Recently, Brown publicly defamed John MacArthur in an attempt to stir up controversy and he used this opportunity to encourage people to buy his new book, ‘Playing with Holy Fire’. Not only that, he mischaracterized charismatic writer J. Lee Grady. You can watch the entire video here:
Source: Michael Brown, Dr. Brown Responds to Phil Johnson’s Strange Fire Message (Part 1), YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4fumR7UP_4, Published February 15. (Accessed Feb 16, 2018.)
Michael Brown capitalises on his audience’s ignorance to mischaracterize people. It’s a common tactic that cults and false apostles and prophets in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) cult use to make them look right and everyone else wrong. To expose his deceit in the above video, we’ve tracked down the articles Brown refuses to source in his video:
- Phil Johnson, Sermon: ‘Is There a Baby in the Bathwater?’,
Transcript: http://thecripplegate.com/strange-fire-is-there-a-baby-in-the-bathwater-phil-johnson/,
Published October 17, 2013. (Accessed Feb 16, 2018.) [Archive]
- Lee Grady, What Happened to Brownsville’s Fire?, CBN,
http://www1.cbn.com/spirituallife/what-happened-to-brownsville%27s-fire,
Accessed Feb 15, 2018. [Archive]
- Lee Grady, How 18 Years at Charisma Shaped My Life, Charisma Mag,
https://www.charismamag.com/blogs/fire-in-my-bones/24175-how-18-years-at-charisma-shaped-my-life,
Published August 19, 2015. (Accessed Feb 15, 2018. [Archive]
At the end of this article, you will see that Brown deliberately defamed John MacArthur by accusing him as being dishonest.
BROWN PROVING HE CANNOT BE TRUSTED IN ANY FORM OF DIALOGUE.
Early in the video, Brown claims he took notes to respond to Phil Johnson’s claims about there being no ‘baby in the charismatic bathwater’. Rather than engage in debate and address the issues, Brown dishonestly represented Phil Johnson and John MacArthur to his international audience and then proceeded to publicly defame them.
Seven minutes in the video, Brown claims that John MacArthur described the Brownsville Revival as a ‘mindless orgy’. He appears to be following a sermon transcript of Phil Johnson and talking through this. However, he leads his listeners to believe that MacArthur said the following about Lee Grady and Brownsville:
“John MacArthur referred to Brownsville as quote, “A mindless orgy. A mindless, emotional orgy marked by irrational, sensual, and fleshly behavior produced by altered states of consciousness, peer pressure, heightened expectation, or suggestibility.” And this just a small part of a larger MacArthur quote. And um- he refers to the movement dying in 2000. He talks about how much debt Brownsville church was in at that point.
And then he speaks positively about Lee Grady, one of the few that he says was calling out charismatic abuses. And he has an article- uh- quotes an article from Lee Grady- from what?- around 2005 and- you know- he’s saying what happened at Brownsville’s fire. And the thing ended up in a split. You know a lot of people in the church- and so on- AS IF LEE GRADY WAS SPEAKING AGAINST THE REVIVAL! HE WASN’T!
No! He ends the article by saying, “Lord! Do it again! Light the fire again!” And he knows revival is quote, ‘risky’. In other words, the history of revival often after revival, the church would happen is- not in the best shape- just kind of had this flood come through- it’s not the best shape.
But he quotes Lee Grady as if Lee Grady was against it. This to me was utterly irresponsible.” [6:58]
While one can assume that Brown continued talking about Phil Johnson’s ‘Is there a baby in the bathwater’ sermon (though not mentioning his name), it becomes evident later that he has presented the entire above quote and his accusations against MacArthur:
“It grieves me that pastor MacArthur’s- could say such horrifically wrong things about a sacred move of God with massive lasting fruit that continues to grow to this day.”
So notice the deception of Brown. John MacArthur NEVER said this about Grady.
Phil Johnson did.
Brown is falsely attributing Phil Johnson’s words to John MacArthur in order to tarnish MacArthur’s name and reputation. This is the equivalent of Apple’s Steve Jobs taking a racist statement made from (let’s say) Bill Gates’ bodyguard and attributing that quote coming from Bill Gates himself to cause damage to the reputation of Microsoft while promoting that Apple do not tolerate racism. Brown is doing this to build himself up in the eyes of audience, to make himself look above reproach and his detractors liars.
So Brown’s own words show he cannot accurately present anything substantial against John MacArthur. Regarding his accusation against MacArthur, Brown at first claimed John MacArthur, “speaks positively about Lee Grady, one of the few that he says was calling out charismatic abuses” in Brownsville and then later claims MacArthur presented Grady as though he was against the Brownsville revival.
When reading what Brown was referring to (read here), there is no evidence in the text that MacArthur portrayed Lee Grady as against Brownsville. Brown is making this up. And to make matters worse, it was Phil Johnson who said this – not MacArthur.
If that is not bad enough – we now turn our attention to what Michael Brown did to Lee Grady’s article that Brown referenced. There is a very good reason why Brown did not provide the name of the article or even QUOTE the article from Lee Grady.
The truth is this – Lee Grady reported on spiritual abuses and the failure of Brownsville.
So why is Brown getting angry on his program and telling his audience that MacArthur is “utterly irresponsible?”
This is what Brown does time and time again – which demonstrates he is not our brother in Christ because of his lying tongue: he capitalises on ignorance and misinformation. If Michael Brown read the article (which we know he did), he is making Lee Grady and MacArthur out to be liars. There is actually a very good reason why he did not quote the last two paragraphs of Lee Grady’s article. Can you see why Brown didn’t read this out on air? (Emphasis ours.)
“The pastor of the church during the revival, John Kilpatrick, resigned in 2003 and told parishioners he planned to remain at the church in an apostolic role. Kilpatrick installed Randy Feldschau as the new pastor, then this year Kilpatrick shocked the congregation by starting a new church in Daphne, Ala., 50 miles west of Pensacola.
Feldschau resigned a few months ago and moved to Texas, and Brownsville’s attendance has dipped below 400. One former staff member told me that a large group of Brownsville members now attend a local Southern Baptist church in the city, while many others don’t go anywhere.
“People have been leaving for three or four years,” the pastor told me. “Some are not in church at all, including some who were on staff. I don’t know anyone who has not been hurt.”
At one point during the heyday of the movement, Korean pastor David Yonggi Cho announced from Brownsville’s pulpit that the revival “would last until Jesus comes.” Certainly the fruit of this revival will remain that long. But for those in Pensacola who were swept up in the ecstasy of those early years, and then endured splits, resignations, debts, and disappointments, the word “revival” now has a hollow ring to it.
Still, my heart cries: “Lord, do it again.” Next time He does, I pray we will carry the ark the way God intended—and keep our hands off of it.”
Source: Lee Grady, What Happened to Brownsville’s Fire?, CBN, http://www1.cbn.com/spirituallife/what-happened-to-brownsville%27s-fire, Accessed Feb 15, 2018. [Archive]
It sounds as if Grady linked the failure of the revival to many things, including debts. Who cares what Lee Grady wrote in 2015 (read the link that Brown referred to here) and that Brown read a snippet out on Grady on his show. Grady reported (as MacArthur commended him for) on the issues and problems at Brownsville. This is Brown attempting to use Grady to make MacArthur out to be a liar.
That is deplorable behaviour on Brown’s part.
He only quoted Grady to bolster the reputation of the fake Brownsville revival (see 8:50). This is because Brownsville is the highest example Brown wields to demonstrate to audiences his spiritual expertise and authority – not the bible. It’s all experience, word of mouth and “John Edward’s criteria for how to evaluate whether something is a real move of God” (9:34).
Brown did not stop his defamation and character assassination against his ‘brother’ John MacArthur:
“It grieves me that pastor MacArthur’s – could say such horrificly wrong things about a sacred move of God with massive lasting fruit that continues to grow to this day.”
It wasn’t sacred. Even Grady pointed out the disasters that happened as we quoted above. Brown’s issue was not with MacArthur on this issue but Lee Grady himself. Grady mentioned the word revival “now has a hollow ring to it” because of issues at Pensacola like “splits, resignations, debts, and disappointments.”
“But for those in Pensacola who were swept up in the ecstasy of those early years, and then endured splits, resignations, debts, and disappointments, the word “revival” now has a hollow ring to it.”
MacArthur was right to point out that Lee Grady astutely reported these serious failures at Brownsville. While Brown and Kilpatrick in their revival years wore Pensacola as a badge of honor to promote their books and ministries around the world (Kilpatrick as an apostles and Brown as an expert on revival), numbers mattered.
Now Brown is asking these question as though he is still refuting John MacArthur when in fact it is Lee Grady that brought up these issues in his article:
“You’re telling me that if you have debt on your building that God’s not moving in your midst? That’s how we can judge it? And that several ye- tha- tha- that after the revival, when John Kilpatrick, the pastor, moved on to another church and the church declined- that proves the revival wasn’t real?” [10:05]
Michael Brown – your zeal and focus on the numbers to bolster your credibility has blinded you to the shortcomings of Brownsville which was soberly pointed out by Lee Grady.
Still Brown claims about MacArthur,
“This to me was very misleading. Lee Grady- even that very article- was a champion of revival. And believing what God did in Brownsville. And to cite that as if it was negative, that to me was irresponsible…”
The one irresponsible is Brown for misrepresenting Lee Grady, Phil Johnson and John MacArthur. Grady’s article was a sober reflection – and MacArthur acknowledged this. Brown has borne false witness against Lee Grady and his article, Phil Johnson and Macarthur.
NOTE: Brown has the time to research Grady’s involvement in the movement but still has no time to research his heretical friends such as Bickle, LeClaire, Johnson and company. But then again, it looks as though his standard of research is finding only what he wants to find.
Brown later claimed:
“The debate about cessationism vs. continuism—meaning, whether all the gifts of the Spirit are still in operation today—is not just an abstract theological debate.”
Show us a continuationist and we’ll show you a restorationist who is either lying to you or is ignorant of what they actually believe. In this case, Brown is not ignorant of the New Order of the Latter Rain and well-practiced in defending his NAR heretical positions.
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Categories: Line of Fire