Joel’s Army Marches on

Author:

Bob Hunter

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Article ID:

JAF2323

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Updated: 

Aug 10, 2022

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Published:

Nov 11, 2010

This article first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, volume 32, number 03 (2009). For further information or to subscribe to the Christian Research Journal go to: http://www.equip.org.

SNYOPSIS

Heirs of the latter rain movement that originated with William Branham, a group of self-professed apostles and prophets claims to have further revelation from God. They assert that they have had conversations with such biblical luminaries as Adam and Paul, who have told them that today’s Christians, known as Joel’s Army, will be given the power to execute judgment on the world and will also be given the wealth of the wicked. Affirming that the very definition of Christianity is about to be changed, Joel’s Army leaders teach that the church has been in the process of restoration since the Protestant Reformation, concluding with the recognition in the 1990s of modern-day apostles. These new leaders say they plan on building Christian communities that are so self-sufficient that they will be free from government control.

To achieve their goal, they downplay the importance of Scripture and trained clergy, both of which would serve to warn Christians of false prophets and apostles. They maintain that Christian leaders today are too rigid in doctrine, warn their followers about those who would criticize their teachings, and teach that Christians need not worry about being deceived. What about those who would resist this “move of God”? In the words of Star Trek’s Borg, “Resistance is futile.”

As this age comes to a close and the world enters its most trying times, the Church and her message are going to change….There will be an increasing distinction between those who are on the path of life and those who are not. Churches and individuals who are on the right path will see increasing revival. Great and exciting new movements are about to be born all over the earth…. The Church is going through a radical transformation… Miracles will again be a main currency of the Church, verifying its message of the Kingdom, which will begin to be preached…. The whole Church should embrace new movements the way a congregation embraces new Believers.1

-Rick Joyner, January 1, 2009

There is a disturbing movement in the church today that is posing a threat to Christians. Growing for the last sixty years, it is made up of self-professed apostles and prophets who are drawing an ever-increasing number of followers to themselves, claiming to have further revelation apart from the Scriptures. They claim that a new group of Christians will rise up, a part of the latter rain movement known as Joel’s Army, which will have the power to perform signs and wonders, and bring multitudes into the kingdom before Christ can return.

Bill Hamon, claiming to have been illuminated by the Holy Spirit, sums up what is to be expected:

During these final years of the mortal Church, there will be great restoration and revival….Christian groups will establish Christian communities.…Some of these communities will evolve into small Christian cities which will be a prelude and prototype of the Kingdom to come. Christians will invent many things which will make their cities self-sufficient and independent of government control….There will be greater miracles of quality and quantity performed than have ever been recorded in church history. This will cause hundreds of millions to turn to Christ.2

He goes on to say that a one-world (apostate) church “will martyr many members of the Body of Christ…. Angels of the Lord will deliver the saints out of prison.…When the true Church has demonstrated the Gospel of the Kingdom in all nations for a witness to the Lordship of Christ, then the end of this age will be brought to a close.”3

In a supposed heavenly conversation between Adam and prophet Rick Joyner, Adam told him, “Those who live in your times will prepare the earth for Him to rule….He will use them to release His judgments….What He is about to do, He will do through His people, and His people will stand as Elijah in the last days. Their words will shut up the heavens or bring rain; they will prophesy earthquakes and famines, and they will come to pass; they will stop famines and earthquakes. When they release armies in the heavens, armies will march on the earth. When they hold back armies, there will be peace. They will decide where He shows mercy and where He shows His wrath.”4

THE BEGINNINGS

In the late 1940s self-proclaimed prophet William Branham began preaching about the coming latter rain movement and the manifest sons of God. As Branham explained it, God “promised that there would be a latter rain in the church, the church spiritual. In the last days He’d pour out both former and latter rain.”5

He went on to say,

Tell me, my brother, tell me, my sister, when was the time that the sons of God was ever to be manifested outside of this time now?…Nature, the nature itself is groaning, waiting for the time of the manifestation….Now, all things has been brought, coming, shaping up to a headstone, to the manifestation of sons of God coming back, and the Spirit of God coming into these men, so perfectly, until their ministry will be so close like Christ’s, till it’ll join Him and His church together….Now, the world and nature is groaning, crying; everything’s a moving what? For the manifestation of the sons of God, when true sons, born sons, filled sons speak and their word is backed. I believe we’re on the border of it right now.6

According to Branham, healing will be commonplace. “Oh, waiting for the manifestations of the sons of God (Hallelujah), when God will make Hisself known, when they’ll stop sickness, they’ll stop cancer, they’ll stop diseases.”7

In response to a question, Branham made reference to the coming of Joel’s Army. “Yes, Brother Copp, I am sure that you are referring to Joel’s prophecy in the Old Testament, Joel 2:28, how that he prophesied that in the last days he would pour out his spirit upon all flesh, the sons and daughters would prophesy, the old man would dream dreams and the young men would see visions.”8

The modern-day Latter Rain Movement began in late 1947 and early 1948 in Saskatchewan. Witness George Warnock wrote, “Three buildings on the Airport at North Battleford, Saskatchewan, composed Sharon Orphanage and schools at its beginning in the fall of 1947. About 70 students gathered to study the Word of God, and fast and pray. After about three months, the Revival suddenly began in our largest classroom where the entire student body was gathered for devotional exercises.”9

During this meeting a prophetic word was received in which God said, “’These are the last days, my people….The gifts of the Spirit will be restored in my Church.’…Soon a visible manifestation of gifts was received when candidates were prayed over, and many as a result began to be healed, as gifts of healing were received.”10 Before we move on, it should be noted that William Branham, who is highly regarded today in prophetic circles, denied essentials of the faith such as the doctrine of the Trinity.11 That alone is warrant enough to dismiss anything else he had to say.

Additionally, he held to the Gospel in the Stars teachings, the Serpent Seed doctrine (the belief that Eve had sexual relations with the serpent, resulting in the birth of Cain),12 and the belief that God wrote in the pyramids.13 It’s hard to know for sure what Branham would have thought of today’s prophets given his strict extrabiblical holiness standards. He objected to people “calling themselves Christians” who were “smoking cigarettes and drinking and going to cocktail parties, wearing shorts, bobbing their hair, wearing makeup, manicure, ever what it is on their face, and walking right on.”14

The Toronto Blessing/laughing revival of the 1990s has roots in the Latter Rain Movement. The aberrations that can be found in this movement have been covered in Hank Hanegraaff’s book Counterfeit Revival (Word Publishing, 1997).

In more recent times have come the prophetic and apostolic or “fivefold ministry” movements, made up of such luminaries as Kim Clement, Rick Joyner, C. Peter Wagner, Bill Hamon, Cindy Jacobs, Bob Jones, two now-disgraced men, Todd Bentley and Paul Cain, and numerous others. A Web site called The Elijah List has become the melting pot for most of today’s prophets and apostles.

Todd Bentley admits the influence of William Branham. He writes that Branham “was a forerunner of this type of signs and wonders ministry. In 1946 an angel visited him and ignited what we call The voice of Healing revival. This revival really took off in the 50s and 60s with Oral Roberts, Jack Coe, A. A. Allen, R. T. Ritchie, Gordon Lindsay and The Voice of Healing newsletter….It all started with this poor, uneducated, stuttering man who had an angelic visitation and received a healing anointing….He moved in more accurate realms of revelation than almost anybody else that I know of, other than Jesus.”15

Prophetess Jill Austin, who died this past January, wrote on The Elijah List, “William Branham, a prophet who moved in a very unusual signs and wonders [sic] during the great healing revival of the fifties did not merely minister with an angel. Rather, the Living Word would stand on stage with him and release a razor-sharp revelatory anointing of discerning between thoughts and intentions.”16

PROPHETS FOR TODAY

Today’s prophets and apostles are expecting to play a leading role in the formation of Joel’s Army. Unfortunately, to do so they must undermine today’s churches and doctrines. Bill Johnson, in an article on The Elijah List, refers to apostles as fathers and says,

For centuries the people of God have gathered together around specific truths. Denominations and organizations have been formed to unite these groups of Believers. Having common belief systems…has helped to build unity within particular groups and define their purpose….

Unity based on common doctrines has a measure of success. But there is an inherent problem with this approach—unity of this nature is based upon uniformity. When God is saying something new…those who are listening are usually asked by their leaders to leave the group they were a part of….Their newfound convictions and beliefs are considered threatening and divisive….While doctrine is vitally important it is not a strong enough foundation to bear the weight of His glory that is about to be revealed through true unity….For the last several years people have started to gather around fathers instead of doctrine….Apostles are first and foremost fathers by nature….The Apostle Paul calls them the Church’s foundation (see Ephesians 2:20).17

Yes, the apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church. Paul, however, was referring to the Old Testament prophets and the apostles of his day, who were to write the New Testament. What today’s apostles and prophets are trying to do is wait two thousand years and then stick a few more apostles and prophets into the foundation that has already been laid!

Johnson continues, “Jesus is returning for a Bride. For this to happen, the harvest must be brought in and must be ‘cleaned.’ He’s not returning for a Bride that He has to heal up and put together like a puzzle in Heaven. He is returning for a Bride whose body is in equal proportion to her head, and whose parts work together in coordination. It’s called a ‘glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle’ (see Ephesians 5:27) in Scripture.”18

A reading of Ephesians 5:25–27 in context shows the past tense of this passage. The church is made spotless not through the efforts of modern-day apostles and prophets, but through the shed blood of Christ.

We will discuss a few of today’s apostles and prophets, concluding with Rick Joyner, who has done the best job of outlining what they believe to be in store for the church. Some will receive brief mentions because Hank Hanegraaff has written extensively on them in the aforementioned book.

C. PETER WAGNER

A key person in this new movement is C. Peter Wagner of Global Harvest Ministries. Wagner says, “Back in the 1990s we began hearing the Holy Spirit speaking about restoring apostles and prophets as the foundation of the church as God originally designed (see Eph. 2:20)….I gradually came to the realization that God had given me the gift of apostle, and that certain spheres of the body of Christ were recognizing that I had the office of apostle as well.”19

Wagner writes that the wealth of the wicked is coming to Christians. “I think the time is ripe for those of us who are apostles to begin to understand the crucial role we have in God’s plan to release the wealth of the wicked for the advance of the kingdom of God.”20

Wagner’s contention is that the church has been in the process of restoration since the Reformation.

My hypothesis is that the bride of Christ, the Church, has been maturing through a discernible process during the past few centuries in preparation for completing the task of the Great Commission. My starting point is the Protestant Reformation in which the theological underpinnings were firmly established: the authority of the Scripture, justification by faith and the priesthood of all believers. The Wesleyan movement then introduced the demand for personal and corporate holiness. The Pentecostal movement later profiled the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in a variety of power ministries. The office of intercessor was restored in the 1970s and the office of the prophet was restored in the 1980s. The final piece came into place in the 1990s with the recognition of the gift and office of apostle. This is not to say that the Church is perfect. It is to say that the infrastructure of the Church, so to speak, may now be complete. The Church is much more prepared to advance the Kingdom with a speed and intensity that has not been possible in previous generations.21

KIM CLEMENT

Kim Clement is a South African–born prophet who is a frequent guest on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Although he claims remarkable accuracy as a prophet, the fact remains that he predicted that Saddam Hussein would be captured in October of 2003, along with the discovery of weapons of mass destruction,22 that Osama Bin Laden would be captured by Easter of 2004,23 and that hundreds of thousands would be converted to Christianity in February of 2001, making news on Jay Leno and David Letterman.24

BILL HAMON

Bill Hamon is one of the best-known names in prophetic circles. Echoing Wagner’s words, he claims that the church has been progressing ever since the days of Martin Luther. On Praise the Lord he said:

And men of God like that was progressed, and we had the Protestant Movement in the 1500s, the Evangelical Movement in the 1600s, Holiness Movement in the 1700s, Divine Healing Movement, 1800s, Pentecostal Movement, 1900s; then the Latter Rain Charismatic Movement in the 50s and then the Charismatic Renewal in the 60s, then Faith in the 70s. But now the Prophetic in the 80s, Apostle in the 90s, and now we have all five, Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher, who are going to equip the saints, and then the saints are going to demonstrate the Kingdom.25

At a conference in 1999 Hamon had the nerve to give orders to the archangel Michael, resulting in a supposed flood of angels filling the room: “God says ‘From this day forward I give you authority. When you call for Michael, he will bring a legion of angels and they will fight and war and I give you comradeship and I give you cooperation, and I’m adjoining you to join angelic hosts and the army of the Lord of the saints to win My battle’ and God’s raising up angels, and we’re going to call them in right now….Jesus, Commander-in-Chief, I call for General Michael and the host of war angels, come and appoint yourself companions now, now, now! Whoosh! Yeah! Yeah, here they come! Here they come! Yeah. Accept them! Accept them!”26

BOB JONES

Bob Jones is considered one of the legends of the prophetic movement. Hank Hanegraaff has written about him and his involvement in the Kansas City Prophets movement in Counterfeit Revival. According to a conversation Jones had with none other than the apostle Paul, “Paul was anxious to talk to the endtime apostles and prophets more than the endtime apostles and prophets would have been to talk to Paul…and the saints in the New Testament would wait in line to greet the apostles coming from this generation.”27

RICK JOYNER

Perhaps the most respected prophet in this movement is Rick Joyner, founder of Morningstar Ministries in Fort Mill, South Carolina.28 He has written three books describing a series of visions he claims to have had of this upcoming movement, The Harvest, The Final Quest, and The Call.

He is quick to state that his revelations are not on a par with Scripture, but when he says of his revelations, “I guess that’s what Ezekiel experienced, and John in the book of Revelation,”29 it’s hard to imagine that his followers would take them any other way than to be equal with Scripture. As Cedric Harmon in Charisma Magazine stated, “After all, it’s never easy to question someone who claims they took direct dictation from God.”30

Joyner sets the tone for his series of revelations when he writes, “What is about to come upon the earth is not just a revival, or another awakening; it is a veritable revolution. This vision was given in order to begin awakening those who are destined to radically change the course, and even the very definition of Christianity.”31

Change the very definition of Christianity? That alone should set off alarm bells in the minds of Christians. If the definition of Christianity needs changing, then our current definition has been wrong for the last two thousand years.

He claims that, “Some of the understanding shared in this book came in literal conversation with the Lord.”32 Who then are we to question Joyner, if he had literal conversations with God?

He continues, “I do not believe I would have understood many Scriptures the way I do now had I not received the vision.”33 So, rather than using Scripture to interpret Scripture, we can see that Joyner is using his visions to interpret Scripture.

He makes the same claim that other so-called prophets make, namely that, “As we have been promised, ‘Surely the Lord our God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets’ [plural] (Amos 3:7).”34 The writer of Hebrews answers this when he writes, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe” (Heb. 1:1–2). And today Christ speaks to us through Scripture. If, as Paul tells Timothy, “all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17), what need do we have for modern prophets?

So what does Joyner see for the future? “In the coming days, the most powerful army ever assembled will be mustered. The army will not be equipped with guns or swords, but no power in heaven or earth will prevail against it….This is the army of God envisioned by the prophets, soon to be a reality.”35 This is Joel’s Army.

Joyner echoes the words of Bob Jones: “The most glorious times in all of history have now come upon us. You who have dreamed of one day being able to talk with Peter, John and Paul are going to be surprised to find that they have all been waiting to talk to you!”36

Such a claim appeals to the very worst in our natures. Imagine being so great that Peter, John, and Paul will want to talk to us! It’s little wonder that this movement attracts so many.

Joyner continues to describe their exploits:

Meetings which begin spontaneously will stir entire cities, continuing until they fill the largest stadiums night after night. Previously popular sports events will be abandoned in many regions for lack of interest….News teams will follow apostles like national leaders, recording great miracles.…Miracles which exceed even some of the most spectacular Biblical marvels will cause whole nations to acknowledge Jesus….The appearances of angels will be so common that they will cease to be related as significant events. The Lord Himself will appear to councils of apostles and elders to give them directives….Young children will cast out demons, heal the sick, raise the dead, and divert raging floods with a word. Some will actually take dominion over entire hospitals and mental institutions, healing every patient in them by laying hands on the buildings.37

Jesus will appear to these apostles to give them instructions? Jesus said, “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it” (Matt. 24:26).

According to Joyner, Joel’s Army will be completely without sin. In a conversation with none other than Adam, Joyner was told, “During the times of the greatest darkness and evil that are about to come, His people will stand as a testimony for all time that He not only redeemed His people from sin, but He also removed sin from them. Through them, He will remove sin from the whole earth….He is returning for a people who are without stain from the world.”38

Joyner expects bloodshed during this time. “Large cities will be under almost the complete dominion of the Lord. Others will be almost completely in the grip of an evil more terrible than we may presently be able to comprehend….We must be prepared for this conflict. There will be martyrs during the harvest. In places, the church will be almost completely wiped out.”39

What about those of us who don’t think this is a move of God? “This is a move of the Holy Spirit that cannot be stopped. The pastors and leaders who continue to resist this tide of unity will be removed from their place. Some who are presently in leadership that resist this move will become so hardened they will become opposers and persecutors of those who are accomplishing the Lord’s purposes.”40 Joyner later warns his readers, “Do not resist the Lord in this work.”41

Planting this idea into the minds of Christians ahead of time succeeds in instilling fear in the hearts of his listeners so that they will not resist this movement, and when they do see people speaking out against them, it will reenforce the idea that those who disagree with them are opposing God.

Those who stand up for correct doctrine face the biggest condemnation from people such as Joyner. He writes, “Some who were greatly used of God in the past have become too rigid in doctrinal emphasis…Those who are linked together by doctrine…will quickly be torn away.”42

He compares this change in the church to childbirth: “During childbirth the mother can complicate and endanger herself and the emerging child because her natural tendencies are to do the opposite of what she should be doing to aid the process….If the church is to flow with the birth process we too must resist some of our natural tendencies….She must become obedient to the instructions of her husband, Jesus.”43 The natural tendency of a good pastor or shepherd is to protect the flock. Supporters of this movement would have pastors turn control over to this new breed of apostles and prophets.

So how are we to know a true shepherd? “We cannot recognize a teacher by how well he can expound the Scriptures or articulate sound doctrine but we must see our Teacher in them. We cannot recognize a true pastor by his degrees, or even by who may have commissioned him, but only by seeing our Shepherd in him….There is only one way to discern those who are true servants: by their fruit.”44

Joyner and others repeat this theme often. However, this means of testing replaces the objective testimony of Scripture with the subjective testimony of one’s own fallible feelings about a teacher. Teachers who do not even know Christ can appear Christlike to the undiscerning. For example, the Dali Lama appears to be a very humble person, anxious to help others when he can, but this does not make him a Christian leader. A true shepherd of the flock not only seeks to provide a Christlike example but also expounds Scripture accurately and defends sound doctrine, just as Scripture tells us to do.45 Furthermore, he always points us to Jesus, never to what we can do or how great we can become.

Joyner foresees that “there will be one great and significant movement which will ultimately become the greatest persecutor of the advancing church. This movement will be a marriage of Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Charismatics and Third Wave Christians….It will have all the appearance of being God’s vehicle for reestablishing the respectability and credibility of the church when in fact it will be the primary vehicle for anti-Christ forces trying to thwart the harvest.”46

One can see Joyner’s animosity toward the rest of Christianity that does not go along with his predictions. He says, “Jesus came as a humble carpenter from the most humble town in the most despised nation on earth. Most of those who were called to preach His gospel were ‘untrained and untaught.’ This has never changed, and it will not be changed until the end. The Lord is about to correct the church’s tendency to know men according to their credentials, which seminary or Bible school they attended, or even by who laid hands of them, instead of by their fruit.”47

I would venture to say that the apostles had the best training possible, a three-year seminary course taught by Jesus Christ Himself. But a thorough grounding in Scripture does tend to put a damper on the teachings of the apostolic and prophetic movement. This is why Joyner has to downplay the importance of the clergy and, as we see here, Scripture: “The Bible is a most wonderful and precious gift; it is God’s personal letter to us written by the blood and tears of the best men this world has ever known. However, He never meant for it to take His place in our lives. The early church did not have the Bible…They were dependent on a living relationship with the Lord for their guidance…. Jesus did not say that when He went away He would leave us a book to lead us into all truth; He said that He would send the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit can never be taken away from us, even when books can.”48

First of all, the early church did have the Old Testament Scriptures and the Gospels and letters of the New Testament writers as they became available, albeit not collectively in the form we have it now. Second, when the Scriptures take a back seat to a subjective experience and we fail to judge that experience by the infallible Word of God, that is the time when we will fall for anything that “feels right,” often mistaking that feeling as the leading of the Holy Spirit.

In Joyner’s book, The Final Quest, he tells the story about a man he met in heaven during one of his visits. The man told him, “’I began to touch the Lord’s anointed, and to do His prophets harm….I did not do it myself, but I incited men under me to investigate others and do my dirty work…. We sowed fear and division throughout the church, all in the name of protecting the truth….And we always comforted ourselves by actually thinking that we were doing God a favor when we attacked His own children…They really do not understand that they are doing the work of the Accuser.’”49

Of course, when people claiming to be apostles and prophets begin drawing people to themselves and teaching unbiblical doctrines, those assigned to protect God’s flock should be expected to rise up and speak out. Joyner, however, turns the tables, presenting his supporters as being the real heroes of the battle. “A great spiritual civil war now looms before the church…The church will not be destroyed, but the institutions and doctrines that have kept men in spiritual slavery will be.”50

DECEPTION ON A LARGE SCALE

What we are seeing today in much of the Christian world is deception on a large scale. In our postmodern society, Christians are abandoning churches that teach sound doctrine and the pure gospel in favor of gatherings that offer experiences and false hopes.

Today’s false prophets and apostles take care to warn their followers not to be concerned about false doctrine. In a supposed conversation Joyner had with Stephen, the first Christian martyr, Stephen told him, “But don’t be overly concerned about being deceived. That is actually one of [Satan’s] biggest traps. He sidetracks many by having them fear more in his power to deceive than to have faith in the power of the Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth.”51

In reality, Christians who are being drawn into these movements aren’t concerned about being deceived at all! They are being taught not to rely so much on God’s Scripture as on God’s new revelations, His new truths, as presented by His new generation of apostles and prophets. Christians are being attracted by the promises of power, wealth, the ability to execute God’s judgment on the earth, and being one of a select number of Christians who are going to be held in higher esteem than Jesus’ apostles.

Much of the church today has strayed from the pure and simple message of salvation. They are no longer satisfied with reaching the lost through the presentation of the gospel, preferring instead an emotional form of Christianity that relies on subjective experiences that ultimately don’t satisfy.

Martin Luther, who these prophets credit with starting the “restoration” of the church, had this warning for all Christians taken in by these teachers: “We are not free from blame if we have a wrong faith and follow false teachers. The fact that we did not know will be of no help to us, for we were warned beforehand. Besides, God has told us to judge what this or that person teaches and to give an account. If we fail to do this, we are lost. Therefore the soul’s salvation of each person depends on his knowing what is God’s Word and what is false teaching.”52

Bob Hunter is the former Coordinator of Research for the CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL. He is now a seminary student at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

notes

  1. New Year message by Rick Joyner posted at the Elijah List Web site at http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word/7214 (accessed January 1, 2009).
  2. Bill Hamon, The Eternal Church (Point Washington, FL: Christian International Publishers, 1986), 388–89.
  3. Ibid., 390.
  4. Rick Joyner, The Call (Charlotte: MorningStar Publications, 1999) 73–74.
  5. William Branham Web site, http://www.williambranham.com/former_and_latter_rain_600303__2.html (accessed November 19, 2008).
  6. William Branham message, Adoption, 60-0522E, http://www.williambranham.com/adoption_60-0522e_.html (accessed November 19, 2008).
  7. Ibid.
  8. Video broadcast on William Branham Web site http://www.williambranham.com/ (accessed November 19, 2008).
  9. George H. Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles the Hope of the Church (North Battleford, Saskatchewan: Sharon Publishers, 1951), as quoted in Bill Hamon, The Eternal Church (Phoenix: Christian International Publishers, 1986), 250.
  10. Ibid., 251–52.
  11. In an undated YouTube video Branham can be seen repeatedly declaring that “Trinitarianism is of the Devil. Thus saith the Lord.” (http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=w_bvvSOLW7Q, 41 second mark, accessed May10, 2009.)
  12. See “The Ephesian Church Age,” in An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, by William Branham, found online at http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/7ch013.htm#The%20Reward%20Promised, accessed May10, 2009.
  13. “God wrote three Bibles. One of them was the Zodiac in the skies….Then the next Bible was written, was in stone, called pyramid. God wrote in the pyramids.” (Sermon: “Adoption,” May 22, 1960, http://www.williambranham.com/adoption_60-0522e_.html, accessed November 19, 2008.)
  14. William Branham Web site, http://www.williambranham.com/former_and_latter_rain_600303__2.html (accessed November 19, 2008).
  15. Todd Bentley, Elijah List, http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word.html?ID=1512 (accessed November 17, 2008).
  16. Jill Austin, “Elijah List,” http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word/1807 (accessed November 17, 2008).
  17. Bill Johnson, “Apostolic Teams—A Group of People Who Carry the Family Mission,” posted November 21, 2008, at http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word/7083.
  18. Ibid.
  19. Arise Magazine Article: New Apostolic Reformation, posted September 1, 2000, http://www.globalharvest.org/index.asp?action=apostref, accessed November 21, 2008.
  20. C. Peter Wagner, “Releasing Wealth in Apostolic Times,” http://www.globalharvest.org/index.asp?action=wealth (accessed November 21, 2008).
  21. Excerpts from “Churchquake!” C. Peter Wagner, http://www.globalharvest.org/index.asp?action=churchquake (accessed November 21, 2008).
  22. Behind the Scenes, Trinity Broadcasting Network, September 9, 2003.
  23. Praise the Lord, Trinity Broadcasting Network, January 12, 2004.
  24. Ibid., December 31, 2000.
  25. Ibid., November 17, 2003.
  26. National School of the Prophets Conference, January 29, 1999, audio on file at CRI.
  27. Counterfeit Revival CD Series, in a conversation reported by Mike Bickle.
  28. I contacted MorningStar Ministries to see if Joyner could answer some basic questions for this article, but he refused. E-mail from Deborah Williams, Ministry Assistant, January 5, 2009.
  29. Cedric Harmon, “God’s Lighting Rod,” Charisma Magazine, http://www.charismamag.com/ articles/index.php?id=1017.
  30. Ibid.
  31. Rick Joyner, The Harvest (Charlotte: MorningStar Publications, 1993), back cover.
  32. Ibid., 10.
  33. Ibid., 12.
  34. Ibid., 13.
  35. Ibid., 22–23.
  36. Ibid., 26.
  37. Ibid., 32–34.
  38. Rick Joyner, The Call (Charlotte: MorningStar Publications, 1999), 78.
  39. Joyner, The Harvest, 34.
  40. Ibid., 36.
  41. Ibid., 221.
  42. Ibid., 37.
  43. Ibid., 42.
  44. Ibid., 57, 115.
  45. Paul instructs fellow pastor Timothy, “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer” (1 Tim. 2:3), and he exhorts him to “watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Tim. 4:16).
  46. Joyner, The Harvest, 62.
  47. Ibid., 132.
  48. Ibid., 152.
  49. Rick Joyner, The Final Quest (Charlotte: MorningStar Publications, 1996), 107–9.
  50. Ibid., 37.
  51. Joyner, The Call, 130.
  52. What Luther Says, comp. Ewald M. Plass (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), 636–37.
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