Paul Cain, one of the Kansas City prophets who later was exposed as an alcoholic and a homosexual taught about what he called “Joel’s Army”.  Bob Jones, another of the Kansas City Prophets, joined in that false teaching and spoke often in the 80’s about this group of young people who would carry ‘the glory’ back to the church in the latter days.  Here are some quotes from Jones about what they believed was “Joel’s Army”:

“I went and I seen the Lord, and it was like He was looking at little yellow things—little round, yellow things like a spirit of God itself. [!] And there were billions of them. And it was like Him and. all the angels were looking through these and every once in awhile they’d say, “Hey, here’s an end-time one; get it down here on the end. Here’s another good one.”

I said, “What are you doing?”

He said, “Oh, we’re collecting those who are foreknown and predestinated for the end-times, for you see, they’ll be the best of all the seed that’s ever been. And we’re looking through the seeds and this’ll be your grandkids. This will be the end generation that is foreknown and predestinated to inherit all things. And these will be like grandchildren to you—even those that you minister to won’t be this generation; their children will be.

“You are to write into their minds, as they write into the children’s minds. You’re to bring them to a place to allow My Spirit to rule in their life where they can begin to set the Church on the proper foundations, as they will. They’ll birth the Church, but their children will attain levels of the Holy Spirit that they will not.” ~Bob Jones

I met Bob Jones a few times in Nashville TN.  One evening at the ‘Grand Ole Opry’, I was asked to join in a conference and later what they were calling a round table of prophets because a follower of Jones named Jeff Jansen saw in me some of the attributes they were describing in this young group of up comers they were “prophesying” about.  The first night of this conference was held in the Gran Ole Opry where a number of “prophets” in the Bob Jones camp prayed for people in what they often called a ‘Fire Tunnel’.  Other than Bob Jones, Ricky Skaggs, Jim Goll, Lou Engle, Ryan Wyatt were there to name a few.  Jeff Jansen called me out of the audience to come down and go through this “tunnel” to allow Bob Jones to pray for me and then to stay and pray for others.  At the time this was all new to me.  And even though I was reluctant it seemed like God was wanting me to learn something.

I entered this tunnel at the left where Jones was standing first in line.  He didn’t pass me through with a short prayer as he was those in front of me, instead he took hold of my head with both hands and began to move it around.  I worried some if he was going to try to force me to the ground as others had and it was embarrassing for me because I felt strongly that I would not go along with any behavior I was witnessing unless the Holy Spirit was leading me to do so and I had to even push off people in the past because they were manipulating me to fall over.  But he didn’t push me.  He simply moved my head around and kept saying, “This is a good one.  Here is another good one.”  He must have said some derivative of that at least five times.  I remember these words because I had this visceral response-thinking hello no one is Good except God and even Jesus questioned people who called him good in Mark 10:18.  (And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.) What Bob was doing was set up as a deeply spiritual thing and if he was in fact hearing from the Lord why in God’s green earth would he be calling me good?  What got to me the most was when he looked at Jeff and made some sort of acknowledgement between the two of them.  I found this deeply disconcerting and at best they were flattering me, but why?

It wasn’t until a few months later when I began to hear about Joel’s Army and how this “Bridal Company” was going to be ushering in the ‘glory’ that I started to put the pieces together.  Jones had been prophesying for some time that this specific group of young people were going to be carrying some sort of glory that was going to bring this end time revival and that it would include both men and women.  When I started researching on the web I found the heresy that Jones believed that Jesus himself would return in His second coming in this “Bridal Company” not in His own flesh, but in his flesh, being the Body of Christ.  See the twist? I couldn’t find any original quotes so I simply asked Jeff if this was true.  My Pastor at the time was with me and spoke to him in this phone conversation as well.  As we asked the very specific questions Jansen refused to answer saying that he felt put on the spot and that if we didn’t want to attend the upcoming conference we shouldn’t.  But he would not answer the questions about this ‘Bridal party’ and it ushering in the second coming of Christ.  Later as I took a public stand against the Bob Jones camp I would here in audios and from people who attended the conferences at Valley Harvest in Neenah, WI that they were indeed still speaking about this belief.

The Lord had warned me to stay away from them and have no influence from them, meaning to not read their books, to not listen to their “prophetic worship”, to stop people who would try to send me or tell me the things people in that camp were teaching or saying.  I have an extensive article on it here.

It was during this time, that I had to leave what we had started at Valley Harvest, when that camp came to town they began to call me ‘Jezebel’ numerous times from the pulpit.  That’s the last I heard because in a vision the Lord told me it was not significant what they were doing and that when Bob Jones passes away the camp would dissolve.  This made sense because Jones was prophesying that he would live to see this Army begin revival like the world has never known.

“Although their parents will reign over them and be the leaders of the last-day church, their children will possess the Spirit without measure. For they are the best of all the generations that have ever been upon the face of the earth. And the best of all generations are those elected seeds that will glorify Christ in the last days.” ~Bob Jones

“That’s the purpose so that Jesus in the last days has the seeds that will glorify Him above any generation that has ever been upon the face of the earth. They will move into things of the super­natural that no one has ever moved in before. Every miracle, sign and wonder that has ever been in the Bible, they’ll move in it consistently. They’ll move in the power that Christ did. Every sign and wonder that’s ever been will be many times in the last days. They themselves; will be that generation that’s raised up to put death itself underneath their feet and to glorify Christ in every way.” ~Bob Jones

They had told me that death itself was going to be overcome and that even sleep they wouldn’t need.  They also said that it was possible to levitate, move through walls, and transport into different places, and shortly after that Jeff Jansen began to tell people and people began to inflate a testimony that he was in two places at once.

Jeff called me the morning after this one lady said that she thought she saw Jeff at a conference when in fact he was at home that night with a few friends and his wife.  What actually frightened me was that the story began to exponentiate from people who were there.  It just kept growing and growing until this huge story developed and books and articles and CD’s were made.  I know that I have a weird life but how many times has someone said they thought they have seen you somewhere that you weren’t? The story was easily understood to be that very mistake at first but as people joined in it became a frenzy.

“And the Church that is raising up in the government will be the head and the covering for them. So that that glorious Church might be revealed in the last days because the Lord Jesus is worthy to be lifted up by a Church that has reached the full maturity of the God-man!” (Bob Jones, tape, Visions and Revelations, 1988.)

This final part of Jone’s 1988 ‘prophecy’ is what strikes me the hardest.  Notice who becomes the head; Who becomes the government:  “And the Church that is raising up in the government will be the head”.  This very statement speaks to the core of what God had been telling me to prophecy.  Jesus is the head.  Hello people.  Only Jesus.  Not a Bridal Company carrying Jesus, not a seeker sensitive methodology, not great business skills, not one man’s agenda, nothing but JESUS.

 Ephesians 1: 19I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. 21 Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. 22 God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. 23 And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.

So today Bob Jones has passed away.  I am worried for those who believed in him and side stepped Christ, incorporated Christ, added Christ to their plethora of extra biblical weirdness.  Even more so I am worried if they will find a place to fellowship where the people strive to keep Christ the head.  I agree, God is doing something very special in these last days.  He is calling His church to recalibrate to His headship.  He is asking us to engage a seemingly new way to live in Christ.  This new way is the old way.  He is calling us to unify as His Body and allow the gifts to flow freely so that He can direct and love and build His Body.  The path is narrow but all it takes is repentance, humility, and love ~which are all only found at the cross of Jesus Christ under His headship, in and by His Spirit.