There is a popular movement within ‘Christianity’ today called the ‘new wine.’ This movement originated with Kenneth Hagin and his brand of ‘faith theology.’ This movement has spread since, and became known popularly as the ‘Toronto Blessing.’ I humbly submit to you that this movement is not of God since it’s assertions of ‘new revelations’ challenge the inspiration and accuracy of the Bible. Before demonstrating that these ‘new revelations’ must logically supersede the teaching of Holy Scripture, I’ll begin with a rather lengthy quote from Hank Hanegraaff’s book Counterfeit Revival to establish some historical background of where this movement came from….

Endtime restorationism had its genesis in the early morn­ing hours of the first day of the twentieth century. A twenty-seven-year-old preacher from Topeka, Kansas, named Charles Parham placed his hands on the head of his young student, Agnes Ozman. Suddenly, a “halo seemed to surround her head and face”¹ and Agnes began to speak Chinese. For three solid days she was utterly incapable of speaking a single word in English. Even more incredibly, when she tried to write, only Chinese characters would emerge from her pen.²

Ozman’s experience became the catalyst for other students in Parham’s class to seek the gift of tongue s.³ It wasn’t long before many of them, like Agnes, began to speak in languages they had never studied. According to Parham, his students, “Americans all, spoke in twenty-one known languages, in­cluding French, German, Swedish, Bohemian, Chinese, Japa­nese, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, and Norwegian.”⁴

Parham told a Kansas City Times correspondent that “his students had never studied these languages and that natives of the countries involved had heard them spoken and verified their authenticity.” Parham proudly proclaimed that while mis­sionaries throughout church history necessarily studied for­eign languages, this would no longer be the case. As a result of the endtime restoration of tongues, “one need only receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit and he could go to the farthest corners of the world and preach to the natives in languages unknown to the speaker.”⁵

Pentecostal historian Vinson Synan candidly points out that when Parham’s theory was put to the test, the result was a “fiasco.” He recounts the tragic tale of Alfred Garr, pastor of the L.A. Burning Bush Mission. Garr received the gift of tongues, moved to India, and began preaching to the natives in what he believed to be their own languages. Synan concludes, “This was the outstanding attempt at carrying out Parham’s teaching concerning the missionary use of tongues and it ended in failure.”⁶

Parham was so convinced that tongues was a prelude to global revival and a precursor to endtime restorationism that he “closed his school at Topeka and began a whirlwind tour of revivals which lasted for four years.”⁷ In 1905 he moved to Hous­ton, Texas, and opened a school to propagate his new-found theology. It was at this school that Parham taught a man “given to dreams and visions”⁸ who was to become “the Apostle of Azusa Street.”⁹ His name was William Seymour.

Synan describes the “Apostle of Azusa Street” as “a short, stocky man, minus one eye,” a “poverty stricken Southern Negro with little or no knowledge of religious history.”¹° Be­cause of his ethnic status, Seymour was not permitted to sit in Parham’s classes. Rather, he was relegated to sitting in a hall­way and listening to Parham’s doctrines through a doorway.

While Seymour soundly rejected Parham’s teaching that Anglo-Saxons were God’s chosen race,¹¹ he uncritically embraced Parham’s theology on tongues. Seymour was so convinced of Parham’s position that even before he personally spoke in tongues, he told parishioners of a Los Angeles Holiness church that tongues, not sanctification, was evidence of the baptism in the Holy Ghost. Mrs. Hutchinson, the pastor who had in­vited Seymour to preach in her church, was so upset that she “padlocked the church door the next night to keep Seymour out.”²

Several days later, however, Seymour experienced the break­through he was looking for. He and seven devotees “fell to the floor in a religious ecstasy, speaking with other tongues.”³ News spread like wildfire, and before long curious onlookers beheld such sights as Jennie Moore (Seymour’s future wife) singing in what was at the time believed to be the Hebrew language. Cu­riosity swelled the size of the crowds so much that Seymour rented an old, abandoned African Methodist Episcopal Church at 312 Azusa Street in which to conduct revival meetings.

On April 18, 1906, subscribers to the Los Angeles Times were startled by the headline “Weird Babel of Tongues.” The article proclaimed: “New Sect of Fanatics Is Breaking Loose; Wild Scene Last Night on Azusa Street; Gurgle of Wordless Talk by a Sister.”⁴ The notoriety only served to fan the flame. As news spread, people from across America headed to Azusa Street to “catch the fire.”

The endtime restoration of Pentecostal power proved to be so compelling that Christians and cultists alike suspended their meetings and headed to 312 Azusa Street. Together they en­gaged in the “jerks” and in “treeing the devil.” It wasn’t long before “spiritualists and mediums from the numerous occult societies of Los Angeles began to attend and to contribute their seances and trances to the services.” In time things got so out of hand that “Seymour wrote Parham for advice on how to handle ‘the spirits’ and begged him to come to Los Angeles to take over supervision of the revival.”⁵

When Parham arrived, he was outraged at the spiritual pandemonium he encountered. He forcefully denounced the “hypnotists and spiritualists who seemed to have taken over the services.”⁶ While Seymour was sympathetic to Parham’s concerns, he refused correction, and the two pillars of Pentecostalism suffered an irreparable falling out. Seymour barred Parham from ever preaching at Azusa Street again. Parham, in turn, denounced Seymour as “possessed.” Pente­costal historian Synan aptly summed up Parham’s sentiments:

For the rest of his life, Parham continued his de­nunciation of the Azusa Street meetings as a case of “spiritual power prostituted” to the “awful fits and spasms” of the “holy rollers and hypnotists.”¹⁷

The man whom Seymour extolled as his “father in the Gos­pel of the Kingdom”⁸ went on to spend “the later years of his life as an avid supporter of the Ku Klux Klan.”¹⁹ For his part, Seymour stayed the course in his unique preaching and prac­tice, “hurling defiance at anyone who did not accept his views.”²⁰   

Hank Hanegraaff, Counterfeit Revival. (Word Publishing) 1997. Pp. 125-8.

There are two primary things I want to make which undermines the foundation for the authenticity of the Azusa street phenomena; Parham’s theory on the purpose of tongues has serious evidence against it and a true revival would not attract mediums and spiritists to the revival meetings to practice their arts. Something was terribly wrong at the Azusa Street meetings and I question highly a movement that attracted occult personalities and practices. The Azusa Street phenomena is still extolled by many charismatic teachers today.

When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 18:9-13 NIV

Tommy Tenny and Rick Joyner are two prominent teachers of the new wine and endtime restorationism. Tenney is popularly known for his ‘God Chasers’ books which endorses Seymore and the Azuza Street phenomenon as being of God. Tenny has no statement of faith on his website, but with a little research I found out that he has a ‘oneness Pentecostal’ upbringing and has said that he is still ‘true to his roots.’ This alone should set the alarm bells off… More on Tenny later.

 I went to Joyner’s site, he had a statement of faith. But, it was about as clear as mud. To tell you the truth it reminded me of the Bhagavad-Gita  (Hindu,) in parts. Especially in regards to who (and what!) Jesus was and is.

Jesus Christ is the Word (Logos) of God.  The Word was with God in the beginning, which states His pre-existence as one with God.  "By Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth" (Colossians 1:16), therefore making Jesus the Creator.  Jesus Christ is the Purpose of God found in all of creation.  He is the Father's delight and desire, and the Father is looking for the reflection of His Son in all created things.   Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.  In the beginning, it was the ultimate purpose of God for all things to be summed up in Christ (Ephesians 1:10) http://www.morningstarministries.org/webeliev.htm

 Who is Jesus again? The Word of God? The Purpose of God? (Why is ‘Purpose’ capitalized?) Although vague and inconclusive, this statement smells of a false doctrine known as Word Faith Theology. (In short, Word Faith is a belief that faith is a force, which can be controlled through words. God speaks the Word, which encapsulates the force and in this manner makes his plan happen.) I’ve read quite a few ‘statements of faith.’ Not many are anywhere near being this ambiguous.  What’s being hidden here?

Rick Joyner teaches a concept called Endtime Restorationism. In short, in the endtime church “the prophetic word will be flowing with purity and accuracy unsurpassed in church history.”[1] Is he implying that the Bible, which historic Christianity stands upon, is only somewhat pure and accurate? In addition, Joyner predicts that there is going to be “an entirely new definition of Christianity.”[2] Hanegraaff explains:

 On one side of the war will be “blues” who readily accept new revelations from God. On the other will be “grays” who rely solely on the revelation God has already given. According to Rick Joyner, the grays (whom he labels “spiritu­ally ruthless and cruel”⁵⁶) will “either be converted or removed from their place of influence in the church.”⁵⁷

Joyner dogmatically declares that both “believers and un­believers alike will think that it is the end of Christianity as we know it, and it will be.”⁵⁸ When the “grays” are finally eliminated, there is going to be “an entirely new definition of Christianity.”⁵⁹

While leaders of the Counterfeit Revival predict a great battle in which those who stand against them will be elimi­nated, Edwards warned against just such a “holy war.” He made it clear that even in a cause as crucial as the Reforma­tion, kindness rather than killing should be the order of the day. As he sadly reflected, even “in that glorious revival of re­ligion, at the reformation, zeal in many instances appeared in a very improper severity, and even a degree of persecution.”⁶°

In place of excessive zealousness that predicts a bloodbath in which those who refuse to accept new revelations are elimi­nated, the life of Edwards personified the maxim “In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; and in all things charity.”

        In a vision concerning the endtime harvest, Joyner says Jesus revealed to him that there would be “a great reaping among the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, and other sects in which there is a doctrinal mix­ture.” Jesus allegedly went on to point out that these sects would “be won by love, not truth.”⁶² According to Joyner, Jesus is about to “enormously increase” our understanding on even such basic truths as “salvation and being born again.”⁶³ He even predicts that the endtime church will rise above differences in doctrine and “worship Him in unity.”⁶⁴ Ominously, he warns that anyone who resists this new “tide of unity” based on love rather than doctrine will be disqualified or removed from leadership:

Some who are presently in leadership that resist this move will become so hardened they will become opposers and persecutors of the church. Others will be changed and repent of their hardness of heart, even though, in some cases, their resistance to the Holy Spirit will have disqualified them from leadership. This growing tide of unity in the church will reveal the true nature of those in leadership.⁶⁵

Hank Hanegraaff, Counterfeit Revival. (Word Publishing, 1997) pp. 95-6

I am a ‘gray.’ Hanegraaff is a ‘gray.’ According to Joyner, we’re persecutors of the church, since we refuse to embrace ‘new revelations’ that supersede the teaching in the Bible.

I hold on to the inerrancy of the Word of God, the Bible. I also recognize the natural Law of Non-Contradiction to be inescapable fact. When two (or more) concepts are intrinsically opposed to one other at the same time and in the same sense, both (or all) of them cannot be true. Only one can be true.

Mormons believe that Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus is Michael the Archangel.  Christians recognize Jesus as being the Second Person in the Trinity, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit in one unified transcendent Being. Mormons are henotheists which is a subset of polytheism. Jehovah’s Witness’s oscillate between monotheism and tri-theism depending on the mood of the Watchtower in any particular year. (They will deny this.) Christians are monotheists who believe in the Trinity, one God, three persons.  How could there possibly be any reconciliation between these positions? The only way is to undermine the importance of truth. The trouble with this idea is that the Bible elevates truth (and the knowledge of it) to a very high level.

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." John 14:6-7  NIV

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light  (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Ephesians 5:8-10  NIV

He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. Deuteronomy 32:4  NIV

I refuse to accept that God’s revelation to man, the Bible, is not perfect. If God is perfect, then His revelation has to be perfect. Furthermore, I refuse to believe that Joyner’s endtime prophets are going to increase anyone’s understanding of salvation. The Bible has made it pretty clear on what one must do to be saved. (The third chapter in the Book of John spells it out pretty well.) Joyner’s prediction that the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witness’s will be won by love, not truth, suggests that these endtime prophets will change the understanding of salvation. Didn’t Jesus say, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” [3]  He did not say love alone will set you free but rather love of truth will.[4]

Jesus spoke frequently of the truth, and He spoke the truth in love. Jesus calls us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.[5] The truth therefore must be important, even imperative. Doctrine is important. One does not have to know much to be saved, but one does have to recognize Jesus for who He is. Joyner blurs this, and in the process of his predictions, proclaims a different gospel, that the truth of Jesus as revealed in the Bible doesn’t matter as much as love (which I assume by deduction means acceptance of all various views even if they are contrary to the Bible) does. He would leave us with indefensible faith. Are we not commanded to be able to give reason for our faith?[6] If true Christianity is really esoteric in nature, how could we then reasonably defend it? Did not Paul defend the gospel as true and reasonable to believe?[7] Joyner’s prophecies are flying in the face of the teaching in the Holy Scriptures. We have been warned…

Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! Galatians 1:7-8  NIV

So what does all this have to do with Tommy Tenney? Well, I haven’t read any of his books or listened to any of his lectures. But he does associate himself with a demonstrably false prophet, this is not good. There is no doctrinal statement on his website, so apparently doctrine doesn’t matter much to him. Do not teachers teach doctrine, which is the proper understanding of what God revealed in the Bible? But, since he associates with Joyner and speaks at churches who also do not have doctrinal statements, it is likely that he feels the same way about doctrine that Joyner does, that is doesn’t really matter as much as unity.

Teachers are held to a higher standard, they are entrusted with the truth of God.[8] (This terrifies me.) Tenney associates with Joyner who has prophesied of the death of the old understanding Christianity, into a rebirth of a new understanding. Our current ‘historic Christianity’ is not logically reconcilable with Joyner’s ‘future Christianity.’ When you change something, it no longer is what it was. (Reality is knowable and language understandable, the difference can be understood and duly noted.) Joyner is (through process of objective deduction) therefore a false prophet.

If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 13:1-4  NIV

Tenney, if he indeed is not like Joyner (and doesn’t believe what he believes,) should not associate with him.[9] I find it hard to believe that Tenney would not know what Joyner teaches.

There is an appearance of power in the new wine movement.  I humbly submit to you that this movement is not of God.[10] The doctrine the dispensers of the new wine propose, if true, must supersede the teaching of the Bible, as I’ve briefly demonstrated.[11] You can have one or the other, but not both since they conflict.

The supposed power demonstrated over the people is mere psychological manipulation. Joyner admits that at one of his conferences participants sang one song “for over three hours… the gulf between heaven and earth had somehow been bridged.”[12] 

Hindu gurus get followers to chant ‘mantras’ until they lose track of reality to therefore gain ‘enlightenment.’ Singing the same song over and over has the same effect. (And doesn’t the Bible say to not say the same thing over and over when communicating with God?[13]) This altered state of mind can be an open invitation to demonic deception:

Having largely set aside their ability to think ratio­nally and critically or to exercise their will, they have become hypersuggestible, which means that they are likely to accept any “spiritual truth” that enters their minds. Even more remarkably, they seemed to be primed for mystical experiences and may attach great spiritual significance to virtually any event or thought, no matter how mundane or outlandish. Seeking mys­tical experiences through altered states, as defined here, looks like an open invitation for deception.[14]

These ‘powers’ are clearly and abundantly documented psychological assaults upon God-given rationality. Satan loves this, it makes his job easier. The Hindus have their way to gain ‘enlightenment,’ the Buddhist theirs, so also the wiccans, the TM’ers, the new-agers, and now the ‘Christians.’ Esoteric mysticism is an assault upon objective knowledge. Objective knowledge is a gift from God.[15] This movement is not ‘spiritual,’ it is deception.[16] True Christian ‘enlightenment’ comes by the objective study of the revealed Word of God, the Bible. And God approves of careful study.[17]

        I would be happy to provide more information on the word faith and/or new wine movements. By no means accept my word alone. Test everything by the Scriptures.[18]

I do not hold philosophy and logical reasoning above the Holy Bible. But, it is by logical reasoning that I (and any Christian) can formulate a proper Christian philosophy so that I (or any Christian) may properly understand what has been written. Those who ignore this vital truth about faith’s relationship with reason invite heresy and agnosticism. It is by understanding the reality of God as revealed in the Holy Scripture, that a human being can understand his own reality and his own purpose in expanse of the universe.