Jimmy Swaggart: The Epitome Of Arrogance!

FMH Children’s Club International
–– A Company Of Prophets ––
P.O. Box 640109
El Paso, TX 79904

JSM Notice

The following letter-form was brought about as a means of teaching my children the Word of God through the mail. And of course, quite naturally so, that’s the reason I begin these letters with "Dear Children" and end them with "Love Dad". So for the rest of you who participate in these weekly messages, please keep their original intended purpose in mind.

5 June, 2011

Dear Children,

The writing of our last message – “Doug Perry Speaks For God, But God’s Not Always In It!” – was spurred on by two factors; the death of David Wilkerson and our sermonet “David Wilkerson Lost His Song!” And as the Good Lord would have it, this week’s message – “Jimmy Swaggart: The Epitome Of Arrogance!” – has resulted from the same set of circumstances. But please allow me to explain.

It wasn’t too long after having posted “David Wilkerson Lost His Song!” that I was directed to a YouTube video entitled “How Jimmy Swaggart Found Out That David Wilkerson Died”. And the following is what Jimmy Swaggart had to say as Donnie Swaggart gave him the news at the closing of their Wednesday night service:

- How Jimmy Swaggart Found Out -
[Windows Media Player]
(Download WMV Video)

– How Jimmy Swaggart Found Out –
(Download MP3)

“Oh! Oh no! Oh my! Mmmm! Oh Lord! Let’s just stand and pray for his family if you will. Oh Heavenly Father, Lord I, I do not know why that You chose to take our Brother accordingly. I pray for his family Lord – for his wife, his sons. I pray that you would give them strength at this time. Give them help at this time, Lord. Carry their grief and their sorrow. And we ask it all in the holy Name of Jesus. I want us to gather around this front please and just thank the Lord for the camp meeting that He gave us. And, ah, give him praise and glory. This is a terrible thing that’s just happened, but Dave is with the Lord. He’s with the Lord now. And, ah, it won’t be too long till all of us will be there, by the grace of God.”

Now, knowing what I know about the past relationship between Jimmy Swaggart and David Wilkerson, I wondered what was really going through Jimmy Swaggart’s head as he “grieved” over the loss of David Wilkerson. Was he “grieving” the fact that he hadn’t made things right between David and himself as God Almighty demands in His Word?

“But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” (Matthew 5:22-24 KJV)

That’s the question that came to my mind as I watched the video, and then the Lord told me it was time to write another sermonet on Jimmy Swaggart. So I sought the Lord in prayer for His direction, and the direction He gave me came in the form of one Word:

Arrogance
AR'ROGANCE, n. [L. arrogantia, from arrogo, to claim; of ad and rogo, to beg, or desire. See Arrogate.]
The act or quality of taking much upon one's self; that species of pride which consists in exorbitant claims of rank, dignity, estimation or power, or which exalts the worth or importance of the person to an undue degree; proud contempt of others; conceitedness; presumption.
I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease. Isa 13. 1 Sam 2. Pov. 8.
(Webster’s 1828 Dictionary)

Now, if the subject of Jimmy Swaggart’s “arrogance” wasn’t enough already, the very next day the Lord gave me the full title of this message for today – “Jimmy Swaggart: The Epitome Of Arrogance!” And even though I had a hard time remembering the “E” word later on that day, I was able to bring it back to memory, search for the correct spelling, and finally come up with the full import of it’s pointed meaning:

e·pit·o·me [ih-pit-uh-mee] –noun
1. a person or thing that is typical of or possesses to a high degree the features of a whole class: He is the epitome of goodness. (Dictionary.com)

God Almighty says that Jimmy Swaggart has it all together as a perfect example of someone who’s “arrogant”. In other words, Jimmy Swaggart is “king” when it comes to “arrogance”.

And with that in mind, it’s time to continue on with the message with a little help from Leonard Ravenhill. And just in case you’ve never had the pleasure, please allow me to introduce this dedicated man of God:

Leonard Ravenhill was one of Britain’s foremost outdoor evangelists of the 20th century. God used him to help bring thousands of people to Christ throughout Britain. Unlike many of the evangelists of today, the conversions he helped bring about most often lasted. He did not water down the Gospel when he preached it!

Later in life, Leonard Ravenhill and his family moved to the United States. Then in the 1980s, he and his family moved to a home near Lindale, Texas, where he mentored Keith Green of Last Days Ministries.

A. W. Tozer, a close friend of Leonard Ravenhill, had the following to say about him: “Those who know Leonard Ravenhill will recognize in him the religious specialist, the man sent from God not to carry on the conventional work of the church, but to beard the priests of Baal on their own mountain-top, to shame the careless priest at the altar, to face the false prophet and to warn the people who are being led astray by him.”

So did you get the picture? Leonard Ravenhill was a powerful evangelist who lived his life for God with only one thing in mind: REVIVAL! But he was also a prophet! Because for all those in Christian leadership positions, that were concerned more with their popularity ratings among the people than their faithfulness to God, he became their worst recurring nightmare. And just one of them happened to be Jimmy Swaggart. In fact this was what Leonard Ravenhill had to say about him in part 5 and 7 of “A Man Of God”:

– A Man Of God –
(Download MP3)

“What would Swaggart be if he hadn’t messed his life up? He might have been a new deliverer for this nation, but the Devil got him! And now he’s arrogant. He says, “It’s no business of yours!” They tell me when he said that two (2) weeks ago the audience stood up and clapped and gave him a standing ovation. He’s got thousands of people living in adultery and devilry, where they don’t care. I just hope God spares him. I mean if I were God I’d cut the guy off. He’s on his second chance. Adam didn’t get a second chance. Judas didn’t get a second chance. Why does Swaggart expect it? We’re in that day now when sin doesn’t mean that much to us. I mean I weep over the guy, but what does Jesus do? He’s crucified the Son of God afresh! … God’s going to destroy that man! …How can a man mix with a harlot, when he knows his body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, unless he’s a hole in his head! I mean the body is the temple. Is it awesome when you think two men, highly regarded, had the world at their feet. Jimmy Swaggart is arrogant because he says God called him to evangelize the world. In the first place that’s wrong. He said that he had nobody to go to. David Wilkerson went to him two years before that mess. So he went to PTL two years before then, told them, and they wouldn’t listen to him. Still saying they had no friends. They were so arrogant. They became alone to themselves. Nobody dare correct them. They wouldn’t listen to counsel. They got on a crest, as they say in the world, they got on a roll. Swaggart’s taking three million a week in. I, I hear he still takes in a million, million a week. But where’s the power? … W hat does it matter about Swaggart and all the rest. I know it’s objectionable; it hurts. And people that tell me now, they’re over there cracking jokes about Swaggart, if ah, if God told him he could go on preaching, a guy told me the other night, somebody says, if God says he can go on preaching the message, why didn’t God tell him there was a cop following him up the road in a car?”

Leonard Ravenhill was born on the 18th of June 1907 and died on the 27th of November 1994. He gave the preceding prophetic reproof on Jimmy Swaggart in his 84th year, approximately three (3) years before his death. The interview was recorded shortly after Jimmy Swaggart’s arrest on the 11th of October 1991 for driving on the wrong side of the road in a red-light district of Indio, CA. His passenger at the time was prostitute #2 (Rosemary Garcia). And of course this incident took place less than four (4) years after Jimmy Swaggart’s tearful public confession on the 21st of February 1988: "I have sinned against you, my Lord." Jimmy Swaggart confessed to his "moral failure" on worldwide TV after having been caught with prostitute #1, but true repentance was not to be forthcoming. And, of course, the reason for it was “Jimmy Swaggart: The Epitome Of Arrogance!”

Leonard Ravenhill was dead on target with his prophetic utterance concerning Jimmy Swaggart: “He’s crucified the Son of God afresh! … God’s going to destroy that man!” In fact more than a dozen years later (10/23/05) the Lord had me to write a sermonet entitled “Jimmy Swaggart Thinks He Has Arrived…But God’s Got An Eraser!” And the following excerpt from that message are the words of Jimmy Swaggart as recorded on his “May 2005, 1st Sunday, Family Worship Center Home Church Video”:

– Prophets Of Baal –
(Download MP3)

“The nation is filled with prophets of Baal! Today! Now! Present! I like what Brother Jones said this morning. I, let me see how to say this. Eight (8) or ten (10) years ago I didn’t say anything, I just let them go ahead and pray. They’d come up, ‘We’ve got a word for you.’ They didn’t have a bit more word for me than I’m going to be elected president yesterday. (Audience laughs.) ‘Well how do you know they don’t have?’ Because the Lord would have told me, already! I live close enough to Him that He can speak to me as well! (Audience applauds.) Are you hearing what I’m saying tonight? And now I don’t put up with it. They come up, ‘I’ve got a Word from you’, I’ll stop them right, ‘No you don’t either.’ ‘I don’t’, I say ‘No you don’t either!’ I don’t want some prophet of Baal laying his hands on me. (Audience applauds.) Somebody ought to shout in this place! (Audience applauds.) You’d better be careful at the preachers you listen at over television or listen to over radio, or you’d better be careful of the preachers that you listen to behind any pulpit! (Audience applauds.) The most dangerous place in town is not Joe’s Bar, you know what that is. It’s church. Not all the time but most of the time…”

“Prophets of Baal”, Jimmy Swaggart proclaimed! Two men of God – Leonard Ravenhill and David Wilkerson – who were used of God to try and save Jimmy Swaggart’s everlasting life… but yet in 2005 he called them “prophets of Baal”?

Jimmy Swaggart, the epitome of arrogance!

But let’s not get ahead of the story. Because you see it was in the fall of 1984 that Jimmy Swaggart opened the Jimmy Swaggart Bible College (now known as World Evangelism Bible College – WEBC). And as the Good Lord would have it, two of Jimmy Swaggart’s special guezst speakers at the Bible College were none other than Leonard Ravenhill and David Wilkerson.

Now it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out that sooner or later these two prophets of God were going to end up speaking prophetically “at” the Jimmy Swaggart Bible College and “to” Jimmy Swaggart in particular… and that’s exactly what finally took place. Because you see as time went on the Lord showed David Wilkerson that there was a major problem in Jimmy Swaggart's life. David Wilkerson, in no uncertain terms, let Jimmy Swaggart know that the survival of the Jimmy Swaggart Ministries depended on him repenting of his sin and taking a year off from preaching to get alone with God and seek His Face.

So what did Jimmy Swaggart do? Did he receive the Word from God’s prophet and humble himself before the Lord? Not a chance! He called him a “prophet of Baal”! Instead of receiving God’s Word from a Brother who loved him dearly, Jimmy Swaggart made the choice to build on to his “arrogant” reputation. And as C.M. Ward would later go on to say about Jimmy Swaggart, "You can't correct God"… but Jimmy Swaggart sure did try!

So David Wilkerson spoke God’s truth to Jimmy Swaggart! And two weeks later his monthly article, the one that was normally posted in “The Evangelist” magazine, was no more. Jimmy Swaggart had taken revenge on the so-called “prophet of Baal”, but yet shortly thereafter God’s Word of prophecy became manifested as Truth! I mean it was only three months later (2/21/88) that Jimmy Swaggart stood before his filled-to-capacity Family Worship Center and proclaim to the whole wide world, "I have sinned." (See “'Jimmy Swaggart Ministries' - Three Words That Curse God's Name!” for more of the details.)

That was the outcome of Jimmy Swaggart, his arrogance, and “prostitute #1”. However, as the Good Lord would have it, the next sermon preached by David Wilkerson at Time Square Church was entitled “Wild Donkeys”... and it specifically addressed the backslidden preacher by the name of Jimmy Swaggart. In fact the following Scriptural reference was God’s choice for that fiery message on Jimmy Swaggart and his lustful spirit:

– Wild Donkeys –
(Download MP3)

“A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her. Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.” (Jeremiah 2:24-25 KJV)

Jimmy Swaggart, a “wild ass” in heat! Driven by his lust – unable to turn from his overpowering sin – but yet arrogantly refusing the counsel spoken through God’s appointed prophets.

“Prophets of Baal”, says the arrogant Jimmy Swaggart.

And then comes episode #2, with prostitute #2, and it’s horrifying repercussions. Because just as David Wilkerson had prophesied (in part), one of the Jimmy Swaggart Ministry buildings became inhabited with both spiritual and physical bats as the Bible College students made their mass exodus and abandoned the campus.

“Prophets of Baal”, says the arrogant Jimmy Swaggart.

Shortly before his death, Jimmy Swaggart’s father, “Sun” Swaggart, spoke the following all-to-real Word from God: “Jimmy’s lost his mind!” “Sun” Swaggart spoke God’s Truth about his backslidden son Jimmy. And the following Scripture lays out the grim reality of that same Truth:

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15 KJV)

“Prophets of Baal”, says the arrogant Jimmy Swaggart. “I live close enough to Him that He can speak to me as well!”

In 1984, David Wilkerson was the keynote speaker at an “Agape Force” Christian youth ministry convention in Dallas, TX. During one of the sessions he spoke on the reality of witchcraft, and how it was about wreak havoc in the Christian church. He said there were covens of witches all over the U.S. making pacts to “pray” for the downfall of Christian leaders who were engaged in adultery and sexual sins. He prophesied that in the coming years Evangelical leaders would begin falling by the score to sexual sins. And of course just one of the many was Jimmy Swaggart. Witchcraft!

“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.” (1 Samuel 15:23 KJV)

Witchcraft has taken it’s toll and left it’s mark on Jimmy Swaggart. He’s lost his mind… but it’s nobody’s fault but his!

“Prophets of Baal”, says the arrogant Jimmy Swaggart. “I live close enough to Him that He can speak to me as well!”

On the 4th of September 1989, shortly after Jimmy Swaggart’s episode #1 with prostitute #1, People Magazine ran an article on David Wilkerson… and this is only a small part of what was said:

"I never considered myself a great preacher—I'm a communicator," Wilkerson says, and his low-key approach sharply contrasts with that of other evangelists. A few years ago he warned his friend Jimmy Swaggart that he feared God was about to shut Swaggart's flamboyant act down, and he now says that all the fundamentalist "one-man shows are over. The people won't have it."
[http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20121091,00.html]

God is about to shut down Jimmy Swaggart's flamboyant act! But the question remains: what’s it gonna take to bring him to his knees in humble submission before the Lord? What will it take?

Jimmy Swaggart is still the “wild ass in heat” that David Wilkerson preached about so many years ago! Nothing has changed! He’s still driven by an ubcontrolable lust – unable to turn from his overpowering sin – while arrogantly refusing the counsel spoken through God’s appointed prophets. Read all about it in our most recent sermonet “Why Was Allison Collins-Rhys At Jimmy Swaggart Ministries?”

In closing, please allow me to share just one final Word from David Wilkerson to Jimmy Swaggart. Because it was on the 18th of November 1991 – thirty-eight (38) days after Jimmy Swaggart’s episode #2 with prostitute #2 – that he closed out his message – "When God Departs" – with the following plea:

“Dear saint, I pray that God puts His dread and fear in your heart. God means His Word! He once told Moses, one of the meekest men in the world, "Since you've sinned against Me before the people, you will not enter the Promised Land." (Thank God, He took that meek man into the true Canaan!). If the Lord did that with a holy Moses, what will He do with us on the earth at this time? He's saying an absolute "No!" to your sin and lust! If you are guilty of anything that has to do with adultery, fornication or a secret affair, God is saying to you, "My judgment is coming. And I'm going to have a people that are righteous and pure. Seek Me, and I will rain down My righteousness on you. I'll cleanse you. Just call on Me and seek Me with all your heart, and I'll pour out My rain on you." Before His final judgments fall, God wants to bathe you in His precious blood and His Word.” [http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/node/1209]

“Prophets of Baal”, says the arrogant Jimmy Swaggart!!!

David Wilkerson was truly one of God’s prophets! I miss David Wilkerson! I’m grieved that he lost his song!

Please pray for Jimmy Swaggart! Pray that God Almighty will do whatever it takes to bring him to his knees in humble submission. If and when that ever happens, the “arrogance” of Jimmy Swaggart will depart so that he can confess before the whole wide world that God sent His prophets for many years, but he, Jimmy Swaggart, was too arrogant to receive them! Jimmy Swaggart: the epitome of arrogance!

“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” (Isaiah 57:15 KJV)

For more on the subject see “Jimmy Swaggart Ministries: “Ichabod” - The Glory Is Departed!”

Until next time, fear God and “keep on keeping the faith in Jesus!!!”

Love,

Dad (Bruce Hallman)

“ALL FOR THE LOVE OF JESUS”