“Then one day our society will be dominated by godly businesses.”
(N.C. Kuyper, “Reformation in Business,” 1/1/01, Business Reform, http://tinyurl.com/ru4uy) [emphases added]
Dominionism always appeals to a higher cause — an ideology that sounds so good. Dennis Peacocke begins his “Discipling Our Nation” seminars with an appeal to patriotic dominionism. But he quickly shifts gears in his program to a “discipling our nations” seminar — with an emphasis on the plural “nations.” The agenda to restore a Christian America, which appeals to many patriotic Christians and brings them to his conferences, turns into an international kingdom-building “mandate.” Peacocke is adept at this bait and switch. The goal to restore America to a moral country, suddenly switches gears to a “dominion mandate” to transform the nations of the world, sphere by sphere, culture by culture, nation by nation — until an international order is built.
As Herescope mentioned in Monday’s post (4/10/06), Dennis Peacocke has uniquely positioned himself the past twenty years as a bridge between the charismatic and the patriotic dominionists. He is a high level “apostle” in C. Peter Wagner’s New Apostolic Reformation, listed among the members of the International Coalition of Apostles. And he has always been a respected member of the Reconstructionist camp, as a leader of the Coalition on Revival. As a salesman, he has slickly wrapped his ministries in a style that encompassed both dominionist camps so that each felt that he was part of their own.
The history of his various ministries is described in the promotional brochure cited in the quote above. Peacocke is connected with Business Reform magazine cited in the first quote above. He has Strategic Life Training course on dominionist worldview training, and a Business Leadership School which teaches the marketplace ministry “kingdom” model. Peacocke has gone global with international partnerships all over the world to train businessmen in the dominionism worldview.
Most surprisingly, Peacocke has been able to exist comfortably within the Christian Reconstructionist camp without any known opposition to his dual role as an “apostle” in the New Apostolic Reformation. Perhaps this silence is due to the fact that he has been able to promulgate the doctrines of Theonomy (Reconstructionism) very effectively to a wide spectrum of mainstream evangelicalism. As such, he is one of the best salesmen that the Theonomists have on board.
One of the key doctrinal barriers that must be overcome has to do with eschatology. Despite the widespread popularity of the Left Behind series, the “kingdom mandate” is gradually replacing traditional pre-millennial eschatology with various hybrids of postmillennialism. This is accomplished, as one observer has noted, by focusing on the mutual goals of political involvement:
“A minority of evangelicals are post-millennialists, believing that it is necessary to build the Kingdom of God in the here and now, before the return of Jesus is possible. Thus, for postmillennialists, Jesus will return when the world has become perfectly Christian, the return crowning 1,000 years of Christian rule. This eschatology urges political involvement and action by evangelicals, who must play a critical role in establishing Christian rule. COR has sought to establish a “non-quarreling policy” on matters of eschatology, and has emphasized building the Kingdom of God in so far as it is possible until Jesus returns. This neatly urges political involvement and action, without anyone having to say how much can actually be accomplished. It reconciles the difference over eschatology that has divided evangelicals, and opens the door to political involvement and action without requiring either of the two sides to abandon its eschatology. (“Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence,” by Frederick Clarkson, The Public Eye Magazine, Vol. VIII, No. 1 & 2, March/June 1994 http://tinyurl.com/p7jds, Part 2 of a 4-part series)
Dominionism creates strange bedfellows who apparently have no qualms about reducing the principles of their faith to the political common denominator.
The Truth:
“While I don’t wish to label everyone who has contact with dominionists a fellow traveler, it’s obvious that those who are asked to teach on the same platform would share similar views. Otherwise their appearing together would be billed as a ‘debate’ or a ‘dialogue.’ And while they may not agree on every issue, there must be sufficient agreement in order to be supportive of one another. So those who are supportive of dominionists and/or hold to important dominionist philosophy are well known among their peers. To seek unity with them without challenging their error leaves one’s own beliefs open to question. Those who defend heretics, even if they do not believe in their teachings, are guilty of lending credibility to their heresies, and will be held accountable to God for the souls that are destroyed as a result. It’s up to those who know the truth to defend the Church against false teachers whatever the cost to unity or to personal benefit.” (Al Dager, Vengeance Is Ours: The Church In Dominion, [Sword, 1990] p. 125)
“So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered morter, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” (Ezekiel 13:14)