From Dennis Peacocke’s promotional material on his “Discipling the Nations: A practical path to obedience” seminars can be found the following blurb:
“If Martin Luther and the fellow leaders of the Reformation birthed for us ‘the Priesthood of all believers,’ the Holy Spirit’s global focus on the centrality of life and the message of the Kingdom of God will surely catapult the church and her people in ‘the ministry of all believers.’
“The purpose of this event is to equip God’s people to bring transformation to our local communities. As God’s people are equipped and released to make a difference where they live, God will also release and commission His Elders to return to the gates of the city as servant leaders, resource mobilizers, and culture shapers. Learn how you can practically fit into obeying the great commission (Matt. 8:18-20) by getting involved locally to bring transformation to your community.” [http://newne.net/BostonReg06.pdf emphasis added]
To understand this gobbledygook requires that one immerses oneself in Peacocke’s aberrant theologies and ideologies, which is not recommended. However, this quotation is instructive in illustrating the dominionist worldview. Dennis Peacocke multi-pronged ministries’ focus is on changing worldviews, global economic and governance structures — particularly through marketplace ministries.
In the first paragraph above there is a reference to a Kingdom-focused new Reformation. This is the same call for the “New Apostolic Reformation” (C. Peter Wagner) or the “Second Reformation” (Rick Warren). This new Reformation calls for a radical restructuring of theology for a global transformation of church and society. It requires that believers be engaged in “works” — As Rick Warren has stated: “The first Reformation was about belief; this one’s going to be about behavior.” [http://tinyurl.com/rh3hs emphasis added]
Re-Shaping Minds, Re-shaping Culture
In order to change people’s behavior, it is first necessary to change the WORLDVIEW, i.e., believers must be inculcated in a new mindset with new values and practices. In his 2003 article, Co-Managing the Earth,” Peacocke has explained this further:
“As I have said repeatedly, Martin Luther helped usher in the understanding of the ‘priesthood of all believers.” This present move of God to have believers praying and acting so as refocusing upon the call to see God’s ‘Kingdom come and will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ will press upon us all the reality of the ‘ministry of all believers.’ Calling all believers to discover their God-given passion for Christ touching every sector of human life and culture goes far beyond just the marketplace ministry movement. It calls believers everywhere up to the challenge of seeing their spirit-driven passions lived out as unto the Lord, and to the benefit of surrounding people and institutions currently living outside of His values and motivations.” (“Co-Managing the Earth: The Foundational Work of the Christian Marketplace Ministry,” Business Reform, Nov/Dec 2003 [http://tinyurl.com/p5phk emphasis added])
Peacocke outlined 3 phases of this “movement” to “co-manage” the Earth by shifting worldviews:
“Phase One: The Affirmation of Christian Ministry in the Marketplace
“What is now beginning in the church worldwide is the first stage of the Holy Spirit’s ‘invasion’ of the marketplace world of economics and workplace service. “
Note the description of phase 1 below, which talks about the need for a new global economic paradigm:
“. . .However, without believers beginning to practice the systemic deeper values of God’s Kingdom in the realm of marketplace economics, it leaves the world’s value systems unchanged at a core level. The world’s two basic paradigms of capitalism-socialism are neither fundamentally addressed biblically nor challenged. We as Christians are being edified, but the marketplace is only marginally changed because we are still not engaged in its redemption until we self-consciously, by faith, engage that ‘public’ dimension of our marketplace ministry.”
Phase 2 discusses ethics and values. These work in the affective domain (emotions, feelings, attitudes) of humanity — re-shaping values of “Transition” leading toward “Transformation,” a process mentioned in many previous Herescope posts this past month. One cannot presume that “Christian ethics” or “Christ’s values” mean true Tradition (Bible-based). As this quote below shows, these phrases are now imbued with dominionist connotations:
“Phase Two: Evangelism through Service
“As we all know, service to God and others is the most basic of Christian ethics. The ultimate service is to empower others by helping to lead them to Christ as the source of life and truth. Evangelism in the marketplace will therefore become the second mark of the movement following the legitimizing of marketplace ministry as a valid form of Christian service. . .
“Our witness, however, must be one of ethics, attitude, and actions rather than simply Bible verses or religious platitudes. Evangelistic ‘programs’ must give way to lives that demonstrate a difference. For years I have taught two things: One) Whoever creates capital will lead the 21st century, and Two) The marketplace and Christian economics will lead to the world’s largest evangelistic harvest in the 21st century. Both of these inter-related phenomena will be led by the motivation to empower people by demonstrating the superiority of Christ’s values in every dimension of human life.”
Notice how Phase 3 below leads to a “Systemic Reformation,” i.e. “Transformation” of all of society:
“Phase Three: The Systemic Reformation of Christian Economics and Business Practices
“Christ came to save souls and redeem God-given institutions such as the family; the role of civil government; ecclesiastic life; and commercial and work-related enterprises. Work was ordained by God before the Fall. It is His idea, just like marriage, and Christ came to restore for God what sin and the world system claimed falsely as their own domain.
This paragraph above is key for two reasons. First, Dennise Peacocke was on the original editorial committee for the Coalition on Revival along with leading Reconstructionists like Gary DeMar, Calvin Beisner, and Jay Grimstead. (Al Dager, Vengeance is Ours, p. 237) These men outlined the dominionist objective to change society, one “sphere” (“domain”) at a time, and particularly began to work on transforming the modern evangelical mindset to a dominionist worldview.
Second, Dennis Peacocke is listed among C. Peter Wagner’s leading “apostles” of the earth on the International Coalition of Apostles [http://www.apostlesnet.net/index.asp?action=members]. Peacocke has always spanned both the dominionist (and patriotic) Reconstructionists as well as the Latter Rain (NAR) dominionists. This quotation above is very significant because it reveals the new interpretation of Genesis 1, which is to restore work to its pre-Fall condition! This is what marketplace ministry is all about. This is congruent with James Rutz, George Otis, Jeremy Rifkin, and a host of New Apostolic leaders are claiming — the heresy that the Church can restore the Garden of Eden condition.
Finally, in the paragraph below, continuing with a description of Phase 3, note Peacocke’s emphasis on changing (transforming) the values of believers:
“Kingdom economics, on the other hand, is driven by obedience to God and a recognition that His goals and motivation for mankind are to drive our spiritual life in all areas as we, like Christ, only seek to do ‘what we see the Father doing.’ God, our Father and pattern, is motivated by the systemic values flowing through His Kingdom of empowering others through gift discovery and development; character formation; power and resource sharing as faith and initiative progressively reveal the ability to handle power; relationally-driven organizations. . . .” [all emphasis in above quotations are added]
We cannot locate any Scriptures to back this claim that “God is motivated by the systemic values flowing through His Kingdom. . . . “
More tomorrow, Lord willing. . . .
The Truth:
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” (1 Corinthians 15:50)