In this sermon transcript, the speaker describes his experience at the Anaheim Vineyard where he witnessed various manifestations of the Holy Spirit. He observed people roaring, shaking, falling, and laughing in the spirit. The speaker acknowledges that these manifestations may initially seem demonic, but suggests that they could be the Holy Spirit empowering individuals. The chaotic scene scared some people, causing them to run out of the meeting. The speaker also mentions a magician who was present and explained some of the psychological manipulation used by Rodney Howard Brown, the preacher. The sermon ends with Rodney Howard Brown confronting the speaker and warning him not to speak against him or he would be thrown out of the meetings.

Today I'd like to talk to you about a very serious subject. My message is entitled, The Counterfeit Revival. Throughout history, the church has experienced genuine revival. Today, we are experiencing what might best be described as the counterfeit revival. Not many people want to speak out on this subject. However, the message that I am going to give this morning is a message that burns within my heart and soul. It is a message that I cannot not preach. As Abraham Kuyper said, when principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling. Peace becomes sin. You must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy with all the fire of your faith. Jeremiah, in the Old Testament, did just that. He was well known as the lonely prophet. In his day, the prophets were crying, peace, peace. And yet, Jeremiah was singularly instructed by God to declare to Judah that destruction was even now falling on the nation. That it would be destroyed. Thus, Jeremiah had to go against public sentiment, against the tide, and preach destruction. Rodney Howard Brown, well known as the laughing evangelist, the man whom Paul Crouch has said is bringing revival to America, says that any donkey can preach destruction. Any donkey can preach God's judgment. However, he says the Lord told him that the cloud on the horizon is not judgment. It is the coming revival. However, I'm here to tell you this morning that that cloud is not the coming judgment. Judgment has already fallen on America. That cloud is, in fact, a counterfeit revival. And I pray that whereas we are now seeing counterfeit revival, that God would spur each one of us on to a genuine revival. I believe that revival can come to America. Lying signs and wonders are not a demonstration of revival. It will come when each one of us is deeply committed to worshiping God in spirit and in truth, where we get back into the Word and get the Word back into us. And without the Word, we have no barometer for truth and error. We have no standard. In fact, without the Word of God, we will continue to set our sights by shooting stars instead of setting our sights by the North Star. All kinds of prophets are declaring peace, peace. They're declaring revival when revival is far from reality in our lives. Now, I want you to know that I recognize full well that in proclaiming this message, I'm going to take a lot of heat. I'm willing to take that heat. When I wrote my book, Christianity in Crisis, I predicted I may well become the most unpopular man in the evangelical church. I think I've made it. I've been watching with fascination as Christian tabloids absolutely, categorically besmirch my character. Charisma magazine has been on a particular vendetta, not only writing articles and news pieces denouncing me, but in addition to that, they have now printed a full-page ad. In that ad, they represent a book called Christianity in Power and denounce my book, Christianity in Crisis. And they do it based not on truth, but on total fabrication. They say, for example, that I say that Jesus Christ never laid down his deity. So far, so good. Jesus never did lay down his deity during the incarnation. Now, they think that that is a tragic remark because they believe Christ did. Then they go on to say that I say he was never fully tempted as a man. I never said that. Yet, they have the temerity to print that. They go on to say in his recent book, Christianity in Crisis, Hendrick H. Hanegraaff has made incredible accusations against the message of faith and its adherents. It is his personal theology that is the basis for these accusations. A theology which will astound many. They go on to say, Satan has come to kill, rob, and destroy. He has indeed killed, robbed, destroyed. By putting the book Christianity in Crisis in the hands of hundreds of thousands of believers, the faith of many has been stolen. Confront head-on the deception of the enemy. Promoting this book, Stephen Strang has banned my book, Christianity in Crisis, from any publication whatsoever or promotion in his magazines. In place of promoting Christianity in Crisis, he promotes a man named Rodney Howard Brown. Rodney Howard Brown is a man who is self-described as the Holy Ghost bartender. He variously calls himself the Holy Ghost hit man. You say, how many people would listen to a man who calls himself the Holy Ghost bartender? Who continuously says, step up to the bar, have another drink, have a double. Enjoy it. Have some of the new wine. How many people would listen to a laughing evangelist who says that in 1979, God gave him an ultimatum. Either you come down here and touch me or I'll come up there and touch you. He went on to say, God, I want your power. Not, I want to know you in the fellowship of your sufferings becoming like you in your death and somehow or other to attain to the resurrection of the dead. But God, I want your power. And he said when he prayed that, God answered. And the power of God fell on him. He said it was like unscrewing an electric light bulb and shoving your hand into the socket. He said the power was so enormous that he had to after almost four days pray, God, please lift the power because if you don't, I'm going to die. And so God graciously, according to Rodney Howard Brown, lifted the power. And as a result of lifting the power, Rodney Howard Brown lives. And he's bringing the power to us. In fact, he can now be seen on the Trinity Broadcasting Network invoking people to laughter. He has them repeat over and over again, ho, ho, ho, ha, ha, ha. Have another drink. Be filled. We loose the powers. We loose the powers. Drink, drink, drink. And my friends, he does not like people checking him out. I know firsthand. This Monday, I went to check him out at Melody Land Christian Center. A couple of thousand people gathered together. I was sitting about six rows back. I was there with a professional con man. At least he had been a professional con man. He's a magician. He understands sleight of hand. He knows how to deceive people through psychological and sociological manipulation and through sleight of mind. And he was sitting there next to me, explaining to me some of the psychological manipulation used by Rodney Howard Brown. We were sitting very quietly, and you have to picture the scene. Chaos had broken loose. He uses, for example, one of his bodyguards. He has a couple with him at all times. He calls them his angels. But he's got these two big bodyguards with him. And he lets you know you better not mess with him. But one of the bodyguards had whipped the crowd into a frenzy previously. And he had introduced the bodyguards at this particular meeting. And at this particular point in time, the crowd was going wild. And when I say wild, I mean wild. People were laughing wildly. People were screaming. They were shaking. They were falling on the floor. They were dancing in the aisles. And I was sitting there. And the man who was previously a con artist whispered in my ear, he's using an embedded command. He whispered that very quietly. The moment he did, Rodney Howard Brown made a beeline towards us. He stood in front of me, and he said, I've been watching you. If you've got something to say, say it outside. You're going to be in these meetings, and talk. Now, I tell you, if I see you talking again, I'll have you thrown out of here. And don't try me, because I'll do it. I don't care who you are. This is my final warning. Talk again, and I'll throw you out. By the way, I've only met him once. That was at the Christian Booksellers Association. Stephen Strang had walked up to him and asked him to meet with me. He decided not to. He went down the aisle in the other direction rather rapidly. This was the second encounter. He said in this encounter, by Friday there's either going to be riot or revival. And then he went on to say that those of us who would question whether or not what he was doing was of God had committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, could not be saved in this life or in the life to come. In other words, don't check me out. If you do, you're in trouble. Vicariously, lots of people listen to that. And while I obviously am not taking his warning too seriously, I imagine many people are. He went on to say, I'm telling you right now, you're going to drop dead if you prohibit what God is doing. In fact, the very next day, I wasn't there, but some of my staff members were, he said, I think the last time I had a confrontation like that was in California five years ago with a bunch of Mormons. You could see their spirit, you know, just a really religious, pharisaical spirit. And I smelt it, you know, I can smell them religious devils from about a hundred yards. I could smell them blindfolded, man. Amen. I guess the amen made it sound somewhat spiritual. Someone said, well, the meetings are out of order. Like I said, try something and see how far you get. You could see last night we meant business. How many of you know we meant business? And then Rodney Howard Brown proceeds to mock other churches and other church leaders. In fact, it was interesting, while I was there Friday night, they had over 350 churches represented. One of the representatives was supposedly from Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa. He stood up and to wild, raucous applause, he said, I'm from Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa. We need revival badly. Rodney Howard Brown says, if you've got this new wine, which causes you to laugh in the spirit, get glued to the floor in the spirit, go dumb in the spirit, which is not a hard one for me to believe. If you have that, why would you want to go back to a dead church? A church that is merely preaching through the word of God. He calls those kinds of churches deacon possessed churches, where the people have been baptized in lemon juice. They sing three hymns and three hers, and then they pronounce the last rites or the benediction. He says, this is the kind of church which is characterized by evil men who one day are going to drop dead in their pulpits. Rather than attending a church like that, a church that preaches through the word, why not attend a church where the new wine is being served up, where you can experience God rather than just read about him. In fact, says Rodney Howard Brown, I'd rather be in a church where the devil and the flesh are manifesting than in a church where nothing is happening, because people are simply too afraid to manifest anything. And if a devil manifests, don't worry about that either, rejoice. At least something is happening. Let's not get offended and say, I'm not going back to that church because the flesh or a demon manifested. My friends, if you have ever seen demonic possession or the demonic manifesting, you wouldn't want to go back to that church. Especially when the pastor is dealing with this in such a cavalier fashion. I have seen demonic possession. And when you see demonic possession, you will never again mistake it for what is called demonic possession in many churches in America. We talk about the demon of cancer, the demon of lust, the demon of backsliding, the demon of this, the demon of that, the demon of nicotine. And we cast those demons out. My friends, those aren't demons. And, of course, we have deliverance services with Christians who supposedly are demon-possessed. A Christian has an affair, and he goes for a deliverance. He can say, the devil made me do it, sorry. Not my fault. Now I'm fine. And not have to take any responsibility for his actions. Let me say categorically that if you were a believer, your temple is the temple of the Holy Spirit. That temple will never be inhabited by a demon. They may bug you, harass you, and zap you, but they can never possess you. One occasion, Rodney Howard Brown was supposedly preaching on hell, and laughter just hit the whole place. The more I told people what hell was like, the more they laughed, he said. Let me tell you something. In past revivals, men like Jonathan Edwards drew graphic portrayals of what hell was like. In his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, you have such a graphic portrayal of hell that you can almost feel the flames. And yes, when that message was preached, people trembled under conviction and repented before the Holy One of Israel. My friends, trembling and manifestations are not an end in themselves. In great revivals, they were a demonstration of repentance under the powerful proclamation of the Word of God. Yet despite all of the evidence, Oral Roberts, an icon in our Christian culture, said, Rodney Howard Brown came to America with a message. He didn't know exactly what it was, but he was obeying God, and the Lord gave him a ministry of holy laughter. It's an unprecedented experience to be with this man. He has a commanding presence. He came to ORU, and at the end of his message, he had the longest sustained applause in the history of ORU for 30 years, as though that is an indication of whether or not you're spiritual. No one, he said, has ever had that kind of applause. He touched the life of our student body, including our athletes, and no one has ever touched our athletes. All of them got holy laughter, thousands of them. When he came and said, fill, fill, fill, they fell in the Spirit on the grounds. There's no question about it, continues Oral Roberts, he's changed my life, and he's changed the life of my son. John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard, says that Rodney Howard Brown brought refreshing to his pastors, John Arnott and Randy Clark. As he puts it, quote, John Arnott learned how the Holy Spirit had powerfully renewed and refreshed Randy Clark, who was the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in St. Louis pastor, in a meeting conducted by evangelist Rodney Howard Brown. So Arnott, hearing about Randy Clark's transformed ministry, invited Randy to come to Toronto to minister in his church. Of course, the rest is history. Thousands and thousands of pastors have gone through that Vineyard church and have experienced what they call the Toronto blessing. You fly in, you get it, and you take it back to your church. It's been taken back to Cambodia, Africa, New Zealand, Australia. It's been taken all over the world. Wimber goes on to point out the influence of not only Rodney Howard Brown, but Benny Hinn on the Vineyard ministries. Pat Robertson, who ran for president of the United States, sees the Laughing Revival as a precursor to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. As he puts it, What this says to me is that revival is taking place in the world in a mass wave and we look to the coming of the Lord. I think this is a very encouraging sign. Now, let me tell you something. In biblical eschatology, the precursor to the coming of the Lord is not revival. Now, I believe revival can happen, but it is not a precursor to the coming of the Lord. Rather, a precursor to the coming of the Lord is great apostasy. As Matthew puts it in Matthew 24, Many will come in my name, claiming I am the Christ, and will deceive many. And many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. But he who stands firm to the end will be saved. False Christs and false prophets will appear and will perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. Jesus had a disdain for false prophets. He had a disdain for false gods. And he had a disdain for false security. That same disdain was echoed by the prophet Jeremiah. When he said, This is what the Lord Almighty says. Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you. They fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise me, The Lord says you will have peace. And to all who follow, the stubbornness of their own hearts they say, The Lord says no harm will come to you. But they have not stood in the counsel of the Lord to see or to hear his word. They have not listened and heard his word. See, the storm of the Lord will burst out in wrath, a whirlwind swirling down on the heads of the wicked. The days to come you will understand clearly that I did not send these prophets. Yet they have run with their message. I did not speak to them. Yet they have prophesied. If they had stood in my counsel, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds. Jeremiah went on to say, I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say I had a dream. I had a dream. How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? Therefore, declares the Lord, I am against prophets who steal from me and they claim my words. They claim my message comes forth from them. But all they are doing is they are stealing words from one another and attributing those words to me. Yes, declares the Lord, I am against prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare the Lord declares. Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, declares the Lord. They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies. Yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least, declares the Lord. Despite the warning, the 700 Club fact sheet put out by the Christian Broadcasting Network says, the laughing renewal has already extended to at least three continents and shows no sign of waning. Over 100,000 people, supposedly more than 10,000 of them pastors, have already been to what is called the Toronto Blessing. This spring, the Toronto Blessing hit the Holy Trinity Church in London, one of the largest Anglican churches in England. It also hit England's Stoneledge Bible Camp, an annual event sponsored by New Frontiers Ministries, which oversees 100 churches in England and 27 nations around the world. It's happening across the board. Free churches, house churches, Church of England, established churches all over the place. No matter the opinion, the laughing renewal seems to be spreading. Africa, Russia, India, indeed, the world. Now, supposedly, according to Rodney Howard Brown, the first drops of this revival began to fall on America in 1990. And he said that the coming revival would be a culmination of all other revivals. There would be signs and wonders. There would be healings, miracles, the glory of God. We would even be transported from one place to another miraculously. He said that eyeballs would begin to form in the sockets of those who are missing eyeballs. He said people who were missing legs would suddenly have new legs grow out. He said that people would leap from wheelchairs. He said that the dead are going to be raised. Now, my friends, I am not speaking out against the miraculous. I believe in the miraculous. I believe God can and does heal. However, where is the evidence that this is taking place? Where are those who are being raised from the dead? We do not have to tell stories to authenticate the power of God. And when we do, the world looks on and laughs because they're asking the same question. Where is the proof? Over and over again, the answer is, well, I guess it was a story after all. And Christianity gets a black eye instead of the name of Jesus Christ being exalted. The name of Jesus Christ is dragged through the mud. I was at a vineyard, and I want to say parenthetically that there are some wonderful vineyard churches that are just as upset about what I'm communicating this morning as I am. In other words, they are not embracing what about 60 percent or more of the vineyard churches are embracing. So not all vineyards have embraced this, but many have. But I was at the Anaheim Vineyard, and I was standing there watching as people were roaring, shaking, falling, thrashing around on the floor, laughing in the spirit. While all of this was happening, I was walking around watching another amazement. And as I was, I noticed that a lady was looking at me, and I thought maybe she's one of the monitors who was going to the people who are manifesting the signs, putting her hand on their shoulder or on the pit of their stomach and yelling, more, more, more, or fill, fill, fill. I didn't want her to do that to me. So I decided I better move. She made a beeline towards me. When she got near me, she said, Are you Hank Hanegraaff? I said, I am. She said, What do you think about what's happening here? I said, I'm glad you asked. For the next half hour, she asked me every relevant question that could be asked, and I answered her questions. And she said, You know, I go to Calvary Chapel, but I heard about this, and I wanted to come and see it for myself. I've been coming three times now, and I wanted to get involved. I so desperately want a touch from God. And she said, Then I looked over and saw you. And I had prayed fervently, Lord, if this is not of you, please stop me. She said, Thank you. And she walked out the door. Manifestations, lying signs and wonders, which, if possible, could deceive the very elect of God. The difference between a counterfeit revival and the genuine article is the difference between the deeds of the spirit and the deeds of the flesh. The deeds of the spirit are characterized by love and joy and peace and by self-control. The acts of the sinful nature of the flesh are immorality, impurity, idolatry, witchcraft, selfish ambition, and drunkenness. Now Rodney Harrod Brown tells the thousands of pastors that are taking this movement throughout the world, Feel, don't think. This is the age-old lie of Satan. Don't try to figure it out. Don't let your rational mind get in the way. Just experience it. As he puts it, if it makes sense, it's not from God. If it's from God, it doesn't make sense. Of course, the truth of the matter is God never, never, never tells us to set aside irrational cognitive thinking processes. He never tells us to stop thinking. Rather, he instructs us to love him with our minds. As Peter puts it, be alert. Be self-controlled. Your adversary prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. You go to Rodney Harrod Brown's meetings, you will have testimonies. Testimonies not of the grace of the gospel, but testimonies on how you got drunk in the spirit. And those testimonies are not simply words. They demonstrate while they're talking about it that they're drunk. They fall all over the place. They writhe. They look exactly like someone would look inebriated in a bar. It's authenticated because this is not booze in the natural, but it is the spirit in the supernatural. And therefore, it is okay. I never thought when I became a Christian in 1979 that I would live to see what's happening in the church today. I never, ever envisioned having to stand in a pulpit and speak about such awful, devilish manifestations in the very sanctuary. The same manifestations I have viewed for years in the kingdom of the cults, in the world of the occult. I never thought I would live to see this being manifested in the church. In fact, the church is being sensitized to the world of the occult and desensitized to the word of God Almighty. John Wimber's response to manifestations like roaring, he says, Well, I recognize that there are certain manifestations of the spirit that have gone on in our meetings for 15 years. We suppose they were demonic in origin, and there were times in the past where we attempted to cast demons out of people who made animal noises. On some occasions, demons manifested and we did cast them out. On other occasions, we were puzzled by the lack of deliverance. Therefore, I think in the past we had a rather simplistic view of all of these things. In other words, in the past when someone would roar or bark or growl, they said, Aha, that person is demon-possessed. And so they'd have a deliverance service. Now he's saying, 15 years later, I was kind of wondering why some of the time demons didn't come out. Maybe that's because this was divine after all. He goes on to say, I put this in the category of pondering. I don't know. In other words, this makes the church a laboratory and the people guinea pigs. A far cry from a pastor protecting his sheep against wolves, ferocious wolves who come into the church in sheep's clothing. Paul, the apostle, did not say, Well, we're going to see how this shakes out. He said, He said, But even from among your own number, he said, Satan is a master counterfeiter. He masquerades as an angel of enlightenment. He wants you to encounter him and think you're in touch with a living God. He wants you to believe that reality can be reduced to a personal experience of enlightenment. A transformation of consciousness that initiates you into true spirituality. A trip beyond Christianity into the world of the occult. His greatest blasphemy is a counterfeit conversion and a counterfeit revival. And that's why Ephesians warns us, Be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil. We ought to be able to see through the slight of mind that is being used by these false teachers. They show the laughter and they say, This is divine or holy laughter. This is of God. How dare you speak out against it? For too long, Christians have been baptized in lemon juice. Long faces. Not happy. Now we're laughing. We've finally gotten to where we need to be. How could anybody speak out against divine laughter? My, my. How low can you go? Well, I'm speaking out against it. Ecclesiastes 2, laughter is foolishness. Ecclesiastes 7, sorrow is better than laughter. Luke 6, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking, Woe to you who laugh now, for you will weep. Laughter is a response to something funny. Joy is a quality of life. It is an inner gladness. It is a sense of satisfaction. It has nothing whatsoever to do with circumstances. James makes that abundantly clear. You can have joy in trial, tribulation. I doubt that anyone, much less a pastor who has experienced real joy, would ever confuse it with raucous laughter. As C.S. Lewis put it, I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it would ever exchange it for all of the pleasures the world could offer. Rodney Howard Brown says, How can you know I'm not in error? Answer, joy. Look at the cults. The one thing they don't have, they don't have joy. The truth of the matter is, the way you test him is not by a manifestation, or an experience, or how you feel. Feelings are deceptive. The way you test him is in light of the final court of arbitration, which is the word of God. The Bible warns of false prophets. They come in the name of Jesus Christ, but they represent another Jesus and another gospel. Maharishi, Mahesh Yogi, can give you divine laughter. He is the founder of transcendental meditation. And you can go and receive laughter therapy. Now, I asked one of the leaders at Melody Land Christian Center, where Rodney appeared this week, how he felt about Rodney coming, and he was so excited. Why are you excited, I asked. He said, because the power, the power he demonstrates. I said, how do you know where that power comes from? I don't know. Well, don't you think you should? Well, how can you speak against men? I didn't say anything. I'm just asking you questions. If Maharishi Mahesh Yogi comes to church next week, how do you know that his power is the power of God? Well, I know he's not of God, he said. I said, how do you know that? Well, I don't think he is. I said, now that's a critical spirit. Well, he said he doesn't preach Jesus. I said, oh, you're wrong. He does preach Jesus. How do you know whether Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is of God? You have to take what he says and test it in light of Scripture. Remember, the power, the wonders, the signs, the manifestations can be counterfeited in such a spectacular fashion that if it were possible, the very elect of God may indeed be deceived. In fact, not only can, but will be counterfeited with that kind of clever manipulation. We know Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is not of God because we know that he holds a subtle twist on Scripture. He slips in the word you for I and says, be still and know that you are God. That Jesus he proclaims is a different Jesus and the gospel he articulates is a different gospel. Test all things in light of the word of God. Hold fast to that which is true. Roaring like a lion is not an indication of the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. My friends, if you want roaring, go see a shaman. Mediating between this world and the spirit world, shamans work themselves into an altered state of consciousness. They become possessed and then they mediate between this world and the next for you. Animal sounds are not a sign of the infilling of the Holy Spirit. John Arnot, the pastor who is bringing the Toronto blessing to tens of thousands around the world, is exegeting Revelation chapter 4. While doing so, he says the following. And so now we are starting to see people prophetically acting like lions and oxen and eagles and even warriors. We had a call one time. It said one of our congregation has been acting like an eagle flying around the room. We can't get them to stop. What do we do? And we thought, you know, throw a rabbit in the middle of the floor and maybe they'll come down. But seriously, it's a wonderful thing. We had all four of those manifestations happening at the same time. So what did the man look like? He looked like a warrior just yelling, Ah! You know, at first our inclination is to say, that's demonic. But that is too simplistic a view, continues John Arnot. It could be the flesh, or more probably if you know the person and their heart and their integrity, it just may be the Holy Spirit putting and empowering like a warrior on them. But we saw all four of them going at once. It scared people so bad that many of them ran right out of the meeting. I was amazed myself. This one little keyboard player lady, about 115 pounds, was in all fours, snorting and pawing the ground like an angry bull. That went on for a while and she's frightened. By the way, I've seen this. She doesn't know what's happening to her. So she runs out of the room. Carol, John Arnot's wife, went after her. And as John puts it, we encouraged her. You're okay. Just let the Lord do what He wants to do. You've asked for bread. After all, He's not going to give you a stone. How different from the Apostle John who said, Watch out. Test the spirits to see if they are from God. This is the end of side A. This program continues on the other side of this cassette. Now when you test the spirits, you get labeled. I know. I've been labeled. I'm a Pharisee. Now that doesn't mean much to the secular world, but to Christians it means a lot. When someone calls you a Pharisee, that means that you are a son of the devil. A whitewashed sepulcher full of dead men's bones. It means that you are a slimy snake. That you strain in a net and swallow a camel. It is a derisive, pejorative term. And that term is placed squarely upon anyone who would check these things out, much less speak out against them. Jack Hayford says, quote, My personal perception is that there are a number of things on the horizon that most of them are more easily contained or received by people than the matter of holy laughter. But I see it, holy laughter, as one of the things by which the Lord is signaling the attention of the spiritually sensitive. I guess if you don't catch the signal, you're not sensitive spiritually. He goes on to say that we should resist the horrible tendency of orthodoxy to resist anything that doesn't meet some precise criteria that has always been purported to be quote, quote, biblical when in fact they are so often contrivances of the flesh in an intellectual manifestation of carnality. In other words, you check it out in light of Scripture, oftentimes it is carnality rather than true spirituality. Truth of the matter is, in genuine revivals, there has always been an acute awareness of Satan's seductions. Thus, manifestations were always tested in light of Scripture. Real love for God is inseparable from the love of the truth. Pharisees were guilty of loving tradition rather than the truth of the Word of God. It wasn't that they tested. It was that they loved tradition. They tithed their mint and their cummin, but they neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and righteousness and equity. I like what Dr. Chantry said. He said, the great revivalists like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield were insistent on the central significance of the revealed Word as inseparably linked with an equal emphasis that the Gospel must approach the human heart through the intellect. They were always asking whether experiences, however emotional, however powerful, were in direct response to understood truth. If they were not, they were discounted as fanaticism. Rodney Howard Brown authenticates his message through signs and wonders. An experience, he says, that demonstrates that God is here. Now, people in his meetings, as well as in other meetings that I've attended, work themselves into a self-induced altered state of consciousness, which is an exceedingly dangerous practice. It's a doorway into the world of the occult. They're manipulated through peer pressure, through the expectations which are aroused through the message that you can have this brush with enlightenment. And the pastors use their own star status to manipulate people into performing what they want them to perform. I've watched it. Slaying in the Spirit. Rodney Howard Brown walks up to you. Close your eyes. Lift your hands, he says. As you do, the glory of God comes on you and they fall backwards. Now, Peter Jennings interviewed him this week. And he asked him a question. The question he asked him was, why is it that when Jesus was alive, or why is it in Scripture that people fell forward rather than backwards? Rodney Howard Brown said the Lord gave him the answer. He said, while Jesus was here, people fell forward because He was here. When He was up in Heaven, they fell backwards because He was there. I had dinner with Benny Hinn one night and I asked him, where do you find the Biblical precedent for slaying people in the Spirit? His answer? It works. I said, that's not what I asked you. Where's the Biblical precedent? He said, well, I don't know. I said, it is not a normative practice in Scripture, and if it were of God, let me challenge you to start slaying people falling forwards instead of falling backwards, because in Scripture those who worshipped Christ fell forward. The enemies of Christ fell backwards. Now, in having said that, I am not denouncing those who have experienced a genuine reaction to the power and presence of God. If God would manifest Himself in our presence today, we would fall in His presence. In fact, when Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6 caught one glimpse of the glory of God, He came apart at the seams. The holiness of God took the holiest man in Israel and absolutely shattered him. So, I am not saying that God cannot overwhelm us by His power and presence. I pray that He does. But I am saying that what is being pronounced as a work of God is merely a deception in our midst. It doesn't happen cookie cutter, factory line assembly process. It is not normative in Scripture. Now, there's so much more that could be said with regards to what Rodney Howard Brown does. If you haven't experienced it sometime or other, I'm sure you're going to experience it. You'll see it on television. You'll probably encounter it. In terms of a friend communicating it to you, hopefully you'll never be there yourself. Rodney Howard Brown glues you to the floor in the Spirit. He says in one case, a lady he glued to the floor in the Spirit took almost a day to be able to unglue herself and to be able to finally pull herself up along the side wall of the church. He causes you to go dumb in the Spirit, which in some cases is not hard to believe. Dumb in the sense of not speaking. He causes you to get drunk in the Spirit along with many other lying signs and wonders. If you test what he says in light of Scripture, you will find that what he does is he abuses rather than uses Scripture. For example, he uses Acts chapter 2, the story where some people on the day of Pentecost were making fun of the apostles, said they were drunk. As he puts it, when the Holy Spirit begins to move, you'll not be able to work it out with your natural mind. So don't think about this, just experience it. Why did they think the believers were drunk, he asks rhetorically? Because they must have acted like drunk people. Now, if you read the text, you will find no precedent for that whatsoever. He says, it is absolutely absurd to think that the reason that the apostles were said to be drunk was simply because they were speaking in tongues. He says, I've heard tongue talkers many times. And he says, they don't look drunk. Now, the truth of the matter is, there is no evidence that anything else was going on. Cloven tongues of fire appeared, as it were, on the heads of the apostles and they spoke in other tongues, says the text. Not they stumbled around drunk, they shook, or anything else. As a matter of fact, Peter, after the manifestation, powerfully proclaims the Word of God. Read the sermon. One of the most powerful sermons in all of Scripture. Rodney Howard Brown takes it and uses that passage, Acts chapter 2, as the basis for his ministry. And then he writes a chorus and has musicians that travel with him to authenticate his message with the message in music. One of the choruses, it's so fine, it's so fine, God's new wine. Another one, I can't tell you all the lyrics, but the song is about drinking at Joel's place. Referring to the prophet Joel. Depicted in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 2. And he also uses Ephesians chapter 5. Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery, instead be filled with the Spirit. And so he's saying the Spirit has a wine as well. It's not human wine, it's spiritual wine. But it makes you drunk, the only difference is you don't have a headache. Paul, of course, in Ephesians 5 is not saying drunkenness is desirable and has some kind of a biblical counterpart. Paul no more wants you to get drunk in the Spirit than he wants you to have a sexual affair in the Spirit. Or to use obscene language in the Spirit. Rather, he says, have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness. Instead, manifest self-control, not drunkenness. Self-control is the fruit of the Spirit. Now to his credit, vineyard pastor Greg Caruso makes an attempt to explain what's happening in over 60% of the vineyards by attributing the manifestations to a basis in Scripture. He wrote a book or a booklet that's entitled How to Shake and Bake and Not Get Burned. In it, he writes that there is a biblical precedent for shaking in the Spirit. And when I say shaking, I couldn't demonstrate the shaking that takes place because if I did it, I'd hurt myself. But they're moving like this, folks. They're moving fast. They're shaking so fast that the only thing that I've seen remotely close to it is what you find in the ashrams in Pune, India, later transported to America, to Oregon, under Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh, where they did what was called dynamic meditation to work themselves into an altered state of consciousness. The same thing you see there can be seen in the church. But he says there's a biblical precedent for this. Matthew 28, verse 4. And the guards shook for fear of him, referring to an angel, and became like dead men. I guess that proves it. And then falling in the Spirit, resting in the Spirit, or being slain in the Spirit, his biblical precedent, 1 Samuel 19.24. And he also, referring to Saul, stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel, and laid down naked all that day and all that night. I hope that won't be the next move of the Spirit or they'll really attract crowds. Or roaring in the Spirit. They use Hosea 11, verse 10. They will walk after the Lord. He will roar like a lion. Now who's roaring? The Lord. And hopefully you recognize that figurative language is being used here. And here's one that shouldn't fool anyone. He uses 1 Corinthians 14.40 to try to authenticate the utter chaos that takes place in the meetings. 1 Corinthians 14.40 says, let everything be done in order. His exegesis, there's room for everything and there's room for the order. I don't know what kind of twisted logic that is. I thought I'd help them. I found a verse myself that might be more appropriate. Jeremiah 51. This is what the Lord says. See? I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer. Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn. Her people all roar like young lions. They growl like lion cubs. But while they are aroused, I will set a feast for them and make them drunk. That they will shout with laughter. Then sleep forever and not awake, declares the Lord. The world of the occult, you find lying signs and wonders. And they are seductive. The world of the occult could impact the children of Israel and Canaan. We ought not to be so naive as to think it could not impact the church in our culture. And indeed it has. The word occult, of course, is typically associated with esoteric or mystical practices. Hidden. Secretive means to attain personal power. It's characterized by a reliance on the supernatural to achieve its ends. It gives you the ability to disclose information unavailable by human or natural means. And it puts people into contact with paranormal energies or demonic forces. I want to be careful to say something. Most of what you see in the vineyard, in other churches, under Rodney Howard Brown and in the Counterfeit Revival can be explained through human phenomenon. But there certainly is a demonic element to it as well. We see the acquisition of power to manipulate people into certain actions. We ought to be reminded once again of Deuteronomy chapter 18. When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving to you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or his daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or who casts spells, or who is a medium or a spiritist, or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices, the Lord your God has driven out the nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. My friends, Israel, the apple of God's eye, was driven from its land of promise. Don't think the same fate cannot befall us. Rodney Howard Brown is authenticating his ministry not only by lying signs and wonders, but in addition to that by rewriting history. Telling stories which have no basis in reality. Reading his book yesterday, it was a painful experience called Flowing in the Holy Ghost. There he tells about a man who was dying of cancer who was brought to Smith Wigglesworth. He says Wigglesworth punched him in the stomach so hard he flew through the air and hit the floor, dead. Wigglesworth had killed him, writes Rodney Howard Brown. However, Wigglesworth said he was healed, despite the fact that he was dead. Ten minutes later, however, the man was up and running around the church. I want to know, where's the proof for that story? He has the story in quotes, no footnote. Of course, he also goes on from that to say that he took a little advice from Wigglesworth. The way he says that is he gives a little anecdotal story. He says that he himself was in a meeting one day and he slapped a deaf person so hard right in that meeting so that the deaf person fell flat on the floor. And then he said it worked. The deaf person got up, totally healed by the power of God, and didn't even know that Rodney Howard Brown had hit him. Another story I read yesterday, the same book. He says that Brother Wigglesworth was summoned to come and pray for Uncle Fred, a guy named Uncle Fred, evidently by one of his relatives. His relative said that Uncle Fred was dying, so Wigglesworth said, I'll come. However, he didn't come right away, so they had to call him again and say, please, you've got to come. He's in a bad way. He's dying. He said, I told you, I'll be there in a little while. They called him again and said, don't bother. Uncle Fred is dead. He said, I'm coming. When Wigglesworth arrived, he found Uncle Fred dead and already in the coffin. There were about 60 mourners in the room. Wigglesworth walked right up to the coffin, yanked the corpse out of it. Picture this. The mourners are there. They've already got the casket. The corpse is in the casket. He walks up to the coffin. He yanks the corpse out of it, pushes the body up against the wall and says, walk in Jesus' name. The corpse falls to the floor. Evidently it was slippery. Wigglesworth bends down, picks it up, stands it up against the wall again and says, walk in the name of Jesus. The corpse fell to the floor again. He's a little clumsy. We wouldn't want him playing for the Lakers. So he bends over and he picks up the corpse again. He slams it against the wall and thunders, I told you, walk. And the man walked. And as Rodney Howard Brown puts it, Wigglesworth turned and calmly walked out the door. Does that stretch your credulity at all? It does mine. I believe God can raise someone from the dead, but my friends, if that had happened, why is it that Wigglesworth was better known for supposedly healing people of appendicitis than raising people from the dead? And if that had happened, I guarantee you it would be front page news in every newspaper in the world. And again, Rodney writes about it, but he doesn't footnote it. Then you have the revisionism by the charismatic and Pentecostal historian William D. Arteaga. They think that he is a designated hitman to try to ruin my credibility. He writes and says things which do not represent what I believe or teach. At one point he says, Hanegraaff is saying, roaring is really bad. In the Cainridge Revival, the Second Great Awakening, the predominant phenomenon was barking. People bark like dogs. They got on all fours, on the floor, and bow-wow-wow-wow. So my question to Hanegraaff is, if the Second Great Awakening was a great blessing to American civilization and really re-Christianized the West, and they bark like dogs, which is worse? To bark like a dog or to roar like a lion? And if one is from the Lord, why would someone like Hanegraaff save the others from Satan? Now my first response is simply this. To say that the predominant phenomenon was barking is pure revisionistic history. It does not represent the truth. However, today we are biblically and historically illiterate, and we fall for the lie. In fact, it's interesting to note that during the Welsh Revival in 1904, laughter was actually associated with the demonic. Past revivals were conducted in an atmosphere of reverential awe for God. Revival was consistently accompanied by the powerful proclamation of the Word of God. There was a conviction of sin and a desire for repentance. Never in history has there been a revival that's genuine, that is characterized by Christians lined up to receive a dose of holy laughter. In fact, leaders of past revivals were guarding against physical manifestations, lest Satan get a foothold in the work of God. Jonathan Edwards believed that the Great Awakening was actually squelched, not by theological correctness, but by spiritual fanaticism and extremism. Altar calls in Rodney Howard Brown's meetings, altar calls for people to come to Christ, are not preceded by the powerful proclamation of the Word of God. Rather, they are preceded by a manifestation or a demonstration of supposed power. I talked to Greg Laurie the other day, and I asked him if he had seen Rodney Howard Brown. I said, you know, it's kind of interesting. If you watch him, he does some incredible altar calls. As a matter of fact, his altar calls are as good as yours. I know Greg was wondering what was going to come next. I said, there's one difference between his altar call and yours. Yours is preceded by a clear, cogent presentation of the Gospel. His, preceded by lying signs and wonders. Manifestations. So when people come forward, they don't hear the Gospel. They come forward because they've seen what they think is a demonstration of the power of God. They're coming to an experience, not to the everlasting Savior. The impact of the counterfeit revival on our culture has indeed already been massive. Worship is being replaced with entertainment. Fellowship is being transformed into individualism. Instead of the fellowship of the saints drawing people into the church, it's the experience that's drawing people into the church. Revival comes when the world sees the love that we demonstrate for one another in such a powerful, passionate way that they are constrained to come in. They say, quote, see how they love one another. It is the love of Christ that constrains them to come in to the fellowship of the believers. They see the tangible demonstration that we really care for one another. When one cries, we all cry. And when one laughs, we all laugh. We are bonded together. And when that happens, true revival will break out. Bonded together around the words. Deeply committed to the Lord in prayer. And willing to share the truth of Jesus Christ with the lost and searching world. Indeed, the biblical concept of every believer a witness for Christ is being replaced by the dubious witness of men like Rodney Howard Brown. Indeed, the very form and the function of the church has been dramatically altered. As I close, let me say that we will know that genuine revival has come to the church when we are devoted to the sharing of our faith rather than the seduction of our feelings. When the church is known for selfless love rather than for seductive laughter. When Christians are passionately committed to equipping the saints rather than experiencing the sensational. When we come to church and are saturated in Scripture rather than slain in the Spirit. And finally, when we become truly committed to His story rather than becoming another casualty of history. The choice is yours. We can relive history or recommit ourselves to His story. My people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray. If they will seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. But, if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you, go off and serve other gods. Worship them. Then I will uproot you from my land. And I will make you a byword and an object of ridicule among all the people. I close with the words of the writer of the book of Hebrews. Therefore, since you are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, looking unto Jesus Christ, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joys set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you do not grow weary and lose heart. Your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your own blood. And have you forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons? My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord, or loathe His reproof. For whom the Lord loves He reproves, even as a father, a son in whom He delights. May we pray. Father, thank You for the opportunity to preach Your Word to Your people. I pray, Father, that these who love You would be emboldened to speak Your Word with power and passion. I pray, Father, that You would teach us how to know You through Your Word, to have intimacy with You through prayer, to be a part of a healthy, well-balanced church in which we love one another in such a way that the world looks on and desires to have what we have. I pray, Father, that You would cause us to be able to witness not only by our lives, but also by our lips. Equip us, Father, to share the truth and the love and the joy that only Jesus Christ can bring to the human heart, not only now, but also for all eternity. We pray, Father, that You will hear our prayer, not by might, nor by power, but by Your precious Holy Spirit. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray, and for His sake. Amen. California 92693 Or you may call 714-855-9926 714-855-9926