One reason I like the Famine in the Land blog (and Facebook) is it keeps me informed of the false teachings and movements in Africa and elsewhere. The following article shows how the New Apostolic Reformation is seemingly rising to dominance in South Africa.
According to Rick Becker:
The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) has poisoned many of the influential leaders in the visible church in South Africa, and sadly, one of the most significant voices in South Africa’s leadership – Chief Justice Mogoeng. The Chief Justice hosted a virtual prayer meeting on Monday, 25 May, with nearly 1000 leaders from across the continent. Instead of the gospel featuring, the meeting revolved around the goals and methodologies of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) …Continue reading article…
“We are the Word made flesh again. We are the Reincarnation of Jesus Christ.”
“Christ is no longer a man. He’s a people. You and I carry like Mary. We will bring forth the Christ. The Second Coming is the Becoming of the Lord.”
“As Christ comes forth and emerges on the earth in a corporate expression, there will be a people who become the feet. The beautiful feet. … They will be untouched by sin, darkness, even death.”
“Stop being in love with your tradition, opinion and understanding of the Bible that’s so shallow, and so, like, feeble, and we barely make it in our lives because we don’t have that rich treasure yet.”
From the teaching of Brian Simmons, author of The Passion Translation (on Youtube):
Brian Simmons claims Christ came to him and gave him the task of issuing forth The Passion Translation. Simmons is a New Apostolic Reformation leader, and The Passion Translation serves many as an NAR “Bible.”
Please note that the Latter Rain heresy of a coming group of saints who do not sin and cannot die is included in this video teaching.
Simmons has changed the meaning of Antichrist, and claims the seals, trumpets, and bowls in Revelation are…people.
The video is only 16 minutes long, and you can also scroll down as the video has been transcribed, with some statements given emphasis in bold.
Beginning of video:
He’s within us. The Revelation 12 Virgin Bride will give birth to a Man-Child company, a corporate expression, one has become the many, the seed has now fallen into the ground and died but is now bearing many seeds, there’s a many seeded Christ.
He will prolong his days and take pleasure in what He sees. Isaiah 53 says that He will see his seed and prolong his days. We are extending the ministry of Jesus throughout the nations. We are carrying his life and his nature and his DNA wherever we go. We are prolonging his days, the Acts 29 company. We are expressing the Christ wherever we go.
43 seconds into video– And as the corporate maturity continues, and we rise to be the holy temple unto the Lord, there will be that apple tree conception. And the Christ we long for will be seen. In a corporate way.
1 min 10 seconds– There’s a coming glory. If you look at antichrist, the devil, you look at judgement, you know, bowls, trumpets, and uh let’s see, seals, trumpets and bowls, all three of those–I don’t know how far to go with you guys–all three of them refer to people. You’re sealed with the Holy Spirit, I could show you the seven seals from the New Testament. Seven times it says you’re sealed.
1 min 36 seconds– The sealed book is you. He’s the Word, the volume of the book it is written of Him. We express the Word. WE ARE THE WORD MADE FLESH AGAIN. WE ARE THE REINCARNATION OF JESUS CHRIST. The corporate expression.
Seals. Seven seals of the Holy Spirit. Trumpet. Our message, it’s a revelation, it’s a message that trumpets the truth of God. Sounds into the ears and hearts of those with ears that have been pierced and whose hearts are prepared. It is a message of coming glory.
2 min 10 seconds– And a bowl, isn’t that what we are? We are jars of clay, we are vessels. We are vessels of honor before him. It’s interesting, when Jericho was under a curse, Elisha said get a bowl. Get a bowl full of salt. Right. Jesus said, you are the salt of the earth. And take a bowlful of salt and go to the headwaters of the river of the waters of Jericho that are undrinkable and put a bowl full of salt into the water and it’ll be drinkable again. We break the curse off our cities, the expression of Christ in us. The salt bearing company.
2 min 47 seconds– We are the salt that purifies, that sanctifies, that cleanses and the stream of water is often teaching. So the stream that we can bring is a sweet stream. Sweet stream coming out of us, the teaching of the Lord. That strengthens the spirit, puts hope back in our heart, pep in our step, zippity in our doodah.
3 min 12 seconds– The glory. So the seals, trumpets, and bowls have not been understood. Well, what about judgment? Yeah, God’s gonna judge a lot of things in you. All the ways of the world, the ways of the mind of man, He’s gonna come against every one of them and target them. Because, whatever He judges He removes, and gives unhindered love. He judges whatever stands in the way of His love. That’s what He judges. Healing is judging the devil’s work.
3 min 52 seconds– See? The positive aspect of judgment is because He’s preparing a people for glory, so He’s gonna remove everything. And it starts right here, folks.
4 min 3 seconds– Don’t look now, but I found the antichrist. Deal with it. Get him out. Stop being in love with your tradition, opinion and understanding of the Bible that’s so shallow, and so, like, feeble, and we barely make it in our lives because we don’t have that rich treasure yet. We’ve not unlocked the deepest places of spirit life [indecipherable]. Where we bring healing because of a touch or a word that speaks and life comes forth.
4 min 31 seconds– We’re the seed of Christ, the 42nd generation, we complete the geneology of Jesus. CHRIST IS NO LONGER A MAN, HE’S A PEOPLE. YOU AND I CARRY LIKE MARY. WE WILL BRING FORTH THE CHRIST. THE SECOND COMING IS THE BECOMING OF THE LORD. The Father loves the Son so much, he is going to fill the earth with people just like Him.
4 min 48 seconds– He’s the pattern Son, He’s the cornerstone into which everything must fit to become that dwelling place of God. And the New Jerusalem company will emerge on the earth. The New Jerusalem is not a place you are going to, it is a people you will become. And the 12 gateways of the New Jerusalem were worn in symbolic form over the breastplate of the High Priest. And to qualify as the High Priest, to represent men before God was that you had to carry the revelation of your heart over your heart.
Carry this, wear this breastplate, priests of the Lord, wear this breastplate. That we are the dwelling place. We are not going to. You need a new heaven and a new earth. The throne of God has wheels on it. I’m coming here. You want to go so bad up there and God says sweetheart, you don’t understand, I’m coming here.
5 min 55 seconds– The earth will be my footstool. There will be a feet company that will represent me on earth. When a mother gives birth, what’s the last part of the body to come forth. Feet. The feet. There will be a feet company. AS THE CHRIST COMES FORTH AND EMERGES ON THE EARTH IN A CORPORATE EXPRESSION, there will be a people who will become the feet. The beautiful feet. How beautiful are the feet. God will, uh, you know, God will soon crush Satan under YOUR FEET.
6 min 33 seconds– There will be a feet company, a Satan crushing company that will devour, like a threshing sledge, they will devour every work of the enemy. THEY WILL BE UNTOUCHED BY SIN, DARKNESS, EVEN DEATH.
6 minutes 43 seconds– They will carry like Mary, and it will be as though the second coming has come. The destiny of this planet is not what you think. Oh, but it’s gonna be destroyed by fire. Yeah. You got some things in your earth that need to be destroyed so start now.
7 min 10 seconds– The natural elements, the natural realm, will be destroyed. And we will become the paradise of God once again. When God said, I have made you in my image and my likeness, now rule and take dominion. To the measure we carry his image and likeness, to that measure we rule and take dominion. You can’t rule and take dominion without the image and likeness. You guys getting this? We know a little about image.
7 min 52 seconds– That we’re made in the image of God. God is not a man but he has hands. The hand of the Lord. God is not a man but he has eyes. He sees. The eyes of the Lord search throughout the whole earth. He has ears, aren’t you glad, He hears our prayers. He has feet. Ezekiel saw the feet through the [indecipherable].
8 min 7 seconds– There is an image upon us that is stamped like God. We are a God-image people. Isn’t that amazing. This is why we honor every human life, the handicapped, the pre-born and we honor life because it’s the image of God. Even James says we can’t you know slander those who were made in his image with our mouth.
8 min 30 seconds– But likeness. We don’t have a clue yet. What it means to be in the likeness of God. You know the first thing God did with Adam? After he had the image and the likeness? Okay, God created the heavens and the earth. Gonna keep it simple. He made the trees after their kind, he made the birds after their kind, he made the fish after their kind, and He made man after God-kind.
9 min 10 seconds– He made a God-kind man. Do you know, God, this is so crazy, I may want to take a break after this,’cause some might want to throw stones, but it doesn’t say God created the animals it says He formed them and brought them to Adam. If you’re in His image and likeness, you’re gonna do what God does.
9 min 35 seconds– God created–do the math–He created the heavens and the earth, and He formed the animals, brought them to Adam, said, your turn. He named them, gave them identity. He gave them… The image and likeness is coming.
And as the Church rises up in the image we’re made in His likeness, we’re to be conformed to the likeness, when we see Him we shall be like Him. And to see Him is not heaven. When we see Him as He really is, we get changed into that image. And likeness. We can see Him today. We can see Him come out of the shadows. We can see him emerge from the black and white pages of the Scriptures. We can see Him. When we see Him we are changed into that image and likeness. Seeing Him is so valuable in these last days.
10 min 37 seconds– Many see judgment. Many see clouds of doom. I see clouds of glory. The horizon filled with darkness is not a storm of judgment, it is the coming glory cloud that has yet to be perceived as it really is.
10 min 55 seconds– Something about clouds. God really likes clouds. He rides, His name is cloud rider. I put that in Psalms, the translation of the Psalms. Thous shalt get the Book of Psalms on your way out. But His name is Yah, cloud rider, ha ha ha. Okay, you’re the cloud. Eight times in the Bible, uno, dos, tres, quatro, eight times. Men are clouds. Cloud of witnesses. Jude speaks of false teachers that are clouds with no rain.
11 min 38 seconds– Throw up Isiah 60 verse 8. Put up Isaiah 60 verse 8, if you dare to read this. The Passion Translation: Who are these who soar like clouds, flying like doves into their portals? Jesus is coming in the clouds! I’m here to announce to you, ladies and gentlemen. Everybody missed His first coming. Only people who got revelation understood the first coming. Even though they had the Bible, they knew it’d be Bethlehem, but yet he was from Nazareth so they, he purposely let them get offended over being in Nazareth but He wasn’t, He was from Bethlehem, but they called Him from Nazareth.
He didn’t set the record straight. He let them be deceived. But those with spirit revelation would understand. He was from Bethlehem. Micah 5:2. So if everyone missed the First Coming except for divine revelation, how is it you got all the Second Coming figured out. There’s so much more to the unveiling.
13 min and 14 seconds– I want to unveil, I want to lift some of that veil as much as we go into Revelation 1. After our lunch I want to show you some secrets about the coming of the Lord. And how we can press into this greater glory.
The glory the glory the glory the glory the glory is the key to the coming days. It’s not Antichrist. It’s not the beast coming out of the waters.The sea is the picture of the sea of humanity, it’s the sin nature, it’s the sin of man coming from the nations that opposes the breaking forth of Christ’s life within us.
13 min 50 seconds– And the judgments in the Book of Revelation are not quite what you thought. The seven thunders will reveal Him. The seven thunders will be heard on the earth. Through a people who become the mighty ones of God. Psalm 29, the voice of the Lord. Thunders. And as we carry the voice of the Lord we will thunder with a trumpet sound to the nations. And there will be a radiant Bride. Shulamite lover. The woman at the well is coming. And that Revelation 12 virgin is going to come and bring forth the salvation of the planet.
Whether you are Pentecostal, Reformed, a Calvary Chapel member, Baptist, or someone involved in Bill Johnson’s Bethel Redding, you need to see the American Gospel: Christ Alone movie. One of the false teachers who is thoroughly exposed in this movie is Todd White. The video below shows his reaction.
Can two walk together, except they be agreed? (Amos 3:3)
Francis Chan to Bill Johnson:
Can I just say something in response to that? Bill, you blow me away with your words and your heart behind them. You need to know that it’s that heart that changed me. It’s that type of character and kindness that can only come from the spirit, to love like that in the midst of slander. (2 minutes 10 seconds in video, give or take)
Francis Chan to Mike Bickle:
I can count on one hand the amount of people I respect on the earth as much as Mike Bickle. I love you. I so respect you. I am so glad God brought us together. You are a brother to me. When you speak it is like water to my soul. And when I come and am a part of anything at IHOP I just, I leave filled. (Onething 2018, Session 6)
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. (Ephesians 5:11)
Not saying it’s good or bad, but this verse does come to mind:
For in much wisdom is much grief,
And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. (Ecclesiastes 1:18)
Courtney Linder writes in Popular Mechanics:
Scientists at the University at Buffalo and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute have bred a new form of human-mouse chimera with the highest incidence of human cells ever recorded. Chimeras are organisms made up of a mixture of genetically different tissues—in this case, mouse cells and human stem cells. Continue reading article…
Incredibly (more like predictably) Zondervan is making a documentary promoting the Enneagram. It will be released in the fall of 2020, and features the unbiblical teaching of Christopher L. Heuertz.
According to the website promoting the documentary: The Enneagram reveals both the ways we get lost and the ways we find our way home to our True Self and to God. (emphasis mine)
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. (Isaiah 8:20)
But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: (Titus 2:1)
Through the work of Pastors Gabe Hughes [1] and Richard Sweatman [2] we learned of disturbing flaws in the teaching of Tim Mackie of The Bible Project. Mackie rejects the biblical understanding of the Atonement (propitiation) and seems confused in his understanding of hell.
As it turns out, there are further areas of concern. One of these was discovered by Pastor Don Veinot, one of the authors of Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret, a book I am now reading and will review.
In their newsletter, Don and Joy Veinot write:
As we have been looking through the new recruits to the Enneagram we find that [The Bible Project co-creators] Tim Mackie and Jon Collins have both embraced the Enneagram and appeared on Ian Cron’s “Typology” podcast, titled, “The Bible Project, feat. Tim Mackie and Jon Collins (Enneagram 5) [S02-005]” [3]
The authors of Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret note:
Unfortunately, pastors, ministry leaders, counselors, and others are either relying on false information or on others who, themselves, are relying on false information concerning the Enneagram. [4]
Regarding the Enneagram’s true purpose:
The authors, trainers and teachers [of the Enneagram] are clear it is not a personality profile but 9 individual paths back to your “True self,” the self you actually are which never sinned and is with God already and was never separated from God. There is nothing in this which is Christian but is opposed to the essential doctrine of the Christian Faith. [5]
Not good. Not good at all. Christians who know God’s Word should be able to discern there is something wrong with the Enneagram. Too many continue to follow popular leaders and teachers rather than relying on the Bible. Thus, when high profile Christians such as The Bible Project creators Tim Mackie and Jon Collins embrace the Enneagram, many of their followers automatically accept this practice as valid.
Mackie and Collins are by no means alone in this: Louie Gigglio, Mark Batterson, Dr. Russell Moore, and Bethel Redding singer Amanda Cook also seem to have delved into the world of the Enneagram. Like The Bible Project creators, all have been guests on Ian Cron’s Typology podcast, a show that deals almost exclusively with Enneagram related subjects. These “celebrity Christians”* are impediments in the battle to warn the saints about this practice. [6]
The Enneagram is rapidly growing in popularity among Christians. You yourself may know someone who has faith–yes, faith–in the Enneagram.
Don Veinot writes:
Considering these three issues, the Enneagram, propitiation and hell, I would ask for prayer for [The Bible Project’s] Tim and Jon, especially that God would bring someone in their lives who would be able to correct them in these three serious theological errors. [7]
Prayer is a good idea.
There is another issue as well. Tim Mackie has taught Lectio Divina. (video, start at 43:50) This is a form of contemplative prayer. If you’re not familiar with Lectio Divina, you can learn about it here.
Is it possible we are being given a partial glimpse as to what the false church will look like? Many of the Christian terms will be the same, but the biblical meaning of the Atonement (propitiation) and hell will be erased. Practices like Lectio Divina and the Enneagram will be part and parcel of church life.
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. (2 Peter 2:1)
I’ve got a ways to go yet in Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret, but it is clearly a valuable weapon in the war against deception. I hope to review this book within the next several weeks.
False teachers never look like monsters. They don’t come with fangs and long serpentine tongues.
16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. (Matthew 7: 16-17)
Professionally produced videos do not supersede bad fruit.
“I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins. (Isaiah 43:25)
In 1941, Jack Alexander of the Saturday Evening Post wrote the article that provided A.A. its first national publicity. Describing A.A.’s “higher power,” Alexander noted the following:
[The alcoholic] “may choose to think of his Inner Self, the miracle of growth, a tree, man’s wonderment at the physical universe, the structure of the atom, or mere mathematical infinity. Whatever form is visualized, the neophyte is taught that he must rely on it and, in his own way, to pray to the Power for strength.” [1]
Please note that Alexander’s article, with this A.A. definition of “god,” is distributed as official Alcoholics Anonymous literature.
We can warn against the New Apostolic Reformation, contemplative prayer, The Shack, the Enneagram, Bill Johnson’s Bethel Redding, etc., and that is fine and good. And necessary.
But it is Alcoholics Anonymous that has infiltrated and watered down the visible church for 80 years. Many Christians attend A.A., and A.A. meetings are held in many churches. The sacred has been mixed with the profane.
A.A. has given us the confusion of recovery passing for sanctification, and twelve-step theology has many Christians in A.A. believing it is perfectly fine to encourage alcoholics to go ahead and make up a “god.” To help justify attendance in this non-biblical spirituality, the myth has been promulgated that most alcoholics with custom-designed higher powers will eventually come to Christ. This is simply not so. It is relatively rare but is presented as a common occurrence. This claim is one of the primary ways Christians justify A.A.
In Alcoholics Anonymous, most Christians will experience a transference of faith. The twelve-step experience often becomes an idol. It is not uncommon to speak with Christians who are more concerned with “recovery” than sanctification and who demonstrate a preference for A.A. rather than fellowship with the saints.
Immersion in “higher power” theology has Christians believing it is fine to join spiritually with non-believers in prayer to the “higher power.” (2 Cor 6:14-17)
I have been to numerous A.A. meeting. Alcoholics never hear that A.A. co-founder Bill Wilson came to understand A.A. simply does not work for many motivated alcoholics, and that he actually began seeking alternatives.
When will we as God’s people begin to examine A.A. according to the Scriptures? Maybe…never.
Yet the Lord is faithful. He has rescued myriads of us from drugs and alcohol, myself included. Lost and hurting addicts cannot be blamed for turning to A.A. What do you expect? This has been society’s answer for decades. But if you are a Christian who has been encouraging people to join A.A., would you at least seek the Scriptures?
So, here from Isaiah 45 is the God who saves. He will do much more than grant you sobriety. No one designed Him. We didn’t make Him; He made us:
18 For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), “I am the Lord, and there is none else.
19 “I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in a waste place’; I, the Lord, speak righteousness, Declaring things that are upright.
20 “Gather yourselves and come; Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; They have no knowledge, Who carry about their wooden idol And pray to a god who cannot save. 21 “Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me. 22 “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. 23 “I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. 24 “They will say of Me, ‘Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.’ Men will come to Him, And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame. 25 “In the Lord all the offspring of Israel Will be justified and will glory.”
Famine in the Landknows how to make a point about the absurdity of hypercharismatic NAR theology, and other false teaching. For instance–
Things Paul never wrote to the Romans:
Don’t worry about tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword separating you from the love of God, because these misfortunes never happen to those who know their rights as believers.
Things Paul never wrote to the Corinthians:
Three times I was shipwrecked – because I failed to take a risk and model the miracle of Jesus when he rebuked the wind and spoke to the waves.
I received a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan that harassed me. I knew this was not from God so I bound it and cast it out.
Things Paul never wrote to theEphesians:
God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing – except the ones that you will receive through impartations, upgrades, activations and soaking in his presence.
I received a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan that harassed me. I knew this was not from God so I bound it and cast it out.
The Word Like Fire 