But the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?" And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. - Acts 19:15-16 (ESV)
With three days to go this election season has seen the usual NAR dominionism rear its unbiblical head ad nauseum trying desperately to leverage Christians to vote for their perceived righteous choice. The amount of carnal shaming and refusal to see how their choice is just as evil have become staples for the apostate church in these end times. The worship of this country has become the final idol of the church age. With that as the backdrop I received an email from a reader of 828 Ministries regarding weekly prayer services held by something called the Global Prayer Center, which is operated by Perry Stone Ministries. Now, I have covered Perry before as he is a huge dominionist as well as an Israel worshiper. That was all before the latest revelations that Perry had acted inappropriately in words and actions against several employees. The board of Voice for Evangelism, which Stone founded, asked him to take a sabbatical and Stone stepped down, issuing this statement:
"I have asked God and my precious wife Pam to forgive me, and I humbly and sincerely ask those who are hurt or offended by my actions to also forgive me. It is my hope that by the grace of God we will all be able to walk in healing and restoration." - Perry Stone
Now, if this all sounds kinda vague that is entirely the point and the reason why we can assume the offenses were severe. There is no way they would ask the money-maker to step aside, even if it is temporary. They are already proclaiming that Stone has repented. In his stead however, Dr. Bryan Cutshall has continued to conduct these weekly prayer meetings. My reader was very concerned because of the usual declare and decree nonsense about serious medical conditions being healed by their intercession and the resulting damage it must take on those that are in all likelihood, not healed. My reader correctly aligned this with the NAR, word faith doctrine of little gods. When I went to review this the last prayer service listed was from this past Thursday (linked above) and Cutshall admitted up front that this was a special service he called a "solemn assembly" to pray for this country since it was the last service before Election Day. What follows is just an unimaginable bastardization of prayer. It is a perfect microcosm of how the NAR has infected the church today that people think this was even remotely acceptable or pleasing to God. Before we even get into the doctrinal issues with the prayer subjects, the overall aesthetics reveals the sheer and utter idol worship this has become for the church. On the dais was the following. In the back of the dais a row of intercessors for the ministry. These look like run of the mill congregants who have been taught so poorly that we see their style of prayer alone is so definitive of the NAR movement. Declaring and decreeing things they have no power to enforce. Casting things down they have no ability to ensure. They are like the seven sons of Sceva who ran around trying to cast demons out of people in the name of the Jesus that Paul preaches when they in fact had no relationship with Christ, resulting in the reality of the key verses. Beaten so bad by the demons that they ended up naked!
After the row of intercessors we see the space that Cutshall occupies to read scriptures he is ripping out of context to morph them into supporting his dominionist prayers. In front of that space however, still on the dais, front and center, is the American flag. The path of the service laid out by Cutshall ahead of time is that after he reveals the prayer point and reads the scripture, a random intercessor must step down to the flag and pray for that point. There is an obvious word for this beloved and that is idolatry. The flag is a carnal symbol for a pagan nation and has zero place on or around the holy desk that is supposed to be reserved for the Gospel. It certainly has no place as the centralized focus of prayer. Which we will see as we labor through the various prayer points that were offered up and the corresponding intercessions. Please keep in mind that these are summaries and not meant to be word for word quotes.
1. Cutshall opens with the go-to scripture for dominionists, 2Chronicles 7:14 but he couches it as a prayer for repentance for the United States. First of all, this verse is meant for Israel not the church but even if we allow it there is still no correlation to the world! This verse implores those called by His name - Christians - to repent. The intercessor quickly devolves the prayer into an anti-abortion screed that equally misses the point. They prayed that Roe vs Wade be overturned not realizing that this would not end abortion but merely return it to the states. How in the world would that be repentance? The intercessor finishes by entreating God that our country be "brought back" to what it was founded on. Do you mean slavery, rebellion, a demand to represented if taxed? Perhaps you meant the deism of Thomas Jefferson who removed all references to the deity of Christ from the bible? This is always at the heart of poor NAR teaching. America was not founded by a group of ex-patriated born-again Christians.
