God’s
Trumpet: Trump-Pence
King Cyrus was a Babylonian king in the Old Testament that God used to assist the Jews in returning to Israel to rebuild the Temple that had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Though Cyrus was not a Jew but a Persian, God still used him to fulfill His will and he returned to the Jews the Temple treasury that had been looted. The prophet Isaiah prophesied of him:
“Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations
before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two
leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make
the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut
in sunder the bars of iron. ” – Is 45:1
In October, 2016 Charisma’s publisher, Stephen Strang interviewed Wallnau about his
‘word from God’ that Trump was God’s chosen leader. The 20-minute tape was
widely distributed to churches across America. Steve Shultz, the founder of The
Elijah List, (an umbrella group created for the propagation of so-called words
of knowledge and prophecies by today’s popular prophets, apostles, dreamers,
and seers) sent it to his millions of subscribers to rally them to vote Trump.
In his intro to the interview he wrote:
“The encounter Lance Wallnau had with God and the
things FROM SCRIPTURE that God told Lance is nothing short of shocking…PLEASE
go out and VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE. But this time... THIS TIME... you can vote
according to the WISDOM God has given to you through Steve Strang (owner of Charisma Magazine) and Lance Wallnau.
Ready? Hold on to your hat.” [e-mail dated Oct. 5, 2016, emphasis in original]
The link to the podcast on Charisma’s Podcast
Network (https://www.charismapodcastnetwork.com/shows/strangreport/950eca02f9c9b5e7eaa9882caabd3e73
) still contains the discussion.
Wallnau convinced Strang that God told him
that Trump was to fulfill in our day the same prophecies in Isaiah 45 that King
Cyrus did on behalf of Israel thousands of years ago. Wallnau had seen a
facebook picture of Trump shown as the 45th President of the United
States, which he interpreted as confirmation of the Isaiah 45 prophecies that
dealt specifically with King Cyrus who lived 3,000 years ago.
Many other pastors and leaders grabbed ahold of
this ‘word from God’ and built upon Wallnau’s testimony. Well-known prophecy
teacher Perry Stone posted his numeric spin on the Cyrus anointed Trump on his
Facebook page dated November 3, 2016:
“Donald J. Trump was born June 14, 1946 and is
presently 70 years of age as of June 14, 2017. Going forward 7 months would be
January 14, 2016, and adding 7 days brings us to Jan 21st, which would be
Trumps first full day in office if he were elected. He would begin his first
full day one day after his official inauguration on Jan. 20th. These three
sevens - 70 years, plus 7 months plus 7 days are three sevens - which may be
linked, from a rabbinical perspective, to the Jewish year we are now in,
5,777.”
Messianic pastor, Curt Landry, took it even further
in his blog post dated November 20, 2016. He restated the Isaiah 45 and Jewish
year 5777 ideas without attribution as evidence that Trump is God’s anointed
Cyrus and spoke of the prayer circle around Trump that Wallnau participated in:
“I personally believe that Donald Trump found God
during the election process. When the pressure was getting to him, he placed an
Evangelical circle around him who laid hands on him and prayed for him, and it
is reported that he accepted Yeshua as Lord!... Donald Trump is open to the
prophets and the prophetic word. There are good prophets of God surrounding him
and speaking into his life…
“George Washington had a vision and a prophecy in
1777 about this season of time. So isn’t it interesting that just as Isaiah
prophesied that there would be someone like Cyrus from Persia raised up for
that season; George Washington referred to a season of time when God would
raise up someone like Donald Trump.” [https://www.curtlandry.com/is-donald-j-trump-a-cyrus-or-a-nebuchadnezzar/#
]
Wallnau is the co-editor of a 2013 book, Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate,
with Bill Johnson, the infamous pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California,
most notable for their ‘fire tunnels’ and a prayer room inside a pyramid
structure. Wallnau defines them as: “The 7 Mountain Mandate, in which
Christians seek to gain influence over the "mountains" of government,
church, education, family, media, arts, and business…this can be done either
overtly or covertly, as ‘infiltration.’” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQbGnJd9poc
]
He attributes the idea for the mandate to a
conversation he had with Loren Cunningham (founder of Youth With a Mission
{YWAM}) who had bounced the idea off of Bill Bright (founder of Campus Crusade
for Christ), which evolved into the thesis for the book, which featured
chapters from like-minded leaders including C. Peter Wagner, Ché Ahn, and
Patricia King.
As already documented, the Post-millennial aspiration
of the church taking global control over all earth’s institutions was the
stated goal of the Reconstructionists in the mainline denominations. However,
these ideas parallel the dreams and visions of so-called prophets that arose in
the mid-twentieth century, from whom the charismaniacs got their inspiration.
So it is hard to say which came first – the chicken or the egg.
Joel’s
Army and the Coming Civil War
“In
the fall of 1946, a major teaching on fasting and prayer as a means to revival
and the ‘restoration’ of the Church was spread throughout Pentecostalism. The
principle textbook for this teaching was Franklin Hall’s, Atomic Power With God Through Fasting and Prayer. . . Hall’s book
melded biblical concepts with occult methodology.” [Al Dager, Latter-Day Prophets,
Media Spotlight Special Report)
·
T. L. Osborn: “Brother Hall, we wanted you to
know, we do appreciate your vision, and the tremendous way you have stirred the
world with fasting and prayer. We are going to handle your books at our
meetings.”
·
Gordon Lindsay: “We know of no writer whom God
has so signally used to bring out Scriptural truth on fasting as Evangelist
Franklin Hall. We feel that “Atomic Power with God” is the book of the hour for
believers.
Others that said Hall’s book had a major influence
in their ministries are Oral Roberts, A.A. Allen, O. L. Jaggers, and W. V. Grant.
Yet did none of these men see the merger of the Bible with the occult? If they
did, that didn’t seem to matter. Just the first chapter of the book says:
“The writer shall endeavor to
present a spiritual atomic power far greater than the physical force of all the
atoms in the universe… In 1848 A.D. the Aquarian Age was introduced to the
world. The era of invention began and the machine came into being.”
Dager quotes Hall’s book again making reference to
astrology:
“In the zodiacal sign,
‘Scorpio,’ which is the eighth sign of the Zodiac, we have a picture of a
scorpion with its stinger lifted ready to strike… Just before this sign in the
heavens, there is a sign of the Judge, Jesus, who is the giver of LIFE. Jesus
proceeds toward death and pulls the STING OUT OF DEATH. (Emphasis Hall’s)”
Dager records how anti-Trinitarian false teacher
William Branham, took Hall’s book and added his own spin on it in 1948. The
Latter Rain movement evolved into the teachings of “The Manifest Sons of God” popularized
by John Robert Stevens, a cult leader in the 1970s of a group known as The Walk.
The manifested sons played up Hall’s idea of the immortalization of believers
who tap into this atomic power and then put it into an eschatological context.
Dager lists the basic tenets of the Latter Rain that can be seen as
foundational to many of today’s new apostles and prophets.
1.
The restoration of the offices of prophet and apostle
in the last days;
2.
Perfection of the saints in stages leading to godhood;
3.
New apostles to rule Church under their covering;
4.
Signs and wonders would be wrought by them in a
worldwide revival;
5.
Revival would result in the defeat of demonic spirits
via prayer and fasting;
6.
Overcomers under apostle’s leadership will defeat death
and become immortal;
7.
Church will become Christ on earth and rule the nations
with a rod of iron.
The chain of groups that tapped into the ‘atomic
power’ can be followed into the 1980s in the ‘ministries’ of the Vineyard
churches and Fuller Seminary’s Church Growth Department in the School of World
Missions. The late John Wimber headed up the former; Prof. C. Peter Wagner was
the voice of the latter. The two teamed up to do a class called “Signs and
Wonders” at Fuller, an apostate seminary that rejected biblical inerrancy in
the 1960s.
Wimber had been an assistant pastor of Chuck Smith,
founder of the Calvary Chapel association of churches that arose during a true
revival of the days of the hippies in Southern California. Wimber’s slogan was
“doing the stuff,” as he developed formulas for reproducing healing results by
studying true spiritual gifts that were present in that revival. He can be
compared to Simon the Magician in the New Testament that was impressed by God’s
power and wanted a piece of the action for his own selfish gain. Smith and
Wimber went separate ways after dividing over whether the emphasis should be on
the Bible or on the ‘power.” Wimber wrote several books on that atomic power,
including “Power Evangelism” and “Power Healing.”
C. Peter Wagner, a church growth expert at Fuller, saw
the potential in Wimber, a former producer of popular musical artists that
included The Righteous Brothers. Their partnership at Fuller was very
successful as their co-taught classes became the most popular ones in the
catalogue among the students for many years. They furthered Franklin Hall’s
ideas that through spiritual exercises, which included fasting and centering
prayer, they could ‘do the stuff’ themselves by their own supposed authority.
God was no longer the Healer; they were -- if they could just tap into the
power.
Enter: Mike Bickle. At the same time the Vineyard
movement was becoming popular under Wimber’s leadership, many so-called
prophets were showing up at conferences and crusades. Names like Bill Hamon,
Paul Cain, Bob Jones, and Rick Joyner would show up in ads in Charisma Magazine, promising to astound
the crowds with revelation knowledge and testimonies of visions, dreams and disembodied
heavenly voices. One of those voices inspired a young man, Mike Bickle, to launch
a ministry to combine forces with the prophets “to touch the ends of the earth.”
Kansas City Fellowship was born.
“In 1986, the leaders of Kansas City
Fellowship formed Grace Ministries, described as a ‘ministry team of men committed
to seeing the church fully restored to the glory described in God’s Word.’”
[Dager, Latter-Day Prophets]
Bickle’s para-church group became known as “The
Kansas City Prophets.” They published a newsletter called “The Shepherd’s Rod”
and when some of the ‘prophets’ were discovered to be living in immorality –
not immortality – they invited John Wimber to be their ‘covering.’ Wimber and
his associate Jack Deere provided some twisted doctrine for the false prophets
in order to stop the mouths of those warning of their collective false
prophecies. Wimber wrote articles claiming that New Testament prophets did not
have to have the same 100% accuracy as required in Deuteronomy 18 for Old
Testament prophets. He said that today’s prophets were like babies, needed to
practice to get better at it, and were just “messy” like all babes.
The Kansas City Prophets were thought to be a fulfillment of Hall and Branham’s Joel’s Army, the new breed.
The
KC prophets were seen as “the ‘new breed’ an elite group of believers endowed
with supernatural power that would enable them to be a part of the army of
dread warriors that God was said to be raising up in our generation. According
to John Wimber, this is a type of ‘Joel’s Army’ who will overcome all
opposition to the gospel and eventually subdue the nations. This teaching is
part of what is known as ‘dominion theology,’ which teaches that an elite army
of overcomers will either destroy or subdue all the enemies of Christ until
they eventually gain power and authority throughout the world. The government
of the nations will be upon their shoulders and when all the secular
authorities, governments, princes and kings have finally submitted to them,
Christ will return and they will present the kingdom to Him.” [Clifford Hill, ‘Kansas
City Prophets, Prophecy Today Magazine,
quoted from www.geocities.com/Bob_Hunter/8.htm]
“I believe that God is going to renovate the entire understanding of what Christianity is in the nations of the Earth,” said Bickle on a tape entitled, “Overview of Corporate Long Term Vision,” 1/5/86. “In twenty years there will be a totally different understanding of what Christianity is from what it is right now. . . I believe God is going to restore it and change it in the Earth in this generation.”
Wimber cut ties with the Kansas City Fellowship when he could no longer defend their long stream of false prophecies given by poo-poo baby prophets. The same mantle was picked up by C. Peter Wagner who was seen as the leading apostle of those following the views of the Latter Rain. His new venture was named the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), and became an umbrella group for the movement. The false prophets had a new defender in Wagner and under the NAR banner they continued to operate alongside Word/Faith churches around the world.
Renowned false prophet Rick Joyner, pastor of MorningStar Ministries, located in North Carolina on the grounds of the former PTL Club of Jim and Tammy Bakker, has written about a coming “Civil War” against all opposition to the “New Breed.” Charisma Magazine ran a cover story on Joyner in the April 2001 issue, called “God’s Lightning Rod.” It pointed out Joyner’s record of delivering prophecies that failed. Joyner responded angrily to the article in a letter to the editor. He said that God told him that now was the time for Matthew 13:41-42 to be fulfilled.
“The Son of
Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all
things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into
the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
In the past ten years or so, the political aspirations of the NAR and their global agenda began to take center stage. They would latch onto Christian politicians such as Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin who would participate in their dominionist/political rallies or speak at their churches. They seemed to be looking for a political leader to carry their own mantle to take back America. If they failed, they would be forced to admit that all the ‘prophets’ of the past century were indeed speaking with forked tongues. Their very reputations were on the line.
Washington D.C. became a favorite locale for their rallies. In November 2010, one such rally featuring an array of false prophets such as Rick Joyner, Bob Jones, Chuck Pierce, Dutch Sheets, Heidi Baker and representatives from ministries such as Bethel Church Redding and CBN, Pat Robertson’s ministry, gathered under the title: “The Shift; Can a Nation be Re-Born in a Day”?
The promotional material for the event laid out the aims of these NAR affiliated speakers:
“The
Shift is a call to the Bride of Christ who solely contains the power of God to
rescue the nation from the spirit of greed that is destroying our nation, and
realign our country with her destiny course… History has witnessed the Ancient
of Days who used His prophets to change entire nations overnight and turn
captivity into triumph time and time again… Extraordinary economic miracles are
ready to explode upon our nation as we gather around the Throne of God in holy
assembly. New signs and wonders of unprecedented proportion will become the
clear guideposts on the road to recovery.”
The Trump fever has caught on with the rest of the Pentecostal/charismatic Americans. The Elijah List online TV network aired a recent church service on November 20, 2016 with Messianic Pastor Curt Landry, in which he had his large congregation stand and repeat a decree after him. A loud shofar was blown before and after the stated affirmation. I’ll end this section with a portion of that ‘prayer’ --
“We
agree with the decrees that Donald John Trump, president elect of the United
States of America – we agree with his proclamations and we decree he is sent to
the United States in 2016, biblical year 5777 as an anointed Cyrus. We receive
him and we set him in place in Yeshua’s name. And we agree out of Zion and out
of the courts of heaven that you would release new angels and Michael the
archangel and the heavenly hosts of Israel around him his family and all his
administration. We decree they are off limits to the attacks of the enemy. We
cover them in the blood of Jesus. We thank you Lord. There is a wall of
protection around their life and everywhere they go. Father, God, in the name
of Jesus, we receive the Cyrus anointing into our life into our mountain. We
touch and agree that this next 8 years be a season of prosperity, a season of
great health, a season of revival and a wakening blast… and we as the one new
man, as the inheritance of God decree and declare that President elect is a
Cyrus, sent to the United States and to Israel and to the nations to bring
alignment with God’s ways, to bust open the gates of iron. Father God, this
45th president will break open the gates of bronze. Father God, this Jubilee
year, he will subdue the nations; he will loose the armor of kings; he will
open the double doors so that the gates will not be shut. We as a nation will
go before and make a way to make the crooked places straight again so other
nations might align with the United States and not make war but that we would
prosper. . . We release the key of David and the sure mercies of David over
President-elect Donald John Trump... and we put a demand on the treasures of
darkness and hidden riches in secret places, come forth now in Yeshua’s name.
We decree in the courts of heaven that the transfer of wealth with the Cyrus
anointing (King Midas?) sitting in the highest place in the land, that the
economy… will recover, with exponential growth, witty inventions, and Cyrus
will prosper and the remnant of God, following God’s ways will prosper for
God’s kingdom, in Jesus’ name. Father God, we seal it in Yeshua’s name…”
