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‘Kingdom Now?’: Today’s Self-Appointed Prophets And Apostles Need A Reality Check

By Jan Markell for
Harbinger's Daily

Is the church anointed to reign? The short answer is no, but let me state the problem and explain my answer.

Understand that I am thankful Donald J. Trump was elected our next U.S. President. I think he is good for the gospel, and that is just a huge factor as we wind down the Church Age. Too many on the Left are clearly enemies of the gospel.

But his election produced the following headline I caught: Trump Win Brings Era of Church ‘Anointed to Reign’. In a statement by Tim Sheets, brother of Dutch Sheets, in early December. It represents the false teaching of Kingdom Now or Dominion Theology, often promoted in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).

The church is not appointed or anointed to reign. Jesus Christ is in his thousand-year Millennial reign on earth.

Sheets said on the Elijah List that God told him that it’s time for a newly confident ekklesia—a term dominionists use to refer to the church as a governing body on Earth—to exercise a higher level of authority. He said the church now has a “prevailing anointing” and is “overwhelming hell’s effort on Earth.”

NAR leaders teach that modern-day apostles and prophets, and their Christian followers are meant to take dominion over governments and other institutions of cultural influence to speed the day when a triumphant church will rule and reign with a returning Christ.

One of the fastest-growing false teachings in the church today is called by various names: Kingdom Now, Dominion Theology, Reconstructionism, and the Restoration Movement. It is an effort to use the church to make the world perfect for our Lord’s return.

The excellent online resource, Got Questions (GotQuestions.org), writes, “Lance Wallnau coined the term Seven Mountain Mandate and is one of its prominent teachers (within Dominionism). Wallnau adapts the missionary mandate of Jesus to His disciples to ‘go and make disciples’ of all the nations into a mandate to effect social transformation. He reasons that, since churches already have a presence in every nation in the world, we need to now concentrate on influencing the systems (the ‘mountains’) within these nations.

“The seven mountains are education, religion, family, business, arts/entertainment, and media. These seven sectors of society are thought to mold the way everyone thinks and behaves. So, to tackle societal change, these seven “mountains” must be transformed. Those who follow the seven mountain mandate speak of ‘occupying’ the mountains, ‘invading’ the culture, and ‘transforming’ or ‘taking back’ society.”

This theology is borne out of the Manifest Sons of God movement and Latter Rain movement in about 1948. It also has ties to the positive confession movement.

The number one purpose of the church is to take away the souls of men from Satan. The rest of society may be a lost cause because of the Fall in the Garden. The world is a sinking Titanic ripe for judgment, not Garden of Eden perfection. Jesus will take dominion over the cleansed earth. For men to speak of doing that before the judgment of this earth is spiritually arrogant and ignorant.

There are far too many verses in the Bible that speak of the coming apostasy in the church and not the glorification of the church! The Bible says that in the last days, the church will not give heed to sound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3-4) and will feature far too many “doctrines of demons” (I Timothy 4:1). There will actually be “wolves among the flock” (Acts 20:29).

That does not sound like a reigning church. That’s because the world requires a reigning Messiah serving His Millennial kingdom. Today’s self-appointed prophets and apostles who are Dominion proponents need to do a reality check.


Jan Markell is an author, speaker, host of Understanding the Times radio heard on over 1,000 stations across America, and the Founder and President of Olive Tree Ministries.

 
You are so right. One of the signs I didn't realize till later in that church I often reference, was a top down heavy authoritarian attitude combined with frequent use of touch not the lord's anointed"


Very very good points. We don't "save a nation" we evangelize people around us, and by God's grace, individuals get saved, and then change the course of the nation. We are commanded to pray for the leaders that God installs over us. Whether we like them or not.

I don't know now of any denomination or group that hasn't had some part of Kingdom Now, NAR, Reconstructionism, Reform, Neo Puritan movement, Latter Rain, Word Faith movement and their related theologies touch their churches in some form or other. Books, bible study materials, courses, seminars, seminaries, YouTube teaching, or just friend to friend dynamics. All spread the heresies.

I forgot to include the church growth movement such as Willow Creek, Purpose Driven in my post above. Lynn Hybels the wife of Bill Hybels founders of Willow Creek and the whole church growth movement is responsible for much of the growth of the Christian Palestinian theology Christ at the Checkpoint infecting much of evangelical Protestantism. They ascribe to replacement theology and like Purpose Driven"s Rick Warren likes to say- stay away from teaching prophecy, it divides. Something that the Word Faith preacher Joel Osteen of Living Your Best Life NOW follows in his Word Faith lite church down in Texas.

They may not follow every point of Kingdom Now but they sure align with a lot of it's teachings.

A little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump- Gal 5:9

I think it can be summed up as part of the process that has Laodicea at the very end of the church age.

The Whore of Babylon is rising, and she's false religion that wants to ride the political beast! Which is why the Paula White's and Dutch Sheets are drawn like bees to honey towards politics. Unlike some of the genuine pastors that support Trump, these 2 and their kind seem drawn to power, and it fits when you understand their theology and how important getting power and using it to control others is.
“ they may not follow every point of Kingdom Now but they sure align with a lot of its teachings “


And that is part of my concern… it’s tentacles have seeped in basically everywhere, influencing a lot of people to align in some form or another with some of their beliefs , most not seeing or understanding what the “ big deal “ is.

Btw, Christian Nationalism is just a renaming of all this nonsense because it sounds better 🤦‍♀️
 
Yes it does.

They see the Kingdom as now- and they are Preterists, who also think that Nero was the AC and Revelation has largely taken place in an allegorical fashion within that first century.

They believe that the church has a mandate from God to crush the world under them, forcing a form of godliness on the unbelievers.

They have a form of Calvinism in that they think only those called by God to believe will do so, and the rest need to be under a "christian" jackboot to enforce "righteousness". It's the Irresistable Grace which is the I in the TULIP acronym that covers the bases of Calvinism.

There is little to no mercy or grace, and due to the theology they believe that the church replaced Israel. So they are usually mildly to dreadfully antisemitic in their replacement theology.

Furthermore you can spot the 7 mountains mandate in this- the 7 areas of dominion that the church will eventually subdue. They believed in that dominion long before the 7 mountains teaching came out. So variations of them don't use the 7 mountains idea but the principle behind it is the same.

Their eschatology insists that they must bring the world under dominion before Christ can or will return to rule thru eternity.

So the return of Christ is at the end of a non defined period of time that began at the cross and resurrection and or Pentecost, and continues till the church presents the world dominated by them as some form of gift to Christ. He can't return till the church does it's duty and stomps out evil.

This IS the kingdom, it is NOW and there is not real 1000 years, they view those scriptures as allegorical.

That theology bleeds into the NAR movement (New Apostolic Reformation) started by C.Peter Wagner and it appeals to the Young Restless Reform movement along with Rushdoony's Calvinist Christian Reconstructionism. His son in law Gary North is influential in the Christian Reconstructionist movement.

Some other groups that are influenced by this are the Quiverfull movement, and the "christian" neo nazi movement known as Christian Identity. Another group is Douglas Wilson's Classical method of homeschooling, and his Logos School in Moscow Idaho. Douglas is invovled in the Reconstructionist movement. Another one that runs in the same circles is Bill Gothard's Institute in Basic Life Principles- a cult that infiltrated the Homeschool movement.

There are roots into the heretical Latter Rain movement of the late 40s that morphed into several other bad groups. Including some strains of the Prosperity or Health and Wealth preachers.

Oddly you will see charismatics involved as well as the more legalistic NON charismatics over in the Christian Reconstructionists and Reform churches that absolutely have kittens over charismatic stuff. But they will work together occaisionally, and this is their common point of reference that they share.

Hal Lindsey's book The Everlasting Hatred mentions how difficult it is to pin down this theology since it infiltrates a lot of groups. He said in there it is like nailing Jello to the wall. I read that book when I was trying to figure out why my ex church back in the late 90's went so desperately bad.

It was this type of theology he was talking about. Hal was right.

It's a form of replacement theology. It is antisemitic to the core. The church replaces Israel.

It's a doctrine of works- it places Christ's return subject to the church's ability to stomp out evil and force a form of godliness onto the world.

It denies Scripture, it allegorizes anything that gets in the way of it's aberrent theology.

It denies salvation for all, deciding that grace and salvation are only for a few, and they are irresistably called- which eliminates free will and actual grace. This denies the sufficiency of the Cross.

It doesn't place an emphasis on mission work- but on punishing the evildoers.

Hope that helps.
Thanks for the info. I'm in a community Bible study where the leader believes we are in the Kingdom now,

I'm grace and not works, pre-trip rapture, 1000-year Kingdom, and then eternity. I do get a lot from the fellowship, and they are good Christian friends and neighbors, but I feel they are missing/ignoring a big part of God's word.
 
Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens x both who are absolutely antisemitic
I agree that Owens has gone off the rails, but disagree about Kirk.

A well known Jewish Zionist and attorney, Josh Hammer was at Kirk’s rally in Florida to debate anti Zionist Dave Smith. On Hammer’s podcast, he repeatedly praised Kirk’s fairness.

Charlie Kirk isn’t jaded, but Candice Owens is.
 
I agree that Owens has gone off the rails, but disagree about Kirk.

A well known Jewish Zionist and attorney, Josh Hammer was at Kirk’s rally in Florida to debate anti Zionist Dave Smith. On Hammer’s podcast, he repeatedly praised Kirk’s fairness.

Charlie Kirk isn’t jaded, but Candice Owens is.

I’m not saying he is staunch anti Jew , but he has aligned with some people/ ideologies that do lean antisemitic … at times , he counters his own pro Jewish sentiments
 
sermon by Jimmy Fortunato ( a year ago ) warning of Charlie Kirk and Dominion Theology / the 7 Mountains Mandate

Kirk is a very intelligent man and it a great debater and quick thinker in responding to those that confront him / try to
counter his conservative views. I personally enjoy listening to him rarely lose an argument… but there is still reason for concern about him. It’s not surprising many Christians hold him in high regard… I’m personally just not as big a fan as I used to be.

 
Kirk is a very intelligent man and it a great debater and quick thinker in responding to those that confront him / try to
counter his conservative views. I personally enjoy listening to him rarely lose an argument… but there is still reason for concern about him. It’s not surprising many Christians hold him in high regard… I’m personally just not as big a fan as I used to be.
I totally agree. His conservative platform demands compromise and I don’t know of very many who handle that well. I like Dinesh D’Souza and view him as someone who wouldn’t cave and compromise for a bigger audience.

Two Dominion Theology types who shocked me most are Ted Cruz and Michael Flynn. Maybe they’re only Christian Nationalists, not into theology?
 
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