The Baal Covenant

Part 3: Divorcing Baal

The official “spin machine” about The Response prayer rally has now cranked up. Alice Patterson of Justice At The Gate, a New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) organization has issued a politically sophisticated denial that this event has anything to do with politics. This denial is especially interesting, since many of the leaders and endorsers of this event have been engaging in a bizarre exorcism to divorce this nation from the ancient pagan god Baal. Even though claiming there is no mixture of religion and politics at this upcoming prayer event, meanwhile these same leaders are attempting to institute a new religious covenant for Dominion in America. Excerpts from Patterson’s spin, issued 8/1/11, titled “The Most Important Three Words for Gov. Rick Perry’s Call to Prayer” (also issued by John Benefiel‘s HAPN on 8-2-11) follow:

Dear Friends,
Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s historic national call to prayer and fasting, The Response: for a nation in crisis, is this Saturday, August 6, when Americans from across the nation will join together on our knees in Reliant Stadium in Houston to repent and pray in one accord to God Almighty for our nation….

Is this political?
No. Gov. Perry approached a friend about filling a stadium with Americans praying and fasting in December. It took several months to find a location. First they tried Cowboy Stadium in Arlington but finally secured Reliant Stadium in Houston. I think the name is significant – Reliant – reliant upon God! Doug Stringer, founder of Somebody Cares International based in Houston (www.somebodycares.org), had prayed about a Joel 2 Solemn Assembly for two years. When he got a call about The Response, Doug knew the time was right.

Will Gov. Perry announce a run for President at The Response?
No – absolutely not! The Response will be prayer, repentance worship and scripture reading. Although Gov. Perry will have a few minutes on the program, his words will be about prayer, fasting and an appeal to the Lord, calling on our Father in the name of Jesus in unity with all gathered to forgive our sins. There will be at least two other Governors on the platform praying or reading scripture. There will be no political speeches….

While ostensibly about prayer, it cannot be denied that this event is interconnected with the spiritual agenda of the NAR, which is now becoming manifestly political. . .

Covenantalism and Patriotic Dominionism

Dominion magic has found yet another cause. The false apostles are pinning their hopes on this “Divorcing Baal” motif working for them in yet another Dominion transformation episode.[3] But, more importantly, it appears to be working well at enticing ordinary Christians into Dominion teaching. Dominion teaching at its base teaches that Christians are called to pursue political rule and power in America and the whole world.

A whole new category of Spiritual Warfare magic tricks are now being applied to the American Political Scene. New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) Dominionist leaders began by working to take Dominion via Prayer Warfare activities; and they convinced themselves that this was working. The NAR then expanded into real Dominionism activities.

This same formula is now being applied to the political crises of our nation. Many rank and file Christians might avoid the strange Spiritual Warfare techniques of the NAR mentioned in Part 1 of this report, and many would find the whole idea of “divorcing Baal” to be extreme nonsense. But American patriotism is a rich mine for Dominion goals. In fact if one desires to take control of nations, and this is surely one of their goals, it will have to come by way of some sort of politics or revolution.

C. Peter Wagner, the Dominion Czar, saw this early on. People who might not accept straight out Dominion teaching and calls for theocratic war would still be open to American patriotism. The absolute bedrock of this political Dominion tactic is to sell the idea of America as a covenantal nation. Without this, political, Dominionism cannot break out into the political scene and gain a large audience. The Theonomists learned this tactic early on. Al Dager, observing the rise of this “covenant” mandate back in the early 1990s, in his book Vengeance Is Ours: The Church in Dominion (Sword, 1990) wrote:

There is an aspect of dominion theology that requires close attention due to its infringement upon the individual believer’s relationship to the Father. It is the belief that the dominion mandate is part of God’s covenantal requirements for Christians. In essence, this means that to fail to work for political and social reform to establish dominion over the world system is to break covenant with God.(p. 205)

Built on the foundation of Spiritual Warfare magic and its various forms of prophetic pseudo-evangelism, the NAR/IHOP brand of extreme “covenantalism” is being used to “rescue America” from its moral decline.

Jon & Jolene Hamill, associated with both Cindy Jacobs (NAR) and Mike Bickle (IHOP), have been describing the “divorcing Baal” activities of the NAR in detail. They worked with the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network (HAPN) run by John Benefiel. Benefiel, as noted in the previous post, is a high-ranking apostle in C. Peter Wagner’s empire, and a key leader of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s The Response prayer rally. Referring to the original Mayflower Compact, the Hamill’s explain how the NAR is facilitating America’s divorce from Baal and asking the Lord for “his hand in marriage” in a new covenant relationship between God and America:

New Pilgrims… Cutting Covenant
The Pilgrims cut covenant with the Lord—on 11-11, 1620—for what would become the governmental expression of the United States. On July 4, 2011, this group of “new pilgrims” stood with the Lord to reset our nation according to our apostolic foundations. We affirmed that the land and government is committed by covenant for “the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.” We repented for breaches of covenant. And we again asked the Lord for His hand in marriage….

Resetting Covenant
So on July 4, we ended this phase of nationally facilitating the divorcement of Baal right where we began. John Benefiel led us in receiving a Throne Room verdict of divorce from our idolatry, including the issuance of a “Writ of Assistance” to enforce the [heavenly] Court’s ruling.

…Campaign teams then presented together the Declaration of Covenant as a legal petition for God to marry our land again….

On this small hill that bore witness to the most bloodshed in Civil War history, we divorced Baal….

Abby suddenly realized that God had orchestrated how we divided into two camps. When the Lord cut covenant with Abraham, He made Abraham divide the sacrifices… right down the middle. This expression of division is the Hebrew word “bether,” which literally means to “cut down the middle.” It was then that the Lord then appeared with a smoking firepot and burning lamp, walking between the pieces of the sacrifice to ratify the covenant.

As we together had “made covenant with God by sacrifice,” seeking God for His full expression promised of awakening and union, He literally “bethered us” and then walked between us. Perhaps to let this confused group of weary pilgrims know His pleasure, He arranged for heaven and earth to join together in a stirring chorus that culminated at exactly 11:11am.[4]

Sounds so dramatic and real! To them it is real! But this whole event is based on an imaginary covenant of America with God.

In Scripture men do not decide on their own to have a covenant with God. To claim a covenant with God based on man’s initiative alone is pure arrogance. Yet Dominionists of all stripes emphasize covenants as a way to establish their claimed mandate. As Al Dager puts it, there is a “very important legal technicality; by definition a covenant involves the consent of all parties…. If someone is not party to a covenant or agreement he cannot be held to its terms.”( p. 214) But these NAR leaders are claiming to be making a covenant on behalf of the entire nation.

The Mythology of Divorcing Baal and Remarrying Jehovah

This is a sort of NAR and IHOP in-house ceremonial myth and legal fiction. First, how can this type of bizarre activity effect a moral recovery in America? By employing, almost in secret, magical ceremonial acts which supposedly affect the entire American nation in a spiritual manner, they can claim imaginary victory after victory. These NAR leaders declare that the atmosphere magically changes, but they are the only ones who know. Apparently America can be changed simply by going to American political sites, performing a few rituals, and magically change history by a prophetic myth rehearsal!

So in this case the idolatrous Baal — the fertility god, master, and husband of the Old Testament Canaanites — is mythically and prophetically transported across the ages to modern America where he somehow became lodged in a cohabitation relationship. America’s Masonic Lodges and the institution of slavery are claimed to be the result of this American marriage to its husband Baal. Legally, NAR leaders say, we (America) married the Canaanite god Baal.

But all is not lost! NAR/IHOP leaders now claim that America can ceremonially and prophetically secure a legal divorce and a legal document from the court of Heaven! Once a legal divorce from Baal in the court of Heaven is promulgated, America (or various parts of America) are now free to remarry Jehovah. In this manner America’s covenant with Jehovah can be “reset.” (See previous post for details.)

The way they suggest to effect all this is with more prophetic magic. Simply go to American historical sites and prophetically/ceremonially “reset” things. Go to Masonic Lodges and do prayer walks or drive stakes, etc.

But ALL of this is just more Dominion mumbo jumbo. All of this frenzied activity is supposed to “change the atmosphere” over America and people will just return to moral living with NO GOSPEL PREACHED, or now find themselves strangely, inexplicably ready to respond to the Gospel. All so easy and so PRAGMATIC.

Don’t be deceived! God’s only solution is the Gospel of salvation presented to save individual sinners, and the Gospel message is the means not spraying a city with anointed oil. And it can’t be done by waving crucifixes, even those that depict the cross, or by hanging the cross up on government walls. Salvation is only accomplished by preaching the true apostolic “message of the cross.” Dominion patriotism simply ignores God’s only solution for sin.

False and imaginary prophetic oracles that reset a covenant that American never had? This is serious error both theologically and historically . It is creating something that never happened so that now the NAR can mythically re-enact and bring into being a “cultural mandate” or “worldview” change. This is just a fairytale. Creating out of new cloth (they call it “wineskins“) the fable that America secretly married the Old Testament Baal, and that now we can legally divorce him and remarry Jehovah is a patriotic myth. And it is biblically inaccurate.

Jon Hamill expresses the goal of resetting of the American covenant in his description of Day 12 of the NAR’s “Freedom Watch” journey:

“Every revolution is fought to establish new government. And the Lord is bringing a second American Revolution, a spiritual awakening that will bring forth mature apostolic government in the land. God is now calling the eyes of his prophets to Boston and MA as a major beach-head in this battle.”

Spiritual Paul Reveres
Shortly after receiving this word, a group of prophets tackled me during my first trip to Kansas City. One person prophesied: “You are a spiritual Paul Revere. And I see you holding out a burning lamp. You are going from city to city. And in every place, instead of saying ‘the British are coming, the British are coming,’ you are saying ‘The Lord is coming, the Lord is coming!”….

This November, Cindy Jacobs prophesied over us that “It’s time for Paul Revere to ride again!” She felt that Jolene and I had to be in Boston for the anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride. What she didn’t know is that the anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride is also THE BEGINNING OF PASSOVER.[5]

Why God did not cut a covenant with America

The simple answer is God never initiated a biblical covenant with America. The Mayflower Covenant is assumed by the Dominionists to be the cutting of a covenant with God. But the Mayflower Covenant was not a covenant with God but a covenant between men, and they were still beholden to the King of England. In any case, other legal documents of our founding fathers supersede anything done in Plymouth, Massachusetts. In the Declaration of Independence there is no reference to a Christian God. The god of the Declaration of Independence is derived from the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” and furthermore this unnamed Creator has given to ALL men “unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Note the next statement: “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

The Declaration of Independence was not binding law. It was a statement of intent. For binding law we need to look to the Constitution. Apart from the date, which reads, “The seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven,” there is no reference to God in the Constitution. Further, a goodly number of the Constitution signers were Masons, including Washington, Franklin and others. How could these men make covenants with both Baal and Jehovah at the same time?

Indeed! God ONLY made a covenant with one nation. He initiated it, and He ordered it, and it was with the nation of Israel. The form of this covenant was also unique. It was a suzerainty treaty with some obvious similarities with ancient Hittite treaties. When we read Genesis-Deuteronomy we are reading a suzerainty treaty between God and His nation Israel. The form of the treaty bound a weaker nation to a stronger suzerain. To consummate the Old Testament treaty/covenant, blood sacrifices were made.

The NAR Dominionists and their cohorts confuse ancient Israel with America in alarming ways. They misapply Old Testament covenant laws to modern American government. Al Dager explains:

The Dominionists equate Jesus’ commandments with all the Old Testament laws. To them, rejection of the dominion mandate constitutes rejection of Jesus’ commandments and, therefore, the whole of God’s Law.(p. 211) …[T]he crux of the dominionist mandate [is] that God’s civil laws must be imposed upon all governments so that the whole earth will come under the lordship of Christ.(p. 212-213)

NAR Dominionists have transformed the “Great Commission” mandate (which is where Jesus told His church to spread the Gospel Word to the nations) into a “covenantal structure.” In this structure, the “earthly governments” under this “covenant” are to be conquered. Dager explains:

There is a reason for this madness. For this claim is in keeping with the domionionists’ belief that the Old Covenant, as a means of implementing a theonomic or theocratic world rule, was not done away with entirely. Rather, the New Covenant merely established the Church as the new means by which God would implement his dominion over the earth.

It is believed by some that Israel failed under the Old Covenant to establish God’s rule over the nations. But such reasoning implies that God’s initial plan failed, necessitating Jesus’ coming in order to establish the New Covenant. A further implication of this belief is that the Cross was an afterthought.(p. 213)

The New Covenant (testament) was established once and for all time with the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, which is why Jesus, foreshadowing his own death said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS” (Matt. 26:28). Just as in God’s previous covenant, God sealed this new covenant by a show of power: He raised Jesus from the grave.

Dager explains how the Dominionists pervert this by mixing in the Old Testament:

Now, the dominionist would say that the laws apply to everyone who lives in the land, not only to citizens; but only citizens; but only citizens have a right to govern or involve themselves in the legislative and juridical processes. And this is true. However, the presupposition of dominion theology — that since the nations belong to God, only His people are citizens of the nations — does not hold water in view of Scripture’s recognition of the validity of other nations’ existence apart from His covenants. In other words, the nations are not under covenant with God, and we are not citizens of the nations, we are citizens of heaven….

Those who do not enter into the New Covenant cannot be held accountable to it; they are already held accountable under the terms of the Adamic Covenant that condemns them both physically and spiritually. The power State nations have not accepted or agreed to abide by the terms of the New Covenant, so they remain cursed under the terms of the Adamic Covenant. This condition will persisted at least until Jesus returns; it will not be alleviated beforehand. That is why Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).(p. 215)

In other words, nothing these NAR Dominionists can do will alleviate this situation. No amount of mumbo-jumbo, no pseudo-legal covenant documents, no Spiritual Warfare magic. The truth is that there is no special covenant with America:

America is many, many things. However, it is not God’s covenant nation. It is not the new Israel. But it does not have to be: America does not have to be God’s covenant nation to have a calling and to be a part of God’s will. America does not need to boast beyond its limits.

This does not mean that America is not a great nation and is not called to greatness, or even that America does not have a special place in God’s heart. Far from it. It just means that we do not have to prove ourselves or live up to a special code or set of laws that no other country has in order to gain God’s approval. America is greatest when it simply behaves as America–anything above and beyond that always leads to trouble. [5]

Furthermore, America is not a replacement Israel. And despite the stance of some NAR Dominionists, the truth is that

Scripture tells us that only one ethnic nation, Israel, has ever been chosen by God for special favor. It was through Israel that God’s promise to Abraham to bring redemptive blessings to all the nations of the earth was to be accomplished (Gen. 18:18)…. God’s covenant is now with the church alone where there is “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female,” for all believers are now “one in Christ” (Gal. 3:28). In the New Testament age, no earthly nation—Israel, America or any other—has a covenantal claim to God’s special favor.[7]

The Truth:

“Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29)

Endnotes:
1. John & Jolene Hamill, “Entering the New: Freedom Watch” reporting on “Day 12: BOSTON—AN EXPLOSION OF MY SPIRIT! WITH CHUCK PIERCE,” April 15-16, 2011. http://pdfsearchpro.com/boston-explosion-of-my-spirit-with-chuck-pierce-doc.html Emphasis added. For a bio on the Hamill’s see:
http://www.lamplighterministries.net/About_Jon_Jolene.html
2. Jon & Jolene Hamill, Lamplighter home page sidebar, emphasis added, http://lamplighterministries.net/
3. Such as the false reporting of the expedition to Mt. Everest.
4. 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, emphasis added. Report currently posted at http://www.facebook.com/notes/carolina-strategic-prayer-alliance/1111-campaign-declaration-of-covenant-update/10150319533668132?ref=nf
5. Jon & Jolene Hamill, “Entering the New: Freedom Watch: DAY 12: BOSTON—AN EXPLOSION OF MY SPIRIT! WITH CHUCK PIERCE,” emphasis added, http://www.lamplighterministries.net/
6. “America is not God’s Covenant Nation–Introduction,” Tree of Mamre, http://treeofmamre.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/america-is-not-gods-covenant-nation-introduction/
7. Virginia C. Yip, The American Civil Religion: A Foe, Not a Friend To Christianity, Searching Together, Vol. 33: 1-2 http://www.kingdomcitizenship.org/wp/files/TheAmericanCivilReligion.pdf.