Evangelicals and Prophecy in the Nineteenth Century

The distinctive strain of dominion-style prophecy interpretation that took shape in pentecostal and charismatic circles drew on widespread trends in the broader evangelical world even as it modified those same traditions in crucial respects. Early pentecostalism was profoundly shaped, for instance, by the widespread rejection of postmillennialism on the part of many conservative Protestants as the nineteenth century progressed. Instead of a future marked by steady, growing Christian influence that would culminate in an era of peace and social harmony followed by Christ's return, more and more American Christians—including many pentecostals in the early twentieth century—were convinced that only Christ's imminent appearance and dramatic intervention in world affairs could initiate the prophesied millennium.

Such premillennial ideas served as bedrock assumptions for dispensationalists who divided the sweep of history into distinct eras—“dispensations”—that reflected foreordained stages of God's interactions with, and plans for, humanity. Perhaps the best known premillennial dispensationalist, the British-born Plymouth Brethren minister John Nelson Darby, drew a sharp distinction between an any-moment rapture of the saints and the subsequent fulfillment of biblical prophecies culminating in Christ's “Second Coming” and the millennium. This position paved the way for him to insist that “there is no earthly event between [the Church] and heaven.” Christians were not expected to connect biblical prophecies to specific current events. Instead, they were to keep their eyes on the future and live in a state of expectation of the rapture—a “constant waiting for the Lord as a present thing”—and allow this anticipation to shape their hearts and minds. “When is the Christian to expect the Lord?” he asked. “I answer, Always.”Footnote ¹⁰ The rising popularity of future-oriented prophetic systems such as Darby's, which started to reach large audiences in the United States beginning in the 1870s by means of the Niagara Bible and International Prophecy conferences, frequently dominates scholarly discussions of evangelical millennialism in the postbellum nineteenth century and beyond.Footnote ¹¹

Whereas most pentecostals embraced a premillennialist outlook, in numerous other areas pentecostal religiosity stood in tension with key features of highly popular dispensational frameworks: Early pentecostals’ typically tripartite periodization of the sweep of history, which linked the third and final era with the activity of the Holy Spirit, did not fit with the seven-dispensations model promoted by most other America dispensationalists. Pentecostals’ readiness to see their movement as a fulfillment of prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures, not to mention their present-day applications of specific New Testament passages, directly contradicted other dispensationalists’ inclination to draw bright lines of distinction between God's post-rapture interactions with Israel and God's pre-rapture interactions with the church. Pentecostals, moreover, would have absolutely rejected many premillennial dispensationalists’ tendency to relegate the miraculous gifts of the Spirit to the founding era of the church.Footnote ¹² As such, any discussion of the antecedents of early pentecostal eschatology cannot rely on a simple rehearsal of the rise of premillennial dispensationalism in evangelical circles and needs to encompass a broader array of individuals and ideas regarding the end times.

Alongside popular dispensationalist models, for instance, another school of premillennial thought—“historicist” premillennialism—attracted considerable attention throughout the first half of the nineteenth century. In “futurist” approaches such as Darby's, this-worldly fulfillments of prophecy, such as the restoration of the Jews to Palestine and their eventual conversion, would move to center stage after the rapture occurred and signaled the end of the present “church age” with its spiritual focus and priorities. The somewhat inaptly named historicists, on the other hand, were more oriented toward the present era and looked for the fulfillment of key prophetic verses in past and contemporary events.Footnote ¹³ Proponents read present-day developments in world affairs as direct fulfillments of the seven “vials” of judgment described in the book of Revelation. They identified entities such as the Roman Catholic Church or, at times, Napoleon with the “antichrist” power mentioned in various biblical passages. Many believed that a Jewish restoration to Palestine in the run-up to Christ's return represented a direct fulfillment of prophecy.Footnote ¹⁴ This latter commitment, in particular, opened the door wide for historicist, “present-era” prophecy types to spearhead lobbying efforts on behalf of Jewish restoration to Palestine, among other efforts at social reform, and to stress evangelistic outreach among Jews even as they anticipated the soon-return of Christ.Footnote ¹⁵

As it happens, neat and tidy conceptual divisions between historicist and futurist schools of premillennialism did not always map onto the actual systems promoted by various groups and writers. The eschatological vision promoted in the 1840s periodical American Millenarian and Prophetic Review, which circulated primarily in northeastern and midwestern states, exemplified this diversity within nineteenth-century evangelical prophetic thought.Footnote ¹⁶ Like Darby, the periodical's contributors insisted on a “literal” approach to scripture and rejected widespread postmillennialist confidence in the United States and Britain, scoffing at the notion that “America and Great Britain are destined to put every thing [sic] right that's wrong in the world.”Footnote ¹⁷ Referring to themselves simply as “millenarians,” they also posited a “rapture of the Saints” that would provide a means of deliverance “from that ‘great tribulation’ which shall overwhelm all those who are left behind” in the immediate run-up to the return of Christ to initiate the millennium.Footnote ¹⁸

Despite the similarities with a more futurist style of premillennialism, the millenarians reflected many assumptions closely associated with the historicist school of prophecy interpretation: They directly linked numerous “ecclesiastical,” “civil,” and “political” current events, ranging from the French Revolution to the “drying up of . . . Turkish power,” with specific prophetic texts. Furthermore, they fully anticipated—and began working toward—the imminent restoration of Jews to Palestine.Footnote ¹⁹ Along these very lines, when the editor of the American Millenarian published additional prophecy-related books in the late 1840s, he dedicated the profits to Jewish evangelism and described himself as a “Minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church and Missionary to the Jews.”Footnote ²⁰ Such emphases helped lay the groundwork for overtly political actions in later decades in support of Zionist efforts—political expressions that thorough-going futurists such as Darby never would have countenanced. The stress on present-day fulfillments of prophecy contrasted sharply with the assumption, widespread among Darby-style dispensationalists, that God's present-day focus was on the spiritual empowerment of the gentile church.Footnote ²¹

The interpretative schemes promoted within the American Millenarian stood apart from prominent mid nineteenth-century futurist prophecy systems in one other important respect: openness to present-day miracles. Once again, divergent understandings of the connection between Jews and biblical prophecy figured prominently in the conversation. Authors directly linked, for example, the end-times restoration of Jews with a revival of some of the spiritual gifts mentioned in scripture. In a piece titled “The Restoration of the Jews to Their Own Land,” the author promised that “great miracles shall be wrought when Israel and Judah are brought out of all nations and restored to their own land, as formerly were wrought,” and this would include manifestations of the “spirit of prophecy, and other miraculous gifts.” To support these conclusions, the author cited Joel 2:28–32, a favorite passage of pentecostals decades later.Footnote ²²

The mixed historicism-futurism of the American Millenarian foreshadowed the increased willingness on the part of later premillennial dispensationalists to endorse at least some historicist-style affirmations of God's intervention in “prophetic” current events, such as the rise of the Zionist movement at the turn of the twentieth century, the British Mandate for Palestine following World War I, and the founding of the state of Israel in the late 1940s. These modifications, which were made by respected dispensationalists such as William Blackstone, only would have reinforced similar perspectives among the pentecostal faithful.Footnote ²³ Even taking those developments into account, the earliest pentecostals arguably stood much closer to the mixed historicism-futurism of the American Millenarian than they did mainstream premillennial dispensationalism. Such was certainly the case for proponents of the prophetic politics of dominion who embraced British Israelism.

The Prophetic Politics of Dominion in Early Pentecostal Eschatology

The maverick independence that pulsated throughout early pentecostalism contributed to significant diversity and religious innovation in pentecostal eschatology, yet a few commonalities united most adherents’ approaches to biblical prophecy. Pentecostals not only embraced the premillennial idea that Christ's return would inaugurate the millennium but also, like good futurists, looked expectantly for the rapture of the saints. (Early pentecostals typically distinguished, though, between an elite band of rapture-ready, “spirit-baptized” Christians and non-pentecostals who would be left on earth to endure a period of tribulation prior to Christ's triumphant return.)Footnote ²⁴

“Latter rain” teachings, in particular, represented the most influential framework for pentecostals’ interpretation of end-times prophecy. Drawing on biblical references, early leaders such as David Wesley Myland called their readers’ attention to an annual springtime rain that prepared crops for harvest in ancient Israel. These leaders made a direct connection to the pentecostal revival, depicting it as a biblically promised spiritual latter rain that miraculously set the stage for Christ's second coming. Such arguments underscored pentecostals’ historicist-style willingness to link certain contemporary events—and their own movement—to biblical prophecy.Footnote ²⁵

One of the most striking examples of early pentecostals’ historicist instincts—not to mention their nonconformist sensibilities—involved the embrace of British Israelism (also known as Anglo-Israelism) by key figures. Promoted by a relatively small but influential cadre of proto-pentecostal and early pentecostal figures, British Israelite perspectives were rooted in a sense of Anglo-Saxon racial superiority. According to advocates, individuals with an Anglo-Saxon ancestry descended directly from the so-called ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Consequently, adherents believed, all of the biblical promises made to the ancient Israelites extended to the modern-day inhabitants of Britain and the United States. The United States's growing international clout at the turn of the twentieth century, including the acquisition of islands in both the Pacific and the Caribbean in the aftermath of the War of 1898, played no small role in bolstering U.S. proponents’ confidence in the accuracy of their claims.Footnote ²⁶

The embrace of British Israelism by some of the faithful had radical implications for their prophetic interpretive schemes. The self-identification as Israel on the part of these proto-pentecostals and early pentecostals cemented participants’ conviction that they were crucial players in an unfolding end-times drama. When coupled with believers’ overt supernaturalism, this sense of prophetic destiny helped catalyze dominion-style rhetoric and, at times, a supreme confidence in the socially transformative power inherent in their movement. Suffice it to say, the appeal of British Israelite teachings for some pentecostals complicates the early movement's apolitical reputation.Footnote ²⁷

Not surprisingly, given adherents’ Israel-centric identities, the culmination of their prophetic visions revolved around the yet-to-be-established state of Israel. Whereas most pentecostals were willing to watch and pray as end-times events played out in modern-day Palestine, proponents of Anglo-Israelism believed that they should begin to take steps to possess Jerusalem and, thereby, prepare the way for Christ's return. (For some, laying claim to the “holy land” would occur in cooperation with Jews. For others, Christian Anglo-Saxons would replace Jews altogether as they possessed Jerusalem.)

No one figure did more to popularize British Israelite thinking in early pentecostal circles than the proto-pentecostal John Alexander Dowie. An eccentric figure best known for his promotion of divine healing and for the Zion community that he established north of Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan, Dowie taught his followers to anticipate the imminent rapture of the saints. While he believed Christ would return to gather the elect soon, he also assumed that the church—in particular, the Zion community—had crucial work to do in transforming society in the meantime.

Dowie's approach included major departures from mainstream evangelical prophecy: His distinctive reading of passages in the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament led him to conclude that he was the final embodiment of the spirit of the biblical prophet Elijah. “I saw that when the Times of the Restoration of All Things, which must precede the Coming of the Lord, had come, then Elijah must come,” Dowie explained. This final “Physical, Psychical, and Spiritual Embodiment of Elijah must take the form of Prophet, Priest, and Ruler of Men.” In case any of his listeners somehow missed the implications of these words, Dowie concluded, “I say it fearlessly, that by the Grace of God I am, and shall be that.”Footnote ²⁸

Based on these conclusions, Dowie saw Zion, Illinois, as far more than just a utopian experiment in religious community. Rather, with “Elijah the Restorer” at the helm, Zion functioned as a theocratic harbinger of the type of communities that Christ would implement during the millennium. “If the Bible is not a lie from start to finish,” Dowie taught, “[Christ] is coming back to reign and establish a world-wide Theocracy. . . . When the Christ comes, it will be an amplification, and a great one, of some of the things that you see in Zion City now.”Footnote ²⁹ Never one to dream small, at times, Dowie even hinted at the transformation of the entire United States prior to Christ's return.Footnote ³⁰ Here, Dowie evinced the deep-seated ambivalence regarding the United States that frequently manifested in his writings. The “stars and stripes” were flown atop flagstaffs placed every half-mile along the lakefront portion of the Zion community, and the Scottish-born Dowie eventually became a U.S. citizen. Yet, he simultaneously sought nothing less than to effect the “Destruction of the Democratic Idea” that guided the nation from its infancy.Footnote ³¹

As with later custodians of the prophetic politics of dominion, Dowie's vision ultimately transcended the United States. Just as Dowie spent long periods of his life outside of the United States, in Britain and Australia, his followers could be found in Canada, South Africa, Australia, and parts of Europe.Footnote ³² It was, however, Dowie's British-Israelite–inflected eschatology that ultimately focused his attention well beyond the shores of Lake Michigan. In a plan that was as bold as it was fanciful, Dowie spoke of his desire to take control of Jerusalem. Noting that the holy city would one day be the “Capital of the World” upon Christ's return, Dowie declared his intention to “buy up Zion at Jerusalem . . . and prepare it for the King.” “If we can establish three, four, five, six, seven or more such Cities as [Zion, Illinois],” he speculated, “and can get a few million dollars a year[,] . . . we can get possession of the sacred site of Jerusalem, and build it up in Preparation for the Coming of Christ our King to His Holy Hill of Zion.”Footnote ³³ (On another occasion he clarified that only Anglo-Saxon Christians would take possession of the city.)Footnote ³⁴

While the utopian experiment at Zion, Illinois, was short-lived, it proved formative for influential figures in the early pentecostal movement, some of whom adopted Anglo-Israelism. None of Dowie's successors ever approximated his creation of a functional, theocratic community, to be sure. In numerous other respects, however, key features of the prophetic politics of dominion persisted. One of the most important individuals who helped carry the Illinois prophet's legacy forward was Charles Parham, best known for his contributions to pentecostals’ trademark doctrine regarding speaking in tongues.Footnote ³⁵ Parham perpetuated key features of Dowie's prophetic system while also adding his own distinctive flourishes to classic British Israelite tropes: He followed Dowie in teaching that Anglo-Saxon members of the Lost Tribes would participate in the repatriation of Israel, though he believed that Anglo-Saxon believers would unite with Jews when doing so. Parham also insisted that this Anglo-Saxon vanguard was the Bride of Christ mentioned in scripture. (Unlike most evangelicals, Parham distinguished the Bride of Christ from the more general “Body of Christ,” which included all believers.) This super-select group of Christians, he believed, would receive “allotments as so-journeying strangers with the Jews” upon the declaration of a Jewish state. Indicative of his obsession with claims to spiritual elitism, he then distinguished an even more select group within this Bride, the so-called “man-child” mentioned in Revelation, who would be raptured with Christ prior to the onset of the “tribulation” period, and prior to the unification of the Anglo-Israel Bride of Christ with Jews.Footnote ³⁶

Parham's prophetic vision (and complicated timeline) reshuffled Dowie's dominionist-sensibilities in important ways. For one, Parham's extensive theological commentary evidenced a particularly strong transnational sensibility. In and of itself, positing an “Anglo-Israelite” identity already suggested an imagined (white) community that was not neatly contained by national boundaries.Footnote ³⁷ Even more important, Parham's particular version of British Israelism was predicated on an expansive conception of the Lost Tribes of Israel that greatly amplified the transnational implications of British Israelite teachings. “Today the descendants of Abraham are the Hindus, the Japanese, the high German, the Danes (tribe of Dan)[,] the Scandinavians, the Anglo-Saxon and their descendants in all parts of the world,” Parham averred. “These are the nations who have acquired and retained experimental salvation and deep spiritual truths.”Footnote ³⁸ Parham's distinctive, highly racialized understanding of the Bride of Christ encouraged a still more expansive transnationalism: Despite his claim that only individuals with “Israelitish blood in their veins” could be part of the super-select Bride of Christ that would join with Jews in Jerusalem during the last days, he simultaneously asserted that the Bride would consist of individuals from all races. To resolve the apparent contradiction, Parham claimed that “Israelitish blood” had “found its way among the races” thanks to intermarriage, and, therefore, Christians from around the globe who shared in these lineages would be eligible for inclusion in the “Bride of Christ.”Footnote ³⁹

Parham's ideas highlighted the complicated racial calculus at work in the writings of some of the early pentecostal British Israelites. They also underscored the degree to which Anglo-Israelism fostered incipient transnational identities among the faithful. His (sometimes convoluted) eschatological vision may have bewildered many readers, but this much remained clear: A transnational “Bride of Christ,” descended from ancient Israel and culled from around the globe, served as the most significant actor in Parham's end-times schema.

In addition, whereas Dowie's association of Anglo-Saxons and Israel helped sanction his efforts to implement a theocracy in Zion prior to Christ's return, in Parham's hands, the same connections depicting the United States as an Anglo-Saxon Israel only drew attention to Americans’ failure to act and govern righteously. On the one hand, Parham viewed the United States's status as a world power as a direct fulfillment of prophecy. He acknowledged the country's unique role as the “the first nation to establish religious liberty, and the common brotherhood of mankind, as the fundamental principles of Civil Government.” His reading of prophecy also convinced him that the United States would emerge from an end-times battle with the Anti-Christ figure “seemingly victorious.” Nevertheless, during this same confrontation, the United States would be “horribly punished,” and the nation's citizens could know with certainty that trouble and divine wrath awaited because “the nation forgets God.” Before long, “justice with flaming sword will step from behind the pleading form of Mercy to punish a nation which has mingled the blood of thousands of human sacrifices upon the altar of commercial and imperialistic expansion.” In the end, the rightful exercise of dominion during the approaching millennium ultimately would flow through the spirit-baptized “Bride of Christ,” and especially the “man-child,” in this case, after the man-child returned to earth with Christ to rule.Footnote ⁴⁰

Parham's distinction between U.S. imperialism and the pure, righteous dominion exercised by a purified subsection of the church during the millennium represented a significant departure from Dowie's timeline and theocracy-now message. The “Bride of Christ” remained on earth following the rapture, participated in the restoration of Israel at the onset of the tribulation period, and would thrive despite the devil's furious efforts. Even so, Parham portrayed the Bride more as a preserved remnant than a victorious end-times force for change in the world. That said, Parham's identification of both the Bride of Christ and the man-child with a type of super-spiritual elite proved an important innovation that would undergird subsequent pentecostal and charismatic visions of a triumphant church—visions of a triumphant church that would transform the world prior to Christ's return. Later pentecostals, who shed British Israelites’ racial identification with Israel and opted instead for a more mainstream, spiritual sense of connection with God's “chosen people,” nevertheless retained Parham's understanding of a super-select body of believers who would implement Christ's rule over entire nations. For a number of these figures, this elite collection of saints would exercise dominion before, and in anticipation of, the rule and reign of Christ during the millennium.

Midcentury Transitions

Despite the influence that figures such as Dowie and Parham wielded in early pentecostal circles, the more formal teachings associated with Anglo-Israelism were quickly pushed to the pentecostal fringes. Individuals intent on moving their fellow pentecostals toward the evangelical mainstream took aim at the faddish racial theories associated with Anglo-Israelism.Footnote ⁴¹ In the early days of the movement, in fact, not a few saints defied convention by conducting interracial meetings and publishing articles by both white and black ministers in the same periodicals.Footnote ⁴² Proclaiming an exclusive gospel also proved difficult within a movement staunchly committed to its missionary efforts in every corner of the globe.

A few key leaders in the movement still adhered to British Israel teachings. These included John G. Lake, a popular healing evangelist and pastor who operated in both the Pacific Northwest and South Africa; F. F. Bosworth, another prominent healing evangelist who functioned as a crucial bridge linking the early movement and the healing revival of the late 1940s; and Gordon Lindsay, who served as the administrative lynchpin for that same revival.Footnote ⁴³ By midcentury, new pentecostal voices emerged to reinvigorate a transnational, dominion-style rhetoric that, in many respects, recapitulated key features of the prophetic visions promoted by early pentecostal advocates of British Israelism. Among these later groups, the highly racialized conceptions of pentecostal connections to the “ten Lost Tribes” tended to give way to a thoroughly spiritual—but no less fervent—sense of identification with Jews and Israel that aligned much more closely with mainstream evangelical discourse.

Several developments set the stage for pentecostals’ and charismatics’ changing perspectives. In addition to the obvious import of the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, the emerging mythology in the United States surrounding a “Judeo-Christian civilization” also created an entirely new context for pentecostal appropriation of Jewish-themed practices and identities. Employed by a series of notable public figures ranging from the neoorthodox theologian Reinhold Niebuhr to Will Herberg, author of Protestant Catholic Jew (1955), to President Dwight Eisenhower, such rhetoric was used to demarcate clearly the United States both from the anti-Semitism of the Holocaust and from “godless” Communism.Footnote ⁴⁴ Building on this newly ascendant focus on a shared Judeo-Christian tradition, future pentecostals (and charismatics) who placed Israel-centric emphases at the core of their identity would stress the cultural and religious ties linking Jews and Christians, as opposed to the notions of racial descent promoted by past pentecostals. In turn, such changes paved the way for intensive Israel-centric emphases to attract a much larger pentecostal (and charismatic) audience.

Modified expressions of the prophetic politics of dominion took center stage in the midcentury New Order of the Latter Rain revival. Initiated in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, in 1947, the revival soon spread to key centers across the United States. Prominent figures associated with the New Order decried denominationalism, stressing instead the restoration of modern-day prophets and apostles who would recover the lost power of the New Testament church. Whereas detractors condemned New Order figures’ divisiveness and perceived preoccupation with extravagant supernatural claims, in many respects, by the end of the Second World War, the time was ripe for efforts to resurrect early pentecostalism's dynamism. Steady gentrification created a sense of disconnect from the miracles and excitement associated with the early movement, and the existential angst that accompanied the newly inaugurated nuclear age primed believers for powerful supernatural displays and assurances of God's power. In response to these developments, New Order figures offered the faithful a highly authoritarian vision of pentecostal spirituality that promised Christian unity and a return to the supernatural-filled glory days of old.Footnote ⁴⁵

In the process of combating the spiritual complacency that they discerned among their fellow believers, New Order figures resurrected key components of the transnational, dominion-style rhetoric of earlier figures such as Dowie. For one, they, too, stressed the role of authoritarian prophetic and apostolic elites who could restore the supernatural power of the New Testament church. Though New Order figures stopped short of Dowie's claim to an Elijah-like status, they nevertheless mimicked earlier pentecostal British Israelites’ deft combination of a populist-style distrust of established institutions with an implicit faith in select leaders who claimed to function as God's mouthpiece for the community.Footnote ⁴⁶

Along the same lines, several New Order figures revived a Parham-like obsession with a super-select body of believers who would implement God's plans on earth (in this case, immediately prior to Christ's return). Whereas Parham stressed the impending rapture of the “man-child” mentioned in Revelation and the special end-times role of the “Bride of Christ,” New Order figures added the language of the “manifest sons of God” drawn from Romans 8:19. Moreover, despite their incorporation of common touchstones of popular premillennialism, including discussion of dispensations, the Great Tribulation, and the coming “Day of the Lord,” they downplayed any discussion of the rapture. “Christ is going to remain right where He is at God's right hand until there shall arise a group of overcomers who shall conquer over all God's enemies,” George Warnock taught in his influential Feast of Tabernacles, which was published in 1951. “And yet the majority of Christians are looking for a rapture any moment, when Christ is supposed to catch away a miserable, defeated, disease-ridden Church,” he continued. To the contrary, “there must arise a group of overcomers who shall conquer and become absolutely victorious over all the opposing forces of the world, the flesh, and the Devil—before this dispensation draws to a close.” The New Order leader George Hawtin, a former pastor in the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, sounded similar themes: God planned to use a special remnant of believers—the manifest sons of God—to radically transform both the church and society immediately prior to the Second Coming. “The times are ripe now!” Hawtin trumpeted. “The manifestation of the Sons of God is at hand!” Lest readers misunderstand the this-worldly import of Hawtin's claims, he offered a laundry list of accomplishments that would be achieved by the manifest sons of God as they transformed society: The super-select group would not only “heal as Christ healed” but also “defeat mighty armies as Elisha did, and bring them into humble submission.” Like the biblical prophets of old, they would “smite the land with any kind of plagues and shut heaven that it cannot rain.” “The mighty dictators that now make the world to tremble shall bow in humble submission before the mighty Sons of God, the man-child company.”Footnote ⁴⁷

By resisting the pessimistic prognostications regarding society that were part and parcel of much premillennial discourse, Hawtin and other New Order leaders moved close to the optimistic postmillennial assumptions that dominated evangelicalism in earlier eras. The first order of business in the lead-up to Christ's return involved a God-ordained “great victory for mankind.” Whereas the devil “toppled man from his glorious dominion in the garden of Eden and usurped his glorious throne,” before it was all over, the devil “will himself BY MAN be toppled from the throne he usurped.” In short, “glorious days are ahead for those who believe. The greatest revival imaginable is coming.”Footnote ⁴⁸ If not for these New Order figures’ utilization of dispensational tropes and affirmations that Christ's return would initiate the prophesied millennium, observers might be forgiven for (mis)classifying them as postmillennial.

Ever since the pentecostal movement's inception, believers held in tension premillennial assumptions regarding the deterioration of society prior to Christ's return on the one hand, and a supreme confidence in the blossoming power associated with an end-times church, on the other. If Dowie's calls for Anglo-Christian conquest of Jerusalem and the establishment of a theocracy on the shores of Lake Michigan upset this balance by introducing the possibility of righteous government in the here and now, figures such as Hawtin exploded such distinctions altogether, imagining instead a triumphant church that would transform societies worldwide to prepare the way for Christ's return.

Also reminiscent of earlier British Israelites, New Order teachers’ depictions of authoritarian, spiritual elites were intimately tied to believers’ approach to the nation of Israel. At least a few adherents—including Hawtin—eventually embraced Anglo-Israelism.Footnote ⁴⁹ A more influential expression of this Judeo-centric impulse in New Order circles, however, involved a thoroughly deracialized sense of connection with ancient Israel, as seen in George H. Warnock's The Feast of Tabernacles. Tapping a longstanding tradition in Christian thought, Warnock's entire book developed the implications of believers’ standing as “spiritual Israel.”

As the title of his work suggests, the so-called “Feast of Tabernacles,” which occurred at the completion of harvest time in ancient Israel, was especially prominent in Warnock's end-times scenario. According to classic dispensational teaching, the festival foreshadowed the “millennial rest” that would immediately follow the “ingathering” and full restoration of ethnic Israel, both as a nation and as a people dedicated to God. Its fulfillment represented nothing less than the culmination of God's plan for his chosen people.Footnote ⁵⁰ Mainstream dispensationalists discerned the prophetic import of this festival primarily in relation to God's future dealings with ethnic Israel. For Warnock, however, the Feast of Tabernacles symbolized the culmination of God's purposes for the church prior to the prophesied millennium.Footnote ⁵¹ “In a very real sense,” Warnock explained, “these Feasts prefigure and typify the whole Church age beginning with the Cross and consummating in the manifestation of the Sons of God and the glorious display of God's power and glory.” It was, therefore, essential “that the saints know for a certainty that . . . the truths which once applied to an earthly and natural Israel, are now gloriously applicable to a heavenly and spiritual Israel, only on a much higher and much more glorious spiritual plane.” He continued, “There must arise a group of overcomers who shall conquer and become absolutely victorious over all the opposing forces of the world, the flesh, and the Devil—before this dispensation draws to a close.”Footnote ⁵² Similar to earlier figures such as Dowie, Warnock promoted an Israel-themed vision of a super-select body of believers armed to exercise God's dominion in the last days. At the same time, Warnock's preference for spiritual rather than ethnic Israel simultaneously highlighted the multivalence of “Israel” as a symbol within pentecostal discourse (not to mention Christian discourse more generally).Footnote ⁵³

Two additional parallels between New Order spirituality and earlier groups bear mentioning. First, the pivot away from ethnic Israel only strengthened the transnational impulse evident in earlier groups. Warnock, for instance, did not stress national identities in his book, per se, but he clearly downplayed any earthly distinctions as necessary qualifications for walking as a divine “Overcomer” on earth. “In this realm [of Christ's kingly and priestly authority] the flesh ‘profiteth nothing,’” Warnock clarified. “Natural advantages, fleshly attainments, racial distinctions, educational standards, ecclesiastical success—these profit nothing.”Footnote ⁵⁴ Warnock also imagined the end-times Bride of Christ as exercising dominion throughout the entire world. While it would be inaccurate to say that the Canadian author stressed transnational identities as a central motif in his message, it is fair to say that his understanding of the Bride of Christ was transnational by default: The worldwide scope of his vision coupled with his lack of attention to national identities pointed to an unstoppable, spirit-empowered Christian elite culled from around the globe.

Second, whereas the visions promoted by New Order figures such as Warnock and Hawtin clearly encompassed this-worldly, political power, in practice, New Order practitioners never moved past dramatic rhetorical and symbolic displays. Short of prayer, fasting, and other traditional spiritual disciplines, New Order leaders neglected to offer any practical guidelines for believers’ implementation of a Christian world order. There is little evidence, moreover, that individuals associated with the New Order movement possessed significant social clout in the worlds of business and politics. To outsiders, Warnock's and Hawtin's highly politicized visions would have appeared as little more than religion-inspired fantasy. For individuals trained to look for “evidence of things not seen,”Footnote ⁵⁵ though, the dynamic revivals that they experienced night in and night out provided more than enough confirmation that their divine encounters would soon play a pivotal role in the transformation of entire societies.

Ultimately, the New Order movement's immediate influence remained limited in North American pentecostal circles and much less in the broader society.Footnote ⁵⁶ Leaders in the established pentecostal denominations, in particular, saw the New Order as divisive and dangerous because of its emphasis on contemporary prophets who criticized the status quo. Given that the vast majority of pentecostals and charismatics discerned the hand of God in the founding of the state of Israel in 1948 (and, several years later, in Israel's seemingly miraculous victory in the Six-Day War), they were not prepared to follow Warnock's thoroughgoing spiritualization of Israel or his corresponding tendency to downplay the import of God's interactions with Jews and the incipient Israeli state. Yet, in the succeeding decades, Israel-centric, dominion-oriented emphases would forcefully reemerge in specific pentecostal and charismatic groups. The New Order's retooled, Israel-themed identities served as an important bridge that linked early advocates of the prophetic politics of dominion to later adherents who happened to possess much more social clout and many more resources than their predecessors.

The Prophetic Politics of Dominion amid a Shifting Late Twentieth-Century Landscape

In the ensuing decades, changes within pentecostal-charismatic circles and in the broader U.S. culture played a crucial role in the popularization of themes intimately related to the prophetic politics of dominion. These developments consistently fostered more concrete expressions of the tradition characterized by increasingly dense transnational networks, prominent roles for Jewish converts, and increased social and financial clout that lent greater credibility to adherents’ dominion-oriented aspirations.

Not coincidently, the growing popularity of highly authoritarian, dominion-style rhetoric and practices among late twentieth-century pentecostals and charismatics corresponded with dramatic demographic changes in the movement. The formation of groups such as the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship in the early 1950s graphically illustrated the rising number of professionals within pentecostal circles, as did the establishment of liberal arts institutions that catered to the faithful. As charismatic renewal spread and various phenomena associated with pentecostal services gained greater prominence within mainline Protestant, evangelical, and Catholic churches, more and more individuals within the movement hailed from solidly middle-class backgrounds. Simply put, by the latter decades of the twentieth century, pentecostals and charismatics possessed sufficient financial and social resources to justify increasingly robust visions for social change.

For anyone paying attention, tangible proof of this increased influence was readily apparent: Pentecostal televangelists such as Jimmy Swaggart, Jan and Paul Crouch, and Jim and Tammy Bakker built multimillion-dollar media empires beginning in the 1970s and 1980s. The charismatic Southern Baptist Pat Robertson, the son of a U.S. senator, similarly combined boundless ambition with a never-say-die determination to found the Christian Broadcasting Network. The growing wealth and social prominence enjoyed by believers in the pentecostal-charismatic tradition did not automatically translate into a more forceful vision of social transformation for every believer. Still, many clearly evidenced a growing confidence in their ability to shape the culture around them.

Beyond the changing demographics at home, U.S. pentecostals’ and charismatics’ growing awareness of the success of their movement abroad simultaneously laid the groundwork for a strengthened transnational sensibility among the faithful. During the latter decades of the twentieth century, in fact, significant voices in the movement drew increasingly sharp contrasts between the rapid expansion of pentecostal-charismatic communities around the globe and the relatively weak results in the States. Pentecostal and charismatic churches continued to grow at a moderate pace in the United States, but this growth paled in comparison with the exponential growth of pentecostal-style spirituality in Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia.Footnote ⁵⁷ Changing immigration patterns in the United States, which markedly reshaped pentecostal and charismatic constituencies, only intensified adherents’ awareness of developments abroad.Footnote ⁵⁸

As it happens, Peter Wagner served as one of the loudest voices calling attention to these changes and their implications for the American evangelical church. While Wagner did not make the transition from a “friendly and appreciative spectator” of pentecostal-style religiosity to a participant until 1982, already, in the late 1960s, he “wanted to know what God was doing through Pentecostals that caused such dynamic expansion. . . . What were we non-Pentecostals missing?” Moving forward, more and more pentecostals and charismatics in the United States would share Wagner's valorization of groups well beyond North American borders. In this regard, it is telling that Wagner directed the revised edition of his Spiritual Power and Church Growth (1986) to leaders in pentecostal and non-pentecostal American churches alike. The driving question behind his research focused on the entire spectrum of American evangelicalism, with Wagner asking, “What can American Christians, and American churches, pentecostal and non-pentecostal, learn from our brothers and sisters south of the border?”Footnote ⁵⁹ American evangelists—including Wagner—continued to exert an outsized influence around the world, mirroring Americans’ success more generally in exporting American consumer capitalism and culture. That said, Wagner's writings graphically illustrated the opportunity for a growing reciprocal flow of influence, and for an increasingly explicit form of transnationalism wherein U.S. believers intentionally imported outside influences in an effort to build an overtly Christian culture.Footnote ⁶⁰

A final critical development that reshaped the prophetic politics of dominion in the pentecostal and charismatic movement involved the rise of Messianic Judaism, which, by and large, functioned as a key subsection of the broader pentecostal-charismatic tradition. Jewish converts were by no means a new phenomenon, but, during the 1960s and 1970s, an increasing number of Jews abandoned traditional Judaism in favor of Christianity. The Jesus People movement, an evangelicalized version of the 1960s counterculture, played an especially important role in attracting young Jews. The Jesus People were not exclusively pentecostal-charismatic, yet the Christian counterculture's stress on highly experiential forms of spirituality fit neatly with pentecostals’ and charismatics’ emphasis on speaking in tongues, prophecy, and claims to divine healing. Several Messianic Jewish leaders possessed direct ties to the Jesus movement.Footnote ⁶¹ And when a study of Messianic congregations appeared in 1990, it indicated that 77 percent identified as charismatic.Footnote ⁶² More important, the intimate connection between most Messianic Jews and the pentecostal-charismatic movement forged a very real alliance between Jewish and non-Jewish believers, which many of the faithful, in turn, read as a sure-fire sign of the end times.

Amid all of these changes—adherents’ changing socioeconomic status and their increased transnational sensibility, as well as the emergence of Messianic Judaism—two groups, in particular, helped push the prophetic politics of dominion in new directions and to broader audiences. The first included a group of Florida-based ministers associated with Christian Growth Ministries that wielded significant influence among pentecostals and charismatics during the 1970s and 1980s. A second, related movement, a series of networks focused on apostolic and prophetic forms of ministry, began to take definite shape during the middle to late 1980s. Both played a crucial role in fostering the spread of the prophetic politics of dominion well beyond the relatively small, niche communities associated with the New Order of the Latter Rain.

The leaders of Christian Growth Ministries—or the “Fort Lauderdale Five,” as they were sometimes called—included Derek Prince, Don Basham, Bob Mumford, Charles Simpson, and Ern Baxter. Speaking frequently at conferences and workshops, and disseminating their ideas via their ministry magazine, New Wine, these charismatic leaders were best known for their roles in the so-called shepherding controversy in charismatic circles during the 1970s. Seeking to establish a sense of order and accountability within the rapidly proliferating charismatic movement, the Fort Lauderdale leaders stressed the need for a renewed focus on the principles of “submission, authority, obedience and discipleship” within the church. Far from a mere intellectual exercise, the Church Growth Ministries leaders established “covenant relationships,” functioning as “shepherds” for a select circle of pastors and leaders who, in turn, shepherded their own protégés. An editorial published in New Wine clearly stipulated the level of respect and obedience expected of followers: “As the people of God, we should fear lest we say in one moment, ‘Lord, reign over us!’ and say to our shepherd, the man God sent to reign over us, the next moment, ‘Who made you a king over me?’” Any attempt to “reject the man God sends to us is to reject the authority of God we need for protection and growth.”Footnote ⁶³ To be sure, the Christian Growth Ministries leaders’ male-oriented, highly authoritarian vision attracted numerous critics. Even so, thousands of pentecostal and charismatic ministers either participated directly in the shepherding networks that emanated from Fort Lauderdale or endorsed the basic principles outlined in New Wine. The ensuing controversy proved one of the most divisive issues in the history of charismatic renewal in North America and beyond.Footnote ⁶⁴

Often overlooked amid the focus on issues of personal authority and submission is the extent to which members of the Fort Lauderdale Five, at times, painted radically different pictures of the role of the church in society both now and in the future. The rival theological visions promoted by Prince and Baxter, in particular, accentuated different components and legacies of the prophetic politics of dominion.

Baxter's teaching and ministry built on New Order figures’ combination of spiritualized, Israel-centric identities with promises of dramatic social transformation. (Baxter, in fact, served as the most direct link between Christian Growth Ministries and the New Order movement. His one-time personal secretary was none other than George Warnock. Although Baxter critiqued the obsession with spiritual elitism in New Order circles, he nevertheless described the movement as a powerful manifestation of divine power.)Footnote ⁶⁵ Speaking to close to five thousand pastors and leaders in 1975 at the Kansas City Shepherds Conference, Baxter illuminated the ease with which “shepherding” principles could be extended to every arena of society. He believed firmly that God was raising up believers who would restore his order on earth and who possessed the “anointing” that is “the kingly authority of our Sovereign.” Not only would God's people “start to exercise rule and . . . take dominion over the power of Satan,” but this authority would also specifically manifest in the governmental and political centers of power. “The dark power that hovers over the Parliament buildings of the nations are [sic] going to be paralyzed by the corporate prayer of an authoritative community,” he confidently declared. “As the rod of His strength goes out of Zion, He'll change legislation. He'll chase the devil off the face of God's earth as [God's people] together, doing the will of God, will bring about God's purposes and God's reign in a time-space world.”Footnote ⁶⁶ A few years later, Baxter similarly castigated fellow pentecostals and charismatics for their “failure to understand that it is not enough to celebrate healings, supernatural manna, supernatural water, supernatural provisions, to stay put all your life celebrating that.” Instead, believers had the “responsibility to go into the land, and the land is where the redeemed community demonstrates God's government.” “We need a real river of Christian teaching: Christian lawyers, Christian doctors, Christian architects, Christian farmers, Christian businessmen to touch every area of life,” Baxter implored. “Is it too much to ask?”Footnote ⁶⁷ Baxter did not speak for all charismatics, or even all of his fellow leaders of Christian Growth Ministries. Yet, his comments revealed how an increasing number of pentecostals and charismatics were setting their sights on reforming social structures in order to establish “God's government.”

Over time, Baxter fully transitioned away from his early embrace of premillennial dispensationalism to a thoroughly postmillennial brand of pentecostal-charismatic religiosity. Nowhere was this transition more apparent than in Baxter's connections to Rousas John Rushdoony. Credited as the father of Christian Reconstructionism, Rushdoony made the case for the full application of the biblical law in society. Apparently, his staunch Reformed background, which discounted the legitimacy of charismatic renewal, proved an insignificant barrier as he joined with Baxter and others to co-author a book meant to combat the “secular humanism” that threatened to undermine the Christian foundations of U.S. government and society. Christian Growth Ministries published interviews and articles by Rushdoony in New Wine.Footnote ⁶⁸ His ideas gained even greater exposure among pentecostals and charismatics when Pat Robertson invited Rushdoony to appear on his television program, The 700 Club, during the 1970s and early 1980s, though Robertson eventually distanced himself from Rushdoony's theological and political positions.Footnote ⁶⁹

Rushdoony's appeal among pentecostals and charismatics extended only so far, despite his interactions with leaders such as Baxter and Robertson, who were attracted to his dominionist rhetoric. Nonetheless, the brief honeymoon between Rushdoony and prominent pentecostal and charismatic figures during the late 1970s and early 1980s underscored the extent to which dominion-style ideas and rhetoric thrived in a growing segment of the movement.

One of the major obstacles hindering the advance of Baxter's—and, by extension, Rushdoony's—vision among pentecostals and charismatics involved his insistence that the church had replaced “natural Israel” in God's scheme. Such a claim would have made little sense to most pentecostals and charismatics, the majority of whom discerned God's hand at work in the fledgling nation of Israel. Baxter's position even placed him at odds with other Fort Lauderdale Five leaders, most notably, Derek Prince.Footnote ⁷⁰

In the latter decades of the twentieth century, perhaps no one figure represented the pentecostal-charismatic prioritization of Israel-centric identities better than Prince. A Cambridge-educated convert to Christianity who helped lead Christian Growth Ministries, he served as one of the most important pro-Israel voices in the charismatic movement. Prince's intense interest in the fate of Israel took root shortly after his conversion to Christianity while serving in the British Army during World War II. He was sent to serve in Egypt and then Israel, and there he “saw the things that [the biblical] prophets had been writing about: the restoration of the land of Israel actually happening in front of my eyes.” Prince stayed in Palestine following his discharge from the army and lived in Jerusalem right up until the time that Israel became a nation in 1948.Footnote ⁷¹ In the years following, the prophetic significance of Israel remained a frequent focus in Prince's ministry, which eventually took on a global dimension and was based out of the United States.Footnote ⁷²

On the one hand, Prince's careful differentiation between the prophetic destinies of the church and Israel drew on standard dispensational categories. On the other, he added in a strong emphasis on God's parallel interactions with the pentecostal movement and Israel. Simply put, as God guided events toward an eventual prophetic climax, Prince was convinced that those with spiritually discerning eyes could see how God's intervention in Israel corresponded to specific developments among spirit-filled believers. He drew a direct connection between the pentecostal revival at the turn of the century and the emergence of the modern Zionist movement around the same time. For Prince, it was no coincidence that the midcentury healing revival burst on the scene right when the state of Israel became a reality, or that the Catholic charismatic movement ignited just as Israelis celebrated a “miraculous” victory in the Six-Day War.Footnote ⁷³ For this British-born charismatic leader, the simultaneous “parallel restoration” of the church and Israel provided indisputable evidence of God's control over recent historical events. More important, such a perspective fostered Israel-themed identities among the faithful by linking directly the movement's purpose and destiny to ethnic Israel's role in God's end-times plan.

Prince's sharp focus on Israel resonated with key elements of the prophetic politics of dominion. For one, important connections linked Prince's understanding of Israel and his understanding of Christian political authority. The church, he argued in 1974, should function as “an instrument through which God's authority is extended—by spiritual means—over earth's nations and rulers.” Following Christ's return, however, the nation of Israel “will become the instrument through which Christ's government will be exercised over the other nations on earth.” At that point, “Christ will then rule on the earth with the church and Israel as His administrators”—the church in the “spiritual realm,” and Israel as the “center of Christ's earthly administration.” In effect, for Prince, the present-day church functioned as a spiritual stand-in until Israel was fully restored and could fulfill its role as God's political agent in the world.Footnote ⁷⁴

Despite Prince's close association of dominion-style rhetoric with both the present day church and Israel in the millennium, his neat separation of the church's spiritual role in the present era and the prioritization of ethnic Israel following the rapture reflected traditional dispensational tropes more than the distinctive tradition of the prophetic politics of dominion. For Prince, the present-day church exercised its authority in ways that were largely invisible to the powers that be. The eschatological role for a literal Israel, moreover, remained safely on the far side of Christ's second coming. Even more revealing, he lambasted those who confused the distinctive roles for the church and Israel by referring to the church as a “spiritual Israel.”Footnote ⁷⁵ Perhaps not surprisingly, given the large gaps separating the Christian Growth Ministries leaders’ respective visions, by the mid-1980s, they began to go their separate ways. Taken together, however, Baxter's frank dominionist inclinations and Prince's prioritization of all things Israel helped popularize and keep in close conversation two key ingredients of the prophetic politics of dominion, though it would remain for later individuals to reassemble the constituent parts into a coherent whole.

In time, the prophetic politics of dominion did reemerge among pentecostals and charismatics who made it their mission to restore the prophetic and apostolic offices in the end-times church.Footnote ⁷⁶ At least a few notable leaders within these emerging prophetic and apostolic networks, such as Bill Hamon and Paul Cain, represented a direct link to midcentury pentecostal revivals and the New Order of the Latter Rain.Footnote ⁷⁷ Others, such as Wagner, joined the movement largely apart from the influence of these earlier groups.Footnote ⁷⁸

Individuals closely tied to the apostolic and prophetic movement fostered new expressions of the prophetic politics of dominion in a number of ways. Like earlier groups, they advocated an aggressive form of spiritual warfare aimed at wholesale social change. Yet, several also revived a more literal, nonspiritualized understanding of the role of Jews and Israel connected to the emergence of a spiritual elite. Here, their concrete, Israel-centric identities centered on the unification of non-Jewish believers with their Jewish counterparts.

Ever since the 1960s, charismatic and pentecostal insiders were impressed by the exponential growth of Messianic congregations around the world. This growth, in turn, fostered intense interest on the part of pentecostals and charismatics in the prophetic significance of these developments. For many enthusiastic backers of the restoration of apostles and prophets, the union of Jewish and Gentile Christians, made possible by the growth of Messianic Judaism, signaled nothing less than the arrival of a potent end-times church. Beginning especially in the early 1990s, prominent leaders attuned to the rise of Messianic Judaism popularized innovative readings of verses in the book of Ephesians that addressed the unification of Jew and Gentile into “one new man.” Whereas most evangelical Christians read such passages as a description of the broad-based Christian unity made possible by Christ's sacrificial death, these figures viewed the Pauline passages as a yet-to-be-fulfilled reality within the church that would manifest in the form of mass Jewish conversions to Christianity.

As Reuven Doron, a Jewish believer who circulated in apostolic and prophetic circles, explained in his 1993 book, One New Man, the twentieth century was replete with “parallel restorations” that linked Jewish Zionist efforts to developments in the church. Doron repeated the types of claims articulated earlier by Derek Prince while adding a few items to the list. (He discerned a spiritual connection, for example, tying the codification of modern Hebrew to the pentecostal practice of speaking in tongues.) Building on the perceived parallels that linked Israel and the church during the twentieth century, Doron envisioned one final set of restorations that were imminent: When the Spirit gained widespread acceptance among Jews, it would point to nothing less than “the ultimate reconciliation of man and of creation back to God.”Footnote ⁷⁹ Perhaps the most influential book popularizing “one new man” rhetoric, Your People Shall Be My People, was written by Don Finto, who had previously pastored the church where the Christian singers Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant attended. “We will see the coming together of a Jew/Gentile Bride,” Finto promised, “before the Lord's return.” The endorsees of Finto's book read like a Who's Who in prophetic and apostolic circles, including Cindy Jacobs, John Dawson, Sid Roth, Mike Bickle, and Francis Frangipane, as well as the influential pentecostal pastor Jack Hayford.Footnote ⁸⁰

Key Messianic figures with strong ties to the prophetic and apostolic movement mirrored Doron and Finto and assigned deep eschatological significance to the Pauline reference to “one new man” in Ephesians. Roth also linked this passage to Jesus's words in John 17, which stressed the importance of Christian unity to successful evangelization efforts.Footnote ⁸¹ The Messianic rabbi Curt Landry, who appeared on various pentecostal and charismatic television outlets—describing himself as a “Holy Spirit, tongue-talking, prophesying, signs-and-wonders rabbi”—likewise created a One New Man network to link ministries focused on the unification of Jewish and non-Jewish followers of Yeshua.Footnote ⁸²

Accepting the prophetic significance of Messianic Judaism and its import as a sign of Christ's near return, of course, did not require a corresponding commitment to dominion-oriented expressions of Christianity. For many tied to the apostolic and prophetic movement, however, the growing cooperation between Jewish and Gentile Christians signaled a profound influx of supernatural power. It is no accident that Wagner's letter calling for the American church to refocus its efforts to shape every aspect of American culture, including politics, began with an Israel-centric analogy focused on the first-century church. Wagner pointed to the experience of early Jewish believers in the city of Antioch and their struggles as more and more Gentiles entered the fledgling Christian community. “In Antioch the old church era admitted circumcised Jews only,” Wagner explained, “but the new church era embraced both Jews and Gentiles, forming what Paul later called ‘one new man.’” Following a similar pattern, Wagner continued, present-day believers needed to break away from deeply entrenched habits tied to religious nationalism and, instead, embrace the authority of apostles and prophets who could lead the church in transforming entire societies.Footnote ⁸³

Even more revealing, when Wagner explained his turn away from dispensationalism to a dominion-oriented, “victorious eschatology,” he pointed to the formative influence of the work of Harold Eberle and Martin Trench. Their detailed interpretation of prophetic passages once again brought together all of the key features of the prophetic politics of dominion: Their argument explicitly endorsed a historicist approach that promised a church-led transformation of society prior to Christ's return. They highlighted the global growth of Christianity, well beyond the borders of North America, as proof positive that “things are getting better.” And Israel-centric, “one new man” motifs were an important feature in their work. Whereas the authors downplayed the importance of signs that pointed to Christ's return, they made an exception of sorts regarding the unification of Gentiles and Jews. “When God is satisfied with the gentile harvest, He will open the eyes of the Jews,” they explained, “and the vast majority of Jews then will be saved.” These widespread Jewish conversions “will bring an even greater awakening among the Gentiles.”Footnote ⁸⁴ In another signal of Wagner's ties to Israel-centric themes, one of his closest associates, Chuck Pierce, who eventually assumed Wagner's position as leader of the ministry Global Spheres, viewed the unification of Jews and Gentiles as one of his primary missions in life. Pierce's ministry, Glory of Zion Ministries International, was dedicated to “aligning Jew and Gentile.”Footnote ⁸⁵

To the uninitiated, the close relationship between Israel-themed symbols and dominion-style rhetoric among apostolic and prophetic types may have made little sense. To those within the movement, however, Wagner and his associates were simply building on a long-standing tradition that was Israel-centric, was transnational in scope, and easily lent itself to dominion-oriented beliefs and practices. Not all pentecostals or charismatics subscribed to every aspect of the prophetic politics of dominion, but, by the early twenty-first century, it had become a well-established motif within a large segment of the pentecostal-charismatic world.

Diversity, Politics, and the Prophetic Politics of Dominion in the Twenty-First Century

As with the earliest days of the pentecostal revival, the apostolic and prophetic movement of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries was characterized by loose networks of individuals who controlled their own ministries but otherwise operated largely outside of formal organizational structures. While the absence of bureaucratic restrictions and hierarchies fostered dynamic growth and innovation, the same independent spirit nurtured by these fluid arrangements contributed to significant diversity on matters of eschatology and the like. Specifically, in terms of the prophetic politics of dominion, a number of individuals in apostolic and prophetic circles stressed some components of the tradition over and above other features.

When Johnny Enlow published his influential The Seven Mountain Prophecy: Unveiling the Coming Elijah Revolution in 2008, for instance, he voiced themes remarkably similar to Dowie's justification of his own ministry as “Elijah the Restorer.” Enlow called for Christians to take up positions of leadership in all the major spheres of influence within society. Drawing on many of the exact same passages referenced by Dowie, he promised that the “last generation . . . will rule on Earth over [Christ's] enemies,” and, until that happened, Christ was “not going back to rescue, rapture, save or anything else.” Enlow taught that Christ was “not coming for a lazy, spoiled prostitute—He's coming for an overcoming, conquering, love-motivated bride who has made herself ready by fulfilling her mission. . . . The Elijah Revolution is the catalyst for all of these things.” While the overlap between Enlow's and Dowie's dominion-style discourses is clear, Israel-related symbols and emphases were by no means prominent in Enlow's text, though they did appear.Footnote ⁸⁶ By way of contrast, Don Finto's Your People Shall Be My People underscored contemporary “one new man” unity between Jews and Gentiles and identified this reality as the crucial harbinger of Christ's return. But he articulated these views within a basic dispensationalist framework that emphasized a coming tribulation period wherein the church's primary calling was to keep its focus “steady” and “be ready to go [and join Christ] at a moment's notice.”Footnote ⁸⁷ Finto, in other words, stressed Gentile-Jewish unity but avoided promises of end-times church dominion.

For all the differences separating Finto and Enlow, both of their books were endorsed by numerous key figures in the apostolic and prophetic movement, and their ideas circulated freely within the same circles. Leaders in the movement—and, undoubtedly, numerous rank-and-file adherents—simultaneously promoted the respective emphases of both figures and proved either unaware or unconcerned with the tensions between the two perspectives. Someone like Lou Engle, who was best known for his organization of “The Call” prayer gatherings, for example, credited Finto for shaping his own increased focus on the state of Israel and the import of Jewish evangelism more generally, while at the same time endorsing Enlow's manifesto.Footnote ⁸⁸ Writing in regard to Enlow's book, Engle promised, “If you are radical enough not just to pray for transformation and revolution in society but to live it, this prophetic blueprint can show you the destiny only you can fill.”Footnote ⁸⁹ As the interconnections between Engle, Finto, and Enlow suggest, the dense overlapping networks that constituted the apostolic and prophetic movement ensured that each of the major emphases associated with the prophetic politics of dominion could easily reach rank-and-file members, even though specific ministries at times called attention to specific aspects of the tradition more than others. Undoubtedly, numerous participants, leaders and nonleaders alike, heartily endorsed both Israel-centric identities and dominion rhetoric without worrying about the often-complicated eschatological details and debates that typically undergirded such discourse.

For many outside observers, however, the most salient feature of the apostolic and prophetic movement was not its diversity or the eschatological minutia behind proponents’ message but, rather, adherents’ increasingly visible connections to political power. Examples abounded. To name just a few: When then-Governor Rick Perry of Texas hosted a highly controversial prayer gathering of thousands of Christians in the run-up to the 2012 U.S. presidential election, detractors were especially concerned regarding several of the organizers’ ties to Wagner's NAR.Footnote ⁹⁰ Engle, whose prayer gatherings around the world provided the template for Perry's event, had ties close enough to Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas that Brownback's opponents circulated ads highlighting the connection, which, in turn, led Brownback to distance himself from the controversial leader.Footnote ⁹¹ Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma served as the keynote speaker for the dedication of Landry's House of David Ministries center.Footnote ⁹² Conferences organized by Rick Joyner, another leading figure in prophecy circles who touched on numerous features of the prophetic politics of dominion, were, at times, headlined by figures such as the retired three-star general William Boykin as well as then-Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina.Footnote ⁹³ Former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann also participated in conferences and events tied to numerous “apostles” and “prophets.”Footnote ⁹⁴

The election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency in 2016, in particular, shined a bright spotlight on the ease with which the prophetic politics of dominion could merge with forms of religious nationalism despite the transnational sensibilities that frequently characterized various expressions of the tradition in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Numerous prophetic and apostolic types lined up to affirm God's divine blessing on Trump's presidency. For the faithful, the shocking nature of Trump's victory offered incontrovertible proof of God's hand in the unfolding events.Footnote ⁹⁵ Individuals closely tied to the apostolic and prophetic movement, ranging from Cindy Jacobs to Lance Wallnau to Jim Bakker, as well as Wagner, quickly portrayed Trump as an end-times Cyrus figure anointed by God to effect God's purposes despite all the ways in which Trump seemed to contradict many evangelical sensibilities and priorities.Footnote ⁹⁶

This prioritization of a type of religious nationalism underscored the potential synergies linking the apostolic and prophetic movement to better-known manifestations of the evangelical Right. This growing alliance also contrasted with the deep-seated ambivalence, evident in the writings of someone like Parham, regarding the American nation and its role in an apocalyptic drama. The transnational instincts had by no means disappeared, but earlier adherents’ prioritization of events beyond the shores of North America, at times, lost ground to a prophetic fascination of sorts with the domestic political scene.

For all of the points of connection joining the apostolic and prophetic movement of the early twenty-first century to highly politicized manifestation of evangelicalism on the political Right, trademark features of the prophetic politics of dominion remained: For one, many figures in the apostolic and prophetic world remained intimately connected to global networks; their attention was by no means relegated to events in the United States, but continued to reflect strong transnational sensibilities. In a 2019 interview with Jim Bakker, for example, Cindy Jacobs described for Bakker's audience her recent participation in a gathering of apostles and prophets in Bogotá, Columbia, and the resulting strategic prayer and spiritual warfare that aimed at developments in Argentina, Columbia, and Venezuela. “We met with a roundtable of Latin American prophets a few days ago in Bogotá,” Jacobs recounted. “As we were meeting with all these people,” she continued, “the Lord began to give us strategies about Venezuela.” Jacobs specifically championed a combined Columbian–U.S. military effort to oust Venezuela's authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, and urged prayer specifically for Columbia's president, since she already knew that “Trump would go in.” More important than Jacob's absolute confidence in the U.S. president, her comments simultaneously underscored her intimate connections to groups well beyond the borders of North America. “We have—all over the world—there are prophets that are meeting,” she explained. Similar roundtable groups existed for “Europe, one from Australia, one for Canada, these roundtables.”Footnote ⁹⁷ Along the same lines, the torrent of books and conferences produced by American individuals in the apostolic-prophetic world constantly incorporated stories and examples that illustrated just how deeply they were embedded within transnational networks.Footnote ⁹⁸ In short, the staunchly pro-American nationalism displayed, at times, by various apostles and prophets coexisted with a persistent transnational sensibility.

Also, in concert with past expressions of the tradition, proponents of the prophetic politics of dominion by and large continued to specialize in grand symbolic displays more than on-the-ground political mobilization efforts.Footnote ⁹⁹ The prophet Chuck Pierce's reaction to the presidency of Barack Obama served as a case in point. Disillusioned by Obama's policies, Pierce indicated that the “Lord told me that if I would pray for [the conservative prime minister of Israel, Benjamin] Netanyahu and that if he could remain in office, America would be OK.” This revelation prevented Pierce from “getting bogged down in all the issues of America.” Tellingly, his intervention focused on journeys to Israel to “lead prayer and worship gatherings.”Footnote ¹⁰⁰ The 2018 “Rise Up” conference, which attracted prominent figures in the movement, including Cindy Jacobs and Michele Bachmann, illustrated similar dynamics. Held on the eve of the 2018 midterms, the event remained a thoroughly spiritual affair despite its overt focus on politics. In a promotional video for the event, one of the speakers, Lance Wallnau, asked listeners:

Produced with dramatic music and a flag waving in the background, the event illustrated the type of sensibility that long characterized the prophetic politics of dominion: On the day of the election, prayer, not door-to-door efforts to get out the vote, held the true key to transformation.Footnote ¹⁰¹

In this regard, the type of politicization evident in apostolic and prophetic circles contrasted sharply with the efforts of individuals such as John Hagee, a pentecostal pastor who led the influential grassroots lobbying organization Christians United for Israel (CUFI). As of 2020, CUFI boasted a formal membership of over eight million individuals. It has sponsored countless local and national pro-Israel events aimed at politicians and laypeople, including special programs for students on college campuses. It produced a television program, The Watchman, which aired pro-Israel viewpoints on the Trinity Broadcast Network. On the CUFI website, visitors can read through the organization's policy stances, hear talking points regarding the latest controversies surrounding the state of Israel, identify numerous events to attend or ways to volunteer their services, and so forth.Footnote ¹⁰²

A comparison of Hagee's ministry to that of fellow pentecostals and charismatics who identified with the apostolic-prophetic wing of the movement revealed a somewhat surprising divide. Hagee, like most pentecostals by the second half of the twentieth century, embraced premillennial dispensationalism and insisted that no new fulfillments of prophecy were required before the imminent rapture of the saints. Even so, he built up formidable political operations in support of the state of Israel, joining with fellow evangelicals in orchestrating an improbable marriage between fervent apocalypticism and political mobilization.Footnote ¹⁰³ Proponents of the prophetic politics of dominion, conversely, who wove together Israel-centric messaging and a supreme confidence in the dominion-style power of churches prior to Christ's return, tended to stay focused on dramatic symbolic displays. Viewed from one perspective, the distinction between Hagee's rapture-ready political engagement and apostolic and prophetic dominion-types’ relative lack of practical political organization appears quite ironic. On another level, however, the constant emphasis in apostolic-prophetic circles on miraculous acts of God trained believers to look for powerful, unexpected ruptures in the “natural order of things” and, in that respect, proved ill-suited to the incremental change brought about through pragmatic political action.Footnote ¹⁰⁴

Historically speaking, the highly symbolic approach to politics evident among proponents of the prophetic politics of dominion was inextricably tied to adherents’ distinctive approaches to Israel. From the start, the tradition was built on romanticized visions of Anglo-Saxons’ literal, biological connections to the ancient Israelites that the faithful read about in their Bibles. In turn, these early pentecostals’ engagement with unfolding events in Palestine shored up their own sense of identity and importance thanks to their links to God's “chosen people.” As such, symbolic and ritual affirmations of these unique identity claims had always proved a vital feature of the movement.Footnote ¹⁰⁵ Moving forward, the perceived connection to Jews and Israel did not disappear but, instead, evolved over time as the faithful increasingly emphasized the union of gentile Christians and Messianic Jews into “one new man.” The continued centrality of highly romanticized, identity-based visions within the prophetic politics of dominion further contributed to an environment where symbolic ritual displays often appeared to be as important—if not more important—than specific policy gains in the political arena.

These observations regarding adherents’ prioritization of dramatic symbolic displays do not controvert the real political influence of their rhetoric and actions, which no doubt contributed to countless pentecostals’ and charismatics’ identification with right-leaning political positions and candidates in the contemporary United States. Nor are these observations meant to call into question the sincerity of believers’ political stances or the sincerity of their claims concerning a soon-to-be-realized Christianization of society. The particular history and dynamics that shaped contemporary manifestations of the prophetic politics of dominion do call into question, however, simplistic portrayals of the evangelical Right that gloss over the diverse motivations, strategies, and constituencies that have informed evangelicals’ engagement with U.S. politics over the course of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.