Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Reading

Introduction

We come today to a very important subject in terms of practical discernment within our modern day of Christianity.

In the world today, there is a movement underway that is holding to various teachings that are not aligned with Scripture, a movement that I would suggest is exceedingly dangerous.

The name of the movement is the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).

The NAR is an umbrella term for a large variety of churches, but they are influenced by and engaging in various teachings that are at their core unscriptural.

Reports indicate that there are more than 369 million adherents of this movement throughout the world.

Most would not know that they belong to something called the NAR.

What is the NAR?

As I’ve said, NAR stands for New Apostolic Reformation.

It’s called apostolic because its leaders claim they’re restoring the lost office of apostle to the church—an office endowed with astonishing authority, miraculous powers, and divine strategies for establishing God’s kingdom on earth.

It’s a reformation because proponents say the movement will completely change the way church is done, and its effects will be as great—or even greater than—the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation.

[1]

I wouldn’t really say that it’s “New”, “Apostolic” or a “Reformation.”

Because this is a non-denominational movement, the key way that it can be identified is through certain key teachings that are held to.

Today, I’m going to outline 6 key “features” of the NAR churches.

5-fold Ministry

Kingdom Now Theology / Dominionism / 7-mountain mandate

Focus on Destiny / Presence / Glory

Revival

Unity

Denial of the Sufficiency of Scripture

Today we will be looking from a birds’ eye view at what these distinctive features / teachings are, and then I’ll also briefly outline why these teachings are problematic.

In the coming weeks, I will go into a lot more detail on particular aspects - next week specifically, I want us to look more closely at the Five-fold ministry.

Before we begin to look at the NAR, some important comments up front:

I want to be gracious as I share my concerns, and as I warn you as the body about this movement.

(And yet I must be bold)

Not everyone involved in the NAR is involved to the same degree (and again, many don’t realise what the NAR is).

Not all are aware that the teaching being brought to them is in error

Many are sincere and devout believers.

Many want to know Christ / the truth... and they truly believe that this is His working.

These people have a passion for Christ and are enthusiastic, which is great.

Unfortunately much of that passion is misdirected, and has misplaced emphases

That said, we cannot ignore the movement in the hope that mere enthusiasm and excitement will honour Christ.

1. 5-fold Ministry

The first key teaching of this movement is that which is known as the 5-fold ministry.

They get the phrase “5-fold ministry” from Ephesians 4:11:

In that verse, they claim, is a demonstration that God has instituted 5 distinct offices in the church that are to be exercised for the building up of the body.

Those 5 are: Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers.

The claim of these churches is that the particular offices of Apostle and Prophet were lost after the first century through much of church history, and that God is now restoring these offices to the church in order to usher in Christ’s kingdom in the world.

C. Peter Wagner is the key “Apostle” behind this movement in its early years.

He says this:

We are now living in the midst of one of the most epochal changes in the structure of the Church that has ever been recorded.

I like to call it the “Second Apostolic Age.”

[2]

In the year 2001 (which was the year that the NAR was really birthed), Wagner went on to state the following:

“For the first time this side of the initial few centuries of the Church, a critical mass of the Body of Christ once again recognizes the contemporary gifts and offices of apostle and prophet,” [3]

In this context, Wagner was simply stating that a substantial numbers were holding to the view of there being apostles and prophets in the church.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time now presenting what I believe is the true biblical position on this matter - reason being that I will go into more detail next week on this topic.

But for now, I would say that the Apostles and Prophets that were spoken of in the Bible had a particular function to fulfill, and once that task was complete, there was no further need for those particular functions.

Primarily I would point to Ephesians 2:19-20...

The work of the Apostles and Prophets in the first century was essentially foundational, out of which the New Testament church would grow.

One particular group that supports these Apostles tells that their function is as follows:

Apostles move primarily in the gifts of healing, faith, working of miracles, word of wisdom, discerning of spirits, and (sometimes) prophecy.

In a modern church setting, they would oversee the development and sending of apostolic teams for miracle ministries, as well as activating, imparting and demonstrating the apostolic anointing to other bodies of believers.

[4]

As I read that, I wonder if you hear all sorts of language that has nothing to do with Scripture.

“Activating...”

“Imparting...”

“Apostolic Anointing...”

What I’d say at this point is that these ideas are not found in God’s word.

What I would say is that these guys heavily focus on the miraculous… performing miracles.

Very little, if anything, is said in that particular description of teaching.

But wasn’t that the key work of the Apostles?

Consider the following verses, just in the book of Acts...

2. Kingdom Now Theology / Dominionism / 7-mountain mandate

The second key teaching feature of the NAR is Dominionism (Kingdom Now).

What the leaders of this movement have been emphasizing and urging people towards is preparing things in this world so that Christ can come back and set up His final rule and reign on earth.

The NAR promotes the idea that Jesus is waiting to return to the world, but that before He will do this, He needs these Apostles and Prophets in this day to give new divine revelation that is needed to set up God’s kingdom on earth.

It is thus the task of the church, under the leadership of the Apostles and prophets (who hold nearly unquestionable authority), to take dominion of the earth.

The way in which these Apostles and Prophets say that they are to do this is through taking dominion of what is known as the 7 spheres (mountains) of influence.

7-mountain mandate!!

The seven mountains are the following:

Government

Media

Entertainment

Education

Business

Family

Religion.

The idea of dominion theology comes from Genesis 1:28, where God tells Adam that he is to have “dominion” over the created world.

The trouble this verse in this way is that this was not a message to the church, to have dominion over the unchurched.

It was a message to Adam to have dominion over the animals and birds, and to rule over the rest of creation apart from man.

That command / instruction was never given to be exercised over any other man, let alone over 7 spheres of influence in the world.

It’s simply taking a verse and using it to prop up a pre-conceived theology.

Kingdom Now adherents believe that long ago Satan stole the “keys of spiritual dominion” when he deceived Adam and Eve.

Then, when Christ gave the “keys of the kingdom” to Peter in Matthew 16:19, it was a sign that dominion had been returned to man.

Now it is our job to “take back” what is rightfully ours – that is, to claim dominion over the earth and spiritually subdue it for Christ.

C. Peter Wagner says this concerning Dominion Theology:

"Our theological bedrock is what has been known as Dominion Theology.

This means that our divine mandate is to do whatever is necessary, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to retake the dominion of God's creation which Adam forfeited to Satan in the Garden of Eden.

It is nothing less than seeing God's kingdom coming and His will being done here on earth as it is in heaven."

[5]

Bill Johnson of Bethel church in Redding California has written a book “When Heaven Invades Earth” wherein he espouses some of this theology.

The problem with this entire theology is that Christ actually turned His disciples away from any idea that His Kingdom should be established in this world in the physical sense.

Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare

Another way that the New Apostolic Reformation crowd hopes to gain Dominion is through Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare (SLSW).

SLSW encompasses a whole host of spiritual practices.

Some of these practices include: prayer mapping, prayer journeys, prayer walking, warfare prayer/worship, binding territorial demons, identificational repentance, breaking generational curses, and deliverance.

What they teach is that as long as the territorial spirits are in control, no major advances can be made in sharing the gospel or transforming society.

So the spirits must be neutralized or cast out.

Then, entire nations of people will respond en masse to the gospel, and the church will reap the greatest harvest of souls in history.

NAR leaders say that territorial spirits cannot be ignored.

And because they are so powerful, they can’t be cast out by ordinary Christians.