Edited 11 Dec 2010, 17 Dec 2010 and 20 Jan 2011 (see in bold for edited sections).
This is part 2 of a series, looking at the apostate condition of the church and why it embraced Dominionism and Kingdom Now Theology. Please click on this shortcut link to see part 1 entitled:
Why Dominion and Kingdom Now Theology Leads The Church Down The Same Road To Apostasy As Pursued By Rome
In part 1 we looked at how Dominionism and Kingdom Now theology has (throughout history) lead the church away from the pure and simple truth of the gospel and deviated away from the Bible. This article will now begin to look at why and how large sections of the evangelical, protestant church turned away from Biblical Christianity over the last 100 years and why those sections are now apostate.
Up until the Reformation, the Dominion and Kingdom Now theology was practiced by the Roman Catholic Church and (through this practice) became the dominant force in the world. We have now had the Reformation, followed by the availability of the Bible to all people, then followed by a number of revivals which reintroduced a true Christian Church based on grace and not on works. This restored church recommenced the true life of Christ (by the Holy Spirit) within congregations globally and the sending out of missionaries to the 4 corners of the Earth.
However, over the last 100 years or so, there has (again) been a gradual fall away (of the evangelical church) from sound biblically based Christian life. Instead of humble submission to God’s truth and His Will as revealed through the Bible, the church has sought for other things. Christians were not content with what they had but wanted more. They wanted more power, more fame, more experience, more miracles, more success etc
It is not wrong to desire more of God and desire for Him to be more glorified in this World resulting in more GENUINE conversions and a greater desire to serve God, becoming more like Him but in brokenness and humility and a deeper love, realising that we are nothing and HE is everything. These are the things we should all be seeking.
Problem is that church leaders arose with the wrong perspectives. They wanted the power etc but not the cost. Their longings for the experience and demonstrations of power were so strong that they didn’t care how it came (generally speaking). Instead of seeking God with all their hearts in humility and surrender to HIS WILL and letting God answer the prayers according to HIS will, THEY decided God was calling them to do HIS work for Him, by building the structures for revival in their own strength, using unbiblical methods, such as marketing or new age methods. They deliberately ignored certain scriptures such as “unless the LORD builds the house they labour in vain who try to build it”.
They (NOT GOD) had decided that HE was going to bring a massive global revival BEFORE the return of Jesus (according to their misinterpretations of the scriptures). If they did not bring it about, it would not happen. They believed
the onus was on them and their followers to bring it into fruition.
I guess they felt a need to be achievers and wanted to be part of something big and because of this were vulnerable to believe any lie, if it could satisfy their desires within them. These people believed that experience was more vital for church growth, than Biblical truth. Instead of depending upon the quiet work of the Holy Spirit , convicting people of sin, converting their souls to submission to Jesus, filling them with God’s love and fruit of the Holy Spirit, they wanted something much more dramatic.
They incorrectly believed that without miracles and superficial demonstrations of the spectacular, people would not be converted. Instead of the gospel message being based on repentance, believing in and receiving Christ and living our lives focussed upon Christ, the focus became self-centred. The message and practice became based upon selfish needs rather than a God centred life. So, gradually the church lost its focus from being God centred and standing upon the Bible for faith and conduct. Instead, Christianity has become based upon experiences and entertainment and “enjoying yourselves”. In this sort of spiritual climate, being created by such determined leaders for the spectacular, it is no wonder that satan will give these people what they want. If experiences are not challenged to the Word of God then satan can have a hayday.
I am not saying that God does not want us to enjoy things, because He gave us all things (in their original state without perversion or corruption) to enjoy. God wants to fill us with joy unspeakable full of Glory. However, we are not to seek these things. Jesus told us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, then all these other things will be added unto us. We are to seek Him NOT things or experiences. Jesus said that if we seek to save our lives we will lose our souls, but if we surrender our lives for His sake we will truly find LIFE. This LIFE comes from the Holy Spirit (the breath of Life) who lives within a repentant soul, in submission to God through trusting in Jesus.
Anyway, these leaders who wanted to re-experience the miraculous power of the early church looked to the Book of Acts for the secret of this power. They believed this book would help them reconstruct the foundations of the church, providing the structure for revival. They looked at the book of Acts selectively and ignored much of the rest of the whole Bible. So their reconstruction of the church was based upon their twisted interpretations and understandings of God and His Word, taking the Book of Acts completely out of context resulting in a church in their own image.
There may have been some good leaders (out of these) who genuinely desired God’s glory above everything else, but there were too many who were prepared to do whatever was required (even by deception) to bring about the result they wanted. They believed that the “end justifies the means”. Actually, the end NEVER justifies the means. If you embrace satan to get the results you want, you will ALWAYS get satanic (not Godly) results because he is the Father of lies, he comes not to give life but to “steal, kill and destroy”!
These leaders believe that for a revival to take place the people need to see something they can attribute to God’s power. Just like in marketing, there is a supply for demand pressure to win the people over. However, the tendency was to “produce” (lying) wonders because the people have a need to see and experience the power. Rather than preach repentance they try to create power to draw or create a “revival” so that the church grows. They will use whatever they can to create this revival. They will give the people what they want but the benefits they (temporarily) receive will not be lasting, because it is not from God .
They will give the people experiences, entertainment, wealth, health and superficial feelings of: love, peace, joy, weath and health. The people are thirsty so they give them drink but it isn’t true spiritual drink but of a godless, demonic, worldly type.
Edited 11 Dec 2010
Therefore, these leaders use: lies, hypnotism, mind affecting music, powers of suggestion, brainwashing techniques, impartations or "anointings" (reike or kundalini) to prime and influence congregations (by emotionalism) into opening their hearts and minds to receive experiences. These unsuspecting people are then misled into thinking these experiences or power are of God.
Another tactic these leaders use is to create an atmosphere of love and peace by focussing on self worth, helping to produce superficial temporal "fruit". Basically, these leaders are using methods and practices which are far removed from the ways of the early church and true biblical Christianity. They are more like New age, eastern religions using occultic practices. Their argument that the end justifies the means is nonsense because it is not producing Spirit-Filled sanctified believers but something of a counterfeit nature.
Please read this excellent article which gives greater details and more general information about what sound evangelical Christianity looked like in the late 1950's (before the full impact of Latter rain and the infiltration of the charismatic movement hit our churches) compared with what it is like now. Please click on this link http://www.birthpangs.org/articles/background/restuk1.html
It is part 1 of 3. I will be adding parts 2 and 3 within my next articles in this series.
Okay….. I am just setting the scene, so that we can understand why the church became susceptible to deception and why it behaves as it does today. If we can understand the mentality of these church leaders we can then understand why recent church history has unfolded within the last 100 years and why so many unbiblical, ecumenical and false groups have arisen.
Edited 17 Dec 2010 and 20 Jan 2011
Part 3 looks at the chronological emergence of the apostate church through the influences of men like William Branham and EW Kenyon whose false "christian" gnostic (now known as New Age) teachings and their unhealthy over focus on the supernatural and angelic experiences became the forerunners to the Latter Rain and Word Faith movements. It looks at the origins of these two movements with a brief description of their main false teachings and their key objectives. It also looks at the subsequent and initial organisations which arose (at that time).
To read part 3 please click on this shortcut link Chronological Emergence Of The Apostate Church Over Last 100 Years
These movements are the basis and links which led to the introduction of all other apostate "christian" organisations (which are ecumenical and new age). They are both very similar in their teachings. They both emphasise replacementism, the global reign of the church BEFORE Jesus returns (Kingdom Now Dominionism) and the New Age idea and the satanic lie that we can all become like God by becoming little gods. They both emphasise power supernatural ministry and talk much about angelic visitations.
Please read Colossians 2:18 and 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 which expose these "experiences" as unscriptural
In Part 4 we will look at all the other individual groups
* when they arose chronologically
* how they developed
* what they teach and why it is wrong
* The list of leaders who are in each group
It will highlight how these groups use a multiplicity of networks to interact and interrelate with each other creating ONE global apostate church united in the same common purpose. It will show how these groups have links with the occult through New Age and used the New Age networking ideas to (basically) seek a global coup of the Christian church
Please also check the next article which simply presents a list of these heretical organisations and also gives a combined list (alphabetical order) of all the leaders who seem to be false leaders because of the unscriptural organisations they belong to or support. This is the shortcut link to these lists:
List Of False Christian Leaders, False Teachers Prophets indicated By The False Organisations They Belong To
This is part 2 of a series, looking at the apostate condition of the church and why it embraced Dominionism and Kingdom Now Theology. Please click on this shortcut link to see part 1 entitled:
Why Dominion and Kingdom Now Theology Leads The Church Down The Same Road To Apostasy As Pursued By Rome
In part 1 we looked at how Dominionism and Kingdom Now theology has (throughout history) lead the church away from the pure and simple truth of the gospel and deviated away from the Bible. This article will now begin to look at why and how large sections of the evangelical, protestant church turned away from Biblical Christianity over the last 100 years and why those sections are now apostate.
Up until the Reformation, the Dominion and Kingdom Now theology was practiced by the Roman Catholic Church and (through this practice) became the dominant force in the world. We have now had the Reformation, followed by the availability of the Bible to all people, then followed by a number of revivals which reintroduced a true Christian Church based on grace and not on works. This restored church recommenced the true life of Christ (by the Holy Spirit) within congregations globally and the sending out of missionaries to the 4 corners of the Earth.
However, over the last 100 years or so, there has (again) been a gradual fall away (of the evangelical church) from sound biblically based Christian life. Instead of humble submission to God’s truth and His Will as revealed through the Bible, the church has sought for other things. Christians were not content with what they had but wanted more. They wanted more power, more fame, more experience, more miracles, more success etc
It is not wrong to desire more of God and desire for Him to be more glorified in this World resulting in more GENUINE conversions and a greater desire to serve God, becoming more like Him but in brokenness and humility and a deeper love, realising that we are nothing and HE is everything. These are the things we should all be seeking.
Problem is that church leaders arose with the wrong perspectives. They wanted the power etc but not the cost. Their longings for the experience and demonstrations of power were so strong that they didn’t care how it came (generally speaking). Instead of seeking God with all their hearts in humility and surrender to HIS WILL and letting God answer the prayers according to HIS will, THEY decided God was calling them to do HIS work for Him, by building the structures for revival in their own strength, using unbiblical methods, such as marketing or new age methods. They deliberately ignored certain scriptures such as “unless the LORD builds the house they labour in vain who try to build it”.
They (NOT GOD) had decided that HE was going to bring a massive global revival BEFORE the return of Jesus (according to their misinterpretations of the scriptures). If they did not bring it about, it would not happen. They believed
the onus was on them and their followers to bring it into fruition.
I guess they felt a need to be achievers and wanted to be part of something big and because of this were vulnerable to believe any lie, if it could satisfy their desires within them. These people believed that experience was more vital for church growth, than Biblical truth. Instead of depending upon the quiet work of the Holy Spirit , convicting people of sin, converting their souls to submission to Jesus, filling them with God’s love and fruit of the Holy Spirit, they wanted something much more dramatic.
They incorrectly believed that without miracles and superficial demonstrations of the spectacular, people would not be converted. Instead of the gospel message being based on repentance, believing in and receiving Christ and living our lives focussed upon Christ, the focus became self-centred. The message and practice became based upon selfish needs rather than a God centred life. So, gradually the church lost its focus from being God centred and standing upon the Bible for faith and conduct. Instead, Christianity has become based upon experiences and entertainment and “enjoying yourselves”. In this sort of spiritual climate, being created by such determined leaders for the spectacular, it is no wonder that satan will give these people what they want. If experiences are not challenged to the Word of God then satan can have a hayday.
I am not saying that God does not want us to enjoy things, because He gave us all things (in their original state without perversion or corruption) to enjoy. God wants to fill us with joy unspeakable full of Glory. However, we are not to seek these things. Jesus told us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, then all these other things will be added unto us. We are to seek Him NOT things or experiences. Jesus said that if we seek to save our lives we will lose our souls, but if we surrender our lives for His sake we will truly find LIFE. This LIFE comes from the Holy Spirit (the breath of Life) who lives within a repentant soul, in submission to God through trusting in Jesus.
Anyway, these leaders who wanted to re-experience the miraculous power of the early church looked to the Book of Acts for the secret of this power. They believed this book would help them reconstruct the foundations of the church, providing the structure for revival. They looked at the book of Acts selectively and ignored much of the rest of the whole Bible. So their reconstruction of the church was based upon their twisted interpretations and understandings of God and His Word, taking the Book of Acts completely out of context resulting in a church in their own image.
There may have been some good leaders (out of these) who genuinely desired God’s glory above everything else, but there were too many who were prepared to do whatever was required (even by deception) to bring about the result they wanted. They believed that the “end justifies the means”. Actually, the end NEVER justifies the means. If you embrace satan to get the results you want, you will ALWAYS get satanic (not Godly) results because he is the Father of lies, he comes not to give life but to “steal, kill and destroy”!
These leaders believe that for a revival to take place the people need to see something they can attribute to God’s power. Just like in marketing, there is a supply for demand pressure to win the people over. However, the tendency was to “produce” (lying) wonders because the people have a need to see and experience the power. Rather than preach repentance they try to create power to draw or create a “revival” so that the church grows. They will use whatever they can to create this revival. They will give the people what they want but the benefits they (temporarily) receive will not be lasting, because it is not from God .
They will give the people experiences, entertainment, wealth, health and superficial feelings of: love, peace, joy, weath and health. The people are thirsty so they give them drink but it isn’t true spiritual drink but of a godless, demonic, worldly type.
Edited 17 Dec 2010
Incidentally, we also need to understand another reason why these errors and false organisations can spread so quickly. Many people's faith in Jesus is superficial. They believe they are saved because of their "experiences". So, to hold onto their faith they base it on their experiences rather than on what the Bible teaches. Their experience becomes their faith! They depend upon experiences or "feelings" rather than trusting in Christ and His promises eg, "I will never leave you or forsake you"
If their experience is scriptural and their trust is upon Jesus, there is no problem. But what happens if their experience is unscriptural ie NOT of God. What do they do? The best thing to do is seek God (in humility) for His intervention, deliverance and healing.
However, too often they prefer to believe that the experience WAS from God (because it is too painful to admit that their experience was not of God) and rather hold on to it, choosing to ignore any scripture verses exposing the error. They now believe the experience must supersede the scriptures because it is of God. Even, the leaders of these organisations have also bought into this lie and do not study the scriptures truthfully, ignoring verses which do not fit their experiences or their agenda.
Edited 11 Dec 2010
Therefore, these leaders use: lies, hypnotism, mind affecting music, powers of suggestion, brainwashing techniques, impartations or "anointings" (reike or kundalini) to prime and influence congregations (by emotionalism) into opening their hearts and minds to receive experiences. These unsuspecting people are then misled into thinking these experiences or power are of God.
Another tactic these leaders use is to create an atmosphere of love and peace by focussing on self worth, helping to produce superficial temporal "fruit". Basically, these leaders are using methods and practices which are far removed from the ways of the early church and true biblical Christianity. They are more like New age, eastern religions using occultic practices. Their argument that the end justifies the means is nonsense because it is not producing Spirit-Filled sanctified believers but something of a counterfeit nature.
Please read this excellent article which gives greater details and more general information about what sound evangelical Christianity looked like in the late 1950's (before the full impact of Latter rain and the infiltration of the charismatic movement hit our churches) compared with what it is like now. Please click on this link http://www.birthpangs.org/articles/background/restuk1.html
It is part 1 of 3. I will be adding parts 2 and 3 within my next articles in this series.
Okay….. I am just setting the scene, so that we can understand why the church became susceptible to deception and why it behaves as it does today. If we can understand the mentality of these church leaders we can then understand why recent church history has unfolded within the last 100 years and why so many unbiblical, ecumenical and false groups have arisen.
Edited 17 Dec 2010 and 20 Jan 2011
Part 3 looks at the chronological emergence of the apostate church through the influences of men like William Branham and EW Kenyon whose false "christian" gnostic (now known as New Age) teachings and their unhealthy over focus on the supernatural and angelic experiences became the forerunners to the Latter Rain and Word Faith movements. It looks at the origins of these two movements with a brief description of their main false teachings and their key objectives. It also looks at the subsequent and initial organisations which arose (at that time).
To read part 3 please click on this shortcut link Chronological Emergence Of The Apostate Church Over Last 100 Years
These movements are the basis and links which led to the introduction of all other apostate "christian" organisations (which are ecumenical and new age). They are both very similar in their teachings. They both emphasise replacementism, the global reign of the church BEFORE Jesus returns (Kingdom Now Dominionism) and the New Age idea and the satanic lie that we can all become like God by becoming little gods. They both emphasise power supernatural ministry and talk much about angelic visitations.
Please read Colossians 2:18 and 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 which expose these "experiences" as unscriptural
In Part 4 we will look at all the other individual groups
* when they arose chronologically
* how they developed
* what they teach and why it is wrong
* The list of leaders who are in each group
It will highlight how these groups use a multiplicity of networks to interact and interrelate with each other creating ONE global apostate church united in the same common purpose. It will show how these groups have links with the occult through New Age and used the New Age networking ideas to (basically) seek a global coup of the Christian church
Please also check the next article which simply presents a list of these heretical organisations and also gives a combined list (alphabetical order) of all the leaders who seem to be false leaders because of the unscriptural organisations they belong to or support. This is the shortcut link to these lists:
List Of False Christian Leaders, False Teachers Prophets indicated By The False Organisations They Belong To
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