Rodney Howard-Browne's

"Good News New York" 

What was touted to be "the largest soul-winning crusade of the millennium" *1
turned out to be the biggest embarrassment and reality check in the tainted career of the ambitious South African "evangelist" Rodney Howard-Browne, 38.

As he and his volunteers from around the world gathered together in the Big Apple for a six week crusade at Madison Square Garden starting on July 7th, they found themselves alone with each other as Manhattan's unsaved souls carried on as usual on the congested streets outside.

Howard-Browne claims that he got his vision for "Good News New York" during a divine dream he had back in February, 1998. In this dream he was visited by Billy Graham who spoke to him about his 1957 four-month crusade that he held at Madison Square Garden where 55,000 people responded to altar calls. Howard-Browne said that when he awoke his pillow was wet with tears and he knew he had to "go to New York and launch one of the biggest soul-winning crusades since the 50s."*2

From there the vision began to grow in the mind of the "Joel's Bar bartender."*3 "We're believing for 150,000 souls to come to Christ,"*4 Howard-Browne boasted to the hosts of Dominion Sky Angel's satellite network. And that estimate was confirmed and multiplied by South African evangelist, Reinhard Bonnke, who told Howard-Browne, "I believe that the harvest will be three times that amount."*5 (Bonnke is on GNNY's roster as a guest speaker.)

On the first Friday night of the crusade (which ran Wednesday through Saturday for six consecutive weeks) around 2,000 people trickled into the 20,000 seat arena. A crusade representative told us, "the low turn-out is disappointing, but I expect the numbers to increase in a couple of weeks when things heat up."

As the worship music began in a volume that could only be described as deafening, virtually all those attending immediately sprang to their feet, hands lifted, and swayed to the beat, waving their hands in the air. The unchurched in the crowd (those who were not pre-programmed to lift "holy hands") who remained seated could be counted on one hand.

The evening's M.C. was ex-700 Club host, Ben Kinchelow, who warmed up the crowd as things got underway. He introduced all the singers and speakers, such as basketball Christian celebrity, Meadowlark Lemon, who gave a short testimony of how God got him out of his poverty stricken existence and demonstrated some impressive basketball moves for a man in his golden years.

No Rodney Howard-Browne crusade would be complete without a strong-arm offering taken. That job was given to Pastor Rick Shelton of St Louis who pastors a 5,000 member church. His text was taken from Luke chapter 5, when Jesus told the fishermen (Peter, James & John) to launch their boats and let down their nets which could barely hold the fish that were caught. Shelton exhorted the crowd, "All things hinge upon the law of sowing and reaping. We need your boat! When you put your boat in the ministry, Jesus steps in the boat. Where's your boat? It's in your purse or pocket! Get it out! Rodney's got to have your boat, so Rodney can push back from the land. He assured the people that if they did so their boats would then be filled to overflowing.

When Rodney Howard-Browne finally took centre stage, he began with the cry, "Let's get ready to rumble!" He let everyone know that his credentials to do what he was doing came from Jesus himself who told him when he was only 13 years old, "I've done all I'm going to do for these people. I died on the cross for them. You must tell them. I said, "I will tell them". The destiny of the people, Howard-Browne was shown as a child, falling over the chasm in flames was now on his shoulders.

The rest of his message was delivered with a deadpan face and in a monotone voice. He preached on heaven and hell and quoted more scripture verses than he ever did in any of his holy laughter revivals. After all, if it worked for Billy Graham, it might work for him. Unfortunately, Howard-Browne lacks the charisma and magnetism of a youthful Billy Graham and without the draw of lying signs and wonders, his words just fell flat. When the time came for the altar call, he sized up his crowd and made it a call for rededication instead of salvation. "Come down here! Get out of your seat! I'm talking to those who already have given their life to Christ," he shouted.

The news releases that were published on the Good News New York website gave a very positive spin on the events. Howard-Browne's public relations people must have adopted the Word/Faith motto of "calling those things which are not as though they are". They reported that 7,000 people were brought to Christ before the event even began by teams of street witnesses sponsored by area churches. GNNY boasted that they mobilised over 5,000 volunteers from 2,100 churches around the world *6, including "Catholic, Episcopalian, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Full Gospel and Apostolic Faith Mission" *7. This number contradicted the number reported on the GNNY website prior to the event as "25,000 volunteers" *8.

Another optimistic article of the opening week's activities was reported on the internet by Religion Today, that quoted an "eye witness report that "several thousand people attended the first Good News New York rally July 7 despite a power failure in Newark, NJ, that prevented trains from moving through Penn Station. More than 300 people made decisions to become a Christian." This is a far cry from the estimate of 2,000 people at opening night as told to us by a conference official two days later. And the power failure couldn't account for the same number in attendance on the next Friday night when we attended.

The best known charismatic church in all of Manhattan, Time Square Church, pastored by author David Wilkerson, was not on the list of sponsoring churches. Wilkerson has been critical of the holy laughter movement and keeps himself separated from those who promote the new spiritual drunkenness craze.

During Rodney Howard-Browne's interview on Sky Angel, he might have had Time Square Church in mind when he said, "There are churches in New York City that really don't want to work with us. But it's provoked them to where they're on the streets now winning souls ... Ultimately it's going to have an impact because people are not going to be able to just sit there and criticise whatever and say I don't want to get involved in this crusade. It's motivated them to get out of their church and get souls saved ... so it's going to have a ripple effect around the city."*9

Rodney Howard-Browne told the Thursday night audience. "There are Christians in this city who think I'm nuts! God told me to build an ark. It's not my job to bring the flood. He (God) said there was a storm coming, so it's coming."*10 Perhaps some of his confidence that God has raised him up to save the world, starting in New York, stems from various prophecies given by people involved in the current "River Outpouring" over the past decade who are waiting for the final harvest before Christ's return. Known as the "latter rain," many enthusiasts have seen the year 2000 as a target time for its fulfilment.

Rodney Howard-Browne was a guest on TBN's Praise the Lord program on August 12, 1993, with fellow guest Dwight Thompson and host, Paul Crouch. On that show Crouch called the new signs and wonders in Howard-Browne's ministry the beginning of the latter rain. And Thompson warned the church, "If you don't flow in the move of the Holy Ghost, you're going to be left out!" *11 On that same show, Howard-Browne mocked his critics saying, "You might think this is put on, but this is not put on. You go get a crowd and see how you do!"

It was on that same show that Dwight Thompson related a vision he supposedly received from the Lord about a time coming when stadiums will be filled to overflowing with converts to Christianity.

TBN aired another confirmation of this last days' stadium outpouring on March 2, 1994 with guest, latter rain "prophet," Paul Cain. "I was dreaming that I was on my way to a place where the last day ministry had been instituted and was now in progress," he recalled. "In this particular vision there was the largest stadium that I have ever seen before and it was jammed with people who were witnessing all of these manifestations of the Holy Spirit ... Over the loud speaking system they were saying, `we have a resurrection from the dead over here' ... And it seemed like all the network anchor people were there ... reporting "All of the stadiums across the land are filled with people and there are no sporting events to announce ... the whole world has gone mad over Jesus.'"

Then again on February 3, 1995, TBN aired another certified false prophet, John Hinkle *12, pastor of Christ Church in Los Angeles, confirming the last days' vision of the stadium crowds. "All at once, the Holy Spirit had picked me up and took me into this football stadium," Hinkle asserted. "Just as I got into the stadium, I heard the announcer say 80,000 people are here today ... And then instantly the Holy Spirit came as a shaft of light and was beside every person in the stadium ... And I saw the streets outside, everybody was on their faces, stock exchange, everybody was just — and in government places they were on their faces, just crying out to God." Paul Crouch responded, "This is Joel, chapter 3, in the latter days I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh!"

This "prophecy" even identified the big outpouring as beginning in New York, seeing the comment about the "stock exchange." However, Howard-Browne's intentions are to follow NY with crusades in Los Angeles and Chicago. *13

Many Christians who do not support Rodney Howard-Browne's ministry can't understand why we in discernment ministries can't have the Apostle Paul's attitude in his letter to the Philippians when he said, "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice." (Philippians 1:18)

The problem is that Howard-Browne is using the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a bait and switch tactic to gather more people into the "River Awakening," in which he sits as head. In the Sky Angel interview he showed his hand. The host said to him, "I think you have coined a phrase not normally used in church pulpits, `Have a drink.'" "The drink that I speak of," Howard-Browne responded, "is not a natural drink, but a spiritual drink." He went on to explain that he would not be bringing holy laughter to Madison Square Garden.
"This crusade is not one of our revival meetings that we've been conducting in the churches for the last ten years. ... When we go to churches it's really to stir up the church for revival to come ... We're focused in on the lost of New York City ... It's not that we are changing what we do; this is just a different part of what we do."

At the Friday night crusade that we attended, Howard-Browne made a little joke about his change of character saying, "You could say I'm a closet evangelical." Time will tell whether or not he's able to make a true transition or if the gospel is merely a means to an end.

This article was originally published in the August/September 1999 issue of the Christian
Sentinel magazine, PO Box 133, Walnutport, PA 18088, USA. http://www.cultlink.com

Jackie Alnor is the Assistant Editor of the Christian Sentinel, a periodical that follows the various trends blowing through the church in the last days. She and her husband, Bill Alnor, have been active as investigative reporters for over two decades, and were associated with the late Walter R. Martin, who Bill worked for as news editor. You can visit them at their website:
http://www.cultlink.com

The final tally of those attending GNNY was reported by Religion Today:
"Crowds at the Garden, in the heart of Manhatten, were disappointing. Most rallies drew 2,000 to 4,000 people in the cavernous, 19,000-seat facility, with the largest gathering more than 9,000 and the smallest 2,000, Howard-Browne's organisation said."

—Religion Today, 8/13/99

It would seem that the reports of over-flowing crowds were highly exaggerated.

PANDEMONIUM is a word that has come into vogue among the Revivial Now gang, who obviously don't understand its meaning or significance. Some time ago Rodney Howard-Browne said something to the effect — "God loves pandemonium". Well maybe his `god' does, but not the God of the bible.

JOY, the official British AoG magazine (July 99, pg 34), uses the word as part of an article heading about the late Smith Wiggles-worth, whom they quote prolifically without the slightest hint of any authentic documentation.

When legends such as Wigglesworth are quoted I'm always keen to know the source, which every reader has a right to expect. I doubt if he said or did half the things which are attributed to him. Frankly, contrary to what JOY published, there's no such thing as `Holy Pandemonium'. It's a contradiction in terms.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary pandemonium is "The abode of all the demons; a place represented by Milton as the capital of Hell, containing the council-chamber of the Evil Spirits; in common use = hell or the infernal regions." I am quite sure that no Pentecostal pioneer such as Smith Wigglesworth would have knowingly used that word to describe anything holy. When a subsequent generation of self-declared leaders attribute such defamatory notions to their fathers in the faith it's high time their orthodox contemporaries either deposed them or deserted them. We call for such action.

Here's John Milton's famous quote from Paradise Lost (bk Xl. 424) — "Pandemonium, city and proud seat of Lucifer."

May God deliver us from all PANDEMONIUM.

*1 From "The GNNY Vision" news release from the Good News New York web-page of Rodney Howard-Browne www.gnny.com
*2 7/5/99 Interview with hosts of Sky Angel broadcast. (Sky Angel]s satellite network is televising the crusade every Friday night live).
*3 Rodney Howard-Browne is well known as the "Holy Ghost bartender" by his own claims at holy laughter meetings he has held around the world. See clips of RHB's "Joel's Bar" statements on the Christian Sentinel's documentation video, "The Animalisation of Christianity".
*4 7/5/99 Sky Angle broadcast.
*5 ibid. Howard-Browne quoting Bonnke
*6 Good News New York press release handed out to media during opening week.
*7 Biographical Profile of Rodney Howard-Browne, published in press kit at GNNY.
*8 "The GNNY Vision" undated article available at www.gnny.com
*9 7/5/99 Sky Angel broadcast.
*10 "Crusade brings good news to NYC" article on www.gnny.com
*11 Praise the Lord, 8/12/93
*12 See the Christian Sentinel, XXXXX 19XX issue for the article, "it was only a cleansing," documenting Hinkle's false prophecy that God would rip out all the evil of the world on June 9, 1994.
*13 Statement by RHB at Press Conference on 7/6/99.

Appeared in Volume 5.2 September 1999