The twin movements of social change turning British society upside-down.

I’m sure there must be days when our Prime Minister regrets having won the leadership contest for the Tory Party when David Cameron departed in 2016, after he backed the wrong side in the Referendum. The media assault upon Theresa May has intensified since her success in negotiating the first stage of Brexit with Brussels.

Those who are determined to keep Britain under the authority of the European Union are using every weapon at their disposal. They are actively seeking to destabilise the country by concentrating their fire upon Theresa May and her leadership in the hope of creating such confusion that public opinion will swing around against Brexit.

The central issue is not political and it is not economic. In fact, all the prognostications of gloom and doom from the Remainers have not happened. Unemployment has not soared, it has fallen; the economy has not collapsed, it is doing moderately well; we are not back of the queue in doing trade deals with America and other parts of the world; both the USA and China are eager to make trade agreements with Britain.

The central issue, as we have said many times before on Prophecy Today, is spiritual. In fact, the battle for Brexit is part of a much bigger spiritual war for the heart and soul of Britain - and the West at large. This war is changing the fundamental structure of our nation, and yet most people, even if they are aware of it, do not understand it.

The battle for Brexit is part of a much bigger spiritual war that most do not understand.

A Tale of Two Movements

If we are to understand the battle currently assailing Mrs May and the Brexit process, therefore, we must zoom out and take a longer-term perspective. Such a perspective reveals that there are two movements of social change running parallel in British society, which are also visible across the whole of Western civilisation.

One is the philosophical movement of secular humanism, the roots of which go back to 18^th Century Enlightenment philosophers, and through which emerged both the pseudo-scientific theory of Darwinian evolution and the political ideology of Marxism. Secular humanism seeks to set society free from the restrictions of religion and elitism to enable each individual to make their own decisions and to determine their own destiny in line with secularised principles of liberty and equality.

The second movement is far more deadly and destructive because its objective is simply social anarchy. This is the LGBTQ movement – the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer movement. Their major objective, quite publicly stated since the early 1970s and the rise of the Gay Pride Movement, is the destruction of the family, which they see as a fundamental ‘source of oppression’.

If the LGBT movement can destroy traditional family life based upon the covenant of marriage with its roots in Judeo-Christian biblical teaching, they can achieve their goal of a society entirely free of all restrictions, in which all forms of sexual activity, including paedophilia, are legal. That is what they are aiming to establish and that is what lies behind the most recent campaign to promote ‘transgenderism’ as a normal part of society, starting with little children in infants’ school.

There are two movements of social change running parallel in British society – secular humanism and the LGBT movement for sexual liberation.

Both of these movements of social change have a spiritual basis, being driven by the powers of darkness rather than philosophical concepts. Both became entwined about 30 years ago and since then have run parallel, feeding upon each other and causing confusion in the public square, such that the true objectives of each are not discerned. Both are fundamentally connected in with the EU project. So, the danger of the destruction of all our social institutions and the collapse of social order in the nation is not being perceived.

Church Decline and Weakness

All this has happened during a period of Church decline and weakness and when biblical truth has not been taught to children in schools or at home. We now have a situation where half the population have virtually no knowledge of the God of Creation and ultimate standards of truth. Only a tiny minority of those under the age of 50 have any knowledge of the Bible, upon which the whole basis of Western civilisation is founded.

It is this spiritual vacuum in the nation that has paved the way for a major assault upon truth, which has also given us today’s fake news, driven by the enormous power of social media.

Sadly, we have a generation of clergy and preachers who have little or no understanding of what’s going on. I remember my confusion when I began in my first church in London. I was fresh out of college and I was expected to preach twice on Sundays and minister to an ethnically mixed working-class congregation among whom I had never lived or had any experience. Virtually none of my theological education and training was any use to me. I had won my university’s prize in classical Greek, but it was about as much use as yesterday’s newspaper in dealing with the issues I now faced on a daily basis.

It was for this reason that I enrolled at the LSE to do a Masters in Sociology leading to a doctorate. I was determined to understand the forces of social change that were sweeping through society at a bewildering pace.

While forces of change have swept society at a bewildering pace, the Church has been in decline and weakness and biblical truth has not been taught to children in schools or at home.

As far as I’m aware, theological education of clergy has not changed much since my day, so most of them are like King Saul’s army facing the Philistines – “On the day of battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them” (1 Sam 13.22). If church leaders are not armed for the battle they will not be able to teach their people to understand the complex mission field that faces us today, nor equip them to fearlessly declare the truth to a dying nation.

Unconditional Affirmation?

Hence, we have the appalling ignorance of an Archbishop and a House of Bishops who have just declared, “The House of Bishops welcomes and encourages the unconditional affirmation of trans people”. Clearly, they do not understand either the biblical and theological significance, or the sociological significance, of what they’re doing. They are like the religious leaders who Jesus faced, “though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand” (Matt 13:13).

Writing about the new ‘liberal democracy’, which he sees as a quasi-religious movement that has swept away most of our Christian traditions, Dr Joe Boot says:

The seemingly unstoppable and rapid advance of this neo-Marxist and neo-pagan worldview, aided by a largely unprepared and ineffective church pulpit, means a religious revolution has left many Christians stunned, confused and often afraid to do anything but retreat or concede.¹

The plain fact is that we don’t know what to do to stop the total secularisation of our society in which, once the older generation has gone to glory, Christians will become a tiny, persecuted minority. Our greatest need is for clear direction from the Lord. In this editorial we have simply outlined the problem and not attempted to offer a response. That is what we hope to seek the Lord for in the next few weeks. We would greatly appreciate feedback from readers.

References

1 Boot, J, 2017. GOSPEL WITNESS: Defending and Extending the Kingdom of God. Wilberforce Publications, London, p2.

Middle East foreign policy contrast of ‘special relationship’ partners

Britain’s dithering contribution towards peace in the Middle East was well illustrated by last week’s Parliamentary debate on terrorist group Hezbollah.

While it was heartening that MPs on both sides of the House called for a complete ban on the organisation, it was hardly surprising that no action was promised as ministers resisted pressure to proscribe the organisation’s political wing.

Worse still, the advice to their MPs from the Labour leadership – Her Majesty’s official opposition – was as shameful as it was lame, explaining that outlawing Hezbollah in its entirety could hamper diplomatic efforts towards peace.

False Distinction

Britain applies a distinction between the organisation’s political and military wings, with the former effectively allowed to freely operate in the UK despite its declared intention to destroy Israel. Whereas the United States, France and even the Arab League apply a full ban, and the terror group itself does not accept this distinction.

The poorly-attended debate was secured by Labour Friends of Israel chair Joan Ryan who said Hezbollah was “driven by an anti-Semitic ideology that seeks the destruction of Israel” and that the UK distinction was “utterly bogus”.¹

But Security Minister Ben Wallace and his shadow, Nick Thomas-Symonds, defended the Government’s position.

Hezbollah’s ‘political’ wing is allowed to freely operate in the UK, despite it being designated a terrorist organisation by the US, France and most Arab League nations.

A Hiding Place for Terror

All this obfuscation comes amid increasing ignorance and denial of history, with the Polish parliament passing a Bill banning reference to their country’s involvement in the Holocaust.²

Labour MP Ian Austin criticised his leader Jeremy Corbyn for having referred to Hamas and Hezbollah as ‘friends’ back in 2009, adding that Mr Corbyn had later explained that he had used the term in a ‘collective way’. But Mr Austin said these groups had made it clear they had “absolutely no interest in the peace process”.³

Joan Ryan later told Jewish News: “It is deeply disappointing that the government has yet again refused to act decisively against Hezbollah.” She said such anti-Semitic terror groups should have no hiding place, yet the UK was continuing to provide them with one.

London’s ‘Hezbollah Problem’

It's worth pointing out that Hezbollah is backed by Iran – the world’s leading sponsor of terror organisations – who have fired 23 ballistic missiles (16 of them with nuclear capability) since signing the 2015 nuclear deal designed to maintain peace in the region.⁴

Meanwhile former Israeli Ambassador to the UK Ron Prosor said Hezbollah had been given freedom to operate in Europe and elsewhere by the alleged distinctive wings⁵ and Conservative MP Theresa Villiers said they posed “a serious threat to the citizens of the UK”, adding that a new poll revealed that 81% of Britons support a full ban and that the annual Al-Quds Day march through central London, during which anti-Israel protestors wave Hezbollah flags, was “a scandal” and “an embarrassment”.⁶

American counter-terrorism expert Dr Matthew Levitt has said that “London has a Hezbollah problem”, explaining that Britain’s partial ban was not working and had resulted in the organisation carrying out illegal activities including drug-running and fundraising for military campaigns.⁷

Britain’s partial ban is not working and has resulted in Hezbollah carrying out illegal activities including drug-running and military fundraising.

Jihad is Political and Military

CALL TO PRAY: U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence is proud to stand with Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Picture: Charles Gardner

I believe the debate was really about war and peace; the Hezbollah flag features a machine-gun and does not distinguish between its so-called armed and political wings. Not surprisingly, therefore, the organisation has no wish to discuss peace – they are, after all, engaged in jihad (holy war), as their flag demonstrates.

And on this and other points, the British Government is dithering. We can’t make up our mind whether to support war or peace in this instance and so we sit on the fence while Iran’s terrorist proxy builds up further weapons with which to bring murder and mayhem to the Jewish state.

It’s a bit like the dithering we demonstrated in the years during and after the Holocaust itself (as a television documentary screened on the More 4 channel on Sunday 28 January showed⁸), shelving promotion of a gruesome film, including particularly harrowing scenes, for fear it would demoralise the German people in the wake of their crushing defeat. The Americans at the time, under the direction of legendary Hollywood producer Alfred Hitchcock, went ahead with a condensed version incorporating some of the British army footage.

US Leading by Example

And what a contrast we see again today in the way the United States handles the Middle East diplomatic impasse head-on and with unusual clarity – by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and announcing that the US Embassy will move there by the end of next year.

Vice-President Mike Pence, in making this announcement to an Israeli parliament (the Knesset) willing even to give up precious land for peace, littered his speech with biblical references as he spoke to a packed room, emphasising the Bible’s command to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

The British Government can’t make up its mind whether to support war or peace, so we sit on the fence while Iran’s terrorist proxy invests in murder and mayhem.

Paraphrasing Psalm 122:6f and Zechariah 3:10, he said: “The USA is proud to stand with Israel and her people, as allies and cherished friends. And so we will pray for the peace of Jerusalem, that those who love you will be secure, that there be peace within your walls and security in your citadels. And we will work and strive for that brighter future, so everyone who calls this ancient land home shall sit under their vine and fig tree, and none shall make them afraid.”⁹

What’s it to be? War or peace?

Notes

1 MPs clash over move to fully proscribe Hezbollah as a terror group. Jewish News, 26 January 2018.

2 Netanyahu slams Polish Holocaust bill, says ‘one cannot change history’. World Israel News, 28 January 2018

3 See note 1.

4 Edson, R. Iran has fired 23 ballistic missiles since start of 2015 nuclear deal, explosive report shows. Fox News, 25 January 2018.

5 Prosor, R. Hezbollah is a clearly a terror organisation. Parliament should treat it as one. The Telegraph, 25 January 2018.

6 See note 1.

7 Bentham, M. Hezbollah agents ‘run drugs on London streets’. Evening Standard, 25 January 2018.

8 Night Will Fall.

9 Full transcript of Pence's Knesset speech. Jerusalem Post, 22 January 2018.

A selection of news stories to aid your prayers.

David Forbes finishes his chapter on the roots of the Toronto Outpouring.

This article is part of a series, republishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’ (Hill et al). Find previous instalments here.

The British Connection

The charismatic Church in Britain was fully exposed to the Kansas City prophets with all their aberrant 'revelation' teaching and their directive personal prophecy.

They were first introduced to this country by way of a book entitled Some Said It Thundered, written by Bishop David Pytches and published by Hodder and Stoughton in the spring of 1990. David Pytches had made a visit to Kansas City the previous year and his book was an encouraging and sympathetic account of the history of the Fellowship and its prophets. John Wimber then brought a number of them to meet British charismatic leaders at a series of meetings arranged by Holy Trinity, Brompton, where he sought to convince them of the authenticity of their prophetic ministry.

Despite the fact that warnings had been given, specifically by Clifford Hill, that much more time and research needed to be put into verifying the Kansas City Fellowship ministry, the majority of British charismatic leaders happily embraced Cain, Jones and the other prophets as truly spiritually credible. In fact, a number of them went so far as to sign a statement endorsing the ministry of the Kansas City prophets as being God-given.

It is difficult to understand why so many British charismatic leaders were prepared to underwrite this ministry given the bizarre teachings which lay behind it. It can only be assumed that they saw a need to inject into their churches and fellowships the kind of excitement and promise which this prophetic movement generated.

The Kansas City prophets were first introduced to Britain by way of David Pytches’ book ‘Some Said It Thundered’.

It was obviously exciting to many charismatic Christians to be given a glimpse of super-power and great signs-and-wonders ministry, where a powerful church would rule the world for Jesus. This was a glimpse of the fulfilment of all that had been promised to them by their leaders for the previous 20 years. They even had a glimpse of possible earthly immortality. There may also of course have been a sense that the love and respect in which John Wimber was held by most charismatic leaders in the country simply covered a multitude of sins.

Expectation of Revival

David Pytches' 1990 book on the Kansas City prophets.

One of the important aspects of the visits which John Wimber and the Kansas City prophets made between July and October 1990 was that they raised the expectation for revival in the United Kingdom.

In fact, Paul Cain went so far as to prophesy that revival would surely come to Britain in October 1990. It was in the expectation of the fulfilment of this prophecy that the London Dockland Conference was arranged that October, and so high was the expectation that revival would come that John Wimber brought his whole family from America so that they could be there on the last night.

Sadly, no revival appeared, which brought disillusionment and discouragement to many in the charismatic Church. John Wimber himself undoubtedly returned to the United States a very disappointed man. He subsequently distanced himself from the ministry of Paul Cain and there even appeared to be a waning of his promotion of the whole prophetic ministry. Although Paul Cain was taken under the wing of Dr RT Kendall, of Westminster Chapel, he did not again appear to have prophetic influence over leadership in the British charismatic Church - which also appeared to put the whole question of prophecy on hold.

It needs to be stressed that the foundation for the teaching and prophetic ministry of the Kansas City Fellowship, including Paul Cain, was the tenets of the Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God movements of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. Despite the protestations and denials that there was any association with these movements, there has never been formal renunciation of their belief in the classic Latter Rain doctrines:

• The end times restoration of the Church through specially-chosen apostles and prophets, bringing her to perfection and the 'overcomers' to immortality,
  
• A great signs-and-wonders ministry surpassing that of the Acts of the Apostles,
  
• A great worldwide revival.
  

Similarly, there has never been any statement made by British charismatic leadership as to where they now stand on their signed affidavit of July 1990 on the authenticity of the ministry coming from Kansas City. Consequently, many are left in confusion as to what is the truth about the prophetic ministry. The lack of solid biblical teaching and honest examination of these experiential events in many charismatic churches simply adds to the confusion.

There has never been any statement made by British charismatic leadership as to where they now stand on the authenticity of the ministry coming from Kansas City.

A New Disguise?

At the same time, undoubtedly there were many adherents (especially in the United States) of these movements who, although now part of the charismatic movement, hung on to their original agendas and rejoiced at whatever progress was made in fulfilling their visions.

Although both Latter Rain and the Manifest Sons of God movements lost their overt credibility by the early 1960s it appears that an underground movement for these beliefs was sufficiently strong for serious attempts to be made from time to time to hijack the charismatic renewal movement. I would contend that one such attempt was made by the prophetic movement as epitomised in the Kansas City Fellowship. I would also contend that what has been dubbed the Toronto Blessing may have been an attempt by some to resurrect the old Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God visions.

The foreword to Richard Riss's publication on the Latter Rain movement was written in 1987 by James Watt - the same James Watt who had been part of the Sharon group at North Battleford and had inspired George Warnock to write The Feast of Tabernacles. Watt says,

In a sense, the fulfilment of the Feast of Tabernacles came forth with the blowing of trumpets from North Battleford...the Church has been in part exposed to the day of atonement. The Harvest, or Booths, is now upon us, and the time of the restitution of all things is about to take place...The early and latter rain are about to be poured out in the same month! According to Paul Yonggi Cho of Korea and twenty other prophets, the last great move of the Spirit will originate in Canada, and by seventy Canadian cities will be brought to the 210 nations of the earth before Jesus returns.

Marc DuPont, of the Toronto Airport Vineyard, who is considered to have a prophetic ministry, had reported that the Lord gave him a two-part prophetic vision in May 1992 and June 1993 of a mighty wall of water rising in Toronto and flowing out like a river into the rest of Canada.¹

DuPont believed this to be the start of a revival beginning in Toronto and reaching its climax worldwide between the years 2000 and 2005. DuPont also stated that, “This move of the Spirit in 1994 is not just a charismatic and Pentecostal experience, concerning power or gifting. It is one thing to be clothed with power; it is another to be indwelt with the Person of God”.²

DuPont did not enlarge on what he meant by being 'indwelt with the Person of God' and therefore the question needs to be asked whether he envisaged 'this move of God' as being the final fulfilment of Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God visions.

I would contend that what has been dubbed the Toronto Blessing may have been an attempt by some to resurrect the old Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God visions.

George Warnock was of the opinion that the manifestation of the sons of God, which would take place at the fulfilment of the 'Feast of Tabernacles', involved the Lord coming to physically indwell his people on earth. His thesis was that when this happened we would no longer have a Head in heaven and a Body on earth but we would have the one new Perfect Man who would fill both heaven and earth. This would be the fulfilment of the Second Pentecost, the early and latter rain of Joel 2. Warnock also believed that there would be a 40-year wilderness experience for the Church from the time of the late 1940s Latter Rain revivals until the Second Pentecost.

Prophesying Toronto?

Randy Clark, who introduced the 'new move of God' to the Toronto Airport Vineyard, said that the Vineyard churches had a 'prophetic foundation' for embracing the Toronto Blessing.³ He said:

We are looking for revelation from God as to what he now wants us to do with our lives and in our cities. The prophetic revelation has already been given as a foundation. This is the beginning of a great revival...But it's a fun time, a time of empowerment. There will be ebb and flow, there will be a number of waves. There is a time for an initial inflow, an initial outpouring. Then a time when God is maturing us, then a time of persecution, then a major outpouring. This is a low power time right now. Someone in Toronto prophesied: ‘I'm giving you my power now in weakness, but there's more coming’.

Clark also told us that what happened in Toronto had been prophesied by the Kansas City prophets over ten years previously. He said that in 1984, to Mike Bickle “in visitations from the Lord, the audible voice of the Lord said ‘In 10 years I am going to visit my people’".

Later, he said a prophecy was given to the Kansas City Fellowship (subsequently renamed the Metro Vineyard), “The rain is coming”. He further quoted prophecies from Paul Cain and from John Paul Jackson, another of the original Kansas City prophets, that had been given to them in the 1980s, that 1993 and 1994 would witness “this great outpouring from God”.

Clark also quoted Paul Cain as saying that at this time God was giving “sovereign vessels” who were bringing in “an outpouring of the Lord which is such that it goes beyond anything anybody alive today has ever seen or ever heard or read in church history”. Bearing in mind the prophetic record of the Kansas City prophets regarding previous revival dates, how should these predictions have been evaluated?

Rodney Howard-Browne, a South African from the Faith/Prosperity stream (he was a lecturer at Ray McCauley's Rhema Bible School) and often cited as one of the initiators of the Toronto Blessing, was fond of using the old Latter Rain and Franklin Hall 'Holy Ghost fire' imagery. Here is an example of one of his prophecies concerning the Toronto Blessing, given at Kenneth Copeland's church in September 1993:

This is the day, this is the hour, saith the Lord, that I am moving in this earth...This is the day when I will cause you to step over into the realm of the supernatural. For many a preacher has prophesied of old that there is a move coming. But it is even now and even at the door. For the drops of rain are beginning to fall of the glory of God. Yes, yes, many of you who have sat on the threshold and have said, 'O God when shall it be?' O you shall know that this is the day and this is the hour when you shall step over into that place of my glory. This is the day of the glory of the Lord coming in great power. I am going to break the mould, says the Lord, on many of your lives, and on many of your ministries and the way you have operated in days gone by. Many shall rub their eyes and shall say, 'Is this the person we used to know?' For there is a fire inside him. For this is the day of the fire and the glory of God coming into his church. Rise up this day and be filled afresh with the new wine of the Holy Ghost.

It is vital for the health and growth of the charismatic movement that we diligently go back to searching the scriptures like the Bereans.

Search the Scriptures

It can be clearly seen that there are blatant associations in this prophecy with the teachings of Franklin Hall, with the teaching of the Latter Rain movement and with the teachings of the Manifest Sons of God groups. So, we seem to have come again full circle to a further attempt to involve the Church with these non-biblical doctrines.

All of us who are sincere and committed believers, not only in God the Father and God the Son but also in a living Holy Spirit who lives within the Church as Jesus promised so that he might 'teach us all things', must rejoice when God moves overtly in the lives of his people. According to the scriptures, God is in the business of blessing us and reviving us and if we seek him we will surely find him. However, questions need to be asked regarding both the spontaneity and genuineness of much that has happened, and is happening, in the charismatic renewal movement today. How much is there of an agenda that is sweeping many of us along without us really being aware of either its beginning or end?

I would seek strongly to counsel that the time may be upon us when it is vital for the ongoing health and growth of the charismatic movement that, like the new believers in Berea, we diligently go back to searching the scriptures to see if the things we are being told are true (Acts 17:11).

References

1 Dupont, M, 1994. The Year of the Lion. Mantle of Praise Ministries Inc, Mississuaga, pp1-2.

2 Ibid, p3.

3 Randy Clark, 1995. 'A Prophetic Foundation' (audio tape message).

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes’ by E Randolph Richards and Brandon J O’Brien (IVP, 2012).

This is a very impressive book which will help anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of how we (mis)read the Bible today; particularly how a Westernised mindset results in our frequently misrepresenting its meaning in many important areas.

The book is not of the same category as those which take us back into Hebraic roots (though this comes through in places) but rather, as its subtitle suggests, the authors help us to remove the ‘cultural blinders’ which cause us to miss so much of the Bible’s original message.

Dual Authorship Bonus

The fact that the book has dual authorship in no way diminishes its readability or impact. In fact, it is one of its plus points. For instance, it means there are plenty of personal illustrations from their separate experiences - Randolph spent time as a missionary in Indonesia, while Brandon speaks more from his time in Europe and his studies in history.

We always know which author is sharing with us as his name appears in brackets. Furthermore, it is also clear that they are of one mind on the key principles they are promoting.

As the introduction states, one of the main goals of the book is to “remind (or convince!) you of the crosscultural nature of biblical interpretation. We will do that by helping you become more aware of cultural differences that separate us from the foreign land of Scripture” (p11). However, the authors admit that the relationship of the Bible to its original culture is complicated (perhaps they should have said ‘complex’) and it is possible that at times you may want to disagree with some of the smaller details.

The authors help us to remove the ‘cultural blinders’ which cause us to miss so much of the Bible’s original message.

Nevertheless, you will certainly find yourself re-assessing some of the things you have previously thought and discover significant pointers towards an improved reading of Scripture generally.

An Iceberg?

The authors have arranged the book into three sections, based on the analogy of an iceberg. Some cultural differences are ‘above the surface’ and presumably easier to see; others are ‘just below the surface’ and still others are ‘deep below the surface.’ This was probably a structure more useful to the authors in planning their book than it is to those reading it, and can actually be ignored without losing anything of the usefulness of the book.

There are many small gems that arise as you read, but there are certain topics that are much more significant and take up several pages each. The authors explore the key issues of race and ethnicity, shame and honour, and the way a society can be based on the individual (such as ours) or the community (as in the Bible).

There are also very illuminating sections on the combined nature of grace and faith, and the two different approaches to understanding and appreciating time (based upon the words chronos and kairos).

You will find yourself re-assessing some of the things you have previously thought and discover pointers towards an improved reading of Scripture.

Usefully, the book concludes with endnotes and resources for further exploration, an author index and a Scripture index.

Overall, the authors state that “what we offer here is a conversation starter” (p22). The hope is that their readers will “begin with this volume and move on to deeper exploration of this important subject” (p22). Certainly the book can be used for group study (as I intend to do with one of my groups) and should provoke interesting discussion as well as provide eye-opening moments.

‘Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes’ (240pp, paperback, RRP £14.99) is available from Wordery for £9.82, also widely online including Amazon, Eden and the Book Depository.

The crisis through the eyes of a patient.

Our editorials have long warned that British society is vulnerable to the shaking prophesied by Haggai and re-iterated in Hebrews 12. We have taken the stand that it is no use praying against this shaking because we would be praying against what God has determined to do.

We have already witnessed the collapse of many businesses in this country following the recession of 2007-8, which now looks more like an initial tremor than the major earthquake. The recent downfall of Carillion is a further sign of the continuing vulnerability of industry and our financial sector.

Yet, as was pointed out the week before last, we seem to worship our institutions as golden calves, looking more to establishing financial security than we look to the Living God. It is as if, as milk is drawn from a cow, our institutions might become healthy through the flow of our money (this also goes for our planned withdrawal from Europe). The National Health Service is one such institution.

It so happens that, over recent months, the NHS has had a major influence on my family life; but for the care we have received, my wife would not be alive today. So I would like to keep focusing on this as an example of where our society is and as a prompt for prayer.

Through the Eyes of a Patient

It is one thing to assess the NHS from frequent news reports of its struggles through the high pressure periods of Christmas and the New Year. It can be quite another to consider the inner workings of the system through the eyes of a patient.

It is one thing to assess the NHS from news reports of its struggles – it is quite another to consider its inner workings through the eyes of a patient.

Over the last few years our family has experienced almost every aspect of the NHS because of the developing chronic illness that befell my wife. We have needed, at various times, the support of our local GPs, pharmacists, health visitors, provision of aids for home support, outpatient hospital visits, and emergency ambulance service and hospital care during the intensely busy holiday period. I was even visiting my wife in hospital during the time when the Health and Social Care Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, was visiting the same hospital (though not our ward!). Presently, we have need of social services and social care.

As a result of all this, personally I have arrived not to a point of judgment, but to the point reached by Jeremiah, the ‘weeping prophet’ (e.g. Jer 9:1). Jeremiah was a forerunner of Jesus the Messiah, who himself wept over Jerusalem and at the tomb of Lazarus.

Why? Because if you get into the heart of the NHS as a patient, you still find dedicated doctors, nurses and medical specialists, just as through all the years since its beginnings after World War II. If God is shaking the nation and if the NHS will be shaken as part of this, therefore, it must not be seen as a punishment to a totally ungodly system.

Appreciating Complexity

Indeed, if there is an element of judgment, perhaps we should all consider the part we have played in allowing things to get to this point. The NHS is vulnerable and some of us have taken it so much for granted that we put needless pressure on it.

As I waited for my wife to be taken from the ambulance to A&E on one recent visit, I had the opportunity of spending several hours ‘people watching’ in the waiting-room. Some clearly need not have been there, with transient troubles that could have been dealt with at home. Of course this is only part of the picture, but a pressurised system could be eased a little if we cherished it a little more and thought of one another more than ourselves sometimes.

Personally, I have arrived not to a point of judgment, but to the point reached by Jeremiah, the ‘weeping prophet’ (e.g. Jer 9:1).

Having said this, to me, the major problem for the NHS lies on its administrative side, from local management right up to parliamentary structures of oversight and planning. Adding to the pressure is the centralisation of hospital care and the closure of smaller regional healthcare centres, so that what was once personal and caring seems to be becoming more and more impersonal. Similarly, the separation of what is called ‘social care’ from the NHS seems wrong to me - finance-driven more than care-driven in its design.

These are enormous issues to consider but I touch on them to suggest that any shaking of our society in the coming days, which will likely impact the NHS as much as other national institutions and businesses, cannot be understood in a broad-brush way.

Getting to the Heart

How, then, are we to discover a path of prayer into the future? We need to find God’s heart, and obtain his perspective, which perhaps are hidden from us if we only observe our nation in worldly terms. The NHS is just one example; if we delved into any of our institutions we would find our hearts torn by their continuing potential and momentum for good, but with God written out of the balance sheets.

Intercession for Britain involves gaining a heart perspective; feeling the hurts more than judging the failures.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the film The Darkest Hour, portraying Winston Churchill’s struggles to lead Britain through the last world war, is currently being shown in cinemas. For anyone who was alive at that time and after, when people pulled together to rebuild and re-establish first a near-defeated and then a near-bankrupt nation, this must be a stirring film.

Yet the story behind the scenes is even more stirring. We must remember those who engaged in intercessory prayer for our nation through the war years and afterwards, who were given God’s own insights into the reality of the battle, physically and spiritually. Such prayer warriors, if alive today, would undoubtedly testify to their call to identify the true heart of a nation in crisis.

To know how to pray, we need to seek God’s heart, and obtain his perspective.

A Journey of Prayer

How then should we pray through our current crisis? God will show us if we are willing. My own path of learning has been through the illness of my wife, which has led me into the heart of Britain’s caring systems to experience both the pains of illness and the pains of the system – and also to witness rays of hope.

Are we willing to let the Lord show us his heart of compassion, as well as his displeasure, for the people of this nation? If so, he will lead us into experiences – perhaps quite unexpectedly - that draw us each into new depths of prayer. God is looking for those who will be willing to respond to this call.

Holocaust Memorial Day should drive us to our knees.

As we mark another Holocaust Memorial Day, held each year on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz,¹ the ongoing nightmare experienced by the Jewish people – with anti-Semitism once again spreading like cancer – should drive us to our knees.

And I’m glad to say that our African brethren, at least, who have brought much-needed new life and vigour to the British Church, are doing just that by calling a special day of prayer focused on our fractured relationship with Israel.²

Wale Babatunde of the World Harvest Christian Centre in south London is particularly concerned by Britain’s failure to follow President Trump’s lead in recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

This follows a series of betrayals over the years which have undone much of the goodwill fostered by the government’s pledge, through the Balfour Declaration 100 years ago, to do all in its power to re-settle the Jewish people in their ancient land.

Fortunately, African Christians know how to pray, so we are fully expecting God to shake up our complacency over Israel – both in Parliament and in the Church.

The Power of Words

My own MP, Dame Rosie Winterton (Labour, Doncaster Central), has already chaired a debate on Holocaust Memorial Day in the House. In a report to her constituents, she said this year’s theme, The Power of Words, was a reminder that the Holocaust did not start with the gas chambers, but with hate-filled words. She added that words can also be a force for good through which we can demonstrate that we will not stay silent when such vilification and de-humanisation occur.

She’s right – and not staying silent includes speaking words in prayer. Many of us have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, that it was prevailing prayer – not Spitfires and Hurricanes – that won the Battle of Britain. Rees Howells and his Bible College students in Wales were on their knees daily throughout the war.

It was prevailing prayer – not Spitfires and Hurricanes – that won the Battle of Britain.

In fact, according to Norman Grubb, in Rees Howells – Intercessor (Lutterworth Press), “the whole college was in prayer every evening from 7pm to midnight, with only a brief interval for supper. They never missed a day. This was in addition to an hour’s prayer meeting every morning, and very often at midday. There were many special periods when every day was given up wholly to prayer and fasting.” Howells told his students: “Don’t allow those young men at the Front to do more than you do here.”

Jerusalem – focus of conflict. But God calls us to pray for the peace of the city (Psalm 122:6).Over the Dunkirk period, Howells spent four days alone with God “to battle through and, as others have testified, the crushing burden of those days broke his body. He literally laid down his life.”

Enemies All Around

It’s time we did it again. Both Britain and Israel face an enemy just as terrifying as the Nazis, only subtler. This is the belief that we are no longer answerable to a heavenly authority, and that man is his own god – a secular-humanist view that has brought the beginnings of totalitarianism (that brooks no dissent) to a society once proud of its freedom. It was for this that my father’s generation risked their lives in World War II.

But as journalist Melanie Phillips has said on a tour of America, Israel is absolutely central to the recovery of Western values, which are based on the Hebrew Bible. “We’re in this together,” she told the Minnesota-based Olive Tree Ministries radio programme.

Here is the stark reality of what is facing the Jewish people today: Iran is fast developing nuclear weapons with which to “wipe out” Israel (in the words of the Ayatollahs and Iranian presidents) and, ominously in the eyes of many, the Russian Bear has now established a foothold in the region.³ The current spat between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia further adds to the tension and Gaza-based Hamas is repeatedly firing rockets into the Jewish state, while Lebanon-based Hezbollah continues to pose a serious threat on its northern border.

Secular humanism has brought the beginnings of totalitarianism to a society once proud of its freedom.

Brutal Islamic State are also stalking the area, while the Palestinian Authority incites its people to murder and mayhem, and some Westerners are engaged in a boycott of Israeli goods on the pretext that they are oppressive occupiers of land not their own. But the truth is that, in most cases, Jews are being attacked simply because they are Jews, not for political or economic reasons.

Tragically, the South African government is fanning the flames of anti-Semitism with their ruling party, the African National Congress, having last month announced its intention to loosen diplomatic ties with Israel, citing alleged apartheid policies against the Palestinians along with America’s acknowledgement of Jerusalem as the nation’s capital.

Thankfully, the Zulu King is urging them to reconsider. Goodwill Zwelithini, monarch of South Africa’s largest ethnic group, praised the Jewish state for their help in curbing the devastation of drought through their cutting-edge water technology, along with the spread of HIV/AIDS through Jewish-sponsored medical circumcision.

Mountains Can Move!

But in both Britain and South Africa, we have a God in Heaven waiting to hear our cry for mercy. Jesus said we could move mountains with our faith (Matt 17:20, 21:21; Mark 11:23).

Let’s pray for the mountain of paralysing unbelief and complacency to be removed from our nations, in Jesus’ name!

Notes

1 27 January.

2 Taking place on Saturday 17 February, 10am-12:30pm, at the World Harvest Christian Centre, Enmore Road (entrance on Cobden Road), South Norwood, London SE25 5NQ.

3 And we in the West are in very real danger of unprovoked attack from Russia, according to Army Chief Sir Nick Carter. Daily Mail, 23 January 2018.

A selection of recent news stories to aid your prayers.

Society & Politics

• Half of Brits pray: A new survey suggests that 51% of British adults pray, and a fifth of those have no religious affiliation. Read more here.
  
• Labour anti-Semitism continues unabated: The head of the Jewish Labour Movement has accused the party’s leadership of failing to deal with the virulent anti-Semitism within its ranks. Meanwhile, as a call to ban Hezbollah was introduced to Parliamentary debate this week, Labour MPs were briefed internally to reject it.
  
• Co-op offers quicker, easier divorces: Co-op’s new online divorce service may cut the time it takes to get a divorce by as much as half. Read more here.
  
• Manchester bans pro-life protests: Manchester becomes the second local authority, after Ealing, to enforce buffer zones around abortion clinics, citing ‘harassment’ from pro-life demonstrators. Read more here.

Church Issues

• CofE and Methodist merger? Members of the General Synod will debate next month whether or not to adopt a priest-sharing arrangement with the Methodist Church, to help ‘sustain a Christian presence’ in the nation. Read more here.
• CofE decides not to create trans liturgy: Bishops have agreed to use existing liturgy to mark gender transition instead – to mixed response from clergy. Read more here.

World Scene

• China cracks down on Christians: Registered churches are being subjected to tighter controls and unregistered churches are being shut down or demolished, and believers arrested, as the government seeks to tighten its grip on Christianity in the country. Read more here. Christians make up some 7% of China’s 1.4 billion population.
  
• No room in Canada for pro-lifers: According to the PM Justin Trudeau, Canadians can hold whatever views on abortion they like…so long as they are not pro-life. Read more here. Meanwhile, this week Trump has proclaimed 22 January ‘National Sanctity of Life Day’.

Israel & Middle East

• Abbas calls on EU to recognise Palestine: The PA President has been meeting with 28 EU foreign ministers this week and pled on Monday for the bloc to recognise Palestinian statehood. Read more here.
  
• Pence: embassy move by end of 2019: Speaking to the Knesset, the US Vice-President announced that the move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem will be complete by the end of next year. Watch the full speech here.
  
• Gaza on the brink of collapse: Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has warned that conditions in the Gaza Strip are so dire, that the enclave risks disease outbreaks and could soon collapse completely. Rivlin placed the blame fully at the door of the Palestinian leadership. Read more here and here. Meanwhile, PA President Abbas has just acquired a new luxury private jet – for $50 million.

Upcoming Events

• The P Word Conference (Cardiff): Saturday 27 January, 10:30am-4pm, Freedom Church, Cardiff. A practical Christian response to pornography for all leaders. In partnership with CARE. For more information and for tickets, visit pwordconference.com.
• Day of prayer for the UK's relationship with Israel (London): Saturday 17 February, 10am-12:30pm, World Harvest Christian Centre, South Norwood, London SE25 5NQ.
• Lobby Day for Israel (London): Wednesday 28 February, 10:30am-5pm. Help make the case for Israel in Parliament this 70^th anniversary year. Click here to book. For more information, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
• Foundations 9 (Cumbria): 19-23 March, Grange-Over-Sands. Theme: 'Into the lion's den: reaching a world gone mad'. Steve Maltz's annual week-long Hebraic conference. £260 per person. Click here for more information and to book.

Recommended Sources

At Prophecy Today UK we are aware that the world is moving very quickly and it is difficult to keep up with all the latest developments – especially when the material circulated by our mainstream media is increasingly far from reality and definitely not devoted to a biblical perspective!

Though we are not a news service, we want to help keep you informed by passing on updates and reports as we are led. This will be a selective, not an exhaustive, round-up, which we hope will be helpful for your prayers. Click here to browse our News archive.

We also recommend the following news services for regular updates from a Christian perspective:

• Christian Concern (UK)
• Christian Institute (UK)
• JNN News (Barry and Batya Segal, Israel)
• Worthy News (Israel)
• Family Watch International
• Barnabas Fund
• Kehila News (Israel)

An overview of the Kansas City Prophets.

We draw near the end of David Forbes’ assessment of the forerunners of the Toronto outpouring, turning this week to the Kansas City Prophets. This article is part of a series, re-publishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’. Read previous instalments here.

The Kansas City Prophets

By the end of the 1980s, the charismatic renewal movement had become used to so much extra-biblical experience and had become focused on the fulfilment of so many eschatological promises, that it was possible for thousands of British charismatic Christians and their leaders to be affected and influenced by the 'prophetic movement' as epitomised by Paul Cain and the 'prophets' from the Kansas City Fellowship in the United States.

This movement came to prominence in America as the result of first a sermon and then a published report by Ernest Gruen, a Kansas City pastor, criticising the way in which the leadership of the Fellowship were seeking to take control of the spiritual life of the city.

The situation was further promoted by the fact that John Wimber and the Vineyard churches decided to take the Kansas City prophetic movement under their wing and assume responsibility for its future behaviour.

The basic complaints being made against the Kansas City Fellowship were the use of directive prophecy to control the lives of believers and take over other fellowships, the use of 'new prophetic revelation' to determine doctrine and practice, and the promotion of an elite group of apostles and prophets centred on themselves. Part of the accusation regarding their 'new' doctrines was that it was simply a return to the old Latter Rain/Manifest Sons of God tenets.¹

By the end of the 1980s, the charismatic renewal movement was used to extra-biblical experience and had become focused on the fulfilment of many eschatological promises.

A feature of John Wimber's strategy, with regard to taking on responsibility for the Kansas City prophets and their senior pastor Mike Bickle, was to send in a team of his senior leaders including Dr Jack Deere, a former Professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and now the Vineyard's chief theologian. They examined all the complaints of biblical malpractice being made by Ernest Gruen and published a report acknowledging certain errors which in retrospect to a large degree simply papered over the cracks and allowed the Kansas City Fellowship to continue virtually undisturbed under the Vineyard aegis.

The errors which were acknowledged and by implication would not recur included “the attempt by some prophetic ministers to establish doctrine or practice by revelation alone, apart from biblical support”, “the use of prophetic gifting for controlling purposes”, “using types and allegories to establish doctrine”, and “using jargon that reflects the teaching of groups that we do not wish to be identified with”.

This last confession referred specifically to the accusation of promoting the Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God doctrines. However, it must be said that irrespective of how sincerely these errors were acknowledged initially, subsequent events showed that little attempt was made to learn the necessary lessons, especially with regard to the use of establishing doctrine by revelation and the continued teaching of Latter Rain and Manifest Sons teachings.

Paul Cain

The decision by John Wimber and the Vineyard churches to support the ministry of the Kansas City prophets was undoubtedly the result of the link-up which they had made with Paul Cain.

Cain had an early history not unlike that of William Branham. Born in 1929, he had been aware of supernatural power guiding his life from its earliest days and had experienced what he believed to be direct communications with the Lord through audible messages whilst still a small boy. He became part of the Pentecostal healing movement which arose in North America in the 1940s and 1950s, led by William Branham, Oral Roberts and others, and began an itinerant ministry as a healing evangelist in his early teens.

The Vineyard movement took responsibility for the Kansas City prophets and initially acknowledged certain errors in their conduct, but in retrospect this simply papered over the cracks.

According to Paul Cain's own testimony he was much encouraged in his ministry by Branham who allegedly saw in him a similar kind of 'anointing' to his own. It is said that there was a particular bond between William Branham and the young Paul Cain, that they frequently ministered together and that Cain would often stand in for Branham at meetings which he was unable to take, although for some unknown reason Cain's association in ministry with Branham has been vehemently denied by the Branham family.

However, Cain's healing and evangelism ministry was undoubtedly marked by the same kind of ‘revelation knowledge' of people and their personal circumstances that had characterised Branham's, but by the early 1960s, disillusioned by the 'stardom' status accorded to him and his contemporaries and the general lack of integrity in the ministry, he withdrew from public life and lived as a virtual recluse until he went and met the Kansas City prophets in early 1987.

He believed that the Lord was re-commissioning him for ministry with the special purpose of restoring the prophetic ministry to the Church worldwide and that to that end he needed a public platform. His strategy was to be that of taking a prophetic message to every significant evangelical leader in the United States. The leader who responded by accepting him and his message would be the one whom God had chosen to give a platform for his ministry.

In 1988, Paul Cain felt he should contact John Wimber and following a visit from Cain, Wimber decided that the Lord was calling him to be the leader who should give Cain his platform.

Joel’s Army Teaching

Paul Cain consistently denied that he ever subscribed to the Manifest Sons of God movement. However, although there is no reason to believe that he was ever a card-carrying member of the movement, his 'prophetic' preaching clearly promoted the ideas of immortality for overcoming believers here on earth in these end times and he used the same spiritual jargon as the Manifest Sons of God exponents.

This came over in a very specific way in, for example, his teaching on 'Joel's Army'.² This teaching, based on the destructive army mentioned in Joel chapter 2, was claimed to be the result of revelation which he had received at the age of 19 when he had a visitation from the “Angel of the Lord, and he was standing in his majesty like a warrior and he had a bright shining sword and he pointed up to a billboard like that, and on the sign it said, ‘Joel's Army in training’".

Cain had not understood and had asked, “Lord, what does this mean?”. He had from then on received divine revelation as to the meaning of the book of Joel for today and on this he based his prophetic message.

According to Paul Cain's own testimony he was much encouraged in his ministry by William Branham, who allegedly saw in him a similar kind of 'anointing' to his own.

The basic theme of the teaching was that God was about to raise up out of the Church a Joel's Army. The purpose of this army was to bring in the restoration of the Church and a great end-times revival accompanied by signs and wonders the like of which had never been seen before, not even in the life of the early Church. These signs and wonders would be accomplished by the 'new breed', the 'dread champions' whom the Lord would raise up to form this mighty army.

The purpose of this army was in fact twofold, for not only would it be the vanguard of the great signs and wonders revival, but it would be responsible for the purging of the Church and the destruction of all those who are unworthy to be part of the Bride. Cain taught, in true Manifest Sons style, that:

If you have intimacy with God, they can't kill you, they just can't. There is something about you; you're connected to that vine; you're just so close to Him. Oh, my friends, they can't kill you...If you're really in the vine and you're the branch, then the life sap from the Son of the living God keeps you from cancer, keeps you from dying, keeps you from death...Not only will they not have diseases, they will also not die. They will have the kind of imperishable bodies that are talked about in the 15th chapter of Corinthians...This army is invincible. If you have intimacy with God they can't kill you.³

Paul Cain was, of course, giving this teaching to the Vineyard churches before the Kansas City Fellowship report acknowledging errors, so it could be assumed that following the publishing of that report no further mention would be made of this kind of teaching.

It may be of interest to note that at a meeting between John Wimber, Paul Cain and Mike Bickle with Clifford Hill, I asked John Wimber and Mike Bickle if they could specify which teachings were being referred to in the errors acknowledged by the Kansas City Fellowship. Neither was prepared to answer my questions clearly on this subject. It was therefore perhaps not surprising to find that after the Kansas City report both Jack Deere, the Vineyard theologian who had been given the job of checking and verifying the biblical soundness of their teaching, and John Wimber, took up the Joel's Army teaching. Wimber propounded it at the London Docklands Conference in October 1990.

In Deere's version of the Joel's Army teaching he underwrote the divine revelation foundation of the teaching and extended Cain's tenets by an extravagant use of hyperbole. He made the point over and over again that this Joel's Army would be composed of believers who would outshine in their service anything that God ever accomplished through any of his servants in the past.

Deere taught that, “This army is unique...When this army comes, it's large and it's mighty. It's so mighty that there has never been anything like it before. Not even Moses, not even David, not even Paul. What's going to happen now will transcend what Paul did, what David did, what Moses did, even though Moses parted the Red Sea.”

Paul Cain clearly promoted the idea of immortality for overcoming believers here on earth and used the Manifest Sons of God jargon.

Deere went on to equate this army with the 144,000 in Revelation 7 who, he said, “follow the Lamb wherever he goes, and no one can harm that 144,000”. Most extraordinarily, he taught that 144,000 is a multiple of 12 and that since 12 stands for 'apostolic government' then 144,000 is the 'ultimate in apostolic government'.

In his version of the Joel's Army teaching, as given at the London Docklands Conference, John Wimber was much more cautious in his use of language, although he undoubtedly underwrote in principle most of both Cain’s and Deere's teaching. With regard to the great signs and wonders which this army would perform, Wimber simply said: “This army is large, powerful, unique, unlike any army that's ever existed before or will again. Even as the Lord started this thing with a bang, (Acts 2) he is going to end it with something so incredible that we'll talk about it throughout eternity. It will be the buzz for ever”.

However, on the subject of immortality Wimber did not fully support Cain and Deere, saying of the army: “anyone who wants to harm them must die”.

Bob Jones

The leading prophet in the Kansas City Fellowship in 1990 was Bob Jones and it was his prophetic utterances and revelation-based doctrine and practice that were behind most of the controversy that surrounded them and had occasioned Gruen's outbursts.

Jones came from Arkansas and in his young days had been a member of the Baptist Church. His spiritual life had, however, been fairly non-existent and he had engaged in petty crime. Nevertheless, his testimony, like Branham and Cain, was of boyhood and early teen 'angelic visitations' including an out-of-body experience at the age of 15 when he says he was taken before the throne of God.

With the advent of the Korean War, Jones joined the US Marine Corps where he became heavily involved in drunken brawls and gambling. With his life in an obviously downward moral and physical spiral he left the Marine Corps and moved to Oklahoma State where he opened an illegal liquor store - Oklahoma being 'dry' - with considerable financial success.

However, his life of debauchery brought him to the point of a complete breakdown which not even drugs appeared to alleviate, and he ended up in hospital in Topeka near Kansas City, where it appears that following a combination of good psychiatric treatment by a Christian doctor and a number of visitations, both divine and demonic, he was discharged.

Bob Jones then started to attend church and read the Bible again and after a number of further 'visitations' he was converted and baptised in the autumn of 1975. Because of the visions and prophecies which he brought to church leadership he found himself often becoming unpopular and ended up being rejected and unable to fit into normal church life. Eventually in the early 1980s Jones found himself accepted by the Kansas City Fellowship, even though Mike Bickle had originally believed him to be a false prophet, where he began to be valued for his prophetic utterances.

It was the utterances and practice of Kansas City prophet Bob Jones that lay behind most of the controversy which surrounded the group.

These were often bizarre and spiritually extravagant. Jones was very much 'into' seeing both demons and angels on a regular basis and having strange nightly visions and out-of-body experiences. According to both Jones himself and Mike Bickle, “Bob normally gets five to ten visions a night, maybe sees angels ten to fifteen times a week”.⁴ Apparently he had been doing this since 1974 and it does not take much mathematical skill to conclude that these supernatural experiences far outweigh all of those recorded as being given to people in the scriptures!

Jones was also very much the initiator of spiritual elitism for the Kansas City Fellowship based on 'prophetic revelation' and it seems that the more bizarre his 'prophetic utterances' the more they were promoted by the leadership. For example, he introduced the concept of an 'elected seed generation'. In this he taught that the children born since 1973 to members of the Kansas City Fellowship were the “elected seed” who had been especially chosen by Jesus and the angels from “billions of little round yellow things” floating around in heaven to be the “end time Omega generation”.⁵ These 'little yellow things' were the seed from actual blood lines and they were from the “best of every blood line there has ever been Paul, David, Peter, James and John the best of their seed unto this generation”.

This elite group were described as “the chosen generation of all history” who would “possess the Spirit without measure”. They were also described as 'the Bride of Christ'; the man child of Revelation 12; the ministry of perfection; the Melchizedek priesthood; the manifested sons of God; Joel's Army; and many other biblical epithets.

Jones taught and Bickle underwrote (as senior pastor of the Kansas City Fellowship) that this "end time, Omega generation super church” would do “10,000 times the miracles in the book of Acts”. They would also conduct meetings of “a million or more” where they would “move their hands and the power of God will go like flashes of lightning, and as they go like this over a million people, if a person is missing an arm…it will instantly be created”. Jones claimed that 300,000 of Mike Bickle's generation and their super-children would be last days' apostles, and that 35 apostles from the Kansas City Fellowship would be “like unto Paul”.

Again, we have never been able to find out whether all of these bizarre prophetic teachings of Bob Jones were included amongst the list of errors. When John Wimber brought the Kansas City prophets to Holy Trinity Church, Brompton in July 1990, there was an embargo put on Bob Jones regarding public teaching and prophecy but he was allowed to minister to leaders behind the scenes.

References

1 Gruen, EA, 1990. Documentation of the Aberrant Practices and Teachings of Kansas City Fellowship. Full Faith Church of Love, Kansas City.

2 Deere, J. Joel's Army. Audio tape message, 1990.

3 Gruen, EA, Documentation (see note 1), p218.

4 Ibid, p10.

5 Ibid, p12.

RT Kendall’s inspiring meditation on Isaiah 53.

Persecution of the Jews – at least from those supposedly following Jesus – would perhaps have been largely avoided if the Church had fully understood the Messianic promises of the Tanach (Old Testament).

Biblical illiteracy among Christians (certainly in the West) is a major contributing factor to the Church’s present backslidden state, which is why I heartily recommend RT Kendall’s book Why Jesus Died, published in 2011 by Monarch.

Sadly, the demise of many Christian bookshops in Britain is the reason I have only just come across this profoundly inspiring meditation on Isaiah 53, with a foreword by Jews for Jesus Associate Executive Director Susan Perlman.

The much-loved preacher specifically addresses Jews at various points, but the whole work, in my opinion, is more of a challenge to a sleepy Church that has either forgotten or deliberately cut herself off from her Hebraic roots.

Jesus Came to Die

Lack of understanding of the fundamental truth that the Messiah had to die – it wasn’t principally the fault of the Jews, or the Romans – is what, in large measure, led to the pogroms perpetrated against God’s chosen people over the centuries.

It is true, of course, that Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, handed Jesus over to be crucified, and that the Jewish chief priests consented to it. But Jesus died for our sins – so in that sense we all put him on the cross.

This is a challenge to a sleepy Church that has either forgotten or deliberately cut herself off from her Hebraic roots.

However, ultimately, it was God’s doing – as the Kentucky-born preacher so eloquently argues. Isaiah wrote: “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer…” (Isa 53:10).

And in the case of verse 6 of the chapter, Kendall calls it “the Bible in a nutshell”, rather as John 3:16 is often described. The verse reads as follows: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

The author writes: “Isaiah 53:6 basically shows two things: that we are all sinners but God has shown his love by transferring the guilt of our sins to Jesus who has paid our debt.”

That many Jews still can’t see that this ancient prophecy is so clearly fulfilled in Jesus is a point of great frustration to many Christians. But as RT points out, it may seem obvious, but we all still need the Holy Spirit to give us the revelation we need of Scripture.

Justifying Many

In summary, the passage under consideration speaks not of a charismatic personality who would be immediately recognised for his dashing looks and regal qualities, but of a Messiah who was despised and rejected, afflicted, wounded and even “cut off from the land of the living” – despite the fact that “he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth”. But he would be raised to life and justify many by his sacrifice.

In acknowledging the part played by Jews in Jesus’ death, the author asserts that God has not washed his hands of them. Kendall is ashamed of anti-Semitism in the Church, including that of Reformation founder Martin Luther himself, which he believes was fuelled by the verse: “All the people answered: ‘His blood is on us and on our children!’” (Matt 27:25).

We all still need the Holy Spirit to give us the revelation we need of Scripture.

Kendall’s view is that there is no clear evidence that they had authority to pass on a curse to successive generations of Jews.

Although blindness came on Israel and God opened the door to Gentiles (Rom 11:7-12), the door has always been open to all people who would accept the gospel…I also believe with all my heart that the blindness now on Israel is about to be lifted, and that it won’t be merely dozens but hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) of Jews who will be converted before the Second Coming of Jesus.

This book is extremely edifying and enlightening, a ‘must read’ for all serious believers. Susan Perlman calls it “a treasure trove of gems and practical applications” written with “such skill and biblical insight”.

And evangelist J John says of the title (Why Jesus Died): “This is the most important question to ask, and here is the most insightful and inspirational answer I have ever read.”

RT Kendall, now 82, was minister at the famous Westminster Chapel in London for 25 years and now lives in Tennessee. ‘Why Jesus Died: A Meditation on Isaiah 53’ (192pp, paperback, e-book) is available widely online.