What is Vision Casting?

by Mike Ratliff

14 Μακάριοι οἱ πλύνοντες τὰς στολὰς αὐτῶν, ἵνα ἔσται ἡ ἐξουσία αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὸ ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς καὶ τοῖς πυλῶσιν εἰσέλθωσιν εἰς τὴν πόλιν. 15 ἔξω οἱ κύνες καὶ οἱ φάρμακοι καὶ οἱ πόρνοι καὶ οἱ φονεῖς καὶ οἱ εἰδωλολάτραι καὶ πᾶς φιλῶν καὶ ποιῶν ψεῦδος. (Revelation 22:14,15 NA27)

¹⁴ Blessed are the ones washing their robes that will be their right to the Tree of Life and they may enter by the gates into the city. ¹⁵ Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the fornicators, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone loving and practicing falsehood. (Revelation 22:14,15 Possessing the Treasure New Testament V1) 

After the T.D. Jakes invite to Elephant Room 2 by James MacDonald he made a tactical error by trying to justify with a lot of obfuscation even claiming that Jakes was not a Modalist. Those who defended MacDonald erred as well even when they tried to cover over the lack of discernment by MacDonald to the point of de-cloaking themselves at the end and endorsing the invite. I find it hard to understand how anyone who claims to be a Biblical scholar (Mark Driscoll) and who can actually do some good research and writing, can say all the right things, but then end his statement is total obfuscation by stating that none of it matters and he is looking forward to discussing the doctrine of the Trinity with Jakes. 

Growing out of that, much research went into the ministry of MacDonald. His “Church” is called “Vertical Church,” but he preaches at multiple sites via the Internet. Another member of the Gospel Coalition, Thabitti Anyabwile, recently posted an article titled, “Multi-Site Churches Are from the Devil”. Then James MacDonald “ReTweeted” a “Tweet” from Rick Warren in response to that article:

@jamesmacdonald

James MacDonald

RT @RickWarren: Nero fiddled as Rome burned.Today Christians burn each other while the world goes to hell. So very sad. bit.ly/orIkcG

After doing that “retweeting” support from Rick Warren, MacDonald held a “Vision meeting” at a Harvest campus. He referred to all of the things going on with Jakes and the article by Anybwile saying he had been “attacked on the Internet this week.” He stated that people were saying multi-site churches are just ego-driven, et cetera. He tried to portray himself as a martyr to the 1400 or so people present just to hear him speak.

He used 1 Kings 17:1-16, which describes God using the widow in the drought to feed Elijah from the flour bin and oil jar that never went empty as an example that those people must “endorse God’s messenger.” Of course, that was him, James MacDonald. God had spoken to him and the leadership of the church and had them hand out pledge cards to everyone saying, “Look at the back of the card and I’ll tell you how to figure out what the Lord is leading you to pledge.” The entire thing was based around the people getting hold of the vision that God had given him for Harvest church.

This is the same “Vision Casting” stuff that Rick Warren does and is taught as part of the Seeker-Sensitive Paradigm. As one of my friends has said recently. Vision casting is witchcraft, not Christianity. My brethren, that sort of manipulation which I tried to describe above is Satanic and wolfish as another of my friends said. Think of our last post, Judgment Before the Great white Throne. Is the focus of these wolves on reaching these lost people with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ or is it just get more money out of them?

Vision casting is Satanic and is a form of sorcery. According to our Lord Jesus in Revelation 22:14,15, these people are not among those whose robes are being washed so that they have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. No, they are outside and will be among those whose names are not found in Book of Life and will be cast into the Lake of Fire when they are judged before the Great White Throne.

I find it ironic that Rick Warren and James MacDonald equate building their personal kingdoms with evangelism, but when you hear their sermons, where’s the Gospel? Where’s the need for a Saviour for all those lost people? Instead, they want their money and a lot of works out of them.

Soli Deo Gloria