Divorcing Baal

Part 1: Divorce and Remarriage, Political Dominion Style

Some of the leaders of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s The Response prayer rally are busily involved in divorcing America from the ancient god Baal and writing a new covenant for our country.

How did things get to this point, where such preposterous Spiritual Warfare tactics have become associated with a potential presidential bid? As stated in the previous article posted at Herescope, “Prayer Warfare Evangelism,” Spiritual Warfare techniques dreamed up by C. Peter Wagner and his clones are only Christian copies of shamanistic practices. The intended result is that the Gospel message of Jesus and the original apostles is not only compromised, sidelined, distorted, but finally neglected. Wagner’s introduction of Spiritual Warfare turns out to have nothing to do with the preaching of the cross and individual salvation – but everything to do with promoting theocratic Dominionism.

But it is the Gospel of the cross that is effective in dealing with demons. It is only the message of the cross the demons recognize and fear. Gospel preaching is God’s only weapon against demonic control. The preaching of the cross was itself the power (dunamis, Gk. dynamite) of God unto salvation. Active spiritual warfare in apostolic times was only an infrequent mopping of demon forces which had already been rendered powerless by the cross. Surely demons who know they are on borrowed time must gain some comfort and laugh at Christians trying to use their own powerless weapons like Wagner’s “strategic-level spiritual warfare” weapons against them.

This strategic prayer warfare is connected to the Dominion Mandate. Wagner has explained that “[p]rinciples of strategic-level spiritual warfare need to be employed to clear the way for God’s kingdom.”[3] This lays the groundwork for taking control of territories: “Strategic-level spiritual warfare undertakes confronting the high-ranking principalities and powers that wield ungodly control over territories such as cities or nations or people groups or other social networks.”[4] This territory prayer claims the 7 mountains for Dominionism. As I have written previously,

Wagner, more than anyone else, is responsible for creating the idioms and symbols of modern military terminology and nomenclature for spiritual warfare evangelism.

In the continuum developed at Wagner’s International Spiritual Warfare Network, spiritual warfare is distinguished according to the nature and rank of the demonic beings confronted. Ground level spiritual warfare refers to personal deliverance ministry. Occult level spiritual warfare is related to occult witchcraft and Satanism. Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare (SLSW) takes place in the heavenlies as the real significant action against the stronger principalities and powers. Wagner asserts:

God, I think, is in the process of choosing an expanding corps of spiritual green berets such as Eduardo Lorenzo, Cindy Jacobs, Larry Lee Carlos Anaconda, John Dawson, Edward Salvoso or Dick Bernal, who will engage in the crucial high level battles against the rulers of darkness and consequently see measurable increases in the numbers of lost people who turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.

Spiritual warfare evangelism coupled with another Latter Rain theme of restored Apostles and Prophets is, in Wagner’s view, reforming the global church for the new millennium.[5]

Wagner’s Spiritual Warfare teaching has been around long enough that it has supplanted the clear teaching of the New Testament Apostles’ Gospel of the cross of Jesus Christ to save sinners. Wagner’s own teaching is reflected in a recent quote from Cindy Jacobs, one of his top deputies in the New Apostolic Reformation, who wrote in Charisma magazine that the Japanese emperor caused the tsunami because he had sex with a sun goddess:

I personally have felt that one reason Japan was such a hard group for the gospel was the fact that they have had a direct link with the Imperial family and a direct link with the sun goddess, Amaterasu.…

[I]n recent years this link with Amaterasu and sun worship was reinstated in a ceremony in which the new Emperor once again participated and “spent the night with the goddess” after eating the sacred rice.

I believe this is one major reason Japan has gone downhill economically in such a drastic way. The debt ratio to GDP is now 200 percent. With the earthquake and subsequent tsunami, the economy and banking systems and the insurance industry, and others, will certainly take a massive hit.[6]

Cindy Jacobs is listed as an endorser for Governor Perry’s The Response. C. Peter Wagner, ex-endorser, agrees with her. You can watch him on Rachel Maddow‘s program posted on YouTube.[7] Even if this preposterous statement were actually true, how would they know? What does this have do it with the Gospel? This kind of wild spiritual speculating only takes people’s focus off the preaching of the Gospel.

Over many years of strenuous imagination, the Dominionist mind has proven to bevery creative and has brought us outlandish examples of Spiritual Warfare dominion magic. Steve Schultz of The Elijah List, a major newsletter for the NAR, marketed a land cleansing kit in the Oct 17, 2005 issue of The Elijah List which read “HOW to CLEANSE YOUR HOUSE and the LAND IT SITS ON” along with an advertisement for a book by Henry Malone called Portals To Cleansing – Taking Back Your Land From The Hands Of The Enemy. This included a Property Dedication Kit with “instructions, scriptures, oil and stakes to dedicate your property to the Lord.” Trouble is Schultz had to repeat the procedure four times for it to work for his house.[8] It won’t work no matter how many times you do it. Ted Haggard, an early apostle of the NAR (who was C. Peter Wagner’s pastor), and his New Life Church did something similar in Colorado Springs.[9]

Renee Rodriguez spent a number of years in Haggard’s New Life church and describes one of the ways the New Lifers have implemented the Apostolic vision. She describes how they filled 5-gallon spray cans with anointing oil and attempted to spray the whole city.[10]

In Ted Haggard’s book, Primary Purpose, published in 1995, it is said that the spiritual climate in your city can be changed to such an extent that it will be “hard for people to go to hell from your city … It happened in Colorado Springs, and it can happen in your city too.“[11]

These Spiritual Warfare tactics don’t work because employing demonic type magic to fight demons is not God’s way. Thus these techniques are powerless. Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection alone defeated these demons. The Apostle Paul in Colossians 2:15 wrote: “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” This means that having disarmed principalities and powers Jesus made a public show (like a Roman parade) of them, triumphing over them – and in context of this Bible passage this means the cross. This word picture portrays the demonic rulers as dejected and defeated foes, similar to captives in a Roman general’ s triumphant march through the streets of Rome.

Spiritual Warfare magic is a return to crass Christian paganism and pre-Reformation superstition. It is an enemy both to preaching the Gospel to animistic peoples in shamanistic societies and to Roman magic. Pre-Reformation religious magic and superstition drained medieval Christianity of the Gospel message till Luther confronted it. And now we are to return to this superstition? And Wagner and his buddies call this a Second Reformation?[12]

Wagner even suggests we learn from pagan shamans about the spirit world. He wrote in his book Confronting the Powers that

…I suggest that it may be possible to receive selected, but valid, information from the world of darkness itself. I am careful to stress strongly that discernment is needed while attempting to do this because evil spirits are by nature deceivers and they must be treated as hostile witnesses. Nevertheless, certain people such as shamans, witch doctors, practitioners of Eastern religions, New Age gurus or professors of the occult on university faculties are examples of the kind of people who may have much more extensive knowledge of the spirit world than most Christians have. Some of the information they furnish is accurate. Many of them are not only intelligent, but they are also sincere people of integrity. Particularly former occult practitioners who have been converted to Jesus Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit can reveal valuable things about the spirit world that may not have been recorded by the biblical writers.[13]

Sandy Simpson of the Deception in the Church ministry has explained the damage that can be done by such false teachings and weird practices:

All these unbiblical occultic methods are simply making the problem of demonism worse. In Honolulu the Transformations people walked through the streets of Chinatown with a black cross and black casket, declaring the demons begone into the air. This was not only a bad witness for the Christian community, I believe it is giving the demons a foothold to further deceive. Did they think they were burying the demons in the casket? The enemy was laughing at them that day, and true believers need to stay far away from this kind of “transformation”. They rant and rave against principalities when the Bible clearly states:

Jude 8-10 In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals— these are the very things that destroy them.[14]

Conclusion

Mainstream evangelicals have been co-opted by the New Apostolic Reformation. The NAR elite are now acting as spokespersons for Christians in America. The current false Spiritual Warfare movement promoters and leadership includes people like John Dawson, Loren Cunningham, C. Peter Wagner, Cindy Jacobs, Ed Silvoso, Dutch Sheets, Chuck Pierce, organizations like IHOP, and the far reaching tentacles of the NAR. These are the very same type of people who are organizing and promoting Gov. Perry’s huge national political and prayer meeting The Response in Houston in early August. As of this blog post publishing, the list of honorary co-chairs, leaders, and endorsers on http://theresponseusa.com/honorary-co-chairs.php still includes NAR apostolic generals such as Cindy Jacobs, Mike Bickle, Che Ahn, John Benefiel (who is busy divorcing Baal), and many other leaders with long-standing close ties to C. Peter Wagner and his minions.

They have plans for America. And Americans might be shocked to learn what they are up to next. . . .

To be continued…..

The Truth:

“They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.” (Jonah 2:8)

Endnotes:
1. This quote from Lou Engle in March 2008 is transcribed and posted at “Joel’s Army and The Call,” 8/28/08, http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/joels-army-and-call. Emphasis added. The context of the quote is explained as: “This March, at a ‘Passion for Jesus’ conference in Kansas City sponsored by the International House of Prayer, or IHOP, a ministry for teenagers from the heavy metal, punk and goth scenes, Engle called on his audience for vengeance…. He was referring to the Baal of the Old Testament, a pagan idol whose followers were slaughtered under orders from the prophet Elijah.“
2. Report by Jon & Jolene Hamill, “Declaration of Covenant–update!” [emphasis added] sent out by Jacquie Tyre on July 9, 2011, to the Kairos Transformation & Georgia Prayer Network, report currently posted at http://www.facebook.com/notes/carolina-strategic-prayer-alliance/1111-campaign-declaration-of-covenant-update/10150319533668132?ref=nf
3. C. Peter Wagner, Confronting the Powers (Regal, 1996), p. 30.
4. C. Peter Wagner, The Queen’s Domain: Advanging God’s Kingdom in the 40/70 Window (Wagner Publications, 2000), p. 12. This book chronicles several examples of spiritual expeditions to dismantle principalities, such as “Operation Ice Castle” in 1997, which has now been totally discredited by some excellent research by Mike Oppenheimer at http://www.letusreason.org/DVDeverest.htm and https://herescope.net/2010/12/spiritual-warfarers-battle-real.html) and “Operation Queen’s Palace” which supposedly confronted the “Queen of Heaven” in Turkey in 1997-99.
5. Dr. Orrel Steinkamp, “The Technology Of Spiritual Warfare Evangelism,” The Plumbline, Vol. 7, No. 1, http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/orrel9.html quoting from C. Peter Wagner Warfare Prayer, (Regal Books, 1992), p. 58.
6. Cindy Jacobs, “A Perspective on the Japan Earthquake,” Charisma, 5/24/22, http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/prophetic-insight/30517-a-perspective-on-the-japan-earthquake-
7. Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WtJz_wj1JU “WACKOs @ Rick Perry “Day of Prayer” Aug. 6 – Rachel Maddow” at about the 7 minute mark. This whole analysis is very disturbing. Note how the message of the Gospel has been totally lost and the degradation of the Christian walk and testimony.
8. This whole episode, complete with graphic illustrations, is published online in an article by Sandy Simpson “Three Fallacies of Third Wave Spiritual Warfare,” 10/19/05, at http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/threefallacies.html
9. Haggard, who was head of the National Association of Evangelicals before his fall into sin, began prayer journeys around Colorado Springs as part of his Christian Information Network. Spiritual Mapping data was provided by George Otis, Jr. who is recorded by C. Peter Wagner as saying, “We must find a way to lift the enchantment of the enemy over the hearts and minds of resident people groups. Accomplishing this task-which the Bible defines as binding the strongman…–requires both an accurate identification of our spiritual competition and the faith and commitment to persevere in prayer.” C. Peter Wagner, Churches that Pray (Regal Books, 1993), p. 217. Haggard’s book on the topic of prayer dominion is titled Primary Purpose: Making it hard for people to go to hell from your city (Creation House, 1995).
10. Reported on at “Three Fallacies of Third Wave Spiritual Warfare,” 10/19/05, at http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/threefallacies.html citing http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/haggardelected.html
11. Ibid, citing Charisma Book Warehouse, http://cbw.strang.com/c.cgi?ProdID=3810&Source=INTNET [broken link]. Obviously it didn’t work on Haggard, for the anointed water was powerless to impede his homosexual urges.
12. C. Peter Wagner refers extensively to Lyle Schaller in his book Churchquake! which launched his New Apostolic Reformation. Schaller held an August 1994 Leadership Network summit meeting on the topic of “The Future of Denominations” and wrote a book called The New Reformation, which was the paradigm upon which Wagner founded his postdenominationalism movement, which he later called The New Apostolic Reformation. The term “Second Reformation” was popularized by Robert Schuller and was adopted by Rick Warren. See C. Peter Wagner, Churchquake! How the New Apostolic Reformation Is Shaking Up the Church As We Know It (Regal Books, 1999). p. 28-29 and Sarah Leslie, “The Global Day of Prayer,” Discernment Newsletter, May/June 2005, http://www.discernment-ministries.org/Newsletters/NL2005MayJun.pdf and “THE SECOND REFORMATION: The Global Day of Prayer: Part 2,” Discernment Newsletter, July/August 2005, at http://www.discernment-ministries.org/Newsletters/NL2005JulAug.pdf
13. Confronting the Powers, pp. 147-8.
14. “Three Fallacies of Third Wave Spiritual Warfare,” 10/19/05, http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/threefallacies.html