The Axe OF
The Apostles
-2-
dominionism by divinisation
Those of us within Pentecostalism, dipping our toes into charismatic waters, were told by our dear pastors that, ‘..whenever things become more important & more worthy of pursuit than The Lord Himself, we are in trouble.’ Well, our generation was in trouble & our leaders knew it. During that early period, we very stupidly set out to find our anointing & walk in it. Develop our God kind of faith & exercise it. Access the key to God’s power & wield it. Although we didn’t know it at the time, dominionism was the bit that we had clenched firmly between our teeth. We had been convinced that it was God’s will & God’s way forward for all believers to be moving in supernatural, miracle working power, constantly. That had become our goal. Some had swapped reading God’s Word for reading books by authors who had laid claim to the principles, keys & steps necessary to release the …..blah blah blah. You know what I’m saying to you. Despite all of our reading, no matter how many tape series we bought & listened to & regardless of the countless services we attended, there was no talk of submission to Christ or biblical discipleship. Dominion was the thing. Isaiah says, ‘Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood. Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.’ (Isaiah 10:15-16). I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that there is something oh so appealing about dominion theology. I use the term theology loosely here because when viewed in the light of Scripture, the tenets of dominionism are thoroughly man centred. This is nothing new & if you’ll bear with me, you’ll soon see this for yourselves.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (Genesis 1:26-28).
Here we have the first recorded instance in which The Lord speaks of mankind having any dominion. This concerned the natural world. However, for most dominionists, who believe in a restorative rhetoric, these verses from Genesis is where they’ll always begin. By the way, I don’t know any believers within dominionism’s systems, who are strict vegetarians. Just sayin’.
This dominion of the natural world was not to be the wielding of Divine power, control & influence, but rather, it was to facilitate man’s role as representative custodian. If dominionism’s first premise is wrong at best & blatantly false at worst, what does that say about its progression? If your doctrine is off, then you are off & if you have no formal & fundamental doctrine, you’re in freefall. This is where dominionism & its many manifestations dwell. Enter the charismatic wild geese of circa 1948-1952.
Among Pentecostals at that time, there were still lines not to be crossed. Not so with up & coming charismatics. We’d heard of The New Order of The Latter Rain & William Marrion Branham. Many of the anecdotes that men like Kenneth Hagin had shared highlighted this man’s apparent prophetic ministry, but his newsletters were comprised of his sermons set out in verses as if they were Scripture. Ding-a-ling-a-ling, alarm bells ring. Pentecostals were having none of that. No matter how anointed a man was, he was just a man. Furthermore, because of Branham’s subsequent heretical doctrines & revelations, he was held at arm’s length. Rightly so. To this day there are those who still regard him as God in the flesh.
This New Order of the Latter Rain is not to be confused with The Latter Rain movement of North Carolina & Tennessee during the 1880s, under the ministry of R. G. Spurling. This movement is well worth some study, but sadly, Spurling’s significance to Pentecostal history has long since been forgotten or ignored. Latterly, no pun intended, the work of George Warnock, who was a close friend of Branham’s, on The Feast of Tabernacles, went some way in cementing the movement’s leanings towards biblical typology as a means of interpreting their role in the coming revival & Kingdom restoration to & through them. Theologically however, this will very well be the undoing of the movement, simply because Jesus has not fulfilled several Messianic prophecies concerning Himself & won’t do so until His 2nd coming, including typology within The Feast of Tabernacles which speaks to The Millennium. Consequently, the core Doctrine of The Rapture has been both decried & denied by many modern Latter Rainers.
Aspects of The Holiness Movement, which preceded The Latter Rain, had made inroads into Pentecostalism though, because Pentecostals love holiness. Dominion for Pentecostals, went as far as demons, disease & of course the flesh, but not world domination. This idea came later. For Latter Rainers, their view of Pentecostals & Holiness adherents was that they were representative of the former rain, which had to all intents & purposes dried up. The Latter Rain was where it was at now. Similarly, during this period of time, Charismatics were soaking up Latter Rain’s experiential offerings & had cultivated a clutch of leaders who would absorb its teachings & practises seamlessly into the Charismatic wave. Branham’s shadow straddled both spheres of influence. It continues to this day.
He had been the darling of The Voice of Healing movement during the 1950s & because of the similarities between Latter Rain & Charismatic expression, belief & practise, it wasn’t difficult to introduce & assimilate Branham into the mainstream of Charismania. In the eyes of both movements, God was restoring, renewing & advancing His agenda in a tangible way. This is one of the ultimate goals of Dominionism. This is divinisation; exalting something that is clearly man-made, to Divine status.
The Latter Rain didn’t stand still & even today it remains in a state of flux. This movement wasn’t directly defined by its titles, by its leaders or indeed by its woeful failures. This movement was defined by its mandate. Whether it’s known as Joel’s Army, Post Millennialism, Manifest Sons of God, Reconstructionism, Restorationism, Kingdom Now, or more recently the New Apostolic Reformation, the mandate remains the same. Not only Dominion by Divine Design, but also by Divinisation.
There are any number of beliefs & practices that can be pointed to in order to identify this particular movement as a fast moving train wreck. However, by far the greatest indicator of the movement’s destination is its supreme lack of adherence to fundamental Doctrine. It completely disappears. Within this belief system, experience is prized more highly than anything else & certainly more highly than the Canon of Scripture that we have. Divinisation occurs when man decides that whatever he has to say takes precedence over whatever God has already said & sadly this is the case in point. This is more often than not disguised as the prophetic.
It takes a certain amount of daring, stupidity & or audacity to make some of the bold claims that the leadership of this movement have, with nothing to show for their brazenness. They write their own narrative. They make their own rules. They twist whatever they can & discard whatever they can’t. They are by far the most dangerous threat to The Gospel right now because they are operating within The Church.
But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works (2nd Corinthians 11:12-15). Their boasting is not good.
This hasn’t happened overnight & what’s more, we have allowed it to happen. These men have cosied up to us as new Apostles & Prophets, often with more assumed apostolic umph than those who have gone before. They are Super Apostles, careering through The Body of Christ like pied pipers, sweeping young & old along with their sweet tunes, glossy presentations & thus saith The Lords. Some of us ought to know better & some of us do.
You can be sure that all of the bells & whistles apportioned to this new movement are nothing more than cheap window dressing that covers a supreme lack of substance throughout. Look at its pedigree! This movement is nothing more or less than a Frankenstein’s monster comprised of different cherry picked parts, all thrown together & animated by a false spirit. The whole thing even has bolts in its neck!
As we will see, the speed with which this movement has gathered momentum is indicative of the apathy within The Church. I’m not suggesting that we put on a show. I’m suggesting that we feed the hungry souls in our fellowships with the truth we have come to know from the Apostolic Doctrine we’ve received. I was once there. I was once seduced by the bright lights & candy floss. However, the glass is always half full & followers are always empty.
For Latter Rainers, God is always about to do something & after they’ve been systematically hypnotised, mesmerised, anaesthetised, desensitised & mollified, they will be discarded as surplus to requirements. Their donations will always come in handy though. The movement exists to perpetuate itself until it successfully evolves into its next manifestation.
I say again, The Latter Rain didn’t stand still & even today it remains in a state of flux. This movement isn’t directly defined by its titles, by its leaders or indeed by its woeful failures. This movement is defined by its mandate. It is the extent to which the movement’s theology is emphasised in any particular church or fellowship, vision or doctrine, statement of faith or core values that will tell you how far this wasting theodemic disease has spread.
We
will take a good look at the who’s who within the current New Order of these
folk, as well as the doctrine they espouse & their progress towards world
domination for Christ. This is going to be interesting. In our next meeting we
will examine dominionism as decree or declaration, as well as identify some of
those who have transformed themselves into apostles of Christ. This movement
has already begun to creak and wane under its own weight & eventually it
will collapse. Brethren, do not remain within it or be a part of it when the
whole thing comes crashing down.
