By Rudy Barnes, Jr., October 19, 2014
Lance Wallnau is the latest false prophet campaigning for God and Donald Trump in the cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil, and he’s getting press attention with large crowds just weeks before the election. It’s important that voters recognize Wallnau as the charlatan that he is to distinguish him from legitimate Christian and political leaders.
The Wall Street Journal has described Wallnau as “one of the most important figures in the new Apostolic Reformation, an influential movement in evangelical Christianity that blends direct experience of the Holy Spirit with a call to engage in politics as a form of ‘spiritual warfare.’ His main goal is to elevate Christians to greater influence to transform society.”
Wallnau exploits a misplaced emphasis of evangelical and charismatic Christians on emotional displays and healings as evidence of a true faith. Other Christians are skeptical of such healings and emotional displays. John Wesley was an Anglican priest who warned his followers to be skeptical of those who emphasize emotional displays as evidence of their faith.
Jesus taught that in the cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil, God’s will is to reconcile and redeem humanity while Satan’s will is to divide and conquer. Charlatans like Wallnau and demagogues like Trump use religion to gain power, and provide evidence that Satan does a convincing imitation of God in both the church and politics.
The best forum in which to challenge the legitimacy of Wallnau, Trump, and other charlatans who masquerade as Christians is in the church. That’s where the teachings of Jesus are (or should be) the ultimate authority on God’s will, and God’s reconciling love is (or should be) the best evidence of God’s healing and reconciling spirit.
Religion and politics are interwoven with moral standards of legitimacy that originate in religion, but have secular application beyond the church in the home and politics. Those moral standards of legitimacy should be determined by law and reason; but in American democracy and even in the church, popularity has replaced reason for moral standards of what is right.
Loving others as we love ourselves is essential to promoting the common good in America’s pluralistic democracy, but it’s difficult to find consensus on contentious issues. We need to look beyond our personal wants and consider our needs as a nation to find that consensus; and in our polarized partisan culture we need an altruistic faith to guide us.
In America’s pluralistic and polarized democracy, spiritual warfare can exploit political differences and prevent the consensus needed for governance. After the Civil War the church provided the moral standards needed to sustain American democracy. Today crowds cheering populist charlatans like Wallnau and Trump remind us that we can no longer rely on the church to be the moral steward of American democracy. Voters must save America from itself.
Notes:
“On Sept. 28, JD Vance spoke at a Christian political event hosted by the most influential religious leader you’ve probably never heard of. His name is Lance Wallnau, and he is one of the chief proponents of a radical religious doctrine called the Seven Mountain Mandate. He’s an election denier. He’s said Kamala Harris engaged in “witchcraft” in her debate with Donald Trump and that an “occult spirit” is working “on her and through her.” And he’s a leader of one of the most dangerous political factions in America: the religious movement that helped fuel the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
At the same time, Wallnau promoted the Seven Mountain Mandate that provided a theological justification for supporting Trump’s quest for power. The core concept of the Mandate is simple: It states that Christians will be able to save the nation only if they or their allies gain control of each of the seven “mountains” of cultural influence: the family, religion, education, the media, the arts, business and the government. In 2013, Wallnau wrote a short book with Bill Johnson, pastor of the powerful Bethel Church, a large Pentecostal congregation in California. In a chapter on the Mandate, Wallnau wrote, “These mountains are crowned with high places that modern-day kings occupy as ideological strongholds.” He said that he “sensed” that God was telling him that “he who can take these mountains can take the harvest of nations.”
See JD Vance and the Prohets of Trumpism, by David French at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/opinion/jd-vance-lance-wallnau-seven-mountains.html.
“Lance Wallnau, is a self-styled prophet in a fast-growing evangelical movement. He came down off the stage to lay his hands on people who had requested prayers. Then he explained why re-electing Donald Trump is essential to save America. “Don’t think for a moment that it isn’t possible for this country to veer off course and go over a cliff in November,” Wallnau told about 2,000 people gathered under a tent in late July. “It’s quite possible, and the only thing that can arrest that is an activated, catalyzed body of Christian patriots.” Wallnau, 68 years old, is one of the most important figures in the New Apostolic Reformation, an influential movement in evangelical Christianity that blends direct experience of the Holy Spirit with a call to engage in politics as a form of “spiritual warfare.” He opposes abortion and same-sex marriage, but his main goal is to elevate Christians to greater influence to transform society.
Matthew Taylor, a scholar who tracks the New Apostolic Reformation, says that no evangelical leader did more than Wallnau to provide a theological rationale for religious conservatives to accept Trump. “Wallnau was already popular,” said Taylor, of the Maryland-based Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies. “But he became a mega evangelical celebrity through his endorsement of Trump and using his ideas to backstop Trump.” Now, Taylor sees Wallnau as presenting a threat beyond his advocacy for a political candidate. “I would call Lance Wallnau a Christian supremacist,” Taylor says. “He wants Christians to be in charge of society and to tear down the wall of separation between church and state.”
See On the Evangelicals Calling for “Spiritual Warfare” to Elect Trump, from Wall Street Journal at https://apple.news/A6Tr6GeWSRACG9ySoKrW34g.
On How Altruistic Values Can Prevent a Dysfunctional Democracy, commentary #481 (2/3/24) at https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2024/02/musings-on-how-altruistic-values-can.html.
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