Faking It

I’m not essential to Radix Fidem; I’m just the guy who kicked the door open so everyone else could find out what’s been hidden from them for ages. Over and over again, folks, you are the apostles and missionaries and prophets and spiritual giants. I have the privilege of making a lot of noise early in the game to help break up the fallow ground of human awareness in divine matters. The real genius here is revelation and what it makes of you. Once we open up to what’s already there waiting for us, it changes everything.

I want to offer a warning about a counterfeit to the real thing. The single greatest growth sector in mainstream evangelical Western religion includes the neo-charismatic revival mixed with Dominion Theology, so-called “spiritual warfare,” with the slickest of technology use and persuasive mass psychology.

I’ve been reading about this huge and powerful religious movement that a lot of people haven’t noticed. That is, most people who see the various fronts for this thing aren’t aware of the links in the background. These people who get their face on camera are freaking liars; they have set out to deceive by hiding the true nature of their work. Not in the sense of secrecy, because they’ll admit it if you know enough to ask. But they’ll downplay it, especially in their most public presentations. They present the image of excitement and challenge using something that draws all kinds of people, including a lot of celebrities. It’s high grade music and theatrics, and once you’ve been pulled in, the entrapment and abuse starts building slowly.

But they sincerely believe this is how God works. They are so deeply deceived themselves that it takes serious personal tragedy to shake them loose, if then.

They appear to be heart-led, but they almost never end up the same place the heart-led way takes you. It’s a mixture of cerebral and emotional appeal that feels spiritual to a Western soul. And it seems to answer that instinctive search for a tribal identity. It’s a fake covenant that feels like the real thing. I seriously doubt the leaders and folks who dreamed up this stuff had any conscious intention of faking our primary markers from Biblical Law, but you can bet the Devil knows about it. Satan knows what we are hard-wired to seek when faith starts to blossom.

Do I need to name names? This thing has bound together Life Church, Daystar, Hillsong, and any number of other huge monster churches/franchises too numerous to name. It includes a huge portion of the Assemblies of God, Youth with a Mission, American Family Association and includes such luminaries as TD Jakes, Rick Warren, David Yonggi Cho, and so forth. One of the names under which they associate is New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). You’ll see terms like Latter Rain, Joel’s Army, Toronto Revival, Vineyard Fellowship, Third Wave (Pentecostalism), and a whole industry under the guise of Christian Counseling (though not yet having hijacked the whole range of Christian Counselors).

I’d rather not chase down all the ugly details of their abusive deliverance ministry stuff, except to point out how it echoes Scientology and all of the manipulative and authoritative dominance you would expect to go with it. Instead, I’ll note here that Radix Fidem teaches you to chase your own demons out with only the slightest guidance from someone with a little more experience. We cut through the voodoo crap and point out how embracing and digging into Biblical Law on your own terms, in accordance with your mission and calling, is the most powerful spiritual weapon in the universe. We teach that demons are bound by God’s Law, not silly rituals.

But you might have noticed how often I’ve tried to make our Kiln of the Soul virtual parish collegial. My position as elder is contextual; as long as you are on my turf, I’m in charge. If I visit your turf, you are in charge. Otherwise I’m just a sign posts telling what you are likely to find if you choose to explore something I’ve marked. The last thing I want to do is foster dependency in anyone.

Still, the scariest thing about this massive movement now counting millions of members is that they have concrete plans to take over the world. Read that again; that’s what Dominion Theology is all about. These folks have invested in schools and colleges in order to inculcate a potent counterculture of sorts that seeks to displace secular leadership or other brands of religious leadership in arts, entertainment, business, government, etc. Some of it hasn’t worked out as planned, and right now there’s a lot of discussion among them about how to come up with something that works better.

Part of that something better is promoting the current rightward shift in politics all over the West. As you might expect, that means a huge part of this movement is Christian Zionist. In case it’s not obvious to you, that’s not quite the same thing as plain old Zionist. Rather, it’s the Left Behind kind of hysterical End Times Zionism. March to the drums, O vast army of Christian troops!

Granted, a lot of people find some useful discipline in all of this. However, this whole thing strives mightily to keep up a false front, so that discipline tends to be somewhat artificial. It’s not internalized because it’s not consistent with Creation and God’s divine moral character, so a major element in their religion is this regimen of constantly refreshing the controls and conformity. Pay attention to how they do worship; it’s always top-down. It’s very moving and all, and they love to get everyone participating, but that participation has zero effect on what happens up on that stage. The presentation and sound system is designed to drown you out; you can’t even hear yourself singing and it’s likely no one near you can hear you, either. Your talents mean nothing in the corporate structure of religious activities.

So all the members are clients, nothing more. All of the attention is focused on the staff, who may in turn be nothing more than well-trained drones who draw attention higher up the chain. The local staff are little more than agents for control, bright workers whose ideas and creativity are channeled into sales and profit. Volunteers need only be able to participate in that control system.

This kind of churchianity is prepared to survive the demise of the West, and rests increasingly on the Internet, so you should expect to see them around for a long time. The other branches of evangelical mainstream religion will fade, though only a few will outright die. So this oddball mix of Dominionist Charismatic stuff will dominate until there is a major exodus out of Christian Zionism. After that, I have no idea what will happen to them.

You and I are not interested in captivating millions. We aren’t keeping count how many join in our walk of faith. That part is in God’s hands. Our mission is merely to live what we believe and let the Lord add those He wants to call. And we will avoid everything that characterizes the mainstream churches with all their abuses. Not so we can trumpet how special we are, but because when anything we do starts to look like them, we know we are on the wrong track. I suspect it will take a full generation to lose all those bad habits we carried with us escaping that system. All we want is fellowship with heart-led people of faith, not control and conformity.

Lord, keep us honest. Amen.