At the 3:28:44 mark, Justin says that because there is a debate about the gifts, this indicates that it somehow proves they are not in operation but that made little sense. In this debate about miracles, Justin should have brought up Bethel who has claimed glory clouds, gemstones, gold dust, and angel feathers as "miracles."
3:34 - Brown is defending Daniel Kolenda healing a blind woman when Osman asks him if it could have been fabricated. Brown's answer is "But I know him. He wouldn't do that. He was a student of mine." Yeah. No. Brown also knew Ravi and Bickle. This defense using personal attribution remains unchallenged. Then Brown claims that Charisma News will not run a miracle story without documented medical proof and no one calls him on it! The very story Justin brings up about the growing toes was celebrated on Charisma! No proof!
3:40 - Storms makes weak argument that Justin is only dealing with the extreme folks, and he wishes he would come to the churches and conferences he and Brown go to. Please. These extreme folks are the ones with the microphones. They are the ones on satellite television. They are the ones with millions of followers. At 3:42, Brown says that if they polled people in Charismatic churches, they would far exceed those in cessationist churches regarding who has ever been divinely healed. It was never pointed out how poor an argument this is. If people are taught to believe in divine healing, they are more likely to expect it then those who are taught the opposite.
At 3:45, Storms says that he has heard from credible people that Todd White has led hundreds of people to Christ. More third hand subjective testimony accepted while plain video proof Justin shows of Todd being a liar and charlatan is dismissed out of hand. In that video, Todd tells his victim they do not need any faith and God was going to heal them anyway. He then mocks religion saying it wasn't about that. Todd White gives hucksters a bad name and Brown and Storms cannot bring themselves to say the word false. After watching the damning video, Brown actually says, what happened to his back pain." Does that matter? You just watched a man lying to another claiming God was going to heal him because he had a shorter leg, which he did not. Does it matter if the victim has a placebo reaction and claims his back feels better? I remember at a local church an itinerant huckster false prophet visited for the weekend and a good brother who needed hip replacement went down to have hands laid on him and prayer. He danced up and down the altar and declared he was healed. The following week I saw him limping into church and asked him what happened and he had to admit that he got emotionally caught up in the moment. The false prophet led many astray that weekend. Thankfully my friend was solid enough in the Lord to not blame God.
Then Brown says to Justin, "You can say before God as a fact that Todd tricked that person?" YESYESYES, a thousand times YES. Brown tries to set up these false piety decisions to get people to waver on what their own eyes are telling them. Meanwhile Brown says that the Todd White he knows behind the scenes is sincere. But Brown also thought Bickle was sincere. And Ravi. To make matters worse, Storms complains that the Todd White video, proving he is a liar defrauding the sheep of the Lord, was paraded by Justin to mock and create a cynical mindset. What? Todd White was providing the mockery and that was a mockery of healing and of God.
Brown closes this segment and the video by saying, "I know you cannot sit here and for a fact say that you know Todd White was doing a parlor trick." That in a nutshell is Brown's approach to dismissing discernment. Proof is not proof. Personal relationships trump your own eyes. Brown and Storms put on a masterclass of subterfuge and distraction. They set up ridiculous pretenses to avoid calling anyone a false teacher. Remember these were not close calls. Benny Hinn, Todd White, Bill Johnson? While the effort was commendable, these remain very unserious folks who traffic in the worst kind of false teachers. Justin and Osman tried their level best but, in an effort to remain genial, many opportunities were missed to point out glaring hypocrisies. Of course, it is easy to Monday morning quarterback as opposed to having to answer in real time. Perhaps the best thing to come of this is the staunch defense from both Brown and Storms of Mike Bickle, which perfectly refutes their primary defense of false teachers - I know him. No, you don't. God did not give us personal relationships to judge teaching by but rather He gave us the bible. We would be wise to use it.
