Sorting through the withdrawal from American Gospel 3 by Dr. Michael Brown...

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Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. - 2Timothy 3:12-13 (ESV)

Let me preface this by saying a few things for the record. I am not defending the maker of the American Gospel series. In fairness, I have not watched them. I know plenty of people who have and who enjoy them as properly exposing false teaching that has distorted the true gospel of Jesus Christ. The primary speakers do tend to the Cessationist and Calvinist bent, and I am sure this stands out for those in charismatic circles as problematic. As much as I disagree with the NAR abuses within charismania, I equally disagree with Calvinist theology and cessationism as the bible simply does not support either. That said, some of the better theological voices seem to come from the Calvinist crowd and some of the worst from Charismatic circles.

When it comes to Dr. Michael Brown my record has been completely clear. I had a great deal of respect for him, as he presented as a knowledgeable and learned theologian. The more I watched his involvement with the first Trump run for president however, the more concerned I became. He clearly was promoting politics more than the gospel and although he tries to present now as being reformed from this, he is clearly still NAR dominionist through and through, especially considering his close involvement with Charisma News, the preeminent dominionist proponent on the Internet. Equally disturbing was his penchant for refusing to call out false teachers. He appeared on Benny Hinn's program for a week and defended it by defending the heretic, calling him a good brother in the Lord. He has done the same for Bill Johnson, who he vehemently defends, and Joseph Prince, despite writing and entire book against Prince's theology of antinomianism. The episode that led to my referring to Brown as a NAR gatekeeper however was after Jennifer LeClaire made her absurdly stupid "sneaky squid prophecy", Brown gave her his radio show as a platform to defend it. It appears Brown is stuck in a quagmire of his own making. He knows full well that Charismania is producing all sorts of false theology, but he cannot bring himself to critique his direct peers.

With this as the backdrop it appears there is a new kerfuffle involving Dr. Brown and Brandon Kimber, who makes the American Gospel docuseries. Kimber decided for the third installment, he would have opposing viewpoints, such as Dr. Brown and Daniel Kolenda. Kimber and Brown appeared to have a genial arrangement which allowed Brown to back out and it appears Brown has done so AFTER, filming hours and hours of material. One of the responses from Dr. Brown in a Facebook thread he started tells us quite a bit about the false piety and disingenuousness he traffics in:

"Brandon Kimber Brandon, I made a major personal sacrifice to help your project and to speak into your life personally, but you rejected my most important input and did not exhibit integrity. I had no plans to make this public, but your post has let loose a flood of horrific personal attacks, coupled with honest questions. I ignore the attacks and pray for the critics, but I will answer the questions fairly and accurately. I have no desire to make you look bad, but I fear God and will not be party to deception." - Dr. Michael Brown

This was a docuseries that criticizes a great deal of error on the charismatic side so asking for Dr. Brown's involvement does not strike me as "doing Kimber a favor" but rather providing Brown an opportunity to argue his side. It further appears that Kimber did not (and probably should not) have even tried to involve Brown at all. Also, I am relatively sure Kimber did not need nor ask for Dr. Brown, who he obviously disagrees with, to "speak into his life." The "most important" input Brown is referring to is his disagreement with the usage of the term NAR. Now, Brown objects to the NAR because he is always associated with it, quite correctly I might add. He initially tried to pretend the NAR didn't exist, but he soon found out that no one was accepting that nonsense so now he simply downplays it or erects silly strawmen arguments to ignore discussing the merits of it and his involvement. What is interesting is Kimber asserts that the actual objection was in the labeling of other ministries and ministers as NAR. This is fully in line with Dr. Brown's usual behavior where he refuses to listen to any correct critique of false teachers and simply dismisses them piously by pretending that God somehow would not be pleased in pointing out that sneaky squid spirits do not exist. In the aforementioned Facebook thread, Brown deleted all criticizing comments about other ministers and ministries and even proudly admitted to such in the thread, because you know, Jesus. He then infers that Kimber somehow was wrong for making this issue public, but everyone already knew Brown was involved, so he would have to answer to why he was no longer involved. As for the assertion that this unleashed a flood of personal attacks, here is a direct quote from Kimber's announcement regarding Brown's departure:

"If you're a charismatic or cessationist and are disappointed in his decision (and I know that many are, and will be), I would advise you not to attack him on social media. He will only see that as further proof that he was right to remove himself from the project. I am thankful for the time that Dr. Brown and Daniel Kolenda gave me, and have great respect for their passion and willingness to help me understand their perspectives, but I am very disappointed in how this all concluded." - Brandon Kimber

Yeah, that sounds really vitriolic. The deception Dr. Brown is from you. The deception is in defending egregiously false teachers like Bill Johnson and Jennifer LeClaire and countless others. The deception that it seems like many are upset with is that you waited until filming was completed to then complain about things you knew from the beginning. To try and assert that you were surprised that American Gospel would refer to ministries as NAR is absurd. Even despite that, Kimber asserts that he offered Brown and opportunity to add his disagreement to the movie but that was not good enough. He insisted that their opinions needed to be scrubbed completely. Knowing full well that would be rejected, Brown got to exit the project having wasted countless hours of Kimber and the project all while generating positive press from his charismatic backers. THAT seems to be why folks are upset. To be honest, some of that upset needs to be focused to Kimber as well who bent over backwards to facilitate a side that has no intention of debating this. Dr. Brown at this point needs to stop being given the deference he seems to always receive, from myself included. It is clear that he is deeply in the throes of being a NAR gatekeeper and dominionist and any critique is dismissed out of hand as "not pleasing to God." False piety at its highest, such as comments from Brown, such as this:

"BTW, if you come here and slander other individuals and ministries, you'll be blocked. That's been our policy for years, and we spot comments like that, we remove them. Contrary opinions are warmly welcomed, and there are tens of thousands of comments posted that we differ with. But false attacks on individuals and ministries are not permitted." - Dr. Michael Brown

"For well over 30 years, I have spoken and written against the carnal prosperity message. The fact that critics on this page tonight attacked me for preaching that message is proof of the bad type of fruit that AG3 and the like produce. There is a way to correct error that, in the end, honors the Lord and does not create unnecessary disunity. Sadly, these documentaries do not do this." - Dr. Michael Brown

Contrary opinions are not welcome if they properly point out that anyone is false. So, when Dr. Brown deletes comments asserting that Bill Johnson runs a school that thinks it can teach the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Brown refers to that as slander (he means libel) but the reality is that false school does exist and remains wildly heretical. Johnson also fully supports the prosperity gospel, as does Benny Hinn, another huckster Brown vigorously defends. Herein is the essential problem with Dr. Brown. He has written against the prosperity gospel but refused to call out those that preach it and in fact, supports them. As mentioned earlier, he has written an entire book against greasy grace but calls Joseph Prince a good brother in the Lord. No, he is not. He is a ravenous wolf devouring sheep and Brown opens the sheep pen door for him. THAT is the problem. He gives up the game here however by admitting that along with correcting error, his goal is to protect unity, but the bible only speaks of unity as related to correct doctrine. We are NOT to be unified with false doctrine as it scatters people away from Jesus Christ. Now, I am not speaking about minor disagreements but teaching that you personally control the angels of abundant harvest, and you can only release them after you publish your book of the same name, like Jennifer LeClaire did several years ago, is despicable and making merchandise of the sheep of the Lord. Brown should be far more concerned with that than protecting unity with wolves. So yes, American Gospel takes a hard look at false ministries, but Dr. Brown knew that full well when he agreed to participate. Remember, this is the third installment - there are two other previous movies to watch prior to agreeing to be a part of the third.

What is also interesting is that Brown appears to have balked specifically at the portion of the upcoming movie that focused on the Bethel practice of grave soaking. For those who may not know, this was a thing a few years back and there were even pictures of the late Beni Johnson participating in this practice where Bethel students would visit the graves of former false teachers in the hope that they could "soak" and receive some of their "residual anointing." Brown has always tried to "pooh-pooh" this as merely being a fringe of a fringe or something silly like that but why do Bethel students believe in such nonsense? Why is there a dead raising team from Bethel that claims to have raised 15 people from the dead without one verifiable source? Why does Bethel take people's money once a year to hold a weeklong fake teaching that sells the idea that they can be taught to be a prophet? Why does Kris Vallotton sell the idea of becoming a "solutionary", a term he appears to have invented, for over a thousand dollars. Why does Bill Johnson promote the idea that angel feathers randomly fall all around him, or that glory clouds miraculously seeped in through the Bethel ventilation system. Or that gemstones and gold dust have been found at Bethel prayer meetings. Bill Johnson should be low hanging fruit for anyone with an ounce of discernment, but he is off limits for Dr. Brown. I know this personally because when I tried to bring it up on his radio show, Brown proceeded to mug me on air. Speaking over me and bullying me to the point that only his views were heard. Interestingly, the reason Brown gave for defending the Supernatural School at Bethel? Because Brown has taught there. The reason he defends Bill Johnson? Because he knows him. So much for objectivity. For balance, here was Brown's official comment on the withdrawal:

"For those asking why I pulled out of American Gospel 3 after investing many hours of my time into it, the answer is that, from the start, I had a written agreement that if I was not happy with the content and changes were not made to my satisfaction, I would withdraw. When I saw where the project was going, which was in a different direction than I was told it would be going, despite my best efforts to get things pointed in a right direction, and when I saw that good people were being misrepresented and important issues dealt with unfairly, I could not lend my name to such a project. It was not honoring to the Lord, it was not healthy for the Body, and it was not fair to the viewers. Personal integrity, love for the truth, and concern for the well-being of the Church caused me to withdraw." - Dr. Michael Brown

The project was going exactly where it always had from the beginning. Again, this is not a new endeavor, and I am sure Brown had seen the first two movies so to be surprised that the third version was similar appears very disingenuous. Yes, Brown had the right to withdraw but no one is arguing if he could, just if he should. To be honest, I do not really care as I have heard his tired defense for years now. Keep in mind he still stands by the Brownstone demonic outpouring with people thrashing all over the place uncontrollably. Go search YouTube if you think I am being overdramatic. Enough with the false piety! So apparently Dr. Brown thinks that grave soaking is honoring to the Lord. Apparently so is the divine healing nonsense of Bill Johnson. Or the experiential Christianity that downplays the importance of the bible. Sneaky squids, marine demons, angels of abundant harvest? They all honor the Lord but questioning them does not. Apparently, Dr. Brown thinks that Greg Locke holding book burnings while holding mass demonic deliverance for children is healthy for the body of Christ, while he does so with his adulteress. Or it is healthy for Mario Murillo to claim anyone who votes democratic is a hell bound reprobate who is irredeemable. That is all healthy for the body of Christ but daring to speak against it is not. There is one sliver of truth in this. Brown does do this for his concern for the wellbeing of the church, the apostate church. This is all serving the purpose driven, seeker friendly, NAR industrial complex, from which Brown draws a living. This is not even to say any of this is conscious to Brown. Perhaps he firmly believes that he is protecting the actual church. Read the key verses and we see that not only can false teachers be deceiving others but they themselves can be deceived. Intentions do not matter beloved. As my pastor is fond of saying you can be sincere and sincerely wrong.

So, what can we make of this? It sure seems as if Dr. Brown knew full well what he was getting involved with and still signed up. He sucked up major amounts of time and money from the project and then pretended they went in a different direction when it is obvious they have always been in one direction. Before anyone gets their charismatic undergarments in a bunch, this is not a blanket endorsement of the preachers on the other side either. The truth is somewhere in the middle. We have been led to believe in this country that a forced binary choice is the only way to decide what you believe in. We see that pitifully displayed in our body politic. Cessationists have it wrong too. I understand that it is the offensive manner in which the apostate church abuses the gifts that lead people to want to dismiss them, but no cogent reading of the bible can support cessationism. What we have is a false church exhibiting false signs, which the bible expressly warns us about. I have also though written extensively against the errors of Calvinism, which remains the most arrogant false teaching today. Charismania is just silly and dangerous but true Calvinism is more dangerous because it appears so sobering. Any theology that starts with you winning the spiritual equivalent of Powerball is just too convenient. As respected as even someone like John MacArthur was, he has gone off the rails in these end times in how he has handled and continues to handle the COVID crisis, ironically a point of agreement I imagine for Dr. Brown. When Steven Strang wants to interview you, that should set off warning sirens.

Dr. Brown's accusations of America Gospel being slanderous, misrepresenting ministries and ministers, and being unchristlike is ridiculously wrong. For the record, pointing out what people say, teach, or the scams they run, is not "misrepresenting ministers and ministries." This is clearly the direction the docuseries has always taken. Dr. Brown knew that and pretending now he did not is, how do the kids say today? Oh yeah, misrepresenting.

Reverend Anthony Wade - October 24, 2023

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.