Letter to Ernie Knoll

DISCOVERING WHERE THE DREAMS COME FROM 

A copy of an Open Letter to Ernie Knoll was given to me [Vance Ferrell] several days ago. Upon carefully reading it, I am astonished at what I discovered. Since it is nineteen full pages in length, it is too large to reprint. So, in this brief report, I am going to provide you with its basic message—and it is an important one.

The letter was written by Linda Kirk to Ernie Knoll, who claims to regularly have dreams given him by an angel of God for the Advent people.

Since the spring of 2005, Ernie has had a series of dreams which he claims are inspired by God.

Linda first learned of his dreams from an e-mail sent her by a friend in late August or early September of 2007. Casting aside all caution, and hoping he might be a “last-day prophet,” she obtained Ernie’s phone number and spoke with him.

Hoping that he might have special light from God for God’s people today, she became a “strong sup- porter” of Ernie’s dreams. Soon she became even more deeply involved.

“I got heavily involved in his ministry, promoting his dreams, and communicating frequently with Ernie and Becky [his wife]. In the SDA Church dream, the angel selected me to edit the dream, and my hus- band to give his final approval. I was also selected as one of the five witnesses for the name given in the prophecy in Much to Do. So I am writing with first- hand information.

“In the following letter, which is rather lengthy, I am detailing my personal experience in how I changed my position regarding the dreams . .

“My heart is heavy with concern for Ernie. I care about him deeply. I feel that I am partly responsible for his clinging to the dreams, because of my former support and encouragement. That is why I am speak- ing out, because I want to do whatever I can to help him to reconsider. Those who support the dreams provide great encouragement to him to continue. We each are responsible for our influence.

“The content of your dreams, Ernie, appeals to many that are serious about following God . . Thus, when these topics are presented in the dreams, in a similar way to the Spirit of Prophecy, it seems to be speaking to our hearts, and we are in agreement with the message . . But let’s consider what else we know from the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy. If Satan has a specific target in our world today, it would be the sincere, spiritually minded Seventh-day Advent- ists, who are sighing and crying for the abominations done in the land and in the church. They are open to prophecy because they believe in the Spirit of Prophecy.

“Of course he [Satan] can! He can put thoughts, even good thoughts, into our minds, so it seems that our prayers are being answered. Oh, how very, very careful we must be to not fall for his deceptions, which are increasing in delusive attraction. His de- ceptions are going to be this powerful: ‘So closely will the counterfeit resemble the true, that it will be impossible to distinguish between them except by the Holy Scriptures.’ GC 593. That tells me that we cannot be too careful in testing every little thing when dealing with supernatural experiences.”

Ernie claims to be a godly man—When Ernie came to visit Linda and her husband, they learned a lot about him.

“Using the Spirit of Prophecy as a guide, here is what we were looking for in you, since you are claiming to be receiving messages directly from God: ‘The holy deportment of the minister of Christ should be a rebuke to vain, frothy professors. The beams of truth and holiness shining from your serious, heavenly conversation will convict others and lead them to the truth, and those around you will be com- pelled to say, “God is with this man, of a truth.” ’ — 1 Testimonies, p. 434.

“The quote on your web site tells us that, in look- ing for proof of the genuineness of the dreams, we must take into account the persons who have them, and the circumstances under which they are given [1 Testimonies, 569-570]. So, that is what we will do now: take into account your character, and un- der what circumstances you had the dreams, par- ticularly the first three.”

The angel told Ernie he could ask any mundane questions, and he would answer them—That is not how angels communicate God’s messages to mankind! They give what God has told them to say, instead of listening to and answering mundane questions.

“There were several things that made me ques- tion the origin of the dreams right from the start. One of them was the fact that you could ask the ‘angel’ anything you wanted in the dreams . . The questions that you chose to ask, I remember think- ing at the time, were not questions that concerned the people of God as a whole, but more personal questions . . [One] was about the Bible Code. I don’t think any serious Bible student would have even bothered with this question. 

“I remember sitting around our table Saturday night, October 27, with you and Becky talking about the dreams. You were explaining how you could ask the angel any questions you had. Becky and I were talking about how it would be nice to know how God felt about women wearing pants, and coloring their hair, and even plucking their eyebrows. We suggested that you put those on your list.”

Linda also wondered how Ernie could remember which questions to ask when he was sound asleep.

“Then I read in the dreams that the angel says you are asleep when you are having the dreams. Can a sleeping person decide on questions to ask in his sleep?”

Changing the dreams—Another thing that dis- turbed Linda was that, after Ernie told her the angel wanted her to edit the dreams, the angel specifically said she was to type them, and her husband, Brian, was then to check them over. Then she was not to send them to Ernie to verify, but to Ernie’s webmaster who was to put them on the internet exactly as received from Linda. But she later found that the description of what was said in the dreams would be significantly changed later before being placed on the internet. So that which finally appeared was not the original content of what Ernie was supposed to have dreamed.

Unintelligible statements—One of Ernie’s unim- portant questions to the angel was whether Linda’s hus- band, Brian, was also receiving those dreams. Of course, he never did. Why would Ernie wonder whether he was also receiving dreams? The angel gave an extremely confusing reply:

“You asked the angel in the dream if my husband had received the same dream. Here is the angel’s answer: ‘Many are shown and they share. Many are shown and they are afraid to share. Many are shown and they do not recall. Many are shown and they re- call after the appointed time. Many are shown through the Father’s Spirit.’ This statement from the angel made absolutely no sense to us. Did Brian have a dream that he didn’t remember? We had no clue.”

Later in her letter, Linda mentions another strange statement by the angel.

“Smiling again the angel explains, ‘Because you do not understand, you know. If you were to know, you would not understand. All of heaven knows, as well as all of earth, whom God has chosen.’ This is very confusing!”

No religious contacts of any kind—Linda also learned that Ernie has almost no religious contacts, shares no literature, or does anything to help and bless others where he is. He just stays to himself; has dreams; and, we will learn later, is either elated or worries.

Predictions that did not come true—Although not major ones, yet none of these ever occurred. One con- cerned a person who would contact Ernie. The angel said Linda would be one of five people who would verify when it happened.

“My reaction was that I was happy, knowing that soon I would know for sure if the dreams were from God, and I wouldn’t have to wonder anymore! If the fulfillment came true, they were from God. If it didn’t, they were false! Simple as that! I was then given the name of the person who was supposed to connect with you to help the dreams go out faster. I was to be one of the five witnesses who would verify, when this person contacted you, that this was a fulfilled prophecy. And so I waited.”

But nothing ever happened. Mention is made later in her letter of predictions about Shawn Boonstra and Doug Batchelor, which also did not occur.

No answers to Linda’s silent prayers—Since Ernie told her that the angel said that she, Linda, must work closely with him in typing out the dreams, she silently prayed that, if the dreams were true, that God would give her a sign by having him dream certain things. Although this was done repeatedly, no such evidence was ever forthcoming. Ernie’s “angel” was not able to know what was in Linda’s silent prayers to God.

There were very astounding discoveries when they personally met Ernie—It was not until Ernie actually visited Linda’s home, and spoke with her group, that she really learned what he was like. Those discoveries fill two full pages of her open letter.

“Then we met you in person when you came to our home Friday evening, October 26, 2007. We found you to be a very likeable and talkative person, with the conversation totally centered around your dreams. I was really hoping for a deep season of prayer, and some discussion of truth as found in the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy, but instead the entire focus was on your dreams. Your prayer was brief and casual, not like someone who had truly encoun- tered Divinity.

“Throughout the weekend, every topic that was brought up always was redirected to your dreams. You even shared some dreams with us that were not inspired, and even a bit silly. This got a little wearisome to us. You mentioned several times how you’d like to fly your remote control airplanes on our large property. This seemed so trivial to me.

“I asked you about your outreach endeavors. Perhaps, I thought, you were involved in Bible studies, or distributing literature, and so on. You said that you told people whenever you got a chance that you were receiving dreams from God. This did not sound like witnessing at all to me, but rather a way to exalt yourself. This troubled me also.”

Other Advent believers in Linda’s area were present that day. They also noticed that Ernie was not really a deep, earnest Christian.

“The concern was expressed by some who met you that day that they did not sense a spirit of humility. I mentioned to Becky [Ernie’s wife] on the side that she needed to tell you not to recount how muscu- lar and strong you were as a young man, what a powerful job you had in which you told the execu- tives in hospitals how to spend millions of dol- lars, how you had a mansion and expensive cars, and so on. What it felt like is that you were trying to impress everyone that you were truly an important person.”

The next day, on Sabbath afternoon, October 27, 2007, Ernie spoke to her group of believers. Here are some of M the things they learned:

 “Our pastor, who couldn’t be at the meeting we 43 scheduled, asked me to have the spiritual leaders of 9 the church come and evaluate you and your message,

to see if we should invite you to come and present a church-wide meeting. We all listened to you and Becky for over three hours, and had opportunity to ask any questions we wanted. After the meeting, I waited for the reactions of those present . . I will share some of the impressions and concerns of the group that heard you speak to us that Sabbath, October 27, 2007. The deaconess stated that she was not impressed by your lack of humility. When one of the elders asked questions in a very humble manner, he said that you responded rather defensively, justifying your position, and discounting his questions. He was concerned about the light-hearted, almost joking manner in which you talked about heavenly things.”

One lady who was present noticed that, upon being questioned, Ernie said something different than what he wrote on his website.

“She had noticed on your web site that you stated that you had made a presentation at Southern [Adventist] University. Naturally, this would lend credibility to claims to have spoken at an SDA college. You then explained to us how you had this appointment, made the travel arrangements, and arrived at Southern, only to be told upon arrival that your meeting had been canceled. You told how you met with some officials, and that this was a fulfillment of the dream Go Forth. You did talk to a small group out on the lawn, but this certainly was not an official meeting at Southern University. The deaconess felt that posting the meetings on the web site was a dishonest way to lend credibility to your dreams.

“An elder and his wife stated that it seemed like your talk was egocentric. He didn’t sense the message to be helpful spiritually. He was also uncomfortable about the Southern University announce- ment, and felt it was deceptive to use this as an endorsement. They both felt very uneasy about your presentation. These are just comments that some of those present at the meetings shared with me.”

There was no indication of ever having had a conversion experience when “Christ” told him he would start having dreams to give to Adventists—We now come to some of the most astounding facts about Ernie:

“Since I had written in support of the dreams on a forum, many of the people on the forum had given me questions to ask you. There was quite a list of questions that you addressed the next morning on a video tape. These were mostly personal questions regarding your past. Here are some of the words you spoke, that were recorded on video at my home . . ”

Then followed actual tape-recorded statements by Ernie. He stated that, until December 2006, he was a “nominal Adventist” who did not have a “close relationship with Jesus.” He would work long hours, six days a week, and “wasn’t observing the health message at all.” He had no contact with Adventists throughout the week or on Sabbath. “I was putting work before God.”  “But, fully a year and a half before December 2006 (in the “spring of 2005”), Ernie received his first two dreams. He continued being a ‘nominal Adventist’ for a time [after that],—and then several events occurred in his life and he began hating God.”

On the night of December 9, 2006, Ernie had some kind of illness and thought he was going to die that night—and he seemed to reach a climax in his hatred of God at that time. So he told God to kill him that night. Quoting Ernie’s recorded words:

“Before I got sick, I was a nominal Adventist. After I got sick, we lost everything, we lost our house, all of our personal belongings, the fine cars that we had, all of our earthly treasures that we think about now, we lost them all because I could not support our family. And so we lost all that, and I took all that out on God and at first started off asking Him why this was happening, and then over the course of two years I started blaming Him for everything that was happening.

“And on December 9th, I remember going to sleep that night asking God to take my life, that I was unhappy, and I know that He says that He loves me but I did not feel loved. And I begged Him and I had been begging Him to please come down and talk to me like He does the other prophets and the other people in the Bible. But I never felt like He would ever come down. I didn’t feel like there was any love, no love. Actually I felt hate, I felt like God hated me. And I could not figure out why He would hate me. What had I done to do this? Well, that night, December 9, I said good night to you (Becky), I was also saying good-bye and I went to sleep after many hours of prayer.

“At this juncture in Ernie’s narrative, his wife, Becky, said, ‘Can you share with us what you were praying that night?’ Ernie replied:

“That night I was asking God, bluntly, to end my life. I was asking Him just to stop it, that I did not feel the love that I thought a person would feel, and of course you can tell that it is hard for me to relate this, because this is not a story or something you’d watch on TV or some story you’d read out of a book. This was my real life; this is what I’ve experi- enced. But that night I went to sleep, and the next morning I woke up. Sunday morning I woke up and I had just finished having this tremendous dream!”

This is utterly astonishing! After having spent a number of years in Adventist Church membership, on the very night that Ernie’s hatred of God reached its climax,—he received a dream from a supernatural being, that he was to be a prophet to the Advent people, and was going to receive more dreams which he should share with them! Can anyone really believe that such dreams are coming from God?

Repeatedly, in those dreams, Ernie is praised by the angel, and told that God loves him deeply. Yet there is no evidence that Ernie ever experienced a genuine conversion, before, during, or after starting to have these supernatural dreams. A genuine repentance is founded on heartfelt repentance of sin, confession and forsaking it, and acceptance of the enabling grace of Christ to live a better life—and then to start living it.

Later in the letter, Linda mentions that, in addition to hating God, he told Him to kill Him that night. —He also challenged Him to talk to him “like He did the other prophets.” What an open-door invitation for Satan to contact him that night! This is what Linda said:

“When you went to bed on the night of December 9, 2006, you were discouraged, angry at God, and wanting to die. You challenged God to prove that He loved you, by coming down and talking to you like He did the other prophets.”

We will later learn that, even at the present time, Ernie expresses little interest in the study of either the Bible or Spirit of Prophecy, and says God has other ways to communicate truth to him.

Ernie says Christ appeared to him—Earlier in the letter, Linda said that it would be expected that, al- though he said that “Christ” appeared to him that night, it could easily be Satan that was speaking to him.

“Think about this: Since, at the personating of Christ, Satan will ‘bear the appearance of Christ in every particular,’ ‘His voice is soft and subdued, yet full of melody. In gentle, compassionate tones he presents some of the same gracious, heavenly truths which the Saviour uttered; he heals the dis- eases of the people’ (5T 698, GC 624). We know he is going to do that. Shouldn’t we also know that, in his deceptions even now, he can appear to look and talk just like Jesus, heal people, and present the same messages Jesus presented through the Spirit of Prophecy?” [Italics hers].

It is an intriguing fact that (as we will discover later) while Ernie says he does not study the Spirit of Prophecy, and does not need to, yet the messages given him by the “angel” sound very similar to what Ellen White wrote. The demons are well-acquainted with the contents of those books, and they are anxious to deceive as many of God’s people as they can.

Returning now to Ernie’s narration:
“It wasn’t until this time [of the dream on the night he wanted to die] that I really knew who Jesus was!” After describing that first dream, Ernie tells, in disconnected sentences on the recorded tape, about Jesus coming and talking with him.

“When I came in to land, I had seen Jesus way up to the left, and when I came in to land, my intention was to return to the temple where I had been in before when the dream first started, but Jesus walked down and he approached me and I knew it was Jesus. I automatically knew it was Jesus, but I also noticed as he walked toward me, I noticed that angels would bow and acknowledge him as the Creator of the universe. But Jesus walked down and even till this point in the dream, I really didn’t know who he really was but after he came down, the two of us, just Jesus and I, we started walking and of course I didn’t have a watch. I don’t know how long it was for, but I’ve guesstimated that Jesus and I walked and we talked for half an hour. It could have been longer. It could have been an hour.  I kind of like to think it was an eternity.

“But Jesus and I walked and we talked, and we discussed many things I’d seen, the things in the temple, the animals I saw, the birds I saw flying, the angels, the different types of people, the different heights of the people, the wall of the city, we talked about many, many different things, but as I would walk and talk with Him, the same Jesus I had talked about, sang songs about, the same Jesus I had prayed to, I don’t know how to put it, but I developed a love unlike any love that I could ever tell, and I know many people have asked, Well, when you saw Jesus, what did he look like? And I always tell them, Well the characteristics I noticed was that he was dressed in a white garment that went from his neck to his feet to his wrist, but His skin was very well tanned, His hair was straight back, not parted.

“And people always want to ask about His eyes. What color is His eyes? I don’t know what color His eyes were. I’ve never noticed the color of His eyes but what attracted me more than anything was what I saw in His eyes. The color of His eyes was not impor- tant but what I saw in His eyes when I looked in his eyes and the only way that I’ve been able to describe that is the love, of the love. When you look in Jesus’ eyes, you see a love that is indescribable.

“People ask, Well, why are you wanting to share these dreams? Well, I want to share because I’ve been told to but it’s also because of what I have seen. And I know that my prayer would be that, if my prayer could be answered that every one that watches this and has read this dream, that you could see what I see when I look into the eyes of Jesus. There’s a love that we cannot describe, there’s no words, except just to say of the love of the love of the love.”

That is the end of Ernie’s taped account of his first dream. Linda comments:

“From your own testimony, Ernie, the biggest red flag that has been raised is regarding your conversion experience. You shared with us how you were a ‘pew warmer’ and didn’t have a close relationship with Jesus. Then, you got sick, lost your job, and lost everything. You began questioning God. Then you started blaming God for allowing you to become sick, and cause you to lose your job, and to be humbled to being a person of no importance, even to having to vacuum your mother-in-law’s living room. When you went to bed on the night of December 9, 2006, you were discouraged, angry at God, and wanting to die. You challenged God to prove that He loved you, by coming down and talking to you like He did the other prophets.

“We are warned in God’s Word: ‘Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.’ Hebrews 12:15.

“Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.” Eph 4:26, 27.

“In the above text, the word ‘place’ in the Greek means opportunity, power, occasion for action. Ac- cording to your own testimony, you were in a miser- able frame of mind that night. You had not spent sig- nificant time in God’s Word, and admitted you didn’t know Christ. Your prayers were full of bitterness, blame and doubt. You disbelieved the very Word of God, which tells us beyond question of God’s love for us. You were unhappy, discontented, discouraged, begging God to let you die. It was in this frame of mind that you went to sleep. Ernie, I believe your ungodly state of mind gave place to the devil, giving him opportunity, power and occasion for action. You were also begging for a supernatural experience. And you received one, did you not?

“It seems apparent that this is what opened the door to a satanic delusion. You were not spiritually prepared to be called to be a holy messenger of God’s pure truth to His people. You were, instead, setting the scene for an encounter with demons.”

Once again Linda noted the strangeness of a new last-day messenger from God, who was suddenly being anointed for his work—without ever having gone through the regular conversion process of repentance and confession of sin;—and instead, he says he was converted while he was asleep.

“Even the dream itself posed major concerns. How could God take one who was in a rebellious, doubting frame of mind and exalt him to the height few humans have ever experienced, to have direct com- munication with Jesus? And when you saw Jesus, and talked with Him, what was your experience then? I would have thought, according to many of the Biblical accounts of holy prophets who encountered divine or angelic beings, that you would have fallen on your face, in acknowledgment of great un- worthiness, especially in the light of your frame of mind when you fell asleep. I would have thought that you would have wept and bemoaned your lack of faith, your blatant challenge to God, your prior wasted life in denying the power of God. A genuine conversion would have included all of this. Instead, you talked about the material aspects of heaven. That seems very shallow and superficial. “And as I questioned you further about your conversion, you stated that you woke up converted, in love with Jesus. Please tell me, how does one become converted in his sleep? This is an absolute impossibility!”

Beings flitting nearby while awake—Ernie mentioned that, while awake, he would see supernatural beings flitting around off to his right or left.

“Another concern was the supernatural beings that kept appearing to you, that you could see only out of the corner of your eye, as you were being pressured to tell the dream during the two weeks following the dream. That’s downright spooky. That sounds like the works of the angels of darkness, not of pure, holy, heavenly beings.

“Here is how you described it: ‘For two weeks I did not tell the next part of the dream. For two weeks I did not share the most important part of this dream. For two weeks I kept it secret, but for two weeks I would, still knowing that I was sitting at home, I wasn’t going out anywhere, I would all of a sudden see things walk around out of the corner of my eye, and I’d look and there wasn’t anybody there. But at the same time I would hear a voice say, ‘You need to share the end of the dream.’ ”

The good angels do not work in this manner. This is a pattern that demons often use with their mediums, to keep them fearful. Each evening, when Adolf Hitler went to bed, he could see a demon sitting in the corner glaring at him. This kept him in a fearful state of mind, so he would keep fulfilling their wishes for the enslave- ment of Europe. At various times, Ernie likewise expresses various fears that grip his mind.

The twofold test—Linda mentions the two ways to verify the genuineness of these dreams:

“Again we will consider the quote on your web site that you have selected for giving evidence of the divine origin of the dreams:

“ ‘Dreams from the Lord are classed in the Word of God with visions and are as truly the fruits of the spirit of prophecy as visions. Such dreams, taking into the account [1] the persons who have them and [2] the circumstances under which they are given, contain their own proofs of their genuineness’ ” [1T 569, 570].

“Throughout this letter, we have been taking into account the person who had them, and the circumstances under which they are given. This character examination is required for testing the dreams.” [Italics hers.]

Another untruthful statement—Linda refers to another item which was not truthfully stated:

“Another fact that surfaced unexpectedly was that you were actually fired from the job that you had before December 2006, and it was explained that you were confrontational and not able to get along personally with your co-workers and associates. Your testimony that you gave at our home was stated in such a way as to lead one to believe that it was your ill health that caused your loss of employment. Again, this brings up issues of integrity.”

More about the first two dreams—Linda mentions how Ernie later elevated two earlier dreams of little consequence to a position of highest importance.

“Ernie, I have another question. According to your own testimony, on December 9, 2006, you . . stated that you did not know Jesus. So, in this condition, you had two dreams in the spring of 2005. You said that you ‘thought nothing of them’ other than that they were interesting. They obviously made little impact on your lifestyle or spiritual commitment. Then, you started having more dreams, had a ‘conversion’ experience in your sleep, and put up a web site. Now, these first two dreams from 2005 are elevated right along with your other dreams to become God’s last-day message for His people, part of the message we are commanded to believe as we bow before the [supernatural] being professing to be Jesus [in your dream] who gave them? How do you explain that?”

Addictive effect of the dreams—Linda found that, after having initially accepted the dreams as genuine, she had a compulsion to keep learning what was in the latest one,—until she came to believe they were more important than reading the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy.

“How did the dreams affect me personally? Did they drive me to the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy. Well, in a certain sense they did. We did study a lot on end time events during our time of belief in the dreams. But the final result was that the dreams took preeminence in our thoughts. Since they were ‘new light,’ they added to and superseded what we had previously believed. I found myself funneling spiritual thoughts through the nuances found in the dreams. It actually felt like I was becoming acquainted with a ‘new’ God, because I’d think about things in the dreams much more than Scripture or the Spirit of Prophecy. They made much more exciting reading. That should have clued me in!

“I found the dreams to have a supernatural pull, like an addiction. I would check the web site frequently, with my heart pounding, hoping and praying that there would be a new dream. And when a new dream showed up,  my excitement and interest in the dream was incredibly high. When I believed in the dreams, my emotional involvement wouldn’t let me read them objectively. Things that normally would have made me uncomfortable I was able to pass over because of my attachment to the whole experience. I found that my belief in these dreams removed my objectivity, because of an addictive power that overrides reason. I believe this is a supernatural phenomena used by the devil to trap people and keep them in a delusion.”

Continually feeling discouraged, alone, or persecuted—Lacking peace of heart (because he is not at peace with God through daily repentance and the study of His Word), Ernie lives with many concerns. If you read my book, The Demons of Witchcraft, which will be published this fall, you will find that those guided by demons live in a state of alternate elation, and depression and fear.

“Something that surfaces in the dreams is your feeling of being discouraged, alone or persecuted. Reference is made to spears and arrows. You seem to be receiving constant affirmation [by the angel] and special tokens [of favor by him] throughout your dreams.”

When not dreaming, Ernie feels depressed. During a dream, the angel is building him up emotionally, telling him how important he is. This cyclic pattern is a spiritually unhealthy one.

“This focus [in your dreams] on emotion and coddling seems to be encouraging the opportunity for pride and self-exaltation. Would this tend to increase your humility? Would not Christ [if He were really communicating with you] be concerned lest you be puffed up with pride at your high, exalted position?”

Jeanine Sautron was the best-known false prophet in Adventism in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She deceived many people (see my booklet, Jeanine Sautron). Her first dream was also about being taken to heaven, and there treated by Jesus and the angels as though she were an utterly great person. Compare that with Early Writings, 76-81.

Earthly music and worship services not good—

Linda was concerned that Ernie’s dreams tend to downgrade the value of our efforts to worship God. Just about everything is bad, and nothing is told us about what can be acceptable.

“The two of us [“Jesus” and Ernie] walk and talk together for quite some time. One of the things we talked about was how beautiful the music was that I heard in heaven. I mentioned that it was unlike any- thing I had ever heard in our worship services on Earth. I asked Him if He enjoys the music and worship services we have. He responded, ‘That is just it. They are your worship services not mine.’ He said that some of the music we have is inspired not by himself, the Father or the Holy Spirit but by a whole different spirit.

“This paragraph brings up more questions than it answers. Does Jesus not like any of our music? If He does like some, what kind does He like? When the being says in the dream, ‘They are your worship services not mine,’ what is meant by that? Are all our worship services displeasing to Him? How do we know when we go into a church on Sabbath if the worship service is displeasing to Him? Should we even go to church if the worship services are not pleasing to Jesus? I find this message leaves me totally confused. While we can know some music is not spiritual music because it is based on worldly principles, this ‘message from Jesus’ does not provide anything that can be helpful to us in knowing how to worship Jesus in a way that is pleasing  to Him.

“At our meeting, we remember someone asking you what kind of music you listened to, and you responded, I really don’t like to listen to any music, because I’ve heard heavenly music, so any earthly music is not appealing to me. This is certainly not helpful to the rest of us. It tends to place you above us.”

Bible and Spirit of Prophecy study unimportant and unnecessary—Ernie knows little about the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy. He has little interest in study- ing either of them; and the angel has told him that the dreams will give him better spiritual guidance,—and that there are many non-Scriptural ways to learn truth from God. This is from the transcript of one of Ernie’s dreams:

“As for me not having a broad understanding of the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy, the Herald says that I have a broader understanding than I might know [if he, Ernie, had bothered to study them], and that because I am not ordained of man does not mean I am not ordained of God. The angel says that the Great Teacher has many ways of teaching other than what one can read in what He has written.”

So he is saying that his “Herald” will teach him more than if he had studied the Bible or Spirit of Prophecy.

This is Linda’s comment about that:
“This last sentence directly contradicts the following statement: ‘The Bible will never be superseded by miraculous

manifestations. The truth must be studied, it must be searched for as hidden treasure. Wonderful illuminations will not be given aside from the Word or to take the place of it.’ 2SM 48. This clearly says that God will not bypass His Word.”

This next paragraph by Linda is powerful:
“If God was going to go against all His Biblical principles in selecting you as His end-time messenger, and exalting you above all other humans on the earth as having the final Word from Him, how would we be able to know that? [1] Based on your word? [2] By miracles? [3] By your emotional love for the being that has appeared before you? [4] By ‘miraculous’ feelings and impressions. None of these are safe guides. We are left with the option of standing by the God of the Bible, who has revealed Himself to us through His Word and the Spirit of Prophecy.”

Linda makes her decision—Eventually, the continually increasing evidence reached such a point, that Linda decided to reject the dreams—and do it openly. This was not an easy decision; for the dreams had such an almost hypnotic attraction to her, after she started reading them.

“I decided to stop checking the dreams. Amazingly, this was a difficult decision for me, and required a struggle. As I mentioned, the addictive power of the dreams is strong. Even with all my doubts and concerns, I still had been in the habit of checking the web site almost daily. “I went through a time of purging the dreams from my thoughts, and repenting to the Lord for believing in the dreams. On April 19, 2008, I felt convicted by the Lord to make a statement on the same forum in which I had posted in support of your dreams. That was the first time I publicly spoke out against the dreams, even though I had not been promoting them for quite a while.

“The more I turned away from the dreams, the more powerfully the Lord convicted me that these dreams were not from Him. It was almost as if a light came on, and I can see now! I began processing all the information I had, and the truth came out clearly that I had been ensnared in a delusion.“

Two predictions which did not come true—One was about Shawn Boonstra; the other was about Doug Batchelor.

“The prophecy of Oct. 21, 2007, was made when you asked Jesus: ‘Is there someone I can be connected with so that these messages can go out faster?’ Jesus replies ‘Yes, I will connect you with Shawn Boonstra.’

“Over six months later, Shawn Boonstra dictated the following statement: ‘A number of people have communicated with our office recently, asking about our official position on the dreams and visions of Mr. Ernie Knoll. More specifically, some have been asking if Shawn Boonstra has received any sort of confirmation from God that Mr. Knoll’s experience is genuine. At this point in time, Pastor Boonstra has had no such experience. To date, It Is Written has not come into possession of any information that suggests the claims of Mr. Knoll are genuine.’

“The bottom line is, Jesus did not connect you with Shawn Boonstra so that the messages can go out faster. . . It’s obvious that he didn’t help them go out faster! Anybody can see that. There is no question that this was a false prophecy.

“Another false prophecy was given on Aug. 14, 2007, in the dream Watch, As I Am Coming. The angel said to you regarding Doug Batchelor: ‘You both walk a road parallel and your roads will cross.’ You thought perhaps this prophecy may have been fulfilled shortly after you attended a church where Doug Batchelor was speaking, although there was no conversation between you. Regarding the parallel paths, his secretary, Bonnie Ensminger, stated to me on April 23, 2008, that Pastor Batchelor has refused, and continues to refuse to meet with you and talk with you, although there was an attempt to make an appointment with him. That doesn’t sound like parallel roads to me! He certainly is not in agree- ment with the road that you are on!”

It is an intriguing fact that, instead of giving messages which agree with the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy, the demons will give predictions about important people. Jeane Dixon, a false prophet in the 1950s and 1960s, regularly did this. She would give prophecies about famous people; most of these did not come true.

Love for Bible and Spirit of Prophecy study returns—It was not until she separated from the dreams and openly rejected them,—that Linda’s love for reading the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy returned—and, with it, the deep, abiding presence of God. No longer was she troubled by worrisome forebodings.

“It may seem strange to you that I hung on so long after having so many concerns. Let me tell you, I wanted so much for these dreams to be from God! I was willing to overlook many of the concerns, and keep hanging on. Like a friend expressed to me, ‘If I turn away from the dreams, what do I do with all the feelings of hope and closeness to God they’ve generated?’ I felt that way, but now I realize those feelings were strictly emotion, not reality.

“Since I have let go of the dreams, I have been drawn closer to God than I’ve ever been before! It has lifted a heavy burden off of me. God has been teaching me many valuable lessons for which I am extremely grateful. I am so thankful for the Word of God. I have immersed myself in the Scriptures with a fervor like never before! I thank God for a good memory, and for the hundreds and hundreds of scrip- tures that I have hidden in my heart. Now, in the night, these scriptures are my delightful meditation.”

The basis of false revivals—According to God’s Word, false revivals are based, not on Scripture, but on emotional appeals to the imagination and something new and startling. People attend Pentecostal meetings, another device of the devil, because they imagine that do- ing so is changing their lives for the better.

“What about all the ‘miracles,’ the changed lives, the sweet fellowship and new friendships, and in- creased love for Jesus that the followers of the dreams seem to have experienced? How could Satan be do- ing all this? Listen: ‘Popular revivals are too often carried by appeals to the imagination, by exciting the emotions, by gratifying the love for what is new and startling. Converts thus gained have little desire to listen to Bible truth, little interest in the testimony of prophets and apostles. Unless a religious service has something of a sensational character, it has no attractions for them. A message which appeals to unimpassioned reason awakens no response. The plain warnings of God’s Word, relating directly to their eternal interests, are un-heeded’ (GC 463).

“The fact that the spiritual awakening came as a result of an emotionally charged supernatural dream causes one to wonder: Would those whose lives have been changed by the hearing of your dreams have responded to a Biblical message without the ‘ap- peals to the imagination, by exciting the emotions, by gratifying the love for what is new and star- tling’? And if not, then, have their lives really been changed for the better? There seems to be a re- vival, but it is based on a shaky foundation. Just because there is a seeming revival at a new, star- tling, exciting message does not mean that it is of

God. False revivals look very close to true revivals.” Linda’s summary—Here are some of the final, key points in her letter:

“If your conversion experience is held up as a model to your followers, they would see that this is a strange, new religion, not the Christianity of the Bible, and certainly not the calling of the rem- nant church. Just this morning I read, ‘If we have not a deep experience in the things of God, if we have not a thorough knowledge of His Word, we shall be beguiled to our ruin by the errors and sophistries of the enemy.’ Mar, 95. Ernie, because of your admitted lack of a deep understanding and knowledge of the Word, you have been beguiled, and you are spreading your error around the world.

“To sum up this letter, we have, according to the Biblical injunction, placed the messenger and the message under the spotlight of God’s Word. The conclusion is that:

“• As we follow the counsel in the very statement used on the web site regarding testing the genuine- ness of the dreams by considering who has the dreams and under what circumstances, we can clearly see that the dreams are not genuine.

“• The character of the messenger lacks integrity and humility. There is no evidence of genuine repentance and conversion. The ‘conversion’ described goes against righteousness by faith. The Bible is not exalted as the final authority. Feelings and impressions are used as a guide. There is error in the dreams. There is confusion in the dreams.

“• The results of the dreams are manifested in a false revival based on ‘appeals to the imagination, by exciting the emotions, by gratifying the love for what is new and startling.’ Followers are being forced to make decisions that will eventually separate them from the fellowship of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. There seems to be an unreasonable loyalty and defensiveness among the believers in the dreams.

“• At least two false prophecies were made.

“• The last two dreams contain the spirit of control, manipulation and force that is not in harmony with God’s character of grace and mercy. In light of all of the above, we must conclude that the dreams come from a demonic source.”

—Please make copies of these eight pages and share them widely with those who need them! It is too late in history to set aside the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy, and chase after every person who comes along, claiming to have special messages for us through dreams or visions. We have enough light in God’s Word to enable us to do our duty and prepare our lives to meet Jesus! The problem is that we are not daily reading in the Inspired Writings! —vf