Over the past year I have watched from a distance as Greg Locke has become more and more committed to the concept of deliverance ministry. When I heard that he had a movie coming out on this topic I was intrigued and made plans to watch. I began watching several hours of Locke’s series on deliverance, as well as a couple of his guest preachers who are featured in the movie so that I could have some background.
I want to say at the onset that it is my desire to be as gracious as I can as I give an honest review from a Pastor’s perspective. Although, I have to confess that if sarcasm is a spiritual gift, then I have a double portion. Sometimes it is hard for me to control the anointing, but it’s nothing personal.
Before I get into it I need to establish a couple of things. First, I am a Baptist (as Locke said, “with a capital B-A-P-T-I-S-T”). I am also one of those sabretoothed cessationists (as Locke said, “who are bound by the demon of religion”). Although I do ask that my non-cessationist friends not cut me off. I watched a two hour movie, please give me the time to read this blog post.
Second, I will try to be as accurate with names and quotes as I can possibly be. I’m having to go off memory since it was too dark in the theater to take notes, and it’s a copyright infringement to record any portions of the movie (and rude). That being said, I will gladly stand corrected if I misrepresent anyone.
The Movie Itself. This movie is a documentary style journey through Greg Locke’s transformation from a cessationist into full blown deliverance ministry. Also featured are many of Locke’s friends who have helped him along this journey.
Overall I thought that the movie quality was very good. It seems obvious to me that a lot of money and time went into this project in order to put out a good product (in terms of production). I didn’t expect anything less from Locke in this area.
The Movie Theater. I am a pastor in the heart of Mormon country in Northeast Utah. The area where I live is around 86% Mormon and less than 2% Christian, so I really didn’t know what the turnout would be like. I bought the tickets on Fandango a few hours before the movie and was surprised to find that there were only about a dozen seats left. Needless to say that by the time I got to the theater, it was pretty much sold out. It was a small theater, but it was full nonetheless. It was pretty apparent to me that the overwhelming majority of the people there were from the handful of pentecostal/charismatic churches in the area. Given the turnout in this part of the country, I wouldn’t be surprised if the nationwide turnout was very strong.
The American Gospel Feud. In the weeks prior to the release of this movie, there was a lot of noise on social media about it being a direct response to the American Gospel documentary. While the two documentaries have a completely different message, I didn’t at all get the notion that Locke and his crew were calling out AG. To my knowledge, AG was never once referenced. I felt a need to point that out with everything that was said on Twitter. If Locke was trying to throw shade at AG, I didn’t see it.
The Good. I am thankful that Greg Locke and His church actively take a stand against the evils of society, such as abortion and the LGBT agenda. There are many pastors and church members who have never gotten outside the four walls of the church in order to hit the streets and I think that’s tragic.
I can also appreciate their denunciation of witchcraft, and the things that can lead to it (i.e. Ouija boards, tarot cards, etc.). While these things are only inanimate objects, they can be used to open a portal to another world. The textbook definition of witchcraft is the seeking of supernatural wisdom and power apart from God, which is what these things are used for.
I am also thankful that Locke took a minute to give a gospel presentation. I wish that he would have done so during the actual movie, as opposed to the live stream that he did after the credits, but he did it nonetheless.
The Main Course with a side of Word Salad. I really didn’t know what to expect from this movie. I wasn’t sure what the main push would be. Although many of the common charismatic talking points were mentioned (speaking in tongues, healing, etc.) the main thrust was casting out demons (hence “come out in Jesus name”). Locke made it very clear that he is sick and tired of the argument over demon “possession vs. oppression.” Locke himself will not say that Christians can be “possessed” with demons. But as I sat through the movie, I quickly realized that he was making a distinction without a difference. According to Locke and his cohorts, Christians can “have demons”, and give “occupancy” to demons. And obviously if demons have to be cast out of Christians, that assumes that demons can take up residence within Christians.
At one point Locke gave an illustration of the Jewish Temple. He brought out the fact that when Christians are saved they have the Holy Spirit indwelling their hearts. He said that’s like the Holy of Holies in the Temple. Demons can’t get in there, but they can get inside the outer court. Um, what?
This was the main course of the movie, served with a side of word salad. Over and over and over again it was stated that Christians need to be delivered from demons and spirits of “alcohol, religion, unforgiveness, fear, sickness, lusts, fill in the blank. Although there are a lot of problems that I have with the message in this movie, this is the main issue that I will be dealing with. If Christians can be possessed by devils it causes all kinds of problems. We will look at these now.
The Gospel. In a movie that lasted almost 2 hours, there was almost no gospel at all. Although the gospel was referenced from time to time, I never heard a clear presentation of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ for the forgiveness and deliverance from sin, NOT ONCE. As I mentioned earlier, Locke did have a short gospel presentation after the cast during his live stream, but more than likely that segment won’t even be a part of the movie when it is released to the public.
The whole concept of deliverance ministry completely drains the gospel of its power. This was highlighted by the fact that Locke spent the first minute of the livestream sharing the gospel, and the next 25 minutes “delivering” people from all of the things that the gospel couldn’t deliver them from. To me, the most outlandish quote from Locke was when he said that, “Salvation and redemption are for the lost, deliverance is to set the captives free.” Again, what? Following a basic deductive argument; if salvation and redemption are for the lost; and deliverance sets the captives free; then salvation and redemption don’t set the captives free. Is the reader beginning to see the problem with all of this?
The most staggering quote of the movie though, goes to Isaiah Saldivar (I’m almost positive it was him, again I’m going from memory) when he said, “The gospel isn’t the whole presentation that God wants to give us.” He went on to say in essence that the gospel has no power without these types of manifestations. This is ludicrous but it’s a perfect encapsulation of what they actually believe. Thay have no confidence in the gospel as the power of God unto salvation.
I don’t want to get too preachy here (pun intended) because I want to stay with the contents of the movie, but let me just say that the power of God is in the gospel and God’s word. The glorious death, burial and resurrection of the spotless lamb of God doesn’t need any help (Rom. 1:16, I Cor. 1:18, II Cor 5:17-21, I Cor. 9:16)
I want to point out one more thing before I move on. The statement was made that casting out devils was a huge part of Christ’s ministry. I think that it was even stated that casting out devils accounted for ⅓ of Christ’s ministry. I have no idea how they came up with that figure, but here is what I do know, the overwhelming emphasis of Christ’s ministry was preaching. There are entire chapters full of Jesus’s sermons (i.e. Matthew 5-7). We find many instances where Christ preached without healing or demonstration. In fact, there were even times when Christ refused to heal people because he wanted to go preach in another town (Mark 1:32-38).
The same is true of the Apostles. When most people think of Acts, they often focus on the signs and wonders. But what often gets overlooked is the fact that there are more sermons in the book of Acts than all of the signs and wonders combined. The word “preach” in all of its different forms is used over 35 times in the book of Acts. Like Christ, there were plenty of examples when the Apostles preached without performing miracles, and people came to Christ (imagine that). This brings me to my next point.
On Par With NAR. Has anyone ever talked about Bill Johnson and Greg Locke in the same sentence, or considered them to be similar? If not, now is the time. While they definitely have differences in their personalities, affiliations and delivery, they are cut from the same cloth. Bill Johnson and Bethel Redding are the tip of the spear when it comes to the New Apostolic Reformation. But make no mistake about it, Locke and Global Vision are just another arm of the NAR. It may be a different flavor, but it’s still Baskin-Robbins.
At this point I can hear the reader shouting and getting ready to throw whatever device they are reading this on. But here me out. I’m not saying that Global Vision and Bethel agree on everything, they don’t. However, one of the hallmarks of the NAR is “apostolic authority” (hence the “Apostolic” part). It’s all about a man centered authority structure. This is the Occult 101 BTW. Bill Johnson and company make themselves out to be so important through these supposed signs and wonders (For more on this read Counterfeit Kingdom by Holly Pivec and Dougless Geivett). This is exactly what I see in this deliverance movement by Greg Locke. If there was one glaring message in the movie, it’s that we need them. Without these men and women who have the power to cast out devils, heal the sick, raise the dead, etc. we’re just poor pitiful Christians who are left with nothing but the gospel and a bible. This is why their deliverance ministry was front and center in this movie and the gospel was a mere parentheses tacked on at the end of the credits.
Now I know that Locke and company would adamantly deny this and bring up the fact that they mentioned the name of Jesus several times in the movie (and they did), but so do the Mormon missionaries who come to my door and show me their name tag. We all know where the real action is. It’s in the LDS church, namely their priesthood authority, so this is nothing new. It’s just been repackaged.
Locke might also mention the fact that the Bible was referenced many times, even putting several verses on the screen throughout the movie. But I would just remind everyone, so does Joel Osteen at the beginning of every church service (This is my Bible 😀) right before he proceeds to butcher that very thing for the next 30 minutes.
Strange Things are Happening…Strange Things. This deliverance crowd makes a very strong attempt to tie what they do back to the Apostles and the early church, but they do many things that are never seen in Scripture that are just, well, strange. For example, when Christ or the Apostles casted out demons, it was a simple command that was immediately obeyed. But Locke’s crew make an ordeal out of it. There are a lot of things that I could mention here, but for the sake of time I will only mention a couple. There were multiple times in the movie where it showed these deliverance ministers massaging a person from their stomach to their throat, commanding the demon to come out of their mouth. I’m not sure if they were trying to get them to vomit or what, but I did notice some buckets in the background a few times, I’m js. That’s very strange. And it seems much more Psychosomatic and manipulative than spiritual, but that’s my two cents.
Something else that happened in the movie that would fall into the category of “that’s strange and I can’t find that in Scripture” is that the deliverance ministers called some of the demons by name (Legion told Jesus his/her/they/whatever name(s), not the other way around). I’m not just talking about the spirit of fear, suicide, alcohol, etc. (although that happened a lot). I am talking about casting out the demons known as “Incubus”, “Baphomet”, etc. But how do these guys know? This seems like pure gnosticism to me. But since we are naming demons now, I just want to say that this crowd needs to be delivered from the demon of Eisegesis (that felt good, I wonder if it will work).
I can’t leave this topic without mentioning the live stream at the end. After the credits, Locke came on live. The first thing that he did was ask everyone to stand. It came as no surprise that everyone in the theater but yours truly and the two people with me stood up as commanded. There was a soft piano playing in the background as Locke stood on the stage from wherever he was and appealed to the cameras for the next 25 minutes or so.
After he got his 60 second gospel presentation out of the way, he began a mass deliverance over the thousands of theaters that were watching this movie. At least some if not all of what Locke said seemed scripted. But he told everyone to repeat after him as he proceeded to command the spirit of fear, unforgiveness, bitterness, lusts, etc, etc. to come out in Jesus’ name. What was also strange is that Locke would alternate between commanding these spirits to leave and giving the audience authority to cast the devils out themselves. A self-exorcism is a concept foreign to Scripture as well.
The more that Locke talked, the more fiery he got. In the theater where I was, the emotion in the audience continued to build like a freight train until some of the women were shaking and screaming violently at the top of their lungs, and at least three or four people around me were speaking in tongues. It turned into an absolute circus. I can only imagine how lit it got in some of the bigger theaters across the country.
A False Diagnosis Leads to the Wrong Cure. If there is one thing that Locke and I agree on, it is that people everywhere are oppressed and hurting. The question is, what can be done about it? If we come up with the wrong diagnosis, we will seek the wrong cure. This will only add more burdens to those who are already suffering. This is why we must get this right. And I believe that this concept of deliverance gets it wrong in a few areas.
First, it turns the Christian life and it’s daily sanctification into an easy hocus-pocus, name it claim it formula. So easy in fact, that in many cases you don’t even have to be the one to declare victory, just have your local pastor/apostle do it for you. Are you struggling with grief, temptation, lack of assurance, bad thoughts, sickness, discouragement, etc? All you have to do is cast those demons out and claim the victory. It’s that easy!
This is in total contrast to what Christ said about taking up our cross daily (Luke 9:23), or the promise of tribulation (John 16:33). It goes against what Paul said about dying daily (I Cor. 15:31), enduring thorns in the flesh (II Cor. 12), the battle of the Spirit and the flesh (Gal. 5), the gift of suffering (Phil. 1:29) the continual need to seek God in prayer (Phil. 4), the admonition to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5), mortify the lusts of the flesh (Col. 3:5) and to put on the whole armor of God (Eph. 6). Sometimes the Christian life is just hard. Sometimes we go through trials that we can’t get around, but by God’s grace we just have to go through them and endure. There is no easy formula.
The deliverance movement totally avoids these truths, and as a result they are setting people up for failure. Again, I have a hard time distinguishing Locke’s message from that of Bill Johnson, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar or Joel Osteen, at least in this area. Just declare it! Just speak it! No wonder he is drawing such large crowds. Locke even admitted in the movie that there are large numbers of people who show up to their deliverance services that would never come to a normal service. Why not? I think the answer is clear. This isn’t making disciples.
The Devil Made Me Do It. Another danger of deliverance ministry is that when followed to its logical conclusion, it removes personal responsibility for sin. As Christians, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but we also live in this sinful body of flesh. When a person sins, is it because they desired in their heart to do these wicked things, or did the devil make them do it? By turning personal sins into spirits (spirit of adultery, drugs, fornication, etc.) it removes personal guilt and responsibility and places it upon another party that simply needs to be cast out.
I could also mention that the deliverance movement turns the gospel into a nothing burger and gives the leaders cult-like authority but I have already covered that in previous sections so I will move on.
The Morning After. As I sat there in the theater during Locke’s live stream and watched people completely overcome with their emotions, I couldn’t help but wonder what’s going to happen tomorrow (which is now today). They no doubt got up this morning with the emotions of last night completely gone. And what they found is that their problems, anxieties and temptations are still here, and now what? Do they need to get delivered again, or is it like a one and done?
I think I actually got the answer to this question before the movie even started last night. About 5 minutes prior to the movie they put up a QR code on the screen that said something to the effect of if you want to maintain your freedom scan the code. Out of curiosity I scanned it. It took me to a page where I could sign up for a GVBC email list. It invited those who wanted to “maintain” their deliverance to sign up. Maintain their deliverance? What? If we have to maintain our freedom then who makes us free in the first place? If we get undelivered then how do we get delivered again? See, these guys are selling a product which will always create a need for the dealer.
This is why the gospel is enough! God’s Word is enough! Christ is enough! We are made complete in Christ at the moment of salvation, never to be lost again (Col. 2., II Cor. 5:17, Eph. 1, Rom. 8). This is real deliverance.
Some Personal Questions for Greg Locke. So why should I care? Why would a Baptist pastor spend money to go watch this movie and then take the time to write about it? Am I really choking that hard on sour grapes? The answer is no. I am doing this for a couple of reasons. First, as a pastor, I love Christ’s sheep, therefore I am always on wolf watch. But there is a more personal interest for me. My wife went to bed with a migraine-like headache on April 14, 2019 and she has had that headache every second since. Next month will be four years. Despite prayers from thousands of Christians from all over the world, and seeing some of the best specialists in the world, she has found no relief and no real answers. We are in our 30’s and have three small children. And there is a real chance that my wife will spend the rest of her life as a prisoner of her own body.
Here are my questions for Mr. Locke (if he ever sees this). First, is someone like my wife oppressed with a demon of sickness, or is this simply a physical problem? Either way, can you or your Apostle buddies either cast the demon out or heal her. If not, why not? If you cannot cast this problem out in Jesus name, then who’s fault will that be, your’s, my wife’s, or God’s? I think that these are reasonable questions that a continuationist should be able to answer. I can go ahead and tell you, that the Apostles in Acts wouldn’t have had any problem healing my wife. Every single time in Acts, with possibly one exception, the healing came through the faith and power of the Apostles and not the one being healed. They could heal someone by simply letting their shadow pass over them or touching them with a cloth. If you don’t believe that men have that same kind of power today then maybe you are a partial continuationist, which also makes you a partial cessationist, which is extremely convenient.
The truth is that if my wife and I had gone to that theater last night without knowing our Bible, we would have probably got sucked into the emotion of it all, but the problem would still be here. Then we would have been questioning why it didn’t work. Do we not have enough faith, does God not care, is he even real? I think that this is one of the greatest tragedies of deliverance ministry.
Fortunately for us, we do know our Bible and we also know Christ, not only in salvation but in the fellowship of His suffering. Although He has chosen not to heal her, He has given us joy, grace, peace, a greater desire to share the gospel, greater compassion for others and an increased focus on eternity. But since you have something better to offer I at least wanted to give you a chance to clarify what that is, although I doubt that I will hear anything from you.
What to Do with All of This. Someone like Greg Locke can be so intriguing. He comes along during a time when so many pastors, churches and political leaders lack any real spine or voice and speaks louder than any of them. He seems like the answer to lukewarmness, weakness and dead religion. But I am convinced that there is a style of ministry and preaching that kills sin and excites the flesh, but doesn’t honor and magnify Christ. The Muslims do this all of the time. Go to Saudi Arabia and you won’t find any stronger stance on the issues of abortion and homosexuality. They may come across as macho, but they aren’t glorifying Christ.
We are not to turn to the right or the left. I am convinced that macho Christianity is found in the suffering servants who live for Christ daily, most of which we have never heard of. This is why Christ will say well done thou good and faithful servant, and not, well done thou Christian celebrity.
Real and lasting deliverance comes by grace through faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Anything less is a dog and pony show.
