Many feel betrayed. Others feel used. All feel massive disappointment. How do they rebuild their lives without becoming cynical? How do they regain that sense of childlike faith and purity? And even though they themselves may not have committed the same sins, how do they escape the feeling of being polluted? How do we sort this out?" - Dr. Michael Brown
We start by stopping. Stop defending the victimizer and start acting vaguely concerned about the victims. Stop deflecting, dissembling, and lying. Stop covering up. Stop hiring your congregants to pretend to do your investigations. Stop smearing the victims and the advocates. Stop pretending this is a spiritual attack and thus bearing false witness against the victims and advocates. Stop trying to protect the brand. Stop trying to save IHOPKC and the demonic 24-7 movement. Only after this can we think about starting over. For people to examine their beliefs and strip out the Mike Bickle false teachings because while we may have thought he was a godly man, he was clearly not. We challenge becoming cynical by becoming Bereans. By learning to discern. By moving on from the spoiled milk of cult of personality church leaders and into the solid meat of the word gleaned by being led by the Holy Spirit into all truth. It is ok to feel betrayed. It is ok to feel disappointed. Not in God but in our blind allegiance to one man, any man.
"Let's start with this profound statement from Paul: "What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: 'So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge'" (Rom. 3:3-4, NIV). As devastating as our unfaithfulness can be, especially when we are spiritual leaders, it does not nullify God's faithfulness. Rather, it underscores it: "Let God be true, and every human being a liar." The truth be told, as much as we may trust our closest family members or friends, there is an absolute, eternal trust that only God deserves. He alone is perfectly faithful, perfectly true, perfectly just, perfectly good, perfectly reliable. He alone has the power to bring His will to pass, and He alone is worthy of worship. That's why we make a terrible mistake when we over-exalt people, fellow humans who themselves are flesh and blood." - Dr. Michael Brown
Dr. Brown is of course right but he fails to see how his entire faith in Charismania creates the very cult of personality pastors that are exalted! The fact that he cannot bring himself to speak to the evil that Bickle is and was shows that he is still exalting him. He recently extolled Ravi Zacharias in an interview as a "great holiness preacher." What? No! He was a great liar! Brown also said the same of Bickle! No again! He was a great liar! Brown is right that we should not exalt any man, but we really shouldn't be doing it after they have been exposed as being a serial sexual abuser who lies about what God has and has not said!
"We can show respect and give honor. We can recognize those who have worked and served among us over the years, acknowledging the genuineness of their faith. But we can never make them into some kind of godlike beings, as if they were on an entirely different plane then we are. To do so is to deceive ourselves and to set ourselves up for disappointment. As for those whom we over-exalt, we're not doing them any favors either. To repeat: "Let God be true, and every human being a liar." The Bible tells us clearly that people will fail and fall, even some leaders.
Of course, this does not excuse their sin or minimize their accountability. It simply reminds us that if our faith in God can be shaken because of human failure, then some of our faith was misplaced. Or can you really look Jesus in the eye, spiritually speaking, and say to Him, "You failed me!"? He would rightly say to you (and me), "The only reason you have any faith is because I've been helping you. And had I not carried you through your weakest and worst times, you would have fallen away a long time ago. And have I not had great mercy on you as well?"
There's a reason that every one of us needs a Savior, that all of us need forgiveness, and that on the day we stand before Him, our only boast will be in Him." - Dr. Michael Brown
I saw Dr. Brown and and another Charismatic leader, prior to the Bickle revelations, and they offered Bickle up as someone they get upset at people for questioning. They both defended him in quite exalting fashion. It is difficult. Especially when we are deceived in such spectacular fashion. Realize though that no one can be that deceptive without help and that starts with our naivete'. Our abject refusal to consider that people we might look up to might have issues of their own they are dealing with. There is a reason why Jesus says that a prophet has no honor in his hometown. We can try to be discerning. Does the leader take female masseuses with him on international ministry trips like Zacharias did? Maybe not a good sign. Does he have a deadbolt on his office door and like to visit his girlfriend at her high school? Both of which were true in Bickle's case. Again, maybe not a good sign. Not sure why Brown is devoting so much ink here to things that people are probably not feeling. The fact that Mike Bickle turned out to be sinful human, does not change who God is and I think most, even those unsaved under the Bickle deception, would not make that kind of error.
"It's also important to remember that the prayer movement, including the 24/7 prayer movement, has been around for many centuries. The Lord may have used people over the centuries to help spark intercession or spread the fire of prayer. But He is the one who births and sustains these movements, and the worship that comes from our hearts and lips goes to Him and Him alone.
Why on earth would the severe failings of a human being"one of billions of people for whom Jesus died"get in the way of our worship and praise? How has the Lord become any less worthy of praise and adoration? And can we really afford to pray less when the needs of the hour are so great?" - Dr. Michael Brown
