00:00John Wimber was instrumental in transforming the face of Christianity in the United States
00:20and abroad.
00:21He is respected by thousands for his influential role in integrating spiritual gifts with church
00:27growth and ministry practices.
00:30As a co-founder of the Vineyard Movement, Wimber promoted a naturally supernatural
00:35approach to charismatic ministry, emphasizing that spiritual gifts like healing and prophecy
00:40should be part of believers' everyday lives without dramatic displays.
00:46His teachings on the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in evangelism and worship
00:51resonated with many Christians and contributed to the spread of charismatic renewal in mainstream
00:56denominations.
00:58One of Wimber's greatest achievements was making healing prayer and deliverance ministry
01:03more accessible within evangelical circles.
01:06He led workshops and conferences that attracted thousands, training people to pray for others
01:11in a simple, direct manner.
01:14His emphasis on doing the stuff of ministry—performing miracles, healing the sick, and sharing prophetic
01:19words—was powerful in reshaping Christianity's approach to spiritual gifts.
01:25Wimber brought a unique personality to the charismatic movement that many have tried
01:29to emulate.
01:30However, has Wimber's personality cult evolved into something more destructive?
01:36Are his most devoted followers attempting to conceal or rewrite his history?
01:41Christian leaders who project their personality onto a movement wield a double-edged sword.
01:46While members may strive to emulate a leader's good qualities, they often suppress or rewrite
01:51the bad.
01:53Instead of embracing history and learning from it, personality cults create mythologies
01:58that aren't historically accurate.
02:00In Wimber's case, his followers may be suppressing critical information to prevent scrutiny.
02:07To understand how John Wimber's legacy has been rewritten, we must examine one of the
02:11most contentious issues for his followers—Wimber's role in the development of Kingdom Now theology
02:17and, ultimately, the development of the New Apostolic Reformation.
02:23C. Peter Wagner is often considered the father, or architect, of the N.A.R.
02:29As a professor of church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary, many of the more extreme
02:34practices of the N.A.R. can be traced back to Wagner's influence.
02:39However, when Wagner coined the term New Apostolic Reformation, he described a movement that
02:44was already beginning to develop.
02:46Charles Fuller and Fuller Theological Seminary had deep ties to William Branham and the Latter
02:51Reign movement, as well as the more sinister Christian Identity movement from which the
02:56Latter Reign emerged.
02:59Fuller was a key figure in the anti-Semitic Defenders of the Christian Faith, led by Gerald
03:04Burton Winrod.
03:06Through this organization, Fuller was connected to many influential figures who would shape
03:11the revival landscape of the 1940s and 1950s.
03:15By the time William Branham rose to prominence during the healing revivals, Fuller was holding
03:21joint campaigns with Branham and other Latter Reign leaders.
03:25Though John Wimber later distanced himself from certain aspects of Fuller's apostolic
03:30teachings, he remained aligned with the key points that laid the groundwork for today's
03:35N.A.R.
03:37As an adjunct professor at Fuller Seminary, Wimber taught a course called Signs, Wonders,
03:42and Church Growth, which became one of the most popular classes at the institution.
03:47He collaborated closely with Wagner, especially on this course, and both men shared an interest
03:53in how supernatural phenomena like healing and prophecy could contribute to church expansion.
03:59While Wagner's later work became more focused on spiritual warfare and apostolic governance,
04:05diverging from Wimber's practical emphasis on charismatic ministry, together they established
04:10a framework that allowed Wagner and others to militarize Christians against invisible
04:15demons in the name of spiritual warfare.
04:19During the period when Wimber and Wagner were reshaping the focus of Christianity toward
04:24Signs, Wonders, and Church Growth, they effectively created a blueprint from which the N.A.R.
04:29could develop.
04:31Although it would be historically inaccurate to label either as the sole founder or architect
04:35of the N.A.R., Wimber and Wagner laid the foundation for transitioning Christianity
04:40from traditional worship to the more extreme elements that had evolved from the Latter
04:45Reign.
04:47By utilizing two key aspects of Branham's teachings—one concerning the kingdom within
04:53you, and the other based on Christ's words, greater works shall you do—Wagner and Wimber
04:58promoted a modified version of Latter Reign's kingdom theology.
05:04In the late 1940s and 1950s, William Branham and other key figures in the Latter Reign
05:09movement transformed apostolic denominations in the United States and abroad by adopting
05:15a new version of kingdom theology.
05:17While traditional Christianity believed the fulfillment of God's kingdom would occur
05:22at Christ's Second Coming, focusing on salvation, moral living, evangelism, and preaching the
05:29gospel, Branham divided the kingdom into two parts to support his claims of Signs and Wonders
05:34in the Revivals.
05:36According to Branham, part of the kingdom could be made manifest in believers during
05:40the Revivals, giving them legions and powers through the backing of the holy angels and
05:46the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
05:49The Latter Reign movement, by and large, adopted this view of the kingdom, believing that they,
05:54too, could achieve signs, wonders, and miracles in the present while looking forward to a
05:59heavenly kingdom to come.
06:02This view was carried forward into the charismatic movement through the work of Branham's campaign
06:07manager Gordon Lindsay.
06:09Like Fuller, Lindsay was a leading figure in Christian identity and spoke at events
06:14for identity groups such as the anti-Semitic Anglo-Saxon Federation.
06:19Lindsay was also connected to ranking members of Winrod's Defenders of the Christian Faith
06:24and was a leader in Amy Semple Macpherson's Four Square Church when Macpherson sided with
06:29Winrod over protests against anti-Semitism.
06:33After Branham's death, Lindsay transformed the Voice of Healing Deliverance Training
06:38School into Christ for the Nations, and countless charismatic ministries were either created
06:44or trained in the methods Branham used.
06:47By the time C. Peter Wagner took notice of the formation of apostolic networks and named
06:52them the New Apostolic Reformation, Branham's kingdom theology had already rewritten the
06:58DNA of the apostolic faith.
07:00Yet, as with Wagner, Wimber, and the New Apostolic Reformation, it would be historically inaccurate
07:06to claim that this theology was Branham's own invention.
07:11Branham was mentored by white supremacy leader Roy Davis, who worked with Klan leaders in
07:15the Supreme Kingdom, which taught a dominionist version of kingdom theology.
07:21Branham was also mentored by F.F. Bosworth, who was a member of multiple destructive cults
07:26that taught similar theologies, such as John Alexander Dowie's Christian Catholic Church
07:32and Charles Fox Parham's Apostolic Faith, created at his Bethel Bible School.
07:37It should come as no surprise that leaders of the N.A.R., such as Bethel Church in Reading,
07:42give undue reverence to each of these ministries.
07:45Wagner simply named the various movements that were beginning to network with each other,
07:50while Wimber attempted to reignite past flames by focusing once more on signs, wonders, miracles,
07:56revival, and church growth.
07:59Future leaders of the N.A.R. took advantage of Wimber's deviation from traditional Christianity,
08:04furthering Wimber's, and Branham's, version into the extremist Kingdom Now theology.
08:10This raises the question, if Wimber had not attempted to resurrect specific themes from
08:15latter reign, would Kingdom Now theology exist in its current form?
08:21While those within John Wimber's cult of personality who are sympathetic to his legacy
08:25view Wimber as a hero of the faith, outsiders hold a much different opinion.
08:31Non-members often see Wimber as an opportunist who rebranded the more financially profitable
08:36aspects of the latter reign movement as his own.
08:40Although it is clear that Wimber did not fully recreate the latter reign movement or adopt
08:45all of its theology, he did adopt the revival framework created by Branham, Lindsay, and
08:51others to develop a new movement, one that proved financially beneficial to many religious
08:56leaders past, present, and future.
09:00While converts argue that Wimber distanced himself from extremism, critics notice the
09:04strategy he used to further his church growth agenda, which included one of the most controversial
09:10figures in charismatic Christianity, William Branham's protege and latter reign evangelist,
09:16Paul Cain.
09:17When Wimber began to reshape Christianity to resemble the signs, wonders, and miracles
09:22of the latter reign movement, Paul Cain was the most logical choice.
09:27Cain had worked closely with Branham and often served as Branham's proxy for revivals that
09:32Branham could not attend.
09:34Wimber furthered that agenda by connecting with the so-called Kansas City Prophets, a
09:39controversial group of men attempting to recreate latter reign's Joel's army, and the extremism
09:45of the Manifest Sons of God.
09:48Wimber helped promote the group, bringing them into the spotlight of charismatic Christianity,
09:53seemingly selecting them to spearhead his attempt to shift the focus from the gospel
09:57to latter reign-style signs, wonders, and miracles.
10:02Even as their prophecies began to fail, exposing them as frauds, Wimber continued to support
10:06them.
10:08It wasn't until the charismatic movement became skeptical of the fraudulent claims
10:12and sexual misconduct of these so-called prophets that Wimber started to distance himself.
10:18Unfortunately, Wimber's opportunistic shift in views came far too late.
10:23His contribution to the NAR included some of the most problematic figures in Christian
10:28history.
10:29Each new victim who steps forward from the ministries he helped promote leaves another
10:33mark on Wimber's legacy.
10:36Each failed prophecy in the NAR, and every attempt to transform the failure into a new
10:41prophecy, represents a moral failure that can be attributed to Wimber's promotion of
10:46these individuals.
10:48In the end, Wimber did achieve his shared objective with Wagner towards signs, wonders,
10:53and church growth.
10:54But is it healthy growth?
10:56Will members of his cult of personality continue to erase or rewrite history?
11:01Has John Wimber's legacy become nothing more than a destructive cult?
Comments