Some Thoughts on Dr. Brown’s response to me…

Now it’s been a few days since my interchange with Dr. Michael Brown regarding his article in Charisma magazine on the upcoming Strange Fire conference.  He responded to me one time and then a second time, and now that my sermon is done (I preached at Valley Heights Community Church on the story of David & Goliath, in case anyone is interested…and translating 54 verses of Hebrew is a whole week chore for me these days.  *sigh*)  So I’m going to skip past all the minor disagreements/whatever and go straight for what I see to be the absolutely major problem with Dr. Brown’s response: his alignment with Cindy Jacobs.  Here’s my thoughts:

1.  I know MacArthur isn’t suggesting that every charismatic is a false teacher, since every charismatic isn’t a teacher in the first place.  Many of the sheep in the charismatic movement are just that; sheep.  They’re sheep who are being lied to by the popular shepherds specifically named by me:

Paul & Jan Crouch, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Mike Bickle, Cindy Jacobs, C. Peter Wagner, Brian Houston, Ken & Gloria Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, John Whimber, John Arnott, Fredrick Price, Rick Joyner, Todd Bentley, Joyce Meyer, Rodney Howard-Browne, Bill Johnson, Rienhard Bonke, Jack Deere, Juanita Bynum, etc.

That’s basically the prosperity gospel/TBN/CBN/Charisma magazine crew.

That’s the crew that is out healing tennis elbow, bad eyesight, sore throats, etc. and doing so via things like the Holy Ghost Hokie Pokie.

That’s the crew that is always claiming to have taken trips to Heaven, like this joker, or this one, or this one, or this one, or this one.

I am continually crying for believers who are listening to, and being deceived by, clear and obvious false teachers. There are plenty of authentic believers in charismatic circles (some of which are friends who have shown up on this blog in the comments).  The problem isn’t with the sheep, it’s with the shepherds.

The charismatic movement is full of, and a wonderful haven for, false teachers.

The Bible speaks really clearly regarding false teachers:

Peter talks very clearly about false teachers, saying that they have corrupt sexual (2 Peter 2:2) and financial motivations (2:3), and exploit people with lies (2:3).  Peter says that they speak mockingly against spiritual beings (2:10), something that even powerful angels aren’t stupid enough to do (2:11).  Peter says that they’re irrational and speak out of ignorance (2:12), but will be repaid by the Lord for their wickedness (2:13).  Peter refers to them as skin blemishes that need to be removed from the church (2:13) since they’re greedy and immoral (2:14) and following in the way of the money-grabbing pagan priest, Balaam (2:15) who was so ignorant, that God used a donkey to rebuke his (sub-donkey) ignorance (2:16).  Peter says that they have no substance and have the darkest part of Hell set aside for them (2:17).  Peter says that they lure believers into a different strain of the world that they’re attempting to escape (2:18) and promise freedom that they cannot deliver nor experience themselves (2:19).  Peter says that these false teachers are anything but innocent, seeing that they are aware of the gospel and utterly reject it (2:20); it would have been better for them to have never been born than to face the magnitude of punishment that awaits them now (2:21).

Are the people in the list I gave false teachers?

2.Well, I won’t tackle the whole list since Michael Brown said this:

“As to your reference to Cindy Jacobs (also a friend of mine with a real love for the Lord), I have no idea where that came from. Again, it seems you failed to read what I actually wrote.”

Now that was a passing comment in relation to his claiming that Jonathan Edwards was focusing on the positive fruit of the revival of his day and Chauncey focused on the negative…and I’m leaving that whole analogy aside as a trivial thing when compared to Dr. Brown defending Cindy Jacobs as some sort of upstanding Christian woman.

She’s apparently a friend and someone that Dr. Brown aligns himself with.

Cindy Jacobs.

So who is Cindy Jacobs?

She’s a woman who claims that this is speaking in tongues?

That’s not tongues.

The woman who claims to have actually performed a “feeding of the 3,000”?

That might have happened, but given some of the following links and testimonies from her own mouth, I’ll simply say pretty confidently that she’s not telling the truth.

The woman who prophetically declared that the repeal of DADT is connected to bird deaths?

Um…really?  God has major concern with homosexuals in the military enough to speak through his prophet about the repeal of the military’s rule regarding open homosexuals?  Wouldn’t God rather call homosexuals to repent instead of hide the fact that they’re homosexuals?

The woman who claims to be the reason behind the lack of global economic collapse in 2008?

I mean, I’m the reason that the planet Saturn didn’t smash into the earth today.  Notice how it didn’t happen?  Hooray!  I’m a hero!

The woman who openly admits that she prophesies falsely?

(Round of applause for Chris Roseborough on this one.)

If you want a tsunami of proof that she’s, well, arguably insane, feel free to check out her Vimeo channel and actually listen to what she says (fyi – It’s called “Generals” because she’s a self-professed “general of intercession”…as in she thinks she’s a general in the army of Yahweh.  Uh…yeah.)

Okay Lyndon.

Now you’re stepping too far.

Calling her insane is a bit too much.

Okay.  you got me.  She doesn’t claim that they’re 25 hours in a day, but she says things that are biblically crazy.  Consider the following:

(in the following, my comments are in bold)

Feel free to watch this video where she attempts to show (via openly allegorical hermeneutics that she refers to as the law of double reference) how Job 41 teaches that the leviathan is actually a territorial spirit that stalks our planet.

– It apparently is the underlying cause of divorce, tribal wars, church splits, family feuds, sibling rivalries and the break-up of ministries (it’s more responsible than any other spirit for horrible stuff like this).

– It’s most active in areas where there is a history of worship crocodiles and serpents (presumably in your family history)…or when you live near water since it’s a water spirit (which are more prevalent in Japan and Africa…the continent).

– If you have native blood, or mayan/aztec blood (i.e. if you’re from, or connected to South America in any way), it will be a problem for you.

– If you have ancestors who were possibly involved in some sort of the aforementioned worship (which you must assume because they’re likely dead, right?), then you need to repent of their sin before you can begin to deal with this spirit, which is likely very active in your bloodline.

– If you live on defiled land (land where Africans, Asians or any Natives have lived…ever), it can be a problem for you.

– If you live near totem poles (anywhere in North America), it will also be a problem for you since they might have a crocodile spirit in them.

(Basically, if you breathe or live on planet earth, this spirit will attack you and try to wreck your life.)

(Remember, your marriage problems aren’t really due to your personal sin or selfishness, but a water spirit that lives in totem poles.)

– What does it do?  It breaks down communication because it’s a twisting spirit and twists the conversation between 2 people by actually speaking something twisted into the mind of the listener (so natural attempts at clarification won’t work).

(So a good portion of your communication problems in life aren’t due to any flaw in your or anyone else, but instead are due to a water spirit that lives in totem poles.)

– When nothing seems to work with communication/interpersonal problems, you almost certainly have a Leviathan Spirit.

– Job 41:1-2 (and 41:13) says that you need to bind the Leviathan Spirit before you make any sort of progress in dealing with it. (no it doesn’t)

– Job 41:4 says that it’s a spirit that wants you to break covenants (marriage, friendship, etc.) (no it doesn’t).

– Job 41:8-9 says that it’s a spirit that releases retribution, despair, depression, and fear. (no it doesn’t).

– Job 41:19 (and 41:24) teach that the Leviathan Spirit is the reason that fights & miscommunication hurt the heart so horribly. (no it doesn’t).

– Job 41:31 says that the Leviathan Spirit is what causes trouble in churches. (no it doesn’t).

– Job 41:34 says that the remedy to overcoming the Leviathan Spirit is humility (good answer, WRONG text).

– (And the Leviathan Spirit is the reason that husband’s don’t take out the trash)

Let’s be serious.

This garbage is on the “orthodox Christian doctrine” scale at the level of Feng Shui and Pokemon.  Cindy Jacobs isn’t even really a charismatic; she’s a shaman; a practitioner of run-of-the-mill “there’s a spirit behind every rock” 6,000-year-old paganism done in the name of Jesus (instead of a tribal deity) with prayers instead of spells.  She doesn’t believe in the sovereignty of God; she believes in the sovereignty of Satan and lives in fear of every evil spirit behind every thought/occurrence in her world.

She has absolutely no concern for the scriptures and all her attempts to find her beliefs from the text of the Bible fall flat the minute they leave her mouth.  When it comes to handling the scripture; she’s an obvious hack.

Anyone who defends her as woman with “a real love for the Lord” either doesn’t know what she actually teaches (since what she teaches suggests that when she uses the word “Lord”, she means someone very different than I do), or has less biblical discernment than your average Bible-college freshman.

For the record, I would definitely suggest that Dr. Brown doesn’t know what she actually teaches.  He’s such a busy fellow that he doesn’t have an ounce of spare time for watching Vimeo videos.  He’s likely met her and talked with her a few times and maybe heard her speak a few times, but I doubt he is familiar enough with her teaching to be able to correct someone on what she does and doesn’t teach.

If (and I emphasize the “if”) Dr. Brown is allies with Cindy Jacobs in either ministry or theology, he had better prepare for October because he may find himself exposed as responsible for Strange Fire.  I pray this is not the case.

Also, he simply needs to do exactly what he recommended I do:

“…you should really step back, pray about it, and do some serious soul searching and — better still — serious restudy of the Word.”

Dr. Brown – I’d start by pouring over 2 Peter 1:16-21 until you get an understanding for the primacy for the Word of God over and above experience, including astonishing and miraculous experience.  Then I’d move on to Deuteronomy 13:1-5 and pour over that until you get an understanding of how actual signs and wonders have never rightly supported unbiblical doctrine.  In Israel, the true miracle working person who preached unbiblical doctrine was to be ignored.  The question becomes “when did those things change?”

Until Next Time,

Lyndon “Cindy Jacobs?! Like Cindy Jacobs Cindy Jacobs?!'” Unger