Dutch Sheets

Newt Gingrich’s campaign announced today that Dutch Sheets, a self-appointed apostle and a major figure in the New Apostolic Reformation, will join his Faith Leaders Coalition as a National Co-Chair. As first reported and confirmed by Rachel Tabachnick of Talk to Action, Sheets endorsed Gingrich and warned that America “cannot survive another 4 years of the current leadership”:

Dutch Sheets has endorsed Newt Gingrich for president, and will be joining the Gingrich Faith Leaders Coalition.

…

“Newt Gingrich is only one that I can confidently say has the heart, experience, backbone, Constitutional brilliance, and intellectual strength to defeat Obama and lead America back to greatness” said Sheets.

“The America we know and love—indeed, the America God and our founding fathers dreamed of and birthed—cannot survive another 4 years of the current leadership in Washington.”

Sheets will join the coalition led by Christian market researcher, George Barna. It also includes, Pastor Tim LaHaye, Beverly LaHaye, Dr. Jim Garlow, the California pastor behind the Proposition 8 Battle, Congressman J.C. Watts, Don Wildmon of the American Family Association, Dr.Michael Youssef, Pastor Richard Lee, and Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel.

Sheets is an avowed dominionist and at a recent event, The Gathering Eagles, he said that while he doesn’t think “that we’re going to take over everything and rule the earth completely for the Lord…we’re supposed to try.” While holding up a gavel in one hand and the word ‘family’ in the other, he said that Christians have become weak by emphasizing the ‘family’ and are now “lazy sheep,” calling on Christians to become “kingdom warriors” for dominion:

Sheets and another major NAR figure, Chuck Pierce, also believe that their prayers during a tour of the country led to the capture of Saddam Hussein.

He also has called President Obama a “Muslim president” and said his election is bringing the judgment of God, saying, “God has now turned us over to our enemies for a season”:

According to Sheets, America is about to face divine punishment over the promotion of “homosexuality, abortion and socialism” and the “toleration of immorality and perversion”:

If God brought corrective but serious judgment to Israel, we are horribly deceived if we think it will not happen to us. If something doesn't happen to lessen this judgment—and it can be lessened—we are headed for very difficult times. The economy is going to be devastated. The stock market will go well below where it went a few months back—a crash is coming, and soon. More terrorism and violence will occur in our land, perhaps even war. In my spirit I've seen buildings crumbling and cities burning. Devastating natural disasters will take place. In general, hard times will be prevalent. Why is this so? Because we have turned from God and His ways. Consider the true condition of America. This assessment is bleak but accurate.

1) Our government is in decay. The current leaders of Congress promote homosexuality, abortion and socialism, while arrogantly ignoring God and the wishes of the people. They are proud, power-hungry, self-serving, career politicians, not the statesmen/women we so desperately need. Our President fits the same description. Along with the above, while honoring—in the White House—the Muslim day of prayer, homosexual activists and a coalition of atheists, he refused to honor the time-honored traditions surrounding the National Day of Prayer. And along with Congress and the President, we have many Judges with no regard for God's Word, the Constitution or our true history. The predictable verdict is in: America is in a moral and spiritual crisis of such magnitude that it is almost unbelievable.

2) What does this look like practically? From my grandparents' day until now, we have gone from 65% of Americans having a biblical worldview to now 4% of today's young people sharing these beliefs. This is staggering! Apart from an absolute miracle, which I believe is still possible, we have lost a generation of Americans to satan and secular humanism. Generally speaking, we are a narcissistic, self-loving nation that has accepted a culture of death, perversion, drugs and violence. We have murdered 51 million babies in the womb, and to satisfy the cry for a toleration of immorality and perversion, we are ready to throw away 6,000 years of honoring God's definition of marriage and family.

We have been reporting on last week’s Gathering of Eagles in Washington, D.C. where the Family Research Council teamed up with “Apostle” Cindy Jacobs to launch a prayer campaign designed to influence the 2012 elections. 

The event was vivid evidence of the Religious Right’s willingness to embrace the radical dominionists of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).  The Family Research Council is probably the most prominent political group on the Religious Right; its Values Voter Summit attracts Republican presidential candidates, congressional leaders, and other officials.  FRC is teaming up with proponents of politics as spiritual warfare against demons who control Washington, D.C. and other cities.  FRC and NAR leaders have common political goals (defeating President Obama, opposing LGBT equality, etc.) and a shared disdain for the separation of church and state.

The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins didn’t show, but the group’s chaplain and national prayer director Pierre Bynum represented FRC, asking for “miracles” during the election year prayer project and “joy” in November.  Bynum recounted God’s instructions to Moses, through his father-in-law, regarding the kind of men he should select as leaders (men who are capable, who fear God, who love truth, and who hate dishonest gain).  Then Bynum spoke wistfully about a time when he says there was a clear religious test for public office -- something explicitly forbidden in the Constitution.

…used to be you couldn’t hold public office in America unless you believed in Jesus Christ, and also believed not only in Jesus Christ but in a future destiny of rewards and punishment for people – you had to believe in a heaven and a hell to be elected for public office in the United States.

But Bynum, and Cindy Jacobs herself, were just the warm-up crew for “teaching apostle” Dutch Sheets, a leader in the New Apostolic Reformation.  Sheets’s keynote was part lecture and part battle cry, structured around what he portrayed as two aspects of the church – the oikos – which represents the church as family – and the ekklesia, which he says is the church as legislative body, as God’s government on earth.  His thesis is that the American church is too caught up in pastoral care and taking care of individuals and congregations – the oikos – and not nearly concerned enough with their responsibility to legislate, govern, and manage the earth in partnership with god. 

Sheets blames that on Satan, who stole from people the concept of being an ekklesia , a “nation-discipling, ambassadorial, earth-stewarding extension of his kingdom.”   Satan, it turns out, also had some help from King James, sponsor of the beloved 1611 English translation of the Bible.  Sheets says King James was uncomfortable with people thinking of themselves as a government (“kind of like our government that is trying to sell us separation of church and state”) and so he instructed his translators to use the word “church” when translating ekklesia.

Sheets is out to change the emphasis on the "family" side of church. He says he’s looking for soldiers and warriors who understand the commission in Matthew 28 to disciple the nations as a grant of authority to be partners with God.  “Disciple, rule, manage the earth. Make it look like heaven.” This is not a new concept, he says, but “a renewing of the Genesis mandate to manage our home -- and make this part of the kingdom look and think like the kingdom of heaven.”  In fact, Sheets said, the earth itself is “groaning” for the sons of God to exercise their proper dominion and authority, saying that if they don’t, it doesn’t rain when it’s supposed to rain and crops don’t produce.

He was not implying “that we’re going to take over everything and rule the earth completely for the Lord,” he said. “But we’re supposed to try.  It is our commission….There’s no insinuation here that we’re going to take over everything, but our assignment until he comes, is to bring his kingdom rule into the earth so that our region looks like heaven again.” According to Sheets, the church as ekklesia was meant to “divide and conquer” and, pointing to Harry Jackson in the front row, said, “it gets a little divisive when you try to rise up and save marriage, doesn’t it?”

Sheets repeatedly mocked “little sheepies” – people focused on the caring and pastoral work of the church (while insisting he wasn’t demeaning that work) – and called for warriors, saying “I’m trying to raise up an army!”   In his final prayer, he denounced as lazy, self-centered, narcissistic sheep those Christians who don’t register to vote because they don’t want to serve on jury duty, and asked God to “raise up kingdom warriors that are ready to do whatever it takes to bring forth your kingdom rule in the earth.”

Lou Engle traveled to Columbus, Ohio last week to join Janet Porter, Wendy Wright, Jim Garlow, Bob McKeown, Dutch Sheets and other Religious Right leaders at Faith 2 Action’s rally promoting Porter’s Heartbeat Bill, which would criminalize abortion in the vast majority of cases. The legislation has passed the state House, but the Republican leadership in the Senate has been reluctant to hold a vote on the bill, which is so extreme and clearly unconstitutional that it’s even opposed by the Ohio Right to Life Society.

In a speech at the rally, Engle repeated his assertions that the Joplin tornado was God’s judgment for abortion and that President Barack Obama should issue a new “emancipation proclamation” to ban abortion. But he also told the story of how his daughter fractured her head after falling in a Walmart parking lot in Toledo: “I didn’t understand it,” Engle said while holding his daughter, “until just this moment that that’s how God feels for every baby.” He went on to discuss an email he read about a girl who said that the LIFE wristband she lost in a Walmart parking lot convinced a woman not to have an abortion. He concluded, “God has something to say to us in Walmart parking lots, prayer is moving this nation!”

Watch:

After many of the organizers for Lou Engle’s The Call put on Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s The Response prayer rally in Houston, Engle is gearing up for The Call: Detroit on November, 11th. The Call is a youth-focused prayer rally centered on militantly anti-choice and anti-gay messages and has received the endorsements of leading Republican and Religious Right figures like Mike Huckabee, Sam Brownback, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Tim Wildmon, Mat Staver and Pat Robertson. Engle recently promoted The Call at Awakening: 2011 in Chicago, and echoed his earlier sentiment about The Call’s goal of converting “millions of Muslims” to Christianity and transforming “urban communities”:

Later, Engle discussed the 2008 The Call rally in San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium which he led with Dobson, Perkins, Jim Garlow, Dutch Sheets, and Che Ahn where they supposedly secured the passage of Proposition 8 through their prayers. He said that during the rally he prayed for gays and lesbians to become heterosexual ‘ex-gays,’ saying, “We held a big gathering of The Call in San Diego praying that God would save and can transform a hundred thousand gay and lesbian men and women by the power of God.” Engle even claimed that he later met a woman who said she became an ‘ex-gay’ as a result of their prayers:

Alice Patterson is in charge of "Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma Church Mobilization" for Gov. Rick Perry's "The Response" prayer rally and is, not surprisingly, deeply involved in the New Apostolic Reformation movement where she focuses on "racial healing."

Last year she released a book entitled "Bridging the Racial and Political Divide: How Godly Politics Can Transform a Nation" in which she explained how she had served as Field Director of the Texas Christian Coalition for years until she discovered the works of "apostles" and "prophets" like Cindy Jacobs, Chuck Pierce, Dutch Sheets and Ed Silvoso.  Her growing involvement with this movement led her to step down from the Texas Christian Coalition in order to focus on "reaching entire cities for Christ." 

As the granddaughter of a former Ku Klux Klan member, Patterson dedicated herself to reaching out to African Americans through "identificational repentence" whereby individuals repent for the sins of their forefathers in order to break the various curses that plague this land because of past unforgiven sins.

In this capacity, Patterson worked closely with Susan Weddington who, at the time, was Chair of the Texas Republican Party:

As intercessors began to pray many weeks before the [Republican State] convention, one of them envisioned Susan pouring oil on bricks. So we started looking for bricks. Susan wanted to meet privately in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston and pray about whatever caused Black Republicans to walk away from the political party they had founded in that city. I called Doug Stringer in Houston, founder of Somebody Cares America and he sent two Black ministers from his staff. Tim and Joyce James, pastors of Total Man Christian Ministries in Houston, a mostly Black congregation and formerly on my Pray Texas board, came as well. It was a small group. We met in a little park right across the street from the convention center. Lo and behold, there were the bricks!

We worshiped. The presence of God came. When it came time for Susan to pour the oil on the bricks as the intercessor had visualized, Susan surprised me. I thought she would ask forgiveness for whatever White Republicans did to drive Blacks away from their party but instead she prayed, "Lord, I forgive our leaders for walking away. And I open the door and invite them back in."

As part of the effort to bring African Americans back to the Republican Party, Patterson reveals, Weddington eventually reached out to none other than David Barton:

Two years before, Susan had asked David Barton to do research to find out why Black Republicans had left the party they founded. He had been researching for two years and he discovered some astounding facts. David's research is now in both DVD and a book, "Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black and White."

And with the research in hand Patterson, Barton and others then embarked upon a campaign to use it to win African Americans back to the GOP: 

We had an agenda. Worship to invite the presence of God, repent for racism share Dr. Jackson's testimony, and have David Barton give the truth about American and Black history. This wasn't a Republican meeting even though Susan and David were Republican Party officials. It was a spiritual meeting. And lives were changed.

Our team consisted of Blacks Dr. Jackson and Falma Rufus, Hispanic Ruben Duarte, and Whites David Barton, Susan Weddington, and me. Ruben led us into God's presence with worship. Falma released the prophetic word in song and worshiped along with Ruben. They are powerful together. Susan or I would repent for racism. Dr. Jackson would share his story and give his favor to David. David shared hidden truths about America's spiritual heritage and eye opening facts about Black History.

As we have have been saying all along, Barton's attempt to "set the record straight" on this issue was blatantly misleading and obvious propaganda designed to convince African Americans to stop supporting the Democratic Party.

And now, thanks that Alice Patterson, we have proof that that was in fact the intention all along.

We have been writing about the growing overlap between the traditional Religious Right and the new brand of self-proclaimed prophets and apostles like Cindy Jacobs, Rick Joyner, Chuck Pierce, and Lou Engle, who have emerged out of the New Apostolic Reformation movement.

In recent years, old-school Religious Right leaders like Tony Perkins and Janet Porter have eagerly embraced leaders like Joyner, Engle and Jacobs and welcomed them into movement, often placing them front and center in their events. 

So imagine our surprise when we took at look at the American Family Association's blog today and saw a post by Marsha West laying out her concerns about the movement and calling out various Religious Right leaders by name for aligning with false prophets like Jacobs:

Last year self-professed NAR prophet Cindy Jacobs’ and General’s International held the May Day 2010: A Cry To God For A Nation In Distress at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial where “local representatives shared about their state’s Christian heritage and lifted up prayers for their state and the United States. National leaders offered up prayers of repentance for seven main issues: family, the church, education, arts and entertainment, business, government and the media.” Janet Porter of Faith2Action had an active role in organizing the gathering. In attendance were such notables as James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Wendy Wright, Jerry Newcombe, Peter LaBarbera, David Barton, Mathew Staver, Robert Knight, Alan Keyes, to name a few. Also in attendance were several NAR leaders including C. Peter Wagner, Chuck Pierce, Dutch Sheets, Lance Wallnau and Rick Joyner.

In April 2010 conservative Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA hosted The Awakening 2010 conference sponsored by the Freedom Federation. They define themselves as “a group of the nation's largest multiracial, multiethnic and multigenerational faith-based and policy organizations representing more than 30 million Americans united by core values. The group’s mission is to bring together community leaders committed to mobilizing the Judeo-Christian worldview to preserve freedom and promote justice.”

One of the speakers at the event was Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Other influential leaders include Newt Gingrich, Gary Bauer, Tony Perkins, Wendy Wright, Richard Land, Andrea Lafferty, Kelly Shackelford, Ken Blackwell, Mat Staver, Rick Scarborough, and NAR Apostles Cindy Jacobs, Lou Engle, Harry Jackson and Samuel Rodriguez.

What is wrong with this picture? People from the NAR who are in the grip of evil were invited to participate in both of these events. One example is Cindy Jacobs. Jacobs is the NAR’s “lead U.S. National Apostle.” Cindy is supposedly a modern day prophet. But I beg to differ. This woman has uttered more false prophecies than Walgreen’s has pills, proving beyond a reasonable doubt that she is no more a prophet of God than Lady Gaga! The truth is, Cindy Jacobs is a false prophet.

Considering that Perkins regularly co-hosts a radio broadcast with AFA head Tim Wildmon and Dobson, Barton, Staver and the like are key ideological allies of the organization, I wonder how they feel about being called out for associating with people "who are in the grip of evil."

• The audio from last week's conference call with Jim Garlow, Newt Gingrich, and David Barton has been posted online.
• What kind of criminal uses someone else's credit card to donate $4000 to John Hagee?
• Mike Pence will decide if he is going to run for President early next year.
• Dutch Sheets and Lance Wallnau are launching a "Congress on Reformation."
• Larry Klayman credits WorldNetDaily and Fox News for the Republicans' electoral victories.
• Finally, did you know that the Big Bang was created by God just like fireworks were created by man?

In our post yesterday on Sam Brownback finally acknowledging his long relationship with Lou Engle, we noted that Brownback sought to downplay it by claiming that they only worked on human rights issues:

Brownback, of Topeka, said he worked with Engle on adoption by the U.S. Senate of official statements of apology to Native Americans and African-Americans. He said the Native American statement became law.

"Those were the substantive items," Brownback said. "It's all been about human rights and helping people live better."

Now, as anyone who knows anything about Engle and his associates realizes, every move they make is aimed at unleashing revival here in America and ultimately establishing God's kingdom on Earth ... and that is exactly what was at work in these two cases.

If you jump ahead to the 4 minute mark of this video of Sen. Brownback on the Senate floor discussing the apology for slavery, you will hear him talk about a "kettle tour":

This "kettle tour" was organized by Engle associates Dutch Sheets and Will Ford in order to create a "'synergistic agreement' that will release a multiplication of power for spiritual breakthrough" and Brownback played a key role in the tour when it came to Washington: 

The idea for what is being called the "Kettle Tour" was birthed during a conference last March when Sheets spoke about the joining of the present generation's prayers with those of the past to form a "synergy of the ages."

Will Ford, an African American conference attendee from Euless, Texas, shared a powerful story about an old kettle that had been passed down through the generations from his slave ancestors.

"My ancestors would be beaten if they were caught praying," Ford explained, "so they'd wait until everyone was asleep, sneak into the barn late at night, turn this pot upside down on some rocks, and get underneath it to pray where they wouldn't be heard. Although they didn't believe they would see freedom in their lifetime, they prayed for the freedom of the next generation."

When Ford heard Sheets speak about the "bowls of incense," which contained the prayers of the saints from all generations, mentioned in Revelation 5:8, he said he realized his prayers were being united with those of his slave ancestors.

Ford agreed to travel throughout New England with Sheets and a team of people, taking along his "prayer kettle" as a symbol of what God desires to do in this nation.

"God is connecting all the ages to heal history," Sheets told the prayer participants in Washington. "We must come into agreement with the prayers of past generations in order for God to fulfill His purposes for this nation."

Pointing to a significant movement of repentance and reconciliation between races, genders, and denominations that has already taken place in the last few years, Sheets believes God is now desiring a "synergistic agreement" that will release a multiplication of power for spiritual breakthrough.

"The church has been so disjointed that we haven't been able to accomplish what the Lord wants to do through us, but we're moving into a season in the body of Christ where I believe over the next five years there's going to be more joining together of the church than in all the 2,000 years leading up to this."

At the Washington prayer gathering, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., told those present that in all the history of the country nothing has happened but that it happened first in prayer.

"We've made it up the mountain a long way, but we have to make that final assault on the peak," Brownback said. "We can make that final leap to the top, if we stay on our knees."

The same goes for the apology issued to Native Americans - it was considered "a requirement of the Lord for the healing of this land" and once again Brownback played a key role in transforming the religious concerns of these self-proclaimed apostles and prophets into public policy:

[On] January 15, 2003 Dr. John Benefiel, Chairman and Mobilizing Apostle of OCOP, along with Dr. Jay Swallow, Dr. Neigel Bigpond, Jim and Faith Chosa, Gabriel and Vi Medicine-Eagle, Jean Stephenson, Sandy Grady and Mike and Cindy Jacobs met with Senator Sam Brownback in Washington, D.C. Dr. Benefiel explained to the Senator the curse brought upon our nation because of the 381 covenants the United States Government broke with the Native Americans. The Senator repented to the Native Americans right then and there. As a result of these events, Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 37, (which will provide a formal apology from the United States Government to Native Americans), was written and is currently on General Order in the U.S. Senate awaiting a full Senate vote ... [Dutch Sheets] said the starting of the 50 State Tour could not have happened until what happened in D.C. took place with the broken covenants and the repentance of Senator Brownback.

And here is Brownback being introduced by Sheets at the 2007 The Call rally in Nashville where he officially apologized to several Native Americans for the actions of the federal government and asked for their forgiveness.  He then issued a similar apology for the treatment of African Americans which he delivered to none other than Harry Jackson before finally bringing his own daughter out on stage and asking her for forgiveness for the 40 million abortions that have taken place in the wake of Roe v Wade:

Engle, Sheets, Jacobs and other are all key leaders in the dominionist movement and Sam Brownback has had a deep relationship with them for years, often serving as their man in Washington and joining them for various events and even living with Engle for several months at one point ... so his recent claims that he doesn't really have any contact with them and has "concerns" about their views is, quite literally, unbelievable.

Another episode of Random Book Blogging, again from Chuck Pierce's "The Future War of the Church: How We Can Defeat Lawlessness and Bring God's Order to the Earth" as Pierce explains how he, Dutch Sheets, and a group of prophetic intercessors helped capture Saddam Hussein.

On December 9, 2003, Pierce and Sheets were in Texas as part of a "50 State Tour" to uncover the hidden structures that are ruling each state.  As Pierce was praying, the Lord spoke to him:

The Lord then showed me a nest of snake eggs. He said "There are four snake eggs that are lying in wait, and from this state I am giving you the power tonight to crush those snake eggs. In this state tonight, you will be able to decree to Babylon that the strongman that has not been found will now be found in the next seven days."

Then Pastor Dutch said "Expose him. We declare exposure. We declare the eggs are being crushed under our feet in Jesus' name. Under our feet, under our feet, under our feet. Break it! We say witchcraft is broken that hides him in Jesus' name."

Members of the local pastoral leadership and the national military agreed with the prophetic decree. Pastor Darrell Feemster declared that the Fourth Infantry Division from San Antonino would be blessed to bring down the spirit of Babylon and to raise up a Christian nation in Iraq. Greg Jackson, a representative of the military, proclaimed "As a witness to this prophetic word in this house, as a representative of the Armed Forces in the state of Texas, I declare in the name of the Lord, it shall be!"

A roar went up from the crowd. That roar entered the atmosphere and, I believe, traveled by the Spirit of God all the way to Iraq ... Troops from the Fourth Infantry went in and found Saddam Hussein three days later! Even though many were praying around the world, I believe it takes corporate gatherings at times to express God's purpose in the earth. I could see why God had wanted this revelation decreed in San Antonino, Texas.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another episode of Random Book Blogging, as Pierce explains how his prayers for Turkey resulted in a massive earthquake that killed thousands.