*Note:  for an alternative to Joyner's The Final Quest the reader might be interested in the novel, The Bema: A Story About The Judgment Seat Of Christ by Tim Stevenson.  Whereas Joyner claims his book is based on trances and visions he experienced, Tim Stevenson says that the outline for the book came to him in 1990, but he spent the next eight years mulling over it and researching until he was ready to write it. Biblical and historical expositories for the book are not avoided, but are instead openly discussed. Our friend (Eric Weiss) who read it, says the book also serves as a decent evangelistic tool.  All in all, he says this book is a good alternative "for those of us who would agree with Joyner's point that what we do in this life does have eternal ramifications -- but who cannot in good conscience recommend The Final Quest.

A few brief comments about the book "The Final Quest":

Some wonder whether we think "The Final Quest", by Rick Joyner is a true vision or not. At this point, we would like to say it really doesn't matter. Even though the vision seems to support humility at first glance (pp. 53-55),  people who have read it have noted that over-all, it comes across as “falsely humble.” As one Amazon reviewer wrote, “On the one hand, Joyner will comment on how overwhelmed by his own sin he is during his journey into heaven. Then, only six paragraphs later, he states, "Immediately the entire host of heaven seemed to stand at attention, and I knew that I was the center of their attention." Wow! …And then he swings immediately back into a darker mood: "I was too corrupted. I could never adequately represent such glory and truth." So, while he's openly humble, he's also the center of attention for all of heaven--and he's the center of attention throughout his book... I'm concerned that a work that centers constantly on one man, no matter how much it declares the glory of Christ or how piously he frowns upon his own unworthiness, is trying to build a following. To what eventual end? …”

True revelation generally radically conforms our thinking, and leads us to greater humility. It is often intended for ourselves as much as it is for anyone else--maybe even more so. There are many instances of this in the Bible. For instance, Isaiah was shown his sin as well as the sin of his nation (Isaiah 6:1-5), and the Apostle Paul was transformed and humbled as he encountered the Lord Jesus and received his commission for the gospel to the Gentiles.

On the other hand, King Saul had a seemingly prophetic 'life-changing' experience with the Lord (1 Samuel 10: 9-11) and yet later became completely fallen. So even if this were a true vision, a person’s life and practices of ministry as a “prophet” is more telling than what a “vision” says about him.  Even though Joyner and/or his fan base clearly has thought of him as a “prophet,” the reality of it is that in many people’s minds today, Joyner us quite representative of the now popular phrase “prophets for profit,” instead of a real prophet. (For some follow-up hints to money dramas with Joyner, please see our page Rick Joyner And Charisma Magazine.

Comments about The Call

I'm not interested in going into great detail about "The Call" any more than I am about "The Final Quest". However, I will say that I've never known the Lord to appear in a somewhat hidden form in one vision ('Wisdom' in this case), then reveal Himself during that vision as the Lord Himself (pp. 55 of "The Final Quest"), and then rehide Himself into the mysterious 'Wisdom' character again in future visions (i.e. "The Call") This is not congruent with anything I've ever known of the Lord's character or His conduct in visions or dreams. There is no purpose that I can fathom in remaining mystic or in rehiding Himself. Part of Jesus's ministry, in fact, is as a revealer (Luke 2:35), and revelation is about revealing, not hiding.  The whole of scripture and examples in Scripture do not support a mystical 'Wisdom' presentation very well in the first place, much less a second go-around.

Also, I wondered about the purpose of the book, "The Call". In it, there was defenseness regarding the previous vision (pp19). There were at times a minimization of the 'realness' of the revelation, and at other times an admonishment to the importance of prophecy (pp23 and 25). There was alot of focus on reality and unreality. The mysticism was front seat and any 'message' was back seat, and vague. There were a few concrete messages, though. On pg. 164 'Wisdom' speaks:  “This is where you must live, between the dying and the living.” and on pg. 169: "The heavens and the earth are about to behold the difference between the light and the darkness.  You are called to live between the darkness and light, in order to call those who live in darkness to light.” These things are strange and not Scripturally supported. If a spiritual being would have said these things to me, it would have caused me to question the source of this 'Wisdom' character and even rebuke in the name of Jesus as a possible New Age spirit, either in the middle of the vision/dream if I could, or upon awakening. I might remind it of appropriate Scripture in my challenge to its words, and thus test its validity (1 Samuel 28:8-19; John 1:4; Eph. 5:8-14). After that, I might find the thing gone--no longer bothering me with its vague generalities. And even if I were wrong, I would not stand accused of the Lord because I had obeyed His mandate in Scripture (1 John 4:1)

In the end, I was not sure how the author felt called to write and publish this book. It was about himself, his calling, and seemed to have no purpose other than that. Not everyone writes a book or even announces themselves like that--They just do what they are to called to do in the Lord, without care for any focus on themselves. An announcement of his calling seemed especially unnecessary for Joyner, who is by now very known by many people and is well-promoted. Even to those who felt blessed by "The Final Quest" as a true vision, I personally would not recommend "The Call" at all.  The book does not contain one Scripture, nor can I reference its contents to any scriptural precedent he way that I could in "The Final Quest". Fans of Joyner--those who would already hold in high regard anything he would pen--would probably enjoy it. As far as I could tell, the book is of no other benefit.

                                                                                                                    - Teri Lee Earl 


Note: More extensive reveiws of "The Final Quest" and "The Call" can be found at the following outside  URL's:

THE FINAL QUEST A Review and Critique by Eric S. Weiss
http://www.geocities.com/papaweiss1/tfq.htm

THE FINAL QUEST by Kevin Reeves
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rseaborn/rick_joiner_the_final_quest.html

THE CALL by Kevin Reeves
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rseaborn/rick_joiner_the_call.html

Although we would not agree with EVERYTHING said in these reviews, they are still all WELL worth a look.

Listen Online To A Dramatic Monologue of the book, The Bema, by Pastor Pete Briscoe (Book by Tim Stevenson)

http://www.myfaith.com/TheBema.htm

On this site, please also see:
A LOOK BACK AT PROPHECIES
(Because Prophetic Irresponsibility May Provoke Over-all Despisement of Prophecy)


To HarvestNET Prophecies page To Open Rebuke to Joyner To HarvestNET main page
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