Holly Pivec - Counterfeit Kingdom: The Dangers of New Revelation, New Prophets, and New Age Practices in the Church

Copyright 2022 by Holly Pivec and R. Douglas Geivett

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

9781087757506

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 289.9

Subject Heading: NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION / CULTS / SECTS

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from the English Standard Version. ESV Text Edition: 2016. Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Scripture references marked nasb1995 are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.

Scripture references marked niv are taken from the New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture references marked nkjv are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture references marked The Message are taken from The Message, copyright 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson

Cover design by B&H Publishing Group. Illustration by duncan1890/gettyimages. Interior illustration by Old Books Images/Alamy.

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To the handsome stranger I met at Starbucks. (See chapter 2.)

Holly

To my father, Howard, and my mother, Dixie

Doug

Acknowledgments

Many people have helped us in various ways with the completion of this manuscriptwith research, critique, and encouragement. Of course, their assistance, whatever form it has taken, in no way implies endorsement of our book or agreement with its conclusions. Those who assisted us include Alisa Childers, Aaron Mapes, Jennifer Stoll, Teasi Cannon, Greg Koukl, Natasha Crain, Mike Heiser, Brandon Kimber, Keith Gibson, Monique Duson, Kevin Lewis, Paul Carden, Simon Brace, Rudy Boshoff, Todd Johnson, Doreen Virtue, Mike Winger, Marcia Montenegro, Alan Gomes, Cheryl Sackett, Mitch and Melody Flynn, Greg and Kerry Pippin, Doug Wubbena, Alan Kurschner, Richard Moore, K. L. Marshall, Bart McCurdy, Alison Townsend, Lakshmi Mehta, Belinda Clark, Tara Pauls, Mary Beth Osborn, Dianne Geivett, Erin and Forrest McBride, Howard and Kris Geivett, Dixie and Frank Smith, Debbie and Larry Stout, Brenda Sandeno, Stephanie England, Kimberly Larson, Jon Griswold, Peter Everett, Adam Pivec, Daniel Peters, Linda Peters, Kate Pivec, Lizzie Pivec, Sherina Anderson, Kara Beck, Jon and Lacey McBride, John Tebay, and the members of Hollys church small group.

We are very grateful to our agent, Bill Jensen, for his deep concern for contending for the faith, his encouragement, and his extraordinary expertise. And we have been blessed to partner with Taylor Combs, Ashley Gorman, and the rest of the team at B&H Publishing.

Foreword

I will never forget the feeling of walking into a brand-new church, still timid and guarded from my last experience. Id been burned by a church family who went from singing In Christ Alone on Easter Sunday to apologizing for the lyrics to Amazing Grace within a year. Our church had fallen into progressive Christianity, and it nearly took my faith with it. Now, just weeks after walking out the door for the last time, I was stepping foot into the fold of a new flock that would become our church family for the next seven years. I was instantly put at ease when the worship started. It was dynamic. It felt electric and alive. I was sure this was a safe place because although I was still walking with a spiritual limp, the pas-sionate worshipers were boldly storming the gates of heaven, and that made me feel safe. I spent a couple of years sitting on the back row of the balcony recovering from an injurious faith crisis. Then I slowly got involved. First, I volunteered in the nursery. Then I joined the worship team. Then I became involved with teaching apologetics to the women and youth. I was all in.

This community of believers was slightly charismatic but gospel-focused and balanced. Then things started to change. To this day Im not sure if they changed or if I just became more discerning as I studied apologetics and theology with vigor. Then it happened. Our pastor invited a well-known New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) prophet to speak on a Saturday night and the following Sunday morning.

Around this time, I discovered the work of Holly Pivec and Doug Geivett. They had already researched and written in great detail what I ended up witnessing in real life: the process and sub-sequent fallout of what happens when the teachings and practices of the NAR come to a church. I have personally witnessed the dev-astation of the many wounded people left in its wake. Ive watched unsuspecting Christians who are hungry for revival become swept up in a movement that promises unity, renewal, and even miracles only to deliver confusion, empty promises, and manipulation.

Maybe you havent heard of the NAR, but if you are a Christian who goes to church, there is an almost 100 percent chance you have sung one of their songs in a worship service. This is why its so vital that every Christian, and in particular, every Christian pastor read this book.

Its my prayer that the careful research, gentle tone, and truth-ful observations found in this book will help shield many churches that may be drifting into the theology and practices of the NAR. I pray it serves to help many churches make critical course correc-tions as they pursue authentic Christianity in spirit and in truth.

Alisa Childers

Bestselling author of Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity

Authors Note

In this book we share memories of our personal past experiences. We have retold events to the best of our memories and after carefully reviewing our own recorded observations. We also share stories of individuals who have been damaged by the New Apostolic Reformation movement, as those stories have been shared with us. Where possible, we obtained permission to share those stories; otherwise, we removed personally identifying details to protect individual privacy. We also changed the names of some individuals. There were other stories we very much wished to include but did not because the parents who shared them with us were nervous about possible repercussions if their adult childrenwho have become followers of the apostles and prophets and have broken off communication with themwere to learn that they spoke with us. These parents feared that their already fractured relationships would be broken beyond repair. Their fear sends a strong signal about the destructive effect of the movement we write about.

This book focuses especially on the practices of the New Apostolic Reformation movementthe concrete ways it is showing up in churches, ministries, and music. We have written other academic books that take a deeper dive into the theology, and they are heavily documented. They are A New Apostolic Reformation? A Biblical Response to a Worldwide Movement , and the condensed version of that book, Gods Super-Apostles: Encountering the Worldwide Prophets and Apostles Movement (both published by Lexham Press). While writing Counterfeit Kingdom , we completed another academic manuscript focusing on the theology of Bethel Church in Redding, California. Forthcoming with Cascade/Wipf & Stock, it is titled Reckless Christianity: The Destructive New Teachings and Practices of Bill Johnson, Bethel Church, and the Global Movement of Apostles and Prophets . If you have questions that are not answered by this book, we refer you to these other books and to Hollys blog at www.HollyPivec.com.