New Apostolic Reformation

The Pine Tree Flag, a.k.a. the "Appeal to Heaven" flag. Conceived in the American Revolution, it was appropriated by Dominionists and the New Apostolic Reformation in the 2010s, and was a flag frequently seen at the 2021 U.S. coup attempt.

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The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is a group of dominionist Pentecostals whose goal is to turn America into a theocracy. Its leader and founder is often taken to be C. Peter Wagner, though it is really a continuation of older ideas and movements, and the movement is hardly a unified movement with a clear leadership. According to Wagner, “The second apostolic age began in the year 2001,” when, according to him, the lost offices of “Prophet” and “Apostle” were restored in this age.

Like parts of the evangelical movement (particularly the parts with the more heretical elements like the prosperity gospel), "preachers" of the NAR movement prey on the poor and the sick that often are desperate for healing and for answers. However, instead of exploiting this group for money (like prosperity gospel preachers), the NAR movement sets up a scapegoat Other to demonize that, in spite of Biblical caution against such like Matthew 22:21, is largely driven by crass politics.

Basic tenets

The NAR interprets the nature of the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit within each believer, as most Pentecostals, but also emphasizes the direct revelation of Christ to each believer, including prophecy and miracles such as healing. Forrest Wilder describes the NAR as having “taken Pentecostalism, with its emphasis on ecstatic worship and the supernatural, and given it an adrenaline shot,” and furthermore that the NAR “can tend toward the bizarre” and that it has “taken biblical literalism to an extreme.”

Controversially for Christianity, this emphasis on direct revelation extends to the leadership level; NAR insists that the church must be ruled by independent, supernaturally gifted apostles and prophets. The NAR model revolves around a restoration of what they call the "five-fold ministry", which involves an apostolic system of governance. (Like a lot of NAR's tenents, this concept is cherry-picked from a single Biblical verse: Ephesians 4:11) Essentially, this reverses the Protestant Reformation's center of the individual believer working out their own salvation, where authority lied in Scripture alone, and church governance structures were based on a democratic system of elders.

C. Peter Wagner claims that “the majority of the new apostolic churches,” such as NAR, observe “active ministries of … spiritual warfare,” and claims that God has acted through him and other members and granted them supernatural abilities. For instance, he claims that God acted through him to end mad-cow disease in Germany. Lou Engle, another central NAR member, has claimed that his organized prayer rallies, The Call, have prevented a multitude of natural disasters, for instance by saving Texas from deadly tornados.

The NAR is also behind the prayer rally "The Summons 2012" to be arranged in Washington DC September, 2012. Speakers include Tony Perkins, Harry Jackson, Rep. Louie Gohmert, and Rep. Randy Forbes.

The founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, plays a key role in NAR lore. However, rather than embrace Penn's anti-theocratic vision of religious liberty, the NAR warps the actual historical narrative into one where God gave Penn a vision for a theocratic state, cherry picking (once again) Penn's 1681 quote that the territory he'd been granted would be a "holy experiment" and the "seed of a nation".

NAR as the American Taliban

The NAR has been called “America’s Own Taliban” for their plans to implement the End Times and install a theocracy in the US. Their means also resemble their more famous Afghan spiritual allies. NAR engages in “strategic level spiritual warfare”, which include destroying cultural artifacts that represent secularism, paganisms, or branches of Christianity. For instance, NAR leaders have bragged online about the destruction of Native American religious artifacts, perceiving the destruction as a liberating act, promoting “reconciliation” between estranged groups of people.

The ultimate goal is to take dominion over politics, business, and culture, to remove secular democracy, both in America and around the world, and replace it with Christian theocracy, an ideology known as dominionism. The purpose is apparently to “purify” the world for Christ’s imminent return.

Two ministries in the movement planned and orchestrated Texas Gov. Rick Perry's 2011 prayer rally, where an assortment apostles and prophets, including leaders of “prayer warrior” networks, appeared onstage. The rally followed the pattern of Lou Engle’s The Call; in fact, Engle himself has served in the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders of the NAR.

Currently, the NAR works with a variety of politicians, and is present in all 50 states.

Seven Mountains Mandate

As part of its effort to reclaim the US for Christ, the NAR has for several years run a campaign to reclaim what it calls the "seven mountains of culture" from demonic influence. It defines the "mountains" as:

• arts and entertainment
• business
• family
• government
• media
• religion
• education

The NAR teaches that these "mountains" have, quite literally, fallen under the control of demons; sin and corruption and poverty exist on the Earth because the planet has come under the control of a hierarchy of demons under the authority of Satan. The apostles must therefore reclaim the high places for God in order to bring about the kingdom of God on Earth.

Their particular targets apparently include Oprah Winfrey; Mike Bickle (who led part of Perry's prayer rally) characterized her as a precursor of the Antichrist.

The sole cherry-picked Biblical justification for the mountain symbolism is Revelation 17:9. (Never mind that, in reality, this verse likely refers to the seven hills of Rome.) This symbolism is combined with another cherry-picked verse, Isaiah 2:2-3, to attempt to justify the NAR's theocratic desires.

Strategic level spiritual warfare

To accomplish their goals and combat Satan and his demons, the apostles must engage in strategic level spiritual warfare. This means that it is not just a matter of evangelizing souls one by one. Instead, the NAR will go into a geographic region or a people group and conduct spiritual-warfare activities, including destruction of artifacts associated with secularism or other religions, in order to remove the demons from the entire population.

For instance, in November 2011, Engle held a rally in Detroit, the purpose of which was to fight the demonic spirit of Islam (though several participants seem to have been unaware of Engle’s agenda). The rally was, in the NAR’s eyes, an effort of spiritual warfare targeted against the spiritual demons that are apparently holding Muslims in bondage and preventing them from converting.

Another example of spiritual warfare is the March 2012 prayer rally in Sacramento to bring organized prayer back into public schools.

Anti-gay efforts

NAR has, somewhat predictably, claimed that gay people are controlled by “demonic spirits.” (Apparently one of Lou Engle’s sons has started an International House of Prayer in San Francisco where he is now expelling demons from homosexuals, thereby allegedly curing them of their homosexuality).

The apostles have had a long history in Uganda, and some of them have had close relationships with both political and religious leaders there. In fact, an apostle in Uganda, Martin Ssempa, takes credit for promoting the infamous anti-homosexuality bill and was recognized by the parliament in Uganda when the bill was introduced.

Donald Trump, God-Emperor

“”"For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."

—Matthew 24:24

While many in the NAR movement deified other Republican leaders in the past, the mixing of Republican politics and Dominionism significantly accelerated during the presidency of Donald Trump. Many people in the NAR movement (inexplicably) believed that Trump is an actual divine prophet sent by God to deliver conservative Christians back from cultural exile. Leaders of the movement endorsed Trump during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. After he won, several of its leaders advised him during his presidency and formed a "spiritual strike force" to protect him from Satan. Trump himself flirted with propaganda promoting this deification — in early 2024, Trump posted a video called "God Made Trump" that depicted Trump as God's direct messenger.

Under the influence of Trump, NAR leaders merged the politics of MAGA with the concept of "spiritual warfare", which took on the heretical guise of being about demonizing political adversaries. For example, a prominent NAR leader named Lance Wallnau believes that the MAGA movement is guided by Jesus against the devilish Democrats. As a result, Wallnau transforms political issues into battles of good vs. evil. According to Wallnau, Joe Biden is an Antichrist; environmentalists against fossil fuels are under the control of demons; Black Lives Matter is "witchcraft"; and those who defend the rights of the LGBTQ community are the "trans Taliban". Unsurprisingly, Wallnau adores the authoritarian Viktor Orbán. Wallnau has also partnered with prominent Republican political activists such as Charlie Kirk. In turn, multiple Republican politicians and judges have integrated with various NAR elements.

A pastor named Dutch Sheets — a C. Peter Wagner protégé who is one of the more prominent theocratic pastors demanding an end to the separation of church and state and an end to pluralism — perhaps epitomized this political and religious mixture best when he co-authored a document called the "Watchman Decree". The decree freely mixes religion and governance: decreeing that "our judicial system will issue rulings that are biblical and constitutional", mixing decrees that "the blood of Jesus covers and protect our nation" with decrees for desiring America to be "energy independent", and declaring that they don't just stand against "the occult", but "wokeness" as well.

As NAR is predominantly an American movement, NAR frequently integrates American political symbols (such as "1776" and the United States Constitution) with Christian religious symbols.

Many NAR leaders "prophesied" that Trump would win the 2020 U.S. presidential election. When this prophecy failed to occur and Joe Biden won, instead of accepting the result, some members of the NAR blamed the supposed influence of Satan instead. For instance, Dutch Sheets' reaction to Biden's win was to embark on a tour entitled Operation Valkyrie in order to prevent Satan from "tak[ing] over the nation". Much of the rhetoric at Sheets' "prayer meetings" during this tour sounded less like prayers and more like a call to arms ("expose the neck, swing the sword, finish the job"). Sheets was far from the only NAR "apostle" that espoused this rhetoric; many other NAR preachers fully endorsed Trump's Big Lie and believed that nefarious forces, rather than the will of the people, had deprived Trump of a second term.

Ultimately, the NAR played a critical role in encouraging the 2021 U.S. coup attempt. Eight days prior to the attack, 15 independent charismatic leaders held a meeting at Trump's White House to discuss a "spiritual war" strategy. Prior to the coup attempt, many NAR leaders, or those closely associated, participated in what they called "Jericho marches" (which refers to the story in the Bible in which God called Joshua to go and circle the city of Jericho and kill everyone in the city). Many NAR "apostles" were directly present at the coup attempt. The coup attempt was adorned with many Christian nationalism symbols, such as shofars (despite being more associated with Jewish custom) and the "Appeal to Heaven" flag; participants in the coup attempt spoke in tongues and sang militant Christian music. Post-coup attempt, NAR leaders were a significant part of the ReAwaken America Tour, which mixed dominionist theology with far-right political extremism, conspiracy theory culture, and open calls for violence.

Unsurprisingly, the NAR movement continued to worship at the alter of Donald Trump in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, allied by artifacts of the reactionary GOP like Turning Point USA. NAR preachers like Wallnau continued to "preach" a worldview where Trump (for some reason) will help American Christians rise up, defeat their demonic "evil" enemies (e.g. Democrats), and take their "rightful" place of power in the country.

Conspirituality, evangelical style

The New Apostolic Reformation crowd tends to overlap with the same crowd that is into grand unified conspiracy theories like QAnon. As a result, NAR gatherings are peppered with conspiracy theories on subjects like COVID-19 vaccines and other COVID-19 conspiracies, abortion and transgender conspiracies and misinformation, the "globalism" of the World Economic Forum, and other conspiracy nonsense.

Central figures

• Ché Ahn — Wagner protégé and a significant advocate of committing violent acts at the January 6 2021 coup attempt.
• Mike Bickle
• Lou Engle
• Cindy Jacobs
• Rick Joyner
• Thomas Muthee, the Kenyan pastor who anointed Sarah Palin at the Wasilla Assmbly of God Church in 2005, praying for Jesus to protect her from the spirit of witchcraft.
• Dutch Sheets — Wagner protégé and noted promoter of the "Appeal to Heaven" flag
• C. Peter Wagner
• Lance Wallnau — Former motivational speaker; played a key role in popularizing the "Seven Mountains Mandate" during Donald Trump's presidency.

Important allies

• Lauren Boebert
• Michael Brown
• Kenneth Copeland — Copeland has endorsed Seven Mountains Dominionism, and held a convention featuring Wallnau and Sheets.
• Randy Forbes
• Jim Garlow, who claims not to have heard about them, but has in fact worked with them on several occasions.
• Newt Gingrich
• Louie Gohmert
• Marjorie Taylor Greene
• Harry R. Jackson Jr.
• Mike Johnson
• Doug Mastriano
• Tom Parker — Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice; "Seven Mountains" theology endorser and participant in "prayer calls" with NAR apostle Clay Nash. Notable for the controversial decision on LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine where, citing the Bible, he declared that frozen embryos were people.
• Tony Perkins
• Rick Perry. The NAR was behind his 2011 prayer rally.
• Andrew Wommack

Relationship with the rest of Christianity

The idea of current-day teachers with apostolic authority sounds just too Catholic to modern Protestant ears. As a result, other fundamentalists have condemned the New Apostolic Reformation because they do not accept their claim to authority. Evangelical pastor Costi Hinn (the nephew of Benny Hinn), for instance, described the New Apostolic Reformation as a "destructive force" with "beliefs (that) trample the deity of Christ".

Likewise, even many evangelicals were disgusted by the melding of politics and religion that portions of the NAR movement encouraged. Perhaps this was underscored in March 2024 when Trump endorsed the God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, an edition of the King James Bible that included several American government documents, like the Pledge of Allegiance and the Bill of Rights, as well as the lyrics to a mawkish patriotic country music song from Lee Greenwood (who came up with the concept). This infuriated many Christian leaders, who saw the move as "sacrilege", "heresy", and completely against Christian principles. Notably, an evangelical pastor named Loran Livingston went viral for a sermon where he blasted the Greenwood/Trump Bible as "blasphemous" and "disgusting" and chastised those who mixed politics and the church.

See also

• Samuel Alito, who flew the Appeal to Heaven flag associated with this movement outside his beach house
• Joel's Army
• Dominionism
• Mike Johnson, speaker of House of Representatives since 2023

External links

• Rachel Tabachnik at Talk2action, Resource Directory for the New Apostolic Reformation.
• Matthew D. Taylor, The Violent Take it by Force: The Christian movement that is threatening our democracy. Center for Islamic Christian Jewish Studies, 2024
• Video summarizing the beliefs of the New Apostolic Reformation