David Livermore, “The Group Excluded from Diversity Programs” Center for Cultural Intelligence (November 11, 2020).

PneumaReview.com author David Livermore challenges DEI advocates not to exclude the white working class from their efforts. “I’m not suggesting we should shy away from calling racism what it is. Nor am I suggesting that polite conversations that treat all viewpoints as equally valid are the answer. But we have to stop and consider why so many working-class individuals feel like diversity programs teach people to tolerate and include everyone except them.”

J. Lee Grady, “Don’t Put a Lid on the Holy Spirit” Fire In My Bones (November 18, 2020).

The former editor of Charisma magazine writes: “People need the reality of God’s power. I wish we would stop being so worried about how the Holy Spirit might show up in church. Here are seven practical things we can do to encourage the freedom of the Spirit.”

Paul King, “Tribute to My Most Intensive Mentor—Dr. Chuck Farah” The King’s Round Table (November 28, 2020).

Paul King writes of Chuck Farah, who wrote the critique of the Word Faith movement, From the Pinnacle of the Temple: “He was a man of the Spirit—who combined the academic and the supernatural, a Ph.D. who experienced speaking in tongues.”

“We Prayed for Healing. God Brought a Pandemic: A coronavirus outbreak at France’s biggest Pentecostal megachurch changed their view of providence, judgment, and fellowship” Christianity Today (November 23, 2020).

In this (translated) interview with Jean-Paul Rempp, he describes how his church has taken a stance of forgiveness for those that accused them of becoming vectors for COVID-19 and how they have learned how to be a renewed and more welcoming community.

“Stanford E. Linzey, Jr. Collection Deposited at Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center” iFPHC.com (December 2, 2020).

For more on Stanford Linzey, Jr., see John Miller’s review of his book, The Holy Spirit in the Third Millennium: Handbook on the Holy Spirit: A Guide to the Spirit within.

Image: Le Duc

Frank Macchia, “How Flawed Is Our Gratitude? Learning from Jonah” FrankDMacchia.wixsite.com (December 7, 2020).

Roger E. Olson, “Critical Race Theory Examined and Analyzed” Patheos (December 21, 2020).

Brian Blount, “How Vineyard History Can Give Practical Insight to Discerning Prophetic Words” CrestwoodVineyard.org (December 12, 2020).

Pastor Brian Blount reflects on Bill Jackson’s book, The Quest for the Radical Middle and on what going through the prophetic movement taught him and other leaders in the Vineyard association. “We need to remember all three parts of discerning prophecy. We should weigh not only the revelation, but also the interpretation and the application. Correct revelation with incorrect interpretation or application can be very damaging.”

Thanks to William De Arteaga for pointing out this article.

Roger E. Olson, “About ‘Socialism’ and Christianity”  Patheos (December 26, 2020).

Historian of religion and theology, Roger Olson, discusses the many definitions of socialism, including the long-forgotten calls from Christians leaders of the past to urge the State to help the poor.

Michael Brown, “Don’t Let Anyone Threaten You With Prophetic Manipulation” YouTube.com (January 5, 2021).

John Lathrop writes, “Here is a new video, about 10 minutes long, in which Dr. Michael Brown speaks about manipulative prophecies.” Brown describes how “Touch not the Lord’s anointed” is often abused and says, “As leaders we are not just accountable to God, but we are accountable to other leaders and ultimately accountable, on a certain level, to whom we minister.”

Dave Johnson, “Interview with Lora Timenia about her book Third Wave of Pentecostalism in the Philippines: Understanding Toronto Blessing Revivalism’s Signs and Wonders Theology in the Philippines” (December 14, 2020).

In this interview from APTS Press, PneumaReview.com author Dave Johnson interviews Lora Timenia about her book.

David Livermore, “What I’ve Learned From 10 Years Leading The CQ Center” Cultural Intelligence Center (January 6, 2021).

Pneuma Review author David Livermore reflects on his work bringing Cultural Intelligence to the world. What is CQ and why is it important? Quick introduction: https://vimeo.com/468569477

“Revival Timelines” Revival-Library.org

The Revival Library has announced the publication of easy-to-read timelines of all major revival movements that have occurred in biblical history as well as prior and since the Great Reformation.

Médine Keener, “Lessons from Susie King Taylor” Asbury University (February 24, 2021).

A chapel message given by PneumaReview.com author Médine Keener has been converted into a podcast. From the introduction: “Dr. Medine Keener shares what we learn about racial and ethnic reconciliation through the life of Susie King Taylor—an invitation to embrace all God’s people.”

Paul J. Palma, The Antioch Legacy, by John P. Lathrop PJPalma.net (February 27, 2021).

Pentecostal scholar Paul Palma reviews Pastor John Lathrop’s book, The Antioch Legacy. Roger E. Olson, “American Evangelical Christianity: A Failed Movement?” Patheos (February 27, 2021).

Anthony Bradley, “Critical Race Theory Isn’t a Threat for Presbyterians” MereOrthodoxy.com (February 3, 2021).

While written to Presbyterians, the principles apply to all followers of Jesus: “CRT is not a real threat to the work of the Presbyterian Church in America. It does not tell us any more than what the Bible and the Christian tradition already acknowledge as a point of fact—namely, that people can be evil and that the parasite kingdom is wreaking havoc as far as the curse is found. There is racism in America and, at times, that racism can take on structural forms. It is proper to the work of the church to actively seek to bring solidarity and peace where there is racial conflict because of the hope of Resurrection. Presbyterians, then, can eat the meat and spit the bones of CRT, or any other secular social theory that does not presuppose the Triune God because the real war is against any manifestations of the principalities and powers (Eph 6:12) at work parasitically undermining the goodness of God’s creation.”

Thanks to Mark Galli for recommending this article.

PR

I was so blessed to hear this story, quite by chance—or more accurately, by providence—a few months after I retired from the United States Army as a chaplain. I was in Branson, Missouri, where I had been invited to sing at the Branson Gospel Music Convention during the week of July 14-17, 2009.

I arrived on Sunday, July 12, at the airport in Springfield, Missouri, rented a car, and began driving south to Branson. All along the way, I kept seeing pictures of Bill Medley on billboards. He was performing for the entire summer at the Moon River Theater in Branson, filling in for Andy Williams who was on vacation. Andy owned the theater, but Bill was the only entertainer whom Andy let fill in for him.

Hours later I arrived in Branson and checked into my hotel room at the Hilton at the convention center. I found out that day that soundtracks had to be on CD, not tape. I immediately phoned recording studios and made reservations to have mine transferred to a CD the next morning. So, Monday morning about 9:00 I drove through downtown Branson on the main street to the other side of town and into the countryside to the recording studio, had both songs transferred from tape to CD, and then headed back to the convention center.

Left to right: Bill Medley, McKenna Medley (daughter), Jim Linzey, Darren Medley (lead singer of Paul Revere and the Raiders), and Paul Revere at the Moon River Theatre (July 16, 2009).

When I got to the corner of the main street to begin my trek through all the traffic, I noticed an IHOP on the corner and thought, “This is my opportunity to easily get to the restroom.” So, I pulled into the parking lot, opened the door to IHOP, and walked in, and there, first booth on the right sat Bill Medley. His back was toward me, but I could see the side of his face. I thought, “This can’t be happening.” I walked down the aisle and went right by him and kept going. I thought, “When I leave, I’ll walk back the same way, then I can see his face to make sure that it’s Bill,” even though I knew it was him.

When I came out of the restroom, I was determined to greet him. I walked down the same aisle, and about eight feet from his booth our eyes met. There was no escaping! So, I boldly walked to the side of his table, crouched down at eye level, and asked, “Are you Bill Medley?”

“Yes,” he said.

“You and I have someone in common,” I said.

“Who?” he asked.

“Jack Colman.” Bill’s heart melted as an expression of love came over his face. “I know he was your vocal coach. He was mine, too,” I said, “and Jack used to tell me all about you.”

Bill was visibly stirred by memories, and then he shared wonderful stories about the spirituality of Jack and Jack’s wife, Sarah Jepson Coleman, who had co-written Portraits of Vision with Tommy Barnett. I was well acquainted with Sarah as well. When I was a student at Fuller Theological Seminary, where Sarah’s brother, Dr. Al Jepson, taught, I house sat for Jack and Sarah, and I sure enjoyed the tray of peanut butter cookies with Hershey’s chocolate kisses that she left for me.

Then I said to Bill, “You and I have someone else in common.”

“Who?” he asked.

“John Wimber,” I replied.

Again, Bill’s face melted with love as he spoke of John and Carol Wimber with great compassion, and shared how John was his and Bobby Hatfield’s producer and performed with them in concert on the keyboard.

After I told Bill that I studied Signs and Wonders under John at Fuller Theological Seminary and was on John’s large ministry team at the Anaheim Vineyard, Bill said, “Do you know how John came to know God?”

“No,” I answered.

“One day, John asked me, ‘What can you tell me about God?’ and I humorously replied, ‘You mean, Ray Charles?’

“Then John pointed to the sky and said, ‘No, the Great One!’”

Bill then witnessed to John about the Lord. While John did not receive Christ immediately, this prompted him to continue thinking about God until he received Him.

We can lead someone to the water, as Bill in this sense led John to God, but it does not mean that person will receive and drink of the water at that time.

I was in utter amazement that after hearing about Bill from Jack and Sarah decades earlier, and studying and ministering under John, here I was, crouched beside Bill at his table at IHOP learning how my former pastor and mentor came to Christ.

I told Bill that I was in town to perform at the Branson Gospel Music Convention that week, and he asked me if I would like to come to his concert at the Moon River Theater. I replied that I would, and he said, “The tickets are $50.” I replied that I would be happy to come, and he gave me the phone number to his road manager, whom I phoned as soon as I returned to the Hilton. The road manager was also a born again Christian, and we fellowshipped for about an hour on the phone. Then he said, “Your ticket will be waiting for you at the box office window, free of charge.” I profusely thanked him for the blessing.

After my performance at the Branson Gospel Music Convention, I went to Bill’s performance a few nights later. During Bill’s performance, he pointed at me several times and told the audience how he and I both knew some of the same people. He also promoted his Gospel CD that night and sold it at the table after his performance.

I was so blessed to have this encounter with Bill Medley and learn how he was instrumental in leading John Wimber to Jesus.

James F. Linzey studied Signs and Wonders under John Wimber at Fuller Theological Seminary and ministered under John on the Anaheim Vineyard’s Large Ministry Team. He studied voice and performance under Jack Coleman and is the chief editor of the Modern English Version Bible.

The 2021 Charismatic Leaders Fellowship (CLF) met on Feb. 22^nd and 23^rd in Augusta Georgia, at the Alleluia Community School. This was the third consecutive year the CLF has met there, much to the satisfaction of the participants. The Alleluia Covenant Community is well known for the spirit of generous hospitality it offers to its visitors, and this makes attending the Augusta CLFs especially pleasant. If you are interested in how Christian covenant communities operate you could not do any better than visiting the Alleluia Community. Its members are predominantly Catholic, but the community is splendidly and enthusiastically ecumenical (Bob Garrett, its moderator, is a member of the Vineyard Church). They would welcome your visit.

This year’s meeting accommodated the COVID-19 pandemic by being a hybrid of virtual and physically-present meeting. The international speakers and attendees had to do so by Zoom [a virtual presence platform], of course, as visas were not forthcoming during the present pandemic. It was also a scaled-back conference, two days instead of four, but turned out to be spiritually and intellectually full.  In fact, there was a special anointing over the whole meeting sensed by many of us. There were 30 at the on-campus meetings but another 70 joined in as speakers and participants via Zoom sessions. The technology needs for the Zoom session was a bit daunting, or at least I found it so, and after a few bumps, all went well.

This year’s theme was church unity and how to achieve it – perhaps that is why there was a special anointing present. The speakers outlined how their organizations attempted to bring forth greater unity among the sundry Christian denominations.

The next two speakers were from Europe and shared how their organizations were striving for unity in the hostile, anti-Christian European environment. There the Christian denominations are more united and less competitive than in the U.S. as a necessity (and grace) for survival. In a private Zoom exchange with me, Martin Buehlmann, the Vineyard coordinator for central Europe shared that the greatest obstacle to effective evangelization in Europe was the “disastrous” present condition of American evangelicalism, including the Trump cult, which has brought shame to Evangelicalism.

Fr. Timothy Cremeens, a Greek Orthodox priest who has spoken various time at the CLF told of the woeful resistance of the Orthodox hierarchies to both ecumenism and to any form of charismatic or Pentecostal input in their churches. He suggested continued intercessory prayer for the Orthodox churches, and on the earthly level something very doable.  That pastors of Evangelical, Pentecostal and charismatic churches make special efforts to befriend their local Orthodox priest and plan joint events, as is food distribution to the poor. Who knows which of these priests would be eventually elevated to be bishops, and with them carry the possibility of Spirit-filled revival among Orthodox churches.

The next day’s program began with a tribute to two giants of the Pentecostal/charismatic world who died the previous year: Dr. Vinson Synan, and the Rev. Dr. Francis MacNutt [Editor’s note: See “Introducing Francis and Judith MacNutt” by William De Arteaga].  Both were members of the original founding group of the CLF leaders and frequent attendees at CLF conferences.

Brazilian Cardinal Tempesta and his assistant we the next speakers via Zoom. They detailed how the Brazilian Catholic church was making special efforts to reconcile with its Protestant and Pentecostal brethren after decades of often violent persecution. The ecumenism in Brazil is driven from the top down. That is, the hierarchy and clergy make plans and programs that often include joint ministry. It should be noted that Brazil’s Christians, both Protestant and Catholic, are rapidly become Pentecostal/charismatic.

This was followed by Bob Garrett’s talk on the practical results of ecumenism, using Augusta as an example. He shared that the city has been rejuvenated by its many ecumenical outreaches, and that the formerly run-down neighborhood around Alleluia community has been brought back to life.  He ended with a touching description of how he experienced the real presence of Jesus in Holy Communion with various Christian traditions: Protestant, Pentecostal and Catholic.

James Munk gave a talk on how to retain the next generation in the church in the face of an increasingly anti-Christian environment. His talk generated the most comments and dialogue of the whole conference.

My favorite presentation was given as a joint zoom session by Pastor Randy Clark and Dr. Mary Healy. Most readers of Pneuma Review are aware of the important role Pastor Clark has played in the charismatic renewal and authoring many books on healing and the Holy Spirit. But many may not have heard of Dr. May Healy, a preeminent Catholic biblical scholar. She was the first woman appointed to the Pontifical Biblical Commission. She has also been a long time charismatic and has written books about healing and deliverance.

Pastor Clark and Dr. Healy co-wrote The Spiritual Gifts Handbook (Minneapolis: Chosen, 2018), an unsung masterpiece of ecumenical pastoral theology. They described how they had no theological differences pertaining to the gifts of the Spirit, but how they did have to talk about what vocabulary and phrases to use to avoid putting off one group or another.

After that Zoom presentation the conference broke up into sharing and discussion groups, and then a final prayer and benediction. At that time, we laid hand on and prayed over Fr. Cremeens to be an instrument to bring a Holy Spirit revival to the Orthodox churches in America.

Ya’ll come and join us next year in Augusta if you have a leadership role in any Pentecostal or charismatic church or organization. Contact Bob Garrett at the Alleluia Covenant Community (www.alleluiacommunity.org).

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye,

To Canaan’s fair and happy land where my possessions lie,

I am bound for the Promised Land, I am bound for the Promised Land,

Oh who will come and go with me, I am bound for the Promised Land!

Years afterward, I remember my mother saying of that event, “When the pastor put me under the water I thought I would sink out of sight — but when he raised me up I felt like I would soar into the heavens.” She said it well. A glorious resurrection awaits our burial with Christ. We normally think of Baptism and Communion as being separate Christian events. In reality, they are dual-expressions of one perfect experience of the believers’ identification with Christ. We should not receive one sacrament and neglect the other. Hear me carefully: In Baptism we are visibly put into the Body of Christ; in Communion, the Body of Christ is visibly put into us. This public-identification with Christ acknowledges us as being “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.” Romans 8:17.One of the medieval Christian fathers described the duality of this relationship with God in this way: He said, “Thou art in Christ and Christ in thee, knit together inseparably, so that one cannot be parted from the other …”

There is a unification of Old and New Testament truths in this Baptism/Communion example which we have rarely fathomed. The revelation is clearly laid before us in illustrations both of Moses and Christ. We have a parallel of this in salvation when the Holy Spirit puts Christ into us–and in spiritual-baptism when Jesus puts us into the Holy Spirit. Some may object to this language but careful Bible study will show it to be true. Romans 6:3-4. Galatians 3:26-29. Acts 1:5. In an identical way, Israel was baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. In the first, the water of the cloud descended upon them; in the second, they descended into the water of the sea. I Corinthians 10:2. This dual-baptism is the ideal portrayal of Baptism in the Spirit and baptism in water. One is visible, the other invisible, but both are available to us. Peter carefully explain that water-baptism does not result in the “removal of the filth of the flesh,” or being born-again, but is the “answer of a good conscience towards God,”1 Peter 3:21.

Image: Vince Fleming

David Rhea, the young man from Tennessee who has traveled with me since 2000, was water-baptized during the revival at the Brownsville Outpouring in Pensacola, Florida, 1995-2000. Two pastors accompanied him into the pool but in the moment he was immersed, the power of God hit the water like a lightning-bolt, knocked the pastors to the sides of the tank, left David electrified, comatose, floating on the surface of the pool. Men watching from the sideline raced into the baptistry and carried him out. What happened? God attested the validity of the Baptism to the congregation and filled David afresh with the Holy Spirit. Such events should be commonplace when believers are “buried with Christ”. If it isn’t happening it is because the modern Church is giving converts less than Jesus provided. At Christ The Rock Church where Laurie and I worshiped in Boca Raton, Florida, years ago, worship was frequently attested by the miraculous presence of God. Perry Comas was pastor. Regarding our identification with Christ in baptism, Paul explained in Romans 6:1-15:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not resent your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

The Apostle enlarges this concept when he wrote the Galatians, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” 3:26.

Communion

Image: David Weber

Of Communion, Paul said, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). In “proclaiming the Lord’s death,” we formally declare that we now share in the death He died for us. That is, we have been “crucified with Christ,” have expired to this life, been buried with Him in the grave of baptism, and raised again to “walk in newness of life.” What He did in actuality, we receive in surrogate-adoption. In this understanding it is impossible to separate the unity of Baptism and Communion. Paul’s writings regarding Communion fortify the statement of Jesus who said of the bread and wine, “Take, eat, this is My body.” Matthew 26:26. That is, in the analogy of His being the “Bread of Life”, He is entering us. In Baptism, we are entering Him. Baptism and Communion are both outward expressions of one inward experience. When combined, they provide a complete identification of the believer in his relationship of “Christ in him and he in Christ”.

Jesus and the Disciples 

Luke 22:14-22: “When the hour had come, Jesus sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, ‘With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, ‘Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in *remembrance of Me.’ Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you. But behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table. And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!’” (The Greek translation says, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” anámnesis = To “recall” = to “recollect” in the sense to “call back”; “ana” = repeat, return, do again, more than mere remembrance but to “re-experience”. To remind; reflexively to recollect: – call to mind, bring to, call to, put in, remember. “Memorial” recreates the event. Much more than mental recall. Luke 22:19).

The careless attitude typifying much of the Evangelical Church regarding both Baptism and Communion is staggering. We have demoted these holy observances to casual formalities. How dare we! How dare we make anything God provided in tribute to His Son as our perfunctory ceremony! How dare we insult the Cross and the grace that flows from it! We Protestants criticize Catholics for their ritual–while, instead–we should approach the Lord’s Table in the same fervent desire of which Jesus spoke–covering our faces, groaning in the awareness of our sin, and at the same time bursting into inexpressible joy and celebration for His grace! An incredible chaos of emotions? Yes.

Baptism 

Image: Jametlene Reskp

Baptism in water is our public declaration, that, like the grain of wheat falling into the ground, its outer shell dying but its inner-life being freed to come forth, so we also have died to the self-life and its carnal ambitions, have been literally buried with Christ in a grave of water, and been raised with Him to walk in newness of life. Above all else, baptism is a proclamation of our total surrender and submission to Jesus Christ. With Paul we may then say that “We have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless we live, yet not ourselves, but Christ lives in us, and the life which we now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God who loves us and gave Himself for us.” Philippians 2:5-16: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus …”

Baptism in water should be attended with miraculous signs, exorcisms of demons, fillings of the Holy Spirit, and other holy attestations. Tertullian, ad160-225, the greatest theologian of his day, in instructing new believers said they should rise from the water of baptism, praying, and expecting the charismatic gifts of the Spirit to come upon them.

Baptismal Hymn

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,

And cast a wishful eye

To Canaan’s fair and happy land,

Where my possessions lie.

Chorus:

I am bound for the promised land,

I am bound for the promised land;

Oh who will come and go with me?

I am bound for the promised land.

O the transporting, rapturous scene,

That rises to my sight!

Sweet fields arrayed in living green,

And rivers of delight!

O’er all those wide extended plains

Shines one eternal day;

There God the Son forever reigns,

And scatters night away.

No chilling winds nor poisonous breath

Can reach that healthful shore;

Sickness and sorrow, pain and death,

Are felt and feared no more.

When I shall reach that happy place,

I’ll be forever blest,

For I shall see my Father’s face,

And in His bosom rest

I am bound for the Promised Land …

PR

From Charles Carrin Ministries monthly newsletter, Gentle Conquest (September 2020). Originally published as “Thou Art in Christ — And Christ in Thee!” Used with permission. http://www.charlescarrinministries.com/gentleconquest

In the article published on February 13, De Arteaga argues that Trump has caused spiritual damage to Evangelical and charismatic Christianity in the USA and abroad.

Quotations from “Trump: Satan’s Manchurian Candidate?”

All over the world Trump and his conservative Christians supporters have brought disrepute to Christian evangelicalism. These are really huge negative developments in American politics and history that could not have been foreseen five years ago.

… many policies that the Trump administration achieved were positive and beneficial to our nation, as in his strong opposition of China’s unfair economic policies and expansionism. His administration also achieved some goals that helped the Christian cause and slowed the process of radical secularization that seemed to be a constant of Democratic administrations, as for instance, his splendid picks for the Supreme Court and his opposition to government-funded abortions in any form.

In a traditional cult the member feels pressure to remain in the cult and is afraid of expulsion and the disdain of the fellow members if they leave. Trump achieved this type of control over his administration and major sections of the Republican Party by the use of reviling tweets that defamed and excoriated anyone who crossed him. Reviling tweets were common fate of those who disagreed with his policies, or lack of them.

Let me add here a spiritual issue not discussed by political commentators. It is that when Trump issues some outrageous claim or conspiracy theory, as in calling the Supreme Court “cowardly” because it did not rule in his favor or calling the Republican Governor Georgia and his secretary of state stupid and corrupt because they did not do his bidding (both were faithful Republicans and men of integrity) Trump committed the sin of slander.

I would like to point out that President Trump’s conduct, speech and tweets negates the tradition, begun with George Washington, that our presidents be morally upright and act as gentlemen. The end product of the gentleman tradition is that the Presidency has had a “bully pulpit” of moral order and persuasion that has been used to from time to time to bring about moral good. Of course, none of our presidents have been saints, and many had serious moral flaws that were often hidden from the public, as in John F. Kennedy’s womanizing. But being a gentleman is not a small thing. It really is the product of centuries of Christian culture and was especially influenced by the norms for men established in the Victorian (Christian) era. These norms are often ridiculed today by the secular Left, but we can see now that such norms were one of the foundations that permitted civil discourse among politicians of opposing views.

How is it that the Trump cult formed so quickly, and included so many reasonable and good Christians?

I have avoided arguing about many of Trump’s specific policies, and in fact many of them seem to have been beneficial.  But Trump’s foreign policy is one area where spiritual error has led to great harm for this country and others.  One can almost hear Ayn Rand speaking her hurtful ideology of selfishness in Trump’s inaugural address. Trump dressed it up as “America First.” … Trump’s foreign policy has ended the “us and for others” tradition and national goals. It is more like “America only,” not America first.

The full article is available at PentecostalTheology.com:

https://www.pentecostaltheology.com/trump-satans-manchurian-candidate

In this guest article, Pastor R. Loren Sandford calls for a reformation of the prophetic movement after the many failed prophecies of 2020 including predictions about COVID-19 and the re-election of President Trump.

Never in my life have I felt such a sense of disarray in the body of Christ, and most especially around prophetic ministry. Over the years, too many prophetic words have been published, taken seriously, seized upon by the body of Christ in a flurry of excitement and then failed to materialize. And yet we, the body of Christ, kept listening. I highly value good prophetic ministry, but we’ve been in need of serious prophetic reformation for a very long time.

Going back 21 years there were all the prophetic warnings about an impending Y2K disaster when the computers would crash and the world would fall apart. Prophets told us to store up food and supplies because when the computers crashed, the world would be paralyzed. Some even sold survival packages. It didn’t happen. The reality was that computers simply didn’t work like that, then or now, but almost no one seemed willing to check that out. I knew it prophetically but I believe in objective confirmations, so I asked an IBM executive what was up. Big problem? Yes. What will happen? He told me that people would get their paychecks on Wednesday instead of Friday but the computers wouldn’t crash.

The problem was that, instead of facing facts, people preferred to get stirred up about it and then claim that it didn’t happen because we prayed it wouldn’t happen. The reality was that computers simply didn’t function like that. There never would have been a crash with or without prayer. The prophets were wrong. Something similar, but less known, happened leading up to 2008. A group of otherwise reliable prophets prophesied that Senator Brownbeck of Kansas would be elected president. Brownbeck ran for his party’s nomination and failed.

Many well known prophetic voices told us that that the Covid-19 crisis would dissipate at Passover, 2020. Obviously, it didn’t and here we are, ten months later, wearing masks and enduring the shutdowns. Now we’re looking at a similar situation involving a large number of prophets who predicted a specific political outcome for 2020 that has not come to pass. Some of them are holding onto the idea that the election will be miraculously overturned, but there is no legal path for that to occur.

All of this has shaken the entire charismatic wing of the church. A subtle form of idolatry is being purged away by the hand of God, intended to restore us to the true center and purpose of prophetic ministry if we’ll embrace the shaking. I’ll say it as simply as I can. We placed too much faith in the prophets. Their words – our words – were elevated to the same level of infallibility as the Scriptures by a great many people. Wrong! So very wrong!

The truth is that in this compounded crisis of church closures and prophetic failure, we’re being driven back to the simplicity of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, to that purified message, to that foundation as the central theme. We are being summoned back to a basic, deep and simplified intimacy with God that we seem to have lost and into which we prophetic people were obligated to lead God’s people.

In the charismatic wing of the church we’ve made a lot of noise in recent decades, not just in the prophetic world, but in a long list of other ways. We preached keys to this and keys to that. We built big flashy ministries and cultivated huge ministry platforms. Commercialization of ministry products has exploded. We’ve had ever more dramatic prophetic words issued by those of us with the biggest names and the widest recognition.

In this yearlong crisis we’ve endured, it’s like looking at a building being demolished right down to the foundation so that something better and more solid can be built on it. I hear the voice of the Lord saying STOP. When did you begin relating to the structure itself as if it were the foundation? I must dismantle the structure and restore you to the foundation.

As prophetic people, this a time to come back to the prayer closet where our primary calling lies, on our knees and on our faces, even in sackcloth and ashes repenting. Back to the simple things – the cross, the blood, intimacy with Jesus without all the bling and flash to distract us from the vision of His face. Back to solid Bible study, cherishing the eternal written Word where especially we charismatics have been out of balance in seeking supernatural experiences, dreams and visions while neglecting the study of the eternal and unchanging Word of God, the Bible.

It’s time to return to simple fellowship with one another in love, cherishing the beauty of what God has created in our brothers and sisters. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and in prison for this is pure religion in the sight of God (James 1:27). Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out demons, but do it all from simple, quiet intimacy with our Father, our Savior and Holy Spirit.

We need to study again the prophets who went before us and reform the thrust of our own ministries. What was their message? The vast majority of what has been passed down to us in the biblical prophets is a call to come out of idolatry, to purify the focus on God alone. The prophets separated the precious from the vile, the holy from the unholy and good from evil. They pointed out what was idolatry to a people too blind to see it for themselves. Their gift was first and foundationally a gift of discernment, to cut through the fog and see where pollutions had entered in, then to hear from God how to address it, to pass His warnings on. Predictions were predicated on how Israel would choose to respond to the warnings. Would they repent? And if they did not then destruction was certain. Other predictions told them how God would use the destruction to refine and restore them, then to bring them back to the land to live once again under God’s favor.

It was all relational. Biblical prophetic ministry was about relational issues between God and the people He loved. None of the prophets prophesied simply because they could. In fact, Amos 3:7 – Surely the Lord God does nothing Unless He reveals His secret counsel To His servants the prophets. Clearly, not everything a prophet knew or heard was to be spoken aloud, and the same is true today. Much of what we hear is for our ears alone to guide us in how and what we pray, or simply to share the burden on the Lord’s heart in oneness with Him. God does love our company.

I Corinthians 14:3 – But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. I want to suggest something you may not have seen in this verse. Remember that some things the Lord speaks to a prophet are not to be spoken aloud. Part of what I Corinthians 14:3 is telling us is that we ought to question whether a word we’ve received is really going to benefit the body of Christ to edify, console or exhort, or is it just meant to inform our own praying and connect us with the burden on God’s heart?

We need to ask how something we’re sensing or hearing from God benefits the body of Christ if we were to speak it aloud. Or have we made it just fortune-telling, just something that generates excitement but doesn’t really point people to Jesus or connect them more intimately with Him? Remember that the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. Once again, the core of the message is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

That said, how was prophesying a Trump victory in the election supposed to 1) reveal Jesus or testify to Him in any real way and 2) how was that supposed to edify and strengthen the body of Christ as a body? Did many of us even consider these things before we put that word out there? Was that even a question? Or were we too eager to attract attention and build our followings? I don’t mean to be critical or accusatory here. I’m putting myself in the category of one who normally does not fail in this regard, but I allowed myself to fail in this instance.

Because we failed to ask these questions, instead of strengthening God’s people in the testimony of Jesus and connecting them more intimately and firmly with Him, we rather stirred them up to connect their hope in an idolatrous way to a man or a political party. The fruit is that we’ve thrown the church into disarray and the name of Jesus has been dragged through the mud.

In this regard, it doesn’t really matter who was right and who was wrong, whether we who issued apologies were right or wrong, or whether those who continue to stand on some kind of miracle to overturn the election are right or wrong. The hard fact is that Donald Trump is not in the White House and the charismatic wing of the body of Christ has been badly shaken and divided, not strengthened. For this, we all bear responsibility before the throne of God. Repentance is in order.

PR

This article is from Prophetic Moments 143, used with permission.

Video version (length: 10:57) of this article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI39wlW5RK4

Christian historian Woodrow Walton continues his investigation into the origins of the modern movements that inspired Christians to go and share the mission and message of Jesus throughout the world.

George Müller

When studying how living out the gospel changed the social fabric of the early nineteenth century England, Europe, and North America, several figures must be considered. How their charitable work thrust the gospel into the societies of both England and the young United States of America should not be forgotten or underestimated.

The first of these was George Ferdinand Muller [also spelled Müller or Mueller], who was born in Kroppenstedt, Kingdom of Prussia (now Saxony-Anhalt Germany) and later moved to England. In 1829, Muller offered to work with Jews in England through the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews. He gained his fame as a man who cared for 10,024 orphans during his life time and provided educational opportunities for them. He not only preached the gospel but also established 117 schools which offered Christian education to more than 120,000 children. In England, he associated himself with the Pilgrim Brethren Church. He and his wife, Mary Groves, had four children, two of which were stillborn.

The New Orphan Houses in the Ashley Down district of Bristol, England.
Image: The George Müller Charitable Trust/Wikimedia Commons

Muller, after early bouts of illness, and the death of his wife, in 1871 married again. His second wife was Susannah Grace Sanger. Together, beginning in 1871, they began a 17–year period of missionary travel that took them to the United States of America, Canada, Germany, India, Australia, Palestine, the Straits of Malacca, and New Zealand. When in the U.S.A., he was welcomed by the President of the United States of America. He died at the age of 93 on March 1898 and has been honored throughout the world ever since as the director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England and the care of 10,024 orphans over the years, and as man who never asked for support for his work but when support was given by churches and individuals, he kept account of it and wrote “Thank You” letters to every donor. His example defies any estimate.

This article is part of The Gospel in History series by Woodrow Walton.
Image: The Books of Kells by way of Wikimedia Commons.

Simultaneous to the years of Muller’s life was the ministry of Frances Willard, the founder of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which challenged the liquor industry in the countryside and urban areas of both the frontier and growing cities. Willard was not only a stalwart defender of women’s rights but also one of the earliest of Christians to see the mission of God within the socio-cultural context and thus living out the ministry of Jesus as spelled out in the tenth chapter of the gospel of Luke. At the same time the Society of Friends and many of the Mennonites and Moravians were binding the wounds of soldiers and were given exemption from military service and recognized as peace churches, an exemption which exists into the present.

Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (1839 –1898).
Image: Gamaliel Bradford (1919) Houghton Mifflin Company/Wikimedia Commons

Simultaneously in this era the Congregationalists, Baptists, Dutch Reformed, and Methodist churches established schools for Native Americans. After a childhood of abuse and impoverishment, William Apess [originally spelled Apes] served as a soldier in the United States army during the War of 1812, became a Christian and entered into the ministry of the Methodist Church. He rose to fame as a preacher and as a lecturer giving protest of the plight of Native Americans in New England and beyond. His autobiography, A Son of the Forest, published in 1829, was the first published by a Native American writer. In 2014, Philip F. Gura, with the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, wrote a biography of William Apess. This writer owns a copy of Gura’s The Life of William Apess, Pequot. During the years of both his ministry and his series of lectures, he gained support from churches outside of the Methodists and public recognition. Slowly but surely, co-operation among churches of Arminian and Reformed backgrounds brought them together in different areas of Christian ministry and mission outreach.

The Pietists had great impact within the colonies from the time of the Great Awakening and into the Second Great Awakening. In time, their influence was to lead to the formation of the Free Methodist Church, the Evangelical Free Church, and others who broke from synodical and presbyterian polities common among the Lutherans and Reformed Churches. It is against this background that Alexander Campbell during the Second Great Awakening welcomed any one of any Christian persuasion to participate in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. We are all “disciples of Christ,” he proclaimed. Barton Warren Stone, the “New Light Presbyterian” felt much the same but simply used the term “Christian” no matter a person be Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Lutheran, Moravian, Quaker, or Mennonite. The Anglican Church in America dropped the term “Anglican” from it vocabulary and re-named itself “Episcopal.” The Methodists in America under the leadership of Francis Asbury and others shortened their identity from “Methodist Episcopal” to simply “Methodist.”

In 1826, the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance was formed. However, there were many precursors of such public charity, many from the earlier years of the Christian faith. Basil of Caesarea initiated the first hospital for the sick and feeble. In the Middle Ages, the Beguines, a laywoman’s ministry initiated in the pre-Reformation era, reached out to the neglected, the homeless, the lame, and the poor, and wrote devotional and theological works which made for conflict with some of the “professional” clergy. But of great significance to the Reformation era and the years of the global expansion of the gospel was the initiation of Sunday Schools by Hannah Ball in High Wycombe of England in the late 18^th century but carried further by Robert Raikes in 1780.

Robert Raikes the Younger (1736 –1811) promoted the Sunday school movement, raising awareness of a need for public education before state-run schools existed.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

The start of the Sunday Schools began with a school for boys in the slums. Raikes had been involved with boys incarcerated at the count Poor Law which was part of the jails at the time. Raikes believed that vice would be better dealt with school as a preventive and held on Sundays as the boys were frequently enlisted to work in factories the other six days. The best available teachers were among the laity of the churches. The basic textbook was the Bible. The originally intended curriculum began with learning to read the Bible and then progressed to the catechism of the Anglican church. The first Sunday School class started in July of 1780 in the home of a Mrs. Meredith with boys and then extended to girls. By 1782 several other Sunday Schools opened around Gloucester, England.

On November 3, 1783, Raikes published an account of the Sunday Schools in the newspaper he started. Later news of the spread of the Sunday Schools appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine and by 1784, a further account of the spread of the Sunday Schools appeared in a letter to the Arminian Magazine.

Children laboring in a cotton spinning factory in 1835.
Image: illustration from The History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain (1835), by way of Wikimedia Commons.

Little by little, Jesus’ great commission was being realized as a missionary mandate that was greater than proclamation and fulfilled the whole missionary made enunciated by Jesus and recorded in Matthew 25:35-40; 28:18-19; Luke 10:2-9; 18-20; and Acts 1:8, and universalized in Mark 16-18. The missionary mandate included healing the sick, discipleship, and entering the domain of the “serpent” to release the imprisoned, the afflicted, the haunted, the down-trodden,” and penetrate the darkness of the world with the light of a greater kingdom not of this world but of the one who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

PR

Walking in the Footsteps of David Wilkerson is the journal of a young man (the author) who walked much the same journey as the famed David Wilkerson (founder of Teen Challenge, Times Square Church, World Challenge, and many other ministries). The book offers a very detailed account, even a word for word interaction, between the life of a mentee and a mentor. Although the relationship was never planned or formal, Simpson shares how the paths of these two men were intertwined for years, benefiting both Charles and “Pastor Dave,” as he has been affectionately called.

Charles Simpson was born and raised in Tennessee, the eleventh of twelve children. After his conversion at the age of 17, he received a missionary call to New York City where he has spent most of his adult life, pastoring, planting churches, and working in Bible schools. While serving as the Pastor of Prayer at Times Square Church, he met and married his wife, Lynn. They have been privileged to work alongside great leaders such as David and Don Wilkerson, Michael Brown, Peter Wagner, Brian Simmons, Vincent Buonfiglio, Joel Sadaphal, and Russell Hodgins. Charles is currently (as of 2018) the Campus Pastor at Brooklyn Teen Challenge and the Director of its School of Ministry.

The book begins with the personal life of the author, hailing from rural life in Tennessee. He compares his youth and upbringing to the early years of David Wilkerson. Both were raised in a strict environment, both felt led to serve in New York City, both were out of their comfort zones (racially, socially, and in other ways), both had a heavy burden and believed that God wanted them to serve those who might be categorized as “unreached” due to their status, both had a prophetic ministry, and both saw the importance of prayer (for themselves and for those they served). How these pilgrims met, how they found each other on that same path, and what that relationship meant to a budding next generation minister is laid out for all to read (the good and the less good).

Typically, some would write a book about their association with the “greats” to impress the reader. “It is who you know that gets you ahead in life,” is often said. But Simpson humbly lays out his faults as well as his accomplishments and includes those of Bro. Dave. Rather than boast, the author shares the importance of having a godly mentor in life that will change both the mentee as well as those they reach. Truly, this was accomplished thorough this association. But he also realizes how important it is to be a mentor himself: “I have learned through the years, the fastest way to [be] a spiritual father—like Paul was to Timothy—is to focus on pouring into the Timothys you can find all around you” (page 170). He learned well.

In one of the last chapters, he lists a few of the mantles that were thrown over his shoulder by the departing mentor: he always listened to God, he was pliable in God’s hands, he was a faithful steward of his giftings, he was willing to admit his mistakes publicly, he deliberately took himself off our pedestals, etc. (Chapter 13).

I was especially interested in reading the account of Pastor Dave’s life because, although not in any way equaling the relationship between Simpson and Pastor Wilkerson, my life has also somehow followed a thread with that “country preacher.” Growing up in New York City and living in Brooklyn and the Bronx, being a part of the early ministry of Pastor Dave when his ministry at time was known as Teenage Evangelism, and later being on the staff of his Bible School in Pennsylvania, I had moments of nostalgia as I recalled so many of the incidents cited in this journal. I believe Simpson caught the essence of his mentor quite vividly and fairly.

Charles Simpson is presently the Campus Pastor at Brooklyn Teen Challenge and the Director of its School of Ministry. I recommend that everyone in leadership should read his account and evaluate whether mentorship is a priority and part of their own ministry responsibilities.

Reviewed by Nat J. Saginario

About the Reviewer: Nat J. Saginario, M.Ed. (R.I. College), has served the body of Christ around the world by teaching at various Christian Bible Colleges in the USA, as pastor and assistant pastor, as short-term missions team leader and with Barnabas leadership training teams to over 85 countries. His association with David Wilkerson began in 1958 as director of the Teenage Evangelism Youth Choir from churches around the NYC Metropolitan area that ministered on the Teen Challenge (the eventual name of Wilkerson’s ministry) TV weekly program. He later went on to serve as a member of the faculty and administrative staff of Mt. Zion, later Summit International School of Ministry, the school in PA founded by Wilkerson and now the Bible School of Times Square Church.

Further Reading:

Charles Simpson, “The Cross and the Screwdriver” DestinyImage.com (July 28, 2018).

Pasquale Vozza is an Italian born evangelist and pastor. He served as president and secretary of the Italian Christian Church of Northern Europe and pastored the North Miami Christian Church for nearly thirty-five years. Vozza studied theology in Rome and at the College of the International Bible Training Institute in London. From Saving Bodies to Saving Souls chronicles his journey as a missionary and shepherd of God’s people. Much of this book describes the signs and wonders that accompanied his ministry as evidence of the ongoing miraculous work of the Holy Spirit in the contemporary Church.

The early chapters detail Vozza’s growing up years. He was born and raised in the industrial southern Italian city of Taranto, Apulia during the WWII years. The efforts of Italy’s Prime Minister, Benito Mussolini, to increase the Italian population, which included a benefit of 3 thousand lire per child, incentivized his parents to keep having kids (eight in all). Raised nominally Roman Catholic, Vozza learned the Catechism at school. However, he recalls how little he was taught about the Bible: “I did not hear the word ‘Bible’ until I was twenty-one years old” (p. 5). He became preoccupied with a nighttime routine of smoking, drinking, and gambling. Through the persistent prayers and encouragement of his mother, who was worshipping at an evangelical house church “underground” (non-Catholic congregations were forbidden), Vozza underwent a conversion experience. He resolved to win the souls of his wayward friends and found work selling Christian devotional literature door to door. He spent a year term in the military, where he earned a reputation as the “Protestant guy with the Bible” (p. 45). Stationed in Rome, each Sunday, Vozza attended the services of the only Protestant church in the city, the headquarter building of the Assemblies of God in Italy, founded by the Pentecostal pioneer, Roberto Bracco.

The final chapters describe Vozza’s move to the US and ministry in Florida. After seven years overseeing the CCNA sister organization, the Italian Christian Church of Northern Europe, he, his wife, and three daughters joined his wife’s family in Miami. There he accepted the call by the CCNA Southern District to pastor the North Miami Christian Church. The church quickly blossomed, aspiring to a multi-ethnic outreach with Sunday school offered in Italian, French-Creole, and Spanish and a dynamic ministry among the Jewish people.

Vozza’s life story, of one sold out to godly service and the building of God’s kingdom, will resonate with Christians from all traditions. From Saving Bodies to Saving Souls offers a portrait of hope for the inquiring mind that will appeal to non-Christians looking in on the meaning of the life of faith from the outside. This book will be of interest to laypersons and ministers as well as historians of Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity.

Reviewed by Paul Palma

Pneuma Review speaks with Dr. Michael Brown about his 2020 book Revolution.

PneumaReview.com: Revolution and revival are subjects that you have addressed in a number of your books. What experiences in your life birthed your passion for these things?

Dr. Michael Brown: Although I had been preaching the message of repentance since my first sermon in 1973, and although revival was a consuming theme in my life from the early 1980s, the revolution theme did not become prominent in my life until the late 1990s. To be sure, I had believed in the transforming power of the gospel, even on a national level, in particular during times of spiritual outpouring. And I had also believed that we were all called to lay our lives down for Jesus. But it was only while serving as a leader in the Brownsville Revival that these different themes coalesced around the concept of revolution.

Michael L. Brown, Revolution: An Urgent Call to Holy Uprising (Charisma House, 2020). Preview

As I explain in more depth in Revolution, it was in 1999, after speaking at a major rally in New Jersey, attended by thousands, that I went to my hotel room and decided to watch a documentary about the rise of religious fundamentalism worldwide, beginning in the late 1970s in Iran. Watching the footage from America as Ronald Reagan came to prominence, I was struck by a similar at a major Christian rally where the speaker sounded themes very similar to mine – except he spoke in 1979 and I was speaking in 1999. Yet things had only deteriorated morally in America since then.

At that moment, it struck me that something dramatic had to change, that more of the same would only produce more of the same, that we needed revolutionary change in our churches that would produce a revolutionary change in our society. And as I began to study revolutionary movements in history, trying to understand how cultural came about, for better or for worse, I began to see in a deeper light how revolutionary the words of Jesus really were, from His call to leave everything for His cause to His call to go and change the world with Him (better known as the Great Commission). That’s what led to the writing of this book.

PneumaReview.com: The title of your most recent book is Revolution: An Urgent Call to Holy Uprising. What prompted you to release this book at this time?

Brown: This is actually an updated, revised edition of the book Revolution: The Call to Holy War that came out in 2000 (this, of course, was before 9/11, and the “Holy War” subtitle was inspired by the students in our ministry school, who heard in terms of a gospel call to lay down our lives for a dying world).

Twenty years later, while speaking with editors from Charisma, one of them asked to see the book, after which he reached out to me, asking if I could work on an updated and revised edition to be released immediately. I felt deeply that this was the Lord’s will, since at that very moment, crowds were marching down our city streets proclaiming, “This is revolution!”

PneumaReview.com: Please describe the characteristics of the revolution that you are calling for in this book.

Brown: Throughout the book, I make very clear that this is a Jesus revolution, not a fleshly, violent revolution of intimidation and anger. It is a revolution based on conformity to the character of Jesus, based on obedience to His radical calling, based on the power of the Spirit, based on the upside down method of the cross. Talk about revolutionary concepts!

PneumaReview.com: What are some of the changes that will need to take place in the church before society at large can be changed?

Brown: We can’t just do church as usual, the same way many of us have been doing it for decades. We can’t go on with a spectator Christianity, where people gather together to watch (or, even participate in) a nice religious show. We need to reach the lost and make disciples. We need to produce true Jesus-followers who are joined to Him in loving obedience whether by life or by death. We need to ask how it is that the world has changed us rather than us changing the world. And then we need to be willing to make major changes – not just for the sake of change and certainly not just to be “relevant” – in order to raise up real revolutionaries.

PneumaReview.com: How important is it for the church to have an eternal perspective in order for this radical transformation to take place?

Brown: It is massively important to have that eternal perspective. That’s why I devote chapters in the book to the gods of this age, the gods of material and greed and addiction to sports and entertainment, the things that so deeply distract us, the things that put our whole focus on the here and now. Instead, we must live our lives in the light of eternity, illustrated powerfully in the book not just by stories of martyrdom, but by the theology of martyrdom. With that understanding, even we live to be 100 years old and are financially prosperous, we will live each day in light of forever.

PneumaReview.com: What can individual believers do in order to prepare themselves to be part of this revolution?

Brown: First and foremost, they make a fresh consecration of their lives to the Lord. They count the cost afresh, understanding how extreme the Lord’s demands are, but then they see that this is the path to a meaningful life: “Here I am, Lord! Send me, use me.” But this can only happen when we experience His goodness and grace and love afresh. Otherwise, it will be fear-based or behavior-based. That’s also why there’s an entire chapter in the book devoted to the subject of holiness – but again, this is not presented in legalistic terms but in liberational terms. Holiness to the Lord is the theme of our counterculture revolution.

In short, I would encourage everyone to read the words of Jesus and the apostles afresh and ask, “What if they really meant what they said?”

PneumaReview.com: How can pastors help prepare their people to be involved in this?

Brown: Pastors need to ask themselves what they are building and what they are producing. Certainly, it is impossible to please everyone, and there is more than enough burden on pastors and elders already. That being said, it’s all too easy for leaders to take the easy route, which is often the traditional route, just replicating what they’ve seen over the years, even if the model is not proving effective.

A constant prayer of mine is that, whatever it takes and whatever the cost or consequence, Jesus will be glorified in my life to the max. If we share that heart, I believe God will answer that prayer – and it is revolutionary indeed.

PR