Bishop Jordan

I’ve run across the name “Bishop Jordan” a few times recently, so decided to look into this man a little bit to see what he is all about. So if you are interested, here is a quick rundown.

Bishop E. (Elijah) Bernard Jordan is a self-appointed “Master Prophet” who is founder and Senior Pastor of Zoe Ministries which is located in Brooklyn, New York. He has a television show that appears regularly on B.E.T. and a couple of other television networks. The show features well known personalities like Rev. Run (a.k.a. Joseph Simmons, one of the founders of the rap group Run-D.M.C and star of the MTV reality show, Run’s House) who was ordained to the ministry by Jordan. There are also frequent appearances by Al Sharpton and by Mark Victor Hansen, who co-authored the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books (now totaling almost 200 titles with something like 100 million book sold). Jordan claims to be able to bring direct revelation from God to others.

J.R. Taylor of the New York Press, who recently attended a $500-a-plate breakfast hosted by Jordan, quotes the following as examples of the bishop’s prophecies: “I will bring judgment through a new sound in the earth that will silence the voices of past recording artists. This will be known as New Wave music.” “The days will come that you will see hospital stations filled up with men and women getting shots to place protein in their body. Great will be the industry of nuts in this hour.” After watching a couple of episodes of his show, I can attest that these are typical prophecies. He claims to have predicted almost every meaningful event in the last decade.

Jordan is a prophet-for-hire, dispensing his prophecies to those who are willing to pay his price. He defends this practice in this way: “Whenever you approach a prophet, bring a gift with you. The power of your seed increases when you are willing to release it into the hands of a prophet. Throughout the Scripture, you will find that wise individuals never approached the man or woman of God empty-handed. They understood that the gift of their offering would multiply in the hands of a prophet, and they were more than eager to release their seed.”

As for those who feel that this prophet is a false prophet, he says this: “Murmuring is a serious matter to God, for it questions His choice and His intelligence. It makes mockery of God’s wisdom, and those who indulge in slander place their thoughts and opinions above those of God Himself. The exaltation of your opinion can be lethal when you are dealing with anointed vessels.”

I applied for a free prophecy through his site and was told “Thank you for connecting with the Master Prophet and requesting your free prophecy. You will receive a letter from me within the next 7 days, containing your personal prophetic word as spoken to me by the Holy Spirit. God Bless You.” I suppose my prophecy will show up next week. If what I hear is to be believed, he will soon be looking for several hundred dollars for any further personalized prophecies.

Jordan is willing to teach prophecy to others through his Prophecology Courses and Conferences. For a seed of $3000 anyone can “experience the benefits of
prophetic coaching, direction, and guidance” as part of the Prophetic Inner Circle. He lives in a $3.6 million, 27-room mansion in the wealthy Tuxedo Park area of New York. He has a considerable collection of luxury cars and his ministry owns several expensive properties. The house is decorated in a strange way.

After moving in, the bishop commissioned a team of Russian artists to paint elaborate art work on the walls and ceilings of the first floor, a job that took two to three years. Egyptian-themed murals cover the walls of the great room: ancient Egyptians hunting, fishing, moving a sarcophagus. One shows Jordan on a throne, as pharaoh.

Nearby, in a room with scarlet walls and gilded filigree on top, there is a ceiling painting of Jordan on a throne - as God - with his three sons hovering around him as angels. On the ceilings in the foyer and another room, there are baroque-style paintings of his children as cherubim, soaring across the heavens.

None of this quite compares to the living room.

Here, the four walls are covered with murals depicting New Testament scenes, each with Jordan as Jesus in the familiar iconography of medieval and Renaissance art. Two scenes show the Ascension: Jesus/Jordan ascending into heaven after rising from the dead. For a Nativity scene, the artists used Jordan’s baby picture to depict Jesus/Jordan in the manger.

Dozens of people in biblical garb crowd around Jesus/Jordan in each scene. For each figure, the artists reproduced from photos the faces of the 200 or so people who paid for the $1 million renovation of the mansion. Run, who bought the huge chandelier hanging in the center of the room, is there in the crowd. So is Sharpton.

“These are the people who believed in what we’re doing,” Jordan says. “This is our way of saying thank you to them and immortalizing them.”

So all-in-all, it seems that Jordan is just another in a seemingly endless line of shysters and charlatans that feign godliness in order to further their pursuit of wealth. Needless to say, you’d be best off avoiding this unscrupulous character.

Here are a couple of resources: Record Online’s story and photo essay of Bishop Jordan, his home, his ministry and his followers.