Here’s an interesting anecdote: Not so long ago, a woman who has supposedly been converted out of the New Age withdrew a public quote she made on social media from my commentary on the Book of Revelation. One of the reasons she gave was because she had been informed that I had actually opposed the so-called “Toronto Blessing” in the 1990s. Suddenly, while still in spiritual diapers, she was a grown-up expert on such things! I have had the same attitude from others out of these ex-New Agers because I have written against so-called “deliverance ministry” and I always say that the only genuine deliverance ministry is the proclamation of the Gospel and that after that has been successfully received there is no need for exorcisms in one who in indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately so many of these converts get nobbled by charismatic movement people who have wandered into their territory and are subsequently unable to discern so much truth from falsehood, while being inveigled by psychological techniques with which they can identify because the charismatic movement is essentially neo-Gnosticism in quasi-‘Christian’ clothing (albeit extremely immature).

One of the original proponents of that “Toronto Blessing” was Rodney Howard-Browne alongside his mentor, Kenneth Copeland. RH-B was known as the “Bartender of the Holy Spirit” as he doled out wacky hypnotically-induced experiences under the pretence that they were the fruit of the Spirit. Was I wrong to oppose all that? It cost me a lot to do so, and I don’t mean money! But the truth is even worth dying for.

Others have said to me that I shouldn’t be so judgemental — that those people have probably mellowed by now and that it was all just a silly phase. It that so? I thought I would check in on Rodney and see what he is up to these days in his church in Florida. Here is what I found:

Yep, same old same old TB. I don’t know which is more nauseating; the mesmeric manipulation of all those fools in the audience or the justification which he gave for their behaviour later in the video. No, nothing has changed except his weight, which he has lost a lot of! (Bear in mind that Rodney Howard-Browne, as a Trump supporter, has prayed over Trump in the White House!).

That whole realm of craziness is addictive, and the deeper you get into it, the more difficult it is to extract yourself from it. I am sad that so many of these supposedly ex-New Agers get deceived into the world of charismaticism (mainly because it seems like it is a better version of what they were into before their alleged conversion). But I just console myself that if they are truly the Lord’s and are merely going through transitions on the way to the fullness of faith, then they will somehow get out of all that baloney.

May God save their souls!

[PS: All that I have spoken about above is dealt with IN FULL in my upcoming second edition of “The Serpent and the Cross”].

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