The 2022 Christian Conference season will soon be upon us. What may appear to be an ideal opportunity to fellowship with other believers for gospel-centered teaching and worship, is not always what it seems…
With several of these conferences, many attendees will end up hearing speakers who reject sound Biblical doctrine in favor of wokeness and the Social Gospel.
These “Progressive Christian” teachers dilute and twist Scripture to ensure that it’s “woke” enough to fill the seats. Their Social Gospel promotes critical race theory, extreme environmentalism, social justice, acceptance of homosexuality, mysticism, open borders, gender identity, and religious unity. In many cases, they are teaching the world’s values rather than the absolute truth of Scripture. It is not the Gospel according to Jesus, but a counterfeit version that has nothing in common with the real thing…
“15 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4 NASB)
Keeping that in mind, here is a sampling of some of the conferences scheduled for the first half of 2022…
IF Gathering – March 4-5, 2022 – Dallas, TX
Launched in 2014, the IF Gathering is a two-day women’s conference hosted by its founder Jennie Allen. Last year’s gathering reached 144 countries in 6500 different locations. The conference regularly features several female preachers/pastors as speakers who promote the wokeness movement and the Prosperity Gospel.
Jennie Allen promotes the Enneagram which is a non-scriptural way to identify one’s “true self,” to reach a state of spiritual freedom rather than the Biblical concept of submitting to God’s word. Allen believes that she and other women should preach not just to other women, but also to men. (1 Timothy 2:12 specifically prohibits that.)
The 2022 IF Gathering event schedule includes other speakers who seem to preach about anything other than the actual gospel. Here are just four of those who will be appearing this year…
Christine Caine from Hillsong (Australia) promotes several New Age practices condemned in the Bible, including the pagan practice of witchcraft. She actively endorses the Word of Faith movement, the belief that man’s spoken words can be used to manipulate God to gain what we want.
Justin Giboney a co-founder of the Marxist AND Campaign… and a Gospel Coalition contributor, says that “unless you’re on board with the Marxist oppressor/oppressed ideology and its tenets of class warfare, you’re a heretic.”
Latasha Morrison who once had an entire stadium of white students stand up and repeat a prayer to denounce their “whiteness” and to denounce America as a racist nation with racism “theologically woven into its foundation.”
Jackie Hill Perry promotes the cult of the Evangelical Sexual Revolution and the blasphemy of Bethel Church. She is an open lesbian who ended up marrying a man despite her continued attraction to women. Jackie Hill Perry is a false teacher who is spreading a false gospel while hiding behind the facade of Christian jargon.
The Passion Conference – January 2-3, 2022 – Atlanta, GA
The Passion Conference is an annual gathering limited only to attendees between the ages of 18 to 25. If you fall outside of that age range, you cannot attend. No parents, no older siblings, or any others from your church can attend. The 2019 pre-COVID conference was attended by 43,000 young people who paid $140 each. It was also streamed internationally and translated into several different languages.
Louie and Shelley Giglio promote the Passion Conference. Giglio promotes his version of “little-god” theology… the belief that we as humans carry within us the potential to become divine like God. He preaches that there is “divinity” in our DNA and that there is “heaven inside of” us. This teaching is blatantly false and is similar to Mormonism. It sounds eerily like what the serpent said to Eve in the Garden of Eden… resulting in the fall of man.
This year’s Passion Conference features a questionable speaker lineup including Christine Caine, Jackie Hill Perry, Jennie Allen from the IF Gathering above, and these others…
David Platt is a questionable teacher who promotes Louie Giglio. Platt mixes Christianity with social justice, shamelessly blurring the line between the two. He refers to the term “accepting Jesus into your heart” as superstitious and unbiblical.
Crowder (John Crowder) comes out of the unbiblical New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)… an unbiblical movement that emphasizes experience over scripture, mysticism over doctrine, and modern-day “apostles” over the inerrant text of the Bible. His teachings include things like How To Operate in Trances, Mysticism, Signs & Wonders, and more.
Tim Tebow has shown himself to be undiscerning with his associations, seemingly only at conferences to sell tickets and give endorsements to false teachers like Andy Stanley, Bill Hybels, and Christine Caine.
2022 Breathe Again Conference – July 27-29, 2022 – Hillsong Arena, London, United Kingdom
Over twenty different denominations are expected to be represented this year in an attempt to promote “unity,” which is code for eventually establishing a one-world religion. To that end this year, Hillsong will feature Father John Riccardo... a Roman Catholic priest who is known for his activism aimed at having Catholics and Protestants reunite under one banner. Hillsong mistakenly promotes the idea that Roman Catholicism is just another branch of Christianity… which it is not.
In the last few years, the Roman Catholic Church has been actively working to cross doctrinal and denominational lines in the name of unity. The lower case “c” word catholic means universal. Catholics see themselves as the only true universal church. The twenty-first century intent of the Church of Rome is to consolidate the world’s different denominations and religions into a demonically inspired one-world religion. Avoid anything to do with Hillsong.
That’s just three… there are many others. How does one determine if they should attend a particular event or offer a remote feed in their local church?
Who are the promoters and featured speakers? Are they solid biblical teachers like John MacArthur, Justin Peters, Voddie Baucham, Owen Strachan, Jeff Williams, Amir Tsarfati, Darrell Harrison, Gary Hamrick, Don Green, Mike Riccardi, Ken Ham, or Phil Johnson? If not, avoid the conference.
Who are the featured worship leaders? Avoid anything out of Hillsong, Bethel, Gateway, or Elevation.
Avoid any conference that features any Social Gospel teachers.
Avoid any conference that features any Catholic speakers.
Avoid any conference/speakers associated with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), Word of Faith, or Gospel Coalition movements.
Sadly, there is no shortage of conferences that are leading people away from the true gospel. Why expose yourself or even your entire church to false teachers whose intent is to deceive? Picking and choosing a limited number of speakers to listen to during their conferences or their remote feeds doesn’t work either… A true and accurate teacher of the Gospel would not associate with these conference promoters, nor would they ever appear on stage with them.
However, there is hope… This year John MacArthur will hold his “Truth Matters” Conference outside California for the first time. The May 18-20 event will be in Williamstown, Kentucky featuring a full schedule of Biblically solid teachers.