Clarkson noted a recent sermon by John MacArthur, a man who has arguably had as much influence on modern evangelicalism over the last 40 years as the NAR founder C. Peter Wagner. I want to emphasize Clarkson's point about the significance of MacArthur's recent sermon by quoting a lengthy portion of his sermon titled, significantly, "The Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit". I offer this excerpt not because I necessarily agree with the theology MacArthur expresses or his interpretation of Rick Perry's Response prayer rally, but rather to give a window into the kind of stiff rebuke of NAR that we might see more of in coming weeks as the reporting of Talk2Action and others begins to sink into the consciousness of evangelical leaders. Notice the very specific examples MacArthur cites of NAR individuals and practices--for regular readers of Talk2Action they will be so familiar that one might wonder if MacArthur himself has indulged the guilty pleasure of surfing this website recently! Here is what I consider the key section of MacArthur's October 23 message:

Satan is alive and at work in deception, false miracles, bad theology, lying visions, lying dreams, lying revelations, deceptive teachers who are in it for the money and power and influence. Satan is alive and well and the work of Satan is being attributed to the Holy Spirit, that is a serious blasphemy just as attributing to Satan the work of the Holy Spirit is a serious blasphemy.

I couldn't even begin to give you all the illustrations, you have enough of them in your own mind. You can turn on your television and see any litany of them that you would choose. And in order to give credibility to all these things, all these lies, they attach them to the Holy Spirit as if it's a freebie, as if there's no price to pay for that kind of blasphemy.

The latest wave of this, I'll just give you one illustration, the latest wave of this that is gaining traction and has entered into the sort of national news is a new form of Charismania, bringing reproach on the Holy Spirit called the New Apostolic Reformation, NAR, the New Apostolic Reformation. It is not new, it is not apostolic, and it is not a reformation, by the way. It is like Grape Nuts, it's not grapes and it's not nuts, it's like Christian Science, it's not Christian and it's not scientific. Well the New Apostolic Reformation isn't new, it isn't apostolic and it isn't a reformation. But it is a rapidly expanding movement being generated by some of the same old troubling false teachers and false leaders that have been around in Charismania for decades, always dishonoring the Holy Spirit, always dishonoring the Scripture, always claiming miracle signs, wonders, visions, dreams. Peter Wagner, the Kansas City prophets, Mike Bickle, Cindy Jacobs, Lou Engle(??), and on and on and on it goes. In fact, this is exploding so fast that they have a 50-state network that are now involved in this.

This is a new kind of a Charismania, it's sort of on steroids. One writer said it's Charismania with shots of adrenalin. And here's what their basic claim is, that the Holy Spirit has revealed to them that in the year 2001, we entered into the second apostolic age...in the year 2001 we entered into the second apostolic age. What does that mean? It means that the long-lost offices of New Testament prophet and New Testament apostle have been restored, that the Holy Spirit has given the power of prophecy and the power and authority of an apostle to certain people in this generation of the church since 2001.

It seems very odd to me that the Holy Spirit would give that to people whose theology is unbiblical and totally aberrant. I'm pretty sure the Holy Spirit wouldn't authenticate Paul's teachers, so we know it's not the Holy Spirit. But that's what they claim. But the Holy Spirit gets blamed for everything. This is just the newest one.

For example, they have authority equal to the Apostles. They have the same power the Apostles had through the Holy Spirit to do miracles and to exercise that power and they've had it since 2001. Some of them fall into the prophet category, some of them fall into the Apostle category, they speak what the Holy Spirit reveals to them with the same authority the Apostles have. This authority and this power has been demonstrated in the world because one of the Apostles stopped mad cow disease in Germany, so he claims.

The Movement is marked by super excess ecstatic, bizarre behavior. Emotionalism ran amuck, all kinds of crazy revelations, behaviors. Peter Wagner is the father of this, as he has been involved in all kinds of other aberrations through the years, including starting the Church Growth Movement which gave life to the pragmatism movement which as we know is so ubiquitous. Their influence has been growing and recently jumped into the political realm, and I'll tell you how.

There was a couple of weeks ago, a few weeks ago now, a prayer breakfast in the city of Houston that you may have read about. It was an event sponsored by the New Apostolic Reformation and their leaders and the guests and the main speaker there was Rick Perry, who is a candidate for the Republican Party for President. At this event sponsored by the New Apostolic Reformation, two pastors were leading in this event. They are apostles. They have been given apostleship by the Holy Spirit. They called Rick Perry's office, as governor of the state of Texas, and told him that the Lord had revealed to them through the Holy Spirit that Texas is the state that God has chosen to lead the United States into revival and godly government and Rick Perry is to play a key role. And at that event, these two apostles of the New Apostolic Reformation Movement, laid hands on Rick Perry and prayed over him. They claim that God speaks directly to them specific instruction...specific instruction. And if people fail to listen to this divine revelation that comes through them, there will be more earthquakes, more terrorist attacks and worse economic conditions.

However, if we listen, good things will happen because they gave us an illustration of that because they were the ones who gave a little bit of rain to Texas after the draught. I mean, if you didn't know better, you'd think somebody opened the back door of the nut house.

One of these Apostles says the Democratic Party is controlled by Jezebel and three lesser demons. They see demons in public places. They engage in confrontation of these demons and they do it with elaborate rituals, branding irons, stakes and plumb lines. They've gone all over the state of Texas pounding stakes into the ground, branding certain things and claiming every county in Texas for God. One of them says, and I quote, "We are called to world dominion." They have gone to every Masonic Lodge in Texas to cast out the demon Baal because the demon Baal controls free masonry.

They had a meeting in 2009 in Houston. Under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Jezebel was visible. They saw Jezebel. Actually a woman named Alice Patterson, one of these Apostles who has written a book called Bridging The Racial and Political Divide which sounds like a political book, published in 2010. She said that she saw Jezebel and Jezebel lifted up her skirt and when Jezebel lifted up her skirt, this is a quote, "She exposed little Baal, Asheroth(?), and a few other demons who were small cowering, trembling little spirits only ankle high on Jezebel's skinny legs," end quote.

This is in a book called Bridging the Racial and Political Divide. And this is all attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit who is revealing all these things.

Now you know where this all comes from. This is again attributing to the Holy Spirit the work of Satan. I don't know what Rick Perry knows or doesn't know about all of this, you know, in a campaign year, you take the prayers from anybody especially if you're not sure what this is all about. But this is just one illustration of the aberrations that continue to be placed on the back of the Holy Spirit as if these are things that He is doing. It is such a frightening, frightening form of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.