Learning from the French prophets

I found this article containing a little more history on the French prophets I wrote on in the previous article – the article was from here: – http://www.evangelical-times.org/

Antoine Court and the ‘French Prophets’ by Michael Haykin

In last month’s article on notable defenders of the Christian faith, I wrote about the progress of the Reformed faith in France after the time of the Reformation. During the mid-sixteenth century there was great advance, as French evangelists (many of them sent out from John Calvin’s academy in Geneva) sought to plant churches in their native land and confront the errors of Roman Catholicism. Attempts to stamp out these nascent Reformed causes, however, were often bloody. Indeed, the sixteenth century turned out to be one of the bloodiest in French history, as the country was torn apart by the savagery of religious civil war. Calvin himself had consistently urged the French Reformed leadership not to resort to arms, but his advice went unheeded.

The Edict of Nantes

Finally, in 1598, four hundred years ago this very year, an edict of toleration was passed, the Edict of Nantes. It was hoped that this law, which permitted the French Protestants (or Huguenots) to establish places of worship in twenty specified cities, would bring peace to a war-tired nation. But the seventeenth century turned out to be an era in which, from a merely human perspective, the Reformed cause lost many of its gains from the previous century. There was constant inducement, some of it financial, for French Protestants to cross over to the Roman Church. When that failed, there was recourse to more brutal methods. Protestants were often debarred from government service; special taxes were levied on them; their pastors were only allowed to live in certain places and for limited periods of time, preventing them from planting and nurturing churches; their churches, schools and hospitals were closed or destroyed; pastors and faithful believers were imprisoned in horrific conditions, and many of them were sent to the galleys as slaves. Finally, the French Government authorized what were known as dragonnades, where French soldiers would be billeted in Protestant villages and homes, and given complete freedom to pillage, loot, rape and kill.

The church of the desert

By 1685 the French king, Louis XIV, the so-called ‘Sun-King’, officially declared that there was no longer a Protestant presence in France, so that the religious freedom guaranteed by the Edict of Nantes was no longer needed. All of the Protestants, according to his calculations, had either abjured their faith or died. The Edict of Nantes was thus revoked. Of course, in reality, there was still a significant Huguenot community. Those who could do so liquidated their possessions and tried to leave the country. Estimates vary as to the exact number that did eventually leave. Some scholars have put the figure as high as half a million. A figure of three hundred thousand is probably more accurate. This number, however, does not include the many who died trying to escape or those who were caught and sent to the galleys. Most of those who left were highly skilled artisans, and the economic problems that plagued France throughout the eighteenth century, and led to the French Revolution in 1789, were in part a result of the Huguenot emigration.

Forty per cent of the Huguenots who left France came from northern France, even though only twenty per cent of the Huguenot community actually lived in the north prior to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. This meant that a sizeable number of Huguenots remained in the south of France, some half a million, hoping that they would be able to resist the government revocation of religious toleration and preserve their faith. It was especially in the sparsely inhabited, rural areas of southern France that Calvinist worship continued, often held late at night out in the fields and forests. This period of French Reformed witness, known as the Church of the Desert (L’Église du Désert), has many rich lessons for the present, among them the account of Antoine Court and the so-called ‘French Prophets’.

Teenage prophets

Many of the Reformed pastors in southern France had either fled the country or been martyred. It was in this context of intense persecution, along with a lack of biblical leadership, that the so-called ‘French Prophets’ emerged. The first of them was Isabeau Vincent, an illiterate fifteen-year-old girl, who began to preach in February 1688 declaring, ‘It is not I that speak, but the Spirit that is within me.’ Within a few months she had been imprisoned, but other teenage prophets and prophetesses soon appeared. Many of these young people would be seized by convulsive trembling and some would fall flat on their backs as they prophesied. Others would weep and cry out to their hearers to repent. One of them, Marie Boîteuse, supposedly wept tears of blood as she prophesied. Visions abounded among them. Jacquette Ranc saw an angel transport the British king, William III, formerly William of Orange, to France holding on to his hair. Once there, she predicted, he would deliver the French Protestants as he had delivered the English Dissenters. By 1700 there were literally hundreds of these prophets and prophetesses, most of them below the age of twenty and the majority of whom had never heard the Word of God preached.

Soon some of them began to preach violence. All-out war broke out in 1702—a war known as the War of the Camisards—when ‘the Spirit’ commanded a wool-comber, Abraham Mazel, to murder a Roman Catholic abbot in order to free some Protestants whom the latter had imprisoned. The war lasted two years. The Protestants lost, and the result was increased devastation of the Reformed cause. But as so often has been the case, when all seemed lost and hopeless, God the Holy Spirit raised up a man to repair the ruins. In this case, it was a young Frenchman by the name of Antoine Court (1695-1760).

The Bible, the sole rule of faith

From his mother, Marie Gébelin, who had been widowed when he was only four or five, Antoine received firm Protestant convictions. His mother also often took him to secret worship services, where he regularly saw and heard the prophecies of the French Prophets.

In 1713, at the age of eighteen, Court preached his first sermon. Over the next couple of years, his fervent preaching of God’s Word was regularly accompanied by calls to his hearers to repent and to refuse all compromise with Rome. The focus in these early years of his ministry was on reviving the zeal of the French believers. By 1715 Court had come to the conviction that more was needed, namely the reformation of the churches. Believers had to be gathered together under proper pastoral leadership, the Word of God regularly preached, and discipline restored.

So it was on 21 August 1715, that Court, along with six preachers and two former ‘prophets’, convened the first synod of the Church of the Desert. A number of important decisions were made: (1) Since the Bible was their sole rule of faith, it was to be their sole source of preaching—not the prophecies that had been dominant for so long; (2) The office of elder was re-established—Court himself would be formally set apart as an elder three years later; (3) Women were forbidden to preach on the basis of 1 Timothy 2:11-15; (4) The pathway of violence was to be utterly rejected—their struggle against the Church of Rome must use spiritual weapons alone.

These decisions were obviously a direct attack on the French Prophets. But Court rightly believed that lasting, stable, church renewal could only proceed on the basis of God’s Holy Word and not on the subjectivity and spiritual ‘scraps’ the French Prophets had been giving God’s people. The French Prophets were not prepared to give up without a fight. They declared outright that all who opposed their preaching were fighting against the Spirit of God himself. Some of them also predicted that dire evils awaited any who opposed them. But Court was not deterred from the path of genuine reform. On occasion he had no choice but to denounce these prophets and prophetesses to their faces, at the worship gatherings of the Church of the Desert. Important for Court’s position was the support of Bénédict Pictet, one of the last truly Calvinist theologians at Calvin’s Genevan Academy. Pictet was persuaded by Court to write a tract, A Letter about those who believe themselves inspired  (1721), which effectively demolished the position of the French Prophets.

To teach others also

Court continued to minister in southern France until it became obvious to him that he needed to be training pastors for the churches. In 1729 he left for Lausanne in French-speaking Switzerland. There, he took charge of a small seminary, where he remained for the rest of his life. In all, he trained more than two hundred faithful men to pastor causes in France and Switzerland. His indefatigable zeal for Reformed worship, centred on God’s Word, shines across the centuries, as does the success that attended it. It stands as a beacon of hope that today’s church will also, one day, tire of the husks offered by much contemporary Christianity; and that we will turn from a ‘form of godliness’ focused on emotional ‘highs’, extraordinary experiences, and novelty, and return to the biblical path trodden by such distinguished defenders of the faith as Antoine Court.

On false prophets, strange fire, wolves in sheeps clothing

I have been researching the history of spiritual manifestations, and specifically the history and works of the French Prophets, of whom both John Wesley and Charles Wesley* (see  footnote 1) decribed as ‘devils’. Charles Wesley found himself in a situation where one of these French prophets became his bed-fellow. As they got ready for bed, Charles reports that this prophet “fell into violent agitations and gobbled like a turkey. I was frightened and began exorcising him with, ‘Thou deaf and dumb devil,’ etc. He soon recovered out of his fit of inspiration. I prayed and went to bed, not half-liking my bed-fellow. I did not sleep very sound with Satan so near me.” 

John Wesley wrote: “… So many have been awakened, justified, and soon after perfected in love; but even while they are full of love, Satan strives to push many of them to extravagance. This appears in several instances: … Some of them, perhaps many, scream all together as loud as they possibly can… Several drop down as dead; and are as stiff as a corpse; but in a while they start up, and cry, “Glory! glory!” perhaps twenty times together. Just so do the French Prophets, and very lately the Jumpers in Wales, bring the real work into contempt…. I think there needs no great penetration to understand this. They are honest, upright men, who really fell the love of God in their hearts. But they have little experience, either of the ways of God or the devices of Satan. So he serves himself of their simplicity, in order to wear them out and to bring a discredit on the work of God.”

While researching the movement and the other movements such as the Shakers and other millenerian sects it birthed or affected, I came across a wonderful, but rare, book by Charles Chauncy. The book is full of specific narratives related to the French prophets, the English prophets whom they birthed, and other ‘moves of the Spirit’ in history including the Quakers. The book was written in 1741, and published in Boston in 1742 (at the time of the First Great Awakening), but reading firsthand accounts in this book is like reading accounts of modern day Pentecostalism/Charimaticalism - particularly the Toronto Blessing http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/lying-signs-and-wonders-gold-dust-and-jewels/ and Patricia King/Extreme Prophetic phenomona http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/lying-signs-and-wonders-gold-dust-and-jewels/ - except I have to say the 18th century folk were considerably more pious and God fearing than in our day, and the preaching is considerably lighter, more frothy and less convicting nowadays. However, despite the age of this book, I still recognise ‘testimonies’ mirrored from years ago of many prominent Charismatic/Pentecostal leaders of today! Read what Rodney Howard-Browne says for example about the death and falsely prophesied resurrection of his daughter Kelly in 2002** (footnote 2), and then compare it to the infamous Dr Thomas Emes affair in London in 1707/1708. Surely it is the same spirit that works in many of today’s leaders as with John Lacy, John Potter and Dr Emes!   And what better way to describe Benny Hinn style ministry than with a three hundred year old account from Knox, who claimed that when the preacher shouted people fell on their backs while this preacher ‘conducted them’ with his hand movements as if they were some kind of orchestra? No wonder the expression ’sacred theatre’ was used to descibe this movement’s behaviour!

Amazing things seemed to have happened among the French prophets (better even than todays’ stuff within the church): signs and wonders in the sky, manifestations galore called ‘agitations’, people slain in the spirit, incredible visions and prophecy even among children and babies not yet talking, encounters with angels, visions and visits to heaven and hell, real healings and the ability to speak in and understand other languages (not the same as modern tongues), – and then there was persecution and even martyrdom among these believers. The manifestations of possession of a ’spirit’  became outward signs of an inner expedience, a sacred theatre  as believers acted out their ‘possession’ before others. Yet despite these many signs and wonders, it is clear for all this that it cannot have been the Spirit of God these same prophets speaking by an agitated spirit spoke by, despite all of these ‘miracles’, for their words did not come to pass and they also contradicted scripture in both practice and content. Though they started off with their words sounding scriptural enough (though they did not know what they were actually saying most of the time, many prophesying in their sleep like a kind of robot), they were soon led into heresy and blasphemy, as well as sinful lifestyles including preaching stripped naked, adultery, murder and all out war – The War of the Camisards. All these actions, apparently, were ’led by the Spirit’) (see footnote 3). If we follow the scriptural advice of the book of I John in testing the spirits, the bad fruit alone indicates it was NOT a true anointing of the Holy Spirit, for the true Spririt only leads into truth and holiness.

John Lacy, the leader of the English prophets, repeatedly asserted that there was no way the spirit that he spoke and wrote by and channelled (by automatic writing and ‘automatic speaking’ (for want of a better word) could possibly have been the devil. He could not even entertain such a notion,  for he says he was led by his experiences and manifestations into much greater ecstasies and love and passion for God etc.  He was, by all accounts, a devoted believer as were his companions. Fervant they were indeed, even ‘addicted’ or ‘obsessed’ with what they admitted was an insatiable thirst for ‘more’. Yet the writer of this book, Charles Chauncy,  demonstrates that ‘religious enthusiasm’ as he puts it, is historically marked by extraordinary religiousness, zealousness and devotion and intenseness, even when veering far off course and being markedly led by false spirits. Thus having a zeal for God or even scripture is not a true test  of the divine nature of any visions and experiences. Decieving spirits truly do come as angels of light, especially initially where they quote whole chunks of scipture word perfect. It is only gradually heresies and factions seems to creep in, and the people get led astray. Reading the accounts of Thomas Case of the Quakers, who was able to get anyone to manifest against their will just by looking at them, and get people ‘converted’ against their wills merely by breathing on them – though they became as zombies following their converter around like a puppy not even knowing why – surely indicates the spirit he operated under was not the Spirit of God. Yet I know if accounts of his story were read out in many modern day church meetings the people would go wild, wanting his ‘anointing’!

It is also interesting that the work in France – the Hugeuenot prophecy - was primarily a youth led ‘revival’, that concentrated on ecstatic singing, and although these things affected all ages and sexes, by far the largest sector affected was the youth. Babes literally had words put in the mouth by the ’spirit’. I certainly do not despise God working among youth, or anyone because of their young years; but for a ‘move of the Spirit’ and a prophetic movement at that to be primarilly made up of the under eighteens – and illiterate ones at that who are unable to test revealed ‘truths’ against scripture – causes obvious issues with discernment, testing and wisdom and the possibility of being led far off into error.  I compare this to today’s church to where the major moves with the ‘new’ prophetic are happening among the young – they are even specifically targetted and prophesied about. I have lost count of the number of times I heard Vineyard and Kansas City prophets harp on about the under 25s being a special generation. Though people of all ages lack discernment and get seduced, this focus on youth, this targetting of youth, who are far easier to manipulate and decieve, causes concern in the light of history.

Read this account and learn from it. It is a long post but this material is not available anywhere elsewhere in the net, the book is long out of print, and I believe it is incredibly important. Please note that I have changed the old fashioned English into modern day English and edited this in many parts to try and curtail the length of it.

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‘The wonderful narrative or a faithful account of the French Prophets, their agitations, ecstasies and inspirations. To which are added, several other instances of persons under a like spirit, in various parts of the world, particularly in New England.’  written in Newhaven January 1741, and published 1742

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Of the Pretenders to Inspiration… compare the strangest and most unaccountable instances (of theirs) in the following (book), with the miracles recorded in the Gospel, and they will sink into mere nothing – they carry with them, when closely examined, the plain marks of enthusiasm, or collusion, or Satanic possession….. They are indeed a confirmation of the Gospel, ‘For can there be copies without originals? Or Counterfeits without realities? Do not false coiners imitate the noblest of metals? Or do clippers work on anything but gold or silver?’  Besides, it ought to be remembered, the rise of false prophets, mere pretenders to inspiration, is one of the things particularly foretold in the gospel of Christ: so that their appearance in the world is the completion of prophecy, as it were a seal put to the Bible, by the hand of providence, the more fully to raitify its divine authority.

If by the Work of God any should understand that falling down, and screaming out, and swooning away, in the time of preaching, or after the preacher has just left the house of worship: those visions or representations to the bodily sight,  of Christ and the Devil, those trances, wherein the subjects of them have a clear and distinct view of heaven and hell, of the process of the Last Judgment, of the Book of Life, with the names of particular persons wrote there, those extravagents fits of laughing, unchristian censoriousness and the like: I say if by the work of God, any should mean such as these, which are now grown common, in one place and another, in this and other governments, I readily acknowledge I have no opinion of them, as fruits of the Spirit of God, and can’t but express my fears, what may be the effect of the appearance of such things among us; especially if well spoken of and encouraged, as, by too many, they certainly are. And I confess with all freedom the great design I had in view, in publishing these papers, was to show that appearances in this kind are no signs of the extraordinary influences of the Spirit of God; but rather administer grounds of suspicion, whether the persons thus affected, are not under the power of a disturbed imagination.

Who are the persons who see visions and fall into trances, and make pretences to the Spirit in an extraordinary manner?…It is a strong presumption therefore against them, that they have a strange fire working in them, when they are seized with swoonings, and have bodily representations of those things which are to be spiritually to be discerned: because these signs are common among enthusiasts of all sorts, but seldom, or never, among solid Christians. In the beginning of the Reformation, there were swarms of those who pretended to these extraordinary matters; but they were always esteemed a clog to the Reformation, and the disgrace of it, nor are visions and trances more common anywhere than among the papists.

Not that I wonder that the common people, who are unacquainted with these things, have been surprised; yea even astonished at the shriekings, faintings, and agonies, they have been witnesses to. And if by seeing and hearing these things in others, they have themselves been, in like manner affected, it is no more than can be expected…and if in many persons, the imagination has been heated to a degree sufficient to give them sights and visions, neither is this any more than has happened in thousands of instances in all parts and ages of the world….

But it will, doubtless, be here said, there is a great deal of that….that must be acknowledged as true religion, mixed with that, which some may think to be the effect of imagination. This I will not deny: however this is worth the remarking, that in all the subsequent instances of enthusiasm and delusion, there is a mighty show and appearance, even of that, which is the heights of religion. Who ever pretended to more initmate converse with God, than the French Prophets? They were often in raptures and ravishments from supposed divine communications. Who ever pretended to greater acts of resignation to the divine will, of patience under reproaches and injuries, of the most tender love, not only to each other but to all mankind? Who ever pretended greater zeal against sin and for the flourishing of Christ’s Kingdom? Or to more insatiable thirst after continual waiting on God in the duties of his worship?….And indeed it has always been in the way of enthusiasm and delusion to appear in the guise of religion; yea, to be so religious, as to be superstitious, being flamingly zealous for a being righteous over much.

Not that I deny (as I hinted before) that there may be a mixture of real Christianity with great enthusiasm. I am inclined to think it was thus, at least a first with the Montanists and the French Prophets. And I doubt not that the unusual appearance among us has been a means to rouse many who were before thoughtless and to quicken many who had fallen into slumber. I am not against allowing that a good number have (probably) been converted into Saints, and as great a number of Saints enlivened in their Christian work. Though I would not be thought to judge thus from anything that has been observed of these persons, either as to their temper or behaviour, while their passions have been in a violent commotion, much less while they have been seeing visions or falling into trances. It is impossible while in such circumstances, but that such persons should be religious, and this to a high degree. Thus it has been this way with all visionaries.  It was so in all the instances mentioned in these papers. The only safe way, therefore, of judging in this case (as it appears to me), is to do it from what many be seen and known of these persons when they have got back to a calm and quiet state of mind. And if, when their passions are subsided, and  their imaginations cooled, they now continue to discover a truly Christian temper and conduct, there is reason to hope well concerning them. And this I would hope is the case of many among us at present.

But let this not be made a plee to justify those things, which are evidently the fruit of mere imagination, or something worse, for if such things are encouraged, no one can tell what they will come to, or where they will end. We should take warning of what we may learn here by others…(their work has) filled the towns with faction and schism and general confusion.

I would caution all, against being prejudiced against (the Spirit of God’s) influences upon the hearts of man, because so many enthusiasts have in vain pretended to them; and this in an extraordinary degree and manner: and at the same time I would advise those, who have seen visions and been in trances and ecstatic raptures, to beware of thinking the better of themseleves for this account, rather of encouraging a jealousy of themselves, lest their imaginations should have been too much raised. And I cannot but express it as my earnest wish for them, that they would not rest satisfied in a hope of their good estate, upon any thing short of having evidently among them, the essential marks of the real disciples of Christ; which are common to all that are good Christians, and never to be found but in conjunction with a sanctified heart and life.

I find myself contrained to express the surprise I have been in, when I have heard from preachers from the pulpit, and others from the press, condemn those who are not in their way of thinking upon the religious appearances among us; representing them as enemies of God and Christ, and the blessed Spirit, and as in danger (at least some of them) of sinning the unpardonable sin, the sin against the Holy Ghost, if not already actually guilty of it….. Many solid and judicious persons , of an established reputation for exemplary piety, in many places have been greatly offended at the goings on in the land, and greatly fear the consequences of them. And it seems to me to savour of a strange spirit, to put the present state of affairs so far upon a level with the state of things in the days of Christ, as to make those, who are (if you will) enemies to the present work and violent opposers of it, sinners to the same degree of guilt as were those opposed to Jesus Christ himself, who was approved by God by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which he did in the midst of the people as they themselves knew….And shall those, who by some are repesented as opposers of the work going on among us, (this work without any miracles as yet, but with many disorders and irregularities also) be represented as sinners equally guilty with those (who opposed Christ’s mission to his face) arising from the miracles in their midst? It is conceded, there is guilt in denying the influences of the Spirit, especially when they are obvious and remarkable: But is there not guilt likewise, under the pretence of honouring the Holy Ghost, to make him the author of those things which cannot be ascribed to him?… It is impossible the divine spirit should be the author of faction and contention, of bitterness, censoriousness, pride, ostentation; or any kind of confusions or disorders: neither does it seem to me to be the honour of the Spirit of God, to attribute those swoonings, and faintings, and visions and trances to his immediate agency. It is making that to be his work which the gospel knows nothing of; and is indeed quite foreign to the design of his being given to men…

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From the month of June, 1688, to the end of February following, there arose is Dauphiny, and then in Vervais, five or six hundred protestants of both sexes, who gave themselves to be prophets, and inspired of the Holy Ghost. The sect of the inspired soon became numerous, the valleys swarmed with them and the mountains became covered: the enthusiasm spread itself like a flood, and with such a torrent… this flew from parish to parish and soon there were many thousands of them: they had strange fits, and their fits came upon them with trembling and faintings, as in a swoon, which made them stretch out their arms and legs and stagger several times before they dropped down, they struck themselves with their hands, they fell on their backs, they shut their eyes, they heaved with their breasts, they remained a while in trances, and coming out of them with twitchings they uttered all that came into their mouths, they said they saw the heavens opened, the angels, paradise and hell – those, who were just on the point of recieving the gift or Spirit of prophecy, dropped down, not only in the assemblies crying out ‘Mercy!’ but in the fields and in their own houses. The least of their assemblies made up four or five hundred, and some of them amounted to three or four thousand persons.

When an assembly was appointed, the men, women, boys and girls, and even very young children came (and before daybreak too)..to the place appointed. When the prophets for a while had been under agitations of body, they began to prophesy; the burden of their prophecies was, Amend your lives, repent ye, the End of all things draws nigh. They made loud cries for mercy: the hills rebounded with the cry of mercy! and with imprecations against the priests, against the church, against the pope, and against the Antichristian dominion, with predictions of the approaching fall of popery – all they said at these times was received with reverence and awe – persons of good understanding knew not what to think of it, to hear little boys and young girls (of the dregs of mankind who could not so much as read) quote many texts of the holy scripture.

But two sorts of persons terribly opposed the propagation of this Spirit of Prophecy: the justices who imprisoned these prophets, and the soldiers who had orders to fall upon their meetings. In one assembly on the mountain of Cheilaril there were about three hundred slain on the spot, a hundred were killed on the hill of Bassel, and some other executions were performed elsewhere. And while Colonel Folville dispersed these assemblies by military executions, Mr de Basville judged (without ceasing) the prisoners brought before him from all parts; the intendent, Mr Bouchu, likewise sent the inspired to prophesy in the prisons of Grenoble….but they showed the greatest firmness, even at the stake or gibbet: and notwithstanding all the military executions and juridicial processes, there still remained in the Cervennes some embers of this flame.

…. John Vernett of Bois-Chattel, in the Viverais, declared at London, January 14th 1706, that the first persons he saw under the inspiration, were his own mother, brother, his two sisters and a cousin: that his mother spoke (at the times of inspiration) only French, which surprisrd him exceedlingy, because she never (before her inspirations) attempted to speak a word in that language, nor has since to his knowledge, and he is certain she could not do it; he says the same of his sisters, and that they all urged their hearers to amendments of life, and pressed it upon him in particular (who was then a little loose) to be sobre; he declares among other things, that he with two of his acquaintance went to see a friend of theirs near Vernoux; that as they were drinking together at his house, a girl came to call her mother who was with them, saying, Come mother and see the child! Soon after the mother coming to the back door of the room where they were, called them to come and see the babe that spoke; bidding them not to be frightened, for that miracle had happened before. They all ran immediately; the child was thirteen or fourteen months old, and covered then in a cradle, and had never of itself spoken a word, nor could it go alone. When they were come in where it it was, the child spoke distinctly in French, with a voice small like a child, but loud enough to be well heard all over the room. It exhorted, like others in that condition, to works of repentence…..(there was also) much talk of a sucking child at Clieu, in Dauphiny, who used to preach by inspiration.

This testimony….coincides with a great number of other facts here related as deposed upon oath, by different persons, in different places. I remember but two or three other instances more of children so young, who spoke under inspiration; but there are numerous instances of children three, and four, or five years old, and so on to fifteen or sixteen, who being seized with agitation and ecstasies delivered long exhortations under inspiration.

Claud Arnassau, of Mentel, near Alez, delared: …’One day I was in the company of forty people, or thereabouts, whom I had invited to an assembly at a certain place; when we came to the place appointed, we found nobody and judged there had happened some reason to have the meeting elsewhere; while we were musing what to do, one of us (whether he had the gift I know not) said, Brethren, let us pray to God, and he will direct us.  He was no sooner on his knees, than there appeared in the air, a light, like a large star, which advanced pointing to the place where the assembly was met half a league from us….’

(There was a shepherd) named Peter Bernaut (so silly, he was next to an idiot) who I did venture to bring to an assembly by night. I observed him to keep upon his knees for two hours together at least, then the gift seized him, he was struck as it were dead: and after some time had violent agitations of body. He returning home, the Spirit came upon him again the following day, at which time his bodily motions were so great, that being on his back, the whole body leapt from the ground. We were all afraid he would hurt himself on the pavement: he continued to batter himself in that manner, that his hair was as wet as sweat, as if dipped in water; two or three times he was taken with these violent contortions without speaking; at length he said, it was for his sins he had thus been tormented. (End times note, has Christ not done enough already?!) After that, in other inspirations, he spoke aloud, quoting appositely many texts of scripture, and all to press us earnestly to a good life. As for this man, I am certain he could not read, he never was at divine worship but at that time, nor was he capable of being instructed by any person whatsoever, to speak the things he did in his inspirations.

James du Bois of Montpellier declared…: ‘I saw persons inspired in diverse parts of the country, in all, at least two hundred, at various times and places, of every age and sex: I saw among others a boy of fifteen months of age at Quisac, taken in the arms of his mother, with great agitations of body all over, especially of the breast; he spoke with gulpings of the throat, in good French distinctly, with an audience voice, though with interuptions…This infant’s speech was, as if God spoke always using this manner of things: ‘I say unto thee my child’ and the like. The said infant was with his mother clapt up in prison….I have seen sixty other children between three and twelve years of age, in the same condition, the discourses of all which tended constantly to press with ardour an amendment of life, and foretold also several things. Being in the valley, called the Combe Renard, at a friend’s house, a boy, who fled to shelter himself in that house, being at the age of six years, fell into the motions of the head and breast, spoke aloud in good French many arguments to repentence, with some predictions, and said, among other things, that one part of Babylon the Great would be destroyed in 1708. (A false prophecy)

Another boy of eight years old, I heard in his inspirations at Montpellier prophesy regarding the re-establishment of the reformed religion in France – I have seen at several times, the persons inspired of both sexes, in the times of their trances have their eyes open, and commonly lifted up to heaven, who said, that they then saw armies of angels, sometimes those angels engaged in warfare against armies of man, and diverse other things I cannot distinctly remember. It happened many a time, that when the people were to return home from the assemblies, some one or other, speaking in his rapture, declared that God would make balls of fire fall from heaven, to dazzle the eyes of their enemies for their security in returning home, which proved so several times indeed by night: for I have often seen them on that occasion.

The book ‘A Relation of several hundreds of children and others that prophesie and preach in their sleep &c. first examined and admired by several ingenious men’  recounts: Some people began to preach the gospel with so many signs and wonders that it would make you tremble. They are people of all ages and sexes, although the greatest part of them are boys and girls… they preach almost day and night without ceasing…there are some that preach whilst asleep, others while awake. If there be any notorious sinners in the assembly, those poor preachers call them to them, and fall into terrible torments until such time as the sinners come to them…..they make public prayers for sinners, and if those sinners repent, and God pardons them, they themselves fall to the ground as dead, without any appearance of life, and when they come to themselves they feel an happiness and contentment which they are not able to express. It happens likewise that other members, who are not so great sinners, fall to the ground in the same manner. There falls down sometimes twenty or thirty at once. And as fast as they fall, and especially when it is a great sinner, those poor preachers make great expressions of joy, and remain sometimes in a swoon, as in an ecstasy, saying that they see the heavens opened, and our Lord pouring out his blessing upon them. They say within x days the persecution will be over….they speak very great things of the king, the conclusion whereof is this: that he shall know the truth and be converted….’ (False prophecy)

In the year 1706, three or four of these French Prophets came over into England, and brought their prophetic spirit along with them, which discovered itself in the same way and manners, in ecstasies, and agitations and inspirations under them as it had done in France: and they propagated the like spirit to others, so that before the year was out, there were about two or three hundred of these prophets in and about London, of all ages, men, women and children….Mr John Lacy* was the chief of the English Prophets. (He said:) I can say that (the French prophets’) agitations did never make an impression on my mind or imagination such as to promote an imitation of them, or even an inclination to it: for the space of at least eighteen days before mine came upon me, I had seen none of them, and mine were so entirely differant from any of theirs, that it is altogether unlikely, that the force of imagination (as some without due consideration have fancied) could produce them.

‘The first symptom of the emotions upon my body surprised me in the instant of awaking on the first day of March…those agitations, in a various manner, and hardly to be described, continued more or less upon me until the 12th day of June, before the word was put in my mouth….the bodily impressions were gradually increasing on me, until the effect, or rather issue of them, was produced: viz the opening of mouth to speak. (End times note: Thus Lacy is saying the end of these odd manifestations is prophecy).

‘They began by a preternal course of breathing; then my head came to be agitated and shaken violently, and forcibly, and with a very quick motion horizontally, or from side to side, then my stomach had twitches, not much unlike a hiccup, afterwards my hands and arms were violently shaken, at length a struggle or labouring of the windpipe, and sometimes a sort of catching or twitches all over my body; and for about a week before my speaking, I observed my tongue was now and then moved involuntarily, as also were my lips, my mouth and my jaw severally,  all which preparations of the bodily organs I found attended with a constant elevation of soul to God; the mind being uncontainably cast into a frame of spiritual joy, holy contempt of all things in the world, and incessant prayers, far more earnest and intent than what I have ever found before…..

‘I do affirm without the least doubt that my agitations and words in the ecstasy are produced by a superior agent, and are independent of me any further that I do not, nor dare not oppose but do remain altogether passive. (end times note: This is contrary to scripture where the spirit of the prophets is subject to the control of the prophets and thus everything could and should be done decently and in order). My mind at those times continues clear and sedate, during which my fear and caution makes me wait always, until the tongue be removed by that superior power; nor doth any impulse alone prevail within me therein, so that it is no longer I, as the prime voluntary mover and agent that speak, and oftentimes I know not the sense until the words are spoken, (end times note: this is not how prophecy works) and so heard by me as by other persons present. Nor did I myself write those English words, which are contained in the warning of July 12th, but my fingers were forcibly moved to do it, my eyes then being close shut, and I under agitations. (end times note:  this is automatic writing as practiced in the spiritualist church). Therefore I utterly deny myself to be the farmer, either of the agitations or of the voice. I have moreover, thrice experienced a tone or manner in the voice itself, which I am well assured I am no ways capable of, in my natural state.

(Comments made to his self righteousness which John Lacy believed meant that) ‘I therefore hath the more confidence that God doth not deliver me up to so horrid a delusion…..That an evil spirit could direct me to seek repose in God, and upon applying to the throne of Grace for it, give and continue the same to me, I dare not allow myself to think.’

(After a year of such agitations John Lacy wrote) …it is not voluntary from myself, nor of my own will, but on the contrary when the agent doth so, if I think to suppress the same, he doth continue to start and twitch my limbs, and by more interior uneasiness over my whole body, to solicit my obedience; that I can have no rest until I suffer the same to take place…..(end times note:  God does not force or control us like this). Under this foreign influence, I felt my fingers terribly contracted and moved to write those words in page 90th of my first book of warnings: under this influence my body was removed ten or eleven feet, as in page 65th of my second part, without any concurrent mixture of my agency. Under this influence I have been carried on my knees several times around a room, faster than I could have gone on my feet…I am at times under the agency of another distinct being, in which times, the tongue also is at the direction of that foreign agent and no more under mine (control) than the other motion of my body….(the prophetic words did not come from premeditation or study) but the adventious power by the motions it caused in my breath, tongue and lips, formed the words..Sometimes that adventious power overshadowing my mind, prevented a serene brightness to my conception, clearly distinguished from the natural faculty (end times note:  eg he could not think straight, however God gives us the spirit of a sound man)…wherefore the laid discourses have come out of me not as the fountain but as the channel…I am not responsible for them. (end times note:  this is not at all scriptural).

(John Lacy also claimed he possessed the gift of languages: he claimed not to have learned much Latin at all, yet when tested by Latin scholars when under ‘agitation’ (eg manifesting) was able to translate very hard passages of Latin into English, ‘as readily as if he were then reading it before him’.)

(John Lacy claimed):  ’a Mr Dutton knows not one Hebrew Letter from another, nor hardly any Greek one. This man I say I have heard utter with great readiness and freedom, complete discourses in Hebrew for near a quarter of an hour together, and sometimes longer.

‘I myself cannot talk Hebrew, for though I cannot speak, either the Welsh, the Irish or the Dutch languages, yet having lived where they have been spoken, though I cannot speak any of these languages I can perfectly distinguish between every one of them, and know which is that which is spoken, as certainly as if I could speak the languages.

…(Going back to prophecy/words of knowledge, John Lacy said):  ‘A woman who being fast asleep, the agitations came upon her, and the words dropped out, like as from one asleep wherein we were told there was a Judas in the room: and at the same time (it being very late) there was another by whose mouth being asleep in agitations, we were ordered for that reason to depart immediately.

(The ministry and passing on of these agitations and gift of prophecy, John Lacy says was by the laying on of hands, and he then goes on to describe several miracuolous physical healings including of himself).

‘There are about eight or ten of the inspired in London already who have visions presented to them by this spirit, some of whom converse with angels in those visions in which they see also the lips of angels move in discourse, who take the persons by the hand, and the subject of all the visions tends to and concerns the approaching glorious dominion of our Lord on earth, and the suppression of the prevalence of evil men and spirits on it.’  (This is unscriptural.) (ends part on John Lacy)

(End times notes  In 1711 John Lacy recieved a divine command to leave his wife and live with an actress, Elizabeth Grey who had stripped and preached naked in the Roman Catholic Chapel in Lincoln’s Inn Field. It was said she would concieve the second messiah. This unconvential behaviour was tolerated by the French prophets, but between 1708 and 1712 there were six schisms, all led by women. In at least two of these case, the women claimed special spiritual status – Dinnah Stoddart claimed to be the saviour of womankind, and Dorothy Harling claimed to be the woman clothed by the sun in Revelation 12.  Source: Gender in Mystical and Occult thought, Behmenism and its development in England by B J Gibbons.

John Lacy & Doctor Keyth expressed themselves in most Impious Terms by saying that the Old & New Testament were good for nothing as is proved by oath before Milord Chief Justice Holt.

Richard Kingston, in Enthusiastick Impostors, 1707 said of Lacy: ‘That which I think comes nearest to Mr. Lacy’s case, is a more than ordinary vanity and ambition of being thought wiser and better than the rest of the world, which, join’d with an affectation of singularity, and having the glory of starting something that ’s odd and out of the way, and being the originals of his own opinion, which he thinks is an infallible proof that the reach of his own understanding is above the common standard, is turn’d at length to subtlety and artifice, to doubling and insincerity, to deceive and being deceived.’ )

 (There were many books written about the new prophets and the writer of this book, Charles Chauncy says): Designed brevity will allow me to take notice of only one thing (of the prophets): and that is, the palpable failure of their predictions….the great thing pretended to by their spirit was to give warning of the near approach of the kingdom of God, the happy times of the church, the millenium state. Their message to be proclaimed to every nation starting from England was that the grand jubilee, the accomplishment of those numerous scriptures, touching the new heavens and the new earth, the kingdom of the Messiah, the marriage of the lamb, the first resurrection, or the new Jerusalem descending from above, was now even at the door; that this great operation was to be wrought by spiritual arms only proceeding from the mouths of these (inspired ones)…(The prophets claimed that all the things they spoke of will be manifest over the earth in three years, and John Lacy said: If within six months to come these things are not confirmed then: ‘I shall before all the world acknowledge my delusion’, which he witnessed on 29th of October 1707).

But the most remarkable failure was in the prediction of the resurrection of Dr Emes, one of the new prophets of London who was taken ill about December 4th 1707 and died December 22nd.

(John Lacy prophesied on December 5th) …’If I command thy life away, yet I will restore it again here, even in this house thou shalt return to thy dwelling again.’

December 6th, J Potter under inspiration of the spirit speaks to the doctor; ‘if thou diest, I will raise thee – I will fulfil all those promises made unto thee.’

December 23rd, being the day after the doctor’s death, Anna Maria King in a public assembly, under inspiration said: ‘Here are some doubtful whether all will come to pass as my servants have spoken, because of one thing; but do you think that death can hinder? For though my servant dies, hath I not said, I will raise the dead by the hand of my servant? Perhaps you think my servants were in an error when they spoke that; but I assure you they were not. More marvellous things than this shall come to pass in a little time, such as never has been yet.’

December 25th, being the day in which the doctor was buried, J Potter under inspiration delivered himself thus -’Remember this day, I will make an extraordinary beginning, I will give now undeniable proof that this is my word. The restoring of the blind, the healing of the sick, raising the dead shall decide it after some months been interred – by the same power that I have raised Jesus, will I raise this body now asleep.’ Here the prophet fell back in his chair and cried out ‘Oh Lord, what would you that I say unto you? By another, Lord.’  Then he fell backward upon the ground and lay silent. Whereupon Anna Maria King was instantly seized by the spirit and said: ‘Rejoice greatly oh my children! By the hands of my servant Lacy I will raise the body of my servant who is now dead….’

(Emes ‘instead of being laid out as is usual for a dead corpse was kept hot in bed till he stunk so as there was scarce any enduring it’.)

December 28th, J Potter was for a long time under violent agitations, and laboured greatly with great strugglings in his throat, and organs of speech, almost as if he were choking, and uttered some inarticulate words or unintelligble sounds. Then the Spirit said ‘Did you understand my children? The words were pronounced, even the day, in which my servant shall rise.’  (end times note: the Spirit does not speak in nonsense words like this). Here the Spirit threw him upon the ground where he lay stretched out as if dead, without motion or breathing.

(More prophecies were given by J Potter and John Lacy re Dr Emes resurrection and on January 1st, 1708 Potter almost choking said Emes would rise in five months time, on the 25th of May.  On the 25th of May 1708 twenty thousand people turned up in London to watch Dr Eme’s resurrection, so much so the Queens Guard were there to keep order.  Dr Emes stayed where he was, and the movement lost its credibility and large following.)

Before the death of the last apostle, flourished Cerinthus, a disciple of Simon Magus (Simon the Sorceror), a mighty pretender to inspiration and angelic visions. Eusebius observes of it of him: ‘that by revelation he delivered monstrous things, feigning them to have been revealed to him by angels.’  He taught that not only would Christ have a temporal kingdom but that man should spend a thousand years in a nuptial festivity.

(Montanus in the second century had an extraordinary zeal and desire for reformation, but he)… lacked solidity of judgement and coolness of thought, apt to be driven by every impulse that seized him….(and despite his love and seemingly genuine desire to reform the church and bring people back to their first love)…the serpent quickly insinuated himseld under this disguise, instead of the true spirit of God: which spirit seizing him on a sudden was wont to agitate him just as if he were a distracted person: and he continued all the while without the use of his reason; and had they say no command over his members and organs…several women such as Priscilla and Maximilla both married women left their husbands for perpetual virginity as prophetesses of Montanus, espoused only to God - as soon as they were filled with the spirit of prophecy than they immediately left their husbands, believeing themselves called to a ‘higher dignity’ in the church of God.  Priscilla was given the title Paraclete, supposing hers to be a higher degree of inspiration that the apostles. Maximilla claimed to be the last prophetess. They had very violent agitations and often fell into ecstasies.

Mahomet (Mohamed) agitated so violently that he often appeared to lie as one dead, having violent shaking fits, and falling down as in a trance.

The Romish church is full of visions and revelations and combats with the devil and such things.

In 1521 in Germany, Muncer claimed the word was to be learnt intrinsically and not out of the scriptures. Then John of Leydon (who was persuaded he would have the empire of the whole earth and was crowned King at Munster) led many astray. His chief minister Knipperdoling walked upon the heads of people in the market place, and breathed upon them ’recieve the Holy Ghost’. (end times note: he’d be popular today) Multitudes of people died when the city was beseiged but many still refused to deny their prophetic delusions about John of Leydon even then.

Kotarus, Drabicus and Poniatovia had visions, ecstasies and dreams…they declared that the Turk ( (end times note: Islam) was to turn Christian and overthrow Germany and then the pope in a very little time, and by 1680 the building of the New Jerusalem was immediately to proceed.

Elizabeth Barton called the Holy Maid of Kent, in the time of Henry VIII, was subject to fits and often fell into trances which were accompanied with convulsions, and strange motions of the body, in which she pretended to inspirations and revelations. Warham archbishop of Canterbury believed her to be a Saint and gave credit to her revelations – she prophesied that if King Henry the Eighth would be divorced from Queen Katherine, and marry another, as he then intended to do, he would not reign a month. In November 1553 she was tried and condemned to suffer death for this threatening inspiration, which was also false.

Trembling, howling, shrieking, yelling, roaring and strange humming all followed the Quakers, along with visions. George Fox the first and great apostle of the Quakers then declared himself to be Christ, the way, the truth and life, yea the eternal judge of the world.  James Naylor, another Quaker,  declared himself as holy, just and good as God himself. A petition was made by concerned parties to the council of state claiming that ‘men, women and children would be strangely wrought upon in their bodies, and brought to fall, foam at the mouth, roar, and swell in their bellies, and some of them affirm themselves to be equal to God.’ 

The head of the new Quakers was Thomas Case who upon the bridge at New York asserted he had come to perfection, and could sin no more than Christ because whatever he did or said was by the same Spirit which Christ had.

Doctor Mather says in Magnalia Book 7:  ‘it was no rare thing for the old set of Quakers to poselyte (convert) people just by croaking or by breathing on them…the bewitched people would follow their converters in everything without being able to render any reason for it.

 The disciples of Thomas Case were troublesome and vexatious even to other Quakers – it is well known that some of those whom this villiam had led captive at his will, were so much under his influence that if upon their coming where he was he fastened his eye upon them, they would presently tremble and stagger and fall, and foam like epileptical persons, and roll about upon the ground until they had rolled themesleves unto his feet, where he did what he pleased with them. I am well acquanted with one very devout gentleman who assured me that as often as this Elymas would please, with his fascinating eye ( (end times note: evil eye/witchcraft), to make him so, but never any such way affected before or after, or upon any other occasion. It is well know that this villian pretending to show a miracle did but look upon a mad bull – that would approach no man except it were to mischief him, and this bull would come tamely, gently, strangely to him, and lick his hands like a spaniel. Nevertheless when he attempted the miracle of a resurrection upon a dead friend, the friend did not rise.

In the year 1681, Jonathan Dunen of Thomas Case’s crew drew away the wife of a man to Marshfield in Plymouth colony to follow him, and one Mary Ross falling into their company was presently possessed with as frantic a demon as ever was one, she burnt her clothes, she said that she was Christ, she gave names to the gang that was with her, as apostles, calling one Peter and one Thomas, she declared that she would be dead for three days and thne rise again, and accordingly she seemed then to die. Dunen then gave out that they would see glorious things when she rose again, but what she then did was thus: that upon her order Dunen sacrificed a dog. The men and two women danced naked together, for which when the constable carried them to the magistrates Ross uttered stupendous blasphemies, but Dunen lay for dead an hour upon the floor, saying when he came to himself that Ross bid him and he could not resist.

Doctor Mather (continues) in his book: Mmen of the most unspotted piety have spent whole prenticeship of years in the faithful, watchful, painful service of the churches, and have served them day and night with prayers, with tears, with fasting, with their much studied sermons and writings and have never such a reputation with the countries in churches afar off; yet if any wolf in sheeps clothing do come with a simple few words among them, the simple souls of many will not only follow the wolf, but, on his account bark at the shepherds.

‘Tis an unwarrantable and a very dangerous thing for men to wish that they might see angels and converse with them. Some have done so, and God hath been provoked with them for their curiousity and presumption, and have permitted devils to come unto them whereby they have been decieved and undone.

Reverend Dr Edmund Calarny speaking on the enthusiastic spirit concludes: ‘it is an easy thing to observe that such as have been affected by a spirit of enthusiasm, from one age to another, have in several things agreed. All are still inveighing against such as have gone before them, and for pouring contempt on the standing ministers in the church – go to argue with them and they will stop your mouth with a plain revelation from heaven, and they expect their affirmation should be credited without proof. They all grossly misinterpret the scriptures, and apply the whole of them to those notions of which they are so hugely fond. All are apt to lay more stress on the things that fasten them than on much greater matters. We may observe in all of them a want of due search and inquiry into the grounds on which they admit their suggestions to be divine and from God, and a readiness to find evasions when the event has consuted their predictions, or when anything is urged that tends to convince, much spiritual pride covered with a pretence of more than ordinary humility; great ignorance and thick darkness in the midst of their highest flights and a greater dependence on their own whimsies than on the sacred oracles themselves. And if we cannot from such instances as these produced learn not to make light of a pretence to immediate inspiration, which though it begins low often issues so tragically, if we don’t learn to be afraid of anything that borders upon enthusiasm either in ourselves or others, we show that we are not to be instructed by the experience of other men, but are of the number of those that can only be taught by feeling the danger of making divisions in religion and of taking the spirit of error and delusion for the spirit of truth and sobreness.’

Footnote 1

“Wesley recorded on January 28, 1739 that several of his friends went with him to a house where they met a woman who was connected with a movement of French Prophets. She went into convulsive motions and spoke a prophetic message. Wesley wrote that “Two or three of our company were much affected and believed she spoke by the Spirit of God. But this was in no wise clear to me. The motion might be either hysterical or artificial. And the same words any person of a good understanding and well versed in the Scriptures might have spoken. But I let the matter alone, knowing this, that ‘if it be not of God, it will come to nought.’”

However, Mr. Wesley did not have to wait long to observe the fruit of this movement. On June 22, 173 he called on one who “did run well,” until he was hindered by “some of those called French Prophets.” Wesley concluded that these prophets were not sent by God and “earnestly exhorted all that followed after holiness to avoid as fire all who do not speak according ‘to the law and the testimony.’” That same day Mr. Wesley came to the Methodist society with the text from 1 John 4:1, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God.” He told them not to judge the Spirit on the basis on appearances, common report, or by their own inward feelings. “No, nor by any dreams, visions, or revelations supposed to be made to their souls, anymore than by their tears or any involuntary effects wrought upon their bodies.” Wesley declared the only certain test was “the law and the testimony,” a reference to Isaiah 8:20, which is a description of God’s Word.

On May 9, 1740 Mr. Wesley wrote, “I was a little surprised at some who were buffeted of Satan in an unusual manner, by such a spirit of laughter as they could in no wise resist, though it was pain and grief unto them.” In fact, John Wesley remembered an earlier incident when he and Charles could not stop laughing. But he did not attribute this phenomenon to the Holy Spirit.

In his Journal for May 21, 1740 Wesley recorded

In the evening such a spirit of laughter was among us that many were much offended…. One so violently and variously torn of the evil one did I never see before. Sometimes she laughed till almost strangled; then broke out into cursing and blaspheming; then stamped and struggled with incredible strength, so that four or five could scarce hold her…. At last she faintly called on Christ to help her. And the violence of her pangs ceased.

Most within the Methodist society believed “those under this strange temptation could not help it.” Two women, however, felt it could be controlled until they themselves were seized with this same spirit and laughed for two days. Again, Wesley did not promote this phenomenon as revival, but recorded that prayer was made for them and that they were “delivered in a moment.”

Footnote 2

From http://www.ccgm.org.au/Articles/ARTICLE-0085.htm

Rodney Howard-Browne’s 18-year-old daughter, Kelly, died on Christmas Day 2002.

Kelly had been born with Cystic Fibrosis and as Howard-Browne said, “They had fought this battle everyday.” When Kelly fell ill this time the prognosis was not good but as he related the story, Howard-Browne told how the “power (of God) fell on me” and God said, “Kelly won’t die…” He was further emboldened by a phone call from Reinhard Bonnke, a Pentecostal evangelist who stated that he had received his own revelation about Kelly’s sickness and that it was “not unto death”.

As the days progressed though, Kelly became worse and as he comforted his daughter, Kelly asked Rodney what was going to happen. He replied, “Well, if there is no miracle, you’re going to go and be with Jesus.”

At this point, the story became extremely bizarre. Howard-Browne related how he entered into a “deal” with Kelly. Simply put, he told her he was going to send her to Jesus to get a new set of lungs and when she had done that he would then pray her back into her body. However, he did warn Kelly, “Kelly, I’m afraid that when you get there and see how beautiful heaven is, you won’t want to come back.” He made Kelly promise that she would come back and incredibly explained to everyone listening that he had given her as a gift to Jesus, the best gift he could give Him on His birthday!

Incidentally, given the fact that he believed Kelly would return, I could make no sense of his next comment, which was a vow that he made to Satan that Kelly’s death would cost him (Satan) “100 million souls”.

Now, just when you would think this could not possibly get any worse…. It did, as it invariably does at these types of meetings. Tragically, Kelly died and on the Saturday immediately after Christmas they held her celebration service. Because of Christmas, she could not be buried until the following Tuesday.

This explains why Kelly’s coffin wound up in Howard-Browne’s office on the Monday before the burial service. The purpose was to hold a prayer vigil between 8.00 am – 5.00 pm of that day in order to see Kelly resurrected. (Howard-Browne had determined that 5.00pm of that day was the cut off point. If Kelly had not been resurrected then she would be buried the next day.)

Within an hour of the prayer vigil God spoke to Howard-Browne saying, “She’s run her race.” Rodney replied, “But Lord, you told me she was going to live.”

God’s response?

“Well, she’s living now!” Rodney’s rejoinder was, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

And God’s answer?

“Because you would have told Kelly and she would have been devastated. At least this way she died in faith!”

This is tragic for the Browne family but there are problems with this mixed up theology for a number of reasons. God is not a man who should lie, least of all to decieve someone they were not truly dying. Secondly he would not make a grieving father go with such a prayer ritual to effectively say ‘only joking’- to claim this is God, is sick and twisted. RHB has claimed that Kelly did not come back as she liked heaven too much – more excuses as to his inability of his anointing or faith to either heal the sick or raise the dead – or to prophesy correctly. Also in one breathe he says it is God, in another breath Satan.

Footnote 3

There were a large amount of prophecies among the French Prophets concerning the end of the world being near, the destruction of Babylon, the fall of the Roman Catholic Church, and the deliverance of the persecuted protestant church. Great changes were prophesied to come upon their nation including even the conversion of the King. One of the prophetesses, Jacquette Ranc, saw an angel transport the British king, William III, formerly William of Orange, to France holding on to his hair. Once there, she predicted, he would deliver the French Protestants as he had delivered the English Dissenters. Against a background of these and other false prophecies, rebellion ensued. ‘The Spirit’ commanded a wool-comber, Abraham Mazel, to murder a Roman Catholic abbot in order to free some Protestants whom the latter had imprisoned. Abraham Mazel, raided and massacred the Catholic town of Pont de Montvert. The doomed war that followed lasted two years.