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Take The City!
One of the more recent false
concept to sweep the Church, mainly the charismatic segment of the Body is the belief that
the Church is to be in the business of "taking" their cities for Christ.
As spiritual and high-minded as this sounds it is without any biblical support or
historical precedent.
Who Is
Behind This False Teaching?
The people promoting this false concept are somewhat
of a "mixed" bag. We have an amalgam of spiritual warfare
proponents, charismatic dominionists, and prophetic
movement devotees.
One of the better known people espousing this concept is Dr. Peter Wagner,
the spiritual mapping/strategic level spiritual warfare guru. He has written several
books and video tape series on exactly how God's warriors are supposed to take their
cities for God by binding up demons, principalities, and powers.
Another very vocal proponent for the take the city/nations concept is false prophet
Morris Cerullo. Each month Morris
sends out glossy newsletters on his global work to take nations and cities for Christ.
He usually includes an article by Wagner, or Cindy Jacobs on just how to achieve
these takeovers.
False "Apostle" Earnest Leonard is another regular
full-page advertiser in Charisma magazine offering "Taking Your City for God
Conference" dates. Who speaks at this conference? False prophet Bill
Hamon, false prophetess Mary Crum, false
apostle John Eckhardt.
What's Wrong
With This Picture?
On the surface it seems like a laudable goal to take ones city for Jesus
Christ. However, the people promoting the concept must be relegated to the ranks of
the deceived. The people holding these conferences are walking in deception,
many of them have taken on the title of "apostle" and "prophet." This
alone is enough to indicate that they are unsound biblically. Either they
have been deceived into really thinking they are apostles and prophets or they are
deceivers who are knowingly deceiving the Church. I prefer to believe the former
versus the latter, although the latter must be acknowledged as a possibility in some
cases.
Next what they teach is unbiblical. They stress spiritual warfare
which is not supported by Scripture.
Spiritual mapping - going into a city, locating any and all statues which represent some
form of paganism. Locating areas of crime, abortion, pornography. Once these
areas are known then intercessors begin to pray against the demons over these specific
evils and sins.
Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare - here is a little testimony from a spiritual warrior (bold type and
underlining added):
During prayer, we were shown
that we were to surround the city with prayer and praise, then four elders were to go with
teams to four points outside the city and at the same time, bind the powers in the name of
Jesus. The group I was leading were situated on a hill external to the city and when, at
2:30 p.m. one Saturday, we obeyed God's direction, one person in the group saw
in the Spirit, a huge black dragon-like creature
writing in chains. Another saw a long gate swing open to a rich
green pasture. Another saw angels coming down over all houses in
the city, whilst a fourth heard the words, "this city is now freed. You are to be
ready to minister to the people I bring to you. by Dr. Rev. Colin Warren from
www.pastornet.net.au/flc/slswpapr.htm
Now after this cosmic combat the city was freed
and the people were ready to get saved! The underlying belief is that all people
will willingly receive Christ once the "demonic presence" is lifted off of them
and their cities or villages.
The Steps Involved In Taking Your
City for Christ-
according to Rev. Warren:
- The person or persons upon whom God has placed a burden to free a
particular area, town, city, state or country, must begin to pray for guidance concerning
how to go about the task.
- Prayer needs to include asking God to bring together a team of
like-minded persons to covenant together to pray regularly, specifically and perseveringly
for guidance.
- Be specific. Ask God to reveal the boundaries of the area you are
going to set free.
- Research the area to discern the problem history of the
location that allowed Satanic powers to have the legal right to oppress the place. Keep
written records of discoveries, e.g. is there an abnormal sickness statistic, death rate,
etc. (see my comments on spiritual mapping above).
- Encourage discovery and use of gifts of the Holy Spirit of
discernment, words of knowledge, seeing and hearing in the Spirit,
wisdom, intercession etc.
- Test all knowledge received through Spiritual gifts, do not act until
there is adequate confirmation.
- Recognize that those most gifted in spiritual gifts can be wrong.
Remember we are all human and make mistakes. Be especially cautious of those who claim or
imply that they never hear incorrectly through the Holy Spirit.
- Covenant together to pray daily for each other for protection of
selves, loved ones and family members through the covering obtained by Jesus' shed blood
on the cross. Pray that God's angels will guard all who are involved.
- When God reveals the names of the principalities, powers,
governing spirits or strong men of Satan over an area, do not attempt to bind them until
He Has given that authority. Much prayer power in needed to prepare for this action.
- When and only when, God has given permission to bind, ask Him how
this is to be done. Note - This type of spiritual binding must not be attempted by
individuals unless God specifically gives permission. It is dangerous. Our own
experience and that of others, proves this.
- Pray for unity of Christians in the area you are seeking to set free.
Try to have those of like mind from other denominations with the same vision, join the
prater team. Do not criticize each other for differing theological emphases.
- Keep your major goal in focus. Jesus gave Peter (Matt. 16:18 and the
whole church (Matt.18:18) the keys to unlock the door to let people into the Kingdom of
God. Strategic spiritual warfare is one of the keys to facilitate the salvation of
the world. It is not the only key, but it has been neglected for centuries.
- As Nehemiah prayed and fasted and repented on behalf of himself and
his people (Neh. 1:4-2:8), so God moved ahead of him and prepared the way for his return
to Jerusalem to rebuild the city wall. We too, may need to add fasting and repentance to
prayer, to release god' power. Nehemiah also teaches the lesson of perseverance in the
face of discouragement and opposition. Perseverance is essential.
- One the work of discovering, naming and binding the power over a city
or other area has been completed, thorough a sometimes long period of preparation, the binding
must be done daily to keep those powers bound.
Let's begin to
consider some of these points in particular.
Point 3 - there seem to be boundaries which cannot be
trespassed against. Where is this seen in the New Testament? Answer, NOWHERE.
Point 4 - do we have any biblical example of this type of research being
done? Answer, NO. Do we have any record of this being done in the
writings of the early Church Fathers or the Reformers? Answer, NO.
Point 5 - words of knowledge? Today we have absolutely no biblical
definition of the word of knowledge or the word of wisdom. They were left undefined
by the apostle Paul. Any definition is at best pure speculation, although it
is never stated as such.
Point 9 - where does the N.T. direct us to learn the names of demons?
Where do we see "God revealing the names of demons" to anyone? We are told
we have to wait until God grants us the authority over them. Has He or hasn't He
given the Church all the authority He is going to give us?
Point 11 - Unity at
all costs! Don't worry about
theological differences, they don't matter when the "city" is at stake. If
that isn't a concept straight out of the pit of hell I don't know what is. There can
be no biblical unity apart from God's truth. What portion of His truth are you
willing to give up and/or compromise to get along with others?
Point 12 - it seems strategic level spiritual warfare is a KEY
that has been NEGLECTED for years by the Church! Really? The truth is
the Church NEVER engaged in this foolishness at all. One
wonders how the Lord has managed to get His program this far along without this mystic
"key."
Point 13 - don't forget to fast and pray! Fasting helps people
release God's power. Really? Better go back and carefully read all the texts
on fasting. Fasting & God's power are not connected. Fasting is fine as
a spiritual discipline, but when it becomes a method by which one obtains spiritual
power one is getting off into the realm of magic and the occult.
Point 14 - repeated binding must be done. It is not enough to bind the strongman
once, it must be done daily. Where is this taught in the Bible? Answer, NOWHERE!
What is wrong
with this picture? Beyond what has already been stated we have at its root Pelagian theology.
1. It fosters a works centered view of salvation, i.e. without spiritual warfare
people will not be saved, who otherwise would have received Christ.
2. It is Gnostic in nature in that it depends on receiving hidden knowledge of
demons names, locations, boundaries, etc. . .
3. It is being fostered by men and women who are walking in deception themselves,
falsely calling themselves apostles, prophets, bishops, etc...
4. It shows God as being somewhat dualistic in nature, involved in this cosmic
battle between Himself and Satan, with the outcome of this battle uncertain. This
cosmic struggle depends upon the action or inaction of the Church.
5. Lastly - there are no provable results. Dr. Cho has the largest
church in the world in S. Korea. He has more people praying in tongues all day every
day than anywhere else on earth. Yet -
A. That nation's gov't has fallen due to internal corruption
several times in the recent past.
B. The sex trade is rampant in that nation and American
newspapers regularly run stories of Korean call girls & massage parlors.
C. A recent devastating flood in S. Korea.
D. Student unrest has been a long standing problem.
Another example could be Tulsa Ok., the home of Rhema Bible Training Center and Oral
Robert's City of Faith and many charismatic mega-church ministries. Yet gang
violence, substance abuse, abortion, pornography, etc. . . are still major problems.
So, all of the
spiritual power obtained through tongues & fasting has not "taken" they city
of Seoul, Tulsa, Brownsville, or Toronto. If anything sin has increased globally
inspite of the "revival" and the strategic level spiritual warfare.
Since the "take the city" false teaching we have seen sin increase
globally and not decrease. No major city has been taken for Christ, even though this
teaching has been around for about 5 years. Why not? Could it be that God is
not into "taking cities."? Could it be that the whole notion is not from
Him at all, but another Satanic deflection and deception? Could be and most probably
is! Here is an advertisement of false apostles and prophets, many of whom are active
in the "take the city" deception.
At $95.00 per person it could garner $427,500.00.
That is not a bad "haul" by these false apostles, prophets, and teachers
from this gathering. Almost half a million dollars!! All
based on false concepts and unbiblical precepts.
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