An up-and-coming Southern Baptist leader in the Missouri Baptist Convention sat down to do a video with two leaders in the International House of Prayer (IHOP) cult in Kansas City, Missouri. The three men, including the SBC pastor, discussed why fake miracles and ‘exaggerations’ in the charismatic movement are “worth it.”
Malachi O’Brien is the pastor of the Church at Pleasant Ridge in Harrisonville, Missouri in the Kansas City Area. This isn’t the first time the SBC pastor has affiliated himself with the Kansas City cult; the two have partnered for years. We wrote about O’Brien in the 2016 post, Is Ronnie Floyd Trying to Merge the SBC with IHOP? Floyd had used his presidency at the SBC to appoint O’Brien—even in spite of his partnering in every conceivable way with the charismatic, mind-melding, dangerous cult—the president of the influential denominational Committee on Committees.
O’Brien is a Southern Baptist’s Southern Baptist, and still influential in state denominational life. He was nominated as Second VP for the SBC in 2016. And then, he actually won, as you can see in the photos below.
That’s right, a dude who hangs out at IHOP with their mind-numbing, hallucinogenic, trance-inducing repetitive ‘worship’ mantras and creepy prayer labyrinths and fire tunnels all founded by a member of the Kansas City Prophets was 2nd VP of the SBC.
If you aren’t aware of why Kansas City IHOP is a cult read this expose’ in Rolling Stone Magazine, the Love and Death in the International House of Prayer. Virtually any anti-cult expert or professional de-brainwashing psychologist would explain that the environment and culture at IHOP fitst he definition of cult in every conceivable way. Every aspect of their “worship,” from the way the lights are dimmed to the repetitious music to the endless chanting are designed to program the brain for mindlessness.
Add to their cultic behavior their pro-Romanist ecumenism, embrace of any and almost every religion as compatible with Christianity, and their endless droning on about “prophecies” and “miracles” that are literally never provable, and IHOP ranks among the most dangerous churches in America, perhaps behind Bethel Church in Redding and slightly ahead of Hillsong.
In the video provided, Mike Bickle—who was a member of the Kansas City Prophets and a “General” in the New Apostolic Reformation, discusses the apostasy of several prominent ex-Christian celebrities. But it’s about halfway through the video that it gets really interesting.
At about the 6.51 mark, Bickle mentions that he is troubled “by how much hype is in the charismatic camps, meaning the exaggeration on the stage, the manipulation, the over-stating things…”
He then said, “I think a lot of stuff is fake. I don’t think it’s charlatan deceivers. I think it’s people who don’t want to be left out… They want to say, ‘I think I did a miracle, I think. Sort of, kind of…we don’t need to help the Lord out…”
Then, Bickle says, “I don’t buy a lot of testimonies. But there’s real ones and I’m not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Because there’s fake preachers that manipulate crowds and fake manifestations and fake healings doesn’t mean they’re all fake.”
“If you’re only looking at the fake, you’re going to miss a lot.”
The other IHOP leader said, “It’s worth sorting through some of the fake, so you can encounter the real and I think Mike’s life is a testimony to that…it is worth parsing through some of that which appears to be real but is not to get to the things that are real.”
Bickle then urged that we treat those who “exaggerate” their miraculous claims gently.
Bickle added, “Be patient with the people who are exaggerating. Is that the worst thing in the world?”
The Scripture, however, gives another warning.
20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or[f] who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18)
