A Letter to a Friend about The New
Apostolic Reformation:
Dear Friend,
Thank you for being willing to discuss with me ideas promoted by the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement. You led me
to investigate the NAR Movement. Here’s how you did that: Some time ago, on a
Sunday morning at the church you attend (and I then attended), you said to me,
“You know, we’ve got to pray in the Kingdom.”
That sounded strange to me, and I later Googled “Pray in the Kingdom.” I didn’t find much information. So, I searched
for “Pray in the Kingdom, Rick Joyner,” because I felt you and your husband were
somehow connected to Joyner’s teachings. That’s when I found info about Rick Joyner, C. Peter Wagner, and a movement I was unaware
of. That movement is called the “New Apostolic Reformation” (NAR).
When my wife and I began attending your church,
I thought it was simply an independent Pentecostal church tied to the Charismatic
movement. In attending your church on a Sunday morning, one might think the church
is a seeker-sensitive, Protestant, conservative-in-theology church that
features contemporary music and messages geared to seekers and
Christians who want to hear about Christian living, raising families, etc. On
Sunday mornings, I didn’t see much Pentecostalism at your church.
I sensed that your church, inside its small groups
or during special presentations, explored some controversial subjects such as
“deliverance” (generational curses) and “the prophetic.” I learned that some your
church people seemed attracted to teachings by Pastor Rick Joyner. I usually
avoided investigating those subjects, but when you said, “You know, we have to
pray in the Kingdom,” I wondered, “What is involved in some of the beliefs I
sense are held by upper-echelon leaders at your church?”
My
search led me to read about Professor C. Peter Wagner, the NAR, the old Latter
Rain Movement, Dominion Theology, Joel’s Army, the Assemblies of God
condemnation of the NAR movement, Postmillennialism, a focus on “the demonic”
and supposed “generational curses," and other things. I was saddened to learn
about many of the things the NAR promotes. I realized that many leaders at your
church probably believe NAR teachings but do not divulge those teachings to the
general population that attends your church. (I admire the
Assembly of God denomination because it lays out its teachings for all to read, as far as I know. I respect
that.)
I
worked in the early 1970s for Logos International, a publisher of Charismatic Christian
books. I heard discussions about the error of the Latter Rain Movement, which
seems to be a forerunner of the NAR Movement. (I was raised in a Pentecostal
Church and spent many years in Assembly of God churches. I believe in the gifts
of the Spirit.) Is the NAR a misguided spinoff of the Charismatic Movement
of the 1960s and 1970s?
After researching the NAR, I made an
appointment with the senior pastor of your church and talked with him for an
hour about the NAR and what I had discovered. I learned that your church has
been influenced for years by the NAR movement.
The NAR seems to hold that there will be no
Rapture of the Church in the manner that most conservative Christians have
recently believed. I heard (by video) one of the NAR “prophets” say, “Christ is
coming IN his Church, not FOR his Church.” The NAR seems to have “spiritualized
“Christ’s return for his Church” into some kind of “wave” by which Christ
spiritually influences his followers to perform miracles and take over the
leadership of earthly institutions in a kind of Dominionism (Dominion
Theology). The NAR seems to hold that Christ can’t return to earth until Christians get the world in much better shape than it is now in. Perhaps
that is why you said to me, “We have to pray in the Kingdom.”
You recently wrote this note to me, saying,
Hi, Steve.
You have shared with us several articles
concerning dominion theology over the past year. I think this brother sums
up our heart on the matter. This is what we believe will take place
before the rapture of the church. It is not a long article. :)
His,
_______ (signed name)
Steve notes: Thank you for sharing the (below)
“David Orton ‘Word for the Week’” with me. I read a review of David Orten’s book,
“Snakes in the Temple.” Here is that review:
“Snakes
in the Temple casts a biblical vision of the Church's kingdom-revival future
and addresses the hindrances to its fulfillment. It asks some penetrating
questions. Why, for example, despite our best efforts at church growth is not
the Western Church seeing the same breakthroughs as the developing world? David
Orton traces the roots of the problem to a hidden idolatry in the Church.
Following it from its second century origins to its inroads in the contemporary
Church he argues that until this is resolved we will not see the breakthroughs
we long for in the West. He contends that the Western Church, creating a god in
its own image, worships at the altars of success, productivity, and power. It
is time to unmask this hidden idolatry and issue a fresh call to return to the
'Great Commandment' - to the purity of devotion to Christ. It is time to engage
in a heart-process with God to resolve it.”
When
I read that review, my first question was this: Isn’t what Orton calls the
“hidden idolatry in the Church” possibly being replaced by a new kind of idolatry
found in the ideas of the proposed New Apostolic Reformation? Could a “new”
evolving idolatry be the “worship” of a so-called “corporate Christ,” which
is theorized to be “Christians now on earth"? Is a new idolatry trying to
replace an old one?
Friend, here is the article (“Word of the
Week”) by David Orton that you sent to me:
"When
Jesus came as the Hebrew babe of Bethlehem, God came, enfolded in human form.
All the fullness of the eternal God invaded human history in the body of a man.
Veiled in human flesh the full force of God’s glory was hidden from the naked
eye. He had 'no beauty or majesty to
attract us' and 'nothing in his
appearance that we should desire him' (Isa 53:2 NIV). If we were to
judge Christ 'after the flesh', all we would see is Joseph’s son, the
carpenter’s boy from Nazareth.
But, at the Mount of Transfiguration, divinity
broke through humanity! The glory, which he had enjoyed with the Father before
the world began, shone through his physical body and became visible! The man
from Nazareth, with whom the disciples ate and slept, was absolutely
transfigured. His face 'shone like the
sun, and his clothes became as white as the light' (Mt 17:2 NIV).
But
this awesome display of the Father’s glory was not meant to finish with
Christ’s physical body. As it was with his natural body, so also with the
spiritual. Just as Jesus was filled
with all the fullness of God he
now becomes '…head over everything to
the church, which is his body, the fullness of him …' (Eph 1:22-23 NIV)."
Steve notes:
The above writing is confusing and presumptuous. We must remember that “In Him [Christ]
dwelt the fullness of the Godhead, bodily.” Should we take away from Christ’s
deity by assuming that the Church, made up of sinners redeemed by Grace, would
“on earth” become equal with Christ in some “corporate” manner?
Orton
continues this way:
As Jesus was destined to manifest the fullness of the Father individually, the church is corporately. This is the 'mystery
of Christ in you the hope of glory' (Col 1:27). And so, 'as partakers of the divine nature'
(2 Pet 1:4), we are destined to experience a greater dimension of the
'shekinah' glory.
Steve notes:
Christ “IN” you is the hope of glory – not Chirst “IS” you. We are saved by
faith, meaning that we are still fallen and not yet actually saved in
completion. Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.” The
Church is “without spot or wrinkle” by the saving grace of Christ. To lift up
the Church as some kind of “corporate Christ” appears to be heresy to me. The
Church is not Christ. We do things “by his Spirit.” The author seems to
dangerously “deify” Christians.
Orton says,
But this
visible manifestation of God’s glory will not come to an immature Christ.
Steve notes:
Does that statement indicate a “works” mentality as to “attaining” Christ’s
“glory”?
Orton says,
The
Transfiguration was the Father’s unqualified approval of the mature Son – the man Christ Jesus. Jesus had so
developed in his humanity that the Father could proudly declare from heaven, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am
well pleased. Listen to him.' (Mtt 17:5 NIV).
Steve notes:
What? Orton says, "Jesus had so developed in his humanity . . . "? That sounds
really strange. Did Jesus “develop” into the "Son of God” or was he, from the
beginning, the “begotten Son of God”? God could have at any time (while Jesus
was a child) declared about Jesus “This is my Son, whom I love . . . “ Jesus was
God’s Son. Where did the author get the term “mature Son”?
Orton
continues . . .
The
Transfiguration was God the Father saying with paternal pride, 'Hey … check this
out … this is my boy!'
Likewise, when the church, the corporate Christ, reaches maturity all heaven and earth will
resound with the Father’s pleasure. Creation’s long travail will have finally
realised the full manifestation of the sons of God, as heaven comes to earth in
a world-transforming revival."
Steve notes:
This last part of Orton’s writing sounds “glorious,” but I think it may be heresy.
It appears, to me, to be the old “Manifest Sons of God” movement wrapped up for
a new generation of me-centered “believers.” This whole “movement” (the New
Apostolic Reformation) seems to be (perhaps unknowingly) attempting to enthrone
human beings while taking Christ out of the modern-day picture. The idea of a
“corporate Christ” on earth appeals to us. Yes, we’ve heard the chorus “To be
his hand extended,” etc., and heard about others “seeing Jesus through us,” but
this NAR movement goes too far in projecting that the Church is a “corporate
Christ.” I read that one writer said, “Christ is coming for a body [that is] at
least as big as the head.” That’s a dangerous statement, I think. The Body of
Christ is made up of redeemed sinners, and that final work of our salvation has
not been completed yet. We are at present, now, saved “by faith.” Does the
author, Orton, want to glorify “the Church” and portray Christ as just an
individual “mature Son” who was (is) a forerunner of super-saints who “share”
in his glory. Perhaps the ME GENERATION has really gone too far in coming up
with such a “theology.”
Dear Friend,
This whole “Manifest
Sons of God” idea is so mystical-sounding. Does the movement have Gnostic
qualities?
Here’s a
quote from Wikipedia’s discussion of Gnosticism:
“Jesus is identified by
some Gnostics as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to bring gnÅsis to the earth, while others
adamantly denied that the supreme being came in the flesh, claiming Jesus to be
merely a human who attained divinity through gnosis and taught his disciples to
do the same.”
Wikipedia defines “gnosis”:
“Gnosis is the common Greek noun for 'knowledge' . . . In Christian, Islamic, or Jewish mysticism, mystery religions and Gnosticism, gnosis
generally signifies a spiritual knowledge or ‘religion of knowledge,’ in the
sense of mystical enlightenment or ‘insight.’”
I wonder
about the concept of a “corporate Christ” – a term I’ve read in NAR articles. Does
it take some kind of special “knowledge” that only the “special Christians”
have in order to understand that term “corporate Christ”? Do we need to have some kind
of “gnosis” or enlightenment to understand that in the last days there will be
no Rapture in the manner in which St. Paul seemed to understand it? Perhaps
Paul was not aware of the “progressive revelation” (a term I've seen in NAR writings) that would be given in the
twenty-first century? No wonder Christians are confused. The NAR seems to be
trying to revive the old “Latter Rain” movement, which was condemned by the
Assembly of God in 1949.
Friend, this subject (the NAR and its seeming beliefs) has weighed on my mind. I recently
listed some of my concerns about the NAR. If I’m wrong, then I pray the
Lord will correct me, but here are my thoughts and questions:
1. Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, I will
draw all men unto me”; he didn’t say “If my corporate body be lifted up.”
2. Is the NAR and its concentration on the
“Body of Christ” actually “becoming Christ” an outgrowth of the ME GENERATION’s
self-centeredness?
3.
Are
followers of NAR ideas disregarding Christ’s promised appearing (the Rapture) and
looking for the glorification of self in the idea of becoming a “corporate
Christ?” The late Bob Jones (not associated with Bob Jones University) said,
“Christ is coming ‘in’ his Church, not ‘for’ his Church.” Jones was associated
with the Rev. Rick Joyner of Charlotte, N.C., a proponent of NAR ideas, as I
understand.
4.
Has
the NAR changed the focus from Jesus to “Jesus followers”?
5.
Is
the NAR perspective the same as the Apostle Paul’s perspective about Christ and
his return in order to rapture the Church? Or has “progressive revelation”
de-emphasized the importance of Paul’s writings? One NAR follower told me that the New Testament books are "foundational."
6.
Does
the idea of “progressive revelation” actually question the Bible’s inspiration
and authority?
7.
During
the Prophet Jeremiah’s time, there were many false prophets giving “good
reports” for Israel’s future. Are there false prophets who are active today?
8.
What
about the Jewish factor in NAR views of eschatology? Where are the 144,000
Jewish evangelists in the NAR’s views of future events?
9.
Is
there a “seeking after signs and wonders” among NAR followers because the Word (the
Bible) is not sufficient? Is there a need for a “new word” among NAR believers
because the Word is not enough?
10. Do NAR followers desire “new prophecies” (and record them)
because they are, in reality, weak in faith and not strong in faith?
11. Is the NAR actually a new form of
bondage – with its hierarchy of “new leaders”? Do you remember the old Kansas
City “discipleship movement”?
12. Are there ulterior human motivations
behind much of the “corporate Christ” concept? Is that whole idea a deception?
13. Paul said that the Greeks desire to
hear “some new thing.” Western civilization has been greatly influenced by
Greek culture and thought. Are many in the Church desiring to hear some “new
thing?” A lady visited our home. While we talked, she pulled a leather-covered
book from her purse. She said, “Have you seen this? It’s just like Jesus
talking to you.” The book was “Jesus Calling.” I refrained from asking her if
she also had a New Testament in her purse. Can the proliferation of alleged “personal
words from Jesus” take away from the importance of the Bible?
Friend, these
are honest thoughts and questions I have about the NAR movement. I hope you
don’t mind me voicing them to you.
Friend, here (following) is an article
written by Holly Pivec, a religion reporter:
The Assemblies of God USA has published
a number of official statements taking stances against many NAR teachings. Here
are some key NAR teachings that have been rejected by the denomination’s
leadership.
· The
Assemblies of God has rejected the teaching that present-day apostles and
prophets should govern the church (see papers titled “Endtime
Revival”, “Apostles
and Prophets,” and “Prophets
and Personal Prophecies“)
· The
Assemblies of God has rejected the teaching that the church should work to take
dominion of the earth prior to Christ’s return–a teaching known as “Kingdom
Now” or “Dominion Theology” (see papers titled “Endtime
Revival” and “The
Kingdom of God“)
· The
Assemblies of God has rejected the teaching that the end-time church will
become a victorious, militant army so it can take dominion of the earth–a
teaching known as “Manifest Sons of God” or “Joel’s Army” (see paper titled “Endtime
Revival”)
· The
Assemblies of God has rejected the teaching that Christians must identify a
hierarchy of demonic spirits (also called “territorial spirits”) and wage
battle against them for the gospel to advance–a teaching known as
“strategic-level spiritual warfare” (see paper titled “Spiritual
Warfare“)
· The
Assemblies of God has rejected the teaching that spiritual gifts, such as
prophesying and healing people, can be imparted by church leaders through the
practice of laying their hands on people (see paper titled “Imparting
of Spiritual Gifts“)
… I applaud the Assemblies of God
executive leaders for their biblical discernment and willingness to stand
against aberrant theology.
Yet, in actual practice, these same NAR
teachings are being promoted in many Assemblies of God churches.
Why is that the case? For starters, the
denomination has given its assemblies great autonomy. So, the higher-ups cannot
possibly have knowledge of what is being taught from every local pulpit. And,
even if they did, they might be reluctant to exert a heavy hand to stop the
teachings.
But I believe the local pastor is the
greatest factor in determining whether or not NAR teachings are allowed into an
Assemblies of God church. The pastor is the gatekeeper. So, NAR teachings will
come into any church where the pastor promotes those teachings or turns a blind
eye to teachings that are being promoted by members of his church.
Some Assemblies of God churches that
become heavily involved in NAR teachings–such as Bethel
Church in Redding, California–leave the denomination. Nonetheless, many
churches that remain part of the Assemblies of God actively promote NAR
teachings–even inviting NAR apostles and prophets into their churches.
(End of
Holly Pivec article.)
Friend,
here is an article from Internet sources about Dominion Theology:
The
1980s have witnessed the rise to prominence of a unique blend of theology often
called Dominion Theology (DT). DT is the product of two major streams of
thought. One from the Reformed, Calvinist camp, the other from the
Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition. Before the development of DT, it would have
been hard to imagine two more diverse expressions of Christianity. Even though
each group traveled a different path, they have arrived at similar conclusions,
at least concerning two major issues. First, their handling of the Old
Testament (OT). Second, the common belief that the current age is the full
expression of the Kingdom of God, and that Christ cannot return to earth until
a certain level of maturity and development is reached by the Church.
[Note:
The Pentecostal and Charismatic movements rejected the "Manifest Sons of
God Movement," but that idea has resurfaced under C. Peter Wagner and
the NAR (New Apostolic Reformation) movement.]
DEFINING "DOMINION"
Many
Dominion Theology (DT) proponents believe dominion over every area of life has
been restored by the first coming of Christ. They believe that if we are now in
the “Kingdom” ("Kingdom Now"), our task is to call believers to
reclaim the rule of Christ on planet earth by whatever means their particular
brand of DT advocates. For Reconstructionists, this is accomplished through the
ethical means of obeying the Word (Biblical law). Charismatics often teach that
it is achieved through the metaphysical means of confessing the Word. Both
believe that dominion is to be taken by Christians (not immediately by Christ,
but mediately through believers), over all mankind, before Christ physically
returns to planet earth.
The
major passage which Dominionists believe teach their view is Genesis 1:28,
"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living
thing that moves on the earth."
This
verse clearly teaches that dominion has been given over the animals and the
earth, which mankind has clearly fulfilled and continues to fulfill (Ps. 8:6-8).
However, it does not give justification, as many Dominion Theology proponents teach, that we are to take
dominion over other human beings. The Scriptures do teach that Christ has
dominion over all mankind (Jude 25), and that believers will reign and rule
with Him (Rev. 5:10), but the question is “when?”. Rule with Christ will take
place in the future Kingdom. This is why it is important to understand that the
current age is not yet Christ's Kingdom, but we are now in the Church Age.
###
further reading: http://www.letusreason.org/latrain1.htm
and
the following gives a detailed report on the NAR movement.
Friend, I sent the above article to some
friends of mine. (The last response is from an Internet writer, not a friend of
mine.) Here are some of their responses:
Tony H: “I am so grateful for the Holy
Spirit's indwelling that lets me know that this theology is absolutely in
error. . . . I can understand why it is so seductive – like all heresy, it
gives mankind way too much prominence.”
Linda B: “There is some whacked theology out there! … If
God has to wait on people to make things right, He never will get
back. God does not ‘need’ us for anything! I had a friend once who
evidently believed this, because she said to me, ‘God’s hands are tied,’ to
which I said, ‘Then He isn’t really a God then, is He?’ Thanks for the
explanation . . . .”
Miriam
J: “I have some friends who are involved in the Dominion teaching – hook,
line and sinker. I have realized in my personal walk that I had to learn,
unlearn and relearn. I feel like that's a given in the Christian faith but you
have to stay in prayer and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Lot of other
sweet-sounding voices trying to trip us up and make it sound spiritual.”
Brent
M: “I have recently come out of this type
of movement and the secrecy, deception, and insanity are amazing. I am so
thankful for the grace of our Lord and Savior that [the] Holy Spirit was able
to get through to me. One thing that is sad is how many people can have their
faith destroyed, almost, because of it [the movement].
---
Dear Friend, I pray that we’ll all
receive more enlightenment as to our roles in the “last days.”
Trusting in our Lord,
Steve C.
