Yesterday I demonstrated that Francis Schaeffer was not a “Dominionist”, despite the conspiracy theories of the Dominionismists. Today (thanks again to Jeremy Pierce for the link) I can write that the other main alleged conspirator, C. Peter Wagner, is not a “Dominionist” either, at least not in anything like the sense of the word used by the conspiracy theorists. Wagner has written his own new “urgent message” explaining his position on these matters. Here is the most relevant section:
Dominionism. This refers to the desire that some of my friends and I have to follow Jesus and do what He wants. One of the things He does want He taught us to pray for in the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This means that we do our best to see that what we know is characteristic of heaven work its way into the warp and woof of our society here on earth. Think of heaven: no injustice, no poverty, righteousness, peace, prosperity, no disease, love, no corruption, no crime, no misery, no racism, and I could go on. Wouldn’t you like your city to display those characteristics?
But where does dominion come in? On the first page of the Bible, God told Adam and Eve to “fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, etc.” (Genesis 1:28). Adam, Eve, and the whole human race were to take dominion over the rest of creation, but Satan entered the picture, succeeded in usurping Adam’s dominion for himself and became what Jesus calls “the ruler of this world” (John 14:30). When Jesus came, he brought the kingdom of God and He expects His kingdom-minded people to take whatever action is needed to push back the long-standing kingdom of Satan and bring the peace and prosperity of His kingdom here on earth. This is what we mean by dominionism.
A theocracy. The usual meaning of theocracy is that a nation is run by authorized representatives of the church or its functional religious equivalent. Everyone I know in NAR would absolutely reject this idea, thinking back to Constantine’s failed experiment or some of the oppressive Islamic governments today. The way to achieve dominion is not to become “America’s Taliban,” but rather to have kingdom-minded people in every one of the Seven Mountains: Religion, Family, Education, Government, Media, Arts & Entertainment, and Business so that they can use their influence to create an environment in which the blessings and prosperity of the Kingdom of God can permeate all areas of society.
Thus to Peter Wagner and his fellows in the loosely structured New Apostolic Reformation, “dominion” means something quite different from what the conspiracy theorists are alleging, not at all like Rushdoony’s Christian Reconstructionism – and rather different from what Schaeffer believed. Is there anything here which any Christians can object to?
The best thing that can be said about the “Dominionismists” is that they are ignorant.
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The thing with the heresy hunters (those you call dominionismists, don’t try to say that even two times fast!) is that they HATE anyone who walks in authentic biblical Christianity in any form. They like to latch onto a word like “dominionism” as misused by the reconstructionists and turn it into a weapon to make the sheeples feel very “safe” from “those evil dominionists who want to rule the world like the taliban”.
When people live in fear, satan reigns and that is what heresy hunters want. I call them satanists for very, very good reason.
WOW – I just went and read the post on “unsettled christianity” –
I’ve written and deleted about ten comments because I can’t think of much I can say that should be said… told him that if he can’t see the difference between reconstructionism and the gospel of the Kingdom there is something very wrong.
Here is a comment which I just wrote on Joel Watts’ blog, which he would be within his rights to delete because the truths I am telling may be too personal even for him:
You are completely wrong simply because this (the subordinate clause) is not only untrue but is a lie from the pit of hell. By accepting this Satanic deception without even questioning its truth, without making any attempt to discover what the Seven Mountain Mandate actually is, you are doing Satan’s work – as well as being an entirely unscholarly dilettante (as is Jim West here) by not bothering to check your facts before writing.
OK, you claim to quote “C. Peter Wagner‘s book”, but he has written no less than 512 books, at least that is the number of items Amazon lists with him named as an author. But do you really deny that Jesus wants us “to do our part in bringing restoration to pass in real life”? Surely that is the very basics of the Christian call, such that to deny it as a principle is to deny the Christian faith altogether. Of course what this means in practice is debatable, but what you seem to be scared of is the principle without even having read Wagner’s version of the practice.
Rod, it was Jesus who used the word “nations”, in Matthew 28:19, and you who are “reading our views of the nation-state into scripture” and into Wagner’s words. There is nothing about modern nation-states in the article by Wagner which Joel quotes from P.J. Miller. For that matter there is nothing about “Dominionism” in the Christian Reconstructionism sense.
Kay, thank you for your comments. I only just refrained from calling Joel a Satanist. He is certainly playing into their hands.
I’m not so sure I’ll refrain 🙂 I’m going to go in a moment and have some fun.
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