End Times Cults

What is NAR? It stands for a pseudo-Christian splinter group known as the New Apostolic Reformation, and they believe that they have been tasked with “bringing in the kingdom” and have been told by God to “take control” of earthly governments, financial institutions and to “overcome the world” for King Jesus. In short, they seek to bring in the Kingdom without waiting for the King to arrive in Revelation 19 at the Second Coming.

“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

During the primary elections in 2016, much was made of the fact that professing Christian Ted Cruz has a father, Rafael Cruz, who is a preacher and teacher in the “Dominion/NAR” movement. Here he is in a video “prophesying” that there will be a coming wealth transfer from the “wicked to the righteous.” Isn’t it odd that nearly all charismatic’s have an unbreakable fixation with acquiring wealth and making money, called the “prosperity gospel”?

Dominion Theology starts with a scripturally incorrect premise, Postmillennialism, and then makes a drastic left hand turn into full-on heresy by attempting to create a theocracy in America. Thrown into this mongrel mess is the hellish teaching that there will be an “end times transfer of wealth” from the wicked to the “righteous.” In short, it’s a big, fat pile of misapplied Bible doctrine wrongly divided, and completely out of its proper dispensation and context. And, of course, they see themselves as the “righteous” to whom the “wealth of the wicked” will be transferred to.

Rule over this earth has been handed to Satan whom the Bible calls the “prince of the power of the air”. It is he who is now ruling over all the kingdoms of this earth. That’s why you have everything “in the cloud”, and data sent over WiFi. Satan is ruling the airwaves in these days before the Rapture of the Church. Christians in this dispensation are not “working to bring in the kingdom”, we are preaching Paul’s gospel and asking people to get saved while there is still time.

“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

The only kingdom slated to rise up will be the kingdom of Antichrist in the time of Jacob’s trouble. This present world is only going to grow worse and worse, this is what the Bible teaches, only Dominionist’s don’t see it that way.

In Dominion Theology they think that they are working to “bring in the kingdom” of the Lord Jesus Christ. That if they can just get control of all government, and force its citizens to submit to Old Testament law, they can make the world suitable enough for Jesus to return. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ returns to set up His Kingdom, it does not teach that Christians are supposed to create one for Him. So everything they do is geared around trying to “bring in the kingdom” that will only arrive on the Day of the Lord at the Battle of Armageddon.

The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) teaches that God is still “anointing apostles”, is still giving fresh revelation of prophecy not found in the Bible. While the roots of NAR date back to its charismatic beginnings in 1900 in America, the name “New Apostolic Reformation” was coined by a man named C. Peter Wagner back in 1994, where he tries to make the case that his movement is “not a cult.”

Wagner’s main error lies in the fact that, while he claims to “take the Bible literally” which is a good thing, he takes it literally without ever, one time, rightly dividing. And from a theological perspective that results in heresy. For example, Wagner looks in the Bible and sees that God has apostles at the start of the Church Age, so he figures that he and his buddies can be one. He forgets that one of the requirements of being an apostle is that you had to have seen the risen Lord Jesus, as Paul tells us here:

“Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 9:1-2)

So sorry, C. Peter Wagner, looks like that puts you and your followers out of the running, as they say. But wait…there’s more! Wagner looks in the Bible and sees people performing signs, miracles and wonders, so he thinks since he just made himself an apostle doing signs and wonders should be par for the course. Guess he forgot to read where an actual apostle, Paul, tells us that signs, miracles and wonders will end and are not for the Church Age.

“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.” (1 Corinthians 13:8) and 2 Corinthians 5:7  “For we live by faith, not by sight.”         

Christians in the Church Age are told to walk by faith, and not by sight. Sign and miracles are absolutely walking by sight. Lastly, our real apostle Paul tell us that signs are for the Jews.

“Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:22-24)

Here is Wagner giving us an overview on NAR doctrine: “The way to achieve dominion is to have kingdom-minded people in every one of the Seven Mountains: Religion, Family, Education, Government, Media, Arts & Entertainment, and Business so that they can use their influence to create an environment in which the blessings and prosperity of the Kingdom of God can permeate all areas of society.”

So he wants to use physical and earthly means to bring in a spiritual kingdom, does he? That’s a pretty good trick. Too bad it’s impossible. So why do people follow the New Apostolic Reformation and Dominion Theology? That’s a pretty easy answer. It’s all about money, money, and more money! Or in other words the “Prosperity Gospel.”

Ever wonder how charismatic televangelists like Kenneth Copeland, Rodney Howard Browne, Jessie Duplantis, Paula White and Joel Osteen generate millions of dollars of month each? Because they tickle the ears of their followers with sugar-coated lies that are eagerly lapped up by Bible-deficient pew fillers who are only too willing to empty their wallets to acquire the “deeper blessings” promised by these false teachers.

Who wants to be a regular, boring old Christian dealing with trying to walk a clean walk with the Lord when you can be crowned as an “apostle” who has miraculous gifts? It’s so much more exciting than just being saved and walking by faith.

Born again Christians in the Church Age have no command to “subdue the world” and bring “in the kingdom.” We are called to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, guiding people to salvation, and warn the lost of coming judgment. The apostle Paul told no one to “bring in the kingdom”, had no wealth, and lived completely by faith in God, and the charitable giving of his converts in the churches he started. The idea of the NAR’s “seven mountains” was never even a thought in his head or mentioned in the Bible. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

“Rightly dividing” is the solvent that quickly dissolves the entire false premise on which Dominion Theology and NAR sit on. Both are a living fulfillment of Paul’s prophecy that in the last days there would be a great falling away from doctrinal, biblical Christianity. NAR doctrine comes from taking the current Church Age, the coming Kingdom Age, and vainly attempting to make them one. You can’t, they don’t ever exist together either on earth or in Heaven.

“Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)