RELIGION IN THE NEWS
A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from Love Express, May 21, 2006, with a headline: Wagner Commission’s Apostle of New York. The following are excerpts. Sunday, May 21, 2006, is a day to be noted in the city of New York. It is the day Reverend Roger McPhail, pastor of New Hope Fellowship in Brooklyn, New York, was commissioned as an apostle to this city. Pastor McPhail moves prophetically and is a dynamic preacher and passionate worshiper. He is on the cutting edge of interpreting post modern Christianity, dialoging with the emerging church leaders, seeking and discerning the relevancy of Christ in our culture. The commissioning portion of the service was led by Dr. C. Peter Wagner, who is presiding apostle of the International Coalition of Apostles. The president of Global Harvest Ministries, chancellor of the Wagner Leadership Institute and a former faculty member of Fuller Theological Seminary. The International Coalition of Apostles defines an apostle as a Christian leader gifted, taught, commissioned and sent by God with the authority to establish the foundational government of the church within an assigned sphere of ministry, by hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches, and by setting things in order accordingly for the growth and maturity of the church.
Tom:
Dave, our audience, some of our listeners may remember C. Peter Wagner, as the man who is at Fuller Theological Seminary, and invited John Wimber, and they began their courses over there which were really based upon introducing signs and wonders, or sort of a catalyst to get people more involved with signs and wonders. And C. Peter Wagner was also, you remember doing a couple of articles on him with regard to strategic spiritual warfare---he’s into all those things. But this is what he had to say to this man, and to the people in attendance at the ceremony of commissioning Pastor McPhail as the apostle to New York. “We are not making Pastor McPhail an apostle, only God makes someone an apostle, we are commissioning him to a higher office, and with that comes more authority, things will happen in the supernatural world.”
Dave:
Tom, these guys never cease to amaze me. They make it up as they go along.
Tom:
Well, and big time, Dave, we have an international coalition of apostles, I mean, what is that?
Dave:
Paul never belonged to that, neither did any apostle, but they made up. So, they formed it and---
Tom:
And people are impressed by it.
Dave:
Yeah, and he’s the president of the Global Harvest Ministries, which he founded, chancellor of the Wagner Leadership Institute. I guess I could set up a Hunt Leadership Institute and I could be chancellor, too. Tom, they define an apostle as a Christian leader, gifted and taught, and so forth, and sent by God with the authority to establish the foundational government of the church within an assigned sphere. Sent by God? Why doesn’t God send him? How does C. Peter Wagner get in there? God asked him to do this? But anyway, Tom, just to show you that they make it up as they go along, let me quote C. Peter Wagner. He said: “One fundamental thesis will control this discussion of us coming to grips with some of the relatively new---(Yeah, they made it up)--- and at times somewhat radical ideas---(Yeah, it’s their invention)---surrounding---(Let me list these things: strategic level of spiritual warfare (I never read a word about that in the Bible), spiritual mapping (that’s another one they made up, that’s not in the Bible), identificational repentance (that’s not in the Bible), and other such issues. The thesis---this is what governs, this is the rule they follow-- the thesis of that ministry, that is, experience, precedes and produces theology, not the reverse.” So, there it is, they get their theology, not from the Bible, but from what they experience, they make it up as they go along.
Tom:
But they look to the Scriptures to reinforce, or support their views. And Dave, what about an apostle, are there any apostles today--- An apostle to New York with authority and working in the realm of signs and wonders?
Dave:
If there were, as they say themselves, God would have sent them and given them the authority. But Wagner, doesn’t he say something about he has the authority to do this?
Tom:
Well, he prayed. He said, Now I take the apostolic authority that I have and I declare in the name of Jesus that this man, this Pastor McPhail, is commissioned as an apostle to this city, to push back the forces of evil and to see this city, New York City, transformed for the kingdom of God.
Dave:
I’m not impressed, Tom. First of all, where did he get this authority? Number Two: I mean, we’ve seen them do this in so many cities. The whole idea here is taking your city for God. Jack Hayford has been into that, he had conferences at his church, How to Take Your City For God. John Dawson has written some books about it, and Wagner has written the foreword---really exciting, we’re going to take a city for God. Paul never took a city for God, Jesus never took a city for God, and they have not taken any cities for God! They used to have---I remember---who was it? they went to San Francisco and they took authority over homosexuality in San Francisco and it only got worse. They took authority over drugs in Miami Beach, it only got worse. They used to meet in the Hollywood First Presbyterian church monthly, and I remember when we got a letter from the pastor because we exposed a little bit of this being unbiblical. He said, You’re exactly right, we bind these territorial spirits and we haven’t even got out of the building when they are on the loose again. In fact, didn’t they have the Watt’s riot after that, or maybe it was before. I don’t know, Tom, but we have nothing in the Bible to indicate this, no evidence that anything good has come of any this, but they keep going on their way.
Tom:
And Dave, again, people are caught up, and it seems to have power, it seems to be that whether it be the ceremony or whatever or whatever the ideas, the concepts, being in power, signs and wonders, but we need to be Bereans. We need to search the scriptures daily to see if these things are true to God’s Word.
Dave:
Tom, what concerns me, in a nutshell is, they are getting away from the Bible. All this power stuff, and their authority and so forth. Let’s get back and see what the Bible says. We need some simple Bible teaching right from God’s Word.
