As this order is not actually referred to in “The
Final Quest” and so these notes will only cover this briefly. Joyner
announced that he had become a member of the Knights of Malta in 1998 but
may have joined earlier. As “The Final Quest” was published
just two years before this, in 1996, Joyner must surely view his membership
of this Catholic Order as relevant to the Christian civil war he saw in
his visions and dreams.
11 i) A Catholic Order: The Order of the Knights of Malta is also known
as the Order of St John or the Order of the Knights Hospitaller. It was
founded
in Jerusalem
in 1099 and was formally approved as an order by the Pope in 1113. It was the
second most influential order of Catholic Knights to fight in the Middle East
during the Catholic Crusades, the first being the Knights Templar. Several hundred
years ago members of the Knights Templar moved across to the Order of Malta after
their order fell out of favour with the Pope. It is surprising that so few charismatic
or Pentecostal Christians have raised concerns about Joyner’s membership
of this Catholic order.
11 ii) Spiritual submission
to the Pope: By joining this organisation Joyner
has aligned himself with the Catholic Church. He is now in spiritual submission
to the Grand Master of this order who has a rank equivalent to a Bishop within
the Catholic denomination and who reports directly to the Pope. As a member Joyner
has also pledged an oath of allegiance to the Pope and to promote the cause of
the Catholic Church. Joyner is now head of this order for all of North America.
This is a very powerful position to hold within the Catholic Church, it also
gives him an enormous amount of influence within secular politics. This orders
political influence was reflected by some of its Knights securing Paul Cain,
(another former Kansas City Prophet who is also a member), an audience with Saddam
Hussein whilst he was still alive and in power in Iraq. Other members of this
order include Bob Dole, William Casey, former director of the CIA, George Bush
and Pat Buchanan. Far from being just a medium level charismatic leader Joyner
is now therefore one of the world’s most politically powerful men due to
his position of leadership within this order. On his original Morning Star website
Joyner made light of his membership, (I could not find anything relating to this
order on his updated site). Surely though a position as powerful as this would
not be taken on lightly, or without serious consideration, by a protestant charismatic
leader? In an unconfirmed tape recording, in which Joyner supposedly tells about
the events leading up to him joining, he claims that Paul Cain encouraged him
to do so in order to gain political influence in the world. Something appears
to have been going on here, therefore, that is being kept hidden from the Christian
public.
11 iii) The Catholic Church
absorbs Protestants: In his visions in “The
Final Quest” Joyner has seen himself fighting a spiritual civil war against
all those Protestants who will not accept his authority and new spiritual revelations.
Surely this must be in some way linked to the leadership position he now holds
within the Knights of Malta today? Due to his lofty position within this order
Joyner now has authority from the Pope to inaugurate anyone he sees fit into
this order himself. Whether Joyner realises it or not his role is central to
the “New Evangelism” campaign that the Catholic Church has been engaged
in for many years. Their aim of this is to absorb as many protestant’s
as possible into the Catholic Church under the authority of the Pope. Joyner
is therefore on the forefront of inducting protestant Christians into the Catholic
fold. His colleagues Ricky Scaggs, Mahesh Chavda, Bobby Conner are also members
and appear to have joined at the same time along with Joyner.
11 iv) Cloaking spells: I am amazed Joyner’s membership has stirred up
so little interest. Most charismatic Christians who watch Joyner on the God Channel
still view him as an ordinary medium sized neo – charismatic ministry and “prophet” and
don’t realise the significance of his association with the Catholic Church.
I wonder if something which took place during his visions and trances has any
relevance – whereby Joyner put on what he called “a plain mantle,” a
spiritual “cloak,” which he claimed made anyone wearing it look “drab
and plain,” and hid the real nature of their “glorious armour,” and
hid the fact that they really held “the highest rank in the kingdom,” (p.
56). Putting on this cloak sounds very similar to the way in which unbelievers
involved in the occult induce “cloaking spells” to cover themselves.
These avert the suspicions of other people and keep hidden their true nature
and purpose, (this probably operates by releasing ministering spirits to divert
the attention of others from noticing anything unusual about them). In this way
some witches are able to infiltrate Christian meetings for dubious purposes without
any Christians noticing anything strange about them. I believe Joyner is still
a believer but as he is deceived he could have been influenced by the enemy into
accepting a cloaking spell in this way without him fully realising its purpose.
The enemy would have then been able use Joyner without him raising as many suspicions
from other Christians about his high ranking role as a Knight of Malta. This
may sound a little extreme to some but is a common practice within the occult.
11 v) A Christian spiritual
Civil War: Joyner’s membership of this order
must also have something to do with his prediction about a Christian spiritual
civil war in the church. Joyner believes that his side will ultimately gain victory
and that then prophet judges like himself will emerge to rule the global body
of Christ. Joyner believes that “Gods government is about to be demonstrated
as greater than any human government,” (p. 38), as his side dominate and
rule thereafter. We know that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church have had aspirations
to dominate and rule the entire church and world ever since they first submitted
to Roman Emperor Constantine at the beginning of the fourth century. Joyner’s
aims and those of the leaders of the Catholic Church therefore appear to parallel
one another in this area. Joyner has stated himself that he has had an interest
in the Catholic Order of the Knights of Malta ever since he was stationed in
Malta a young man whilst he was in the navy. He has also said that he believes
the Catholic Crusader Knight’s of a thousand years ago are the greatest
ever heroes of the Christian faith. Joyner may, therefore, have always had an
earthbound outlook on spiritual matters and have always been favourably disposed
towards Catholic dominance of the global church.
11 vi) A future persecution? Perhaps most worrying of all is what Joyner believes
the Lord has told him about Saul, (who later became St Paul after his conversion),
i.e. that, “It was because of my grace that I allowed him to persecute
My church,” (p. 138). This implies that Saul’s persecution of Christians
to death was a good thing and that God approved of this. The scripture’s,
however, say that Jesus saw this as a persecution of Himself, (Acts 9; 4), so
how could Gods grace be over this as this spirit has led Joyner to believe? We
saw at the end of Chapter 5 of these notes how Joyner believes that his side
will ultimately remove all those Christians who continue to reject his side’s
visions and leadership. This sounds to me as if Joyner is prepared to be involved
in some form of persecution eventually himself if he sees this as necessary to
secure his side’s victory and control of the body of Christ. The Catholic
Church of course has a history of persecuting protestant Christians in order
to enforce its leadership. We also know from scripture that the antichrist and
his beast empire will persecute all genuine followers of Christ in the very end
times, (Rev 13; 7, 16). If the leadership of the Catholic Church becomes apostate,
as I believe God has shown me it will, and joins forces with the antichrist in
such a persecution, as it once did under Constantine’s rule, then Joyner,
as a high ranking official within the Catholic fold, could also find himself
involved in persecuting these believers. Unless of course Joyner turns away from
his deceptive visions and the path he is following first. The following article,
entitled “The Coming One World Religion,” reflects what I believe
the Lord has shown me concerning these things.
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