Houston Pastor Says "Response Organizers Exceptionally Foolish in Designating This A Christian Event" <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 
Pastor Robby Dean of West Houston Bible Church has given Worldview Weekend permission to distribute a letter which he sent to the members of his church and to 50 pastors so they might warn their churches of what he believes are doctrinal and theological problems with The Response. In his warning Dr. Dean wrote in part:
…the delegation of the administration of this event, called, "The Response," (http://theresponseusa.com), is to a Christian group with ties to what is in my opinion, one of the most radical, fringe, quasi-cultic groups I have ever investigated. In my view, Response organizers have been exceptionally foolish in designating this a "Christian" event. The most distressing fact is that this event is being run by people from the International House of Prayer (IHOP) which has its roots in a movement called the Kansas City Prophets, which in turn was associated with the Vineyard churches founded by the late John Wimber. In the late 1980's I conducted more than two thousand hours of research and personal interviews with key leaders in the Vineyard movement as part of independent studies courses in my doctoral studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. In January of 1989 I attended a "Spiritual Warfare Conference" at the home Vineyard church in southern California. I was there when Paul Cain, one of the most extreme, cult-like leaders of this movement and one who himself taught his own brand of heresy, was first introduced to the Vineyard congregation.  Cain became very influential in the life of Mike Bickle who was then pastor of the Kansas City Fellowship. In October of 1990 Dr. Thomas Ice and I interviewed the pastoral leadership of the Kansas City Vineyard, the so-called Kansas City Prophets, a now defunct ministry. Bickle went on to become one of the founders of the International House of Prayer. Our critique of this movement was published in Biblical Perspectives, a bi-monthly newsletter Dr. Ice and I published at that time. The Director and Program Coordinators for "The Response" are Luis and Jill Cataldo, both on the staff of the International House of Prayer.
 
One of the key heresies of the Kansas City prophets, which is also at the core of the thinking of the IHOP movement, is based on a misuse and abuse of a passage in the Hebrew Scriptures, Joel 2:15-16. This passage is at the core of a heresy which calls upon present day Christians to fulfill a passage that has nothing whatsoever to do with modern events. In their view this passage is twisted to be call for spiritual elites, the so-called "Joel's Army," to take over the United States and then to purge it and bring in a Christian kingdom. Unfortunately, in a display of theological naiveté, Gov. Perry was duped into using this passage as the rationale for his call to a Day of Prayer: "In the spirit of the Book of Joel, Chapter 2, Verses 15-16, I urge a solemn gathering of prayer and fasting. As those verses admonish: "Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly... Gather the people, consecrate the assembly...".  This is what happens when theologically uninformed politicians get duped by advisors whose religious agendas are not obvious. Few Christians are even aware of this movement, its heretical theology, and its political agenda. Governor Perry is not the only one who has been taken in by their pious duplicity.
On the basis of all my research into IHOP, I cannot, on the basis of the Word of God, endorse this event. Further, I must strongly encourage my congregation, and indeed all Bible believing Christians, to not participate in this event… Prayer is important, prayer for a nation is important, political leaders who recognize this are vital to our national health. But a right thing done in a wrong way is wrong. The end never justifies the means!! The way the Texas Day of Prayer is being administered is wrong and foolish, therefore the entire event is tainted. Rick Perry has let the wolves disguised as sheep into the hen house.
click here for more details on why this event is unbiblical:http://www.worldviewweekend.com/worldview-times/article.php?articleid=7372