Sunday, May 8, 2011

199: Rick Joyner

Rick Joyner heads MorningStar Ministries, which he co-founded with his wife Julie in 1985. He also oversees MorningStar's “University”, Fellowship of Ministries, and Fellowship of Churches, as well as editing their various publications. According to Joyner, the purpose of his ministry is the “biblical mandate Matthew 24:45–46” as well as a commitment to equip future leaders and work in relationship with current leaders to prepare and strengthen the church for the last days.

He has written numerous books, including the “The Final Quest” series. This is a series of prophecies based on revelation Joyner claims to have received personally – as such it has remained rather controversial even among Evangelicals. Joyner claims to have been (literally) transported to Heaven and to have had long conversations with Jesus (and some saints and prophets). Hence, his talk about spiritual warfare and the impending 'civil war' within the church bears the stamp of authority, doesn’t it?

Interestingly, while Joyner claims to regard the utterly insane William Branham as something of a lunatic, he also claims to have seen Branham close to the throne of God in his travels to Heaven. Hence Branham must be closer to the truth than one thought (this is perhaps the most feeble attempt I’ve seen of trying to argue that your apparently crazy views are not as crazy as they seem, Rick).

He also weighed in on the health care reform, pointing out that the bill "is about euthanasia, the power to determine who lives or dies in America. Hitler and Stalin would have loved to have had a means such as this for dispatching the millions they killed – it would have made their job much easier, and probably given them the ability to kill many more than they did. THIS BILL IS THAT SINISTER. This is not a joke."

Joyner was also (along with Jack Deere and Bill Johnson) in on the attempted curing and rehabilitation of Canadian televangelist Todd Bentley (famous for his Lakeland revival and for “healing” cancer and AIDS patients by beating them up), after Todd had been involved in – you guessed it – an adultery scandal.

Diagnosis: Pathologically delusional kook and madman who sometimes display glimpses of self-awareness that he is quick to explain away. That only makes him even more zealous of course. Impact unknown – he has many followers, but had he not existed the followers would probably have found another loon to worship.

19 comments:

  1. You can see Joyner claim that "the Japanese earthquake will unleash the same "demonic forces" that created Nazi Germany on the United States" (thus unleashing the endtimes, it seems) here. If you rather want to experience him declaring that America is "under God's judgment" and that He will send an earthquake to destroy California and it's all the fault of "evil, wicked atheists", and that Christians should get out of California before they get destroyed along with the wicked, you can go here,

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  2. If you're really lucky, you can catch Joyner and Lou Engle coming to save Detroit this November.

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  3. Rick Joyner and Frank Gaffney joins forces to reach unhinged heights of McCarthyesque conspiracy theories here. Joyner's claim that Muslims are trying to capture The Seven Mountains can be seen here.

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  4. Here's Joyner "arguing" that God is using Islam to punish America for perversions and abortions.

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  5. Perhaps worth mentioning: Here's Rick Joyner claiming that Satan is behind the sexual harassment allegations against Cain, and that Cain is like Jesus.

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  6. Here's Joyner calling for a general evacuation of all Californians because of the US's policies toward Israel. The alleged causal mechanism is somewhat along the lines of what you'd expect, perhaps apart from the reference to a "Nazi demon takeover" of the US.

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  7. One of the recurring themes of wingnut delusion is the idea that president Obama is sucking up to radical Islam (which, of course, is ironic since radical Muslims appear to share most values and ideology with said wingnuts). In light of this, here is Rick Joyner doing ... what, exactly?

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  8. He's recently come down with a new prophecy as well. Rick Joyner prophecies that Obama will institute martial law. Pure Alex Jones land pasted onto a background of religious fanaticism - a pretty common phenomenon.

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  9. Here's more on Joyner's power of prayer.

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  10. One of the main arguments against faith healing is the fact that it doesn't heal amputees, although there shouldn't - if it worked - be any reason why it wouldn't. Well, at least Rick Joyner tries to meet that challenge face on, claiming that God does, indeed, heal amputees. He has some trouble procuring the evidence, however.

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  11. Here’s Rick Joyner ripping talking points from the Obama conspiracy talking forums without even bothering to consider whether they may have any kind of relation to reality. Again.

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  12. And here is Joyner "explaining" how the gay rights movement has as their goal to ensure a ban on heterosexual marriages. The idea of aligning beliefs to reality seems utterly foreign to this guy.

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  13. Joyner rants about treason in his usual, incoherent fashion.

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  14. Joyner explains how it is that Timothy McVeigh was "left-wing" and media is the number one terrorist organization in the world.

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  15. Joyner predicts that America is headed for martial law. Indeed, he prays for that. Apparently it is because America is not currently governed in alignment with the Founding Father's vision of America as modeled on the coming kingdom of God. Also, Obamacare slavery causes civil war.

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  16. its always fun times with this guy isnt it?

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  17. Rock Joyner is as false as they come. Another false pastor pass the plate. Just like Him and Tammy friends of his.

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