Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. - 1Thessalonians 5: 19-22 (ESV)
Prophecy is one of the most abused spiritual gifts today. There are a myriad of people who have made entire carnal careers out of pretending they hear from God when they hear no such thing. There are a host of others who are persuaded by the enemy or their own deceitful hearts but convince themselves it is from God. They are trained as such by charlatan schools of the supernatural like you would find at Bethel Church. I watched a bethel training video once for their worship leaders. Bethel teaches that all worship leaders are prophets, which is patently absurd and unbiblical. What the video taught these people was to tap into their hearts during free praise time and whatever popped into their minds via their wicked hearts to ascribe to God and speak out over the congregation. That is not prophecy -- it is pagan divination. Modern day charismatic prophecy however is a million dollar enterprise beloved and protecting the brand is paramount to those who believe in it and make money from false prophecy.
Enter Dr. Michael Brown who never has a critical word for almost anything that claims to be charismatic. He has defended the sneaky squid nonsense of Jennifer Leclaire and claimed Bill Johnson and Benny Hinn as brothers in the Lord. The above linked video is a short clip he placed on Charisma News trying to teach the difference between Old Testament prophets and New Testament prophets. Mind you there is no difference beloved. The bible makes no such delineation whatsoever. What has changed of course is God has given us His final revealed will in the bible so a New Testament prophet must be bound by it. To prophesy outside of it is to claim God forgot to say something. Let us reason together through the alleged differences from Dr. Brown.
1. There are different audiences -- the Old Testament prophet was speaking to an apostate people where the New Testament prophets are speaking to the body of the Messiah. -- Dr. Michael Brown
Seriously? This is the arrogance of the modern day church. Yes the people in the Old Testament were largely apostate, although they did have times of obedience was well. The disconnect however is in failing to see that the modern church is more apostate than the children of Israel! Remember that the nation of Israel had to adhere to the law, which no one could ever do except Christ. The church lives in the age of unmeasurable grace and yet it still is wildly apostate. Idolatry runs the church today. We either worship money, usurping the power of God or the country we live in before we worship God. Consider that the largest church is run by a man who never preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I do not blame Joel Osteen but consider that over 50,000 people show up every weekend and hand him over $600.000 per weekend to be told that they are the beez-neez and God just loves their little sinful hearts no matter how disobedient they are. That is not including the million who follow him through media. No Dr. Brown. The Old and the New speak to the same people -- the apostate people of God. The difference is the Old Testament prophets told the people they were apostate. The New Testament prophet tells them what their itching ears want to hear.
2. Old Testament prophets were often lone rangers where New Testament prophets are part of the church leadership and accountable within the body. -- Dr. Michael Brown
No they are not Michael. They are accountable to each other and not the body. I will explain how the racket works. Jennifer Leclaire is one of the most egregious false prophets out there today. She claims to be able to command legions of angels and routinely battles marine demons in her spare time. Whatever. She also claims to be under the "covering" of another egregious false prophet, Ryan Lestrange. What this means is that if anyone questions Jennifer's prophetic bonafides, Ryan will back her up and swear she is a true prophet. Just as an aside, Lestrange had a new "prophetic" word up today as well claiming 2Chronicles 20:20b meant that if you believe in what he says then the Lord will prosper you. Anyway, Jennifer then turned around and created a false network of false prophets called the Ignite Network so she can now sell her "covering" onto other false prophets. That is not accountability Michael, nor was it so when you had Jennifer on your radio program to defend her "sneaky squid vision" from those in discernment ministry.
3. Old Testament prophets were bringing the Word of the lord and there was a death penalty for being wrong where the New Testament prophets at best are bringing a word from the Lord but it is not scripture. -- Dr. Michael Brown
Why not Michael? Scripture is what God has said so if your false prophets are claiming God told them -- why is it not scripture? This is called having your cake and eating it too. You see the modern day false prophet racket says that if you are right 65% of the time you are a good prophet. That is of course ridiculous and anathema. While there is no more death penalty for inaccurate prophecy -- God does not change. We still are to treat them the same way. The New Testament says mark them and have nothing to do with them. Just one inaccurate prophecy means they lied and pretended God said something when He had not. Why would we ever want to hear from such a person again? There is simply no fear of God in the person that would dare speak presumptuously on behalf of the Lord.
4. When an Old Testament prophet spoke you would have to believe them unless it did not come to pass where in the New Testament we are told to discern and weigh things. -- Dr. Michael Brown
These are the same things beloved. The way the people of God discerned false prophets is by whether their prophecies came true. The way they weighed things was by seeing if what has been said came to pass. The benefit we have over the people in the Old Testament is that we have the final revealed will of God in the bible. So when we hear someone claim to have visited the throne room and seen the Father face to face and He allegedly told them something -- we know it is false because the bible says that no man may see God face to face.
5. Only a select few prophesied in the Old Testament but an abundance can prophesy in the New Testament, which is why Paul says in 1Thessalonians to not despise prophecies, to not put out the spirit's fire but to test everything and hold to the good. -- Dr. Michael Brown
I have made the verses from 1Thessalonians the key verses for today. They say absolutely nothing about an abundance prophesying in New Testament times. Michael Brown simply made that up. The reality is that there is an abundance of prophets today because there is an abundance of false prophets today and gatekeepers like Dr. Michael Brown who prop them up. I do not despise prophecy so much that I want to ensure that the word is actually coming from the Lord and not the deceitfully wicked heart of someone who has no fear of God.
Rev. Anthony
