Lies And Deception - A Brownsville Legacy
by Sandy Simpson, 1999


The following news story in 1997 can now, in 1999, be analyzed to see how much truth there was in John Kilpatrick's statements.  I will comment in bold.


Kilpatrick: History shows revivals are divisive
The Pensacola News Journal, NOVEMBER 17, 1997
By Alice Crann

PENSACOLA - The Rev. John Kilpatrick says he is not a prophet, he's just an average pastor-- and always will be.

This is an intriguing statement, especially in light of the fact that he has stated countless times that he was prophesying.  Here are a few examples, taken directly from a transcript of one of his messages:

"You're all gonna have to pardon me for being beside myself, but I got a word from the Lord last night ... The Lord gave me a word last night that I'm going to share with you in a few minutes ... And the Lord said, "I want you to go before My people and I want you to tell them something." He said, "Even in regard to what you're upset about and worried about, "He said, "Son" - it's what He said to me last night, and I heard the Lord, friend. If I didn't hear God I'd tell you, but I heard the Lord ... If you want to keep any kind of a semblance of a ministry, you better back off from this revival and what God is doing. You better back off, because I'm going to prophesy to you that if you don't, and you continue to put your tongue in your mouth on this move of God, within 90 days the Holy Ghost will bring you down. I said, within 90 days the Holy Ghost will bring you down ... I'm speaking this not just to you, friends, to impress you, but I'm saying this as a man of God from behind this holy desk in this holy environment of a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit." (Kilpatrick Message 4/6/97)

As we all know by now, the prophecy about Hank Hanegraaff did not come true, therefore Kilpatrick is a false prophet.  Not only that, but Kilpatrick denied he ever prophesied in the first place in a letter of "apology" to Hanegraaff, compounding the lies.  You can see clearly from the above statements that he thought he was prophesying, and categorically stated that he was in front of a full church.

He says he has learned many hard lessons during the 2 1/2 years of revival at his church, Brownsville Assembly of God. And he says he can accept scrutiny and criticism.

Can you believe this statement?  Brownsville is FAMOUS for putting out books blasting anyone who disagrees with the "revival".  Steve Hill's book "The God Mockers" and Michael Brown's book "Let No One Deceive You: Confronting Critics of Revival" used many invectives against the body of Christ.  You can also see from the above prophecy that John Kilpatrick cannot accept "scrutiny and criticism" at all.  These men have cursed other Christians to death for disagreeing with them.  Perhaps it would be easier to learn "many hard lessons" if these men would repent and listen to rebuke when they teach false doctrine, make false prophesies and promote a false anointing.

"With something of this magnitude, there will be negativity," Kilpatrick said. "History shows revival has always been divisive.

Especially recent history, and especially with regards to Brownsville.  The history of this "revival" has shown that it has not been primarily about reaching the unsaved, but about proselytizing Christians.  The meetings I attended were aimed at Christians, and especially at church leadership.  There were no prayers or real efforts directed at the unsaved, apart from one poster.  The meeting I attended took place in a hotel ballroom which was right next to a bar.  No one from the meeting even bothered to go to the bar and invite anyone to the meetings.  It was just as well because the gospel was not preached in its entirety.  It turned out to be a series of meetings where Christians were urged in many different ways to come up front to get zapped by the Brownsville group and a local pastor.  The results of this meeting were widespread.  It caused division in the ministerial association, in churches, in families, and in neighboring island churches.  People suffered emotional and spiritual shipwreck, and there were even more dire consequences.  The "negativity" as a result of this movement comes from within it, and this has become patently clear over time.  The Bible warns us to stay away from "divisive" men (Titus 3:10, Jude 1:19).  Brownsville has departed into uncharted waters, not the churches who remain faithful God and His Word.  Brownsville is the church that has been dividing the Church, not those who remain in the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

"But people in the ministry have to be accountable. I have been faithful to my wife for 29 years, and I have been faithful to my church. When this is over, I hope Brownsville is a strong church."

Was John Kilpatrick "faithful" to his church when he allowed an outsider, Steve Hill, to come in and usurp his authority to protect his flock against apostasy?  Brownsville may be able to boast a large attendance and many visitors, but they also lost those members who warned them against the heresy that Steve Hill brought in ... the only people who were left with any discernment in their church.  They lost a great deal more than what they gained, in my opinion.  They traded their true spiritual strength for the false "strength" of the enemy.

Kilpatrick defends his methods, messages and motivations. "Critics would say because we were praying for revival, we were strategizing for revival, but that's not how it was.

This is a blatant lie, and a lie that they apparently no longer attempt to use on people today.  It is obvious and well  documented that the Kilpatricks and Steve Hill traveled to Toronto "Blessing" churches to get the "impartation" and that they wanted to bring that "revival" into their church.  The second lie they tell is that the "revival" started as a sovereign move of God.  The video tape of the first day of the revival reveals very clearly that Steve Hill upstaged the head pastor of the church, told him to get out of his way, and then zapped him to the floor.  He spent most of his time begging and cajoling the people there to come forward and experience the "impartation" he had received at Holy Trinity Brompton church in England, a Toronto "Blessing" church.  He talked about the "impartation", what happened to him, and that he had carried it to Brownsville as a transferable impartation.  This revival could not have been more planned if they had tried.

"In 1991, I was in church praying and looking at the new church. I said: 'God, the church is good, but I am so lonely. Why am I so lonely? It doesn't feel like it used to.' The planning and construction of the new church took about 2" to 3 years. There was meeting after meeting. And the church was growing. I said: 'God, I want you to touch me. The Lord spoke to my heart and said that if I would make this a house of prayer, He would pour out His spirit."

A house of prayer for "the power to come"- yes.  A house of prayer for salvation for the lost - that has not really been their focus.  There are things we ought to pray for and things we ought not to pray for.  Prayer for power or a "touch from God" is not a biblical prayer.  The Lord has already poured out His Spirit in these days since Pentecost on anyone who believes, at the moment they truly believe.  To invoke and summon the Holy Spirit to meetings is not biblical either, because the Word says that He is already present where two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Triune Godhead, and is sovereign.  Revival or "refreshing", as the Scriptures call it, only comes as a result of repentance.

"God has given Steve a special anointing. He has a passion to see the lost and get them to come to God.

Steve Hill was not preaching the gospel at all on the first day of the "revival" at Brownsville.  What he was doing was promoting a transferable impartation and virtually pleading with the people of the church to come forward and get "it".  If this is "passion to see the lost and get them to come to God" then Kundalini Hindus must have that same passion, since what Steve Hill is doing is virtually identical to what they do.  The sign of a man who has a passion for the lost is not that he can wield some form of whitewashed Christian sorcery, but that he preaches the gospel and sound doctrine.  The gospel that Steve Hill preaches, in fact how he claims he got saved, is a gospel of "just say Jesus over and over, repent, and run to the mercy seat."  That is not the gospel message.

Kilpatrick said he and Hill do not use the the term "impartation" to describe what they do.

As already detailed, this is also a lie.  I might add, these were the exact words used when the Brownsville group came to our area and invited all the pastors in the ministerial association to the meetings.  They claimed they could give us a special "impartation" and stated that they did not understand how, but that it was "transferable" from person to person and could be taken back to our churches.  Also, this statement about them not using the term "impartation" is an apparent admission that this is "what THEY do" instead of something that God does, thereby bringing acclaim to themselves.  You would have thought they would have corrected the reporter's misunderstanding about where the transferable "anointing" allegedly comes from, but they did not.

"We don't use the word because it is a confusing word and misunderstood. We use the word 'anointing.'

They do now, but not when the Brownsville "thing" started in 1995 and as late as 1997 they were still using the term "impartation" claiming is was "transferable".  In any case, it's the same thing.  They claim a transferable anointing.  This is a false anointing because there is no basis for a transferable anointing "by" the laying on of hands in Scripture.

He also said that critics' accusations that he and Hill have strayed from Scripture are unfounded. "The word of God is the thing," Kilpatrick said. "Every night Scripture is read. There has not been 10 services where the word of God has not been preached.

First of all, there have been many observers who have stated that there was little or no preaching from the Scripture when they attended meetings.  Second, though the Scripture is referenced it is often misused and twisted out of context.  One night when I was in Pensacola I heard a message about Hezekiah and Sennacherib by John Kilpatrick.  He ended up saying that anyone who disagrees with Brownsville is Sennacherib.  That was his exegetical analogy!  Is that a proper use of the Scriptures?  Is it not a terrible curse against other Christians to call them Sennacherib, who was himself a picture of the devil in that story?  Third, there are many articles detailing the many unbiblical, heretical and blasphemous statements by the leaders of Brownsville.  Steve Hill himself has preached the following in their meetings:

"Don't leave me now ... just hang in there ... we'll get to the good stuff soon" (stopping to speak of the "anointing" every so often while teaching from Scripture.)(Revival ... or Satanic Counterfeit?, Jimmy Robbins, 1996)

"In these latter days preaching and simply teaching the word is no longer sufficient, the Spirit has to get
involved, through signs and wonders due to much sin that abounds." (What We Saw, Robert C. Gray, 12/14/96)

John Kilpatrick stated:

"Let me tell you something else about this revival," Kilpatrick said. "This move of God is not about preaching. We've heard so many sermons and so much of the Word of God that we've grown fat," he said, "but there's been no power and no anointing and no miracles. So, I just want to tell you, that's why tonight I don't feel bad about not coming up here and preaching a great sermon." (The Brownsville/Pensacola Outpouring. Revival or Pandemonium?, Matt Costella, Staff Writer ©FOUNDATION Magazine, March-April 1997)

Does this sound like men who have not "strayed" from the Scriptures?

In response to complaints that he has made harsh judgments, Kilpatrick said he regretted his proclamations against people who left the church, but he defended his motives. "When you are helping people being saved -- people from drugs, teen-agers who wanted to kill their parents -- when you see those kind of conversions going on, watching people out there fighting this is an indignation. "But I do sincerely miss the people who left," he said. "I still love them. I went through a great deal of hurt because they didn't get in on what the Lord is doing. But I have no ill will toward them."

If he loves them, then why did he heap curses on them?  And who made John Kilpatrick the arbiter of what "the Lord is doing" anyway?  Could it be that the 300+ people who left Brownsville, in the wake of the apostasy that Steve Hill brought with him, were actually the ones who could have prepared the way for true repentance, conversions and a real revival in that church?  Now that Brownsville has been preaching another Jesus, another gospel and another Spirit for a number of years, their McDonalds-style toteboard of the number of "saved" looks more and more like the broad road and the wide gate.

Who exactly are these people placing their faith in?  A "god" who is at their beck and call for miracles, health and wealth?  A "god" who apparently has changed his mind about sorcery and occult techniques and is now allowing them in the church?  A "god" who likes people to be in trances, drunken, shaking, and out of their minds?  A "god" who does not highly regard his own word?  A "spirit" who knocks people down to the level of animals rather than lifting them to be more like Christ?  A "gospel" that has been watered down and is often devoid of the cross and the resurrection, and in any case highlights a false anointing as the crowning moment and miracle rather than the miracle of the new birth?

The deception continues.

Although they no longer have the gall to claim they have nothing to do with the Toronto "Blessing", as they did for at least two years in order to dupe people into believing it was a sovereign move of God independent of that movement, they continue to lie about what they are doing.  Now they are exporting these deceptions all over the U.S. with Awake America.  The question is: when will Christians awake to the legacy of Brownsville?