|
|
|
| Home | Articles | Contents | News | About | Contact | Gifts | Search | Links |
Doctrines of Demons: The Global Network(a) (Part 8)Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines [taught by] demons... (1 Tim 4:1 NKJ)
I begin this final portion of the Doctrine of Demons series with a burdened heart. I feel like a person who has spotted a small cobweb in a darkened room, switched on the light and discovered "The Thing from Hell" sitting in a spider's web the size of a building! I have seen a HUGE web of organisations and ministries networking all over the world for the purpose of gathering all peoples into its net and tagging them like helpless fish in a bucket. A document prepared in 1990 called the "Kaleidoscopic Global Action Plan" stated that there were over two thousand evangelistic schemes already in existence and mentioned "78 global megaplans, 33 global gigaplans and the rest of some 2,000 plans in total". This was in 1990. How many are there now? Please read the above document. If you are not worried at the moment, you will be after seeing the Plan! Just as a small taster, I quote the third statement of that Plan:
The Worldwide WebOnce you begin to peel back the layers of the Global Networking movements going on all around the world, you realise this thing is so HUGE and so ALL-PERVASIVE that nobody can adequately expose it, and certainly not in one small article.
The reason I'm discussing Global Evangelization and World Mission in this article (which has previously been about "sonship" and latter-rain type doctrines), is that the new apostles and prophets of that system are heavily involved with the more conservative, establishment leadership in "winning the world for Christ". The various World Missions and Evangelization schemes, many of which are huge and extremely influential organisations, appear to present a bland and scriptural message about converting all the peoples of the world. They therefore do not at first glance appear to pose any threat, nor do they seem to belong in an article like this which exposes the Doctrine of Demons, and latter-rain heresies. However, when you dig a little deeper and understand the aims more fully, you see that the edifice is built on sand, the sand of five shaky unbiblical premises:
Where do the sonship doctrines and the revival fit in? Well, the revival is the means of persuading more and more people to join churches, and it provides a compelling force that some believe will eventually be irresistible (as we saw in the previous article, about music). It is the fuel in the engine if you will. And the sonship doctrines provide the leadership and structure model. The new churches are to be based on the "cell-church" concept, and are all interlinked as city-wide and nation-wide structures governed by the same eldership. Evangelism is changing. It's not as we think it to be. There is a "new paradigm" or a new model of evangelism that |I believe is a result of the revival and sonship doctrines. No longer do individual people come to Jesus Christ as the result of the preaching of the biblical gospel. Now, the aim is setting up churches and church structures (including government by the apostles and prophets) so that entire communities and nations come under their control. This recent circulation, "A New Mission Role for a New Era" by Brian F. O'Connell begins by quoting the "new thing" bible verse and goes on to say that:
The sonship aim is to set up One Global Church in a pyramid structure topped by Apostles and Prophets, with every pastor and elder being submitted to his superiors. Their chosen vessel for carrying the new thing is structured cell churches, discipled and covered by the worldwide church government of apostles and prophets, removing new converts from the influence of any remaining old-paradigm teachers. To a large extent the Restoration fellowships of the UK have achieved this goal, existing as they do in loosely connected "tribes" as they call them, outside the established church network but interrelating amongst one another at leadership and pastor level. Doctrine is established through city "fraternals" where pastors are checked for suitability and processed into the new mindset. Revivalists believe that, either by a process of disintegration or by a violent judgement "from God" the old style churches, ministers and doctrines will be removed, and replaced by the New Order as the Global Church. It is not envisaged that any fellowship or ministry should or could exist outside this "Church". Reading the above report on the new style mission, it is not too difficult to see how evangelism is also being modelled after this "new paradigm". Church-planting ensures that all new converts are herded into the correct pen, acceptable leaders are chosen for them, and 'facilitators' keep an eye on their progress in doctrine and practice. As we shall see, the Lighthouses Movement has the same aim for America and ultimately the world - establishing a "new wineskin" to replace the old. This "new wineskin" as they call it is seen as the only true Body of Christ on earth, and its leadership is the only Government, thus all outside it are rebels and disobedient to God. Knights of the Round TableI am going to preface this article with a "prophecy" made by Jill Austin at the Toronto Airport Church in January 1996. In it she speaks of a new Government being brought forth to rule the world. She likens it to the new Round Table of Knights:
Jill Austin [http://www.jillaustin.org] is the founder of Master Potter Ministries. She runs the "Passion and Fire" conferences to spread the Toronto manifestations, where "believers are taken into a progressive experience with the Holy Spirit as He reveals Himself through visible demonstrations in their midst." There are now "Roundtables" appearing on the Internet as if in fulfillment of Jill Austin's prophecy, but more likely as a result of planning by the apostles and prophets of the new move. There exists a 'Prophetic Roundtable' -"dedicated to preserving the Prophetic Word of the Lord in forms of Prophecy, Visions & Dreams, Intercessory Prayers, Prophetic Poems, Parables, Songs, Works of Art and Prophetic Teachings". This Roundtable is mostly dedicated to sonship prophets like Paul Cain, Bob Jones and John Paul Jackson. But more significantly, a new Global Evangelisation Roundtable was organised in March 1999 to coordinate World Evangelization. The report states:
Amongst the "Foundational values" listed by the Roundtable were:
The conference issued a report which said:
The World Prayer Centre In another prophecy in February 1997 by Jill Austin, titled "Tidal Waves of Wine, Fire and Wind", she predicted that "Apostolic government will begin to emerge with the healing and acceptance of the prophetic. Global strategies will be revealed as the government of God is established on earth. Divine networking among denominations will bring unity, and spiritual guerrilla warfare will be Spirit-designed for God's eternal purposes." Again Jill Austin writes on her web site, in her "Glorious Intruder" series::
From all this we see that an apostolic government is being set up under our very noses. This is not just prophetic ramblings, but a WAR PLAN to defeat conventional churches and biblical doctrine, right across the earth. While Jesus said "I say nothing in secret" this war plan is conducted "behind closed doors" and, "underground like the Mafia and Hitler" - two groups with which the genuine Church would surely not identify? I want to draw your attention to one statement in Jill Austin's prophecy: an "international house of prayer for all nations". She refers to it as something that is already being established. This phrase comes from Isa 56:1-8 and is a prophecy of the Lord's return and his setting up his Millennial TEMPLE in Israel.
Jesus also referred to the TEMPLE as the House of Prayer in Matt 21:13 "And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." As we know from earlier quotes in this series, the sonship doctrines teach that a New Temple is being built on earth consisting of all those who are submitted to the new doctrines and the new apostles and prophets. This is the Temple that Jill Austin sees being built, and it is governed by those she refers to as "My Apostolic Fathers". House of Prayer in Colorado
However, at the same time a real "International House of Prayer" is being erected in Colorado and is becoming one of the key "gateways" into the new paradigm. This is the World Prayer Center in Colorado Springs which houses "the latest telecommunications system" in an effort to "link believers throughout the world." The ministry's $5.5 building is situated on the property of Ted Haggard's New Life Church. Haggard envisioned the Center in 1984, and co-founded it together with church-growth specialist C. Peter Wagner, whose Global Harvest Ministries is headquartered in the building. The Center includes the latest computer technology and communications equipment, a bookstore, a "spiritual mapping" office, and private suites that can be rented for extended prayer sessions and retreats. (See this News Archive, September 1998, "Holy War: World Prayer Center arms itself with technology" ). From the blurb on the World Prayer Centre website:
The WPC is "a fully equipped nerve center with data and information about prayer needs throughout the world [which]... networks prayer ministries, denominations, churches and cell groups. This creates a united prayer front that will end Satan's attempt to divide and isolate believers, and to blind so many to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One networking organisation linked to it is Global Resource Ministries, Inc (GRMI)" who say their mission is "to serve and support the emerging Global Church involved in the current move/work of the Spirit of God. Our strategy is to develop a resource base through the networking of churches and church leaders ... [in 1997] GRMI has two servers directly connected to the Internet and accessible to more than 20 Million people - our WWW site transfers an average of 22 MB per day, and over 1.3 gigabytes to 44 countries in the first six months." On the Global Resource Ministries website today the "emerging Global Church" is being organised and assisted by the "emergence of a strategic and active network of churches, church leaders and participants" and their "web pages, mail lists and other projects are geared to support specific areas of ministry which we see as vital to the emergence of a unified (not suggesting we will all agree all the time) global church." The GRMI projects include "a database of churches experiencing renewal, a web-based news-reader similar to UseNet, an online bookstore, a missions resource center, web-based conferencing centers, online ministry training materials and several additional mail lists." According to Jill Austin, God is supposed to have promised a "worldwide God-INTERNET with the purposes of a fresh strategy". GRMI seems to be part of that internet. And in the World Prayer Centre people can also connect to one another using the latest computer technology. Not only that, but data about churches, ministries and individuals is constantly pouring into the Prayer Centre and other similar organisations through projects such as the Lighthouses Movement.
The World Church is being databased and logged by a sophisticated network that does indeed, as Jill Austin promised, 'gather secret, spiritual intelligence' and 'is networking and strategizing with global purposes.' Quietly, without fuss, the World Church is being established and it is databasing all churches and Christians until it knows who is FOR and who is AGAINST the concept. It is a "stealth movement" as testified by Rick Warren, a member of Mission America's Facilitation Committee [http://www.missionamerica.org/leaders.html]. In a closing prayer at one seminar he said "Thank you that there is a movement, a stealth movement that is flying beneath the radar, that's changing literally hundreds, even thousands of churches around the world". The spiritual and the physical are marching hand-in-hand towards this glorious New Dawn! Back in 1996 this report gave details of the War Room:
If 80 major ministries had relocated to Colorado Springs in 1996, how many are there today? And is it significant that not only the Church but new-agers point to Colorado as being a "spiritual power centre" of the earth? UN workers Maurice Strong and his new-age wife Hanne Strong have set up a community in the area (Baca Grande) for a host of occultic and weird new-age organisations. They, like the World Prayer Centre, say they are homing in on something spiritually powerful in the Colorado area. The World Prayer Centre, and many other similar networking and resource organisations are linked to, or have directly stemmed from, AD2000 And Beyond, which leads us to C. Peter Wagner and his role in the Global Church. C. Peter Wagner
Wager is the mentor of Dr. Ralph D. Winter, founder of the US Center for World Mission in Pasadena, CA. This enormous Campus is home to an inconceivable number of ministries and organisations, all networking together for World Mission. It could be called the Vatican City of the World Evangelization Movement. (For further details on the USCWM, see the study by Al Dager as above.) Wagner joined the Lausanne Committee in 1974 and worked for world evangelization, but during the 1980's he met John Wimber, and was won over to signs and wonders and the charismatic revival. He coined the phrase "third wave" to describe the entrance of the signs and wonders phenomenon into the conservative, evangelical churches. Since that time he has moved steadily towards latter-rain/ sonship doctrines, frequently conferencing with the hardcore prophets of that movement like Paul Cain, Bill Hamon and Rick Joyner, as well as key leaders in the Toronto/Brownsville revival. Now Peter Wagner is hailed as an "Apostle" of the first water within the apostolic/prophetic movement. The admiration is mutual. Wagner strongly endorsed Bill Hamon's book on 'Apostles, Prophets and the Coming Moves of God: God’s End-Time Plans for His Church and Planet Earth.' He even wrote the foreword. There he says that Bill Hamon was influential in nurturing him through what he calls a "paradigm shift from traditional Christianity to an openness to the full ministry of the Holy Spirit." He also believes that Bill Hamon is at the "cutting edge" of what he calls "The New Apostolic Reformation." New Apostolic ReformationThe reference to the New Apostolic Reformation brings us to Wagner's pet scheme for restructuring the entire Church. This began life as the "Post-Denominational Church" and A National Symposium on the Post-Denominational Church was convened by Wagner at Fuller Seminary, May 21-23, 1996. Bill Hamon said that "this was a historical occasion in God's annals of Church history. It was prophetically orchestrated by the Holy Spirit to fulfill God's progressive purposes of bringing His church to its ultimate destiny. . . the consensus of the panelists was that there are still apostles and prophets in the Church, and there is an emerging Apostolic Movement that will revolutionize the 21st Century Church". Shortly after, however, Wagner struggled with the precise form for the Post-Denominational Church after being awakened to the vision of the Apostolic Church of the "sonship" doctrines. He therefore re-badged his flagship world church movement as "The New Apostolic Reformation". (For a further discussion of this, please see Orrell Steinkamp's article HERE) Donald Miller, a colleague of Wagner, calls this movement "The New Paradigm Churches." It is advertised as a reformation greater in scale than the reformation of the 1500's, and it is suggested that this "new reformation" is something entirely new. Wagner outlines his article with sections such as "new name", "new authority structure", "new ministry focus", "new worship style", "new prayer forms" etc. The centerpiece of this New Apostolic Reformation is the launching of new apostles and prophets for governing and covering the Church. This is how it is to work: the Prophets receive, by "divine illumination" the doctrines of the Church and convey them to the Apostles who establish them, by means of their authority, as the word of God and pass them on to those under their covering - the pastors, teachers and evangelists - who in turn teach them to the submitted disciples sitting in the pews. Since this Governmental order is headed up by "God's Representatives on earth" no rebellion against the divine institutes will be tolerated. (Does this sound like Rome, or what?) However, as I have pointed out throughout these articles, the teaching behind the "new thing" is as old as the hills. You need only browse through the Appendix for historical data on the Apostolic foundation of the churches and there you will discover that the heresy has been around, living in various cults and organisations, for century upon century, only today finding a home in the Evangelical, Protestant and Charismatic churches as a whole. The Dispensation of DominionToday, however, we are moving into a more sinister aspect of the Apostolic church in which the current theology, structure and leadership is replaced by the new "paradigm" or model based upon revelation knowledge and spiritual experiences. This report from the recent "International Gathering of Apostles and Prophets" in October 1999 says it all. I need to quote it at length for you to grasp the whole picture.
The renewal and all that it means, as we see here, is much more than a simple evangelical revival, much more than a reformation within the Church. It is propelling Christians into an entirely different and new age, a new dispensation. This is a simply staggering claim! Since C. Peter Wagner says about the man who made the above statements, that "Bill Hamon is at the cutting edge of The New Apostolic Reformation." and "You will not find a better navigator for this exhilarating trip than Bill Hamon," and since Wagner himself was present at the conference we can only assume he was in agreement with what was said. To the commonly understood biblical dispensations of ignorance, law, grace we must now append a "dispensation of dominion" for the Church at the end of time when it stops offering forgiveness and mercy and instead wields the sword of judgement I have mentioned Wagner as one of the initiators of the World Prayer Centre. C. Peter Wagner is also the founding president of Global Harvest Ministries, which is responsible for the "United Prayer Track" of AD2000 as well as other related missions activities outside the AD 2000 organization. (The AD2000 & Beyond Movement is a "global, informal network of Christian missionary agencies, denominations, churches and individuals committed to world evangelism.". Some current projects include the Joshua Project, Celebrate Messiah 2000 and Praying Through The Window.) He freely networks with the hardcore sonship apostles and prophets while at the same time co-ordinating world evangelism that ultimately involves Rome, the UN and the New World Order. The aim is to log all churches, ministries and religious organisations into a computerised database and thus (with the supposed intention of reaching people for Christ) keep track of the allegiances, beliefs, intentions and affiliations of all Christians - which of course means any dissenters are tagged and targeted. This means YOU, if you choose to drop out of the proposed system! (Your church may already have signed on - you need to check this out.). NetworkingAs an example of leadership networking, take the January 1999 conference held in the World Prayer Centre where Peter Wagner, the moderator of the conference, spoke on the necessity of Apostles and Prophets to "change the world" and proposed centralised, all-inclusive Church Government with Apostles as the covering network and Prophets as the doctrinal input. Amongst those present at the meeting were: Paul Cain, Chuck Pierce, John and Paula Sandford, Cindy Jacobs, Bill Hamon, Dutch Sheets, Rick Joyner, Kingsley Fletcher, Mike Bickle, Jim Laffoon, Barbara Wentroble, Bobby Byerly and Ted Haggard. Some, if not all, of these names should give you a chill down your spine when you realise that these very "apostles and prophets" will be entrusted with the task of establishing the doctrine and government of the New Apostolic Church. One link further on, we find the following ministries advertised on the web site of John & Paula Sandford: Bob Jones, Chuck Pierce, Jill Austin, Kim Clement, Jim Golls, Rick Joyner, Rodney Howard-Browne and - of course C. Peter Wagner. Visiting the web sites and following the links and reports of conferences, we go round in endless circles encountering the same people and ministries, demonstrating without a doubt the networking of World Evangelization, the River Revival, and the Sonship Apostles and Prophets. Chuck Pierce, reporting on this meeting said:
Imagine! Three thousand people, all of whom were "ministered to" and presumably received the "new paradigm" before leaving! Third Day Doctrine and the RealignmentThe January Conference mentioned above is described in the newsletters of Chuck Pierce. I urge you to read his newsletters, as they are a real education in what is going on! Director of the World Prayer Centre and Vice-President of Global Harvest Ministries, "Apostle" Chuck Pierce, claims his "Glory of Zion Outreach International Ministries" website is "... a source of information on the New Apostolic Reformation, a term coined by Dr. C. Peter Wagner to describe the extraordinary work of God that is, to a significant extent, changing the shape of Protestant Christianity around the world." Here's a selection of Pierce's teachings:
These are just a few examples of the way the revival and sonship doctrines are influencing world evangelism and reaching more conventional, conservative denominations and organisation. Now networking is set to reach new heights through the Lighthouses scheme, formerly Lighthouses of Prayer. This project was recently launched with an international advertising campaign and TV coverage. Continue to the next section of "The Global Network"IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT INFORMATION: (c) Tricia Tillin 1999 It is not my intention to hinder anyone who has a LEGITIMATE use for this material. Indeed, this material is so important that I want it to reach everyone who needs it. However, this article and all it contains is my intellectual property and copyrighted material and therefore you are NOT to assume that you may freely use it on your web site or reprint it in your magazine, or whatever, in disregard of my provisos written here. This is to protect me from the abuse/distortion of the material and to prevent my name and article becoming linked to sites of which I would not approve. Therefore, please abide by these conditions:
© 2003 Tricia Tillin of Banner Ministries. All rights reserved. Cross+Word Website: http://www.banner.org.uk/ This document is the property of its author and is not to be displayed on other websites, redistributed, sold, reprinted, or reproduced in printed in any other format without permission. Websites may link to this article, if they provide proper title and author information. One copy may be downloaded, stored and/or printed for personal research. All spelling and phraseology is UK English. |