The
Global Day of Prayer
By Sarah Leslie –
May 2005
“Knowest
thou the ordinances of heaven?
Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?”
(Job 38:33)
Over the past five years a vision was
born and is being realized that is and has been the blessing of millions
of people and whole continents. This dream has been the hope of many,
including the prophets, and is now being joined with a critical mass and
modern technology to bless the earth. Certainly, this story represents a
call and a movement of God. Soon, the whole earth will be affected.
http://www.globaldayofprayer.com/history.asp?menu_active=2
[link now obsolete]
On May 15, 2005, Pentecost Sunday, the Latter Rain
apostles will stage the biggest prayer extravaganza that the world has ever
seen. Stadiums all over the world are to be filled with believers who pray
scripted prayers in unison while watching others do the same via high tech
satellite hook-ups.A poster advertising the Global Day of Prayer claims that On Sunday, May 15 The
greatest power known to man will be released. Promotional material all around
the globe promises that if Gods people get together and pray with one voice
in one day that God will reveal His glory and bless
the nations of the earth. These two words, glory and blessing, are key
words for this event.How can you be against prayer?
Before proceeding, it is necessary to answer this
question. No sincere Christian is against prayer. That is a ridiculous and
fallacious argument! This report provides Christians with some solid biblical
reasons to separate themselves from participating in this specific event.History and Background
According to the press kit spin on numerous
Internet websites, the Global Day of Prayer (GDOP) idea came about because of
two visions given to Graham Power, a South African businessman and new convert,
who envisioned Africa becoming the Light to the world.On March 2001, 45,000 Christians gathered for
prayer in Cape Town. The following year eight other towns participated and the
event was televised.Next a strategy was developed to take this
Transformation Africa globally. There was a small African summit in 2002, and
the International Prayer Counsel consultation decided on a course to launch a
Global Day of Prayer by 2005.Following this, on May 1, 2004, there was a larger
Day of Repentance and Prayer for Africa. Then on May 2, 2004, there was a
Canopy of Prayer across the continent with a reported 22 million participants.
Pentecost Sunday, May 15, 2005, is referred to as
Stage V: Global Transformation Every Nation. It is a plan to bring in a
Greater Pentecost. Its scope is unprecedented. The plan is to start praying
as the sun rises in New Zealand until the Sun sets in the United States. GDOP
is actually more than a one day event. It is scheduled to happen in three
phases:Phase I:
May 6-15 is ten days of organized prayer from the Day of Ascension through
Pentecost.Phase II:
The Global Day of Prayer, May 15, 2005.Phase III:
90 days of Blessing: community transformations and a compassionate Plan of
Action.The Global Day of Prayer process is scheduled
for the next five years until 2010 in order to build momentum and fill the
earth. Official histories can be found at these websites, among others:
http://www.religionjournal.com/showarticle.asp?id=1918The history leading up to this event is actually
more complex. It is intricately connected to the Fuller Theological Seminary
Latter Rain leaders. It is the tip of an iceberg part of a much bigger plan to
change the way people pray and live their lives. Prayer is proving to be a
useful tool to make everyone feel like they are stakeholders in the coming
global transformation of church and society. Prayer activities are also a good
way to infuse new doctrines. In some promotional literature, the GDOP is
referred to as grassroots, but that is misleading. There is very little
local other than the location. This is a global Plan.Vonette Bright, wife of Bill Bright of Campus
Crusade, is credited with launching the worldwide prayer movement at the Seoul,
Korea International Prayer Assembly for World Evangelisation in 1984. This event
launched a whole new style of public prayer activity: prayer marches, prayer
journeys, Jesus Marches, lighthouses, prayer concerts, prayer canopies, and
prayer initiatives. New doctrines about prayer were concocted and promoted by C.
Peter Wagner, John Dawson, Cindy Jacobs, Ed Silvoso,
John Maxwell,
Chuck Pierce, Dick Eastman, Luis Bush,
George Otis and others. These new doctrines included: strategic-level
spiritual warfare, identificational repentance, prayer evangelism, personal
intercession for leaders, two-way prayer, on-site praying, city transformation,
commitment to the land (territory) and spiritual mapping (databanking research).The gravitational centre of the GDOP is in South
Africa, says one promotional piece. Indeed, Africa has been ground zero for
spiritual experimentation (known as transformation) for well over a decade
now. In 1990, Thomas Wang (AD2000) spoke at a Bless the Nations conference in
South Africa in an attempt to create a new Student Volunteer Movement. In a May
2000 International Christian Chamber of Commerce bi-annual meeting, J. Gunnar
Olson, founder of the ICCC, made a prophetic proclamation over the nation of
Africa.In November 2002, World Visions Office of Prayer
Mobilization staged the International Prayer Leaders Consultation (International
Prayer Council) in Cape Town to connect and coordinate prayer networks
worldwide. David Bryant wrote about it, saying that heaven came down! and
there was a spiritual explosion. By 2004, the prayer movement in Africa had
gone global. At the Lausanne Conference in Thailand, 70 prayer leaders from
each of the major regions of the world met to consult and plan for the Global
Day of Prayer.Visiting Africa with the transformation,
prayer, and leadership themes over the past several years are well-known
evangelical leaders such as Rick Warren, Bruce Wilkinson (who relocated there),
Brian McLaren (emerging church), Landa Cope (YWAM), John Maxwell, Bill Hybels,
Tony Campolo, and Ed Silvoso,
http://www.oneinamillionprayer.com/site/apps/nl/content.asp?
http://www.joelnews.org/news-en/jn424.htm
http://www.ad2000.org/re00623.htm
http://www.globalvisionresources.com/
http://www.sacla.za.net/public_html/9calender/9citywidevision.htm
http://www.transformationafrica.com
http://www.sacla.za.net/public_html/2whatissacla.htm
http://www.africanenterprise.org.za/data/11resources/daywatch/daywatch_02-03-03.htm
http://www.sacla.za.net/public_html/4saclaii/talks/talks.htm
http://www.sacla.za.net/public_html/4saclaii/talks/landa%20cope.pdf
https://www.worldvisionresources.com/newsletters/marc03-1.pdf
http://www.jesus.org.uk/dawn/2002/dawn47.html
http://copi.gospelcom.net/writings/praymag/pm035.html
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/011/1.44.html
http://www.ccnews.org/index.php?mod=Page&pageid=46
http://www.transform-world.net/focusgroupall.asp?id=2#
http://www.globaldayofprayer.com/docs/Background%20on%20TA.docFacts about the Global Day of Prayer
The entire worldwide event, the largest
teleconference of its kind, is going to be broadcast by satellite and Internet.
The plans are fluid right now according to the
www.gdopusa.org website.
Teleconferencing will be done by Greater Calling, Inc. This company is a
non-profit Christian teleconferencing ministry that allows people worldwide to
unite in simultaneous prayer through an innovative and cost-effective use of
teleconferencing technology. Moody Radio plans to broadcast the event.Currently there are 124 prayer sites in the United
States. Preludes to this event in this country include the National Day of
Prayer and the Nationally Broadcast Concert of Prayer on May 5th, and
the March for Jesus on May 14th. That night is also Whole Night, an
overnight prayer vigil for youth (www.wholenight.com).
Major cities across the United State and
around the world
have set up websites to promote the GDOP. On these websites one can see the
church partners, business partners, and community partners from each local area.
One can download materials such as calendars, bulletin inserts, prayer manuals,
promotion strategies and press releases. Different websites include different
materials. In fact, so widespread is the support for the GDOP, that one can find
promotional references to it on almost every major evangelical organization
website. Key websites for information include:
http://www.transformationafrica.com
http://www.concertofprayer.com
One can find a sample Global Day of Prayer service
at: http://www.gdopusa.org.
The Word of God is not to be preached. It is wise to simply forbid speeches,
homilies, challenges so that the event is consecrated as a session of
extraordinary prayer, reads the Program Ideas section. An offering will be
taken, but there are very few guidelines for using the funds.The ten days between the Day of Ascension (May 5th)
and Pentecost Sunday (May 15th, the Global Day of Prayer) have
scripted activities and prayers for each day. This prayer guide is posted on
numerous websites.Partnering with business is a unique and essential
feature of the GDOP. According to
www.faithandworkresources.com,
Business and ministry leaders are leading the way for the Global Day of
Prayer. The International Coalition of Workplace Ministries is one such
organization. Os Hillman of ICWM and the Atlanta Global Day of Prayer has
written a number of articles about how cities and marketplaces can be
transformed. Business leaders are referred to as gatekeepers and catalysts
and potential financiers for transformation.
Peter Drucker,
Bob Buford,
C. Peter Wagner and
Alistair Petrie are just a few of the architects of this city-wide and
marketplace transformation movement. Businessman Graham Power, who founded
Transformation Africa and heads up the GDOP, lists C. Peter Wagner as his
advisor in the Transform World Market Place.Ted Haggard, President of the National Association
of Evangelicals [dismissed in 2006 when discovered to
be a homosexual and a liar], whose church in Colorado Springs houses the World Prayer
Center, issued a press statement in support of the GDOP event:“Christian prayer enhances life and light, while
at the same time diminishes darkness. The Global Day of Prayer provides an
opportunity for Christians world-wide to pray, worship and fellowship. I highly
encourage all Christians to participate, and urge all Christian leaders to
inform others about the importance of unified, biblical intercession. This is an
unprecedented opportunity for unified intercession with millions of others
world-wide. There is no reason not to participate in the Global Day of Prayer,
May 15th. “The GDOP doctrinal agenda
What follows are some key quotes and phrases from
documents connected directly with, or promoting, the Global Day of Prayer. The
quotes are taken from websites already mentioned unless otherwise cited. These
quotes shed considerable light on the doctrines that undergird this event. The
reader is encouraged to exercise grave caution and discernment while reading
this material. The error is very subtle. Ask hard questions. Consider the whole
counsel of Scripture. An explanation about the doctrines that these quotations
embody can be found in the next section.
Description: Ten Days of Prayer toward
a Greater Pentecost, The Glory of Christ and the Transformation of the Nations.Vision:
With the Book of Acts as our model, to reveal Gods glory on earth by:
mobilizing millions of Christians in every nation to pray with one voice
culminating in one day, to ask God to Bless the Nations of the Earth. Then,
Collaborating as One Body, proceed to be the instruments through which
God answers these prayers. [emphasis
in original]Mission: Globalizing Prayer, Revealing Gods Glory
Building a canopy of prayer over all
the continents.for the healing of the nations and
for the glory of the Lord to fill the whole earth . a major catalyst.
(http://www.houstonprays.com.)Continue to pray and contend for
the kingdom of God to be release [sic] & revealed on earth as it is in
heaven.Yet, what a better way to hasten
His coming work toward the healing of the
nations. to pray for the healing and
blessing of the nations. praying in one accord for
the biblical hope of Christs greater glory and the transformation of all
nations. breakthrough blessing
blessing of His kingdom lasting transformation. pray persistently for promises of
His kingdom to be fulfilled.The Global Day of Prayer
becomes a catalytic moment .The Lord Jesus Christ
appealing to Jesus to overcome evil to accomplish His purposes.The King of Glory inviting
Jesus to come, filling the world with His glory.praying that God would make us to
become the blessing by His Spirit .Leader 6 prays that God would
subdue evil under Christs Lordship Leader 7 expresses the cry that
Jesus would visit the community in transforming power. Pray in vigorous hope
that every people and nation would soon experience the powerful transforming
presence of Jesus at work through His people. Express expectant confidence that
Jesus will soon accomplish all the Fathers purpose and break open the skies to
fill the earth with His manifest glory.
The following prayers are listed in the Prayer
Guide for the 10 days leading up to Pentecost Sunday:
That once again, God would pour out
from heaven that which can be seen and heard by everyone.For God to bring outbreaks of
Christs peace all over the world For God to raise up the coming
generation to fulfill His promises by the power and Spirit of God.For Christians to live with
expectancy for the promises of transformation to be fulfilled in their
lifetimes.For the righteousness and justice
of God to transform the ways of commerce and politics.For the peace of Christs kingdom
to change the way cities and nations are governed.The following prayers are in the GDOP A Prayer
for the World, a lengthy scripted prayer that is supposed to be recited in
unison on the Global Day of Prayer:
Let Your Kingdom be established in
every nation of this world so that governments will rule with righteousness and
justice.May your blessing bring
transformation amidst every people on earth. And may Your glory cover the earth
as the waters cover the sea.Empower the Church to be
transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.Give us wisdom and insight in every
sphere of life.You will defeat all powers of
evil.King of Glory, we
invite You to come to the nations of the world to restore all things. We
welcome You to finish Your work in our cities, our peoples and our nations.What these words really mean
These are Latter Rain teachings. The doctrines are
readily recognizable as such. If the reader is unfamiliar with the background on
the Latter Rain cult, its teachings and how it mainstreamed itself over the past
60 years into the evangelical mainstream, please visit the Discernment
Ministries website (http://www.discernment-ministries.org)
and its links, and/or purchase the excellent resource materials listed in this
newsletter. What follows is a brief explanation of the particular Latter Rain
doctrines in evidence in the Global Day of Prayer.One key Latter Rain doctrine is dominion. It is
inextricably linked to a heresy that the Body of Christ can incarnate Christ and therefore wield His authority on earth. Because the term
dominion reveals too much, the words transformation and healing, and
blessing are now widely substituted. These doctrines are succinctly summarized
by researcher Mike Oppenheimer in a series of website reports on the history and
doctrines of Latter Rain:“Some believe that the second coming of Jesus is
to be ‘in the Church,’ before he comes for the Church. That the Church, his body
will actually become Christ on earth, glorious and triumphant. They will go
Conquer the land and then rule the nations with a rod of iron. Some believe that
after the Church has taken dominion over the nations, she will hasten the day
that will call Jesus back to earth and hand the nations over to Him.”
(http://www.letusreason.org/Latrain1.htm)Another key Latter Rain doctrine has to do with
blessing. This doctrine is explained well by researcher Ed Tarkowski:1. [Biblical truth states that] Christ is the one who blesses the nations by
giving the Holy Spirit to all who believe in Him and His finished work. This was
fulfilled at Pentecost and is ongoing. The recipients of the blessing are those
who receive the Spirit because of their faith in Christ: ‘Did you receive the
Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?’ (Galatians 3:2).
Those who do not believe in Him are excluded from the blessing.Latter Rain teaches that
every person on earth is to receive this blessing, called the anointing,
through the Church, not from Christ personally and through faith in Him. In
other words, the recipients replace Christ by themselves becoming “distributors”
of the spirit based on their own intercession. This redefines the Abrahamic
Blessing as [ blessing the nations] making it man-delivered instead of
God-sent.2. Latter Rain teaching, the Church intercedes for the nations, and then
God releases the blessings promised to Abraham through their efforts to TAKE
the Blessing to the nations. Salvation is moved from a personal level to a
territorial one, with emphasis on taking the land or nations. Then after all
have received what is offered and the earth is cleansed of all who would not
receive, God’s Kingdom can be supposedly set up.3. Latter Rain teaches that the blessing of Abraham will be released into
the nations as the Church celebrates the Feast of Tabernacles or the Ingathering
of the Harvest. But the promise was fulfilled when Christ sent the Holy Spirit
at Pentecost. Therefore, any spirit released through the new Israel
celebrating [Pentecost or] Tabernacles now cannot be the Holy Spirit. The Feast
of Tabernacles is not a vehicle to unite the world, but is the main feast to be
celebrated in the millennium after Christ establishes His reign (Zech 14).
4. [Biblical truth states that the] Spirit seals all believers as God’s
guarantee that when Christ returns to judge the nations and establish His rule,
we will receive all of God’s promises.But Latter Rain teaches
that the Church is the promised seed (corporate) which enters into its
inheritance by 1) celebrating the Feast of Atonement, 2) experiencing Pentecost,
and 3) entering the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. The expected outcome of
this journey is that Christ becomes incarnate in His perfected members,
bringing them immortality and enabling them to be His endtime army, Joel’s Army.
As they take the blessing of Abraham to the nations, this Army ESTABLISHES
that which Scripture says they are to INHERIT: the Kingdom of God (Matthew
25:34) .In Latter Rain teaching, the Corporate Seed
[the Church, ed.] will supposedly fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant because – hear
this – ABRAHAM FAILED AT IT, JESUS FAILED AT IT AND THE DISCIPLES FAILED TO
FULFILL IT . Latter Rainist Alan Vincent, for instance, teaches that EVERY city
and family on earth is to receive this blessing through the Church. (Part 3 of
A Brief History of the Redefined Abrahamic Covenant at
http://www.velocity.net/~edju/Abraham2.htmThe entire Tarkowski Internet report is
particularly relevant to the Global Day of Prayer and readers are encouraged to
read it. In his report, Tarkowski discusses how, in the late 1980s, Ralph Winter
at the U.S. Center for World Missions wrote seminal articles for Mission
Frontiers Magazine, in which he re-defined the Abrahamic Covenant. Winter
claimed that the Church was given a secret mission to finish the work of
Christ on earth, a Great Commission mandate, a command to fulfill the Abrahamic
Covenant by blessing the peoples of the earth with dominion. According to
Tarkowski, Winter has redefined the Abrahamic Covenant and placed a call to the
Church to go forth with the Great Commission to extend the rule of God.Winter also taught that Christ has unfinished
work on the cross, and therefore we, the church, are required to finish His
work for Him. In the same article, The Work of the Savior, Winter states, I
believe we must face the fact that the Bible is not merely Gods primary
instrument of revelation. The Bible clearly exposits the intended non-disclosure
of God. (Mission Frontiers, Feb. 1987)These new doctrines caught on like wildfire. This
was the spark that set off the modern global missions movement. This point is
exceptionally well-documented by Al Dager in his recent book, The World
Christian Movement (available from Discernment Ministries). Christians were
told that all of the peoples of the earth would be blessed by the activity
of making disciples of all nations. That, we are to teach the nations to obey
everything God has commanded us [and] establish Gods kingdom. We
are to help the nations see that they are already subject to His authority; they
must now acknowledge and submit to it with all of their hearts . we will bless
the nations by making His name known, revealing His glories, and establishing
His kingdom among them.
http://www.missionfrontiers.org/1996/1112/nd964.htmLest the reader suppose that these doctrines are
obscure, there are relevant examples which pertain directly to the Global Day of
Prayer. Marketplace Meditations, a Daily Electronic Devotional published
by Os Hillman at Marketplace Leaders (a businessman involved in the Atlanta
GDOP), published a talk by Landa Cope to YWAM: We need to preach a gospel of
the kingdom that God is the God of law, development, science, technology, health
care, and economics. God does not just want a big church, he wants a diverse
church, a deep church. He does not want just to save individuals in nations but
to redeem the nations themselves. (http://www.scruples.org/web/archive/99octup.htm) Notice the subtle shift from individual
salvation to the Kingdom dominion.Latter Rain also teaches that Satan was not
defeated at the cross when Jesus shed His blood for our sins. Part of the Latter
Rain kingdom mandate is to defeat Satan, however that comes to be defined.
Rebecca Greenwood, who serves as executive assistant to C. Peter and Doris
Wagner at Global Harvest Ministries in Colorado Springs, has written a new book
entitled Authority to Tread: An Intercessors Guide to Strategic-Level
Spiritual Warfare.In a review of her book, C. Peter Wagner states the
Latter Rain heresy that Jesus work was not finished on the cross. Jesus has
delegated His Church to continue the [war against Satan] by spreading the Gospel
of the Kingdom to all the peoples of the earth. According to this doctrine,
when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples (at Pentecost) Jesus gave them a
command to make disciples of all nations. He authorized them to use His name and
to move against the enemy in His kingly authority. What does this mean?It means
that the war to continue pushing Satan and his wicked forces back by the Gospel
of the Kingdom of God is now in the hands of the Church, the people of God. In
other words, we as the Church are at war!
(http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word_pf.html?ID=3027)The men behind the GDOP
C. Peter Wagner
is the Presiding Apostle over the International Coalition of Apostles, a group
he formed for the purpose of speeding the completion of the Great Commission.
The accelerated advance of the Kingdom of God is our highest priority, he
states. Apostles are necessary to establish the foundational government of the
church within an assigned sphere of ministry by hearing what the Spirit is
saying to the churches and by setting things in order accordingly for the growth
and maturity of the church. (http://www.apostlesnet.net/index.asp?action=introduction)
Elsewhere Wagner has reiterated, Apostles are anointed by God to set the things
of the body of Christ and the kingdom of God in order. For them to accomplish
that, and for the rest of the church to accept their work, they need an
incredible amount of authority. (http://www.generals.org/articles_reports_words/Global
Church/Articles/Wagner Interview.html)This emphasis on city-wide church transformation
represents a structural change in governance, not only of the church but
potentially governments. This is because Wagner and others are putting in place
a Kingdom apostolic structure that governs cell churches by apostles placed
over cities, regions, nations and the whole earth. (See the cell church tapes
available from Discernment Ministries for more information.) At
http://www.transform-world.net
one can read that Christian governmental leaders [are being used] as agents of
his transformational will. Other information on this website sheds considerable
light on the 90 days of blessing that takes place after May 15th, the
dominionist mandate, and the city and global transformations that are in
progress. This website is a veritable list of whos who in evangelical Kingdom
doctrine leadership.Ed Silvoso
is another key change agent in the move to transform the earth. He has also
been focusing on the marketplace for transformation. The marketplace is
defined as business, education and government. Silvoso teaches that
Christians must gain authority over cities by applying kingdom principles (http://www.transformationafrica.com/transfrm
busness.htm).
Also see
http://www.harvestevan.org/atn and
http://www.africanenterprise.org.za/data/11resources/daywatch/daywatch_02-03-03.htm.Ed Silvoso sits on the Advisory Board of Prayer Transformation Ministries along
with Francis Frangipane, Vonette Bright, David Bryant, Paul Cedar and others in
the transformative prayer movement. A brochure for this organization claims that
through prayer we unleash Gods power and A transformed city will witness
miraculous decreases in crime, economic depression, and political corruption.
Spiritual darkness will be pushed back .George Otis:
This emphasis on miracles is not isolated. The popular Transformation
video series produced by George Otis of The Sentinel Group has probably
influenced the global prayer movement more than any other single factor. In
these videos Otis makes amazing claims that these new styles and methods of
prayer can restore and regenerate the earth itself. Everything from renewed
coral reefs, to swarms of fish, to huge carrots and beets are attributed to
transformational prayer.The Transformation videos were widely shown in
Africa. In fact, Transformation Africa claims that they have collected numerous
testimonies of how the prayer days have changed lives and communities. A
refutation of some of the more bizarre claims on these videos can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/smithtj.geo/transformations.html.The Transformation videos focus on
inviting Gods presence as a catalyst for revival and transformational changes
in lives and communities, according to the GDOP website. The Atlanta GDOP
website (http://www.atlantaglobaldayofprayer.com)
reveals the extensive influence of Otis doctrines when it claims: What would
transformation look like in Atlanta? When God impacts a city the crime rate and
unemployment goes down, ethics in government increases, and churches
unify to bless the city.Luis Bush:
In an article entitled A Call to Transformation: Transformational Streams are
Becoming one Fast-flowing River for the Healing of the nations, Luis Bush of
the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization has re-defined transformation:“Transformation is the progressive and ongoing
measurable supernatural impact of the presence and power of God working in,
through and apart from the Church on human society and structures. In the
church, this is characterized by increased holiness of life, reconciliation in
relationships, and appetite for prayer and worship. Through the Church this is
characterized by accelerated conversion growth, mobilization of gifts and
callings, and an increased relevance to and participation in greater society.“In the culture, this may be characterized by
pervasive awareness of the reality of God, a radical correction of social ills,
a commensurate decrease in crime rates, supernatural blessing on local commerce,
healing of the brokenhearted (the alienated and disenfranchised), regenerative
acts of restoring the productivity of the land, and an exporting of kingdom
righteousness.”C. Peter Wagner was willing to head up the AD2000
United Prayer Track because of Bushs willingness to let me experiment with
the new spiritual warfare doctrines and practices.
(http://www.AD2000.org/re00623.htm)
Bush reiterates the Latter Rain belief that we can incarnate Christ in this
statement: The whole Gospel requires methods that are holistic in nature
requiring a balanced integration of proclamation and incarnation.
(http://www.transform-world.net/)Alistair Petrie:
It is no accident that the promoters of the Global Day of Prayer use the Lords
Prayer phrase on earth as it is in heaven in a reverse sense to mean as in
heaven, so on earth. They literally believe the Church can bring the Kingdom of
God upon earth. In fact, Alistair Petrie, a prayer transformation expert who
works with George Otis on Transformation and C. Peter Wagner at Wagner
Leadership, has written a book entitled Releasing Heaven on Earth. Some
Latter Rainists believe that the earth will regenerate like the Garden of Eden.Rick Warren:
An examination of the GDOP would not be complete without mentioning Rick Warren
and his substantial role in this event and its future. Rick Warren is scheduled
to speak at the Dallas event, along with Rev. Tony Evans. In October, Rick
Warren is going global. He is scheduled to release his Global P.E.A.C.E. plan,
launching short-term small groups to the uttermost parts as catalysts for
long-term, cross-cultural mission. The stated mission for Warrens 90 Days of
Peace is transformation:
- Transforming the Church through
Gods purposes- Transforming individual lives with
the Gospel- Blessing the nations as
representatives of ChristOne can easily see the resemblance between
Warrens plan and the Global Day of Prayer plan for transformation.On the occasion of Saddlebacks 25th
anniversary celebration, Warren stated that his P.E.A.C.E. plan will be a
revolution for global Christianity and Im looking at a stadium full of
people who are telling God they will do whatever it takes to establish Gods
Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
(http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=20603) Warren has already set up a new website,
www.acts-of-mercy.com
for this initiative.Warren openly acknowledges the influence of Ralph
Winter (see
www.missionfrontiers.org,
May/June 2005). Furthermore, his advisor while working on his doctorate at
Fuller was C. Peter Wagner. It is therefore no surprise that Warren wrote in
Ministry Toolbox on March 2, 2005, A plan for blessing the whole world. In
this he uses Winters redefinition of the Abrahamic Covenant to justify a new
global blessing. In name-it-and-claim-it fashion Warren promises that Our
blessings to others will come back on us and When we bless others, God takes
care of our needs.Why the GDOP should concern us
The Global Day of Prayer did not come up on the
radar screen until recently, but it was many years in the planning. Sue Conway
and I spent several months researching this on the Internet as it developed. The
more we delved into it, the more apparent it was to us that this was an event
that the organizers truly believe will officially launch the Kingdom on earth.
The organizers and organizations backing this event are tightly interlocked.
This plan for Kingdom transformation is intended
to affect every living person on the face of the earth. There are many
disturbing references to dominion as an activity that the church has the right
to engage in by whatever means whether it be psycho-social marketing
techniques, collaboration or force. The Word of God (the Gospel) is
de-emphasized in favor of spiritual warfare type activities and social action.
Marketplace transformation is particularly concerning because of the obvious
opportunities for exploitation of the poor. Kingdom-building activities will be
costly to families, women, children, elderly and infirm.This article presents a short overview before the
event occurs. Internet addresses are provided for those who wish to do more
research on this topic in the days and months to come. Some of the links cited
are cached. We will make every attempt to make the more obscure material
available through the
http://www.discernment-ministries.org
website.Above all, please stay in the Word of God. Read
the old Godly ministers. When somebody comes to you and says, God is doing a
new thing, run back to your Bible as fast as you can.
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him
that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not
another, but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of
Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you
than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:6-9
© 2005 by Sarah Leslie.
See also
A Blinding Darkness
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