Third Day: Don't You Know?

There is another sign that the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement is becoming mainstreamed. Christian rock band Third Day has agreed to lead worship at the 2013 "Voice of the Apostles" conference --an NAR event--to be held in Orlando, Florida, next month.Voice of the Apostles is sponsored by apostle Randy Clark's organization, Global Awakening. The other apostles featured at this year's conference will include Bill Johnson (Bethel Church in Redding, California), Rolland and Heidi Baker (Iris Ministries), Che Ahn (Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena, California), and Georgian Banov (Global Celebration).But Third Day's appearance at the conference is especially significant because the radio hit-making, Grammy Award winning group has a huge following among mainstream evangelicals. By taking part in this NAR event, Third Day will join the ranks of a growing number of high-profile evangelicals who have lent their good names to one of most theologically unsound movements challenging the church today.As a long-time fan of Third Day's music, I am saddened personally by this development. I wonder if the band members know that Voice of the Apostles is an NAR event and if they understand what the NAR movement teaches. Perhaps they have been fooled by the participation of Pentecostal-charismatic leaders Jack Hayford and Reinhard Bonnke--not realizing that these two men have thrown in their support to the NAR movement.So, if I could speak to the band members, here are the three heart-felt questions I would ask them: Don't you realize that this is an NAR event? And don't you know that the NAR movement promotes a number of teachings that fall outside the boundary lines of historic, biblical Christianity? And, most importantly, don't you understand that, by taking part in this event, you will cause many of your fans to think that NAR teachings must be OK?Some of the heterodox, NAR teachings include:

• The teaching that the governing offices of apostle and prophet have been restored to the church. In other words, NAR leaders teach that all churches and Christians must submit to the authority of NAR apostles and prophets.
• The teaching that NAR apostles and prophets are revealing "new truths"  for the universal church that all Christians must receive. Many of these "new truths" are keys for developing supernatural, miraculous powers.
• The teaching that Christians--under the leadership of NAR apostles and prophets--have been tasked with taking dominion of the earth--that is, taking social and political control over all cities and nations (a teaching known as "dominionism"). NAR leaders teach that this feat will be accomplished through a combination of political action and supernatural, miraculous powers.

My hope is that Third Day will learn about these troubling teachings and reconsider their appearance at this NAR event. If they did decide to pull their participation, then they would send a loud signal to their many fans that--contrary to our postmodern, anything-goes culture--doctrine is important and certain theological boundary lines are worth preserving.-- By Holly Pivec