God's Super-Apostles : Encountering the Worldwide Prophets and Apostles Movement

A new religious movement -- led by apostles and prophets -- has confused people, divided churches, and strained families as people are forced to make painful choices between those they love and what they believe to be the truth of God's Word. This global movement is known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). Although people may not know this movement by its formal name, they are probably familiar with its leaders, like Rick Joyner (MorningStar Ministries in Fort Mill, South Carolina), Bill Johnson (Bethel Church in Redding, California), and Mike Bickle (International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri). Likewise, NAR practices -- such as "prayerwalking," "healing rooms," and "24/7 prayer rooms" -- have permeated churches throughout the world. Read this book for a biblical response to the NAR movement and to learn how its teachings deviate from historic Pentecostal and charismatic teachings. - Back cover.God's Super-Apostles provides a concise entry-level overview of the key teachings and practices of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement. This is a key resource in grasping the significance of this global, confusing, and controversial movement. Read more... Abstract: A new religious movement -- led by apostles and prophets -- has confused people, divided churches, and strained families as people are forced to make painful choices between those they love and what they believe to be the truth of God's Word. This global movement is known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). Although people may not know this movement by its formal name, they are probably familiar with its leaders, like Rick Joyner (MorningStar Ministries in Fort Mill, South Carolina), Bill Johnson (Bethel Church in Redding, California), and Mike Bickle (International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri). Likewise, NAR practices -- such as "prayerwalking," "healing rooms," and "24/7 prayer rooms" -- have permeated churches throughout the world. Read this book for a biblical response to the NAR movement and to learn how its teachings deviate from historic Pentecostal and charismatic teachings. - Back cover. God's Super-Apostles provides a concise entry-level overview of the key teachings and practices of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement. This is a key resource in grasping the significance of this global, confusing, and controversial movement In the first century, a Jewish synagogue in the Macedonian city of Berea received a special visitor who brought new teaching. This visitor was the apostle Paul. His teaching was that Jesusrecently crucified and risen from the deadwas the Jews long-awaited Messiah. The people listened to Pauls new teaching with eagerness. They didnt chase him out of town and label him a false teacher for challenging their way of thinking. Rather, they showed a sincere open-mindedness about what he had to say. But they also wanted to be sure his teaching was true. These Bereans spent days searching their Scriptures to see if they supported the new teaching. After determining that they did, many became followers of Jesus. What does this story from so long agofound in Acts 17:10-12have to do with the book before you? Quite a lot. In the twenty-first century, churches in small towns and large cities throughout the world encounter teachers who, like Paul, are bringing new teaching. These teacherspart of the New Apostolic Reformation, NARalso call themselves apostles and prophets. Their teaching is that churches must submit to their leadership so they can advance Gods kingdom and prepare the earth for Christs return. Like the teaching Paul brought to Berea, the teaching of todays apostles and prophets is not unimportant. It has major effects on churches and the everyday lives of individual Christians. So, how should Christians respond to the new NAR teaching? The same way the Bereans did. We should hear it out with true sincerity and an open mind. We should not be quick to dismiss this teaching or to label it falsejust because its new to us. We should give it a fair hearing to see if it presents important truth that we have missed. We should also be sure the teaching is true. That means we should patiently search the Scriptures to see how this teaching matches up. If it does, then we should believe iteven if it goes against our own conservative traditions and limited experiences, and even if it makes us uncomfortable. But if it doesnt line up with Scripture, then we must cast it aside. Its with this spiritof open-mindedness, fairness, and thoughtfulnessthat weve endeavored to write this book. This is more than an academic exercise. Ive have wrestled passionately with specific passages of Scripture and asked God to guide me to correct understanding. In addition to studying their literature Ive attended NAR churches and conferences to observe NAR leaders deliver their teachings. And Ive spent countless hours talking with people who have been part of this movementseeking to understand it from their point of view. As a result, I sometimes found that my long-standing assumptions about certain issues were mistaken. Perhaps you will, too. Some readers may suspect were anti-charismatic. They may expect us to argue that the miraculous gifts described in 1 Corinthians 12including the gifts of prophesying, healing, and speaking in tonguesare no longer active in the church today. This is not our objective. Many Christians around the worldincluding charismatics and classical Pentecostalsbelieve that the miraculous gifts are still active, and we do not dispute their belief. Weve tried to show that NAR teachings do not represent the views of most charismatics or classical Pentecostalsbut are entirely different. We emphasize that not all people who are affiliated with NAR hold to all the same beliefs. As with any other large, multi-faceted movement, participants in NAR hold to a spectrum of beliefs, accepting some NAR teachings and being unaware of or rejecting others. Furthermore, not all NAR leaders work together or agree on everything. When we critique a particular teaching in this book, we dont mean to imply that all NAR leaders we address in this book hold to that same teaching. And when we use the descriptive term NAR to refer to specific leaders, books, organizations or the like, we do not mean to imply that these leaders, books, organizations, or other entities share all the same views. We dont address the most recent manifestations of the Holy Spirit that are occurring in NAR churches or the latest teachings or prophetic words. The phenomena observed in some of these churchessuch as the making of animal noises, Holy Laughter, and appearances of angel featherscome and go quickly and new phenomena take their place. Even the Glory Cloud that was reportedly making appearances at Bethel Church in Redding, California, a couple years ago has almost been forgotten. Theres a good reason these phenomena come and go. People in NAR believe that God is always doing a new thingand they hope not to miss out on the current move of the Holy Spirit by focusing on a past move. Rather than addressing each passing manifestation or latest prophetic word, we believe it will be more helpful to provide an enduring framework for understanding and evaluating NAR teachings as a whole. With this big-picture framework youll have a better understanding of NAR than many participants in the movement have. They may hold to a particular teaching here and another one there, but not understand how the teachings fit together into a larger theological framework that is the basis of NAR. If you have a loved one who has been drawn into this movement and you want a brief and accurate introduction to it, or if you are simply curious and want a basic introduction, this book is for you. After reading this book, if you want to know more, we encourage you to read our other book about this movement, A New Apostolic Reformation? A Biblical Response to a Worldwide Movement. There we go into much greater depth evaluating NAR teachings and describing the global influence of the movement. Content: What is the New Apostolic Reformation? -- NAR apostles : the generals -- Apostles in the Bible : a closer look -- NAR apostles vs. apostles in the Bible -- NAR prophets : the secret intelligence agents -- Prophets in the Bible : a closer look -- NAR prophets vs. prophets in the Bible -- Strategic-level spiritual warfare -- What the Bible really teaches about spiritual warfare -- Unifying the forces through apostolic unity -- A miracle-working army -- What the Bible really teaches about miracles -- Conclusion -- Appendixes. Advice for parents, pastors, and participants in the New Apostolic Reformation -- Questions to ask of churches -- Name-calling -- Glossary.