Customer Reviews

Let No One Deceive You

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Michael Brown provides an intellectual, and biblical response to the many critics of revival today. His humble writing, asks many thought provoking questions on the authority to criticize, and validates the revival movement at the Brownsville Assembly of God, through Scripture. It's a very powerful book, and is great for anyone who has read the lies of Hank Hannagraph, and any other hyper-critical faction, that questions revival today. Two thumbs-up to Brown and his colleagues. The best thing you can do though, is visit Brownsville Assembly of God, and see for yourself. Know first-hand, not second, or third hand. Seek truth in all that you do.

Dr. Michael L. Brown has written a highly effective, logical, and scriptural volume that defends God's work among His people today. Using the wise techniques of the Berean in Acts 17, Dr. Brown provides sound scriptural evidence by which any supposed revival movement is to be judged. He accurately shows that there is absolutely no scriptural basis for making negative judgments on revival phenomena such as physical manifestations. He shows that the true Berean will use the Scriptural rules the Lord has deemed appropriate, namely the "fruit" test. But Brown also goes the extra mile by appealling to church history, showing that men such as John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, etc. had to endure the exact same types of criticism and slander when God began to move in their meetings. He also shows that physical phenomena such as falling to the ground, shaking, laughing, etc. are far from being unique to current revival movements. He accurately shows that they were very prevalent in the meetings of Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards, etc. and that these men judged by the Word (i.e. by the fruit in the lives of the individuals so affected) and not by any rule of physical phenomena that is not in the Scriptures. Dr. Brown also includes an appendix which is a review of Hank Hannegraaf's 'Counterfeit Revival' and accurately exposes Hank's poor scholarship, misrepresentations, and downright deception. But above all of this, Brown's passionate heart for the critics who are in error is clearly evidenced throughout the book, even though he must often use stern rebukes against their tactics. Kudos to Dr. Brown for an accurate and effective volume.

Michael Brown uses good research techniques to give thought provoking ideas about controversial issues confronting Christianity today. A good read for anyone who has been influenced by the fear tactics of Hanegraaf and others.

Dr. Brown does an excellent job of fielding complaints from what tends to be different denominational affiliations. I read this book years ago and it helped me to understand what fruit really is and what it means when the power of God is in action as it was at Brownsville. This is a real no nonsense approach and one of the best books on revival that I have ever had the pleasure of reading.

This is an excellent book. It is an impassioned, Biblical defense of modern day revival written in a way anybody can understand.

Jesus promises Christians this:

Luke 11:11-13

11 "You fathers--if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? 12 Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! 13 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him."

Thus, if we seek Jesus Christ first, and do not quench the fire of the Holy Spirit, what will come will be of God. He promises to give His Holy Spirit to those who ask. If the modern day church seeks after God - as the Church indeed indeed did, for years, before some of these revivals - He will not give them a scorpion (or a counterfeit.)

Why judge the external physical responses of believers? We are commanded to test the spirits using the gift of discernment, to test activities against the principles laid out in the Bible, and we are called to look at the fruits of what is happening. That is all: anything else is mere human speculation. The Bible contains no prescriptions on how believers' physical selves should respond to the Spirit of God, other than that everything should be done in an orderly fashion (and I fail to see how expressive worship is disorderly) and that every done must be done out of a deep love for God first, and His people second. But what is 'orderly'? If God's love thrills you to your core, so that you laugh or dance; and if His conviction makes you scream and cry your eyes out at the realization of His holiness and your sinfulness; and if His presence causes you to fall to the ground in fear and trembling or in adoration - what is the problem here? How exactly do these things violate Scripture? People often quote 2 Timothy 4:3 or 1 Thessalonians 5:21 or any scripture to do with seducing spirits in the last days: but what does these verses actually say about individuals' physical responses to the presence of God? They deal with doctrine, they deal with whether one is truly regenerated or not, and they deal with counterfeit spirits. It is never stated that one can look at a persons' physical reactions to God to see whether such experiences are of God or not. How do you know that a person who is crying, or shaking, or responding in whatever way they may be responding to God - how do you know that such a person hasn't tested themselves; hasn't sought the Lord above all things; hasn't prayed that they would only receive from the Father? Years of depression and past emotional hurts could be being healed by God in that very instant. Whenever I have seen such things, the fruits are repentance and closeness with the Lord, they remain controlled, and they do not distract from the Word in any way. If this is the devil, then he is doing an appalling job. I wonder how the priests looked when God's glory filled the temple in the Old Testament:

2 Chronicles 5: Then the temple of the Lord was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.

Let me just start off by saying that I am not a charismatic, but I was intersted to get both sides to the "revival movements". Particularly in Brownsville, which Dr. Brown was part of at the time this was written. Along with this book I purchased Counterfeit Revival by Hank Hanegraaff.

I certainly found Dr. Brown's book the far better of the two when it came to putting the revival in perspective and drawing comparisions from other revivals and from scripture. It was also far more enjoyable reading. The author has a way of using humor and down to earth explanations to get his point across. I believe he did a far better job in defending his positon than Hanegraaff did with his book. I found Counterfeit Revival, by contrast, to be a bit of a disappointment. Unlike Dr. Brown, all Hanegraaff did was point to the extreme people in the movement and try to discredit the revival based on the actions of a few.

The only criticism that I had with Dr. Brown's book is that I wish he would have spent more time being critical of people like Benny Hinn and others who are clearly giving the movement a bad name. (Dr. Brown does however do this in his book: From Holy Laughter to Holy Fire.)

But otherwise I give the book a thumbs up.

I can't believe there are still skeptics out there after the release of this book. When was the last time devilisih formalism in the Church converted anybody to Jesus? Anyone who thinks Dr. Michael Brown is wrong has a form of godliness, but spits on its power.

I am really sorry but hermeneutical is spelled this way. But it was helpful to weed out the less desirable books (spell check)

I have had my doubt's about the so called third wave outpouring. To help dispell my doubts I was given this book and a trip up to the Toronto Vineyard Church. After reading the book and seeing the authors poor exegesis, and error wrought hermenutacal approach to the bible, I declined the trip. If you are a mature, biblically grounded Christian able to discern wheat from chaff, I invite you to read this book and make up your own mind. If not I suggest that you take a in-depth study of your bible and get in your prayer closet to ground yourself fully.

Be like a berean!

Matthew 24:24-25 "For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perfrom great SIGNS and MIRACLES to deceive even the elect - if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time"

I have had my doubt's about the so called third wave outpouring. To help dispell my doubts I was given this book and a trip up to the Toronto Vineyard Church. After reading the book and seeing the authors poor exegesis, and error wrought hermenutacal approach to the bible, I declined the trip. If you are a mature, biblically grounded Christian able to discern wheat from chaff, I invite you to read this book and make up your own mind. If not I suggest that you take a in-depth study of your bible and get in your prayer closet to ground yourself fully.