Warning on the New Apostolic Reformation, Dominionism and the Emergent Church

By Matt S

Notes for AMTM program on New Apostolic Reformation, Dominionism and the Emergent Church.

*Note* – Video is at the bottom of the page

New Apostolic Reformation

New Apostolic reformation or restoration is characterised by……

Emphasis on Apostles and Prophets restored for today and self appointed, with and over emphasis on the 5 fold ministry of Ephesians 4
There will be some distortion, addition or much deletion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by the foundational apostles.
Wrong interpretation of scripture
Focus on signs and wonders, feelings over fact/mind
Focus on experience, slain in the spirit, drunkenness in the spirit, power
Little focus on scripture, instead there is focus on “New Revelation” or “a New Thing”. “God is going to be doing a new thing”
Dominionismor the “7 Mountains Mandate“. Christians must invade conquer and subdue the 7 spheres of influence in the world, Religion, Business, Family, Education, Arts/Entertainment, Media and Government. The world must be conquered in order to make it ready for Jesus to return.
Aberrant heretical teachings abound such as the denial that Jesus was both God and man during his time on earth, that he was man only. Gnostic teachings abound, the “little gods” heresy. “Name it and Claim it” or “blab it and grab it, “prosperity gospel”.
Ecumenism – rejoining with the Catholic Church – Kenneth Copeland, Chrislam – Rick Warrenand Brian Houston.
Denial of Bible prophecy – Rick Warren

Naming the Heretics and False Teachers

Is there a problem with this? Whilst this might make many uncomfortable, I have come to peace in this matter. If I learn that someone is causing other Christians to go into error, I believe that I am compelled to inform others of this and will do so on the basis of good evidence, after all, Paul the Apostle warned of Alexander the coppersmith in 2 Timothy 4:14

Much of the NAR/3rd wave teaching comes from the “Latter Rain” movement of the 1940’s, Preachers such as William Branham taught many of these false ideas that are being propagated today in the NAR movement. In 1949 the American Assemblies of Goddenouncedthe Latter Rain teachings.

Dominionism

This is an extreme interpretation of Genesis 1:28where many of those involved in NAR movements believe that they need to conquer the earth and subdue evil and chase the devil out, making the world ready for Jesus return. Dominion theologyalso has aspects of Joel’s army/Manifest sons of God teachings incorporated into it.

At this time the devil is the God appointed ruler of this world, the devil would not be the ruler of this world unless God had allowed him to be. God alone is in control of the earth, it is not up to Christians to take control, that is fleshly and may be aiding Satan’s purposes to bring about his final world order and the entrance of the Antichrist.

Here are some scriptures that indicate that Dominion is Gods alone.

Job 38:33

Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God’sdominion over the earth?

Job 25:2

“Dominion and awe belong to Him
Who establishes peace in His heights.

other scriptures….. Psalm 22:28, Psalm 145:13, Daniel 4:3, Daniel 4:34, Daniel 7:14, Psalm 103:19

Another aspect of NAR teaching is “Kingdom Now” “Heaven on Earth” theology. This ties in with Dominionist thinking that Christians should be establishing the Kingdom of God on earth now. Jesus was clear that his kingdom was not of this world, John 18:36tells us that. We also know that Jesus is returning again to establish his reign on earth Revelation 1:7and Revelation 11:15. Often Matthew 6:10is misinterpreted as meaning that Gods kingdom of heaven comes to earth, this also ties in with the occult teaching of “As Above, So Below” and has been used in the message translation of the bible in Matthew 6:10

Theonomy/Theocracy

These terms refer to a system of religious governmentthat tie in closely with Dominionist ideology, the more extreme form of this could be considered something like Christian Sharia Law.

Joel’s Army

The idea of Joel’s army ties in with the Manifest sons of God, these heresies are based Latter rain teachings and are gleaned from Joel 2:2-11where God uses an army of demonic creatures to cause suffering and destruction, this army is then wiped out by God by being cast into the sea Joel 2:20, The Manifest Sons of God heresyreinterprets Romans 8:19as meaning that we will attain god-like powers whilst on earth to fight Satan. It in reality refers to a future event when believers will attain their new bodies when Jesus returns for them. It is not difficult to believe that Christians who believe in this heresy will readily accept Transhumanism

5 Fold Ministry

This teaching ties in with the restoration of the Apostles and Prophets and plays on Ephesians 2:20and that the Apostles and Prophets are being restored as foundational leadership in the Church today. Although the term the “5 Fold ministry” is used, in reality you will generally only hear about Apostles and Prophets. Ephesians 2:20says that the Apostles and Prophets were foundational, they were appointed by Jesus Mark 3:16-19. These foundational Apostles had a job to do as they had witnessed Jesus and his ministry death and resurrection. They had a powerful testimony and a huge job to do and did this extremely well. There is nothing is scripture to say that Apostles and Prophets will be restored at the end of the age, however I believe that there are Christians functioning in apostolic and prophetic ways, they are just not equating themselves with the foundational Apostles and Prophets. There are people giving themselves self appointed titles of Apostle and Prophet and according themselves authority over Christendom. Jesus speaks about false apostles in Revelation 2:2, Paul speaks against false apostles in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15

There are so many calling themselves Prophets today but they have a very poor track record. I recently viewed some video footage from theDeception in the Church YouTube websiteseries on the “New Apostolic Reformation”, there was footage showing that the leaders of this movement say it is okay to not get prophecy right, that you can have 30 or 60 or 80% accuracy and that is okay. Really!!

There are so many false prophets today and I wonder if there would be so many if we were to judge them by Old Testament standards. Jesus said inMatthew 24:11as a sign of the “End of the Age” and His return that “many false prophets would arise and will mislead many”

Cindy Jacobs(more),Benny Hinn(more) and Rick Joynerare amongst these many false prophets.

The Emergent Church

What is the Emergent Church? Many people will recognise this description to follow even if they don’t know it as the Emergent Church.

The Emergent Church is a large collective of mostly Protestant but an increasing number of evangelical groups. It embraces experience over reason, feelings over the truth, subjectivity over objectivity, inclusiveness, tolerance and one of its greatest hallmarks isEcumenism and the Interfaith ideology

The Emergent Church is very New Age focused with ideas that Christians have a divine consciousness, it is open to alternative lifestyles (LGBT) and has a very loose and fuzzy interpretation of the Bible if it uses it at all. If you were to attend an Emergent Church type of Bible study, it would be likely that you would sit around and discuss what a particular passage of scripture means to you!

The Emergent Church is focused on Social Justice and a Social Gospel at the expense of the real Gospel. Rick Warren and his Saddleback Church in California are a classic example.

I will be doing a series of articles on the Emergent Church soon, and will provide materials to enable further research for AMTM readers.

I am starting to see a pattern where there appears to be a blending or Emergent Church ideas with those of the New Apostolic Reformation. I’m seeing this as the rapid acceleration of the “Apostate Church” and a fall of Christians into apostasy mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2. Anyone who questions these ideas or teachings within the Church comes in for a lot of flak these days, with accusations of being divisive (for pointing out the truth) or branded as a “heresy hunter”. There appears to be a divide between those who want to maintain biblically correct Christian doctrinal teachings and those that wish to entertain heretical doctrines and false teachings. There appears to be a growing divide between those that want to willingly embrace these movements in the face of the word of God warning against it. Some examples of the practices of the being embraced by both movements are;

Grave sucking/soaking– saint worship which is basically necromancy.
Christian Tarot– occult form of divination
Christian Yoga– this is Hinduism plain and simple
Prayer Labyrinthsused as a form of connecting with God andContemplative Prayer, these are mystical spiritist practices of the New Age

I came out of the Catholic Church in my teens (Tony is also familiar with this as he did also), and the vast majority of my shedding of Catholic doctrines and heresies was by reading my Bible, I was for a period ashamed that I was so deceived but grateful for learning the truth through God’s word.

Why so many fall into deception today is because they don’t read or know their Bibles. The wolves are allowed into the Church and Christians accept heretical false teachings, hook, line and sinker. These heresies are laced with “christianese” language, so it looks and sounds good and Christians fail to spot the poison.

Satan is after Christians today, particularly born again saved Christians. Let’s face it, he has everybody else. Jesus warns in Matthew 24four times “do not be deceived” and he’s speaking to the Christians, the “elect”. I have heard people say that Christians (the Elect) can’t be deceived, so why does Jesus say this four times? He is really pushing this point home.

Jesus knows Satan’s capacity for great deception, it is Satan’s hallmark weapon (as evidenced by how he swayed Eve in the Garden of Eden). Satan is the master deceiver, but God has an overwhelming defence against Satan’s deceptions, and that is His word. What did Jesus counter Satan with after he was in his humanly weakened state after his 40 day fast? He countered Satan with scripture, the word, the Bible.

So please, read your bibles regularly, study your bibles, get to know God’s word. As Hebrews 4:12says, For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword

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1949-The AOG Condemns the New Order of the Latter Rain (pdf document below)