Vic’s latest “Testimony” 2019

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Boundary Rider
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Vic’s latest “Testimony” 2019

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Vic Hall’s latest book “The Steps of Salvation --- Christ the Great Shepherd .... Part 6”.... Chapter 7 “A testimony of Restoration” including Vic’s most recent Testimony.

PART 2 Vic's Latest "Testimony" 20029

A recent post by Faith Hopegood (‘BCF/MCF Hitting a new low’ ... see: --- viewtopic.php?f=6&p=544#p544) published on May 22, 2019) prompted me to prepare and present this post.

In the past months since Easter Vic’s latest spiel “The Steps of Salvation --- Christ the Great Shepherd .... Part 6” has become required reading for all CFers, wherever they are located, with wannabees like Richie Kaa among others, spruiking it around the RFI network as even more than the best thing since sliced Gospels.

The whole book serves as a useful summary of just how deep into the Abyss of Gnosticism Vic, that Great Sheep Stealer, has led the people of the Christian Fellowships into further error. He has done this with the full support of his acolytes the elders of the Christian Fellowships, the Savage Shepherds who drive those trying to be faithful into a sheep fold full of ravening wolves.

This will focus only on Chapter 7 (“A testimony of Restoration”) which includes Vic’s most recent Testimony. It is a long post but it is important that you see this self-congratulatory and falsely humble fantasy in its full context. As you read it I will highlight the array of heresies and untruths Vic has now been peddling since 1988 --- 31 years of Vic’s self proclaimed “Apostolic” mission.

There is no point going to look for this on the old Vision One, now Restoration Publishing, website as you have to sign in as a registered user before you can see any of the available publications. By doing so you can be tracked, and if the RFI trolls live up to their previous dirty tricks used to shut down Streetcar 3 times so far, then you will be targeted personally.

This change is quite recent, and indicates to me that they are increasingly shutting down any access to their so-called “Word” unless you come through their doors, literally, as the internet door is now closed. It is monitored for defence against the truth of what they teach actually being transparent. ....But ‘No, we are not a Cult!” ..... I beg to differ. If you watched the recent documentary of what happened with David Koresh and the Branch Davidians at Waco Texas, the cultish similarities are striking.

This was originally a very long post so I have split it into two parts: ---
Part 1: --- Chapter 7 “A testimony of Restoration”... Posted in ‘Doctrine and Teaching’
Part 2 ---- Vic Hall’s Testimony from Chapter 7... Posted in ‘Brisbane Christian Fellowship’

Without further introduction, here is: ---

Chapter 7 “A testimony of Restoration” ---- from “The Steps of Salvation --- Christ the Great Shepherd .... Part 6” Chapter 7

Part 2: --- MY TESTIMONY

Extract from Chapter 7..................... My testimony
In 1974/75, during a season of unprecedented revival in a local church in Brisbane where I pastored, I had become fatigued. At that time, as a solo pastor, I was caring for between three and four hundred people. The church program involved many meetings, including outreach into country towns outside of Brisbane, and the running of a Bible School. People were being saved and baptised with the Holy Spirit. Accompanying the preaching of the word were many manifestations of the grace of God through the ministry of spiritual gifts.

This period of revival brought with it a heavy burden of pastoral care, with many people in need of personal counselling. Many of those who were joining the church were young university students. Youth drug addiction was increasingly prevalent in the community and, for this reason, a ministry to those taking drugs was also part of our consideration.

Weary from this work, I sought the Lord and adjusted the pace of my program. Things slowed down, and the momentum of our ministry became more regulated.

After some months, I began to seek the Lord regarding the restoration of some of the momentum of revival that we had previously experienced. I believed that if a preacher had unction in the pulpit, they would have action in the pews. The way to unction was through a committed and disciplined prayer life. I therefore gave myself to more earnest prayer and intercession.

A revelation from Christ
Early one morning in 1975, some weeks after I had begun this new regime, I was in my office, behind my desk, studying the Scriptures and meditating in prayer. The sliding glass door to my office was slightly ajar because it was winter time and the morning was cold.

I looked up from my desk, through the glass door, and toward my front door, which was across from the corner of the house where I sat. I saw a man moving around at my front door, as though seeking entry to my house. Suddenly, He was standing before me, in front of my desk. He was not looking at me, but was looking at the wall at right angles to my desk.

I reflected in myself upon the speed of His entry into my office. I particularly noted the fact that I had not seen the glass door move. There was no way that He could have passed through the gap in the door, unless He had moved the door - and this had not happened.

The Man in front of me was a little less than average height (for a Hebrew of 33 CE? Or an Anglo-Saxon/European like Vic in 1975???), and of olive complexion. His clothing was non-descript. He wore something like a gown. Having appeared in the room, He then began to speak to me.

The speed of all this had me off-balance. However, I was particularly focused on what was happening in front of me, and what He was saying to me. He said, 'I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place - unless you repent.' Rev 2:4-5. As He spoke the words, 'Remember therefore from where you have fallen’, He raised His hand and opened the heavens with His finger. At that moment, in the Spirit, I saw the heights from which we had fallen.

I was aghast and in shock. I knew that the Person who was speaking to me was Christ. I knew the verses from the book of Revelation, chapter two, that He was quoting to me. I understood that He had aligned me, and every minister whom He had appointed to lead His church in our city, with the Ephesian presbytery. He was coming to take His people - those who belonged to His lampstand church. (In 1975??? Come on Vic, you didn’t reveal the Lampstand Church heresy until October 2010. This is a dead giveaway to you rewriting History to fit the present, rather than telling the story as a factual witness, which is more like what happened in “Journey to Ephesus” and “By My Spirit”) - away from us, unless we repented of our self-centred and self-motivated religious programs, and returned to the fellowship of first love. (Exactly what was this? By your account, Jesus (?) was speaking directly to just you as the one responsible for leading others away from First Love. Are you so vain that you are using the “Royal We”? This expression the fellowship of first love wasn’t used in any of the first three versions of this ‘spiritual encounter’.)

Having known that, through baptism, a Christian is raised together, and seated together, with Christ in the heavenly places, I was completely staggered that we had fallen from heavenly places to the earth. Eph 2:5-6. The heights of spiritual perspective, and the realities of living together in Christ in the heavenly places, were no longer our possession. (Now he ramps up the script to fit the drama of his version of the event, but laces it with teaching which he had not articulated in 1975. It wasn’t until “Unto Perfection” in the mid-90s that he first started using the language above)

It was clear from Christ's admonition that His thoughts about the way in which we (note the use of the Royal “We” instead of “I”) were leading the church were not our thoughts, and that our ways of ministering were not His ways. As the Lord declared through the prophet Isaiah, 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.' Isa 55:9. This is how far we had fallen.

We were a star messenger group
- Christ's ministers of light - who were no longer walking with Him. We had fallen from His hand. We were a fallen star.(Yet another journey into Vic’s terminology and gobbledygook, which I can’t find anywhere else. I have a strong and sneaking suspicion Vic has lifted a lot of what he claims as his unique revelation from the life and teachings of William Branham in America {See: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Branham } with Branham claiming a similar Divine ANGELIC visitation to authenticate his mission and teaching, with Branham being a prime mover in the Restoration Movement which became the Charismatic revival after WW II. Even at their most extreme the Fort Lauderdale Five, including David Prince, who pioneered the Shepherding Movement never used the idea of a star messenger group to characterise what they were doing. (For Shepherding Movement see: --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepherding_Movement ) Vic took what they did as the price he paid for hijacking the Wavell Heights Presbyterian church under Alex Wylie and turned the Shepherding Movement into something uniquely Gnostic with the “Unto Perfection” emphasis added over the top. Then on top of that was added the rigidity and exclusiveness of the Brethren Church members brought in by Graeme Harry from Maleny combined with the Cross-bearers of Fortitude Valley, brought in by Ray Guyatt and Bruce McKay. I’m not at all surprised that Jesus rebuked Vic then in 1975, especially as Jesus could see the path of error ahead that Vic was leading his CF followers into from 1988 onwards. Despite all of his protestations of humility and remorse at that time, Vic seems to have been a very slow learner, as from 1988 he only made a bad start worse, with heresy heaped on heresy. Only Jesus has the Grace and patience to cope with a person like Vic, especially when that person claims to have a unique “Word” sanctioned by Jesus Himself. )

A fleshly response
To be confronted by Christ with the charge that I had fallen from first love completely undid my personal and ministerial self-righteousness. I had believed that I was serving Christ, and considered the season of entreaty and prayer that I had initiated to be a demonstration of my sincerity and committed service.

I thought to myself, 'We are being likened to Satan.' He was a star who had fallen from heaven. Isa 14:12. I was completely affronted by what Christ was saying to me. I responded to the Lord like a petulant child. I said, 'The world is against me; the religious denominations are against me; and You are telling me that You are against me!'

As I spoke, the Lord turned and looked at me. His eyes amazed me, for his gaze pierced my spirit and exposed all of the innermost machinations of my heart. He exposed the reality that I was functioning by the other law, spoken of by the apostle Paul in Romans chapter seven.

I began to weep uncontrollably. Speaking from my own self-righteous law, I said, 'I can repent for myself, but I can't repent for the leaders of other churches.' I repeated this as Christ looked at me. His eyes became quizzical as He noted my response. Then the vision ended.

I was completely overcome and off-balance because of this event. As I recovered my composure, I began to castigate myself, saying, ‘For a lifetime you have prayed and sought to hear from Christ; and now He has come and spoken to you, this is how you respond!'
(This is all new when compared with the two previous testimonies in “Journey to Ephesus” and “By My Spirit”. Certainly adds to the drama of the occasion, with Vic showing uncharacteristic abnegation approaching humility. Can’t help feeling that Vic is channelling Uriah Heap from David Copperfield.... “I’m a very ’umble person, Jesus!”, or perhaps he is having a James Brown “Cloak” episode? ... see: --- https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainme ... -1.2623276)

The call to repent is a word of faith
The heat and emotion of this experience continued with me, lessening from day to day over the next three months. In my prayer each day, I sought to repent for myself, but asserted that I did not know how to repent for the other ministers whom Christ had appointed in our city. Nevertheless, I knew that Christ would not receive us as His star messengers, (Was he teaching this in 1975?), unless we were restored together in the fellowship of first love. (In the two earlier versions of this miraculous tale there was no mention of a “fellowship of first love” and I seriously doubt that he was using this term in 1975. In those versions Vic says he realised that he had fallen from first love and he was being rebuked for it. His ‘falling from first love’ {stolen from the rebuke to the Ephesian Church in Revelation 2:4} had been the cause of the we of his congregation at Enoggera being led into error and away from first love. This was not a collective error, but one for which the Jesus who appeared to him held Vic individually responsible. No hiding in the crowd Vic! Jesus’ eyes were on you alone!)

After three months, I was praying in my office, reiterating that I could repent for myself, but that I did not know how I could repent for others. As I prayed, I was suddenly in the Spirit again, and heard, as it were, someone shaking the branches of a vine to the right of where I sat. A voice then spoke to me from this position, and said, 'If I can call you to repent, can't you believe that I can bring it to pass?' (Was this Jesus again?....or perhaps the same sort of Angelic Messenger sent to William Branham? He certainly wants you to believe it was Jesus again and uses the opening scene of Revelation to make it seem very spiritual and therefore believable. Neither of the two earlier versions mentions this second visitation three months later. I smell revisionist mythology!)

As I heard this word, I was able to move from my ambivalence. I said to myself, 'Of course I can believe! Of course I can believe!' A strong motivation then began to burn within my spirit to start declaring the word that the Lord had spoken to me. (And exactly what was it?)

I began to understand that we cannot repent without receiving illumination. Repentance comes when faith comes, and faith comes as we hear and receive God's word. Rom 10:17. Repentance is given to us as a gift. This is because repentance begins when we believe the word of faith that has been spoken to us. The call to repent is a word of faith. When God asks us to repent, He expects us to believe that He can accomplish repentance in us and in our brethren. (All of this is 2019 Speak (Newspeak in "1984") but not 1975 Speak, but what does it matter when all you’re doing is writing a new script to justify yourself?)

(This is Vic rewriting History to make a better story.... or should that be his own mythology? The two versions of this which were in “Journey to Ephesus” and “By My Spirit” were much briefer and less scripted to include the one line proof texts to legitimise everything which Vic wants you to hear. The first version in “Unto Perfection” was even briefer. The earlier versions were anecdotal, but this is a revisionist history to make that past event look completely in tune with what Vic is currently teaching and more like a script from a religious documentary. It is neither history nor testimony but a piece of propaganda to prop up his current dogma and practice by way of mythology. As I mentioned earlier, this has a strong similarity to the way William Branham ‘sanctified’ his teaching by claiming Divine intervention by an Angelic Messenger. However, Vic goes one step further by inferring that the visionary figure was Jesus Himself, and so this must be Kosher.)

(Since I originally wrote the above I have been very reliably informed from sources within BCF that not long ago Vic issued an order to his minions that anything ten years old was to be burnt and was not Present Truth. So now even the dogma of the Lampstand Church is ready to be junked as it was put forward in October 2010 in “By My Spirit”. This now makes sense of why so little of pre-2009 works such as “Unto Perfection” and “Journey to Ephesus” can no longer be found, and that the Vision One/Restoration Publishing website is only accessible if you open an account. Doing so means you can be tracked by the trolls. Similarly the Lampstand Portal can only be entered by password and access linked to membership of a CF. For a Church that is supposed to be the light on the hill to be seen by everyone else in Christendom who has got it wrong it is strange that it hides what it knows in secrecy.)


An invitation to other leaders
With this word and motivation, I went to the Charismatic Ministers' Fellowship and began to speak to them on what the Lord had shown me. (Did I miss something? ... exactly what was “this word”? was it the piece about repentance? That is so fundamental to salvation since Jesus’ own baptism and His message for nearly 2,000 years, so what is new about what Vic was saying? Using your own “revealed” gobbledygook doesn’t mean a new revelation, just using bafflegab to confuse and deceive----- and that is the stuff Victor John Hall is made of.) From this group, a number of ministers embraced the word that I was declaring, and we formed ourselves into a fellowship of lampstand churches. (In 1975+??? Would be interesting to know who they were. The only one I’ve been able to discern over the last 9 years was the Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church. I would be really interested to know what others he refers to. Can’t be the Brethren groups who came in as the Brethren were very suspicious of the Charismatic movement of the 70s and 80s)

(It is worth remembering that in 1975 and thereabouts Vic was in ministry in Brisbane at the behest of R.S. Jackson and ‘Immanuel’ in Melbourne, sent there to replace the ailing Dewey Burkett. As such he was ostensibly preaching the Bethel Temple teaching of William Offiler as interpreted by Ray Jackson; in fact a satellite of Immanuel but not independent of Immanuel. This raises several uncomfortable questions: “Did Vic ever share this vision of Jesus with Ray Jackson?” And “Was Ray aware of the doctrine Vic was developing in Brisbane, right under his nose?” as well as the sheep stealing Vic had embarked on. Beware of Cuckoos in the nest Ray J!)

The Brisbane congregation, which was comprised of a number of smaller congregations (what he neglects to mention was that these congregations were all there through “Sheep stealing” followed by hijacking --- a process of ‘church planting’ Vic was very adept at doing, even as far back as his days in New Zealand), was then reorganised and came together to become one local church, gathering to one communion table. (What Vic conveniently neglects to mention here is what may have started the way he describes to bring together in the 80/90s the various smaller groups in Brisbane, by the time of “Journey to Ephesus” in 2002/4 was being preached as a form of exclusivism. Vic and the elders rammed home the message that the “Table at Brisbane’ whether Enoggera OR Samford Swamp was the ONLY table. Any communion tables of any other Christian groups WERE NOT THE TABLE.) This one congregation was submitted under the leadership of a presbytery, which consisted of the leaders from the smaller congregations. To form a presbytery, these leaders were committing to lay down their own communion initiatives that were variously personality-centred, ministry-centred, and denomination/doctrinally-centred. (Again a rendition of what purports to be a historical account framed in language post 2010 and the heresy of the Lampstand Church. It really isn’t surprising that Vic would go down this path, being the son of Allan Hall, a Presbyterian Minister, and raised in that denomination until his father got seduced by Ray Jackson and Immanuel and the spirit of Pentecost. The only other account like this was in Vic’s Introduction to “Unto Perfection” in 1998(?), if you can find a copy, and Vic has taken what he wrote then and reworked it to fit the current state of the Lampstand Heresy in BCF, to make it sound as if the Lampstand Church was what they were preaching then---- they weren’t!!!!))

The emergence of collegiality
(All of this is a brand new version of the history of the rise of Restoration Fellowships International (RFI), still supposedly operating as the Brisbane branch fellowship of Immanuel in Melbourne, known organisationally as “Associated Mission Churches Australasia”. Not surprising if you’ve dispensed with any teaching more than ten years old!!!!)

Within this new congregation, I endeavoured to promote a public and house to house structure. (Note the use of “I” not “we”, a dead giveaway that Vic had to be in control, and he’s off on the same path which had got him into trouble with his visionary “Jesus”. It didn’t take long for his underlying narcissistic and psychotic personality to extinguish that “return to first love”). This was to be a two-level structure, with the elders of the presbytery living in suburbs, coordinating all-age Sunday school teaching and evangelistic programs in local outreaches. The citywide elements of the program included the presbytery fellowship, communion, music and worship, the Young Adults program, and a Bible School program.

However, the leaders who joined the Lampstand model effected a three-level structure. (Here Vic is not only rewriting history, he is retro-fitting the events to fit his present teaching, as what he describes in this early phase of the development of what would become Restoration Fellowships International in 2002 (RFI) was happening twenty years before the proclamation of the Lampstand Church Heresy in “By My Spirit” in October 2010). This was the implication of their locally-focused pastoral initiatives, and the ensuing loyalties of their congregants. The consequence of this leadership orientation was that the outreaches were rendered semi-autonomous groups.

The shepherding of the flock should not have been constrained to the structure of the suburban outreaches. However, many people from these various congregations were unwilling to relinquish their claim upon those who had formerly been their solo pastors. Their loyalty was to a local pastor and not to the fellowship of the communion and a presbytery. (Vic, here’s a simple lesson in the needs of people of faith.... if you steal a flock, don’t be surprised if they still want to follow the shepherd who has pastored them long before you appeared on the scene.)

Many of the leaders were either empathetic to, or reinforcers of, this local mindset, as it fortified a sense of mutuality which was mistakenly deemed by them and others to be fellowship. As a consequence of this orientation, the leaders viewed one another within the presbytery as colleagues. They considered themselves to be equal in terms of ministry expression. Furthermore, they were empowered by their position in the presbytery to exercise self-defined initiatives in their local areas. The word that was being laid down in the context of the presbytery was viewed and selectively appropriated by them as a resource for their own ministry activities.

(The earlier references to this period of development of Brisbane under Vic are significantly different. In those versions he gives the clear impression that his vision and teaching were poorly received and fairly quickly rejected by the Local Ministers’ Fraternal meetings. This retrofitted version suggests that there were other fellowships that were willing to join with him but the congregations under the ministers who were interested very much preferred the value of the Local Church. So when Vic says:- “The consequence of this leadership orientation was that the outreaches were rendered semi-autonomous groups........ Their loyalty was to a local pastor and not to the fellowship of the communion and a presbytery”.... his hidden meaning is that they weren’t prepared to accept the central control of the group of fellowships by Brisbane under Vic’s control, or the preaching of BCF as The One Table of Communion.... very deceitful, and not what I would expect from a person claiming to be God’s Aggelos Messenger..... Since when did God’s Aggelos Messengers tell lies and deceive? This is what Ravening wolves do to the Flock of God)

Deaconing misunderstood
More than 1100 people had come together as part of this fellowship initiative, and this presented a notable burden of care. (Beware of numbers!!!! Does he mean 1,100 meeting at Brisbane Enoggera, or is that number the total of people now meeting across the group of fellowship sheep stolen from surrounding churches outside of Brisbane? Vic has always been a misuser of figures, harking right back to his time in New Zealand when he claimed to have “the fastest growing church in New Zealand”. It had a congregation of four, two of whom were Vic and Lorraine Hall!!!!) The workload was divided up into various departments. Different presbyters, according to their skill, then became the leaders of these departments. Each leader became the undisputed head of his department. There was no reference group from the presbytery to facilitate the direction and care of the departments.

Under these collegial conditions, there was little understanding of deaconing. The emphasis was on multiple eldership, and a deacon was viewed as a person who served the program of an elder and his wife. (How strange that Vic is here denouncing multiple eldership, as from 1988 to about 2005 that was all the rage out there in the Samford Swamp, and every CF around Australia. Quite a convenient memory lapse by Vic in his 75th year! I’ve always been puzzled by Vic’s use of the word Collegiality, and I’m reasonably confident that he would have been highly critical of the Church in the time after Pentecost, because collegiality in the faith is how the believers of the just born Christian faith worshipped and worked together, as described by Luke in Acts 4: 32-35: - “32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the LORD Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” [New International Version] If this was the Restoration Point to which RFI aspired it bears very little resemblance to Vic’s Lampstand Church Heresy, based on the early chapters of Revelation and what had gone wrong with the model of Church life Paul had set up in the churches around Ephesus. Mind you the way Vic set things up with the specious doctrine of “Offerings and entering into the suffering of Christ” really perverted what was there in Acts and people were ripped off shamelessly, many being bankrupted and ruined in the process.)

Individuals were seconded to serve as deacons under the oversight of the elder in charge. There was often rivalry over personnel. Skilled people frequently found themselves overloaded, and caught between obligations to various leaders.

The elder, as he saw fit, discussed within the presbytery elements of his department and the needs that he had. He then received from the presbytery the resources necessary to facilitate his program. The outreaches functioned in a similar way. The leading elder and his wife ran their program. The program of each outreach progressively became autonomous in relation to pastoral care, teaching and Christian education, and evangelism. (Code for ... Vic had lost control of them and could not tolerate the idea of working with brother pastors on an equal footing (i.e. Vic’s meaning of Collegiality). Always remember that Vic’s psychopathic personality is driven by power and control, and in this section he has thrown all the blame back on his brother pastors for getting it wrong. The way things work at present in the CFs around Australia has strong similarity to what Vic is criticising, and how strange that it has been set up in the last 9 years as the Lampstand Church?)

The music department and choir became the sole province of one individual for the whole church, and this arrangement continued for many years. (... without any objection by Vic until “The Jerusalem Passion” became so successful. Is it my imagination or is this a major swipe at Murray Wylie???)

Latter Rain influence

(How strange!!! In the two previous version of this His-story of the emergence of the Lampstand Church, Latter Rain either barely rated a mention or was dismissed as being an aberration brought in by Ray J. Jackson into Immanuel.)

During this time, there was also a strong and prevailing 'Latter Rain' view that the five ministry gifts of Christ took precedence over the authority of elders. Furthermore, some men who had been part of the Charismatic Renewal also styled themselves after this model, and likewise saw themselves as being superior to presbytery. (So exactly who was it who has styled himself as God’s Aggelos Messenger, and Apostle to Australia and the Pacific???)

(What follows is brand new revisionist “history” and Vic has never mentioned any of this in his previous “testimonies’’ In “Journey to Ephesus” and “By My Spirit”)


Two of the senior leaders of the wider fellowship of Latter Rain churches to which I belonged had, for many years, identified themselves as an apostle and a prophet. (So, who is he talking about if the context of the whole paragraph suggests we’re talking before the Great Implosion of 1988? And exactly what was the ‘wider fellowship of Latter Rain Churches’ Vic claims to have belonged to?) Although viewing themselves to be above the presbytery, these men also appeared to embrace what I was proclaiming. (... and what exactly was that Vic? Remember this is pre 1988 and no talk of Lampstand Churches then, although Ray Jackson was banging on about the ‘Ephesian Pattern’ without much comprehension of what he was on about.) To this end, I was invited to Melbourne, and presented to the fellowship of churches in Victoria what the Lord had shown me by revelation. (Keep in mind that Vic had been sent to Brisbane by Ray Jackson as an outreach of Immanuel in Melbourne, but here he talks as if he was establishing his own church under Ray’s nose. Was the summoning to Melbourne a “Please explain? ... as RJJ was starting to pick up vibes of Vic “doing Immanuel in”, and setting up Version Vic based on that special revelation in his study sometime after 1974). I had previously been designated by these leaders as an elder, or pastor, and within the movement I was subject to them. These men formed a Latter Rain presbytery (another piece of fiction!!!!), which was a group of brethren who travelled together to minister in various places. They asked me, along with some other men, to travel with them to Indonesia and then to the USA to preach this word of restoration among a number of churches where they had affiliations. (Here are two clues to these two “Senior Leaders of the Latter Rain Churches to which I belonged” --- mention of Melbourne and Indonesia. The first would have been Ray S. Jackson, the second Dr. Jeff Hammond. Given that Jeff Hammond’s PhD thesis “God’s Wheel” was an exposition on Offiler’s teaching, I’ve never heard Jeff’s name linked to Latter Rain like RSJ’s was. In fact it was because of RSJ’s enthusiasm for Latter Rain that Offiler cut off all relation with the Bethel Temple Movement and RJJ leaving Immanuel right out on a limb. To add some facts of history to this version of Vic’s trip to the USA: ---
1. The “Apostle and the Prophet” Vic refers to were Ray S. Jackson and Cecil Barton from Immanuel in Melbourne --- sharing their inclination to adultery no doubt
2. The touring party to America was made up of Ray and Ruth Jackson, Cecil and Dot Barton who was Ray Snr’s Secretary (and mistress), Vic and Lorraine Hall, Ephesian Pattern fanatics Keith and Rhonda Holt, and Fay Donaldson bible teacher. (These represented the so-called 5 ministries.).
3. Jeff Hammond never went on the American Crusade
4. When they were in USA they were refused to be able to speak from Offiler’s Bethel Temple's platform and they were gobsmacked and blamed that on Kevin Connor who was in USA at that time.
5. Apparently, all was not sweetness and light amongst this 5 Ministry group, as word got back to Immanuel that during the trip Rhonda Holt had given Vic Hall a good slap over the face.
6. This trip happened around May of 1980, coincident with the massive eruption of the Mount St. Helen’s volcano in Washington State, eight years before Ray Jackson and Cec. Barton’s inclinations were exposed, and clearly at a time when Vic was supposedly answering to RSJ and Immanuel as the founding Church


As an outcome of these trips, and through many subsequent Bible seminars in Australia and overseas, the lampstand message has been preached to thousands of ministers. (Pure humbug as at the time he refers to there was no “Lampstand message” ---- didn’t happen until October 2010!! The nearest hint of it was through the enthusiasts of the Ephesian Pattern Keith and Rhonda Holt, and of course by the time Vic released “Journey to Ephesus” in 2002/2004 he had claimed it all as his own work and any suggestion that it had originated with RJJ and the Holts in Melbourne was written out of existence {Remember the “Ministry of Truth” in 1984?} This is a classic example of Vic’s Trump-like hyperbole and lies, very biblically similar to “And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands” of 1 Samuel 18:7. If these thousands of ministers were in Australia where are they now????.... as Latter Rain barely dented the church landscape in OZ and the Assemblies of God totally rejected it, so that it barely scraped the surface of the Charismatic Movement of the 70s and 80s. If they were in America, where are they now? Deep Google searching has identified very few churches in America who actively wear the Latter Rain brand, although its influence in causing significant divisions in the Pentecostal/Charismatic developments after World War II is very evident. If you do happen to look up Latter Rain on YouTube it’s pretty confusing just what Latter Rain is now purporting to be (e.g. Joseph Prince, and even Hillsong tags itself as linked to Latter Rain!!!) and some of it is pretty lively stuff bordering on spirit possession, and I don’t mean the Holy Spirit! Whatever Vic was referring to here pre- 2000, the picture now across the world is division and disagreement on whatever Latter Rain claims to be. This is definitely Vic’s vivid imagination unsupported by facts, and because so many of those around at the time have either left or been booted out or died who is going to challenge this PR version of Vic’s Journey to Greatness NOT Ephesus ?)



The impact of collegiality
The collegiality of the presbytery in Brisbane had an unfavourable effect upon the Ephesian Pattern, hindering our return to a true first love expression of relationship together as leaders. It was also detrimental to the lampstand church structure to which the Lord was calling us to return. (How typical of Vic to blame others for what happened when he actively encouraged the development of the multiple ministry of the presbytery in Brisbane , only to kill it off abruptly in 2004/5 after “Journey to Ephesus” came out. Also further evidence of Vic’s ease with deceit, as in the period he describe as in the 1990’s and early 2000s it was still “Unto Perfection” with doses of the Gospel of Wealth (remember the Wattle Loans Ponzi Scandal???) as the centrepiece of all teaching, which gradually morphed into “Journey to Ephesus”--- The “lampstand structure” was still ten years away and only after “Journey to Ephesus” gave the first hints of it. Vic is even more deceitful as Ray Jackson had been banging on about “The Ephesian Pattern” for some time before he crashed and burned in 1988, and here is Vic polishing the Ephesian apple as if it was his own!)

Those who adopted a clergy-style profile that characterised the three-level structure placed themselves somewhere between an ascension gift ministry approach and an eldership approach. This undermined the eldership approach that I was encouraging, (Code for the Shepherding Movement) which was to be rooted in a godly family culture.. (This was developed as the dogma of “Worthy Houses”, setting up a spiritual elitism in the CFs , especially Brisbane, leading to “My worthy House is more acceptable in Vic’s sight”, as Vic was the only arbiter of who was “Worthy”. Over the last two or three years Vic has pushed further into Heresy by proclaiming that the children of Godly couples in Worthy Houses are already saved. Clearly Vic doesn’t subscribe to the widespread belief in all the branches of Christianity that “God has no Grandchildren”!

Once this dogma became practice preference in all aspects of Fellowship life flowed to those of “Worthy Houses” and from them the future leadership has been already groomed. This generation shift became steadily evident in 2011/12, in the aftermath of “By My Spirit” (2010) and the full blown expression of the Lampstand Church Heresy. I wonder exactly how many Godly Couples and Worthy Houses ther are spread around Australia? How do they know?).

Symptomatically, family piety was often lacking in the culture of full-time ministry couples. The understanding of Christian initiation into the kingdom of God was traditionally evangelical in nature. There was no understanding of the divine nature in a home as part of the covenant that belongs to Christian families. This meant that the nurture and admonition of the Lord was often lacking in the families of leading couples. ( Are we to assume that Vic and Lorraine Hall and their family were the shining lights of family piety? Rather hard to believe when Vic consistently referred to his son David as "Pigpen" and David's wandering hands resulted in an early and forced marriage. Even harder when Jonathan was very low on the family totem pole, but useful for his computing nous.)

The fallout associated with collegiality, including the misunderstanding of how ascension gift ministries are to relate to, and operate within, a presbytery, became instructive. We came to understand that those who claim apostleship should not model themselves and their authority on the profile of the twelve apostles and the apostle Paul. (Seriously, are you saying that it took until Vic Hall came along for this “mistake” to be sorted out?) Paul and the twelve apostles had laid the foundation of the Jewish and Gentile church, and had established an apostolic administration (Not just “an” but “THE” apostolic pattern of oversight, rather than administration) within the church. This apostolic administration was modelled for us in the books of Timothy and Titus and is to continue until the second coming of Christ. (How readily Vic corrupts Scripture, as what is “modelled in Timothy and Titus” is exactly what Paul and the Twelve had established and what had developed by the guidance of the Holy Spirit over thirty years since the day of Pentecost. This is what could be found wherever Christians gathered. What Paul says in Timothy and Titus is not a NEW MODEL, as Vic wants you to believe. It is THE Model which Timothy is to continue to use and develop, not a NEW One revealed to Vic as Present Truth. That sort of wilful distortion of Scripture to suit a “personal revelation of Present truth” is the stuff that Heresy is made of, and continues to be through “Aggelos messengers” like Vic. Read what IS there.... not what Vic wants you to believe.) We will discuss the key elements of this administration later in these notes.

A second visitation

(Here we go again!!!! Another made up encounter with Jesus never reported before, and definitely Not in “By My spirit” when the dogma of the lampstand Church was proclaimed in October 2010)

We continued to experience growth, and to spread the word among the Latter Rain churches in Australia. Other leaders from different backgrounds and denominations also joined us, bringing with them congregations and properties. (Notably Alec Wylie and the Wavell Heights Presbyterian Church in 1977 and with him came the Shepherding Movement which Vic gleefully accepted as part of the church stealing deal. Add to this the influx of Closed Brethren around 1989 brought in by Graeme Harry at Maleny , along with Bruce McKay and Ray Guyatt from Fortitude Valley, and the rigidity of belief, the use of shunning and exclusion, and penchant for money-making in the Brethren and you have cult thinking becoming the norm..... From this came the shift from Shepherding to ‘The Elders are the messengers with Vic Hall as the Chief Aggelos Messenger’ and the steady move towards Cult behaviour and Vic as the Cult leader. This only fully became evident in January/February 1988 when Ray Jackson’s predatory sexual behaviour towards the young women in the Bible School was revealed, along with adultery with the Church Secretary, and his misuse of Immanuel funds.)

However, some of these connections brought with them new pressures. These pressures were because of the moral and financial impropriety (e.g. The Wattle Loans Ponzi Scheme which Vic fully endorsed and praised those who brought it in under the umbrella of the Gospel of Wealth, which was all the rage in the 90s) of some of the leaders within their own congregations (Don’t forget to include that the Wattle Loans Scandal at BCF, you endorsed to your own congregation, Vic!!) They were able to continue in these corruptions after they had joined with us, because of the culture of collegiality that was among us. However, when their corruptions were exposed, we took action to address them. (....and here are some of the names on Vic’s Lord High Executioner Little List: ---
Ray J Jackson, Jeff Hammond, Ray Guyatt, Graeme Harry, Murray Wylie, David Falk, Steven Hall, Vic’s own father, Vic’s older brother Joe , and ALL women in leadership or speaking roles except his daughter Julianne etc. etc. etc.)


In 2007, during a ministry tour in Asia, some of the health difficulties that I had been experiencing for a number of years became quite acute. (Prostate cancer) Nearing the end of this tour, I was seeking the Lord in private prayer. As I prayed, the anointing of the Holy Spirit was heavy upon me. The Lord then met me again in revelation. He gave me the option to die. However, at the same time, He asked if I would continue to serve another generation. I took up the second direction because the unction of the Spirit was urging me this way.

The Lord addressed me as a steward to whom He had given authority and had appointed over His house. Luke 12:42. He said that He was displeased with how I had functioned among the presbytery. Under my oversight, men had crept in unawares and had devoured the resources that belonged to His little ones. (.... and what is more they did it with your full approval and direction, Vic!!!!)

The Lord was looking at me during this episode. His eyes expressed powerful disapproval. I felt mortified and ashamed before Him.

I acknowledged the financial corruption and immoralities of those who had come among us. (I wonder if you owned up to how much of that financial corruption you actually encouraged and benefitted from? Any mention of the Wattle Loans Scandal?. Any mention of praising Graeme Harry at the gathering of all the elders at the Bible convocation in Brisbane in 2009 for bringing $20,000,000 in real estate assets into Restoration Fellowships International? Did you confess to criminal fraud in keeping two sets of books to disguise the Black Hole where money disappears from the Tax Office’s view? Any admission of the Swiss bank accounts? How did you account for how you have been able to affect a millionaire lifestyle on a pastor’s salary? How you have afforded to build the Hall compound near the Samford Swamp? What about the frequent changing of cars and the boat used for carousing with your acolyte elders?) They had brought groups of people with them who financed their ministry and were deemed by these people to be their leaders. However, I said to the Lord that when we had become aware of the corruption of these leaders, we responded and dealt with the issues. (Hypocrite!!! What about the beam the size of a Moreton Bay Fig tree in your own eye, Vic?

Christ said that this was not good enough. I had let the thief in, and the thief had robbed the little ones. Luke 12:39. (Jesus certainly got that right!!! The thief within the camp (Vic) is only too willingly letting in these other “thieves” and then disowning them!)

I then said to the Lord that I had laid down my own priority into the fellowship of the presbytery and had submitted to the corporate view. (More hypocrisy Vic, as you had created that Corporate view and structure, beginning in 2002 when the Associated Mission Churches Australasia (AMCA) was wound up by your Brother Steven, and the new structure of Restoration Fellowships International (Australia) (RFI) became the official entity of YOUR organisation to which the 25 Christian Fellowships around Australia had no option but to join.) Again, He disagreed with my actions, and said that He had not given authority, by name, for direction to these men; He had given authority to me. I was responsible for what came into His house. (Right again, Jesus!!!)

I understood that this authority also included the mandate to minister the word of present truth as He had revealed it to me. This word had to do with the restoration of the presbytery and the Lampstand church. (Did it really? Or are you just twisting the story to fit the present? Remember this appears to have happened in 2008 while you were overseas in June when “God of Broken hearts “ was shown of 4 Corners on 23/6/08, two years before the Lampstand Church heresy was proclaimed ), I was therefore expected to confront collegiality when it posed as an alternative to first love relationship in the presbytery. (Is this what Jesus said? Or are you making it look like He did?, especially as you have never made clear just what “first love relationship in the presbytery” actually means/meant. Here it is 33 years later and you haven’t done anything to make Jesus happy with what He wants of you, and now he is really angry with you ---- what a slow learner you have been and how much damage have you done by being so self consumed and dishonest to the core!!!) Symptomatically, family piety was often lacking in the culture of full-time ministry couples calling leaders to repentance, and to the need to walk in the light together, was essential to finding true fellowship with the Father and the Son. 1 John 1:3. (I guess that Jesus was in the habit of quoting Scripture at a time like this, was He, Vic???? It’s all very well to call others to repentance, but what about your own repentance and your own family example?)


The chastening of the Lord

(Dear Reader... take all of this with very big pinches of salt!! As not only is this the first time Vic has ever disclosed this in writing, but it is all retrofitted to match exactly his latest dogma in the latest book he has written ... “The Steps of Salvation --- Christ the Great Shepherd .... Part 6”, and the six other parts preceding it. This is no longer a testimony but a commercial and propaganda aimed at making Vic look like the Suffering Servant rather than the hypocritical sham that he really is.)


Christ then said that my life was under His chastening hand, and that I would be chastened with mourning, lamentation and woe. Eze 2:10. (Jesus sure knows his proof texts!!!)

I took this all very hard. I responded from the basis of the other law within me in the same way that I did when He first met me in 1975. I was afraid of the Lord and did not understand that He had fallen with me when He took on my sin and guilt in the garden of Gethsemane.

He had tailored His death to include my failures. He had died my death with me. He was now including me in the fellowship of His death, which was a death that would redeem me and the ministry that He had called me to. His death was a circumcision that would cut from my life my own self-righteousness and my self-protecting, self-preserving motivations. In this way, He was commuting my judgement to a discipline and a chastening.

Christ had joined me to His travail in Gethsemane and had joined me to His mourning, lamentation and woe. It would become a chastening that would cause me to make straight the pathway of my feet, and to cease from my lameness so that I would not be turned out of the way as an overseer. Heb 12:13.

(All of this supposed commentary by Jesus very conveniently fits into Vic’s latest heresy put forward in the 7 books of which “The Steps of Salvation --- Christ the Great Shepherd .... Part 6” is the subject of this Post. Wasn’t that thoughtful of Jesus? Another Divine Revelation to Vic alone with no one else to verify it (remember the old warning about “Two or three gathered in My Name”?) William Branham only had an angelic Messenger to make special revelations to him, but Vic scored Jesus Himself! To the best of my knowledge this is the first time that this more recent visitation by Jesus to Vic has ever been revealed. What an endorsement for a book signing!!!)

The Lord acknowledged that I had been ignorant and naive in relation to the corruption that was among us. (For Vic to be claiming, as he has, to be God’s Aggelos Messenger in direct touch with God, ignorance and naiveté just understates the position beyond belief! Vic you are dealing with Christ in glory, Judge of the Universe, not a senile old bumbling magistrate who wants to give you an easy time. I seriously wonder exactly who this Lord really was? Jesus? Or a delusional projection of your own fantasy? If I had been in your shoes I would have been expecting severe reproof and castigation along the lines of what Jesus handed out to the Priests and Pharisee: --- something like “whited sepulchres full of dead men’s bones” accompanied by eyes flashing like lightning filling the skies.) This was particularly the case in some of the country churches, (e.g. Steven Hall at Stanthorpe, Graeme Harry at Maleny, and David Falk at Toowoomba) as well as in some of the growing number of overseas churches that had aligned themselves with the word of present truth that we were proclaiming (Vic’s attempt to take over congregations in places like Ipoh and Singapore was met with lack of enthusiasm because of what Vic did to the local leaders of these stolen church groups. Vic sent David Falk to “muscle” the fellowships in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, but, in imitation of Vic his “spiritual father, he was virtually setting himself up as The Apostle to South East Asia to steal them out from under Vic’s nose, just as Vic did to R.S.J ---- hardly surprising that Vic’s axe fell on Him!!!) He said that because of my ignorance and naivety He was going to chasten me with a few stripes. This was consistent with Christ's teaching in the Gospel of Luke. Luk 12:48. (Did Jesus quote this too?)

On my return from Asia, my health issues became more serious. (Definitely prostate Cancer) At the same time, I was held up for public humiliation in our national media. The church was accused of being a cult, and I was vilified as a cult leader. (Poor Vic, always the victim, ever the narcissist! “God of the Broken Heart” did not vilify Vic as a Cult Leader.... It exposed him as a Cult leader, and BCF/RFI as a cult destructive of family relationships,) As a consequence of these accusations, the church and I were investigated by numerous government authorities, including the police. (I am aware of three complaints to the Australian Tax Office (ATO) about the dubious financial Mismanagement of BCF/RFI in relation to tax-exempt benefits, and overseas bank accounts, and at least three similar complaints made to the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission regarding abuses of BCF/RFI abuse of their Religious, Charitable, Not-for profit status. The statement about the Police involvement is news which until now has never leaked out. Has anyone heard of this?)

Continued in Part 2 of this post
Boundary Rider
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Re: Vic’s latest “Testimony” 2019

Post by Boundary Rider »

I have been encouraged by the steady daily reading of this post

BR
Bagel
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Re: Vic’s latest “Testimony” 2019

Post by Bagel »

Absolutely!

Bagel
Paul Kovaks
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Re: Vic’s latest “Testimony” 2019

Post by Paul Kovaks »

Fascinating . .
Bagel
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Re: Vic’s latest “Testimony” 2019

Post by Bagel »

Hello Paul,

Thank you for your latest link, I enjoyed your open letter.

Could I possibly throw one or two thoughts in here? It in particular involves the 2007 missive.

Here is what was written.....

2007: (The Lord) gave me the option to die. However, at the same time, He asked if I would continue to serve another generation. I took up the second direction because the unction of the Spirit was urging me this way. He said that He was displeased with how I had functioned among the presbytery. Under my oversight, men had crept in unawares and had devoured the resources that belonged to His little ones.

This jumps around the place but begins with a couple of strong swings. The first is ‘I am a victim, I could die! You have to feel sorry for me!’. So the call for ‘don’t go hard on me, God is already doing that’ is a way of disarming the reader, only a cruel person would be so harsh. This is quickly followed by a simultaneous statement that God blesses Vic and sees him as a holy vessel. Not only that, but that Vic is so special that he actually gets to choose the time and manner of his death.

Next up he signals that he not only has a chat with God about the time of his death and what choices he’d like to make, but he also has a direct line to ‘the Spirit’. And clearly there was no board meeting between Christ, ‘the Spirit’ and God the Father as to what direction this visitation should take as they’ve come to it on an equal footing with Vic, and letting him choose, but then again, ‘the Spirit’ obviously is working on their own and is voting for Vic to stay alive and to carry on. Doesn’t sound like a solid plan to me, the major players can’t agree. Personally if I was Vic, I’d possibly feel a bit dudded, clearly I wasn’t important enough to get a consensus even, sounds all a bit ad hoc.

This is followed by ‘He said that He was displeased with how I had functioned among the presbytery. Under my oversight, men had crept in unawares and had devoured the resources that belonged to His little ones.’

Ok, out comes the mea culpa. But it’s quickly followed by blame shifting. The finger pointing and the failure to take responsibility is diverted by again calling on the sympathy vote, ie ‘His little ones’. How could we expect Vic to take responsibility, he was hampered by cheats and thieves who stole from the little ones. Just because he is in charge and even rates a few visits from Christ, we still have to cut him some slack, after all, not his fault.

No, sorry this sounds like more of the Limpstand make it up as you go along the dog ate my homework mummy he keeps hitting me make him stop he’s hurting me, stuff.

Perhaps one of the larger issues in his quote is the idea that ‘the Spirit’ seems to operate independently in thought and mission to Jesus. In the vanity and hubris to excuse himself and to play the victim while at the same time slipping in the small details that he’s having direct communication with Jesus and ‘the Spirit’, it leaves, for me, a gaping theological hole suggesting that these two entities are operating with different agendas.

Bagel
Bagel
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Re: Vic’s latest “Testimony” 2019

Post by Bagel »

PS I forgot to add, it makes it sound as if Vic was a big softie and that in 2007 Jesus told him to stop being so trusting of his team. Hence the iron fist approach is supposedly mandated by Jesus. AKA known in circles such as domestic violence as, ‘look what you made me do!’
Boundary Rider
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Re: Vic’s latest “Testimony” 2019

Post by Boundary Rider »

Hi Bagel , you really are really reading the sub-text which is always where the real Vic story is placed. He loves his readers to think that he is the serene black swan (how very Australian!) gliding effortlessly on the pond of spirituality he has created in the Swamp at Sandford, but below the surface the little old webbed feet are paddling like mad to keep himself afloat. The give away , as you have picked up, is the way he plays the "poor Vic" card.

If there is one thing which Vic can't cope with it is deconstruction of "his Gospel".

Good stuff!!!

BR
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