Considering the constant deflection, victim shaming and claims of exoneration for Mike Bickle, it is time certain "leaders" apologize for being so wrong...

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As we stand back and view the Bicklegate scandal unfolding over the past two months we begin to see things more clearly. It is clear now that there was at least person who was victimized at the age of 19 for several years. There also appears to be many others, as much as seven other women known, who have similar testimonies. These women have been represented by former IHOP leaders, who prior to this scandal had impeccable reputations in the IHOP community. It sadly appears that there has been a concerted effort by friends of Mike Bickle and ministry associates from the NAR Charismaniacal Industrial Complex who have spun a web of deception, false narratives and out right propaganda to try and protect Bickle to reforge his return to the pulpit. The head of that snake is Charisma News and its founder and CEO, Steven Strang. To a lesser degree, Charisma News writers, Larry Tomczak and Dr. Michael Brown as well. Now they all couched their defenses with calls for accountability, but that subterfuge was only implemented to provide a personal defense in case everything fell apart, which it has now done.

Early on, the names of two of the alleged victims were leaked, although no one could corroborate if they were actually part of the victim group. These two women, April Rose and Misty Edwards appear to have been floated for the sole purpose of allowing the women to deny the accusations and thus give ammunition to the defenders of Bickle. That is exactly what Strang and Charisma did:

"I've known Mike well for many years and I've never seen anything to suggest he has any sort of double life, and so I am choosing to stand with him, recognizing that we still don't know what is the truth and we must be careful to defend those who may have been victimized in some way. Why do I say this? According to reports there are 8 "victims," yet two have come out saying the charges (involving them) are entirely false. One is Misty Edwards, probably the best known worship leader to come out of this ministry. In a post on Facebook, she said she was very sorrowful about the charges and she wasn't commenting on any of the women, but she wanted "to make it clear, I am not one of them. I have worked with Mike for 25 years and in my personal experience he has only been godly. I have been sent several social media posts speculating differently and I want to boldly say, those are lies and entirely based on suspicion. I have never been sexually or spiritual abused by Mike Bickle." - Steven Strang

Except no one actually said Misty was one of the victims, nor April Rose. That was anonymously speculated so Strang and his cohorts could pretend all the allegations must be suspect if this one is. Note the duplicity, however. In one breath he says we must defend those that MAY have been victimized and out of the other side of his forked tongue, in the same breath, he spins this yarn about Edwards. This full-throated defense was offered by Tomczak and Brown as well:

"Here's the deal: In four-plus decades of relationship with Mike Bickle, I stand with him as a man who puts character before charisma. He lives in a modest home with a most generous heart. He's affirming, winsome and authentic. When he was transitioning from pastor to establish the International House of Prayer, he invited me to lead the church and was ever so gracious when I finally declined. While planting our church in a rented facility, I remember Bickle, our featured speaker, helping our takedown crew load up the van. On another occasion, after ministering for a weekend in our church, he gave his entire honorarium to our 20-year-old son in the parking lot so he could get engaged! Facing opposition from a combative local leader, Bickle humbly called me for advice. My wife (Bickle's her favorite Bible teacher) was blown away when he sent me home from Kansas City with a beautiful portrait of heaven. Every Friday, for years, I put out in our kitchen a picture of myself with Bickle and his wife, Diane, to inspire me for my weekly bridal fast. I say all the above while praying for God's perfect will to be done. I reiterate that accountability is essential. If the careful investigation reveals wrongdoing, I'm confident it will be handled biblically and redemptively with discipline and God's plan for restoration of this man of God who is a gift to the body of Christ worldwide. He needs our intercession at this critical time. May he emerge stronger than ever to finish well. We love and appreciate you, Mike!" - Larry Tomczak

Yes, he puts character before charisma. Well unless he is telling a 19-year-old intern that God showed him his wife Diane was going to die so they could marry. That is now the testimony from the victim released this week. He is authentic, winsome, and affirming? Well, I guess he liked to affirm young impressionable women. He was generous enough to give the victim her own apartment but of course that came with demands on who she was allowed to speak to and spend time with. Finish well? He never started well! He built IHOP while he was cheating on his wife, while spiritually, prophetically and sexually abusing one of his sheep! The daughter of one of his friends! Here is some more of Larry Tomczak's love and appreciation for this predator:

"Go to the IHOPKC website and read the "Report on Initial Findings. Three of the women issued public statements refuting the allegations. The leadership team states abuse claims against Bickle lack evidence. Legal counsel and the leaders have determined the allegations "lacked any semblance of reliability or due diligence. A document originally prepared by the group supposed to accompany the allegations does not contain any actual evidence from the supposed victims. The group's allegations were accompanied by a list of "demands and threats," which included dictating the use of IHOPKC funds. One of the alleged victims (using only initials) accused Bickle of "prophetically manipulating" her 25 years ago. The allegations were all nonsexual, but the other woman referred to some physical contact." - Larry Tomczak

The prophetic manipulation is now public Larry. Your buddy claimed God showed him that his wife, who you seem so appreciative of, was going to DIE in order that he and the woman half his age could marry. The allegations were entirely sexual in nature! The exact description is everything up until intercourse! Do you need diagrams as to what that means Larry? Now that the current leadership has heard the evidence from the victim, they have severed all ties with Bickle. Where is your apology, Larry? Where is your apology for regurgitating these bold-faced lies? The sole purpose of this from Tomczak was to smear the victims as liars and the former IHOP leaders who represented them as worse. Larry was second fiddle however to Steven Strang. The CEO of Charisma used his fake news platform to peddle lies and conspiracy theories in order to defend Bickle.

"Today we will be looking at the report regarding the very serious accusations against Mike Bickle. It appears as if he has been exonerated. Now, its not quite that simple. There's all kinds of nuances and we are going to talk about that today. Full disclosure, I have been a friend of Mike Bickle for many years since around 1990. I have personally supported his ministry since IHOP KC started in 1999. Before that he was a local pastor in KC. It is important that there be a thorough investigation and the first part of it is now complete. We try to get to the truth, and we need to take these allegations seriously. But there are such a thing as wrong allegations. It's no secret that there have been church fights. No secret that certain ministries, that certain people have tried to take them over or even destroy them and as we go through this, I think you will see sort of a pattern. It's a spiritual attack. It's spiritual warfare. I could tell very early that something was not right. First of all Mike did not really defend himself. Second of all, other victims did not come out of the woodwork. In fact, exactly the opposite. Usually when there is a scandal, other people come out of the woodwork. Also, he did not confess. Usually when people get caught they go ahead and just confess and get into a defensive mode. None of that happened." - Steven Strang

Exonerated? That is perhaps the most irresponsible writing I have seen in some time. It also did not start in 1999, but rather 1996. Why did Strang distort the date? Because 1996 places the start of the scandal when Bickle was pastor at Metro Christian Fellowship in Kansas City and the four-year abusive relationship would carry into the early IHOP years. Where is the apology to the victims you accuse here of wrong allegations? Where is the apology for the inference that this was just church fights? That people were just trying to destroy poor IHOP? That instead of believing these women, you tried to sweep it under the piety rug as a "spiritual attack." The only spiritual attack was your good buddy spiritually attacking this 19-year-old victim. You knew something wasn't right early on? Really Steven? Mike has tried to defend himself by claiming he thought his four years of prophetic and sexual abuse was "under the blood." How does that sit with you Steven? Bickle defended himself recently by claiming Jesus personally told him that all was ok. Never mind that whole your wife is going to die thing. Disgusting. So was Strang's attempts to smear the former IHOP leaders who just wanted to help the victims:

"'I consider Mike Bickle a very effective leader and he has raised up a lot of staff. But apparently some who have left have some kind of offense. I am just concerned that it appears that some wounded leaders apparently had it in for Mike for some reason and they came representing this group.

"I have already commented on the fact that a couple of the victims have said no and the others there was not a shred of evidence, there were not text messages, there were not emails.

"So here we have this group of leaders and one of whom, and this is all hearsay, but I was told one of these people told someone at IHOPKC and this is absolute hearsay, that they wanted to see the ministry burned down. So you have to wonder about their motives." - Steven Strang

No Steven, you know full well you were lying when you typed these words. The three former leaders did not have some kind of offense against Mike. They were not wounded leaders. They were former leaders protecting wounded sheep. It turns out they did not "have it in" for Bickle. Note how Strang uses the poisoned well stories of Misty Edwards and April Rose and mixes them with the asinine expectation of emails and text messages from a relationship that pre-dated regular usage of email and text messages. Strang also continues to act as if the direct testimony of the victims somehow does not constitute evidence. It certainly does. It is not hearsay, which means someone stating what someone else said. This is firsthand testimony. Strang gives away his motives here by trying to convince you to doubt the motives of the victims and their representatives. Once again, disgusting. As was Strang's attacks on the victims themselves:

"Alleged victim number one - they said that Mike Bickle emotionally pursued and prophetically manipulated her more than 25 years ago. Well, I am not sure exactly what that means. To prophetically manipulate someone. I would ask the question if this was true, why wasn't this dealt with at the time? The second and only detailed allegation is from 26 years ago. It included physical contact with Mike Bickle and an adult woman. It was also insinuated that he may have committed a crime but IHOKC has not been able to determine whether this criminal allegation has any credibility. Nevertheless in light of the detail provided to IHOPKC, the leadership team asked Mike Bickle to step away from his duties at the church while the allegations were investigated. Meanwhile the ministry attorney has reached out to the victim by phone, as recently as November 9th, without any success. That apparently is the only one that comes close to having any credibility." - Steven Strang

What that means Steven, is that your good friend told a 19-year-old intern, that God had showed him his wife would die so that they could get married. He told her these lies in order to lure into bed. He told her this and other false prophecies over four years to continue the illusion that this was all ordained somehow by God. He then tried to control and manipulate her life. Bought her an apartment, said which friends she could have and spend time with as well as spiritual manipulation by forcing her to pray repentance for the adultery he was engaging her in. Do you know now what it means to prophetically manipulate someone Steven? Are we clear now? Please stop the lying about the victims by claiming this four-year debacle is the only one with "credibility." Where is your public apology Mr. Strang for defaming these former leaders and calling these victims liars? I wouldn't expect that from someone so compromised they would write this:

"We have to realize that if the enemy is going to bring down a ministry, he has got to get rid of the head. He's got to make people question that ministry. I want to say that I think Mike has handled this right be staying quiet. The leadership team at IHOPKC has been responsible. If they have erred they needed to err on the side of being overly cautious. But like I said very early, once that woman sent out that Facebook post we had to have questions." - Steven Strang

The devil did not expose IHOP for the cesspool it is and Bickle for the predator he is, God did. The current leadership at IHOP has been far from responsible. They promised to bring in impartial investigative ministries and then reneged. They lawyered up by hiring the best defense law firm in KC. They spread the disinformation highlighted here and claimed they needed to first vet the allegations, absolute nonsense. So much so that the Executive Director of the Board just stepped down. Note again how Strang uses the poisoned well information to pretend that allows for their questioning. It does not. That brings us to Dr. Brown. Michael Brown is slicker than Strang and Tomczak. His language is very couched. Let me give you one example in his initial defense of Bickle:

"I appeal to my fellow leaders. It's so easy to mess up, open a door, and take the wrong steps. Those that didn't like Mike, his ministry, or don't like Charismatics and kinda gloat, that's a bad move. You should grieve also. 1Corinthians 10:12 - lest you fall. This is time for introspection. This is a time to search our own lives." - Dr. Michael Brown

Spilling milk or failing a college course for not studying can be called, "messing up." When you lie about what God has not said to you, in order to lure a young girl into becoming your adulteress I think we left "messing up" a long time ago. Now it is true we had not heard this victim testimony at the time Dr. Brown penned these words but that is why you need to be very careful. The inference Brown was making was that anyone who sided with the victims was gloating and must have "not liked" Mike. I assume since this has turned out to be so drastically wrong, we should be hearing an apology from Dr. Brown any day now. I am sure. Well maybe. Ok, probably not. As we see here, Brown has a hard time quitting false teachers:

"Swaggart - I loved Swaggart, his preaching, and its emphasis on holiness. When he fell, I couldn't believe it. If you lead a house of prayer and the charges prove to be true, that doesn't take away your calling to lead a house of prayer. Think of Ravi Zacharias. Years and years of building a ministry, walking a certain way and you throw it away for a moment of emotional or physical pleasure. Matthew 7:2 says as we judge others is how we will be judged so let us by all means hold to accountability and righteousness on every level but let us be people of mercy. Galatians 6:1 says if someone is caught in a fault, you who are spiritual restore." - Dr. Michael Brown

So, Dr. Brown loved the holiness teachings of a man caught twice with prostitutes in Swaggart. Neither Ravi Zacharias, Jimmy Swaggart, or Mike Bickle threw away anything because what they built was false. It certainly was not for a moment of pleasure. Ravi had built an international panel of sex workers and masseuses he used over many years, while preaching holiness. Mike Bickle lied about multiple prophecies to lure a young sheep into a four-year sexually and spiritually abusive relationship, while preaching holiness. It reminds me of Ted Haggard who was the leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, who used to preach holiness and rail against homosexuality until it was discovered he was in a 20-year relationship with a male prostitute who he liked to do crystal meth with. To Dr. Brown it appears these men all have one thing in common - good holiness teaching. For me the one thing they have in common is they were all lairs. They were all wolves. The bible does not say to restore them at all. It says to mark and avoid them. It says to have nothing to do with them. On with more nuanced Bickle defenses:

"Sometimes we have this loosie-goosy spirituality. Now I have never known this to be true regarding Mike Bickle and if these charges prove to be true, a shocker, a grievous shocker for someone I esteemed in the Lord. A grievous, painful shock. Does this bring a larger indictment against the things of the spirit, of course not! Goes back to Ravi - does his actions change the truth that he spoke? Bill Hybels, famous from Willow Creek Church and the seeker sensitive model, as he was getting ready to retire, there were accusations of sexual misconduct, some were retracted, some denied, others confirmed, or confirmed by outside organizations looking at things - what does that say about seeker-sensitive? It really doesn't. You have to evaluate it by itself. Not to throw stones at Bill Hybels. You say yeah, but there are so many scandals associated with IHOP - actually when you think of how many thousands of people around the world are involved with this, when you think of how many leaders have served there over the years, many of whom I know, actually the scandals have been quite rare but one is more than enough. You say what about the accusations that there was cult like behaviors, I am not close enough to know but let everything be examined. You say, what if some of the stuff by the spirit was counterfeit. Take the fall of Jerry Falwell Jr. That puts Liberty in a bad light, no it doesn't. Liberty is a great school. My oldest granddaughter graduated there last May." - Dr. Michael Brown

Do you get the message? Mike Bickle? No loosie goosy spiritual stuff going on there! Well except for the whole false prophecy thing to sexually abuse his friend's daughter. Other than that, and remember that was 25 years ago! Do the revelations that Ravi Zacharias was a lying false teacher change his message? Absolutely! Are you kidding me! Bill Hybels? Now Mike Bickle? Throw them all out in the trash where they belong! The point Brown is making here is that if you dare question Bickle or stand up for the victims, then you are "throwing stones." Once again, a more nuanced defense of the indefensible. Liberty is a great school because your grand daughter goes there? That trumps the fact that their president was involved in three-way sex with his wife and a pool boy? It doesn't. Once again, the purpose of Brown's writing here was to defend, however nuanced, his admitted friend Mike Bickle. If he has any credibility, he should issue a public apology immediately and cease writing for Strang until he does the same. Let me finish with one more Brown excerpt:

"Let me say it again. This does not deny the reality of the Holy Spirit. Thus does not deny the truth of the bible. Listen to Mike Bickle go through Romans. Listen to his careful teaching verse after verse exegeting scripture. If he taught accurately, he taught accurately. This does not deny the love of Jesus message that he preached. The truth of scripture." - Dr. Michael Brown

Did Mike Bickle love Jesus? Was he loving Jesus when he was lying to the 19-year-old about what Jesus said to him? Was he loving Jesus when he recently said that all of these sins were under the blood? Was he loving Jesus when he was committing adultery for four years while building IHOP? His teaching on Romans is irrelevant. Mike Bickle is a liar and a predator and Dr. Brown, Mr. Tomczak and Steven Strang owe apologies to the body of Christ, the victims of Mike Bickle, and the former leaders of IHOP who have had false witness against them borne. They were part of a campaign to belittle the accusations, marginalize Bickle's victims, and smear the former leaders. Strang may have been the more glaring, but they were all willing participants. They should apologize and promise to not have anything to do with any "restoration" of this known predator to ministry.

Reverend Anthony Wade - December 29, 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.