2 Peter 2:1-3
“There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved ways, and the way of truth will be maligned because of them. They will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.”
Peter has started this part of his letter warning his readers about false teachers. He has compared them to the false prophets of the Old Testament. Before we move on to verses two and three, I want to finish with verse one.
Peter warns his readers that these false teachers will bring in false heresies, and then he says, “even denying the Master who bought them.” Paul writes in first Corinthians 6: 19-20, “Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.” In verse three, Peter uses the word depraved to describe the practices that these teachers are bringing into the church. Peter’s first letter was all about living a holy life in the midst of suffering. Now in this letter, he is warning his readers about teachers who would try to lead the early Christians away from this goal.
In verse three, Peter says, “Many will follow their depraved ways, and the way of truth will be maligned because of them.” It is important to note that Peter uses the word “many.” Just because a teacher or church is popular, does not mean that it is good. One of the fastest growing churches today is a brand of hyper-charismatic Pentecostalism known as the New Apostolic Reformation (or NAR). Bethel, Hillsong, and Elevation are part of this. Some of the well-known leaders of this movement include Bill Johnson, Che Ahn, Rick Joyner, and Heidi Baker. This movement is growing exponentially worldwide and is an example of a church being popular but wrong.
In Matthew 24: 24, Jesus says, “For false messiahs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” This is one of the signs of the end of the age that Jesus warns about. Holly Pivec and Douglas Geivett have several books on the NAR. In their book Counterfeit Kingdom they write, “His teachings show that the threat of false prophets is always present, especially in the final days leading up to His return. False prophets will disguise themselves as true believers, and they will work miracles that are so amazing that even believers are in danger of being deceived.”
So what does the NAR teach? First, it is important to understand that this is not a denomination. It is a movement made up of hundreds of churches and organizations around the world. Many of these teachers are also Word of Faith, which I will cover next. It is a relatively new movement, starting around the end of the last century and the beginning of this. They believe that 2001 marked the beginning of the Second Apostolic Age. Men and women who call themselves apostles and prophets are elevated to positions of leadership based on God-given authority. They are to govern the world-wide church. All Christians (churches, pastors, etc.) must be under the authority of an apostle and prophet. Signs and wonders (miracles, mass conversions, raising people from the dead, etc.) are to be expected. They believe that Jesus cannot return until the church has dominion over the earth.
There are many problems with this theology. The first is how the apostles are appointed. Their authority is supposed to be God-given, and they are recognized by other apostles and prophets and then appointed. Once this office is conferred, they can then use the title. They supposedly hear directly from God, or from the prophet they work with. There is no accountability. Remember that the original apostles walked with Jesus. He hand-picked them. And Paul had a dramatic conversion where he saw Christ. None of the so-called apostles today can claim this. In addition, these apostles claim to receive new revelation for the church. While they claim that this is not on par with Scriptures, Pivec and Geivett write in their book A New Apostolic Reformation: A Biblical Response to a Worldwide Movement, “In claiming to give new revelation that is binding on all Christians, are they not claiming, in effect, that their revelation should be treated on a par with Scripture, even if their words aren’t physically appended to a Bible?”
The second problem is with prophets in the NAR. They claim to have divine authority to speak for God. They prophecy to local churches, as well as nations. But they do not teach that they must be 100% accurate. As I showed in my last post, that was a qualifying factor for God’s prophets. If someone is going to claim to speak for God, they had better get it right! Again you can read my post on prophets where I expand on this topic.
And the last problem I will address in this post is their goal of establishing dominion over the earth. Che Ahn is one of the self-proclaimed apostles in the movement. He leads Harvest International Ministry which is an Apostolic Network with more than 25,000 affiliated ministries and organizations in over 65 nations. He writes this in his book Modern Day Apostles:
“I believe we’re in that season where God is changing the expression and understanding of Christianity. For example, we focus on saving souls, which I strongly believe in. But now we understand that when Jesus said He came to seek and save that which was lost, He was speaking of more than individual salvation. Jesus was speaking of what was lost in the Garden of Eden, the presence of Heaven here on earth.
God wants to see Heaven on earth again, and that means bringing about social transformation. The expression of Christianity has shifted from individual salvation to discipling nations, which includes social transformation. To bring this about God has restored the office and gifts of the apostle through Apostolic networks.”
Excuse me?! God has moved away from individual salvation? Does this sound right to anyone? Is it any wonder that Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote this in his letter. “Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all” (vs. 4). Paul dedicates an entire section of one of his letters to the church at Corinth to deal with the problems of the so-called super-apostles- false teachers who were spreading their doctrine within the church. He writes, “For if a person comes and preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit, which you had not received, or a different gospel, which you had not accepted, you put up with it splendidly!” (2 Corinthians 11:4). He ends this section the way Peter ends. “For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no great surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works” (vs. 13-15).
In my last blog post, I quoted Jesus’s words from Matthew 7, warning about false prophets. He says you will recognize them by their fruit. What is some of the fruit we have seen from this movement? We have seen moral failures from the leaders without real repentance. These leaders have been put back into leadership positions (which goes against biblical commands). We have seen false stories of miracles- unsubstantiated claims of healings, dead people being resurrected, etc. I am not saying that God cannot do miracles today. What I am saying is that they are not happening the way that these churches claim. Geivett puts it this way in Counterfeit Kingdom: “If NAR miracles are to equal or exceed the greatness of Jesus’s own miracles, then they should likewise be easy to recognize, and they should likewise elicit well publicized acclamations that God is at work… if countless individuals really have been “activated” to perform the kinds of miracles projected by NAR teachers, the world would surely know.” The problem is, they haven’t and when the miracles don’t happen, people leave the church, and Christianity altogether. Another problem is that spiritual abuse can and does happen because of the hierarchical system in place. The leaders at the top are accountable to no one. There are so many more problems about which I could write! If you are interested in reading more on the topic, I highly recommend Holly Pivec and Douglas Geivett’s books.
Peter writes “they will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories before telling about their condemnation.” I am going to do one more post on this where I cover the Word of Faith movement. I wish there weren’t so many false movements to cover! And unfortunately these are just a few of them. I may cover a few more as we go along in this chapter.
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 