The clash of political and religious ideologies

Clifford Hill continues to look at words of revival.

In this instalment of our series re-publishing Blessing the Church? (Hill et al, 1995), we continue to look at prophecies of revival that have been ubiquitous in the charismatic movement. Click here for previous instalments.

Prophecy in the Vineyard Movement

A significant element in the Vineyard/KCF ministry team which was developed in the late 1980s was the way in which the prophets confirmed one another's prophecies and added additional concepts which became incorporated into the body of teaching being given through the ministry.

Bob Jones, for example, confirmed Paul Cain's teaching on 'the new breed' and stated that this elite company of believers would eventually achieve divinity. He saw them,

…progressively going on in this righteousness until you take on the very divine nature of Christ himself and you begin to see Christ in the church. Christ won't come for the church until you see Christ in the church. Papa planted Jesus, he sowed him down here in this earth to have a whole nation of brothers and sisters that looked just like Jesus and he will have it.

My daddy's big enough to have his way and he's going to have him a nation of priests and kings. That's what his heart's desire is to have him a nation of sons and daughters that will talk to him just like his Son did. His son was an alpha son, your children are the omega sons and daughters.¹

Jones believed that the generation of children born since 1973 would form the final generation of believers whom God was preparing as the Bride of Christ to take control of the world and present the Kingdom to Christ on his return. Jones continued, “I do believe what he's beginning to do is a restoration of his very nature down here. Your children will cone behind you and they'll start on your level of righteousness and holiness and they'll take off from there."²

This, of course, is complete fantasy and a denial of the teaching of Jesus who said, “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3). Our children cannot inherit our righteousness however much they may benefit from our love, our teaching, and our personal example.

The Vineyard/KCF prophets confirmed one another’s prophecies and added additional concepts – which became incorporated into the ministry’s body of teaching.

Jones went on to say that he had “a literal visitation from the Lord” and that Jesus told him a new version of Psalm 12:1, that it should read “Help, Lord, release the champions, the dread champions”. In the Bible, Psalm 12:1 reads “Help, Lord, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men”.

Jones's version³ is completely different and has no other authority except his claim to have had a personal visitation and personal revelation from God. On the strength of that vision he built a whole doctrine which was accepted by John Wimber and incorporated into the Vineyard teaching. This became clear from Wimber's use of the concept.

Appealing to the British Church

In the leaflet advertising the October 1990 meetings there was a personal message from John Wimber who wrote, “God has given us a vision to see the body of Christ move from being an inactive audience to a Spirit-filled army”.⁴

This sounds wholly good and highly attractive to ministers who have seen very little growth in their churches, and to church members who long to break out from the cocoon of traditionalism that has characterised the Church in Britain for much of the 20^th Century. But Wimber continued, “In our opinion God is about to unloose a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit of an unprecedented magnitude...He is looking for individuals who will be ‘dread champions’ for his cause”.⁵

The significance of this phrase would have been lost on most of those who hurried to return their booking forms and registration fees. The phrase 'dread champions' was part of the teaching being given by Wimber, Cain and the Kansas City Prophets. It was linked with their teaching about 'a new breed' whom God was going to raise in the last generation before the Second Coming of Christ to evangelise the world and subdue the nations.

Peter Fenwick, in previous instalments of this study, has referred to one of the foundational teachings of the Restorationist movement being that evangelism would no longer be necessary because God was going to do it as a sovereign act. The respected and renewed Church would be so attractive that unbelievers would flock to it.

Wimber borrowed phrases from the Kansas City Prophets that showed his allegiance to their teachings.

This teaching was at the heart of the Wimber message in 1990. But by this time he had added a significant new dimension to 'restorationist' teaching. Wimber believed that signs and wonders performed by an elect company of leaders through a mighty impartation of supernatural power would sweep unbelievers into the Kingdom. In essence, this belief lay at the heart of his teaching on 'power evangelism'.

Confirming Each Other’s Words

A few months before they came to Britain that year, Paul Cain had been teaching at Anaheim with John Wimber, setting out his beliefs. He said that God was bringing to birth a new breed of Christians who would actually be the incarnate word of God and through them the Gospel of the Kingdom would be proclaimed, not simply by their words but by their lives. Cain said: “God's strange act is going to bring a new order of things and bring a new breed in and bring a transformation.”⁶

Amid much clapping, shouting, whistling and cheering he told the crowd,

There's going to be something in the wave of power and evangelism in these last days. Little children are going to lay their darling little hands on the sick and heal multitudes...We are going to be just like the Lord in that respect. They're going to say, 'Here comes that dreadful, fearful army of champions. Here comes those with a word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, the working of miracles, with a healing ministry, with the power to heal the sick and raise the dead, with the power to know what's going on behind the Iron Curtain.' You're going to really be a fearful group before this thing's all over with and I am resting in that.⁷

It is noticeable that Cain had picked up Jones's phrase about an 'army of champions'. This is another example of the prophets confirming each other's words. This is a highly dangerous practice which was roundly condemned by Jeremiah:

‘Is not my word like fire,' declares the LORD, 'and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? Therefore,' declares the LORD, 'I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. ‘Yes’, declares the LORD, 'I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, "The LORD declares".' (Jer 23:29-31)

In ancient Israel the law required that the testimony of one witness should be confirmed by that of at least one other. If several prophets came declaring the same message it was regarded as divine confirmation.

The practice of prophets confirming each other’s words is highly dangerous and was roundly condemned by Jeremiah.

In Jeremiah's day the false prophets were picking up popular prophecies from each other saying that God would not allow Jerusalem to fall to the Babylonians, that the Egyptians would come to their aid and that no harm would come to the people. This encouraged them to continue living in the kind of idolatry and immorality described in Jeremiah 7:1-12 and it closed their minds to the warnings God was sending through the true prophets.

Bob Jones, Paul Cain, John Paul-Jackson, Jim Goll, Mike Bickle and Jack Deere (the Kansas City Fellowship School of Prophets) all confirmed each other's prophecies, adding bits out of their own imaginations. These all sounded good to the people so they were readily believed, even though they were contrary to Scripture. But the Word of God does not change: “How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds?” (Jer 23:26).

Flights of Fantasy

Cain's prophecies were highly popular and the crowd got even more excited when he told them that God was about to give them this supernatural power which would transform their lives:

God is saying 'Arise and shine, for your light is come, behold the darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness, but the Lord will raise you up, the Lord will rise upon you and the nations will come to your light. You're going to shine, shine, shine! You're going to be the light of day and the light of life!...

God's going to have a whole company of people that are going to be like that and then the world will see the light and they are going to come to it, they are going to see it, all nations will come to your light and that's the way we are going to get world evangelisation.⁸

This teaching, which so excited the people, was utterly false, but John Wimber endorsed it so the people accepted it. They probably did not know the Bible well enough to know that it is Jesus who is the Light of Life and the words from Isaiah 60:1, “Arise, shine, for your light has come,” are part of a prophecy about the coming of Messiah.

Surely God will not share his glory with anyone else and nations will come to his light not to ours. It is surely a wicked deception to say “the nations will come to your light”! It is also interesting to see how Cain used prophecy to confirm the Latter Rain teaching that world evangelisation would result from the supernatural power which was going to be given to believers. This teaching was central to Wimber's message.

In Jeremiah’s day, false prophets were picking up popular prophecies from each other which worked to close the people’s minds to God’s true warnings.

In the same speech Paul Cain prophesied that the new breed would possess power to overcome the enemies of the Gospel and strike terror into them: “There's going to be an awesome, reverential fear and respect for the church because the church is going to regain her power, lose her restrictions, lose her weakness...you're going to be called upon by presidents and kings of nations, heads of state…"⁹

He then went on to say that believers would be given the power to strike dead those who opposed them, as happened to Ananias and Sapphira. He said that he knew two men who possessed this power, they were William Branham and Mordecai Hamm. He said, “If I had a hero, I think it would be William Branham or Mordecai Hamm.” He continued:

God is going to have his army and they are going to be a fearful bunch and they are going to go to every place on the face of the earth. All we have to do is see two people so anointed, two people here, two people there, two people over yonder and they will go forth and take that part of China, that part of Africa, that part of that island, or that whole island, or this nation or that nation, for one can set a thousand to flight and two can set ten thousand to flight.¹⁰

It is amazing what flights of fantasy people will absorb and actually believe if their respected leaders tell them it is true.

This is what has been happening in the charismatic movement, yet we scornfully dismissed the Hindu 'milk miracle' in September 1995. The Times reported that throughout Britain Hindus “gripped by a devotional frenzy” queued up at the local shrines to offer spoonfuls of milk to their gods. “It began with rumours on Thursday that the elephant-headed Gamesh idol in a New Delhi suburb had drunk half a cup of milk and within 24 hours millions of Hindus around the world seemed to have heard of the 'signal from the gods'" (The Times, 23 September 1995).

Some of the things we ask people to believe at charismatic celebrations are almost as unbelievable as the Hindu milk miracle. In the same speech as that reported above, amidst much cheering and clapping, Paul Cain promised:

You just wait until God does this strange act. Well, they'll fall all over you getting to God. All we have to do is seize what we are talking about tonight and they'll fall all over you getting to God! You are going to employ the tools of the trade after the impartation comes.¹¹

He went on to say that John Wimber was going to give that impartation: “When brother John Wimber stands here and gives that impartation, you're going to see more signs and wonders.”¹²

Teaching on Impartation

This teaching on 'impartation' is another doctrine which comes from the Latter Rain movement. Franklin Hall taught that he was given by God the power to impart immortality. He was giving this teaching in the early days of the Latter Rain movement in the 1940s but as recently as 1988, 40 years later, he was still giving the same teaching. He said at that time that at the moment he only had the power to give partial immortality from the feet up to the knees but gradually this would extend to the whole body.

It is amazing what flights of fantasy people will absorb and actually believe if their respected leaders tell them it is true.

This teaching on impartation has been picked up by others in the charismatic movement. For example, in the March 1995 newsletter sent out from Kingdom Faith Ministries by Colin Urquhart, he writes:

Dear friends, REVIVAL IS HERE! Praise God! The revival breakthrough has come to us at Kingdom Faith, by the grace of God. This month's tape tells you of the anointing that has caused this to happen. It is a word of personal testimony of what happened when Hector Gimenez was told by God to impart to me the same anointing that was on his own life.

This teaching on impartation is contrary to Scripture. As David Noakes will show in future instalments of this series, the teaching of Haggai 2 shows that we are able to pass on corruption, but not blessing. Blessing comes down directly from God. We can of course pray for God to bestow blessing upon someone, but we cannot impart that blessing ourselves. That authority is not given to us as human beings.

This is just one of the many aberrations and errant teachings that have got into the charismatic movement through false prophecy which then becomes incorporated into doctrine and forms part of a body of false teaching.

Next week: A summary of Latter Rain prophecies and some concluding thoughts for this chapter.

References

1 Paul Cain, speaking at 'School of Prophecy', Anaheim, California, USA, Vineyard Ministries International, November 1989; transcript of tapes published by Holly Assembly of God, Missouri. Session 7, Part II, p1.

2 Ibid p9.

3 Ibid p14.

4 Leaflet issued by Vintage Ministries, Edinburgh.

5 Ibid.

6 See note 1, p9.

7 Ibid p9.

8 Ibid p11.

9 Ibid p15.

10 Ibid p19.

11 Ibid p21.

12 Ibid p21.