***Update at the bottom***
I honestly, sincerely wish I could move on from the topic of the Charismatic Movement, but it just keeps on coming up. It’s been almost two years since the Strange Fire conference, and it seemed like all the parties involved got their shots in.
The Cessationists made their reasonable appeals, made a lot of unreasonable rants, published their stuff, wrote their responses, etc.
The Continuationists basically cried about division and broad brushes.
The Pentecostals basically cried about division and broad brushes.
The Charismatics basically cried about division and broad brushes.
Charisma Magazine kept on doing everything possibly in their power to provide an endless tsunami of amazing examples as to why the Strange Fire Conference was necessary (and possibly understated things: every single word in that statement links to a separate mind-numbing article, just for a few dozen examples)
There has been biblical proportions of ink spilled on the topic and I’ve been involved in a small percentage of said spillage. In fact, I got started blogging more seriously when Dr. Michael Brown started laying salvos against the conference, before the conference. We interacted quite a bit and then yesterday, I saw this:
And I was wondering “what does that mean?”
I mean, as much as I don’t care for talking about Dr. Benny Hinn, Dr. Brown did spend four days as a guest on Benny Hinn’s show. He did claim that he theologically checked out Benny Hinn and couldn’t find anything overtly wrong whatsoever with Hinn’s theology or practice. That in and of itself made a whole lot of people wonder what in the world was going on, since most people can find something questionable after a few minutes on Hinn’s own website (let alone Youtube). Many folks aired on the side of assuming it wasn’t what it looked like where as others saw it as Brown talking out of both sides of his mouth. Either way, it looked pretty bad to a whole lot of people.
Well, not Dr. Brown. He apparently couldn’t understand why people would be opposed to his presence on Benny Hinn’s show when John MacArthur had (hypocritically) been on Ray Comfort’s show (as both were aired on TBN, Brown saw this as a double standard).
After watching Brown for a while, I’m actually wondering what would look bad to him.
For example, Phil Johnson posted this link and asked for response from Brown:
In the ongoing and rather lengthy thread that followed, Dr. Brown wouldn’t say anything negative about the comments in the linked video. Jenn Johnson said, repeatedly, that the Holy Spirit is “like the Genie from Aladdin” since he’s blue (as in the color), funny, sneaky and silly…among other things.
Why is it so hard to say “That’s absurd!” and toss the video aside?
Instead, he first dismissed himself from commenting since he had blocked Phil Johnson’s account (which some might see that as ironic, given that Brown complains that MacArthur has not responded to his requests for a meeting).
Then, after multiple people linked the video, he chastised commentators for dropping the word “heresy” or “false teacher.” Apparently, calling Jenn Johnson a “false teacher” or “heretic” means that she’s irreversibly going to Hell (which someone should never say in Brown’s paradigm, seeing that he’s an outspoken Arminian and nobody is ever irreversibly damned – for those that are interested, I address this topic directly on point 8 here).
Consider this interaction:
Or this one:
Or this one:
But there was nothing except a hanging question that is never directly answered:
But then there’s the original claim itself.
Surely he must remember the dialogue he’s had, like the interactions that we’ve had together online, or the one that is documented here and easily available:
Surely he must remember all the debates that he’s had like this one:
Or this one:
But I wonder if the only Cessationist that matters to Dr. Brown is John MacArthur?
He feels ignored by John MacArthur and is upset at what he feels is some form of injustice.
I guess I can sympathize now, since when I attempted to respond to a tweet he sent to me, I saw this.
I would suggest that being blocked by Michael Brown after he complains that John MacArthur isn’t heeding his calls for debate may be considered ironic.
Until Next Time,
Lyndon “Firony? It’s like Foldy or Fronzy!” Unger
***Update – Dr. Brown has reached out to me and taken some positive steps at clarifying confusions. I will write an update as time permits in the next few days, but am currently preparing for a trip. I’m happy to bring any sort of dialogue to this issue and will attempt to do so.***
