Brownsville faux-revival - still crazy after all these years...

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Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. - Mathew 24:23-24 (ESV)

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The Brownsville faux revival remains a blight on the history of the church. Starting in 1995 and ending in 2000, this debacle plagued the city of Pensacola with demonic outpourings and expressions of mystical spirits. All one needs to do is watch some of the grainy videos from that time. People were writhing, spasmodically jerking back and forth, and violently twitching uncontrollably for five years. Services routinely saw hundreds of people laid out all over the floor, laughing hysterically, crawling around, similar to the fake outpouring from Toronto. One of the outspoken critics of Brownsville, Hank Hanegraaff, wrote an article in 2009 when the Brownsville leaders were having a reunion. In it, he outlined some of the very real problems with this fake revival:

"All the while in the Brownsville Assembly of God, they had people aping the practices of pagan spirituality. One of the most bizarre manifestations I witnessed in that particular scene was in the sanctuary as I watched in horror as a woman in the choir began to jerk her head spasmodically from side to side. An hour went by, then another. All the while the shaking continued unabated as intermittently she bent spasmodically at the waist. A church member, noting the look of concern on my face, quickly attempted to assure me that this woman was merely under the influence of the "Holy Ghost." When I asked if she was certain it was the Holy Ghost, she seemed incredulous. "What else could it be?" she snapped. "We're in church, aren't we?' She went on to report that this woman had been shaking wildly in the sanctuary for more than a year and a half. What was once practiced only in the cults is now present in our churches. What heightens the danger is that Christians do not expect a counterfeit in church. While virtually the same methods employed in cultic communes can now be experienced in Christian churches there is a difference. At the altars of Pensacola the practices were cloaked in Christian terminology and were attributed to the Holy Spirit. Pensacola practices such as jerking spasmodically, laughing uncontrollably, and falling backward into trancelike states were conspicuous by their absence in the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. In fact, Peter warned them to be wary of such pagan practices. He said to be "clear minded and self controlled." (1 Peter 4:7). My concern for the woman who was shaking spasmodically and many others like her prompted me to plead with Pensacola pastor John Kilpatrick to consider the physical and spiritual consequences. He did acknowledge that the woman I identified in his church "shakes like she has palsy" but then defiantly paraded her across his platform as a trophy of the "Pensacola Outpouring." He then shouted, "If you don't want your head to start shaking"come here a minute, girl. Come down here a minute. Hurry up. Hurry up. If you [referring to me] don't want your head to do like this, you better lay your mouth off her." Of course this is the same person that predicted that in 90 days I would be dead. As I previously mentioned, Stephen Hill made all kinds of dogmatic declarations from the platform, he said that "congressmen are weeping under the power of God", but never provided a shred of evidence to support his claim." - Hank Hanegraaff

I may not agree with Hanegraaff on everything, but this summation sounds about right. There is almost a blithe attitude within the Charismaniacal church that thinks that anything within its walls must be from God. Discernment is something to apply to the unbelieving world instead of our own. One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is self-control and the hallmark of Pensacola was a total lack of self-control and then blaming the resulting craziness on the Holy Spirit! The leaders of this bastardization of the spirit testify to this day about Brownsville as some kind of move of God and they boldly claim upwards of 200,000 people as "coming to Christ" as a result. Except what Christ are they coming to? The key verses above clearly teach that there will be false christs in this world during the end times we currently live in. Galatians teaches that we can quickly abandon the gospel for false gospels. Pensacola and the plague of Charismania are judgments upon the apostate church. Brownsville claims healing but saved no records of such. They claim lasting fruit, but it is all rotten to the core if the spirit it engaged with is not the spirit of God. Hyper-emotionalism is not a spiritual move of the sovereign God. We see this ignorant self-promotion throughout the heretical church today as mega churches routinely claim salvations in the tens of thousands per year, if not more. International ministries claim even more dubious numbers. The dynamic is simple, make an altar call plea devoid of true repentance, and when they people raise their hands, count. They are automatically credited with being "saved" because that is how Rick Warren taught this generation of cult of personality pastors. I remember once at a Chris Tomlin concert the intermission was an altar call by Louis Giglio. It was all based upon raised hands. No one actually spoke to any of these people. They were encouraged of course to find a local church but to count them as "salvations" is ludicrous. I say this as a backdrop to the article linked above by Dr. Michael Brown, one of the leaders from the Brownsville demonic outpouring who stands by it proudly to this day. When questioned he wields the proximity fallacy, which he loves doing, and claims that because he was there, he knows better. Nonsense. The reality is that because he was there, he is biased. We have the benefit of hindsight and the videos proving that people shaking their heads violently for a year and a half were not being influenced by the Holy Spirit of God. So, let us reason once more through his defense in this article.

"This past weekend, we celebrated our 25th annual missions conference, thanking God for the amazing testimonies from our faithful workers who have served on the mission field worldwide, often quite sacrificially. This missions movement was birthed directly out of our ministry school, Brownsville Revival School of Ministry, and then FIRE School of Ministry, which in turn was birthed out of the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, Florida (1995-2000). This is the best answer to the critics who claimed the fruit of the revival would not last. One critic claimed that Brownsville was "not really " a revival, but lunatic fringe Christians from other places responding to altar calls," also referring to it as a "spiritual cesspit." A prominent American pastor described the revival as a "mindless, emotional orgy marked by irrational, sensual and fleshly behavior produced by altered states of consciousness, peer pressure, heightened expectation or suggestibility." Surely, these emotions would quickly fade. During the revival, I would say to these critics, "Well, this person has been walking solidly with the Lord now for one full year. What does that indicate about the validity of their conversion?" The reply would be, "One year? That proves nothing!" What about several years later, when they graduated from our ministry school with a burning heart to reach the nations? What about several years after that, as they relocated their whole families to serve outside the USA? And what about now, when some of our grads have been on the mission field for 25 years? I would call that lasting fruit!" - Dr. Michael Brown

No Dr. Brown, the premise is flawed. If the foundation was heresy, being emotional and standing by that heresy decades later is not proof of concept. Going out into the "mission field" to teach foreigners that the spirit of God wants them to violently shake and roll around on the ground, cannot be deemed "fruit" unless you mean poisonous fruit. Dr. Brown is right that the Pensacola demon show resulted in the Revival School of Ministry that became the FIRE School but that is only proof of the growth of the Charismaniacal demon seeds, not any kind of move of God. Just a cursory review of the courses associated with the FIRE school today reveals that Brown will teach you how the NAR false apostolic power paradigm is in effect, how the false prophecy industrial complex works, and other NAR false teachings like divine healing, or the notion that God MUST heal us. This will only set you back over five thousand dollars according to the website. This is the legacy that can be traced back to Brownsville and it does not serve God. The criticisms of a spiritual cesspool, emotionally orgiastic, altered stats of consciousness a swell as being irrational, sensual, and fleshly all seem to hit the nail on the head. If your heart is wickedly burning it does not matter if you want to reach the nations with that unholy fire. The people who spread the prosperity doctrine and word faith to Africa may have been zealous but the result is some of the richest flock fleecers in the world now reside ply their trade in the poorest continent. I would not call that lasting fruit.

"Eric was a youth pastor who struggled with porn and had to step down from ministry. He visited the Brownsville Revival, experienced deep repentance and complete deliverance, graduated from our ministry school and has now served on the mission field in Asia with his family for more than 20 years. Last year, we commissioned one of his daughters to go as a missionary to Japan. This year, we commissioned another daughter to serve in the Philippines. This is multigenerational fruit. Andy and his wife, Karyn, were powerfully touched in the revival, graduated from our school and were the very first missionaries to sign up. They have served in Mexico for the last 25 years, continuing to bear great fruit and with all their children serving the Lord. Andy recently wrote this: We are about to send out a Mexican couple to Asia in 2025; we are super excited about that! We continue to visit the homeless downtown and throughout the streets of Guadalajara, bringing them the gospel in creative ways from giving food, providing wound care as a nurse, and [more]. -- - Dr. Michael Brown

This is another tactic of Dr. Brown. Random ad-hoc experiential tales that cannot be fact checked or verified. Mind you, it also may be perfectly fine that Eric found deliverance from porn or that his family and Karyn's have produced offspring that follow in their footsteps. That is a very normal occurrence in life and seems especially so within the walls of churchianity. I pray that the generations further removed from the evil of Brownsville may not be as corrupted by it, but the reality is that unless they actually hear the real gospel, they too may be deceived. Serving in ministry, no matter how pious it may appear on the surface is irrelevant if the work being down actually scatters people away from Christ. The people in Matthew 7, saying "Lord Lord" are churched people. They were raised to believe that they were doing the work of the Lord only to discover on Judgment Day that He never knew them. I certainly hope that is not the case with these children and grandchildren. This is also not to downplay the very real work that some of them might be doing to feed the hungry and house the homeless. I just pray that is not accompanied by teaching them that God expects them to babble like a baby, foam at the mouth, and manifest epileptic behaviors to prove that they are "spiritual."

"Has it been worth it? Absolutely 100%. By life or by death. We have had death threats, rocks pelting me in the head, our churches burned down, stranded vehicles in the middle of nowhere, and insects infesting my toes with eggs. Would we do it all again? Absolutely 100%. Through it all God has been so faithful. It's just who He is. This is God's answer to the critics and mockers. This is the lasting fruit of a true move of God. Leann had friends who were powerfully touched in the revival and decided to relocate to Florida and attend our school, enrolling in 2000. After graduating, she moved with some other grads"mainly single women, like herself"to the Ukraine, where she remains until this day, right in the midst of the war. She wrote: I have seen Jesus do so much in Ukraine in the past twenty-one years, it's been an adventure and a journey. Jesus is alive and well, and changing lives across this land. " Ministry began all those years ago, traveling from village to village, gathering all the villagers together, and preaching the Gospel. Our team saw withered hands restored on several occasions, spines healed, a babushka who was completely hunched over get miraculously healed and start running down the road, as well as deaf ears opened. Many of those living in villages are elderly and they were so thankful that we came, as they felt forgotten. We would bring gifts of food and pray with them, they were so touched but the Lord. Many gave their lives to Jesus in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s." There were years of ministry in orphanages, children's shelters, children's rehab centers, and children's camps. So many children were introduced to the Bible and Jesus through our ministry. Many of the orphans I knew that were once little are now adults, and some are living their lives for the Lord to this day. I still have connection with some of those I ministered to 20 years ago. -- - Dr. Michael Brown

The mockery was the display from Brownsville of people violently manifesting the Kundalini spirit and then blaming it on the Holy Spirit. People pointing out your errors are not mocking you. Let us be clear, if true, the stories that Dr. Brown tells sound like great humanitarian work being carried out. No one is criticizing such. It is the tying of this work to the Pensacola heresies that is being properly criticized. Is it possible to raise people within the correct teachings of the bible, train them with the compassion of Christ and still see them go into all the world and clothe the naked while feeding the poor? Of course it is! It happens all the time! The premise here is that these friends of Leann only entered into ministry because they were powerfully touched at Brownsville. If so, that is truly sad but that does not make Brownsville somehow not false. I make this argument to people all the time about Joel Osteen for example. It is certainly possible that some people might truly seek out God and the true gospel by sitting through the heresy of Joel Osteen. They were not saved because of Osteen, however. They were saved despite him. Likewise, I am sure that Pensacola drove a lot of people into religion and hopefully some of them eventually heard the real gospel and got saved. They did not, however, get saved because of Pensacola, but rather in spite of it. I am sure some went on to do great humanitarian works in this world but that is not because of the false teachings of Pensacola. It is in spite of them.

"I was sharing Jesus recently at a meeting for refugees and an older man named Kolya, in his 60s, was in tears the entire time. I prayed with him, and he told me his whole life he has been searching for something that is true. He joined the communist party when he was young and saw that it was empty, he tried lighting candles at the orthodox church and he said it was empty. Now, because he has lost his home and came to our city, he met me and for the first time in his life he heard something that is actually true. Kolya said, "I have waited my whole to hear this truth about Jesus." He finally found the truth he longed for his entire life in his 60s! I have experienced many hardships since the war began. But I know I am in the place where I am supposed to be, and that's the safest place for me. Even though we hear explosions every week, sometimes every day. Even though air raid sirens blare off and on every day. Even though we have lived without power and water, mobile service, and internet for long periods of time. I am in the right place. There is such darkness and hopelessness, but I am here to shine the light of Jesus and help destroy the works of the enemy. Leann recently got married, but only after her husband-to-be was miraculously protected while on the frontlines of the very worst part of the war. Now, together, they are serving God courageously in that battle-weary land. This is the fruit of a real move of God, coupled with solid ministry training. Year in and year out, even decade in and decade out, the fire continues to burn. May the Lord send a fresh wave of revival to His people in America and beyond!" - Dr. Michael Brown

Brown tells anecdotal stories to pull at your heartstrings but remember, the premise here is that everything is chargeable to the great Brownsville outpouring. Kolya's deliverance is somehow now attributable to random people falling backward into trancelike states thirty years earlier. That is simply nonsensical. Dr. Michael Brown knows the real gospel. When he is not defending the indefensible or palling around with heretics like Todd White, he can preach the gospel correctly. So, I pray that Kolya heard the real gospel and responded in faith as Brown shares here. That does not change anything that happened in the 1990s, however. The sad irony here is that Dr. Brown vociferously demands that Christians must vote for a man who will mandate that the Ukrainians give up their land to the invading Russians. Our own hypocrisy can be difficult to see sometimes. The bottom line here is that Brownsville remains a horrific stain upon church history, but Dr. Brown could never admit that because Brownsville gave birth to his current career. It is what led to his nationally syndicated radio show. It is what led to the vast majority of the books he sells. It is what led to his standing and station at Charisma News. It is what led to his running the FIRE School of Ministry. It is his identity and to admit now that this was all based on demonic activities? That is simply never going to happen. It is far easier to tell third generation anecdotal stories about random people who may be doing some nice things and then use seven degrees of dubious separation, to lay that at the feet of people twitching on the ground, shaking like they have palsy. Do not confuse this beloved. People can get saved if they seek the gospel because of false teachers and counterfeit Christian experiences like Brownsville. They can go on to do great works, helping humanity as Christ has implored us to do. The legacy of that is not applicable, however, to the counterfeit. That just fosters the lies throughout generations. Watch the Brownsville videos beloved. God had nothing to do with it. The bible says that in these end times false teachers would go on deceiving and they themselves being deceived. Such seems the case here with Dr. Michael Brown.

Reverend Anthony Wade - October 28, 2024

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.