Contact Information
Rev. Robert S. Liichow can be reached by e-mail and snail. He is
available to come and speak to congregations concerning Apologetics,
Aberrant Christian groups, various cults and the occult. He offers
multimedia presentations suitable for any size group.
- Postal address
-
PO BOX 15639, Detroit, MI 48215
- Electronic mail
- General Information:
info@discernment.org
Much of the e-mail comments we receive as a ministry could be answered
if people took the time to read a little of our spiritual journey from heresy to
orthodoxy. My wife and I are both graduates of the University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor.
As a student at U of M I got involved with a group called the Word of
God Community. I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit through them on
the fifth week of their "Life In the Spirit" seminar series. This seminar
program became a staple for many of the charismatic groups all over the world during the
heyday of the charismatic renewal.
I did not join the community. After being baptized in the Spirit
and speaking in other tongues I joined a small Pentecostal Church of God (PCG), where I later
served as their Sunday School Superintendent. While attending the PCG I used to go
to Community meetings. I spent one summer with a group of men from the community in
a sorority house we rented and was discipled by them during that time. These couple
of years were my introduction to both Classic
Pentecostalism and the Discipleship
Movement.
Timothy Ward, the son of the pastor at the PCG got me
interested in the Word of Faith Movement. He and I used to go to a brother's house
and duplicate multitudes of tapes by Hagin, Copeland, Norval Hayes, John Osteen, and
others. It was during this time that a new fellowship opened up near the U of M
campus called Greater Faith Christian Center (GFCC). The pastor, Joseph Frye, was a
recent Rhema Bible Training Center Graduate. I left the PCG and started to attend
GFCC. It was here that I met my future wife Tracy Hunter. Here was my formal
indoctrination into the doctrines and practices of the Word
of Faith Movement.
In 1983 I was ordained by the Word of Faith "prophet" Joseph
Frye and served as Assistant Pastor at GFCC. While at GFCC I attended Robert
Tilton's Satellite Bible School as a full-time student. Originally Bob Tilton was
the man of the hour, i.e. he was well respected by all the WOF ministers and they all
spoke at his church and many of them were my teachers via his school. Some of my WOF
teachers included:
Apostle Lester Sumrall
Norval Hayes
Pastor Bob Yandian - WOF mega-church pastor in Tulsa Ok
"Dr." Marilyn Hickey
Evangelist - T.L. Osborn
Pastor Robert Tilton
Tilton was the "man" for many
years and took his congregation from nothing to over 8,000 at its height. Now his
church is running 130 people, being led by a puppet pastor. Tilton comes in once a
month to "speak" and keep up the appearance he is still a pastor. Tracy
and I personally witnessed in his church in Dallas the day his ministry was rejected by
the Lord.
From Ann Arbor we moved back to Detroit, Tracy's home town and attended
a church called Faith Christian Fellowship. Later the pastor changed the name to
Jubilee Christian Church(JCC). This pastor took us from the Word
of Faith Movement into the Prophetic Movement.
I have seen a good many "prophets" roll through town and had many swelling
prophecies about my ministry and future in God. I have seen people damaged by some
of these lying "words" of the Lord too.
Going from the WOF to the Prophetic was sorta like jumping from the
frying pan into the fire. Our church jumped on every conceivable wave that rolled
in. We were known as a spiritual warfare church. We
had warfare prayer (I led it), we had warfare praise & worship, warfare dancing, and
even for a short while a warfare clap (I kid you not). We got into the pageantry,
the banners, the glory dancers, i.e. the modern temple dancers,
we had prophetic praise and worship, we had psalmists.
We even turned down the lights for worship which got to be pretty spooky at
times....even for us. Heck we even cast out (attempted to) some devils now and then!
After a couple years of the prophetic another shift in the paradigm
came - and JCC became a part of the latest move - The
Apostolic Movement. Our former pastor became
"apostle" Smith. In fact, we have met no less than 6 men claiming
to be apostles, and I have even heard from some sisters who claim this office as well.
Things got even more weird and unbiblical with this latest movement. From
here our pastor brought in several other apostles and prophets who taught our congregation
the latest restored truth about the Cushite people. Now we had entered not
only into the Kingdom Now Movement but a sub-sect called the Black
Kingdom Now Movement.
We were taught by "apostle" Jefferson Edwards, "apostle" Turnel
Nelson, "apostle" Myles Monroe and others that God was raising up the black race
to be the eyes of the Body of Christ and now after years of racism God was promoting black
folk to the top of the spiritual heap. . .I am not kidding.
I am a white boy from the suburbs, my wife is a gorgeous black lady from Detroit and we
(among others) knew this line of teaching was (1) false, (2) very divisive, and (3)
blatantly racist in nature.
This was about the last straw and during this "season" we began to attend
Michigan Theological Seminary with 2 ladies from JCC who helped pay our tuition. Now
almost 3 years later we have finished our coursework and I have graduated with
honors and I have received my Master's
degree in Apologetics. Lord willing, we plan to begin work on our Ph.D.'s in theology/church
history/polemics.
In closing - we have literally BEEN THERE - DONE THAT in
regards to charismatic expression and experience.
We have laid hands on close to
1,000 people to receive the "gift" of tongues.
We have prayed for the sick
Cast out devils
Even laid hands on folks in coffins (to no avail)
I figure I had
spent over 5,000+ hours "praying" in other tongues. My wife has seen an
angel, I have had some "visions." We both have had great prophetic
words spoken over us and prophalied over others.
We have sat under all of the "great" anointed ones you can
mention. We have been to Toronto Airport Church on numerous occasions. We have
seen Rodney Howard Browne in person. Had hands laid on us by about everybody.
Sang in several of Benny Hinn's mass choirs.
SO when you read the things on this site they come from folks who KNOW what
they are talking about. Our private collection of books, tapes, videos is VERY
EXTENSIVE and grows weekly. We attend conferences, listen to the
"prophets" and watch (gasp) TBN from time to time to keep track of the
players.....hope that gives a little light on where we have come from....in the words of
Jerry Garcia -
WHAT A LONG
STRANGE TRIP IT'S BEEN
