Philippians Three debunks NAR dominionism. Stop worshiping this country.

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Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. -- Philippians 3:17-21 (ESV

Politicians all lie. Party differences only differentiate what they will lie about to further their power and their own political ends. We come to expect this in a corrupt society. We need to factor this into our blind allegiance to any political figure or party. The NAR dominionist blurs the lines between the carnal and the eternal. They casually mix the holy with the profane. They do so because truth be told, they love this world. They idolize this world. As part of the apostate church, this world allows them great leeway and power. There is nothing more powerful than the ability to believe you are going to heaven while living like complete hell. This is the end result of decades of deconstructing the true Gospel message through the purpose driven nightmare and seeker friendly theories of alleged church growth. Yes, Rick Warren has created an empire out of convincing more people to come to church but has done so at the cost of their eternal soul.

One of the central arguments made by the NAR dominionist is that we are citizens of both heaven and America. This is simply not supported by scripture. God does not want double minded people. He does not want split loyalties that are always in conflict. God makes this distinction crystal clear in the key verses. We will walk through these verses today to hear what sayeth the Lord. These key verses are the end of the third chapter of Philippians. So first let us understand the surrounding context. Philippians Three starts out speaking about the righteousness believers have in Christ. Paul does so by drawing a clear and oppositional contrast between believers and those in the world. He refers to those in the world as dogs and many commentators state this usage is not meant solely for heathens but also specifically for the Judaizers, who insisted on adding to salvation the need for circumcision. Either way, Pail states he places no faith in the flesh even though if anyone would, he should. Why? Because under the rules of the world he was a blameless Pharisee of the tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew of Hebrews. He was a zealous persecutor of the church before he was able to lose it all for Christ. Indeed, everything he had in this world he now counts as absolute garbage compared to just knowing Jesus. That is how our faith is supposed to affect us beloved! Every cause we think is righteous in this world is rubbish compared to gaining Christ. To truly know the power of His resurrection means to no longer focus on this temporal world. Paul is setting up for the grand finale in the key verses here. To share not in His glory, as many heresies teach today, but rather His sufferings. Everyone wants to try on the crown of glory. The crown of thorns? Not so much. We do not get to the glory without the thorns beloved. So Paul writes that we press on. Not concerning ourselves with the things the world is focused on. No; we forget what lies behind us and strain towards the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus -- hallelujah! Paul says if we be mature we need to think this way. To hold true not to the things from whence we came but rather what we have attained. With this as the backdrop, we come to the key verses. Let us reason together and walk through these, one point at a time:

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.

The first call is not for any sense of independence or free thinking. Paul boldly says to imitate him in these matters. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. In this imitation, God has always provided us with examples to keep our eyes focused on. Now we must understand that the apostate church chases the things of this world because it idolizes this world. It pays lip service to Christ and His Gospel but in the end the focus is not on the eternal needs of the kingdom but rather the carnal needs of this world and their political persuasion. For example, one of the celebratory reasons for idolizing the current administration, NAR dominionists will point to their refusal to enforce the Johnson Amendment that prohibited churches from preaching politics or endorsing candidates. Looking past the hypocrisy of not adhering to laws, the larger point is that someone truly focused on the kingdom would realize this is damaging to the cause of the Gospel. The church in America barely preaches the Gospel to begin with and now they are given another reason to not preach it. This is no small point beloved. The apostate church is overly focused on carnal matters of politics on this earth.

For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

Paul draws the comparison between unbelievers and those saved by Christ. The unsaved walk as enemies of the cross. This is no point for celebration as Paul says it with tears. It should bother the saved that so many do not know Christ. Since we know that salvation is supernatural act achieved solely through the preaching of the Gospel, that should be our only focus. Not to market the church to the unsaved. Not convince them into salvation. Not to rationalize with them. If the church simply does their job of preaching the Gospel then we know there will be two results. First of all, the saved will grow in maturity into the fullness of Christ. The second result will be that the lost will be drawn by the Holy Spirit according to the will of God. Every time we sit through a sermon about ourselves, our lives in this world, motivation, self-help, earthly prosperity or any other heresy designed to take our eyes and ears away from the Gospel we can be guaranteed that no one saved is growing in Christ and no one unsaved is being drawn by God.

Paul gets into further detail. The enemies of the cross have destruction as their end. Why would Paul make this point? Because it should motivate us! There is no "hell light." The broad path does not lead to a different way of vague subtlety. It leads to destruction! This is the part of the Gospel that has been surgically removed over the years by the purpose driven church through the seeker friendly models of alleged church growth. When we blur the lines and focus too much on this world and their politics, we lose sight of who these folks are. They are unsaved! Their end is destruction! Wake up slumbering church! Their god is their belly. Well, what does that mean? It means their focus is solely in fulfilling their desires. When the bible commands us to die to self and carry our cross, it means that our belly is denied for our God. What we want is denied for our God. The politics and political parties of this world could care less about God and the cause of Jesus Christ.

They glory in their shame! Now if that does not describe those lost in the world I do not know what does. That is what politics does as well. Remember when the administration was separating mothers from their children at the border? Remember when they were placing kids in cages? Now if your first instinct to these references is to play whataboutism games or even worse, think the stories are fake, you are too far gone to help. Forget about the twisted unbiblical arguments made by dominionists regarding borders or the abuse of the Romans scripture section about obeying the law. If you think the Christian response to refugees is to break the families apart and cage children then you are embodying what Paul is preaching against here. You belly is your god and you are glorying in what should shame you. Even after these things, I can still see people taking to their keyboards to post how I am a "leftist" or a "lib"; when all I am doing is expositing the word of God. I can expect no less from the apostate church however. They glory in their shame constantly. Last month we saw the ridiculous abuse in Bethel as they prayed and chanted and danced for a week to resurrect a little girl who had passed away. Instead of being embarrassed, they tripled down in their abject unbiblical nonsense after it was all over and they were arranging for a memorial. They gloried in what should have shamed them. Recently you had the Todd Bentley fiasco where prominent false teachers of the apostate church and the NAR formed a committee to determine if sexting with your interns details and pictures of your wife is somehow disqualifying for a pastor. Thankfully they decided yes but in their glee about pretending to hold someone to account in 2019, they ignored over a decade worth of other disqualifying behaviors. They were positively giddy, glorying in what ought to have shamed them. The idolization of this administration is also glorying in what ought to shame us. Paul now sums up perfectly what is the cause of these conditions. Their minds are set on earthly things. That beloved, is the text book definition of the NAR. They may try to couch it in as much Jesus-speak as they can but it is painfully obvious that the focus is not on the kingdom but rather on this earth. Mind you, they do not merely think about this world casually. Their minds are set on earthly things.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

The contrast is then provided in the key verses as to who we are supposed to be in Christ. We are supposed to be citizens of heaven. The NAR dominionist likes to pretend that God allows dual citizenship but He does not. The first half of the contrast showed the carnal person as solely being focused on the things of this earth and the saved person is focused on the things of the kingdom. Bill Johnson and the heretical mess at Bethel like to pretend that they are mandated to "bring heaven to earth." No they are not. It is from our position as citizens of heaven that we await Jesus to come again and transform our bodies to be like His glorious body. It is by His power that we will see these things come to pass.

I understand that these can be difficult lessons in this day of the apostate church infiltrating so much of mainstream Christianity. Jesus is coming back soon and while we all clap when we hear that we do not live as if it is so. There is no sense of collective Christian urgency anymore. Instead there is a collective Christian apathy driven on by leaders who focus on the things of this earth alone. We must understand that they are like the Pharisees historically. When Jesus walked the earth the Pharisees had all of the power, even under Roman oppression. They were the most revered and had the places of honor at the feast tables. When Jesus came along He was a real threat to the power they had built over a very long time. They had no intention of giving it away to some upstart from Bethlehem. Today, the NAR leaders of the purpose driven apostate church hold all of the power, prestige and money. They have spent decades building up this false network and they are not about to give it all away to the same upstart from Bethlehem.

Realize that every second we spend focusing on the politics of this world is a second we did not bring the Gospel to the lost. This is how depraved Rick Warren's teachings are. He once did an article to pastors providing advice on how to have their visitors for Easter come back the following week. The first recommendation was to NOT preach the Gospel. Warren instead said to start a series that spoke to the lost and their unmet needs on this earth. How to improve their marriages or find significance in their community. Why? Warren said, "so they have a reason to come back the next week." How truly disgusting and perverse. What if their life was required of them in the coming week? This is not a game. No matter how important your political wedge issue appears it cannot be compared with people finding Christ and getting saved. I have seen local pastors actually post online that if they voted for one particular political party that they "cannot be Christian." Idolatry in the highest order and you sir need to step down from your pulpit immediately. You have given up your duty to the Gospel in exchange for some trinkets and baubles of this carnal world. I do not even mean money. Everything on this earth is passing away as dust in the wind and you want to pretend that one group of unsaved people have it all figured out over a different group of unsaved people. Or that one group of unsaved people have some form of righteousness afforded to them and the other does not. You are drawing a comparison between the world and the world and pretending Jesus is siding with one over the other because of purely political reasons.

I want you to think of the insanity of what you are doing. As if when we stand before Jesus He is going to say, "Hey I would love to let you in but"Obama in 2012?" There are real Christians who believe such nonsense! Never mind that in 2012 they voted for a member of the Mormon Satanic cult! That is crazy, unadulterated, NAR, dominionist idolatry. No, that does not mean I am advocating for anyone else. I am advocating for Christ alone. When Jesus walked the earth He did not care a lick about carnal politics. His disciples wanted Him to! They wanted Him to deliver them from the oppression of Rome much like the NAR wants deliverance from the Democratic Party. Jesus however did not come to address either. He came to address a far greater oppression. The oppression of sin and the devil. That is what the Gospel does! It addresses the real oppression in the lives of the unsaved that no political partisan can ever resolve.

I view this world as the Titanic and we have already hit the iceberg. Trust me, I have seen the movie and the ship is going down. Jesus is the lifeboat. He is the only way off the ship and to escape the impending destruction. I spend my ministry trying to point people towards the lifeboat and away from lifeboats with holes in them that are no lifeboats at all. The NAR spends its days arguing over who is best to steer the remains of the ship into the icy grave that awaits it. So spare me the twisted history lessons and carnal excuses for why you do not preach the Gospel. God uses whoever is elected and scripture strongly suggests that He determines who leads. Lastly, I want to be very clear. I am not saying do not vote or do vote. I am not saying to vote one party or the other. They are all on the road to destruction and none care about the cause of Christ. I am not saying you can't reduce it down to a choice of the lesser of two evils. Knock yourself out. Just stop conferring righteousness where it does not belong. Stop pretending that unless everyone agrees with your carnal decision that they must be hell-bound and wrong. If you are a blood-bought Christian then stop being led by your belly. Stop glorying in what ought to shame you. Stop setting your mind on earthly things and come back to the only things that matters that we all can agree on -- The Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- January 15, 2020

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.