Steve Hill
Hear the warning from Jonathan Edwards from the danger of going outside of God's complete and revealed word:
"That it is God's manner in these days, to guide his saints, at least some that are more eminent, by inspiration, or by immediate revelation. They suppose he makes known to them what shall come to pass hereafter, or what it is his will that they should do, by impressions made upon their minds, either with or without texts of Scripture: whereby something is made known to them that is not taught in the Scripture. By such a notion the devil has a great door opened for him, and if once this opinion should come to be fully yielded to, and established in the church of God, Satan would have an opportunity thereby to set himself as the guide and oracle of God's people..." Thoughts on the Revival, Works IV page 404.
George Whitefield has this to say about seeking signs and experiences:
"I think it is tempting God to require such signs...I think it will encourage the French Prophets, take people from the written word, and make them depend on visions, convulsions, etc., more than the promises and precepts of the gospel," PFO Quarterly Journal, July-September 2002, page 1.
Steve Hill:
"You want God in your church? You want revival? I want to tell you friend, I know a little bit about revival. Let me tell you something, when revival hits your church all hell breaks loose..."
(Steve Hill, "Paise The Lord," TBN August 11, 2004)
"...Then you got the critics of revival, man, I want to tell, let me tell you something. At home, do you think the great move of God that is coming to this nation, do you think that America is suddenly going to stand up, get away from their couch and start going [Steve starts humming the song "Just As I Am," the alter call song at the Billy Graham Crusades] 'just as I am with,' It ain't going to happen like that friend! It's going to be a signs and wonders revival! People are going to be touched by the power of God, people watching TBN, watching this broadcast are going to be hit by the power of God when revival moves. If you are a godly expector you will let God move in any way that he wants, man!"
(Steve Hill, "Paise The Lord," TBN August 11, 2004)
Note: It seemed that Steve was mocking the alter call of an evangelist and saying that people need signs and wonders instead of preaching to believe.
"But we're talking about operating in the miraculous and I believe that everyone of us, and how many call ourselves christians? Raise your hand if you call yourself, those of you at home if you call yourself a christian, if you call yourself a believer your supposed to be operating in the miraculous! You're not supposed to always dial somebody up to have them come over to your house and lay hands on your sick child. The bible says, 'If you believe, these signs shall follow you.'"
(Steve Hill, "Paise The Lord," TBN August 11, 2004)
Note: Steve directly opposes scripture in this teaching. What should we do if we are sick? Here is what the bible says to do when we are sick:
"Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him," James 5:14-15.
"He [Steve Hill] went so far as to say he had physically witnessed God filling cavities in people's teeth. 'But something more has happened,' said Hill. 'If you don't believe there is more, then you've got a boring God.'"
"I wanna tell you, this pastor right here, I'm open to anything [Speaking of revival]."
(Steve Hill, "Paise The Lord," TBN August 11, 2004)
Note: This is a sad statement coming from a christian leader, a shpepherd should of all people be discerning and guard the flock under their charge.
"I've watched people say they're open, then God comes down in a way that, you know in a way that they didn't expect, okay? Like they fall out, they fall out under the power. They shake under the power."
(Steve Hill, "Paise The Lord," TBN August 11, 2004)
"I'll never forget being around a man of God, I don't know if it was Reinhard Bonnke, I don't know which one it was but I was around this man and he was praying for someone that was sick, and he said, 'Jesus, your reputation is at stake.' I turned to that man and went woooo, putting God on the spot. He was saying, he was saying, 'Jesus, it says in your word that your going to heal. Now your reputation is at stake.' And that man was seeing miracles right and left."
(Steve Hill, "Paise The Lord," TBN August 11, 2004)
"When I saw what God did in India through your ministry [Benny Hinn] and how God is opening up doors for you that He is not opening for anybody else. I have such a burden for this ministry (?) and I'm looking at this, I'm going, Jesus, this could be the begining of the greatest move of God this world has ever seen! When you see the crowds in India. And shared, I shared two things the Lord has showed me. I really feel this is important for everyone to understand. I asked Jesus, because your just on my heart constantly. And I asked Him, 'Lord, what is it, what is it that's causing open doors?' And the Lord spoke to me about two things...The second is because you are operating, you are willing to be used of God to operate in the miraculous. You are a risk taker! You step out and will do things in the supernatural! [Benny Hinn: And I love it!] Yeah! You can tell that you love it! And God loves it more than you love it! [Benny Hinn: Absolutely!]...America, the world needs to be hit by the power of God! The greatest, the greatest man, the one who wrote most of the New Testament. He spent some time on the ground! In Acts chapter 9 God touched him. And Saul of Tarsus, if this was a tract [picking up a book], you could have handed Saul of Tarsus a tract ok, and He would have sent you to prison. But, instead the Lord said, 'I think I'll just touch him!' Saul goes down under the power. And what that was, was Jesus was looking as Saul, He said, 'Would you marry me? I love you! I love you Saul. I love you.' And that's what's happening at your crusades. People are getting right with God because the power is coming down. And that's the two reasons, why um, there is an arrow, there is an arrow and you are at the tip of that arrow flying through the air spiritually."
(Steve Hill, Speaking to Benny Hinn, This is Your Day, July 2, 2004)
From this one miraculous and unique conversion should we build a doctrine that God wants to do this with everybody? Should we take a narrative portion of Scripture and make a didactic teaching from it?
In the pastoral epistles (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus) what is the main focus? The main focus is the sufficiency of Scripture, church order, correct doctrine, and warning against false teachers. Do they mention a show of miracles needed to get people right with God?
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works," 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
Let's go to Acts chapter 8:26-40. This is right before Saul's conversion in Acts chapter 9. There is an Ethiopian eunuch reading from the book of Isaiah chapter 53. This eunuch did not understand what he was reading, so what did God do? Did he put him on the ground? No, God sent Peter to explain what the passage meant, he expounded on the Bible. He preached the word!
"Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?" Acts 8:35-36.
What did Jesus say about people that sought after a sign? Should seeing the miraculous be our focus? If miracles were common wouldn't that lessen their effect on us? To satisfy this hunger would we start seeking more and more until that was our focus? Don't we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7)? To want a constant show of miracles is walking by sight.
" And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet," Luke 11:29.
What did Jesus do on the road to Emmaus with the two disciples? Did He do miracles and sings to convince them? What did He do? He preached the Word! Not a show of signs and wonders. Should not we follow the Lead of Jesus and preach the word?
"Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself," Luke 24:25-27.
What did the apostle Paul [Formerly Saul] have to say about this since he was the one "put down" by the power of God? What was the focus of his ministry? Signs and wonders? Or the preaching of the cross? See for yourself:
"For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God," 1 Corinthians 1:21-24.
I believe that miracles still happen today. I also believe that eveytime a sinner is converted is a miracle. Let us focus on those types of miracles and fulfill the Great Commission. God can do whatever He wants whenever He wants to, but to focus on signs and wonders when we have complete revelation from Him is wrongheaded.
Hear the warning from Jonathan Edwards from the danger of going outside of God's complete and revealed word:
"That it is God's manner in these days, to guide his saints, at least some that are more eminent, by inspiration, or by immediate revelation. They suppose he makes known to them what shall come to pass hereafter, or what it is his will that they should do, by impressions made upon their minds, either with or without texts of Scripture: whereby something is made known to them that is not taught in the Scripture. By such a notion the devil has a great door opened for him, and if once this opinion should come to be fully yielded to, and established in the church of God, Satan would have an opportunity thereby to set himself as the guide and oracle of God's people..." Thoughts on the Revival, Works IV page 404.
Shockingly, Steve Hill describes his salvation in terms of mantra. In his testimony, Hill claims that during a low-point in his life, he was visited by a Lutheran minister. Hill explains,
The Lutheran Vicar who led me to the Lord did not share with me the four spiritual laws (although I thank God for them). He did not share with me 'the Roman road to salvation' (and I thank God for those too). That man didn't even explain the cross to me. He just came into my bedroom and said, "Steve, just say the name Jesus." . . . . When I said, "I don't know how to pray," he replied, "That's fine. You don't have to pray. Just say the name, Jesus."
The minister never presented the Gospel, but merely told Hill, then an atheist, that he must repeatedly say the name "Jesus" in order to be delivered from his degenerate lifestyle. Hill complied,
The sound of that name again and again seemed to bring hope from nowhere. The confusion and fear faded slowly as I looked to the ceiling and began to utter, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!" A peace, a warmth such as I never felt before, flooded my body. This power rushed in like a river and took command of everything. I kept crying out His name, louder and louder: "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!" The more I said it, the greater was my deliverance.[24]
In short, atheist Hill uttered "Jesus" repeatedly and consequently was overcome by a spiritual power. What is the problem here? The experience Hill described is not Christian salvation for several reasons. First, Hill's testimony does not correspond with biblical testimony of how one must be saved. The Bible claims that one is saved by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. However, Hill was "saved" through the repetition of a name. Which "Jesus" was the Lutheran minister advocating? Certainly not the Jesus of the Bible because He is not conjured through the repetition of a word, but received through believing the Gospel. Second, by Hill's own admission, the Gospel was never presented. The Lutheran minister never presented evidence for the existence of God, nor did he even mention the work of Christ on the cross. The preacher only instructed Hill to speak Jesus' name, and this would bring about a changed life. There was nothing mentioned about putting faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In fact, when this took place, Hill did not even believe in God! Third, Hill's experience, the use of a mantra, is widespread throughout Hinduism, occultism, and the New Age. Yet, this is exactly how Hill describes his conversion! He repeated words and was overcome by power. Unless salvation can occur apart from believing the true Gospel and apart from the true Jesus Christ, Steve Hill cannot be saved, because, according to his own testimony, he was not presented with the Gospel nor was he presented with the facts about the person and work of Jesus Christ.
(Jeff Spencer, "An Examination And Evaluation Of The Brownsville Revival")
"Did you know, friend, there are people that talk about the revival and sway people away from the revival that are going to stand on judgment day-they're going to stand on judgment day for their blindness. The blind leading the blind! There are people that want to get saved at the Brownsville Revival. They wanted to get saved tonight! But before they got out the door, some blind guide got ahold of them and said, "You don't need to go over there; God can touch you right here."
(Steve Hill, White Cane Religion, video)
"Offerings from the Friday night revival services are given directly to evangelist Stephen Hill. According to tax records secured by the newspaper, the Friday weekly evening offering averaged in excess of $20,000, and in 1996 (the first full year of the revival) these donations gave Hill’s ministry, “Together in the Harvest,” nearly $1 million. Some pastors do not receive $20,000 a year, let alone $20,000 a week! A representative for the church estimated that the average collection during each of the week’s other three services is $12,500 nightly."
"Evangelist Hill’s ministry has also flourished since the revival’s inception. “Together in the Harvest” reported an increase in its land assets from no property in 1994 to over a half million dollars’ worth two years later. In 1996, it bought 40 acres of land in Lillian, Ala., and, according to the newspaper’s account, has subsequently paid to “refurbish a house for Hill and his family, remodel an existing barn into living quarters and build a distribution center, duplex house and an office building” on the property just across the Florida state line. The cost of the Alabama parcel was listed at $887,931."
"Hill even pretends to have God speaking: “Let them know My warm season of grace and mercy will soon turn to a chilling winter of judgment and wrath. ... The warm days of My wooing will be exchanged for the fiery days of My vengeance,” he wrote in his funds appeal letter. To encourage the need for donations and their urgency, his accompanying newsletter said that the cost of saving souls was mounting. Evidently, so is property and its upkeep in Alabama."
"Did you know, friend, there are people that talk about the revival and sway people away from the revival that are going to stand on judgment day-they're going to stand on judgment day for their blindness. The blind leading the blind! There are people that want to get saved at the Brownsville Revival. They wanted to get saved tonight! But before they got out the door, some blind guide got ahold of them and said, "You don't need to go over there; God can touch you right here."
(Steve Hill, White Cane Religion, video)
"When you ridicule those whose bodies are twitching or shaking under the influence of God's glory, beware! Have you forgotten that God's Word and the annals of Church history are filled with the supernatural dealings of our supernatural God?"
(Stephen Hill, The God Mockers, chapter 1, 1997)
"The second mark of a God mocker is a fear of confrontation and change. They are so stuck in religious tradition that they are closed to new revelation. The pastor who mocked God as he left the Brownsville Revival was steeped in religious legalism. He was in bondage and totally closed to the moving of the Holy Ghost. How anyone can come into a revival meeting in Brownsville and fail to feel Jesus is beyond me! I can't imagine it."
(Stephen Hill, The God Mockers, chapter 1, 1997)
"Then these men sat through my message on "Mistaken Identity," which is based on the Lord's rebuke of those who claim to have done many great things in His name thinking they were right when they were dead wrong. They sat through all of that untouched and unmoved ..."
(Stephen Hill, The God Mockers, chapter 1, 1997)
"One man in particular experienced such unusual convulsions on the platform in Pensacola that he became the center of attention. When Steve Hill (the evangelist credited by Kilpatrick as a primary catalyst for the Pensacola Outpouring) realized that he was losing his audience, he turned to the man and said:
Now some of you are watching this young man up here. I want to tell you exactly what he is doing, and then I want you to turn your eyes from him. He’s interceding for your soul. Some of you are on the verge — it’s like we’ve got you with a thread and you’re hanging over hell. It’s intercession in the deepest form right here. It’s moanings and groanings, words that can’t be uttered. God’s put it on him. You can’t tell me God doesn’t love you, friend. You can’t tell me God doesn’t love you when He will stricken[sic] another young man who loves God with all his heart, cause him to fall to the ground and experience the moanings and groanings and the birth pains. He’s giving birth to you, friend. He’s giving spiritual birth to you. He’s dying for you right now. He’s dying that you might have life.
Pensacola promoters claim that "in less than two years Evangelist Steve Hill has won hundreds of thousands to Christ." Hill identifies two out of the "hundreds of thousands" as alleged drug dealers. As reported on the Brownsville web site, "Police officers had arrested three men in the Brownsville area for suspected drug dealing. For some reason, the police officers brought these men to one of our revival services instead of jail. Two of the three men responded to the altar call and were saved."
Not only does Hill assert that police officers have brought suspected drug dealers to the revival instead of to jail, but also he claims that congressmen are weeping under the power of God in Pensacola. Hill states,
We’re having politicians come in here now. Congressmen. I’m talking about Washington DCers are coming into this place now. It’s getting serious. Would you say that with me? It’s getting serious. When it gets to Washington, it’s getting serious. One of the congressmen that was with us from up north, his statement was this — I believe he made it to Charlie, or somebody — He said, "I’m bringing back 12." So we proclaim that in a very short while our congress, our senate is ablaze with the power of the gospel, that they’re on fire! That they’re on fire with the power of the gospel, that their lives are changed and transformed. Those of you that have that kind of doubt, would you open your eyes and watch what’s happening? You still can’t see it. We’re telling you, we’ve already had them here. The Congressmen are here. They’re weeping under the power of God. They’re already here. We’re not dreaming. They’ve already been here."
"Let’s take a closer look at a small sampling of Pensacola fabrications masquerading as facts.
Fabrication: "Police officers had arrested three men in the Brownsville area for suspected drug dealing. For some reason, the police officers brought these men to one of our revival services instead of jail. Two of the three men responded to the altar call and were saved."
Fact: While salvation statistics vary wildly from source to source,8 the men referred to above are two of the "hundreds of thousands" who were supposedly saved as a result of the "Pensacola Outpouring." However, the Pensacola Sheriff’s Department has stated unequivocally that this did not happen and, moreover, that it could not happen. When Pensacola promoters were confronted with this fabrication, they promised to remove it from their web site. Sadly, however, they continue to circulate this fabrication as a testimony to the authenticity of the "Pensacola Outpouring."
Fabrication: "We’re having politicians come in here now. Congressmen....So we proclaim that in a very short while our congress, our senate is ablaze with the power of the gospel...that their lives are changed and transformed....We’ve already had them here....They’re weeping under the power of God."
Fact: Despite Steve Hill’s dogmatic declaration that congressmen are in Pensacola "weeping under the power of God," he has not provided a shred of evidence to support his claim. His proclamation that congressmen will be changed and the Senate ablaze with the power of the gospel is at best an unrealized fantasy.
Fabrication: "Crime in the city of Pensacola had dropped off significantly....The driving force behind the declining crime rate [is] the revival."
Fact: According to the Pensacola Police Department, this widely circulated story has no basis in reality. As the police pointed out, total crimes have, in fact, risen from 83,849 in 1995 to 85,581 in 1996 (a total increase of 1,732 crimes). "Forcible sex" was up from 52 to 69; "assault" was up from 623 to 656; "drug possession" was up from 647 to 660. As Assistant Chief Jerry Potts reported, "Contrary to a widely circulating rumor, crime rates in Pensacola have not decreased dramatically." By way of contrast, as reported in the Orange County Register, 13 March 1997, the crime rate in Orange County, California (home of the Christian Research Institute) has dropped at least 23 percent."
"As Pensacola promoters endeavor to spread their movement worldwide, they dogmatically declare that bizarre manifestations are not the focus of this revival. The facts say otherwise.
One of the videos used by Pensacola promoters is entitled "Honey, Where Are We From?" It features the testimony of a pastor and his wife who become so spiritually inebriated that they can’t remember where they are from. First, the wife becomes incoherent, and her husband intervenes to explain what she is attempting to say. Then he, too, becomes disoriented and is unable to think or speak rationally.
The sensational physical manifestations of Alison and Elizabeth Ward are also strategically utilized to arouse people’s expectations for similar experiences. The sisters have been brought up before the entire congregation to describe and display their mysterious experiences, thus giving the people a sense that they are having a close encounter with the divine. Peer pressure is brought to bear as Elizabeth tells prospects, "After standing there so long watching those people being touched by God, I guess my spirit got hungry." When she finally threw caution to the wind, she said, "The shaking went on for about three days....I couldn’t eat and I was shaking in my sleep. My family had to feed me through a straw. My whole body was convulsing for three days." Her sister, Alison, says she shakes in the sanctuary because "it feels good."
Baptisms at Brownsville are used as yet another promotional gimmick. In a widely used promotional video some of the baptized jerk so violently that baptizers can no longer control their behavior. In one clip the subject shakes so severely that someone is actually kicked in the face. Physical danger is part and parcel of the process. Pensacola leaders point out that "the power of God falls during the Friday night water baptisms, and sometimes even the workers are overcome by the Spirit and have to be carried out of the water." Ironically, a word of caution has come from the Brownsville pulpit about not sitting too close to other people during the time of ministry out of concern that someone under the influence of a manifestation might injure nearby worshipers.
Thousands who have viewed the videos and subsequently experienced the manifestations testify to radically changed lives. Nevertheless, my 11-year-old son David and I recently attended a Christian convention during which the manifestations of Pensacola were promoted. He rode on an elevator with a couple of ladies who were still glowing from their spiritually intoxicating experience. They were delirious over the life-transforming work that the manifestations had produced in them. Suddenly, one of the ladies noticed my son’s name tag. Instantly she began shrieking, "I know who you are. You’re the son of the Bible Answer Man. You are a cursed child."
My son David is not the only child who has tasted the fruit of Pensacola. Several children from a youth group traveled to Pensacola and experienced such severe twitching that when they returned to their classrooms, they were unable to do their schoolwork. After these children were dismissed from school, their pastor encouraged them to view their expulsion as persecution for the sake of Christ."
"John Wesley correctly stated, "It is a fundamental principle that to renounce reason is to renounce religion, that religion and reason go hand in hand; all irrational religion is false religion." While he recognized physical manifestations as a natural response to an encounter with the gospel, he also attributed enthusiasms such as falling, laughing, and jumping to the "simplicity" of people and to the ploys of Satan. Wesley recounted the story of a meeting that took place in 1773. A hymn was sung over and over some 30 or 40 times, resulting in bodily agitations on the part of some of the people present. In response to this phenomenon, he wrote, "Satan serves himself of their simplicity, in order...to bring a discredit on the work of God."
Years earlier, in 1740, an epidemic of laughter had broken out during a gathering in Bristol. Wesley said, "I was 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." A short time later the "spirit of laughter" returned. One lady present was "so violently and variously torn of the evil one" that "she laughed till almost strangled; then broke out into cussing and blaspheming; then stamped and struggled with incredible strength, so that four or five could scarcely hold her."
