Confronting the pseudo-biblical beliefs of the NAR.
I feel I must speak further about the Prayer Day in the Wembley Arena last month. We have had a storm of emails and phone calls coming into the office. None of them have been abusive, but they have all expressed concern about the presence on the platform of speakers whose ministries are linked with certain pseudo-biblical beliefs and practices.
On the one hand I am very encouraged that so many Bible-believing Christians in the Arena, and those who watched online, are aware of the dangers facing the Church today. On the other hand, I am concerned that I was one of the speakers sharing the platform with the individuals in question, with whom I would not normally be associated.
Public Dissociation
Many of the emails have been critical of David Hathaway, whose ministry sponsored the event. For many years David’s ministry has been in Russia, Eastern Europe and in Israel, so our paths had not crossed until recently when he felt the Lord calling him to do evangelism in his home country. He has a passion for the gospel and he knows that our nation is in trouble, but having been absent from the church scene in Britain for so long, he trusted others to invite speakers to the Wembley Arena meeting. They brought in people of whom he had no knowledge and had never met.
I had accepted the invitation to lead the opening prayers of confession. I was expecting half an hour would be allocated for such an important part of a prayer day, but I was only allowed ten minutes. I left the Arena soon after the lunch break and I did not watch the afternoon’s footage until the following day. I was shocked to see some of the things that happened.
We have received many expressions of concern about the presence on the Wembley platform of speakers linked with certain pseudo-biblical beliefs and practices.
I want to take this opportunity of publicly dissociating Issachar Ministries and Prophecy Today UK from events in the second half of the Wembley Arena meeting. I was pleased to be involved in the act of repentance for the divisions between the black and white churches in Britain in the first half of the day. I have laboured for many years in inner-city areas of London longing to see such unity and believing that the day would come when God would use the vitality in the African and Caribbean churches to bring a fresh spiritual dynamic into the evangelisation of Britain. But I cannot endorse many of the other things that were spoken and prayed from the platform later during the prayer day.1
Of course, I should have been aware that the enemy would do everything possible to spoil the day, but the amazing thing is that God can turn any situation around for good. When Joseph’s brothers sold him to the Egyptians, what they intended for harm, God used to work out his purposes for good. I believe God can do the same with the Wembley Arena meeting.
Its mixture of spirits reminded me of the ‘Toronto Blessing’ and the days when the magazine Prophecy Today was at the forefront of the battle for biblical truth. But because of this mixture at Wembley, the issue of error in charismatic churches has been brought right back to the fore and there now seems to be fresh opportunity to challenge and expose it.
Battle for Truth
Today, the battle for truth has never been sharper, nor has there been a greater need for Bible-believing Christians to stand together and to exercise godly discernment. The teachings of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) must be exposed or they will destroy the charismatic Church at the most critical period of history since the Second World War.
NAR Dominionist (‘Kingdom Now’) teaching is bringing ‘strange fire’ into the Church. In its crudest form states that we are in the last days and God has raised up a new group of ‘apostles’ with greater power and authority than the original apostles. Not only that, but individual believers are also granted unlimited power and blessing. Together, this ‘army’ are to found the Kingdom of God on earth, taking dominion over the nations and, in due time, when they have subdued all opposition to the gospel, Jesus will return and they will present the Kingdom to him. Dr Frances Rabbitts, our Managing Editor, has a long-standing interest in this subject and has written an excellent overview article which we are pleased to publish alongside this editorial. Please make it essential reading.
Because of this mixture at Wembley, the issue of error in charismatic churches has been brought to the fore and there now seems to be fresh opportunity to expose it.
Dominionism was the teaching of the ‘Kansas City Prophets’ whom John Wimber brought to Britain in July 1990. Bob Jones called them ‘Omega Apostles’ with more power than the ‘Alpha’ (i.e. first) Apostles and Paul Cain convinced John Wimber that he was the super-apostle with the task of presenting the Kingdom to Jesus. I spent a whole day trying to convince John that this was all based upon false prophecy. Sadly, he was deceived, but later repented and dismissed the Kansas City Fellowship and the Toronto Airport Fellowship from the Vineyard group of churches.
This is a sample of Paul Cain’s teaching:
If you have intimacy with God, they can’t kill you, they just can’t. There is something about you; you are connected to that vine: you’re just so close to Him. Oh, my friend, they can’t kill you…If you’re really in the vine and you’re the branch, then the life sap from the Son of the Living God keeps you from cancer, keeps you from dying, keeps you from death…Not only will they not have diseases, they will also not die. They will have the kind of imperishable bodies that are talked about in the 15th chapter of Corinthians…This army is invincible. If you have intimacy with God, they can’t kill you.2
There is not a shred of biblical evidence to support this teaching but it had great appeal to people who had little knowledge of the Bible. It also appealed to church leaders with dwindling congregations who were longing for a revival and who grasped at anything that had popular appeal.
The harm that has been done since the 1990s to thousands of churches in Britain, America, Australia and throughout Europe is immeasurable. But the KCF teaching was not new; it had been around since the 1940s. It originated in 1948 in the so-called ‘Latter Rain Revival’ beginning in the Sharon Bible school, North Battlefield Saskatchewan, Canada.
Latter Rain, or ‘Manifest Sons of God’ teaching (Rom 8:19) has never gone away since. It has a subtle appeal with its message of power to the powerless. Ever since the events in Toronto in the 1990s, Dominionist teachings and spiritual practices have been spread worldwide through books, music, the internet and through big Christian gatherings such as New Wine and Soul Survivor. Today it is almost impossible to find a charismatic church in this country that has not in some way bought into the influence of such as Bill Johnson and Bethel Church in Redding, California. It is also being promoted by a great many false prophets who use so-called words of knowledge and other spiritual devices to deceive the unwary.
The teachings of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) must be exposed or they will destroy the charismatic Church at the most critical period of history since the Second World War.
The Centrality of the Word
We are in a battle for the truth that has been raging in the Church throughout the Western nations for the past half-century or more. No doubt it is because we are in such a critical period of history that the enemy is doing everything possible to frustrate the purposes of God. The only way that this battle can be won is through re-discovering the centrality of the word of God in the life of the Church.
At Prophecy Today UK we recognise the seriousness of the battle and intend producing a new series studying the biblical word of God as given to the Old Testament Prophets, beginning next week with the ministry of Jeremiah. He faced a similar battle for truth when the nation was facing a threat to its very existence – a message that has great relevance for us today.
References
1 With the exception of the contributions of Barry Segal on Israel and anti-Semitism.
2 Quoted in Blessing the Church? (Hill et al, 1995), p90.
