Steven Furtick’s transition from string-bean adolescent preacher to muscled, vein-bulging inspirational speaker hasn’t been his only evolution. The preacher chords he added as musical accompaniment on cue to his preaching and his increasingly African American stylistic vocal inflections have created a celebrity pastor almost unrecognizable to his former self. One of the few things that hasn’t changed about the Elevation Church pastor is his commitment to drawing in crowds of unregenerate people with stunts and entertainment-driven motivational talks; that hasn’t changed from the beginning.
However, the former Southern Seminary student whose church plant was funded in part by Cooperative Program funds from the Southern Baptist Convention has largely abandoned the distinctives of Southern Baptist faith, or even the Baptist faith, or for that matter, the Protestant faith in general. Furtick, in recent years, has grown increasingly attached to the Word of Faith movement, the crowd who televises their seed-faith pleading on the Trinity Broadcasting Network and who believe that they can “decree and declare” certain things into existence and that faith is a means by which one can receive health, wealth and prosperity.
Furtick has been the guest of non-Trinitarian TD Jakes, has invited Jakes to his own revivals, and has invited many female preachers to grace the stage of his church and preach to his congregation. To Furtick, it doesn’t seem that doctrine really matters. And now, it seems that Furtick has gone from Baptist to Charismatic, and from Charismatic to Word-Faith, and now, from Word-Faith to the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).
Furtick will be speaking with Rod Parsley at Parsley’s “Dominion Camp Meeting 2018.” Dominionism is the central doctrine of the dangerous NAR movement, which seeks to “take dominion” through the Seven Mountain Mandate. Effectively a functionally post-millennial worldview, this army of Word-Faith Charismatics desires world domination and the union of the Christian church in their hyper-ecumenical movement. Swallowing up churches and denominations as the NAR movement grows, they make inroads into mainstream evangelicalism by attracting celebrity evangelical leaders who give them credibility by their presence and partnership.
Parsley is one of the leaders of the Word-Faith movement, and he can regularly be seen on TBN promising temporal blessings in exchange for financial offerings. Ken Silva wrote about the relationship between Parsley and Furtick as early as 2012.
Held at World Harvest Church in Columbus Ohio this June, other speakers besides Parsley and Furtick include David Crank, Medina Pullings, NAR Apostle Samuel Rodriguez, and Kim Pothier. All are, in one way or another, associated with either the Word-Faith Movement, NAR, or both.
You can see the video below.
