Prophetic warnings given within the charismatic movement during the 1970s and '80s.
After last week’s study examining biblical definitions of prophecy and false prophecy, this week Clifford Hill turns to the kinds of prophetic words that came to define the charismatic movement in the latter part of the 20th Century.
This article is part of a series, republishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’ (Hill et al). Click here for previous instalments.
Two Strands of Prophecy
An examination of prophecies coming out of the charismatic movement reveals two strands. On the one hand there have been prophecies giving warnings of difficult days and testing times.
Secondly, by contrast, there have been prophecies with promises of revival and restoration, predicting good times and days of prosperity.
We look this week at those prophesying testing times and the shaking of the nations.
Warnings
Some of the earliest prophecies giving warning of difficult days ahead were given in the mainline churches. The following, for example, was given in 1975 at an international conference of Catholic Charismatic Renewal Groups:
Because I love you, I want to show you what I am doing in the world today. I want to prepare you for what is to come. Days of darkness are coming on the world, days of tribulation…Buildings that are now standing will not be standing. Supports that are there for my people will not be there. I want you to be prepared, my people, to know only me and to cleave to me and to have me in a deeper way than ever before. I will lead you into the desert…I will strip you of everything that you are depending on now, so you depend just on me.
A time of darkness is coming on the world, but a time of glory is coming for my church, a time of glory is coming for my people. I will pour out on you all the gifts of my Spirit. I will prepare you for spiritual combat. I will prepare you for a time of evangelism that the world has never seen…And when you have nothing but me, you will have everything: lands, fields, homes, and brothers and sisters, and love and joy and peace more than ever before. Be ready, my people, I want to prepare you…1
Prophecies coming out of the charismatic movement follow two strands: either giving warnings of difficult days or promising revival and prosperity.
Another prophecy, even more specific in its warnings of economic and social upheaval, came from Catholic charismatic renewal groups at a national meeting in the USA in January 1976:
Son of man, do you see that city going bankrupt? Are you willing to see all of your cities going bankrupt? Are you willing to see the bankruptcy of the whole economic system you rely upon now, so that all money is worthless and cannot support you?
Son of man, do you see the crime and lawlessness in your city streets, and towns, and institutions? Are you willing to see no law, no order, no protection for you except the protection which I myself will give you?
Son of man, do you see the country which you love? Are you willing to see no country, no country to call your own except those I give you as my body?
Son of man, do you see those churches you can go to so easily now? Are you ready to see them with bars across their doors? Are you ready to depend only on me and not on all the institutions of schools and parishes that you are working so hard to foster?
Son of man, I call you to be ready for that.
The structures are falling and changing. It is not for you to know the details now, but do not rely on them as you have been. I want you to trust one another, to build an interdependence that is based on my Spirit. This is an absolute necessity for those who would base their lives on me and not on the structures of a pagan world.2
There were many prophecies of a similar vein in the mid-1970s. One came from the USA and was addressed specifically to church leaders. It was given at an inter-denominational charismatic renewal conference which was attended by leaders of most of the mainline churches, including Pentecostals, but with the exception of the Assemblies of God. The prophecy was a strong word calling for repentance:
The Lord has a word to speak to the leaders of all the Christian churches. If you are a bishop or a superintendent or a supervisor or an overseer or the head of a Christian movement or organization, this word is for you. The Lord says:
You are all guilty in my eyes for the condition of my people, who are weak and divided and unprepared. I have set you in office over them, and you have not fulfilled that office as I would have it fulfilled, because you have not been the servants I would have called you to be.
This is a hard word, but I want you to hear it.
You have not come to me and made important in your lives and in your efforts those things which were most important to me; but instead you chose to put other things first. You have tolerated division among yourselves and grown used to it. You have not repented for it or fasted for it or sought me to bring it to an end. You have tolerated it, and you have increased it.
And you have not been my servants first of all in every case, but you have served other people ahead of me, and you have served your organization ahead of me. But I am God, and you are my servants. Why are you not serving me first of all?
I know your hearts, and I know that many of you love me, and I have compassion on you, for I have placed you in a very hard place. But I have placed you there, and I call you to account for it. Now humble yourselves before me and come to me repentant, in fasting, mourning, and weeping for the condition of my people…3
Some of the earliest prophecies giving warning of difficult days ahead were given in the mainline churches.
Another prophecy coming from within the mainline churches in the early days of the renewal movement was delivered in Canterbury Cathedral at an international Anglican conference on spiritual renewal in 1978. The message not only referred to things that were wrong within the Church but also gave an uplifting message of God's desire to restore and renew his Church.
Within this mighty edifice the stones cry out.
The stones beneath your feet cry out;
The stones beside you cry to heaven,
And these that soar to heaven cry out too.
The stones cry out - of glory and of shame.
They cry out - of time when cloud and fire
From God on high came down
And filled this place.
And some saw that and some saw not.
Some had their lives transformed;
Some went on and plodded on the way
And saw no vision of night or day,
To take them in the new and living way
Which called them on.
These stones cry out - have always cried
In thousand years of love, grace, power
And of the great consuming fire of God.
But I say to thee –
That I have greater things to make
Than this great building.
I have a living work to do
With stones that live
In infinite and gracious detail
In the quarry of my heart.
I look upon the stones that I have made,
And they are wayward stones.
From their surface chisel oft has glanced aside
And that which I did purpose has been marred;
And yet I stoop again with broken tool
To take the stone that I have made
And work again upon that stone,
That it may be as I have
Long desired that is should be...
And let these stones cry out
Of what the living stones must be...
That you may truly High exalt the Saviour's name.4
Ten years later also in Canterbury Cathedral, Patricia Higton gave a more specific warning that the desire for unity and good relationships with people of other faiths was leading the Church dangerously towards multi-faith worship.
I have been speaking to you of unity. And yes, you are beginning to understand that you must reflect my divine nature in its harmony. But I would say to you I am a God of creativity. The unity which I long to see amongst my children will be a diamond with many facets. Each facet will reflect something of my revelation but is of little worth unless part of the whole. So there must be a glad recognition that you belong together and need each other. But again I would warn you, my children, that my enemy is seeking to bring about a unity which is not based on my word. It will appear to have as its goal the peace of this world, but it is not centred on the cross of My Son.
I am warning you of these things for I would not have any of you deceived by wandering down the path of acceptance, leading to toleration of any form of worship which does not uphold my name and my word. The end of that path is that many will one day worship a Christ who is not my Son. The very stones of this building will witness this terrible thing, unless my church repents.5
This warning went unheeded and the prophecy was fulfilled the following year when a 'Festival of Faith and the Environment' was held at Canterbury Cathedral. People of all faiths and philosophies were invited to participate and were encouraged to join a 'pilgrimage' walk from temples and shrines of other faiths culminating in a multi-faith celebration in the Cathedral.
Other messages not only warned about what was wrong within the Church but also gave an uplifting message of God's desire to restore and renew it.
The multi-faith festival brought protests from evangelicals of all denominations. The protest within the CofE was led by Tony Higton, a leading Anglican charismatic, Director of ABWON (Action for Biblical Witness to Our Nation) founded in 1984. An open letter to the leadership of the Church of England opposing multi-faith worship was signed by over 2,000 clergy, which sent shock waves through the hierarchy, and the activities of Cathedral Deans who were arranging a number of multi-faith activities came to an abrupt stop. This is an indication of the power of prophetic witness to influence Church policy even in days when scant respect is paid to biblical correctness.
Five years prior to the Canterbury festival, a new magazine, Prophecy Today was launched in London by the ministry which I lead. From the beginning it carried an uncompromising biblically-based message. Its editorial policy statement reads:
It is published with the intention of conveying the word of God for our times to the people of God, and through them to the nations of the world.
We define prophecy as the forthtelling of the word of God. This was the task of the prophets in ancient Israel. It is the task of the church today…Christ wants his church to be a prophetic people proclaiming his word to his world. It was for this reason that the Holy Spirit was given to the New Testament community of believers.
We also believe that the present world situation is so serious that the very existence of mankind is under threat. In all the nations a spirit of violence and disorder appears to have been loosed that is disturbing family life, disrupting the community, overthrowing moral and social stability and threatening to lead to worldwide destruction. We believe that the root problems facing mankind are not simply economic, social or political, but spiritual, and that the Gospel is the only answer.
We note that in times of crisis in ancient Israel God used the prophets to alert people to danger and to correct their ways…so today we believe God is longing to use his church in this prophetic role in the world. The most urgent need for the nations is not to hear the opinions of men, but to hear the word of God. It is as a contribution towards the prophetic task that Prophecy Today is published.6
By the early 1990s Prophecy Today had reached a circulation in excess of 16,000 - the largest circulation of a Christian bi-monthly magazine in the UK. With each copy being read by an average of three persons this means that Prophecy Today was read by approximately 50,000 in the evangelical/charismatic churches. Typical of the warning note it sounded was the following prophecy:
The nation is sick and heading for massive disaster, but I hold my church primarily responsible for the moral and spiritual life of this nation. You are the watchmen of the nation and you have not been faithful upon the walls of the cities to discern the onslaught of the enemy or to blow the trumpet to warn the people of danger, so the enemy has been allowed to come in like a flood and pervade the land.
The land has been polluted by the shedding of innocent blood, by violence and pornography, by adultery and sodomy, by corruption and injustice, by greed and avarice, by oppression and unrighteousness, by lies and deceit, by witchcraft and idolatry and by a lack of compassion for the poor and powerless.
In the face of all this evil and corruption your voice is still not heard in the nation. The prophetic declaration of the word of God is not heard upon the lips of the leaders of the church. It is for this reason that the church languishes, its numbers are in decline, its finances are unhealthy and there is disunity, discord and a lack of vision.
Now is the time to repent. Now is the time to recognise your faithlessness and the way you have strayed from the paths of righteousness and failed to uphold my word in the nation. If you will now repent publicly of your own sinfulness and declare my word within the church and in the sight of the whole nation, the people will respond. If you refuse to hear this word and harden your hearts against me, you will bring upon yourselves terrible consequences as the days darken across the nations.7
Several prophecies that were influential in the charismatic movement were given at an international conference in Israel in April 1986. These were the first to give forewarning of the shaking of the nations, which would be accompanied by a worldwide harvest as the Church continued to expand rapidly in many nations.
The 1986 Carmel conference forewarned of the shaking of the nations, which would lead to worldwide harvest for the Church.
The shaking of the nations would be through both political and economic upheaval. One of the prophecies said that the great shaking was about to begin with the Soviet Union. Three weeks later the Chernobyl nuclear power station erupted which began the shaking of the USSR and led to its eventual demise. The following is a small part of one of the prophecies. It referred specifically to the downfall of Gorbachev and the collapse of the Communist empire:
I, only I, can overcome this evil regime. But through the prayers of my people I will break the power of this man. For this reason you should pray for your enemies. I will send a famine. It will bring the Kremlin to their knees and make them open to my word.8
Four years later this prophecy was fulfilled in the breakup of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries of Eastern Europe. It was the famine caused by the Chernobyl meltdown which began the whole process.
Next week: Prophecies of revival and good times.
References
1 Published in New Covenant, February 1978. Charismatic Renewal Services, Ann Arbor, Michigan, p4.
2 Ibid, p5.
3 Ibid, p6.
4 I am indebted to Patricia Higton of Time Ministries International (Essex) for the record of this prophecy.
5 Ibid.
6 Prophecy Today, published by PWM Trust (Bedford). Published in each edition of Prophecy Today since March 1984.
7 Prophecy Today, Vol 10 No 4, July/Aug 94.
8 Prophecy Today, Vol 2 No 4, July/Aug 86.
