This is an interesting article by Rachel Tabachnick.
A few excerpts below…
(Link to complete article at the end)
Over two years ago I wrote, but never published, the following article. It was immediately following the 2008 election and the Religious Right was being eulogized by the press. The topic is the transition of large numbers of Charismatic evangelicals from Dispensational to Dominionist theology.
Why should you care? In plain English this is a shift from an originally passive theology in which believers are waiting to be Raptured from the earth prior and escape imminent apocalyptic horrors, to a politicized theology in which believers must take control over society and government.
End times narratives provide a blueprint for activism much like a platform defines goals of a political party. The narratives provide a clear picture of what we can expect from this particular stream of evangelicalism as it gains both religious and political clout and molds tomorrow’s Religious Right.
The demise of the Religious Right is being announced with great fanfare in the media. It is an announcement that has been made repeatedly over the decades and, without fail, has been wrong every time.
It is difficult to juxtapose this image of the demise of the Religious Rights with the current reality in America – the growing popularity of spiritual warfare networks, spiritual mapping, the belief in generational curses, demon deliverance centers, health centers based on faith healing, and faith-based initiatives which have poured public funds into the hands of these spiritual warriors. A prominent religious leader can be labeled as moderate or mainstream despite advocating beliefs that only a few years ago would have been considered marginal.
What is “Dominionism” in this context?
It is a word that has been used casually to mean many different things in recent years, including being used erroneously in reference to Dispensationalists, whose well-defined prophecy timeline includes no plan whatsoever for taking dominion over the earth. One of the major features of Dispensationalism is a pre-Tribulation Rapture, therefore “born again” Christians will not still be present on the natural earth when the battles of the end times take place. They will then watch from the grandstands of heaven and play no role in the defeat of Satan and his minions. Dominionism is a term that should only be used for those whose eschatological timeline requires that Christians, in some way, gain complete authority over the earth before the return of Jesus can take place. This can refer to some postmillennial theologies or forms of premillennial theology in which Christians are not Raptured prior to the Tribulation. The term Dominionism should not be used to describe pre-Tribulation Dispensational theology.
Millions in the Pentecostal/Charismatic sector of Christianity are now actively involved in spiritual warfare networks, prayer marches, long term fasting, around the clock prayer vigils, and organized campaigns like “Reclaiming the Seven Mountains of Culture” to take control over society and government.
These seven mountains are government, education, arts and entertainment, media, family, religion, and business.
Many pastors across the Pentecostal/Charismatic spectrum have rejected the pre-Tribulation Rapture and embraced these campaigns for dominion. Youth across the country are being trained to be warriors, much like the Tribulation Force of the Left Behind series. However, in this scenario, true believers will not be snatched away from the earth before the battle begins, and there will be no waiting for armies from heaven. These Christian warriors, representing the “corporate body” of Christ, plan to be victorious over evil themselves.
Charismatic Dominionists were in a somewhat disorganized state for several decades, and their activism was overshadowed by the better known dominionism of the small but influential Reconstructionist camp of the late Rousas J. Rushdoony. The impact of Rushdoony’s ideology could be seen in the partnership of dispensationalist and dominionist camps that produced the 17 Christian Worldview Documents, The Manifesto for the Christian Church, and other foundational documents of the Coalition on Revival. This coalition, led by Jay Grimstead and initiated in 1984, was an effort to bring about a truce between those in competing theologies in order to promote a unified front in their impact on society and government. They were particularly concerned about overcoming differences in eschatology which is critically important to guiding activism. The documents produced by the coalition provided the foundational underpinnings for taking Christian dominion in government, economics, law, education, and other specific areas of society.
The movement was a coalition, but the end product was considered a triumph for Reconstructionists and Dominion theology. The exercise further demonstrated the inadequacy and incompatibility of Dispensational theology as a foundation for Religious Right activism. Since the time of the Coalition on Revival, both the Dominionist and Dispensational leaders of the Religious Right, as well as those researchers monitoring the Religious Right, saw the tremendous potential for exploitation of the vast numbers of the Pentecostal/Charismatic sector and their growing mass media capacity.
In 1994, Frederick Clarkson, author of Eternal Hostility, the Struggle between Theocracy and Democracy and co-founder of Talk2action.org, wrote the following.
The quotes are from an article titled “No Longer Without Sheep,”
“Since 1980 much of Pentecostalism has begun to adopt aspects of Reconstructionism or dominion theology. This is not an accident.
Reconstructionists have sought to graft their theology onto the experientially oriented, and often theologically amorphous, Pentecostal and charismatic religious traditions. Following a 1987 Reconstuctionist/Pentecostal theological meeting, Joseph Morecroft exclaimed: “God is blending Presbyterian theology with charismatic zeal into a force that cannot be stopped.!”
Clarkson continues by explaining that this means hundreds of thousands of Pentecostals and Charismatics moved from apolitical into the activist camp. Clarkson, a long term veteran in the effort to expose Reconstructionism and its impact on the Religious Right, continued in the same article,
“As recently as the early 1990s, most evangelicals viewed Reconstructionists as a band of misfits without a following. All that has changed, along with the numbers and character of the Christian Right. The world of evangelicalism and, arguably, American politics generally will never be same.”
Gary North, son-in-law of the late Rousas J. Rushdoony, and a prolific Reconstructionist writer, wrote even earlier about the potential of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movement. In the July/August 1985 issue of “Christian Reconstructionism” North wrote an article titled “A Letter to Charismatics.” It is an open letter asking why Charismatics, and more particularly “word of faith” televangelists, had not abandoned Dispensational theology. North claims that this theology is an excuse for the failure of Christians to change the world.
“To mentally justify this failure, millions of Christians have adopted eschatology of earthy failure – an eschatology which teaches that in time and on earth, God’s people will be persecuted, defeated, bankrupted, ridiculed, imprisoned, and generally made to feel as though God is voluntarily impotent to implement His principles on earth through the effort of his faithful servants. This doctrine is called premillennial dispensationalism. It is radically pessimistic. Most charismatics say that they still believe in premillennial dispensationalism , even though they also say they believe in biblical principles of successful living. This baffles me. Are they pessimists or optimists?”
North adds,
Charismatics say that God can heal bodies and does. They say that God can heal churches and families, and does. They say that God can heal the whole world, but won’t. Why not? Is there something the matter with God? Or is there something the matter with premillennialism?
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