Letter to the New Life Church

TO: All New Life Church members in Taber and elsewhere.

FROM: Victor Hafichuk

October 17, 2000

I come to you in peace in the Lord Jesus Christ, yet I come to you in war. While I want the good and well-being for every person I have met there (God is my witness), I am very angry as I write this letter. Angry because what is going on with you people is one great pile of bullshit, and all in the Name of the Lord. (The word I just used may shock your “pious” senses but it nevertheless falls far short of describing amply the abomination of your ways before the Lord). The leaders, thinking they are in the Spirit of the Lord, are high on spiritual drug straight from the pits of Satan, deluded into thinking they serve God and His will but are instead making a mockery of all that is true, honest, just, pure, holy and Godly, both in Heaven and on earth.

Doug and Karen Shimoda, you have been snared by the delusion of the enemy in the “Toronto Blessing.” You have been duped. There is only one reason why people are duped by such impudent counterfeit spiritual power and that is because they have not had a love of the truth. They have sought to magnify, to exalt, to please and to save the flesh. The very words of the gospel they use for the flesh rather than against, to save the carnal man as he is, rather than to come to the cross of Christ, denying themselves, having been crucified with Christ. The appearance of the true and false are the same, the effects very different.

Paul Cohen and I came to your church, you two prophesied over us at Kavanaghs and we have to candidly admit that the prophecies from you two were true words. Whether they were from the Lord or not is another matter. Devils know things too as in Mark 1: 23,24; Acts 16:16-18 and Acts 19:13-15. Nevertheless, I believe those prophecies were from God and not devils. But if from God, then you need to heed them too and consider where we are now coming from, as expressed by words spoken out of your own mouths.

I told you that the Lord had revealed to me that the “Toronto Blessing,” as it is known, is deception, a counterfeit work (as was the event up north as recorded on your audio tape) with all power, signs and lying wonders, and when we came again to your meeting two weeks later, the reception from you was reserved...understandably.

Doug, you said one must judge by the fruits. The trouble is, one must have power, discernment and knowledge of God in order to judge fruits rightly. The fruits you have judged to be of God, i.e. healings, miracles, conversions, spiritual gifts, love, joy, etc. have often been counterfeit.

I knew a man who was “slain in the Spirit,” who resultantly prayed in tongues, was “filled with love” for everyone, red the Bible, went to meetings, witnessed enthusiastically, and praised God, but who was exposed as having been counterfeit, a son of Satan, born again but not from above, just like the one who laid hands on him to “receive the Spirit.” The Lord exposed him as a child of Satan, an exposure that was undeniable to the Godly-spiritually learned, God confirming it, though hidden from others.

There have been many such. I well know the power of Satan to deceive “if it were possible the very elect.” That is what is happening to you, to yours and to all those involved in the “Toronto Blessing.” Both tares and wheat grow and both rejoice in the sun, rain, soil, and fertilizer. Both do. I believe you and Karen are the Lord’s (I could be wrong in this; I don’t believe I am) but you are deceived and are in great need of repentance and deliverance yourselves (in this I am not wrong). For such as you, His people, God is hurting, much so.

What is happening with you people is of the “Charismatic Movement.” The “Charismatic Movement” is Satan’s wrath poured out upon the inhabitants of the earth because he knows he has a short time. He counterfeits the last days’ outpouring of the Spirit of God “upon all flesh” and many millions are being taken by him. This is that strong delusion spoken of by Paul to the Thessalonians, with all power, signs and lying wonders, come upon all those who love pleasures more than God.

Karen, you talked of how those who said God does not work in organized churches are wrong, that you people have experienced very differently. But does the Lord indeed put new wine in old wineskins? He Himself says He does not. The Charismatics often claim that the churches must come into unity before “revival” can come. Did Jesus seek to unite the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and others? Did He try to work within the then existing frameworks? Was He preaching that one ought to “bloom where one is planted?” A resounding “No” to all these questions.

Even from His very birth, the religious organizations were excluded; He warned His disciples of their leaven; they were His opponents (antiChrist); they killed Him, and His disciples had to obey God rather than the religious “officials,” and go out and preach in spite of them. All those who believed, followed Him “without the camp.”

And the Pharisees had been legitimate in their status, set there by God, and to the extent that they were, believers submitted to their authority. Jesus said to His followers, “The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say and do not.”

The harlot churches are all illegitimate, none ordained of God. The Catholic Church claims something it is not...”the Mother Church,” claiming to go right back to Peter. It claims to be the mother of the Bible which it is not. The leader is known as the “Most Holy Father,” the sole representative of Christ on earth, which he is not. Rome’s fallacies, sins, and blasphemies are many, and so are those of her daughters, including the Lutherans, the Anglicans, the many break-aways who carry with them many of her uncleanesses and abominations (Rev. 18:2,24...all of Rev. 17 and 18).

Masses flock to Benny Hinn, Bonnke and many others, in hopes of God’s benefits; you people all flock to worship in hope of God’s benefits. All are deceived, people go away empty-handed and I’ll tell you why. Not a word of sin is mentioned. In fact, the keeping of sins is preached. God’s laws are forsaken, ignored, denounced. The Law of God has been cast off, replaced by vain customs, traditions and lies. You are not after God to obey but to get.

You all want the manifestation of God? I will tell you exactly how to have God manifest Himself to you, in your favor, that is. Was it not Jesus Himself Who died for our sins and through Whom we have salvation by faith Who said, “He that has My commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves Me: and he that loves Me shall be loved of My father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him” (John 14:21)? Do you indeed hunger for His presence? Here is what Jesus had to say about that:

“If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23). You think you have His presence? Not if you live in lawlessness which I perceive you do.

What happens at your meetings and those of charismatic preachers? Film producer Anthony Thomas put forth true answers on CBC’s recent 2-part “Witness” production, legitimately and responsibly exposing the fraud, giving true explanations. It is mesmerism; psychological, soulish, nothing to do with God at all. It is the works of Satan, who savours not the things that are of God but the things of men. Denounce Thomas as unbelieving, skeptical, even atheistic or antiChrist; the fact is, he knows more of what he is talking about than do many of you.

When will the true move of the Spirit of God come? When His people turn to Him with all their hearts and repent of their sins, and of the breaking of His laws. (Many laws you people break and you don’t even know you are breaking them, being ignorant and taught by ignorant and self-seeking teachers. Nevertheless you pay the price and don’t realize that either). But when you learn, and repent, then will miracles and healings come.

Then will the “substance” of which Hinn boasts or which he tries to pronounce come. “Fire!” he cries. What rubbish! Fire comes to purge, to cleanse, to destroy the flesh - not pleasant, not enjoyable. He preaches another fire, Satan’s fire, and teaches falsehood. You people sing about God sending down fire. When He does, you will not like it one bit, though you will begin to know it is very necessary to purge you of your sins which you choose to ignore in yourselves and one another.

Yes, John Arnott is a likeable fellow. There is a form of godliness, humility, gentleness, patience, joy, a power manifested in unassuming spirit; he prays and praises the Lord, works hard and does all those things one would logically expect from a Christian or Spirit-filled man of God. But as nice as it is, it is counterfeit. Would it be so powerful and persuasive if not nice and apparently genuine? God have mercy on him; I have nothing personally against him, yet I do in the Lord because he walks counter to the Lord, deceiving great multitudes. He has been deeply influenced by Benny Hinn who has nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether sincere and well-intentioned or otherwise, Hinn is not in the least a minister of God. In fact, he causes the Name of God to be blasphemed among many and does great spiritual harm to many against the cause of Christ. He glorifies flesh and in so doing, is a star for Satan. The man is simply and purely a fake. Arnott follows in his steps and is as he.

Now I come to you, without the niceness but warning, rebuking, speaking words of judgment, yes, judgment, righteous judgment, not according to appearance (if I judged by appearance, I too would be deceived), and you will all hold me in abeyance or shun me altogether and worse, condemn me as a false prophet.

We come to your congregation and I see hurting people. A woman lay prostrate on the floor next to me (which I was thankful to see in itself) and she was hurting. Later she passed by me with a frown, not for me personally that I know of but because of where she was at, troubled. If not troubled, then her fruits are quite cold and unfriendly toward strangers and all the prostrating before the Lord is vain and hypocritical. I see another lady dancing in the aisle but when it came to entertaining strangers (or anyone else for that matter), there was such a hard look to her countenance; she too passed me by as though I shouldn’t exist; she too seemed troubled. I don’t take these events personally but I declare to you that what I see in “worship” and what I see in reality are two different things.

I see teenagers and youth looking about skeptically at the goings-on, entering into the spirit of things but not in the Spirit of the Lord. Rather it is more like entertainment for them, a consideration that there is a “right” worldliness and a “wrong” one, and not knowing or considering that there can only be worldliness and holiness, the two quite separate and distinct. But the adults, the parents and primarily the leaders have blurred that distinction and melted it into one. Oh, the drugs are absent, the scanty dress, the piercings, hair-do’s and make-up to varying degrees, the language and conduct quite controlled or restrained, but I see more a difference of degrees even if those degrees are extensively different, rather than a difference in nature and spirit.

They try to raise money selling garbage for food, encouraged by the parents who don’t even know it’s garbage. You people destroy yourselves in so many ways for lack of knowledge.

We talk to you, Ian Byrd, and you walk around as though looking for a good time, or another drink. You are high on something and it isn’t the Lord, though you and others may think or judge otherwise. You are there to get drunk and stay that way if you can help it. And the youth are under you!

David Greeno: You condemn those who farm organically, doing what they know and can to treat God’s creation the way it ought to be treated, suffering the hatred of neighbors, resisting the tyranny of multi-national chemical corporations who are raping the earth and its inhabitants for the almighty dollar, sending to the hospitals and graves millions of people by their sorceries. Spray a field with herbicides or pesticides and you kill absolutely essential micro-organisms which God has created for the good of soil and growth; you kill insects and consequently birds and animals; you kill vegetation...all these indiscriminately. You are grossly ignorant of Godly agriculture, denying that it can and should be done that way, denying the Lord, His ways, His sovereignty in all things.

You find fault with an organic farmer, Joe and Mary Slovak, who do not go about professing to believe, yet do things in agricultural operations to some extent the way all, and particularly Christian farmers everywhere, should be doing them. But you, oh, you preach and witness; you are part of a “worship team;” you praise the Lord in tongues and sing hymns unto Him; you lay hands on others and pray for them. Mr. Greeno, your hands and the hands of those who lead you in your ways drip with blood; in your ignorance and negligence and false spirituality, you walk in constant guilt of murder, you and your leaders, your counsellors, your pastors, whether ignorantly or otherwise.

You come to talk to us saying how fascinated you are about the feasts of the Lord. I had just found a piece of paper tucked away in my Bible for a long time on the Feast of Tabernacles. In it was a list of many significances concerning that feast. I handed it to you and all you did was glance at it and hand it back. You weren’t the least bit interested. Why? Was it because you don’t believe anything worthwhile could come from us or are you not sincere in what you say? I say the latter and maybe both. You too are on a quest for a perpetual high and that is all you and many others there care about. It is hypocrisy; you too are snared by that delusive spirit which comes to tickle, to entertain, to puff up, to make one and all to feel good, all the way to Hell.

Pat Kavanagh: I have to say that the gifts of prophecy and vision coming forth from you at your place did not witness with us. I see you hurting, my friend, hurting, hurting, you and your wife and family with you. You don’t need to be up with the best; you don’t need to be important nor accepted nor “equal.” Neither are you any less than any other. If any are greater than you, it is because they are submitted and faithful to Christ when you are not. And while you envy or covet what others have instead of being thankful to God for who you are and what you have, indeed you are and do have less than they.

But what is happening there is not of God, nothing to envy, and you need to get sober, real and earnest with God and when doing so, He will meet you and your needs abundantly. He will have to take you through correction, through the fires, but He will bring you through to that wide open space of fruitfulness in Him, for which you long. Die, my friend, instead of seeking to live; it’s the only way.

My son came up from Sunday school with 2 reports:

1) “The lady said that any day can be the Sabbath.” Let the lady substantiate by Scripture the claim she has heard repeated by many millions in their delusion at the hands of pagan, idolatrous, unregenerate souls such as the Emperor Constantine who instituted the keeping of Sunday in 325 A.D. in honour of his Sun god, instead of the day God ordained at creation yet, for all men. She will find no such evidence. Let that same lady read my paper on the Sabbath for more knowledge on the matter instead of repeating and teaching vain traditions of men which have made null and void the law of God, in this case the decalogue no less.

When God instituted the Sabbath, it was not any day, or a choice of days but the seventh day. It was His choice of days and not man’s. Is He so purposeless in His ways that He should be loose with His words? And Jesus said that Heaven and earth would pass away before one jot or one tittle of the Law would pass. Look around folks, and see that those have yet to pass. I too have been guilty of same until recently when God had mercy on me.

2) “The lady asked for an example of kindness in the Bible. I told her that God delivered the children of Israel from Egypt. She refused that example, saying it had to be an example from the New Testament.” Not because he is my son, I think he was right and should be encouraged in his answer. But I ask: “Do you people cast off the Old Testament in certain aspect and measure?” There are those who do. If so, you greatly err. Perhaps Jonathan did not understand the situation.

We heard the prayers and prophecies going over the pastor and his wife in sending them off to England. So much garbage and imagination! Oh, Lord, why are Your people, as silly children playing in the streets, in the traffic, running about naked, unkempt, malnourished, uttering silly, unlearned words, mimicking others as though they know, feeding on junk food, finding it wherever they can, prey to elements, to stupid notions, to the devil who goes about devouring whom he will?

I’ll tell you why. The Lord’s people are hurting because they don’t obey Him. They don’t obey Him because they choose their own ways; they choose their own ways because they lack knowledge and they lack knowledge because nobody out there is willing to lay down his life that they might have that knowledge. God has called me to do just that and therefore I now speak.

Allan Fulton: We heard your sermon. It is a sermon of the works of the flesh, of man’s righteousness. You asked for one example of where there was a “revival” or great move of God without great prayer. Try reading the Book of Jonah. Jonah, knowing the mercy and graciousness of God, did not wish to go to Nineveh for fear that God would save them (Jonah 4:2, 3)! And God did! Every last one of them! Have you ever heard of such a move of God? An entire city of 120,000 people saved! The preacher was not a preacher of prayer or “anointing” or “love” or “compassion” or any of these things that you think you need to stir up within yourself or within others.

Your sermon was all self-righteous; zealous, yes, but flesh and not of God or God’s will or God’s way. (I am not discounting love, or prayer). I know these words are strong, but please believe me when I say I don’t condemn you; I do tell you that what you are doing is not right. Furthermore, while you speak of how God is going to use you and the others in such great ways, you yourselves have dire need of repentance, salvation and cleansing. In this diabolical deception, perhaps you need it even more than do the perceived heathen!

“Oh, but that example of Jonah was the Old Testament! Things were different then.” Were they? God is sovereign and is able to do and will do what He determines at any time. Neither will any man receive glory in and of himself for “helping God,” as though He cannot do anything without His infirm creatures. The Lord Jesus comes saying, “I can do nothing without the Father” but you come with antiChrist doctrine saying, “The Father can do nothing without us.” AntiChrist? Yes, it is contrary to the Scriptures, to the Lord, to His ways.

Do I condemn you? No. I condemn your doctrine; you are ignorant of God and His ways and I want to teach you the right, ridding you of the wrong. That is not condemnation. If it were, I would say, “Go to Hell; be damned” in so many words, but I’m not. I rebuke you telling you that you have no right speaking in the Name of the Lord when you have nothing to say from Him. But He will have mercy on you and you shall seek Him and find Him when you search for Him with all your heart.

Keith Hazell: You presume to be some overseer; what, a pastor, an apostle or prophet of some kind? How is it you scatter people to the wind by your ignorant and self-seeking ways? You not only expose but subject these people who follow you to diabolical deception, stupid “holy laughter,” twitchings night and day, to devils and manifestations of same, to wicked, worldly, fleshly and spiritual pleasures, all in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You have never been called of God to do the things you now do and if you say so, your god is not mine, but a devil who leads you to lead others to destruction. You people serve the ancient gods, Ashtoreth and Baal and others, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. All you’ve done is change the labels; the contents are the same as those consumed by the idolaters of old. How dare you preach and lead in the Name of the Lord Jesus!

You sir, are spoken of by Jeremiah: “Woe be to the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed My people; You have scattered My flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, says the Lord. And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, says the Lord.”

I don’t care how good you think the fruits are that come from the influence of the “Toronto Blessing” and all these “Vineyard” fellowships such as that of Wesley and Stacey Campbell. I say they are all diabolical deception and those who are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God are prime prey.

As Paul said to Timothy, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers (those who offer bloodless sacrifice), false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Doug Shimoda, you say that where God goes, the enemy too is there. Jannes and Jambres practised their sorceries before God sent Moses in to deliver His people. Many were deceived by them. But when God began His work, their works were exposed for what they were and plainly subdued by the power of God. So too will the rods of all those who practise these false works be swallowed up. God is finished winking. He comes to deliver His people from those who presume to deliver them in His Name and there will be no doubt whatsoever what is of God and what is of men and Satan.

I see the women leading the husbands. I see Karen leading Doug, Linda leading Pat. Oh, in name, official theory and profession it may appear otherwise but it is not so. When you get right down to it, Karen calls the shots and so does Linda and so do the other wives, be they Hazell’s or Campbell’s or any other man’s. You all know it too. This day is a day of iniquity, with all turned upside down, women ruling men, soul ruling over spirit, men dictating to and usurping the authority of God.

Feminism in Christian garb is alive and well in “Christendom” and elsewhere, yet seldom perceived as such because compared to the blatant, hostile, radical feminism of cursing, bitter bra burners. The men are no less to blame than the wives. We have all denied the Lord and walked in our own ways, and while the women have been deceived, we men have done so willingly. Men, it is time that you lay down your lives for your wives that they might be saved, and not only for wives but in all obedience.

I read Catch the Fire, by Guy Chevreau. While he compares the experiences and manifestations of the “Toronto Blessing” with those of the saints and prophets in the Scriptures, there are very distinct and crucial differences. His comparisons are utterly unjustified and arguments spurious. While I will not take the time here to discuss them, I will mention another matter in his book and quote a quote he made from Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard:

“For the sleeping god (sic) may wake someday and take offence....”

To you He is sleeping and I tell you He is definitely offended and I can only hope for all your sakes that “...the waking god (sic) will draw us out (in mercy - my words) to where we can never return” (Page 2). As it stands, you are being drawn out by devils and charlatans who serve them; they laugh at you. God have mercy.

No doubt, both evil and good may appear the same on the surface and you will say that I quote Paul speaking to Timothy of such as I am by my letter. But God knows and will make known.

I now throw down the glove! If I am in the wrong and you in the right (which is not the case), let the Lord “slay me in the Spirit.” Let Him destroy or rebuke or convert me if need be because I am so deluded and wicked, but if you are the ones in delusion and diabolical works as I have here boldly declared, then God bring His judgment (correction) even as He showed mercy to the children of Israel through Elijah with the prophets of Baal. Let’s get it on. I’m asking the Lord to manifest Himself either way and deal with your horrible and wicked bullshit once and for all. I’m tired of it; He’s tired of it (and not only tired but hurt and angry) and you need to be. I’m tired of being vexed by sodomites and idolaters in “Christian uniforms,” shunned as a leper by “the chosen and holy ones,” mocked by deceivers and deceived, and denounced by professing believers as a false prophet.

Let’s get it on! I am willing to face all of you anywhere you choose, Lord willing (you can choose nowhere or no time over which the Lord is not sovereign; I have that confidence in Him). Let’s determine once for all if the power of God rests with all of you or with me. By the mercies of God, He will deliver you (those who are His and chosen) from the grip of Satan who comes as an angel of light, his ministers as ministers of righteousness, with Bibles under arm. You will no longer “halt between two opinions.” You will be delivered from the black light to the white light, from your sinful ways, from the faith of devils to the faith of the Son of God, Who loved you and gave Himself for you, that you should no longer live unto yourselves, but unto Him Who died for you and rose again.

Satan, your time is up. The Lord rebuke you altogether! You have had the power of death but the Lord Jesus Christ has destroyed your power and that of darkness and death, holding all keys! There is no greater power than His resurrection power, which and Whom He is!

And I come in His Name to deliver such as are for deliverance. Let God be true and every man a liar. Praise God! The will of the Lord Jesus Christ be done.

Victor Hafichuk