Great Florida Outpouring – Theological Defense

Carl Thomas, over at Revival Blog, posted a document today entitled A Theological Response to Criticism of the Lakeland Outpouring and Todd Bentley: Biblical Reasons to Receive God’s Glory and Give It Away in Power Evangelism. It is written by Dr. Gary S. Greig, Senior Editor, Theology and Acquisitions, Regal Publishing Group; Former Associate Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, Regent University School of Divinity; Ph.D., 1990, Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, The University of Chicago.

This is a very scholarly, researched piece. It is 55 pages long and is fairly thorough in its treatment of the subject. I strongly urge people to read the entire piece and thoughtfully pray through it. For those who are excited about the revival, it gives strong biblical support for this being a move of God. For those who are struggling with things they see or who have questions about various teachings, this document provides a very thorough explanation.

Here is an excerpt from the section on false prophets:

Characteristics of false prophets in the OT: Deuteronomy 13 and 18

The Old Testament gives criteria for God’s people to distinguish false prophets in Deuteronomy 13:1-5 and 18:14-22. We know from Deuteronomy 13:1-2 that false prophets may announce a miraculous sign or wonder—and it may take place—to entice God’s people to follow other gods. But Deut. 18:22 makes it clear that false prophets will be less accurate in their prophetic predictions than a true prophet of the Lord:

Deut. 18:22 (NIV) If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

One must be careful how this criterion is applied to discern false prophets, becausethere are many cases in Scripture where true prophets of God spoke prophetic words that were not fulfilled for other reasons than that they were false prophets. Jonah’s prophetic word, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned” (Jonah 3:4), did not come true, because Nineveh repented. Nathan’s inaccurate word encouraging King David to build the temple,108 “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you” (2 Sam. 7:3), was later corrected by God in 2 Sam. 7:4 David’s own prophetic word about Solomon, “I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side” (1 Chron. 22:9), was ultimately not fulfilled. Because of Solomon’s sins against the Lord, 1 Kings 11:14-25 makes it clear that the Lord raised up enemies against Solomon on several sides. Elisha was led by God in 2 Kings 8:10 to give an inaccurate word to Hazael to report to Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, that the king would recover from illness, so that God could tell Hazael through Elisha that he would be the next king of Aram. Huldah’s prophecy in 2 Kings 22:20 (and 2 Chronicles 34:28) that King Josiah would “be buried in peace” did not come true: Josiah died and was buried in war not in peace. Scholars recognize that the text of Chronicles emphasizes in 2 Chronicles 35:22 that Josiah died an early violent death—the text clearly asserts that Josiah involved himself in a war God never told him to fight. Josiah “would not listen to what Neco [king of Egypt] had said at God’s command but went to fight him on the plain of Megiddo” (2 Chron. 35:22).

In such examples, we are dealing, in part, with the kind of contingency in prophecy that Jeremiah prophesies about in Jeremiah 18:7-10:

Jer. 18:7-10 (NIV) If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. [boldface and italics mine]

This is just a small part of the total section on False Teachers and False Prophets contained in the document.

The boy has got some credentials to him. Here is a picture and some further biographical information on the author.

GARY GREIG

Gary is the Founder and President of Kingdom Training Network, a ministry called to “move on universities in revival fire with signs and wonders.” He is Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at King’s Seminary at Church On The Way in Van Nuys, CA. Gary received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. From 1995 to 1998 he was an Associate Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at Regent University, School of Divinity. He also served for a season as the Educational Advisor for the Apostolic Council for Educational Accountability, founded by Dr. C. Peter Wagner, which networks new apostolic ministry schools with one another. At that time he was also a Professor and Coordinator of Biblical Languages and Old Testament concentrations for Wagner Leadership Institute. His book, The Kingdom and the Power: A Biblical Look at How to Bring the Gospel to the World with Power, is a compendium that lays out the biblical foundations of power evangelism and power ministry.

FRUIT!!!!

The biggest thing that Dr. Greig hammers on is the fruit. What is the fruit? Who or what are the people involved focusing on? That is the true biblical test of whether anything has its origin in the Lord, in the flesh or in the demonic.

One of the things I want to point out about the doctrine police is that they are the ones who are focused on everything but Jesus. They post about all the strange manifestations. They post about the angels and go on ad nauseum about how these things can’t be scriptural and then post all kinds of demonic literature trying to prove that the manifestations and teachings in Lakeland match these demonically inspired practices. I would like to point out that the leaders in Lakeland are giving no such time to the devil or his teachings. They are consistently lifting up the name of Jesus and giving him the glory for what is happening there.

Read the document and tell me what you think.