The ironic thing about the New Apostolic Reformation is that it uses the motifs of both WAR and PEACE to further its ambitions to build a “kingdom of God” on earth. Some leaders put forth the idea of war — a hyper-spiritualized (and potentially real) Joel’s Army that goes out as a conquering force taking the lands. Other leaders advocate the idea of peace — a conquest of the “spheres” of society via marketplace, economic, government, commerce, education, media, environment, and health care “transformation.”
A dialectic is at work. Some neoevangelical leaders wear the white hat of peace, coming in under the banner of “soft” warfare techniques that have been forged by several generations of American corporate and intelligence executives. Other neoevangelical leaders ride in under the banner of aggression and militancy. The leadership training in marketing techniques carefully crafts either a theme of war or peace depending on the targeted audience in the various strata of evangelicalism.
When evangelical leaders cavort openly with the world powers-that-be, the global internationalists at the various Aspen Institutes — as discussed on previous Herescope postings this past week — this fact indicates they have been brought in as “partners” to build an international world governing system. This is not a new thing. It was first developed by the Council on Foreign Relations leaders between the two world wars.
In 1936 Dr. Joseph H. Oldham, the Secretary of the Commission of Research of the Universal Christian Council asked John Foster Dulles, who was intimately involved in the liberal Federal Council of Churches and who was an international statesman, to write a paper on the topic of a peace. What follows is an historical account of how “peace” was used as a mechanism to mold and shape the Protestant world at the time to forge progress towards building an international government. This was sold to the Protestant churches as “building the kingdom of God on earth.”
“Dr. Oldham saw in John Foster Dulles qualities of character and intellect which would be of immeasurable value to his work in organising the World Conference of Life and Work in Oxford, 1937. Yet not even he could imagine the progress which would be accomplished in formulating the Church’s position on world order and peace as a result of Dulles’ presence at Oxford. Unknown to both men at the time, the meeting which ensued marked the beginning of a remarkable collaboration in the ecumenical movement. They aspired to capture the imagination of the Christian public with a grand ideal, transcending narrow-minded national self-interest, the ideal of a unified world society living in peace and justice. To educate the churches, and through them the society at large, about international co-operation was seen by both men as the primary antidote of war. It was regarded as essential in preventing a repetition of the fiasco which had followed America’s refusal to join the League of Nations in 1920.
“Dulles hearily agreed to write a paper on his favourite topic of peaceful change in preparation of the Oxford Conference.…
“In ‘The Problem of Peace in a Dynamic World’, Dulles outlined the basic concepts of peaceful change and attacked what he regarded to be an unhealthy and obsolete concept of national sovereignty. He cautioned against becoming too quickly disheartened at the slow progress of eliminating war. Advances in overcoming the main obstacles to peace, created by pride and selfishness, did not keep pace with enlightened expectations. Human egotism could only be offset, he asserted, by superseding it with some sentiment more dominant and gripping and which would contain in it the elements of universality….”
Note the parallels here between the rhetoric of Rick Joyner, discussed on yesterday’s Herescope post, with this assertion that the major obstacle to peace (i.e., building the kingdom of God on earth) was “created by pride and selfishness” and “human egotism.” Continuing the quote:
“No other organization would be as uniquely qualified to accomplish this task as the Church because ‘in the eyes of God, all men are equal and their welfare is of equal moment….’ Dulles idealised the Christian Church as an exemplary community which had demonstrated the ability to transcend the limitations of the nation state….”
This statement bears a profound similarity to Rick Warren’s global P.E.A.C.E. Plan, and his comments (which were cited previously on this blog) about the church becoming the global distribution vehicle. Dulles would go on to become an architect of the United Nations. And today the UN has found a chief ally in Rick Warren, who is working to further the UN Millennium Development Goals around the world.
“By using the ecumenical movement as the preferred vehicle to express his opinions, Dulles chose, as his primary target group, the Christian public in the English-speaking world. His goal was to motivate the churches to become actively involved in building a global society.…
“Advocating the need for a unified world with unrelenting fervour in Church circles from the late 1930s to the mid 1940s he elevated the issue of a world federation to the status of a religious concern of first importance. At the end of the Second World War he would explicitly state: ‘To create the moral foundation for world order was… the foremost task of the churches.’ Based on that ‘moral foundation’ a social structure would emanate which would be characterised by peace, justice, and equality.”
This “moral foundation” may help to explain why Rick Warren has forged a partnership with Chuck Colson to create a Worldview curriculum. Worldview curricula and testing constitute a fabricated moral ethic which can function parallel and as a counterfeit to true Christianity. On the surface it may appear to be Christian because of the goodness it seems to espouse. But it is a neutralized and neutered faith which embraces a “worldview” rather than a true saving faith.
These remarkable quotations above were taken from Martin Erdmann’s excellent book Building the Kingdom of God on Earth: The Churches’ Contribution to Marshall Public Support for World Order and Peace, 1919-1945 (Wipf & Stock, 2005). This book is available by special request from Discernment Ministries. For those who wish to understand the earlier attempts to build this “kingdom of God” on earth, this book is must reading.
The Truth:
“I will also choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.” (Isaiah 66:4)