ARCHIVED NEWS REPORTS
Why No More "Mainstream"?

Banner Headlines (Jan/Feb 1997)
Special Edition: Important News About "Mainstream"!

[This circular was sent to all supporters in the Spring of 1997]

To regular supporters, this letter will come as no surprise. In the Summer edition of "Mainstream" I gave fair warning that it might be one of the last editions. As it turned out, there was just one more - the Autumn/Winter edition that spoke of Joshua and Gilgal, and the command to re-circumcise our lives before the events of the New Year.

I would be a hypocrite if I preached the need to "roll away" (Gilgal) all that pertains to the old walk, without doing so myself. If I hang onto the "Mainstream" newsletter after God has told me to let go, I will not be able to understand or fully enter into the new path He has for the Body. So, I have decided to obey God. I am laying "Mainstream" on the altar.

"SUPPORT GROUP": NEW MAILING LIST

I am going to delete all names from my current newsletter mailing list. BUT --- this does NOT spell the end of Banner Ministries. I am (as you see) continuing to research and to write, although not on the same scale as before. I am supporting this Web Site, and also keeping in touch with fellow-workers around the world. I keep up close contacts with other like-minded ministries. I am also still offering a few audio tapes. (Write for the tape list.)

I consider many of you my friends and I value your prayers, fellowship and support. I don’t want to lose touch with you - that would be very sad. Although the "Mainstream" mailing list will end, I am opening up a different mailing list, called the "Support Group" mailing list.. If you want to continue our fellowship, in whatever way seems appropriate, and regardless of any products on offer, then please make sure you are on my Support Group list.

"Mainstream" will not longer be produced, and there will be no updates or circulars. I cannot rule out, however, that in the future God may make it possible to contact you again, for whatever reason. If in the future there are materials on offer, such as new tapes, articles, booklets, or meetings to be held, having your name on the new list will of course ensure that you are told about these things. But basically, this "Support Group" is intended to be merely a record of all those who wish to register a supportive interest in the Ministry.

WHY IS MAINSTREAM NO LONGER NEEDED?

1. THE NATURE OF THE MATERIAL

"Mainstream" was born ten years ago when the command of the Lord to me was "let my people go" from heavy-shepherding, word-of-faith errors and the restoration doctrines. Since then, many other snares have come along, such as the new-age movement, latter-rain and the Kansas City Prophets, globalism and the new world order, ecumenism, Promise Keepers and of course, Toronto. Each successive move sought to knit the Church more tightly into the network that would eventually circle the globe.

Now, instead of isolated heresies, we are dealing with one huge and very sinister web, where everything is interlinked. That means it’s impractical just to expose small sections of the apostasy, as in years gone by.

2. THE SIFTING IS ALMOST DONE

Years ago, the Lord showed me a picture of a number of sieves. Each successive sieve had smaller holes. A quantity of material (say, flour or sand) was tipped into the first sieve, then sifted through all the others in turn, and each time a smaller quantity remained - it was continuously refined until only the purest remnant remained at the end.

Each heresy has been a sieve, and the Body has passed through each experience, leaving behind those who decided to opt out of truth along the way. At first the deceptions were obvious, and most people came through the holes. But the holes kept getting smaller. Each ‘sieve’ of heresy asked for a greater amount of self-sacrifice, discernment, and obedience to truth, meaning that fewer and fewer people escaped through the "holes".

While this sieving process continued, "Mainstream" was a trumpet blast of warning not to get left behind. However, the trumpet sound has no meaning when there are no more ears left to hear. Then the watchman ministry has to fade out. I don't believe this will happen suddenly, overnight, but the decrease will become more and more apparent. Prominent voices will begin to falter, be removed, or fade away.

A WATERSHED MOMENT

God seems to be indicating that the time of sifting is drawing to a close. November seemed to be some kind of watershed. Not only those who attended the Crossroads Meetings in November, but many other individual members of the Body, ministries, churches and denominations were - I believe - challenged to humble themselves under the hand of God at that time. Choices were made, consciously or not. These choices will dictate the path of the Church in the coming year.

A biblical New Year began on Friday 13th September; the Feast of Tabernacles was brought in with a blood-red eclipse of the full moon on the night of 26th September, and a serious outbreak of fighting in Israel. These things caught the attention of the Body. A change was occurring. We were on the eve of something momentous. The end of 1996 came with a sense of tension and urgency. In the Spring there followed a series of heavenly signs, culminating in the comet, Hale-Bopp which made its closest pass during the Jewish Purim festival, also the Spring Equinox. Something seems to be in the air!

3. PEOPLE NO LONGER NEED MAINSTREAM

The Body is rapidly forming itself into two groups - those who have honed themselves under God to discern the error and have obeyed His call to separate themselves; and those who either do not or will not heed the warning signs, and walk further and further into danger.

Of those two groups, neither is very much helped by the newsletter. The first group do not really need "Mainstream" because they already know the truth in essence (though it’s always comforting to have confirmation) and the second group despises "Mainstream" and the ministry because they have sold out to self, the world, their own agendas, and ultimately the apostate church.

4. STANDING ON YOUR OWN TWO FEET

Mainstream may turn out to have a detrimental effect on some. No man or ministry should be used as a kind of all-knowing "oracle" that replaces the need for discernment or personal study. I want to encourage Christians to think for themselves and to seek out the truth without depending on ministries like mine.

5. PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES

Practically speaking, the Lord has already indicated the impossibility of continuing, because without office staff the amount of work has topped the level where one person can cope. Also, for the first time I have no really new, good quality tapes to offer.

RUMOURS AND ACCUSATIONS

There will inevitably be those sad individuals who invent a spurious "reason" for the end of Mainstream. [I have already been told that Restoration fellowships in one area were rejoicing after the Summer edition because I had "come under the judgement of God" and had "been forced to stop producing the newsletter". So the Autumn edition must have come as a bit of a shock to them.]

I would like it known, for the record, that nobody and nothing has "stopped me", but I lay down Mainstream of my own free will, in obedience to God.

Nevertheless, rumours will fly, and - sadly - they are often believed and circulated without any check. All genuine Christians will be lied about, for Jesus warned that "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?" (Matt 12:24/Matt 10:24-25).

So, only false teachers enjoy universal admiration:

"Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets." Luke 6:26

Some rather silly and hurtful lies have been circulating about me personally and Banner Ministries in general. Included amongst these was the accusation that I had had some kind of mental breakdown and could no longer be trusted as a reliable source of information! Though this is a sad commentary on the spiritual condition of the person who circulates it, it’s also cause for rejoicing, because it means the enemy is getting worried.

I have drawn comfort from Psalm 26. I also had a wonderfully praiseful time when God gave me this verse in Matthew:

"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." (Matt 5:11-12)

A FINAL WORD

Finally, I want to offer my sincere and heartfelt thanks to everyone who has prayed for me (don’t stop!!) and who has been a true supporter of Banner Ministries. This is not the end, but perhaps a new beginning of something. (God knows.) I don’t take your support lightly, and I love and appreciate every one of you.