Tag: hyper-authoritarianism
The Role of Fivefold Ministry (Part 3)
Now as pointed out before (in the book, Charismatic Captivation), the Church is the quintessential Theocracy. Its government is not a political government wherein the governed themselves constitute, devise, and effect their own government, such as that of this nation, the United States, which is a form of democracy (republic), supposedly “of the people, for the people, and by the people.” Rather, the Church is literally governed by a singular Supreme Potentate—the Lord Jesus Christ—who God has appointed as its Sole and Sovereign Head. The absolute necessity of understanding this one concept is emphasized and re‑emphasized repeatedly in this volume, and indeed is the ultimate and salient point of this book.
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12 Reasons “Spiritual Covenants” Are Not of God
Recently, I interfaced and interacted with a group whose primary commonality is their claim to be apostolic leaders, which, in my view, is extremely dubious in the case of but only a few. In the aftermath, a great disappointment and matter of dismay to me was being made aware, despite the decades of disapprobation and disrepute, some of their number, including some of their senior leaders, continue to employ in working/relating “covenant relationships” with junior leaders of their group such “spiritual covenants” of the ilk described and referenced herein. I was deeply grieved in my spirit by what I saw, discerned, and experienced at that conference.
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Uncovering the Myth of Spiritual Covering
“Spiritual covering” as theorized by those who teach, promulgate, and adhere to it is an absolute myth. No semblance of the version of “spiritual covering” taught by its proponents exists anywhere within the pages of Holy Writ (Scripture). I will take it a step further and state straightforwardly and unambiguously: “Spiritual covering,” in the vein that it is presented by its proponents and proliferators, is an unmitigated lie and complete myth! It is a complete fabrication concocted by the originators of these fallacious doctrines by which to facilitate and perpetuate their purely self‑aggrandizing objectives of subjugation, domination and control of the sheep of God’s Flock.
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Identifying Hyper-authoritarian Doctrines and Practices
Hyper-authoritarian doctrines and practices have become cemented into the foundation, fabric, and functions of many churches and even whole denominations or networks of churches. The problem has become so widespread that it is almost pandemic in Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal churches. But, the reason these scripturally-condemned doctrines and practices have been able to proliferate and endure is that they have been going on so long that the present generations of church-goers in these ecclesiastical groupings have been reared in these cultures where domination and control by church leaders is the norm and are accepted as being normal.
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25 Reasons Hyper-Authoritarian Church Leadership IS Disqualifying
In the previous post I indicated my strong disagreement with the conclusions of the group of elders and an overseer who identified themselves as the “investigators” who conducted an investigation into the long train of abuses, misdeeds, and other allegations against the founding senior leader of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Mark Driscoll. Those men concluded that “While we believe Mark needs to continue to address these areas in his life, we do not believe him to be disqualified from pastoral ministry.” I ended that post by saying that abuse of spiritual authority is one of the most, possibly THE most, egregious affronts in existence to the One who is the Source of all legitimate authority, and that in a follow-up post I would offer 25 reasons why that is so that immediately come to my mind. This post consists of those 25 Reasons.
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The Outrageous Claims of Mars Hill Church “Investigators”
God’s people – leaders and laymen alike – need to give heed to the judgments of God that are clearly and undeniably manifesting all around us, and begin to earnestly and thoroughly “Humble (themselves) under the mighty hand of God!” (1 Pet. 5:6) for “God is opposed to the proud but gives His grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). It is much better for one to humble himself, as Scripture commands, than to refuse and leave it to an angry and avenging God to do the humbling.
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Nicolaitanism in the Church Today
One of the common denominators of false cults, false religions, and the occult is that their doctrines and practices are predicated upon the “isms” of vain, humanly invented philosophies. The same is true of the heretical hyper-authoritarian Discipleship/Shepherding doctrines, dogmas, and practices that were infused into the fabric and foundation of the Neo-Pentecostal church, which fact is further corroboration that they are all of the aforementioned characterization: cultic, false, and occult. One of the most significant “isms” of the Discipleship heresy is one that is specifically mentioned and condemned in the Bible—Nicolaitanism.
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Fourteen Common Traits of Toxic Church Leaders
Yes, toxic leaders are the distinct minority of Christian leaders. But they can do harm to the cause of Christ disproportionate to their numbers. And they can get away with their behavior for years because they often have a charismatic and charming personality. Charming like a snake.
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Recovering From Authoritarian Abuse
Multitudes of sincere and trusting believers are caught in the virtually invisible web of religious captivation in the churches they attend, the ministries they are under, and the networks they are aligned with…and don’t know it! These faithful followers of Christ are unaware victims of spiritual abuse, psychological enslavement, and exploitation perpetrated under the heavy-hand of hyper-authoritarianism. That is to say, the leadership of the church-group of which they are a part is dominating, controlling, manipulating, and exploiting their followers for their own personal gain and private kingdom-building. Through systematic indoctrination, victims have been duped into accepting as biblical and beneficial the oppressive and abusive predominance imposed upon them by unscrupulous, tyrannical church-leaders.
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33 Signs of Spiritual Abuse
Delineated and defined in this article are some of the signs and symptoms, or common characteristics, of hyper-authoritarian groups, churches, networks, and ministries. Often, these are the symptoms of a church or group laboring under the heavy-hand of hyper-authoritarianism. That is to say, the leadership is dominating, controlling, and manipulating their followers, and exploiting them for their own personal gain and private kingdom-building. Wholesale abuse and misuse of authority is an integral part of the very foundation, fabric, and functions of such groups. Culturally and systemically, such “churches” are nothing more than demonic “Charismatic” cults, regardless of the modernized name of their organization, the Mission and Faith Statements on their website, the worldly hypnotizing and mind-numbing so-called “worship,” aimed at alluring the spiritually naive, and the spiritual-sounding jargon comprising their group-speak.
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The Thin Line of Leadership (Part 2)
At a juncture in American history when the sitting president has revealed himself in obvious and undeniable ways to be an avowed Marxist with a belly filled with fiery ambitions of a would-be world dictator, who is hell-bent on transforming the republican form of government that has served this, the greatest nation on Earth, for some 240 years, into a totalitarian socialistic nanny state, and every segment of society, from political to economical to ecclesiastical, is now inundated with people driven by what Augustine called libido dominandi—lust for rule or dominion—the matter of legitimate versus illegitimate authority is being speedily forced to the top of public discourse. The scope of this article and the series it inaugurates is primarily leadership in the ecclesiastical realm. However, much, if not all, of the principles regarding legitimate and illegitimate authority—i.e., abuse of authority—addressed herein can also with some adaptation be applied to authority in any realm of society and human interaction.
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Examining Biblical Authority
There is no matter more central and critical to spiritual knowledge and understanding than the matter of authority. One cannot even begin to have a proper understanding of the realm of the Kingdom of God as well as the genuine Gospel of the Kingdom, which the Gospel writers expressly indicated Jesus preached during His fleshly ministry, without having an understanding of the matter of authority.
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