Last week dealt another blow to the hypercharismatic movement, through a long (6 hour!) video by Mike Winger, exposing both the fakery and sexual and psychological abuse by yet another leg-lengthening false prophet, whose name I can’t be bothered to remember, and his relentless promotion as a prophet of God by the leadership of Bethel, Redding.
Their guarded “repentance” for inadequate safeguarding is clearly damage control, for they have diverted attention away from many similar cases, and from the heretical theology that underlies it. Regular readers will have some knowledge of that from this blog. More than one critic has predicted that the “apology” will soon turn to claims of persecution by Satan’s agents. Others have pointed out that these “super-apostles” who can tell people in their congregations their phone numbers and the names of their dogs are habitually unable to discern the rapacious sharks in their teams.
As you may have gathered, my greater interest is not in the wacky cults of the megachurches, but in the strange fascination for them shown by ordinary British Evangelicals. The functional links with the extremists date back to the start of the Charismatic movement, which was informed from the outset by William Branham’s Latter Rain teachings, and by political Restorationism (nowadays represented in the Dominionist “Seven Mountain” teaching). Early Charismatics were “advised” by Branham’s sidekick Ern Baxter, by the Full Gospel Businessmen International, and pretty soon by the heavy shepherding Branham offshoots of Derek Prince et al. Later still Paul Cain (another Branham protege) and his Kansas City (false) prophets were brought to Britain by John Wimber, via David Watson, and charmed the whole movement. And a few years later John Mumford, of Vineyard, imported the Toronto Blessing, which was codified by Holy Trinty Brompton, once a sound Bible church, into the Alpha Course so influential today. And the churches love to sing songs from Bethel, Hillsong, and anyone else who advocates the miraculous.
I’m hoping to record a second Leaving the Message podcast this week, maybe to expand on some of this, but the strange attraction of the extreme for ordinary Charismatics was exemplified by a detoxing Charismatic who contacted me after the last podcast. We had a great conversation, in which he mentioned that his daughter, a worship leader, had visited Bethel Redding. It’s a story I’ve heard several times. Fortunately she seems to have been rapidly disillusioned rather than ensnared. But the whole thrust of Charismatic teaching is that miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit are available to us all today, here and now. So why do Brits need to go half-way round the world? The reason is that the promised “gifts” actually disappoint in practice, so people are drawn to where they seem to be truly manifested. Except that they’re not, as the increasingly frequent exposures of key figures demonstrates.
Pertinent theological aside: if Peter’s miracles in Acts 9 were recorded to encourage us all to work signs and wonders, why didn’t Peter just delegate the cure of the paralytic and the raising of Dorcas to the saints? It would have been a great training opportunity.
Anyway, given these recent events, I decided to revisit the first Charismatic movement in history, in order to compare and contrast. This was the Montanist sect, known at the time as the Phrygian heresy, which arose around 156AD. Montanism was often flagged as exemplary in the early days of the Charismatic movement, its condemnation in most of the historical sources being attributed to the same killjoy cessationism that dared to cast doubt on the modern phenomenon. Half a century on, a more dispassionate judgement is possible.
In fact I find very little to contrast, and nearly everything to compare, between the Phrygians and the New Apostolic Reformation etc. The church historian Eusebius records an assessment by one Apolinarius, and there are also comments by Hippolytus and Epiphanius. Rather than quote extensively, let me just list some points for you from these sources to compare with your favourite modern Apostle or Prophet.
- Montanus was a recent convert, without theological training, “longing in his soul for preeminence.”
- He called himself the Paraclete.
- He prophesied in “abnormal ecstasy,” babbling with strange sounds. (Apolinarius contrasts this with the sober, right-minded, prophecy practised since apostolic times).
- He appointed two equally “frenzied, inopportune and unnaturaL” prophetesses, Maximilla and Priscilla.
- These condemned the entire catholic Church for not accepting their prophecies, calling them “slayers of the prophets” (compare Bethel’s “Touch not my anointed.”)
- They claimed to be those promised by God (compare “Manifest Sons,” “Joel’s Army,” etc.)
- Montanus claimed to be (or speak as) God the Father (cf William Branham’s claim to be God incarnate).
- He contrived to make money roll in under the name of “offerings” (cf Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, etc).
- The prophets visited gaming tables and played dice, and ran businesses as moneylenders.
- Maximilla claimed to speak for Christ, to be the last prophetess, and to be no wolf, but “word, spirit and power.”
- She also foretold imminent wars and revolutions, but 13 years after her death all was peace for the world and the Church (cf “Trump will win the 2020 election”).
- Priscilla claimed that Christ came to her “like a woman.”
- She also revealed that the insignificant town of Pepuza was the heavenly Jerusalem (cf John Alexander Dowie’s Zion City).
- She also employed security “bouncers” to silence any challengers (cf access to Kenneth Copeland’s mansion).
- Epiphanius adds that Maximilla claimed the end of the world was at hand (cf “last days revival”).
- Hippolytus says that the prophets taught new unbiblical doctrines “even superior to Christ,” (cf NAR’s “greater works than these.”)
- Tertullian was the only prominent supporter: he said the prophetess where he worshipped conversed with angels and even with the Lord (cf most of them).
- She saw and heard “mysterious communications” and “discerned men’s hearts” (cf NAR words of knowledge).
- Her visions were given (and presumably proclaimed) at any time in the service – during Scripture reading, psalm singing, sermon or prayers (cf “divine disorder”).
- Tertullian says her messages were tested (but by what criteria, for example, when she saw “a soul of bodily shape, and a spirit that could be grasped, clear and transparent of an etherial colour, like a human being in every respect”? Cf Jenn Johnson’s “michievous blue genie” Holy Spirit.)
- Her witness, according to Tertullian, was God – so that’s OK, then!
There is one major difference between the Montanist phenomenon and the modern Charismatic phenomenon. And that is that when the sect arose in Phrygia and Galatia, the churches met, discussed the manifestations, and quickly excommunicated the prophets and those who supported them as heretical. Now, we have allowed the same kind of excesses to take over the Evangelical Church.
“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
