[The following article is by Carl Widrig, Jr. (Hebrews928@aol) as it appears in the back of the new book by Phil Arms -- Promise Keepers and the Trojan Horse (Houston: Shiloh Publishers, 1997; available from Phil Arms Ministries, P.O. Box 770, Alief, TX 77411). Widrig relates the situation pertaining to James Ryle and his extrabiblical revelations. Ryle, the pastor of the Vineyard church of which Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney is a member, has been an influential part of the Promise Keepers movement from its inception and is on the Promise Keepers board of directors. Widrig's testimony exposes the tremendous spiritual confusion present at the highest levels of the Promise Keepers movement. This material first appeared in The Christian Conscience, September 1996] --

Were the Beatles "anointed" by God? Did they reject this anointing? A candid look at the controversial statements of PK leader, Pastor James Ryle.

"It looked like a Sergeant Peppers Hearts Club jacket ...it looked like a military jacket, and it started floating back and I knew that that represented the anointing, the mantle, the covering that was coming to the `Sons of Thunder.' And not long ago, the Lord said, `I'm giving you the permission to pass the jacket out." --Pastor James Ryle, conclusion of "Sons of Thunder," Harvest Conference, Denver, CO, November 1990

SUNS OF THUNDER

During the later half of 1989, at the height of the "Kansas City Prophets" nationwide tour of Vineyard Christian Fellowship, Vineyard pastor James Ryle had three dreams involving the Beatles which God allegedly interpreted for Ryle after he woke up from each dream. By February 1990, Ryle was sharing the contents of his Beatles "anointing" dreams, and the alleged God-given interpretation thereof, with other Christians -- a "revelation" concerning a musical "anointing" that God gave exclusively to the Beatles to usher in a worldwide revival, and then took away from them in 1970 to be reserved for Christian musicians ("The Sons of Thunder") in the 1990's, for the purpose of ushering in a worldwide revival.

[The part of Ryle's "revelation" about God giving Christian musicians in the 1990's a revival-ushering musical "anointing" was nothing new at the time -- such was commonly "prophesied" by the "K.C. Prophets" who were circulating around the Vineyard at the time. I was an eyewitness to these events, and the object of one such "prophesy" on March 7, 1990, by the assistant prophet to Larry Randolph, a man named Howard Jones, who "prophesied" that God would place an "anointing" on me and I would play "a new song" with my guitar at beaches and in parks and people would gather around and God would "manifest" his presence and the people would get saved.]

On July, 1, 1990, at the local Vineyard he pastors, and also in November 1990, at the "Harvest Conference" held in Denver, Colorado with "K. C. Prophet" Rick Joyner, Ryle, in a message titled, "Sons of Thunder," shared the details of his Beatles' "anointing" dreams and their interpretation. The latter message (especially) has since been accessed via audio tape by multitudes and become the subject of much controversy.

By 1994, Promise Keepers was becoming very popular in the evangelical church in America. In February 1994, James Ryle, who by this time was a rising star Director of Promise Keepers, wrote a piece for Charisma magazine (published by the same publisher as the PK organ, New Man) titled "The New Sound of Music," wherein he toned down quite a bit what he had emphasized on earlier occasions about the Beatles' exclusive "anointing." Instead he attributed their success to the "social climate" of the time, not unlike contemporary 1990's culture. Thus in the name of "history repeats itself" he claimed that --

"we will see musicians who are anointed by God and gifted with even greater ability than The Beatles... these musicians will not fail to glorify God-and therein will be the secret of their success" (Charisma, 2/94, p.14).

This was a much more reasonable-sounding-to-evangelicals rendition of his original "Beatles were anointed by God" "revelations" circa 1989-90.

Later, in 1995, Bill Randles, a Pentecostal pastor in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, wrote what has become one of the most well-known critical pieces on Promises Keepers, "An Open Letter to Bill McCartney," wherein Randles voiced numerous concerns (many of which PK has responded to via fax), including one about Ryle and his Beatles dream interpretations (specifically Ryle's aforementioned "Sons of Thunder" message at the Nov. 1990 Harvest Conference).

Then on January 11, 1996, Steve Chavis, National Spokesman for Promise Keepers and co-host of the "Promise Keepers This Week" radio program, appeared on a local Denver/Boulder radio program called, "The Grant Connection," claiming that, "It's not true" that "James Ryle said, `The Beatles were anointed by God.'"

In more recent months, Promise Keepers released a fax titled, "JAMES RYLE'S COMMENTS ON THE BEATLES," that specifically refers to Ryle's 1990 "Sons of Thunder" conference message as the sole subject of their fax. This fax they have been distributing to their Ambassadors, this time admitting to the word "anointing" in Ryle's Beatles' revelation, but spinning what Ryle said into this:

"Ryle referred to that gift [the Beatles had] as an ‘anointing’ indicating only that the gift was from God."

As the reader who considers the historical record to be further elaborated on might notice, James Ryle and Promise Keepers seem to be making a unified and concerted effort to tone down and "spin-doctor" what Ryle actually said God showed him earlier in the decade about an alleged musical anointing that God gave exclusively to the Beatles and then took away from them in 1970 to be reserved for Christian musicians ("The Sons of Thunder") in the 1990's. Coincidentally (?), the toning down and spin-doctoring has taken place alongside the growing popularity of Promise Keepers which Ryle is a Director of, and of which Bill McCartney and Randy Phillips (who both call James Ryle their "pastor") are the Founder and President respectively.

LACK OF INTEGRITY

My own examination of the evidence has yielded several items of interest. I compared what Ryle was actually saying circa 1990 with what PK has been saying of late via Steve Chavis and this PK fax. I have come to the conclusion that this PK fax is a blatantly skewed portrayal of the historical facts. It's as if they didn't think those who read the fax would ever become privy to the facts via listening to the audio tape recording of Ryle's "Sons of Thunder" message -- the most interesting part of which (having to do with Ryle's three dreams) was also virtually transcribed verbatim in Rick Joyner's Morningstar Prophetic Newsletter. The whole thing has to leave one wondering why PK has suffered such a lapse in the integrity department.

1. IMPORTANT CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION

The background provided in the PK fax, regarding the context in which Pastor James Ryle's comments about the Beatles were made, is unbelievably mis-stated, so much so that they must have thought that the reader would never actually hear the "context" with their own ears. The PK fax begins:

"In 1990, Pastor Ryle spoke at a conference and gave a message entitled, "The Sons of Thunder" containing three main points: 1) God wants the entire world to be evangelized (John 3:16); 2) God wants us to become all things to all men, that by all means men might be saved (I Cor. 9:22); 3) God provides gifts to all of us through which we can reach out to the lost. Pastor Ryle went on to elaborate on the third point, stating that all gifts are a blessing from God -- doctors are gifted with healing, teachers with the ability to communicate information, judges with wisdom, and musicians with music, etc."

What the PK fax doesn't tell the reader is that moments before Ryle gave his "Sons of Thunder" talk, Rick Joyner spent many, many minutes setting up the crowd to be open to "weird revelations" (having to do with "new music") they were about to hear about from James Ryle. Joyner even went to the point of emphasizing that Ryle's prophetic message was particularly for Colorado at that particular time. Ryle's own message contained the same effort to set up the crowd to find what he was about to share to be reasonable, based on the theme of "evangelism" (as if "evangelism" would make whatever he was about to share legitimate). The set-up concluded with these words:

"Now, all that so I can tell you these three things [his three dreams]. I just had to set that as a framework as to the burden of the Lord and the passion of the Lord towards evangelism."

"Framework" is a long way from the PK fax's "three main points." There is no way even a casual listener of Ryle's message could think that Ryle was merely "elaborating" when he finally brought up the Beatles "gift." Nor did Ryle even mention a single word about "doctors," "teachers," "judges" or "musicians" as historical examples of those who have "gifts" like the Beatles had -- that suggestion by the author of the PK fax is a blatant attempt to completely revamp the message Ryle actually spoke in history.

2. THE RESULT OF DREAMS

Ryle's "Beatles" thing came about from dreams Ryle, after much careful deliberation, claimed God personally explained to him and appointed him to "report":

"Isaiah 21:6 is a verse that the Lord quickened to me at the outset of this year, and this is what it says: ‘This is what the Lord says to me: "Go post a lookout and have him report what he sees."’ And what I'm going to tell you right now is three separate dreams that the Lord gave me over a period of several months. And I say that up front because I want you to realize that what you're about to hear is not the fruit of zealous immaturity. This is something that has been thought out, it's been prayed over, it's been examined, it's been investigated, scrutinized, and laid before the Lord and shared with others who are certainly more esteemed than I am in these types of seeings and it has, to this point, stood the test. And so I am confident in saying this much, that the Lord, to a degree, has appointed me as a lookout and has shown me some things and I want to show you and tell you what he showed me." (James Ryle, Harvest Conference, Nov. 1990)

One would hardly know about this context upon reading PK's recent fax on the issue which makes it seem as if James Ryle simply picked the Beatles on a whim, as a mere "example" to make the unobjectionable-to-any-evangelical-ear point that the Beatles had a God-given plain-Jane musical "gifting" that could have been used for honorable evangelistic purposes, which "gifting" God later took away. The problem with this spin is that the gifts of God are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29), and we all know that John, Paul, and George didn't suddenly lose their musical gifting in 1970 (assuming Ringo never had it in the first place).

3. USHERING IN A WORL WIDE REVIVAL

The Beatles "anointing" that Christians were hearing Ryle talk about in 1990 was supposedly so special and powerful that it could have ushered in a worldwide revival -- an anointing that God allegedly held back for over 20 years and soon planned to "release" to the Church. That anointing is quite a different animal than Ryle's 1994, "greatly gifted by God," and PK's recent fax, "gift as an `anointing' indicating only that the gift was from God." Following this line of thought, if Ryle's 1990 "anointing" was really just a plain-Jane musical "gifting" that has been held back for over 20 years now, that would also logically imply that no one has had this plain-Jane musical gift since 1970!

4. GIFTING THE REBELLIOUS?

Ryle misquotes Psalm 68:18 which actually reads (KJV),

"Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them."

Ryle, in both his Nov. 1990 Harvest Conference presentation, and in the Morning Star Prophetic Newsletter, misquotes Psalm 68:18 as saying,

"When you ascended on high, you led captivity captive, and you GAVE gifts TO men, even TO the REBELLIOUS, that God may dwell in our midst."

Ryle needs Psalm 68:18 to say "gave" to justify his teaching that God really could have given the Beatles this special "gift"/"anointing". Ephesians 4:8 (which Ryle never acknowledges) quotes a portion of Psalm 68:18 and then reads, "and gave gifts to men," but in context this is clearly referring to grace given to each one in the Body of Christ (cf. Eph. 4:7), and the passage omits any mention of "the rebellious."

This leads to an important point: It is not in accord with God's Word that God would clumsily and unknowingly give a special, worldwide, revival-ushering anointing to unbelievers like the Beatles, who would then pull a fast one on God and use it for the devil's purposes (preaching a false message accompanying the anointing) while God just sits there and let's it go on until 1970 (!) before taking it away from them. Using this logic, Ryle's "God" could just as well give this type of anointing to end-times false prophets and the antichrist to work lying signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect (Matt. 24:24)!

5. STRANGE GOSPEL FOR EVANGELISM

The fact that the PK fax gives the impression that PK finds no trouble with the content of Ryle's "Sons of Thunder" message is itself a witness against the discernment of PK. For example, the PK fax highlights that Ryle's message was all about "evangelism." But the evangelism Ryle speaks of is not your typical "preach the gospel that Jesus died for your sins and rose again and is coming back unto salvation, and then those whom God has appointed to salvation are regenerated and believe and are saved."

As Rick Joyner was prepping the audience to receive Ryle's "intense" prophetic message at the 1990 Harvest Conference, he stated, "We've had a lot of our concepts about evangelism, and I think the Lord is going to change some of them." Minutes later, Ryle was saying the following which makes evangelism seem more like a Vineyard healing service than the evangelism we know of per the Bible:

"...a light shines from above and there's a woman standing in the midst of the church, and she stands up and she begins singing this song under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And the song had one sentence that she kept singing over and over. And the song was this: 'In the name of Jesus Christ the Lord we say unto you: Be saved!' And she would just start singing that, she would sing it up to that part of the balcony, and I started watching, and it was like wind blowing on a wheat field. The people in that whole section just began to swoon under the presence of the Holy Spirit, and many of them would collapse into their seats, sobbing, proclaiming, 'Jesus is Lord.'"

"And then she would sing it over here, 'In the name of Jesus Christ the Lord we say unto you: Be saved!', and salvation was spontaneously and sovereignly happening all over that place. And that was the end of the dream.

" [After waking up] the Lord showed me some things, and I submit these to you for your prayer and consideration and discussion. But this is the thing that he showed me."

Ryle's "gospel" as per his "Sons of Thunder" article in the Morningstar Prophetic Newsletter is likewise troubling:

"The Lord said, 'Say this to the church: Stand in the light lift up your voice and sing in the streets. Sing the simple message of the gospel -- In the Name of Jesus Christ the Lord, be saved. Lift up your voice as a witness to Christ and the Spirit of God will cause people to be converted.'" (Ryle, "Sons of Thunder," The Morning Star Prophetic Newsletter, Vol 1, No. 4. (Winter 1991), pp. 23-29.)

This cross/resurrection/hope-absent "evangelism" and "gospel" of James Ryle doesn't seem to trouble PK according to their fax. Instead, one would think based on the PK fax that Ryle had spoken a wonderful Scriptural message on evangelism that no genuine Christian could have any trouble with, and therefore must have "misunderstood."

6. A STRAW MAN

The PK fax presents a "straw man" of the objections that have been raised by Christians who judged Ryle's Beatles prophetic dreams as false:

"Pastor Ryle regrets that his comment was misunderstood by believers who thought he was endorsing the message and lifestyle of the Beatles. He only intended to convey his understanding of the power of music and that it is a gift from God. Pastor Ryle did not mean to imply that he believed the Beatles were used by God, only that their gift was from God and it could have been used for the glory of God."

Again, here the PK fax is bypassing the fact that the things that Ryle actually said -- rather than being Ryle's mere "comments" and "his understanding" -- were emphasized by Ryle himself in 1990 (the time period under consideration in PK's fax) to be prophetic dreams interpreted by God Himself, thus implicating GOD (!) in "endorsing the message and lifestyle of the Beatles" via His unique "gift" to the Beatles of a worldwide-revival-ushering "anointing."

Any student of the Bible knows that God doesn't give decade-long worldwide-revival-ushering anointings to unbelievers or false teachers, since such an anointing would obviously tend to give credibility and/or added impact to the message accompanying the anointing. Would God endorse the Beatles' message?! Read the sidebars! One would think from Ryle's "revelations," however, that God's priority is an "at-least-something-is-happening" anointing, while meanwhile God can be quite tolerant (for a decade, at least) with a false message accompanying His worldwide-revival-ushering musical anointing.

The PK fax also conveniently avoids specifying exactly who had thought that Ryle was "endorsing the message and lifestyle of the Beatles" and "believed the Beatles were used by God," so that the reader can't confirm the claim. It gives the reader the impression that these are the only two possible "misunderstandings" known to Promise Keepers, and thus Ryle is easily cleared of all charges laid against him. Such is not the case, however.

For example, perhaps the most well-known voice objecting to Ryle and his Beatles dreams is Pentecostal Pastor Bill Randles, who wrote, "An Open Letter to Bill McCartney," which focused particularly on this "anointing" issue that Chavis and the PK fax seem so focused on themselves to deny or spin-doctor. Sometime in 1995, Randles wrote,

"Frankly, Mr. McCartney, another huge reservation that I am having with P.K. is the fact that James Ryle, a man who claims that God told him the Beatles were anointed to bring forth a worldwide revival and "usher in my (God's) spirit," is your pastor and mentor. According to Ryle, it wasn't until 1970 that God removed his anointing from the Beatles. (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was anointed by God? 1970 was the year the Beatles broke up!). I am leery of a ‘prophet’ who discerns the demonic as anointed."

The details of Randles' objections here are based on what Ryle actually said -- Randles had listened to the audio tape and is judging Ryle's Beatles dream interpretations as Ryle himself instructs his readers to do in his two books on dreams (cf. May '96 CC). But PK doesn't appear to be the least bit interested in even acknowledging the existence of what Ryle actually said, since such is so obviously unbiblical and indefensible -- thus they have propped up a straw man of the criticisms to give the appearance of having dealt with the situation when in fact they have not.

NO REPENTANCE

Ryle's circa 1990 "revelations" about the Beatles' potential worldwide-revival-ushering musical "anointing," that God then waited until 1970 to take away from them to be reserved for and "imminently" distributed to Christians in the 1990's, doesn't at all sound like something the God who inspired the Scriptures would do and say. Ryle's "revelations" rather cast some dark shadows on God's holy character. Does PK know this? It appears they are going out of their way to equip their Ambassadors with misrepresentations, both regarding what Ryle actually said and wrote in 1990 and what the critics have been saying since.

Ryle himself hasn't repented of his 1989-1990 Beatles "revelations" either (why would he need to repent if he was simply "misunderstood" as the PK fax would like us to think?) -- such a repentance would entail him publicly admitting that he lied or was otherwise massively deceived when he, Director of Promise Keepers, "Pastor" of the Founder and President of PK and the rest of those who attend the Boulder Valley Vineyard, and author of two books on the subject of "revelatory" dreams (cf. May '96 CC), in true "humility" (defined according to Ryle at the 1990 Harvest Conference as, "agreeing with what God says about you"), went around claiming to multitudes of people, many of whom "went up to the front" and embraced this "word" to their own spiritual deception, that God has appointed James Ryle as a lookout to both "report" about and "pass out" this worldwide-revival-ushering Beatles "anointing" to 1990's Christian musicians.

Ryle does seem to have toned down in the last few years his extravagant claims and reporting of "what God showed" him, as evidenced by what he had to say in his one-page Feb. 1994 Charisma piece. But such doesn't change the historical facts, that PK has seen fit to "spin-doctor" in a public relations fax what Ryle was openly emphasizing earlier in this decade.

We are obviously asking James Ryle and Promise Keepers to face up to, and respond with an exemplary display of integrity, whatever the cost, to what James Ryle was actually saying and writing in 1990 on this Beatles "anointing" issue. No more lies, no more spin-doctoring, no more straw men -- we want the truth; the Ambassadors of PK, and those the Ambassadors are currently funneling misinformation to, deserve the truth and nothing but the truth.

In the meantime, and even if Promise Keepers was to actually repent and begin to behave with integrity on this matter, the take-home message of this whole incident has got to be something like this: PK is more than willing to play fast and loose with the truth, even to the point of equipping their own Ambassadors with false information, in order to cover the errors of their leadership who are guilty of misleading Christians with their false doctrines and false prophesies.

ADDENDUM: (TRANSCRIBED TEXT & DOCUMENTATION)

RYLE, "SONS OF THUNDER," HARVEST CONFERENCE, 11/90:

Psalm 68:18 says, "When you ascended on high, you led captivity captive, and you gave gifts to men, even to the rebellious, that God may dwell in our midst." The Lord spoke to me and said, "What you saw in the Beatles -- the gifting and that sound that they had -- was from me. It did not belong to them, it belonged to me. And it was my purpose to bring forth through music a world-wide revival that would usher in the move of my spirit in bringing men and women to Christ."

And I want to tell you those four lads, the fab four, they aborted something. They took what did not belong to them and used it in a way that it was not intended by God to be used. It did bring a revival of music -- but it brought it on the other side of the fence if you know what I'm sayin'. And the Lord spoke to me and He said, "In 1970 I lifted that anointing off of them. And it has been held in my hand ever since." And the Lord said, "The reason you saw it in the equipment room of that church is because that anointing belongs to the church." It is part of our equipment. It doesn't belong to the world. It belongs to the Lord Jesus.

And the Lord said, "Now I'm looking for those who I can place that anointing back upon. And as surely as I place it upon 'em, they will come forth with a sound that is distinctive, that will turn the heads of men and women and capture their hearts."

And in response to me asking, "What's it doing here?," suddenly the Lord stood me in the midst of a church and he showed me the woman who was the church herself standing in the midst of the world singing under the anointing of the Holy Spirit a simple but powerful word, "In the name of Jesus Christ the Lord we say unto you: Be saved!"

RYLE, "SONS OF THUNDER," THE MORNING STAR PROPHETIC NEWSLETTER, VOL 1, NO. 4. (WINTER 1991), PP. 23-29.:

Here's the provocative thing that the Lord said that day as I prayed and sought for an understanding on this dream-the Lord said that he had called those "four lads from Liverpool" to himself. there was a call from God on their lives, they were gifted by his hand, and it was He who anointed them. The Lord had a purpose for them and it was to usher in the charismatic renewal with musical revival around the world. But He said that the four lads from Liverpool went AWOL and did not serve in his army. They served their own purposes and gave the gift to the other side. In a sense, the Beatles were like the first man, Adam, who was called to rule the earth but fell to rebellion and rejected his call. But the purpose of God will be fulfilled through "the last Adam," Christ. The purpose of God in bringing forth a music that help to prepare for the coming harvest will likewise be fulfilled by others.

RYLE, CHARISMA MAGAZINE, 2/94, p.14:

Lest I be mistaken for commending The Beatles, let me quickly add that their spiritual, moral and social failures disqualified them from having any message for us other than, "Don't do what we did." Yet despite their shortcomings, no one can doubt that John, Paul, George and Ringo were greatly gifted by God. It is clear, however, that they did not honor God with their gifts-and therein lies the reason for their downfall.

CHAVIS, "THE GRANT CONNECTION" RADIO PROGRAM, 1/11/96:

One great unfounded rumor is that he [Ryle] taught and teaches the Beatles were sent by God and their music was anointed by God. Interesting rumor but not based on much in the way of fact. The message he taught at that time was about the gift of music and how God gifts man with creativity whether that gift is used for the Lord or not makes a big difference and the Beatles are one example of a group that was incredibly creative and talented yet their gift wasn't used for the Lord's purposes. And what a disappointment that was to the Lord what a shame it was, that their gift wasn't used for the Lord's purposes. That particular message has blessed many, many musicians and brought many, many musicians with questions about their own faith into the family of God and that's the kind of fruit from that particular message. But it comes out as James Ryle said, "The Beatles were anointed by God." Its not true.

PK FAX, MID-1996: JAMES RYLE'S COMMENTS ON THE BEATLES:

Promise Keepers would like to provide some background of the context in which Pastor James Ryle's comments about the Beatles were made.

In 1990, Pastor Ryle spoke at a conference and gave a message entitled, "The Sons of Thunder" containing three main points: 1). God wants the entire world to be evangelized (John 3:16); 2). God wants us to become all things to all men, that by all means men might be saved (I Cor. 9:22); 3). God provides gifts to all of us through which we can reach out to the lost. Pastor Ryle went on to elaborate on the third point, stating that all gifts are a blessing from God doctors are gifted with healing, teachers with the ability to communicate information, judges with wisdom, and musicians with music, etc.

Pastor Ryle's message focused on the power of the gift of music. He stated that music is a universal language and it speaks to the heart of men like no other medium. All musicians have received the gift of music from God, whether they are Christians or not. Pastor Ryle used the Beatles as a stellar example of the power of music. These musicians influenced an entire generation and people followed them into drugs, sex, and eastern mysticism. Pastor Ryle asked his audience to imagine the tremendous influence that the Beatles could have had if they had been Christians; if they had used their gift to glorify God and to impact His kingdom. In fact, this message has led numerous musicians (including some prominent secular names) to write to Pastor Ryle saying things like, "at last I know why I was born with the gift of music."

In his reference to the Beatles gift of music, Ryle referred to that gift as an "anointing" indicating only that the gift was from God. Pastor Ryle regrets that his comment was misunderstood by believers who thought he was endorsing the message and lifestyle of the Beatles. He only intended to convey his understanding of the power of music and that it is a gift from God. Pastor Ryle did not mean to imply that he believed the Beatles were used by God, only that their gift was from God and it could have been used for the glory of God.