 1970s YWAM has worked with Catholic charismatics, and by 1984 it formally accepted a proposal to work with the Catholic Church (and Eastern Orthodox) in various projects. There are now a ‘good number’ of young Roman Catholics working for YWAM, including Rob Clarke, the director of their discipleship training center in Dublin. YWAM is currently working with three Roman Catholic dioceses in Poland in building local communities of faith” (Jan. 15, 1993)
Since 1992, YWAM has been operating Kerygma, which recruits, trains and sends out Catholics to expand Roman Catholicism around the world. In 2014, Loren and Darlene Cunningham flew to the Vatican and met privately with Francis for seventy minutes (and NO, he did not preach the gospel truth to this evil man), after which Loren Cunningham declared that YWAM needs the blessing of the Roman Catholic pope:
"We also told Pope Francis as we met with him that we needed his blessing, because we’re going to urge every home on earth to have a Bible"
Below is a picture of the two demon-possessed antichrists:
Mark Alexander reports the following:
“Around February, 2006, I ran into a group of young people who had just completed a Discipleship Training School (DTS) with Youth With A Mission. They said that they were on a mission working with Roman Catholics at a conference in Brisbane City Hall. Not being able to understand how Protestant missionaries could get into a Catholic conference to evangelise, I questioned them to discover that they were practising Catholics (not ex-Catholics) fully integrated with YWAM, and merely helping out at the conference. They vigorously defended Mariolatry, the Mass, Tradition, and other errors of Roman Catholicism. These kids had just been processed by a so-called Protestant mission organisation. They had joined YWAM as Catholics and after their Discipleship Training School were still Catholics. It was most upsetting to see these kids on the Broad Road yet thinking they were serving our Lord. I rang YWAM to be told, “Catholics are welcome, and the beauty of it all is that there is no conflict between denominations.” Since when has Roman Catholicism been a Christian denomination?” (Mark Alexander, “YWAM’s Ecumenical Error,” http://www.christianissues.biz/ywam.html).
John White, missionary to Australia, reports the following:
“Jesus Festival, YWAM Latvia - A 30 kilo cake marked YWAM Latvia’s 5th anniversary during their biggest annual Jesus Festival yet. In Liepaja, on the Baltic coast of Latvia, a city known for festivals and concerts, 500 believers from different denominations gathered to hear speakers including Peter Iliyn [North American directory of YWAM], Tjebbo v.d. Eijkhoff, Maris Dzelzs and Loren Cunningham [co-founded of YWAM] and his wife Darlene in plenary sessions and in seminars on worship, evangelism and Holy Spirit. An evangelism team of Swedes and Latvians, led by Tjebbo, saw over 700 responses. The event was marked by breakthroughs in unity with a Catholic bishop participating as well as singing groups from both Catholic and charismatic churches. Prayer and repentance for the nation and for the Church was a testimony of unity, with people from different denominations together praying for unity. Press and TV coverage was very positive” (“Dangerous Parachurch Organizations,” Heads Up! Aug. 3, 2012).
Seven Mountain Mandate. Apparently Cunningham, along with the ungodly heretics Bill Bright and Francis Schaeffer, received a message from God, ordering them to invade the "seven spheres" of society identified as family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government. Funny how these "liars, evil beasts, slow bellies" (Ti 1:12) always get "messages" from "God" that favour their wallets and infamy. It is further curious to note that the seven mountain phrase that they conspicuously named their mandate from their god is in fact found in Scripture, Rev 17:9, the very home of "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" (Rev 17:5 -- all CAPS original), which is the Roman Catholic Church. The movement came to prominence after the 2013 publication of Lance Wallnau's and Bill Johnson's Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate. These wolves in sheep's clothing are indeed fulfilling this mandate given to them by Satan, as they bring non-Catholics harlots back into the whorehouse of their mother, "the great whore" (Rev 17:1).
New Apostolic Reformation. YWAM is in bed with the New Apostolic Reformation, a rapidly growing apostate movement of church leaders who style themselves as authoritative apostles and prophets and claim their new revelations are key to bringing God’s physical kingdom to earth. It’s unbiblical and heresy, and every last one involved in this heresy is a false teacher (2 Pet 2:1-3) and wolf in sheep’s clothing (Matt 7:15).
The following from wikipedia reveals how horribly ecumenical and unBiblical this ungodly organization really is. All of the organizations mentioned here are bad. Heretical. Ungodly. Many apostate. Worldly. Very bad.
"A notable working relationship is the OneStory Project which is a partnership between YWAM, Campus Crusade for Christ, the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Trans World Radio, and Wycliffe Bible Translators as well as other Great Commission-focused organizations, churches and individuals. United Bible Societies has also worked closely with YWAM as a missions partner. YWAM joined with the Evangelical Alliance and John C. Maxwell to design the training program for the Global Pastors Network's Million Leaders Mandate. YWAM and Christian Direction work together to pray for Muslims during Ramadan. YWAM Pittsburgh has been involved in ecumenical local efforts to revive Epiphany School through teaching young people "Christian principles" and exposing them to dance and the arts."
These examples are again merely the tip of the iceberg. This heretical organization will associate with ANY group or people that will have them and work with them. None exempt. All are welcome. In so doing they have deceived themselves into thinking they are exhibiting Christian "love" and some form of "godliness." They are terribly demonically- and self-deceived, the blind leading the blind into the ditch. It is not love that they exhibit but hate. Hate towards God and hate towards their fellow mankind.
Ecumenicalism is extremely unscriptural and heretical, considering that the Bible contains many direct commands and demands of separation from error and sin and false teachers/groups and the world, and noting that separation being a very important attribute of God (so important in fact, the angels sing day and night, "Holy, Holy, Holy" which means "Separate, Separate, Separate"). Not separating is also an important proof of actually being unsaved. Its failing the test of Godly faith, and God tests all whom claim to beling to Him. That’s the bottom line. People that are truly saved do not associate or tolerate fellowship with unbelievers, heretics, and apostates (2 Cor 6:14-18). If they happen to be in such an environment at the time of their conversion, they will in short order remove themselves (2 Cor 6:14-7:1; Rev 18:4; Pr 9:6).
Keep reading here on The Biblical Doctrine of Separation and Unscriptural Forms of Separation.
4. YWAM Worships Idols and Embraces Paganism.
In cultures that reject the Gospel, YWAM encourages and organizes idol worship and paganism.
For example, the Oct 1999-Jan 2000 issue of the YWAM's staff newsletter YWAMer featured a YWAM sub-field director in India named Steve Cochrane who reported that his staff organizes pilgrimages for Hindus to Hindu "holy" sites and "then all along the way they are explaining the gospel to the pilgrims in a totally contextualized way."
In the same newsletter, a YWAM leader in a Moslem country wrote under a pseudonym that YWAM encourages "Messianic Muslims" to continue to read the unholy and ungodly and evil Quran, attend mosque, and bow down toward Mecca five times per day:
"They continued a life of following the Islamic requirements, including mosque attendance, fasting and Koranic reading, besides getting together as a fellowship of Muslims who acknowledge Christ as the source of God's mercy for them. . . . As the believer's heart changes, he or she places less and less importance on these issues that seem to contradict the gospel. In fact we have found at times the opposite, that we need to encourage the person not to reject his culture and thereby burn bridges with his past."
Wow, this is plainly evil. Not only is the practice completely unBiblical and ungodly, the "gospel" and "Jesus" they are allegedly sharing is entirely false to Scripture.
Islam is 100% of the Devil. It has almost no correlation whatsoever to the Word of God, and the bit it does was stolen directly from the Bible. God's Word tells us that the god of Islam, Allah, is actually the devil (source). Islam is the very antonym of peace; it is about as far removed from peace as anything could be (source). Questions to ask Moslems will help you understand The Serious Problem of Islam. Anyone that believes Islam worships the true God is demonically deceived.
YWAM also teaches the "Indigenous People Movement" heresy that tells people to "redeem" their indigenous cultures by worshipping the idols of their culture as the God of the Bible. For example, at the 2015 Impartation Kona (Hawaii) conference, Loren and Darlene Cunningham looked on as YWAM president John Dawson declared to the audience, "The Hawaiian prophets had prophesied that the worship of Io, the Creator God, would be restored." "Lo" is Hawaiian mythology's "Creator God" who supposedly created other Hawaiian tiki "gods" - demonic figures - like Kane, Ku and Lono (below). "Lo" is not the Creator God of the Bible!
Elijah didn't organize pilgrimages to the temple of Baal, nor Samuel to the house of Dagon.
"That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them:" (Jos 23:7)
"Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place." (De 12:2-3)
5. YWAM has Cultish Tendencies, and like Many Neo-Evangelicals, Comes Across "Friendly" and "Kind," But Are in Reality Ungodly Tyrants.
Hundreds of alumni from YWAM’s training and outreach programs say they were spiritually abused by immature leaders, who claimed to speak for God, and warned that questioning their absolute control equaled rebellion against God.
It’s a proven fact that the worst leaders the world has ever known, the most murderous and diabolical, came out of a religious background. Neo-evangelicalism is just another form of dead religion, where the pendulum swings the opposite way of a works gospel (for most, but even this is found within its ranks) to a gospel of licentiousness and lasciviousness. Ju 1:4 speaks to these ungodly people and their ungodly behaviour and
“For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And that is why truly saved servants of Christ, which are those who have been “sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called” (Ju 1:1) are exhorted “to earnest contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” (Ju 1:3).
YWAM has forms of cultic indoctrination and recorded abuse. YWAM's DTS abuses attendees spiritually, psychologically and emotionally, as follows: (a) Students are pressured to confess their sins to large groups of strangers. E.g., 40-50 attendees are made to spend 8 hours sitting in a large circle individually confessing just their sexual sins, including masturbation, to the entire group, which includes both men and women. The Bible mandates confessing faults "one to another" (Jam 5:16) and to God, not to large audiences of strangers. (b) Students are also pressured to report seeing any visions or dreams or hearing any things supposedly from God, which is ungodly and heretical and unBiblical (actually demonic), which makes them susceptible to demonic visitations and rejection of God's Word, and even lie for the purpose of reporting. Allegedly they must see or hear from God in a given time frame, which in effect puts God on a timer and again rejects the actual truth of Scripture. Students are even prevented from bringing Bibles to some of the indoctrination sessions. (c) As the students feel increasingly vulnerable, YWAM staff claim authority over them. They are told that the leaders placed over them hear directly from God and speak on His behalf, and are therefore be obeyed at all times, even when the attendee believes them to be wrong or contradicting what the Holy Spirit is saying directly to the student. They are instructed to not discuss with each other any perceived issues at DTS and YWAM, and to certainly not mention them to anyone outside YWAM, including the students own parents, family or home church. Students are told that violating this prohibition is sinning against God. When a lecture is complete, they are encouraged not to challenge or raise questions about what was taught, but to take turns expressing agreement with it. And when leaders lie or commit other sins, the students are told, "Touch not God's anointed," and to "Pray it, not say it! Criticize people to God, not to others." This completely of course contradicts God's Word on so many levels, which records repeatedly and everywhere the necessity to judge, test, examine, rebuke, reprove, admonish, and warn, along with many examples, including when Peter erred while visiting Antioch, Paul confronted him publicly "before them all" (Gal 2:14). (d) As the DTS nears its end, many students are pressured to return for its "Secondary Schools," and some to eventually "staff" YWAM, pressure presented as instruction from "God." Efforts are also made to distance the students from their parents, family, and home church, and many examples are found of this online.
Conclusion
You only need a fraction, maybe 1/10,000 of the info out there on their teachings and practices, to know they are an unbiblical and heretical organization, but that has never stopped “evangelicals” and other professing Christian groups from associating with them, or taking their courses, or working for them, or sponsoring their “missionaries,” etc.
“Evangelicals” don’t separate, because they are unsaved. They are merely playing at “Christianity” and “church,” and know not the first thing about true biblical obedience, though they give lip service to it. Though separation may be one of the more difficult commands to obey in the Word of God, that doesn’t stop the true born again believer from obeying it because his love for God exceeds immeasurably his appeasement of fellowman,
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” (1 Jn 5:3).
Truly regenerated believers obey the doctrine of separation because separation is part and parcel of salvation. True conversion requires separation. It does. Read about it here: The Biblical Doctrine of Separation and Unscriptural Forms of Separation.
If you embrace groups like YWAM and see no issue, you really need to be converted to Christ. Truly. Genuinely. Reject the false gospel and god that you have embraced, repent and turn to the true and living God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ. Read more here on how you can be saved.
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