For almost a decade Church Watch Central has been monitoring the development of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) across the world. Having done this research, we know that the (now deceased) leader of the NAR, C. Peter Wagner, ensured Christians paid attention to the development of Australia as a NAR-driven nation. With Wagner’s acknowledgment of Hillsong as part of the global NAR dominionist movement, it should come to no surprise that cultic NAR elements should emerge from Hillsong and similar movements on a regular basis. We take a look at recent events that have the potential to further the NAR agenda here in Australia.
THE DOMINION MANDATE:
Like other movements around the world, Hillsong is a strong advocate of the NAR’s dominion mandate in ruling the nations and to further the insidious Seven Mountain Mandate across Australia.
TAKING THE KINGDOM THROUGH THE ‘SEVEN MOUNTAIN MANDATE’:
Hillsong doesn’t call it the ‘Seven Mountain Mandate’ – they’ve progressed from calling it Seven Pillars of Society to now calling it ‘Seven Spheres’. So it comes as no surprise that when Brian Houston’s ‘mentee’ (a person who is advised or counselled by a mentor) Scott Morrison, having won the federal election, appears on stage at the annual Hillsong conference sharing his Christian faith. This is what it looks like when the NAR claim ‘take dominion’ over one of these ‘mountains’. According to NAR theology, by ‘claiming’ Prime Minister Scott Morrison as one of their own, he can now ‘influence/take dominion’ over the Government/Law mountain of society.
ISRAEL FOLAU AND MARGARET COURT:
With the news of Folau’s expulsion from Rugby Australia, many people, both Christian and secular, rightly decided to support him because of the way he was treated. Could Hillsong and Brian Houston have gained access to the ‘Arts/Entertainment’ mountain (in the sport category) by endorsing Israel Folau? Unfortunately for Brian, Folau distanced himself by calling out false teachers and mega church movements – Brian Houston assumed he was talking about him, responding instead by criticizing Folau.
The development of Folau’s story has also caused the name of NAR Apostle Margaret Court to resurface in the Australian media, with the LGBTQ and progressive liberal groups insisting her name be removed from the Margaret Court Arena. We bring this up for a reason – could the publicity surrounding Margaret Court inspire more overseas leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation to start coming to Australia, in order to mainstream their NAR heresy into Australian culture? The recent Hillsong Conference having Bill Johnson as one of their keynote speakers openly promoting his Kenotic Jesus, is a dangerous example of the NAR trajectory here in Australia. It’s significant that not one Hillsong leader or other guests attending the event objected to Bill Johnson’s wicked words.
THE CANBERRA DECLARATION:
More proof of this can be seen in the controversial ‘Canberra Declaration‘, created by a group that appears orthodox on the surface – with an NAR agenda at its foundation. For instance, on their website (see archived page here), just as we see with the cultic extremism found at ‘The Call’ events with Michael Brown, Che Ahn, Lou Engle, Cindy Jacobs (and C. Peter Wagner nearly 20 years ago), the ‘Canberra Declaration’ also advocates NAR practices:
“Join together with Christian leaders and churches of all denominations from all over Australia as we Pray and Fast for 21 days up to and including the Federal Election, Saturday 18th May 2019.”
‘Prayer and fasting’ is a signature move of the NOLR/NAR apostolic cults, as opposed to what we see practiced within orthodox Christianity. It can be dated back to the birth of their movement in 1948 (also a signature feature and teaching of Apostle Lou Engle and Michael Brown at ‘The Call’ events from the year 2000 onwards).
In similar fashion, the ‘Canberra Declaration’ twists these bible verses to suit their NAR agenda:
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
“Righteousness exits a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” Proverbs 14:34
Furthermore, this NAR-driven group upholds the ‘apostolic’ appeal of Margaret Court:
“This prayer call was inspired by Ps Margaret Court’s love for Australia, her passion “for the church to arise and be a strong voice for righteousness, truth and justice” and her love for the word of God which says that, . “Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that you are the LORD God, and that you have turned their heart back to you again.” 1 Kings 18:37 (emphasis added)
The four prayer points are incredibly dominionistic, especially where they state: “Pray for a Spiritual Awakening for Australia, Revival and Transformation for our nation and the proclamation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3:16”. But what do they mean by ‘gospel’?
In other ‘Canberra Declaration’ resources and emails you also see the following:
In proclaiming the following phrases, the ‘Canberra Declaration’ continues to reveal its NAR agenda:
“Let’s seek God like never before for the Great Southland of the Holy Spirit.”
Then under the heading of ‘For the Gospel’, they reveal they have no true gospel message at all:
“Father, we pray for an evangelism explosion across the nation of Australia. We pray for a renewal of gospel preaching and that you would send workers into the harvest. We declare that we are not ashamed of the gospel. Use us to fulfil the Great Commission.”
This is the ‘power evangelism’ language of the late NAR Apostle John Wimber. This false gospel is all about ‘power, signs and wonders’ – which is why they are praying for a ‘renewal of gospel preaching’. They declare their preaching will be accompanied by ‘signs and wonders’. And this false gospel is also characterised by its end-times emphasis, preached in order to fulfil the Great Commission. Its eschatological overtones are the underlying intent of the NAR as they believe they are the one true church, commissioned with the ‘true gospel’, to usher in Christ’s return.
To further prove this is the NAR gospel, this is what they say under ‘Pray for Spiritual Renewal’:
“We pray for transforming revival and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Australia, that the gospel will be preached in power.“
That’s why ‘Awakening Australia’ was put on by Bethel last year through their Bethel-trained leader, Ben Fitzgerald. They wanted to have this false ‘power gospel’ preached to the ends of the earth in order to usher in Christs’ return.
POTENTIAL NAR LEADERS WHO MIGHT CAPITALISE ON CURRENT AUSTRALIAN EVENTS?
It is inevitable, we are already seeing this happen with ‘Apostle’ Brian Houston’s association with Prime Minister Scott Morrison. It’s only a matter of time before other leaders in the NAR decide to start rallying behind more high-profile Christians to further their own agenda. When this happens, watch their doctrine closely.
Who could possibly take advantage of current events here in Australia?
We offer potential suggestions – Ben Fitzgerald, Lou Engle or even Michael Brown.
With Fitzgerald’s ‘Awakening Australia’ conference, he managed to convince the Prime Minister to endorse the event.
Lou Engle has also been making his way across the Pacific, heading as far as Singapore to push his very extreme NARismatic lunacy. With Che Ahn, the current leader of the NAR, freely moving all around Australia to grow the NAR, it would make sense that Engle could appear more on the scene to promote their agenda, as he did back a decade ago with major Apostolic leaders.
If not Lou Engle, Michael Brown could easily come riding in on a strategic NAR wave to further the move in Australia.
Michael Brown is currently the only public face that might give the New Apostolic Reformation credibility.
Register for the Church And State Summit 2020 with Dr Michael Brown here: https://ChurchAndState.com.au/cas20/
Well known for defending the heresies of Hillsong – Michael Brown could easily promote NAR topics at a Hillsong event. Because he continually defends Bethel – Michael Brown could speak at ‘Bethel Ben’ Fitzgerald’s ‘Awakening Australia’ conferences. Furthermore, because Brown is good friends with Apostles Che Ahn and Lou Engle, it would not surprise us if he spoke in churches around Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
No doubt the NAR cult will capitalise on these recent events to ‘further the kingdom’ and ‘rally Christians’ around NARpostles in order to ‘change the nation’.
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Categories: Awakening Conferences, Bethel "Church", C Peter Wagner, Hillsong, Line of Fire, Uncategorized