Colin Brown claims God is "Rebooting the Church"
by Sandy Simpson, 12/9/13

Colin Brown is an Australian who has served and ministered across the Church since 1996. He is the author of the recently published book "Outside The Camp - The Wisdom, Humility, and Power of the Church". Colin established and oversees Grace Church in Ulverstone, Tasmania, Iron Sharpens Iron (a gathering of men over a meal to sharpen, strengthen and encourage one another), and Kingdom's Call (a prophetic gathering of Believers from across the Church). (Steve Schultz, ElijahList, 12/8/13) He is an advocate of the New Apostolic Reformation, established by false apostle C. Peter Wagner which is now under the leadership of false apostle Chuck Pierce. He is a participant in their conferences and is often featured in the ElijahList, an NAR sanctioned and supported email newsletter sent out 5-6 times daily.

Colin Brown is from Australia and has written for us several times. There is no doubt that the Church is on the verge of great change and awakening! (Steve Schultz, ElijahList, 12/8/13)
The New Apostolic proponents such as Schultz and Brown continue the tired and false proclamation that the Church is going to experience a great revival in these end times. This is in direct opposition to Scripture which states that the Church will experience a great falling away, a great Apostasy in the end.
1 Timothy 4:1 [The Great Apostasy] Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, (NKJV)
2 Thessalonians 2:3 let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, (ASV)
The word for "falling away" in 2 Thes. 2:3 is apostasia meaning "a falling away, defection, apostasy" (Strongs).  It is clear this falling away occurs when people who call themselves "Christians" give heed to demons and doctrines of demons. "Slain in the spirit" advocates like Brown began this process many years ago in the Toronto "Blessing", and now the evidence that they have been giving heed to deceiving spirits becomes evident when they are predicting a "great change and awakening" for the Church when God says the change in the churches will be a falling away from the truth.
1 Timothy 4:2  Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
Those who refuse to know and love the Truth that the Bible reveals start by searing their consciences and end up in delusion sent by God.

When I read the title of this issue of the ElijahList, it made me really angry.  The title was ""Rebooting" the Church: Changing Times and Changing Seasons".  I immediately asked myself the question: Is it a good thing to "reboot" the Church?  Revival is a good thing when it is based on repentance (Acts 3:19). But this is not what Brown is talking about. He is talking about "rebooting". When you reboot a computer you turn it off and on again, erasing any programs running, making a fresh start which sometimes works on computers and sometimes does not (for example when there is a virus in the computer - pun intended!). It is a good thing to return to our first love of the Jesus Christ and the Gospel (Rev. 2:4-5). But this is also not what Brown is talking about. And how could he? The churches involved with the false apostles, false prophets, false teachers of the New Apostolic have already had their candlestick removed long ago. They can keep rebooting themselves in their occult "slain in the spirit" 24/7 and it will not bring repentance and refreshing. It will only strengthen the delusion they have put themselves under and that God is allowing on them as a condemnation.

Colin Brown says this:

We are at the threshold of 2014, and as we enter into the New Year and thereafter, we are coming upon the "rebooting" of the Church: The changing of the times and changing of the seasons (see Daniel 2:21-22) (Colin Brown, ElijahList, 12/8/13)
Anytime you see the false teachings of the NAR misusing the Old Testament, you know you are in the presence of heretics.
Daniel 2:21-22 He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.
In context this was Daniel's praise to the Lord for revealing the dream of Nebuchadnezzar to him. God continues to be the revealer of mysteries. But when someone like Brown predicts a revival for the Church when the Bible states that we are headed for and are already in an "apostasy" shows that he is not in tune with the God who "gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning". Yes, the Church will have times of refreshing if they repent of their sins and return to their first love. But as a whole the churches are in apostasy. This cannot change as it is decreed by God, so it doesn't matter that all manner of heretics step up and start declaring things into the heavens against what God has already stated about the end times. Daniel also said nothing about "rebooting" Israel or the Babylonian empire. This is an example of making up prophecy based on what a true prophet never said or even implied.
The spirit and power of Elijah is coming upon and in the Church. "Make straight the way for the Lord" (John 1:23). (Colin Brown, ElijahList, 12/8/13)
John 1:23 applies to John the Baptist and Elijah, not the Church. We are to proclaim the Gospel till Jesus Christ returns (Mark 13:10) but the Church is not Elijah. If we as the Church want to prepare the way of the Lord, we are to do so by preaching the Gospel, not by taking over the governments of the world before Christ returns. We cannot take away the physical dominion of Satan until the physical return of Christ. The only way we can fight the devil's kingdom is to preach the Gospel whereby the Holy Spirit can convict, people can repent and believe in Jesus Christ, and they will be changed from within by the baptism and seal of the Holy Spirit.
The sheer weight of the glory of the Lord being revealed (see Isaiah 60:1-3) will totally replace the Church's lens through which we have so long seen Church (in how we view it). A Kingdom lens will become our new primary lens. Our focus and ways will be that of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, through seeing and being a city of living stones that God is building. (Colin Brown, ElijahList, 12/8/13)
Isaiah 60:1-3 is referring directly to Israel. This is seen in the reference to the "glory" being "over you" which refers back to the Exodus. But Brown's claim is that the Church needs to see the "Kingdom" through a new lens. That lens, of course, is the redefinition of the objective of the Church as given by people like C. Peter Wagner.
“…the only way to overthrow a government is with a government.  It won’t happen otherwise.  So therefore the government of the church has to get into place in the extended church just like we do have it very well in place, we haven’t reached our goal yet, but it’s very well established in the nuclear church.” (C. Peter Wagner, Arise Prophetic Conference, Gateway Church, San Jose, CA, 10-10-2004)

These apostles in the workplace are the ones that are going to come into the picture and with them we’ll be open these gates, without them we can have all the prayer meetings we want, all the marches for Jesus we want, all the prayer walking we want, the gates aren’t going to be opened. Because it takes a government to overthrow a government. … Gate number one, letter A, the gate of social transformation, the gate of social transformation. … Ok, the second gate that will be opened only when the workplace apostles get on board is the gate of the transference of wealth. … This gate will be opened when we understand about the church in the workplace, that the church has a government, that it takes a government to overthrow a government, and when we understand this, if we renew our minds, if we embrace this paradigm shift, if we see, if we hear what the spirit is saying to the churches, if we recognize ministry in the extended church and government in the extended church, the revival we’ve been praying for is just around the corner.  We will see it. (C. Peter Wagner, Arise Prophetic Conference, Gateway Church, San Jose, CA, 10-10-2004)

NOTE: C. Peter Wagner, when he talks about the church having a government, he means himself and the false apostles and false prophets associated with him.  He believes they are foundational to the Church.
Apostles and prophets the foundation of the Church and, um, I identify as James an apostle as my function as a horizontal apostle to bring together the people of the body of Christ not only can I do it, I love to do it. Yesterday I was the apostle with a group of about 15-20 prophets we met all day long, and these prophets many of whom are going to be speakers in this conference come under my guidance, coordination and leadership as an apostle. They each have apostles in their own networks but I mean they are under spiritually.  But I’m the one that brings them together and when I bring them together things happen. (C. Peter Wagner, National School of the Prophets - Mobilizing the Prophetic Office, Colorado Springs, CO, May 11, 2002, Tape #1)
"The cultural mandate, which some refer to as Christian social responsibility goes as far back as the Garden of Eden. After God created Adam and Eve, He said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing... Both the cultural mandate and the evangelistic mandate are essential parts of biblical mission, in my opinion. Neither is optional. There is a growing consensus on this point in Evangelical circles. This was not true as early as twenty-two years ago when the Berlin World Congress on Evangelism was held in 1966. One of the first Evangelicals to stress the cultural mandate in a public forum was Horace Fenton of the Latin America Mission at the Wheaton Congress on the Church's Worldwide Mission, also held in 1966. Following that, the social consciousness generated by the social upheavals of the 1960's brought the cultural mandate to prominence until it was given a relatively high profile on the platform of the International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne in 1974." (C. Peter Wagner, "On the Cutting Edge of Mission Strategy," Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, A Reader, Revised Edition (Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1981,1992), pp. D-45-46.)
C. Peter Wagner has long taught that the "cultural mandate", that of taking over the world by the Church, is an equal part of the "biblical mission" for the Church along with proclaiming the Gospel. The problem with this notion is that we do not see any evidence of this idea in the early Church under Rome. Did the Early Church go to the authorities and protest? Did they try to get laws passed to forbid the practice of killing babies? Did they try to get people of the government on their side? Did they try to populate the government with Christians? Did they protest in the streets and form public prayer meetings to "divorce Nero"? Did they make claims that they would rid the land of all evil? Did they try to "overthrow" the government of Rome? No. Their response was to take the unwanted babies the Romans put out on the rocks outside of the city to die home with them and raise them as their own. This is the difference between the misguided egotistical plans of followers of Wagner and the response of the True Church to the world.
This "rebooting" will usher in numerous and countless new wineskin Believers, prodigals, and sons and daughters who have deeply longed to be able to be at home in who they are, and as they see, with the grace with which they are given. (Colin Brown, ElijahList, 12/8/13)
God does not call people to "be at home in who they are" but to discover who God wants them to be through belief, repentance, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, their teacher through the written Word. Also, the Bible is clear that man does not seek God, but it is God who seeks men who will believe.
Psalm 10:4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
Romans 3:11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.
Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
So this idea that there is a deep longing in unbelievers is not really the case. They must be first convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit, and when they come to realize their real position before God and believe that only Jesus Christ can save them, they then repent of that sin and begin to follow the Lord. The Church needs no "rebooting" if they are obeying the Lord and preaching His Gospel to the world. The problem with this "rebooting" scheme is that it introduces people who claim they are followers of Christ to an occult "anointing", one that is not from the Bible but from outside Christianity.

If Colin Brown is really leading a group called "Iron Sharpens Iron" I suggest that they get a real teacher in there to straighten them out before they take everyone down in a flame of Apostasy.