BEWARE THE NEW PROPHETS
By Bill Randles
St. Matthew Publishing Ltd.
133 pages. £3.99
ISBN 1 9015460 4 7
The re-emergence of the 'Latter Rain' heresy from proponents of the Toronto Blessing and the modern 'prophetic' movement is of immense danger. In this book, Bill Randles, an American Pentecostal pastor with a concern for biblical truth, takes the lid off this can of worms.
The 'Latter Rain' heresy emerged in Canada in the late 1940s. Throwing aside common-sense hermeneutics, certain passages of the Bible were used to insist on the idea that in the late 20th century, God would raise up an elite group of 'super-Christians' who would take the world for God. The idea, sometimes referred to as 'the Manifested Sons of God', is that this church would become so glorified and powerful that 'we can bring back Christ to earth'. In many extremist circles, the 1980s were seen as the time when God restored prophets to the church, and the 1990s the era when God restored apostles, although, of course, the restorationists in the UK have been telling us that new apostles have been around since the 1970s. The leaders who are caught up in this heresy today include American 'prophets' Rick Joyner, Bob Jones, Rodney Howard-Browne, James Ryle, Bill Hamon, Earl Paulk and many leaders within the Vineyard movement. They flatter their listeners: 'You are the greatest generation of the church ever.' Whereas those who are not taken in so easily are bombarded with such gems as: 'God is a lot bigger than doctrine', 'God offends our minds to reach our hearts' and 'The church is so hung up on Bible study, they don't know Jesus'.
Downgraded Bible
Having researched their teaching and ministry tapes, Randles goes on to let their false teaching emerge via many quotations from them. He stridently exposes many false prophecies from these men, and also the way that they try to threaten anyone who questions their teaching, by means of predicting God's judgment on their detractors. In all this, Randles's concern is that the Bible is being downgraded, profanity is coming into the churches and that Christians (charismatic and evangelical) have stopped using their God-given ability to think.
He lists all the many devious ways in which the new breed of prophets try to elude any testing or to take any responsibility for their messages. By contrast, the book sets out clearly and reasonably the tests (like Deuteronomy 13 and 18), which Scripture insists should apply to those who claim prophetic words. And the real scoundrels, says Randles, quoting Jeremiah 23, are the foolish pastors, who, frightened of being 'left behind' in the 'move of God', have opened their pulpits to these people.
Randles says: 'They have helped foster an antagonism in the church between the ones they have seduced and those who are cautious. The 'civil war' prophecy of Joyner, Campbell, Bob Jones and James Ryle, the sarcasm of Rodney Howard-Browne (rarely missing an opportunity to castigate his detractors), the whole 'us/them' mentality, has given much encouragement to those who despise the Lord enough to relish this division.'
It is a book in the line of Hannegraaf's Christianity in Crisis and (despite its unfortunately lurid cover) deserves to be taken very seriously.
JEB
Dr John Benton
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