Sarah Palin's Churches and The Third Wave: New Video Documentary
[ Update: documentation (sourcing) on video clips used in the following video documentary, plus supporting documentation on the Third Wave movement, can be found here at Talk To Action ]
Sarah Palin's churches are actively involved in a resurgent movement that was declared heretical by the Assemblies of God in 1949. This is the same 'Spiritual Warfare' movement that was featured in the award winning movie, "Jesus Camp," which showed young children being trained to do battle for the Lord. At least three of four of Palin's churches are involved with major organizations and leaders of this movement, which is referred to as The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit or the New Apostolic Reformation. The movement is training a young "Joel's Army" to take dominion over the United States and the world.
Along with her entire family, Sarah Palin was re-baptized at twelve at the Wasilla Assembly of God in Wasilla, Alaska and she attended the church from the time she was ten until 2002: over two and 1/2 decades. Sarah Palin's extensive pattern of association with the Wasilla Assembly of God has continued nearly up to the day she was picked by Senator John McCain as a vice-presidential running mate. Palin's dedication to the Wasilla church is indicated by a Saturday, September 7, 2008, McClatchy news service story detailing possibly improper use of state travel funds by Palin for a trip she made to Wasilla, Alaska to attend, on June 8, 2008, both a Wasilla Assembly of God "Masters Commission" graduation ceremony and also a multi-church Wasilla area event known as "One Lord Sunday." At the latter event, Palin and Alaska LT Governor Scott Parnell were publicly blessed, onstage before an estimated crowd of 6,000, through the "laying on of hands" by Wasilla Assembly of God's Head Pastor Ed Kalnins whose sermons espouse such theological concepts as the possession of geographic territories by demonic spirits and the inter-generational transmission of family "curses". Palin has also been blessed, or "anointed," by an African cleric, prominent in the Third Wave movement, who has repeatedly visited the Wasilla Assembly of God and claims to have effected positive, dramatic social change in a Kenyan town by driving out a "spirit of witchcraft."
The Wasilla Assembly of God church is deeply involved with both Third Wave activities and theology. Their Master's Commission program is part of an three year post-high school international training program with studies in prophecy, intercessory prayer, Biblical exegesis, authority and leadership. The pastor, Ed Kalnins, and Masters Commission students have traveled to South Carolina to participate in a "prophetic conference" at Morningstar Ministries, one of the major ministries of the Third Wave movement. Becky Fischer was a pastor at Morningstar prior to being featured in the movie "Jesus Camp." The head of prophecy at Morningstar, Steve Thompson, is currently scheduled to do a prophecy seminar at the Wasilla Assembly of God. Other major leaders in the movement have also traveled to Wasilla to visit and speak at the church.
The Third Wave is a revival of the theology of the Latter Rain tent revivals of the 1950s and 1960s led by William Branham and others. It is based on the idea that in the end times there will be an outpouring of supernatural powers on a group of Christians that will take authority over the existing church and the world. The believing Christians of the world will be reorganized under the Fivefold Ministry and the church restructured under the authority of Prophets and Apostles and others anointed by God. The young generation will form "Joel's Army" to rise up and battle evil and retake the earth for God.
While segments of this belief system have been a part of Pentecostalism and charismatic beliefs for decades, the excesses of this movement were declared a heresy in 1949 by the General Council of the Assemblies of God, and again condemned through Resolution 16 in 2000. The beliefs and manifestations of the movement include the use of 'strategic level spiritual warfare' to expel territorial demons from American and world cities. Worship includes excessive charismatic manifestations such as hundreds of people falling, 'slain in the spirit,' and congregations laughing, jerking, and shrieking uncontrollably.
In early 2008 an outbreak of those phenomena commenced at the palatial former ministry estate of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, recently bought up and restored by prominent Third Wave author and leader Rick Joyner's Morningstar Ministries. The (spiritual) "breakout" lasted for many weeks and was publicized in an extensive collection of video footage available on YouTube. Healing services in the Third Wave movement claim to heal the sick and injured through methods that in some cases can appear bizarre - including, as in recent cases involving Todd Bentley, the patient being head butted or kicked by the anointed healer. Recipients of such "spiritual" or miraculous healing make a wide range of astonishing claims - to have been cured of life-threatening illnesses, had joints repaired or replaced, been given gold teeth or gold fillings, regrown stunted limbs and even had deformed skeletal structures straightened and reshaped. Worldwide mission efforts of the movement are built around the idea of combating witches, warlocks, and generational curses, which prevent churches from being able to take root.
Thomas Muthee visited Wasilla Assembly of God and gave 10 consecutive sermons at the church, from October 11-16 2005. As both Palin and Wasilla AoG Head Pastor Ed Kalnins have attested, Thomas Muthee 'prayed over' Sarah Palin and entreated God to "make a way" prior to Palin's successful bid for the Alaska governorship. Muthee made a return visit to the Wasilla Assembly of God in late 2008. Thomas Muthee's Word of Faith Church is featured in the "Transformations" video which details an account on how Muthee drove "the spirit of witchcraft" out of Kiambu, Kenya, liberating the town from its territorial demonic possession and enabling a miraculous societal transformation. The "Transformations" video set is used as an argument for social improvement through spiritual instead of human means, and as the best method for fighting corruption, crime, drugs and even environmental degradation.
In the video, producer George Otis declares that after Thomas Muthee and his followers banished the "spirit of witchcraft" from the town, the crime rate in Kiambu dropped almost to zero, along with the rate of alcoholism, and according to Otis most of the residents of the town joined churches. The "Transformations" video has helped spark a network of 'Transformation' ministries and mission organizations and 'transformation' has become a buzz word for change based on supernatural instead of human efforts.
The Third Wave, also known as the New Apostolic Reformation, is a network of Apostles, many of them grouped around C. Peter Wagner, founder of the World Prayer Center. This center, which was built in coordination with Ted Haggard and his New Life Church in Colorado Springs, was featured in an article by Jeff Sharlet in Harpers, May 2005, "Soldiers of Christ." Sharlet was one of the first to write in the secular press about the World Prayer Center which is often referred to by those familiar with the Third Wave as the 'Pentagon for Spiritual Warfare.' It features computer systems that store the data of communities around the world, mapping out unsaved peoples' groups and spiritual mapping information for spiritual warfare. Wagner has his own group of about 500 Apostles in his council and each of these Apostles has ministries under their authority, sometimes hundreds or thousands. Recently various networks of Apostles came together to form the Revival Alliance. Leaders of the Revival Alliance including Rick Joyner of Morningstar anointed Todd Bentley whose Lakeland Healing Revival has recently been a controversial topic in the Evangelical world.
Wagner's top leaders often conduct spiritual warfare campaigns against the demons that block the acceptance of their brand of Christian belief, such as 'Operation Ice Castle' in the Himalayas in 1997. Several of their top prophets and generals of intercession spent weeks in intensive prayer to "confront the Queen of Heaven." This queen is considered by them to be one of the most powerful demons over the earth and is the Great Harlot of Mystery Babylon in Revelation. (The "Great Harlot [or 'whore'] of Mystery Babylon" theme also figures prominently in the sermons of Texas megachurch pastor and Christians United For Israel founder John Hagee, former endorser of John McCain's 2008 presidential bid.) Wagner and his group also claim that the Queen of Heaven is Diana, the pagan god of the biblical book Ephesians and the god of Mary veneration in the Roman Catholic Church. Following the 'Operation Ice Castle' prayer excursion which included planting a flag for Jesus on Mt. Everest, one of the lead prayer intercessors from the excursion, Ana Mendez, reported that there had been dramatic results including, "millions have come to faith in Asia... and other things happened which I believe are also connected...an earthquake had destroyed the basilica of Assisi, where the Pope had called a meeting of all world religions; a hurricane destroyed the infamous temple 'Baal-Christ' in Acapulco, Mexico; the Princes Diana died... and Mother Theresa died in India, one of the most famous advocates of Mary as Co-Redeemer."
Church of the Rock, led by Senior Pastor David Pepper, has taken their youth to participate in 'The Call, Nashville.' This event is held at various locations around the country under the leadership of Lou Engle, also featured in the movie "Jesus Camp." At these events youth are worked into a frenzy of anger and consternation at supposed national moral corruption. Engle, who shuffles while he preaches in imitation of Jewish prayer, is featured toward the end of the "Jesus Camp" video documentary.
Mike Rose, senior pastor of Juneau Christian Center has a long relationship with Rodney Howard -Browne, credited with being the instigator of the outbreak of 'Holy Laughter' around the world, including the Toronto Airport Revival.
The Third Wave movement is cross-denomination and is not synonymous with any specific denomination, nor is it synonymous with Evangelical or Fundamentalist. Although the movement emerged from Pentecostalism, it draws its support from a variety of denominations and religious streams. They believe they are forming a post-denominational church to take the world for the end times. To date, all of the writing and objections to this movement have emerged from other Evangelicals and Fundamentalists who believe the movement to be unbiblical. Also, it is other conservative churches that refuse to embrace the 'outpouring of the Spirit' that are targets of much of the anger of the movement.
You can find more information on the Third Wave movement and additional links to the activities of Palin's churches on www.Talk2action.org in the following articles:
Sarah Palin's Churches and the Third Wave, Part One
Sarah Palin's Churches and the Third Wave, Part Two (with embedded video.)
The video is also posted here.
____
Documentation of the Video and Supporting Articles
Sarah Palin's Churches and the Third Wave
Also posted as Palin's Demon Haunted Churches
Video Clips
(Note that all video clips are taken from original sources or sources promoting and supporting the Third Wave/New Apostolic Reformation.)
Bishop Thomas Muthee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBvxWl7jXr0
Transformations I, Trailer
George Otis, Sentinel Group
Morningstar Ministries clips including cellphone anointing, portal to Jesus
http://www.prophetic.tv/morningstar/
Holy Spirit Breakout Day # 1 and 2, Day #9, and Week #15
On Prophetic TV, Morningstar Ministries full Breakout series
Wasilla Master's Commission
http://www.mcwasillaalaska.com/
Main website with links to Master's Commission, Master's Commission videos and photos
Wasilla AoG bulletin graphics, Wasilla AoG sermons, Wasilla AoG videos
http://www.wasillaag.org/
Wasilla Assembly of God main site clips used:
Music repeated in video and sermon with chants of `Jesus, Jesus'
Wasilla AoG sermon by Pastor Todd Stafford, "In Desperate Times", January 15, 2007.
Master's Commission Graduation Ceremony, June 8, 2008
Sarah Palin giving Master's Commission speech
Posted on the Wasilla AoG site on June 8, 2008
Anointing of Leaders from auxiliary site
http://app.razorplanet.com/acct/40149-8554/tmpl/index.php?s=gl&am p;nid=53521&preview=true
From Wasilla AoG links to site
Quote about demonic strongholds and generational curses
Ed Kalnins, sermon, September 26, 2004
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:gF16SYYnXC0J:www.wasillaag.n et/2004.html+Kalnins,Canaanite&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1& ;gl=us
Lou Engle, Rick Joyner from Underground
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7sSZ7Ux3Hg
Underground by www.underthethreshold
Production of Brian Wages, Music/Art Director, Oakleaf Christian Fellowship
Photos at Our Hand at Youth Conference 2008
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile& amp;friendID=49580719
Photos posted on site of Wasilla AoG staff member, Buster Barlow
`One Lord Sunday'
http://gov.state.ak.us/large_photo.php?id=153
Event photos from Wasilla AoG posted on Alaska State Government website
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
HuffPost's Pick
Anderson Cooper reported on the founder of "Jews" for Jesus speaking at Mayor Palin's church. He basically said Israelis are suffering terrorists acts because they haven't accepted Jesus as their savior. He also reported that the pastor of the church agreed with this antisemitic crap.
Let me just say that as a Jew I find these statements disgusting. "Jews" for Jesus is an evangelical group claiming to be Jews who accept Jesus as their savior. Problem is you can't call yourself a Jew and believe in Jesus. You are Christians. The idea of Jesus as deity contradicts many commandments real Jews follow. Moreover, the Torah clearly states that God is not man. Now I'm not trying to diminish anybody's beliefs in anyway but "Jews" for Jesus is as ridiculous, logically and spiritually, as Jews for Mohammad, Christians for Sharia, or Mormons for Budda.
A guest speaker on The Rachel Maddow Show said that one should not judge Palin or her church based on what a guest speaker said. However, I think that as a rule speakers are invited to a church to reinforce what that church believes in, not to encourage discussion of alternate views.
I remember that at our church we had a guest speaker who told us how his father, a church leader in his own right, was murdered by the Nazis for speaking out against the murder of Jews in Germany. There was no doubt in my mind that we were being encouraged to stand up against injustice. What was the guest speaker at Palin's church encouraging those parishioners to do?
You may want to tell that to the 350,000 Messianic Jews worldwide.
http://en.
http://www
http://www
"Messianic jews" are not Jews. Jews observe the Torah. Jews are taught that God is infinite and cannot be man nor the son of man. The messianic movement proves that certain fringes of Christianity will do whatever it takes to convert Jews, even flat out inventing a "Jewish" movement. Assimilation by force and decit is something real Jews will never allow again.
Oh, and you can't really tell someone that "if you believe in X, then you can't belong to religion Y". Otherwise, as a Christian, let me say that "If you believe in abortion, then you can't be a Christian".
Are you sure that's a debate you want to have?
Yes, I'll have that debate. Your arrogance is amazing.
You don't get to decided who is Christian and who is not? That's the arrogance of many who claim to be Christian, humbled before Christ, but want to speak and decide for Christ. You can't know the mind of God. That's why he says "Judge not lest you be judged."
You can be Christian and be a sinner, isn't that true? Doesn't Christ embrace and love all, even sinners. You have the right to call abortion a sin but you don't have the right to condemn me for having one. God makes the final judgment, not you. So take care that you are not pointing to a sin of mine while committing sin yourself.
Allow me to correct you.You wrote ""Jews" for Jesus is as ridiculous, LOGICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY (my caps), as Jews for Mohammad, Christians for Sharia, or Mormons for Budda." You're entitled to your opinion about the spiritual relevance, but your logic is wrong because only one is an ethnicity, Jews. My mother was a Sephardic Jew from a non-religious family who fell in love with my father who was an Anglican Priest. All of us are Christians, yet according to the State of Israel, my mother, my sisters and I are Jews and are entitled to Israeli citizenship if we want it. I don't call myself a "Jew for Jesus", I despise labels and anything that separates humanity, but LOGICALLY and spiritually I am one.
Jews are not an ethnicity. Judaism is a religion with many rich traditions. If it were an ethnicity then you'd have a hard time choosing exactly who belonged to this ethnic group. Ashkenazi? Sephardi? Mizrahi? Ethopian? Yemeni? Jews are entitled to determine who is a Jew and it's either someone who was converted according to Halacha or someone who was born to a Jewish mother and RAISED a Jew. However that wasn't even the point. The point was that you have a group claiming to be Jewish spreading messages of hate and antisemitism in Palin's church and any Torah-observing Jew (there is no other kind) would and should be offended by this and this group.
Salem, MA 1692 - These people will not be happy until the literally murdered people. Eventually they realize they are wrong. The problem in 2008, the sophistication of the weaponery that is available. The damage they can do is unimaginable. With hanging 8 people were executed on September 22, 1692
I posted a comment previously about religions extremism, that got deleted...
Knowing that God wants you to go to war [ie: kill some people in order to take their land, treasure, or oil] is an odd interpretation of the new testament, and the kind of thing that has caused untold amounts of suffering in this world, not least of which is radical islam...
SCARYYYY!!!!! I think I'm going to vomit.
when can we start openly bashing religion??
because I have a few words about this absurd subject.
like Jesus was the only son of a virgin, born on Dec. 25.
lies lies lies
Since Sen. Obama believes that the Second Amendment should be subject to local political consideration, I must ask if he applies the same rationale to the guarantees of rights enumerated in the First Amendment, specifically the right of free expression of religion. Or, may a locality suppress or deny religious practices or creeds in the name of the welfare of the community. (Proscribing some religious practices and creeds effectively constitutes the establishment and defense of a locally recognized creed.)
The proper question for any candidate is this: Are you prepared to protect and defend the right of the religious organizations, and the constituent members thereof, to freely practice and promote their creeds without governmental inference or the requirement of governmental recognition? Or, do you accept that localities can define the parameters of religious practice in the name of the good of the community?
Advent of the American Taliban! I'm all for people having the freedom to believe whatever they wish, so long as that does NOT include a belief that they are the sole repositories of "truth" and are entitled, therefore, to force their beliefs/controls on anyone/everyone else. When someone's supposed "religion" is freely practiced by denying the right of others to believe otherwise, it no longer deserves Constitutional protection or any respect. These Taliban are, indeed, scary individuals and groups. People need to recall, however, that this nation was originally invaded/settled in the 17th Century primarily by religious extremists and a large contingent of criminals. No doubt, significant pollution has been injected into the gene pool.
When religious zealots attacked us on 9-11, we have since referred to them as "Islamic Extremists" and "Terrorists". Yet, when Timothy McVeigh and his cohorts blew up the Murrah Building in 1995, NO ONE referred to them as Christian Extremists, or Christian Terrorists - which they were. Americans and the press only refers to Christian nut-cases as "fringe groups' and other politically correct nonsense instead of what they are - Christian Extremists. The American Taliban. Why is that? PC I suppose.
I was married to an Assembly of God minister's son way back in the 1960's, and let me tell you, they are much more frightening to me than any Muslim or Islamic extremist I could ever meet. In my case, my totally insane in-laws didn't strap on bombs and blow people up. They used the oldest and most effective method of destroying people - religious brainwashing. Snapping. Getting someone to "snap", to where you unconsciously, over time, turn your free will over to a religious sect or group.
There is an excellent book still in print about "snapping" - particularly snapping/b
Luckily, I escaped the terror of that marriage and my looney AOG in-laws. I've since become an agnostic who follows one of the creeds of torture victims - 'You can break my body, but you will never break my mind.'
"Sarah Palin's churches"? Sarah Palin has no "churches".
Jesus said "I will build my church". If you have a complaint about the conduct or agenda of certain churches, then talk to the owner. His door is always open to hear your concerns. No long distance required.
Now, as to the implication of the video - can anyone, anywhere show from her record in any office or from her public activities where she has promoted anything at all that was mentioned in this video to be public policy?
If you cannot, then concede that this video is really nothing more than just another attack on Christianity, and not on Sarah Palin. All it will do is stir up Evangelicals in her defense.
I was on the NCRonline.
Why has this video been removed from Youtube? The entire circle of Palin friends and family members are off limits to the press- what are they hiding?
Is Palins intention to govern or to exorcise our country of demons?
Inquiring minds want to know.
(even though minds seem to be archaic vestigal appendages in this sect)
Just like Obama's church aims to "God Damn America". If you want to compare churches, I'm sure that is a comparison that Republicans would LOVE make public.
When are we going to get some answers from Ms. Palin on her views on separation of church and state? We already know she supports creationism being taught in schools, she believes in the failed policy of abstinance only non-education; does she also believe that Alaska is the last refuge for those who survive the rapture?
Sorry folks - but she is very scary. I'll pass. And I have my passport ready, if our electorate is stupid enough, or enraptured enough to put this woman in office
Tonight CNN did a creditable job on explaining Palin's church affiliation in Wasilla. The Pentecostal church referred to by Wilson in this blog is her former church. She left it six years before this interview to join a more mainstream bible-based church which is not "pentecostal" and probably does not have the same connections to Todd Bentley, to the Vineyard, to "Dominion" crusading ministries. This is a much less woo-woo type of affiliation, although still a Bible-based affiliation which affirms pro-life, and the teaching of "creation".
Most churches of this type do not demand the non-teaching of evolution, incidentally. They ask for inclusion of the creation point of view, which can be readily presented through the works of Isaac Newton, Einstein, Galileo, Behe, Schroeder, et al, without even mentioning Jesus' role in it.
If this were a science blog instead of a political blog, I sure would ask you what Newton, Einstein, et al have to do with Creationism. And I wasn't aware Jesus had any role in in it at all.
I've read quite a lot of the works of Einstein, and I am pretty sure he favored the scientific approach to explaining life on our planet. That puts him on the side of Darwin. He said he believed that there was much that we could not explain, and he was very spiritual, but that does not make him a creationist.
But fornication (sex outside of marriage) is ok? Apparently it's acceptable because none of these wackos are raising concerns about her unmarried teenage daughter being knocked up. Just another fine example of hypocrisy.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
