Fundamental
Evangelistic Association
selected
articles from:
©FOUNDATION
A MAGAZINE OF BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM
Dennis W. Costella, Editor; Karel Beyer, Production Manager; Matt
Costella,
Copy Editor
M.H. Reynolds, Jr. (1919-1997), Founding Editor
The Brownsville/Pensacola Outpouring. Revival or
Pandemonium?
by Matt Costella, Staff Writer
©FOUNDATION Magazine, March-April 1997
For almost two years, the
Brownsville Assembly of God church in Pensacola, Florida, has captured the attention of
the world. Both religious and secular media have caught wind of a great supposed revival
that has swept through Pensacola. Churches and Christian organizations from all over the
world have sent delegates to Pensacola to catch some of the spirit of this revival and
transport it back to their homes, churches and communities. Associated Press reporter
David Briggs, who noted that this is "one of the most spectacular revivals in modern
times," wrote that "hundreds of pastors visit each week in hopes of learning how
they, too, might fill their churches...." John Kilpatrick, pastor of the Brownsville
Assembly of God, said that over 1.6 million people have walked through the doors of the
church since this revival broke out on Father's Day, 1995. This supposed revival is
undeniably gaining worldwide attention.
Many Christian churches and organizations are quickly embracing this so-called revival
as a move of God's hand upon America. Pat Robertson's August-September 1996 Christian
Broadcasting Network News Report lauded the revival and stated, "Thousands of pastors
have visited the church and report that their own churches are being affected by the
Pensacola outpouring." The report continued by explaining how David Yongi Cho, pastor
of the world's largest church in Seoul, South Korea, received a vision concerning this
revival in 1991. Cho said that in this vision, God revealed that He was going to bring
revival to America and that it would begin in Pensacola. Cho said, "As I prayed I
felt the Lord prompt me to get a map of America ... [and I] found myself pointing to the
city of Pensacola." Cho said God told him, "I am going to send revival to
Pensacola, and it will spread like a fire until all of America has been consumed by
it." Mainline charismatic magazines like Charisma and even Christianity Today, a
popular New Evangelical magazine, have also praised this revival. Charisma referred to
this revival as the "Pensacola Outpouring," and the March 3 issue of
Christianity Today called this revival "the cutting edge of evangelistic
outreach." Steve Rabey, author of the Christianity Today article, defended the
Pensacola revival and responded to critics of the revival by distinguishing it from the
"Toronto Blessing" which has been characterized by manifestations such as
uncontrollable laughter and animal noises. Rabey said that although many of the leaders of
the Pensacola revival have participated in the "Toronto Blessing", the Pensacola
revival is much more sober with a greater emphasis on repentance.
The secular press is also sitting up and taking notice of what is happening in
Pensacola. The April 27, 1997, issue of the Washington Post contained a 4000-word feature
article on the revival. Post staff writer Peter Carlson gave an eyewitness account of one
of the revival meetings, explaining how the meetings begin: "It begins with a drummer
laying down a slow beat that goes on for several minutes, a steady, inescapable,
portentous heartbeat. The guitarist and the organist join in, along with a choir of
several dozen singers... From the first note, the people are up out of the pews and on
their feet, clapping in time or dancing with eyes closed, hands raised. In front of the
first row, teenagers pogo up and down, a sort of Pentecostal mosh pit. If it weren't for
the cross and the stained glass behind the altar, you might think you were at a
rock-and-roll show." Carlson then described how the audience begins to "sing in
the spirit." He said, "It sounds vaguely like Allen Ginsberg chanting 'Oooom' at
an anti-war demonstration in 1968." In a March 6, 1997, Associated Press article,
David Briggs quoted one woman as saying, "I know [the revival] is so big it has to be
of the devil or of God. If God gets the credit, it can't be of the devil, can it?"
This question is obviously flowing through the minds of millions of people. So what is the
answer? What is really happening at the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida?
What is the Bible-believing Christian to think about such a great "moving of the
spirit"? A careful analysis of what is really happening in Brownsville and what is
not being told to the secular and religious press is vital in order to understand the
purpose and power behind this phenomenon.
It is necessary to lay down some background on how this revival came to pass.
Kilpatrick said he and his church had been praying for revival for two years before it
broke out. He said God spoke to him and told him that He would pour out His spirit on the
church at Brownsville if Kilpatrick would return to "the God of his childhood."
Although Kilpatrick told God he did not know how to do that, God responded by telling
Kilpatrick that if he made the Brownsville Assembly of God a house of prayer, then He
would pour out his spirit on the church. Kilpatrick said God told him that this revival
will "catch on across the nation" and eventually spread throughout the entire
United States. Kilpatrick said God told him to "divide the congregation up into
prayer categories ... and have Sunday nights for prayer." He obeyed this voice and
instituted a prayer time in the church, dividing the congregation into twelve groups, each
group gathering around a banner displaying a particular topic for prayer. Kilpatrick told
the audience to rally around the banner of their choice. Kilpatrick said he was often
overcome with uncontrolled sobbing and shaking during the prayer time, and at other times
during the week, he would often feel a strange sensation in his stomach. He attributed
these emotions and feelings to the spirit of God coming on him, getting ready to manifest
itself to Brownsville.
One Saturday night as Kilpatrick entered the church to be alone and pray, he said he
walked into something he had never felt before. "As I walked in, I don't know what I
walked into. I think I walked into the edge, the front cutting edge of the glory of God
that God was about to send to Brownsville on Father's Day," he said. "But when I
walked into it ... it just took my breath. I had chill bumps instantly that hurt ... I
mean hair on my arms and legs was standing out, you know, and they hurt!" What
happened next, on Father's Day 1995, comes straight from the mouth of Brownsville Assembly
of God Pastor John Kilpatrick in a presentation at the Garywood Assembly of God in
Hueytown, Alabama on January 20, 1997.
Kilpatrick's mother died five weeks before the "revival" broke out, so he
asked evangelist Steve Hill to speak at Brownsville on Father's Day. Hill agreed and
opened up the altar for prayer that morning. Over 1000 people came forward to pray that
morning, and Kilpatrick stood on the platform praying with Hill and another man when he
suddenly heard a sound like a "rushing mighty wind" sweep over his right
shoulder. As Kilpatrick looked over his shoulder, he said his ankles slipped, his knees
bowed out, and a sudden "river of the glory of God" moved between his legs.
"It felt like a telephone pole," he said. "An endless telephone pole was
coming through my legs and it was coming in the church." With some help from another
man on the platform, Kilpatrick stepped back and listened to the sound of the
"rushing mighty wind" and what he described as the "river of the glory of
God" as it swept into the church. He suddenly jumped to the pulpit and screamed,
"My God, church, get in! This is it! This is what we've been praying for! Get
in!"
The revival had begun. The supernatural presence in the church was, according to
Kilpatrick, the glory of God manifesting itself to the congregation. Kilpatrick said it
looked as though someone pulled a pin on a grenade and threw it into the audience after he
commanded the congregation to jump into the "river of the glory of God." He
said, "I'm drunk, my legs is wobbly, I can barely stand up ... and I saw bodies going
every which way ... just flying, going down like a hurricane coming through and pulling
trees down." Kilpatrick continued, "They were just going down, flopping on
benches, falling across the aisles, nobody even touched them." Before he knew it,
Kilpatrick said he felt a heaviness come upon him and he fell to the floor, paralyzed, at
12:30 that afternoon. He did not get up until 4:00 that evening. He described the
sensation that enveloped him before falling to the floor. "I felt like I weighed
10,000 pounds," he said, "but it wasn't a bad heavy. It felt wonderful."
Following the sensation of heaviness, Kilpatrick felt a calm, peacefulness come over him
and then felt some form of fluid flow from his body. He said, "It felt like fluid was
dripping out of the joints in my bones." In fact, he jokingly told how he was
nervous, wondering what the audience would think if they looked on the platform and saw
him lying in a pool of fluid. This fluid, he said, was all the stress that was built up in
him from years of the ministry. He said God drained all the stress out of him on the floor
that day. Later that day at the evening service when Kilpatrick got up to introduce the
speaker, he could not move. He said he could not move his head, his tongue, or any part of
his body. He sat in his chair on the platform in a comatose state until two or three
o'clock the next morning. This, Kilpatrick claimed, was the glory of God manifesting
itself to Brownsville.
For three weeks following the beginning of the revival, Kilpatrick said he and his wife
were constantly "drunk in the spirit" while they were inside their own house.
"I was so drunk and Brenda was so drunk, she'd hit the recliner and there she'd be
for hours, I mean just gone, under the power of God, even at home," he said. Another
time, when Kilpatrick laid down to go to sleep, his shoulders just began to "pop
around and shake." When his wife asked him what was happening, he said, "I don't
know, but I believe it was God." Kilpatrick claimed he was not even able to go to
work for three weeks after the revival broke out, because as he would try to walk down the
hallway to get into his car to go to work, "this shoulder would hit that side of the
wall and that shoulder would hit this side of the wall ... and I couldn't walk. I couldn't
even keep my equilibrium. And by the time I'd get to church that night I'd either be on
the floor, on the chair or something, and God just moved in."
The Brownsville congregation eventually got used to the "river of the Lord"
in the church. "You could feel the current, this invisible current, just like a
river. Some nights it will come along the wall, some nights it may come down this
aisle," Kilpatrick said. "Anywhere people were standing in the way of that
river, you could just look at them and they'd go down in the Spirit. You could feel the
literal current of that river." On a few occasions, the current described by
Kilpatrick swept the whole congregation forward. He recalled one time when the current
became extremely deep. "It felt like an undertow," he said. "It was like
somebody grabbed me by the back of my belt and started pulling me backwards ... I could
not believe the power of that undertow of that river." He said one night the entire
congregation began physically moving with him. They could not do anything to stop it.
"One night it was so powerful going across the back of the church, that I actually
jumped up, wrapped my legs around the beam and stopped in midair and watched the crowd go
by me. That's the truth!" said Kilpatrick. This, again, was attributed to the moving
of the Spirit of God.
Another characteristic of this revival is what Kilpatrick describes as a "thick
atmosphere" in the Brownsville Assembly of God church. "There's times that you
look in there and it's foggy," he said. "There's a lot of times you can't see
real good in there it's so thick with the glory of God ... there is a blue haze that comes
in that place a lot of times, just a blue haze of the glory of the Lord."
Kilpatrick is not one to keep quiet about the "manifestations of the Spirit"
that have occurred at Brownsville. Such manifestations include uncontrolled shaking and
trembling by sobbing members of the audience, individuals collapsing and remaining
unconscious for hours at a time, blue haziness in the church building, apparitions of
angels dancing in circles at the top of the auditorium, strong invisible currents pulling
the entire congregation toward the front of the auditorium and bodies falling down in
every direction. One time, Kilpatrick said God actually picked him up and threw him
sideways through the air "at least ten or twelve feet" across the platform,
knocking his shoes off his feet. This episode was even captured on video.
Kilpatrick mentioned that when revival broke out, he was especially amazed and shocked
by three things that he saw that he had never experienced before. First, he said that the
children in the auditorium who usually could not sit still during the service were hit by
the power of God. "They'd go out in the spirit," he said. "Their eyes
rolled back in their head, and they'd not move a muscle for four hours." Kilpatrick
continued, "When they'd get up, they were shaking and trembling under the power of
God and squalling in a love with Jesus." Kilpatrick admitted that "there was
such pandemonium going on, that people didn't even know where their kids were. They were
on the floor, out. There's kids, moms and dads, on the floor." He took particular
note of one three-year-old girl who stood completely still, staring at the ceiling for
thirty minutes while she was squalling and soaked with tears. Her mother finally made her
way over to the girl and asked what was wrong. The girl responded by saying, "Mommy,
don't you see them? The angels, in the top of the church, they're holding hands in a
circle."
It is extremely revealing that Kilpatrick admitted that there was pandemonium in the
church at Brownsville. In fact, he actually condoned such activity. "God sent
pandemonium in the church," he said. "I think it's time that we have grand
pandemonium in the Baptists, in the Lutheran, the Episcopal, the Assembly of God
[churches]. God send pandemonium!" Kilpatrick exclaimed. It is interesting to note
that the word "pandemonium" was coined by John Milton in 1667 in his epic
Paradise Lost. "Pandae-monuim" was the name of the capital of Hell, the
"high capital of Satan and his peers." The word literally means "place of
all the demons." Today, the word is generally defined as "any place of wild
disorder, noise or confusion." Is that what was happening at Brownsville? Yes it was.
Is that what God condones in his church? Absolutely not.
The second thing that amazed Kilpatrick was the large quantity of unsaved, rebellious
youth attending the church service. He described sexually active, drug addicted, wild,
scantily clad teenagers who would fall to the floor, shaking under the "power of the
Holy Ghost." He said he became aware that an individual did not have to be saved in
order to be a part of the "manifestations" of the Holy Spirit. He mentioned that
many of the people in the audience who were experiencing the supernatural manifestations
were not even Christians. He used the Lord's revelation to the apostle Paul on his way to
Damascus to support his claim that one does not have to be saved to experience these
manifestations.
The third thing that surprised Kilpatrick was the fact that so many unsaved sinners had
flocked to the revival meeting even though it had never been advertised. He said this is
typical, though, because "when revival breaks out, the Christians run from it and the
sinners run to it." Kilpatrick describes the Christians who question this revival as
those who are running from God and closed-minded to the work of the Lord. Kilpatrick said,
"Some old, dead, mossy-back Christians that's been running the preacher for the last
thirty years; the old, wet blankets that's been in our churches that don't want nothing
going on, that want a home-and-gardens religion, everything sweet, everything nice,
everything tidy, everything explainable, when God breaks out, they run from it, but the
sinners hears that God's in the house, they run to it." This, of course, completely
contradicts the definition of "revival" in the first place, for
"revival" is when a believer gets his backslidden heart right with God.
"Revival" is not when an unsaved, worldly individual attends a religious service
and experiences supernatural manifestations.
This outpouring of the Holy Spirit is not solely reserved for charismatic or
Pentecostal believers. This revival, like so many other leading religious movements today,
is an effort to unite believers and reach beyond all denominational barriers. Notice
Kilpatrick's words: "When the tide of the Spirit comes in, it lifts all denominations
that's going after God. All denominations ... I love Baptist people. I love Methodists and
Presbyterians and Lutherans and Episcopals and Catholic people. I love them. I have never
had such a love in my heart for all denominations. I've seen all denominations jump in
this river and swim and play like children. I really have. It don't make no difference who
you are or what your name tag is or what your flavor is ... What this is is the sovereign
move of God's Spirit." He said people from all denominations are attending church
every Sunday and coming away shaking their heads looking for something more, and this
"move of God" at Brownsville is what they need.
Kilpatrick said that God is now here to show them something more. "There was signs
and wonders that happened in the early church," he said, "and I want to tell
you, friend, you better get used to signs and wonders taking place in the church
again." While it is true that thousands of people are empty inside and looking to
"religion" to fill their void, Kilpatrick said that the preaching in the church
is what is turning people away, not the attitude of their hearts. "Let me tell you
something else about this revival," Kilpatrick said. "This move of God is not
about preaching." He said that while he and evangelist Steve Hill do preach sermons
that are simple and easy to understand, the signs and miracles are what actually turn
people to Christ, not the Word of God. "We've heard so many sermons and so much of
the Word of God that we've grown fat," he said, "but there's been no power and
no anointing and no miracles. So, I just want to tell you, that's why tonight I don't feel
bad about not coming up here and preaching a great sermon."
What about those who are skeptical of this supposed revival? Kilpatrick said that those
who question this outpouring of the spirit are just accustomed to the status quo and are
afraid of anything "new" that comes along. He explains: "See, we've become
so used to the abnormal that now that the normal has come it seems abnormal." These
strange signs, wonders and manifestations are the norm, according to Kilpatrick. "We
have gotten so used to our churches being dead and dry, cold, lukewarm, no power, no
anointing, no glory, that now, since the glory of God has moved into the church, now we
think it's abnormal and there's board members on pastors' cases, there's church members on
pastors' cases saying, 'We don't want this shaking, we don't want this falling out in the
spirit ... we don't like that, we don't want no part of that.'"
Some biblical answers are definitely in order. It is obvious that Kilpatrick and the
proponents of this "Pensacola Outpouring" are attributing this supernatural
activity to the Lord Jesus Christ, but what is their basis for this? Where, in God's Holy
Word, do they base their ideas that this is of God? Where does the Lord say that He will
cause human bodies, saved or unsaved, to shake uncontrollably, collapse and remain
unconscious for hours, or feel invisible currents pulling them in every direction?
Kilpatrick himself seems unsure at times what these supernatural powers are, but he
concludes that they must be the "glory of the Lord." He oftentimes describes a
phenomenon that occurred either to him personally or to the entire congregation and
prefaces it by saying, "I don't know what it was." He then continues by either
saying, "I believe it was God," or "I think it was the glory of God."
He has no basis for this assumption, but, for some reason, he concludes that these
manifestations and feelings are of God even though they can be found nowhere in God's
written Word.
This revival and these manifestations are not of God. Why? First, because there is no
biblical basis for any of this chaos anywhere in God's Word. These supernatural
manifestations are not supported by God's Word. They are found nowhere in the Bible. In
fact, these manifestations are contradicted by Scripture and represent a carbon copy of
demonic activity. These same manifestations as described by Kilpatrick have occurred and
have been documented in rituals and experiences of those involved in pagan religions such
as witchcraft, satanism, spiritism, the new age movement, voodoo religions and many other
satanic cultic religions. To accept the idea that the manifestations in Brownsville are of
God when there is no biblical basis for this claim would logically have to mean that the
same manifestations as found in the aforementioned "religions" are also of God.
Just because something extraordinary or supernatural occurs does not mean it is of God.
Satan and demons do have power, and they are ready to demonstrate this power to anyone
who is willing to open his mind up to it. These same supernatural signs and manifestations
have been occurring in heathen religions for centuries. For example, at the Lausanne II
Evangelical Conference in Manila in 1989, John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard Movement,
predicted that some radical changes, some new manifestations of signs and wonders would
occur at the end of the century. At that conference, Wimber and several other charismatics
testified of supposed miraculous signs, wonders and healings that had occurred in the name
of Christ. They claimed these manifestations caused many to believe on the name of Christ.
During one press conference, a member of the press panel from India refuted the claim that
these miracles and signs must be of God. He said that the same charismatic-styled tongues,
healings, miracles, signs and wonders are also found among the heathen religions of his
native India.
The June 17, 1996, issue of Christianity Today contained an article entitled,
"Voodou Hold Seems Unshakable." This article cites Leslie Demangles, author of
Faces of the Gods: Voodoo and Roman Catholicism in Voodoo Haiti," as implying that
"Haitian Protestants have difficulty helping some new Christians see the difference
between possession by the Holy Spirit and possession by a voodoo spirit." He said,
"Some see the Pentecostal baptism of the Spirit [as] very similar to possession in
voodoo." It is obvious that the spirit at Brownsville is the same spirit that
manifests itself to followers of voodoo and pagan religions.
Notice some examples of demonic activity in the Bible and how they closely resemble
what is happening today at Brownsville. First, in Job chapter four, God's Word says that
Eliphaz was reproving Job and attempting to explain to him why he was suffering. Eliphaz
told Job that one night something happened to him which sounds extremely similar to what
Kilpatrick experienced when he walked into the church one evening before the revival
began. In Job 4:13-16, Eliphaz said, "In thoughts from the visions of the night ...
Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed
before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: It stood still, but I could not discern the
form thereof...." This happened to Kilpatrick! At the end of the book of Job, God
made it clear that the words given to Job by Eliphaz were not the words of God (Job 42:7).
They were the words of a false spirit.
Consider the account of the man possessed with demons in Luke 8:26-36. The people who
lived in the country of the Gadarenes knew of this demon-possessed man who was naked and
who lived in the tombs. This man was crazy. He was definitely not in his right mind before
Jesus Christ cast the devils out of him. However, when Christ cast out the demons, the
townspeople noticed that he was "sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his
right mind." This man was no longer an uncontrolled lunatic, but he was free from the
demons and was quietly, reverently sitting at the feet of Jesus in his right mind. The
chaotic behavior of those at Brownsville seems to more closely resemble the man's wild,
irrational, demon-possessed behavior prior to his relief from the demons rather than the
calm, reverent behavior characteristic of the man after Christ delivered him from the
demons.
Many of those who embrace the Pensacola revival argue that because this is done in the
name of Jesus and because so many individuals are supposedly being saved, it must be of
God. One only has to recall the account of the young demon-possessed soothsayer
(fortune-teller) in Acts 16 to know that just because something is good or true does not
mean it must be of God. This young girl followed Paul and Silas around the streets of
Philippi shouting, "These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto
us the way of salvation." Was this statement true? Absolutely, but this was a false
spirit uttering these words through the young woman. The people of this city undoubtedly
identified her demonic occupation with the ministry of the apostle Paul. In other words,
the truth was being identified with error. This girl spoke sound words, but she was
actually speaking for the devil. Did Paul tolerate this false spirit since it was
obviously proclaiming truth and drawing attention to himself? No, he cast the devil out of
the woman and was thrown out of town by those who previously made money from her
occupation as a fortune-teller. Today, in places like Brownsville, people are claiming to
utter truth in the name of God and Christianity, but their actions contradict God's Word
and demonstrate that they are only spreading dangerous, demonic error in the name of
Christ.
Proponents of the Pensacola revival claim that thousands are becoming saved as a result
of the revival. They claim that this "salvation experience" is grounds for
universal acceptance by the church and use this argument to belittle any individual or
organization that views the Brownsville phenomenon with skepticism or seeks to warn
against it. While believers should praise the Lord when any individual truly comes to a
saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, one cannot know the hearts of these individuals at
Brownsville. Are they merely responding to the emotional hype of their surroundings when
they go forward? Are they making decisions to merely change their way of life and repent
for their sins without coming to a saving knowledge of Christ, or are they actually
believing in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ with their hearts, realizing
that they are sinners who can be cleansed only by the blood of the Lamb? Only Christ knows
the hearts of those who go forward, but when "preaching" and doctrine are
down-played at such meetings, and so much emphasis is placed on emotional hype and
supernatural revelations and experiences, one must wonder if the true gospel is actually
being preached and subsequently believed by those who step forward.
Christ specifically warned that many "false teachers" would deceive the
unwary in the last days (Matt. 7:22, 23). The Bible warns that there are "false
apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no
marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great
thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end
shall be according to their works" (2 Cor. 11:13-15). The apostle Peter prophesied of
the "false teachers" who would deceive many in the last days of the Church Age
(2 Pet. 2:1-3), emphasizing the need for using the absolute, completed standard of God's
"words" to determine what is truly of God and what is not (2 Pet. 3:1-3). Yes,
apostles and prophets were in the early church prior to the completion of the canon of New
Testament Scripture, but when "that which is perfect [or complete; the finished
revelation of God to man] is come, then that which is in part [incomplete, partial
understanding through the revelatory gifts given the early church] shall be done
away" (1 Cor. 13:8-10). All that is passed off as the work or the leading of God must
be carefully scrutinized according to the infallible, completed Word of God.
Just because a pastor or Christian leader says that a miracle, sign or wonder is of
Christ does not mean that it is truly of Him. The signs and wonders that are prophesied in
God's Word for these last days are directly linked to satanic power and deception (2
Thess. 2:7-10). The "lying wonders" are what will eventually cause all the world
to worship the beast spoken of in Revelation 13:1-5, 14. The primary effort of Satan has
always been to deceive individuals, and God's Word says that he will continue to do so
until he is finally cast into the lake of fire. Satan wants to deceive the church.
Believers must realize that any experience or teaching that does not conform to the Word
of God is not of God. The Bible, not supposed miracles, signs and revelations determine
what is truly of God.
Another reason these signs and supernatural manifestations could not be of God is
because they are based on emotional hype rather than the preaching and teaching of God's
Word. In Carlson's Washington Post article, he specifically said that a half hour of
chanting, dancing, and singing "in the spirit" went by before a single word of
preaching had even been uttered from the pulpit. This, in itself, is completely
unbiblical. In 1 Timothy 4:13, Paul instructed Timothy to give attendance to "reading
[the Word of God], to exhortation [the preaching of the Word of God], to doctrine [the
teaching of the Word of God]." We are to attend to these in the church. Worship is to
be centered around the Word of God. The revelatory gifts given by God did not occur as
individuals hyped themselves up into an emotional frenzy waiting for something
supernatural to happen.
The Pensacola revival cannot be of God because it directly contradicts the Bible with
respect to the nature of God and His order for the church. 1 Corinthians 14:33 makes it
clear that "God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of
the saints." Confusion and pandemonium are not of God, yet Kilpatrick readily admits
that what is happening at Brownsville is confusion and pandemonium. The believer who
yields himself to God and His Word will never be "put to confusion" (Psa. 71:1).
The challenge coming out of Pensacola is to "jump in," "let yourself
go," "experience this previously unknown phenomenon." The exhortation of
God, on the other hand, is "prove all things," "bring into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ," "try the spirits whether they are of
God." We must evaluate this revival in the light of His perfect and eternal Word.
When we do this, we find many glaring inconsistencies. The chaos is a direct affront to
the clear command for reverential order and sound doctrine.
Some have suggested that the test of this revival's authenticity should be the fruit it
produces--changed lives, healed bodies and restored homes. It is wrong to apply this
criteria. False spirits can certainly give temporary relief, but any course that rejects
Bible truth will eventually prove disastrous to the one swept away. It is a dangerous
thing to assume to do wonders in "the name of the Lord" when the body of Truth
is violated. The sons of Sceva thought they could do this and they took a beating for it
(Acts 19:13-16). Be careful about trifling with the unknown.
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