Reply #98: No wonder Jeff Gannon was in the WH Press Corpse. 'The Fellowship.' [View All]

[Octafish]

With a "Base" like this, who needs fiends?

We're into a Neverland the likes of which not even Michael Jackson dared dream.

TIME Names the 25 Most Influential EVANGELICALS in America

A lame-duck Bush may be less sensitive to the demands of his base,” writes TIME’s Karen Tumulty on the eve of Wednesday’s STATE OF THE UNION

Posted Sunday, Jan. 30, 2005

New York – Among the Christian leaders on TIME’s first list of “The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America” are Doug Coe, who started the annual National Prayer Breakfast scheduled for this Thursday in Washington, and two Evangelicals who join the White House’s weekly Monday call with Christian leaders, Richard Land and Ted Haggard.

Others include Michael Gerson, a Bush speechwriter; Pentecostals Bishop Thomas Dexter “T.D.” Jakes and preacher Joyce Meyers; Rev. Luis Cortés, Jr., Stuart Epperson of Salem Communications; and Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention.

ONLINE, go to http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050207/photoessay/ A collection of past TIME articles about evangelicals is posted at http://www.time.com/time/archive/collections/0,21428,c_evangelicals,00.shtml

TIME’s cover language asks, “What Does Bush Owe Them? Do the Democrats Need More Religion?” (on newsstands Mon., Jan. 31). Increasingly anxious conservative Christians – who mobilized as never before to re-elect a president they see as one of their own—will hear the President spell out his priorities in Wednesday’s State of the Union address, reports TIME’s national political correspondent Karen Tumulty. And on Thursday morning, they’ll tell him their priorities at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.

SNIP...

-- Richard Land and Ted Haggard participate in a White House teleconference every Monday with a handful of Christian conservatives to plot strategy on gay marriage, abortion and other issues on the social agenda..

SNIP...

OPENING UP THE UMBRELLA GROUP: Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals As president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Haggard represents 30 million conservative Christians spread over 47,000 churches from 52 diverse denominations. Every Monday he is one of just a handful of evangelical leaders patched into a conference call with West Wing staffers to discuss policy concerns. “We wanted him (Bush) to use the force of his office to campaign aggressively for a federal marriage amendment, which he did not do,” says Haggard. He is working to broaden his group’s agenda. “With the growth of evangelicalism worldwide,” says Haggard, “we need to impact the cultureworldwide.”

CONTINUED...

http://www.time.com/time/press_releases/article/0,8599,1022576,00.html

Paging Barney to the Lincoln Bedroom. I mean Bulldog.

A history of Dominion/"Kingdom Now"/Restoration Theology

by dogemperor
Thu Oct 05, 2006 at 07:50:04 AM PST

In an ongoing series I've posted, we started with an exploration of coercive tactics within dominionism, including direct comparisons of "deliverance ministry" and Scientology, and continuing the comparison featuring a look at the Joel's Army movement.

Today, we get to focus on just how deeply rooted dominionism is in these movements, and how long dominion theology and dominionist tactics have been used--and both the depth of the links and the length of time this has gone on will likely suprise even people who have been aware of some of the early history of dominionism.

dogemperor's diary :: ::

Dominionism, or more properly, what Chip Berlet recently termed "Christian Nationalism" and what in the pentecostal and charismatic communities is alternatively referred to as "Kingdom Now Theology", "Dominion Theology", or "Restoration Theology" (yes, as in the Ohio and Texas Restoration Movements) has a bit of a complex history within the pentecostal community.  However, it's an integral part of the theology of much of pentecostalism at this point, has been to greater or lesser extent a major part since at least the thirties and in some extent since the beginnings of pentecostalism, so it's important to understand--if, in part, to learn how even mainstream churches are being affected.

There are five major periods in time that I've identified specific influences in dominionism among pentecostals:

a) Some of the backgrounder (i.e. the belief they are an Elect, the whole Rapture thing, etc.) stem from the birth of pentecostalism itself in 1902 and even with predecessors of pentecostalism, in particular, with aspects of the Holiness and British Israelism movement (the latter also spawned Christian Identity).

Specifically, Pentecostalism itself is a descendant of the "Holiness Movement" in Protestant churches in the 1800's, and whilst most historians define two periods of "pentecostalism" of which "neo-Pentecostals" are the second main flavour, I'm not sure this is such a valid distinction--seeing as "neo-Pentecostalism" actually is descended from movements within "old school" pentecostalism.

The "Holiness Movement" was a movement within the Methodist church that aimed at "church reformation"--in fact, the principle of "baptism in the Holy Ghost", which is typically seen as the solitary proof one is a "true Christian" in those groups, started within Holiness.  The pentecostal movement itself started out as a split from Methodism--starting in 1901, a large revival broke out at a church called the Azusa Street Mission, and the controversy over whether the "speaking in tongues" and other "signs and manifestations" were signs of demonisation or "God's Outpouring" ended up in the split between pentecostals and the Methodist Church.

In fact, much of the theology that was the basis of the "five-fold ministry" (remember that term--it becomes important later) was around as early as the 1830's.

The idea of "rapture" common in premillenarian dispensationalist dominionist groups (of which the majority of pentecostal groups supporting "dominion theology" tend to follow, and certainly most "Christian Nationalists" in the pentecostal movement) is also quite recent, Biblically speaking.  DefCon America has done a good writeup on the subject, but here I'll refer to the specific sources that the DefCon America article used.  John Darby was the originator of the "rapture theology" back in the early 1800s, and much of his theology is actually the basis of beliefs within the pentecostal flavours of dominionism:

Inspiration and Infallibility of Scripture Darby was unswerving in his belief that the Bible was the inspired, infallible Word of God, absolutely authoritative and faithfully transmitted from the original autographs. If the world itself were to disappear and be annihilated, asserts Darby, "and the word of God alone remained as an invisible thread over the abyss, my soul would trust in it. After deep exercise of soul I was brought by grace to feel I could entirely. I never found it fail me since. I have often failed; but I never found it failed me."

Once questioned as to whether he might not allow that some parts of the New Testament may have had only temporary significance, Darby retorted, "'No! every word, depend upon it, is from the Spirit and is for eternal service!'" Darby felt compelled to affirm his fidelity to the Word of God because "In these days especially . . . the authority of His written word is called in question on every side . . . "

Deity and Virgin Birth of Christ On the deity of Christ, Darby is no less compromising than he is on the place of Scripturein the believer's life. "The great truth of the divinity of Jesus, that He is God," says Darby, "is written all through scripture with a sunbeam, but written to faith. I cannot hesitate in seeing the Son, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the First and the Last, Alpha and Omega, and thus it shines all through. But He fills all things, and His manhood, true, proper manhood, as true, proper Godhead, is as precious to me, and makes me know God, and so indeed only as the other, He is 'the true God and eternal life.'" If Christ is not God, concludes Darby, then "I do not know Him, have not met Him, nor know what He is." As one of the truths connected with the person and work of Christ, Darby cites the "miraculous birth of the Saviour, who was absolutely without sin . . ."

Substitutionary Atonement Just as the doctrine of the deity of Christ is written all through the Bible, Darby maintains that the propitiation secured by the sacrificial death of Christ "is a doctrine interwoven with all Scripture, forms one of the bases of Christianity, is the sole ground of remission--and there is none without shedding blood--and that by which Christ has made peace; Col. 1:20."

Darby is convinced that without the atoning work of Christ, man must bear the guilt of his sin, and remain at a distance from God without knowledge of Him or of His love. But thankfully that is not the case, for as Darby points out, "There is death in substitution--He 'bore our sins in his own body on the tree'--'died for our sins according to the scriptures' . .."

Resurrection of Christ For Darby, "the Person of Christ regarded as risen," is the pivot around which "all the truths found in the word revolve." "Many have, perhaps, been able, in looking at the Church's hope in Christ," says Darby, "to see the importance of the doctrine of the resurrection. But the more we search the Scriptures, the more we perceive, in this doctrine, the fundamental truth of the gospel--that truth which gives to redemption its character, and to all other truths their real power." It is the victory of Christ over death which gives the certainty of salvation. It is the resurrection, asserts Darby, which "leaves behind, in the tomb, all that could condemn us, and ushers the Lord into that new world of which he is the perfection, the Head, and the glory." Consequently, this doctrine characterized apostolic preaching.

Return of Christ Darby believed that it was essential that the church have a right hope. That hope he understood to be the second coming of Christ. At his coming, Darby maintained, Christ would take the saints to glory with Him, to become the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

CONTINUED HECKUVA POST FROM dogemperor at KOS...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/5/10504/2835

The Fellowship knows how to turn a buck off the Bible and plan a neo-puritanical NAZI America, but I never took Haggard seriously till I read he was very good friends of Monkey.

Magnificent post, leftchick. Truly revelatory stuff. Infinite thanks.