Rick Joyner in a special recognition ceremony of the Rome endorsed Knights of Malta.
The same person who wonders why Christian folks and unbelievers are concerned about his form of dominionism.
(RightWingWatch) Rick Joyner of The Oak Initiative and MorningStar Ministries dedicated yesterday’s edition of Prophetic Perspectives to distancing himself from dominion theology while discussing the ties between presidential candidates like Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann to avowed dominionists. Joyner said he agreed with much of the dominionist objective of having fundamentalist Christians influence — if not control — government and society at large, but noted that he does not share dominionists’ belief that such ‘dominion’ will usher in the End Times and the Second Coming of Christ. “I just don’t believe His dominion can come to the earth until He comes,” Joyner said, “and that’s the one defining point of a dominonist to me.”
As Sarah Leslie of the Discernment Research Group points out, Joyner once said that the “Kingdom of God” he hopes to build “may seem like totalitarianism” at first because “the kingdom will start out necessarily authoritative in many ways, or in many areas, but will move toward increasing liberty” once the culture is radically changed.
But Joyner pointed to one group who he claims did subscribe to dominion theology: the Founding Fathers. According to Joyner, the Founders would have been known as dominionists because they wanted to “establish a government that was built on biblical principles” and “really thought they were building the Kingdom of God.” He went on to blame dominion theology for Manifest Destiny and other “really foul things” in U.S. history. Joyner mentioned that secular reporters are increasingly studying dominionism and are “terrified by it and they’re wondering if this presidential candidate is influenced by this kind of thinking,” adding, “as a Christian, I would be alarmed by some of that.”
(YouTube link)
My Comments
The Reality of It All
Our Founding Fathers were not all Christians, rather there was a strong influence of believers during that time in history. The Declaration of Independence and the American War of Independence was a mixture of Christianity and "Enlightenment" thinking of French and English philosophers of the 1700s. The Enlightenment faith, Deism, had a great influence on Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, who also believed in humanism and rationalism.
Joyner wasn't telling the truth about the founders, but there is some truth in his statements about the Puritans - who were Calvinists following a form of dominionism. The Puritans saw themselves as purifying their society and bringing it under God’s dominion. They felt that a pure society would follow the superior moral leadership of a true church with the help of a godly government. In fact, such a church and society were, in their minds, a necessary prerequisite for the Second Coming of Christ. The Calvinists would infiltrate the Congregational Churches of New England, the Presbyterians, and some Dutch Reformed churches.[2]
The seeds that John Calvin planted never died. The same dominionist beliefs John Calvin first introduced, and have remained in our country, are unknowingly being adopted by Christians today. Dominion Theology says that belivers should dominate every sphere of society. It has also been called Christian Reconstructionism, because it advocates the total reconstruction of society according to Biblical principles, or Theonomy, because it seeks to impose God’s law on all of society.
Proponents of Dominion Theology or Reconstructionism believe that Christ will return to earth in His Second Coming after the Millennium. Some believe that we are currently in the Millennial age and that it is during this age that the Kingdom of God must be established on the earth.[3]
Did Calvin's social experiment work?
The Protestant Reformation came along in the sixteenth century, led by Martin Luther and John Calvin - former Catholics. Luther’s views of Scripture, and of justification by faith, produced one of the greatest changes in Church history. Although Luther doesn't smell like a rose, he had a dualistic view of the Church, and therefore he was never inclined to push the Church toward the mission of transforming society.
John Calvin, on the other hand, taught that believers are responsible for social transformation, and his followers began to believe that they have a cultural mandate (the mandate to transform society) as well as an evangelistic one (the mandate to save souls). [1] Geneva became the "Rome" of Calvinism where "reformers" would go to learn the faith and spread it all across Europe. Calvin established a reign of theocratic terror in Genva, a government controlled by religious leaders. One of Calvin's most inspired students would be the Scotsman John Knox (1514-1572).
John Calvin
The one fact that escapes our generation is that John Calvin wasn't any better than the persecution the Pope was inflicting on Protestants during the Reformation. Anabaptists were fined, driven out, whipped, or hanged at the hands of Calvin's reformers, since their beliefs didn’t agree with those of the official church.
So, it is not an accident that Dominion Theology and Sharia Law find themselves creeping into our country at the same time the New World Order plans to make their radical transformation of our world. The unbiblical doctrines that find its root back to a dangerous man, and tries to conquer unwilling participants for the purpose of the supposed Kingdom of God. The Roman Catholics were the original dominion theologians. Is that who is standing in the background, waiting to take the reigns back?
