We are going to take a quick break from Hebrews and examine something very timely here. If the upcoming elections turn against Trump, we might see a surprising backlash coming from a shadowy religious group I’ve written about before.
Maybe you’ve heard the names: Bill Bright, C. Peter Wagner, Paula White, Bethel Church (and Bethel Music), Hillsong, Elevation Church, International House of Prayer, etc. On the fringe you might have heard of Life Church. Here is an excellent current list of major leaders in the NAR: “Top 24 Leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation in the U.S.“. To the degree President Trump has a church affiliation, this is it. However, it is not recognized as a Christian denomination because it is much more like a political movement. The doctrine is somewhat flexible, but the network holds together because of shared ideology and practices.
It leans heavily on cronyism, unquestioned authority figures (apostles and prophets), and an admitted intention to take over the political controls of the world. They are dominionist, a fancy word meaning that they believe the gospel message includes changing the world itself. They adhere to the Seven Mountains Mandate (7M or 7MM): grabbing influence over family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business, and government
They are also Charismatic and Zionist. They tend to be Dispensationalist in some ways, but are more postmillennial in teaching: Christ returns after the Millennium and may prophecies have already come true. This conveniently avoids hindering the range of what their prophets can proclaim about the future. They see themselves building an End Times army of miracle working disciples of Jesus.
Their favorite Bible translation is The Passion Translation by Brian Simmons. Apparently he worked alone, and to no one’s surprise, Bible passages were reworded to support NAR ideology.
Heiser covered the NAR in one of his podcasts. Naked Bible 179: What is the New Apostolic Reformation? I will extract a few notes here.
His special guest, Holly Pivec, did a mountain of research on the NAR. She worked with philosophy professor Doug Geivett who coauthored a book with her on the movement: The New Apostolic Reformation: A Biblical Response to a Worldwide Movement. They also produced a shorter version, God’s Super-Apostles.
A favorite buzz-phrase is “bring Heaven to earth” by gaining miraculous powers. Their leaders claim to have conversations with angels or take trips to Heaven. The apostles and prophets, as part of their 5-Fold-Ministries doctrine, exercise authority over the pastors and other church leaders. Ten years ago this network had something like 3 million American members, along with thousands of congregations around the world. The numbers are difficult to assess because some in the network deny being part of it, yet work directly with known leaders [like LifeChurch].
The Supernatural Schools of Ministry is a sort of stalking horse the NAR uses to gain access to churches and other organizations that ostensibly reject the NAR. It trains people in how develop miracle ministries. The point here is that these ministries are taught, not received as divine appointments.
The 24/7 Prayer Rooms is another such tool. There are also healing rooms and various other special events, such as fasting and praying, where the NAR connection is down-played, yet organized by major figures in the network. They use a sort of 700 Club style word-of-knowledge practice to identify random people to accost and pray with them as a tool of recruitment.
The problem is not the practices, but that they are all promoted in near lock-step by a buddy network of self-appointed leaders who cannot be questioned. These have become signature gimmicks for expanding their influence, under the cover of claiming God has directed these things to grow the Kingdom of Heaven. This is not taught in terms of seeking God’s face, but of asserting that it’s God’s will that sinners (as they define them) will face God’s wrath. They believe words have power; they speak things into existence.
The NAR is notorious for stirring up the notion that if any believers are reluctant to join their activities, that they cannot be called “Christian”. It’s deeply exclusionist. Furthermore, it’s very performance-oriented. These people take themselves very seriously. The least bit of resistance gets you labeled as demonic. Their favorite accusation is “you have a spirit of Jezebel”.
What isn’t obvious is that these people are everywhere, in every city and all over the world. They are intentionally flying under the radar. Their teachings aren’t all that coherent and they discourage anyone noticing.
The 7M is regarded as a new revelation; we would say extra-biblical “revelation”. It’s based on a reinterpretation of Deuteronomy 7:1 where Israel was supposed to conquer the seven nations. They say it’s a variation of the Great Commission, but instead of making individual disciples, the 7M is making disciples of nations. They say it’s how the Great Commission is fulfilled. As you might expect, this makes the NAR a moving target theologically.
To be honest, this movement actually downplays the gospel message of redemption. Instead, they emphasize gaining supernatural powers. To be spiritually alive is all about dreams and visions, miracles, hearing from God, etc. Genuine believers with training in psychology see a lot self-suggestion and bias confirmation going on in their training. It’s a teaching of, “Christ suffered so we don’t have to,” versus taking up your cross.
The danger here is not what you might think. The current leaders aren’t such a danger. What matters is the underlying fabric of ideology. It gives people permission to do some awful things. A lot of rowdiness at the January 6 riot in Washington DC was from people who espouse this thing. The next time, they might show up better organized and more determined to have their way. Remember, the 7M is all about gaining influence over human behavior at large.
There’s a lot of otherwise good people trapped in this movement. I have friends who belong, and some kinfolks who parrot bits and pieces of their teaching. At least a couple of folks appear to have left our community in the past to join that network. The major draw seems to be a heavier investment in End Times fervor and political engagement. The apostles and prophets aren’t likely to attack us, but they support censoring our message. Worse, they draw in a lot of people on the fringes who could easily feel led to threaten us more directly.
