James Robison
General Teachings/Activities
Robison is "officially" a Southern Baptist evangelist (but sounds more like a holy-roller Pentecostalist), who claims to have a "ministry of reconciliation" (translated "unconditional acceptance and love based on feelings rather than on truth"). Pictured to the right are James and Betty Robison. In 1982, he claimed to have been "exorcized" of demons, and as a result, began converting to the charismatic movement.
Since then, his annual conferences have featured hyper-Charismatics
such as John
Wimber, and he has preached in
Catholic
churches with David
Yonggi Cho. Robison's January 1991 conference featured
tongues-speaker Jamie Buckingham (now deceased), who had defended the
Trinity-rejecting United Pentecostal Church. Robison also spoke at the 1987
Catholic/Charismatic Congress in New Orleans, praising the pope and Roman
Catholics. (Reported in the 1/15/91,
Calvary Contender.)
- Speakers at Robison's 1/92 Dallas "Bible" Conference included
church
growth specialist and Schuller-promoter
Bill Hybels,
charismatic huckster Larry Lea, and former 12-year Dallas Seminary professor
Jack Deere*
(a key figure in John Wimber's healing/deliverance movement as of 1/92, but in
8/92 was working informally with Robison). Performing at the conference were
Glen Campbell and Wayne Watson. (Reported in the 12/15/91, Calvary
Contender.)
- Robison, as a fiery young Southern Baptist evangelist, warned of Rome's
false gospel and exposed Rome's blasphemies. Today he says the pope is the
finest example of morality in the world and claims that it is probable that
the Pope is a saved man. (Source: message at New Orleans '87, a charismatic
renewal conference.) Robison on Catholicism:
"I tell you what, all the critical Protestants standing around knocking Catholics, you'd better watch it! God'll run right by you, pick up the whole Catholic movement, and wrap them up in Jesus and just love them, and strip everything that is wrong there, and make them an expression to the whole earth. He may be doing it right now. I tell you what, one of the finest moral representatives of morality in this earth right now is the pope. People who know him really believe he is a born-again man." (Reported in the 2/10/92, Christian News).
- As an example of the extent to which men like
James Robison will go in the pursuit of furthering the social gospel, Robison
held a position with
Sun Myung Moon's
now defunct Coalition for Religious Freedom (CRF). (Moon is the founder of the
Unification
Church, and the self-proclaimed Messiah to the world.) Other so-called
evangelicals that served with Robison at CRF as executive committee and/or
advisory board members were
Tim LaHaye (CRF's
paid chairman!),
Don Wildmon
(founder and president of the social activist American Family Association),
Paul Crouch (TBN Network's infamous founder), Marlin Maddoux (Point Of View
nationwide radio talk show host), Paul Crouch (TBN Network's infamous
founder), Hal
Lindsey, Jimmy Swaggart, and
D. James
Kennedy (author and pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft.
Lauderdale, Florida) -- an agenda of social activism certainly makes for
strange ecumenical bedfellows. (Reported in the November 1990,
Omega-Letter.)
- In the November/December 1986 issue of Day of Restoration,
James Robison wrote that the miracle of Christmas is "that Christ is formed in
you;" that "our actual purpose in this world: receiving and expressing the
fullness of the life of Jesus." He goes on to say that "God wants us to see
Jesus as merely the big brother in a huge family of brothers and sisters
like Him." Further, he states that II Corinthians 5:17 means that we "have the
divine nature, the eternal life of God." Still Christ must be "formed in you."
He goes on to say that Jesus was a pattern; that "Jesus Himself pioneered the
process He is putting us through." He claims that "God reveals that Christ
had to be formed even in Jesus. ... That same Jesus also will be formed in you
-- in anyone who will receive the light of this truth." This is
blasphemy! This is another Jesus, another gospel! He has fallen away
from the Jesus of the Bible and embraces the Christ anointing of the New Age
religion and the "ongoing incarnation of Manifest Sons 'till we produce Christ
in the flesh." (Emphasis added.)
- Robison's calling himself a "Baptist" is quite deceptive -- his doctrines
are hyper-charismatic! As evidence of this, one only need listen to the
four-part tape series that Robison would routinely send to each new
"Restoration Partner" in the early-1990s (i.e., pledge contributor), which
clearly depicts his ministry as one that believes in the following false
doctrines:
(a) Charismatic demon warfare/deliverance (commands "death" to the growth on his daughter's lip). Believes that he has authority from God to cast-out demons, as do all Christians who really believe that they are "to do the ministry of Jesus ... You have total authority over demonic powers. You can cast them out."
(b) Dominionist/Reconstructionist view that "Israel" is now the "Church" (all the old covenants of God with Israel now belong to the Church).
(c) Claims to have periodically received unrestricted healing power -- "Everybody I prayed for during that period were instantly healed."
(d) Claims to speak directly with Jesus.
(e) Claims that the Holy Spirit "moves on" his Bible conferences to such a striking degree that even one man was "literally lifted off the ground."
(f) In his message on "Doing the Works of Jesus," Robison teaches that the ministry of Christ should be a pattern for his [Robison's] and his followers' own work; i.e., he wants to make Christ our example for healing. Robison interprets Matt. 4:23 and John 20:19-22 as "Jesus is sending us to do the same ministry He had ... What He came to do [including all the miracles and healings] in ministry, we are to do!" (cf. 2 Cor. 12:12; Heb. 2:3,4; Heb. 1:2) (For "six straight months" after learning he had this healing power from God, there was not one single person he prayed for that was not "instantly healed.") Robison states that he believes that he will see the day when he's preaching a funeral and the corpse will get out of the casket -- "after all, Jesus raised the dead, didn't he." (And if you don't believe as Robison does, it's because of your pride -- "God will not penetrate spiritual pride. Satan was hurled out of heaven because of it ... Proud folks don't get healed at anybody's meeting.")
(g) Gives credit to the following mystic healers as those exemplifying the works of Jesus in their ministries: John Wimber; Kathryn Kuhlman; R.W. Schambach; E.W. Kenyon; and Oral Roberts.
-
Promise Keepers
is the gigantic new (1991) "men's movement" among professing evangelical
Christians. Its roots are Catholic and charismatic to the core. PK's
contradictory stand on homosexuality; its promotion of secular psychology; its
unscriptural feminizing of men; its depiction of Jesus as a "phallic messiah"
tempted to perform homosexual acts; and its ecumenical and unbiblical
teachings should dissuade any true Christian from participating. Promise
Keepers is proving to be one of the most ungodly and misleading movements in
the annals of Christian history. Nevertheless, Robison is a
promoter of this ecumenical, charismatic, psychologized men's movement, as
evidenced by his speaking at two of PK's 1996 men's conferences.
- Robison places himself and his ministry above criticism. He equates those
who measure a practice or ministry by Scripture with the unbelieving
scribes. This effectively insulates his teaching and practice from Scriptural
critique. He is equating opposition to his ministry with non-recognition of
the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Robison hides behind a facade of
true adherence to the moving of the Spirit of God in order to insulate his
theology and practices from those who would unravel the facade with God's
Word.
At the same time, he equates anyone that would challenge that facade with those who will not recognize Jesus' authority and work. This is a cult mentality that does not address the real issue -- whether or not these practices and ideas are Biblical.
* In 1986 Jack Deere believed the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit had passed away. He had just completed his 10th year as an associate professor at Dallas Seminary, and 7th year as pastor of a Bible church. Then he invited British psychiatrist John White as guest speaker, and reluctantly agreed to let him teach about miraculous healing. Soon after, Deere's thinking "radically reversed." He said: "First I began to believe that the scriptures taught that healing and miracles were for today.
Then I believed that God spoke today outside the Bible. ... And the final stage was believing all the gifts of the Spirit actually are for today." Two weeks later he met Vineyard movement founder John Wimber, developed close ties, and was dismissed from Dallas Seminary. Today he ministers worldwide with "signs and wonders," prophetic minister Paul Cain (9/93, Charisma). Deere says: "After John Wimber prayed for me several years ago, I noticed an immediate increase in revelatory words and healings whenever I prayed for people. I've also seen this happen when Paul Cain has prayed for people ..." (Source: 9/15/96, Calvary Contender.)
Deere is one of the most powerful spokesman for the Vineyard. His book Surprised by the Power of the Spirit is probably the best defense of the Vineyard's views and has undoubtedly drawn many into the movement. His 1995 book, Surprised by the Voice of God, is supposed to be a treatise on how to tell God's voice from our own, or even Satan's. In this volume, he defends the view that God is giving fresh revelations today.
In a private interview with Graham Banister following a Vineyard conference workshop taught by Deere (March of 1990 in Sydney, Australia), Deere was asked, "What is the Gospel?" Deere asked Banister what he thought the gospel was. Banister replied that it was about Jesus Christ who died for our sins was buried and raised on the third day and that it is this gospel by which we are saved (1 Cor. 15). Deere's reply was that this was not the gospel. When asked what, then, is the gospel, Deere replied, "I'm not prepared to make a formal statement about that."
When asked, "Could you perhaps tell me informally what you believe to be the gospel?" Deere answered, "I'm not sure. ... I used to be just like you ... thinking the gospel was simply justification by faith." When asked what he would add to it, he responded, "Deliverance. ... things like demons and healing ... it's the complete package -- the word and the works of Jesus?" But he was not yet ready to give a definitive answer to the question, "What is the gospel?"
Continuing to be amazed, Banister asked, "Are you saying that you couldn't go back into that pavilion and tell those people the gospel?" He replied, "No, not yet. ... Maybe [in] five years, maybe ten ..." Amazingly, one of the leading theological minds in the Signs and Wonders movement did not know what was the gospel! [Source: 4/24/90, The Briefing, "John Wimber: Friend or Foe," Sydney, Australia -- Deere claims that the article contains "serious misrepresentations, false reporting, and erroneous methodology" concerning the Vineyard's teachings, and misrepresents his (Deere's) understanding of the Gospel.
Since it was just Graham Banister and Jack Deere present for the interview, the reader must judge for himself whether The Briefing's rendition is consistent with what we know of Deere's documented doctrinal positions. For Jack Deere's take on the interview in question, see the "Misrepresentation Of Jack Deere's Teaching And Views" section of the May, 1992, "Vineyard Position Paper #2: The Vineyard's Response to The Briefing," by Jack Deere.]
Beware of James Robison's Ministry
