I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel" not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. - Galatians 1:6-8 (ESV)
I came across the above linked radio show from Dr. Michael Brown, where he spends the entire hour mocking the existence and concept the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). This is worthy of attention because as everyone discerning knows, Dr. Brown is a gatekeeper of the NAR. So, what do I mean by that? All of the most notorious NAR church leaders are supported and protected by Dr. Brown. Now part of this is his reflex defense of everything Charismania and dominionism. The point however is Brown never misses a chance to muddy the waters, protect his buddies and defend the brand at all costs. Listen to this radio show to see how smarmy, arrogant and mocking his tone is. This is all designed to throw shade at something he denies but knows full well exists. In this very program he readily admits that the NAR was created by C. Peter Wagner and carried on by Brown's good friend Che Ahn! Oh, but he pretends that NAR was just an innocent little vision of a non-denominational church. Except it wasn't. It was a distorted and heretical view that included dominionism as part of its core. Sure, others took it farther than Wagner ever would but to pretend it doesn't exist is just intellectual maleficence.
There does need to be a fundamental understanding of what we are talking about however because too many cooks are in this kitchen and many of them clearly do not know how to cook. The NAR is not a "church." It is not something that is easily bragged about. Brown mocks the idea that it exists by offering up that several people accused of being NAR claim ignorance. It is not a national organization. It is not the Assemblies of God. It is a collective of ideas and teachings. It involves most Charismatic and dominionist churches. For example, Bill Johnson is clearly NAR, but his church is not called NAR Bethel. As for the link above, instead of responding line by line I just selected one flow of thought from Dr. Brown that summarizes the problem well. I will break it down slowly. Let us reason once more together:
"Here's what happens. You take an element here, unrelated to an element there, unrelated to another element there. You bring them all together, mix them all together, take the most extreme quotes and positions from each of them, put the worst interpretation of all them, and multiply it together and that's what you get as NAR. And it simply doesn't exist." - Dr. Michael Brown
This is the modus operandi from Brown. Try to discredit the NAR conceptually by pretending the "critics" are purposefully taking only the extremes and applying it to all. What Brown misses is the entire theology is extreme. There is nothing to "mix together" and it most certainly exists. Brown would not be going to such lengths to convince you it is not real if really weren't. The other tactic Brown employs here, and he does throughout this video, is to try his best to sound reasonable. It is part of his routine. So, the critics are only talking about the extremes and Brown will tell you he is also against those extremes. The problem of course is he will not condemn them. He will in fact defend them. Jennifer LeClaire is one of the Charismatic extremes. She claimed to be stalked by a sneaky squid spirit and also claimed to have the power to release the angels of abundant harvest, well if you bought her book of the same name. Did Brown condemn this extreme? No, he invited her on his radio show to give her a platform to explain the sneaky squid spirit. Benny Hinn is even more extreme than LeClaire, knocking waves of people over with his magic suit coat. Condemnation from Brown? Nope, he went on Hinn's TV show for a week! Greg Locke and Mario Murillo are dominionist extremists saying that anyone who votes democratic is hell-bound. While I do not believe Dr. Brown shares that absurdity, he will never call them out for it. That is why he is a gatekeeper. For the record, no one "puts an interpretation" on these heretics. We only quote them.
"What troubles me is this has become the boogeyman for everything. Christian nationalism, the takeover of America, NAR is behind it! January 6th, revival is trying to come to Asbury - NAR is trying to take over Asbury!" - Dr. Michael Brown
