Michael Brown, highlighting the dangers of the NAR when he feigns ignorance with questions like this: “What NAR?”

Alt. Names:

Recognised Sects: Shepherding Movement, Bethel Church, Healing Rooms, Kansas City Prophets, iHOP, YWAM, Campus Crusaders, New Order of the Latter Rain (NOLR)

Recognised Leaders:  This movement consists of both men and women in leadership.

Men: William Branham (deceased), Loren Cunningham (Founder of YWAM), Bill Bright (Founder of Campus Crusade), John Wimber, C. Peter Wagner, Chuck Pierce, Michael Brown, Che Ahn, Bill Johnson, John Arnott,  Mike Bickle, John Kilpatrick, Randy Clark, Brian Houston, Lou Engle, Gilman Hill, Os Hillman, Alexander Pagani, Rodney Howard-Browne, Johnny Enlow, Rick Joyner, John Crowder, Benjamin Dunn, T.L Osborne, Paul Crouch, Kenneth Copeland, Rodney Howard Brown, David Yonggi Cho, John Cameron, Paul de Jong, Kong Hee, Lawrence Khong, Joseph Prince, David Yonggi Cho, Oral Roberts, Steve Furtick, Phil Pringle, Vladamir Savchuk, Peter Mortlock, Gordon Lindsay, Bill Hamon, Kenneth Hagin, Benny Hinn, Carlos Annacondia, Samuel Rodriguez.

Women: Doris Wagner, Wendy Alec, Jan Crouch, Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer, Cindy Jacobs, Heidi Baker, Jennifer LeClaire, Carol Arnott, Beni Johnson, Jen Johnson, Patricia King, Bobbie Houston, Chris Pringle, Gloria Copeland, Katherine Ruonala,

Key scriptures they misuse: Acts 2:17, Joel 2:23, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Isaiah 60, Ephesians 4:11-13, Matthew 6:9-11, Matthew 18:18, Romans 11:8 (MSG – Romans 8:19), …

Description summary: The NAR believe in a false gospel, a false Jesus, a false spirit and a false commission and outwork a false faith that does reflect the central teachings of Christianity. Below is a general overview of what people in this movement believe.

False Gospel – Dominion Gospel:

The NAR cult preaches a false gospel that they call the “Gospel of the Kingdom” (aka Gospel of Power). This gospel stresses that God is “alive” and not “dead” by manifesting itself to people through signs and wonders or material blessing. In spite of the claims that these manifestations of “the gospel” are from God or the trinity, the overall emphasis on the origin of this “gospel power” is from “the Kingdom” or “Heaven” (thus why it is called “The Gospel of the Kingdom”. As a result, many bizarre doctrines and ministries have been invented so that Christians can tap into “heavenly resources”, “God’s storehouse”, etc. This different gospel is often considered of more importance than the gospel of salvation and at worst, condemns the Christian gospel of being a gospel of just words.

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False Jesus – Kenosis Christ:

While they confess to be orthodox and believe the creeds, this is not true. While they claim Jesus is fully man, they deny Jesus being fully God. The NAR Jesus is an heretical Jesus known as the kenosis Christ heresy.

While in times past this error was recognised as the ‘Kenosis Christ controversy’, they degrade Jesus to not just being a man emptied of divinity, they impose a New Age tripartate belief system upon the human design. With this belief of Jesus imposed on the gospels, they teach that under the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do the same healings, signs, wonders and miracles as Jesus to manifest the ‘Father’.

Whenever they teach we can do the same ‘works’ like Jesus can (or do ‘greater works’), they are confessing in practice that Jesus is not divine at all. It is also hard to determine when Jesus restores his divinity.

Many leaders of this movement will not be up front with their listeners on this truth unless you are familiar with scriptural passages they use to emphasize how we are to operate in the miraculous the same way Jesus did.

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False Spirit – Sonship Spirit: While they claim to follow the Holy Spirit, the spirit they operate from is akin to the New Age movement, emphasising metaphysical techniques to tap into the power of heaven.

They specifically call this spirit the Spirit of Adoption/Sonship (SAS) and class themselves above the recognised Christian faith and recognised Christian baptism. This spiritual class that they ‘spiritually baptised’ into sets them apart from Christians who remain as ‘orphan spirits’ (a derogatory spiritual term to suggest other Christians are spiritually dead, religious or possessed with a ‘religious spirit’).

Nevertheless, based on this second baptism, it is a baptism that should technically (and logically) set them apart from the Christian faith. (As the scripture teaches there is only ONE church and ONE baptism.)

Because this spirit emphasises a second spiritual baptism, this opens up the newly baptised to believe that they can be just like Christ Himself doing his miracles (and even greater miracles) while simultaneously believing they can be possessed by satan and his demons.

It is also worth stressing that once a ‘new wine skin church’ (of apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers) is established, the false Holy Spirit of the NAR rewards the ‘new wine skin church’ by pouring out it’s ‘new wine’, showing favour, divine revelation, miracles and power.

To look Charismatic, the NAR will talk about the gifts. However, the NAR often emphasise dunamis (power) of the Holy Spirit, usually using passages like Acts 1:8 that explicitly state it. However, the very popular verse they quote out of context to emphasise the power of God is Romans 8:11 (which is why they attempt to raise the dead):

“The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.”

This spirit continually points to the victim’s own power and authority in ‘Christ’, which is why they believe when they speak things or engage in ‘prophetic acts’, things take ‘form’ in the ‘spirit realm’.

As a result, this false spirit always creates a hunger and thirst for ‘righteousness’, a cry for ‘more power’ (or ‘more Lord’) and a continual dissatisfaction of God.

Christ is not enough. The cross is not enough.
The new creation we are through the Holy Spirit is not enough.

With the spirit feeding carnal appetites for signs and wonders, this is a ‘wicked and adulterous’ (Matthew 12:39) spirit. We are now seeing the fruit of this ‘wicked and adulterous’ spirit in the church today.

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False Commission:

The NAR has also invented a false commission known as the “Seven Mountain Mandate” (aka “Marketplace Ministry” or “Cultural Mandate”). Because their gospel is very pragmatic they attempt to bring this gospel to transform, restore or awaken cities, cultures, nations and finally the whole world. They do this by infiltrating by what they call the seven mountains (or pillars) of society.

While the term “mountains” or “pillars” are popular for this doctrine, they have also been called “channels”, “spheres”, or “mind-molders”.

The NAR has also invented a false ecclesia which can be recognised if it’s leaders came to be Apostles and Prophets. To manifest the ‘gospel of the kingdom’, NAR leaders teach that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) from the King James Version. This means heads of the NAR may manifest through spiritual experience (Heidi Baker), revelation knowledge Bill Johnson), supernatural signs and wonders (Josh Mills), healing (Benny Hinn, Todd Bentley), revival (Rodney Howard-Brown, Reinhard Bonnke) or kingdom growth (Rodney Howard, Yonggi Cho, Brian Houston).

People who operate strongly in one of these areas or in all these gifts are considered those who operate as approved by God as endtime governing Apostles and Prophets. These people are presented as paragons for Christians to follow as they are “advancing the Kingdom”. To question or not to submit to these governing Apostles or Prophets is to question God Himself. All leaders and teachers must be under the covering of the Apostolic and Prophetic networks otherwise they are operating outside of the will of God and open to satanic attack. This means that Christians and churches that are not NAR are considered dead, religious, rebellious, demonically possessed, apostate or not of God.

The NAR has also invented false practices. The NAR ‘gospel’ takes on a metaphysical cult-like element when it expresses itself through new revelation how God will provide new blueprints, vision, DNA, divine strategies or battle plans on how to advance the “Kingdom” on earth and to subject “principalities and powers”. This used to be called “Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare”. It is now called “Marketplace ministry” which teaches people how to be successful or revolutionary in the marketplace to advance the cause of the Kingdom.

Thus this gospel is called to rally it’s members to take dominion of the earth. This gospel presentation can take many soft or extreme forms. In meetings, this gospel often emphasises how to tap into ‘Kingdom Living’, ‘Kingdom influence’ or ‘Kingdom Potential’. As a result of such practices, the “successful” individual is exalted to that of a “workplace Apostle” and thus progress up the chain within the NAR network. This leads to people worshiping the church. Because this is what the NAR has done,  they stress that a generations to come will usher in Christ’s return through an end-times revival, harvest or awakening. The NAR often teaches that one final generation will emerge as god-like persons (or even Jesus Christs) on earth who will purify the church and the world from darkness and usher in Christ’s return. These false teachings are often known as the ‘Manifest Sons of God’ doctrine, the  ‘Manchild’ or ‘Sons of Thunder’ heresy.

When this movement was widely criticised and condemned back in the 1940s, it played down it’s controversial doctrines and practices. However, these doctrines are alluded too in many popular megachurches and are continually renamed to hide the NAR agenda. The movement has renamed itself constantly whenever it’s Apostles, Prophets or leaders are exposed for spouting or practising bizarre things or caught in scandals.

Beginnings:

The seedlings off this movement can be founded in the metaphysical cults
(including Morminism, Unitarianism, Philadelphianism, Keswickianism, Jehovah Witness, KKK, etc.);

the roots of the movement can be traced to Zionism
(Alexander Dowie, Frank Sandford, William J. Seymour, Charles Parham);

and the seedlings of the New Order of the Latter Rain (NOLR).

Often recognised by the movement to be 1947-8.

Disclaimer: the Charismatic RENEWAL Movement (CRM) was recognised by Pentecostal leaders as a trojan horse of the New Order of the Latter Rain. At the time it was heretical because of it’s emphasis on the GIFTS of Apostle and Prophet and the belief one must speak in ‘spiritual’ tongues as evidence of a second baptism (the same that was seen at Azuza and in the New Order of the Latter Rain cults). Many Charismatics today are condemned for not beliving these original NOLR teachings.

While the below visual is crass, it communicates what the New Order of the Latter Rain (NOLR) attempted to accomplish through their invention of the Charismatic RENEWAL Movement (CRM) with it’s elite few like T.L Osborne, Oral Roberts, Demos Shakarian, John Osteen, Kenneth Hagin, Gordon Lindsay, Bill Hamon, Bob Jones, Paul Cain, Violet Kitely, Ern Baxter, etc. The NOLR repacked the “five offices” in Ephesians 4:11 as “ascension gifts” so that Christianity would bite and be pulled into the ‘new thing God is doing’:

After the New Order of the Latter was condemned by Pentecostalism, there was a highly coordinated group of individuals pushing a systematic theology behind the scenes that was eventually mainstreamed across media outlets, radio and television networks to popularise their teachings under many new names, to give the idea “God is doing a new thing” (they will often say, misquoting Isaiah 43:19):

NAR Bible: Like most cults, the NAR have extra-biblical revelations that add, surpass or mangle the bible. Brian Simmons’ ‘The Passion Translation’ (TPT) often is the ‘bible’ that NAR leaders preach and teach from. In fact, if you are unsure if your church is part of the NAR or is being influenced by the NAR, if your leaders are using the TPT, that should be a warning sign.

Other NAR extrabiblical writings: Apostle and Prophet Rick Joyner is the author of a series of works that record his own dreams and visions called ‘The Final Quest’ and ‘The Call’. These encapsulate the bedrock doctrines of the New Order of the Latter Rain and the NAR and provide the backbone of the NAR movement today. These teachings are slowly being buried today. Nevertheless, his teachings that encapsulate a lot of the NOLR doctrine resurfaces at many NAR revivals.

Resources: 

1. The New Apostolic Reformation: Influence and Teachings
2. The Roots and Fruits of the New Apostolic Reformation 
3. Looking Beyond Toronto: The Source and Goal of the Second Pentecost [Achived]
4. A Second Pentecost – Orrel Steinkamp [Archived] *

* This work is the earliest work that can be found online addressing the New Apostolic Reformation, which was shared by thousands of Pentecostal leaders at the time it was produced across America, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Please note what Steinkamp observed in his own research:

“G. Raymond Carlson was right. This much-publicised new paradigm can be traced to the Latter Rain movement of the 40’s and early 50″s. Even though the Latter Rain of the 50’s faltered and fell into disrepute with the death of William Branham and the repudiation by the Assemblies of God it was kept alive by certain survivors and reintroduced in a veiled manner into the Charismatic Renewal of the 60’s and 70’s. Few people have realised just how influential the Latter Rain movement was and how effectively Latter Rain concepts were introduced into the Charismatic Renewal. Ern Baxter who was instrumental in the Shepherding Movement, worked with William Branham during the 50’s Latter Rain. George Warnock, who wrote the only systematic teaching from the Latter Rain (The Feast of Tabernacles), was Ern Baxter’s personal secret-ary. In the midst of the Charismatic Renewal I remember well the teaching of the fivefold ministry and at that time assumed it was a new revelation to the church not knowing it had been imported directly from the Latter Rain.“