by James Jacob Prasch

Matthew Murray, the deranged shooter who murdered four and attempted to murder hundreds of other Christians in his armed attacks on ‚  a mission"s center ‚  in Arvada, Colorado and on an Evangelical church in Colorado Springs had been, until recently, a member of the spiritually and doctrinally warped "Youth With A Mission" (YWAM) organization ‚  founded by Loren Cunningham and ‚  promoted by Danny Lehman.

Moriel had warned that biblically, the ecumenical YWAM organization has no scriptural right to exist.

Acts 13 teaches that when the Lord calls missionaries to foreign mission fields, He calls veterans not young believers. In YWAM everything from Roman Catholics (still praying to the dead, believing a false sacramental gospel, and engaged in the idolatry and cannibalism of the Mass, etc.) to teenagers "saved" for as little as 3 months are sent into mission fields. The discipleship training courses use psychological techniques and employ the unbiblical ‚  teachings of John Dawson, interfaith doctrines calling the God of the Bible by the name of ‚  other gods (which Scripture twice identifies as demons), and ‚  the apostolic transformation "paradigm shift" apostasy of C. Peter Wagner.

A number of ‚  Christian experts on cults have additionally warned of the cultic nature of various practices they have identified within YWAM's discipleship training seminars. It is our preference not to comment on allegations of sexual and homosexual immorality within YWAM made by some former members, as we have no solid proof. Nor do we wish to comment on claims of "brain washing" techniques some websites report ‚  to take place within YWAM (brainwashing presupposes the existence of a brain, ‚  the existence of which within YWAM is also frankly questioned by some of its former members). We have, however, examined the dangerous nature of false doctrines propagated within and by YWAM, and we are left with the impression that nothing should surprise us.

The endemic biblical ignorance and absence of any discernment that is irrefutably inherent in YWAM, compounded by its ‚  contra-scriptural models of evangelism and discipleship ‚  do not leave us surprised at these tragic events in Colorado.

While we do not attribute any direct ‚  responsibility ‚  for the actions of Murray to YWAM, ‚  our conviction remains that crazy doctrines will produce crazy people who will do crazy things.

In response to the antics of Danny Lehman and the twisted teachings of John Dawson, ‚  Moriel filmed an on-site biblical exposition of "Paul in Athens" on location at the Acropolis debunking the "binding and loosing" lunacy of YWAM strategy demonstrating from the Scriptures that such hideous notions bear absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to the actual biblical meaning of "binding and loosing" advocated by YWAM, and is an abject and ludicrous strategy for dealing with the demonic that neither Jesus nor the Apostles ever taught or practiced (the DVD is available in the Moriel catalogue and on this web site).

No "binding or loosing" strategy prevented Matthew Murray, the killer ‚  assassin ‚  from YWAM, from putting four Christians in their graves this holiday season. Neither will such unbiblical absurdity prevent any other ‚  evil tragedy. ‚  Whether or not Murray was out of his mind and demonically driven before joining YWAM we do not know. Whether or not the unscriptural doctrines and practices of YWAM contributed to his demonically animated criminal psychosis that left four innocent people dead and their families devastated, we do not know. But ‚  YWAM's unbiblical program ‚  clearly did not help ‚  prevent this unspeakable wickedness. The only thing that should be bound at YWAM is YWAM itself, and the only thing that should be loosed is people and churches freeing themselves from any involvement with it.