Mike Bickle's Sexually Charged "Bridal Mysticism" IHOP Teachings
Bruce Wilson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Wed Nov 21, 2012 at 09:41:37 AM EST
I've been picking through Mike Bickle's teachings on Bridal Mysticism and the Song of Solomon - which Bickle seems to view as allegorical for the end-time relationship of the church (the Bride of Christ) to Jesus. Here are some interesting quotes:

"As women are called to be sons of God who experience His power, so man [sic] are called to be the Bride of Christ who encounters His heart. Both describe a position of great privilege for the redeemed before God, transcending gender."

Women are to become "sons", men are to be the spiritual lovers of Jesus, both "transcending gender". But don't take that too literally:

"The Divine kiss is a metaphor for intimacy with God... The kisses of His mouth speak of the release of the Word of God that tenderizes our hearts in the love of God. We are NOT to think of kissing Jesus on the mouth." [emphasis in the original]

Don't take that too literally except, perhaps, in the case of the "chamber experience":

"She [The Bride of Christ] wants to be with Him [Jesus] wherever He is. She lost the sweetness in her communion with God. She longs for the kisses of His Word and the chamber experiences with the Lord."

In the end, this seems to be about divine pleasure:

"In reality, holiness is a call to pleasure that is perfect and unending. To be holy is to know God and be like Him, and He Himself is the highest pleasure that exists.  We cannot experience a more superior pleasure than knowing the God of heaven and sharing in His glory.

God is a lover of fascination and delight, and He formed man in such a way that we would desire these things.  His call to holiness is the fulfillment of these desires He has put within us."

In a February 2009 column in Charisma magazine, long considered the flagship publication of the charismatic movement, editor J. Lee Grady observed, "Not long after ecstasy became known as a recreational drug, someone in our movement got the bright idea to promote spiritual ecstasy as a form of legitimate worship." Grady went on to issue the following prophetic warning:

"Recently I told a friend in Pennsylvania that when people get tired of this drug imagery it won't be long before we see some Christians having sexual experiences at the altar. "It's already happening," my friend said. He described a recent "worship concert" in which one of the musicians simulated sex while stroking a microphone and whispering sensual phrases to Jesus. What is next-orgasmic worship? God help us."

To cite a saying often incorrectly attributed to Benjamin Franklin, "God helps those who help themselves".

As even committed movement loyalists such as Grady speak out, and apparent fruits of Mike Bickle's unusual theology and worship practices manifest, how long will the evangelical center remain in denial ? Or, as Kansas City pastor Ernie Gruen asked, in 1990 sermon about Mike Bickle's Kansas City Prophets movement and Bickle's Grace Ministries, "How Long Do We Keep Smiling and Say Nothing?"

The clock is ticking.  


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Mike Bickle's Sexually Charged "Bridal Mysticism" IHOP Teachings | 21 comments (21 topical, 0 hidden)
NAR adherents at IHOP Kansas City linked to crime (5.00 / 1)
The bomb has exploded.  Are you aware of the Bethany Deaton murder?  On October 30, Bethany, a graduate of IHOPU, was murdered by an IHOP "forerunner" at the bequest of her IHOP "forerunner" husband.   The motive of this horrific crime was to keep Bethany from divulging that she had been raped repeatedly as part of religious rituals conjured up by her husband and his IHOP associates.  It is not known whether IHOP leadership knew of these activities, but as you point out, IHOP imagery and practices provide fertile soil.  Demonic possession, Holy Spirit possession, speaking in tongues, rapturous evocations, visions, prophecies,  prophets, end times, sleeplessness, fasting all lead to mental  states can ease the vulnerable well past  the confines of normal behavior.   Below are links to the story:

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/15/3919385/tyler-deatons-role-a t-the-international.html

http://news.yahoo.com/ihop-kansas-city-calls-tyler-deaton-cultic- more-164300484.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/missouri-religious-group-investigated-sl aying-bethany-deaton/story?id=17719725#.UK5Zt-TBHSg

http://jezebel.com/bethany-deaton/


by tLynn on Thu Nov 22, 2012 at 02:14:43 PM EST

I'm very aware of the murder (5.00 / 1)
I posted this in advance of a larger article. From early on I've been tracking this story day by day, as new information surfaces.

by Bruce Wilson on Fri Nov 23, 2012 at 10:02:29 PM EST
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I've been keeping an eye on this as well... (5.00 / 1)
... especially since there are allegations that Bethany's husband was running his home group as a "sex cult."  The first thing I thought of was that the bridal mysticism went too far.

I have been contending for a while that Bickle's bridal mysticism is taken at least in part from their interpretation of eighteenth century Moravian mysticism, from the period they were led by Count Zinzendorf and practiced his "blood and wounds" mysticism.  According to Zinzendorf, piety included a deep recognition of Christ's full humanity, including his sexual humanity and a reverence of Christ's "side hole" as almost a sexual organ (so Christ was both fully male and female).  And Moravian historians are uncovering instances where other Moravian leaders took it much more literally than Zinzendorf ever intended.  

Bickle and IHOP specifically emulates a lot of Moravian mysticism and practices, including 24/7 prayer, Mustard Seed style covenants, etc.

And like IHOP, Zinzendorf was accused of running a cult, wanting to take over churches, etc.

However, bridal mysticism has been floating around Latter Rain circles for the last half century or more.  So I'm sure it isn't just from this one source.  But Bickle, along with some other NAR leaders (Rick Joyner is the next best example) openly emulate and lionize the Moravians... or at least the Moravians of legend, not necessarily of history.

I'm hoping that Bickle and IHOP have their own "sifting time" just like the Moravians did in the early 1750s.  But I am afraid they are too bought into their theology to do anything other than circle the wagons and claim they had absolutely nothing to do with this tragedy.

by ulyankee on Fri Nov 23, 2012 at 10:08:18 AM EST

Interesting historical perspective (5.00 / 1)
The "fully male and female" aspect could tie into the homosexual aspects of the IHOP-Deaton cult.  This crime has so many aspects worth attention.  Tyler Deaton, then "ex-gay" husband mastermind, pronounced himself "cured" then went on to orchestrate group homosexual worship rituals.  This is all so dangerous, ugly, and perverse.

Do you think this might precipitate the unwinding of IHOP/The Call?  I'm wondering whether their upcoming December event expected to draw 25000 youth will draw far fewer.  Will naive parents continue to sponsor their children's "education" at IHOPU?

It would also seem that the political value of IHOP/The Call might be seriously impacted.  I can't imagine the next Republican aspirant launching his bid with an IHOP organized event.

by tLynn on Fri Nov 23, 2012 at 10:33:52 AM EST
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I don't know... (5.00 / 2)
... what impact, if any, this will have on IHOPU or IHOP in general.  Right now IHOPU/IHOP leadership, including Bickle, is claiming that Tyler Deaton was on his own and not really part of IHOPU.  His group was listed on their home group list as recently as early November but now they are saying it was a "mistake" and that it wasn't an official IHOPU home group.

But this isn't the first death associated with IHOP.  Are you familiar with the Jeremiah Candler starvation death case?  He was a five month old infant who was starved to death by his parents, both IHOP members.  Although in that case, IHOP also claimed they weren't really members.

This is par for the course, unfortunately, with groups like this.  My former group used to do this all the time.  Although to my knowledge no one actually died... some hospitalizations... however, the focus in my old group was more on raising money to take over the world so there were more fraud and embezzlement allegations than stuff like this, even though our theology was equally authoritarian.  I will say though that after a rash of abuse and fraud allegations in the mid 2000s my old group (Every Nation, descended from Maranatha Campus Ministries) is a lot smaller and a lot less prominent than they used to be.

by ulyankee on Fri Nov 23, 2012 at 11:03:45 AM EST
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One sign of wider fallout... (5.00 / 2)
is that Franciscan University of Steubenville has pulled out of the IHOP OneThing conference.  They were going to sponsor a Catholic track at this conference.

And other "discernment" blogs are connecting IHOP's bridal paradigm with what happened to Bethany Deaton.  To my knowledge, I'm the only one who (publicly, at least) has stated that their particular form of bridal mysticism might have come at least in part from IHOP's reverence for the Moravians.

If you have access to JSTOR through an academic library, the following article may give you some more historical context:

Peucker, Paul.  "'Inspired by Flames of Love':  Homosexuality, Mysticism, and Moravian Brothers around 1750."  Journal of the History of Sexuality 15.1 (Jan 2006): 30-64.

Or this video of more standard Moravian bridal mysticism as enacted through marriage:

"Opening the Blue Cabinet: Moravians and Sex"

But again, history is quite a bit different from Moravian legend (and there is quite a bit of that floating around), and different still from how IHOP might have interpreted and reenacted Moravian mysticism.

by ulyankee on Fri Nov 23, 2012 at 11:24:26 AM EST
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legend vs. current practice (5.00 / 1)
Perhaps I should be used to it by now, but I am always rather stunned when bits of 18th century Moravian pietism/mysticism that were left in the past by practicing Moravians of more recent times show up as some kind of influence on modern-day groups that are the total antithesis of what we believe and practice today. It seems as if this "Moravian legend" split off from the Moravian church several centuries ago and maintains its own totally separate existence.

Until fifteen or twenty years ago, very little was known about the "sifting time," and a lot of Moravians wouldn't even have recognized the term. I wouldn't normally direct anyone to Wikipedia, but the article there on Christian Renatus von Zinzendorf is solidly written, giving an overview and some good links to current scholarship.

It occurs to me that this story is a representation of how Biblical literalists go wrong. Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, who more than any other single person was responsible for the revival and spread ~ as the Moravian Church ~ of the ancient Unitas Fratrum, developed his "blood and wounds" theology in elaborate metaphor. His son Christian Renatus used his position as leader in Herrnhaag to turn those metaphors into literal practice. After a couple of years the scandal was so great that Ludwig removed his son from the leadership position and dissolved the community.

We joke that Moravians never discard anything, but in this case most of the documentation of the era was deliberately destroyed by church leaders. Researchers are just now unearthing documents that escaped the purging of the official archives. Paul Peucker, who is mentioned above, has been a real leader in this effort. Several months ago during a lecture he mentioned that they have just discovered a cache of manuscripts in Suriname. Apparently the order to destroy never reached that mission field, or else a dissenting brother chose to ignore it. It will be interesting to see what comes of that find.

The authoritative work on Zinzendorf's theology is "An Ecumenical Theology of the Heart: The Theology of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf" by Arthur J. Freeman. ISBN 1-878422-38-3 - paperback. It's available on Amazon.com but less expensive if you order directly from the Moravian Board of Publication.

Every once in a while some of these people who have latched on to the "legend" show up in Herrnhut, Germany, where the worldwide headquarters of the church is located. Several years ago there was a video on YouTube of a couple that had made a "pilgrimage" to Herrnhut and engaged in what appeared to be a form of prayer walking. When we were in Herrnhut on choir tour in 2010, the woman who showed us around the church mentioned that couple and observed that they had made her feel like a stranger in her own church. She didn't use the word "creepy," but her