Rick Joyner and Morningstar Ministries
Prophet or Heretic?
Rick Joyner heads
Morningstar Ministries
Many supporters of today's controversial
Renewal and Revival movements consider him to be a
"prophet" and/or
"apostle".
Others, including theologians, apologists and cult watchers, rightly consider Joyner to by one the most unsound and dangerous teachers around. His error-filled,
unorthodox teachings include (but are not limited to)
Kingdom Now (or Dominion) theology,
extra-biblical revelation, and the denial of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Rick Joyner is neither a true prophet nor apostle. He teaches too much error to be either. He holds out (by his many books) an appearance of taking us to higher ground when in reality he robs us of a rich doctrinal heritage as well as the Bible. His dominionism is false and utopian and he confuses the resurrection and reign of Christ with the present state of the Church, thereby misleading Christians with false hope.
Joyner's claims of revelation knowledge produce a dulling effect in regard to a desire for the
Scriptures.
[...]
Joyner's books are a jumble of confusion. One has to wade through a lot of sludge to find a few nuggets of truth.
The
CRN Journal
says that Joyner is peddling a ''dark mysticism'' and they conclude:
''Joyner leaves us no middle way. Either we treat him as God's chosen super-prophet for the end-times, or we treat him as a man in the grip of evil deceit and seek to expose him as such''
Source:
The Higher Life of Rick Joyner: Chasing the Delusion of Power and Dominion,
The Quarterly Journal
, October-December 2000, page 14-15
Examples of Joyner's false prophecies abound. For example:
In the late 1990s, Joyner jumped onto the
Y2K bandwagon as he claimed that the Lord ''finally did begin to speak'' about the issue. According to Joyner, God supposedly revealed that, ''The most severe difficulties will come from the panic generated by the situation'' and '' The Lord told me to observe the problems that Y2K will cause in the natural world as a reflection of the problems we have in the body of Christ.''
Thus according to Joyner's revelation the Church must not have had problems since Y2K was a non-event.
Source:
The Higher Life of Rick Joyner: Chasing the Delusion of Power and Dominion,
The Quarterly Journal
, October-December 2000, page 6
Typical of the Joyner/Jones prophecies is this December 31, 1997
this one
(RealAudio). It includes the type of judgement prophecies that have become popular in today's so-called
renewal and revival movements (e.g. LA is to be leveled by earthquakes AND nuclear bombs; the Mississipi will be 35 miles wide...). Check the date, and the time-schedules hinted at. (Nine months: this movement is always talking about spiritual
pregnancy, things born in the spirit, etc. One of the
manifestations looks and sounds like someone giving
birth).
Note that at the time, Joyner was selling cabins at his East Coast ''Moravian community.'' (Morningstar Prophetic Bulletin, April, 1998)
Prophets? Apostles? Super-Apostles?
Like other leaders in the fore- and background of the controversial renewal/revival movements, Joyner rarely refers to himself as a prophet. However, these leaders refer to each other as apostles and prophets - and certainly do not discourage their followers from addressing them as such.
In his book "The Harvest," Joyner says:
What is about to come upon the earth is not just a revival, or another awakening; it is a veritable revolution. The vision was given in order to begin to awaken those who are destined to radically change the course, and even the very definition of Christianity. The dismantling of organizations and disbanding of some works will be a positive and exhilarating experience for the Lord's faithful servants. A great company of prophets, teachers, pastors and apostles will be raised up with the spirit of Phineas...
Self-serving Illusion
Though Joyner's doctrinal statement is a rather standard one, we will see that in many places his writings and books contradict and undermine it. One can only wonder if his doctrinal statement is merely window dressing and subterfuge; or if perhaps his allegiance to a movement which views itself as a superlative extension of the Church has moved him aways from a more stable and orthodox foundation. Joyner is like a child musician playing many sour notes with the good ones while telling us he is an accomplished prodigy. When we object, he will call attention to the few good notes. Joyner's trumpet is offkey and giving out an ''uncertain sound'' (
1 Corinthians 14:7-8
. Had he lived in the Old Testament era, he would have been stoned by now (
Deuteronomy 13:1-5
,
18:20-22
)
Joyner unabashedly promotes his most bizarre and unrealistic ideas this way:
''In the near future the church will not be looking back at the first century church with envy because of the great exploits of those days, but all will be saying that He certainly did save His best wine for last. The most glorious times in all of history have now come upon us. You who have dreamed of one day being able to talk with Peter, John and Paul are going to be surprised to find that they have all been waiting to talk to you! You have been chosen to see the harvest, the fruit of the seed that they were planting.''
Joyner is so bold as to state that nations will be overwhelmed by the newly appointed apostles and that ''Miracles which exceed even some of the most spectacular biblical marvels will cause whole nations to acknowledge Jesus ... The appearances of
angels will be so common that they will cease to be related as significant events. The Lord himself will appear to councils of apostles and elders to give them directives.''
[...]
Joyner has two major obsessions: ''Prophetic Restoration'' and ''Apostolic Restoration.'' He explains these as follows:
''A new wave of ministries is about to be released with extraordinary prophetic gifts. Others with revelatory gifting who were sidetracked because of controversy, or other problems, are about to get back on the fast track ... The apostolic ministry that opened the church age will be raised up at the end to complete it. The Lord is restoring the apostolic authority of the church and soon this will become a major emphasis. There will be almost a general openness to this as men of true apostolic authority, with a true apostolic lifestyle, take their place in leadership.''
Glaringly absent from Joyner's agenda is any biblical warrant for his words. There is no Scripture offered as proof for this self-serving illusion. Ephesians is clear that the Church is built on ''the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets.'' (Ephesians 2:19 ). Why would God have to lay the foundation all over again? The Church, since the time of Paul, is described as ''God's building. '' (1 Corinthians 3:91-10 ). A building, especially God's Church, is not in need of another foundation. No wonder Joyner gives not Scripture for his grandiose imaginings.
Source:
The Higher Life of Rick Joyner: Chasing the Delusion of Power and Dominion,
The Quarterly Journal
, October-December 2000, page 7
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/j08.html
