In the wake of the Australian Federal Election and my previous post about it, my good friend Robert Holmes of Storm Harvest and myself are not particularly concerned about who got it right and who got it wrong in relation to the many prophetic predictions about the election’s outcome. Our primary concern now is for the many people who are feeling devastated, confused and let down, not only by the outcome, but by the way it’s now being handled by some outspoken ministries. At the moment, our primary concern is for the conduct of Danny Nalliah of Catch the Fire Ministries.
For the record, as a broadcaster and fellow minister, I have been a strong supporter of Danny Nalliah through my radio shows. You can read the transcripts of my comments and even hear the interview I did with Dr Helen Zsoke, head of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission, challenging her over the lack of logical rationale regarding Danny’s persecution over his right to free speech in Australia. (The podcasts can be downloaded and the transcripts can be read here, here and here.)
Danny is an outstanding evangelist, a passionate (and at times naïve) lover of Australia as his adopted homeland, and a courageous advocate for free speech in Australia. These things have had abundant grace and favour upon them, but not so his foray into the realm of national prophetic ministry, particularly in relation to Australia’s Federal Government.
But the horse has bolted in regard to Danny stepping outside the safety of his sphere of anointed ministry, therefore, our concern now is very much for Danny’s poor handling of the outcomes of his prophetic predictions.
At basically the same time of the first post on the Wind Farm about the Federal Election, Robert and I wrote to Danny Nalliah on 6th October, 2007, in the hope of engaging him in a relational dialogue over our concerns about his conduct in handling his prophetic predictions.
To date, we are yet to receive a reply to our gentle but clear request.
Further, we are now all the more concerned over Danny’s clear attempt to shift all responsibility to the Australian church for his predictions failing to come to pass. Our hearts are saddened, and indeed, Robert and I believe that the heart of God is grieving over such conduct.
So, in an effort to again reach out to him relationally, we wrote to Danny a second time on 30th November, 2007. We decided to give him the same time frame to reply to us, as it took him to speak publicly about the outcomes, i.e., five days, before publishing the content of our second letter.
We had hoped that common courtesy and good sense would have prevailed, but sadly, we must now report that Danny has again failed to respond with even an acknowledgement of receipt. We have even gone as far as to post the following letter as a comment on Danny’s site, but it is still being moderated and we suspect it will not make it to publication. Robert and I have done so in the hope it may provoke a response from Danny in order to open a dialogue, but this too seems unlikely.
Therefore, with heavy hearts, our second letter to Danny is now published below, in order to demonstrate that the heart of God is still very much toward the praying church and toward Australia, regardless of the outcome of this election.
A Second Open Letter to Danny Nalliah of Catch the Fire Ministries
from Kerry Denten and Robert Holmes
Dear Danny,
We are writing to introduce ourselves once again, and to again reach out a hand of friendship to you. Though we have not met you personally, we work and minister in the same harvest field, and serve the same Lord Jesus Christ. Though our backgrounds may differ, and even our theology and understanding of God’s Kingdom and its interaction with the political sphere is different, we can most certainly see eye to eye on the central issues of life and faith.
We have similar ministry expressions, one of which is ministering to leaders. But recently you have moved into the prophetic ministry, a realm with which we are very familiar.
You sent correspondence to the general Christian community on August the 11th, asserting that John Howard and the Liberal Party would return to power and that Peter Costello would be the Prime Minister-designate appointed by God to succeed John Howard. We now understand that that correspondence was sent to a potential mailing list in excess of 10,000, and was titled "Ps. Danny of Catch the Fire Meets With Current Prime Minister and Future Prime Minister of Australia."
In that public announcement you made a number of assertions and claimed certain positions which we still wish to discuss with you. Your predictions have left many people feeling devastated, confused and let down, because they did not come to pass. It is these assertions; your defence of their accuracy; their impact on John Howard and Peter Costello personally, and on the praying public, that concern us deeply.
We are among those who believe the prophetic ministry needs to be accountable, to behave honourably, to demonstrate integrity and work in accord with other like ministries in the nation.
Therefore, these are still our concerns:
1. You are a man who is claiming a call to function prophetically at a national level, therefore, we would expect you to be relating to other prophets, and also to apostles, who are already functioning at the level you have attempted.
2. We are likewise still concerned that your personal and obvious political bias has clouded your prophetic insight*.
It is a mistake to align the Australian Liberal Party and the Christian Right with being the primary political representatives of the Kingdom of God; and the Australian Labor Party as bordering on exclusively representing Satan and his dominion^. The Kingdom of God is not right or left .. it is NON-partisan. As a prophet, we must favour neither leader, or party. We must wish to serve both the standing government and the opposition, and we likewise must desire to be balanced enough to bring the word of the Lord to any political party, on any issue.
3. We are still concerned that blame for the prophecy not coming to pass is left squarely on the shoulders of the praying public for "not being united in prayer". There is not one prophet spoken of in the Scriptures who ever conducted themselves in this manner.
Our Advice
A word of national and future importance such as this one, would surely have been better weighed and tested by other seasoned prophetic ministries before being delivered. We know as a fact, that the then Prime Minister John Howard asked you whether you had run your prophecy past Jim Wallace of the Australian Christian Lobby, or any other leader known to Jim, prior to its delivery, and you did not.
We suggest that you begin relating to any number of apostolic organisations for the sake of accountability such as Crosslink(Brian Medway), Peace Apostolic (John Alley), Southern Cross (John McElroy), Family Life (Ray McMartin), City Life (Kevin Conner) and many others we are sure.
Likewise, if you believe you are truly entering a season of ministry that sees you functioning prophetically at the level you have already attempted, we would invite you to start relating to other established and proven prophets in this nation. For a good example of those who are already relating, visit the Australian Prophetic Round Table.
Looking Toward the Future
Danny, we watched the election with interest and prayerful concern both for Australia and for you. Now that your word has failed to come to pass in any detail whatsoever, there is not only the matter of repentance, apology and reparation that needs to be offered unreservedly to the Australia Christian community, but there are still the issues of conduct we would ask you to address for the future.
The firestorm you have personally created across the nation is a direct consequence of your own foolish actions and has nothing to do with the general public persecuting you for righteousness’ sake (1 Peter 2:20). Let us be clear, it does not suffice to blame the church for not praying. Therefore, we are now asking you to demonstrate humility and accept responsibility for your word.
There is much more that could be said, but that is best left to a time when we are face-to-face. However, not having received a response to our first letter, we look forward to at least the courtesy of a response to this second attempt at dialogue with you.
God bless you,
Kerry Denten Robert Holmes
the Wind Farm – a division of Storm Harvest Incorporated
Green Tree Ministries Incorporated
Footnotes:
* On August 9th, 2007 Danny Nalliah said, referring to the Australian Christian Lobby’s webcast event, that it ".. clearly indicated Prime Minister John Howard’s defined stand for Christian values. On the other hand, I was very unhappy with the side-stepping responses that Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd gave …".
* Also, on October 24th, 2007, Irfan Yusuf, who shared a speaking platform with you on that evening, tells us that Danny Nalliah publicly expressed a desire that the "Christian Right needs to emerge and capture the political and social agenda of Australia. It needs to take Australia back to its Judeo-Christian heritage and foundations."
^ In an article published by Danny Nalliah on 22nd November, 2007, he says, "Some asked me, "Danny, are you anti-Labor." I said no, I am just anti-ungodly values and whichever party wants to propagate an anti-Christian agenda. Please hear my heart about my concerns regarding the Labor Party." and "Even if Kevin Rudd is genuine, how could we trust a political party which has 60-70 % of members or more who have extreme left-wing ideologies? It’s not simply about labels, these extreme left-wing ideologies are totally anti-Christian and 60% to 70% of those members adhere to those values."