Dr. Brown is at it again, defending the brand by claiming the NAR does not exist...

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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)

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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 6^th, revival is trying to come to Asbury - NAR is trying to take over Asbury!" - Dr. Michael Brown

I agree that not everything is NAR and it has become a little too much of a catchall for false theology. That said, let's deal with these one at a time. The NAR is not "behind" Christian nationalism but there is clearly a correlation. Even in this video, Brown says that it depends on how you define Christian nationalism. Well, it shouldn't. There was once a saying regarding the propensity for racists and Christian nationalists to all be Trump supporters. We are not saying you are their leader, but they sure seem to think so. January 6^th rioters were not NAR? After invading the Capitol, assaulting police officers with the intent to kill, defecating in the well of the Senate and trying to find Mike Pence to hang him, they paused to give thanks to Jesus! It was caught on tape! Gee, I wonder why they would think that all the crimes they were in the middle of committing was approved by Christ? The NAR. As for the Asbury debacle - look I am hopeful that the kids were sincere but then Todd Bentley showed up. Then Greg Locke showed up. Then Charisma News showed up. So yeah Dr. Brown, the crazies were trying to take it over and some of them were obviously NAR influenced.

Now, regarding the takeover of America, Brown is referring to the NAR dominionist notion that we have to take over the country. Brown tries his best this entire video to pretend that is false. Now where would we get the idea that the NAR wants to take over the country I wonder? Could it be because that is what Lance Wallnau, Bill Johnson, Che Ahn, Patricia King, C. Peter Wagner and Alan Vincent told us in their 2013 book, "Invading Babylon - The Seven Mountains Mandate." Oops. Now I am sure they meant invading in the sweetest way possible and the reference of America and the world to the ancient kingdom of the Babylonians was just in jest, but people tend to take such hyperbole very seriously. Brown tries in this video to pooh-pooh this as all just community activism and how they are just competing with unbelievers to influence society except they are not. They are trying to conquer seven cultural mountains because as the belief goes, it is in preparation for the second coming of Christ. Brown says hogwash, but Paula White once said, "Donald Trump will play a critical role in Armageddon." Oops again. They keep saying the quiet part out loud. The seven mountains mandate is core dominionist teaching, made infamous by Wallnau, who Brown considers a brother. Let us take a closer look at teachings from Wallnau on this theology Dr. Brown claims does not exist.

Lance Wallnau explaining the roots of seven mountains mandate - "It all started with Loren Cunningham and Bill Bright who were both visited by the Lord within a 24-hour time fame. An angel told them that whoever takes these seven kingdoms can take the harvest of nations." - Lance Wallnau

Just so we are on the same page. This bat-poop crazy theology that says we need to invade Babylon, take over their culture and assimilate the masses came from two older heretics who both lied about being visited by an angel of the Lord. God is so good that He sees all time and provided for us the exact scriptures to debunk this nonsense and it is the key verses today. Some are indeed troubling us with a new and different gospel. People like Lance Wallnau and Dr. Michael Brown. Interesting the God says here that even if an angel should give you a new gospel, like the one that Cunningham and Bright claimed visited them, let them be accursed!

"Lance on seven mountains - the church has wrongly focused on the quantitative call of the gospel. That is go into all nations. But there is a qualitative side to this and the qualitative assignment we have is to transform nations and this process is called making disciples of nations." Lance Wallnau

Huh? He must have pulled this quantitative versus qualitative gospel assignments from the book of 2Prevarications because it simply does not exist. Unlike the NAR, which certainly does. No beloved, Lance Wallnau is simply making things up now. There is no such thing as discipling nations. He is twisting the scriptures from Matthew which reads:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. - Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV)

To infer this means to literally means the entire nation is absurd. The Great Commission is obviously meant for individuals - in all nations. The transformation of nations schtick, is pure NAR evil. It literally means for Wallnau that we are to invade and take over the seven cultural mountains he lays out. Entertainment should be Christian. Laws should be Christian. Leaders should be Christian. Even Dr. Brown asks so innocently in this video, what could be possibly wrong with that? Glad you asked. What Dr. Brown and the NAR engage in is conferring righteousness unto their chosen political party. Locke and Murillo only exaggerate what Brown, Bill Johnson and Wallnau all agree with. That voting Democratic is wrong for Christians and Republican is right. Even Brown's entire video premise here is defending the new Republican Speaker of the House! And why? Because he says the bible is his world view. Do you know who else had said similar things? Dennis Hastert, who ended up guilty for decades on child molestation. Newt Gingrich who while lecturing us about Bill Clinton's sins, was secretly having an affair with a woman half his age who he would divorce his wife for. Larry Craig busted in an airport bathroom trying to solicit homosexual sex. How about the political right's idol, Donald Trump? Three time married and three times unfaithful. So, the problem Dr. Brown is the underlying assumption that we should blindly trust what your preferred politicians says. No party cares about the cause of Christ. The perceived lesser of two evils still is evil. We are to go into all nations with the gospel, not a plan to take over seven cultural mountains.

While we are on this, let's take a look at the next favorite "mountain" to conquer, entertainment. The apostate church goes absolutely giddy when their perceived political/pseudo religious angles are represented by Hollywood. Recently we saw the excitement over The Sound of Freedom. Oh, how social media was flush with proud declarations of how it even beat the last Indiana Jones movie at the box office, which was not exactly true. That aside, it made over 200 million dollars at the box office. To the NAR this was a great seven mountains success. The reality was a tad different because this was a story about a Mormon, not a Christian. That Mormon now stands credibly accused by multiple women of gross sexual abuse. Oh, and all the money? Yeah, that went into the coffers of a Mormon owned studio so there was no benefit to the cause of Christ whatsoever. Then you have other "Christian movies" that just convey poor if not outright false theology. Or we have to celebrate absurdities like Greg Locke's new disaster pretending to cast demons out all over the place. Please. How about the domination of Hillsong, Bethel and Elevation creating one horrible worship song after another, poisoning our churches with false theology through music. I read a piece today on Charisma News about a worship leader who stopped singing to reprimand a congregation for taking his picture during worship and not focusing on intimacy with the Lord. Now, I agree we should be focused on God during worship, but can you blame the goats in apostate churches for behaving like they do not understand when they have been taught nothing but me-centric, Jesus is your wingman, idolatrous theology? Bottom line is we are to present the gospel to all peoples in the nations, not save the literal nations. When Paul was opposed by disbelieving groups, he simply went on to another area. Here is the last Wallnau quote:

"Lance on democracy failing across the world - you have to realize where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and if you want to see freedom economically, culturally, and politically you have to honor God because Satan with is powers in the second heaven is just waiting for democracies to fail so he can raise totalitarian governments. You see the elites have a system for prosperity but they don't have a system of ethics and values. The number one reason why democracies fail is corruption." - Lance

What a ridiculous transition. The verse Wallnau cites is from 2Corinthians 3 and that freedom does not refer to economic, cultural or political freedom. It refers to freedom in Christ from sin, death, and fear. This is what happens to the NAR folks who keep mixing the profane with the holy, they forget which is which, if they ever knew. Follow the silly teaching he offers here. So, Satan, is behind every totalitarian government but any democracy is somehow righteous? Listen, I may believe America was the best experiment ever in human governance but that is far, far removed from righteousness. Were we righteous when we were the hub of the slave trade? Were we righteous when we rebelled against the authority of England? Were we righteous during the civil war, massacring each other? How about the genocide of the American Indians? Or the children working in sweat shops 20 hours a day while robber barons made their fortunes? How about political wars where untold numbers were killed for greed or political expediency? This NAR gibberish Wallnau teaches pretends that we are special because our prosperity is rooted in ethics and values? Whose? Dennis Hastert's? Donald Trump's? There is a Florida congresswoman who moonlights as a pastorix of a mega church, who lies on all of her financial disclosure forms by making her flock pay for her seven houses. Is it her ethics and values? Corruption is everywhere because humans are everywhere. None are righteous! Stop pretending your politicians are the good ones. They are not. Back to the final portion of Dr. Brown's excerpt:

"I'm an alleged leader of NAR even though I don't hold to the tenets of NAR. Of course the tenets keep changing depending on what website you go to. Bottom line is the fear mongering helps nothing. The exaggeration helps nothing. This NAR of the critics desiring to take over the world, hundred of millions of critics working together whether they know it or not. Basically with this desire of taking over the world and imposing Christian values and that these apostles have this special authority and that every church must be under these apostles and prophets. You mix in with it the worst of the word faith movement, you mix in it the worst of Charismania, you put it in a blender and that's NAR. That doesn't exist. That only exists in the minds of the critics." - Dr. Michael Brown

Except Brown does adhere to the basic tenets of the NAR. He is clearly a dominionist. He may couch things to try and seem even handed but he clearly teaches voting Republican any chance he gets. He clearly supports all things charismania. He writes for one of the staunchest dominionists today, Steven Strang. Whatever other tenets Brown may legitimately disagree with it does not count because he protects and defends those that do believe in them. This is not "fear mongering" or exaggeration beloved. These are just stated facts that Dr. Brown cannot wish away with smarmy mocking. Taking over the world sounds like hyperbole but realize when you desire all laws in this country to be strictly based on your interpretation of the bible, you are advocating for a theocracy. God did not ask us to go into all nations and make them Christian theocracies. Do you know why? Because doing so and forcing people to abide by biblical law actually will only condemn them. Only the gospel frees them. That is why the great commission has nothing to do with the politics of man but rather, preach the gospel. It is ironic that Dr. Brown mocks here the notion that apostles have special authority and churches must be under the apostles and prophets. He says here - that doesn't exist. Except he writes for Charisma news that clearly DOES believe this. This is at the heart of everything wrong with Dr. Michael Brown. He is very learned, but he does not apply that knowledge to individual people teaching falsely, fleecing the flock, or in general leading people away from Jesus Christ. He uses the phrase here "the worst of word faith" as if there are redeemable aspects of this false theology. There are not. The NAR is very real as a concept, not as an organization of affiliated churches. It is primarily known for the abuses in Charismania, including the false apostolic and prophetic paradigm, as well as the false signs and lying wonders of the apostate church. The other primary driver is dominionism. A belief the overly focuses on politics, the seven-mountains heresy, or in general a focus on this world instead of seeing people saved from this world. Dr. Brown may not be all in on all things, but he defends it all and thus protects it all. He can mock, ridicule, and laugh at the truth all he wants. We will keep pointing out what he does and says and pointing people back to Christ. Not the false christ of dominionism wrapped in an America flag singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Not the false Christ of charismania selling clairvoyance, sneaky squid spirits, glory clouds, gold dust, gemstones, angel feathers, singing "Oh how he Loves Us." Not the false christ of the New Apostolic Reformation and the apostate church.

Reverend Anthony Wade - November 16, 2023

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.