Apologetics: What is the NAR?

I’ve talked a bit about the NAR (New Apostolic Reformation) on this blog in posts about Bryce Crawford and the new season of Shiny, Happy People. However, it’s about time that I dedicate an entire post to this topic as its influence on the church and even in politics has been growing in recent years, a trend that should trouble Christians. So, let’s look into this and see why we should all be concerned about this group.

#1: Unbiblical View of Apostleship

The biggest thing the NAR is concerned about when it comes to leadership is the office of the apostle (hence the name). An apostle or prophet is more important than a pastor and what he says goes since he’s (supposedly) hearing from God. They can issue prophecies, perform miracles, give God’s word, etc.

However, the problem with this is that the office of the apostle is closed because no one alive today can fill it. To be an apostle, you had to fill several requirements. First, you had to be handpicked and commissioned by Christ himself. Second, you had to be around for his earthly ministry and witness the resurrection. Lastly, you have to be able to perform signs and wonders from God. Thus, unless all these NAR people are actually first century Jews who saw Jesus and also found the Fountain of Youth, they aren’t close to fulfilling the first two criteria. But even if they were, they certainly aren’t fulfilling the last requirement. In reality, these are a bunch of self-proclaimed “apostles/prophets” who are looking to profit off of your naivety and biblical illiteracy.

#2: Signs and Wonders

Because these people believe that they’re apostles, they also believe – and have tricked many others into believing – that they can do signs and wonders and can prophesy. However, many of these “miracles” are false at best (the bar is in hell for what’s good here), or not from God and from something else at worst.

For example, one very popular “miracle” in the NAR is leg lengthening, where a teacher (such as Todd White) will say that someone’s leg is too short and will make it appear that it’s regrown thanks to the power of prayer. However, this is a parlor trick that involves tilting the foot very slowly, so no one notices what you’re actually doing.

Another example of a false miracle are all the false prophecies that these guys give. The best example of this comes from 2020, where not only did you have Kenneth Copeland saying that he was going blow away COVID-19 with the wind of God, but you also had several people from Bethel church (most notably Kris Vallotton) saying that Trump would win the election. That was proven wrong, however, when we got four years of Biden (or whoever was running the country for him).

[Author’s Note: At BSSM (Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry), you are taught how to give prophecies, and it’s actually encouraged that you get at least one of them wrong, as shown in American Gospel: Spirit and Fire.]

This type of stuff violates the test of a prophet given in Deuteronomy 18:20-22. It’s completely unbiblical, and the fact that it’s being taught as good in so many churches is disgusting. What makes it worse is that in a lot of NAR circles, your salvation is questioned if you can’t/don’t perform these wonders.

#3: 7 Mountain Mandate

Another thing that makes this group so concerning is because they push the 7 Mountain Mandate. I’ve also talked about this in other posts, but just as a recap, the Mandate states that Christians must take over the seven mountains (or spheres as they’re now being called by Bethel) of influence, ranging from art, education, and media to government to bring Heaven to Earth and speed up the return of Christ. And, to some extent, the NAR has been successful at this, with their tentacles reaching into almost every corner of Christian media and into the government as well.

This is unbiblical on the grounds that it implies that God can be manipulated. God cannot be manipulated by man, much less forced to speed up when He brings Armageddon. That will happen in His good timing, with or without our trying to intervene. In truth, it’s one giant scheme to get a bunch of money, power, and influence on the leaders’ part, justifying the deception, manipulation, and even abuse of congregants who may not know better.

#4: New Age Gobbledygook

A lot of NAR churches (such as Bethel) have teachings that are often mixed with New Age practices. For example, contemplative prayer is a very common practice in these circles and is justified with passages from the Bible such as Psalm 46:10, Psalm 37:7, Matthew 6:6, Romans 8:26, etc. However, not only are these passages largely taken out of context, but the background of contemplative prayer is something that stems back to Hinduism, not Christianity. It’s actually a practice called Transcendental Meditation that’s been repackaged for Christians by “Christian” mystics that seeks to connect the person meditating with their “divine inner spark” (or “God” supposedly) via repeating mantras, focusing on images/icons, and focusing on your breathing. It seeks to bring the person closer to God to reach unity or a “God-consciousness,” often describing this in a weirdly romantic or even sexual way (because that’s not creepy at all).

While this might sound okay(-ish) since we as Christians want to be closer with God, because of how absolutely unbiblical this form of prayer is, we should not be practicing it or encouraging others to practice it. Prayer is supposed to be a form of worship to God alone, not us trying to reach unity with God, who is above us. Besides that, there’s also the concern of what happens when you do hear what’s called the “still, small voice of God,” which is the goal (or one of them) of contemplative prayer, especially when you don’t have discernment? What happens if you do reach something from the other side? You’re potentially opening yourself up to demons.

The “still, small voice of God” part of contemplative prayer also opens up problems about the sufficiency of the Bible as it encourages people to listen for revelation from God outside of Scripture. Scripture is closed revelation. Nothing is to be added to it. It’s final. When people are encouraged to go beyond that, they’re once again susceptible to all sorts of deception.

Of course, this is only one example of the damaging teaching of the NAR. There’s a whole bunch of other examples of New Age gobbledygook that I could include here, but I need to move on to my next point.

#5: It Isn’t an Official Thing (Sorta)

While the NAR exists and a quite a few big names are involved and know each other, it isn’t an official organization or denomination. It’s not like all the pastors who call themselves apostles have gotten together and have come out with a massive mission statement and a declaration of who they’re leader is. It’s more like a subculture movement, like goth or punk.

Because of this, there is minimal accountability for any of these self-proclaimed “apostles” outside of their respective churches and (maybe) satellite churches. This means that NAR-affiliated churches can easily become the perfect breeding grounds for all sorts of abuse with no one to really hold the leaders accountable except for the leaders themselves.

#6: The Passion Translation

One of the most recommended Bibles in the NAR is the Passion Translation of the Bible, written by a self-proclaimed “apostle”, Brian Simmons, who isn’t a linguist and claims that he wrote it because he had a vision of Jesus that revealed to him the “secrets of the Hebrew language” and showed him books in a heavenly library amongst other things.

In other words, he gives Joseph Smith vibes.

While NAR churches like Bethel were quick to applaud this garbage translation, scholars soon pointed out that it’s really just a crappy paraphrase of the Bible that even adds things that aren’t found in any of the original manuscripts to justify NAR theology. For example, Simmon’s version of Matthew 10:2 says, “the first apostles” instead of “the apostles”, which implies more apostles are coming (which isn’t true). This type of thing is completely heretical, as it adds to God’s Word though God’s Word is closed.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the NAR as there’s a lot of other stuff that goes into it. But I feel like this blog is long enough and covers the main reasons why you should be wary of these people.

Until next time,

M.J.