Strang interviews Dr. Brown to continue his assault on the victims, the advocates and the truth...

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When the Bicklegate story first blew up in October, Steven Strang was defiant. He refused to accept the truth, smeared the victims and the advocate group of former IHOP leaders and was unapologetic about it all. He then doubled down in December by declaring Bickle exonerated because people like Misty Edwards used a fake leak to pretend the advocates said she was named as a victim. They never did. Right after that Bickle himself admitted to partial guilt and Strang shifted to declaring the victims and former leaders were being used by Satan who wanted to destroy the prayer movement. He spoke about it all as a nasty church fight and accused the former leaders of trying a coup of Bickle. Then a second victim came forward to reveal Bickle had abused her since the age of 14. There was silence from Strang for a short while and then a third victim came forward to say Bickle had abused her since the age of 15, when he was a 20 something intern.

Concurrent to this, Dr. Michael Brown has tried to play mediator. In typical fashion however, he just refuses to call out people who are wrong. Instead, he distanced himself from IHOP when they reneged on bringing in an independent outside investigator. The real problem for Brown is his insistence on propping up the disgusting Strang. I understand to some extent because Strang runs all of his work and publishes his books but at some point, he has to call his boss out if he is to salvage the shred of credibility he may still have. So, when I saw he was going to be on Strang's podcast this week, linked above, I hoped. I had hoped for at least some push back. At least some correction. Unfortunately, Dr. Brown allowed Strang to go unchecked again as he eviscerates the truth and maligns the victims. So let us reason once more together beloved as we continue to remind people it is time to force Strang out.

"Strang - Let me start with a disclaimer and an apology. I have dealt with this a couple of times before. When it first came out in October, I absolutely did not want to believe it. He was my long-time friend. I never saw anything in his life or conversations. He was a guest in my home. I was a guest in his. I never saw anything that would indicate he had these kinds of issues. I haven't really defended him but I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. I have a transcript of what I have said and I said if I am proven wrong, I will be the first to admit it. I need to say I was wrong; I did not have all the facts. I still don't have all the facts. We are not here to discuss facts because facts change or are obscured, or hard to understand but we need to talk about principles."

So, you want to apologize and then do not actually say you are sorry? Whatever. It is beyond laughable at this point for Strang to say he has not defended Mike Bickle. That is all he has done! He actually declared he was exonerated in December! He ran a video asking why he couldn't be restored! He has claimed the entire scandal was just a spiritual attack, smearing the victims. He has declared this is just a church split orchestrated by the former leaders. I am glad Strang finally says he is wrong, but the notion that he did not have the facts is wrong. We all had the same facts as they came trickling out. If you are going to use your international media platform, maybe you should shut your mouth if you feel you are missing facts. You see, Strang has come around to the truth only because two new victims have identified themselves and said they were minors when Bickle started abusing them. He knew he could not keep hugging Bickle at that point. The rest of us with a sliver of discernment however, were appalled at the first accusation. You remember, when the 42-year-old Bickle lured the 19-year-old sheep into his bed. That one. That was enough for us, but not Strang. Note here that Strang sets the boundaries for the interview that they are not going to discuss the facts! The facts are not hard to understand Steven. Your friend was a sexual predator for decades and lied to your face. His movement was never of God, never used by God, and will not be needed by God moving forward. You have born false witness throughout this Steven against the victims and the former IHOP leaders. These are the facts that keep escaping you. The facts have not changed Steven, just your acceptance of them.

"Brown - Fuller had accused people in the advocacy group of lying. He has since apologized privately to people in that group. There was a misunderstanding. He got things wrong. But I think some of that might have been reiterated on your podcast. There is so much emotion, so much pain, people are overreacting, how do we handle this. I am working on this there will be an overseeing panel of leaders who will oversee the investigation that all of those who have come forward will feel comfortable with."

Yeah. No Dr. Brown. People are not overreacting. People are reacting quite appropriately to the cover up by the current IHOP leadership, including General Fuller. Similar to the Strang problem, Fuller felt justified calling the advocates liars when the only known victim was Jane Doe number one, but now that there are two more public victims who were minors, he is trying to clean up his mess. It is too late. It dishonors the pain of Jane Doe. There was no misunderstanding and it belittles Jane Doe to pretend otherwise. Her story matters Dr. Brown. For four years Bickle abused her and lied about his wife dying and what God was saying or not saying. That counts Dr. Brown, even though she was 19 years young at the time the abuse started. We also say no to your idea of a Todd Bentley clown car number two. We do not need other charismatic leaders, who ultimately will act to save IHOP when we need to let God destroy it until there is nothing left. IHOP current leaders, including Fuller, need to step down and GRACE or another outside group amenable to the advocates needs to be brought in. Stop trying to control the truth and shape the truth. Stop trying to protect the brand. Just get out of the way of the truth. Tell Strang to repent and walk away. You can still sell books. You can get another publisher. Move on.

"Strang - you have to ask why is it coming out now if happened so many years ago. I believe there is a spiritual aspect to this. Just like every time there is a church fight, division in the body of Christ. When there's animosity and hurt and hate - the enemy of our souls stirs up things. We have to recognize that this is blown out of control. You know, Mike is not the first Christian leader to fall and won't be the last. If we look at the bible, nearly all of the great people had some nasty things about them. Moses murdered a man. David with Bathsheba. Yet God still somehow used them. It's not our place to understand exactly what God is doing. But obviously God is trying to do something in the life of Mike Bickle and in that ministry."

This is just one of the things that make Steven Strang so disgusting through all of this. He starts by saying he has to apologize and then regurgitates his greatest lies. He alludes to this being a spiritual attack, one of his distortions from December. Realize that by insinuating this is all just a spiritual attack is to dismiss the credibility of the victims out of hand. To claim this as a spiritual attack is to claim the former IHOP leaders are now being used by Satan. This is also not a church fight. To hint as such is to completely mock the victims. This is not about division in the body of Christ, unless you are referring to how Mike Bickle has ruined the faith of many. That is not what Strang is referring to however. This is not about animosity, the inference of which is directed at Bickle, which is absurd. Likewise, it is not about hate. It is about a lying man, abusing women, for decades. The only person being stirred up here by the enemy is Steven Strang. Mike is not the first leader to fall? Who cares? What is your point? Mike Bickle is not Moses. Dear Lord, he is not King David. What is staggering here is that Steven Strang looks at the scope of this problem and the only conclusion he can reach is that God must be trying to do something in Mike Bickle's life and ministry? How utterly disgusting. Perhaps God does not like being mocked. Perhaps He is bringing vindication and justice to the many women Bickle has ruined. Perhaps also, God is exposing the corrupt heart of Steven Strang. Those are much more realistic conclusions than what Strang has arrived at.

"Strang - one of the things I wanted to talk to you about is one of the accusations is that Mike did something when he was in his 20s with an underage girl and that's a serious charge. So here this happened before he even moved to Kansas City. The question I have is, especially in the society we live in, most Christian leaders would have done something that would be very embarrassing if it came out. So, what about other leaders that might have something in their past, that's been repented of, can it be held over their head and is it worth their ministry being scrubbed. I want to be quick to give a disclaimer. I don't have this kind of secret, thank God. But it's only by God's grace but I have done things that wouldn't want on the front page because it would be embarrassing. So where is repentance, where is restoration and how long can these sins" I am saying what about other Christian leaders, what are they to do?"

The depths of depravity that Strang is willing to stoop to is repulsive. Sexually abusing two girls at 15 and younger and another when she was 19 for four years is not merely "embarrassing." This minimization is what Strang has consistently tried to do to protect his buddy. He also intimates here that Bickle somehow repented? When? He seemed to have committed the abuse first with the 15-year-old for several years. Then he moved and started with the 14-year-old and followed her through high school. Then he moved again and moved on to the 19-year-old Jane Doe and abused her for another four years. Strang also conveniently forgets there are probably another 8-9 victims whose stories we have not heard yet. So, when exactly did Mike Bickle repent? More recently when he covered up his son having an affair with the wife of an IHOP administrator, who he himself was inappropriate with? As for other Christian leaders, let me be clear. If you have built your ministry on victimizing anyone, let alone underage girls, there is no restoration to ministry. Repentance is needed to avoid hell. Period. It is also pretty creepy that Strang felt compelled to assure us that he does not have anything like this in his past. Make a mental note.

"Strang - let's say someone did what the reports have said Mike did, does this mean he should have never gone into ministry in the first place? That the prayer movement should never have been launched? I mean, where does it stop and where does it end?"

It is ironic that Strang asked this question, with clear impure motives, but it is the right question. He asked it expecting Brown to side with him. Brown gave a kind of milquetoast answer about how if a pastor had sexually groomed and abused minors that he could not lead a ministry but amazingly enough Brown thought they could serve in ministry under authority with repentance. This answer is completely tone deaf because clearly, Mike Bickle never repented. They keep bantering about cases where someone might repent but it is not applicable to the case at hand. Should the questions we are asking at this point be about restoring Bickle or about discovering the truth and protecting the victims? Strang's exasperated plea of where does it end reveals he still thinks the injustice here has been served upon Bickle instead of being perpetrated by him. Where does it stop Steven? It stops where we have ministers who do not sexually abuse women and minors. Are you kidding me? That's where it "stops." The answer to the million-dollar question by the way is no. Mike Bickle CLEARLY should have never gone into ministry, start the fake 24-7 prayer debacle or have founded IHOPKC. Why? Because he was a serial liar, a false prophet, a perpetual adulterer and a groomer of teens and young girls. Not exactly a good starting point for a move of God. This scandal, despite the best efforts of Brown and Strang PROVES that IHOPKC has been Satanic the entire time. God had nothing to do with founding it. He had nothing to do with the carnal successes it enjoyed and now we must stand back in awe as God almighty tears it down, brick by lying brick.

"Brown - whatever good came out of Mikes ministry, and a lot of good came out of it, that was the gift of God. If God heals someone it's the Holy Spirit that did it. If He helped grow a prayer movement through and individual that's the Holy Spirit."

So, we see the delusion Dr. Brown still walks under. The majority of the kids that propped up this fake movement for the past three decades were forced to do so. It was part of their curricula at IHOP. They received credit for it. They were then forced to record journals to mystify the experience. There were eastern mysticism practices, Kundalini, and transcendental meditation. Listen to the people who escaped! They all testify to the same thing! Read the story about the murder of Bethany Deaton and what her and her group had to do for IHOP. In order for Dr. Brown's logic to be true, the Holy Spirit has blessed IHOPKC for 25 years even though it was founded on people lying about what God said, and by three sexual predators. The main one being Bickle, who abused at lest three women, ages 14, 15, and 19, not to mention all of the untold stories yet to come. In what world does Dr. Brown think that the Holy Spirit would be moving through this morass of sin and lying about God? Just because a lot of people bought the lies of Bickle and may have been sincere it does not make it a move of God. They are victims as well.

"Strang - let's talk about the people that have been hurt and I don't mean the victims. I'm talking about sincere Christian people that joined the prayer movement that feel terribly let down. Even people in other cities who picked up the vision. How do these people deal with it and how do they move on."

Once again, the disgusting Steven Strang shows that he does not care one whit about the victims of Mike Bickle. Sure, he paid lip service here saying there are professionals to help them but to have a discussion about Bicklegate at this point and refer to the victims as being the people in the pews and not those sexually abused by his friend is beyond the pale. It slaps the faces of the true victims. Yes, the pew-sitters are theological victims who need to now hear the real gospel but that is not what Strang and Brown believe. They believe the 24-7 prayer movement was somehow a move of God even though we now know it was entirely corrupt. They believe it needs to be salvaged from this shipwreck. They are wrong. How does the IHOPKC community move on? By accepting that they allowed themselves to be lied to for decades. That they trusted their faith to a man instead of to God. To promise in themselves to actually discern for themselves moving forward and find a real bible teaching church. That is how.

"Brown - as you said, there is a spiritual attack and the devil wants to destroy the prayer movement. The devil wants to pull people away from Jesus. If you're in a prayer movement, it is God that appointed you to pray, not any man."

Except it wasn't, and we know that now. We know that kids were forced to take their rounds in the prayer room for school credit. We also know that God was used to start this movement. Bickle lied about hearing from God. The really repugnant point here is Brown validating the horrific Strang talking point about this being a spiritual attack. It is obviously not. Mike Bickle committed these acts. The victims are real. Their advocates used to lead IHOPKC. By pretending this is spiritual, you publicly disparage the victims and advocates as somehow being used by Satan to take down poor Mike Bickle. Strang is beyond compromised, so we expect no less but Brown should know better. The devil is pulling people away from Jesus? You sure it isn't the serial predator doing that? Only in these warped minds can a serial sexual predator be credited with somehow starting a move of God and the victims and their advocates painted as being used by the devil. Unbelievable. If you are in the prayer movement, you have been lied to and used. Get out now.

"Brown - you and I were talking about Mike and we really didn't think he was tempted in these ways. Because he spent so much time with the Lord. Well, we can have an unrealistic view about people."

I only included this quote because of the surreal notion from Brown that Mike Bickle spent so much time with the Lord. Really Dr. Brown? When? When did he spend so much time with the Lord. In between sexually abusing minors? Was he spending so much time with the Lord when he abused the 19-year-old daughter of a friend, for four years? He must have installed the dead bolt in his office so no one could disturb him when he was spending so much time with the Lord, right? Maybe he was too busy spending time with the Lord to properly deal with his son having an affair with the wife of one of his administrators. The same woman that Bickle had been inappropriate with before handing her off to his son. Look, I understand that it is embarrassing to have been deceived at this level but that's on Bickle, who fooled everyone. All we can do is learn from it. Stop digging these holes Dr. Brown and start walking away from other people equally using you, like Steven Strang.

"Strang - what would you say is the number one thing the body of Christ can learn from this? Because we are dealing with this in a different way because so many are just being hateful and bashing IHOPKC, bashing Mike Bickle. We are trying to be redemptive in some way so what lessons can be learned from this."

Did you get that? So, in the eyes of Steven Strang, he is dealing with this scandal in a different way from all of those bashers and haters. This is just a despicable ending to a horrifically immoral interview. To actually offer up that Mike Bickle is being bashed is to again try and paint the victimizer as the victim. Mike Bickle is not the victim. Telling the truth about his lies and false prophecies is not "bashing." The only redemption Steven Strang is seeking is Mike Bickle's. so, what lessons can be learned? The first one is to never give this much power, even spiritually to one man. The entire cult of personality pastorships encouraged by the heretical purpose driven church needs to be torn down. One thing Strang said that was correct is Mike Bickle will not be the last. As long as one man has all the power and control, the sin nature is easier to mutate. It happened to Ravi Zacharias and Bickle recently but there are countless others. Secondly, we need to acknowledge that the 24-7 prayer movement is entirely unbiblical and not from God. We need to stop mystifying prayer. Thirdly, we need to recognize that accused entities can never be responsible for their own investigations. Bickle is the monster under the bed but make no mistake about it - he had enablers and that includes nearly everyone involved in trying to cover this up, including General Fuller. It is time to stop pulling our punches and splitting the bill. Fourth, this scandal reveals who is on God's side and wo is not. Steven Strang, is obviously not. Dr. Michael Brown can still get on the right side of this but I fear he will never say anything truthful about Strang so this becomes just another reason to mark and avoid him as well. Lastly, this is a clarion call for all of us to be prepared. The need for discernment has never been greater. God help us all.

Reverend Anthony Wade - February 17, 2024

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.