Diary: The View Incident - How the NAR Corrupts the Church Mindset

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But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. - 1Corinthians 2: 14 (KJV)

The New Apostolic Reformation has infected the American church since its inception in the late 1990s. While there are many facets to their heretical views at the top of the list is a dominionist agenda summarized by the seven mountain mandate. This false belief is that Christians must conquer the seven mountains of culture in order to facilitate the second coming of Jesus Christ. One such mountain is entertainment, which is why you see so many in the church positively giddy if Hollywood makes a movie that vaguely references Christianity regardless of whether it is actually biblical or not. This is how churches across this land showed their congregation the horrifically unbiblical Bible Miniseries and the mangling of the Book of Acts.

At the heart of this dominionism is simply an idolization of this country. To feel better about the sheer evil of this position, many rewrite history to pretend that the founding fathers were all charismatic Pentecostals Suddenly it doesn't matter if Benjamin Franklin doubted the divinity of Christ of that Jefferson rewrote the bible removing all references to His divinity. Some like Jonathan Con (Cahn) and Perry Stone go as far as to claim that America was once under covenant with God, which is decidedly absurd. This all results in churches that may not follow NAR stridently but still ascribe to the jingoistic nationalism by insisting that a handful of wedge issues are somehow what Christ has charged them with defending. The church then digs their heels in against any incursion upon their NAR beliefs and if anyone in the world so much as breathes the wrong way the church erupts against the very people they are charged with delivering the Gospel to. Case in point is a recent episode of The View in which Joy Behar was responding to Omarosa's claim that Vice President Mike Pence said that Jesus tells him things to say. Behar's response was that it is one thing when you speak to Jesus but another when He speaks back to you and then suggested that the latter is mental illness.

The reaction has been swift, brutal and relatively unbiblical from Christians. Calls for a boycott of The View, publishing phone numbers to call ABC to demand the show be removed, mockery of Behar and what will happen when she meets Jesus. It reminded me of the reaction from the Sons of Thunder when a certain Samaritan village did not accept them:

As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him;but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to another village. - Luke 9: 51-56 (NIV)

It is a stark display of how we can easily mix our self righteousness with godly righteousness A host of a television show says something snarky about a Christian and suddenly we want to call down fire from heaven, cancel their television show, and revel in the fact that they are not saved. Some translations provide the actual rebuke from Jesus as, "you do not know what manner of spirit you are of." We too easily confuse the righteous spirit of zeal with our carnal desire to seek revenge. Consider this from Gill's Exposition:

"and said, ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of; or do not consider that this is not the true spirit of zeal, but of anger and revenge; and is not agreeable to the spirit of the meek and humble followers of Christ, or to the Spirit of God, and those gifts of his bestowed on them, nor to the spirit of the Gospel dispensation: so good men, for want of attention, may not know sometimes from what spirit they act; taking that for a good one, which is a very bad one; being covered with specious pretenses of love and zeal, and the examples of former saints; not observing the difference of persons; times, and things." - Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I have seen so much pretense of love and zeal from Christians over this perceived offense. I have seen some insist it is their responsibility to defend their faith from cultural attacks. This is of course supported no where in Scripture. They have allowed the teachings of the NAR to affect how they react to the lost. They have forgotten what manner of spirit they are of. Just as the Corinthians Church once did when they mistook Paul's instruction to not associate with people who were sexually immoral as to not associate with the sexually immoral people of the world. Here was his correction:

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people--not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler--not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. "Purge the evil person from among you." - 1Corinthians 5: 9-13 (ESV)

It seems wanting to judge the world is not a new phenomena within the church. Beloved I understand that the comments from Mrs. Behar were offensive but what do they actually reveal? They simply reveal the truth regarding the key verse today. What this verse means is that someone such as a talk show host, who does not know God, will find the beliefs of His followers foolish. Joy Behar cannot understand spiritual truths. She cannot know them according to the key verse! To the world, when someone hears voices it is deemed a mental illness. That is not an untruth beloved. I am not a fan of the View and never watch it. I am however, a fan of Christians keeping their witness intact, understanding what the Bible teaches us, and presenting the Gospel, not Christian outrage to the lost. James and John were carnally outraged that this Samaritan village refused to accept them. How dare they! Don't they know that we travel with the Messiah? No, they don't. Doesn't Behar realize she is mocking the Messiah? No, she doesn't.

Do not fall for the NAR mindset that believes we have to take over this fallen world. Jesus does not need our help for anything. He said we would be mocked and hated. He never said start a boycott in response. He never said to openly bash someone who does not enjoy the salvation that you do. Perhaps Ainsely Earhardt said it best on Fox and Friends. No one noticed it because of all of the hate they were spewing over this incident but she said it just made her feel sad because obviously Mrs. Behar does not know Jesus Christ. Yes! That is the point! Beloved we hold the keys to the kingdom of heaven in the Gospel we have believed in and the Spirit that dwells with us. Let us not look to call fire down from heaven over those people who need what we have the most. Let us remember what manner of spirit we are of and act with a shred of the mercy we ourselves have been shown.

Rev. Anthony.