One Saturday night as Kilpatrick entered the church to be alone and pray, he said he walked into something he had never felt before. "As I walked in, I don't know what I walked into. I think I walked into the edge, the front cutting edge of the glory of God that God was about to send to Brownsville on Father's Day," he said. "But when I walked into it... it just took my breath. I had chill bumps instantly that hurt... I mean hair on my arms and legs was standing out, you know, and they hurt!" What happened next, on Father's Day 1995, comes straight from the mouth of Brownsville Assembly of God Pastor John Kilpatrick in a presentation at the Garywood Assembly of God in Hueytown, Alabama on January 20, 1997.

Kilpatrick's mother died five weeks before the "revival" broke out, so he asked evangelist Steve Hill to speak at Brownsville on Father's Day. Hill agreed and opened up the altar for prayer that morning. Over 1000 people came forward to pray that morning, and Kilpatrick stood on the platform praying with Hill and another manwhen he suddenly heard a sound like a "rushing mighty wind" sweep over his right shoulder. As Kilpatrick looked over his shoulder, he said his ankles slipped, his knees bowed out, and a sudden "river of the glory of God" moved between his legs. "It felt like a telephone pole," he said. "An endless telephone pole was coming through my legs and it was coming in the church." With some help from another man on the platform, Kilpatrick stepped back and listened to the sound of the "rushing mighty wind" and what he described as the "river of the glory of God" as it swept into the church. He suddenly jumped to the pulpit and screamed, "My God, church, get in! This is it! This is what we've been praying for! Get in!"

The revival had begun. The supernatural presence in the church was, according to Kilpatrick, the glory of God manifesting itself to the congregation. Kilpatrick said it looked as though someone pulled a pin on a grenade and threw it into the audience after he commanded the congregation to jump into the "river of the glory of God." He said, "I'm drunk, my legs is wobbly, I can barely stand up... and I saw bodies going every which way ... just flying, going down like a hurricane coming through and pulling trees down." Kilpatrick continued, "They were just going down, flopping on benches, falling across the aisles, nobody even touched them." Before he knew it, Kilpatrick said he felt a heaviness come upon him and he fell to the floor, paralyzed, at 12:30 that afternoon. He did not get up until 4:00 that evening. He described the sensation that enveloped him before falling to the floor. "I felt like I weighed 10,000 pounds," he said, "but it wasn't a bad heavy. It felt wonderful." Following the sensation of heaviness, Kilpatrick felt a calm, peacefulness come over him and then felt some form of fluid flow from his body. He said, "It felt like fluid was dripping out of the joints in my bones." In fact, he jokingly told how he was nervous, wondering what the audience would think if they looked on the platform and saw him lying in a pool of fluid. This fluid, he said, was all the stress that was built up in him from years of the ministry. He said God drained all the stress out of him on the floor that day. Later that day at the evening service when Kilpatrick got up to introduce the speaker, he could not move. He said he could not move his head, his tongue, or any part of his body. He sat in his chair on the platform in a comatose state until two or three o'clock the next morning. This, Kilpatrick claimed, was the glory of God manifesting itself to Brownsville.

For three weeks following the beginning of the revival, Kilpatrick said he and his wife were constantly "drunk in the spirit" while they were inside their own house. "I was so drunk and Brenda was so drunk, she'd hit the recliner and there she'd be for hours, I mean just gone, under the power of God, even at home," he said. Another time, when Kilpatrick laid down to go to sleep, his shoulders just began to "pop around and shake." When his wife asked him what was happening, he said, "I don't know, but I believe it was God." Kilpatrick claimed he was not even able to go to work for three weeks after the revival broke out, because as he would try to walk down the hallway to get into his car to go to work, "this shoulder would hit that side of the wall and that shoulder would hit this side of the wall ... and I couldn't walk. I couldn't even keep my equilibrium. And by the time I'd get to church that night I'd either be on the floor, on the chair or something, and God just moved in."

The Brownsville congregation eventually got used to the "river of the Lord" in the church. "You could feel the current, this invisible current, just like a river. Some nights it will come along the wall, some nights it may come down this aisle," Kilpatrick said. "Anywhere people were standing in the way of that river, you could just look at them and they'd go down in the Spirit. You could feel the literal current of that river." On a few occasions, the current described by Kilpatrick swept the whole congregation forward. He recalled one time when the current became extremely deep. "It felt like an undertow," he said. "It was like somebody grabbed me by the back of my belt and started pulling me backwards ... I could not believe the power of that undertow of that river." He said one night the entire congregation began physically moving with him. They could not do anything to stop it. "One night it was so powerful going across the back of the church, that I actually jumped up, wrapped my legs around the beam and stopped in midair and watched the crowd go by me. That's the truth!" said Kilpatrick. This, again, was attributed to the moving of the Spirit of God.

Another characteristic of this revival is what Kilpatrick describes as a "thick atmosphere" in the Brownsville Assembly of God church. "There's times that you look in there and it's foggy," he said. "There's a lot of times you can't see real good in there it's so thick with the glory of God ... there is a blue haze that comes in that place a lot of times, just a blue haze of the glory of the Lord."

Kilpatrick is not one to keep quiet about the "manifestations of the Spirit" that have occurred at Brownsville. Such manifestations include uncontrolled shaking and trembling by sobbing members of the audience, individuals collapsing and remaining unconscious for hours at a time, blue haziness in the church building, apparitions of angels dancing in circles at the top of the auditorium, strong invisible currents pulling the entire congregation toward the front of the auditorium and bodies falling down in every direction. One time, Kilpatrick said God actually picked him up and threw him sideways through the air "at least ten or twelve feet" across the platform, knocking his shoes off his feet. This episode was even captured on video.

Kilpatrick mentioned that when revival broke out, he was especially amazed and shocked by three things that he saw that he had never experienced before. First, he said that the children in the auditorium who usually could not sit still during the service were hit by the power of God. "They'd go out in the spirit," he said. "Their eyes rolled back in their head, and they'd not move a muscle for four hours." Kilpatrick continued, "When they'd get up, they were shaking and trembling under the power of God and squalling in a love with Jesus." Kilpatrick admitted that "there was such pandemonium going on, that people didn't even know where their kids were. They were on the floor, out. There's kids, moms and dads, on the floor." He took particular note of one three-year-old girl who stood completely still, staring at the ceiling for thirty minutes while she was squalling and soaked with tears. Her mother finally made her way over to the girl and asked what was wrong. The girl responded by saying, "Mommy, don't you see them? The angels, in the top of the church, they're holding hands in a circle."

It is extremely revealing that Kilpatrick admitted that there was pandemonium in the church at Brownsville. In fact, he actually condoned such activity. "God sent pandemonium in the church," he said. "I think it's time that we have grand pandemonium in the Baptists, in the Lutheran, the Episcopal, the Assembly of God [churches]. God send pandemonium!" Kilpatrick exclaimed. It is interesting to note that the word "pandemonium" was coined by John Milton in 1667 in his epic Paradise Lost. "Pandae-monuim" was the name of the capital of Hell, the "high capital of Satan and his peers." The word literally means "place of all the demons." Today, the word is generally defined as "any place of wild disorder, noise or confusion." Is that what was happening at Brownsville? Yes it was. Is that what God condones in his church? Absolutely not. The second thing that amazed Kilpatrick was the large quantity of unsaved, rebellious youth attending the church service. He described sexually active, drug addicted, wild, scant-ily clad teenagers who would fall to the floor, shaking under the "power of the Holy Ghost." He said he became aware that an individual did not have to be saved in order to be a part of the "manifestations" of the Holy Spirit. He mentioned that many of the people in the audience who were experiencing the supernatural manifestations were not even Christians. He used the Lord's revelation to the apostle Paul on his way to Damascus to support his claim that one does not have to be saved to experience these manifestations.

The third thing that surprised Kilpatrick was the fact that so many unsaved sinners had flocked to the revival meeting even though it had never been advertised. He said this is typical, though, because "when revival breaks out, the Christians run from it and the sinners run to it." Kilpatrick describes the Christians who question this revival as those who are running from God and closed-minded to the work of the Lord. Kilpatrick said, "Some old, dead, mossy-back Christians that's been running the preacher for the last thirty years; the old, wet blankets that's been in our churches that don't want nothing going on, that want a home-and-gardens religion, everything sweet, everything nice, everything tidy, everything explainable, when God breaks out, they run from it, but the sinners hears that God's in the house, they run to it." This, of course, completely contradicts the definition of "revival" in the first place, for "revival" is when a believer gets his back-slidden heart right with God. "Revival" is not when an unsaved, worldly individual attends a religious service and experiences supernatural manifestations.

This outpouring of the Holy Spirit is not solely reserved for charismatic or Pentecostal believers. This revival, like so many other leading religious movements today, is an effort to unite believers and reach beyond all denomina-tional barriers. Notice Kilpatrick's words: "When the tide of the Spirit comes in, it lifts all denominations that's going after God. All denominations ... I love Baptist people. I love Methodists and Presbyterians and Lutherans and Episcopals and Catholic people. I love them. I have never had such a love in my heart for all denominations. I've seen all denominations jump in this river and swim and play like children. I really have. It don't make no difference who you are or what your name tag is or what your flavor is ... What this is is the sovereign move of God's Spirit." He said people from all denominations are at tending church every Sunday and com ing away shaking their heads looking for something more, and this "move of God" at Brownsville is what they need.

Kilpatrick said that God is now here to show them something more. "There was signs and wonders that happened in the early church," he said, "and I want to tell you, friend, you better get used to signs and wonders taking place in the church again." While it is true that thousands of people are empty inside and looking to "religion'' to fill their void, Kilpatrick said that the preaching in the church is what is turning people away, not the attitude of their hearts. "Let me tell you something else about this revival," Kilpatrick said. "This move of God is not about preaching." He said that while he and evangelist Steve Hill do preach sermons that are simple and easy to understand, the signs and miracles are what actually turn people to Christ, not the Word of God. "We've heard so many sermons and so much of the Word of God that we've grown fat," he said, "but there's been no power and no anointing and no miracles. So, I just want to tell you, that's why tonight I don't feel bad about not coming up here and preaching a great sermon."

What about those who are skeptical of this supposed revival? Kilpatrick said that those who question this out-pouring of the spirit are just accustomed to the status quo and are afraid of anything "new" that comes along. He explains: "See, we've become so used to the abnormal that now that the normal has come it seems abnormal." These strange signs, wonders and manifestations are the norm, according to Kilpatrick. "We have gotten so used to our churches being dead and dry, cold, lukewarm, no power, no anointing, no glory, that now, since the glory of God has moved into the church, now we think it's abnormal and there's board members on pastors' cases, there's church members on pastors' cases saying, 'We don't want this shaking, we don't want this falling out in the spirit .... we don't like that, we don't want no part of that. "'

Some biblical answers are definitely in order. It is obvious that Kilpatrick and the proponents of this "Pensacola Outpouring" are attributing this supernatural activity to the Lord Jesus Christ, but what is their basis for this? Where, in God's Holy Word, do they base their ideas that this is of God? Where does the Lord say that He will cause human bodies, saved or unsaved, to shake uncontrollably, collapse and remain unconscious for hours, or feel invisible currents pulling them in every direction?

Kilpatrick himself seems unsure at times what these supernatural powers are, but he concludes that they must be the "glory of the Lord." He oftentimes describes a phenomenon that occurred either to him personally or to the entire congregation and prefaces it by saying, "I don't know what it was." He then continues by either saying, "I believe it was God," or "I think it was the glory of God." He has no basisfor this assumption, but, for some reason, he concludes that these manifestations and feelings are of God even though they can be found nowhere in God's written Word.

This revival and these manifestations are not of God. Why? First, because there is no biblical basis for any of this chaos anywhere in God's Word. These supernatural manifestations are not supported by God's Word. They are found nowhere in the Bible. In fact, these manifestations are contradicted by Scripture and represent a carbon manifestations as described by Kilpatrick have occurred and have been documented in rituals and experiences of those involved in pagan religions such as witchcraft, satanism, spiritism, the new age movement, voodoo religions and many other satanic cultic religions. To accept the idea that the manifestations in Brownsville are of God when there is no biblical basis for this claim would logically have to mean that the same manifestations as found in the aforementioned "religions" are also of God. Just because something extraordinary or supernatural occurs does not mean it is of God.

Satan and demons do have power, and they are ready to demonstrate this power to anyone who is willing to open his mind up to it. These same supernatural signs and manifestations have been occurring in heathen religions for centuries. For example, at the Lausanne II Evangelical Conference in Manila in 1989, John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard Movement, predicted that some radical changes, some new manifestations of signs and wonders would occur at the end of the century. At that conference, Wimber and several other charismatics testified of supposed miraculous signs, wonders and healings that had occurred in the name of Christ. They claimed these manifestations caused many to believe on the name of Christ. During one press conference, a member of the press panel from India refuted the claim that these miracles and signs must be of God. He said that the same charismatic-styled tongues, healings, miracles, signs and wonders are also found among the heathen religions of his native India.

The June 17, 1996, issue of Christianity Today contained an article entitled, "Voodou Hold Seems Unshak-able." This article cites Leslie Demangles, author of Faces of the Gods: Voodoo and Roman Catholicism in Voodoo Haiti," as implying that "Haitian Protestants have difficulty helping some new Christians see the difference between possession by the Holy Spirit and possession by a voodoo spirit." He said, "Some see the Pentecostal baptism of the Spirit [as] very. similar to possession in voodoo." It is obvious that the spirit at Brownsville is the same spirit that manifests itself to followers of voodoo and pagan religions.

Notice some examples of demonic activity in the Bible and how they closely resemble what is happening today at Brownsville. First, in Job chapter four, God's Word says that Eliphaz was reproving Job and attempting to explain to him why he was suffering. Eliphaz told Job that one night something happened to him which sounds extremely similar to what Kilpatrick experienced when he walked into the church one evening before the revival began. In Job 4:13-16, Eliphaz said, "In thoughts from the visions of the night ... Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof .... " This happened to Kilpatrick! At the end of the book of Job, God made it clear that the words given to Job by Eliphaz were not the words of God (Job 42:7). They were the words of a false spirit.

Consider the account of the man possessed with demons in Luke 8:2636. The people who lived in the country of the Gadarenes knew of this demon-possessed man who was naked and who lived in the tombs. This man was crazy. He was definitely not in his right mind before Jesus Christ cast the devils out of him. However, when Christ cast out the demons, the townspeople noticed that he was "sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind." This man was no longer an uncontrolled lunatic, but he was free from the demons and was quietly, reverently sitting at the feet of Jesus in his right mind. The chaotic behavior of those at Brownsville seems to more closely resemble the man's wild, irrational, de-mon-possessed behavior prior to his relief from the demons rather than the calm, reverent behavior characteristic of the man after Christ delivered him from the demons.

Many of those who embrace the Pensacola revival argue that because this is done in the name of Jesus and because so many individuals are supposedly being saved, it must be of God. One only has to recall the account of the young demon-possessed soothsayer (fortune-teller) in Acts 16 to know that just because something is good or true does not mean it must be of God. This young girl followed Paul and Silas around the streets of Philippi shouting, "These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation." Was this statement true? Absolutely, but this was a false spirit uttering these words through the young woman. The people of this city undoubtedly identified her demonic occupation with the ministry of the apostle Paul. In other words, the truth was being identified with error. This girl spoke sound words, but she was actually speaking for the devil. Did Paul tolerate this false spirit since it was obviously proclaiming truth and drawing attention to himself? No, he cast the devil out of the woman and was thrown out of town by those who .previously made money from her occupation as a fortune-tel let. Today, in places like Brownsville, people are claiming to utter truth in the name of God and Christianity, but their actions contradict God's Word and demonstrate that they are only spreading dangerous, demonic error in the name of Christ.

Proponents of the Pensacola revival claim that thousands are becoming saved as a result of the revival. They claim that this "salvation experience" is grounds for universal acceptance by the church and use this argument to belittle any individual or organization that views the Brownsville phenomenon with skepticism or seeks to warn against it. While believers should praise the Lord when any individual truly comes to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, one cannot know the hearts of these individuals at Brownsville. Are they merely responding to the emotional hype of their surroundings when they go forward? Are they making decisions to merely change their way of life and repent for their sins without coming to a saving knowledge of Christ, or are they actually believing in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ with their hearts, realizing that they are sinners who can be cleansed only by the blood of the Lamb? Only Christ knows the hearts of those who go forward, but when "preaching" and doctrine are down- played at such meetings, and so much emphasis is placed on emotional hype and supernatural revelations and experiences, one must wonder if the true gospel is actually being preached and subsequently believed by those who step forward.

Christ specifically warned that many "false teachers" would deceive the unwary in the last days (Matt. 7:22, 23). The Bible warns that there are "false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works" (2 Cor. 11:13-15). The apostle Peter prophesied of the "false teachers" who would deceive many in the last days of the Church Age (2 Pet. 2:1-3), emphasizing the need for using the absolute, completed standard of God's "words" to determine what is truly of God and what is not (2 Pet. 3:1-3). Yes, apostles and prophets were in the early church prior to the completion of the canon of New Testament Scripture, but when "that which is perfect [or complete; the finished revelation of God to man] is come, then that which is in part [incomplete, partial understanding through the revelatory gifts given the early church] shall be done away" (1 Cot. 13:8-10). All that is passed off as the work or the leading of God must be carefully scrutinized according to the infallible, completed Word of God.

Just because a pastor or Christian leader says that a miracle, sign or wonder is of Christ does not mean that it is truly of Him. The signs and wonders that are prophesied in God's Word for these last days are directly linked to satanic power and deception (2 Thess. 2:7-10). The "lying wonders" are what will eventually cause all the world to worship the beast spoken of in Revelation 13:1-5, 14. The primary effort of Satan has always been to deceive individuals, and God's Word says that he will continue to do so until he is finally cast into the lake of fire. Satan wants to deceive the church. Believers must realize that any experience or teaching that does not conform to the Word of God is not of God. The Bible, not supposed miracles, signs and revelations determine what is truly of God.

Another reason these signs and supernatural manifestations could not be of God is because they are based on emotional hype rather than the preaching and teaching of God's Word. In Carlson's Washington Post article, he specifically said that a half hour of chanting, dancing, and singing "in the spirit" went by before a single word of preaching had even been uttered from the pulpit. This, in itself, is completely unbiblical. In 1 Timothy 4:13, Paul instructed Timothy to give attendance to "reading [the Word of God], to exhortation [the preaching of the Word of God], to doctrine [the teaching of the Word of God]." We are to attend to these in the church. Worship is to be centered around the Word of God. The revelatory gifts given by God did not occur as individuals hyped themselves up into an emotional frenzy waiting for something supernatural to happen.

The Pensacola revival cannot be of God because it directly contradicts the Bible with respect to the nature of God and His order for the church. 1 Corinthians 14:33 makes it clear that "God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints." Confusion and pandemonium are not of God, yet Kilpatrick readily admits that what is happening at Brownsville is confusion and pandemonium. The believer who yields himself to God and His Word will never be "put to confusion" (Psa. 71:1).

The challenge coming out of Pensacola is to "jump in," "let yourself go," "experience this previously unknown phenomenon." The exhortation of God, on the other hand, is "prove all things," "bring into captivity every thought to the obedience ,of Christ," "try the spirits whether they are of God." We must evaluate this revival in the light of His perfect and eternal Word. When we do this, we find many glaring inconsistencies. The chaos is a direct affront to the clear command for reverential order and sound doctrine.

Some have suggested that the test of this revival's authenticity should be the fruit it produces--changed lives, healed bodies and restored homes. It is wrong to apply this criteria. False spirits can certainly give temporary relief, but any course that rejects Bible truth will eventually prove disastrous to the one swept away. It is a dangerous thing to assume to do wonders in "the name of the Lord" when the body of Truth is violated. The sons of Sceva thought they could do this and they took a beating for it (Acts 19:13-16). Be careful about trifling with the unknown.

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