Hank Hanegraaff - Counterfeit Revival: Looking for God in all the Wrong Places

COUNTERFEIT
REVIVAL

COUNTERFEIT
REVIVAL

Hank Hanegraaff

1997, 2001 by Hank Hanegraaff.

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations used in this book are from the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV). 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Those marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Those marked NKJV are from The New King James Version, 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hanegraaff, Hank.
Counterfeit revival / Hank Hanegraaff.
p. cm.
Rev. ed.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8499-4294-5
1. Fanaticism. 2. EnthusiasmReligious aspectsChristianity. 3. Gifts, Spiritual. 4. RevivalsHistory20th century. 5. PentecostalismHistory20th century.re. I. Title.
BR114.H36 2001
269dc21

2001026266

CIP

Printed in the United States of America
08 09 10 11 12 13 QW 15 14 13 12 11 10

To Johannis Hanegraaff, my father, who modeled what it means to stand for truth, no matter what the cost.

COUNTERFEIT REVIVAL

Contents

I t had never occurred to me that I could be involved with anything spiritually destructive. Yet when I reached the lowest spiritual level in my pastoral ministry, that is exactly what had happened. How could I have let things go so far?

From my perspective, serving on the board of directors of the Association of Vineyard Churches (AVC) had always been a privilege. My wife and I developed close friendships with the other leaders. Together we traveled to numerous countries, planted churches, and shared a vision for ministry. Led by a respected national leader, we considered ourselves elders of what was rapidly becoming a new denomination. We maintained a unified sense of mission and purpose as we pursued what we believed God was leading us to do.

One week, during a leadership conference in the midwestern part of the United States, several of us were invited to a private meeting. We were to be introduced to the prophets who were slated to have a major impact on the future of our movement. Since we were already enthusiastic about the use of spiritual gifts to enhance contemporary church life, our curiosity spurred us to accept the invitation to this landmark meeting. We entered the room, settled into our seats, and waited to see what the Lord had in store for us.

The prophets began to inform us that in the last days, the Lord was restoring the fivefold ministry of apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists to the church. We were challenged to accept the arrival of apostles and prophets because todays church already had plenty of teaching, pastoring, and evangelizing. The arrival of the prophets and apostles would lead to the worlds last and greatest revival.

The prophets revealed that we had been chosen as the people and the movement that would lead Christians into this final display of power in the last days. We were told that one such prophet had been commissioned by God to find the apostolic leadership and apostolic ministry that, linked with the prophetic, would provide the basis for this new surge of endtime anointing. God had revealed to the prophet that he and our Association of Vineyard Churches were the chosen ones.

It all sounded downright intoxicating. After struggling with the daily duties of ministry and our fears of inadequacy, this was exactly what we wanted to hear. Being told that our struggles and sacrifices had made us special in Gods eyes was a comfort in itself. We clung to the promise that spectacular things would follow the inauguration of this new move of God.

We listened attentively to the flattery of our new friends, the prophets. Our skepticism barely peaked above the surface of our consciousness. It disappeared entirely later in the meeting when one of the prophets singled us out and proceeded to reveal, in detail, the secrets of our lives. Now they really had our attention. How could they not be from God? One after another, these accurate words from the Lord seemed to be the perfect validation for everything they were proposing. We became completely convinced of the validity of this prophetic anointing. How else could we explain their ability to see into our childhoods and personal histories through their prophetic gifting?

We returned to our local churches with our minds wide open to this new phase in the growth of our movement. During the months that followed, many of us received a plethora of personal prophecies predicting our future roles, positions, and successes in Gods new movement. There were words of prophecy for our ministries, for their locations and growth, prophecies about the great restoration to come and our important part in it. Seers would direct people regularly to their land of anointing. The recipients of such advice would immediately pack up and go in faith, confident that the predictions of ministry success would come true. The prophets began telephoning pastors with words straight from God directing staff changes and adjustments in church policy and practice. They anointed individuals to healing ministries and apostolic appointments. Then, instead of waiting for the prophets to call, the pastors began calling the prophets for predictions, instruction, and advice.

Ministry musicians and laypeople were promised star status if they would remain faithful to the prophetic blueprint unfolded before our movement.

Nevertheless, some of the leaders began to voice concerns and uneasiness. They had seen people uproot their families and travel great distances to the land of their anointing, fail, and then blame God. Associate pastors and other leaders were wrongly dismissed, indicted, and convicted by nothing more than a dream or prophecy that accused them of some spiritual crime. Fortune-cookie faith soon became more popular than following Gods clear voice in Scripture.

Some pastors began raising concerns in board meetings. Even though we were uneasy, we nervously agreed that spiritual gifts dont always operate in human beings in a perfect manner. We thought we could solve the problem by applying one of the movements most endearing philosophies: Dont trim the bush until its had a chance to grow, which means, Lets wait and see what comes of this. We put away our hedge trimmers, and the prophets continued to operate with impunity.

After only a couple of years, the prophets seemed to be speaking to just about everyone on just about everything. Hundreds of Vineyard members received the gift of prophecy and began plying their trade among both leaders and parishioners. People began carrying around little notebooks filled with predictions that had been delivered to them by prophets and seers. They flocked to the prophecy conferences that had begun to spring up everywhere. The notebook crowd would rush forward in hopes of being selected to receive more prophecies to add to their prophetic diaries.