Pastor Garland Bilbo
(Updated with extra info)
From the Toledo Blade:
A devastating flood in New Orleans was predicted by the Rev. Kim Clement, a South Africa-born evangelist, in a prophecy given at a suburban Houston church July 22.
The full text is available on Clement’s website, with mp3 (and electric guitar backing; Clement is a “singing prophet”) – emphases in original:
Enough of past curses reminding you of yesterday’s failures. Enough of New Orleans and its treachery. Enough of stealing the Ark of the Covenant from my people just because you had those surrounding you that had no faith. Caleb said we are able to take this land. Joshua said we are able to take this land. But ten voices arose against the Lord God. And they would stone my servant Moses and say let us stone them and raise up another leader so that we may go back to Egypt. Would you go back to your dung? Would you go back to your vomit?
O New Orleans God speaks to you from Houston tonight and says enough of this! For a judgment is coming says the Spirit of the Lord, and I will take the men that have stood in faith, raise them above the flood that shall destroy those that constantly bicker and stand against my servant Moses, or my servant Bilbo. I want you to understand there are great men in New Orleans that have faith but you have been set aside not to lose but to win. Enough of this! For I will take the curses and the bodies will even rise and they will come forth on the water, but I will keep you and the stench of death will only last a few days. And then what I promised two years ago will come to pass for August, September and October of this year I made a promise it would happen, and God said be strengthened now, be strengthened now for enough is enough says the Lord.
Clement adds some commentary:
…My dear friend, Pastor Garland Bilbo, who had hosted my ministry a number of times was present in the meeting that night, and God even referred to him in the prophecy. His family had been a target of attack during the eighties and suffered persecution from religious forces during the Nineties due to a public scandal in their family. This prophecy is one of the most accurate that I have ever been given and yet it almost sounded like God was about to deal with the Gatekeepers and spiritual leaders of New Orleans rather than the sinners of that City.
A part of the prophecy that concerned me was the fact that the flood would destroy those that constantly bicker and stand against my servant Moses (or my servant Bilbo.) I did not truly believe that these people would be destroyed in the flood but rather the waters would rid the City of the curses and bring an end to discord and divisive leaders…
Of course, Clement is far from being the only person to have associated the words “New Orleans” and “flood”, but his timing is impressive. So, who are Kim Clement and Garland Bilbo?
Let’s look at Garland Bilbo first. The “public scandal” to which Clement refers is that of Bilbo’s father-in-law, Marvin Gorman (thanks to Bene Diction for that tip). From a book review in the Texas Observer:
Gorman, who was a friend of Jim Bakker, had been a rising star in the televangelist world until 1986, when he was summoned by the Assemblies of God hierarchy to answer charges of adultery. Though he confessed to a moment of weakness with a distraught female parishioner and denied having intercourse, Gorman received extremely harsh treatment and suffered catastrophic professional and financial losses.
This “harsh treatment” was prompted particularly by none other than Jimmy Swaggart. But Gorman fought back:
…A little over a year later, in the fall of 1987, it was Gorman who set up the camera in the room across the courtyard from the one where Jimmy was meeting Debra Murphree…Gorman was willing to make a deal with Swaggart (essentially blackmailing him) but ultimately Swaggart was too arrogant, spurred on by his steely wife Frances, to keep his end of the deal.
This information comes from Ann Rowe Seaman’s excellent biography Swaggart – which also tells us that the photos were taken by Gorman’s son Randy and…Garland Bilbo (p. 331). Gorman also won a $10 million defamation case against Swaggart, who had made other accusations of adultery against him. Gorman has since stepped down from his position at Praise Church in favour of Bilbo.
According to the profile on his church website
Garland has had the honor of being featured speaker at the Brownsville Assembly of God Pastor’s Conferences, as well as other pastors and leadership conferences. He has also written curriculum and training manuals for church leadership.
Garland Bilbo is the author of the book entitled, “The Jezebel Spirit”, which has proven to be an effective tool for ministers and leaders. It is an expose’ of the traps that Satan uses to abort the anointing and revival in an individual and in the corporate body of Christ.
“The Jezebel Spirit” is a Pentecostal idea that can be taken two ways – it can refer to the church being seduced by “worldliness” (as here), or can mean women behaving in ways that they shouldn’t – particularly disagreeing with their husbands. Bilbo’s book is obscure, but someone who attended a talk by Bilbo’s wife reports the following:
A week before the conference I almost influenced my husband to leave the ministry. I never realized that I was allowing the spirit of Jezebel to influence me. I just thought my nagging and berating of my husband was a behavior that self-control could help. But in my heart I knew something more was at work. When Ms. Bilbo spoke on the Jezebel spirit, my heart started to beat fast.
There’s also this interesting titbit from Louisiana’s Department of Transportation and development:
BATON ROUGE – The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday, June 1 [2004], for the new I-10 Pump Station in New Orleans . Gordon Nelson, DOTD Assistant Secretary for the Office of Operations, served as Master of Ceremonies for the event, which was held on June 1 to coincide with the first day of Hurricane Season. The ceremony took place at Praise Church, located on Academy Drive , directly across from the Pump Station…Pastor Garland Bilbo, of Praise Church , provided the Invocation and the Benediction.
That would be one of the pumps that failed, then… Bilbo now has a site dedicated to the reconstruction of the city.
Kim Clement, meanwhile, has a higher profile, with frequent appearances on Trinity Broadcasting and a CV-full of previous prophecies. The Blade notes this one:
In the 1996 prophecy, which made headlines after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Mr. Clement said America “will go to the place of the east and we will go and we will bring them down for what they did to our people as they flew in the air over Long Island.”
However, these have made him a target for criticism, and there are a number of websites that are unimpressed with some of his previous predictions, and his theological perspective (the 1996 prophecy is debunked here: the author notes that it “was only 8 days after TWA flight 800 exploded in the air OFF THE COAST OF LONG ISLAND”.)
Clement’s website gives some biographical details, beginning with his 1973 conversion when he was delivered of “strong demonic oppression”. A spell in the army and Pentecostal ministry followed, with full-time ministry work from 1977. He soon after joined Fred Roberts’s Full Gospel Church of God in Durban, later the Durban Christian Center, which he says was actively opposed to apartheid. Then (link added):
During 1983 Prophet Bill Hamon confirmed my call as a Prophet while I was in Durban. Pastor Fred Roberts and the leadership of Durban Christian Center released me to obey this call. I was ordained through Christian Fellowship International and I acquired my credentials through CBTC, Durban, South Africa. I received an honorary Doctorate in 1996 in Houston, Texas.
Now based in Dallas, Clement adds:
After a bad accident in 1994, in which both of my arms were broken, I was left scarred from surgeries on my hands. During my recovery from surgery, the Lord visited me with visions. I received specific instructions regarding my ministry…After these visions, I founded a movement called ‘Warriors of the Millennium’ and the ‘Kick Devil Butt Generation’.
MinistryWatch has further details about Clement here. It notes:
Most disturbing is Clement’s claim to a gift of prophecy and the unmistakably pretentious air with which Clement issues his prophetic harangue, indicting virtually anyone who might take exception.
That indictment now apparently includes the “spiritual leaders” of New Orleans that didn’t get along with his friend Garland Bilbo, and who should be blamed for the hurricane’s consequences.
So what’s next? Clement’s site has his most recent prophecies here.
(Tip via Bulldada Newsblog)
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