The church today is facing an unprecedented onslaught that challenges its very existence. You will be surprised and shocked at where this onslaught originates.
Since its birth in the first century, the church has constantly faced challenges to its validity and existence from many quarters. Government and political powers have been a constant challenge, with the perception that the Christian church was a challenge to secular government’s power and control. This was not without some merit, as the long history of the Catholic church and its insatiable quest for absolute power over many centuries will attest to.
False religions, cults and sects have arisen throughout church history and challenged the validity of the Christian message. Even so, the church has stood firm, and continues to stand firm even in the face of our postmodern society that has relegated faith to the trash heap.
Sadly, over the past sixty years, a new challenge to the church has risen, and shockingly it comes from WITHIN!! The church has not been ready for such an onslaught, and is still ill prepared to face the reality of the challenge. Instead, it seems that the church generally has just continued plodding on, and is ignoring the reality that its very existence is under threat.
A troubling fact is that the church seems completely blinded to the reality and magnitude of this threat. My research work over the past eight years has constantly found church leaders and ordinary Christians totally oblivious to any challenge. Many church leaders and even denominational leaders regularly downplay any threat, citing a skewed perception of ‘maintaining unity’ or ‘let’s not attack our own’. The frightening reality is that many Christians and church leaders seem to have blatantly been blinded to the ongoing and potentially catastrophic challenge. Many folk have told our researchers ‘… but, they are quoting Scripture, they must be Christian!’
The sad reality is that, many well-meaning Christians and church leaders think that, simply because a person quotes 2 or 3 verses from the Bible, and uses the correct ‘churchy’ words, then they must obviously have the blessing of God on their ministry. Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth.
The Bible is clear that even Satan comes to deceive us ‘dressed as an angel of light.’
The challenge that I am referring to has many names, but is as slippery as an eel. It is everything but nothing at the same time. It is like a chameleon, constantly shifting and changing, claiming frequent fresh revelations from God to try and justify its agenda. The premise of the movement is that, for approximately 1800 years, God had either forgotten or neglected to equip His church on earth for the key function of preaching the gospel to all nations.
Now, it would seem, the leaders of the movement have been so very astute and sensitive to the ‘voice of God’ that it is to them (and it would seem them alone) that God is restoring these long-forgotten truths, and so the church now suddenly needs to submit to the (self proclaimed) authority of these leaders (they call themselves Apostles and Prophets), so that we can continue to receive God’s blessings, and be ‘re-aligned’ with this NEW THING that God is doing!
The sad reality is that, when one reads and researches the history of this movement, we quickly stumble across a heap of heretical thought and teaching from some very suspect and questionable characters (laughably called ‘Generals of the Faith’ by many in this movement.) The movement is colloquially called the New Apostolic Reformation, a name coined by the self-proclaimed leader and so-called architect of this movement.
As our years of research has clearly uncovered, this movement, whatever it is called, is simply an out-of-control cult of personality, with leaders drunk on their own quest for power, using whatever means at their disposal (practices, doctrines, teaching and experiences that can easily be traced to Paganism, New Age, and even the Occult) to gain their domination over the church.
We stand at the crossroads. Friends, our challenge is clear: continue to do nothing, and even to actively entertain these charlatans in our midst, or stand up and challenge the threat head on, using what God has actually said to His people (the Scriptures), and to educate our people in the truth. Let us not be timid, but let us stand together, and HAVE NOTHING TO DO with these pretenders. God has called us to be faithful, to submit to His Word, and to ‘become more like Jesus’ in our living and actions, so that the world, as they look at us, can see Jesus, and be drawn to Him.
The purpose of ‘The Bedrock’ website is to present what we call ”Bedrock” and “Sand” doctrines, to provide biblically-based materials for your study, and to expose the false and dangerous practises and teachings of this movement.
May you continue to be blessed as you follow and uphold the faith, once and for all given to us, as recorded in the writings of the true apostles, as found in Scripture.
(Photo by Tara Scahill on Unsplash)