BRIAN GEMMELL: BEWARE DANGEROUS END TIME TEACHING!

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. (2 Peter 2:1-3) 

BRIAN GEMMELL: "THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NUMBERS IN SCRIPTURE AND IN PROPHECY."

Brian Gemmell is a well known Bible prophecy teacher in the UK. In recent years he has been teaching an obscure eschatalogical (end time) doctrine which he has called “Order, Order, Order!" that has no biblical foundation.

This false teaching is that Jesus Christ will be with the bride on earth for a period of ten days before the collective “gathering together” in the air (known as the rapture of the church).

This very lethal error is based on an unbalanced obsession with chronology and numerology at the expense of the clear teaching of the Bible. It originated with Paine & Ware in the early part of the last century. Ware made the prediction that the rapture would take place on June 12th 1933. When this failed to happen, he revised his chronology and further speculated that it would take place in 1945 or thereabouts.

The rapture of the church is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:50-54. Biblically the rapture of the church will happen in an instant, in the blink of an eye:

.....in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:52)

The Bible does not give any indication that there will be a time lapse of ten days before believers join the dead in Christ. The second coming of Christ occurs after the Day of the Lord when He returns to defeat the Antichrist, destroy evil, and establish His millennial kingdom. Christ's second coming is described in Revelation 19:11-16. Jesus Christ will not appear on the earth until after the great tribulation and the Day of the Lord (Joel 2:31) when every eye will see him.

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. (Revelation 1:7) See also Matthew 24:30. Compare Matthew 26:64; Mark 13:26; Mark 14:62; Acts 1:9, Acts 1:11.

Jesus Christ Himself said:

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. (Matthew 24:36)

Jesus Christ also said we should not believe anyone who claims to be the Messiah or anyone who claims to know when He is coming again. The second coming of Jesus will be sudden, unexpected and unmistakable, like lightning flashing across the sky (Mark 13:21-23, 13:32-37; Luke 17:20-37; Matthew 24:23-51).

And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. (Luke 17:22-24; Matthew 24:24,26)

The Bible warns us that false Christs will appear, but that we must not go after them. The danger in Gemmell's teaching is that believers will expect the appearance of Christ on earth prior to the rapture of the church.

When the rapture occurs, the true believers will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, we will not meet him on the earth:

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)

Gemmell also questions the omnipresent nature of Jesus Christ:

“He is forever a man. He has divested himself forever of a particular attribute. He will always have his omnipotence and his omniscience. But his omnipresence he has limited because he is in a body, forever in a body and he will express his presence through this great body, the body of believers.”
http://www.cwm.org.au/2-uncategorised/322-gemmell
http://rr-bb.com/showthread.php?162513-Jesus-not-omnipresent-says-Brian-Gemmell

We cannot say that Christ has divested himself forever of the attribute of omnipresence - this is a very serious error. Jesus Christ's human nature is not omnipresent, but his divine nature is. It is the one person of Christ who shares both natures (communicatio idiomatum) and it is the one person who is omnipresent.

The link below does show that Gemmell's eschatological view is not based on the Bible but on "the Math".

February 3, 2011 at 10:37am:

"Excellent dear brother. Not much longer to wait now. The night is far spent and the day is at hand. Some watchers in the UK are convinced that the rescue of the Chilean miners was a sign of the coming Resurrection, particularly with the many biblical numbers associated with the event ,not least 33. The Lord Jesus was 33 at the time of His resurrection. A symbolic number of the church at the beginning of her life at Pentecost was 120…the no. in the upper room. Symbolic number at the end of the age when the Bridegroom returns and our “fast” is broken but the “net” is not… John 21 is 153. You do the Math!! In Jesus, Maranatha, Brian Gemmell" 
http://www.pawcreek.org/salty-saints/the-earth-is-reeling-rocking

Gemmell promoted The Restored Vision by A.E. Ware on the 17th of May 2013:

"The Greek word translated 'week' is in its anglicised version  'sabbations' which is itself the Hellenised Hebrew word Sabbaths. Note that this is in the plural, hence weeks. The reference is to the first day of the Feast of Weeks, the 7x7 weeks ( 49 days) between Firstfruits and the 50th day, Pentecost.

Lev 23 outlines the festal calendar and this covers the whole period of the barley and wheat harvest. At Pentecost 2 loaves are waived before the Lord signifying the completion of the harvest and offering the Lord the first finished bread. A fuller teaching is contained in 'The Restored Vision' by A.E. Ware. (Available from me for 8.50 + P&P).”
http://briangemmell.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/excellent-article-here-worth-reading-by.html

Jacob Prasch has recently described the Paine & Ware teaching as - "A false eschatology that is plainly heretical, potentially cultic and ultimately lethal."
http://moriel.org/MorielArchive/index.php/discernment/paine-ware

The home page of the PWMI has a short article warning about the teachings of Paine and Ware as follows:

DATE FIXING: During our 96 years of prophetic witness, formerly as the Advent Testimony Movement and latterly as PWMI, I am pleased to say that we have never fallen into the devil's trap of 'date fixing'. This is a temptation and a ploy of the enemy to discredit those who fall for it. Sadly, over the years we have witnessed many who have succumbed and have been left looking foolish. Only last year (2012) it was US evangelist Harold Camping who was left with 'egg on his face' over this issue.

More recently we have been made aware of the re-emergence of the teachings of A E Ware & F.L Paine who during the early part of last century fell into the same trap. Based on their obsession with chronology and numerology these men also made the mistake of date fixing. Ware made the prediction that the rapture would take place on June 12th 1933, when this failed he revised his chronology and decided it must be about 1945, but of course he was wrong on both counts. It has come to our attention that his booklets have been republished and are being given out freely in some parts of the country! and that some prophecy speakers are following the Ware teachings.

As a Movement we warned against this in 1933 and feel that it is write to issue the same warning to our readers at this time lest any should be led astray or troubled by these false ideas. We have always, as a Movement, sought to declare the great truth of the rapture but at the same time to expose false and wild notions. We therefore warn our readers against the teachings of Ware & Paine as we did 80 years ago and beware of those who peddle them. Let us remember that 'no man knows the day or the hour-only our Father in heaven'. http://www.pwmi.org/cms/index.php?page=what-we-believe

I contacted The Prophetic Witness Movement International (PWMI) General Director, Colin Le Noury for clarification, since Neville Stephens (Secretary of the Pontypool Branch of the PWMI) is currently promoting Gemmell in complete disregard of their directive not to promote him under their banner.*

Colin Le Noury:
".......Brian Gemmell's ministry is no longer acceptable and he has been removed some time ago from our Recommended Preachers List.

Brian Gemmell's ministry is NOT acceptable within PWMI and all Branch Secretaries have been advised not to book him. I have told Neville that if he insists on booking BG then it must not be under the PWMI banner. Yes we do stand opposed to Ware and Paine teaching and have done for 80 years."

The implications of Gemmell's theology about the rapture are very dangerous, as Pastor Bill Randles of Believers in Grace Fellowship explains:

Brian Gemmell Teachings Removed ~ 2013

"It is with a heavy heart that I must distance myself, for the time being, from Brian Gemmell's teaching ministry. Although I count him as a dear friend, Brian has propagated a teaching about the rapture that I would consider erroneous. In his series, "Order, Order, Order!", he teaches that Jesus will return ten days before the rapture, to appear among the churches giving us a chance to "get our houses in order". This denies the immanency of the rapture, and the fact that we don't know when our Master is coming. Furthermore, and perhaps most troubling, Brian teaches that the "dead in Christ will rise up at that time and there will be the chance for them to 'settle' unsettled accounts with the saints". Myself and Jacob Prasch have been working to restore Brian, whom we count as a dear friend, so we covet your prayers. Sincerely, Pastor Bill Randles" http://www.believersingracevideos.com/page3.php

Brian Gemmell makes much of the fact that he serves on the council of the Bible Prophecy Foundation (BPF) http://www.briangemmell.blogspot.co.uk/ The issue of Gemmell's false rapture teaching has lead to the resignation of two key people in the that organisation. It would appear that Gemmell has reduced the the BPF to little more than four men and a website! Steve Lloyd of the BPF: "I do not endorse his teaching outlined in 'Order, Order, Order' in regard to the 10 day rapture..... I do not necessarily endorse Ware & Paine either." It is very sad that the BPF have not understood the implications of this very serious matter and taken a firmer stand.

"ORDER, ORDER, ORDER: The Sequence And Structure Of The Rapture. This is a four message study DVD given by Brian, and this provoking and challenging ministry asks Christians to examine and test the traditional held view of the sequence of events leading up to the Rapture of The Bride Of Christ to heaven. A thought-provoking and very intriguing study of the end time events on the calendar of the Lord." 
http://briangemmell.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/some-of-materials-available-from-brian.html
http://www.twobytwoworship.com/gemmell.html

BRIAN GEMMELL'S ITINERARY 2016

Savoy Hotel Bournemouth - 14-18th March 2016

UPDATE: NEVILLE STEPHENS BLOG COMMENT

Neville Stephens (administrator of Brian Gemmell's web site): "This is the same woman who openly calls the inspirational World Christian Expositor and Leader Dr. John MacArthur "a false prophet and a wolf in sheep's clothing"! (The title of her blog seems to have gone to her head)!
She also wrote to all of the Christian Endeavour Conference Centres in the UK begging them not to invite Brian Gemmell to speak at their Christian Holiday Retreats ever again, and also to the Leven Street Evangelical Church in Saltburn with the same demand!
Needless to say, that all of these very sound and solid Christian organisations put her requests into the bin where they belong, and also the CE Hotels have since booked Brian for at least three conferences this year, with a fourth in the pipleline (see my Newport blog)." http://ziontalywain.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/what-is-happening-at-victory-church-at.html#comment-form

RESPONSE:

I have come against these two false teachers for very good Biblical reasons. Firstly, I put the Word of God above any man's teaching, and secondly as a warning to others. The Word of God says that Jesus Christ will return only once to the earth, at His parousia, and that every eye shall see him (Revelation 1:7). There is no biblical foundation for Gemmell's theory that Christ will return to the earth for a ten day period prior to the rapture of the church. I did indeed email the Christian Endeavour Centres where Gemmell will be speaking next year and I also allerted Saltburn Evangelical Church where he spoke earlier this month. However, I neither “begged” or “demanded” anything from them; I simply sent them a copy of my article as a warning. If they did bin them as Neville claims, then that is their prerogative - their blood is on their own heads!

If I (the Lord) say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. (Ezekiel 3:18-19) 

* Correction 16th February 2016: 

Neville Stephens has advised me that he no longer represents the PWMI. He has also informed me that he did not promote Brian Gemmell under their banner. 

Stephens: "He (Colin LeNoury) had no control over me to arrange and publicise 'Bible Prophecy Meetings' in my region, and this I did with his full knowledge. He did not like it, but as long as I did not have these people speaking under 'a PWMI banner' he tolerated the situation."

Stephens is a personal friend of BG and is the administrator of his website. He continues to recklessly put the Body of Christ at risk by promoting BG, preferring the friendship of a heretic rather than the clear teaching of Jesus Christ! (Matthew 10:34-39)

Further posts and information on this subject: 

http://bewareofthewolves.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/brian-gemmell-beware-dangerous-end-time.html

http://bewareofthewolves.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-welsh-outpouring-exposure.html

http://bewareofthewolves.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/beware-of-brian-gemmells-deviant-pre.html