An inquiry came to our email group for information about the conference speakers of the "New Apostolic Reformation: Apostles, A springboard into the 21st Century" Hosted by Dr. C. Peter Wagner. The person asking about Dr. Wagner wrote: "My local Baptist Association Pastors Conference is receiving this video simulcast by Church Communications Network.
"The flyer says "In session two, be prepared to think "outside the box." New moves of God are always controversial. Dr. Wagner will examine what he believes is the next major move of God around the world. Join us as Dr. Wagner explains how the New Apostolic Reformation is, to a significant extent, changing the shape of Protestant Christianity. In virtually every region of the world, these new apostolic churches constitute the fastest growing segment of Christianity.
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~rseaborn/New_Apostolic_Reformation.html
In just typing in the search phrase too I got a bunch of churches which procclaim that they are part of a "New Apostolic Reformation" or "kingdom advance in this century, but I have only glanced in a cursory way at them.his conference is scheduled for 6 JuneThe reply came from the Delusion & Apostasy Watch Ministry:
Here's our Delusion & Apostasy Watch News "Dr. C. Peter Wagner Snack Pack" (a work in progress)
Snippet from our recent study of the Book of Joel: "The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:" (Joel 2:10). A great "earthquake" is coming, a threshing to separate the wheat from the tares. God has purposed it, but woe to those who've built their houses upon the shifting sands of Latter Rain doctrine. One man who welcomes this "Churchquake" is Dr. C. Peter Wagner, a chief proponent of the River Revival, the World Christian Movement, Alpha and PK.
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This man -- who seems unaware that he is calling for an apostate army to rise up against God's people -- believes that he was possessed by a "headache demon" during ten of the years he was Fuller Seminary's leading missiologist and, along with his friend and mentor the late John Wimber, one of their two leading church growth experts. Inventor of the New Apostolic Reformation, Dr. Wagner recently proclaimed himself "presiding apostle" of an "international coalition" of 200 "true" apostles.
[Editors' note: For information on this "International Coalition of Apostles" see interview of Dr. Wagner by prophetess Cindy Jacobs, published in the Jan-Feb 2000 G.I. News, Mike and Cindy Jacob's Generals of Intercession newsletter (http://www.generals.org/gi_news_2k.htm) He also heads the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders. He is also president of the World Prayer Center. He is also part of Paul Yonggi Cho's Church Growth International. He was significantly involved in drawing up the Kaleidoscopic Global Action Plan (KGAP), as acknowledged by Jay Gary in "The Countdown Has Begun: The Story of the Global Consultation on AD 2000" aka the first Global Consultation on World Evangelism (GCOWE I).]
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A small assortment of credible anti-Wagnerian web pages:
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/ecumenism.htm#lighthouse http://www.discernment.org/Charismania/ApostolicMov.htm http://www.ozemail.com.au/~rseaborn/New_Apostolic_Reformation.html http://www.imagint.com/bereans/pm/Wagner-conference.htm http://www.banner.org.uk/res/theglory.html http://www.banner.org.uk/res/theglory9.html
[Editors' note: We have many more such references in our files ]
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Excerpt from "The Apostolic Movement" web page by Rev. Robert (Bob) Liichow:
E-mail comment (12/12/99 The Contenders) on "C. Peter Wagner and the Queen of Heaven" by Jeff Spencer:
[Editors' note: Please see memo at http://www.math.princeton.edu/~zguan/ice.html]
Wagner's claims about the "Queen of Heaven" are not biblical. There is nothing in the biblical text that comes even close to what he teaches about the "Queen of Heaven." But this criticism would not bother a "scholar" of Wagner's ilk because much of what passes for Christianity today, especially in the area of spiritual warfare, is not gleaned from the Bible, but from extra-biblical revelation or even the occult.
Reputable biblical scholars know nothing of the "queen of heaven" being a demon whose main objective is to keep believers out of the kingdom of God. Most research that I have read claims that the "queen of heaven" is a (false) "goddess women in Judah worshiped to ensure fertility and material stability (Jer. 7:18; 44:17). Forms of worship included making cakes (possibly in her image as in molds found at Mari), offering drink offerings, and burning incense (Jer. 44:25). Exactly which goddess was worshiped is not certain" (Holman Bible Dictionary), or "This is no doubt a part of the astral worship which is found largely developed among the Jews in the later period of their history in Canaan. . . ." (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia). Easton's Bible Dictionary says that the Queen of Heaven is "the moon, worshipped by the Assyrians as the receptive power in nature."
The Bible does not give Wagner his information, neither do reputable historical resources. Wagner's scholarship reminds me much of Neil T. Anderson or Rebecca Brown who draw much, if not most, of their teaching from sources other than the Bible. In fact, teachers like Anderson and Brown have views of spiritual warfare that has more in common with the occult than Christianity.
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
[Editors' note: Operation Queen's Palace (aka Operation Love Turkey) was pretty much a bust as far as its stated goals, despite the presence of the "twenty-four elders" and the "four living beasts" (what a trip!). It may have helped advance the new paradigm Christians' hidden agenda, but follow-up publicity has been essentially nonexistent.
Not only did the "Queen of Heaven" remain unscathed, Marionite Catholics rallied to "her" defense. I suppose this pleased Satan, as it strengthens his grip on the Mary-worshippers while stirring up a Protestant-Catholic Apostolic power struggle that can only be resolved by a complete reversal of the Reformation. As for improving the "spiritual climate" of Turkey, the event doubtless fanned the flames of local (Muslim) persecution of Christians in the area, which (perhaps as a result) suffered another earthquake. I'm sure we'll hear more from Dr. Wagner and company when they figure out how to blame us "old paradigm" Christians for their lack of success.]
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“The Alpha Course is a wonderful and proven tool for evangelism in the local church... I enthusiastically support and recommend Alpha.” -- Dr. C. Peter Wagner, cited page 2, Alpha News International Online, August-November 1999 (http://www.alpha.org.uk/news/99-08/page2.htm)
[See apologetic write about Alpha Course ]
Subj: INQresp-198: (From Steve Durgy) Re: The New Apostolic Reformation Date: 02/20/2000 5:47:23 PM Eastern Standard Time From: Sterling Durgy via ejt@ncinter.net To: Ed Tarkowski Second Coming of Jesus Christ e-mail discussion list
I wrote the following for a newsletter. It may be helpful to some of your readers:
The "New Apostolic Reformation" - In 1989 Paul Cain spoke words that have often been paraphrased and repeated:
"God is raising up a new standard, a new banner if you will, that's going to radically change the expression, the understanding of Christianity in our generation..." ("You Can Become the Word!," Vineyard Prophecy Conference, 1989, as cited by Jewel van der Merwe in "The New Order," Discernment Ministries, Lapeer, Michigan, p. 7).
Paul Cain is "Senior Prophetic Authority" at Shiloh in Missouri, a ministry associated with Mike Bickle’s "Kansas City Prophets," a group that clearly teaches Latter-rain/Manifest Sons of God theology (LR/MSOG). For a while, Paul Cain was very active in ministering alongside John Wimber of the Vineyard movement. Wimber was also a close associate of C. Peter Wagner.
Fuller Theological Seminary’s Dr. C. Peter Wagner is having a tremendous influence upon Protestant evangelicalism due to uncritical reliance upon the teachings of the Church Growth movement ­ a movement that has provided some helpful insights to Christian missionary work in the past, but is currently so controlled by pragmatism, commercial marketing, and sociology that it has veered very far from traditional, orthodox Christian teaching and practice, taking a large segment of evangelicalism with it. In the past we have noticed Wagner’s close association with John Wimber and the Vineyard movement, and that his teachings are consistent with "Latter Rain/Manifest Sons of God" (LR/MSOG) theology.
In promoting the "New Apostolic Reformation" (NAR) Wagner openly endorses the "restoration of the five-fold ministry" of Ephesians 4:11 ­ which is a key teaching of LR/MSOG theology. Glory of Zion International Ministries is "the personal ministry of Apostle Chuck Pierce, Director of the World Prayer Center in Colorado Springs." His web site informs us that the term "New Apostolic Reformation" is, "a term coined by Dr. Peter Wagner to describe the extraordinary work of God that is, to a significant extent, changing the shape of Protestant Christianity around the world" (according to their home page at http://www.glory-of-zion.org/ which was last modified on March 2, 1999 and read August 7, 1999) ­ interesting in the context of the Cain quote above. A further description is found at the web site of "Christians Seeking Renewal," where an article written for their newsletter describes Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation. Further down on the same web page, a previous article equates loyalty to one’s denomination with racism, as Bevis writes "Promise Keepers is one of those ‘front-line’ ministries that God continues to use in a powerful way to bring down the giants of racism and denominationalism" (quoted from http://www.csrministries.org/monthly.htm on August 7, 1999).
"New Apostolic Reformation" replaces the term "postdenominational" that had been used in the past to describe the new, emerging church of this movement. Dr. Wagner and Fuller Theological Seminary hosted a "National Symposium on the Postdenominational Church" in 1996.
We don’t want to "beat a dead horse" concerning Dr. Wagner. But we cannot ignore the nature of his leadership considering the success he is having in promoting LR/MSOG based beliefs and practices in the church around the world. ("News and Notes," The American Night Watch Newsletter, Vol. VII Part 8, August 1999, p. 4, 5).
Brief excerpt from the introduction to "The Doctrine of Demons: the sealing and overshadowing of the Overcomers" (c) Tricia Tillin 1999 [see above URLs]:
CHUCK PIERCE (now known as "Apostle" Chuck Pierce) has been appointed Peter Wagner's Director of the World Prayer Center in Colorado Springs which is "a nerve center that coordinates, develops and establishes a network for the worldwide prayer." He also serves as Prayer Leader of the Spiritual Warfare Network Intercessors and Vice President of Global Harvest Ministries. (C. PETER WAGNER is International coordinator for the United Prayer Track and the Spiritual Warfare Network of the AD 2000 and Beyond movement, and founding president of Global Harvest Ministries. In addition, he serves as Professor of Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.) ________________________________
"All of the apostles I know agree that a primary role of apostles is to lead the Body of Christ into aggressive spiritual warfare. But none of them have said it as well! Moving In The Apostolic is not a rehash of what other authors are saying. This book, more than any others, lets you go backstage so to speak and see what is going on in the heart and mind of a true apostle. Books like this were not on the required reading lists of Christian leaders; I certainly will require it of my Fuller Seminary students. I want many of them to say, "John Eckhardt is my role model for ministry today."—C. Peter Wagner on "Moving in the Apostolic" by "Apostle" John Eckhardt
[Source: Yours in Christ, David and Linda Liben LLMouser@aol.com delusionapostasy@aol.com ]
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