Alpha Course

 

The Alpha Course is presented as an easy-going method of exploring the “big questions” of life from a ‘Christian’ perspective. It has swept the globe, and has been endorsed by a host of church leaders crossing over all denominational barriers.

Alpha was created in 1977 by an Anglican priest named Charles Marnham, who served at Holy Trinity Brompton parish (an Anglican church) in London. It began as a course for church members on the basics of the faith (according to the Anglican church).

Shortly later, John Irvine, a curate at the time at Holy Trinity Brompton, took it over and developed it into the format it has today. In 1990, Sandy Millar (vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton at that time) invited Holy Trinity Brompton reverend Nicky Gumbel to take the helm of Alpha, overseeing further revisions to appeal to the widest audience possible. Gumbel added his own touch to Alpha, helping the program to spread around the world at an exponential rate.

It is important to recognize that Alpha’s creation in the Anglican Church is significant. The Anglican Church dates back to the 16th century when Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church, principally because the Pope denied Henry’s request for a divorce.  Henry decided to use the power as England’s King to pass a series of laws to prevent the office of the Pope from having any authority in England. One of these laws, entitled “The Act of Supremacy,” declared the King of England to be the head of the newly formed “Church of England” (or “Anglican Church”), giving him virtually the same level of authority in England as the Pope had over the Catholic Church. Apart from this change in authority and control, Henry made little other reform and therefore most of the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church continued.

In a subsequent attempt to reform the Church of England and bring it more in line with Protestant beliefs, during the reign of Elizabeth 1, the 39 Articles of Anglican belief adopted then incorporated aCalvinist (also known as “Reformed Protestantism”) interpretation of central ‘Christian’ beliefs. (For example: Article XVII refers to predestination – that God has sovereignly chosen only a very few, “the elect”, to receive salvation, and not of their own freewill; and everyone else is predestined to hell).

As a result, the Anglican Church is a toxic ecumenical mix of Catholicism and Reformed Protestantism. As in the Catholic Church, there is a hierarchical structure of leadership, the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (also called “communion” or “Eucharist”) is central to the ritualistic worship service, there is the recitation of the liturgy, and infant baptism is practised. Anglicans believe a person is born-again when they are baptised (even as a baby); and that baptism and taking communion on a continuing basis, are essential for salvation.

In a 1987 statement, ”Salvation and the Church”, the second Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission concluded that there was in effect no longer any disagreement between the two churches on the central Christian doctrine of achieving salvation. It stated “We believe that our two Communions are agreed on the essential aspects of the doctrine of salvation and on the Church’s role within it.” [1]

(For a summary of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church see Ecumenism. Similarly, for Reformed Protestantism see  Calvinism.)

In an interview with the UK Guardian in 2009, [2] Gumbel makes it clear that first and foremost he is an Anglican:

“This may sound pernickety but I wouldn’t describe myself as an evangelical. These are labels, which I don’t think are helpful. If I was going to use any label it would be Christian, and if you push me any further I’d say I’m an Anglican – that’s the family of the Church that I belong to.”

In the same interview, Gumbel accepts and promotes Roman Catholicism and the Catholic papacy:

“It was a great honour to be presented to Pope John Paul II, who has done so much to promote evangelism around the world. We have been enormously enriched by our interaction with Catholics in many countries…”

“Probably one of the strongest movements of the Holy Spirit is in the Roman Catholic Church, so there’s not a huge theological difference between the official teaching of the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church, for example…”

“If they choose to join the Catholic Church at the end of the course, that’s wonderful.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not surprisingly then, the Alpha Course is also presented throughout the Catholic Church. The introduction page for the Roman Catholic edition of the Alpha Course states: 

 “Answering the Call for the New Evangelization
Alpha is a tool for the New Evangelization that is being used by thousands of Catholic parishes in over 70 countries around the world. Alpha creates an environment and opportunity for an encounter with Jesus. As Pope Francis likes to say, it’s a chance for “Jesus to find them.” Alpha is without a doubt a great experience of new evangelization.

 

 

 

—Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President, the Pontifical Council for Promotion of the New Evangelization”

 

Since the Alpha Course is used by the Catholic Church, the way in which the cardinal truths of true Christianity are presented is so vague that Catholics can interpret what it teaches to suit their own misrepresentations.

In particular, the essential elements of repentance from sin and the new birth are absent. This is not surprising because the Anglican church sees salvation as a process (much like the Catholic Church) rather than a conversion experience when a person through faith turns from sin to God and is born again.

Moreover, Alpha presents truth alongside error concerning the Holy Spirit. An important development in the historical background of Alpha is that Holy Trinity Brompton Church became the centre of the “Toronto blessing” or “laughing revival” movement for England and Europe in the 1990s. [3] Gumbel received the “Toronto blessing” from Eleanor Mumford, wife of Pastor John Mumford of the Southwest London Vineyard, following her visit to the church in Toronto which was experiencing unbiblical and bizarre spiritual manifestations in May 1994. Upon her arrival back in England, she testified of her experiences in Toronto and the “laughing revival” broke out in the Vineyard congregation, both in the general services and in various house meetings. One of these was attended by Gumbel. Gumbel spends a substantial amount of time relating to Alpha participants, in one of his Alpha videos, exactly how this occurred:

“Ellie Mumford told us a little bit of what she had seen in Toronto …  it was obvious that Ellie was just dying to pray for all of us … then she said ‘Now we’ll invite the Holy Spirit to come.’ and the moment she said that one of the people there was thrown, literally, across the room and was lying on the floor, just howling and laughing … making the most incredible noise … I experienced the power of the Spirit in a way I hadn’t experienced for years, like massive electricity going through my body … One of the guys was prophesying. He was just lying there prophesying …”

Gumbel left the meeting hosted by Mumford to immediately attend a meeting at Holy Trinity Brompton. When he closed that meeting with prayer saying, “Lord, thank you so much for all you are doing, and we pray you’ll send your Spirit,” the same strange phenomena were again manifested. One of those present lying on the floor with his feet in the air started “laughing like a hyena.”

 Consequently, Gumbel placed a great deal of emphasis in the Alpha course on this experience. The “Toronto blessing” and Alpha are inextricably intertwined. Gumbel himself stated in 1995:

“I believe it is no coincidence that the present movement of the Holy Spirit [referring to the “Toronto blessing”] has come at the same time as the explosion of the Alpha Courses. I think the two go together.”  (N. Gumbel, ‘The Spirit and Evangelism’, Renewal, May 1995, p15.)

These manifestations are not from the Holy Spirit. 1 John 4:1 says “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” The spirit Gumbel experienced is not the Holy Spirit and consequently the Alpha Course as designed and presented by him can lead people into wrong and harmful spiritual experiences. (See also Manifest Sons of God/New Apostolic Reformation )

Alpha and Contemplative Prayer

Alpha has a Prayer Guide book authored by Pete Greig. He is an active promoter of contemplative prayer and leader of an international prayer movement called 24/7 Prayer. Gumbel wrote in the foreword to Greig’s book How to Pray  that it was “…the book I’ve been waiting for.” Grieg recommends that those who want to go further after reading How to Pray that the “…the best overview is, in my opinion, Richard Foster’s Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home.” [4]

(See also Richard Fosterand Contemplative Prayer)

[1] Incidentally, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby,  has strong links with the Catholic Church. All Church of England clergy have a spiritual director and Welby’s director is a Roman Catholic monk, Nicolas Buttet. Welby’s religious thinking, therefore, is greatly influenced by the teachings of the Catholic Church. Accordingly, Welby practices the Catholic spiritual disciplines. During his first address after the announcement of his appointment, Welby said: “Learning from other traditions than the one into which I came as a Christian has led me into the riches of Benedictine and Ignatian spirituality, the treasures of contemplative prayer and adoration, and confronted me with the rich and challenging social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.” Welby said the greatest influence over his moral thinking was Rerum Novarum, a letter by Pope Leo xiii.

[2] www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/aug/28/religion-christianity-alpha-gumbel-transcript

[3]The “Toronto blessing” is spiritual phenomena that is falsely claimed to be evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit. Its name is derived from its source, the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church (subsequently renamed the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship Church and now Catch the Fire Toronto).

In 1994, a guest preacher, Randy Clark, explained how he would laugh uncontrollably when he was ‘drunk in the spirit’. While listening to him, the congregation erupted in pandemonium with people laughing, growling, jerking, shaking, barking like dogs, and thrown to the floor being ‘slain in the spirit’. (Another on-going experience was a person appearing drunk, and therefore unable to walk or talk normally for a period of time.)

This ‘spirit’ should have been tested and the experiences should have been recognized as unbiblical (and, therefore, of demonic origin). And the speaker and people reproved. However, the pastor of the church, John Arnott, attributed the behaviour to the work of the Holy Spirit.

The phenomena persisted from week to week during the church’s meetings – Arnott referred to it as a “big party” thrown by the Holy Spirit – and news spread around the world. People flocked to the Toronto Airport church, taking the ‘blessing’ back to their own churches. At first, the phenomena was sought after by Pentecostal/Charismatic churches, and understandably confined to them. Gumbel via Alpha has transported it to every denomination throughout the world. From Alpha’s official website: “Alpha now runs in every part of the global church, including the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and all mainline Protestant denominations.” As stated above, Gumbel wrote “I believe it is no coincidence that the present movement of the Holy Spirit [referring to the “Toronto blessing”] has come at the same time as the explosion of the Alpha Courses. I think the two go together.” [N. Gumbel, ‘The Spirit and Evangelism’, Renewal, May 1995, p15]. Thus Alpha is significant contributor to the present state of apostacy. At its core it contains a corruption of the gospel of Jesus Christ and directly leads participants into an experience and association with a false spirit. Through Alpha, a tidal wave of falsehood has swept over the church world-wide, and multitudes are caught up in its strong current.

[4] www.eden.co.uk/blog/eden-q-a-with-pete-greig-about-how-to-pray-p1779268