Dr. Michael Brown Blasts Critics Who Call False Teachers ‘Loons and Hucksters’
During the October 20 Line of Fire, Jim Osman (author of God Doesn’t Whisper) called into Michael Brown’s show and criticized him for platforming the worst of the worst of charismatic ne’er do wells, telling him, “I would say that you have given a lot of shade, in fact, shade to some of the worst and most egregious charismatics, charlatans, false prophets, and hucksters that the charismatic movement has turned up in recent years, including Sid Roth and Benny Hinn and others just like it.”
Osman is not wrong. The Heterodox Research Initiative (HRI) explains it this way:
One major red flag about Michael Brown is who and what he won’t give a red flag. Michael Brown would never tell someone to avoid watching Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural because it’s spiritually toxic and dangerous.
Sid Roth is the Johnny Carson of the cuckoo, strange, weird, toxic and dangerous wing of charismania. Once you’re on his show, you gain a lot of credibility in charismania circles.
…Most episodes of It’s SuperNatural are infomercials for the guest to pitch their products. The products usually teach the viewer some spiritual trick to achieve a breakthrough, healing, miracles, manifestations of God’s presence, wealth, and you get the idea. For a donation, viewers are granted access to toxic and dangerous materials that do nothing but exploit them and sink their souls deeper into the cesspool of charismania.
Unsurprisingly, Brown used his mic to repeatedly talk over and bully the guest while clutching his pearls at the thought that someone would dare suggest that the paragon of pentecostal virtue Sid Roth would ever be considered less than the finest specimen of Godliness that Christianity has to offer. From our perspective, NAR grandpappy Sid Roth is continually up to no good. When he’s not platforming every wild-eyed charismatic with a prophecy, a potion, or a ploy to push, he’s telling tall tales about how he saw a kid starting flying around the room during a revival, claiming he can convert Jews to the faith with 95% success rate, and praising a revivalist who punched a baby and then threw it against a wall to heal it. We digress.
Brown then goes on the attack in a particular way – if you call someone a false prophet, Brown will instantly dispute this and take over the conversation by making it the center focus. For Brown, labeling someone a “false teacher” is the ultimate pejorative that means they are damned to hell, resulting in Brown aggressively questioning how one can have certainty a Sid Roth or a Benny Hinn is hellbound.
For this reason, when talking to Brown, rather than saying “false prophet” or “false teacher,” – frame it as “one who routinely, chronically, repeatedly teaches or platforms gross theological error and is unable to handle the scriptures properly.” You likely won’t get much further because even with someone like Todd Bentley, Brown never condemned his blasphemous theology, only his personal life choices, but it will take away the main and primary weapons that he uses to club his critics with. (Dr. James White, take note.)
Well, that’s where you really need to grow in discernment because you have no right whatsoever to make that statement. And there are believers who have made a profit off the gospel and repented of it and said that was an error as Benny Hinn has done in recent years and spoken very plainly about serious errors that were in his ministry. [Editor’s note: Benny Hinn said he made errors, and then within two weeks, he was back to the same old prosperity preaching.]
Osmand points out that Dr. Brown is begging the question by assuming that Hinn is a Christian and that Jim is wrong, which then causes Brown to again assert that claims of “false teacher = damned to hell.”
Brown: Jim, as far as I know, from the time I spent with him, one on one, from hearing his profession of faith, from people that I know that have worked with him in his own family, for many, many years that know him far better than Costi Hinn [Benny Hinn’s nephew that used to work for him and is now a reformed Baptist pastor in AZ] know him. As far as I know, he’s a believer who’s been in serious error, who has taught some serious error, and has repented of teaching that serious error. As far as I know, he’s your brother. But see here, here’s the big error. This is the massive blind spot. And may God help you with this, Jim, the extreme judgementalism that would that would damn someone to hell based on no personal knowledge of that person’s walk. Or, for example, Sid Roth. Do you believe is Sid Roth was to die right now, he would go to hell?
Jim: “I do. I have no reason to believe that he is in any way a genuine believer. He is the looniest of the looniest charismatic charlatans and hucksters…” [Editor’s note: Fact check: true. Hero move.]
Brown: When you slander a brother, calling him a charlatan and huckster – I’ve known Sid since the 1980s. I’ve had family members that have worked side by side with him. He’s neither charlatan nor a huckster; he has not accumulated personal wealth through the gospel. He does not use the gospel for personal gain. I don’t agree with certain guests that he has on; I would differ with him on different points. But I have walked with Him and seen his heart for the Lord for decades in this godly life.
I’ve never met a person in America who is more zealous to win people to Jesus, who will call me with biblical questions to make sure that fundamentals are right on. So when you make a judgment, not based on scripture, but based on your perception, and you think that you have the right to damn someone to hell, that’s very serious and that is such an extraordinary blind spot to me that you and other hyper critics don’t see that. That grieves me terribly.
Here’s someone I’ve known, firsthand shared office space within the 80s and I’ve known for decades, and in terms of his personal life, has never moved a single inch from wanting to glorify God, demonstrate his power and win people to the Lord, especially Jewish people.
Yeah, there are guests he has on I’d never have on my show and differences I have over that. [Editor’s note: Really? Like that so-called Christian tarot card reader you gave the right hand of fellowship to a couple of years ago that we wrote about and that you can read about here?] But that doesn’t make me question whether he is saved or not, but when you call him a charlatan and a huckster, right, he’s not. He’s neither. I know him. I know his staff. I know his team. He’s not this. Now you may say, ‘he has crazy guests on. I think he believes crazy things’ – but to call him a charlatan and a huckster, you have no knowledge or evidence of that. Doesn’t it concern you to speak such words like that and to judge others in such a severe way? Does that trouble you at all? Does that give you pause for thought?
After Jim responds, Brown continues to take offense at calling Sid Roth a huckster and a charlatan, declaring, “I know it for a fact. I know it for a fact he’s neither of those things.” Jim points out that Roth platforms and promotes “some of the stupidest and most inane things to ever disgrace” the public view of Christianity.
Brown declares, “Sid genuinely believes in the things that he promotes otherwise he won’t promote them,” as if that’s some kind of defense, while reiterating his long-standing assertion that “I’ve been bringing critique and concern to the charismatic movement for decades,” even though the only person he’s ever named as problematic is Todd Bentley, having a pathological inability to name names. Brown routinely reassures critics of kooky charismatics that this or that person is legitimate and is being misrepresented because he’s “spoken to them privately” and gained gnostic knowledge about how much they in fact, love the Lord as if that helps anyone without access which only hears and sees publicly.
Unfortunately, Osman did not get a chance to ask him, “Why wouldn’t you have the same guests he has on his show? Why do you ‘disagree’ with some of the guests he has on? Are you suggesting that the guests he has on are hucksters and charlatans, but Sid is not? What does it say about Roth that he would promote and platform the guests that you yourself would never have on? Is Roth complicit in promoting guests and speakers and shilling their books and wares that are about as crazy as a rat in a coffee can?”
We’d love to know.
Bonus, remember when Brown issued a wager to complementarians, putting up his prophets of baal two most famed charismatic sorcerers prophets Chuck Pierce and Tracy Cook, who said that COVID-19 would begin diminishing by April 16, 2020. You can read about that here: 120 Days in, Dr. Michael Brown Silent on Failed, Wagered Charismatic COVID-19 Prophecies. As can be expected, he never followed up with his wager and as far as we know, never spoke about it again.
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Brown has zero credibility at this point. Zero.
Ye know nothing at all!
I know Brown continues to shelter and enable wolves who are preying on the saints. He is to be shunned.
Really? You’re a noodle. Brown is a heretic, go listen to episodes of forgoing foe the faith at piratechristian.com, type in Michael brown in the search on the fighting forvthe faith page. Chris really details Brown’s ACTUAL beliefs. Brown can’t denounce these wolves BC he believes what they believe. He has to keep lying to protect them, BC in doing so, he protects himself.