Jack Deere's Doctrinal Confusion
Thanks to mentors like John Wimber, C. Peter Wagner, Chuck Kraft from Fuller as well as Paul Cain and others, Jack Deere had his orthodox view of theology systematically dismantled. He then became instrumental in introducing the Third Wave to millions of Christians who trusted him because he had been a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary through his books "Surprised By The Power Of The Spirit" and "Surprised By The Voice Of God." Though these books have some precious truths in them, they also contain heresy. That is how false teachers ply their trade. They lay error alongside truth so that the unsuspecting and undiscerning will not be able to tell the difference between what is true and what is not. Following are a few examples of just how far away from orthodoxy Deere has gone.
The Gospel
In 1990, at a Charismatic Conference in the States, where Wimber and Deere were the speakers, Dr. Deere was questioned in a friendly conversation, as follows:
Questioner: I wonder if you might tell me
why you felt my explanation of the Gospel given yesterday was
defective. [I said that Christ died for
our sins, was buried, raised on the third day, and that it is this
Gospel by which we are saved.]
Dr. Deere: I am not prepared to talk about that.
Questioner: Well, just offhand, what do you think the Gospel is?
Dr. Deere: I am not prepared to make a formal statement about that.
Questioner: Could you tell me informally what the Gospel is?
Dr. Deere: I am not sure.
Questioner: I find that surprising -- that you are not sure just what the Gospel is.
Dr. Deere: I used to be just like you -- thinking the Gospel was simply justification.
Questioner: Are you saying that the Gospel is more than justification by faith?
Dr. Deere: Yes.
Questioner: What would you add to it?
Dr. Deere: Deliverance.
Questioner: What do you mean by deliverance?
Dr. Deere: Things like demons and healing and....
Questioner: You would add as an essential
part of the saving Gospel things like exorcising of demons and
healing?
Dr. Deere: Yes.
Questioner: But you are not sure exactly what should be included?
Dr. Deere: No, not yet.
Questioner: Would it be fair to say that you are in a state of flux since joining the Wimber thing?
Dr. Deere: We are always in a state of flux -- you are....
Questioner: But in the Gospel message? Surely
that is one thing we should have worked out. Don't you
think we can reduce the Gospel to some
sort of summary statement like Paul does in say 1 Corinthians 1
and 2, or 15; or 1 Thessalonians 4, or
Romans 5?
Dr. Deere: [No response, except a shrug of the shoulders.]
Questioner: Do you think the Apostle Paul
had anything particular in mind when he wrote to Timothy and
asked him to guard the Gospel that had
been entrusted to him? Are you saying that you couldn't go back
into that pavilion and tell those people
the Gospel?
Dr. Deere: No, not yet.
Questioner: When do you think you could do it?
Dr. Deere: Maybe five years, maybe ten....
(From Biblical Perspectives, July-Aug. 1990,
p. 5. taken from the original interview by Graham Bannister for "The
Breifing", April 24, 1990 (45/46))
OT Exegesis
In Biblical Perspectives, Sept.-Aug. 1990, p. 3, Dr. Thomas Ice reported that "Dr. Jack Deere gave a message entitled "Joel's Army" -- his explanation of what the Church is going to be like in just a few years:
Heretofore in history we have only had one
Moses on the scene. Only one Elijah, and only one Elisha at a
time. Among the Apostles we only have one
Paul, one John, one Peter -- a few of those were really
outstanding.
Heretofore we have only had one or two mighty
servants of God on the face of the earth at a time. This is
not true any longer! When this army comes,
Joel says, there will have been nothing like it before.
Revelation hints at this when it talks
about the 144,000 that follow the Lamb wherever He goes. A
powerful Army with many Pauls, and many
Moseses, and many Davids.
"Dr. Deere is saying that the soon-coming Latter Rain revival will be carried out by those who are in "Joel's Army," which he also equates with the 144,000 witnesses from Revelation 7. Dr. Deere has gone a long way from what he was as one of my Hebrew professors at Dallas Seminary!"