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. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. - Galatians 1: 6-9 (ESV)
Let's go back to the years following the crucifixion of Christ as His church was still in its infancy. The Apostle Paul founded the church at Galatia approximately around AD 49. He wrote his Letter to the Galatians about six years later, AD 55. When he left Galatia the church was given the correct gospel. They were taught the full counsel of God yet corruption to these truths had started to enter the church through a group of people called the Judaizers. These were a group of Jewish Christians who were still clinging to the Mosaic Law and insisted that new converts had to be circumcised according to the Old Testament. Paul got wind of this and fired off his letter while ministering in Ephesus. From the content and tone we can tell he was very concerned and even angry at these developments.
We can learn a lot from just the opening found in the key verses today. The first thing is that the modern view of false gospels is that they are relatively harmless. I have been often chastised for speaking against folks as likeable as Joel Osteen, Brian Houston or Joyce Meyer, for example. We should have no confusion, following such preaching is akin to abandoning Jesus Christ! It is deserting Him for another gospel! We see people every day abandon the gospel of Jesus Christ for the motivational gospel of an Osteen, the prosperity gospel of a Houston or the word-faith gospel of a Meyer. The list just goes on and on. The majority today are deserting Christ for the NAR dominionist gospel. We may not realize it but we ought to be vigilant to recognize it because as the key verse declares it is really no gospel at all! It is a distortion of the gospel and it is so abhorrent to God that the warning is that if any creature, even an angel, should preach a contrary gospel, let them be accursed! Let that be a warning also for the Mormon theology founded by the claims of Joseph Smith of an angel giving him a new gospel.
I say this as the backdrop for a quick discussion of the NAR phenomena because it has become a catchall term for false teaching and that has led to a muddying of the waters and confusion. Other factors play in first so let's get these out of the way. The seeker-friendly theories of church growth contribute to the watering down of the gospel to the point that it is no gospel at all. When Willow Creek Church was starting out it canvassed the unsaved neighborhood to see what the seekers wanted and lo and behold they did not like the cross. Who can blame them because the cross represents their sin and need for a savior. So Willow Creek removed all of the crosses from their church. It is seeker friendly thinking that says you must cater to the goats at the expense of the sheep. A decade later, Rick Warren put out the Purpose Driven Church (PDC), which became a guidebook for up and coming pastors. What the PDC did was put the seeker-friendly theories on steroids. Pastors were told they were not shepherds but rather CEO's whose only job was a half hour sermonette on Sundays and vision casting. They were taught to facilitate the departure of dissenting church members from their flock. While these two factors damage Christianity greatly, they are supporting heresies for generic teaching heresies such as word faith, prosperity or dominionism. The New Apostolic Reformation was founded in the late 1990's by C. Peter Wagner. His view was that God was putting the band back together by naming new apostles and voila - he was one of them! Funny how that sort of heresy works! Included in his beliefs however was this insidious call to nationalism which has grown to become dominionism, which is the belief that the church must conquer culture before Christ can return. Yes, you read that right, they honestly believe Jesus can't return until they conquer the seven cultural mountains that they created in their incredibly deceitful hearts.
This dominionism has grown to be the largest and fastest growing false gospel in this country. I say this because it can be confusing since their language sounds the same. I just read an article by dominionist Sean Feucht from Bethel where he freely refers to his political efforts as "spreading the gospel." He does not such thing. He spreads the false gospel of dominionism but not the real gospel of Christ. Feucht has found this niche since COVID and has parlayed that into personal riches, new homes and a national platform from where he can grift freely across this land. Feucht declares that to be saved means to be in God's army, which says no biblical scripture anywhere. The war is cultural and Feucht will admit this much. His solution is the same as the rest of the dominionists. In order to be a good little Christian and culture warrior, you must vote Republican. That's it. Sure it would be great if you could volunteer and of course send him money, but the primary duty of a believer is now reduced to carnal politicking. Dominonist Greg Locke, who recently bowed at the feet of Benny Hinn for money, once preached that people who vote Democratic needed to leave his church. Fellow dominonist Mario Murillo teaches they are irredeemable and hell bound. Don't worry about what I say, just do as I vote.
The obvious problem is that this is reducing the things of heaven to the things of earth. It is confusing the carnal and profane with the holy. Jesus Christ was completely apolitical when He walked the earth. We should also not lose sight of the fact that the carnal argument is flawed and wrong as well. Politics is about what lying people promise. So the message is to vote for my lairs because I think they are more likely to be telling the truth. Hardcore dominionists will even go as far as to claim that when we stand before Christ He will be reviewing our voting record. This shows such a breathtakingly poor understanding of God and scripture but what else can we expect from carnal unsaved people? Does anyone seriously believe that Jesus will look at us and say, "sure I'd like to let you in but, Clinton in 96?" Not only that but their beliefs do not include the reality. The vast majority of the promises we vote for never come to pass!
Not to mention it also does not take into consideration of the character of the people involved. I will give you a historical example. When the Lewinsky scandal broke in the late 1990s all of the "Christian" dominionists ran to the microphones to declare that "character counts." Christians were urged that they could not vote for even Al Gore because of the sins of Bill Clinton. There were three primary political voices on the right that church leaders rallied around - Representatives Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston and Dennis Hastert. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that Gingrich was having an affair at the same time with someone half his age who he would leave his wife for. Livingston had so many affairs his own party made him step down and Dennis Hastert turned out to be a molester of little boys. This is what happens when we look to ANY man, regardless of political party. All have fallen short! None pursue God!
The apostate church refuses to learn these lessons. In 2012 we had a presidential race between a liberal Christian in Barack Obama and a Mormon in Mitt Romney. For years the Billy Graham Association had correctly listed Mormonism under their list of cults but in the run up to this election they removed it. Why? How else could the endorse Romney with a straight face? They did and so did all church leaders. By the way, Romney has always been a decent enough of a politician but as a Christian, a leader within the cult of Mormonism should have been a non-starter. Romney was not only in the Mormon Church but he was a direct descendent of one of the founding elders and tithed 25% of his massive wealth and income to the church! Yet there was every church leader demanding that the only way to be a good Christian was to vote for the Mormon. Why? Because he wasn't a Democrat. Wow. Fast forward another four years and we saw the vilest, most despicable, unchristian man in political history capture the nomination for the Republican Party. The NAR dominionist church was in a panic. They dispatched Franklin Graham, after Trump donated six figures to both of his "charities," to bridge the gap to the Evangelicals. Charisma News started running piece after piece extolling the possibility that he was really saved, just a baby Christian after all. Soon they upped the ante and began running pieces that declared Trump was the new King Cyrus, no wait, he had a Deborah mantle, no wait he had an Elijah anointing! No joke, all of these were put forth to rehabilitate the unchristian image. Then the tape dropped with Trump bragging about grabbing women by their genitals and the church did not flinch. Suddenly the narrative was about how we were not electing a "pastor in chief" and that it was only policy that mattered, not character after all. Nine years and nearly three indictments later and the church still defends the indefensible in the most hypocritical of fashions all because he has a little "r" next to his name and is running against the Democratic Party.
Do you think for one second the creator of the entire universe cares one whit to our opinion of carnal politics? The bible does not give any indication that we are to be culture warriors, conquer imaginary mountains, or trade in the real gospel for the excruciatingly poor knock-off. Digging deeper into the problem the NAR has here is that the best argument they can offer is the lesser of two evils and that fails the Christian test because God absolutely never instructs us to embrace any evil, no matter how "lesser" we have deemed it. So they are forced to confer righteousness upon a political party that has none. Neither party does because the bible is foolishness to them. We are also not commanded to establish a theocracy here on earth. The seven mountains theology has led to an unchristian attempt to take over the culture. For example, we now have politicians in office from the apostate church but they are only serving the whims of the Republican Party, not Christ. It is even more stark when we look to the cultural mountain of entertainment. The Chosen is not Christian any more than the Bible miniseries was. The latest rage now is Sound of Freedom, starring a rabid QAnon Catholic and funded by Mormon money, about a Mormon individual. Maybe it draws some needed attention to the plight of children in this world but it also stokes the fires of division and unrest and could easily set off the next deranged gunman. Oh and by the way, is God glorified? No.
Feucht laughingly refers to the left as painting a hopeless picture for this country when that is exactly what he and the dominionist church does. Oh unless you vote as I do - then the world is all puppies and rainbows. For three years now the apostate church has been in Chicken Little mode screaming the sky is falling, the sky is falling! Why? Because Joe Biden is in the White House after crushing Trump by seven million votes in 2020. He trips over a sandbag and the church screams he is too old and must go! Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell literally freezes for 19 seconds at a press conference and the same people just say he is tired. The hypocrisy is not lost on the world. I have written about these concepts for some time now. The devil has managed to convince people in church to hate the lost. A dastardlier scheme I cannot imagine then to revile the people you are supposed to bring the gospel to. That means the real gospel instead of the false one they keep trying to shove down their throats. Instead of preaching about sin and the need for repentance and the grace and mercy of Christ they tell them specifically what not to do. As if behavior modification will save them. Here is a quick theology lesson. Say you know someone unsaved who is having an affair. Let's say you convince them to stop and they do. Are they saved? Nope. Let's say you pass legislation outlawing adultery. Are they saved? Nope. Let's say you only vote for one party because they promise to install the death penalty for adulterers. Is anyone saved because of this? Nope. The apostate church continues to offer up carnal solutions and salvation found in men no better than their political opponents. They think they are responsible for salvation when that is God's job. We are responsible for preaching to correct gospel so that the Holy Spirit can do His supernatural work. The blasphemous thing is dominionsts call their efforts "preaching the gospel."
At least the Judaizers were confused by something in the bible. The NAR dominonist church is adding carnal idol worship to what they call faith. That is all dominionism is, idolatry. It is in fact the last idol of the church age. In 2000 they insisted the church listen to two serial adulterers and a child molester. In 2012 they demanded Christians vote for the Mormon. In 2016 they said it must be the thrice married, thrice unfaithful man who liked grabbing women by their genitals. In 2020 the doubled down and openly claimed God told them Trump would be reelected! He of course would lose hugely and thus God exposed all of the false prophets within the NAR. The apostate church did not care. In 2023 he is now facing three indictments and if even one of these came close to any Democrat that would be protesting for their imprisonment and screaming lock him up. To quote Val Kilmer in Tombstone, my hypocrisy knows no bounds.
Just a word in closing against the infantile thought process of absolutism. The fact that I am pointing out something about X does not mean I am endorsing Y. Both parties do not care about the true cause of Christ and His gospel and I would not expect them to. One party however pretends to and continues to co-opt the apostate church to do its bidding. My concern is eternal as many who will say Lord Lord on the last day will have been led down this deceitful road. Lord Lord, did I not always vote Republican in You name? Lord Lord, did I not protest against the hottest cultural debates of my time in Your name? Lord Lord did I not hate sinners in Your name? He will say, away from me, for I never knew you. Beloved, do not fall for this rank distortion of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Vote however you want or do not vote at all. God is not going to be checking to see who you thought was the lesser evil. We are told to avoid ALL evil and there is no righteousness to be found in either party. Do not listen to charlatans and grifters like Sean Feucht. The NAR has been about this business for over two decades. The church has lost much credibility during this time due to the hypocrisy. Oh foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you so? Dominionism, that's who. Do not bow down to this idol. Do not be accursed. Stay with the gospel from which you were saved - the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
Reverend Anthony Wade - July 28, 2023
