"Mainstream"
Spring Edition: February 1996 (Part Three)
PROMISE KEEPERS UPDATE
It's Coming Our Way!
The
Promise Keepers Men's Movement that has taken America by storm is about
to be launched in the UK, if East Anglican Minister Tom Chipper fulfills
his vision.
He
says that God "led him on a journey", each part of which "pointed directly
to Promise Keepers". At the end of that journey, Chipper contacted the
American leaders of PK with regard to introducing the Movement over here.
Tom
Chipper, of High Street Baptist Church, Isleham, Ely, is an influential
leader who networks with many churches in his area. He says that he is
"at present contacting national leaders from across the board, out of
which a team will be gathered together" to float the start of PK. He adds
that EA and CARE are "very much in the front line" with the launch of
PK in this country.
WHAT
IS PROMISE KEEPERS?
Anyone
unfamiliar with Promise Keepers should read the Autumn/Winter edition
of "Mainstream" which exposed the Movement's connections to the Kansas
City Prophets and its use of "mentoring" and initiation rituals, amongst
other things.
However,
as so often with powerful new movements, proponents will ignore the problems
and point only to the "good" achieved as men attempt to become better
husbands and church members by making seven vows before their peers.
No
matter how innocent are the aims of those who join PK, it cannot be doubted
that the Movement brings under the control of a few leaders the aspirations
and energies of thousands of needy and compliant men. We have to wait
and see what is moulded from this material and whether this gigantic pool
of testosterone is really used for God.
The
PK rallies themselves are not the real problem; these stay pretty free
from anything that would trigger dispute. It is the follow-up, mentoring,
and the Ambassador levels of discipleship that are alarming. The stated
purpose is to have a Promise Keepers "Point Man" in every congregation
in America in the next two years. This will enable them to disseminate
their training materials, methods and philosophy into the entire church
family. Under the guise of "coming alongside" the churches and pastors
to "help" formulate men's ministry, they are actually planning to infiltrate
the churches in order to recruit men to PK, and to involve them in what
is called "shepherding", or as they call it, "mentoring". (See footnote)
["Point
Men" are the primary contacts with the churches and are responsible for
training and organising promotions of PK conferences . "Ambassadors" introduce
PK to the community churches, and recruit the Point Men.]
EXALTING
THE CLERGY
Many
of us are completely committed to the Bible's teaching on the priesthood
of all believers. The artificial division between "clergy" and "lay-people"
so beloved of the Roman church and its offshoots is just not found in
scripture. If the concept of priesthood were to be injected into the main
artery of the Body of Christ, then the old sickness of servile obedience
to a remote and elitist priestclass would be re-established very quickly.
It
would bring with it a renaissance of gnostic thought, in which understanding
is restricted to an elite band of illuminati who have proved their loyalty
through initiation, while the masses of unlearned peasantry sit at their
feet snatching at the crumbs of their wisdom.
Unfortunately,
there is a distinct undercurrent of this thinking in PK circles.
Bill
McCartney [PK Founder] has said that a pastor "rightly divides the word
of God and only our clergy are gifted by God to do that." ["The Grant
Connection" radio broadcast, Denver, Jan 11, 1996.]
In
a magazine interview, Bill McCartney was asked: "Why have you made support
for pastors one of the seven promises of Promise Keepers? 'Support your
pastor' doesn't seem like an obvious part of a movement for men".He replied:
"We
believe in the vehicle that God is going to use to restore our land and
to bring our people together: the church. The pastor is the shepherd that
God has invested in. Pastors are the men of learning, the men of understanding.
They have greater gifts."
Interviewer:
"Have you sensed among lay people, men in particular, a dis-respect
for pastors?"
McCartney:
"It's more of an indifference... It's because our men are uneducated,
and our minds are dulled. They don't understand that when they meet
a pastor, they've come into the presence of royalty."
"What
has started [in Promise Keepers] is a process to educate men how to
come alongside their pastors... This is going to accelerate, to gain
momentum to the point where pastors regain their rightful stature in
the church, in the community, in the marketplace." [1995 Leadership
Journal, Christianity Today, Inc.]
But
what, according to the Bible, really is the "rightful place" of the elders
of the Church of Christ? Should they be like the Jewish elders -"which
love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces,
And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the upper-most rooms at feasts:
Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers" (Mark
12:38-40)
Or
should they be humble servants of the Church as Jesus Christ said:
"Ye
know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise
lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.
But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you,
shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall
be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many". (Mark 10:42-45)
PK
seems to be educating pastors to make much of themselves, to seek honour
from their congregations and to believe that they are a cut above the
common herd.
Now
a massive meeting just for male clergy is being planned in Atlanta by
the PK leadership. They hope to fill the Georgia Dome with 70,000 pastors
on February 13-15, 1996, making the "the largest gathering of ministers
in the history of Christianity".
When
interviewed by "Leadership" magazine, Dale Schlafer, Vice-President of
pastoral ministries for Promise Keepers was asked "Why are you planning
a conference for male clergy?"
Schlafer
replied that:
"History
has shown that clergy-led revivals have a longer impact than lay-led revivals.
Understanding that, we hope the Holy Spirit will move at the clergy conference--across
denominational traditions and ethnic traditions--and bring 70,000 ministers
together. We hope to see pastors go back to their churches revived and
praying that God will revive their churches and bring the lost in their
communities to Christ."
"If
this event in Atlanta is catalytic, if we look back years from now and
say this event was a major turning point in the Church of Jesus Christ
to bring revival, it will have been worth it."
On
the subject of follow-up to the conference, Schlafer said
"One
of our aims is to have hundreds of pastors' groups around the country
within months after this event. We see men coming together out of this
common experience and giving each other support. God wants men from churches
praying together across ethnic and denominational lines".
JOEL'S
ARMY
Bill
McCartney is reported as saying,
"We
have a great army that we're assembling. They're the Christian men of
this nation. However, our leadership, our clergy, are not uniform. Our
clergy are divided... There's no unity of command... there is tremendous
division in our clergy... One leadership. We've got to have one leadership,
one leadership only. We've got to have everybody hitting on all cylinders.
What
is this "great army" that Bill McCartney is assembling under its "one
leadership"? Could it be the "Joel's Army" prophesied by the Kansas City
Prophets and others - the invincible army that will bring world wide revival
in the endtimes?
Recently
Paul Cain shared a dream he'd received when he was 19 years old:
"I
had a dream that became a recurring dream, and it was about all the stadiums...
and I saw these stadiums and football fields, soccer fields and sports
arenas, all of them filled with thousands of people, sometimes over 100,000
in each place" [Paul Cain, at Christ Chapel, Florence, Alabama, August
30, 1995]
Now
Cain is definitely connecting his prediction to Promise Keepers, who regularly
meet in sports arenas:
"I
want to just stand up somewhere in one of these stadiums and say, 'See,
I told you so... And I know the Lord is coming to His Church and he's
going to prepare us... I don't make any apologies for believing such an
outlandish thing. I really don't, and I'm not embarrassed by it... Who
would think that there would be a group like Promise Keepers who'd already
be setting the stage and filling stadiums with tens of thousands of people
- they'll be over 100,000 in no time... So, what if God shows up at just
one of those meetings? That could just be the kick-off for 'last day ministry'.
Think about that. If 150,000 people get together in one place, like on
the day of Pentecost.... What if 120,000 get together and then the fire
comes from heaven and the glory of God..." [Paul Cain, at Christ Chapel,
Florence, Alabama, August 30, 1995]
Cain
was possibly referring to the 100,000 pastors expected at the February
Promise Keepers meeting in Atlanta, or possibly to the PK goal of a stadium-full
in each of the fifty states in the year 2000. Notice that Cain believes
the Church will be dramatically filled with the Glory of God before Jesus
returns.
"I
want you to know he's coming TO the Church BEFORE he comes FOR the Church.
He's gonna perfect the Church so the Church can be the Image, BE HIM,
and be his representation." [Grace Ministries tape, Nov 1988 "My Father's
House" by Paul Cain]
Paul
Cain has taught that this Army now in formation is the Manchild of Revelation
12:5, as well as: "The overcomers, (Rev. 2 and 3). The 144,000 servants,
(Rev 7:3), the revelation of the Lamb's wife, (Rev 19:7 and 21:9), the
white horse, (Rev 6:2), the first-fruits, (Rev 14:4), the precious fruits,
(James 5:7), the wise virgins, (Matt 25:1-13), and the manifested sons
of God, (Rom 8:19-23)".
JAMES
RYLE PREDICTS AN ARMY AND A WAR
Along
with Bill McCartney, Pastor James Ryle founded PK in 1990, and presently
sits on its Board of Directors. He also pastors the Boulder Valley Vineyard
in Colorado, and has ministered with John Wimber and Paul Cain. James
Ryle answered in the affirmative when asked whether Promise Keepers could
be fulfilling the prophecy in Joel of raising an army. Ryle's reply was,
"Yes, 300,000 men have come together so far this year under Promise Keepers...
Never in history have 300,000 men come together except to go to war. These
men are gathered for war." [As reported in "Discernment" newsletter, Jewel
van der Merwe, September/October 1994, p. 7]
Talk
of armies and war suggests an aggressive methodology that sits ill with
the biblical Gospel. And just who is the enemy? Clues can be found in
statements by Ryle and others, including the Toronto leadership. Predictions
of a bloody civil war within the Church have been made as early as 1984.
One such prophecy concerned a division or civil war within the Body of
Christ between the "Blues" and the "Greys", and this was repeated and
emphasised by Wes Campbell at Toronto. He said:
"In
1984 [Bob Jones had a vision] about the Church. And the Church was gathered
in a large civil war-type big stately mansion, a big ballroom, and they
were dancing. And they were dressed in colorful clothes and happy, and
they were moving and they were laughing and they were dancing and they
were just having the wonderful party of their life. And he looked at that
and Bob began to laugh and he said 'Look at them dance, look at them have
fun'.
"And
an angel came and said, 'Wait. Not yet.' And then what happened is that
strangely in the ballroom, the crowd began to change, and they began
to take sides, and they began to have blue coats and gray coats, and
in a moment civil war broke out. A bloody civil war broke out.
"James
Ryle has had a similar vision. The Lord even showed him how the blue
coats stand for the revelatory, the revelation, and the gray for gray
matter, man's wisdom.
"And
in this context the North [blue coats] fought the South [grey coats]
and the South fought the North, and the South wanted to keep the people
enslaved. They wanted their money. They wanted their bodies. They wanted
their personhood to keep the system going. And the North said No! Freedom!
Freedom! And they went into a terrible fight, and it was father against
son, brother against brother, and a man's enemies were in his own house".[Excerpts
from audiotape, Airport Vineyard, Toronto Friday, October 14, 1994 Speaker:
Wes Campbell]
THE
TIME, THE PLACE
Rick
Joyner also predicted, in 1992, an intense spiritual battle that would
defeat the South as in the American civil war. He added two details -
the time and the place! He said that "Atlanta in 1996 will be one of the
greatest opportunities the church has had to engage and breakthrough some
of the enemy's most powerful strongholds." He wrote:
"During
the American Civil War it was prophetically spoken that 'the battle for
Atlanta will decide the fate of the South.' This prophecy proved to be
true. There were many more spectacular battles during the war, but possibly
none that proved more strategic in deciding the war... The spiritual battle
for Atlanta will be of the same kind of strategic significance."
"It
is no accident that the Olympics are coming to Atlanta in 1996. Just
as the Olympics represent the contest of the best athletes, or physical
forces from all nations, cultures and races, what will be taking place
in the physical will just be a reflection of what will be happening
in the spiritual realm. The cultural and spiritual forces of the world
are being assembled in Atlanta for one of the ultimate spiritual conflicts."
[Rick Joyner, "Battlefields Of The Nineties" in Morning Star Prophetic
Bulletin of September 1st 1992]
Although
Rick Joyner when he wrote these words presumably did not know of the Promise
Keepers' clergy gathering, his predictions will have added to the conviction
of the PK leadership that 1996 in Atlanta was the right choice for their
venue.
RYLE'S
TORONTO CONNECTIONS
Although
there is not (yet) any overt attempt to introduce the Toronto Blessing at
PK rallies, the PK leadership is nonetheless intimately involved in the
Renewal movement.
One
example of the cross-over between PK and TB was found at the Mott Auditorium,
(Vineyard Pasadena CA, which is on record with children seeing angels,
prophesying, having visions, and more). During the five days of the "Healing
& Revival Conference", James Ryle and Randy Clark (who brought the TB
to the Toronto Airport) both ministered, and John Arnott visited shortly
afterwards.
One
report was as follows:
At
the Pasadena Church, James Ryle, chaplain of the University of Colorado
football team, is telling the congregation how Jesus freed him from his
own demons - growing up in an orphanage and serving jail time for selling
drugs.
He
tells many jokes about missing his middle finger, lost to a lawn mower.
There are waves of tear-wiping laughter. Ryle makes sound effects, including
some animal noises. He snaps his fingers, bangs the podium, paces and
tells how God will appear here in suit of fire, oil, water. "You will
feel! And the glory of the Lord will put you down!" ["A Rush of Ecstasy
and Alarm" by Carol McGraw, Orange County Register, Washington Post
18/11/95]
HOW
THE TEACHINGS SPREAD
James
Ryle is Bill McCartney's Pastor. When asked: "How would you describe your
relationship with your pastor" McCartney replied: "He's a mentor to me.
He's taken me under his wing. Every time I have a question that confuses
me, I call him." [Bill McCartney interviewed in Leadership Journal.]
It
will perhaps be apparent now that "mentoring", given the background, beliefs
and teachings of mentors like James Ryle, is leading to the infiltration
of aberrant thoughts, false prophecies and even heresies from the top
downwards. There is an overlap of thinking running throughout the Toronto,
Kansas City Prophets and Promise Keepers organisations [and many other
similar ones] that cannot be explained otherwise.
Taken
singly, each movement appears to have its good side. Taken together, we
have a combination of forces and influences that are bending the worldwide
Church like a tree in the wind. They are all adding their own bit of pressure,
all bending in the same direction - a global "kingdom" ruled by a bunch
of despots! They all use the same tactics - the carrot and the stick:
fun and friendship plus shepherding to keep the troops in line. It is
a formula that has worked well before, and it will continue to work very
well so long as Christians exhibit a group mentality and refuse to think
for themselves. Authoritarian leadership in the Church could never succeed
except for Christians who want to be led! Hero worship is a snare from
which few will escape.
I
have no doubt that Promise Keepers, if and when it appears in the UK,
will be eagerly promoted by those whose interests lie in the area of power
and influence, and who value quantity more than quality. I also (sadly)
predict that many fine Christian men will be drawn or pushed into supporting
PK.
As
always, we are called upon to sound a warning note, and to try to alert
believers to the dangers before it is too late. May God give discernment
to all who pray about their involvement in PK.
Footnote:
MENTORING
All Part of The Plan?
The
term mentoring refers to the Greek legendary figure, Mentor who was the
faithful friend and advisor of Odysseus (also called Ulysses) the hero
of the Trojan wars. The conclusion of his story (The Odyssey by Homer)
is interesting in the light of the aims of such organisations as Promise
Keepers, AD2000 and the Restoration Movement in general.
It
is an allegory of the battle for the kingdom, for the hero Odysseus returns
to his own land, reveals himself to his faithful waiting Bride, and kills
those who had been trying to seduce her. But it is only by the help of
Mentor that peace and reconciliation finally come to the land. And not
only Mentor, but by Athena, the goddess of wisdom and peace who takes
the form of Mentor to bring civil war between Odysseus and his wife's
suitors to an end.
On
hearing of the strife, Athena asks her father Zeus whether he intends
a war on earth. Zeus permits them to make a "treaty of peace to establish
Odysseus as king in perpetuity...let the mutual goodwill of the old days
be restored and let peace and plenty prevail". Thus encouraged, Athena
takes the form of Mentor and commands an nd to war.
Is
this just coincidence? Or maybe the promoters of "goodwill" and peace"
have deliberately decided that Mentoring is the path to reconciliation
between nations. It is all part of The Plan! |