John Sandford – The Ecumenical Prophet
by Jackie Alnor
Ó 1992 The Christian Sentinel

To many people familiar with the ministry of John and Paula Sandford and Elijah House based in Idaho, it would come as no surprise that the Sandfords claim to be modern-day prophets. Their claim as prophets was no doubt their inspiration for naming their ministry after the great Old Testament prophet. But most people know the Sandfords for their work in the inner healing movement and their counseling schools, popular among most John Wimber affiliated Vineyard churches.

But in the past couple of years, John Sandford has been flexing his prophetic muscles more and more in his writings, particularly in the Elijah House News. Let’s examine some of his prophecies to see if they meet the standard set by Elijah. In January, 1991, Sandford wrote:

"Some may remember that long before Iraq invaded Kuwait, I prophesied there could be a war ‘between October 28 and November 14, 1990,’ which would be short but devastating – unless Christians prayed… I believe the prayers of many have so far postponed the conflict (this being January 3, 1991)."

Obviously he put a lot of disclaimers in this prophecy (as do also psychic prognosticators), but where were the many Christians who prayed about this potential war and why did they stop praying? Jesus told us there would be wars and rumors of wars so why should God warn us about one little skirmish (compared to the major wars now being waged in the world)? Such a prophecy serves no purpose. It seems that Sandford brought it up in his newsletter to boast a near-miss prophecy to his own credit. Problem is prophecy is not such an inaccurate game in the biblical sense.

One astonishing so-called prophetic word Sandford received that same January of 1991 was that God had forsaken the church for a while.

"Then He let me know this word is general, for all His Church… The Lord is returning to His Church. I am not speaking of His final coming. I am saying He has been away personally from us… ‘My children have not walked close enough to Me to allow Me to treat them as sons’ (Hebrews 12:7). Then He reminded me of Isaiah 54:4-8: we have been truly ‘like a wife forsaken’ and ‘for a brief moment [forsaken].’ He has continued to pour out His Spirit, although His own personal Presence has not been with us – but now He is returning." [Parenthesis in the original.]

In an earlier Elijah House newsletter, Autumn 1990, Sandford contradicts himself:

"This is the most exciting time in the history of the Church! God is moving upon us in another great wave of the Holy Spirit! In this wave, our Lord wants the Church to happen; for the assembled people of the body of Christ to become corporate…. We have not seen the full power of Pentecost in our day. But God wants to bestow it in this coming time."

When was the coming time he was referring to? Sometime between the Fall of 1990 and the end of the year God abandoned His Church, according to the later revelation. He wasn’t supposed to return to His church until after January, 1991. How long had He been gone?

Not only does Sandford’s revelations contradict one another, but they are unbiblical as well. Jesus said to the church before He ascended into heaven, "I will never leave you nor forsake you…" and "I am with you always even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:20). I certainly doubt that He changed His mind. It is blasphemous to say He abandoned us. Sandford makes Jesus out to be a liar.

Sandford’s son, Loren, pastor of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, gave some guidelines for testing modern-day prophecies. The article appeared in the Spring, 1990 issue of Elijah House News.

"We must therefore test the contemporary prophetic word by asking whether it squares with the eternal Word of God. Is it consistent with the revealed nature and character of God?… Does the word violate, confuse, dominate or control people in a way God would never choose?"

By John Sandford’s son’s test, the two prophecies being examined fail. It has already been demonstrated how the prophecies are not biblical, are inconsistent with God’s nature and they certainly confuse people when they serve no purpose.

Some of John Sandford’s exhortations given under supposed divine revelation serve his own agenda and his own vision of Christian unity between Protestants and Catholics. Sandford treats anyone standing in the way of such unbiblical unity as the enemy and uses his assumed position as a prophet to spiritually threaten the Bereans who question his ecumenical bent.

Examples:

"The days of Ananias and Sapphira will return…. Death will come quickly to those who lie to the Holy Spirit, especially concerning finances. This is a time of unity. Conversely, immediate and heavy discipline will fall on those who take it upon themselves to publicly criticize and attack others’ ministries. At the moment, He is raising up the office of prophet, and there is great reaction and some persecution developing."

In yet another breach of sound biblical interpretation, he has given a most profound meaning to the valley of dry bones of Ezekiel 37. He claims that the bones coming together is the current ecumenical movement of the church.

"That’s where we have been, as we discovered Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, Roman Catholics and so many other Christians of every denomination all being filled with the Spirit, rattling our theologies together, joining ourselves to one another with a lot of noise!"

He got one thing right! When sound theology is mixed with false theology one has to "rattle" them to do so.

As a "prophet," Sandford has some very frightening duties. He speaks of having to battle in the spirit world with fierce demons.

"Last night I wrestled against demonic beings from 3:00 a.m. until just before dawn, and the names the Lord gave me were Samyasa and particularly Azaziel! Have they already been released? Or did I only wrestle with apparitions such as appeared 800 years ago?"

Coincidentally, he gave another account of wrestling in his book, The Transformation of the Inner Man, with his mentor Agnes Sanford (the pantheistic originator of the modern inner-healing movement) long after she was dead.

"Agnes came through my front door (without bothering to open it) and tackled me. We wrestled all over my living room floor (Gen. 32:24-32)… She then went out the door beckoning me to follow, and went through the night to a tall tower… from floor to floor turning on lights. Ever since then the Lord has been turning on lights in my ‘tower of knowledge’" (pp. 4-5). [Parenthesis in original.]

The scripture he compared his experience to in Genesis is the account of Jacob wrestling with God (the Angel of the Lord, whom some Bible scholars say is the preincarnate Christ). Making such a comparison is blasphemous.

It is plain to see that John Sandford fails all the biblical tests of a prophet and his revelations defy logic and reason. As his son, Loren, so aptly put it: "We are warned against the one who takes, ‘his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind’ (Colossians 2:18)."