The New Apostolic Reformation and American Politics

Matthew Taylor's "The Violent Take It By Force"

I met Matthew Taylor at the Religion News Association conference last spring in Pittsburgh. A senior religious studies scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies, he was there in part to promote the book he had coming out in September. (Such shameless self-promotion; did you know I have a book coming out in February?) I finished The Violent Take It By Force right before Thanksgiving.

Taylor opens and closes his book with the events surrounding the Capital riot on January 6, 2021. He explains the role of the Appeal to Heaven flags (not what Speaker Johnson and Justice Alito claim), the Jericho Marches, Shofars, Worship Protests, and the like.

Matthew’s book wasn’t my first introduction to this segment of the evangelical world. In part years I have read sociological treatments by Brad Christerson and Richard Flory and Lydia Bean. These books introduced me to the world of Spiritual Warfare, which always seemed very strange to me — I have made it past my 70th birthday without reading either the Left Behind series or Frank Peretti!

What sets TVTIBF apart is its careful documentation of the origins of the New Apostolic Reformation (at Fuller Seminary!) and the interpersonal and organizational linkages that connect the various spokes of the movement to one another.. These linkages function in ways that denominations might, granting legitimacy to new players and conferring authority on new voices with the right connections. Taylor introduces the NAR in the introduction to the book.

The NAR is organized around a highly networked but loosely affiliated pantheon of charismatic preachers, pastors, celebrities, nonprofit leaders, and international entrepreneurs who understand themselves to be recreating the energy and vitality of the early Christian church. They believe that the church has languished for centuries in feebleness and aimlessness, led by timid pastors and functionary priests — until now. Now, they believe, in these momentous latter days, God has reinvigorated teh church through the Holy Spirit-backed renewed leadership of apostles and prophets. They believe that Christians need to conquer the high places of influence in society and govern from the top down. Engaged in a cosmic spiritual war against the forces of darkness, they believe God has mandated them to use spiritual violence to defeat Satan and then build the kingdom of God on earth. (3)

He connects the early launch of the NAR to Fuller professor C. Peter Wagner. Wagner was responsible for developing the “homogeneous church principle” (which did tremendous damage in its own right!). He wound up teaching a “Signs and Wonders” class alongside an area pastor. Many of the figures who populate the book were initially connected through that class. Eventually the Fuller faculty called for an end to the course, but Wagner continued his work at network building.

Wagner created a host of network linkages. There were too many acronyms for me to keep straight. But they worked to keep charismatic (as in leadership capability) leaders working with each other.

Each chapter of the book focuses on the leaders who succeeded Wagner and what they added to the movement. I was able to learn more about some figures that I’d heard of and a lot more that were new to me. One big piece for me was the chapter in worship activist Sean Feucht in which I learned, as a dedicated Indy 500 fan, that his last name is pronounced just like A.J. Foyt’s.

Lance Walnau stands out as important in articulating The Seven Mountain Mandate. He had been given a vision of how God would exercise dominion over the seven major spheres of society. Through his YouTube channel and videos, thousands of hours were spent on topics like this.

There are many other important figures in the book, each making their contribution. They share an entrepreneurial spirit, combined with a sense that they are bringing about God’s dominion to a troubled, broken, and likely demonic society.

What I find most significant about the figures in TVTIBF is the way in which they have popularized the rhetoric of the NAR into our common religious life. The notion of demons controlling countries through corrupt agents is connected to QAnon beliefs about Democratic leaders and Hollywood figures sacrificing children. It is motivating certain forms of political absolutism. It is, as PRRI has demonstrated, creating space for the legitimacy of violence in pursuit of Godly ends.

I’m part of a forum tomorrow night on religion and the election in Colorado Springs, sponsored by the new Center for the Study of Evangelicalism at UCCS. I’ll be arguing that as much as Christian Nationalism and the NAR are problematic in their own rite, the true danger comes in the way they create permission structures among those adjacent to the movements. Pushing back against those permission structures is hard work and needs to be foregrounded in the work of everyday Christian churches over the course of the next years.

As the new/old Trump administration takes shape, he and his supporters may argue for an electoral mandate that doesn’t really exist. But behind that exists a group of people who are taking hold of what they see as a much greater Spiritual Mandate. As those ideas get intermingled, we’re in for some rough road ahead.