YONGGI CHO CONVICTED OF EMBEZZLEMENT (Friday Church News Notes, March 7, 2014 wayoflife.org/ - David Yonggi Cho, founder of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, long billed as the world’s largest church, was sentenced on February 20 to three years in prison for breach of trust and corruption (“David Yonggi Cho,” The Gospel Herald, Feb. 21, 2014) . Cho was found guilty of causing $12 million in losses to the church by having officials buy stocks owned by his eldest son, Cho Hee-jun, at nearly four times market value. David Cho’s three-year sentence was suspended, but he was ordered to pay a penalty of US $4.7 million. Cho Hee-jun, was sentenced to three years (not suspended) for colluding with his father. In 2011, Cho was accused by 29 of the church’s elders of embezzling US $20 million. Cho’s numerical “success” made him one of the world’s most influential preachers in this pragmatism-crazed generation. He has moved freely in “evangelical” circles and has been promoted by men such as Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren, Peter Wagner of Fuller Theological Seminary, Bill Hybels of the Willowcreek, and Elmer Towns, co-founder with Jerry Falwell of Liberty University. Cho claims that he received the call to preach directly and personally from Jesus, who appeared to him dressed like a fireman (Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements). Cho says that God promises healing and prosperity for every believer. In fact, this is part of his “five-fold gospel.” As of 2005, 279 of the Yoido Full Gospel Church’s 527 pastors were women. In his book The Fourth Dimension, Cho taught a Word-Faith heresy called “the Law of Incubation.” He claimed that believers can create reality by forming a precise mental picture of a goal, then speaking it into existence, though it appears that this “law” isn’t working too well for him these days. In the 1988 edition of The Healing Epidemic, Dr. Peter Masters, senior pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England, warned: “What has built the largest church in the world? The answer is, an idolatrous mixture of biblical teaching and pagan mind-techniques. ... This is the kind of church which has moved hordes of impressionable Christian teachers the world over to jump on to the healing-prophesying bandwagon. We need to take very great care in these days.”
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 04:49:39 +0000
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