For decades, Brian and Bobbie Houston were the co-pastors of the multi-million-dollar Hillsong empire based in Australia. They preached a Word-Faith prosperity doctrine. In 2002, the church took in $10 million in tithes alone, not to speak of the sale of music and materials. The Houstons had a $4.5 million mansion in Sydney and two beach apartments valued at over $3 million. In September 2021, Brian stepped down from his role on Hillsong boards after being charged by police with concealing child sex offenses (“Hillsong’s Brian Houston,” Christian Headlines, Sept. 17, 2021). The charges pertain to Brian’s alleged knowledge of his father’s abuse of a boy in the 1970s. Earlier, Brian told a court that his father, head of Australia Assemblies of God, was “a serial pedophile.” In March 2022, Brian stepped down as global senior pastor after the church sent a letter to its members exposing him for “inappropriate behavior” with two women. The Houstons have sold their beach apartments and mansion and are selling their clothes online. Perhaps Brian needs to re-read his 2003 book You Need More Money that teaches the way to prosperity through giving and “kingdom living.” Houston says, “If you believe in Jesus, He will reward you here as well [as in heaven]” (“The Lord’s Profits,” Sydney Morning Herald, January 30, 2003). That same year, when asked by a Sydney Morning Herald reporter why the church is so successful, Brian Houston replied, “We are scratching people where they are itching” (“The Lord’s Profits,” Sydney Morning Herald, January 30, 2003). That is right out of 2 Timothy 4:3, which is a warning of apostasy. It describes people who itch for a new kind of Christianity and heaps of preachers who will scratch this illicit itch. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.”
(Friday Church News Notes, February 3, 2023, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)
