Last Sunday I was amused by a long sermon by the TPM Minister about maintaining the House of God. I would like to summarize what I understood from the sermon. I am sure most of our readers would have also heard of such sermons in their respective places. He starts the whole topic with a HUGE Assumption. The TPM Faith Home is assumed to be the HOUSE OF GOD.
- The HOUSE OF GOD is Holy therefore you need to come with Reverence.
- You are expected to come to the HOUSE OF GOD
- God expects you to work for the HOUSE OF GOD
- You are expected to keep the HOUSE OF GOD Neat and Clean
- God will be upset if your kids drop food particles in the HOUSE OF GOD
- The removal of cobwebs in the HOUSE OF GOD is the responsibility of each believer.
and much more such theatrics…
With all these TPMics about the House of God, I would like to present my viewpoint about this kind of appeals.
Do I disagree with the Preaching?
Absolutely 100%. But you may question me what is wrong with maintaining a place which you gather for fellowship. I agree that all of us have a responsibility to maintain a place which we gather for fellowship. However, the context is Highly Manipulative. The manipulation technique is so ingrained into the preacher that he is taking the name of the Lord to coerce the believers to do his bidding. I am sure he is not even aware of the fact that he is misusing the name of the Lord violating one of the TEN Commandments (Exodus 20:7).
Is he successful in his Manipulation?
To an extent, he is greatly successful. Folks who would not bother about maintaining the building premises will start taking it seriously. The ones who did not worry about folding the mats have started doing so. Mothers are extra vigilant with their kids spilling the food particles. But what is the motivation for the people to do so? It is not that they need to have a nicely maintained premises for fellowship. No, they are fearful that the Lord will send some retribution to punish them. Love is never a motivator in TPM. It is always Fear.
What Exactly is the House of God according to the Bible?
Let us start off with 1 Corinthians 3:16. The Apostle is clearly saying that WE ourselves are the House of God. So far be it that you think this brick and mortar building is the House of God. We serve a Living God who Dwells within us. Acts 7:47 tells us that God Does not dwell in any building made with human hands. Is not it logical that we Humans live in a building built by our own hands that God also desires to dwell in a building built by his own hands (Gen 2:7).
The Believers are turned to materialistic ways by these preachers that they do not understand basic biblical concepts. When Jesus said that if Two or Three are Gathered in My Name (Matthew 18:20), he did not mention a place or any building. Do you know why? It’s precisely because he does not care. He cares for the Souls of Men and not the brick and Mortar of magnificent buildings. He wanted to make a point that he does not care about any buildings when he said that One Stone will not be Left above the Other from the Jewish House of God ( Matthew 24:2 ). Jesus wanted to demolish the notion that he dwells in some human hand made HOUSE OF GOD. What better way to achieve this than prophetically order its destruction?
Moreover, when Jesus was asked if he could build this magnificent structure as the Jewish Temple, He responded in a way which many people would not understand it.
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” John 2:19
For God, His temple is always our Human Body. But for Pharisees and Blind guides, the temple is always a Brick and Mortar Structure.
Let us constantly Sacrifice in his temple(our Body) and preserve it Holy, Blameless and Acceptable to God.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1
Request to the TPM Minister
Next time you see a cobweb in the Faith Home, please take a long broom and clean it up rather than waiting for the next Sunday to pass a condemning sermon on hapless believers. You are responsible to maintain the premises you are residing in. Stop being a cry baby and take up some responsibility for yourself.
God Bless you all.
We are taught not to step inside the worship hall with our footwear on. Not because the place will get dirty but because we are taught it is “holy ground”. They also equate the OT verses regarding the temple of God to mean TPM Church building. Very very deceptive.
It ironic how their “saints” wear footwear in the worship hall in western countries and then “holy ground” argument is completely out of the equation. These bunch of liars and deceivers use and misuse the word of God for their convenience. Its a shame that there are tens of thousands of people who believe that these liars actually reveal the counsel of God.
These deceptive techniques are used according to their convenience. Many of these unbiblical teachings are dropped into the ocean when they go beyond the shores of India.
1. They never excommunicate people for taking medicines in the West because they know their church will be empty if they did so.
2. The Singing Ministry is not controlled by the worker sisters in the west
3. The White dress philosophy disappears altogether in the west. They do not bother the Bride and the Groom with their useless stiffnecked doctrine of WHITE DRESS
4. Their Zion Doctrine takes a back seat in the west.
5. They do not have a separate Pastor’s kitchen in the West.
….and many more.
Is not it truly satanic deception that they are conveniently hiding these heretic doctrinal practices to masquerade as a Christian Church in the West?
Yes Bro Admin, you’re right. I have attended tpm conventions and tpm weddings in the western world in the past, and it is very much different, of-course, there are other mind control and deceptive techniques at play, but the degree is much lesser than in the eastern world. And i believe their biggest strength in the eastern world is the fact that their followers/believers are so gullible. They are very smart in using certain phrases whereby the believer ends up subconsciously thinking that he/she is part of something precious. They frequently use phrases like “fellowship of the apostles”(assuming they themselves are apostles and everyone else is a false doctrine preacher or less fortunate to not have the full revelation of Christ), “this truth” (assuming everything else is a lie), “this faith” (assuming they hold the most holy faith because they hold the mysteries of God which hasn’t been revealed to anyone else), “house of God” (assuming they are elite and only their faith-homes are places where God dwells), “bride of Christ” (assuming everyone else just knows Christ but they are the true bride), “chaste virgin” (assuming everyone else is a foolish virgin or a wise virgin who’ll be rejected by the bride-groom), “man-child” (assuming other Christians as the woman in travail who will eventually be a part of the tribulation, but they themselves are the man-child) etc, listening to which the believers end up feeling elite and it culminates in spiritual pride. To a sane follower of Christ, their words are absolute lies because their words aren’t biblical. They are a bunch of liars who get their revelations from the father of lies.
Great, absolutely true brother. May GOD bless you.
Tpm workers are brainwashed by their seniors to make themselves believe and brainwash other believers that saints live in house of God and it is a great priveledge and calling of God, for someone to live in faithhome. As pointed by Admin they should have pointed the gospel and taught the same to believers that it is a great priveledge and great calling for each believer that God dwells in mortal sinners like us.
The practise of living in hermitage is age old traditional pagan style. Hermits like buddha and mahavir used to live in hermitage, away from ‘maya (seduction)’ of world. They themselves copied this Hermitage life from people and cultre ancient to them. Roman catholics , since AD. 400 started living in hermitage. According to history 1st european monasterey was formed in A.D. 529 by St. Benedict of Nursia.
What Roman catholics call as “monastery or convent or abbey”, and what rishimunis and sadhus sanyasis of india call it as “ashram or matha” or what buddhist monks call it as “vihara”, is “faithhome or house of God” of TPM doctrine. Pagans already practised it long before TPM faithhome came into existence.
Jesus never lived in any hermitage. He said foxes have holes & birds have nest but son of man has no place to lay his head. Jesus kept moving from one place to another,from village to village, preaching kingdom of God. He didn’t establish monastries or hermitages made up of mortar and bricks and cement in every place he visited, & neither did his disciples. Infact old testament levites also lived with their families in their own home (i find no where in OT that all levites used to live together in house of God, correct me if i am wrong). Then how does the practice of living in hermits hut came into TPM?
The practice to live in hermitage, monastery, vihara, ashram or Faithhome or so called house of God, is entirely foreign to bible itself. It has pagan roots in sanyasi & rishimuni culture or yogi culture (you can still find buddhist monasteries, jain monasteries).
Adding to this further, even the dress during the initial days of the ministry was saffron colored, just like those of the hindu sages. Thereafter, when people started getting them confused with them, they decided to move to white. Most of the practices are conveniently copied/inspired from other Indian religions & the RC church. Just as the verse quoted above in the article (Acts 7:47), God does not reside in man-made structures but God-made structure or the most beautiful creation of His i.e. US.
Dear Santosh,
Yes I am aware of the saffron connection with the TPM past. Do you mind sharing more light on what triggered the change to white; when; during whose chairmanship.. etc
In this internet age, they simply cannot afford to convince their folks with Tomfoolery.
Dear Denzel,
I had read it in one of their books long back and heard about it from the elders as well. I don’t exactly remember the details of how and what triggered the change but the primary reason was that people started mistaking them for hindu sages or something of that sort… Maybe someone from our readers, *Bro. Sam Alangaramoney* probably or the admin, can shed some light on this change.
And yes, you’re right. In this day and age of Internet, they cannot carry on with their unbiblical teachings. Why else do you think they hold back their members from reading other Christian books or taking part in inter-denominational meetings?
One thing I have found out in TPM is that they justify many of their unbiblical actions with the brand of Pastor Paul. Very Recently I had a discussion with one of the TPM Workers where he was unashamedly telling me that few of their Alwin Doctrines(Which I very well knew were Alwin Inventions) were introduced by Pastor Paul. They play it as their first line of defense when they are questioned about unbiblical practices. But when we stick to the Bible, they have no reply.
In this particular incident, I guess that they could not find any verses equating Saffron with the Bride of Christ. As TPM Specializes in Preparing the Bride of Christ, the saffron was a hindrance and aligned to the Buddhist dress in Sri Lanka. Therefore they officially say that “GOD Said to Pastor Paul to Wear White Dress“. Since then TPM Started wearing White Dress. This is how they implemented the Christianised version of Buddhist Asceticism.
Thank you for your kind reply brother.
Thanks Santosh, strange but true…..
TPM faithhomes are like a ‘House of Wax’
Too much elitism and dead religion.
Hello,
Initially I read your posts with some skepticism. I, however, have found your blog overall as objective and asking serious questions, both from Indian laws and from the Bible. I haven’t found any valid rebuttals- just recusals.
I admire your effort- while I do not subscribe to the harsh overtones used in this site. At the same time, one cannot expect Jehu to behave like an Ahab.
Having been born into this faith and moved closely with the folks, I feel most of them are overwhelmed with the tree of knowledge syndrome- be it in their revelations or in their gossip. I write this out of experience and I have been a victim of the Jezebel-like manipulation, except that in my case, they involved my family members as their free agents.
I hope you get the overall message.
FromTPM- Well done.
A humble and neutral feedback- The language used can be mellowed down- I am seeing progress actually.
Keep writing for the glory of God and do expose darkness with light.
Please do not be harsh on your critics in the comments section- again I’m seeing progress here.
Regards,
(A well wisher)
(Geddalahalli lad)
in which local faithom you heard the speech ???
It’s not one place..But Many Places. This one I was referring was said in one of the Thiruvalla Center Faith Home.