Take Dominion!

Those familiar with the old Maranatha Campus Ministries may recognize the title as that of Bob Weiner's biography cum sales pitch for the movement and its modus operandi... spread the gospel by literally taking dominion of the earth. MCM called itself God's Green Berets; academic observers like Sara Diamond called them "Shock Troops for the Christian Right." While I don't wish to demonize anyone on the right side of the political spectrum, the type of rhetoric that was considered fringe during MCM's heyday has become increasingly mainstream, both in the religious and political realms.

While some have identified two distinct theological streams in dominionist Christianity - Christian Reconstructionist (radical Puritan) and Latter Rain/Kingdom Now (radical Pietist/chiliastic), Sarah Leslie identifies three - the spiritual warfare movement (w/ties to the Latter Rain), the Mission as Transformation movement (evangelical) and Patriotic America movement (w/ties to Christian Reconstruction).

I contend that what is occurring is that fringe doctrines from the original Latter Rain and Christian Reconstruction movements - which are theologically opposed on many points, but share their drive for literal planetary dominion - have gradually seeped into the mainstream and threaten to erode historic Christianity into a syncretic religion.

This has happened before, during the Protestant Reformation. While most people believe that the Reformation was all about recovering true Christianity, thinking of people like Luther, Knox, Wesley and Whitefield, several people and movements which had significant impact and in some cases were mainstream at the time were far outside what would be considered "mere Christianity" - what Winkie Pratney glowingly calls the "red-headed stepchildren of the Reformation."

Postmodernism seeks to recover lost knowledge... which includes alchemy, kabbalah, and other false doctrines and practices... believing that nothing is really false but instead truth can be found in a plurality of voices. So God's voice is just one voice among the din.

More later...