Not only is Foursquare church a cult, it is downright evil. My daughter atended this church because her husband's father and mother were both pastors there. Her husband played in the band.

My daughter invited us to come visit the church. Since we didn't see each other very often, it was a great opportunity to see more of her and the children. I sincerely believe that they changed their entire service for us because I did not see ANY tongue speaking, no offbeat type of antics like barking like dogs, rolling around on the floor, etc. Everything was above board and traditional. This went on for several weeks and all I saw was the typical Sunday service--minus the Sunday School part. Apparently, they didn't believe that studying the Bible was necessary for the parishiners. There was very little talk of Jesus, but lots of stories and laughter. I did not see it as very effective for salvation, but it certainly kept everyone "happy".

I am "anti-pentecostal", so I watched very carefully what they were doing. I only cared about being with my daughter and grandchildren. I thought it odd that ANY semblance of Pentecostelism was evidently missing. My other daughter also attended a four-square in another city, and their behavior was typically pentecostal--lots of prophetic utterances, speaking in tongues, odd behavior, etc. After about 10 weeks of "missing pentecostal behavior", I finally saw some secret signs back and forth between pastor and head elder. Then, the head elder jumped into it with both feet. It was totally choreographed. After jumping about with "Satan trying to enter", and spouting a bunch of garbage, he took several (to me) mentally deficient women and began parading around the church and "stamp, stamp stamp that evil spirit away", looking like total fools. It was a big charade. To say that there wasn't a "spirit" there, would not be totally correct. Those women were shaking in their shoes. They looked like they were in awful pain. It was a totally humiliating sight. I felt really bad for those poor women! They had no choice whether to take part or not. They were literally pulled up from their pews to take part in the macabre dance. It was as evil as anything I had ever seen. Still, I did nothing. I simply watched to see where the madness would lead. My wife did no such thing. She got up, went to the front of the church and brought it all to a screeching halt. She accused the men of hurting those women and told them to STOP. They stopped DEAD. So much for the "power of the Holy Spirit". I was never more proud of her. I was too concerned about what my daughter would think and say if I did anything like that. My wife was simply concerned for the women's sake.

To me, it was total theater. The church has no place for theater, That is what makes it evil. It is false theology, false tongues, false "baptism of the Holy Spirit", and false church practices--period. My daughter (and her husband) no longer attend the church. They are looking for a good church for their family, but that is getting harder and harder to find. They have become "homogenized", by a simple model that has emerged out of "Willow Creek" that is turning Christianity on its ear because of its "success" in growing churches. The theme is fairly simple: give the congregation a screen with pictures and letters on it that they can follow, a band set up to the left of it that can get the people toe tapping and entertained, and a preacher that literally hyperventilates himself (or herself), before going on stage to give a "rousing" sermon. More often than not, the preacher is a "comedian" to continue keeping the people entertained, or spouts out nonsense that is supposedly the "voice of angels". It is all meaningless garbage and they don't even ATTEMPT to do what the Scriptures say when using "tongues"--one speak and another interpret. It is either a bedlam of noise, or a cacaphony of "prophetic utterings" that is so vague as to be explainable in almost any way.

Pentecostelism is SPIRITUALISM--plain and simple. I've seen the Catholic charismatic renewalists make an attempt to counterfeit even this dribble. What comes across is a more boring spectacle, and PURE LIES. To me (again), it is no different than trying to conjure up the dead and speaking to them to get some insight on life. The dead are dead. The scriptures plainly say that. These people are conjuring up evil spirits--and saying it is from God. If there were a supernatural aspect to it, then I could at least say that there are "spirits" at work. At best, it is just theater--at worst it is a crime--a crime against nature and a crime against God.

Is it a cult? Cult just doesn't sum it up enough. It is Satanic.