The Counterfeit Revival Revisited Hank Hanegraaff |
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It has now been
over two years since my book Counterfeit Revival documented the dangers of
looking for God in all the wrong places. Sadly, leaders of the Counterfeit
Revival have continued to employ No one is immune to the contagion of mass suggestion. Once this epidemic contaminates a movement, it can make black appear white, obscure realities, and enshrine absurdities. One of the newest absurdities is the phenomenon of gold-tooth fillings — that’s right, gold fillings! “Fallings in the Spirit” may well have been eclipsed by “fillings in the Spirit.” As one Counterfeit Revival devotee proclaims, “Have you heard?…there’s gold in Toronto!”2 She goes on to write: Wednesday night, before Dutch Sheets delivered a powerfully anointed message, there was a short video clip shown of John Arnott ministering in a South Africa meeting where people’s teeth were being filled with gold. After the clip, John asked for anyone who wanted this miracle to stand and believe for it while touching the sides of their faces. After the prayer he asked that we check each other’s mouths and about 10 people went forward, some yelling and all excited because they now had gold teeth and fillings which they did not previously have!
Then, at just about every meeting there was prayer for this miracle and every time there would be many who would discover their mouth filled with gold! Last count that I heard was over 198 people who were leaving the conference with some gold in their mouths!
A Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship official statement titled “GOLD TEETH!” reports that perhaps God was filling people’s teeth with gold as “a sign and a wonder to expose the skepticism still in so many of us.”4 The statement went on to say that “reports of people’s fillings turning a bright silver or gold color are coming in from South Africa, Australia, England, Mexico and across Canada and the USA. The excitement at TACF is electric with news of how these dental miracles are so rapidly spreading.” (This gives new meaning to Arnott’s mantra: “Fill, fill, fill!”) Even as reports
of gold fillings are pouring in from the Counterfeit Revival leaders in
Toronto, leaders at the Brownsville revival in Pensacola have begun citing
resurrections from the dead. For $75 the Brownsville Revival School of
Ministry will sell you a video series While Arnott and his associates are duping people with the gold-filling ruse, and while Hogan’s heroes are heralding resurrections from the dead, Rodney Howard-Browne is attempting to make a comeback at Madison Square Garden in New York. With a dwindling following in Florida, Howard-Browne has come up with a new angle. It seems Rodney “had a dream from God”7 in which Billy Graham told him about a crusade Graham held in New York back in 1957. Rodney says that as he listened to Billy, he started weeping. Says Howard-Browne, “I wept so hard that when I woke up, my pillow was soaked with tears.”8 The Holy Ghost allegedly told the self-designated “Holy Ghost Bartender” that he was to launch one of the biggest soul-winning crusades ever. Through a variety of techniques, including a Charisma magazine ad, Rodney now raises money and manpower for “Unlocking Heaven at the Garden.”9 While at first blush the stories of Counterfeit Revival leaders may be amusing, the consequences of their fabrications, fantasies, and frauds are often tragic. The story of the parent who took his baby to Brownsville speaks for itself. Such stories as gold fillings can also have tragic repercussions. First, when followers finally catch on to the manipulations of revival leaders, they often become disillusioned and disenchanted. They no longer know what to believe or whom to trust and secretly fear that the untrustworthiness of those who claim to be God’s representatives translates into the untrustworthiness of God Himself. Furthermore, these testimonies leave believers with a watered-down understanding of miracles that cheapens their appreciation of the biblical reality. We should ask ourselves why God isn’t restoring teeth as opposed to merely filling cavities with gold. While gold and silver fillings might be a human solution to a decayed tooth, one would think that God would provide a solution without the possible side effects produced by placing metals in the mouth. In addition, when Christ healed the blind man in John 9, He didn’t give him a super-duper pair of spectacles; He restored his sight. Likewise, when Jesus healed the paralytic in Luke 5, He did not give him a diamond-studded gold crutch. The difference between the “magic” of mental manipulations and genuine miracles is dramatic. As documented by Christian apologist Dr. Norman Geisler, when Jesus and the apostles healed people, the miracles were always 100 percent successful and immediate, and there were no relapses. Finally, the
consequences of counterfeit miracles based on sociopsychological
manipulation are often far reaching. The power of the Spirit can indeed
create life and limb, but the power of suggestion creates only a
lamentable lie. It is all too easy to make the masses believe the lie. It
is often incredibly difficult to undo that work again. |
