The Vineyard, the
Charismatic Church, and the Cults
September
2002
(Updated
January2005)
Table of Contents
The Vineyard, the Charismatic Church, and the Cults 2
Why I Write 2
The Walk 3
The Vineyard 9
Night of the Living Dead 10
The “Blessing” Comes to Toronto 10
The Charismatic
Church 12
Saved by Grace 13
A Few Questions about Toronto 15
The 15 Points of Walk Teaching and Practice 20
Walk Talk 24
Red Flags of Deception 25
Characteristics of a Cultic Mindset 30
Spiritual Drunkenness: Last Call for the Sober to Flee 33
Run for your lives! 38
Where the River of God Flows 39
Long before becoming a born-again Christian in the fall of 2000, I spent
7 years in a cult calling itself the Church of the Living Word, also known as
‘the Walk’, lead by John Robert Stevens. After the Walk, I went to the Vineyard
and spent 9 years there from 1989 up until 1998. When I became a Christian in
2000 I was attending a local Charismatic church.
Soon after becoming a Christian
I began to notice many similarities between what we had been taught in the Walk
– an outright cult - and what was being taught in the Vineyard and Charismatic
movements. As a result I started taking a closer look into the teachings of
charismatic leadership. I also noticed that there was prevalent within Charismatic/Vineyard
churches a ‘mindset’ which was very similar to the type of mindset I found
within the cult. I will discuss this ‘cultic mindset’ in more detail later[1],
but for now suffice it to say that I am not referring to specific doctrines,
but in the way rank-and-file members relate to the leadership and accept their
teachings with little, if any, serious critical evaluation. This cultic-mindset is rampant in the charismatic
church today and has resulted in an appalling lack of discernment in that
movement.
Charismatic and
Vineyard churches are highly autonomous, so I want to be careful not to paint
them all with the same broad brush. It is not my purpose to label them all as
cults and many of these churches are attended by sincere Christians. However,
Charismatic and Vineyard churches as a group embrace the same basic ideas about
how the Holy Spirit is working in the church today, and have endorsed the new ‘third
wave’ generation of charismatic apostles and prophets as bona-fide spiritual
leaders.[2]
Yet many of the
sincere Christians who attend these churches have not made a complete or
careful examination of the teachings of these apostles and prophets, nor
carefully searched the Scriptures to see if they are true. Many of the major
beliefs and premises of these prophets and apostles are very similar to (and in
some points identical) the heretical teachings taught by the Walk. Furthermore,
within the charismatic movement there are pronounced tendencies that are highly
cult-like in the way members relate to spiritual leadership and respond to
teaching.
What I hope to
accomplish in this article is to address the similarity of teaching and mindset
between the cult and Charismatic/Vineyard groups. The similarities are not
minor, nor are they confined to peripheral issues. It involves almost all of
the core doctrines and major beliefs of the charismatic movement.
For 7 years during
the 1970’s and early 80’s I was a member of a cult calling itself “The Church
of the Living Word”, also known as “The Walk”. It was founded by a man named
John Robert Stevens who, it was believed, was the ‘Apostle’ raised up by God to
lead the Christian church into the “fullness of the Kingdom of God” on the earth.
He taught a blending of Latter Rain[3]
doctrine and occult, with enough of a Christian veneer to fool sincere
believers who had a hunger for something more than what their traditional
church had to offer.
I was immediately attracted by the sense of ‘spiritual’
energy and divine mission they seemed to possess. They had apostles and
prophets, just like in the Bible, and they told us that God was doing a new
thing and we were “it”. I spent most of my Walk years from 1977 to 1984 as a
member of local cell churches in Ontario and Alberta, with frequent trips to
larger Walk centers around the US.
The founder of the Walk, John Robert Stevens (JRS),
claimed to be the Apostle to the Kingdom. He believed he was receiving the new
revelation from God necessary to lead the church into the New Thing God was bringing, which was the fullness of the Kingdom
of God in the Earth before Christ’s return. The Walk was one of the more
radical tributaries that flowed out of the Latter Rain revival of the late 40’s
and 50’s. Walk doctrine incorporated the worst of the many heresies that came
out of the Latter Rain movement, with some of Steven’s own ideas thrown into
the mix.
Stevens had been hugely influenced by William Branham[4]
during the Latter Rain movement. Branham believed that he was the angel of the
seventh church mentioned in the Book of Revelation. He also believed, among
other things, that the Word of God was expressed to us not just in the Bible,
but in the Zodiac and Egyptian Pyramids, and his teaching was a blending of the
occult, spiritism, and the Bible. Stevens picked up many of his ideas from
Branham and other Latter Rain teachers and started his own church in 1950,
located in the Los Angeles area.
I knew nothing of Walk history at the time, but when I
joined in 1977 it had grown to a large network of about 100 churches spread
across North America, with a few small groups in Europe and South Africa.
I soon found out that being in the Walk was going to be
a whole lot more fun than traditional church life. Walk people took the
doctrine of “salvation by faith alone” into interesting new levels. It didn’t
matter a whole lot how you lived as long as “your heart was right” and you
believed the right things. I didn’t smoke, drink, or visit bars when I joined
the Walk, but that all changed. Many Walk members would often frequent bars and
strip clubs, drink excessively and generally whoop it up, and I was soon going
along with them. This was considered to be a healthy development for me since I
was coming from a “religious” background.
In
the Walk, one of the biggest hindrances to true spirituality was to have what
we termed a “religious spirit”. Being religious was ‘old order’ and would
hinder the ability to receive the new revelation coming from JRS. It was
believed that one of the best ways to break a religious spirit was to let it
all hang out and indulge your fleshly cravings. Indulging and expressing “the
flesh” was considered more honest and “being real”, and therefore closer to God
than phony, restrictive, “religious” behavior.
So
in the topsy-turvy world of the Walk, carnality and sinful indulgence was an
accepted route to spirituality. Many of those regarded to be the most spiritually
mature were also often the wildest drinkers and party goers. But it was generally
agreed that this was perfectly fine, because they were considered spiritually
strong enough to handle it.
The Walk was very insular and elitist in the extreme. As
far as we were concerned, the Walk was it. We were the embodiment of what
God was doing in the earth today, moving towards becoming the manifestation of
Christ in the earth with all His power and glory, which would enable us to
usher in the new era of Christ’s Kingdom. Anyone who was in tune with God would
see this and join our movement. Those who did not see things our way just
didn’t have the revelation.
Steven’s would have nothing to do with other
denominations and we did not associate at all with other Christian groups. In
our view, there was little to be gained by associating with other Christian
groups anyway, since we were the ones who had “the revelation”, and if there
was more to be given, God would give it to us. We were on God’s cutting edge,
leading the way for the “new thing” God was doing in our generation. This
elitism, the sense of being on God’s cutting edge, was what attracted most of
us to the Walk. We loved the sense of being a part of God’s inner circle.
Violent Intercession and Prophecy Junkies
Our services typically compromised of sitting around in
a group listening to the latest tape from Anaheim. We all became prophecy
junkies and lived from week to week in eager anticipation of the latest “word.”
There was little teaching from the Bible. The pastor/leader was the guy who
switched on the tape machine or regurgitated the latest apostolic revelation.
After listening to the latest “word” from the Apostle, we would begin to engage
the enemy in spiritual warfare through a form of prayer known as “violent
intercession”.
Spiritual “violence” was one of the very basic premises
behind the Walk, taken from the King James translation of Matthew 11:12. This
teaching, generally referred to as “Taking the Kingdom by Violence”, was the
concept that the Kingdom would only belong to those who wanted it badly enough
to attain a sufficient level of spiritual intensity[5].
(Violence did not mean physical force, but a spiritual intensity.) Only those
intense enough would “break through” in the spiritual realm and release the
spiritual power necessary to make the word a reality. Intensity of prayer, or
“violent intercession”, is what made it happen. This violent intercession was a
big part of Walk church meetings. We believed that intensity and forcefulness
behind our prayers was required to be effective, so we all worked very hard at
building up our intensity by shouting, stomping our feet, and punctuating our
demands with slashing hand action (like a sword).
We would typically begin to “intercede” by standing
around in a circle after listening to the latest tape. Intercession would often
begin by rebuking complacency in God’s people and appropriating the promises
with shouts of faith. We would rebuke the Devil and the host of evil beings
arrayed against us in the heavenlies.
‘Violent’ intercession comprised of shouting favorite
“catch phrases” at God or the Devil. Some typical catch phrases often shouted repeatedly
during intercession were:
“We loose the
word tonight, Lord!” (With foot
stomping.)
“We rebuke all
passivity tonight!” (Rapid hand motions
slice the air in emphasis.)
“We cast down the
enemy and all his lies.”
“We speak the Apostles release today, Lord!”
“We won’t rest until we have the fullness of your Kingdom Lord.”
The intensity of our prayers and faith would “loose the
word”. “Loosing the word” was setting its creative power free, and was another
major premise of the Walk.
Great emphasis was placed in becoming the “word” through
the intensity of our intercession. Attaining greater levels of spirituality
depended upon our intensity. We believed we could speak the ‘word’ into
existence, and appropriate the reality through prayer and positive confession.
“Speaking” a word, such as ‘peace’ or ‘faith’, would impart it. Prayer commonly
involved making ‘prophetic declarations’. As we prayed, we would lean forward,
rapidly rocking back and forth and stomping the ground with our feet. Prophetic
declarations were punctuated with rapid hand action, chopping and slicing
through the air. We seldom ever sat or kneeled in prayer, as that made it more
difficult to be intense.
The focus of our prayers would be to appropriate for
ourselves the latest “truth” revealed by the Apostle and to speak it into
being. We would also pray for the Apostle Stevens to have the “Kingdom
breakthrough” we were all believing for. It was believed that once we pushed
him through to the Kingdom through our intense intercession, he would be able
to bring the rest of us into the Kingdom.
The
Walk was very militant in tone. The songs, prayers and teachings all had a
military air. A lot of Walk teaching revolved around the whole concept of a
spiritual army ‘taking the Kingdom by force’, which resulted in prayers that
were not about submission to God or seeking His will, but in casting down
demonic powers and strongholds in high places. We were very demanding and insistent
of our rights as sons of God. Praying in
the Walk had little to do with humbly seeking God for His will and submitting
to it as most Christians properly understand prayer. No, not us - we demanded
the promises! Of course, we believed that it was all according to God’s will as
revealed by the Apostle. We were intense prophets, God’s spiritual warriors
excitedly taking the Kingdom by storm, not humble servants!
Getting the Revelation
In the Walk, we often talked of “getting the revelation”
or “revelation knowledge”. This was a mystical insight that gave us access to
spiritual truths, as opposed to informing the intellect through the study of
God’s Word. ‘Getting the revelation’ was knowledge of the truth gained through
a mystical experience or insight. This method of gaining the truth was
considered much more spiritual, and therefore far superior, to mere Bible
study. The knowledge of truth was received by direct spiritual insight or
impartation, of which the apostle Stevens was the channel. We were expected to
accept what Stevens said as direct from God, without criticism. Our own
spiritual capacity to receive the truth would confirm it. No need to carefully
check the Bible.
There was often much talk and teaching about the
necessity of bypassing the mind in order to ‘receive’ the truth. Those who were
properly open to God would receive the divine illumination to know the truth of
what the Apostle said. We were to have a mystical inner sense that told us what
was true. Those who didn’t believe just
didn’t have the necessary spiritual ability to receive, and therefore couldn’t
“know”.
Possessing the inner mystical ability to “get the
revelation” permeated the Walk and it’s teaching, and believing that you had it
was essential to joining the Walk. This is a hyper-spiritual way of thinking
that becomes very self-authenticating[6].
It provides an almost impermeable defense from any form of criticism, because
anyone who questioned us or our teaching just didn’t have the ‘revelation’ and
thus could be safely ignored. They were obviously low-wattage Christians, below
us on the spiritual scale of things, and we were above quibbling with them. No
rational argument from scripture impacted us, because we had moved beyond
scripture and entered into the realm of direct knowledge from God. The only
scriptures we were interested in were those that seemed to support our beliefs.
No one in the Walk ever questioned what Steven’s said, and anyone who did soon
left. They were known as “blow-outs” that couldn’t handle the revelation.
Revelation knowledge was in fact what the Walk was all
about. God was doing a new thing in the earth, preparing an army that would
“break through” into the Kingdom and usher in the reign of Christ in the earth.
The Apostle Stevens was the anointed man of God to lead the charge. New
revelation was needed for the “new thing”, so God was also raising up prophets
and apostles along with Stevens to speak the new, living word of God. A few
isolated scripture verses were heavily spiritualized to support this.
Little Christ’s in the Earth
Stevens taught that the Bible text was a dead letter,
and it was only alive as it lived in us and the Apostles. The “word made
manifest” was common Walk talk. The “Living Word” was revelation knowledge
spoken through the Apostle. The word of God was “Living” because living vessels
spoke it and it wasn’t just “dead” text in a book. We believed that we could
“become the word” as the word became manifest in us. By this, Stevens literally
meant that we could become “the Word made flesh” just as Christ was, and become
“little Christ’s” in the earth today.
The spoken word was, in practice if not in doctrine,
placed on a par with scripture. In fact, most of us in the Walk ignored our
Bibles. I seldom ever opened its pages. Why would I? We were getting God’s
latest, hottest word straight off the press.
According to Stevens, he never knew when he might
receive a sudden, divine impartation of new wisdom. He was receiving such a
steady flow of new revelation from the Lord that he often had a small entourage
of assistants following him around with tape recorders so that none of his
prophetic utterances would be missed.
Stevens often talked about the Devil. He seemed to talk
about what the devil was doing as much as what God was doing. Apparently
Stevens was so vital to God’s endtime plan, and moving in such a high level of
prophetic impartation, that the devil was always after him and giving Stevens a
hard time. Stevens always gave the impression that he was in constant life and death
spiritual battles with the enemy,[7]
and we were always encouraged to pray for him. In fact, praying for him and
listening to his tapes was the main focus of our meetings and of the Walk in
general.
We often made pilgrimages to the bigger Walk churches in
Sepulveda and South Gate, and several other cities around the U.S. The Walk had
a large complex in Iowa, just outside of Washington, called Shiloh. This was
our major conference center and school of the prophets. It was a huge wooden
structure surrounded by corn fields. I spent a couple of summers there,
attending conferences and picking corn. Shiloh soon earned a bad reputation
with the locals due to the drinking habits of our church members, who liked to
patronize the local bars and drink excessively. Many of the local
establishments became “off limits” to Walk members because of our drunken
behavior.
However, drinking was very popular in the Walk and seen
by many as an effective antidote to a ‘religious spirit’. We were always on the
guard against religious spirits cropping up in ourselves and others.
Religiosity was considered at least as bad, or even worse than, sin. It was
often taught that it was better to just sin and be honest, rather than run the
risk of being religious.
Once a man joined our group who used to attend a local Pentecostal
church. It was the general consensus that this new member had a religious
spirit. We were very worried for him, but much to our relief he soon discovered
that he liked the taste of beer and took up drinking. We considered that this
was a good thing as it was a sign that the religious spirit that had him in
bondage was being broken.
Stevens
died in the early 1980’s and his widow,
Marilyn, took over leadership of the Walk. I left the Walk in 1984. The
last time I had any direct contact with former friends in that group was years
later, and they were still praying for
Stevens to be raised from the dead.
It
is not within the scope or purpose of this article to write a complete history
of the Walk and it’s doctrines[8],
but I wanted to give you a summary of it’s major teachings, characteristics and
mindset, because the same beliefs that Stevens taught in the Walk are surfacing
in the Vineyard/Charismatic prophetic movement today. I have included a summary
of the major Walk doctrines in a subsequent chapter.
The Walk embodied a hyper-spiritual way of thinking that
fosters spiritual pride, making the affected Christian susceptible to all kinds
of unbiblical, elitist beliefs. The Walk conditioned it’s adherents to view all
the rest of Christianity as a type of religious ‘Babylon’: in spiritual
darkness, unable to receive the revelation we had, and therefore abandoned by
God. The Walk was it. I remember well a comment Stevens made once that sums up
this cultic conditioning very well. He said it in a very off-the-cuff manner,
but it expressed the prevalent Walk attitude. “Once you’ve been in the Walk, it
ruins you for anything else. You won’t ever be able to return to Babylon.”
(Babylon being any church other than the Walk.)
Hyper-spiritual thinking turns a Christian into a
spiritual surfer, always wanting to ride a new wave and looking to catch the
next big move of God. Such Christians are seldom satisfied with the plain message
of the Bible and reaching the lost so that others can be saved. They are more
interested in discovering deeper truths or discussing some novel insight. One
of the greatest dangers behind this type of thinking is to cause Christians to
forget that our main job here on earth is to preach the gospel and teach the basic
Word of God so that others can be brought into the faith of Christ. Instead, it
sets Christians on a quest for ever higher spiritual experience, raising up
great spiritual armies and engaging in high level cosmic warfare.
I left the Walk and joined the Vineyard movement in the late 80’s. The Vineyard is a Charismatic church growth movement characterized by a casual, relaxed atmosphere and an upbeat, modern style of worship music. The Vineyard is at the forefront of a much larger Charismatic revival, lead by the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship (TACF)[9], Peter Wagner, Rick Joyner and the new wave of prophets and apostles rising to prominence. The first thing I noticed about the Vineyard was its music and laid-back preaching style. The music was great and the worship went on for extended periods, the dress was casual and it had a coffee bar at the back. I was to remain in the Vineyard for the next 9 years.
I soon discovered there was a reason for the laid back preaching style in the Vineyard: The Vineyard was very laid-back about what it believed. In contrast to the Walk, the Vineyard was very wishy-washy about what it believed and adopted an easy-going approach to the truth. There was lots of warm and fuzzy preaching on God’s love, personal fulfillment, setting and reaching goals, and dreaming big dreams for life. I used to be in sales in the business world, and recognized most of it as repackaged business management-speak and sales motivational teaching that had more to do with Norman Vincent Peal than the Bible.
The Vineyard was very pragmatic in its approach to church growth. We were often developing new ways to reach the community through various out-reach programs, such as door-to-door food give-aways, free barbeques, or pop give-aways on street corners. These things are not wrong in themselves, of course, but for all our good works, there was little Gospel content in what we did. We put a lot of thought into how to reach the community, but little consideration into the content of the message we were reaching them with. Most of our growth came from attracting existing Christians to our church with our popular music and coffee-club atmosphere.
The Vineyard also took a pragmatic approach to truth: whatever worked was OK. What Bible teaching there was usually came in the form of “keys” or “steps” to reaching some personal or group goal, such as realizing your full potential. Lots of teaching centered on the mechanics of various “how-to” methodologies, such as ‘how-to journal’ as a method to hear God. How-to pray for the sick. How-to reach the community. How-to minister and receive inner-healing. How-to discover your spiritual ‘gift mix’. How-to interpret dreams, and so on.
Often, preaching was little more than subjective ramblings about what the speaker “felt” God was currently saying or doing. And always about how much God loved us and how some wonderful new thing was on the horizon. Always couched in very spiritual terms, but it was typically the leader’s opinions of what God was saying at the moment and seldom was there much, if any, Biblical exposition.
In one such very typical service, the entire teaching consisted of gleanings from a secular book on business success that had been written by a Mormon. In another very typical service I recall, the sermon consisted of jokes the Pastor read from a Christian joke book. The only occasions that I can recall in which the pastor actually expounded on the Bible at any length (apart from cherry-picking the occasional, isolated proof text), was when the church started running into the red, and a sermon on tithing was dusted off.
Even before the ‘Blessing’ hit the Toronto Airport
Vineyard in 1994 we were seeing bizarre manifestations in the Vineyard. In the
early 90’s, just before 1994 when the ‘laughing revival’ broke out, there was a
Vineyard conference in Kitchener that I still think of as “the night of the
living dead”. In this conference, when the altar call was given, a large crowd
lurched to the front, probably half the auditorium, and started dancing,
twisting, gyrating, and hopping at the front as a “blessing” was prayed over
them. Vast numbers of people lurched, crawled, staggered and limped around like
a mass of grotesque horror flick zombie’s. The room was filled with all manner
of freakish, bizarre and even obscene behavior. One girl was on her back in
front of the stage, making orgasmic, thrashing and gyrating motions that could
only be described as sexual activity.
The Vineyard leaders accepted all this as the moving of
the Spirit. The prevailing attitude of the leadership and members was that this
was God moving. According to standard Vineyard thinking, the Holy Spirit can do
a deep inner work without the mind being informed or knowing what is going on,
or without any further knowledge of truth. It was generally acknowledged that some
of the bizarre behavior may be demonic in origin, but most of it was the work
of the Holy Spirit or the human response to the power of the Holy Spirit at work
within. It was believed that the Spirit often worked best and deepest if it
could bypass the intellect, and there was no need for the mind to be informed.
So we weren’t too concerned because we believed that God was doing a deeper
work in them and we simply prayed that God would bless them even more.
In the Vineyard, adhering to true doctrine was not as important as just being open to whatever the ‘spirit’ wanted to do. For any leader, it was more important to be lead by the spirit, and as long as a ministry seemed to move in that, and could get results (make “stuff” happen, which in our circles meant healings and manifestations) h/she was assumed to be a man or woman of God regardless of the content of their teaching. Whatever they said was accepted as a message from God.
As a result of this mindset, a speaker could say almost anything from a Vineyard pulpit as long as they came packaged with the right charismatic personality and spiritual gifts. In the Vineyard, one of the gravest sins that could be committed was to get too firm on beliefs, since that was considered unloving and divisive. Since questioning a teaching was perceived to be divisive and critical, we seldom ever seriously questioned what was taught or took seriously the Biblical warning to test all teachings and prophetic “words”.
Discernment devolved to the level of feelings, intuitive insight and subjective impressions in which no one could know anything for sure, but certain people (usually the ‘prophetic’ types in our midst) were generally trusted to have the right discernment on issues. This attitude fostered a lack of real discernment among Vineyard leaders which opened the doors wide to a large influx of false teachers and false prophets in the early Nineties. I believe it was this lack of discernment, largely due to Biblical illiteracy, that paved the way for the arrival of the Toronto “Blessing” in 1994.
Early in January of 1994, I heard that revival[10]
had broken out in the Toronto Vineyard and we went up to check it out. Our
Vineyard was within an hours drive. Many friends from our Vineyard church also
went up that night. We entered the meeting room and I was stunned by the
bizarre scene that opened up before us. It was pandemonium everywhere. The large
room was crowded with people shaking, bobbing, running on the spot and flapping
their arms.
I didn’t get the “Blessing” that night, but many of my friends
did. I walked up to one friend, a worship leader from our church, who was
running frantically on the spot and flapping his hands. I asked him what he
thought was happening and how he felt. He had no explanation, only a smile, and
he couldn’t stop the running or hand flapping.
I attended several Toronto meetings. Although the
leaders would often say that the manifestations where not what it was all
about, that’s what they mostly talked about and they held them up as the proof
of God’s moving in our midst. It was obvious that the manifestations were the
big drawing card. After an extended time of worship, there would be a testimony
time in which the leader would interview people up front about what they felt God
was doing within them.
Manifestations often started during worship, but became
very pronounced during testimony time, and the leaders would go with “whatever
God was doing in our midst” and allow almost anything to happen. Often there
was no time left for preaching. But that was never an issue, because we were
not going up to hear the Word. Soon, the thing was to double over making
gasping or mooing noises. From that time on, there was a lot of “mmmooooooing”,
“wwhhooooing” and “ooooooing” in Vineyard meetings.
One Vineyard service I remember at a church north of
Toronto was very typical. It was more like a drunken party than a church service.
The chairs had been cleared away so that the middle was open. The congregation
stood around and danced to loud rock “worship” music. Many at the front were
falling over each other. As they touched each other, they would get “blessed”
and double over, collapsing in a heap, arm in arm. Communion was served as a
women danced through the crowd with a tray serving glasses of grape juice to
other dancers on the floor. We were there until after 10:30 at night, and still
the worship and dancing continued and no one preached. I stood in the back, not
dancing.
At this time, and for several years, I was decidedly
pro-Toronto Blessing, as the renewal came to be known. I didn’t understand what
was going on, but decided that if that’s how God wanted to move, then that was
fine by me. Who was I to question God? It never occurred to me to open my Bible
and test what was going on against the Word. The mystical education I received
in the Walk set me up perfectly to accept the Toronto Blessing without
question.
I had been taught in the Walk to accept that God could
do things that did not line up with the written Word. Now, in the Vineyard we
had Prophets who were getting a steady stream of messages from God who could
interpret what was going on for us, even though we did not know what the Bible
taught on such matters.
So I went with it, and criticized the critics for being
closed to what the Spirit was doing. I considered that those “old order
Pharisees” just couldn’t handle it when God wanted to do something fresh in another
group like ours. They just didn’t understand what God was doing in our midst.
If they’d just open up their hearts to the Spirit, then they would understand that
this was really God. But they couldn’t do that because they were “religious”
and narrow minded. This pretty much summed up my attitude and the prevalent
attitude of the pro-Toronto crowd.[11]
In the Walk we were used to accusations from other
church groups of being a cult, and we all learned how to deal with that without
letting it get to us. Didn’t Ishmael always persecute the true Isaac? Didn’t
the old order always misunderstand the new thing God does? Were not the true
prophets persecuted? So when other Christian groups began to question the
Toronto Blessing and raise many serious and legitimate theological concerns, I
already had the necessary psychological defenses in place to dismiss them out
of hand - without ever stopping to think
for even a moment that they just may have a point!
During the mid to late 90’s, I was involved in a new
Vineyard church plant in our community. However, by 1998 the church plant
fizzled and I began attending a local Charismatic church. But I still
considered myself to be a part of the Vineyard and continued to move socially
in Vineyard circles for a few more years.
The 2 years that followed were the worst of my life.
Looking back on it now, it’s the best thing that ever happened to me, because
the Lord used it to finally bring me to Himself in real surrender and
conversion. Faithful are His afflictions.
“It was good for
me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.”[12]
I was in the deep black pit of despair and saw no way out. A small software company I had started with a friend a few years earlier was in deep trouble. A large business deal I had made with a big distributor turned sour and threatened to bankrupt me, and I became embroiled in a lengthy and expensive lawsuit. My marriage was in trouble and was heading for the rocks. I struggled on until finally, in the summer of 2000 I hit bottom, financially, emotionally and spiritually. My business was a failure. I was out of work and saddled with a huge debt. The lawsuit continued to grind on with no end in sight. I owed more money than I ever hoped to pay off, and began to look into bankruptcy proceedings.
Late one night in September of 2000, I was laying awake
in bed worrying about my debt, the lawsuit, my marriage and how everything in
my life had gone terribly wrong. I didn’t know where to turn. I thought I was a
good Christian and couldn’t understand why my life was falling apart.
As I laid there reviewing my life, I began to realize
that even though I considered myself a good person and I believed in God in an
intellectual way, Jesus was not the Lord of my life. I was still in control of
my life and I was not living for Him. I had never given Him my life and entrusted
myself completely to Him, and I was afraid of what He might do if I did. I had
never given up my will and desires. I did not believe that His way really was
better than mine. That night I saw my unbelief and lack of trust in Christ for
the sin that it was.
At around 2 AM I got up and went downstairs to the
living room so I wouldn’t wake my wife, and got on my knees and began to pray and
call out to God. I began by confessing all my sins that I was aware of and
repenting of them, asking Him to forgive me and help me to change. I confessed
especially my sin of unbelief and rebellion by not trusting Him to direct my
life. I repented of my fear of what He may do with my life, and I handed my
life fully over to Him, asking Him to come and be the Lord of my life and take
charge completely.
I don’t remember what words I used exactly, but this in
a nutshell was how I prayed. The key was surrendering control of my life over
to His Lordship. I confessed that I was still a sinner because I was in control
and essentially doing things my way. I repented of this, and surrendered my
will and ambitions over to Christ and committed myself to doing what He wanted,
no matter what. I asked for His help to do this as I knew I couldn’t live the
Christian life without His strength. I prayed like this for a long while, and
then went back to bed.
I don’t recall feeling anything in particular while I
was praying, but I soon noticed that a change took place inside me that
surprised me. I became spiritually alive in a way that I had never experienced
before. I had a new inner life and strength, freedom from many sins that had
plagued me, and a real inner peace that I had never known. I also found a new
power to resist and overcome sin. I was by no means perfect, but I had a new
strength and power over sin which I previously didn’t have. Worldly interests
faded and I lost interest in the usual entertainment with which I used to
occupy my free time. It now seemed to me to be such a colossal waste of time,
and even sinful. Instead, I much preferred to spend my free time in prayer,
studying the Scriptures, or with my family and other good tasks which pleased
the Lord. But probably the most significant change was a great inner peace
which I had never before known. Christians through the ages have referred to this
change as regeneration, conversion, the new birth, or being born-again.
One of the first things I noticed after my conversion
was that I had a new love for His Word and a passion for the truth. I hadn’t
read the Bible for years because I never got very much out of it, but
immediately after my prayer of commitment to Christ, I found a new love and
pleasure in the Word. His Book came to life for me in a way that I had never
experienced before, and I began to spend hours reading it.
Also, I began to pray and soon made a habit of getting
up early each morning so I could pray before going to work. One of the first
things the Lord taught me after my conversion was the importance of spending
time alone with Him everyday to maintain and grow in the life of His Spirit.
This is how we grow deeper in Him so that we can continually receive His life
and not dry up. It is the only way to grow in personal knowledge of Him.
One of the most delightful aspects of repentance and coming to faith in
Christ is the spiritual reality that
begins on a personal level with the Savior. Life changes from the inside, and
it is truly a new life. One of the several changes that took place for me, and
I believe for anyone truly regenerate, is a new love for God’s Word. I had a
new hunger for the Word, and I could not get enough of God’s truth. I started
to devour the Bible from Genesis through Revelation. And this is when my
trouble with the charismatic church started.
Soon after my conversion I became appalled at the
backslidden condition of the church and horrified over its spiritual squalor.
For months I was in an agony over the state of the church. The preaching in the
Charismatic church I was attending at the time of my conversion was mostly
hype, froth and vacuous enthusiasm with little substance. It reminded me of the
motivational seminars I used to attend while in business. Yet the people all
thought it was wonderful and wanted more. It was a nightmare.
Neither did I understand why most of the people were
spiritually dry or even depressed. There was a revolving door at the altar as
the people continually went forward for a ‘fresh touch’ to pick them up out of
their spiritual slump week after week. I soon realized that most of them knew little
about daily quiet time alone with Christ and as a result did not have a very
good connection Him. They were trying to get what life they could second hand
from others. And I was appalled that the church leaders seemed blind to this
situation, and were not teaching the people the crucial importance of getting
alone with God every day to pray and read the Bible.
A generation ago, in born-again circles daily quiet time
alone with God was considered basic to the Christian life, and neglecting time
alone with Him was a sign of back-sliding. This is no longer the case. Today,
the church in general is so backslidden and lukewarm, that those who are in the
habit of turning of their TV sets and making real time for God each day look
like flaming radicals. During a breakfast meeting one morning a few months
after my conversion, I told the Pastor of our Charismatic church about my new
found joys in quiet time and the new life in Christ I found in it. He only had
this word of warning for me: “Don’t turn into a hermit”.
My outward circumstance didn’t change for a long time,
and in some ways even got worse, but I felt a Peace that defied explanation. I
knew that everything was in God’s hands and I wasn’t worried or anxious. I knew
I was where He wanted me to be and that He would take care of me and see me
through. However, it was still a long time before there were any visible
changes in my external circumstances. The debts were still there and the legal
battle continued. Then, about 8 months after my conversion, I lost my job and
entered a period of very erratic employment. But I can honestly say that His peace
carried me through it all, and I felt perfectly at rest in Him. I did not feel much
anxiety over it. I knew He was in control and that if He was allowing these
things, then He had a very good reason for it whether I understood or not. All
along, God was more concerned with teaching me something rather than simply
snapping His fingers to make everything better. Eventually He did rescue me,
more wonderfully than I could have imagined, but only after I had learned the
lessons He had for me.
Up
until my conversion I was still very pro-Toronto Revival, even though I had
some questions and had not done a thorough search of the scriptures. I was
still of the opinion that we shouldn’t run the risk of going against God by
asking questions. But it wasn’t long after my own renewal in Christ that I
started to have some serious questions about the Toronto Blessing (TB). There
were too many stark contrasts between what I was seeing in the Word and what
these TB people were experiencing. I didn’t think that everyone had to
experience God the same way I did, but there were too many differences that
seemed to be of such a fundamental nature as revealed in the Word that I
started to question whether it was really the same spirit at work.
One
question I couldn’t wrap my head around was - why did Christians have to
receive the Spirit from another person? Christians, supposedly already
born-again and having the Spirit, were continually going to Toronto Blessing renewal
conferences to receive a further blessing (‘fresh touch’) from the hands of
someone who had “it”. Then, once someone had the TB, they could in turn pass it
on to others.
This
requirement seemed to me to be at odds with the Word and nature of the Holy
Spirit, as well as my own experience.[13]
Was not the way into the Holy of Holies made for all of us in Christ? To enter
in, all we had to do was retire to our private prayer closet. Why did all these
Christians need some “Holy Ghost Bartender” to dispense a blessing? Didn’t
Jesus say that “Whoever believes in me, as the Scriptures have said, streams of
living water will flow from within him.” (John 7:38) We shouldn’t need anyone
to touch us in order to receive from God. All we have to do was get alone with
Him.[14]
We
shouldn’t need to work ourselves up, get hyped or pumped at a conference by great
music in order to receive. According to the New Testament, we no longer need
“anointed” worship leaders to usher in the presence of God. Didn’t the Bible
say that we no longer had to go to a certain location to enter His presence and
that He was with us in our prayer closet? Why then this mad stampede to Toronto
to get “it”? These “Toronto” people talked as if they didn’t know how to meet
God at all apart from getting zapped at a conference. Whatever it was, it
seemed to require all kinds of just the right externals to make it happen: it
required the right music, “anointed” worship leaders, charismatic speakers and
receptive crowds in order for “it” to happen. It all made me wonder exactly
what “it” was that they were getting.
Another
thing that struck me as contrary to the Word was that the TB was being passed
on to others indiscriminately. It was anyone’s for the asking, no strings
attached. The TB leaders were praying for everyone who lined up along the tapped
line to receive the Holy Spirit. The only requirement seemed to be the desire
to have it. There was no call to holiness, confession of sin and repentance.
Again, this seemed to contradict the Bible in many ways.[15]
TB
people were often told not to pray, as it hindered their ability to receive the
“blessing”. Instead, they were often counseled to remain silent and just be
open to receive. [16]
This made no sense to me at all. How could praying ever hinder the Holy Spirit?
Also,
why the drunken behavior and loss of control that totally contradicted everything
the Word had to say about the Spirit of God?[17]
I had spent weeks in a very manifest, tangible sense of His presence after my
conversion and I came away from the experience with a greater understanding and
renewed love for the great truths of the Bible. Never once did I lose control
or feel “drunk”. The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of clarity and sobriety, of truth
and wisdom, Who comes to give us greater knowledge of Christ through an
increased understanding of His Word. But these revival drunks were descending
into a mindless stupor as they staggered around in a fog, falling over each
other. The drunks gained no greater love for the Word as a result of their
so-called meeting with God. All they wanted was “more, Lord, more”.
This
was in total contrast to my own experience of God’s presence, which was marked
by great clarity and left me with a greater love for the written Word and a new
joy in reading it. I saw old, familiar Bible truths in a new, clear light that
made them fresh and amazingly wonderful.
Déjà vu
I
pondered these and many other questions for a long while. I had a lot of
questions and few answers. So much of what I was seeing in Toronto Vineyard and
Charismatic circles just didn’t line up with the Word or the nature of the Holy
Spirit as revealed in the Word.
Although
I had been in the Vineyard when John Wimber embraced Paul Cain and the Kansas
City Prophets and introduced them into the church, I didn’t know much about
them or what they taught. The Vineyard accepted them and I had many friends who
held them in high regard, so I assumed they must be all right. But not long
after I was converted, I decided it was time to check into the charismatic prophets
and teachings for myself.
I decided to start
with Rick Joyner’s teaching and messages, since many of my friends held him in
high regard and he seemed to be one of the top “Prophets”. I started reading
his stuff, with an open mind since I had no real opinions about him either way.
In fact, if anything, I started with a bias in favour of Joyner because I had
heard nothing but good about him in Vineyard circles and I had no reason as yet
to think otherwise. Soon, my research over the weeks and months spread to the
many ministries associated with him: Peter Wagner, Bob Jones, Paul Cain and the
Kansas City prophets. For ease of use, I’ll refer to this group as the Third
Wave.
As
I looked into the teachings of the Charismatic leaders and prophets, I was
startled to find out that they believed the same things we believed in the
cult. Also, the overall tone and flavor of their prophesying and prophetic
lingo was familiar. It sounded too much like the Walk, and I got a bad dose of
déjà vu as I realized that the prophets
and leaders of the Vineyard and Charismatic movements were teaching the same things we believed in the Walk.
I began making a list of the similarities between
the Walk and the Third Wave, a list which eventually reached over 50 items. I later
developed these points into a list of ‘Red Flag’ symptoms of deception.[18]
There were far too many heretical teachings in common to be coincidental, so I
started looking into historical roots. As a result of this research I learned that
they shared the same Latter Rain roots.[19]
The same Latter Rain doctrines and teachers which had influenced John Robert
Stevens had also influenced Paul Cain, the Kansas City Prophets, and many others
who influenced the Vineyard.[20]
But this time it was not on the fringes of Christianity like the Walk, but
leading the prophetic revival sweeping the Vineyard/Charismatic church.
Another question
still nagged at me: Was the Laughing Revival a real move of the Holy Spirit or
not? So one night in December of 2001 I sat down with my Bible and concordance.
I decided the best place to start was with spiritual drunkenness, since this
was one of the most prominent manifestations touted by revival leaders as a
sign of the Holy Spirit. I read through all the scriptures that talked about
drunkenness, cross referencing any related words that came up, such as
“staggering”.
I was surprised at how much
the Bible had to say on spiritual drunkenness[21],
and just as shocked at how overwhelmingly negative it was. The Bible teaching
on drunkenness, spiritual or otherwise, is notable in its overwhelming
condemnation of it. In no place does the Bible ever suggest that “spiritual
drunkenness” is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, but quite to the contrary,
is a sign of spiritual delusion and blindness. Drunken behavior is universally
condemned as sinful[22],
and therefore could not be the work of the Holy Spirit. There may be some gray
areas in the Bible, but this is not one of them.
Learning to Be Berean
I remember the Vineyard revival leaders telling us not
to be afraid of being deceived. In fact, we were often told that we should be
more afraid of missing out on what God is doing than in being deceived.
According to them, God wouldn’t let us be deceived. But now I understood why
Jesus and Paul so often expressed concern that we be not deceived.[23]
As I studied the Bible, I began to see in the Word how and why deception
happens. In a nutshell, it is often due to Biblical illiteracy.
Many Christians are misled because they lack a ‘Berean’ like
diligence to “examine the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was
true.”[24]
The Bible calls them “more noble” for this diligent regard for the Word. Paul
welcomed this Berean spirit. I wonder why the so-called apostles and prophets today
don’t appreciate it. Today they call it ‘religious’, fault finding, critical,
divisive, and warn such people that they risk being judged by God. Revival
leaders seldom miss an opportunity to mock what they regard as a ‘religious
spirit’, which in their view is anyone who is less than enthusiastic about
their movement.
Judging teaching is not judging the person. We are not
to judge the person, as far as judging their hearts, motives or sincerity. We
cannot know those things, but it is a Biblical injunction to judge their
teaching and reject those who bring false doctrine. We are to test all
prophecies (I John 4:1, 1 Cor. 14:29), test the apostles (Rev. 2:2) and
evaluate all teaching (2 John 9-11), to list but a few verses. We are to test
all of them, and ignore the false ones all together.
Heresy Hunting
This
article is not about heresy hunting. We have the God given duty and
responsibility to challenge error and in love warn those caught up in it. God
holds us responsible if we don’t.
There is no doubt that the Walk was a cult. Cult experts
are agreed on that and the same cultic tendencies and ideas we had in the Walk are
being embraced by Vineyard and Charismatic circles: end-time elitism, Apostolic
restoration, mysticism, exaltation of the prophetic and revelatory word, mindless
acquiescence to prophetic leadership and directives, marginalization of
Scripture, to name but a few.
‘Bereans’ who check teachings against the Word are no
longer called ‘noble’, but labeled Jezebels, fault finders, and accusers of the
brethren. Christians are becoming Biblical illiterates and as a result easy
prey for anything that comes along that looks spiritual. They have lost their love
for the written Word and are out for an experience. This lack of discernment,
especially among Vineyard leaders, is one of the single biggest reasons false
prophets and teachers have gained such easy access into the church to spread
their heresy. Lack of discernment in the church turns it into a buffet for
demonic spirits to feast upon.
Many church goers today are religious consumers who sit passively
through the preaching, accepting what is said with little critical thought - much
like watching TV. Truth isn’t as important as great worship music and the right
religious feeling. As a result, today a prophet or teacher can say almost
anything and get away with it as long as they say it with a bright smile, sound
‘loving’, and appear to have the right kind of personality. Getting too sticky
about the truth is considered divisive and unloving.
The Vineyard went along with what John Wimber said
because it was he who said it and they had placed their confidence in him as a
man of God. Few of us, including myself, ever checked our Bibles carefully
beyond the proof text given. This is devotion to a person over the objective
truth of the Bible, and is the essence of a cultic mindset.[25]
We see this in churches whenever people passively accept what is being taught
without checking the scriptures: the primary criteria being that the speaker displays
all the charismatic trappings of someone moving in the Spirit. No one wants to
believe that the smiling, loving, charismatic figure on the platform is
preaching heresy and might be a false prophet.
The
following 15 points define the major teachings of the Walk. This is not an
attempt to create an exhaustive description of all Walk theology. For a more
complete look into Walk theology and history, please see the unpublished
manuscript on the Walk by the Spiritual Counterfeits Project.[26]
As a former member of the Walk for over 7 years, I can attest that this report
by the SCP is a very accurate and fair description of that cult.
I
have placed an asterisk (*) beside
each point of Walk teaching that has an equivalent in the charismatic/prophetic
movement.[27] The exact
terminology may differ, but the ideas are essentially the same.
1.
End-Time Elitism (Elijah
Company). (*)
In the Walk it was known as
the “Manchild Company”. Over the years this doctrine has also been known as
“The Manifested Sons of God” (MSOG). This was one of the major heresies to come
out of the Latter Rain, and has been picked up and repackaged over the years by
various charismatic and prophetic groups. They will be an elite class of
spiritual warriors with the power and anointing to lead the church to where it
should be, establish the Kingdom of God and even inaugurate Christ’s reign on
earth. It can take on a wide range of flavours and meanings, from a
super-anointing on a spiritually empowered elite to “little Christ’s” -
manifestations of Christ incarnate. The Joel’s Army (Gideon’s Army, Elijah
Company) talk in charismatic prophetic circles is essentially the same idea.
This was one of the major premises behind the Walk,
and Stevens taught a very extreme flavour of this concept. His followers could
become the Word of God made flesh in the same sense Christ was. This was
essentially the meaning behind the term “Living Word” as used in the name of
his church: physical expressions of the Word like Christ. They could become ‘little
Christs’ who will have the power of God
surpassing anything ever seen before in the church. Many even saw this as possibly
representing a spiritual second coming of Christ in the group before He returns
physically.
2.
Kingdom Now/Dominion
Theology. (*)
Often coined “Kingdom Breakthrough”. The victorious
church, lead by the spiritual elite (The Manchild Company) will establish the
Kingdom of God on Earth before Christ physically returns. “Breaking through”
into the Kingdom was in fact what the Walk was all about. The Walk’s entire
reason for existence was to push Stevens into the Kingdom, mostly through the
prayer of “violent intercession”. Once in the Kingdom, Stevens would bring the
rest of the Walk in, by “imparting” it to his followers. Sort of a push/pull
approach. The Walk would push Stevens in, and then Stevens would pull the rest
in. Stevens was often likened to the point of the spear, with the Walk as the
shaft, that would be thrust into the Kingdom level and achieve “Kingdom
breakthrough”.
3.
Spiritual Violence.
“Violence” was common Walk verbiage for the level of
spiritual intensity required to achieve Kingdom breakthrough. The Kingdom was a
new spiritual level that the church needed to attain, and only those who were
intense enough could breakthrough into it. This required very intense prayer
known as ‘violent intercession’. Passivity - lacking the necessary spiritual
intensity - was seen as one of the greatest threats to the success of the Walk.
Stevens and Walk leaders would often rant against passivity. It was a grave
offense to be passive, and members were always being exhorted to rise up into
greater levels of intensity, otherwise we ran the risk of failing to achieve
Kingdom breakthrough. Passivity was overcome within us by entering into
intense, violent prayer, which involved stamping our feet, shouting, slicing
the air with excited hand gestures and other hysterical behavior. Wild shouts
such as: “We rebuke all passivity today!” was a common feature of corporate
prayer.
4.
Revelation Knowledge and
Special Revelation. (*)
Divine knowledge from God revealed directly to the
human mind apart from the written Word; a direct, mystical insight into truth
that bypasses the rational processes of intellect, logic, reason and learning.
When people received this kind of revelatory insight, they would know intuitively something was true
irregardless of Scripture, reason, commonsense, or any objective evidence of
truth.
‘Getting the revelation’ is an inner mystical sense confirming
the truth of a special revelation or of Scripture. Knowing the Bible and believing
it because it is God’s Word was not good enough in the Walk and considered
inferior to ‘getting the revelation’ of a truth. A person needed to receive a
subjective inner witness of the truth that confirmed God’s Word. This was a
spiritual insight that enabled them to ‘see’ the truth for themselves, as
opposed to believing it because God said it.
In order to receive revelation knowledge, all a
person had to do was simply ‘tune in’ to the ‘flow of revelation’ that was
constantly coming from heaven. This was a mystical ‘openness’ in the spirit
which could be learned, and had nothing to do with studying the Scriptures and the
cognitive faculties. The Walk taught that reasoning things out, even through
knowledge of Scripture, would only hinder a person’s ability to receive
revelation. All that was required to ‘receive the revelation’ was a spiritual
capacity to open up to it and allow it to flow into our minds and spirits.
Special revelation did not necessarily have to line up with Scripture, and was
quite independent of it.
5.
Restoration of Apostles. (*)
The Walk taught that God is restoring the ministry
of Apostles equal to spiritual authority and revelation to the first century
Apostles. It was believed that the full restoration of apostolic ministry was
necessary to equip the church for the fulfillment of its purpose and bring it
to maturity. God was laying a new foundation for the church because the old
foundation was no longer adequate for the new day dawning. Stevens was,
naturally, the Apostle to the Apostles. [28]
6.
Restoration of the Prophetic
Office. (*)
Along with the new order of Apostles, God was also
restoring the full office of the Prophetic ministry. These are prophets equal
in stature to the Old and New Testament Prophets of the Bible. A new revelation
is needed for a new day, and God is raising up Prophets and Apostles to bring
it. The Bible isn’t sufficient for the new task today. In the Walk, we needed a
‘fresh’ word each week. Stevens’s ministry churned out a vast number of tapes
and booklets, and each week there was a new tape with Stevens’s latest, hottest
revelation. Stevens’s weekly messages were taken verbatim as direct revelation
from heaven. We all became prophecy junkies as we waited each week for the
latest prophetic word.
7.
Resurrection Life.
Stevens taught a doctrine called
‘Resurrection Life’ that he picked up from some of the more extreme elements of
the Latter Rain movement. It is the idea that we could enter into our
resurrected (heavenly) bodies now, without having to die through a process of
evolving spiritual states. Entering our heavenly bodies would bring us
supernatural power and immortality. It was never very clear how this would
happen, except that when we finally attained enough faith and spiritual
intensity, we would break through into a higher spiritual level where
resurrection life could be appropriated.
8.
Spiritual Warfare. (*)
Rebuking the enemy and tearing down demonic
strongholds through intense prayer known as ‘violent intercession’. Intense,
focused prayer was required to bind the enemy and ‘loose the word’, thereby
releasing the purposes of God and overcoming the Devil so that the Kingdom of
God could advance against the forces of darkness.
Stevens often talked about the “Nephilim”, and had
whole tapes and booklets devoted to this topic. Nephilim were human agents and
channels of demonic forces. Praying against people identified as Nephilim was
common practice in order to bind them and block their influence.
9.
The Living (Rhema) Word. (*)
God is speaking a new living ‘Rhema’ word for today
through His Apostles. The ‘Living Word’ was as much the Word of God as was the
Bible, but better because it is ‘alive’ whereas the Bible was a dead letter.
“The letter kills, but the Spirit brings life.”[29]
This verse was often used by Stevens, which he twisted to mean that we needed
living Apostles and Prophets today to speak the word so that the Word of God
would be alive. Without the new Apostles the Bible remained a dead text, mere
ink on paper. The word lived in the flesh of Apostles and Prophets.
10.
Impartation. (*)
The idea that one person can give spiritual gifts,
anointings, attributes or qualities to another through prayer and the laying on
of hands. Superficially it sounds like Rom.1:11, but in practice it was used as
a short-cut to instant spiritual growth by ‘zapping’ spiritual values[30]
from person to person. It was very common in Walk services to have personal
ministry time in which an apostle, prophet or “mature brother” would impart
spiritual gifts and attributes to another. The ability for leaders to ‘replicate’
themselves by imparting what they had to younger ‘Timothy’s’ was considered
crucial to the future success of the Walk.
11.
Positive Confession (Word of
Faith). (*)
This teaching is also known as positive
proclamations or prophetic proclamation. It was believed that speaking ‘words’
of positive confession had creative power. We could ‘speak’ things into being,
especially in the unseen realm, but also in more practical areas such as
finances. This was tied in very closely with Stevens’s Living Word teaching.
Because God was in us, our words had the same creative power in our mouths that
God has when He speaks things into existence. Commonly used prayer lingo
associated with this belief was as follows: “Loose the word!”, “Loose faith!”
or “We speak faith!” or “We speak release tonight.” or “We proclaim…” and “We
claim…” Prayer was usually about loosing and speaking things into reality in
the spiritual realm.
12.
Don’t Think. (*)
Don’t think about it, just open up and accept it.
The new revelation could only be received by opening up to it and accepting it,
not by the understanding or studying the Scriptures. Stevens had a favorite saying:
“People would be better off if they would stand on their heads.” By this he
meant put down your intellect and stop thinking so much. Thinking too much
blocked your ability to receive divine revelation. The Berean spirit was
heavily discouraged, and any kind of questioning of doctrine was taken as a
personal assault on Stevens.
13. Signs Ministry. (*)
Stevens taught that the Holy
Spirit would direct us through various physical sensations in our bodies. He
often experienced these sorts of signs himself. For instance, a headache meant
spiritual assault or witchcraft was coming against you. Stevens also taught how
to interpret the color of people’s aura’s in order to discern their spirit. Red
in a person’s aura meant they were rebellious, for instance.
14.
Personal ‘words’ of
direction. (*)
It was a common practice in the Walk to give
individuals personal prophetic direction during a church meeting. Personal
prophetic words were a common feature of church services. The group would often
enter into a period of personal ministry in which the group would pray and
prophesy over an individual. During this time the other members of the group
would give personal messages of future direction and encouragement to the
individual being ministered to. A common feature of these messages was to
reveal what that person’s future ministry was to be and what their spiritual
gifts and abilities were. These words of direction could often be very long a
detailed.
15. The Religious Spirit. (*)
The ‘old order’ (Babylon) was what God did in
previous generations, and ‘religious’ people were still ‘bound’ to it through
fear and legalism. According to the Walk, religious people are characterized by
fear and suspicion of anything new; a rigid, legalistic outlook characterized
by an unwillingness to move with the Spirit into the ‘new thing’ God was doing.
Religious people were seen as spiritually dead because they were into the
legalism of Biblical text, but not the life and power of the ‘Living Word’.
This religiosity blinded them to the new thing God was doing in the Walk.
Hence, anyone who opposed the Walk was blind and religious.
In the Walk, a religious spirit was the antithesis
of true spirituality. Therefore, it only followed that anything offensive to a
religious person must be good. It was also recognized that religiosity was
common to human nature and something to be guarded against personally. So Walk
people were always on the guard for any development of religiosity within
themselves. Any kind of offensive, irreligious behavior was seen as helping to
thwart our own tendencies towards religiosity and cultivate greater personal
spirituality. Hence, Walk people strove to be as irreligious as possible and
cultivated very offensive behavior. Swearing, rude and offensive behavior was
very common in the Walk at all levels. Stevens himself frequently swore from
the pulpit during sermons.
A glossary of some
common Walk terminology and catch phrases.
“Appropriate”:
Claiming and acquiring spiritual gifts,
power and attributes
“Babylon”: Old order. Most other churches, especially
those who opposed the Walk.
“Be Christ!”, “Be the Word!”: Become the
Word made manifest in human flesh like Christ.
“Blowouts”: Those who left the Walk. Spiritual failures
that just didn’t have the right stuff.
“Breakthrough!” or “Kingdom Breakthrough” Entering into
new spiritual levels.
“Loose”: Such as “Loose the word!” or
“We loose faith.” Releasing the spiritual
power of the thing loosed in order to create the reality of it. A method of
positive proclamation.
“Nephilim”: Human channels of demonic spirits. Most
anyone who opposed the Walk.
“Passivity”: Lacking in spiritual violence. A big no-no.
“Rebuke”:
“We rebuke passivity tonight.” “We rebuke the Devil.”
“Resurrection power”: The spiritual
power of the new kingdom age.
“Violence”: Spiritual intensity necessary for
‘breakthrough.’
“We speak…”:
Such as “We speak faith to so-and-so.” A
method of imparting something to a person or speaking it into existence in the
spiritual realm.
The following is a list of ‘Red Flags’ that are symptoms
of deception in a person or group. In developing this list, I was concerned,
not so much with addressing specific doctrines, but in identifying characteristics
that are symptomatic of deception. I started writing this list when I noticed
the many similarities between the Walk and the prophetic movement gaining
momentum in Vineyard/Charismatic circles. These characteristics of deception predominate
in Charismatic/Vineyard groups and in the Walk.
1.
Spiritual
elitism. This is the root of many delusions. Any kind of elitist belief is a certain
indication of deception. Elitism is the belief that God has given a certain
group special revelation/power/anointing that other Christian groups or
previous generations have not entered into. They are on the spiritual
cutting-edge, rising to spiritual levels not attained by other groups. It’s often
dressed up as “Joel’s Army”, “Gideon’s Army”, and Elijah Companies of super
anointed end-time warriors. Elitism is seen today in the
‘this-is-the-greatest-generation-ever’ kind of preaching we often hear. It can
be found in the need to search out so-called ‘deeper’ truths and discover new,
hidden mystical insights.
2.
A
tendency to marginalize the written Word. Watch out for any talk that plays
down devotion to Scripture, such as “God is bigger than the Bible” or “God is
doing a new thing, so put away your Bibles.” Marginalizing the written Word can
take many forms:
a)
Ignoring
the Word. Neglecting private Bible study in daily life is a strong symptom of
deception.
b)
Disregarding
the Word. A careless attitude towards obedience. I’ve seen examples of this in
wild revival meetings in which people mockingly quote the verse, “Let all
things be done decently and in order”, while they enjoy a good laugh over their
disorderly and drunken behavior. Any teaching that plays down our requirement
to be doers of the Word is a sure sign of delusion.
c)
Deceived
groups that marginalize the Word are often those who have an emphasis on
prophecy. Beware of any emphasis on the revelatory, prophetic word, especially
where there is a sidelining of the written Word. We are not to despise
prophecy, but the real meat of the Word that nourishes the saints and builds
them up in the faith is the written Word of God, not the prophetic. Teaching
that would make Christians dependant on prophets or apostles for ‘current’
truth effectively marginalizes the Word of God.
d)
“Fools
despise knowledge.” Any kind of talk that does not give the Word the high
regard it is due, effectively marginalizes the Word and is a sure sign that
deception is at work in the group. As the Word says, “Choose my instruction
instead of silver.” Love it more than anything else.
3.
Prayerlessness
in private. Neglect of private prayer time, alone
with God, is a strong indication of deception. If it is prevalent
across a church or movement, it indicates deception is taking hold of that
group. Please note that deceived people will often continue to attend and even
enjoy public church functions, especially when there is good sound,
light or music - but private quite time loses its appeal.
4.
Disdain for Berean[31]
spirited searching of the scriptures. Any kind of anti-Berean, anti-discernment
teaching that discourages people from questioning what is going on or being
taught is a sure sign of deception. If you ever hear the leadership of your
church group say anything along the lines of “put away your Bibles”, or “don’t
worry about being deceived”, then head for the exit as fast as you can.
5.
An inability to separate Godly criticism of their words
from personal attack. Equating ‘Berean’ (Acts 17:11) activity with criticism. Such
leaders may often talk about the ‘Jezebel spirit’ and the ‘accuser of the
brethren’ and warn people about moving in a fault finding or critical spirit.
What they are driving at is that if you question what is going on, or challenge
what is being taught, you are being critical and run the risk of incurring the
Lord’s disfavor.
6.
Lack of accountability. One common trait among the new
wave of apostles and prophets rising to prominence these days is that they do
not like to be held accountable for their teachings and failed prophecies. Any criticism
of their teachings and prophetic utterances is taken as an attack against their
ministry.
7.
Discernment primarily the prerogative of leadership. A
tendency to see discernment as a special gift or anointing not available to
everyone to the same degree, or that increases with higher spiritual office.
The ‘higher’ you are on the prophetic ladder, the more discerning you are.
Since leaders
supposedly have better discernment as per their higher office, followers tend
to trust the opinions of their leaders over their own, since the ‘apostle’ or
prophet must have better understanding anyway due to their higher standing in
the spiritual ranks[32].
Believers are not encouraged to trust their own discernment, or are encouraged
only so long as it agrees with the overall word as set forth by the leaders.
Discernment among the ranks becomes little more than a faculty (an inner
witness of the spirit) that confirms what the Apostle or Prophet is saying.
8.
Any form of Mystery Religion. A mystery religion is a
religion that has successive levels of knowledge and ‘deeper’ truths, which are
not necessarily available to all, at least not at first. Those in higher levels
will know things not revealed, nor available, to lower levels. A new ‘believer’
comes in on the ground floor, and then progresses up through successive levels
of spiritual understanding and empowerment as he is introduced to the ‘deeper’
truths.
9.
Heightened interest with spiritual levels and rankings.
Higher ‘spiritual’ rank is equated with greater closeness to God. Gifts and
callings are typically ranked, and those higher in rank are seen as closer to
God in some practical way, such as hearing from God more frequently and being
more privy to God’s inner secrets. Those on higher spiritual levels have a
privileged access to God that is not available to those holding lesser
callings. As a result of their higher standing or special calling, God visits
them more often and they receive greater mystical experiences than the rest.
10.
Heightened interest in dreams, visions, new revelations
and novel insights. This may not necessarily be explicitly stated in their
Creed, and they may claim to believe the Bible as the Word of God. But in
actual practice dreams, visions and revelations are the preferred
stock-in-trade over sound Bible teaching and exposition of the basics.
11.
An increase in subjectivity. Looking for subjective
impressions, personal ‘prophetic’ words and ‘revelation’ for guidance and
direction. Seeking the mystical ‘inner voice’ as guide over the written Word.
You can be sure that if a person is seeking new personal ‘words’, it is because
they are not in the Word, and serious deception cannot be long avoided.
12.
Detractors
dismissed as having inferior vision. They see themselves as being in tune with
God, and anyone who is also in tune with the Divine will agree with them.
Detractors are obviously not in tune with God and have inferior vision. This
sets up a very neat circular reasoning that is almost impossible to get past.
It is a defensiveness which is very difficult to penetrate, because they are
convinced that detractors don’t have the same level of anointing or discernment
as they have. As they see it, if detractors did have the same level of
anointing, they’d be in agreement. They dismiss any criticism of their teaching
or conduct as bitterness, jealousy or fault finding, while they themselves feel
they have very sharp spiritual perception. People are truly discerning only as
long as they support their movement.
13.
Dismissive
attitude towards detractors. Detractors given derogatory labels, such as
‘religious’, ‘old order’, ‘old wineskins’, or ‘Pharisees’. Detractors denounced
as not being able to ‘handle it’, or they have a ‘Jezebel spirit’, or a ‘spirit
of criticism’. They are ‘accusers of the brethren’, that sort of thing. Threats
of God’s judgment on detractors and critics are a sure sign of a cultic mindset
and delusion.
14.
A
‘get-on-board-or-else’ mentality. A fear that you’ll miss God’s new move and be
left behind if you don’t join up. God is doing a new thing and if you do not go
along with it, regardless of how long you’ve been faithfully serving God over
the years, God will pass you by and you’ll get left in the dust.
15.
New
thingism. God is doing a ‘new thing’ and you’d better get with it. There is now
a further requirement if you want to remain a first class Christian and in
God’s highest favour, which is to be a part of the new thing represented by the
group. If you don’t come along, you run the risk of God passing you by.
16.
A
special anointing. A certain person or group has been anointed by God to
introduce something to the rest of the Body. God has given it to them, and
other believers can come to them to ‘get it.’
17.
A
priesthood. Placing a person or group in an exalted status with God, so that
they become special intermediaries, is a sure sign of delusion. False movements
and false religions invariable try to interject some kind of priesthood between
the believer and God. This is seen whenever a person or group claims to have
received something from God that can be received from their hands. They become
an intermediary between you and Jesus Christ if you want more of God, and
people are encouraged to go to the ‘anointed’ of the Lord to get it.
We see this today in certain revival circles where
it is necessary to get more from God at the hands of a specially chosen vessel.
Worship leaders have ‘an anointing’ to lead us into the presence of God.
Prophets and apostles have a privileged access to receive things from God that
the rest of the church needs. False religion always reverts to some form of
human priesthood.
18.
“Don’t
think about it, just jump in” type of teaching that encourages people to throw
caution to the wind. Encouraging followers not to worry or think things
through, that God won’t allow them to be deceived. Just jump in before it’s too
late or you may miss the boat.
19.
Glorification
of the vessel. An excessive focus on the ‘anointed’ person of God.
20.
Old
Testament ‘typed’ anointing. (A ‘Phineas’ anointing. The mantle of Elijah,
etc.)
21.
An
excited interest in peripheral subjects not central to the gospel. A
de-emphasis on the central themes of the gospel. They claim to agree with the
gospel, but the bulk of their teaching, writing and prophetic messages show a
greater interest in peripheral topics, novel insights and new revelation.
22.
May
talk unity, but bring division along lines of gender, age, race or nationality.
23.
Watch
out for leaders who love to surround themselves with minions who affirm their
special anointing.
24.
More
interest in breaking through to new levels and remaking the church along new
lines rather than reaching the lost with the good news of Jesus Christ.
25.
False
spirits love to show off and love center stage. They love to parade their
subjective impressions and experiences up front for others to see. Publicly
sharing highly subjective impressions and insights that cannot be proved or
disproved one way or the other is a real “Red Flag”.
26.
Conference
chasing. Running from place to place to meet God. Any emphasis on experiencing
God corporately more than privately is a symptom of delusion. Whenever people
need to go to a conference or certain location to receive a ‘fresh’ touch,
something is very wrong.
There is a whole generation of believers now who are
bored with ‘quiet time’ alone with God, who don’t know how to meet God in the
prayer closet, and can only meet with God and experience Him in public settings
that provide the right mood and atmosphere, usually involving the right music. The
reason so many are chasing God at conferences is because they are not in the
Word and prayer at home.
27.
The
‘anointed’ leader has a privileged access, a hot relationship, with God that the
rest have yet to attain. They get angelic visitations, dramatic visions and
prophetic insights, and they publish ‘prophetic bulletins’ to keep others abreast
with what God is doing. Because the apostles and prophets are in such a
privileged position of receiving the latest hot word from God, the rest are
reduced to second hand status, anxiously awaiting the latest prophetic
bulletin. Watch for groups that tend to place emphasis on the leaders anointing
or relationship with God. This results in Christians running to conferences for
a ‘fresh touch’ from those who seem to have ‘it’.
28.
The
Holy Spirit is seen more as coming to bring an experience rather than a greater
understanding of the Scripture.
29.
A
tendency to distinguish between people who accept their movement as a true move
of God and those who don’t.
30.
Beware
of any dichotomy between the Spirit and the mind. Any anti-intellectual
position, such as the belief held in many charismatic circles today that
exercising the mind will hinder the Holy Spirit, is a real indication of
deception. Deceivers like to parrot phrases like: “God will offend the mind to
reveal the heart.” This cute little mantra often repeated in certain revival
groups sounds very spiritual, but is very false. A careful reading of the Word
tells us the truth: God will inform the mind to convince the heart. Jesus often did
offend the Pharisee’s - by telling them the truth! The Holy Spirit leads people
to Christ by shining the light of God’s Word into their minds and convicting
them of its truth.
The
difference between a cult and a legitimate group is relationship, not doctrine.
Although it will usually follow that a cultic group will also endorse heretical
doctrine, that is not what makes it a cult. Other, non-Christian religions will
embrace doctrines contrary to Christian faith. That does not necessarily make
them cults. A group is defined as cultic by the dependant/controlling relationship
that forms between the leader of the group and his followers. The leader
acquires an inappropriate level of control over the individuals of a group by
fostering personal dependence upon him as the source and definer of truth. A
cultic group has a strong, influential leader who knows how to encourage
followers to remain personally dependent upon him for truth, purpose and
guidance.
In
developing this list, I was more interested in showing the characteristics of a
cult as opposed to addressing specific heretical teachings; cultic symptoms
rather than specific doctrinal aberrations.
My
reason for this approach is twofold: First, specific heresies will change from
one cult to another, but there are certain characteristics which remain fairly
consistent between cults by which a cultic group can be identified. Secondly,
and perhaps more ominously, large segments of the charismatic church are
becoming very cultic in practice even though they may claim to believe the
major tenets of Christian faith. Most of these traits were very characteristic
of the Walk, and are becoming very common in Vineyard and Charismatic circles.
1. Loyalty to
charismatic leadership over Scripture. The primary characteristic of a cultic
mindset is devotion to leadership over an objective standard of truth. Cultic
followers have an excessive devotion to popular teachers, and are unwilling or
disinclined to question them. They place too much trust in leadership without
exercising independent, critical thought that resorts to objective standards of
information outside of the group. This mindset is very predominant in Vineyard
and Charismatic circles, seen in the almost blind trust placed in prophetic leadership.
This is evident in their willingness to believe what they are told, as long as
the right person says it. They are disinclined to exercise independent,
critical thought and search the scriptures to see if what is being taught is
true.
2. Believing what’s said based on WHO says it. Truth is determined by what
the leaders say. The cultic-mindset determines the acceptability of what is
said more by who says it rather than
how well it conforms to the Word of God. This mindset is predominant in the Walk,
and has become predominant in Vineyard/Charismatic and “TB” circles. Today, anyone can say almost anything in a
Charismatic/ Vineyard crowd and get away with it, as long as they have the
right type of ‘loving’, charismatic personality and appear to move in spiritual
gifts. In other words, as long as the ministry package looks good, they tend to
accept the contents of the teaching with little question.
3.
An unwillingness to question
leaders.
Idolizing leaders and placing them on a pedestal. Quick to excuse and overlook
their faults. Leaders will often take doubts and questions as a personal
attack. Questioning the leader is viewed as rebellion, stubbornness, or
spiritualized as a demonic ploy to undermine ‘God’s anointed’.
4.
Fear of disapproval by the
group. A
fearfulness of saying something that the leaders and/or others in the group may
not approve of.
5.
Elitist and exclusive. They think of themselves as
the spiritual cutting-edge. An excessive need for acceptance and belonging to an
‘inner circle’. A fear of being left out of Gods new thing is one expression of
this.
6.
Dismissive attitude towards
those outside the group. A disregard for what others say and think who are not in the group.
7.
A polarized “In or Out”,
“Us” versus “Them” attitude towards those outside the ‘movement’. Those outside the ‘move’
are given derogatory labels. It is considered that those outside don’t have
what it takes to be apart of the superior goals of the group. This is often
seen in the ‘get-on-board-with-this-move-or-you’ll-miss-it’ style of preaching
often seen in charismatic circles.
8.
Those outside the group just
don’t understand.
9.
Lack of tolerance for
dissent.
Dissenters threatened with divine punishment. Dissent, doubt and questioning
are not tolerated and perceived as a personal attack on the leadership. They
have difficulty separating the message from the messenger. (Need I bother pointing out here that “TB” revival leaders are
well-known for attacking dissenters, and threatening them with judgment from
God?)
10.
Rational thought is
discouraged.
Group experience over loyalty to truth. Don’t think about it, just jump in.
Don’t stop to analyze, just be open to what the ‘spirit’ is doing.
11.
The superior ends of the
group justify the means. Revival leaders are well known for their pragmatic approach to the
‘truth’. If it works, it’s OK.
12.
Group leaders determine how
followers should think and what is ‘true’. Truth and reality (paradigm) are determined
within the context of the group. People with a cultic-mindset tend to submerge
their own thoughts under the thoughts of the leader and group. They have
greater confidence in the opinions of others than of their own.[33]
13.
A lack of discretion and
independent thought. Pro.2:11 states that “discretion will protect you”. Discretion is the
ability to think for yourself; to exercise independent thought or action
according to one’s own judgment. Cultic followers are noticeably lacking in
this ability,[34] so they are
easily persuaded by a dynamic and charismatic leader. They find it difficult to
stand back with a measure of detachment and evaluate things with a cool head in
the light of God’s Word.
14.
Cultic persons gravitate
towards dependence upon a ‘priesthood’ for their contact with God. This ‘priesthood’ can take
the form of an ‘anointed’ person, a prophet, an apostle, or anyone who receives
from God for the follower. Cultic persons place excessive trust in the leader
and the leader’s so-called contact with God.
15.
Accusative self-doubt in
relation to leadership. It can take the form of self-doubting questions such as: Who do I think I am, anyway? Who am I to question
what the leaders are saying? What makes me think I was right and so many big
name ministries are wrong?
16.
Lack of recourse and
accountability outside the group. Little if any accountability outside the group.
Members of the group take little recourse outside the group for information or
help as far as the defining ‘truths’ and purpose of the group are concerned.
The
Bible has a lot to say about drunkenness, spiritual or otherwise. And none of
it is good. With the Biblical tools we have available today, there is no reason
for anyone to be deceived about the “Laughing Revival”. My Bible and
concordance was all I needed to find out for myself the truth behind so-called
‘spiritual drunkenness’.
One night, while I
was still unsure about the ‘Laughing Revival’ (and frankly, I was at that time
still leaning in favour of it and hoping to have my suspicions allayed) I sat
down with my NIV Bible and concordance and simply did a word study to see what
the Bible had to say. I wasn’t expecting to find much when I started, and once
I got past the 2 or 3 isolated verses favored by TB supporters (we’ll look at
those last), I was very surprised to discover just how much the Bible had to
say regarding this phenomena.
Spiritual
drunkenness is a sign of a deep spiritual sleep and blindness:
Isaiah 29:9-14. “Be stunned and amazed,
blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine; stagger,
but not from beer. The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep: he has sealed
your eyes (the prophets);” Verses 11,12
further describe these people as being unable to understand God’s Word.
Then, verse 13: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me
with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made
up only of rules taught by men. Therefore … the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
I
don’t know how much clearer the Word of God could be. Spiritual drunkenness
(“drunk, but NOT from wine”), far from being a sign of God’s blessing and
favor, is a sign that the following spiritual conditions and judgments have
fallen upon a group professing to worship God: 1) they are blind, 2) they have
fallen into a deep sleep spiritually, 3) their prophets are blind, 4) they’ve
lost the ability to properly understand God’s Word (sealed v.11,12). The reason
for all this is given in verse 13. This group of people has, over time, professed
to love and worship God, but they have departed from obedience to His Word and
have insisted on trying to come to God on their own terms.
Spiritual drunkenness is a sign of being under God’s judgment:
Isaiah 28:1,3. “Ephraim’s drunkards”.
Ephraim was a name for the northern tribes of Israel, who were at that time
seriously backslidden and about to be judged. Obviously, the Bible is not
casting ‘drunkard’ in a good light.
Is.49:26. “drunk on their own blood”
in judgment.
Is.51:21. “made drunk, not with wine”
under God’s judgment.
Is.63:6. “in my [God’s] wrath I made
them drunk and poured their blood on the ground.”
Jer.48:26. “Make her drunk, for she has defied the Lord.” Israel’s neighbour, Moab,
is made drunk because she has defied the Lord!
Deut. 29:18-21. This passage describes a
person who invokes the promises and protection of God’s covenant, but
disregards it’s conditions. He has turned away from obedience to the Lord, yet
invokes the Lord’s blessing and protection and thinks to himself: “I shall have
peace.”
Verse 19 (NKJV). “ ‘I shall have peace, even though
I follow the dictates of my heart’ - as though the drunkard could be included
with the sober.”
Verse 19 (NIV). The NIV footnote offers the
following alternative translation: “ ‘I will be safe, even though I persist in
going my own way’ - in order to add drunkenness to thirst.”
Deut.29:18-21
indicates that spiritual drunkenness is a sign that the drunkards have invoked
the blessing of the covenant for themselve’s, yet walk after their own heart.
Jeremiah 51: A warning to flee because a greater judgment is coming!
I
recommend a careful reading of Jeremiah 51, with particular attention paid to
verses 6-9 and 37-45, in conjunction with Rev. 17:1-6, 18:1-8. Babylon was a
real city in Jeremiah’s day that the Lord was about to judge, but Babylon is
also a Biblical type of apostate religion.
Note: For those who are unsure about using the Old Testament in this manner, please look at the following passages: 1 Cor.10:6,11; 2 Peter 2,3; Heb.10:29-31, 2:1-3, 12:25-27 and Jude. Paul and the other NT writers clearly considered that the judgments of God recorded in the OT were still very relevant warnings to us under the NT. See also 2Tim.3:16 “ALL scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”.
Jer. 51:6-9:
v6,8,9:
Spiritual drunkenness is an indication that the church is about to be severely
judged, and a warning to the sober minded who still remain to get out before it
is too late. “Flee from Babylon! Run for your lives!”
v7,8:
“Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord’s hand[an instrument of judgment]; she made
the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they
have now gone mad. Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken.” Not only
was Babylon under judgment, but she was an instrument of judgment in the Lord’s
hands. Certain ‘revival’ centers made the whole earth drunk, as multitudes
poured in from around the globe to partake. The results of many deluded pastors
who ‘fetched’ the blessing in Toronto/Pensacola and brought it back to their
home church can only be described as ‘madness’, as hundreds of churches were
devastated.
Jer. 51:37-45:
v37,38:
“Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals,…Her people all roar like
lion cubs.” – animal
noises, roaring like lions.
v38a:
“while they are AROUSED, I will set out a FEAST for them” – it’s party time!
v38b:
“and make them DRUNK,” – spiritual
drunkenness!
v38c:
“so that they SHOUT with LAUGHTER” – ‘holy’
laughter.
“then SLEEP forever and not awake,
declares the Lord.”
v40-44:
And then final judgment is to follow, “I will bring them down…to the
slaughter…”
v45:
The final call for God’s people to get out while they still can. “Come out of
her, my
people! Run for your lives!”
This makes it pretty
clear. Here we have a people being aroused to party, shout and laugh, roar like
lions and get ‘drunk’ just before they are judged. The Bible describes in many
places that immediately before severe judgment, people are given over to a “party”
spirit: a fun-loving, amusement mad, self-gratifying wild party time! See
Is.56:12; Amos 6:1-6; Micah 2:11; Is.22:2,13;
The inhabitants of Jerusalem threw parties as the Babylonian army surrounded
their city. Ezek.21:10 (Amp and NKJV) “Shall we then rejoice and make mirth?”
[when the sword of judgment has been sharpened against us.]
More Old
Testament references to drunkenness:
The following passages also refer to drunkenness as an indication or sign of being under the displeasure of God and judgment.
Ezekiel 23:33. “filled with drunkenness
and sorrow, the cup of ruin and desolation”
Nahum 1:10, 3:11. Nineveh drunk under the
judgment of God. “You too will become drunk”.
Hab.2:15-16. Woe to him who gives drink, making his neighbour drunk. Now it is your
turn, drink and be exposed! The word ‘be exposed’ used here can also mean
‘stagger’ according to the NIV footnote.
Is.24:19-21. The earth reels like a
drunkard under God’s judgment.
Joel 1:5, “Wake up, you drunkards.”
Ecc. 10:16-17. Blessed is the land who’s
King is noble, who princes eat at the proper time for strength and NOT FOR
DRUNKENNESS.”
Jer.13:13. The Lord fills the kings,
priests and prophets with drunkenness before he judges them.
Amos 6:6. “You drink wine by the
bowlful”
Micah 2:11. The deceiver says: “I will
prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer!”
Is.56:9-12. “Let us drink our fill of
beer!”
Biblical
References to ‘staggering’:
Staggering ‘under the influence’ is a common occurrence at TB style revival meetings. Interestingly, the Bible also has a lot to say about staggering.
Job 12:25.“They grope in darkness with
no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards.”
Psalm 60:1-3.“You have rejected us…you
have given us wine that makes us stagger.”
Is 19:11-15. “the leaders of Memphis are
deceived;…The Lord has poured into them a spirit of dizziness; they make Egypt
stagger in all she does, as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.” Clearly
not a sign of God’s blessing, but of His judgment upon foolish and deceived
leadership.
Is. 28:1-16. The drunkards of Ephraim…
“stagger at seeing visions”, “reeling like drunkards”
Pro.24:11. “staggering towards
slaughter”
Is.3:8. “Jerusalem staggers” under judgment because their words and deeds are
against the Lord.
Jer.25:15-29. In this passage, the Lord has
filled a cup filled with the wine of His wrath and makes the nations drink from
it. Drinking from the cup of God’s wrath causes them to “stagger and go mad”
before they are brought to judgment. V.27 “drink, get drunk and vomit, and fall
to rise no more”
Is. 51:17. The cup of God’s wrath is
“the goblet that makes men stagger.”
Roaring like a
lion:
Jer.12:8 “she [my people] roars at
me, therefore I hate her.”
Jer 52:38 the people of Babylon [who
are under judgment] roar like lions
Zeph.3:1-4 “Woe to the city [referring
to a wicked city under sentence of God’s judgement]…Her officials are roaring
lions…”
Is. 5:25-30 Israel’s enemies roar like
lions when they come to devour her.
Ezek.22:25 false prophets roar like
lions.
I Peter 5:8 The Devil prowls around like
a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
Jer. 2:15 “Lions have roared” in
judgement.
New Testament references to drunkenness:
Lk.12:45; Mt.24:48-50 - The unfaithful servant
gets drunk.
I Cor 5:11; 6:10 - Drunkards will not
inherit the Kingdom of God.
Lk.21:34-36; Ro.13:11-14;
Gal.5:19-21; 1Pet.4:3; I Thess.5:4-8. - Drunkenness is sinful and will be judged.
The Word of God
clearly censors drunken behavior. There are an overwhelming number of
verses in the New Testament which ascribe self-control, self-discipline, order,
decency, and sobriety as a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Why then would the Holy Spirit ever induce people to mimic behavior
that is censored in the Word and contrary to His own nature?
And finally, the two proof texts most often cited in support of ‘spiritual drunkenness’:
Let’s
take a look at the 2 passages of Scripture used by “TB” supporters in an
attempt to lend Biblical credibility to their drunkenness. They are Acts 2:13
and Eph. 5:18. We’ll take a look at each separately.
1)
Acts
2:13, “They have had too much wine.”
We will look at the entire context of the chapter,
from verse 1 to the end. In Acts 2:13, it
was only the MOCKERS who were making fun that said they were drunk. I do not think we should take our queue from those mocking
Peter and the believers. Other than that, there is no evidence in the text that
they were acting like drunks, and all the evidence clearly indicates the
opposite. Peter got up and preached a clear, coherent, hard-hitting gospel
sermon that cut the Jews listening to him to the heart with conviction of sin.
He did not display anything like drunken behavior. Peter’s behavior was nothing
like the revival drunkards who love to stagger around, slurring and stammering
so much that they can hardly put a coherent sentence together, let alone an
entire sermon that can bring 3000 new converts into the Church in one day. The
rest of the 120 that came out of the upper room with Peter were speaking in
real foreign languages, clearly understandable to the foreigners visiting
Jerusalem at the time, proclaiming the “wonders of God” (Acts 2:11). These
people were anything but drunk! Whatever ‘spirit’ the Toronto people are moving
in, it’s not the same Spirit at work in Acts 2.
2)
Eph.
5:18, “Do not get drunk on wine, which
leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit.”
Read the surrounding verses
from 5:8-5:20 carefully: Paul wasn’t comparing the condition of being Spirit
filled to drunkenness, he was contrasting it! From verses 8 through 18, notice
the contrasts he makes between pairs of opposites: light/darkness, wise/unwise,
understanding/foolishness, and finally drunk/spirit filled. You were once
darkness, but now you are light (v.8); not unwise, but wise (v.15); don’t be
foolish, but understanding (v.17); don’t be drunk, instead be filled with
the Spirit (v.18).
The verse says: “Do not get
drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit.” Do not get drunk – it leads to debauchery!
Notice the word ‘instead’, indicating a contrasting opposite. Paul was
contrasting being filled with the Spirit to drunkenness, NOT likening it.
In their foolishness, revival
drunks actually turn that around to say, “Woohoo, lets party and get drunk in
the Spirit!” The debauchery Paul warns against in v.18 is just what we are
seeing in the wild party atmosphere that now reigns in revival churches. The
vast number of verses in the New Testament that tell us the Holy Spirit is a
Spirit of order and sobriety are stunning. Self-control, sobriety, and order are
fruits of the Spirit, and nowhere does it say the Holy Spirit is a spirit of
drunkenness. Therefore, spiritual drunkenness, staggering, slurred speech
cannot be the work of the Holy Spirit of God, as that would be inconsistent
with the nature of the Holy Spirit according to Scripture. Surely what Isaiah
said is true of them: “The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep: He has
sealed your eyes … For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a
scroll.” (29:10,11)
I
would like to offer the following conclusions based on the evidence of God’s
Word.
1)
‘Drunkenness’
is a form of spiritual judgment upon a church or group professing the name of
the Lord yet have departed from obedience to the truth. According to the Bible
passages we have looked at, spiritual drunkenness is a form of God’s judgment
on a church for the following reasons, as well as being a signal to others that
the church has fallen into these conditions:
a)
They
are deceived.
b)
They
are blind – have little or no discernment left.
c)
Their
priests and prophets are backslidden.
d)
They
have tolerated false prophets in their midst.
e)
They
have tolerated bad, questionable teaching.
f)
They
give God lip-service, but have turned away from a carefulness to follow His
law. In other words, they love to sing to the Lord on Sunday, but are carnal or
even sinful through the week.
g)
They
want to serve and worship the Lord on their own terms; set their own altars.
h)
They
have ignored the Lord’s Word.
i)
They
have sought experience over truth.
j)
Their
shepherds are asleep, and have allowed the enemy in.
2)
‘Drunkenness’
is a signal that another, much more severe judgment is coming!
More ominously, in these Bible passages, drunkenness
preceded severe judgment. It is a signal that much greater judgment will follow
the drunken party.
3)
‘Drunkenness’
is a last call to get out!
Finally, I believe it is a last call to the sober
minded who still remain in these churches to get out as fast as they can. It’s
a clear signal to flee while you still can because time is running out fast. In
Jer.51, the drunken party (v.39) preceded final judgment (40-44). Other
passages listed above bear this pattern out as well. Verse 45 - “Come out of
her, my people! Run for your lives! Run from the fierce anger of the Lord.” and
again in v.6 the call is repeated to “Run for your lives!” If these passages
are to be believed, than spiritual drunkenness in a church is a warning from
God to GET OUT NOW. Don’t hang around such churches even out of curiosity just
to see what happens. From these verses, we can gather that it will not be safe
to be in these groups when the next judgment arrives. There is no point in
speculating what form the next wave of judgment may take, but it will be very
severe and of such a nature that being in these groups when it comes will be
incredibly dangerous and foolish. It would be foolish to take His Word lightly
and disregard the clear warning signals God has given us.
“On the last
and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone
is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the
Scripture has said, streams of living water ill flow from within him.” By this
he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.”
John 7:37-39
There
is a lot of talk about the ‘river’ of God and intimacy with Christ these days.
Christians by the thousands are flocking to conferences centers to swim in the
river. The pursuit of God in this day involves chasing God from conference to
conference seeking a fresh touch. I have no doubt that some do in fact have an
encounter with God, because God is sovereign and He can meet His children
anywhere, but on the whole this movement is deeply flawed and not born of the
true Spirit of God. We can know this because it does not follow the Biblical
pattern for gaining true closeness with God. Rather, it places emphasis on
receiving ‘blessings’ and ‘fresh touches’ at the hands of another who seemingly
has ‘it’.
Any
true believer, who has come to Christ in genuine repentance and total surrender
of life, will be born from above by the Spirit of God and experience the
regenerating life of Christ within his soul. Through the new birth, the soul
comes into vital contact with the living God, and the life of God flows in.
This life brings a new power for holy living, new desires in life, and the old
appetites for sin and the world fade away. Sometimes sin or carelessness in the
life of the Christian will cause a blockage which hinders the life giving flow
of God, but the remedy is repentance.
Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Psalm 1:1-3
Our
relationship with God can only be cultivated by devoting daily plenty of time
to seek Him through prayer and study of His Word. It seems that Christians
today have lost their patience for this, and would rather dash of to fun filled
church meetings to have the ‘anointed’ man or woman touch them for a faster,
more direct ‘impartation’. The prayer closets are empty, but church conferences
are packed with seekers listening to talk of intimacy.
Having
someone touch us, pray over us, impart blessings or a ‘fresh touch’ cannot make
up for the neglect of our spiritual roots. Whatever these believers are
experiencing, I doubt very much that it is bringing them into a truer knowledge
of God. We must go to the seller of oil directly for ourselves in order to
receive. What I see happening before me on such a large scale in what calls
itself the Church of Jesus Christ has little to do with true intimacy with God,
and is in fact a massive rebellion against the very intimacy they so loudly
claim to seek. The foolish virgins are madly running around, looking for
another to give them more oil. What a sad parody of the true relationship with
God that Christ has made possible for us in the New Testament!
Feeling
dry? Instead of running out to some conference to receive a ‘fresh touch’ from
an ‘anointed’ person, examine your private devotional life. How’s your “Quiet
Time”? Are you neglecting His Word? Ignoring Him through prayerlessness? Is
there any sin? Any carelessness in devotion? Check for unforsaken sin or
negligence of duty. Bring your sin to
the cross and He has promised to forgive you and “give you grace to help.”
The
true ‘River’ of God runs through the prayer closet, not a conference center.
The single greatest reason so many Christians feel ‘dry’ is because they are
not in the Word and in prayer at home. Consequently, they are easily seduced by
the ‘Laughing Revival’ and other false movements. And they have tried to make
up for this lack of spirituality in their private lives with lively, rousing
public worship and busy activities.
Devote
yourself daily to the holy task of knowing Him by seeking Him in His Word and
prayer. Turn off the amusements of the world with which you normally entertain
yourself, and learn to find all your delight in Him. True spiritual revival can
only begin in the prayer closet. Then the Lord will be able to use you to reach
the lost around you.
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are
trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are
right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are
radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The ordinances of the Lord are
sure,
They are more precious than gold,
They are sweeter than honey,
By them is your servant warned.
Psalm 19:7-8,10-11
I think that one of the highest crimes in the church
today is a leadership that encourages people to come out to church, or attend
the latest conference, to receive a “fresh touch” at the hands of another, but
does not teach nor encourage their people to get alone with God daily in prayer
and the Word. What is presently being touted in revival circles as intimacy
with God is not true intimacy at all but a cheap counterfeit experience which
is leading the people away from a true relationship with Christ. The true River
of God is flowing through my prayer closet.
[1] Please see the chapter below “Characteristics of a Cultic Mindset”.
[2] For ease of use the terms ‘charismatic’ or ‘charismatic movement’ in this article will include the entire broad spectrum of Vineyard, TACF, ‘Toronto’ churches, ‘Kansas City’ churches, as well as the Charismatic church.
[3] The Latter Rain was a revival in the late 40’ and 50’s beginning in North Battleford, Saskatchewan which quickly spread throughout the world. Although it seemed to start out well enough, it quickly developed many aberrant teachings and moved into heresy, and the occult.
[4] Branham not only influenced Stevens, but most of the ‘prophets’ and ministries that came out of the LR, including Paul Cain, until recently a major leader in the current prophetic movement in Kansas City. Branham, his life and teachings are well documented and easy to find on the web. See www.letusreason.org/Latrain4.htm
[5] The use of the term ‘violent’ in the Walk was unfortunate and can easily give those outside the Walk the wrong idea. The Walk never advocated physical violence as far as I know.
[6] This is very similar to Gnosticism, a prominent heresy in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, and has survived in one form or another to this day. The Gnostic isn’t content to believe God by taking Him at His Word as written, but wants to have an inner mystical sense that tells him what is true so that he will ‘know’. The Gnostic requires a mystical experience to confirm the truth.
[7] Over the years I’ve noticed that this as a common
characteristic of a certain class of Christian often involved with what is now popularly
called ‘spiritual warfare’. They take a perverse pride in the demonic attacks
they suffer, taking that as some kind of sign that they must really be moving
in higher spiritual realms in order for the devil to take such notice of them.
People like this can often be heard complaining about all the spiritual attacks
they suffer.
[8] For a well researched account of the history and teachings of the Walk, please refer to the unpublished manuscript by The Spiritual Counterfeits Project.
[9] TACF was the progenitor of a phenomenon which began in early 1994 and quickly spread to other churches around the world. Characterized by outbreaks of uncontrollable laughter, and all manner of drunken and bizarre behavior, it came to be known as the Laughing Revival or the ‘Toronto Blessing’.
[10] The Toronto Revival came to be known as the Toronto Blessing or the Laughing Revival. It was characterized by outbreaks of uncontrollable laughter, people imitating animal behavior and noises, large numbers staggering and falling down, and all manner of drunken and bizarre behavior.
[11] This attitude is a classic example of spiritual elitism (Gnosticism), which makes it very difficult for those so affected to receive Godly and beneficial criticism from concerned Christians outside the ‘camp’.
[12] Psalm 119:71. See also vs. 67
[13] The few cases in Scripture of people receiving the Spirit at the hands of another were new converts who had not yet received the Holy Spirit. There are no examples of believers who have already received the Holy Spirit needing someone to touch them for more.
[14] I am not saying we don’t need to pray for one another. I am referring to imparting a touch from God or a deeper experience. We cannot ‘zap’ one another into a deeper relationship with Christ.
[15] For one Bible example, see Acts 8. Simon asked for the power of the Holy Spirit, but received a stern rebuke from Peter instead who discerned the impurity of Simon’s heart.
[16] Contrast this to the Book of Acts in which people receiving the Holy Spirit prayed. It makes one wonder what the “Blessing” received really is.
[17] Another chapter discusses at length the Bible passages on spiritual drunkenness, and so will not repeat the Scripture references here.
[18] See the subsequent chapter: Red Flags of Deception. It is a list of characteristics in common between Steven’s cult and the Charismatic Apostolic/Prophetic revival.
[19] The historical Latter Rain roots of the Walk and Kansas City have been well documented on the web and in many books.
[20] One notable example is William Branham, who heavily influenced both JRS and Paul Cain.
[21] See the following chapter on spiritual drunkenness
[22] Acts 2 and Eph 5:18 are not the positive endorsement of ‘Holy Drunkenness’ that many suppose. See the chapter on Spiritual Drunkenness.
[23] Mat.24:4,5,11 and similar warnings throughout the NT.
[24] Acts 17:11
[25] One of the main characteristics of a cultic mindset is the propensity to believe what is said based on the personality of the speaker rather than an objective standard of truth. See the chapter: Summary of the cultic mindset.
[26] For a very complete and
accurate description of Walk theology and history, I highly recommend the
report produced by the Spiritual Counterfeits Project on the Walk: "John
Robert Stevens and the Church of the Living Word (The Walk)", unpublished manuscript
from Spiritual Counterfeits Project, P.O. Box 4308, Berkeley, CA 94704
[27] I am not inferring by this that the charismatic
movement endorses the Walk, or even knows about it. It is very likely that most
people in the Vineyard and Charismatic movements have never heard of the Walk.
[28] It has even been suggested by some charismatic prophets that the new apostles and prophets today may even be greater than the first century Apostles.
[29] St. Paul was speaking of the Old Testament (the letter of the law) and the better New Testament we now have through Jesus Christ. He was in no way implying that the written word of God was dead.
[30] Values imparted could be just about any spiritual thing: spiritual gifts, anointing, power, resurrection life.
[31] Acts 17:11. The Christians in Berea were commended because when Paul came to them with the gospel they examined the Scriptures for themselves to see if what he said was true.
[32] I feel I must point out again here, that this is a highly cultic mindset, a chief characteristic of cult followers, AND IT PREDOMINATES IN THE VINEYARD and many CHARISMATIC church groups. This is not at all what the Bible means by submission and obedience to the Word and to those in authority!
[33] I am not suggesting here that we are to have that kind of arrogance that won’t listen to others. That’s not a healthy mindset either. Godly men and women will listen to, and give serious consideration to, the opinions of other godly people whom they know to be walking in holiness and obedience to the Word of God. But the criteria for judging what we think and what others tell us is the Word of God, not WHO says it.
[34] Discretion and independent thought is typically the first thing a cult seeks to remove from a new or potential convert, and it is one of the first things that have to be restored in an individual seeking to get out.