The Hyper Prophets

In my line of work, I hear from them all the time. Bold in their denunciations, fearless in their rebukes, and ultra-pious in their zeal to “contend earnestly for the faith,” they are the hyper prophets.

Having a prophetic bone or two in me, I can identify with them. They are concerned about com-promise in the church, a commodity in no short supply. They hate not only sin, but the very appearance of it. Their religious fervor is boundless, their righteous indignation a marvel to behold. Yet with all these credentials, they seem, somehow, to have come up short in compassion, and that degree of toleration with imperfection that serves as a hallmark of maturity. To tear down and uproot they delight, to build and to plant they have little interest.

I must have been one of the few holdouts among evangelical men to have waited until the last part of 1997 to attend a Promise Keeper’s event. By this time I had already had to deal with numerous letters of inquiry about the nature of this men’s movement.

Much of the mail was am attempt to set us straight as to the subtle dangers of this sweeping movement. Did we know that Mormons and Catholics were worshipping alongside evangelical believers? Did we know that they were passing out a book that was long on pop psychology and short on Scripture? Or that some of their gatherings featured Catholic priests as keynote speakers?

Long before I ever attended one of these meetings I had already decided that Promise Keepers couldn’t be nearly so diabolical as some of these folks were making it out to be. For one thing I had heard of some of the men who were speaking at the larger rallies; men like Franklin Graham, Louis Palau, Jack Hayford, Tony Evans, and Chuck Swindoll. These men were not cultists or new agers; they were outstanding evangelical preachers and teachers.

When I finally did get around to attending the meetings, it was just as I supposed it would be. Having come from a church background where vibrant praise was the norm, I was perhaps not as impacted as others have been, but couldn’t help but be impressed at the number of men that were assembled there to worship the Lord and be challenged to be the kind of dads and husbands that the Lord would have them be.

Promise Keepers is but one example of movements and ministers that we get “warned” of by these hyper prophets. Once, when I mentioned James Dobson in a complimentary way on the radio, I was severely taken to task by a man who wondered why I was so ignorant of Dobson’s “humanistic and psychological” views. One pastor told us he was going to warn his congregation never to listen to Christ in Prophecy because Dave dared to suggest that the KJV was not the only legitimate version of the Scriptures.

Some have tried to tell us that the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola is of the devil. I saved myself a trip to Pensacola by going to our Internet computer and downloading one of evangelist Steve Hill’s sermons given there.

As I listened, I didn’t find him encouraging people to worship demons or chant mantras; he was urging people to come to Christ, and doing it in a most direct (even old-fashioned) manner. He was actually talking about hell and emphasizing that Jesus was the only way to escape hell and make it to heaven. If this is any indication of the kind of preaching they are hearing regularly at the Brownsville revival, I say more power to it!

To be fair, at times the hyper prophets do the body of Christ a favor. Some of the things they com-plain about really are problems. Promise Keepers should be concerned with giving Mormons and other cultish groups the impression that we are all brothers, regardless of doctrinal beliefs. Some of the revival movements have, at times, been long on experience and short on doctrine.

The problem with the hyper prophets is that they have never learned a very fundamental truth: Everything God does is perfect, but when humans join in the process flaws are bound to appear. It is one thing to say a certain minister or movement has some problems; you raise the stakes considerably when you say they are “of the devil.”

If you look long enough at any man or ministry you will find some cracks (Yes, even Lamb & Lion and yours truly). If God must wait for perfect vessels before He uses them, He would be waiting a long time. God uses flawed vessels because that is all He has to work with. Amazingly He is able to accomplish quite a lot despite the cracks and blemishes!

I praise God for the good fruit that has come from the Promise Keepers movement, the Brownsville Revival, and all other workings of the Spirit of the Lord in the earth today. Flaws and all, multitudes are coming to Christ.

Far too often, these hyper-prophets are experts in criticism but novices in soul-winning. The story is told of a man who spoke critically to a great evangelist after his sermon. “I’m not so sure I like the way you do the work of evangelism,” he said bluntly. “I’m not so sure I like it myself,” said the evangelist. “How do you do it?” “Well, you see, it’s not my calling,” stuttered the man defensively. “Well then,” said the evangelist, “I think that I like the way that I do evangelism better than the way you don’t do it.”