New Apostolic Reformation

The New Apostolic Reformation, also called the NAR, which began in 2001, claims that God is restoring the offices of Apostle and Prophet, and is part of the dominionist movement. The movement claims that the apostles and prophets alone have power and authority to execute God's plans and purposes on earth so they are laying the foundation for a global church governed by the apostles and prophets. The founder of the New Apostolic Reformation was C. Peter Wagner who anointed himself as the Presiding Apostle. He claims the Church of the 21st Century will be ruled by the Apostles and Prophets. Wagner was succeeded by Chuck Pierce. The leaders of this movement place more importance on their dreams, visions and extra-biblical revelation than on the Bible, God's Word. They also get messages from trips to heaven, face-to-face conversations with Jesus and visits by angels.

The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is not an official denomination but is led by the new apostles and prophets. These apostles and prophets are the government for the New Order church that is emerging. They believe in direct revelation from God and many say that Jesus and angels visit them in person and that some of them have visited heaven and had conversations with Jesus. The NAR has an experience oriented theology along with mysticism. Some of the Apostles and Prophets are, Peter Wagner, Chuck Pierce, Lou Engle, Toddy Bentley, Cindy Jacobs, Rick Joyner, Bill Johnson, Mick Bickle, Bob Becket, Rick Warren, Charles Kraft, Eddie Smith, George Barna, and Paul Cain.

The New Apostolic Reformation has damnable doctrines like those of the Word of Faith movement with their little gods doctrine, the Positive Confession, those that teach the health and wealth gospel, and other heretical movements. The NAR movement has its roots in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, Latter Day Rain, Kansas City Prophets, Joel's Army, and the International House of Prayer-IHOP. The aim of the NAR is to bring people under a one world authority using Dominionism and the guise of restoring the offices of the Apostle and Prophet. The idea is to reclaim the world spiritually for God, and then Jesus will return. This view has been seductive to conservative Christians and when you combine this with the doctrine of the Kingdom Now/Dominionism from the Pentecostal/Charismatic camp you have a dangerous spiritual situation.

The NAR believes in extra-biblical revelation even though the Bible tells us in Deuteronomy, Proverbs, and Revelation that we are not to add to the Word of God. To be sure, God does still move today but when He does we are providentially led to do things or taken to places that do not require extra-biblical revelation for these things to take place. God does still perform miracles today. A miracle happens when God suspends the known laws of science and does something extraordinary. When God performs a miracle He does not need the preachers of the Word of Faith, NAR, nor any other health and wealth preacher. God can choose to heal without any of those.

This extra-biblical revelation gets worse. The NAR believes that the offices of apostles and prophets continue to this day and they are speaking for Christ in an ongoing revelation. The Bible tells us that when a pastor, shepherd or other teacher opens God's Word they are speaking from God's Word. The Word of Faith, the NAR, and the Roman Catholic Church all believe in extra-biblical revelation. That is why they can unite under one church banner in the end times and become the one world church and bring in the New World Order. We already have the Word once delivered to the Saints and have no need of extra-biblical revelation. Peter told us of false teachers that bring these destructive heresies, 2 Peter 2:1.

Here are some of the teachings of the NAR. The NAR teaches that there is a transferable impartation of the Holy Spirit which can be imparted upon individuals by NAR apostles. These Apostles are equal to or greater than the original twelve Apostles of the church age. Slain in the Spirit is a common practice of NAR. They also have large prayer meetings to lure orthodox Christians to bring them under the influence of their teachings. They supposedly cast out territorial demons through a practice called Prayer Walking. They deny the trinity, the divinity and personhood of Christ, the supremacy of Scripture, salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and the fact that He is going to return to judge and rule the earth. They believe in Dominionism which requires us to conquer the earth before Christ will return. All of the above are false teachings and false beliefs.

Let's look at one of the qualifications for foundational Apostles. In Acts 1:22 we find that a New Testament apostle was required to be eyewitnesses of the resurrected Jesus. When Paul defended his apostleship he said, "Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen our Lord?", 1 Corinthians 9:1. Then Paul goes on to say that "After that, He was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time." 1 Corinthians 15:7-8. The words "last of all" tells us that Paul was the last in a series, and thus the last of all apostles. Then we should note that foundational apostles were directly commissioned by Christ, Romans 1:1; Galatians 1:1. Obviously, no one today can meet the qualification of having seen the risen Christ with their own eyes so there are no apostles today. Another proof is that we have the writings of the apostles in the New Testament which was given to us as authoritative teaching and governing functions which were fulfilled by the apostles themselves in the early years of the church. We are not to add to nor take away from these teachings which are the word of God. This also means that we cannot have new revelations, Deuteronomy 4:12; 12:32; Proverbs 30:6; Revelation 22:18-19.