The Five Fold Ministry and Spiritual Abuse: Chapter 1…by Rev. Rafael D. Martinez, Co-Director, Spiritwatch Ministries

One of the most enduring memories I have of my childhood is how vivid the impressions certain movies I viewed made upon me. In the grandly crumbling old farmhouse just outside Chicago that I called home in the 1960’s, I came to learn pretty quickly that during certain times of the year, you could expect certain kinds of films to be aired on television which never failed to fascinate me. My mother carefully limited the time and my two younger brothers spent before the mountainous black and white console televisions of solid oak or 16 gauge metal that my father would shuffle in and out of our home, and engaged us in other activities of the imagination and the backyard, which was childrearing practice years ahead of its time. So when I did get to watch TV, it was a privilege we never took for granted, and it was a time my child’s mind’s eye looked forward to. And as I grew, I began to notice programming patterns at certain times of the year that I never forgot.

You could be certain of watching James Cagney’s amazingly spirited portrayal of entertainer George Cohan in the musical “Yankee Doodle Dandy” every Fourth of July on WGN. Every Christmas, I could count watching another George (surnamed Bailey) under the omniscient microscope of the hosts of heaven in “It’s A Wonderful Life” on some cold December afternoon during WLS’s afternoon movie. Still another George – last name Pal – would treat me to his cinematic destruction of the world by alien Martian invasions on an annual basis in “War Of The Worlds”, usually on WMAQ. During one of the silent, dark evenings of every mid-October, when all of the earth seemed to be holding its breath between the last warm wisps of Indian summer and the inexorable first blast of northern winter gales, I would always get to watch Charlie Brown and Linus’ quest for the Great Pumpkin on WBBM. Time fails me to describe how other TV farings engaged me, such as Patrick McGoohan’s uniquely allegorical spy game series “The Prisoner” and PBS’s unleashing of Kurt Vonnegut’s surreal science fiction in the movie “From Time To Timbuktu,” but the fact that I can so freely remember all of these show how memorable these tales and their imagery have been for me.

My child’s Catholically-bent faith longed to understand how to relate to this Jesus hanging on the crucifixes confronting me everywhere in my religion, and came to perceive that the answer was somehow mysteriously embroidered in the traditions of The Church. I always wanted to understand what it was all about, having heard all the admonitions made to me on my child’s level to remain loyal to The Church, but never heard the questions I had on this ever answered (you knew then that didn’t ask them in 1960’s Roman Catholic parochial school). Loyalty was, after all, always first and understanding wasn’t necessary. The Church – La Iglesia – was the pinnacle of God’s purpose, just as pristine and spotless a presence in the world as The Virgin was and is and is to come. It was perfection, I was reminded on a hundred points, so how could I fail to accept that as the ultimate reality? …It was there and I was just one of the millions of sub-atomic cells somehow connected to It. I never understood where I fit in, but I was told I did, so I unquestioningly believed. How many nine year old kids would do otherwise?

Every Lenten season, without fail, several Biblical epics without fail would be aired locally on both network and PBS channels. I would watch them also without fail. I remember Anthony Quinn’s furious mugging and chaotic role in the fictional biopic “Barabbas” and the mute and almost mystical treatment of the life of Christ in the silent movie “King Of Kings”. …Being raised to live and die as good Catholics, per the magisterium’s mandate of Rome that hung like a silent hammer over our heads, it was inevitable that my mother would do her best to compel us to watch these flicks and she got no argument from me, as I had no problem watching what she would see as faith-building. …The subject matter, of course, connected with the parochial teaching I was getting at our local parish grade school, and it was fascinating to see Biblical stories brought to life, even if I didn’t have a clue (and would never quite be taught) what relevance they really had to me.

I probably would have loved Protestant Sunday School, but all I had at St. Ann’s were irritable, authoritarian old nuns who seemed more interested in hovering over their students to pinch, slap or whack with long, pool cue-like schoolroom pointers than with really taking time to open the truth of the Bible to me (these poor creatures, sadly, couldn’t give to us what they obviously lacked). My “brothers” and “sisters” there were little Anglo kids who barely tolerated my Mexican presence (not a few being racist brats) and had all the classic figures of the typical school society (the bullies, the brains, the cheerleaders, the jocks, etc.). It wasn’t at all like the kind of loving unity of aspiring Christian youth should have and I can’t remember any reciprocation of my fumbling efforts to relate to them in any higher way than just over the typical kid passions (like Scooby Doo, not getting picked last for gym team sports or pizza parties at Shakey’s). I stopped trying after the first “weirdo” look, so it was in movies such as these that my hungry child’s spirituality found resonance with my inner longing to understand things of faith.

The Hollywood version of Bible truth I saw depicted was over my head, but the most compelling memory I took from them had nothing much to do about God, but how I remembered my impressions of what Christians were supposedly like in the times of Christ. Of course, this was all the romanticized idealism of movie moguls wanting to strike chords with religious audiences of their day whose money they wanted to get a piece of, but I didn’t know that then. I remember how these Christians seemed so serenely otherworldly, even wraithlike in their quiet, anonymous background settings. But their muted roles were such that when they finally spoke or acted, their actions were heroic or sacrificial and were obviously being done as a reflection of their identified character as disciples of Jesus. They nobly, yet simply followed a higher path of living that stood head and shoulders above the barbarism or politicking of the situations they were put in sharpest contrast with. For me, that somehow fit with what I felt Christians of The Church should be: perfect beings of the highest character fully connected with their God. My kid’s black and white perspective on life was blissfully unaware of the human frailties of even the most pious, and I could almost imagine being like those robed figures from another time and place. It even occasionally led me into wondering if I should become a priest.

Just Beyond Reach: The Quest forthe “Perfect Church”

I think my experiences as a child, longing for encounter and meaning drawn from celluloid imagery of what real Christians might have been like, are similar to what a lot of people in the Christian world today are also hungering for. The most elusive and yet long sought dream of the Christian Church has been the longstanding desire to be part of a “perfect” church that transcends their frequently dissatisfactory and even painful encounters with a church culture perceived as irrelevant, cold and indifferent to their needs and the world’s. The church’s failures in this tragic arena of public opinion are all too well known and obvious, so we need not tarry there. The point is that despite it’s failings, there are many who still long for such a place.

Ask a hundred people what a “perfect” church might be and a hundred different answers will be given, but all will pretty much agree that such a place would be where God is worshipped by young and old in unity and truth, where the love, justice, teachings and example of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus are fully embodied in the values and lifestyle of its members, and where the needs of both the bodies and souls of our increasingly godless society are consistently served. It is a vision of heavenly, loving community that underlies the collective longing of many believers who are tired of the petty, carnal, and even corrupt circles of all too many church congregations gone cold and backslidden from pursuit of a vibrant, practical and outreaching love for God as well as all other men and women.

I couldn’t articulate what I sensed should be self-evident in my childhood religiosity, but I am far from alone as the checkered history of church history is quilted with innumerable attempts by millions of people of Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox persuasions to find a Christian church fellowship that would embody such an ideal as true Christianity. …And of course, human nature being what it is, the conflicts and disagreements among Christian leaders across the ages have helped create the spiritual Babel that now almost completely dominates contemporary Christian life globally. Catholic monastic orders have arisen seeking a renewal of faith only to lapse into the same spiritual inertia that drove their founders to create them in the first place. Disputes over the patriarchal leadership of the Orthodox Church became factional struggles no less divisive than those mirrored in the Protestant propensity to ardently pursue any one of dozens of competing visions such as Methodism, the Churches of Christ and Baptist congregationalism if they seemed to be the most faithful architect of Christian life.

Throw in the factors of class and race as well and it is no wonder that Christianity today is the incredibly diverse, almost contradictory movement it has become. Such factionalism has fully infected most of our churches today and such is this development that many a believer has often wondered just which church or which movement seems to be really “the Church,” let alone the “perfect church.”

Still, the shining dream of a perfect place for refuge and sanctuary from the madness of our world compels us to keep looking and searching. While many disillusioned and disappointed Christians sadly fall by the wayside as the result of a crushing disappointment or offense in their journeys through the church world, the majority of us who are resigned to having to suffer the foolishness of carnally immature outrages in our congregations still hope and pine for the church to really “arise.” I’m sure many, like me, are up late reading their Bible about the glorious state of the church after Pentecost in the book of Acts and sigh prayerfully “oh, if there was only a church like that around!” Sadly, the modern reality is that too many Christians feel trapped in the slushy mire of a church seemingly preoccupied with everything but the Way, the Truth and the Life and still struggle mightily to free themselves.

The New Breed: A New Hope?

So during the last fifty years or so, many Christians are increasingly taking heed to the breathless claims and good tidings they hear from friends and other believers about a certain “new breed” of Christian men and women who claim to know how to lead the Church into the kind of perfection they’re looking for. They are dynamic people who lead “spiritual” churches where intimacy with God, lively worship, uncompromising preaching and loving acceptance are the great draws. For those weary of the personal kingdom building of casually carnal Christianity today who sincerely want to see the Kingdom of God expressed in a healthy local church, such realities are a dream come true. Country musician Jim White offered a memorable insight into the underlying draw of such “spiritual churches” in the documentary Searching For The Wrong Eyed Jesus with a typically Southern economy of words. White concisely describes the appeal of pursuing God where, as he drily described them, things that “defy explanation” regularly occur:

“For the uninitiated, walking in and seeing a healing service or a Spirit filled church in full bloom, it’s quite a wondrous sight. There’s a real power there ..there’s a lot of love there and there’s a presence that’s hard to explain. .. Things happen there that defy explanation and you feel like you’re in the presence of God, you feel that way real strong ..“

(Click here to view White’s reverie).

The perception that one can sense the presence of a divine Immensity that knows you personally and loves you unconditionally supported by a belief that there are God-appointed people empowered to lead you there is an irresistible draw. A mighty host of these people now herald these claims, and of them all, the tribe of Christian leaders who describe themselves as “fivefold ministers” are by far the most widespread and well known of them all. The fivefold ministry is found almost exclusively in Charismatic and Pentecostal Christian circles and have helped to keep hope alive in the kind of shining and tangible idealism we’ve been talking about regarding “the perfect church.”

In the movie "The Matrix", Morpheus offers Neo a choice between knowing the truth about reality or accepting the elaborate fantasy he's living under. He can choose to take a blue pill to accept the role that the machine world has created for him to play "and the story ends," as Morpheus intones. Or Neo can take a red pill, remain in Wonderland and accept Morpheus as his guide into a journey to discover "how deep the rabbit hole goes."

When examining the extent of the influence of the fivefold concept in the church today, it is easy to feel like you've stumbled into a rabbit hole of sorts. It can seem like a wonderland where things that “defy explanation” happen. It is a vast enterprise populated by hundreds if not thousands of earnest men and women in a unique Christian culture filled with diversity, activity and energy. They lead business networks, seek audiences with influential leaders worldwide, convene mass meetings of worship, prayer and teaching attracting thousands and accept the ministry of those said to be actual prophets and apostles invested with divine authority. What we want to do is center in now on defining just what the fivefold ministry is and what its objectives are from the context of the Christian culture it came from.

The fivefold ministry is believed by many to be a potent form of church leadership that the Spirit of God has restored to the church. The concept behind fivefold ministry is that men and women are being divinely called to clerical “offices” described in the New Testament as actual apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers and evangelists. No matter where you go in the Pentecostal or Charismatic worlds globally, the teaching that five distinctive types of spiritual leaders have been restored to lead the church into Christian perfection is a widespread Christian tradition. As leaders in many segments of the Charismatic and Pentecostal Christian cultures, the “fivefold ministry” are men and women who comprise the leadership of their respective movements and churches. Those in this unique form of ministerial leadership are supposedly divinely called of God to actually fulfill the five-fold roles as described in the New Testament text of Ephesians 4:11. These leaders are given a high amount of respect by laymen and even higher levels of willingness by them to submit to their counsel and teaching …(Click here to view fivefold pastor Tommy Reid explain the fivefold concept ).

It is a virtual article of faith by many Charismatic and Pentecostal believers that the fivefold minister is set apart as a living ministry “gift” to the church by divine appointment, a calling that "laymen" do not have. Educational credentials and formal training are often seen as irrelevant, even somehow suspect since the call of God is the basis for their authority and leadership in "fivefold" ministry circles. The chief authentication of the fivefold minister’s calling is recognized through the regular occurrences of supernatural signs and wonders in their personal ministry (such as acts of divine healing, fulfilled prophecy and the deliverance of the demonically possessed). This explains their heavy emphasis on the “operation” of spiritual gifts in their meetings when you come across the advertising and biographical information in ads and fliers they create to publicize their ministry.

Accompanying this calling is also the fivefold minister’s ability to discern direct guidance from God for a given situation, whether by “revelation knowledge” or an interpretation of dreams and omens, assuring a divinely inspired source of leadership. A widely held consensus among them is that prophets were “restored” to the church in the 1980’s and apostles in the 1990s, completing the restoration of the fivefold concept. I have heard confidently expressed hopes that these ministers will fulfill the Ephesians 4:11 mandate of leading them onward toward personal Christian edification and personal equipping for ministerial service in the Body of Christ, which explains the especially close attention they are given by members of their flocks. Therefore, the spiritual authority that fivefold ministers claim to have is to be held in the highest regard by the common Christian who has come under their leadership.

Citing Scriptural precedent – which we will shortly examine – in the acts of the early church and the New Testament, fivefold ministers boldly hold fast to their belief that they labor under a divinely appointed calling. Millions of people now fellowship and worship under the auspices of ministries said to be led by a prophet or apostle, who now claim to be taking their “rightful place” next to the teachers, pastors and evangelists who have played so visible a role in the Pentecostal and Charismatic cultures for over a century. Seeking to be a godly influence where ever in the world they endeavor to minister, the fivefold ministerial ranks are a global community of Pentecostal and Charismatic spiritual leadership that has found a niche virtually everywhere in the world.

Fivefold leaders actively advocate the creation and perpetuation of a new kind of church leadership model that will, if fully realized, have the most profound impact in Christianity today. Influential figures in certain fivefold circles view their growing presence and influence as the ushering in of nothing less than a new reformation, believing it to be "Protestantism's new look" as Fuller seminary professor and church growth guru C. Peter Wagner stated in his 1999 book Church quake.Indeed, the impact has already began to be felt at every level of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christian society and has been eagerly pointed to by these same leaders as the greatest sign of revival yet, the surest token of God’s sovereign restoration of once lost truth to the Christian Church.

Note: You can skip over this next section of historical survey to the following section entitled “Discerning The Lord’s Body” to expedite your study of this article but you would be, we feel, at a serious disadvantage in understanding the development of five fold ministry. We leave this choice up to you.

The Romance Of Five Fold Ministry Restoration

To understand more fully what the fivefold ministry is and how it has become such a compelling influence in contemporary church circles, we must look back to the spiritual evolution that created it, a progression of events and incidences extending back well over a century. The popular belief that a fivefold ministry will be restored in the last days has arisen not only out of a certain interpretation of Scripture but out of a deeply felt anxiety over the inescapable tensions between the church and the secular world order that have arisen as time has gone by. This cultural whirlwind has exerted more influence on the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches than we want to admit. It is these confluences of spiritual as well as cultural forces that will help explain how and why the fivefold ministry has come about.

Restorationism is the ongoing passion and effort put forth by Christians across the ages to restore to the contemporary church the imagined purity, unity, and authority the early church supposedly had (a study of the New Testament shows something much different and less pristine). With the rise of the Pentecostal movement around the turn of the century there came a rise of expectations that it might be “the” visitation God was sending to restore the church. As the revivalism of the Pentecostal movement began to dawn upon the spiritual consciousness of Christian life at the turn of the century just before and after 1900, it inevitably inspired a massive groundswell of popular support among many who held to the cherished idealism of restoration. This restorationistthoughtwas a driving force in the streams that poured into the new channel of the emerging Pentecostal movement.

Regrettably, some Pentecostals expressed heartfelt opinions on what they thought constituted restoration that were admonitions to a practical and unbiblical elitism that contributed to the persecution they experienced as their movements grew (1). But for the most part, these and other pioneers of Pentecost were impassioned firebrands whose focus was entirely upon evangelism, home missions and of course, leading new converts into what they felt was an initiatory and spiritually formative encounter with God in Christ by the Spirit through “the Baptism.” The testimony of one minister at the the Azusa Street revival in 1907 Los Angeles would doubtlessly speak for so very many and makes clear that the initial direction of Pentecost was a real passion for the Kingdom of God:

For more than thirty years, I was a minister in one of the leading denominations, and by the grace of God sought to walk in all the light as God revealed it to me. In common with many honest hearts among God’s children, for many months past, I had been seeking for a deeper fullness of God’s love, conscious that, however much God had blessed His church, yet for the time now upon us, we needed a greater anointing in order to be made adequate to the work to be done. With this conscious need, a cry went up to God for a Pentecost. And surely He heard and answered according to His own perfect will. (2)

The Apostolic Faith Movement that arose from the Azusa revival in 1906 declared in its published doctrinal statement from its’ very beginning that it stood “for the restoration of the faith once delivered unto the saints” and then proceeded to define how active and in what form that faith was: “the old time religion, camp meetings, revivals, missions, street and prison work and Christian Unity everywhere.” (3) …These were the structural flames of revivalism that were already being brightly fanned at the time of the Azusa revival’s outbreak.

So it is no wonder that when the “apostles of Pentecost” such as G.B. Cashwell, T.B. Barratt, and John G. Lake fanned across the world to take up Christian evangelism and church planting, they did so with the firm belief that Pentecost was a central part of God’s last days plan for restoring first century Christian truth as well as love as bestowed by their baptism in the Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues. Their expectancy of the return of Jesus, drawn from their restorationist views, was far more revolutionary than we can possibly imagine and drove them on to a sacrificial ministry and outreach that is a far cry from many churches today. Their ministries shook the Christian Church with tremors still felt today and we will discuss this further in our next chapter.

It is enough for now that we recognize how the direct spiritual heirs of these early Pentecostal pioneers now shake the Christian Church with temblors of an entirely different nature – these being the fivefold ministry of modern times.

Almost a century of time and inconceivably profound social change in our world has passed since those zealously earnest men and women began to band together to seek and serve God according to their full gospel fervor. …In its outset, the Pentecostal movement was indeed almost entirely non-denominational and sought to renew the Christian Church with its self-proclaimed “revealed truth” of the “third blessing” of Spirit baptism, evidenced by speaking in tongues and a divinely bestowed love and concern for the souls of men and women. Entirely focused upon spiritual renewal, passionate worship, and fervent home and world missions outreach, it sought to change Christian circles where it spread but encountered great resistance on almost every hand.

As the Pentecostal movement began to firmly establish itself in Christian circles under the fires of controversy and persecution world wide in the 1920’s and 1930’s, it sought to reconcile the belief of the imminent return of Christ to the more mundane need to translate church growth success into ministry momentum. With their successes and advances in church planting and evangelistic work dearly bought by the sacrifices of their first generation of Pentecostals came the inevitable trappings of progress: the need for a clearly defined self-identity and an organization of purpose and polity among them to sustain the vision of “the apostolic faith.” What Church of God missiologist Grant McClung aptly called “leaderless leadership” (4) in the early days of Pentecost was not found enough to deal with excesses, controversies and issues confronting it. Even the fires of the Azusa Street revival’s influence quickly cooled when faced with the dire needs of practical direction and spiritual leadership for a new generation of Pentecostal Christian disciples.

As time went on, therefore, the free flowing revivalism of the Pentecostal movement would become tempered by institutionalization, doctrinal development, creation of liturgy and tradition all its’ own, and the rise of the denominational and non-denominational forms of church order. With the coming of church order also came the emergence of intensely popular, (Even though many a Pentecostal stood firmly against the creation of church structures)organizational church structures that went beyond the local church’s congregational form, believing it to be a manmade “quenching of the Spirit” and fearful of it cutting off the liberty enjoyed in Pentecostal meetings, the trend toward organization arose regardless of their deeply felt and impassioned pleas.

The celebrated Frank Bartleman, one of the earliest witnesses of the Azusa phenomena, was an example of the staunch opposition to any organizing impulse. He felt that the revival “began to decline” as early as August, 1906 (5) due to the Apostolic Faith Mission’s choice to provide even the most simple forms of church order and publication of revival testimony. Bartleman’s understandable concern, after a lifetime of watching religious factionalism explode in holiness and Pentecostal groups, was that the spiritual unity of the Body of Christ with Jesus Himself as Head and Lord over His Church should have been enough to unify believers in the restoration work of the revival. William Durham,the dynamic Chicago minister who powerfully helped to spread the Pentecostal message after a visit to the Azusa mission and who died an untimely death in 1912 after starting his “finished work” controversy, also took a strong stand against organization:

The reason I believe that organized union of the Pentecostal Assemblies with human leaders will kill the work is that no religious awakening or revival from Pentecost till now has ever been able to retain its spiritual life and power after man had organized it and gotten it under his control (6).

Historian Edith Blumhoferobserves that “rudimentary forms of regional and national association emerged within a decade” after the Azusa Street revival of 1906, ruefully adding that “some leaders asserted that only some form of accountability could save the apostolic faith from its own excesses” (7). These discerning leaders on many fronts, sympathetic to men like Durham and Bartleman were all too familiar with the practical and doctrinal excesses emerging from various quarters of the revivalism of Pentecost, and saw the necessity for calling for organization of some sort. The temporal (economic and social) as well as spiritual benefits of creating associations for unified fellowship and ministry were too well known by the widely scattered Pentecostals to avoid.

So Pentecostals began to organize and create the first loose knit church fellowships up to and including actual denominational forms. …With organization came fellowship that brought new ideas, energies and alliances that drew upon its collective wisdom. With this change, however, many a Pentecostal began to feel that the fervor of the movement began to wane, citing their fear that the Spirit of God was being grieved by the “control” that “man” was imposing on the new work of the “latter rain.”

Organizational consolidation of the gains of early Pentecostal work brought both positive change and growth as well as disillusionment and disappointment as the “liberty” of Pentecostals began to be tempered by hierarchies of spiritual leadership, formalized doctrinal statements and pastoral oversight. Such organization, however, also brought with it opportunistic preachers who used it as a means for personal gain, church politicking, and outright manipulation in church circles, the very things Pentecost was supposed to purge Christians from.

This sadly wasn’t lost on Pentecostal believers who beheld this kind of carnal ambition. The tensions within Pentecostalism became heightened when older believers, longing for the days of old when “organization” didn’t “quench the Spirit,” began to murmur among those who were of the second generation of Pentecostals who were not eyewitnesses of those events. Longing for renewal began to occur and these pressures began to come to a head in the late 1930’s when Pentecostal organization was at its first peak of formative development.

The onset of the profound changes in society during and after the Second World War further fanned the flames of discontent among many a Pentecostal, even culminating in somberly toned articles questioning if the Pentecostal revival had run its course (8). …For many, the institutionalizing of Pentecost into the denominational and the organized had become a painful bit in their mouths that was becoming too intolerable to bear. Such developments as the National Association of Evangelical’s acceptance of Pentecostal denominations to their fold and the emergence of the first international Pentecostal World Conference fellowships were seen as carnal compromise.

The outright suspicion and even hostility to these events became the watershed moment for many a loosely knit confederation of independent Pentecostal churches, fanning the flames of their embittered criticism of their denominational Pentecostal brethren who themselves struggled with disillusionment. Restorationism being what it is, something had to give, change or come forth.

Latter Rain Restorationism: The Housewarming Begins

It was this discontented anxiety of Pentecostals over what they perceived as waning spiritual life in the 1940’s that helped pave the way for the emergence of controversial movements in the latter half of the decade that offered new promises of end time revival. The so-called “healing revival” touched off in 1946 and pioneered by “healing evangelists” such as William Branham, Gordon Lindsay, Oral Roberts, A.A Allen and Jack Coe literally swept the nation for almost two decades. They were either disillusioned former members of Pentecostal denominations or had pursued an independent ministerial course that subtly or explicitly observed how denominations and organization were bastions of division (9), even as they pursued questionable fundraising methods, teaching and ministry themselves.

And in Canada, this same dismay over spiritual sterility supposedly brought on by church organization would spur Pentecostal church men George and Ern Hawtin and Percy Hunt and Herrick Holt to break their denominational ties to found the maverick Sharon Bible School in 1947. Their attendance at a Branham crusade that year convinced them that a new wave of revival time was at hand, and the school’s classes quickly morphed into extended prayer meetings intent on ushering in that climactic last day revival (“a new thing”) ending in the Return of Jesus Christ.

Click here to hear by Real Audio William Branham’s view of the fivefold ministry.

In February 1948, a season of intensive prophecy and ecstatic praise in the meetings became accepted as the inaugural visitation of God’s last day revival, and it came to be called the Latter Rain movement. The movement became a powerful force that burned across the Northwestern and Central parts of North American Pentecostalism that brought not only “refreshing” but rabidly anti-denominational rejection of not only Pentecostal denominational organization but the established Christian church itself. Latter Rain influences split many church congregations and introduced doctrinal and practical excess claimed to be “new light.”

The Latter Rain movement is perhaps more responsible than any other spiritual influence in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles for the formulation of the doctrine of the five fold ministry. …It’s unique perspective restorationist legacy essentially laid the foundations for five foldteaching: it taught that in the last days, prophets and apostles would lead the church to perfection as a fulfillment of the Ephesians 4 mandate. Believing that God had divinely set them apart to do a “quick work” of revival and restoration of the global Christian Church, the Canadian brethren assumed that their authority was no less apostolic than Biblical apostleship.

They went about their work during revival services any Pentecostal would be captivated by through special prayer for those who wanted to be especially anointed by God with giftings of the Spirit under a presbytery of those they assumed were the first restored “apostles and prophets.” …These special prayer times were said to be times of impartation that were only to be initiated as the Spirit of God expected them: in their concise history of the Latter Rain movement’s formative days, authors Anson Shupe and Tom Craig Darrand, quoting various Latter Rain authors as well as publications produced by the Sharon ministry, help provide further light on the movement’s creation of a “fivefold” ministry expectation at it’s February 1948 outset:

God had indeed revealed to them a “scriptural” means for bringing about revival in the whole church through the new ordinance of the laying on of hands accompanied by directive prophecy. …(Milford) Kirkpatrick ..wrote of those crucial days:

“When the prophet spoke of laying on of hands and prophecy, this sent everyone to their knees, faculty and students alike. In those days we searched the Scriptures to see if these things were true. We took off for whole days. All went to their rooms to pray and read the Scriptures. On the fourth day all came out with their findings, and everyone without exception said ‘It is absolutely biblical and Scriptural.’ They quoted Hebrews 5:2 ..“

… In addition to the above description, (Reginald) Layzellthen noted the crucial point that

All ministries did not take part in the laying on of hands — only those whom the Spirit indicated had such a ministry. It was generally recognized as the ministry of prophets and apostles.(Emphasis ours). ├ö├ç┬¬├ö├ç┬¬├ö├ç┬¬.

…. In the May 1st issue of The Sharon Star (1948: 2) George Hawtin made explicit this understanding of the divine authority which had been implicit since the beginnings of revival at North Battleford. Introducing the imperative topic of authority in the bold-faced type letters “SPECIAL AND IMPORTANT NOTICE,”he proclaimed:

The receiving of spiritual gifts by prophecy and laying on of hands is a delicate and important matter that must not be attempted by anyone who has not been ordained of God for the task. He must have the ministry of a prophet, an apostle or a teacher. (10)(Emphasis mine)

This belief, though vibrantly expressed by Latter Rain teachers, would eventually be largelyrejected by the Pentecostal movement of the day. This was primarily for three reasons: …First of all, the memories of Pentecostal extremism set forth by powerful though errant preachers made the movement’s leaders, if not the members, quite wary of those who claimed new spiritual forms of authority. …Secondly, prior to the 1948 Sharon “breakthrough,” there had not been any widespread expectation or call for the creation of a ministerial corps involving apostles and prophets. There had been those who had called for “full restoration” of the “ministries” they saw described in Ephesians 4:11, but the major denominational bulk of the Pentecostal movement did not embrace their teaching, preferring to entrust leadership in pastoral ministries under the accountability of church organization. …Thirdly, the doctrinal and practical excess that ensued wherever Latter Rain influences were welcomed was also accompanied by division that confused and split so many Pentecostal churches across the nation that many church leaders had to take stands against them and to break fellowship with them due to their aggressively partisan spirit.

Click here to listen by Real Audio a Church of God (Cleveland) pastor’s account on Latter Rain church division

By the mid-1950’s, the initial explosive growth of the movement dissipated as the Pentecostal culture turned aside from it, and the leaders of the Sharon Bible School (which closed in 1952) began a new phase of itinerant ministry among those enthusiastic centers of Pentecostalism that had accepted Latter Rain teaching. Their teachings on the “fivefold ministry” had already preceded them and had trickled into the consciousness of many a Pentecostal. New teachers such as BillBritton, James Lee Beall, Bill Hamon and Ivan Spencer arose to take up the Latter Rain’s last day revival vision in primarily nondenominational settings. And inevitably the fascination with the emergence of a “new breed”of leader began to arise among those Pentecostal believers who were convinced that apostles and prophets leading a “five fold ministry”were indeed part of God’s last day’s plans. Pentecostal parachurch organizations such as the continued ministries of the “healing evangelists” as well as the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship helped provide the grassroots settings where Latter Rain influences quietly found a refuge that preserved their questionable teachings and practices.

Unaware of the controversies they caused among Pentecostals years earlier, Latter Rain teachings were widely accepted by the Interdenominational …Charismatic movement in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Many of the new Charismatic renewal groups that emerged, longing for spiritual fellowship that affirmed their discovery of the “charisms” of the Spirit, found common cause with many Pentecostals they found in their communities around them. It is a certainty that Charismatic interaction with Latter Rain-influenced Pentecostals at a grassroots fellowship level was how the five foldideal was introduced there in hundreds of anonymous occurrences. As the Charismatic renewal enjoyed its own explosive yet sustained growth, renewal leadership was perceived as in serious need for a “divine professionalism”that would consolidate Charismatic church growth of the 1960’s and 1970’s (resulting in new emphases such as the development of the “teaching center” church, a renewed emphasis on home cell groups and the highly controversial “shepherding” movement). This only further helped pave the way for a widespread acceptance of the fivefold concept – a five fold hierarchy was established within those circles of the Charismatic movement that embraced it.

Discerning The Lord’s Body

Today it is impossible to casually visit the social circles of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity and not behold the energetic ministrations of those who claim to walk under “apostolic anointings” or “prophetic mantles” alongside those who head teaching, evangelistic or pastoral ministries. They have poorly lit television programs on local access TV channels and syndicated broadcasts on Christian satellite networks. They are at home in urban megachurches as well as services held from their own apartment living rooms. Their claims to being God’s chosen vessels through which the church will be perfected are legion and taken very seriously by millions of Christian believers who view them as such.

Often lost amidst the heady expectations many of these believers have concerning the five fold ministry is an equally keen desire to uphold the Biblical mandate for careful discernment of the ministry and ministers under whose authority they choose to submit to. …These earnest disciples, sadly, are found failing to remember the sobering warning of the apostle Paul found in 1 Thessalonians 5:21-23 regarding one’s Christian walk:…Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This readiness to “prove” is directly taken from the thrust of the Greek word dokimazo,which means in the Greek to literally test, examine,prove,and scrutinize. And the literal meaning of Paul’s usage of the word pas refers to everyone, all things, and everything.…And “all things” means “all things,” and “everyone” does indeed mean “everyone.” Paul’s caution is that Christians should be holding fast to that which is good, and should firmly reject of the evil and questionable with the goal (v. 23) of preparing for the Return of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

The whole great objective any truly God-called minister should have firmly in mind is the “perfecting” of Christians they are to lead. …This is a potent description of the work of the ministry as Paul gives it Ephesians 4:12: the word in Greek is katartismos and is derived from the wordkatartizo. Both words literally describe the process of making someone or something entirely ready, prepared, and complete, with katartismos actually referring to the task of completely furnishing or equipping the same people or place with the needed resources. And it is precisely at this point that the line in the sand between the false and true fivefold minister has to be drawn so very clearly, an issue we assert must be fully understood before going any further.

Perhaps you are wondering why this is such an important issue: we urge you to consider the stakes at hand.

Since the fivefold ministry has so publicly and emphatically asserted that its stated goal is the spiritual perfection of the Church in preparation for the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the mandate of the Scriptures concerning proving all things and holding fast to that which is good is particularly crucial. …The Scriptures are filled with many a prophetic warning of how accepted, even revered church leaders will depart from the faith and in so doing, lead others astray as they draw disciples to fulfill their own egocentric and even ungodly agenda (Acts 20:30 is a prime example). We’re not talking about the obviously unstable, “flaky” preachers who stand out like a sore thumb, but those “anointed” we’ve been told to completely trust, ministers who make a great deal about their mission to ensure that the Church is brought to full Christian maturity and stability. …Many of these, the Bible foretells, will go about their business cloaked in the highest respectability all the while harboring the deepest reprehensibility.

An old church saying applies well here: as goes the pulpit, so goes the pew. …This proverb illustrates the plain fact that the Church can never arrive at any perfected, complete state ready for the coming of the Lord Jesus if the spiritual, yet human, instrumentality God uses to get it there falls short in both purity and maturity. …If they cannot model the Christian virtues of godly character exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) but instead resort to carnal attitudes that show pride, arrogance and a controlling spirit, the Church cannot hope to rise any higher than the evil example it’s being shown. …This has been the greatest thorn in the side of Christianity since Christ ascended into heaven and a primary reason why the Church is scorned, loathed and totally rejected by so many. It’s understandable when people who see self-proclaimed men of God act like lustful, manipulative devils don’t care to attend their churches.

Such “ministers” never fail to resort to some sort of intimidation, bullying and outright manipulationof people and relationships to get their way in their church circles. This abuse is a spiritual disease that has afflicted far too many in the Christian church and has caused unimaginable amounts of social and personal disruption that has for too long been overlooked solely because too many others say the “anointed”should not be “touched.” …Such ill-warranted submission to corrupt leadership has always been the greatest historical tragedy in the Christian church, and this is no less true with the concept of the “five-fold”ministry.

This is a dark side few wish to speak of, much less acknowledge. It sounds too much, many say, of "touching the anointed" or "judging", but the plain truth must be faced squarely: the last thirty years of Pentecostal and Charismatic renewal history has demonstrated that the unquestioning submission of Christians to certain immature, unscrupulous and even corrupted members of the fivefold clergy has been easily perverted by them into a diabolic controlling mechanism used to exploit and traumatize those they are to care for. It is an agonizing and cancerous reality raging deep within those specific Pentecostal and Charismatic circles that make room for the advance of the "five fold" ministry.

Using the pious image of Spirit-filled shepherding to cover it’s sinister works, this mechanism has been far too well-oiled in the hands of these clergy, who, though vastly outnumbered by hundreds of thousands of godly five fold ministers around them who toil and serve the Body of Christ selflessly, still exert enormous and ungodly influence. The magnitude of silence from Pentecostal/Charismatic Christian leaders concerning the need for balance is deafening examination of questionable authority is politically incorrect in our shallow culture, and the Church is no different.

Great spiritual damage through religious abuse has been brought upon thousands of Christians by authoritarian five-fold ministers who wield control-oriented leadership which rivals the manipulative severity of classical cult groups. We will demonstrate that there are parallels in the errors committed by imbalanced fivefold ministries and those of cults which are both sobering and disturbing, and yet they offer legitimate comparisons that are sound and defensible.

After years of outreach and counsel to those impacted by cults as a Pentecostal minister, I know what I speak of. Innumerable testimonies exist that verify this again and again. Many within the Pentecostal and Charismatic cultures have borne the afflictions of the spiritual wilderness that the errors of these ministers have created, a barren world of religious abuse, twisted Scriptures, fearful guilt, and shipwrecked faith. We will examine how this came about, why it has gained the amount of power it has in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, what forms this abuse has taken and how the "five fold" ministry itself must change to purge itself of these abuses and to no longer mutely suffer them to exist among us.

Let us now examine more in detail what the five-fold ministry says of itself, how it represents it’s claims and what are its’ overall goals, ideals, dreams and aspirations. We will do this in chapter 2.

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ENDNOTES

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(1) L. Howard Juillerat, Book Of Minutes (Church of God Publishing House, 1922) pp. 23, 27. One of the most painful examples of this is seen in the history of the Church of God (Cleveland) itself. For a time, there was a conviction that the movement was the exclusive expression of the Body of Christ. The movement’s beloved patriarch and co-founder R.G. Spurling, in his addresses to the first and second general assemblies of the fledgling movement in 1907 and 1908, helped introduce this belief to the new church, although it is arguable that he held similar views at the time of its organization in 1886. This lamentably questionable interpretation of Scripture was a view that A.J. Tomlinson, who would become its first general overseer, would expand upon later when he left the Church of God on his maverick quest to create the “Church of God of the Bible.” This notion, while it was never formally adopted as official church teaching, had wide influence that in later years, the movement painfully yet firmly matured beyond.

(2) The Apostolic Faith, January 1907, p. 4. reprint from Fred T. Corum, Like As Of Fire (self-published, 1981).…(3) ibid, September 1906, p. 2…(4) L. Grant McClung editor, Azusa Street And Beyond (Logos, 1986), p. 4.…(5) Cecil Robeck, Name And Glory: The Ecumenical Challenge, p. 18. Paper presented at the 13th Annual Conference of the Society For Pentecostal Studies, November 1983.…(6) ibid, p. 18…(7) Edith L. Blumhofer, Restoring The Faith: The Assemblies Of God, Pentecostalism And American Culture (University of Illinois Press, 1993), p. 99.…(8) The concern began to escalate into near panic in many quarters. Given the experiential angst that seems to inexorably settle among Pentecostals when revivalism seems painfully absent, such churches seemed sincerely anxious and even terrified at the possibility that the Pentecostal revivalism was burning low. For example, the Pentecostal Assemblies Of Canada, (PAOC) whose denominational paper published articles with doom-ridden titles seemingly empty of the fervent hope that first inspired them: “The Love of Many Waxen Cold”; “Is Pentecost Doomed To Defeat?” and “Is Pentecost Passing?”. See Rodney Kydd’s article on the PAOC in the Dictionary Of Pentecostal And Charismatic Movements (Zondervan, 1993), p. 697, edited by Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee.…(9) An online transcript of a sermon of Branham reveals how profoundly contradictory that some of the healing evangelists could be. At once they both affirmed the validity of denominations and then blasted them as the chief harbor of divisive spirituality:

We’ve got disunified body. We’ve got brotherly love scattered from side to side. Way down in the heart of every borned again man, this morning, in their hearts they want to embrace one another. They…?… want to do it. There’s a many a preacher here in Phoenix that belongs to the churches of different denominations would love to walk in here this morning, and take the Oneness, and the Twoness, and the Threeness, and forget their differences, and…?… Christ is in their heart. But what is it? What’s keeping them from it? Their organization. If they get caught in that bunch, they’ll get excommunicated. That’s a false unity; the Bible said so. That’s right. God never did organize His church. Now, don’t be against that. God said it had to happen. But the thing of it is among all of us, let’s be brethren.…(10) Tom Craig Darrand and Anson Shupe, Metaphors Of Control In A Pentecostal Sect (Edwin Mellen Press, 1983), p. 42, 44.

Chapter 2 …by Rev. Rafael D. Martinez, Co-Director, Spiritwatch Ministries

The five-fold ministry is a concept of church leadership based upon the ministry of men and women who have been supposedly divinely called and “anointed” with one of five “ministry gifts” listed in Ephesians 4:11. Unfortunately, as in other corps of ministerial tribes across Christendom, there are also aberrant and unstable members of this fivefold ministry that have institutionalized imbalance not only in doctrinal but practical matters to the great ruination and shipwreck of Christian faith for those hapless believers who have submitted to their authority. But I also contend that not all who claim to be in a fivefold office are necessarily involved in such serious errors. That is the last thing I would believe about the fivefold ministry! Do not claim I have said that the next person claiming to be an apostle or prophet is necessarily and automatically in error, for I have said no such thing!

There is a far greater company of five fold ministers who are steadfastly doing their best to lead the Christians who they care for into deeper depths with God. They labor largely in obscurity and humility, seeking to serve the Christian Church wherever they go. Such men and women of God are not directly responsible for the frightful kinds of imbalance that can be too easily seen today. Sadly, their inestimable good is what is so tragically spoken evil of by the abuses that do take place, but it is a credit to their walk with God that they continue pressing on in their service of His flocks worldwide.

There is much spoken of and practiced concerning the fivefold concept nowadays that is Biblical and Christ-centered, but not all of it is that spiritually healthy. That is the point that I need to make very clear: some of it is quite unbiblical and man-centered and far more of it falls into this dangerous pit than you would want to believe. I’m not writing to argue for or against the five fold concept as I have shared it – indeed, my own views on the subject would not be bought into by many in the Pentecostal and Charismatic cultures. Instead, the concept will be examined here to help provide some insight on its function from a Pentecostal perspective. This is crucial in understanding the imbalanced application and the abuses of the concept that has adversely affected Christians worldwide. We first need to understand how those of the five fold ministry see themselves and how they represent their work to the Church at large.

The Five Fold Ministry View of Itself

Let us start with the Biblical bases that five fold ministers cover when speaking of their calling. There are three New Testament verses that they cite as a Biblical mandate for what they perceive as divinely appointed leadership: these are considered foundational to their understanding of what “five fold” ministry is to be.

Ephesians 2:20 – (the household of God) built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone

Ephesians 4:8,11-13 – Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men .. And he gave some apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ

1 Corinthians 12:28 – And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

These verses are Scriptures that fivefold ministers contend are Biblical principles for Christian leadership and spiritual formation that directly mandate their calling and leadership. …The “priesthood of believers”, a Protestant distinctive advanced by Evangelicalism's emphasis on the interaction of the Christian community of faith to provide evangelistic and discipling influences (implicit in verses like 1 Corinthians 4:1 and 1 Peter 2:9) isthe basis for this innovative ministry pproach. …Fivefold ministers are to empower the church community to become active participants in the outreach and activity of the local church.

And within the literature, teaching and culture that has developed among the fivefold ministry-led churches, additional Scriptural supports are used to support the fivefold ministry ideal which provide a crucial insight into how it is practically worked out in the church community:

1 Corinthians 4:15 – For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.

Romans 1:11 – For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

The Ephesians reference concerning the "perfecting of the saints" is presented in these two verses as a process of spiritual maturation facilitated by close mentoring relationships. The modeling example of is the character of the fivefold minister in addition to their teaching & practice. The fivefold culture which is to ardently devote itself to helping Christians achieve full spiritual maturity is seen as best doing this through the intentional usage of close interpersonal relationships with them to bring about this mentoring influence. Called “spiritual fathering” in some circles, the fivefold “fathers” are to pour their lives out by godly, patient example in intimate spiritual relationships. Some fivefold ministries have established so-called “spiritual tribes” where intimate modeling occurs on a regular, even daily basis in communal settings involving itinerant traveling ministry.

Spiritualizing interpretations of these two verses as well as others throughout the Bible are employed by fivefold-influenced ministries to further expand upon this relational dimension of fivefold ministerial influence. This is one of the most notable features of fivefold ministry that can be seen beyond the identification of someone being an apostle or prophet. …A heavy emphasis on allegory and symbolism is used in fivefold-oriented teaching to bring some:…Hidden insight about current events, social controversy and even the tension between various factions in church circles. …There are various metaphors drawn from the acts of romance, fathering, creation and birthing to explain the body life of fivefold oriented ministries and congregations – interpretations that have ranged from the profound to the bizarre. ……One example is the spiritualized allegory employed by fivefold advocates who use 1 Kings 18:44 as an additional clarification of their divine calling. The verse reads:

1 Kings 18:44 And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.

This has a reference to a cloud seen by the prophet Elijah that was the size of a man’s hand during the approach of a rainstorm. The literal rainstorm signified His sovereignty to apostate Israel after his clash with the false prophets of Baal, but those who advance fivefold ministry using this verse have to do so on a very shaky supposition: one five-fold pastor and writer offers a typical allegorical approach:…When Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal, the glory of God appeared to Elijah’s servant ├ö├ç┬¬ Elijah was on Mount Carmel with Ahab and four hundred prophets of Baal. Seven times Elijah sent his servant to look for any signs of rain. The seventh time he went, (seven is God’s perfect number) he saw a little cloud, as a hand, raising out of the sea. As we view what God is revealing Spiritually, we discover the cloud shaped like a man’s hand rising out of the sea represents something very special. The sea represents a multitude of peoples, nations, and tongues. The hand coming out of the sea of people represents the five fold ministry God is raising up in the earth: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, *** Ephesians 4:11. The fact the hand is little reveals this is a small group or remnant that will rise out of the great multitude of people to do God’s service. The cloud represents God’s glory. God’s glory will shine upon this remnant ministry to usher in the Kingdom of God upon the earth. Today there is a sea of over six billion people on the earth. There has never been this many people on the earth at one time in history. Out of that sea of people, God is raising the little hand ministry. It is coming with the cloud of glory, and it will minister with the power and glory of God. (11)

Each “finger”, representing one of the five fold offices, comprises the total “hand” ministry. This goes on to beg the question: if a hand is being employed to figuratively portray the fivefold ministry, what significance – if any – is there of the position of the fingers involved? Some fivefold advocates claim that the thumb and index finger that this dubious illustration of the five fold ministry relate are fulfilled by the apostolic and prophetic offices and go to great lengths in providing elaborate expansions upon the symbolism of the word picture. Others make no such distinctions and indeed downplay them. As we’ve pointed out, the diversity in fivefold ministry can make consensus on such a position a fairly complicated task.

So what are the fivefold ministries generally trying to accomplish? Why do they exist and who is involved in them? A full discussion of this goes way beyond the scope of our article, and rightly deserves a better investigation than I can provide here but I think I can safely say that there are three overall objectives that five fold ministers would generally agree upon as the measure of their ministerial achievement:

1.Spiritual Growth – The goal of the “perfecting of the saints” or the discipling, equipping and spiritual maturation of Christian believers under the oversight of the fivefold ministry is one its’ chief goals. As the passages in Ephesians 4 point out, the mature believer will be one no longer tossed to and fro by the currents of doctrinal falsehood, but will be rooted firmly in the Faith. …Dutch fivefold pastor J.H. Koningconcisely explains how the five ministerial “gifts” are to interact in the context of the local Christian church.…Let’s have a look at the five-fold ministry.…As a father provides for the family, so will …Theapostle feed with the Word. …The prophet will then bring light, revelation and the truth. …The evangelist brings the salvation message, he directs to the Lamb.…The shepherd ministry is the ministry close to the heart of God and finally The teacher will wash with the Word (12).

With the glaringly and even woefully anemic spiritual state of believers as well as churches worldwide in a spiritual malaise all too obvious to behold, it would seem to be most encouraging and heartening to know that there are spiritual mentors and shepherds actively dedicated to the betterment and strengthening of the members of the Church. …Several years ago, in a local meeting of a fivefold ministry held in a Holiday Inn ballroom, I beheld and videotaped the oracle of a fivefold prophet who prophesied the emergence of a “new form”and “new move”of God’s Spirit through two local self-proclaimed apostles whose “ministry” became anything but a new move of God (but we’ll discuss that later): …this prophet’s utterance reinforced the perfecting goal, however factionalizing the manner in which it was phrased:

For man has had his turn to do it his way, and they have arranged the offices of my callings as they have seen fit. I say no more. I say no more. And I am raising up through these apostles the new form and the new move of my Spirit, which moves in the five fold ministry, not in the one fold ministry. It begins with the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists and the pastors and the teachers. And as every man stands in his place and his anointing that I have set for him, then the people are correctly fed, and the people are correctly taught, and the people are correctly raised up in discernment (13). (Click here to watch the prophecy)

2. Church Leadership – As has already been mentioned, the raising up of the five fold ministry in the local church is seen as a provision of divinely appointed leadership for the Body of Christ. Since they have been raised up by God’s express will, the person of the five fold minister is seen as a Spirit-led “gift” to the church which it must heed and follow. They are leaders with special “offices” and ministries to guide and govern the Christian Church that drew upon the leadership gifts present in believers other than the traditional Pentecostal leadership roles of pastors. …Such leadership, specially chosen of God and empowered by His Spirit, should be entrusted with the role of appointing church elders whose ministry they in turn will oversee as well-known fivefold pastor Bob Yandianobserves:

First, let’s consider Acts 14:23 … Paul and Barnabas were the ones who ordained the elders. What office did they stand in? They stood in the office of apostle. .. The principle should be clear. Those in ministry offices choose the elders; therefore, they have the authority over them. It’s a simple delegation of authority. .. Who chooses the elders? The pastor does (Titus 1:5). Who has authority over them? The pastor does. We are not talking about authority in a natural sense of understanding. We are talking about divine authority which comes from the throne of God to the people through a ministry gift chosen and equipped by the Lord Jesus Christ. (14) (emphasis author’s).

In recent years, with the onset of the “church growth” enterprise in Christian church leadership circles, much has been done to intentionally create new leadership models where church staffs adopt a team-based leadership structure based on intensely relational and interactive sharing and planning. The principles behind this have been circulated virtually throughout all of Christendom and have helped to foster the development of megachurches, “seeker-sensitive” church worship philosophy and the small group/cell church movements. Such innovations seemed tailor made for the fivefold ministries in Charismatic and Pentecostal churches worldwide. They have lead to their enthusiastic creation of “apostolic teams” and “spiritual father” mentoring programs as one of many new forms of Christian leadership, as advanced by fivefold “teaching apostle” Jim Hodges:

The Lord is shifting the Church into a five fold paradigm of ministry. We are abandoning one man ministry patterns for the team pattern. We are also moving from maintenance leadership into visionary leadership. This issue is addressed by both George Barna and Dr. C. Peter Wagner in their writings. .. This shift has to do with prioritizing the apostolic dimension of leadership while strongly embracing the pastoral dimension of leadership. The Church needs to pursue divine mission (apostolic) and to be maintained (pastoral). The church has shifted and continues to shift from a democratic form of government into a theocratic form of government. We are moving from a religious bureaucratic system to a fatherly-relational government which we find illustrated in the relationship of Paul and Timothy (15).

This is a profoundly insightful quote with implications consistent with the fivefold view of mentoring discipleship drawn from 1 Corinthians 4:15 and Romans 1:11. The importance of this connection will be discussed later and should be intentionally noted for reference.

Hodges here concurs and commends a specific kind of discipling model that is advocated by C. Peter Wagner, one of the most influential church leaders of the twentieth century. Wagner, a former Bolivian missionary, is known widely across the Protestant world as a renowned “church growth” consultant and professor teaching at the Fuller Seminary in California whose teachings on the subject were augmented by his enthusiastic embracing of more controversial classes involving the seeking of divine intervention to facilitate evangelism that includes and isn’t limited to things like miraculous signs and wonders like healings, demonic deliverance and prophetic utterances. Like many other fivefold ministers, Hodges readily defers to Wagner’s writings on this leadership “shift,” seeing them almost as a divine authentication of the truth claims of the five fold “paradigm.”

Wagner is on record as having embraced the teachings and authority of self-proclaimed fivefold “prophet”Bill Hamon. Hamon’s influence is no less seminally profound in fivefold ministry circles and cannot beoverstated.

And yet he is almost an invisible figure among them, even as his teachings are readily accepted as authoritative guidance by hundreds of thousands of fivefold ministers as well as millions of Christians globally for the past two decades.

3. End Time Mission – The progressive influence of the fivefold ministry is clearly essential to the final plan of God for world evangelization and the Christian church’s edification, according to the fivefold mindset. In fact, the fivefold ministry would assert, the Body of Christ cannot function properly nor come remotely close to the divine potential her Head has ordained she should rise to without His usage of their ministry to evangelize the world and equip the saints, as the Fountaingate Christian Foundation, a fivefold international teaching ministry in Australia emphasizes:

Christ has distributed ministry gifts, which enable the Church to function as His Body. But the five gifts of Ephesians 4:11 have a special purpose .. These five ministry gifts are not titles (eg. Apostle John, Prophet Jack, Pastor Paul), but ministry functions (eg. John an apostle, Jack a prophet, Paul a pastor). There is nothing “elevated” about these gifts (see 1 Corinthians 4:9-13). They simply have a special purpose .. These five leadership gifts were not simply given to do the work of the ministry but to enable God’s people to do the work of the ministry. .. The five-fold ministry did not pass away at the end of the first century, but was given until the maturing of the Body in unity, knowledge and expression of Christ’s fullness. Only when the ministries of Ephesians 4:11 begin functioning as God intended – both as individual ministries and as apostolic teams – will the purpose of their joint ministry be fulfilled “…until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” Ephesians 4:13 (16).

The Fountaingate brethren remind us again of just what the fivefold are set in place to do, to facilitate the full maturing of the Christian hurch enmasse,…but we must leave it to Latter Rain-influenced fivefold apostle/prophet Bill Hamon to make an even more radical claim: the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ actually depends upon fivefold influence:

All five, when moving in full maturity, represent Christ’s full ministry to the Church. These ministries are not just an extension of Body ministry, but an extension of the headship of Christ to His Body, the Church. .. All fivefold ministries must be restored to the Church before it can be ready for Christ’s return (Acts 3:21) (17).

This statement Hamon makes here is another one that should be noted for future reference, for as we shall see, his instruction here is not the idealized wish of a man yearning for Christian perfection but the foundation of a theology with staggering implications.

I will allow the passionate pen of Canadian fivefold “senior elder” Michael Scantlebury to provide what would seem to be the best summarization of how the fivefold ministry today view themselves. As I have observed, there is great diversity of opinion and teaching on this subject (which is a significant point that must be considered carefully), but Scantlebury’s article seems to capture the spirit of the fivefold ministry quite well:

The five-fold ministry gifts are examples of how “grace has been given as Christ apportioned it” (Ephesians 4:7). All ministry is simply the ministry of Christ expressed through the believer by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Regarding the “Five-fold” ministry gifts; it is as if the Lord Jesus Christ when He was about to leave planet earth did similar to what Elijah did to Elisha and released his mantle to him. The only major difference with Jesus is that He tore His Mantle into five pieces and released them back into the earth – Namely Apostolic, Prophetic, Evangelistic, Pastoral and Teaching! Please understand that:…Christ is our Apostle (Hebrews 3:1)…Christ is our Prophet (Luke 24: 19)…Christ is our Evangelist (Matthew 9: 35)…Christ is our Pastor/Shepherd (1 Peter 5: 2-4)…Christ is our Teacher (John 3: 2)…Every ministry (including that of the five-fold) is an extension of the ministry of Christ Himself, who is the chief cornerstone of the Foundations “…God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone” Ephesians 2: 19-20. …The foundation of the Church is the apostle and the prophet (note Ephesians 3: 4-5). Ephesians 4: 12-13 indicates that these two ministries still continue in that foundational role, so it is vital for us to understand how each of these ministries work (18).

These are the claims of a global fivefold ministry being manifest across the world, supposedly at the leading of God’s Spirit, to help equip, perfect and prepare the Church for the Second Coming of Christ. I have attempted to allow them to spell their case out to help us understand where they are coming from. This fivefold ministry is the backbone of much of the Charismatic and Pentecostal worlds that break the seas of Christian humanity everywhere, and their tribe is on the increase.

Since many Christian researchers have plainly stated that…Charismatic/Pentecostal forms of Christian faith and practice are the fastest growing Christian influences in the world, coming to understand their leadership among us would seem an essential element in helping us not only appreciate their “anointing” but to also discern their doings. …Alarmingly, amid all of the excitement and energy that more and more Pentecostal and Charismatic churches are now dedicating to the concept is also an almost total lack of discernment and care in its rushing ahead to embrace “the new thing.”

Completely hidden in plain sight in the fivefold galaxy is the potential for the greatest restorational romanticism as well as radical ruination of the fields of the Lord among Charismatics and Pentecostals that I have ever seen.

Since very few among our movements seem to be raising this critical issue, I shall add my own voice of discernment to it, the frightening power resident in the five fold ministry to both restore as well as ruin will be understood better in our next chapter.

No Consensus beyondthe Concept

The issue suggests an even deeper question: if the fivefold ministry has been lost to the church and is now recovered, when were apostles and prophets actually “restored” to the Church? In my years of ministry and in sharing with those who hold fast to five fold ministry concepts, I have come to learn that an answer to that question will depend on who you are speaking with as you may get many different answers.

Some believe this occurred at the beginning of the Pentecostal outpouring over 100 years ago, whereas some view them as “ascension gift ministries” that were restored into the earth under the auspices of the Latter Rain movement in Western Canada in 1948. Still others hold that prophets were restored in the 1980’s and apostles in the 1990’s (this is becoming a dominant view), and that still greater restorations and revivals will come as a result of their emergence into the church world, as we will see. The point is that, for now, it is believed that the five fold ministry is a divinely restored ministerial institution that God has raised up to lead the Christian Church in the last days.

Beyond the observation that such a model is needed, little else is universally understood let alone agreed upon in how the fivefold minister is to function in the local church. …I have come to this conclusion after 22 years as a Pentecostal minister who has dialogued with many Charismatic and Pentecostal fivefold ministry figures, read a lot of their literature, listened to their preaching and teaching and who has also shared with those under their ministerial authority. …There is amazingly little that is agreed upon as to how the concept is to be incorporated into Christian church circles with wide diversity of opinion and teaching on the role of fivefold ministry is to play. …In many Pentecostal and Charismatic quarters, the fivefold ministry isn’t even recognized, let alone understood. …In his book The House Of His Choosing, on page 109, this is briefly alluded to by fivefold pastor/prophet Jim Wiesalmost in passing: “..the number of prophetic procedures are probably as many as the number of kinds of churches.”

This casual comment is both compelling..and cautionary, revealing a state of affairs among Pentecostal and Charismatic churches who believe in being led by one Spirit in one accord (1 Corinthians 12:13, Ephesians 4:4 and Philippians 1:27) but who instead facilitate a diversity that is maddeningly sectarian in and of itself.

In speaking with those ranging from youth group leaders to Bible college students to church mothers, I find the willingness of Pentecostals and Charismatics to accept the fivefold ministry concept to be undeniable and enthusiastic. …To them, the gracious gifting of the church with the fivefold ministry as described in Ephesians 4:11 is a direly needed new reality the church sorely needs today. And yet beyond the conviction that the fivefold ministry fills a necessary place in their churches, few of these same people seem to have a clear grasp upon just what those places actually consist of. I have yet to hear of any widespread consensus on how the fivefold ministry is to work together, “flowing under the anointing”of the Spirit, to intentionally foster the spiritual growth of Christians under their influence.

This should be the legacy of a practical outworking of the Ephesians 4 mandate they are to fulfill: the establishing of a solid unity of the Church in the faith and knowledge of Christ that results in a spiritual perfection manifest in both personal and doctrinal integrity among the members of the Body of Christ within it. One would assume that some mutual and indepth understanding and wisdom should be shared and adhered to. Startlingly, this is not to be found. This is a rather astonishing observation, but one I think is borne out by my own years of participation in the Christian church circles where the fivefold ministry has long been accepted. There doesn’t appear to be any one authoritative figure or body of authoritative teaching on fivefold doctrine or practice that is universally agreed upon. …However, there are many luminaries in the Charismatic and Pentecostal who certainly would lay claim to that kind of binding authority and who let their disciples say so, while clinging to a pretended humility cloaking naked and carnal ambition.

Now certainly there is no shortage of views, opinions, and teachings on this issue as shared by many fivefold ministers. In fact, there has been an exponentially growing amount of activity, publications and meetings incorporating the apostolic and prophetic dimensions of the fivefold ministry in the past 10 years like never before. One can find an increasing amount of writings and popular teachings that expound upon one view or another on the fivefold ministry, but there is no universal standard of ministerial task agreed upon by all that exists. …There is great acceptance of the ministry of the fivefold prophet, for example, and equally great receptivity to their dispensing of “rhemas” and prophetic words in special services. ……Such prophets fill churches, hotel banquet rooms and convention centers everywhere with people seeking their divine oracles and hearing their preaching.

But in the cold dawn of the day after their visitations, one will find that there is little agreement upon just what their day to day ministerial responsibilities would be within the local church when working together with other “fivefold” figures as mandated by the Ephesians 4:11 ministry model. …Contrast this absence of clearly understood fivefold ministry mission interaction to that which is well known concerning the traditional roles of pastors and teachers in the local church and you will understand what I am referring to.

Because there is a real lack of generally accepted definition of their ministry functions when working together, the inevitable has occurred: …the development of a generally confusing and contradictory theological tangle concerning their operation in the contemporary Church.…This is a profoundly significant issue that has enormous implications for the fivefold ministry as it exists today. Imagine trying to build your dream retirement home with contractors, architects, construction workers and foremen who couldn’t decide what the symbols on the blueprints mean, how to plumb the home or if plaster is the same as concrete. Imagine the quality and stability of a building whose builders couldn’t agree on the dimensions or where the fixtures should be installed and what might be the result. Windows might be placed in closets, power outlets might be wired incorrectly or not at all, and the walls may have gaping crevasses open to the exterior because the drywall and framing wasn’t properly squared. …Now try to imagine what would happen when the local building inspector comes to check up on the structural integrity of such a home before anyone can dwell in it. What kind of results from the inspection would you expect to receive? How would you feel after you’ve spent your lifetime saving and sacrificing for a well built home only to find what could only be described as a real mess? It might be a laughable word picture straight out of a “Home Improvement” episode where Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor has gotten loose with comedic havoc on some construction project. ……But the spiritual maturity of the fivefold-led house of the Lord during the dusk of the last day of the last days is no laughing matter,and this illustration regrettably seems to me to be a good image of just how tragically incomplete the fivefold-led Christian church actually is.

I would contend further that it demonstrates how high and dry the Christian church has actually been left with its lack of fivefold doctrinal and practical agreement. …For with the lack of Body wide understanding and agreement upon this issue, how can the Church be then perfected as it is supposed to be? How can the Christian Church truly mature and rise to its’ God-ordained potential if the fivefold aren't working together as they should? While much is made about the church embracing some latent glory it is supposed to arise to, buzzwords like "destiny" and "new things" are thrown about in five fold circles as an exciting prophecy of deeper depths and higher heights.

But while there is a lot of planning, funding and activity observed everywhereit doesn’t immediately translate to observable progress that can be measured and assessed. In this Pentecostal’s perspective, the hard truth yet remains: the much hyped impact of the "fivefold"to change the church’s destiny leaves much to be desired and much differing, even contradictory viewpoints afloat everywhere will not contribute to a complete church but instead bring about a confused one instead.

Much Confusion aboutThe Concept

Let’s consider a few of these rather fundamental contradictions, glaring disagreements that seem to quash any real foundational direction for a fivefold ministry role. Consider this question – which of the fivefold ministry roles, if any, are to be the most authoritative in the local church? …Which of the fivefold ministry roles provide divine guidance to them? …Fivefold pastor Bob Yandianmakes this rather incredible and unequivocal statement: “The pastor holds the same position in the local church that the Lord Jesus Christ does in the universal church” (19). …But it is firmly countered by the teaching of Morningstar Ministries founder Rick Joyner, the well-known fivefold prophet who asserts that “the prophetic ministry is the primary vehicle through which the Lord gives timely direction to his people” (20). …This obviously suggests some serious differences in so very vital a question.…Another issue that arises is that the fivefold are said by some to be able, through the laying on of hands and by prophetic utterance, to “impart” to others actual spiritual giftings and ministry callings. …Spiritual giftings (described in 1 Co. 12:4-11) and …Spirit-empowered ministry (described in Romans 12:4-8) are Biblically ordered manifestations of divine power extended into the natural world and are accepted as a part of normative Christian faith among Pentecostals and Charismatics. …Many questions arise over spiritually gifted believers submitting to the fivefold ministry model, but none more basic than this one: does the fivefold ministry “activate” spiritual giftings and callings to believers through any sort of impartation? ……Without a doubt yes, says Californian fivefold apostle David Cannistraci: “Apostles may assemble a prophetic presbytery to lay hands on those ..being ordained. .. This team ..will impart spiritual gifts to candidates” (21). …But the late Kenneth Hagin, well known Word of Faith (and fivefold) teacher, strongly disagrees with: “That's impossible! I call it laying empty hands on empty heads! And it causes a problem in the Body of Christ ..it is dangerous to do so” (22). …Hagin’s vehement protest raises a few issues here which we will get into later, but for now, it is important to emphasize that such a strong disagreement cannot be lightly ignored.

A third major question is also quite basic to the issue at hand: does the fivefold ministry actually provide governing leadership in the Christian Church? …Although there is generalized agreement that fivefold ministers, by default, are deemed to be church leaders, there is still disagreement upon to what extent their “governments”(1 Cor. 12:28) should directly lead the church. “The fivefold ministry is not really a ‘government’ for the church. They are ministries to function within the strategy and vision (of the local church)” says Dutch fivefold pastor Abraham Flippo (23). But Flippo’s idealism would appear to be directly countered by Rick Joyner’s assertion he penned for a “revival” magazine stating that “some of the church’s important spiritual generals .. (the fivefold) .. will equip the saints .. and lead them with strategy and vision” (24). …This exaltation of the role of the fivefold ministry in the church is widespread, but by no means has it been raised to a cultural constant among Pentecostals and Charismatics. No matter their status and the deference given them, they have yet to find a place of authority so compelling that church leaders outside their circles readily submit to them.

The point of these brief comparisons is simply this: anyone should be willing to concede that where there is confusion or disagreement among so great a number of influential Christian leaders the very real danger for misguidance is also present. …The sheer size of the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements and the subcultures that have developed under their influence have guaranteed the development of schools of thought, doctrine and practice among them that are often at odds with one another. Whole cultures and worlds of Christian life exist within the Body of Christ that have little to no contact with one another simply because of their cultural and geographic remoteness from one another. And this has enormous consequence that directly affects how the fivefold idea is articulated and circulated among the “Full Gospel” flocks of the Lord. The Charismatic Latter Rain circles of the Northwest have much in common and yet very distinctive differences from the Pentecostal cultures of the Church of God of Prophecy in South India, just as surely as the small village Pentecostal fellowships of Haitians would find common cause yet radically differ from the urban church life of Stockholm’s Word of Faith adherents in Sweden.

That such differences exist is not the issue, but what they imply is what is often completely overlooked by many of the aspiring fivefold innovators of the day. They try to sidestep the denominational, ethnic and historical directions they have taken independently of one another, and even try to put into a comfortable context they've settled on that rationalizes away this long standing diversity – all the while trying to introduce their own notion of a fivefold ministry authority that they teach should be followed as the sure path to Christian unity and reconciliation. …These differences that exist, however, and their inevitable result is the creation of even morefactionalism, more polarization between the disciples of Teacher W or Pastor X – but in new contexts involving the entire Charismatic and Pentecostal movements globally.

While their goals may be noble, the results are very much indeed a mixed bag with many a sharp, even slashing, edge protruding. For there is no mass arising of church unity seen anywhere among these church circles, let alone the Body of Christ. The plain truth is that the external signs of such “unity” are, for all of their heartfelt expression, quite minimal and make little impact on the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches, let alone the rest of the Body of Christ globally.

Disagreement on how the fivefold ideal is to operate shouldn’t be accepted as a sign of healthy diversity alone but a very real and present danger as well, for it is the Holy Spirit of Godthat is said to be the author of such contradictory and confusing fivefold teachings. If this appalling situation is indeed the case, if God’s Spirit is responsible for the inspirations that prompt the fivefold to disagreement, then the very foundations of Christian truth are under a load that will certainly crumble it. …Jesus Christ our Lord made clear two millennia ago that a house divided against itself will not stand. That applies to the house of God found in the hearts of His people who dwell in the sphere of Charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity as well as the rest of the Body of Christ. …To believe that divine truth can be so easily contradicted by the preferential choice of one church faction over another is to undermine the foundations of Christian faith. Of course we would agree that there are always going to be cultural differences and differences of emphasis among believers around the world, but the plain fact that there is no universally accepted doctrinal or practical standard established on Biblical principles that would govern the fivefold ministry leaves a wide open door for both innovation and insurrection, for control freaks as well as the “Spirit led”, for revival fire as well as renewal wildfire.

We’ve been compelled to mention throughout these first two chapters, as well as imply in our series title that there have been dark things afoot in the shadows cast by the bright images and vibrant fellowship of fivefold ministry. We’ve alluded to them throughout these first two chapters with little understatement for the issue is serious enough that it demands direct confrontation. These incidents have left hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of Christians in the dust to deal with the crushing impact of spirituality twisted to the dictates of men and women behaving very badly indeed. In our next chapter, we will have to unblinkingly expose, examine and define this tragic phenomenon and call it what it really is – spiritual abuse wrought by the hand of “fivefold ministry.”

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ENDNOTES

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(11) http://www.newfoundationspubl.org/mercy.htm. The author, George Kirkpatrick, claims to be a pastor and teacher of a New Jerusalem Fellowship in Fort Fairfield, Maine. Regrettably, as if to underscore just how questionably spiritualizing his interpretation becomes, you may find on his site his writings claiming spiritual parallels between the Body of Christ and the Great Pyramid of Giza, using the same kind of unsound Biblical interpretation that led other groups such as the Watchtower Society into viewing human landmarks as sources of divine truth: “We pray the Spiritual insight given in this book will inspire you to seek God in a new way, a new and living way, as we examine the interior of God’s Stone Bible.”

(12) http://www.catchlife.org/divine_government.htm. Archived page on file.…(13) Unknown local fivefold prophet “Prophetic Word.” Home video, August 29, 1998…(14) Bob Yandian, Decently And In Order (Whitaker House, 1983), p. 11, 19…(15) http://www.fmcapostolicnetwork.com/articles/time_to_shift.htm.…(16) http://www.churchlink.com.au/churchlink/fountaingate/index.html.…(17) Bill Hamon, Prophets And Personal Prophecy (Destiny Image, 1987), p. 91-92…(18) http://www.dominion-life.org/five_fold_ministry.htm …(19) Yandian, ibid, p. 23.…(20) Rick Joyner, Overcoming The Religious Spirit (Morningstar, 1995), p.16…(21) David Cannistrici, The Gift Of Apostle (Regal, 1996)…(22) Kenneth Hagin, He Gave Gifts Unto Men (Faith, 1994), p. 5…(23) http://www.grmi.org/renewal/new-wine/list/archives/0180.htm. Archived page on file.…(24) Rick Joyner, “The Mark Of A Prophet.” Send The Fire, June 1998, p. 9.

Chapter 3…by Rev. Rafael D. Martinez, Co-Director, Spiritwatch Ministries

One of the popular marks of the modern evangelical movement, out of which the Charismatic and Pentecostal worlds have emerged, is how eagerly it identifies itself with what is best described as “old time religion.” This is a term coined by popular evangelical thought that associates itself in cherished religious traditions that can be traced at once back to the piety of early American Protestant revivalism as well as that of the ancient first century church.

Indeed, this is a spiritual supposition rooted in the kind of restorationism we’ve been talking about. This historical connection to the neverending progression of Christian church history is undeniable, although there is much about the restorationist ideal itself that could be questioned.

The point is that the concept of “old time religion” is near and dear to the ideals of virtually all Christendom, even if how it is understood varies from church to church. But along with old time religion has come an equally old time deception, a scourge that has done more to confuse, mislead, smother and outright destroy many earnest and zealous people who have sincerely sought to serve God as Christian believers. This terrible phenomenon can literally be defined as spiritual abuse and it is the sad context in which this has taken place in places where the fivefold idea is held that we must now examine.

Spiritual abuse, as we have defined it in other places in our website articles, is the inner psychological and emotional trauma suffered by members of churches/religious organizations which have used authoritarian and manipulative teachings and practices to control both their thought and behavior – whether the abuse was intentional or not. The bottom line of spiritual abuse is that it occurs when edification is cloaked manipulation. Unscrupulous leaders inflict spiritual abuse through the domination and control of followers who are compelled by induced fear or pride to adopt lifestyle changes that serves their own agenda – not the love of God or the spiritual health of the follower. …Ultimately, this exploitation leaves them in a pathetic dependence upon their association with the church or religious group to provide them meaning, a relationship with God, and even any notion of personality or significance. This is a tragic and all too common reality in both cultic movements and aberrant churches. What is even more tragic, however, is that most spiritually abusive leaders of aberrant churches sincerely believe that the degree of unbiblical submission they are demanding of their followers is necessary for their good. There are few more devastating personal intrusions into life than the spiritual trauma inflicted by twisted people who claimed divine authority to gain trusted access into the deepest part of someone’s heart, soul and mind and to manipulate them at their will in degrading, terrifying ways beyond belief.

Biblical Insight into Spiritual Abuse

One of the accusations made by skeptics today is that the Bible is an ancient, dusty old book that is out of touch with the needs of modern man, offering answers to questions no one has asked for thousands of years in a completely different culture. While this sounds like an airtight argument, it implodes once the pages of the Bible are fairly considered. The full counsel and wisdom of God’s Word speaks authoritatively and completely to not only the need of humanity in the past but today and in the years to come should the return of Christ tarry. And on the subject of spiritual abuse, the Scriptures give clear and sobering insight into how spiritually abusive authorities plagued the people of God in Bible times with the same kind of shameful behavior that we see today in the Christian church.

In the book of the prophet Ezekiel is recorded one of the most gripping indictments of Yahweh himself upon the rulers of Israel whom He addressed as “the shepherds” of his own people. It stands as probably the most detailed divine insight given in the Bible as to how followers, referred to as sheep, are abused by spiritual leaders:

Ezekiel 34:1-6…And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.

And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.

The prophetic utterance of God as delivered by Ezekiel sternly rebukes Israel’s leaders for their vicious exploitation and manipulative control of the people of God. God’s divine perspective misses nothing as He reveals how Israel’s population were systematically being neglected due to the self-centered interest shown by these errant “shepherds”, and promises them that their rule will be cut short by the extension of His judgment upon them.

In John 10 in the New Testament, Jesus uses the same shepherding metaphor in the parables he told that sharply rebuked the self-righteous Pharisees who were confronting him for his healing of a blind man on the Sabbath. For them, this was an intolerable breach of their legalistic mindset that forbade any “work” on such a day. Christ’s parable in verses 11-13 sharply contrasted the care of a flock of sheep by a cowardly and self-centered hired hand with that of a self-sacrificial shepherd when danger threatened it:

John 10:11-13…I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.

In relating this parable, Jesus gave further insight into how spiritually deficient ministers conduct themselves as their flocks are confronted by other leadership figures who are plainly abusive. True shepherds stand to defend their flocks, but those lacking in Christian character and integrity will instead stand aside and allow the attack upon and exploitation of Christian churches continue: they will not hesitate to compromise and display shameful cowardice under the real trial as they abandon their congregations to the full impact of abusive influence. But in readily submitting their shepherding responsibility when challenged by the supposedly more “highly anointed”, so-called “shepherds” actually demonstrate a shocking and utter dereliction of pastoral duty. The fact that Christ delivers this warning to the Pharisees in contrasting such “hirelings”, as He identifies them, to true spiritual leaders demonstrates how keenly aware he was of their own example that perpetuated their own abusive and manipulative direction.

And a final glimpse of how spiritual abuse would spread throughout the Christian era is chillingly related in other New Testament passages. Here we see apostolic prophecies delivered by Paul and Peter about the arising of false prophets, false teachers and false apostles who deceive Christians, divide churches and deny the Lordship of Christ:

Acts 20:29-30…For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

2 Cor. 11:12-15…But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. For such 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 Peter 2:1-3…But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

In Acts 20, Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders had to be as jolting as the words of Christ given to the twelve disciples at their last supper before his death: it is filled with encouraging exhortation as well as sobering lamentation. Paul gives them prophetic perspective about how even among themselves corruption of leadership would occur that would shatter the unity of the Ephesian church with false teaching and drawing away their own followings, even reminding them he’d been warning them of this for a full three years in his ministry there. In 2 Corinthians 11, after his epic warning of the church in verse 4 about their toleration of those who preached falsehood out of an arrogant desire to create their own followings, Paul plainly calls these figures “false apostles” and likens them to the Satan’s own masquerade as an “angel of light.” …It is these apostolic pretenders whose false doctrine and personal agenda are hidden by an astonishingly and supremely deceptive personal manner.

And all of this was not lost on the apostles of the New Testament church: …2 Peter 2 contains the admonition of the apostle Peter who warns of “false prophets” and “false teachers.”These were wandering characters who rambled around the ancient Near East seeking followings and who, when accepted into Christian fellowships, secretly introduced “damnable heresies” that denied Christ and morally and spiritually corrupted their followers. …Their personal manner and smooth talk lured many into their orbit, set upon an intentional deception that cunningly weighed their audience’s hearts and minds as sure as one would inspect fruit or cattle for defects in the marketplace.

We could continue reviewing other Biblical passages that bring further insight into this horrific history, but the message here is unmistakable in its clarity: the Triune God views very dimly those who lay claim to the care of the people of God, and who instead abuse, deceive and oppress them. …God’s essential nature, as the Bible says, is love, but this is completely obscured by the minister of God who demonstrates hateful dysfunction in his or her own public and private character and example. Such a misrepresentation of the glory of God is a twistedly depraved act that incurs His great anger. …In fact, He makes clear that dire judgment faces these parties which will bring upon them eternal destruction and separation from God!

And the objects of that divine wrath are whom the apostles targeted for rebuke – those who claimed to be apostles, prophets and teachers who abused their authority and plundered the church with demonic cunning! …That is why the ministry of discernment that upholds truth and exposes error as well as providing pastoral admonition as well as prophetic confrontation is so vital in the last days for a church that is blazing with wildfire and strange fire that refuses to be quenched because of its ability to tap into sources of fuel so easily in the pews. …Unfortunately, as we will see, discernment in the last days church is at all time low and the proliferation of abusive church leadership continues to grow, with errant fivefold “ministers” at the forefront.

Three Traits Of Spiritually Abusive Groups

What does spiritual abuse look like? The cultic groups that prey upon unwary churchgoing people are often the most visible perpetrators of spiritual abuse and as we shall see will provide three observable examples for us to gauge what the line is between spiritual direction and spiritual abuse. …As a Pentecostal minister who has been involved in attempting to counter the advances of the Cultworld, that dark culture of deception knit throughout human society seen in cultic movements globally, I have seen enough of this to know what I am speaking with, having labored in this field for over 20 years. I have intimate and first hand knowledge with the social circles of cult groups, have been in their meetings, talked with leaders and ex-members alike, and have a vast library of cultic literature and media.

I did not start out in the ministry in 1983 to go this direction but the Holy Spirit had other plans for me, and I have since become an observer as well as participant in the effort to understand cults for what they are and how to respond to them. The following three traits are what I have readily seen in each and every cultic group I have ever followed.

The theologies and practices may differ, but the human equation is always the same:

Abuse Trait # 1:…A Legalistic Worldview Mandated By Doctrinal Error ├ö├ç├┤

Cults relentlessly indoctrinate their followers into embracing their own group’s perspective on reality as the only “true” way to think and act as a result of their emphasized application of unbiblical and false teaching. Members of cults believe that ultimate truth is determined only by their leadership’s unique interpretation of Scripture, with no regard to whether or not it is Biblically based or logically sound. …So their own personal lifestyle choices are therefore defined by rigid codes of conduct, tradition and regulation that smother personal initiative. This arises from the creation of a rigid black and white mindset based on their own group moral imperatives that are taken from the group’s twisting of Scripture.

In the cultic church Remnant Fellowship, the precepts of its self-proclaimed “prophet” Gwen Shamblin directly impact the daily lives of its membership. Shamblin and her cadre of leaders micromanage Remnant members by compelling obedience to their personal directives drawn from her unbiblical teachings that leave no room for discussion. This is executed by a leadership hierarchy they claim is a Biblically mandated “authority line.” This top-down direction effectively reinforces their control to a degree beyond belief. In fact Shamblin’s hatred of the Christian Church and self-inflated view of her church movement’s “purity” is so warped that she uses a Hollywood motif as a propaganda tool to indoctrinate her following with. Remnant identifies itself as "Zion" and everyone not a part of their fellowship as being a part of the evil "Matrix” of what she calls “counterfeit churches.” A video shown during a Remnant “Passover” service featured a clip from a battle scene from “The Matrix” in which footage of Shamblin and her son Michael dressed as Neo and Trinity was interspersed with the cuts from the movie showing the actual characters battling a squad of riot police in an office building. Not surprisingly, the police were labeled “the counterfeit church” in the caption and the symbolism drawn from their slaughter by the Shamblins grimly unmistakable. This kind of extremist thought is, understandably, a subject not expressed to outsiders, but relentlessly emphasized in Remnant social circles. (25)

Abuse Trait # 2: …Control Of Conscience By Coercion …– …To maintain control over them, cults routinely use emotional and psychological leverages to compel their members to disregard their own consciences and independent thought and obey their group’s doctrinal and practical commitments despite any misgivings. …This is an intentional control of behavior through control of thought gained by social institutions like peer pressure, emotional attachments, family ties, and alleged displays of supernatural signs and deceptive claims. …The personal cost of such manipulation is of no consequence to the cult group itself; the focus is upon a member’s compliance with the group’s program, ritual, philosophy or practice no matter whatever doubts or second thoughts they may harbor.

In the cultic Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, this is seen in the universal church practice of “bearing testimony.” Every member in good standing with the LDS Church will be ready to passionately state that they have a “testimony,” an inner personal conviction, that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith, founder of the cult, was a true prophet of God and that the Church is the “true church” of the “restoration.” …To create this vast sea of testimonially-oriented membership, the entire culture of the LDS Church has been employed over its 150 years of existence to create an environment in which these three central truths have been continually expressed and reinforced through the cultural life of Mormon piety ranging from their family life to academic pursuits. It is impossible to overstate this kind of irresistible influence. From the cradle to the grave, several generations of LDS members have been conditioned to avoid personal engagement of any dissenting train of thought that challenges these – and other – cherished beliefs. Any objective fact that reveals these claims to be in doubt is quashed or short-circuited by the cultural reality surrounding them. (26)

Abuse Trait # 3: …Phobic indoctrination through authorities with o accountability……There is perhaps no more gripping human motivation than the fear of displeasing authority figures, a well-established trait of human nature not lost upon cult leadership. If the positive leverages of family and friends and folklore within a cult’s social circles are not enough to bring a member’s compliance to their pretense of divine authority, then equally powerful negative ones are seamlessly employed, such as the use of fear. …Irrational fears or phobias that the cult’s authority has deeply implanted in the hearts and minds of their members are freely used as mental pressure points to induce them to submit readily to their control. They are irrational because they have little to no basis for reality in any other stable social setting, but cults are nations with their own rules, their own realities in which their rulers decree with absolute authority what should be and what shouldn’t be. And the underlying and unspoken fear of discipline as dictated by unquestionable “divine” authority of cult leaders is used to force cultic conformity ├ö├ç├┤ not Christian unity. The indoctrination of these phobias is a diabolically subtle yet irrefutable splinter in the mind’s eye of every cult member alive today, a social control mechanism of terrifying power.

There is perhaps no clearer example of this then in the phobia indoctrination readily observable in the propaganda issued by the leadership hierarchy of Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide, the Watchtower Society. For over 100 years the Watchtower has taught their Witness constituency that they alone are “God’s visible organization” with an authority above question that is executed by their own system of overseers and local elders. Witnesses readily refer to the Society as their “mother” whom they are to readily obey. And part of that obedience is to avoid overstepping their well-defined boundaries that are based upon literal fear-mongering. Jehovah’s Witnesses fear associating closely with non-believers, fear reading the Bible without a Watchtower publication to interpret it for them, fear crosses or religious icons as portals to demonic activity, and fear not being found by Jehovah to be actively engaged in their door to door preaching work and judged unworthy of surviving the horrors of an impending battle of Armageddon.… All of these potent and yet irrational fears are the foundations of the authoritarian manipulation that the Society readily imposes to keep its Witness flocks in line with their own twisted agenda (27).

And these are only three very visible tips in a vast iceberg of frozen spiritual horror that slice the surfaces of the seas of humanity and chills all by its passage. It is the vast and unseen bulk of its glacial mass that wreaks social havoc and almost defies description among millions of people worldwide today even as you read this. …When our preceding survey of the Bible’s perspective on how spiritual abuse occurs is considered with the verifiable history about how cults abuse their disciples, the discerning will enter a new world altogether and gain a perspective that precious few people ever approach. …They will be approaching the portals of the Cultworld, an alternate spiritual reality hidden in plain sight all around us that quietly enslaves millions of people with chains of fear, intimidation, legalism and abusive religion. …We’ve offer these links to other articles in our website that discuss cultism, cult mind control and religious abuse. Suffice it to say that this dark land’s cultic influence is very definitely an abusive reality that has penetrated every level of society – a cultural milieu that includes both the secular and the sacred.

This brings us back to the point at hand: the very real and present danger that spiritual abuse occurs in the fivefold ministry culture. …Inevitably, there will be those in the tribe of fivefold ministers who will read these articles and yet insist that “Oh but we’re Christians! That junk only goes on in those crazy, wacked out cults! They follow men but we’re led by the Spirit! We’re the anointed new breed God has raised up.”…I can understand how even the vaguest suggestion that fivefold ministers could be involved in abusing their followers would make all shrink with horror and sputter in indignant, angry denial. We’re not in any way suggesting that all fivefold ministries are cultic. That’s the furthest thing from our minds.…But to those who say that this kind of “stuff” goes on only among “wacked out cults” conveniently elsewhere, we respond: “Oh really?” Let’s see how “Spirit-led” some fivefold ministry leaders really are.

The Slippery Slope To Five Fold Spiritual Abuse

Let me carefully qualify again what we are asserting here: A sizable majority of the fivefold ministry are godly people seeking to preach Christ and His Kingdom. Not all who claim to be in a “fivefold office” are guilty of spiritual abuse. If that fine point of distinction has been lost in the midst of our articles, let us again emphasize this once more. While there are far more sound leaders in fivefold circles worldwide, there very definitely exists a highly visible fivefold minority that exhibit an internalized imbalance in their doctrinal and practical influence that in too many cases has led to abusive religious trauma. We want to now examine how these extremists tragically have spun out of control down a very real, slippery slope from the heights of Christian idealism into cultic instability.

There are generally four missteps that fivefold ministries will make when sliding slowly into dangerous imbalance and possible abusiveness, and any or all of these that can be verifiably observed in their activity should be red flags for real concern. Allow me to repeat this for emphasis:…observation of any one of these four serious errors in a fivefold church is a sign of imbalance that signals an incipient imbalance that can range in severity from unbiblical elitism to full blown cultism. You will proceed down the primrose path of restorational romanticism at your very real peril if you do not heed these warning signs! …Where these errors are being observed, the potential for spiritual abuse is a real and present danger and should be intentionally watched for.

After my years of ministry in Charismatic and Pentecostal churches, I believe I can summarize them in the following four ways.

Misstep # 1– The Dismissal Of “Sola Scriptura” …In this day and age when the enthusiastic pursuit of experience-oriented spirituality, the dumbing down of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity continues to lead to the loss of even the most basic precepts of the Protestant Reformation that it directly descends from. …Many are scarcely aware that there was a Reformation or what the issues where that were concerned (a sin of omission that many Reformed believers themselves are just as guilty of). …Certainly, the most well-known and foundational Biblical truth that the Protestant Reformation is what has come to be called “Sola Scriptura.” …This is the Biblical precept that the Scriptures aloneare the final authority in all matters of doctrine and practice which stands in stark contrast to Roman Catholic belief that religious tradition created by papal decree and church councils is the final grounds for truth.

For generations, Protestant believers have embraced the fact the Bible itself is the only source for authoritative Christian teaching which all can read and understand as the teaching ministry of the Spirit of God illuminates it. The apostle Paul establishes this truth most clearly in …2 Timothy 3:16-17: …All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

In questionable fivefold ministries, this timeless spiritual truth is downplayed in favor of their greater emphasis and reliance upon what is popularly called “revelation knowledge.”…Revelation knowledge is a source of divine truth that involves literally …revealed understanding and information granted to the fivefold minister by direct spiritual illumination that can occur at any time and under any circumstance. …It is contrasted to what is called “sense knowledge,” or the wisdom gained by using one’s physical senses such as reading the Bible or hearing it taught. This “revealed truth”is subjectively determined by the inner spiritual insight of the fivefold minister and is usually presented as divine truth that is far more relevant, applicable and authoritative than Scripture itself. …There are no outright criticisms of the Bible given, but the fivefold minister who overemphasizes his “revelation knowledge”effectively relegate Scripture to the shelf as old revelation that must be regularly supplemented by “fresh words”of newer revelation that establish badly needed and timely “present truth.”

Listen to fivefold “prophet” and leader Bill Hamon’s explanation of this point:

"Just as the human head’s directives to the eye are not the same as those for the ear or any other part, Christ’s specific Will and instructions for each member and ministry in the Body are all not the same. They must be personalized by individual application. For that reason, the Bible can only give general directions to the whole Body of Christ, a few qualifications and requirements for certain ministries and a general description of what to do. Without the workings of the Holy Spirit and Christ’s fivefold ministry – especially the prophet ├ö├ç├┤ the Bible cannot by itself provide specific directions and reveal the will of God concerning all personal matters.“(28)

Hamon’s teaching is far from unique: his belief that the Bible cannot providepersonal direction without divine revelation that fivefold ministers intervene to supply it is held widely in many fivefold circles. …This same disturbing point was emphasized in a 1998 ministry newsletter of the equally well known and influential Rick Joyner:

“Who is the authority on whether the word is being rightly divided? The One who wrote the book. Doesn’t that leave a lot of room for subjectivity in our discernment? Yes. It utterly compels us to be dependent on the Holy Spirit. If we do not know the Lord’s voice we will continually be fooled by all of the other voices in the world. There will never be a principle so full of wisdom that it will be a substitute for knowing the Lord’s voice for ourselves. This does mean that subjectivity exists in discernment, but subjectivity not only exists–it is essential for discernment of truth. .. The Lord must become our personal Savior, our personal Lord, and truth must be personal if we are really going to know it. For this reason the Bible was meant to be relatively subjective in its interpretation. This was not to promote private interpretations, but to require each of us to be seekers of the Lord and His truth ourselves. We will not keep from being deceived just because we know someone who knows the Bible. …Everyone of us must know the Spirit of Truth.” (29)

Rick Joyner boldly establishes truth claims that should profoundly concern any discerning Christian. He teaches here that personal spiritual perception of “the Lord’s voice” is the highest standard for truth, since the Bible, he says, was actually intended by God to be understood in a “subjective” manner. …Subjectivity is simplyinterpretation of something as based on one’s personal opinions or feelings rather than on previously established fact or evidence.In other words, what one feels is right becomes the established reality even if proof to the contrary shows that it is actually wrong. A standard for established truth can then mean nothing at all: two plus two, in Joyner’s perspective, could mean four, but can also potentially add up to five if “revelation knowledge”says so, or if a more “fresh word”for the hour so directs.

These are not minority opinions written by some flakes on the fringe: these are bold and unapologetic assertions by two of the most influential fivefold ministry leaders alive today. Such flagrant violation of the objective standards of God’s Word is a lamentably common error in Christendom today: the “revelation knowledge” teaching has circulated in one form or another for years and contributed to many false teachings supposedly inspired by “divine” insight supplied by self-anointed “Bible” teachers. …An unnamed ministry’s newsletter, cited in a book written by fivefold teacher Rick Renner in the 1980’s, shows us just where this dysfunctional direction leads:…In the next move of God, we won’t need the Bible. We will move beyond the Bible. We’ve had all the Word we need. Now we’re moving beyond – into the realms of the Spirit. .. We’re so taught we don’t even know what to do with it, so it’s time to leave teaching and move out into the dimension of the Spirit.” (30)

The gray-haired leader of the fivefold ministry meeting at the Holiday Inn I spoke of was locked into this same errant mindset: after an hour of high energy worship, prophesying over members of his flock and altar prayer, he launched into a rambling sermon quoting verses of his own revelations he’d recorded in a ragged notebook. His doctrine was focused around assuring the flock that he and they were at the center of God’s divine purposes for Cleveland, Tennessee by being a part of his ministry. His declarations were filled with florid, impressive language that he said were the voice of the Spirit. And he never opened up the pages of a Bible at all, which did not bode well – I thought – for their direction as we would later tragically learn.

Biblical absolutes firmly based on objective truth established in chapter and verse become fair game for any fivefold minister with a subjective truth claim that is more “relevant” to the moment. The unnamed ministries respectively observed by Renner and myself count themselves so divinely enlightened that they abandoned the Bible for “the dimension of the Spirit,” in complete assurance that they no longer needed Scripture for guidance. They are also a brazen example of how imbalanced a “cutting edge” ministry can easily get. To lay aside the God ordained boundaries of truth that Scripture has firmly established to embrace the authority of one’s own personal self-affirming “words from God” is the most dangerous spiritual error one can make. Such a sincere conviction always becomes a trap door that drops the fivefold minister and his flock into doctrinal and practical errors that divide, abuse and spiritually devastate who embrace a purely “Spirit-led” approach. And this is an operative reality in far too many fivefold circles today.

Misstep # 2 – Scripturestwisted to upport unquestioned obedience ├ö├ç├┤

Imbalanced fivefold ministries producing and living by “revelation” they produce are one thing, but those ministries using the Bible can and still do stumble down the slippery slope into fivefold extremism. This is seen when they use select verses in the Bible as proof texts they quote out of the Biblical context to teach that the authority of the fivefold minister is above question. This twisting of certain Scripture verses occurs in fivefold church and social settings just enough to indoctrinate their members into believing that obedience and submission to fivefold authority is a divine mandate, not an option.

It quickly establishes among fivefold-oriented congregations that the apostle, prophet, teacher, evangelist or teacher are in charge because the Bible says so and that anyone struggling with or voicing dissent or disagreement with them are living “in the flesh” and that a root of sinful rebellion motivates them. Who wants to argue with what the Bible says about these things? Such a supposedly Biblical argument ends discussion and establishes authority in the fivefold circle as held firmly by the fivefold minister.

The four Biblical verses below are the primary texts pressed into service by the flocks of the fivefold ministers to justify their belief that they have a divine calling and authority that should be readily submitted to and followed:

Psalm 105:15 & 1 Samuel 26:9 –… Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. .. And David said to Abishai, Destroy him not: for who can stretch forth his hand against the LORD’s anointed, and be guiltless?

Romans 13:1-2 – Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

Hebrews 13:17 – Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

…The reasoning drawn from these verses is that the “anointed,” that is, any fivefold minister walking in his or her divine calling, are not to be “touched” or “resisted” since they are the “higher powers” ordained of God whom all are to “be subject unto”. They are to be obeyed and submitted to since their direction is aimed at “watching” after the spiritual welfare of those they are to watch over. “Resistence” is a sin that brings grief to the fivefold minister and can lead to damnation. So the fivefold have an absolute authority inherent in their position which is to be respected without question; they would insist this “hard saying” is just what these Bible verses teach. This authority becomes a spiritual “covering” that, fivefold ministers assert, is a divine shield created by God as a shelter and refuge against spiritual assault and error.

Although there have been many scattered and unseen instances throughout the years of church history in which this kind of authoritarian leadership has emerged, it was in the early 1970’s that there emerged a popular church movement that was formally based upon it. In response to a perceived need for bringing order and structure to the then emerging Charismatic movement, a group of five Christian leaders formed an organization in Florida called Christian Growth Ministriesthat enjoyed a fleeting decade or so of enormous popularity and influence. It was referred to as the “submission”or “shepherding”movement since it emphasized small group ministry governed by a “shepherd” whose authority was viewed as a divine visitation of God’s grace when it demanded and expected full submission of those to their “shepherds.”

Bob Mumford, a former Bible college professor and one of the “Fort Lauderdale Five” as CGM’s leaders would come to be called, in quoting Romans 13:1-5 boldly framed the issue in a stark black or white perspective: one either is in submission to authority or one is not, and those who are not are painted as spiritually blinded rebels who bring God’s judgment on their own heads (31).…He used what he called “Mumford’s translation” several times in the book doing his own paraphrases of various passages that boldly offered twisted versions of them (32) to further reinforce his perspective:

Now if you can catch in this one statement, made by Jesus, the same truth that dawned on me, your entire spiritual perspective can be revolutionized. “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:39). …What I saw altered many relationships in my life. Jesus is telling us that He and His servants are so inextricably intertwined that they cannot be separated. Until I can learn to say, “Blessed is he who comes to me in the name of the Lord”, I will never really understand what the Lord is doing in the earth. I must learn to submit to those who have authority over me. .. You can never bring in God’s kingdom by rebellion. Your “higher power” may not be “doing it right”, according to your standards; but your responsibility then is to take him or her before the Lord and ask Him to deal in the matter. There is not a thing you can do in the matter. (33)

But even Mumford seemed dimly aware of where this teaching would lead:

We must admit that once some of us taste the power of having authority over others, basic conflicts can arise. .. We can use this same technique not only to brandish a club over those in submission to us, but also, to worm our way out of submitting to someone. It is easy to say, “God told me .” when we want to go or get our own way.(34)

Mumford’s prophesy has been fulfilled again and again: barely two Charismatic church generations later, this teaching still is as prevalent as ever, given recirculation by the fivefold culture itself and amplified through the teaching of well known figures like fivefold teacher John Bevere. …His book Under Cover, published in 2001, is a full-length reiteration of the same kind of submission teaching that Mumford first presented almost 30 years earlier. Bevere presents personal experiences to reinforces his questionable interpretation of these and other verse concerning submission, including a bit of divinely inspired revelation from God Himself:

If we want to remain obedient to God and blessed, we have but one choice when it comes to delegated authority – submission and obedience. .. There’s an amazing principle to glean from this: when God places His authority on a person, no matter his private or personal behavior, we may still receive if we look beyond it and honor him as sent from God. Jesus made it clear that many will receive from corrupt ministers, as Hannah did (Quotes Matthew 7:22-23). .. God did not limit our submission to authorities to the times when we see their wisdom, agree with them, or like what they tell us. He just said, “Obey!” Later, the Lord spoke to my heart, “John, if I intended for every believer to get all his information, wisdom, and direction only from prayer and communion with Me, then I’d never have instituted authority in the church. I placed authorities in the church with the full intent that My children could not get all they needed just from their prayer life. They would have to learn to recognize and hear My voice through their leaders as well” (emphasis author’s). (35)

With God weighing in on the discussion, who could disagree? Bevere goes on to delineate, as Mumford did, how following unjust church leadership with absolute acceptance is actually a spiritual discipline He ordained to create Christian character:

You may now wonder, “What good does suffering harsh treatment from leaders accomplish? ..the wisdom of God molds a submitted heart through this kind of treatment in three ways. …First, it makes room for God’s righteous judgment. …Second, it develops in us the character of Christ. …Third, our submission under this treatment glorifies God. .. Defense, correction, vindication, or other appropriate responses should proceed from the hand of God, not man. An individual who vindicates himself lacks the humility of Christ (emphasis author’s) (36).

Neither Bevere or Mumford’s teachings on this subject are original – these questionable interpretations of Scripture have been circulating in the church for a long time before either of them began their ministries. To his credit, Mumford publicly repented of his part in the discipleship movement, while Bevere, plainly confessing his ignorance of its past, barely recognized the issue (see page 197 of Bevere’s book Under Cover to see how unbelievably uninformed he reveals himself to be). ……However, with their respective convictions supposedly reinforced by the voice of God himself, the die of deception is therefore cast. With the authority of Scripture undercut by questionable Biblical interpretation as well as fivefold “revelation knowledge” – purely subjective personal feelings divined only through the mediation of the "anointed" five fold ministry – the voice of man now becomes the voice of God, the source for what they would call "present truth." When the voice of man, however, becomes heeded as a "word from the Lord" the echo that rings throughout the church inevitably results in an unimaginably twisted form of imbalance in the Christian church.

Misstep # 3 – Unquestionablefivefold authority –……With the position established that God ordains the authority, judgment and leadership of the fivefold minister, their authority is then rendered beyond any review, dialogue and challenge. Trusting that they walk in a divine integrity their fivefold “anointing” imparts to them, the disciples of fivefold ministers offer a complete deference to their authority that is difficult to over emphasize. Any dissent can be seen as compromise, any attempt at dialogue a challenge of God’s very sovereignty. This has helped create and perpetuate a mystique of infallibility that is cloaked about the shoulders of fivefold ministers.

However, this divine office of authority seems inexplicably very quickly offended: note the defensive tone of fivefold prophet Bill Hamonwhen speaking of this in one of his most popular books:

God is very sensitive about His prophets. To touch one of His prophets is to touch the apple of his eye. To reject God’s prophets is to reject God. To fail to recognize the prophets, or to keep them from speaking, is to refuse God thepermission to speak.” (emphasis author) (37).

As shrill as this may sound, it is however understandable when one considers the logical outcome of Hamon’s belief about the fivefold ministry’s authority. It must not be questioned since the fivefold minister is supposedly set apart to speak for God, so any interference with such a divine flow of revelation is viewed as an affront against God Himself. Prophets (and by default all fivefold ministers) who speak for God are to be recognized, listened to, accepted and never second-guessed, and any members of the fivefold congregation who do so, Hamon asserts, are those who “touch God’s anointed” and incur his wrath. Fivefold minister Jon Arno, in a prophetic utterance recorded online that supposedly is a word from the Lord Himself, brooks no “opposition” to the fivefold ministry’s authority:

Be careful again I say. Do not be found out as speaking against the Lord's anointed as there is no more room in the cup. Teach those around you to be slow to speak, quick to listen. Judge everything by the word of God. If you are not sure, don’t say anything. For God takes the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. (38)

Say nothing, the God of Arno’s oracle commands, against the “anointed” – indeed, “He” says that we must avoid the temptation to speak and simply to listen and accept their lead. And if there is any uncertainty in your deliberation of what you hear from Apostle X or Pastor Y, say nothing – express no opinion whatsoever – and avoid divine judgment. …This is supposedly inspired by the same “God”that told the apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5 to not only “quench not the Spirit”but to “prove all things”and to “hold fast to that which is good.” Arno’s God demands silence from any dissent of believers and expects their total obedience to the fivefold ministers He is supposed to have sent into their lives, no matter how peculiar, unorthodox, questionable or flat out weird they or their methods might be.

Such a position raises a critical point that must be emphasized strongly:…If you deny the means to question, you also deny the means to THINK and to DISCERN truth from error. With distrust of one’s own ability to question firmly implanted alongside the mandate to completely trust another person’s ability to sit in judgment over you and your life, reason becomes selectively anesthetized. The ability to reason and exercise freedom of conscience when it comes to spiritual matters that directly impact one’s personal lifestyle is then made subject to the dictates ofothers.…Determining whether a claim is right or wrong is therefore intentionally shut down for the sake of the fivefold authority to be exercised.

And when this happens, as it already has in fivefold congregations all across the U.S. and the world, there is then nothing – absolutely nothing – to prevent the complete control of the behavior of Christians since their thought is effectively being controlled by their fivefold leaders. No other social safeguards or balances are possible at this point that would ensure the stability of any spiritual fellowship’s social circles. …Sadly, there’s another term for this kind of powerful dynamic – it’s called mind control.…And mind control is the lingua franca, the common language and universal characteristic of manipulative and dangerous cultic groups. The parallels between cults and abusive fivefold ministries are too clear at this point to ignore.

Tragically, this has become a mundane and daily reality shadowing the lives of far too many Christians who were supposedly delivered from their own spiritual bondages of our fallen world. That these kind of purely human forms of cunning manipulation are cited as originating from divine design are troubling enough. But to understand that there are generations of Christian people who have meekly submitted to this kind of control out of fear of displeasing God when it is the whims of man they are actually bowing to is perhaps the ultimate indignity for the human spirit as it seeks to love and serve God and ends up in the fear of man.

And it doesn’t stop here, unfortunately – it gets much worse.

Misstep # 4 – Unbiblical Magnification Of Certain Fivefold Offices … Another tumble down the slope is the conviction that certain fivefold offices are invested with more positional authority than other ones – specifically the offices of apostles and prophets. We must remember that in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles there is a growing consensus that believes that these two “offices” were fully restored in the 1980’s and the 1990’s. …Under this scenario, this would complete a work of restoration of spiritual authority believed lost since the days of the early church – according to the fivefold culture who would assert this kind of positional power. With all of the fivefold offices “restored” to the Christian church in the kind of functional union they are supposed to enjoy, the maturing of the Body of Christ should then proceed.

However, despite the popular and heartwarming belief that a fraternal equality exists among them, the reality is that certain fivefold clergy are viewed as more equal than others in their tribe – namely apostles and prophets. They are actually granted a functional preeminence in fivefold circles following certain interpretations of the New Testament proof texts concerning fivefold ministry (such as Ephesians 2:20) that are supposed to prove this. Apostles and prophets are typically viewed as having a unique and special ability to discern the voice and direction of God that other fivefold ministers, such as the evangelist, pastor and teacher, do not have and which the fivefold laity most assuredly do not enjoy. Fivefold pastor/prophet Jim Wiesunderscores this emphasis once again:

It is important to acknowledge..the unique relationship and placement of the apostle and prophet. The church is described as being “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” together as the foundation (see Eph. 2:20). A church without both foundational influences will never be all that God intended it to be. ..When apostles and prophets find the grace to be fitted and joined together and work together for the common good of His Kingdom, the building can move forward and be finished. God's plan is to have a fully functioning apostolic/prophetic church in order to execute an unprecedented harvest at the end of the age ..and we're it! (first emphasis mine, second one author’s) (39)

Apostles and prophets, it now seems, are the key figures in the “restoration” of the church to facilitate the winning of souls to Christ as well as leading them in proper discipling as well. The shining goal of evangelistic harvest notwithstanding, however, questions come to mind: what does Ephesians 4:11-14 then mean since there is absolutely no hint of this kind of exaltation of their authority in this verse? What justification is there to automatically assume that Ephesians 2:20’s reference to apostles and prophets elevates these “offices” to a higher plane of spiritual authority? And what happened in the 1980’s and 1990’s that led so many fivefold ministers to suddenly realize that the ultimate purpose of God for the perfection of the church now depends upon their recognition of the supremacy of the authority of apostles and prophets?

One can concede that multitudes of fivefold ministers, reading one another’s books and sharing at one another’s tables of fellowship, sincerely perceived these developments as part of an overall divine plan that was unfolding as God ordained. However, the evidence at hand from that time– the records we can see, hear and read of faith-building histories, anecdotal testimony and the entrepreneurial character of fivefold ministry networking carried on in those days – suggest far less divine dynamics at work. What seemed like the Spirit’s “anointing” being exercised in the church by the “new wave” (40)was actually little more than self-aggrandizement focused on consolidating power and control, along with all the perks that came with it like financial gain and social status. Figures claiming prophetic and apostolic authority across the Body of Christ during this season of transition within “full-gospel” churches effortlessly undercut any local church pastoral leadership simply by prefacing their dictates by a “thus saith the Lord”– and readily getting their way, no matter how off base it might be. This continues largely unabated today.

So this sudden clamor for apostolic and prophetic presence among the Charismatic and Pentecostal world then seems less a sign of divine restoration and more of an all too familiar human ambition. And these questions don’t seem to come to mind to influential fivefold pastors like David Cannistraciwhose passionate plea for rallying around apostolic ministry for pacesetting leadership have an all too familiar ring of an underlying agenda that he seems completely blind to:

In some ways, we are beginning to see the desired unity take root, but the Body of Christ is still largely fragmented. Restoration of the ministry of apostles is intrinsic to church unity. Apostles, along with the other ministry gifts, were given by Christ to edify the Church and to bring it to the unity of the faith .. If the office of the apostle is not restored, how can we hope for unity? The apostle is part of the fivefold cord God has created to tie the Body of Christ together in unity. George R. Hawtin (), a Canadian teacher active in the 1940’s and ’50’s, wrote 'There shall never be any unity of the faith until the ministry of the true apostle is recognized and obeyed as strictly in the last days as it was obeyed in the days of the apostle Paul.’ He went on to note,‘Any attempts to pray, organize, reconcile or repent will be inadequate to produce church unity unless the apostles emerge, for apostolic ministry is the very essence of unity.' In this context, then, the apostolic ministry is an indispensable part of God's end-time purpose in the Church. (emphasis author’s) (41)

George Hawtin, the “Canadian teacher” Cannistraci quoted here, was one of the original group of men who ignited the Latter Rain revival movement in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. It wasn’t long after the beginning of the revival that it began to spread across the Pacific Northwest and into the Plains of the United States from 1948 to 1952. And upon finding their judgment being bypassed and unrecognized by “opportunists”, Hawtin began to compel submission of all to the authority of their “ministries” to ensure true understanding of the revival (42):

We request, therefore, that you enquire directly of us as to whether or not certain men are recognized by us. Even in the days of Paul certain people claimed to be of the company of the apostles and showed forged letters to that effect, but they were not genuinely of the apostolic company(2 Thess. 2:2).

From this seemingly mild directive, the North Battleford leadership can be seen extending one of many attempts to exert a firm authority over a network of apostles and prophets that they personally authorized to keep firm control over their activities and doings. Such heavy-handed leadership – originating from fearful human nature ever anxious for control and manipulation to its ends – has been replicated successfully through the fivefold culture ever since. Hawtin was not the first such errant leader and has not been the last, either. The “divine pattern” quickly became confused with a purely human model of domineering manipulation.

This is the dark side of the fivefold ministry “restoration” no one wants to talk about, but hundreds of thousands have lamentably felt it’s darker presence in their own lives. Pastoral ministry by elders, deacons and other fivefold ministries has been subject and even overridden by the rule of the apostle and prophet. So with the fivefold ministry fully dominated by the claimed supremacy of apostles and prophets, the average fivefold church member is to immediately submit to it – whether legitimate or not.

Misstep # 5 – Feigned igns and wonders that mislead & confuse– …With the Bible effectively reduced to proof texts that portray fivefold ministers as heroic visionaries and warriors endued with unquestionable spiritual authority that will take the church to the “next level,” there remains only one final serious slip down the slope into fivefold ministry extremism.

This is when the fivefold minister undertakes an intentional staging of supernatural powers, supposed signs andwonders that compellingly authenticate their positions of divine authority. These pretensive displays of the miraculous and the unexplained are perhaps the greatest form of persuasive leverage that fivefold ministers can apply to the hearts and minds of their flocks as they seek their obedience and submission.

In too many Pentecostal and Charismatic circles, the demonstration of spiritual power – whether in a spiritual gift of tongues or the deliverance of the demonically-possessed – is viewed as a true test of their authenticity. Fivefold pastor and teacher Bob Yandianunderscores this tradition when he writes:

Every time you move in the ministry, you never go down, you are always promoted for your faithfulness. When you prove yourself in one office, God promotes you to another. I began as a Sunday School teacher, but I didn’t stand in the office of a teacher. When God moves you into a ministry office, He accompanies it with spiritual gifts. Supernatural signs accompany ministry office. .. You remember that the Jews didn’t like Titus because he was an uncircumcised Gentile, a Greek (Gal. 2:1-4). But the ministry gift of God was in him, and the signs and wonders worked through him. This was God’s seal of approval. Religious people have a hard time coming against the supernatural. (43, emphasis mine).

One of the most lamentable traditions of Pentecostal and Charismatic church history is its steadfast tendency to make religious experiencethe test of truth instead of the precepts of Scripture. …A miraculous sign, prophecy, healing or discerning is among such experiential faith. And fivefold ministers, being products of this culture are fully aware of this and set their pace accordingly, proclaiming that they “walk in the supernatural” in their ad print, web site banners and in their general personal self-representation. Their view of the sovereignty of God in regards to the exercise of spiritual power is one of continual access and openness to the miraculous in all walks of life, hence the level of expectancy in their church circles for seeing a “move of God” take place at their hand is an unspoken and yet continual spiritual constant which they are exquisitely sensitive to.

Those fivefold ministers laboring under the slippery slope into extremism we’ve been discussing are all too ready to help God outin the display of feigned signs and wonders meant to irrefutably convince all that they wield authority that should never be confronted or challenged. In their rush to displaying the supernatural, their works are all too often not only confusing and disturbing but openly manipulative and abusive. …We shall review a few of these here through video clips you can stream and watch for yourself. (Click on each pic below to view)

Fivefold prophet Kim Clement’sitinerant ministry consists of high-energy worship and altar services in which he delivers “prophetic words” from God that discern specific details about the needs of the person coming for personal ministry. As other fivefold figures do when they supposedly exercise the spiritual gifts of the word of knowledge and discerning of spirits, Clement identifies these needs and then sets forth a word from the Lord that will supply divine perspective as well as direction on how He will address them. …Click this link to watch an incident that was taped and aired over the Trinity Broadcast Network. Listen closely and note carefully the body language of the young woman who presented herself to Clement for his “prophetic” ministry as he called these details out. She certainly was not in total agreement to everything Clement prophesied over her – even shaking her head in disagreement with them (this can be seen by watching the video). Others like her in other settings, called out by fivefold ministers who have “a sure word” (from Benny Hinnto Peter Popoffand W.V. Grant Jr) know better than to so publicly doubt and usually simply go along with their rambling. This moment of innocent candor, beamed all over the world by TBN’s cameras, speaks volumes about the nature of Clement’s inspiration. To fulfill his stated goal, he had to keep “prophesying”, or more accurately guessing to fish for information that fit an oracular tale that he was telling. …In short, his attempts to glean and then characterize this woman’s personal information are no better then the kind of “cold-reading” that psychics and mediums employ – and no more accurate or “supernatural”. One wonders what the state of this woman’s faith might be today, let alone what she was left to think about her teenage son, after Clement’s failure to “read her mail.”

During a conference held in 2000 at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado under the auspices of C Peter Wagner’s Global Harvest Ministries, a group of fivefold ministers were assembled to offer a similar form of personal ministry to a conference attendee in a team ministry format.

This encounter was set up to “activate” or “impart” spiritual giftings and direction under the leadership of fivefold prophet Mary Crumfrom an Atlanta-area church affiliated with Bill Hamon’sChristian International ministry. It was done with the dual purpose of personal edification for the attendee as well as a practical demonstration of how this kind of “impartation” could proceed in a team setting. However Biblically questionable this practice might be made no difference to the group. Their ministration proceeded with Crum snatching a microphone being spoken into by one fivefold minister in mid-sentence as they prophesied and immediately handed to another prophet next to them to continue uninterruptedly. Hundreds of people beheld Crum do this in a circle of about five ministers at whim. This wholesale exercise of confusion is cited as proceeding from a “prophetic flow” of the Spirit meant to edify with prophetic guidance. It is clear that Crum and her team were trying to impress upon their observant audience how divinely inspired they were to demonstrate such oracular art. Instead, it was a grotesque tag team effort to extemporaneously string together cryptic exhortations couched in every popular fivefold cultural buzzword. Anyone familiar with fivefold culture would be able to interpret and apply this generic “oracle” to their own personal situation.

In the most disturbing video clip we now offer you, created from a videotape of a baptismal service held at an independent Oneness Pentecostal church in Benton, Tennessee in 1996, we will see a tragic example of manipulation done in the name of God. Oneness Pentecostal doctrine teaches that the full extent of personal salvation is only applied to the repentant when baptized in the name of Jesus only and is evident as they emerge from their baptismal waters speaking in tongues, signifying an actual inner baptism of the Holy Spirit. The church, calling itself the Church of Jesus Christ of Prophecy,led by its prophet-pastor John McCann, embraces this unbiblical view of baptism the same way many other Oneness Pentecostal and Apostolic Pentecostal churches do. Previously, McCann had been exhorting an unbaptized husband of one of his members to “get in all the way”, identifying himself as “your papaw” who would never lead him astray. When several baptisms passed after this and the man still hadn’t come forward, it was then that McCann’s “anointing” led him to speak in the name of God and warn his congregation of imminent divine wrath that would fall upon those who held back from baptism.

One can hear McCann unmistakably issue this threat in no uncertain terms. In effect, the so-called “Preacherman” screeches from his sound system “Thus saith the Lord! Be baptized now or a death angel will slay you as you drive home and you’ll die a lost soul!” A few seconds later the man who was the subject of McCann’s earlier entreaty shakily came forward with an expression of contrite horror and was then baptized. McCann, claiming to speak for God, essentially demanded of his audience immediate compliance – or a possible fatal accident which could lead them to eternal death and separation from God since, after all, they’d not been properly baptized! This was nothing less than religious terrorism at its lowest form, done in a rustic country church setting at the hands of a seemingly simple old country preacher who knew exactly what he was doing (44).

We consider these three documented incidents to be spiritually abusive acts of unscrupulous fivefold ministers who chose to make “results” their justification for their brazen control of the flocks of God they were supposed to serve and not shear. These three blatant human manipulations of supposedly divine visitations of God’s grace are simply the most visible form of feigned signs and wonders that we can show you in recorded form out of our archives. There are countless other equally coercive, damaging and abusive acts we are personally aware of suffered by fivefold church members which cameras will never be able to record – testimonies involving child abuse, harrowing sexual seductions, financial extortions through compulsory “love offerings”, verbal assault, and the division of families from each other.

Somewhere Under The Jackboot: Five Fold Spiritual Abuse

Sadly, the ultimate harvest reaped from the sown excesses we've looked at in the context of aberrant five fold ministry is spiritual trauma that pierces the soul, shatters the soul and controls the mind. In short, it is spiritual abuse inflicted by fivefold ministers, a social disease that has too long sickened the Body of Christ like an insidious cancer. It is the shameless abuse of the power and authority that fivefold ministers so freely wield that has become an all too familiar reality for one too many Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians.

And it is from this kind of absolute and corrupt authority that spiritual abuse has proceeded and infected multitudes with, poisoning their spirituality and strangling their conscience under control-oriented and authoritarian leadership. These abuses of power take place along a two-dimensional paradigm that illustrates the dynamics of abuse as inflicted by abusive fivefold ministers. …The first dimension is the warped word, …The act of establishing a purely human agenda that exploits the trust of followers under the guise of “divine direction” – usually by Scripture-twisting, prophetic utterance, dream and omen interpretation. …The second dimension involved the establishment of acontrolling covering…The creation of a domineering and unwholesome spiritual headship that supposedly “disciples” yet is a mobilization of private and/or group domination that actually coaches Christian believers on how to live and think according to the warped word.

We’ve already laid out many specific examples of how this abuse manifests itself in fivefold ministry circles. We want to bring our documentation of this further definition by shedding some light on two of the more well known examples of spiritually abusive fivefold ministry that have lamentably emerged in the past few years. These are by no means the only ones for the damage paths ripped by the raging twisters of fivefold abuse extend all across our land. As we have said, the variety and extent of abuse varies from situation to situation as surely as these two do, but they give great insight into just how widespread the problem is.

The Shepherding Debacle –…A Charismatic teaching team of five men were incorporated as Christian Growth Ministries (CGM) in the late 1960’s. Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the “Florida Five” were Derek Prince, Charles Simpson, Ern Baxter, Don Basham and Bob Mumford. From the start, Catholic Charismatic renewal leadership (including leading figures like Keven Ranaghan, Larry Tomczak, Stephen Clark and Ralph Martin) were deeply involved and helped promote the CGM’s guidance among their own faith communities. They organized national convocations that led thousands of Charismatic leaders and believers to adopt their teachings, which were all based on the foundational truth they called “discipleship”: “sheep” should be fully submitted to the direct leadership provided by “shepherds” who would provide direct accountability and admonition to them, views long advocated by Mumford, Princeand Simpson.

This authority was a spiritual “covering” needed by the disciple for spiritual security and guidance in their Christian life and absolute submission to the “shepherd” was required, no matter how questionable or errant the direction was. …This dubious foundational belief system was first set forth systematically in a 1973 CGM conference in Leesburg, Florida and further amplified at a CGM men’s gathering in Montreat, North Carolina in 1974. …Fivefold pastor Bill Ligon in his book Discipleship: The Jesus Way (Logos, 1979) recalls that:

One shepherdship teacher stated in an article in 1974 that since the purpose of a true disciple was to carry out the will of Jesus Christ, “his own will must be broken.” To do this, the teacher proposed that the disciple learn to obey his leader as a slave, not “knowing the ‘why’ of it.” Then, he said, the day of recognition would come when his leader would tell him “Now you are ready.” A true disciple, he said, could not be promoted or minister beyond “the recognition of his leader.” (p. 221)

The startlingly authoritarian undertone of this teaching appears to have been largely lost on the Florida Five, the Catholic Charismatic renewal leadership and hundreds of thousands of Charismatic and Pentecostal church leaders and members who, throughout the 1970’s, accepted CGM’s lead as timely revelation from God. Coming to be known as “shepherding”, “submission” or “discipleship” in various quarters, it wasn’t long, however, before the discipleship system began to crumble under its own weight. …Multitudes of “shepherds,” many of them young and immature believers assaying to be pastoral figures began to abuse their positions of authority and began to dominate and manipulate the disciples who had readily submitted to their authority. Likening themselves as infallible voices of God and being readily submitted to as having that level of divine authority, many troubling abuses of power began to occur.

Horror stories involving “shepherds” who micromanaged the lives of disciples down to who they were to marry, how they spent their money and who to tithe to (in many instances, the “shepherd” readily received these tithes unto themselves) began to abound. Submission to shepherds became a test of fellowship and even of salvation itself in certain circles, leaving hundreds if not thousands of Christians completely wide open to the arbitrary whims and “direction” of their shepherds.Mumford’s popular couplet that “every sheep needs to find his shepherd” was a dictum embraced widely on many fronts, even to the extent that denominational church pastors sought out shepherding relationships to shepherds who may or may not have had any connection with their specific movement (p. 90). So as the pulpit went, in a reversal of the old saying, the pews also went. …Submission was the buzzword and many quarters of the Charismatic movement eagerly embraced it. Click here to read a book review filled with reminiscences of those who lived in the heady days of the shepherding era of the 1970’s.

It is difficult to underestimate how profoundly formative this was, for good and for bad, in the Charismatic and Pentecostal worlds at the time. The dimensions of interdenominational fellowship were certainly appealing and refreshing but it became painfully apparent that the basis upon which this was being established had less to do with the Lordship of Christ and more upon a rigid pyramid of hierarchal control that was being too often illegitimately exploited for the gain of unscrupulous shepherds who saw a golden opportunity to gratify their lust for power and authority over other people’s lives. Many Christian leaders like Demos Shakarian, Kathryn Kuhlman, Chuck Smith, Ralph Mahoneyand even Pat Robertsonbegan to publicly question and rebuke the CGM-led movement. …Click here to read a tract issued by Chuck Smith in response to this. …As if to underscore the ecumenism that CGM openly espoused which was showed that spiritual abuse was no respecter of persons, reports of spiritual abuse began to emerge in some Roman Catholic renewal communities that replicated those found in Protestant circles where the shepherding and discipleship emphases as advanced by the CGM-dominated movement had introduced them. By the early 1980’s, CGM’s draw had long passed, the great convocations ending, and the “Florida Five” began to “release” their disciples and disconnected from one another. But the damage had already been done – the social machinery for replication and delivery of spiritually abusive church settings had been engineered and well-oiled and the guidelines for their organization and execution had been spread all throughout the Charismatic and Pentecostal worlds. A fearful foundation was laid which has fouled the springs of the “living water” supposedly flowing like a river among churches all around the world, from megachurches to home cell churches.

To this day, the warped template of shepherding excesses continue to hold in thrall untold thousands, possibly millions of people. …Click here to read the statement of one Evangelical organization, the Great Commission Association of Churches …(GACC) (once known as Great Commission International or GCI) when it was forced by widespread outcry of other Evangelical leaders in the 1980’s to confront its own history of controlling manipulation. Another well known organization was Pentecostal minister Bob Weiner’scollege-focused Maranatha Campus Ministries (MCM). Similar reports of manipulative abuse of Christian college students would fan flames of controversy that would eventually result in the dissolution of MCM by 1989. …Several of the churches and ministers “released” from MCM’s authority would go on to form a new organization calling itself Morning Star International (MSI), Charismatic in orientation, under the leadership of former Maranatha pastors Rice Broocks, Phil Bonasso and Steve Murrell. While obscured by an explosion of various ministries, churches and associations all associated with each other on various levels, the essential MCM / MSI cultural connection that advocated forms of authoritarian shepherding control was never practically repudiated. In fact, many testimonials now exist of MSI leader-orchestrated spiritual elitism and manipulation that are chillingly similar to the abuses suffered by CGM followers in the 1970’s. Even though MSI renamed itself Every Nation in 2004 and made vague efforts to distance itself from its own excesses with an appropriated contrite tone, the movement remains controversial. …Click here to read the accounts of a former MCM evangelist who saw this first hand. It is important to realize that while GCI was not an explicitly Pentecostal/Charismatic movement, both MCM and MSI were and in recent years, have also come to identify their leaders as prophetic and apostolic figures who have their own claims to authority as fivefold ministry leaders and have come to be recognized as such by more “mainstream” fivefold figures.

The Maelstrom of Chapel Hill – …From humble beginnings in a small country pastorate in the 1950’s the ministry of Bishop Earl Pearly Paulkascended into national prominence. Paulk’s restorationist vision was to create a dynamic new Christian ministry in Atlanta that would thrust the Kingdom of God across the nation and around the world, heralding the rule of Christ over all things with the church as his vice regency being led by an anointed episcopacy committed to fivefold ministry leadership. In 1960, he founded the Gospel Harvester Tabernacle which would enjoy phenomenal growth; his brother Don Paulkwould serve with him to help guide the church, along with a pastoral staff of family members and close associates, such as Lynn Maysand Duane Swilley. They would incorporate insights and ministry models popularized during the 1960’s through the 1980’s in the larger Charismatic and Pentecostal cultures that further accelerated their church growth. …These ranged from Latter Rain to “shepherding” concepts adopted as seen fit by CHHC leadership. Gospel Harvester would eventually morph into the Chapel Hill Harvester Church (CHHC) by the early 1990’s, a 12,000 member megachurch noted for itsHigh-Church trappings and liturgy as much as its social ministry outreaches and vibrant worship services where people of all races and walks of life were warmly welcomed and integrated into the “body life” of the church. Three U.S. presidents commended CHHC’s community work. With his influence and teaching preceding him, Paulk would go on to be consecrated as an archbishop of the International Communion of Charismatic Churches, a coalition that offered spiritual “covering” and mentoring to thousands of charismatic church ministries around the world. And the Charismatic and Pentecostal worlds regarded CHHC as a shining example of progressive Spirit-filled ministry, making his TBN broadcast of church services a regular part of their viewing life and freely imbibing his “Kingdom Now” doctrine.

However, says the well-worn clichÔö£┬«, not all that glitters is gold. Barely a year or so after occupying their new neo-Gothic sanctuary in 1992, the first of several public scandals surfaced that rocked CHHC. …In May, two months after President George Bush commended Earl Paulk’s ministry as being a “point of light” in the Atlanta Metro area for their social outreaches, Don Paulk confessed to an adulterous affair and was “restored” back to ministry four weeks later by his brother (no doubt encouraged by the “divine oracle” of Nigerian bishop and Paulk cohort Benson Idahosa asserting that God wanted him back in the pulpit)(45).…Later that fall, six women members of CHHC publicly went forth and accused Paulk, his brother and their two nephews, who were all on staff at CHHC of having engaged them in sexual liaisons by intentionally exploiting their clergy-laity relationships to coerce them into submitting to their advances. They were able to do this, charged the women, when the ministers advanced a secret CHHC doctrine concerning “kingdom relationships.” …These precepts concerned deep interpersonal and marital relations that transcended conventional morality on the basis of a “higher” spiritual knowledge about Christian charity. Prevailed upon by their spiritual authorities to keep a pliable and open mind to this teaching, reserved only for the “mature” elite to receive, the women would submit sexually, believing this to be a sacramental act they were chosen by God to perform, ministering to him by “serving” the “man of God.”

Click here to watch the testimony of a former CHHC pastoral staff member discuss how widespread this was in the CHHC culture.

Paulk had been accused of such improprieties in the past and had been able to dismiss them as slanderous gossip in the past, but the pattern of Paulk’s lustful duplicity had been established at the outset of his Gospel Harvester days was no longer be concealable nor deniable. …Originally a well-known Church of God (Cleveland TN) minister, his promising future came crashing down in 1960 when he was found in fragrante delicto with the wife of a policeman in a seedy hotel in South Cleveland, Tennessee. Defrocked by his own father, Earl Paulk Sr., who was the general overseer of the movement at the time, Paulk started Gospel Harvester the same year and made an abortive attempt to regain his Church of God credentials not long afterwards. Rebuffed by denominational leaders, Paulk would never admit to the affair, choosing to spin it as terrible misunderstanding inflamed by denominational ministerial jealousy in his biography and putting this unfortunate setback “under the blood.” With his history conveniently rewritten, Paulk was able to keep dazzling hundreds of new members for years. He and his inner circle would preach about righteousness all the while justifying their dark sides of sexual deviancy by twisted claims of fivefold authority and theological fantasy that governed how CHHC was run. He would never confess to his 1960 affair until 32 years later, during the 1992 fiasco, and only in the most general of terms.

It became clear as the 1990’s wound down into the 21st century that the CHHC’s leader’s well-polished public image as an archbishop and powerful apostolic leader was a flimsy and threadbare cloak with a bright outer layer that dazzled those who didn’t examine it too closely. The entire superstructure of CHHC’s leadership when carefully examined was found to be completely without any real accountability, created to perpetuate the Paulks‘ almost absolute power over his church’s members to an utterly astonishing degree (46).…More revelations involving other spiritual seductions of other CHHC women during the 1980’s came forth, as well as charges of actual child sexual abuse. The Paulks found themselves trying to hold up their church house of cards in the midst of a hurricane of media attention, censure and litigation. An exodus of CHHC members took place and only a few hundred hard core supporters gone, the CHHC trundles onward trying to justify it’s continued existence under new leadership – and more liberal theology involving cooperative efforts with controversial figures like “Bishop” John Shelby Spong and Carlton Pearson.

So through the “good words and fair speeches” of its corrupted fivefold leadership who served their own carnal interests while spinning a deceptive religious web to ensnare the unwary with bright visions of restoration, the CHHC congregation was compromised and doomed from its very beginnings to its present ignoble state of ruination. When further emboldened by the self-aggrandizing influences of the Latter Rain and discipleship movements as well as an aggressive attempt to establish a Charismatic episcopacy of hierarchal church leadership, these same pretensive prophetic figures literally became religious manipulators in every sense of the word. Whatever sincerity and integrity they may have had was quickly undermined by their creation of inner circles, secret doctrines and a closed community that protected their prophets from being “touched” by anyone. In short, Earl Paulk and his tribe at CHHC grotesquely yet accurately fulfill the mug shot of fivefold spiritual abuse that the apostle Paul warned of in Romans 16:17.

The Undiscovered Country: …An Overview Of Fivefold Abuses We’ve Encountered

Other equally harrowing reports are those from the countless individuals who have called, visited or e-mailed us over the years whose solitary voices are cries of outrage, grief and pain over the abusive nature of the “ministry” they had at first so readily embraced.

During one period from 1998-2001, we were receiving more reports and inquiries about abusive fivefold ministries from victims then we were from the victims of classical cultic movements like the Moonies, the Watchtower and the Mormon Church. …There was the couple called out publicly by a fivefold pastor and rebuked as rebellious for leaving a prayer meeting too soon, the single mom persuaded by a fivefold pastor that God’s will was for her to sexually service him, a young fivefold pastor’s ministry destroyed when his wife left him to follow and then marry an extravagant fivefold apostle whose divisive influence isolated the fivefold pastor’s attempt to deal with the sick influence of the “apostle,” thus dividing and destroying his formerly fast growing Charismatic church. These are just some of the more memorable ones we personally are aware of. ……There are countless other ones whose stories are still being told and worse of all, still being replicated in abusive fivefold ministries across the nation. Unfortunately, there will be no investigative journalism to tell their story and establish their presence as real people with a real story about real abuse. Dr. Phil and Oprah won’t be pushing their cameras into their living rooms or passing Kleenix to them on their soundstages. But they are still flesh and blood human beings whose faith is still pitifully bleeding out invisibly as they try to make sense of a life where it has been all but mortally wounded. ……We cannot forget the haunted families in Nashville whose loved ones who came under the spell of a fivefold pastor-prophet and his wife in a store front church there who readily gave up jobs and college education, drained bank accounts and offered thousands of dollars of support to finance a ministry tour the couple launched in a van journey back to California – dazzled by the “anointed” ministry of their prophetic words that convinced them their little flock would inaugurate the Next New Thing live on TBN (one fortyish single woman readily signed on when told by “the word of the Lord” that she was destined to marry the popular Christian singer Carman if she would just trust and obey the prophet). …Sitting in a living room in 2001 that was full of frightened, numbed and terrified parents looking to you to explain why their loved one suddenly tore up roots to vanish into the West without a call or letter, all but begging you to pursue them across the nation to find them and bring them home is an experience not for the ministerially faint of heart. That ring of fearful, crushed faces gazing intently into my own will be something I will never forget. For all of its pathos, it was also a cautionary and sobering not to mention humbling demonstration of the power of deception that the abusive “fivefold” ministry can wield. ……This Charismatic Christian woman’s e-mail – sent to us with absolutely no solicitation whatsoever – is perhaps the most chilling and concise description of fivefold ministry abuse we’ve received yet. …“Rosa” graciously allowed us to post it here in this article to illustrate just what lurks in the shadows of the “New Reformation” that so many fivefold luminaries and apologists commanding the hearts and minds of millions commend to us. And when reading this aloud in a recent conference workshop I did on this subject, you could feel a pall come over the room as attendees seemed to finally realize that this is a real issue with no easy answers, but a human face – some wept as it was shared:

I have been part of (a fivefold ministry) for four years on and off. I have tried to leave twice before, but they kept telling me that I was out of God’s will for my life and if I wanted to be happy, I would repent of my rebellion and come back. Well, I finally left. In the group, we were not allowed to hang with people outside of the group. Also, if someone left the church, we were to completely cut them out of our life and not have anything to do them. ……Every decision that we had in our lives the pastor and his wife would tell us what the right decision was because after all, “they were prophets.” I never agreed with the isolating part but I went along with it. I never once experienced the true UNCONDITIONAL love of God. They showed me love when I was doing exactly what they told me to do. If I messed up in anyway, they were always getting upset with me. It was this way with the others of the group. ……As I was reading your study, I recognized a lot of what was going on. I have lost a lot in leaving, including my husband because when I left (at the time my husband said that was fine just don’t expect him to leave and I didn’t) but when I left, the pastors told him to completely cut me out of his life and get a legal separation and be single the rest of his life. I have been called a danger to their ministry and am never allowed back even if I wanted to go back.

Rosa, by the purest grace of God, still walks with God but has gained at the most terrible of personal costs a perspective on how fallen men really are, especially the self-anointed fivefold ministers of God. She’s sadly not alone. It is under their pretense of divine guidance and intervention that spiritual abuse is daily inflicted as their purely carnal human nature – self-sanctified as “the anointing” – unscrupulously controls and manipulates followers in the name of God.

This delivers a personal assault unlike anything else in the world. It is the Lordship of Christ that is usurped by those who want to lord over others with illegitimate authority whether motives are good or not. It is the perversion of the highest aspiration of the human spirit – faith in God and a longing to know Him and His will for one’s life – by It is the quenching of the authority of the Word of God as illumined by the Spirit of God by the receiving of another spirit in dire need of testing…2 Cor. 11:4…4 You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.…1 John 4:1 …Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.…The essence of cultism is the desire to lead or be led at the expense of Christ's Lordship: leaders abuse an authority that isn't theirs and followers offer "blind" trust without accountability – this is also at the heart of what spiritual abuse is.

Many within the Pentecostal and Charismatic cultures today are walking through the wilderness that these errors have created – a barren landscape of religious abuse, twisted Scriptures, fearful guilt, and shipwrecked faith. The cruelest side of this is how much of this is scrupulously hid from public view by the cunning campaigns of fivefold spin doctoring, glitzy self-promotion, personal qualification, plausible deniability and even outright legal action threatening litigation against any who dare to speak out against it. …Many ministries today publicly lauded as the cutting-edge vanguard of end-time revival among the Charismatic and Pentecostal community around the world today are actually the most successful spin doctors in the church today, deftly sweeping their victims aside dismissively as backslidden, unspiritual and demonized tools of Satan.…This is a Charismatic cultism, a Pentecostal pandemic of twisted faith as dangerous and destructive as anything we’ve ever seen.

We are certain that God knows who these vicious, hypocritical men and women are who cloak themselves in fivefold robes of righteousness and will judge them accordingly but until then, too many victims continue to suffer in their anonymous black holes of spiritual devastation. Any thought of a relationship with God or involvement with any form of church or Christian fellowship only stirs up painful memories of humiliation and abuse they’d rather not deal with. Others, weary of the chaotic personal aftermath of suffering the indignities they’ve seen, plunge into cynical amorality or frenzied church-hopping – hoping to numb or outrun their personal tragedy. Still others, sadly, end up in therapy for years or the graves of premature death by bitterness, sickness, fear or suicide.

I submit to you that this was never the intent of true Christian fivefold ministry. ……But that’s the way it is: this is what is spilling out of churches across the nation with a silent pandemic of abuse hidden behind shiny pulpits, tongue-talking flocks, and magnetic prophets and apostles. …And where are the true shepherds, the true fivefold ministers who dare to step into these deafening silences of wounding and outrage experienced by abused Christians? Where is the holy convocation of national Christian leadership that is arising to own up to and address this crisis that is rending the Body of Christ quietly to pieces? …Where is the outrage? …Where are the spiritual doctors to treat this insidious and destructive cancer?

While Pentecostal and Charismatic church leaders clog conference centers and retreats seeking cutting edge wisdom from self-affirming cliques of men and women claiming to be apostles and prophets, where are the bands of brethren who are reaching out to the beaten, bloodied and dying sheep who their fivefold cronies have already grievously abused? …Where is their sense of responsibility to reach out to these Christians so easily marginalized to utter anonymity, victims who are out of sight and out of mind of those so impeccably organized to “reach the nations”?

Evangelicals so easily behold the appalling scandal of Roman Catholic clergy abuse and then sniff self-righteously about how “that would never happen among us.” In so doing, they betray a complete ignorance about the worlds of pain hidden in plain sight right next to them on the pews of their World Outreach Centers, where “no one is a stranger.” …Again, this says so much about the true state of Christian community in a church on the edge of the last days apostasy of which abusive fivefold ministry is an established segment.

We at Spiritwatch Ministries believe it’s time for this to situation to change.

The next and final article in this series will outline what I feel to be an appropriate pastoral response to this spiritual scourge from a Pentecostal minister’s perspective.

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ENDNOTES

(25) Read more testimonials about the dangerous diet cult Remnant Fellowship on our site by clicking here. Go back to our home page to access a complete menu of links about Shamblin and her twisted religion.…(26) The LDS Church’s longstanding culture of deception can be more fully examined by reading the testimonials at our good friend Eric Kettunen’s site, Recovery From Mormonism by clicking here.…27) The use of fear and loathing by the Watchtower Society to condition its followers is well documented. An excellent discussion of this as written by ex-Jehovah’s Witness Randy Watters can be read by clicking here.…(28) Bill Hamon, “Prophets And Personal Prophecy”, p. 92 …(29) Rick Joyner, “False Prophets And False Prophecy”, MSJ…(30) Rick Renner, “Seducing Spirits”, p. 57…(31) Bob Mumford, The Problem Of Doing Your Own Thing, (Mumford, 1973). The content of this book originally appeared in CGM’s publication New Wine Magazine, during the years of 1972 and 1973. It was one of the most widely read Christian circulars of the 1970’s during the ascendancy of the CGM-influenced “shepherding” movement and provided direction and admonition to thousands of young and impressionable Christian ministers and their flocks. It is difficult to underestimate the impact this teaching had on the Charismatic movement. CGM would eventually attract for a time the support and alliance with Pat Robertson’s CBN organization, Word of Faith advocate Kenneth Copeland and a plethora of leading Charismatic church leaders. This book captures the essence of the “submission” teaching that CGM so energetically advanced as the key to true Christian ministry and advancement of the Kingdom of God – only to find that this spiritual dynamic would become a whirlpool of blacklight that brought thousands of people into damaging spiritual abuse at the hands of “shepherds” whose motives, to say the least, pandered more to the love of human power then the power of godly love.

(32) A few notable examples of Mumford’s Scripture twisting are painfully obvious examples of a man willing to make the Bible fit his theology rather then the other way around: After quoting John 16:14-16, he says that “paraphrasing these verses may help us get the message which He was unfolding,’I, Jesus, am going to the Father; and when I go to the Father, the Holy Spirit, in my name, will take the things that belong to me – that is the gifts of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit and the authority (apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists) and give it all to the church. And when the Holy Spirit is come, dividing to the church these gifts and ministries of the Spirit, you will see Me” (p. 65).

Here, Mumford equates spiritual authority with divine manifestations of God’s grace. …In another place, he points to the “submissive attitude” in the examples of Peter and Paul when dragged before Jewish councils that had arrested them for their preaching about Christ in Acts 5 and Acts 23. He actually views their answers before these corrupt leaders as being examples of submission that “solved their problem”, which Mumford informs us, was one involving their own apparent personal struggles rebellion and obedience (pp. 96-97). …It is no wonder that the kind of Christian lifestyle advanced by CGM was shadowed by a control-oriented authority system that brooked no discussion, let alone disagreement.…(33) ibid, p. 61, 67…(34) ibid, p. 78, 79…(35) Bevere, John. Under Cover (Nelson, 2001) p. 84, 115, 147 …(36) ibid, p. 163…(37) Hamon, Bill, Prophets And Personal Prophecy, p. 19…(38) Fivefold pastor Jon Arno “A Unique Year” : http://www.etpv.org/1998/unique.html. …The site records alleged “prophetic words” dispensed by fivefold ministers for the supposed edification of the church. Site founder Bill Sommers plainly is on record that accuracy of their predictions is of no concern to him: his “commentary” is a clear example of how Biblical truth is a casualty among the ranks of the “Spirit-filled” – but this is a subject for a different article

Occasionally people ask me if we have kept track of what prophecies have come true and which ones have not. I never bother to do so. [It’s too big a job anyway.] We do not keep score on the prophets. It may be that every prophecy of disaster that never happens is a testimony of intercession that did happen. After all, Jonah’s preaching would have been somewhat less effective, [understatement intended], had he spoken in terms of possibilities. When a prophecy is conditional, when there are some ‘if’ clauses to it, we may not know what they are. The Lord may or may not expressly state the conditions to a prophecy. That’s none of our business. Our job as prophets is to obey to the best of our abilities and give our ‘thus sayeth the Lord’s regardless of the consequences, regardless of what happens and especially regardless of what others may think, say or do. The Lord is the one who keeps score. And that is based on our obedience, not our track record as prognosticators. As we know He looks at the heart, not the outward appearance. I don’t think we need to be in the business of keeping score over who was right and who was wrong. [Love covers a multitude of sins.] .. But as I said, For the most part, I have no discernment, unless God gives it to me. My understanding of the word is limited. The Word is not. To insist that things line up with the word may be to insist that they conform to my limited understanding of the word. The word of God understands me far better than I understand the Word.…(39) Wies, Jim. The House Of His Choosing (Destiny Image, 1999), p. 108, 144 …(40) http://www.harvestnet.org/prophecies/newwavetrueorfalse.htm…(41) Cannistraci, ibid, p. 196. Darrand and Shupe’s study of the early history of the Latter Rain movement perceptively detailed the underlying power tripping that the leaders of the Canadian revival seemed to be indulging in. This in turn shows how obsessively pre-occupied the North Battleford leaders became with asserting their own preeminence during the restoration of the “original apostolic pattern” they supposedly received. It was none other than George Hawtin himself, Cannistraci’s quoted author and spiritual mentor, who penned these stern warnings published in the Sharon Star, the official magazine of the North Battleford organization:

I have no hesitation whatever in saying that unless this divine pattern is followed and the ministries recognized, the whole revival will wind up on the rocks .. This revival will not succeed without the apostolic pattern in everything. Revelation today will come only from the ministries God is setting in the church to receive revelation. .. I beseech all who have entered into this revival to humble themselves and admit that God has ministries of revelation, and ministries to establish the truths that he has laid down for these last days. Forgive me of any confident boasting. I do it only that this move may return to God. .. I call you to witness this fact that your entrance into this revival may be directly traced to its beginnings in the class room in North Battleford, February 13, 1948.(p. 53, 54)

For someone wishing to pardon their boasting, Hawtin’s tone is hardly contrite. Download this MP3audio sermon (4.4 MB) by George Hawtin and listen to how humble Hawtin sounds as he blasts denominational churches (from 5:37 to 6:05) as not being even being in the Body of Christ, in short, as being lost and in darkness. It would seem that he died a bitter man, frustrated and preoccupied with his loss of preeminence in the very movement he started.

(42) Darrand and Shupe, ibid, p. 46. This was a citation of Hawtin’s writing in the Sharon Star, May 1, 1948, p. 2 – barely 3 months after the “restoration” began. His shrill charge of “opportunism” seems hollow when considering how Hawtin’s defiance of his denominational leaders’ oversight as he governed a Bible institute thereafter emboldened him to engage in unauthorized building programs, educational novelties and unabashed recruitment from the institute’s student body to create his own Bible school when asked to resign. Enough of them did to form the nucleus of his North Battleford group where the “restoration” supposedly began – if that isn’t what opportunism is , I’m a tongue-talking Brad Pitt who’s missed his calling.…(43) Yandian, ibid, pp. 10, 12…(44) I was surprised to find out, when visiting the church during their 1996 “Feast Of Pentecost” campmeeting, that McCann had authored a biographical book entitled From A Stump Hole To The Pulpit (Companion Press, 1991). The book is filled with incidents that show how McCann, a disciple of Oneness Pentecostal pioneer B.F. Hawthorne, was given to prophesying judgment upon those who he came to view as those who opposed him or his work. Not even a boy who rails on his sister for speaking in tongues escapes McCann’s attention when “the spirit of prophesy” enters upon him to “make a prophecy concerning the life of that boy” (p. 98). Our Spiritwatch Ministries staff crossed paths with the church in 1996 in our attempt to aid a ex-member of the church whose wife divorced him because he chose to leave the church, taking her youngest child with her to remarry another church member. We visited the church, learned what they taught and observed their campmeeting and researched up enough information we passed on to the ex-member’s lawyer who would represent him in the child custody court battle he would later wage with his wife (he would win the case, but ultimately chose to leave his daughter in his ex-wife’s custody due to the church-implanted hatred she exhibited toward him).

We remember encountering McCann’s daughters (the “Preacherman” apparently didn’t have the “Holy Ghost spine” to come himself) outside the court room, their feral railing they did on both the ex-member and myself, and were likely a subject of McCann’s prophetic fury. But we’re still here, fighting the good fight of faith! In the meantime, reports of factional infighting and a church split at McCann’s church continue to surface from contacts with …ex-members from the group. …(45) “Chapel Hill Pastor Resigns, Reinstated”, Charisma, October, 1992, p. 89. According to a report in Christianity Today on page 55 of their June 22, 1992 issue, when contacted by the Atlanta Journa/Constitution, Earl Paulk told them that “he was not sure how his brother would be handled.” It took Charisma five months to report that “hours after the younger Paulk had resigned, Nigerian pastor Benson Idahosa told the congregation in the evening service that God wanted Donald reinstated and back on the platform. The Atlanta paper reports that three weeks later, Donald Paulk was back in the pulpit preaching.”…(46) Click here to read an archived version of the 1/29/2006 Atlanta Journal Constitution article on the Paulk fiasco.

Chapter 4…by Rev. Rafael D. Martinez, Co-Director, Spiritwatch Ministries

In recent years, whenever a harsh and exposing light gets thrown upon a church crisis or controversy, the response of the church usually proceeds along one of two maddening extremes ranging from apathy to panic. …When coming to the issue of spiritual abuse being inflicted by the farflung representatives of the fivefold Charismatic and Pentecostal ministry, the Church has opted for the former, simply looking the other way and speaking in subdued whispers as it wrings its hands about the situation. …It may even issue a press statement expressing vague sentiments of concern and expressions of love and prayers. Pastors may review the details of scandal in staff meetings to draw some kind of conclusion. …Some discussion over coffee after Sunday School may occur. But other than a collective yet scattered sigh of resignation, little else really seems to break the surface in the social circles of the church, let alone become an admission before itself and the world. …The consequences of carnality in the church are usually more a source for juicy cuds of gossip to chew on rather than divine wake up calls of the Holy Ghost tapping on its shoulders reminding it to fast, mourn and pray.

The time is now for this apathetic little dance of evasion to end. Where it has experienced the sting and reproach of fivefold ministry abuses, the Body of Christ needs to step up and directly address the issue with a truly pastoral response that seeks to heal the broken and defend the defenseless. It needs to regain the classically prophetic voice it once had in regards to in-house controversies and speak directly to the members that have lost connection to the Head and are abusing others around them.

Before that’s going to happen, however, there must be sensitivity and response to the divine convictions regarding fivefold abuse that the Word and Spirit would apply to the heart and mind of any willing to listen to it within the circles of fivefold leadership there. …There would then need to be a willingness to lay aside its’ infatuation with spiritual gifts, prophecies, conferences and “promotions” to hear anew what God’s Word would say to them about the flocks of the Lord that are being fleeced by their hireling peers right under their very noses. The dire need here is for every single fivefold ministry leader to get really real and really honest about the issue. There will be a recognizing of the neglect and even judgment many victims have experienced, the offering of true pastoral ministry and care to the abused, an unflinching discerning of the nature of the abuses of power that have gone on, and finally personal commitments to the Biblical commission for all fivefold leaders to bring real accountability and discipline to the chaos that invisibly rends fivefold churches everywhere. ……This can only be done by directly applying the tough love of Biblical pastoral ministry that rebukes as well as restores, that demands accountability as well as delivers the anointments that heal wounds and set brokenness. It is time for the fivefold ministry, if it wants to call itself as such, to take a long hard look at itself and get back to the basics of ministry that serves not enslaves its people before it assays to be the voice of God to the world.

Unfortunately, such a profoundly uncomfortable reorganization of personal ministry vision and commitments is something that I don’t see the fivefold ministry as it stands today being in any position to act upon. I’d like to prayerfully hope that a great grass roots wave of Spirit-led recovery would arise, but these are the last days when the love of many waxes cold and I know sadly what’s really going on.

For all of their florid rhetoric about having lion hearted courage in times of spiritual and cultural warfare, most of the daring fivefold ministry are actually quite chicken livered. …You see, most fivefold ministry men and women would quickly agree that something “needs to be done” about this horror, and will just as quickly absolve themselves from being part of the solution to the problem. …This is because they have too many vested self-interests, ministerial allegiances, business partnerships, and church networks that would become quite unpleasantly colored by the messy hues of controversy should they become too vocal about what they would see within the fivefold circles within their own reach. There is also the issue of personal friendships and frankly, too much of the fear of man that effectively chills whatever visceral fortitude their consciences may briefly muster to take a stand.

Fivefold ministers reading this may indignantly howl over this statement but their caterwauling would quickly end once they consider just how involved they’ve been in withstanding Prophet Humptyscrunch or Apostle Dingleboulder the next time they hear of some whispers of a teenage girls’s seduction or an offering that went to customize an SUV and not to plant a church in India. …It happens daily in churches across the fivefold galaxy since the love of money, the desire for carnal self-indulgence and a degraded view of ministry that raises fivefold ministers into gods who do as they please is so widespread in fivefold circles that any other reaction would be politically incorrect and therefore, truly intolerable.

That’s why fivefold renewal is going to be largely impossible in so many places. The fear of man and the love of power governs the “ministry” in these quarters – not the love of God or the power of love. As the song says, that’s the way it is.

So therefore, this article is being written to those of conscience who would refuse to be a cloak to evil by keeping silent about the issue. I am writing to those scattered fivefold ministers and Christians who want to see their own worlds change and want to see the springs of the Spirit loosed of the foul debris of aberrant fivefold influence they’ve suffered too long. …I will offer several Scriptural principles that will help us arrest the slide of the fivefold ministry into authoritarian anarchy as well as offer healing to the wounded and a vision for reclaiming fivefold ministry back to the Biblical dimension it was to be founded upon to touch a world with the Gospel of Christ. …It is to this renewing remnant that may yet be abroad in the fivefold world that I now speak – and how deeply painful it is to have to speak of “the New wave” in these terms.

Discerning Fivefold Ministry Authority: …Two Foundational Principles

There are two fundamental principles of discernment we have to establish once and for all that authorize this kind of radical, yet vital revisioning of five fold ministry: they are found in the teachings of Christ and the apostle Paul: these are Biblical teachings you don’t often hear rightly divided in many churches today in these last days:

John 7:24 ├ö├ç├┤ Do not judge according to appearance but judge with righteous judgment. (NKJV)…Here, the Lord Jesus Christ commands that any kind of judgment be done with a high standard of truth and he forbids the kind of shallow and superficial judgment in which "image is everything" and the appearances are deceiving, yet so readily accepted, promoted and eagerly looked for. …2 Co. 13:5 ├ö├ç├┤ Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? ├ö├ç├┤ unless indeed you are disqualified. (see Galatians 6:4)

In his second epistle to the Corinthians, Paul commands that all believers regularly test and examine not only their personal doctrinal knowledge but their personal integrity as grounded upon their walk with Christ ÔÇô issues in which disqualification from being considered being in the faith are a real possibility.

The implications are sobering yet unmistakable. The Bible’s mandate to carefully discern, and judge isn’t a suggestion but a clear command given by the direct authority of the Savior Himself and amplified by Biblical apostolic authority. There is no way to opt out from this divine command, no convenient dodge to fall back upon to avoid being seen as too “judgmental.” We are to try and examine both the claims and the testimonies of those making the claims out of a righteous, holy and God-fearing devotion to truth, wherever it may lead the examination.

Objections about “judging” anyone’s relationship to God arise at this point from both fivefold ministers and their flocks, usually when the fires of examination begin to smolder within their long anesthetized consciences. These are based upon misinterpretations of what Jesus said about judgment. The verse they will usually cite is found in Luke 6:37:

“Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned.”

Out of sincerity (and as often, out of a desire to cover something) many of these Christian people will loudly protest “Who are we to judge? We’re not to judge anyone because if you do, we’ll be judged!” Somehow this is the emotional loincloth they clutch to themselves to cover a shockingly exposed self when called to examination. This grotesque girding of the loins of the fivefold mind usually works well enough to silence objections to discernment, so we have to ask again what did Jesus mean here in Luke 6:37? Was he outright forbidding anyone to practice the Biblically based kind of discernment as we have just described it?

Look at John 7:24 for the answer: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” Here, Jesus commands His followers to not make snap judgments based solely upon a shallow acceptance of what one sees “on the surface” or the image being projected by the subject being considered! This is the very mistake that virtually all those who criticize discernment as “heresy hunting” commit when demanding that we “not judge”. Indeed, this is a direct command by Jesus Christ Himself phrased as a nonnegotiable imperative that would be an actual sin to disobey! What Jesus is demanding here is that we don’t do the sloppy and superficial “checking out” of questionable things that we have for too many years done; rather, he goes on to command that godly judgment be actually done in a holy and sober manner.

As we’ve seen in Revelation 2:2, we actually find Jesus commending the Ephesian church for trying impostors who posed as apostles and were found to be “liars.” Such an examination couldn’t take place without …a) a Scriptural mandate to “test all things”, …b) moral courage, and …c) just plain obedience for the sake of the truth. …Righteous judgment was done, and the Ephesian church was preserved from one deadly aspect of error, if not all. In this case, Jesus showed how “questioning authority” was a right thing to do. …This was a church that “judged” but “judged” correctly, to the glory of God. So it is superficial judgment based upon shallow decision-making that is actually forbidden by Christ, not the process of sound judgment itself!

Believe it or not, just the consideration of these two verses alone often have seemed like revelations of lost truth to far too many Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians who have never known of the Biblical call to discernment and therefore have been long strangers to the freedom of Christian conscience and liberty. …This lamentable state of affairs has been perpetuated by the virtual ignorance of these precious Christian freedoms as fostered by too many fivefold ministries and churches for the sake of “unity,” “present truth,” and “revelation knowledge.” Long taught to not trust their own ability to question or reason and to meekly subjugate it to the groupthink dynamic of their chosen church circle, millions of Charismatics and Pentecostals languish in a blindness inflicted by bad fivefold teaching and practice to their spiritual detriment.

For their deliverance, they need to dwell upon these verses and meditate upon them wholly (1 Timothy 4:15) to give entrance to the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment, an unfolding of divine truth that can jolt them with a holy defibrillation charge out of their sleep to once again regain their critical thinking and clearly see what they’ve been subjected to. Just this visitation of these portions of truth found in God’s Word will transform lives in ways scarcely thought possible.

Four Action Plans To Right The Fivefold Ship

In my opening essay I offered on this site, I alluded to the word picture of the Charismatic and Pentecostal worlds as being part of a “full gospel ship” badly listing to one side, in dire danger of foundering and sinking beneath the stormy waves of a dangerous sea that batters and floods. Such a ship gives passage to the fivefold ministry also. …With the crisis of fivefold spiritual abuse at hand and so readily overlooked by the passengers berthing in the fivefold decks, we can see that their evasion of the problem is a major part of the serious damage within the full gospel ship that has compromised the watertight integrity of the vessel itself. …A ship filled with such gaping holes and hull cracks will not stay afloat long, let alone stand upright in a stormy hour.

These four action plans I offer will be the basis for the damage control the fivefold ministry needs to immediately engage in to save the full gospel ship it sails aboard. It will repair the hull, seek those washed overboard, bail out a swamping ship, set a better course through the storms of life, batten the hatches and bring it slowly into recovery from the disasters looming ahead.

An important caveat: The chief areas of concern we will cover in this article specifically relate to the dire issue of spiritually abusive group dynamics as beheld in errant fivefold ministries. We will not be covering issues like Bible prophecy, dream interpretation, differing views on sanctification or modes of baptism, headcoverings or how the distinctives of each of the fivefold ministry roles are to be executed in the fivefold church. As vitally important and relevant as these hot button issues are within the fivefold ministry culture, we simply cannot tarry on them.

Our entire objective in this article series and this final one specifically is aimed at equipping Christians to recognize and respond to spiritually abusive situations that arise in fivefold circles which coerce Christians into illegitimate postures of abject submission to unscrupulous fivefold ministers. Limited references to select issues may be recognized as we go through these action plans. An article on what the Scriptures teach about fivefold ministry will be forthcoming and will be linked here when completed.

Action Plan #1 – …With Clarity Discern Between Truth And Error – …Christians who accept the fivefold ministry as a viable ministry model for their chosen fellowship in the Faith need to develop a passion for discerning truth and error. We’ve already seen where Christ commanded this and Paul simply expanded upon it. …The foundations for truth are Biblical precepts developed into sound doctrine and such doctrinal essentials are non-negotiables here. …False teaching has for too long been tolerated in the church and undermined whatever personal discipling in the Christian faith that so many in the fivefold world struggle to attain. …Having said that and where they do not contradict sound Biblical teaching, the approach to practical commitments on how doctrinal essentials are to be taught and put into practice would then be flexible. …Out of Christian liberty, we can respect differences over how and what others might teach about the Christian way as long as the core Biblical truths of the Faith are not compromised ethically, morally or spiritually.

Doctrinal matters regarding the nature of the Triune Godhead, man, sin, salvation and the Church should be firmly grasped so as to bring the fivefold ministry and worshipers on one page. …Once again, Bibles should be opened and Scriptural truth examined just as thoroughly as the Berean Jews of Acts 17:11 did “with all readiness of mind”, a God-fearing people who “searched the scriptures daily”to discern and test the apostolic preaching of Paul. …And an ongoing dialogue on the specifics of fivefold doctrine and practice that line up with these foundational essentials that is engaged in by both minister and congregation is one of the top priorities that should be addressed in the discerning of what is true and what is in error – …What a Christian should stand for and …What they should positively avoid or even reject. …Such church authority, however, must be firmly balanced by Biblical authority that establishes the Word of God as the basis for the discerning of truth from error, as the final authority for the direction of the church:

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ÔÇô All Scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work

In his writing to the young pastor Timothy, Paul minces no words and they speak to us today: contrary to any lofty teaching by the Roman Catholic papacy or the new apostles and prophets of some “new apostolic reformation”, he firmly establishes that the Bible is the one source for Christian truth and understanding that fully purifies, prepares and plants all Christians on solid ground, where they may blossom and flourish in a life of meaningful faith that can change the world they live in. Paul’s additional admonition in his first epistle to the Corinthians definitely speaks to the fivefold minister who prides himself on his freedom from doctrinal boundaries

1 Cor. 14:37-40 ÔÇô If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant. Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy and do not forbid to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order.

True fivefold ministers, especially the prophets who “come back from another world” to tell people what they’ve seen, will readily submit to this divine landmark of ancient truth. …The Bible still is the final authority for all true Christian faith, not any of the so-called “present truth”taken from “revelation knowledge”they might hear in some ecstatic state or from the shining face of an angel that visits them in a hotel room between meetings.

At this point in our discussion, it must be noted that there are several distinctive doctrines found among fivefold ministry circles that need to be reexamined since they either negate or confuse Biblical authority and sound church order. …They also contribute to the abuse of power that badly behaved fivefold ministers engage in when trying to consolidate and magnify their questionable authority and dubious practices. …These include but aren’t limited to:

the “now word rhema” as superior to Biblical revelation: “present truth” now comes from dream/omen interpretation, prophetic oracle and angel visitation

need to establish the authority of the fivefold ministry as a condition for the return of Christ to create a “perfect church”

testing of prophetic utterances can only be done by other “prophets”

the supremacy of apostles and prophets over pastors, evangelists and teachers – the belief that the “fivefold ministry”is governed by them

personal callings and mantles of spiritual authority can be “imparted”by fivefold ministers to believers as a matter of routine course

drama-filled deliverance services in which the discerning of demonic possession/oppression of Christians is the diagnosis to solve their problems

spiritual warfare sessions involving extended worship services, fastings and prayer walks to “bind the strong man”and pull down “principalities”

Each of these doctrines are problematic, drawn from the wells of the Latter Rain revival and have been upgraded, repolished and reintroduced globally by thousands of fivefold ministers who don’t recognize their unbiblical nature and aren’t aware of how they inflame and instigate the power tripping that their carnal ambition and lust for power can lead them easily into. …Whatever truth they seem based upon needs to be carefully discerned by Bible-studying Christians who earnestly desire only the word of the Lord and not the words of men whose carnal nature inspires them to say “thus saith the Lord” when He has not spoken to them.

So therefore, out of that same passion for truth, Christians must also adopt Body-wide discernment of ministry maturity. The character of the fivefold minister should be blameless but all too often, is found to have a checkered past that routinely violates whatever grace has been extended to them as they “work through issues.”…This toleration of questionable personal testimony has to be ended. Not only is Scriptural integrity to be pursued in the pursuit of truth but also the personal spiritual maturity of the fivefold minister as well. …As we’ve seen in the book of Revelation, Christ commends the church that tests those who claim to be apostles and finds them liars and the author of Hebrews reminds us that the "anointed" (any who "rule") aren't above scrutiny. …It is important to realize what the contexts of these verses are: they inescapably and directly focus upon the personal conduct and character of the spiritual leader as a critical point of contention when it comes to gauging their suitability for leadership

Hebrews 13:7 ├ö├ç├┤ Remember those who have the rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct…We once again must visit Revelation 2 for Christ’s own commendation of the Ephesian church’s discernment:

Revelation 2:2 ├ö├ç├┤ ..and you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars.…It would seem obvious that anyone claiming to wear the mantle of a fivefold minister would be someone who is not only answering a divine call but has been properly mentored, trained and tested and found to be “thoroughly equipped” and of impeccable character and spirit.

That is, to put it most lightly, most definitely not the case in too many instances. The gross carnality that many “Spirit-filled”fivefold ministers walk in routinely surfaces in their bad temper, love of money, sexual immorality, contempt for authority and inability to even treat other people properly. …We could fill a website full of tales here alone on how twisted some fivefold ministers have been on this point alone. And yet, fivefold churches and other ministers tolerate the nasty behavior of these “ministers” on the grounds that “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven”and how dare we judge those “over us in the Lord”?

But the author of Hebrews makes clear that consideration of personal conduct is part of the discernment that all ministers are to be subject to. …It makes respect for their authority as leaders conditional – we follow the leader as they follow and emulate Christ since it is this kind of modeling faith that the Scriptures teach (1 Corinthians 11:1 Ephesians 5:1). …In another admonition to Timothy, Paul plainly states in his classic job description of the character of the bishop (minister) that they are not to be novices in the faith but that they are to be “..blameless..pureconscience..nourished in words of faith..” (1 Timothy 2:2,8; 4:6)

Fivefold ministers who keep a church on edge whenever their dictates aren’t followed, who talk about nothing but their authority and one’s need to submit to it, and who engage in verbal abuse and dysfunctional, unhealthy relationships exhibit behavior that is to be watched and noted andresponded to, as Paul further warned Timothy:

1 Timothy 6:3-5 – 3 Some people may contradict our teaching, but these are the wholesome teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. These teachings promote a godly life.4 Anyone who teaches something different is arrogant and lacks understanding. Such a person has an unhealthy desire to quibble over the meaning of words. This stirs up arguments ending in jealousy, division, slander, and evil suspicions.5 These people always cause trouble. Their minds are corrupt, and they have turned their backs on the truth. To them, a show of godliness is just a way to become wealthy.fromthem you must such withdraw yourself

It is the fallen and carnal human nature exhibited from the preacher throughout history that has given many a novelist, screenwriter and atheistic skeptic so much raw and juicy detail to pull from to create their award winning fictions that bring so much reproach on the Body of Christ. …For the fivefold ministry to reestablish itself as a legitimate institution worthy of attention, those claiming a calling and burden for being a visionary prophet or an anointed Bible teacher simply have to submit to a fair and yet thorough examination of their personal life. …The argument that we have to allow for the errant and misbehaving fivefold minister to learn from his mistakes can only be stretched so far when the evangelist or apostle in question makes the same mistake again and again for years. …Once again, pointing this out will raise a chorus of indignant objection from fivefold ministers still clutching their “judge not”mantra about themselves.

At this point, this fivefold minister responds that the Bible allows for no such room. …We must face the plain fact that character that proceeds from personal morality based on spiritual maturity is the bedrock of Christian ministry. Upon this true fivefold calling and fivefold burden must be borne! …If there is any one precept I would hope you walk away from this article with, this would be it. …Fivefold ministers who cannot treat fellow Christians with civility and patience, let alone the love of God, need to be admonished for their behavior as well as marked and shunned if necessary. …It is from the carnal human nature, we’ve seen, that spiritual abuse proceeds and if the fivefold minister has not mastered this, his claim to mastery over the house of God is an empty one. …Those who remain submitted to such twisted fivefold ministers only endanger themselves spiritually, socially and psychologically by accepting such dishonorablearrangement .…They simply serve as enablers of abusive dynamics in the same way codependent women will cover for their abusive husbands.

Abusive fivefold ministers when weighed and found wanting should do the right thing and speedily repent of their sinful ways, leave the ministry, publicly apologize and offer restitution to those they’ve abused and thereafter seek a program of restorative counseling from spiritual elders who will accept firm oversight over them. Such elders will not allow him to rationalize his sinful ways as regrettable smearsand that a good vacation would help him forget – they will apply loving, yet firm discipline to them in an environment that will help them get their bearings again as believers and will help them make a decision as to whether they get back into the ministry or not.

It is time for the “anointed” to understand that their “anointing” is not above accountability by fellow members of the Body of Christ. If fivefold ministers and worshipers fail to heed this most basic of action plans, it is fruitless to seek change in the spiritually abusive fivefold church. …The faculty of spiritual discernment must be intentionally cultivated to establish what is true and what is false in both the doctrine and the person of the fivefold minister and upon this the fivefold house stands or falls, and with it the full-gospel ship.

Action Plan #2 –…Out Of Humility Proclaim The Differences On Authority …– The second action plan directly addresses the twisted taproot of fivefold authoritarianism, this being the belief that fivefold ministers walk on an exalted level of authority that reckons Christians to be mere subjects who are to meekly submit to their authority for their spiritual good. …This is the basis for the belief that unquestioned submission to fivefold ministry authority is the “covering”their spiritual destiny depend upon. …As mentioned in the past chapter, this doctrine reinforces the manipulative grip of abusively controlling fivefold ministers to an obscene level that has been used to unscrupulously dominate Christian lives.

In a humble yet firm manner, inspired by what the Bible actually teaches about this, all fivefold ministers and worshipers need to engage in a serious “check up from the neck up”about this pet doctrine of authoritarian origin. They need to reconsider this unbiblical position and then courageously share what they find with one another – again, in a right spirit that encourages open willingness to deal with this teaching. …This is because such a doctrine is unknown to Biblical fivefold ministry: the apostles Peter and Paul provide for us a glimpse into the Biblical balance that underlies Biblical authority. …Listen to Peter’s exhortation to the elders of the church in ancient Asia Minor:…1 Peter 5:2 … And now, a word to you who are elders in the churches. I, too, am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I, too, will share in his glory when he is revealed to the whole world. As a fellow elder, I appeal to you: 2 Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly-not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God.3 Don't lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example.…If Christians are to exist under the reality of a “covering”from which they are not to deviate, then Peter missed a great opportunity to make that clear. Here, Peter the apostle who denied Christ three times and yet was restored and set back into his apostolic place by Him, is reminding the elders of these ancient churches of his relationship to them. And what does Peter say of himself? “I who am a fellow elder” .. There is a complete absence of the kind of attention to spiritual hierarchy that “covering” teachings so obsess over. There is no rigid or implicit compulsion for the elders of the churches of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia and Bithynia to acknowledge Peter’s apostolic authority or covering whatsoever. The verse contains a charge for godly shepherds to serve as leaders among the scattered bands of believers willingly, out of a pure and godly zeal to serve the Body of Christ as examples of Jesus and not to dominate them as Peter the elder – Peter the fellow elder – writes.

And Paul’s closing admonitions to the church in Ephesus contain a simple yet subversive call to a dimension of Christian community that has been sorely missing in the fivefold culture: along with an exhortation to joyous ministry to one another of encouraging words, spiritual songs and hymns that exalts and praises God, he defines the context this kind of ministry is to be done in:

Eph 5:21 ├ö├ç├┤ Submitting to one another in the fear of God .. …When’s the last time this was explained in a typical fivefold meeting about the “new breed”? We see that Paul clearly intends Christians to be in submission to one another in a godly and pure way – so therefore, the fivefold ministry is to be as submitted to the fivefold worshipers as they are to one another. As the old saying states, then, in the Biblical fivefold community “there are no big I’s and little U’s.”The great as well as the small are to enjoy a level of fellowship, respect and commitment to one another as equals in the sight of God, with only enough deference to the leadership role given as needed. The well-worn and often overlooked spiritual relational analogy used in the church which teaches Christians to call each other brother and sister then takes a new urgency and reality. Submission to one another in that context and out of a Spirit-impressed fear of God would transform a church overnight and revolutionize its direction to an unimaginable degree.

Submission in the Body of Christ works both ways between fivefold ministry and lay people. We are joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:1), we are fellow servants (Col. 4:7), and even those who watch over our souls – the fivefold ministry – are subject to admonition of others (Col. 3:12-16). As a person follows Christ, so we then follow them. When they fail to do so, their offenses are to be dealt with per Matthew 18:15-17, the classic instruction of Christ on how to deal with personal conflict and spiritual offense in the Church. Tragically, this is news to far too many Christians who have been persuaded by generations of unbiblical tradition that reinforce the ungodly notion that Christian humility is the equivalent of passive silence in the face of exploitation at the hands of “brethren” who cite “covering” to get off the hook.

By encouraging this Biblical recovery of what true submission is in the context of Christian relationships to others as spiritual family members who should be cherished, loved and even patiently withstood at times, the sharp contrasts between unbiblical fivefold ministry traditions and Biblical ones will be made abundantly clear. Such an encounter with balanced Biblical truth will help pull the teeth off of the unbalanced and unbiblical falsehoods that abusive fivefold teaching has established as veritable Asherahs in the houses of God.

Action Plan # 3 – In charity admonish the wayward├ö├ç├┤

I must hasten to reemphasize anew that in the correction of the wayward fivefold minister or layperson, that the very motivation for why engage in correction has to be above question. …Many of them fear, reject and despise the objections of those they too quickly demonize as critics, Pharisees, dead dogs, and wet blankets out to quench the “work of God” when they sneer any corrective truth out of a spirit of prideful and smug superiority. …Sadly, this kind of “truth telling” effectively undermines whatever truth they may actually be sharing, reinforces the biases each party has against the other and in the end no one wins. …Truth is chilled and divisive walls just got higher.

When endeavoring to speak to an errant fivefold minister or layperson, it should go without saying that you do so because you deeply care about them and only want the glory of God and the welfare of souls to be your primary motivation. It is out of love for the Body of Christ and compassionate concern for the spiritual well being of the souls of Christians as well as the lost that should compel anyone to take a position and stand against those errors that endanger and wound them.

Although it probably would not be believed by many of them who take offense to my positions on fivefold abuses, I do what I do because I ardently love in Christ my fellow brothers and sisters who call themselves fivefold ministers, as much as those whom they shepherd. I share the same passion they do in reaching the world for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom and am grateful they are doing what they feel led to do if they truly are Spirit-led.

Simply because I am a Church of God minister doesn’t make me a denominational lackey wanting to tear down their work. Far from it! I do indeed want them to be mightily blessed, to walk in the peace of God and used of His Spirit to truly challenge the spiritual darkness of our day, to preach the Gospel of our common Savior Jesus Christ and to teach the nation to fear, obey and give themselves to Him.

So if this kind of love underlies our motivations when we speak to those we see in error, then whether it is acknowledged or not, we can be assured we are doing the will of God in admonishing those who need it. Such a ministry has never been popular, never been readily accepted and usually results in the fires of tribulation at the hands of those who would resist correction. There is always the probability that you will be misunderstood and rejected regardless what you say, and this is part of what comes with the territory when you want to become a messenger of truth (cf. Ezekiel 2:1-7).…After years of dealing with controversial teaching eagerly embraced by people who are members of controversial groups, I’ve learned that this also is the way it is and the Bible brings a helpful, if not sobering, perspective on this issue. The underlying tension in these verses below that relate to corrective dialogue with those who are in error plainly shows that Spirit-bestowed love, patience and wisdom is the tone to be set in our admonitions:

2 Timothy 2:24-26 – A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will

When sharing Scriptural truth that kicks every sacred cow an errant fivefold minister might be driving through one’s church, one should fully expect the temperature of the conversation to rise quite alarmingly.…Those who are in error do not easily accept correction, especially if they claim to be anointed, cutting edge leaders on a mission from God. Dialogue will be heated, faces darkened and manners sharper than one might like.

We cannot change their reaction but what we can change is how we respond to it. …Gentle, patient discussion should temper our own approach according to the counsel Paul offers here in 2 Timothy 2:24-26. We speak and teach and reflect and discuss so that those with opposing views can come “to their senses”,recognize truth and escape the bonds that they are struggling with, some of which may be actually demonic in nature (remember the warning of Paul in 1 Timothy 4:1 about this sobering reality). …This is when the fullness of the Spirit that should reside in every believer, manifest in their exhibited fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22 and Ephesians 5:29), must arise within the believer as they take a stand for truth in “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, (and) temperance.” This is a work of the Spirit of God we must allow Him to do within us as we share the Word of God to those whose understanding is deficient and even unbiblical.

Paul then points out that if there are those who persist in error and who continue to indulge in unbiblical doctrine and practice that contradicts Biblical teaching, there is only one recourse:

2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 – And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him that he be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy but admonish him as a brother.

The wayward fivefold minister who has embraced false doctrine and practice should be publicly noted as someone who has gone into error and should not be fellowshipped with (Titus 3:10). …Once again, this is politically incorrect territory but all Christians Passionatelyconcerned for God’s truth, the Kingdom of God and the Body of Christ won’t worry what the consequences will be. …The Word of God is clear. We are to admonish and then reject the presence of the “believer” who himself rejects God’s Word and truth. …This isn’t a license to heap scorn, abuse or shame upon them whatsoever as if they are degenerate enemies to be hated and vilified. They are still men and women who we are to love as if they were still brethren in Christ. …But accepting their leadership, let alone fellowship, in the Body of Christ is clearly out of the question according to the Bible. …This undercuts the trend of the fivefold culture to rally behind and make excuses for disorderly fivefold ministers but perpetuation of their culture of denial and evasion is not our concern. We are to follow God’s truth wherever it leads us.

The only limited exchanges we are to have with such marked ministers should be aimed at doing one thing – admonishing them to acknowledge and submit to the truth they plainly have rejected. …The tone of these discussions is to be no less loving then as if these sadly misguided men and women were our very own family members: once again, Paul exhorts that the tone is not one of scathing rebuke and railing but one of tender and yet firm, entreaty “with all purity”that begins first with a careful examination of one’s own motivations before they speak a single word (1 Timothy 4:16, 5:1-2).

The closing of the ranks of the fivefold community of faith to bring to bear this public admonition upon its disorderly leaders is the Biblical response that more often than not is completely absent from too many quarters where it is needed. When dialogue and admonition fails, and the fallen nature of the carnal fivefold minister continues to self-defend and justify their bad fruit, public reproval that involves identification of them as fallen and a breaking of fellowship with them is plainly the last resort, but it must be done for their sake as well as the spiritual survival of the fivefold fellowships. During the entire process, the love of God and the Church must be the foundation for the dialogues, the disagreements and if necessary, the discipline.

Action Plan # 4 – Without artiality rebuke the devourers – As we’ve just said, when necessary, the rebuke and even censure of those who persist in plainly unbiblical, unethical and immoral practices must be pointedly delivered, yet with restraint, in love and Biblical wisdom – to withstand the tides of end time apostasy that they have tragically become a part of.

In Malachi 3:11, Yahweh promises that he will “rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.” While the context of the promise is in regards to tithes and offerings, what we should see is that Israel’s fortunes were utterly reliant upon how well their crops and herds did. Long and hard were the days in the fields and pastures to sow seed and lead flocks. After all of this arduous labor, however, in the midst of growth, many destructive forces could yet come and destroy all they had worked for, such as blights, predators and insects. Storms and droughts were very real dangers also.

My point is simply this: the fivefold ministry’s noble Christian idealism and accomplishments have been, for too long, exploited by too many greedy, rapacious false teachers and leaders who have literally become devourers themselves, whose “ministry” is little more than a pandering to their own empire building at the expense of the faithful sacrifices offered by many Christians. The longed-for establishment of the Kingdom of God, the fruit of the labors of these precious believers, has been too easily spoiled and torn by the arrogant self-gratification and self-aggrandizement of these false leaders. Such people become the wolves in sheep’s clothing who have made the flocks of God their prey.

So when needed, they are to be directly rebuked and withstood face to face publicly. Once again, the Bible establishes that those who are bound by such carnality are to be approached and dealt loving and gently, yet with a backbone of steel that leaves no doubt as to what has been said to them:

Galatians 6:1 – Brethren, if a man is overtaken in ANY trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.…1 Timothy 5:20 – Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear…Titus 2:15 – Speak these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.…2 Timothy 4:2-4 – Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

I have had to do this with false teachers and false prophets on several occasions. It is not easy. It is never easy. But their destructive ways have to be confronted when necessary for the sake of the souls they could easily influence adversely due to their self-anointed status as mouthpieces for God. They should be rebuked firmly, directly, with a minimum of public controversy when possible. …But if it cannot be helped, they are to be, as Paul commands, be rebuked “before all, that others also may fear.”

Most people take the easy way out and excuse themselves from engaging in this challenging of false authority. Those who want to be obedient to the direction of divine truth and not become part of the problem that silence on fivefold spiritual abuse brings won’t submit to such thinking. …This kind of ministry, this service to the wayward soul, should be something all Christian leaders should be ready to engage into, although I’ve been in Christian leadership long enough not to entertain a starry eyed idealism that thinks all Christian leaders have such backbone.

Those who must engage in Biblical rebuke will be confronted with two pathways of discourse, neither one easy to walk through. …They can either engage themselves in the easier path of fivefold cultural accommodation or simply let things slide with only the most pathetic of weak protests or they can embrace the cross of leadership and take the rockier path of legitimate, intentional rebuke of the leader they find in gross rebellious sin. …Reaching into such thorny places is part of the calling of Christian leadership, one that should be entered into only when absolutely necessary.

In Conclusion: …Judgment Has Already Begun – Where Do You Stand?

In short, the recovery from fivefold spiritual abuse can only begin when the voices of the people of God begin to call for and observe change, transformation and accountability in the fivefold culture. …That is what this final chapter has essentially been about. It would be good to remember that the shepherd’s staff was used to also defend their flocks to beating off the attacks of wolves: in this context, Proverbs 27:6 powerfully reminds us that “faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”

It is time for the fivefold ministry to cease its casting about for revivals, fresh words, deliverances and glory clouds and to stand still long enough to hear the cries of those wounded by it who have been left far behind them in their headlong rush to the next New Thing. …Only when it begins to come clean about its own failures to properly disciple and mature the Body of Christ it was entrusted with can the fivefold ministry hope to regain real relevancy as well as legitimacy once again. …It may roll along loudly and substantially, but it is a vehicle on a journey to nowhere, stuck in a spiritual Moebius loop that its failures have locked it into.

We will end this article with a final meditation on this most unsettling of Bible verses: …1 Peter 4:17…For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God's household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God's Good News?…The end of all things is at hand and judgment has indeed begun in the household of God. …Frankly, I feel that the degenerate nature of too many Christian ministries today that has come under national media scrutiny is very likely a part of the judgment of God upon a corrupt “ministry” out to fleece the flocks of God. …Scandal on top of scandal continues to pile up in the arenas of media exposure and directly contribute to the ridicule of the church by irreverent comics who have portrayed it as a haven for spiritual pushovers. …Yet in the midst of their mockery, they do make a good point as the Saturday Night Live Church Lady said in a comedy sketch done right in the midst of the PTL fiasco in 1987:

These are trying times. …Everybody’s trying something and getting caught.

While we can still turn aside from evil, we dare not shrink from doing so, at penalty of our own ruin! …The fivefold ministry can either become the glorious blessing it was ordained to be by God or degenerate into one of a sectarian curse as spiritually toxic as any cult today. Only God alone knows where we stand..but I’m hoping and praying that the fivefold ministry can purge itself of its errors yet.

At the same time, sadly, I’m not going to hold my breath. …These are still the last days. May God grant a visitation of redeeming grace once more to save ourselves from ourselves.

Sola Deo Gloria