The New Apostolic Reformation Part 2

INTRODUCTION

A few weeks back, somewhere in the midst of the crazy July we had, we began looking at the New Apostolic Reformation and its influence in evangelicalism today.

And in order to engage with this dangerous new movement, we asked six questions. We dealt with three of them in the first session:

What is the New Apostolic Reformation?

What are the beliefs of the New Apostolic Reformation?

What are the practices of the New Apostolic Reformation?

Since it has been almost a month since we answered those questions, allow me to give a brief review of what we have learned thus far.

The New Apostolic Reformation is a cult that has risen up from within evangelicalism that believes a “new reformation” is taking place which involves a new power structure in the church, as well as a mandate to bring about the return of Christ by a mass miracle-working movement.

They believe in a Five-Fold Ministry of the Church:

Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers.

The Apostles and the Prophets have the authority over the all churches in their NAR network because they are receiving direct messages from God for the church.

If you want your church to be a part of what God is doing in the world to bring about the return of Christ, you must align yourself with the NAR Apostle and Prophet.

The pastors must answers to the Apostles and the Prophets.

And if you want miracle-working power, you must have it “activated” by one of these Apostles or Prophets.

They also believe in a Seven Mountain Mandate.

In order to bring about the return of Christ, this miracle-working movement must take over the Seven Mountains of Society:

Government, Media, Family, Business, Education, Church and the Arts.

And as we wrapped up our time together, we were looking at some of the bizarre practices of this movement, as well as the ones that make you shake your head in disgust.

On one hand, they practice laying on the graves of deceased Christians, claiming they are absorbing leftover spiritual gifts from those people —BIZARRE!

On the other hand, they had a little girl in their church die and for almost a week, drew national attention as the family refused to bury her and the whole church claimed she would be resurrected.

She wasn’t.

Why did her parents think they should do this? Because they go to a church that claims to have a team of people who can raise the dead —That makes us feel DISGUST!

On one hand, they claim they can wake up angels and that they have found angel feathers falling to the ground during their worship services—BIZARRE!

On the other hand, they teach that it is never God’s will for you to suffer and that if we are sick and suffering, it is because we lack enough faith.

This is that old Prosperity Gospel in a new package—this should make us feel DISGUST!

You still might be tempted to think, “Is it really necessary that we would talk about this?”

I think that is a fair question.

Why take two sessions of this series to discuss the New Apostolic Reformation?

Because it has been accepted as a part of pop Christianity in America and it has infiltrated an abundance of churches in our own convention.

And tonight as we answer three more questions about NAR, my hope is you will see just how pervasive it is and how dangerous it is and how we must respond.

Why is the New Apostolic Reformation spreading?

How dangerous is the New Apostolic Reformation?

How do we resist the New Apostolic Reformation?

WHY IS THE NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION SPREADING?

Last time we were together in this series, I gave you some numbers that I want to reiterate.

Bethel Church in Redding, CA—the home-base and epicenter of the New Apostolic Reformation, has 780,000 Instagram followers.

Bethel Music, the music-publishing arm of Bethel Church, has 1.7 million Instagram followers. On Spotify, they have just as many listeners as ZZ Top or Kenny Chesney.

11,000 people call Bethel Church their church home.

Thousands upon thousands of others attend churches in NAR networks that are spread out across the country—church that have decided to “align themselves” with a NAR prophet and embrace the Five-fold Ministry and the Seven Mountain Mandate.

This is not a small movement.

And I believe its greatest traction is with Millenials and Gen-Z.

For as disastrous and blasphemous as the NAR leaders are at theology or consistent logic, they are brilliant at the art of packaging and selling their festering garbage to young people.

Social media. YouTube. Spotify. Instragram.

They know how to get their message out and deliver in a way that our younger generations eat it up.

Some of them embrace it, thinking it is a version of orthodox Christianity they can connect with.

Others embrace because they see that it is a departure from biblical faith and they want that.

They are eager for a message to scratch their itching ears.

They don’t want a Gospel that says you are powerless to save yourself from the wrath of God brought about by your sinning.

They want one that says they have a power within that must be activated.

I believe there are two main ways Bethel has so quickly captured the hearts and minds of thousands of young evangelicals.

They have done it through intensive indoctrination and through subtle songs.

Let’s deal with each of these.

THE BETHEL SCHOOL OF SUPERNATURAL MINISTRY

The Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry began in 1998 under the direction of Kris Vallotton—the prophet of Bethel Church.

Remember that Bill Johnson is the Apostle.

Young NAR boys and girls are encouraged to attend this school in order to learn how to live like a revivalist and release your miraculous power upon the nations.

Let me give you an idea of the things that are learned at the Bethel School.

They are taught how to be drunk in the spirit.

Here is Holly Pivec’s eyewitness account of a class where the students were learning Spirit drunkenness.

Outside the classroom and from down the hallway, a commotion could be heard. I peeked inside a room where about a dozen round tables has been set up. Behind the tables, in some empty space near the back, a couple of people were laying stone still, flat on their backs, surrounded by a circle of about a dozen people standing over them. Some had their arms raised, some were walking around touching each other on the shoulders and shouting, “More!”, and some speaking in tongues.

Holly Pivec, Counterfeit Revival

She said that a teacher then addressed the class and gave them the rules:

Rule 1: Get drunk. Rule 2: Stay drunk. Rule 3: Get other people drunk.

Pivec goes on to explain what happened next:

The teacher asked everyone to stand up and place their bottles in front of them, fingers flexed as if gripping a huge bottle. “Drink it dry,” he urged. “It’s heavenly wine.” More laughter rippled through the room. He led the students in reciting an invitation: “Come, Holy Spirit. We welcome you here.”

Holly Pivec

She says that at this point the teacher kept telling the class to take more drinks of the heavenly wine.

Of course, in Ephesians 5:18, Paul does instruct Christians to be drunk in the Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18 ESV

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

Paul is not encouraging some sort of crazy, out of control, mystical practice that includes speech that is not an actual human language, laughing uncontrollably or lying there like a dead person, passed out.

Instead, as he is warning the Ephesians about debauchery of drunkenness and he is simply saying, “Don’t be filled up and led around by alcohol—which will inevitably lead to foolishness and destruction—but be filled with the Holy Spirit, who produces the fruit of grace from our lives.”

But much like they do with other verses, Bill Johnson and those of his ilk in the NAR movement, take this out of context, impose their faulty apostolic meaning on it and say, “Look—when we are filled with the Spirit it should look a lot like it does with people are filled with alcohol—out of control, led by passions and acting strangely.”

They won’t say it like that, but it is what they mean.

I have seen this with my own eyes.

In 2006, I was at Rockbridge, a retreat center in Virginia owned by YoungLife and interVarsity.

I went to IV, therefore, I went to Rockbridge.

One night, we were waiting to go into the main session and as we were all outside, there was a big commotion.

I walk over and find a group of our VCU IV students rolling around on the ground laughing and crying like lunatics.

They did this for no less than 15 minutes.

I found it to be irreverent and distracting from the worship that was about to take place, but also incredibly confusing for any unbeliever there.

And this was almost 20 years ago, when the New Apostolic Reformation was barely a baby of a movement.

Now it is a full-on adult.

They are taught how to prophesy.

Now, first of all—the idea that you can be taught how to prophesy is problematic to begin with.

Throughout the Scriptures, true prophets are not taught to be prophets, but called.

Surely they learned of the Lord as they delivered His Word, but they didn’t go to Prophet University and get a 4 year degree.

God calls them and puts His words in their mouth.

And if the things they are found not to be true, they would be called a false prophet and it was punishable by death under the Mosaic Law.

Deuteronomy 18:20 ESV

But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’

But NAR teachers claim that every Christian has the gift of prophecy inside of them. They just need it activated.

But their idea of prophecy is far different from the biblical concept.

The biblical prophet would issue warnings to the rebellious and comfort to the righteous.

He would recount deeds of old, but also predict things in the future that the Lord had revealed.

At Bethel, their prophetic teaching revolves around “affirming words” and “predictions about the future.”

There are no warnings.

Instead, they practice the “golden rule of prophecy,” which means that as you get messages from God, you are not to say negative things to people, but only positive things that will build them up.

Compare this with Ezekiel’s words:

Ezekiel 23:18–19 ESV

When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister. Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt

I guess Ezekiel would have flunked out of Bethel’s School of Supernatural Ministry

In terms of future-telling, NAR leaders are the last ones that anyone should be listening to.

Kris Vallotton, Jeremiah Johnson and Shawn Bolz all said that God told them Trump would win the 2020 election.

When he did not win the election, they had to come out and apologize.

This wasn’t the first time they were wrong about something, but in this case, it was so public that they had to say sorry.

But as they did, they claimed, “This doesn’t mean we are false prophets. We just missed it.”

Well, I hate to tell them—but that would not have flown in the days of Moses.

Nor would it in the days of Christ:

Matthew 7:15–20 ESV

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

What fruit is he talking about?

He is talking about the fruit of their prophetic ministry.

Jeremiah and John the Baptists were good prophets.

Good doctrine and true teaching came from their mouths, as their mouths were filled with words from heaven.

But in the case of the false prophets—good fruit does not come from them.

Instead, rotten doctrine and rotten teaching.

And rotten predictions.

These men didn’t just “miss it.” They made a clown suit with their false words, put it on, painted their face up and then tried to look at us and say, “Don’t worry—I’m a prophet—not a clown.”

Their big clown shoes that bring the bad news of false prophecy with them everywhere they go say otherwise.

And yet—if you go to the BSSM website, here is what they tell you you will learn in their curriculum:

Prophetic Ministry in the Life of the Church

HOGWARTS FOR CHRISTIANS

Now, if you go to Redding, CA, and you start talking to people who live there, they will tell you that they call “Bethel’s School of Supernatural Ministry” another name.

They call it “Hogwarts for Christians,” playing off the name of the fictional castle in the Harry Potter series about kids learning to be come witches and wizards in a fight for good and evil.

And there is a reason for that.

It is because beyond the teaching regarding the activation of miracles and prophecy, BSSM is about as weird as it gets.

Let me bullet point some practices that students there will learn or have learned in the past.

While at the school, students will read Moving in Glory Realms by Joshua Mills, which teaches that Christians can have encounters with the dead and it promotes spirit travel.

This is when your body stays in one location, but your spirit goes to another.

They also might read Beni Johnson’s book The Happy Intercessor.

In it, Beni—who is Bill Johnson’s wife—claims that Christians can travel to specific cities and open portals and travel to the heavenly realm.

Students at the school have been known to try and levitate objects and walk through walls.

When asked about it, Bethel Church leaders just laugh and say the students are a “little out there.”

But they are “out there” because they are taught to be “out there.” They learn this weirdness from their leadership.

For example, once the students have their prophetic powers “activated,” they are sent into the Redding community to “prophesy.”

They will go to psychic fairs in the city and set up shop and “prophesy” by giving “spirit readings.”

Their so-called “spirit readings” are actually “prophetic words” they give to fairgoers using the techniques for prophesying they have learned at Bethel...

Holly Pivec

They don’t want to say anything religious in order to not offend, so as they give the readings, they refer to God as the “Spirit of Creation.”

They have also been known to used “Destiny Cards.”

Destiny Cards, designed by a Christian organization named Christalignment, have been likened to tarot cards by team leaders at Christalignment. The card images of angels, animals and nature scenes…The pictures have symbolic meanings and function much like tarot in the hands of prophetic readers.

Holly Pivec

And as if this is not enough, they also teach a version of telepathy, where two people can communicate with each other with no words or motions. Just by reading each other’s minds.

NEW AGE OCCULT

If you hear this and you think, “Talking to the dead…portals…telepathy…levitation…This all sounds like New Age occult practices, well—you are exactly right.”

The New Apostolic Reformation is really just that—New Age occult married to a version of Prosperity Gospel Christianity.

And it is incredibly dangerous for those who fall for it.

See, we do have a supernatural belief as Christians.

For example, we believe God has given us the Holy Spirit to live us.

And as a result, we all have spiritual gifting.

There are a few places in the Bible that lists out spiritual gifts out and Romans 12:6-8 is one of those places.

Romans 12:6–8 ESV

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

By God’s grace, we use those gifts to help build the Lord’s church and serve Him in the Great Commission as we herald the Gospel and make disciples.

But notice the thrust of the gifts.

They are not about having classified knowledge directly from the Lord or the ability to bend the laws of nature or interact with the dead.

They are focused on the glorification of Jesus Christ and the building up of His people.

Bethel’s New Age practices have a different thrust. They also focus on this activated ability of the possessor of the gift.

The person with the gift is exalted—not God, the supposed Gift-giver.

See, Doug Geivett and Holly Pivec are right when they tell us that the teachings of the Bethel School is just Christianized occult behavior.

If you go and read New Age materials, you will hear all the same language.

You will hear about psychic abilities that you have that need to be activated and awakened.

You will hear about the ability to interact with the dead and have secret insight into peoples’ lives and the affairs of the world.

You will hear about the power of the human mind to change reality and manifest new realities

It is all the same garbage being served up to the next generation at this school by the Bethel leaders—It has just had Jesus’ name blasphemously attached to it.

And truthfully, we have to say that this puts the people involved in the New Apostolic Reformation in danger.

The leaders, the students and everyone in between.

I say that because these New Age occult practices are expressly warned against in God’s Word:

Deuteronomy 18:9–12 ESV

“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

These practices are an abomination before the Lord.

So in one sense, those who are rebelling against God’s law and teaching and doing these things have made themselves His opposition.

But it is also dangerous on the grounds that the occult is actually playing around with evil things that have the ability to cause great harm in the lives of those who will give themselves over to it.

The devil is real. Demons are real.

And when you start toying with tarot cards and spirit readings at psychic fairs, you are asking for demonic influence and strongholds to come and set up shop in your life.

I have no doubt that Bethel Church, Bethel’s Supernatural School and the New Apostolic Reformation churches and gatherings around the world are incredibly spiritual.

The question is—what kind of spirits are they interacting with?

SENDING THEM OUT

So then, we have to say that one of the main reasons that the New Apostolic Reformation is spreading is because of Bethel’s School of Supernatural Ministry, and other schools like.

Is it any wonder that occult-like practices are spreading rapidly among Christians? More than 13,000 students have graduated from the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry and taken these practices back to their home churches around the world. Some well known BSSM graduates have taken their training back to influential organizations where they hold leadership roles.

Holly Pivec

It is in their own mission statement:

BSSM is designed to be a ministry training center where our students embrace their royal identity, learn the values of the Kingdom and walk in the authority and power of the King.

BSSM Mission Statement

It is a ministry training center.

They are sending them out.

MODERN WORSHIP MUSIC

The second reason that the New Apostolic Reformation has taken off with Millenials and Gen-Z has to do with music.

Bethel Music, along with NAR groups like Jesus Culture, have infiltrated the music libraries of an overwhelming amount of evangelical churches, including this one, up until about four years ago.

We got fooled. They started putting out music that looked fine on the surface. We started singing it along with thousands of other churches.

We did songs like Good, Good Father. This song was written by Housefires, a group out of Atlanta, heavily influenced by the New Apostolic Reformation.

The song became a #1 hit when Chris Tomlin recorded it in 2016.

If we go back and look at the lyrics, you can hear the NAR teaching loud and clear.

Oh, I've heard a thousand stories of what they think You're like But I've heard the tender whisper of love in the dead of night

Good, Good Father

I’ve heard stories of what they think you are like

But I really know what You are like because you came to me at nighttime and whispered in my ear...

Just like Jesus came into Kris Vallotton’s bathroom and told him he was going to be a prophet, right?

Do you know how I know what God is like?

He revealed Himself to us in nature, in His Word and most of all in the perfect revelation of His Son, Jesus Christ.

And I know these things, from the Word itself.

It is not from a subjective, tender whisper in the ear as I’m trying to get to sleep.

It is from the objective Word of truth.

Or take the song Reckless Love which took Christian radio by storm. We did not sing it here, but many churches latched on. I remember our Student Pastor going to preach at another church in the area and he told me they were belting it out.

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine I couldn't earn it, and I don't deserve it, still, You give Yourself away Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Reckless Love

God’s love is not reckless.

Reckless means: without thinking or caring about the consequences of an action.

God’s plan is not without His thinking. It is born from His perfectly, wise and inscrutable mind.

God’s plan was decreed with the consequences in mind—He would save a people for Himself—HIs own glory!

His Son’s glory is the consequence of the salvation He has planned and wrought for us.

The song’s entire premise has no understanding of God’s sovereignty and character and love.

It is an unbiblical song.

So why was it accepted?

Why was it re-recorded by people and used in congregational worship?

I would argue that it is because the people who made it have fooled us into thinking that we feel about God is more important than what God has said about himself.

And I fear that attitude has permeated way too much of the American church’s worship today in general.

Some of Bethel’s songs could stand on their own and you probably would never know they came out of a false church.

Take for instance the song, “Goodness of God,” by Jenn Johnson—Bill and Beni’s daughter.

On the surface, the lyrics are pretty good.

But if you look into Jenn Johnson herself, she has famously taught that the Holy Spirit comes to her as a humorous, unplanned blue genie who passes gas.

What sort of God is she really singing about in her song?

Now—is every church that sings Bethel songs fully given over to the New Apostolic Reformation?

Of course not.

But let me also issue this word of warning:

If Satan, who will present himself as an angel of light, wanted to infiltrate the worship ministry and library of thousands of evangelical churches with songs that actually undermine the authority of Scripture, what would I do?

I probably wouldn’t want to try and do it with a song called, “I Hate the Bible.”

No church is going for that.

I would want to take subtle lies and couch them with Christian language that people are used to.

After all, the snake hidden in the grass is much more dangerous to us than the cobra who dances out in the open.

MONEY

Furthermore, Bethel Music is a money-making machine.

Unless you are singing songs that are public domain, as a church you have to report what you have sung to CCLI

and those artists get money for every time a church sings their songs.

Is it pennies on the dollar? Sure. But those pennies add up.

In 2017/18, Bethel Church reported 60 million dollars in revenue. The overwhelming majority of that money came from royalties and not tithes and offerings.

The reality is that the New Apostolic Reformation is getting major funding from their music.

It is happening through streaming and through licensing.

This is why I won’t even stream one of their songs.

I don’t want them getting a penny off of me that will help fund this poisonous movement.

WHY IS IT SO DANGEROUS?

Now let’s consider our second question for the night:

Why is this sort of teaching so dangerous?

Well apart from what has already been stated, I believe that this is dangerous because there is a battle for the heart of American Christianity right now.

I see many camps.

I see an anemic pop Christianity that features over-the-top, prop-filled topical sermons that chop God’s Word up into greeting card platitudes which sooth the listeners enough to get them to open their wallets before they get in their cars and leave—sucking on the pacifier of the moral therapeutic deism that was given to them the whole way home.

I see an overly politicized Christianity that think America is God’s chosen nation and sees the whole Bible through the lens of current affairs and election cycles.

I see a so-called progressive, LGBT-affirming version of Christianity that neuters the Bible so that it can fit in with the sensibilities of our post-modern culture.

I see consumeristic Christianity that is mainly concerned with being entertained and served at church, allowing members to exist with no real accountability or authenticity.

Thankfully, I also see a robust, theologically sound, Word-centered Christianity in many denominations, where good brothers and sisters are holding the line and fulfilling their ministry.

And then there is this New Apostolic Reformation.

It has grown in popularity year after year.

The music has given them a foot in the door.

The school is training up young people to send back to those churches where there is a foot in the door, so they can open it up all the way and get those churches aligned with an Apostle and on board with this miraculous movement.

Make no mistake—one of the seven mountains that NAR leaders say must be conquered is church.

I don’t guess that they want to take over our churches.

I know it.

It is in their mission statement loud and clear.

Just like government and culture and the arts—every church must be aligned so that the return of Christ will come.

It is dangerous because it is both insidious and intentional.

But we certainly be surprised—that is how Satan works.

HOW DO WE RESIST IT?

First of all, we took a big step in 2020.

When we stopped singing songs from Bethel and from Prosperity churches like Hillsong and Elevation, we cut ourselves off from this stuff in a big way.

That wasn’t easy. I know for many of you, you liked those songs or those songs represent a genre of music you enjoy.

On the other side of all that, I want to thank you for hearing me out and then Ben out as he arrived.

And I want to thank you for adjusting.

And I hope you see why I was so adamant and why our conscience just couldn’t rest with it.

Secondly, we should be on the lookout in what we consume.

As we will talk about this Sunday when we observe the Bereans in Acts, we have to be discerning.

Just because they sell it on a Christian bookstore website or it is under the genre of “Christian” on Spotify or Apple or Amazon doesn’t make it safe.

I don’t care if it comes from a NAR church or it is written by the songwriting team at this church—we must discern before we consume or as we consume.

We can’t hold our Bibles and act as if we are ignorant about the truth.

1 John 4:1 ESV

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Thirdly, we should be on the lookout in the lives of our friends and family.

If we see family members or other church members reading this stuff or listening to it, we should be gently let them know about some of these abominable things taking place in the New Apostolic Reformation.

Friends don’t let friends hang out in the New Apostolic Reformation.

Josh Kappes wouldn’t let me twenty years ago when I nearly joined that church in Richmond.

We shouldn’t either.

We should be zealous enough for our friends and family and the Lord’s truth that we will lovingly take the bold step of offering some insight on false teaching of NAR and its leaders.

Fourthly, we should drink as much truth as we can, as often as we can.

The more good books we read, good sermons we hear and good Christians we spend time with, the more Gospel truth we will study and soak up.

And when you are so familiar with the real thing, you can spot the fake.

I’ve probably eaten 500 bowls of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in my life.

You aren’t getting generic CTC past me. Understand?

I will sniff it out.

I know the hard stuff from the watered down.

Imbibe truth vigorously and you will know the false poison when it hits your lips.

And truthfully, this is a good place for us to end this entire series. Know the truth, so you can detect the lie.

It might be the twisted apocalyptic lies of Charles Taze Russell and Judge Rutherford and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

It might be the false testimony of Joseph Smith and the Mormon Church.

It might be the theiving, lying poverty of the Prosperity Gospel.

Or it might be the deformed New Age occult practices of the New Apostolic Reformation.

Know Christ. Know the Gospel. Know the truth.

We will spot the counterfeit when we see it.