By Denny Laub

There are a number of things in the Bible that provide us with tests that help us determine what ministries to support and which to avoid:

1.    The New Testament warns against those who depart from sound doctrine (I Timothy 6:3-5, I Timothy 6:20-21, I John 4:6)..

2.   It warns against those whose lives fail to follow the moral pattern of the Lord ( III John 11, II Timothy 2:19).

3.    It warns against those whose ministries are motivated by greed (I Timothy 6:3-10).

4.   It tells us that Prophets must pass a two-fold test: Prophets must speak in the name of the Lord (Deut 13:1-5) and if there is a prediction, it must come true (Deut 18: 14-22).

In keeping with this desire to be responsible in what we support, we have looked closely at the International House of Prayer Ministry. As a result of this examination, there are a number of points that cause us reservations.

The IHOP itself flows from the Kansas City Prophets movement (also known as Metro Christian Fellowship), headed by Mike Bickle and encouraged by the prophecies and teachings of Bob Jones and Paul Cain. The IHOP web site says:

"In May 1983, [when Bickle met Bob Jones] the Lord gave a promise to the church at Metro Christian Fellowship that He would release in the midst of their city, a 24-hour a day, citywide ministry to the Lord in the spirit of the Tabernacle of David (Acts 15:14-18). This prayer ministry now includes continuous worship, intercession and warfare."

Because IHOP flows directly from the Kansas City Prophecy Movement and the shared vision of Mike Bickle, Bob Jones, and Paul Cain, it is important to look closely at their track record. Here are some of the more disturbing concerns raised by the KCP history:

1.    The movement has promulgated many predictive prophecies that have not come true. This violates the scriptural test that all prophets must be completely accurate (Deut 18). They have even put forth the idea that prophecy is learned and therefore each prophet goes through a learning period when his/her prophecies are pretty much not true to a period in which they are. This is not only a violation of Deut 18, but also what good is a prophecy that may or may not be true?

Examples of false prophecies:

 “And many in what’s called the church today are using His vessels wrong...men have been using them in the wrong way. . .Well, there that night when they went under the Shepherd’s rod, there were 1000 in Daniel 5. They were 1000 of the religious leaders that have (been) doing this, that was appointed to death; they’ll die this next year. So there’s some death that those that’s been using the anointing of God wrong.” (Visions and Revelations Fall 1989, p. 13)

 “...They’ve got all the answers, they think. Boy, I tell you they haven’t got anything. There’s five judgments ready to come on the United States and the first one is famine. Another word for famine is depression. All kinds of weather pattern changes--floods--this is the year of some powerful floods. Before too long the Mississippi River itself will change because of a great flood. And it will bypass New Orleans 100 miles. When that flood comes, New Orleans will be left a dead city with no fresh water. It’ll be an estuary. I don’t know whether that’ll be this year or not, but the weather patterns are changing. Drought in places, floods in others. This is the year of the changing and the great floods beginning to come...” (Bob Jones, Lee’s Summit, Feb 1988, p. 6)

In 1988, Bob Jones predicts financial collapse of the nation

: “Another thing that will be this year (1988) is financial collapse. I don’t know how soon; I really expect it right away. I expect the stock-market to drop to 1600 points right away. That won’t be the end of it. It’ll eventually come down to 400 points. If you’ve got money in, they call it common shares or something like that. . .what do they call them? Mutual funds--if you’ve got money in that, I encourage you to get it out of there real quick-like. I’d get them into treasury bills or get them into a bank where you can get a hold of it because they’re coming down again...

“But that financial collapse is at hand. Pray over this. Pray as to where your money will be safe. I always like to just warn you.” (Bob Jones, Lee’s Summit, Feb 1988, p. 7)

Paul Cain had a “revelation” published in MorningStar Prophetic newsletter in January 1993, which spoke of Bill Clinton being transformed by God and would “Carry out God’s policy with a depth of conviction that will surprise even his most vehement detractors.”

2.   IHOP founder Mike Bickle made false statements of “fulfilled prophecies.” This is deeply disturbing. These fulfilled prophecies were being pointed to as proving divine connections. Yet the information which provided “confirmation” was a lie and in some cases, it is hard to see how the lie was not deliberate. Here is part of Pastor Ernie Guens examination of one such case:

In 1986, Mike Bickle also stated the following concerning this drought prophecy:

MB: “ (Quoting Bob) ‘This is the sign in the heavens, again. . . For three months there will be a drought in this city.’... The sign is (that) there will be a pattern in the heavens--a weather pattern, and you can’t manipulate weather patterns, so we said, ‘Okay. if it comes to pass. we know the word is true.’...But he says, ‘On August 23, God will send a sign from heaven...’ I said, ‘Bob, I hope this is right.’ Cause it was terrible. June--no rain...August 23, 6:00 at night, it rains, what, 3 to 4 inches of rain...It was a sign in the heavens that no man could have manipulated; it was spoken publicly for all to hear.” (Prophetic History part 2,Spring 1986 p. 2)

Pastor Gruen, who investigated, reports these were the actual facts of the case:

These are the facts concerning rainfall during the months of June, July, and August, 1983. They were obtained from the National Weather Service and the newspaper weather reports from that timeframe:

1. July and August were below normal in rainfall, and very hot, but July and August are always hot in Kansas City.

2. June’s record showed well above average rainfall: 5.03 inches in the northern part of the city, and 7.37 inches in the southern part, where Kansas City Fellowship is located.

3. It rained only .32 inches on August 23, not 3 to 4 inches. Regarding this rainfall on August 23, the newspaper’s comments were, “Tuesday’s watered-down attempt at rain here. though half-hearted and half-heated, eased area sneezes. dropping the pollen count to only 23 particles per cubic meter of air. Gesundheit.” (KCT, Thursday, August 25, 1983)

4. On six separate days in June, there was more rainfall recorded than on August 23, with one day showing over 2 inches of rainfall, and two days showing over 1 inch of rainfall.

There was no drought. Anyone who went outside or read the newspaper could not have considered June a month of drought. The sprinkle of rain on August 23 was not considered a drought-breaker. This prophecy did not happen; it was a total fabrication to promote “The Movement.” From the start, this prophecy could never have been considered true.

Here is another example from Pastor Gruen:

MB: “...he (Bob) was involved in one church. And a bunch of the youth group was getting into sin and he spoke to them and warned them by the spirit of prophecy (that) it they don’t quit sinning, that--it’s a little church of about 300 people--he said, ‘Different ones of you will die...’ and he told different ones by name. And in six weeks, seven of the youth died in six weeks. And so they threw Bob Jones out.” (P.His 1, p. 15)

THE FACTS, AS GIVEN BY THE FORMER PASTOR AND A CHURCH MINISTER ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:

“During the time of my pastorate at Berean Baptist Church, a man by the name of Bob Jones came to our services and started, without contacting or consulting the pastor, proceeded to insert himself as a prophet in every service--dominated the worship and praise time with dire and foreboding prophecies, supposedly from God, mostly in the flesh. The people and pastor grew weary of this continuous and wearisome foretelling of earthquakes and tragedies coming until I, as pastor and shepherd of the sheep, asked Bob Jones to come with me and another pastor to my study to counsel him. And I requested Bob that for at least a month that he sit quietly and be still. Bob refused counsel, refused to be under the subjection of the shepherd, and took off for other churches where he would be free to make his predictions. He was not, and I emphasize not, asked to leave our church. Besides that, he was never a member. Furthermore, it has come to my attention that he prophesied that seven young men would die and that the pastor and church would not listen to him. That is a lie. Those predictions were never made. My wife, who never missed a service and has a better memory than I do, verifies this fact. I would have this comment on the supposed fact that two young people on a motorcycle was proof of his prediction...Will and Judy Pliska were accidentally killed by a Christian man who grievously attended the funeral service. Fact: God does not choose one of His saints to kill His saints. Two of the most spiritual children I know were the Pliskas. Add to that--the funeral was held in my church; I preached the funeral message and gave an invitation to accept Christ, and several young people took Jesus as their Savior that day.” (Testimony Letter 11)

The church member:

“At the maximum, six people of all ages died over a 2-year period, from March 29, 1976, to January 12, 1978

These examples should cause us to sit up and take note. If this movement is full of miraculous demonstrations of prophetic utterance, why would Mike Bickle be forced to give illustrations which are false? In Pastor Gruen’s longer account of the drought, Mike Bickle recounts “…we watched it day by day and there was a drought through those three months.” He claims to be an eyewitness and not to be recounting a story told to him. The evidence is clear.

 “Put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.” Ephesians 4:25.

“We do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God.” II Corinthians 4:2

3.   The Kansas City Prophets has promulgated aberrant teachings. Almost every apologetics ministry has listed KCP as a sect promoting aberrant teachings such as Latter Rain/Manifested Sons of God. In particular they teach the belief that a generation of Christians is now being raised up that will be greater than any other in human history. They will raise the dead, walk through walls, do every miracle in Acts “times 10,000,” and will not die nor can they be killed. In fact they, as the perfected body of Christ, are a physical manifestation of God Himself!

“But through His Word, He has given us a revelation of what He intends us to be; sons of God in the full sense of the word…God said that these people were to act as God. (Mike Bickle Glory and Dominion of Sonship, part 2)”

Or KCF prophet Bob Jones:

 “The Church is in no condition for the Lord to come today ... He's going to come for a church that is mature in righteousness... progressively going in this righteousness until you take on THE VERY DIVINE NATURE OF CHRIST HIMSELF and you begin to see Christ in the Church. Christ won't come for the church until you see Christ in the Church until the Church looks like Jesus. PAPA (God) planted Jesus, He sowed Him down here in this earth to have a whole nation of brothers and sisters that looked just like Jesus ... His Son was a ALPHA SON, your children are the OMEGA sons and daughters.” [Mike Bickle interjects here, “Jesus was the beginning, but our children and us, we're included in this ... we're the end of this thing.” (quoted in Discernment newsletter)

Other aberrant teachings have been documented elsewhere and we would refer anyone interested to a number of sites online such as www.lwtusreason.org, www.pfo.org. www.apologeticsindex.org, and of course Ernie Gruen’s 233 page report found at www.banner.org.uk/kcp-gruen.html. (they have collected an excellent series of articles on KCF at www.banner.org.uk/contents.html.

Although not exhaustive, these three points are enough to question the leadership of Mike Bickle and the KCP. There are those who might be saying, all of this is in the past and what bearing could it have on IHOP, which is just a place for Christians to come and worship and pray?

First of all there is the clear question of a leadership that has proved itself to be false in doctrine and practice. The standard of the New Testament is that they must be above reproach. Bickle et al do not meet the test,

Secondly, nothing is done in a vacuum. The IHOP in Kansas City not only offers a place to pray, but classes, prophet development classes, and kid’s classes much the same as its earlier manifestation. Given the KCP doctrine of one leadership per city (each city should have one leadership for all its churches), it would seem to just be less intrusive way to influence people to their teaching and doctrine. And those who share this vision all train at Kansas City. If you can’t take control directly, what better way is there than to expose various bodies to your perspective and send them back to their local body?

Thirdly, biblical worship is not just directed at God. It also teaches those around us who hear. Ephesians 5:19 says “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” To suggest that worship is doctrine free is patently false. There will be doctrine taught and it will be that of the sect’s leaders. The question is are those leaders from KCP leaders we want to teach our people?