The SBC Executive committee released a guide designed to support members during the upcoming National Day of Prayer. Captioned ‘How to pray the 2021 theme, Lord, Pour out your Love, Life, and Liberty into the Seven Centers of Influence in America for the National Day of Prayer, May 6, 2021.‘ The guide is the spitting image of the New Apostolic Reformation’s notion of the “Seven Mountain Mandate.”
The idea of the “Seven Mountain Mandate” was first introduced in the summer of 1975 by Loren Cunningham and Bill Bright, it’s birth the result of a “direct revelation from God.” The two men brought it to the Church as something that must be shared and it was quickly latched on to and popularized within charismatic circles by “prophets,” “prophetesses,” and “apostles” such as C. Peter Wagner, Chuck Pierce, Lance Wallnau, and Cindy Jacobs.
According to gotquestions.org, “Those who follow the seven mountain mandate believe that, in order for Christ to return to earth, the church must take control of the seven major spheres of influence in society for the glory of Christ. Once the world has been made subject to the kingdom of God, Jesus will return and rule the world.”
The seven mountains, according to the seven mountain mandate, are: 1) Education, 2) Religion, 3) Family, 4) Business, 5) Government/Military, 6) Arts/Entertainment, 7) 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. The mountains are also referred to as “pillars,” “shapers,” “molders,” and “spheres.” Those who follow the seven mountain mandate speak of “occupying” the mountains, “invading” the culture, and “transforming” society.
When we look at the guide that the SBC introduced, we see the exact same mandate and the exact same mountains:
While the NAR wants to take dominion and sociopolitical control of these categories through their prayers, with the help of their apostles and prophets, in the form of dreams, visions, and direct revelation from God, we are thankful that the SBC hasn’t gone there.
But ripping off a play from their playbook is wildly inappropriate and completely unnecessary. The SBC needs to stop borrowing from the NAR and stop repackaging “the seven spheres of influence” as “the seven centers of influence.” SBC Churches don’t need to borrow anything from the NAR, and that includes inspiration for their prayer guides.
Richard Roberts, the CEO of Oral Roberts Ministry, wrote an article for Charisma News where he lauded and praised the famous modalist for his “powerful words” and “wisdom and insight” on the topic of “communicating to breakthrough in relationships” during an appearance on his podcast Expect a Miracle.
Unless an orthodox Trinitarian, T. D. Jakes has gone on record as saying he doesn’t believe that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, but rather is just a “manifestation” of God. In fact, even now his church website reads “There is one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in three manifestations: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”
Despite not being a Christian even a little, Roberts gave Jakes free reign to discuss a host of topics, as well as promote his new book “Don’t Drop The Mic,” all while describing the encounter and conversation with Jakes as “Spirit-filled.”
Unfortunately, this is not the first time the purveyor of theological poison known as Charisma has promoted and endorsed Jakes. They have a long history of it, showing again why they have no discernment, and no regard for the love of truth or foundational Christian doctrine.
(Reformation Charlotte) In a recent statement by the charismatic sub-Christian sect of professing Christendom titled the Prophetic Standards Statement, well-known Evangelical theologian, Wayne Grudem joined a host of false prophets affirming that those who prophesy falsely are not actually false prophets.
If that sounds crazy, it’s because it is. And it’s because charismatics are, by nature, simple-minded and opposed to any kind of deep-thinking theological critique.
While the entire statement is a walking contradiction to the Scriptures, declaring that churches must “make room for spontaneous utterances as the Spirit wills,” most of the signers of the statement are blasphemers that should come as no shock: i.e. Kris Vallotton of Bethel Church, several New Apostolic Reformation “Apostles,” and the world’s most notable apologist for the Montanist heresy, Michael Brown.
On the other hand, that educated men like Wayne Grudem wouldn’t be able to see these contradictions inconceivable. They see the contradictions and basic fallacies opposed to their own doctrine and statement of faith in this statement, yet, they choose to ignore it.
After rejecting the idea that modern-day prophecy is on the “same level” as biblical prophecy–as though God’s revelation is somehow less authoritative today than it was in biblical times–the statement goes on to contradict God’s standard for prophets.
One of the most contradictory affirmations in this statement reads as follows:
Finally, while we believe in holding prophets accountable for their words, in accordance with the Scriptures, we do not believe that a sincere prophet who delivers an inaccurate message is therefore a false prophet. Instead, as Jesus explained, and as the Old Testament emphasized, false prophets are wolves in sheep’s clothing, in contrast to true believers who might speak inaccurately (see Matt. 7:15-20; Jer. 23:9-40; Ezek. 13:23). Thus a false prophet is someone who operates under a false spirit masquerading as the Holy…
As we work on a new investigation regarding Mark Driscoll, we wanted to call attention to a salient fact that has come up in the course of our reporting: his new church has no elders.
You’ll recall that back in 2014, Driscoll was embroiled in a controversy for his abusive and bullying style of leadership. Overseeing 14,000 people across multiple campuses in five states, he was also taking heat for a plagiarism scandal uncovered by Janet Mefferd and a book-buying scheme highlighted by Chris Rosebrough, where Pastor Mark reached the NYT best-sellers by having his church buy tens of thousands of his own book, unfairly inflating the numbers.
As a result of these actions, he was called out by over 20 elders, many of who later admitted that they were “yes men” and were ashamed that they let him get away with his behavior for so long. The majority wanted him to be disqualified from ministry completely, with a handful desiring that he take a break from the pulpit but not be declared disqualified per se, so that he could return to preach once he got his house in order.
Rather than repent and stick around to go through church discipline and potentially be restored, submitting himself to the authority of his elders, Driscoll jumped ship, moving 1400 miles to Scottsdale, Arizona, where he planted The Trinity Church.
Slowly, he has rebuilt his empire, even as his theology got squishier. He mocked reformed theology and described Calvinism as “garbage.” He publicly apologized for criticizing Joel Osteen. He started selling copies of his sermon notes online, as well as pushed seeker-sensitive services like “swimsuit Sunday.” He even defended the Roman Catholic Church, saying they “believe in the essentials.”
Despite resigning in disgrace and possessing a penchant for theological violence, people flocked to him at his new home, and his church has grown immensely in the last few years, recording over 1000 people attending earlier services this month.
But Driscoll has never repented. He was not changed. Rather than submit to his elder team he chose to flee instead. He picked up his ball and went home, resulting in some of his abusive ways to begin creeping up in his new kingdom. Warren Throckmorton, whose investigations were invaluable in 2013-2015 in exposing the original mess, has begun to roll out testimony from former congregants and staff members of Trinity, detailing more of the same from a pastor who has clearly not learned his lesson.
Non-disclosure agreements are again being used. Money is again conditioned on silence. People are describing abrupt decisions about membership without due process. Friends and family who are considered disloyal to the church are being shunned…
Unfortunately, as we alluded to earlier, Driscoll has set himself up as Pope of his own church, removing any of the limiting factors that previously constrained him, chiefly, the presence of elders.
Despite having hundreds and hundreds of people attending each week, there are no elders at The Trinity Church. Instead, there are five other pastors, none of whom function in the office of an elder with the accountability and decision-making process that goes with it. He does have a small corporate board made up of a handful of people, some who don’t even go to his church, and others who aren’t even pastors.
Whereas in years past Driscoll defended a biblical understanding of the office of elders in his teaching and in his books, he has since disavowed their importance, choosing to abstain from anything that may tinker with his power or do him dirty by daring to take him to task for his many acts of malfeasance. In fact, Throckmorton is covering one right now.
Armed with the keys to the kingdom, Mark finally gets to call the shots all on his own, unencumbered by a biblical ecclesiology or any sort of accountability.
With Driscoll, we’ve seen this all before, and we know how it all will end.
Joshua Harris, author of I kissed dating Goodbye and well-known apostate recently sat down for an interview with Nadia Bolz Webber, a tattooed, self-described “Bull-Dyke” and host of The Confessional Podcast.
Nadia, the former pastrix of House for All Sinners and Saints (which the church body refers to as an acronym – HFASS – and they pronounce it “half-ass” – an ELCA congregation). She left the church a few years ago and was replaced by a gay man married to a drag queen. Other than being known for her vulgarity and crudeness, she has been in the news for explaining that she would like to melt down all purity rings and form them into a vagina statue in honor of Gloria Steinem, along with advocating for the use of “ethically sourced porn.”
Naturally, Josh Harris would be right at home on her podcast, who himself has been on a bit of roll. Considered one of the most famous apostates in the last 50 years to publicly repudiate his faith, the LGBTQ advocate recently took to Instagram where he praised Cardi B’s song WAP, explaining that it’s “basically the biblical book of Song of Solomon set to music” and pledging to block anyone who disparages her or her music.
He likewise explained that he as an atheist feels “closer to Jesus when I’m pissing religious people off,” and by and large has been praising people who deconstruct their faith, explaining that he does it because he still “cares about Christianity and what happens to it.”
The two are a great fit.
In an interview with Bolz-Webber, who seemed as satisfied as a cat who got into the cream that the author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye was knocking it down, Harris explains that prior to his apostasy, he wrote the book after an encounter with God and pledged to cut out his sexual sins, while at the same time pledging to be even more radical than most speakers on the subject.
I went on a church retreat and had a very powerful encounter with God, where you know, I just was like, I want to be serious about God, I want to serve God, and this dating relationship kind of embodied the holdout of submission to the Lord. And so I broke up and I felt so much guilt around, you know, dry humping her, touching her boobs, saying that I loved her, and that we would be together forever and then breaking up. I basically kind of came back. It was like this prodigal son moment where all of the ideas about dating and betrothal and courtship that my parents had been pushing on me, that I had been completely rejecting.
Writing the book brought him fame, and he shares how proud he was that people were listening to him and that he was gaining wealth and influence, such as appearing on James Dobson’s program, something his dad had never done. Harris gives a brief overview of the book, while explaining that the whole time he was abusing scripture and taking it out of context.
The main message of I Kissed Dating Goodbye was…if we want to be prepared for marriage and make the most of our single years, then dating is a distraction and can even be damaging, because we end up practicing an insincere love where we use people and we put ourselves in the backseats of cars where we’re tempted to have sex, and we end up focusing so much of our energy on being a boyfriend or being a girlfriend that we’re not actually preparing to be a healthy adult and we’re not ready for marriage.
And so it was making a very strong argument, really misusing scripture, taking scripture out of context, using stories and examples that were so overhyped and appealing to emotions, but basically making a strong argument that dating is a negative thing. And if we want to be really on fire for Jesus and serious about serving him, we will kiss dating goodbye until we’re actually ready to pursue marriage.”
Harris would write several follow-up books on the same theme, including Boy Meets Girl: Say Hello to Courtship where he describes how he met, courted, and married his wife, whom he later divorced.
Incidentally, his ex-wife, Shannon Bonne, is writing a book about her experiences within what she describes as an “evangelical cult” that left her with PTSD-like symptoms.
Bolz-Webber tells Harris that the book was rife with false promises and pushed the lie, “If we just don’t have sex until we’re married, then the sex is going to be so much better. And they went through so, so many feelings of shame, and so much repression, and so much guilt about their impulses.” Harris readily agrees, exhaling that he heard so many stories of people who experienced that, and that “My regret when I think back on all of that is that I didn’t see the flaws and the massive problems in the book sooner and that I didn’t listen to people who were trying to share those stories.”
He explains further:
I look back there were some blogs that started to be written when people were sharing stories. And I just didn’t go towards hurting people soon enough with compassion. And I think I think the wrong motivations there were wanting to please my fan base, the wrong motivations were not wanting to cut off the book royalties that were, that allowed me to enjoy a certain lifestyle and all those kinds of things. Like it’s almost like I didn’t want to open that door because it’s because who knows, who knows what’s on the other side of it.
As far as what led him to kick his house of cards down:
It took me going through massive personal pain. It took me failing in my own church in different ways. It took my church melting down for me to kind of hit the pavement and go, maybe I don’t have all the answers here. All of that had to happen before I was willing to start listening to people. And even then, I was terrified.
Well, it actually took anonymous websites where people started sharing their stories and the things that had happened to them for some of these stories to start to bubble up, because that was the only safe place that they could actually do that.
And that was the beginning for me of realizing, oh, my gosh, like we say we’re about grace. But there’s like the exact opposite of grace happening in the actual cultural experience of the church.
And I started seeing how negative that was. And I and that was the first moment where I thought, is my book a part of that?
Essentially I came to a place where I was like, I have to get out of this context. I don’t know how to lead this church out of the problems of thinking, because I’ve been raised in these problems of thinking, I don’t know any other way of leadership and I need to to heal myself.
Harris concludes by sharing his deep regret over publishing the book in the first place, explaining that it has since been unpublished after selling over a million copies and apologizing to anyone hurt by it.
I’m really deeply sorry that those ideas and my misguided ideas about sex, about dating in any way just gave you a wrong idea of your sexuality, of God, and that’s something that I really regret and I hope that you would just experience healing and know that there’s life on the other side of a lot of these wrong ideas, and that’s the journey that I’m on right now personally.
After a bit more chitchat – where Bolz-Webber discusses the damages further, she concludes the interview with a personalized benediction, as she does with all her guests.
So I hope you and everyone else hurt by purity culture have passionately consensual, unselfconsciously joyous, deeply transformative sex.
When Kat Kerr, our favorite pink-haired charismatic meme-bot and ‘Dr. Michael Brown-approved prophetess isn’t weaving an unbiblical tale of witchcraft and false theology by claiming that when babies die in miscarriage, sometimes God “puts them back” in the womb that St. Patrick’s mansion is surrounded by giant singing shamrocks, or that heaven is full of 20ft Sasquatch Warriors, ‘Fairies,’ and unicorns, she’s explaining that when Moses hid in the cleft of the Rock as God passed him by, he actually went on a time-traveling adventure.
I do know this, that when God put Moses in the cleft of the rock, God himself put Moses inside him. The cleft of the rock was inside God and all of time is shown in there. God’s been from the beginning to the end, the end of the beginning, it’s all inside him.
So when he hid Moses in there, Moses saw time begin. He saw the garden of Eden, (Shultz “Wow!”) He saw Adam and Eve, he saw that he would not have known about any of that. And so he said “as I pass by, when time passes by..I will show you the “hinder parts”. Those are the exact words. (Shultz “oooh, that’s what that means)”
The “hinder parts” wasn’t God talking about his back, the hinder parts were the parts of time that had gone before them. He showed Moses time before that time, and that’s how Moses knew about Adam End eve and all that stuff. So that was a whole different encounter that Moses had with God.
Steve Shultz joined in with the rest of the 100k viewers who watched this video on YouTube alone, praising Kat and thanking her for this fresh revelation and new insight into the scriptures.
Yeah. Wow okay, awesome. That’s…I never heard that explanation, that the hinder parts means ‘in history’ basically. Awesome! I always wondered where Moses got his revelation about the garden of Eden. That’s what you’re saying, that’s where it happened because he wrote those books. Okay.”
Televangelist Pat Robertson, 91, the living embodiment of the expression “creeping decrepitude has finally crept up on me,” took to the airwaves to criticize Kim Porter in the accidental shooting death of Duante Wright. Using some props, he demonstrated on air the difference between a plastic gun and a taser, while at the same time offering critical comments for the Law Enforcement and asserting that the officer involved in the George Floyd death ought to be “buried under the prison.”
Pulling out a plastic gun and a taser during his program, Robertson had co-host Terry Meeuwsen feel the difference between the two as he explained that there’s no comparison and he can’t believe the officer would make such a mistake.
There’s just no comparison between a taser and a gun. Now how she (Officer Kim Porter) made the difference when she shot that poor guy to death, (was saying) ‘this is what I thought…was my taser.’
And if you can’t tell the difference in the feel of those things, it’s crazy. You know, I am pro-police folks. I think we need the police. We need their service, and they do a good job, but if they don’t stop this onslaught, they cannot do this.
Robertson then turns to Chauvin and the unrest in Minneapolis, using a colloquialism that refers to a person either killed in prison, or more charitably, to spending so much time incarcerated that he perishes in prison, his body being interred on prison property.
Derek Chauvin, I mean, they oughta put him under the jail. He has caused so much trouble by kneeling on the [neck] of George Floyd…it’s just terrible what’s happening. And the police, why don’t they open their eyes to what the public relations are? We’ve got to stop this stuff.
Later on Robertson would opine, “We don’t have the finest in the police department…you cannot have a bunch of clowns running around who are underpaid and who really are not the best and brightest.”
(Reformation Charlotte) Apostasy is one of the most tragic phenomenons of Christianity. It never ceases to amaze how someone can live such a lie for such a long time only to end up renouncing their faith. Time after time, popular Christian figures have renounced their faith over the centuries–but it appears to be picking up at breakneck speed.
Now, another prominent Christian figure has renounced his faith–a former Desiring God writer and the author of the book, The Trauma of Doctrine, Paul Maxwell.
Maxwell made his announcement on his Instagram feed earlier today.
“What I really miss is connection with people,” Maxwell says, “what I’ve discovered is that I’m ready to connect again. And I’m kind of ready not to be angry anymore…
It’s nice of her to finally come out and say it. Despite enduring abuse for years by critics for saying we were too hard on Beth Moore – that we were ascribing false beliefs to her when we kept on insisting she is an egalitarian who believes women ought to preach – and that we were slanderers for questioning her commitment to this biblical doctrine – the “VexUs from Texas” took to Twitter to announce that she does not consider different beliefs on women preaching to be an issue of biblical inerrancy and authority any longer, called complementarianism a “doctrine of man,” and apologized for elevating it to the position she had, begging for forgiveness.
This is not a surprise for us, as we have been calling our shots and documenting this since the beginning. For years she has been making comments on social media congratulating other women when she hears they are preaching, encouraging them to pursue the pulpit, and informing them that she’ll pray they deliver a holy-spirit empowered sermon. This is the most blatant and clearest comment yet on where her mind is with this, though even now she continues to pull her punches.
In a follow-up interview with RNS, Moore continued to hedge her bets for Russell Moore and men like him, giving them plausible deniability and a pathway to defend her by saying, to the question of whether she was egalitarian or complementarianism:
I’m not going to be pushed into either category right now because that’s not my point. My point is that it has taken on the importance of a first-tier doctrine.
Cue Russell Moore’s future retort: “Nowhere did Beth say she waaaaaaasn’t a complementarian, only that she doesn’t believe we should elevate it to the same importance as the doctrine of the Trinity. We can all agree on that, can’t we?”
She did likewise with a tweet this morning, admonishing people for reading into her tweet rather than reading it.
With this new revelation, Moore will continue her trend of telling us what she really believes, now that she is free of the restrictive shackles of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Baptist Faith and Message. What she’ll be saying publicly and unambiguously in the next two years is what she’s been saying coyly and piecemeal for the last ten.
A preacher has come out swinging against ‘Satan’s Shoes” – the red pair of Nike shoes made in collaboration with Gay Rapper Lil Nas X and MSCHF that is alleged to contain a drop of human blood – describing them as a “direct affront to believers,” but he may not be one to talk.
The pastor in question, John Gray, released an Instagram video where he explained:
They’re selling shoes with human blood in them. And they’re selling for a particular amount which coincides with a Scripture reference to Jesus saying ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning’ – a direct affront to believers, disrespect and dishonor to people of faith during resurrection week…
I defy the devil who’s trying to snatch a generation, and the silence of the church because of fear is not okay with me! I’m not okay with it…Nobody fears the church. They don’t respect us as a people.
Speaking of affronts to believers, Gray is a former associate pastor at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church. He left there and joined Relentless Church in South Carolina in 2018, moving into a $1.8 million mansion “parsonage” paid for by said church. This is quite prescient, as ironically the only thing he has been “relentless” about is cheating on his wife while staying employed and wearing expensive clothing. That may have something to do with why “they don’t respect us.”
While Gray complains about a set of shoes being “an affront to believers,” a typical Sunday morning outfit from Gray may cost as much as years worth of rent for some of his congregation members, with Gray being a shining superstar on Preacherssneakers.
