Study – Grow – Know

It’s All About Dominionism, Kingdom Now, and the New Apostolic Reformation, Part 4

May 13, 2016 at 8:07 AM Leave a comment

As a person studies through the New Testament, especially the gospels, it should become clear that Jesus – God the Son – had (and continues to have), absolute authority over illnesses, demons, and even death itself. He is GOD and was so even as He walked this earth in actual human form, as the God-Man.

Jesus tackled problems, illnesses, and death all directly due to the fall and creation of the sin nature that passed from person to person. He dealt with these issues during His physical life head-on and changed people’s lives in the process. Many went from being unsaved to saved. Many went from being ill to being made whole. A few went from physically dead to physically alive.

Jesus fed the hungry, healed the sick, and did whatever He could to alleviate pain and discomfort among the multitudes that either came to Him for comfort or He came across them during His ministry. But there is something Jesus did not do. He did not change society for the better. It is very clear that He was not interested in doing so. He changed people, one by one. He knew that time would come and let’s be clear that when He returns physically to this earth at some point in the future, this will be His number one priority. There is nothing in Scripture that provides an example of Jesus taking on Rome, for instance. The only time He said anything negative against one of Rome’s leaders was when He made comments about Herod from Luke 13:32-34.

And He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach My goal.’ 33 Nevertheless I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem. 34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!

Jesus called Herod a “fox” because He knew that Herod was being used by Rome over the Jewish people. He had been made “king of the Jews” by Rome because they felt someone with connections to the Jews would be accepted better than sending in a Gentile. With one word – “fox” – Jesus was acknowledging that He knew what Herod was up to.

That’s it though. That is essentially the extent of Jesus’ political commentary except for His “give unto Caesar” statement regarding taxes. By the way, I heard Sean Hannity say that this statement of Jesus actually meant that no one was to pay taxes. Hannity is 100% incorrect. Paul reflects Jesus’ views later in his epistles when he speaks of living a quiet life and honoring those whom God has appointed over us, etc., (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4; Romans 13).

The only time Paul really even used his Roman citizenship was in an effort to stand before Caesar so that he could preach the gospel message. He had already preached that message to other leaders. What do Christians want to do today? Certainly not preach the gospel to our leaders. We want them to “repent” (though that is never actually explained) or we want God to “take them out” of office.

In other words, what was once preaching the gospel message for the salvation of souls has been transformed into a message that transforms society. A friend of mine recently referred to this as the “civic Great Commission,” which is certainly an accurate portrayal of how the gospel message has been twisted for today’s political endeavors.

The Dominionist movement has come along claiming that God has a plan but is somewhat limited because He apparently lost the keys to this world. He is therefore dependent upon humanity to accomplish His purposes. Without humanity, He is stymied. While this concept may sound spiritual and warms the hearts of many, I cannot find that it is grounded in biblical truth at all.

Believing that God cannot usher in the changes need to bring the times and seasons to their fulfillment so that the hour of His return occurs is like saying that people are partially responsible for earning (or maintaining) their own salvation. God has not limited Himself where His plans and purposes are concerned. He did not “lose” anything to Satan to the extent that without man’s efforts, God cannot return to this earth. That would mean that God has lost some measure of His sovereignty. In so many words, that is the essential, foundational belief of Dominionism. God is either fully sovereign or not at all sovereign. It cannot be both. That’s like saying the Bible means more than one thing. No, it either means one thing or it means nothing. It is our job to learn what God means by it, not what we think He means.

In our last article, we highlighted a number of quotes from one of Dominionism’s leaders: C. Peter Wagner. We noted how he referred back to Constantine and though he says that modern-day Dominionism is not a throw-back to that day, in reality, it seems to very much alive and just as forceful without the actual bloodshed.

One article – Quotes on Dominionism From the Apostles and Prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation by Rachel Tabachnick – is very in-depth and well worth the time it takes to read it. I applaud her ability to get to the heart of the matter while connecting many of the dots between individuals who control the way Christianity is often seen, at least in America today. The number individuals connected with this multitude of organizations can be rather astounding and only the most thick-headed, uneducated individual would scoff at the collective amount of information presented by Tabachnick. There are plenty of people in denial today, unfortunately, who aid and abet Dominionism because of their faulty understanding of Scripture and their disbelief that it actually exists.

Within Dominionism, there are many individuals who are involved in the “spiritual warfare” type of ministry. These people tell you they go head-to-head with demons and even Satan often. The warfare, they tell us, is exhausting, but rewarding as they claim they push back the forces of evil, breaking down this “stronghold” or tearing apart that one. To hear about their exploits, you’d think you were reading an installment of “Star Wars” and they most certainly believe the “force” is with them. But it all depends on how “prayed up” they are and how much of God’s power works in and through them to accomplish the task.

But let me ask you…exactly what has changed in society over the past 15 to 20 years that would prove that Dominionism has made any positive impact at all? In a word, nothing has changed for the better. Things keep worsening. Dominionists will say that’s because Christians aren’t working hard enough, we’re not praying in God’s power enough, we’re not exercising His authority enough, etc., etc., etc. Really? This is absurd to me. God can accomplish nothing without us? Some actually believe that.

According to many of these leaders, the Church’s job is to “possess” the nations. This is done in the following ways (not exhaustive):

• spiritual warfare (directly taking on the enemy)
• prayer/warfare praying (prayer warriors)
• fasting
• politics
• social venues
• signs and wonders
• words of knowledge
• power of believing
• name it/claim it
• word of faith

For instance, best-selling author Cindy Jacobs, well-known for being an “in-demand, strategic source of information on prayer and intercession,” travels the globe teaching normal, everyday Christians how to handle intercessory prayer, break strongholds, and explains differences between a variety of types of intercession in her “training” manual, Possessing the Gates of the Enemy, which ultimately means that “Today’s praying Church is rising up in militant force to possess the promised land of our nations.” There are many “training” manuals available about this type of “service” to God from a variety of sources, most of them from the “signs and wonders” crowd. I have several and I am always amazed at how far beyond Scripture they actually go, but that is because it is believed that God is still “writing” His Word.

In the quote about how we are to “possess the promised land of our nations,” Jacobs is busy allegorizing the “promised land” out of its original context and meaning to no longer have anything to do with Israel at all. This appears to be the norm for many proponents of Dominionism in its various forms. According to them, God has moved way beyond Israel and considers the whole earth His (it is), and He needs His Church to regain control over all the nations before He can return and exercise physical control over this earth (no, He doesn’t). He has it all under control. Our job is to evangelize the lost, not “possess” nations for Christ.

But Cindy Jacobs is merely one person among many other apostles, prophets, luminaries, and leaders. In the article linked above, Tabachnick explains why there are so many “apostles,” “prophets,” officers, and other leaders in so many different types of organizations. Even though they are separate and distinct organizations, they are all busily at work to bring about the same goal. Once you begin to realize exactly how all these people of various stripes are connected, it then becomes easy to see why we are constantly bombarded with so much “doom and gloom” and “the world is ending” dogma. These things are used to scare average Christians, conservatives, and patriots into joining the same team (and certainly giving up some of your hard-earned money!) for the Kingdom of God. In many cases, it doesn’t even matter what a person’s individual beliefs are about certain ideologies (homosexuality, etc.). As long as the person is “conservative,” “patriotic” for America, or considers themselves a conservative Christian, all is well.

Let’s understand that there is a huge difference between actually teaching what the Bible says about the end times and twisting things so that you wind up creating unfounded fears in people for the purpose of trying to recapture, control, or conquer. This is not what the Great Commission is all about.

Many of these folks lead known Christian Reconstructionist organizations often peddling troubling dialogue. How long have we been hearing that President Obama is going to put Martial Law in place or he’s going to do away with elections altogether as he prepares to become a dictator for life? I’m not trying to minimize some of the bad things that are happening in America today with a Congress that seems unable, unwilling, or both to obey the Constitution. However, creating fear or even a mild dissatisfaction in something is one of the greatest tools used by any salesperson to get people to “buy” (or just buy into) a form of thinking that makes them want to “do something” to resist the alleged coming tide. Is God in control all by Himself or not?

The Oak Initiative has several leading apostles on the board and also includes Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William Boykin and Lou Sheldon. Sheldon has claimed that Christian patriots are headed for a holocaust at the hands of a Marxist/Leftist/Homosexual/Islamic coalition. Prior to the 2010 elections, the Oak Initiative produced a video in which Boykin claimed that under Pres. Obama the nation is in the grips of a Marxist insurgency. The video was widely distributed, including by many Tea Party organizations. The Oak Initiative is partnering with Transformation Michigan and Lou Engle in the next The Call event in Detroit on 11/11/11, with the mission of fighting the demon of Islam. (Emphasis added)

Doesn’t it seem odd to you that for the amount of years we’ve been warned about the coming financial apocalypse, Martial Law, etc., etc., etc., that it hasn’t happened yet? At one time, I was seriously invested in “end of the world” schemes (on the buying end of things), because I, unfortunately, gave into the fear instead of simply trusting God. I also realized that my focus on that completely sidetracked me from the actual Great Commission. How sad is that? I was more concerned about storing up for the future when things went bad then obeying the Great Commission. “What? You need salvation? Look, I’m trying to squirrel things away for my family right now for when bad times hit. I’m busy right now, but check back with me later, all right!”

There are frankly, too many of these Dominionist organizations and offshoots to keep up with and we are overwhelmed with their fear daily. They do tremendous damage to the actual cause of Christ because the fear is enough to make you want to avoid simple evangelism and work on turning this country around, isn’t it? That’s the plan, which I believe was spawned in hell. Create Fear. Call to Arms. Take Back Society. It’s always interesting to hear how many of these organizations have “apostles” and “prophets” too. The implication is that you do not disagree with an apostle and you certainly do not question or counter the word of a prophet. Because of that, there is a built-in pseudo-authoritarian-like atmosphere within many, if not all of these organizations. God has “anointed” them and their leaders. How dare you (or I) question their methods, motives, and goals even if it doesn’t align with Scripture!

We are warned: Don’t question them. Don’t think. Simply hear what they have to say, allow fear to take hold, then work harder with them to reform society so that Jesus can come back sooner. Ignore the fact that they talk more about taking “nations” back for God than for actually winning souls for Jesus. This is anti-biblical in too many ways to count.

Folks, I want to focus on a few more individuals who are at the forefront of the Dominionism fervor and I hope to do that next time.

Entry filed under: christianity, Cultural Marxism, Emotional virtue, eternity, Life in America, Political Correctness, Politically Correct, Politics, Religious - Christian - End Times, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation, second coming. Tags: c peter wagner, christian reconstructionism, dominion theology, dominionism, gary demar, gary north, kingdom now, rachel tabachnick, rick warren, The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), theonomy.