Sermon Review: Rodney Howard-Brown

Oslo, Norway, June 28th 2010

What I was hoping would be clear teaching from the Word of God turned out to be a long sermon about the preacher himself, his ministry and his direct revelations from God, sprinkled with a good dose of irrational craziness at the end.

Thinking this would be an event with a pack out crowd, I went to the 7 o’clock service an hour early. Although the place didn’t fill up until the meeting had started, at least I was secured a parking space and a seat on the third row, right behind all the reserved seats.

Worship and Testimonies
The service began with a worship time where the worship team led the congregation in 40 minutes of old and new happy-clappy, “seven-elleven” songs, followed by a time of testimony sharing. A line-up of prearranged witnesses came up to share what they had experienced as they had been out on the streets earlier the same day evangelizing.
What was really curious about the testimonies were that they were all about what they, the witnesses, had experienced, how many they had prayed the “sinners prayer” with, and their second-hand description of what those whom they had prayed for had experienced. It was not the Biblical testimony of what Jesus has done on the cross to save us of our sins.

A common theme in all the testimonies was how they began their approach by saying “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”. One lady told of how girl she had talked with wanted to receive Jesus. She said she prayed for her and that she looked different afterwards. She also wanted to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and when prayed for she said she felt something different inside her as those praying for her were speaking in tongues.
Why this emphasis on what’s being felt? Couldn’t this girl have experienced something had she been met by the Hare Krishna or Mormons? Why not let her know about the objective truth of Christianity and give her the ability to give a conscious assent to the reality of Christ’s death on the cross for her sins, instead of asking her repeat a “sinners prayer” that is nowhere taught in the Bible?

Another common feature in the testimonies was their references to “the script.” Obviously it’s some sort of fool-proof manuscript to follow when evangelizing.

The last one to share a testimony told of how she’d prayed for a person with crutches because of a hurting leg. She said she had prayed for the man, but he was not healed. So she told the man to keep thanking God for his healing. She had just said that the man wasn’t healed, so why was he to thank God for his healing?

The Sermon
Before I even begin the review Rodney Howard-Brown’s sermon, I need to make one important remark. Howard-Brown did not give nor quote a single complete verse from Scripture during his whole hour-and-five-minutes sermon! Here’s what he did preach:

The first thing he said after walking up to the table on the center of the floor in front of the stage was “There’s a reason for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.” Obviously his untitled sermon was going to be about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He went on to say that so many churches are full of “dead” people and that church is supposed to be the happiest place on earth. I agree, churches are full of dead people, they’re called sinners, and the joy we are filled with in church is the joy of knowing that Christ has taken the punishment for our sins by His vicarious death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead giving us eternal life with Him in the new heavens and new earth, and His Holy Spirit is the guarantee of this inheritance. Joy in church is not some pseudo-Christian, momentary filling of the Holy Spirit.

Howard-Brown says that the Gospel is good news, but if you reject it, it’s bad news. No, the Gospel remains the good news of salvation regardless of your or my acceptance of it. The news doesn’t change from good to bad or bad to good depending on its reception. His reasoning defeats itself. If the Gospel is good news, how can it be bad news? The consequences of believing the good news or not are good or bad, but the Gospel itself is good news no matter what.

A lot of emphasis was placed on one’s outer appearance as a Christian. “Your face displays what’s going on in your heart”. As if being a Christian somehow creates a radiant glow around one’s head. I know several people who are constantly happy and positive, always smiling, yet who are not Christians. The Bible doesn’t talk about Christians always going around with a smile on their faces. The New Testament doesn’t talk much about Jesus’ mirth, but it does say that He “made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!’” (John 2:15-17). Scripture also says that “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). I doubt that Jesus had a big smile on His face on these occasions, and no one was so full of the Holy Spirit than Jesus, who’s God and one with Him.

After this brief interdiction, Howard-Brown preached about himself for the next half-hour, beginning with his personal testimony about growing up as a Christian and being saved at the age of five. The remaining thirty-five minutes were mostly about his ministry.

A major point that Howard-Brown wanted to convey is that “all who are born again have an obligation to tell people the Gospel. Going to Church on Sunday is not enough. Church is to be a celebration of what God has done through the week.” This is a clear confusion of law and Gospel. The Christian life doesn’t begin with the Gospel and continue in law. That’s Jehovah’s Witness theology. The Christian life is opposite; it begins with the law condemning us of our sins and offers to us the Gospel as the solution. The Gospel isn’t about keeping track of how many we share the Gospel message and pray the “sinner’s prayer” with. Witnessing is not an obligation, it’s a fruit of the Gospel; it is done in all we do, thoughts, words and deeds.
Church isn’t a celebration time of our accomplishments, it’s a place of rest where we can be reminded of the Gospel and be renewed by it.

“I can feel the fire of God in this place now,” Howard-Brown continued. I could feel the fire of God too, but not in a good way. The Bible refers to the fire of God in reference to judgment (2. King 1:12, Job. 1:16). “If you don’t want to be touched tonight you should make a run for it now,” Howard-Brown said. What kind of an empty threat is that? Run from whom, God? Excuse me, I came to church to hear from God, so far I’ve only heard from Rodney Howard-Brown, and he isn’t threatening. “I’ve been to more than 50 countries and everywhere there’s a hunger, the Spirit of God falls. It’s a spiritual issue. All are sinners. When God’s fire comes upon you, you can’t help yourself. You can’t calm down, you want to shout out how wonderful Jesus is,” Howard-Brown said. A hunger for what? Yes, all are sinners, but the solution isn’t God’s fire, it’s the objective fact of God in human flesh atoning for our sins. There are several cults who claim to have spiritual experiences that make them joyful and shout out to Jesus. Expressions of joy are real but subjective. The important thing is not the external expression of faith but the content of it.

After 20 minutes, Howard-Brown finally mentioned something from the Bible, partially quoting from Acts 2 without giving the verse numbers, emphasizing the point that when they were touched, they went out and 3000 were saved. “Everyone needs an ‘upper room’ experience. It’s where you get the fire,” Howard-Brown said. Did the 3000 that were saved that day have an ‘upper room’ experience? You don’t even have to go farther than that to see that the point Howard-Brown is making is nowhere to be found in the text, and even self-contradictory. Jesus had promised to send the Holy Spirit. The Gospel is powerless without Him. That’s why the apostles had not shared the Gospel before the day of Pentecost. “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:38). The gift of the Holy Spirit is not an ‘upper room’ experience. Receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of the inheritance of eternal life promised for those who have repented and had their sins forgiven in the name of Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:13-14).

At this point in the sermon, Howard-Brown made a shift and began talking about God’s direct revelations to him. God had to show him how to lose weight. He went down 120 pounds. “Then God spoke to me,” he said, and continued, “I made you lose weight so you can run like fire.” I can agree that there are probably some things one can be more effective doing if one’s physically fit, but I find it impossible to believe that God told him anything at all, since he hasn’t even been able to share what God already has clearly spoken in His written word. Besides, there are weight programs invented to lose weight, it doesn’t take extra biblical revelation to figure that out.
Two months later he had received a word from the Lord through a man of God who’s a prophet, telling him that he would have one of the greatest revivals ever in East London, South Africa. There thousands of people who were saved. Thank you for the report, Rodney, can you preach the Word of God now?

Finally, the sermon was about to finish, culminating in a time to sow a seed to TV Visjon Norge (Norway’s equivalent to TBN) who had been broadcasting the event live.
“God wants to use you for the Gospel in Norway. Then He must first bless you. It begins with giving,” Howard-Brown said. So obviously a Christian’s effectiveness as a witness depends upon one’s willingness to give of one’s money. Wasn’t it the apostle Peter who said to Simon the Magician: “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!” (Acts 8:20)?
“When you feel you can’t give, you’re holding back the blessing,” Howard-Brown continued. I agree that giving is important. However, we give of what we have been blessed with, not to receive blessing. Giving for the sake of seeking a by-product is not selfless. Giving is to be out of gratitude (Mark 12:41-44, Luke 21:1-4).

“Little becomes much when I put it in the hand of Jesus”, Howard-Brown told us to repeat after him, after twisting the passage of Jesus feeding the 5000. The point of that recorded history is Jesus’ proving that he’s the bread of life. Howard-Brown misses the Gospel in this passage.

Then just in time for the sappy music to be queued and the offering to be collected, Howard-Brown said that “When we reach out to God with our resources, God reaches us with heavenly resources. We mustn’t be attached to our things. This is a time to attach to God.” I agree that we are not to attach ourselves to things and trust in God. That is the first commandment. However, our effort does nothing to impress God. Christ has done everything for us. We can repent of our sins, thank Him and praise Him for who He is and what He has done and will do through us, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:12).

Spiritual Outpouring
Following the sermon was an alter call to receive the “fire”.
For the first time Rodney Howard-Brown quoted scripture and read Luke 3:16: “John answered them all, ‘I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire’.” He rightly placed the verse in the context of John the Baptist, the forerunner to Christ, baptizing in water for repentance and for preparing the way for Jesus. Further, he highlighted John saying “Holy Spirit and fire,” explaining fire as the physical experience of God, which urges us to action, and that the Bible says that this promise is for you and your children. “You have to make it yours. You have to come in faith like the woman with the issue of blood, like blind Bartimaeus, like Zacchaeus,” Howard-Brown said, completely missing the Gospel point in the stories of those people coming to Jesus. He went on saying that “People who want something from God do something.” Really? What can we do to earn God’s favor? Nothing! The whole point of grace is that it is a free gift. There’s no work we can do to receive God’s gifts, we can only ask, and He will supply our every need according to His riches in glory in Jesus Christ (Phil. 4:19). Besides, the fire John the Baptist is referring to goes back to Isaiah 4:4 and Malachi 3:2-3 where God is the judge over the wicked and the purifier of the redeemed.

“God has done everything,” he said. Finally, a Gospel nugget. “But you need to reach out to Him with your heart.” That’s exactly what we can’t do. Christ needs to reach into our hearts and exchange our sinful hearts of stone with beating hearts of flesh. Our only part is to consciously believe and trust in Jesus Christ who creates faith in us by the preaching of God’s word, and Howard-Brown in this sermon has not preach God’s word.

As people went forward to receive the Holy Spirit, almost all who were laid hands on fell to the floor. They were picked up and asked how they felt. They all said “great,” “wonderful,” “fantastic.” Some people were jumping, others running around. One kid only about 10 or 12 years old was prayed for and the microphone was held to his mouth as he laid there speaking in tongues, all the time being shown on live TV. There is no clear Scripture justifying such behavior. When this kid gets to high school, it’s not his “upper room” experience that’s going to make him keep his faith. He will likely lose confidence in Christ unless he is trained in the Word of God and knows why Christianity is objectively true. Howard-Brown’s show is little impressive. I ask you, Rodney, repent, preach the Word in season and out of season and let God do His true salvation work.