As a former Kansas City Fellowship/Metro Christian Fellowship member from the old days & for decades I can recommend the people of God earnestly listen to much of Mike Bickle's teaching to glean significant truth, truths & insight regarding God & His Word & ways, however as with all ministries this must be done with the fear of the Lord & carefully comparing in Acts 17:10-11 Berean fashion what is taught with God's Word, something that, while vocalized is all too often not actually done, for if one listens carefully, as again is too often not done, there is regrettably a pattern of authoritarian dogma popular today that all too easily unwittingly rides roughshod over Scripture in following personalities, common through history & especially today where people are historically & Biblically & thus literally illiterate (they actually can't read) & thus gullible, easily led away by charismatic leaders (2Tim 3:6), even the good kind, seen in the present political cycle approving a polytheist or an atheist muslim for President, the cessationist movement ironically being no less "charismatic" & unBiblical in its adversarial approach to the charismata than the charismania it allegedly "corrects," even when arrogant & thus contrary to the very Word of God professed, usually fogetting Romans 14:4: "Who art thou that judgest the servant of another? to his own lord he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be made to stand; for the Lord hath power to make him stand." ASV.
Two issues painfully illustrative of the aforementioned lack of Biblical fidelity are the two mythical (& as common as mythical) doctrines of
1. "free will" &
2. feminism,
both understandably rebelliously prominant here (as so many who come have at least an element of rebellion against the authorities they abandoned & left, certainly not always for bad reasons), & as without Biblical support as prominant, assumed, never proven, save for either
1. the usual superficial proof texts here or there to silence the rest of Scripture, or
2. conversely, the creating of an overall allegedly Biblical paradigm then used to bludgeon inconvenient Scriptures into submission to the contrived agenda,
easily refuted by
1. Romans 8 etc. & www.desiringGod.org; www.samstorms.com (ironically a former staff member) for the former, &
1 Timothy 2:12 & 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6 & www.cbmw.org for the latter,
but as is common in large groups of sheep, due to the force of the leader's charismatic persona virtually unquestioned by the guillible historically & Biblically illiterate sheep, so many of whom are lemmings flinging themselves off the cliff, sadly foolishly choosing charlatans & then getting angry & shooting the messenger when it is observed. The wreckage of many of my friends resulting from the regrettable choices by MCF's beloved leadersip has been painful & extensive & unaddressed as is common for authoritarian structures too often so unaccountable. I miss the simpler days before the global recognition justly propelling Biblical passion for Jesus into the limelight but sadly blind to the all too fleshly manifestations.
As I said, be Biblically careful in separating the wheat fro the chaff but be warned that this is more of an external adjunct ministry for the Church than an actual healthy Church as was seen in the McClung fiasco. God bless dear Mike Bickle & may He open his eyes to a more Biblical understanding of the harm of his antiBiblical teaching of his little god of the myths of "free will" & "feminism," that are sad manifestations of the still-resonating Gnostic heresies still as popular today as ever. Though beloved Mike's inclined to pretend to refer positively to Augustine (properly pronounced A-GUS'-tin, not Ah;-gus-tine), as with Pelagius he doesn't seriously address the full scope of what he actually preached & taught in his Biblical & theological arguments easily refuting the antiBiblical myth of "free will" Mike never seriously addresses, rather easily silencing them by his forceful charismatic proof-texting persona. How ironic one in the leadership ironically even wrote a devotional commentary on Romans, "The Romance of Romans" while essentially omitting any serious addressing of chapter 8, sadly not addressing the rich, assuring issues of divine sovereignty there. Also worthy of note: both Mike's group & the Vineyard have ironically abandoned & rejected former Vineyard founder John Wimber's Biblical complementarian (man's headship over women) theology for their own mishmash of authoritarian feminist dogma common with gnosticism, allowing no contrary views when they gain power, as happened not so long ago at Willow Creek where I also once attended. Again www.cbmw.org is helpful here.
Thank God for Mike's focus on Passion for Jesus, but with feet planted Berean-like on a Biblical foundation by which you can withstand the storms that will come in that venue. Soli Deo Gloria!
Russ Davis read more
