Showing posts with label C. Peter Wagner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label C. Peter Wagner. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 08, 2017

Socialist Theology in the Assemblies of God in Brazil


Socialist Theology in the Assemblies of God in Brazil

By Julio Severo
Socialist evangelicals in Latin America have become revolted that C. René Padilla, who was scheduled to deliver the main lecture on Theology of Integral Mission at FAECAD (Assemblies of God Evangelical School in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) in March 10, 2017, had his lecture cancelled. His lecture would be sponsored by World Vision Brazil.
In an article titled “Welcome to the Past! In Solidarity to Dr. C. René Padilla, Now Nicknamed a ‘Marxist Christian,’” published by the left-wing Latin American Theological Fellowship, Harold Segura decried the cancellation and assured that the Theology of Integral Mission has nothing to do with Marxism.
His article purports, according to his own words,
“To express that I am uncomfortable with the cancellation of the lecture and my uneasiness with the reasons that justified it. To cancel such lecture by labeling as Marxist a lecturer as Padilla is to ignore what Marxism is, is to ignore who René Padilla is and forget the way a theological reflection is done.”
Segura also said,
“I think that what happened in Rio de Janeiro is a sign confirming what we are seeing also in other Latin American nations: a resurgence of past discussions. The return of old Christian squabbles of the 1970s and 1980s, when TIM appeared. In that time, those daring to talk about social responsibility in the churches were labeled communists; those venturing to preach in defense of social justice were under suspicion of Marxist militancy, and those believing in preferential option for the poor were excluded for being undesirable liberation theologians.”
In his Twitter account, Segura showed solidarity to Padilla and also to the gender ideology, by saying,
“Do you know what is gender equality? UNESCO explains key concepts for discussing in a very informed way.”
Actually, UNESCO does not explain gender equality. UNESCO advocates and promotes it. In 2012, UNESCO and other UN agencies asked Brazilian president to criminalize “homophobia.”
The gender ideology is one of the main left-wing banners promoting the homosexualist agenda. But Segura does not accept the label “Marxist” even when he carries its banner.
He decries the defeat of several left-wing governments in Latin America, and he recognizes that most these governments were promoting the gender ideology. He recognizes that Socialist President Dilma Rousseff was impeached especially by the Evangelical Parliamentary Caucus, among several reasons, over the gender ideology.
He sees these defeats as throwbacks to the Theology of Integral Mission (TIM). While he tries to defend TIM as a non-political theology, he cannot help lamenting over the political defeats of the Left in Latin America.
About 50 years ago, C. Peter Wagner warned in Latin American evangelical congresses that TIM was Marxist. In 1969, when participating in CLADE (Latin-American Congress of Evangelization), Wagner distributed his book that affirmed that the mission of the church is to prioritize personal salvation and warned of the dangers of leftist theology. He gave his book because evangelical leaders were beginning to praise TIM.
In the 1st Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 1974, while Padilla was leading efforts to promote TIM, Wagner was leading conservative efforts against TIM.
Nevertheless all resistance decades ago, TIM grew internationally. Today, thanks to John Stott and his incredible work of make-up and enabling, TIM dominates Lausanne as an elegant social theology. Wagner’s resistance has been forgotten and TIM Latin American theologians have prevailed.
In 2014, Lausanne paid Wagner’s resistance back in the same coin, by holding in Brazil a meeting of Lausanne leaders against Wagner and his apostolic movement. The meeting was led by TIM leaders, especially Rev. Valdir Steuernagel.
In my 2013 e-book “Theology of Liberation vs. Theology of Prosperity,” there is a special endorsement by C. Peter Wagner, where he said,
“It is very important to be aware of the inroads that Marxist ideology has made into some branches of Christianity. In Latin America the nice-sounding concept of misión integral (integral mission) has turned out to be a thinly-disguised platform for leftist politics. Julio Severo understands this and he skillfully exposes these potentially harmful ideas in his book, Theology of Liberation vs. Theology of Prosperity. In it he helps bring forth the reality that even deeper and more permanent social change from poverty to prosperity can be effectively produced by proclaiming and practicing the biblical doctrine of the kingdom, opening the door for the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. This is a book that I highly recommend!”
For information on how to get the e-book “Theology of Liberation vs. Theology of Prosperity,” click ON THIS LINK.
Wagner’s warnings 50 years ago and today are very important. If TIM has nothing to do with Marxism, why do its adherents defend the gender ideology and the left-wing governments in Latin America that promote this ideology and several other anti-family ideologies?
Padilla’s lecture on Theology of Integral Mission at FAECAD was publicized within its institution in a very subtle and discreet way.
By the explosive reaction of TIM adherents, I suppose the lecture was cancelled.
Marcos Habib, a Brazilian who introduces himself in his Facebook as a “follower of Jesus Christ” and “communist militant,” said,
“There is again the litany of conservative ministers against the lecture at FAECAD (Assemblies of God Evangelical School) with René Padilla. Shi***ng boring people. They do not know the Theology of Integral Mission, but they criticize it as if they did it. What these people really want is to control church-goers. When there are church-goers engaged, there is a church fighting for the emancipation of the oppressed and the poor. Who is Julio Severo??? A talker, spoilt and a sh**.”
Rev. Mateus Feliciano, a theologian and TIM advocate, sent me a private message asking me to remove articles against TIM and Padilla; if not, he would report me. And in his Facebook account he asked publicly,
“Gang, I ask your assistance to remove a post of religious intolerance and deceptive information here in Facebook. Please, read this post and report!”
Religious intolerance because of a Christian view disagreeing with socialism and TIM?
Yet, my warning probably came too late. In his article of solidarity to Padilla, Harold Segura assured that in February 2016 he delivered the main lecture at FAECAD. He spoke about the Theology of Integral Mission and ecumenism.
I had thought that Padilla would be introducing TIM for the first time in the Assemblies of God. Segura has already done it. Padilla would only reinforce the initial introduction. TIM is already present in the Assemblies of God in Brazil through their most important theological institution.
Segura informed his readers that he is travelling to São Paulo, Brazil, to speak at the congress Integral Mission: Ways and Perspectives in the 21st Century. The congress is happening this week.
According to Segura, this major TIM congress will be sponsored by World Vision Brazil, and will have several speakers who are TIM advocates, including René Padilla, Ariovaldo Ramos, Ed René Kivitz, Valdir Steuernagel (whom he called a friend and former director), Christian Gillis, Carlos Pinheiro Queiroz, Ziel Machado and Regina Sánchez.
Ariovaldo Ramos, one of the main TIM advocates in Brazil, is famous for having defended socialists Hugo Chavez and Dilma Rousseff. Why then try to say that TIM has nothing to do with socialism and politics?
TIM adherents praise Marxists and advocate Marxist politics, including the gender ideology, but do they refuse the label “Marxist” for their theology?
Valdir Steuernagel is a powerful leader in the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil (ECLCB).
ECLCB has international liberal leaders. Rev. Walter Altmann, a former ECLCB president, is the moderator of the World Council of Churches and he is an international theologian renowned for defending Liberation Theology (LT).
Steuernagel is known in Brazil as a TIM activist and internationally known for his leadership roles in the Lausanne Movement and in the World Evangelical Alliance.
From this pro-LT and pro-TIM liberal environment, what can result? A homosexualist theologian called Andre Musskopf.
With Altmann, ECLCB is in the Liberation Theology forefront.
With Steuernagel, ECLCB is in the Theology of Integral Mission forefront.
Of course, Steuernagel is not more prominent in TIM advocacy than Calvinist Ariovaldo Ramos and Caio Fábio.
TIM has no problem to walk hand in hand with Liberation Theology and Gay Theology.
Yet, if you cannot call TIM and its adherents socialist and liberal, so it follows that you cannot call ECLCB and its leaders liberal and socialist.
If Segura, Padilla and other liberal evangelicals want to defend the gender ideology at ECLCB and other liberal denominations, they will be warmly welcome there.
Yet, why do they insist in conquering the Assemblies of God, the largest evangelical denomination in Brazil?
Portuguese version of this article: Teologia socialista na Assembleia de Deus no Brasil
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Saturday, October 22, 2016

C. Peter Wagner, Pioneer in the Apostolic Movement and Pioneering Fighter Against Theology of Integral Mission, Goes on to Glory


C. Peter Wagner, Pioneer in the Apostolic Movement and Pioneering Fighter Against Theology of Integral Mission, Goes on to Glory

By Julio Severo
C. Peter Wagner, pioneer in the apostolic movement and pioneering fighter against Theology of Integral Mission (TIM), has gone home to be with the Lord. He was 86 years old, passing away on Friday.
C. Peter Wagner
Wagner was recognized as a leading authority in the fields of church growth and spiritual warfare. He was co-founder of World Prayer Center and was chancellor of the Wagner Institute in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He held graduate degrees in theology, missiology and religion from Fuller Theological Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary and the University of Southern California.
Wagner served as a field missionary in Bolivia for 16 years and he taught on the faculty of the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Seminary for 30 years. He ministered extensively nationally and internationally from his home base in Colorado. He had written 70 books, including Prayer Shield, Territorial Spirits, and Apostles and Prophets.
He was an autobiography titled “Wrestling with Alligators, Prophets and Theologians: Lessons from a Lifetime in the Church — A Memoir,” kindly sent autographed by him to me years ago.
Wagner became famous as the leader of conservative theologians who opposed to left-wing theologians in the first Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 1974. He fought TIM not only in Lausanne, but also in the first René Padilla congresses in Latin America, years before Lausanne. He was the first theologian to make resistance to TIM in Latin America.
In 2014, Lausanne paid Wagner’s resistance back in the same coin, by holding in Brazil a meeting of Lausanne leaders against Wagner and his apostolic movement. The meeting was led by TIM leaders, especially Rev. Valdir Steuernagel.
In 2013, C. Peter Wagner wrote the introduction of Julio Severo’s e-book “Theology of Liberation versus Theology of Integral Mission” (available for free download in this LINK), which addresses Theology of Integral Mission.
With information from Charisma.
Recommended Reading where C. Peter Wagner is mentioned by Julio Severo:

Wednesday, June 01, 2016

Do Not Be an Enabler of Evil! Lessons from Lausanne


Do Not Be an Enabler of Evil! Lessons from Lausanne

By Julio Severo
In the first Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 1974, idealized and supported by Billy Graham, left-wing theologians from Latin America, especially René Padilla, took advantage to bring the Theology of Integral Mission (TIM), which is the Protestant version of Liberation Theology.
In his capacity of Lausanne moderator, John Stott, who is passionately praised by Latin American advocates of TIM, adorned this Marxist theology, by applying face powder and lipstick. So, fully charming and transformed, TIM was launched internationally, by using Lausanne as a platform, even though under a fierce conservative resistance led by Peter Wagner.
Wagner, who is the main leader in the global apostolic movement, fought TIM not only in Lausanne, but also in the first Padilla congresses in Latin America, years before Lausanne. Wagner was the first theologian to make resistance to TIM in Latin America.
Nevertheless all resistance decades ago, TIM grew internationally. Today, thanks to Stott and his incredible work of make-up and enabling, TIM dominates Lausanne as an elegant social theology. Wagner’s resistance has been forgotten and TIM Latin American theologians have prevailed.
In 2014, Lausanne paid Wagner’s resistance back in the same coin, by holding in Brazil a meeting of Lausanne leaders against Wagner and his apostolic movement. The meeting was led by TIM leaders, especially Rev. Valdir Steuernagel.
After the first and second Lausanne congresses, Billy Graham realized that the TIM Latin American advocates used Lausanne as a platform. So he stopped funding the event. But it was too late. The damage was already done.
Wanting or not, by adorning TIM in Lausanne, John Stott enabled the expansion of this evil in the Global Evangelical Church.
Portuguese version of this article: Não seja um facilitador do mal! Lições de Lausanne
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Thursday, January 08, 2015

Lausanne, Theology of Integral Mission and Israel


Lausanne, Theology of Integral Mission and Israel

By Julio Severo
The Lausanne Movement was in full force in Brazil, April 2014, to discuss its most important theological worry. No, no, their worry is not about Brazilian theologians — all of them adherents of the Theology of Integral Mission (TIM) — who work together with the ruling socialist Workers’ Party and its ideological campaign to advance its anti-family agenda in Brazil.
Their worry was exclusively neo-Pentecostals’ Prosperity Theology (PT).
According to the Brazilian leftist Protestant magazine Ultimato, “45 specialists from 17 nations — prominent thinkers, ministers and professionals — gathered together in Atibaia, SP (Brazil), from March 30—April 2 for the Lausanne Global Consultation on Prosperity Theology, Poverty and the Gospel.”
The consultation was headed by Valdir Steuernagel, a fervent TIM advocate. His religious roots, as exposed by the Portuguese essay “Por que esconder a real intenção da Teologia da Missão Integral?(Why hide the Theology of Integral Mission’s real intent?), go back to his denomination, the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession, which embraces both the most radical variety of Christian Marxism — Liberation Theology — and its hardly watered Protestant version, TIM.
The second speech fell to Paul Freston, old TIM advocate. Freston, a former member of the Workers’ Party, has always been a staunch PT opponent.
The Portuguese essay “A maior ameaça à Igreja Evangélica do Brasil” (The Most Important Threat to the Brazilian Evangelical Church) explains why the most prominent PT opponents are TIM theologians.
The ruling Workers’ Party, in the person of Gilberto Carvalho, said that its most important worry are neo-Pentecostal televangelists, whose PT basic message is that the key supplier of all human needs should be God, as opposed to the proposal that the Workers’ Party and other radical socialist movements want to impose: government as a god supplier of all human needs.
These two visions — God-Supplier versus Government-Supplier — are at the core of the clash between socialists and neo-Pentecostals.
Carvalho, as the chief minister in the General-Secretariat of the Presidency of the Brazilian Republic, has a special friendly relationship with TIM theologians, including Ariovaldo Ramos. The most important adviser to Carvalho for the Workers’ Party administration in its relationship with the evangelical community is the Presbyterian theologian Alexandre Brasil, who receives a monthly wage of R$15,000 and has a classical pattern of TIM adherents: he has a book against PT.
The Global Consultation on Prosperity Theology also had a speech titled: “The New Apostolic Reformation and Prosperity Theology.”
The New Apostolic Reformation was founded by C. Peter Wagner, who in the 1st Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 1974 confronted left-wing theologians from Latin America who wanted to turn Lausanne into a platform for the Marxist ideology.
The central personality in the 1st Lausanne Congress was Billy Graham. Without him, there would have been no Lausanne, but even he did not expect repercussion on ideological level. When Graham perceived that the Protestant Left was trying to co-opt everything, he stopped funding Lausanne, and it displeased Brazilian Marxist Anglican Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti, an old Ultimato columnist, who openly charged that Lausanne was under a “hegemony from a conservative, white, anti-WCC (World Council of Churches) and anti-socialist group,” etc. (Poor Graham: white, Anglo-Saxon, conservative, etc!) Cavalcanti wanted Graham to continue in the Lausanne movement to raise funds to advance the TIM revolution. This revolution has been happening, but without Graham’s money and participation. Valdir Steuernagel, a TIM leader, has said that today Lausanne is much more TIM than ever. It is not, therefore, a movement with the Gospel’s face, but with the face of an ideology.
For his old opposition to the raging Left in Lausanne, even today C. Peter Wagner is criticized by the Protestant Left, and even by the secular Left, which has been denouncing his New Apostolic Reform.
Lausanne has become a movement of the Protestant Left. And as usual for every left-wing (secular or pseudo-Christian) movement, it sees neo-Pentecostals, especially their PT, as the most important threat to the advance of socialism. Yet, with theological tricks, the Protestant Left has changed slightly the rhetoric, by saying that PT is a threat to the Gospel.
Socialism in Lausanne is old. In the 1980s, Ultimato magazine was officially recommended by Lausanne for Brazilians. It was the incipient left-wing Lausanne promoting the Brazilian Protestant Left.
Today, Lausanne and Ultimato advance in their socialism, though the so-called “conservative” theological Presbyterian elite in Brazil, who have a fine relationship with Ultimato and TIM leaders, have had a hard time to recognize TIM in Lausanne or even in their own Presbyterian midst.
Ultimato is Presbyterian and it has controversial Presbyterian columnists in its magazine and publishing house, including Rev. Marcos Botelho, who had made the strange point that Christians have a duty to fight for people’s right to commit homosexual vices, and Rev. Rev. Luiz Longuini, a four-times divorced minister in PCB (Presbyterian Church of Brazil) and author of a book defending TIM.
Another Ultimato columnist, Marcos Amado, is the director for Latin America in the Lausanne Movement, and he has been writing articles to deconstruct the evangelical support for Israel. This deconstruction is a trend in the Protestant Left around the world, often led and spurred by well-funded U.S. Protestant groups.
Even the left-wing Jewish-American billionaire George Soros has invested millions to make evangelical views on Israel lesser positive. If I am asked how a Jew can campaign against Israel, my answer is that the same socialism that turns Jews against Israel also turns evangelicals against the Gospel. There are thousands of left-wing evangelicals with no sincere love for the Gospel, but passionate about using it as a platform for the socialist ideology, which typically opposes Israel.
In his deconstruction effort, Amado also shows, in Ultimato, that he is opposed to what he labels “evangelical Christian Zionism,” and he stresses that in 2014 he took part in a special conference at the Intercontinental Hotel in Bethlehem. This conference was “Christ at the CheckPoint,” which seeks to present Jesus as a “Palestinian” oppressed by Israelis.
In 2014 the Israeli government warned evangelicals around the world to steer clear of “Christ at the Checkpoint.” Notwithstanding the Israeli warning, the Lausanne Movement and the World Evangelical Alliance, two movements where Steuernagel has prominent leadership posts, have supported “Christ at the CheckPoint.” Steuernagel is also an Ultimato columnist.
Marcos Amado and Ultimato want you to avoid PT, neo-Pentecostals, Israel and Zionist evangelicals and they are already helping prepare Brazilian evangelicals for the “Christ at the CheckPoint” message, whose contents is the Palestinian Liberation Theology, a TIM sister.
Therefore, you should be worried when you read about theologians “worried” about PT or the so-called “evangelical Zionism.” Their “worry” has other interests.
Evidently, you should oppose neo-Pentecostal abuses, but should you stand passively while these abuses are maliciously attacked as a way to create an opportunity to advance TIM and deconstruct the evangelical support for Israel? 
The defense of Israel that many Brazilian neo-Pentecostal leaders make is necessary. Besides, their message, though defective, emphasizing God, not the government, as the supplier of the human needs is fundamental for the people — and abominable to the secular and Protestant Left.
The Lausanne Movement has lost credibility, and it will only have respect from evangelicals when actually it shows that it is worried about its Brazilian adherents and leaders who work together with the ruling Workers’ Party, which has made everything to advance its antifamily dictatorship in Brazil.
Portuguese version of this article: Lausanne, TMI e Israel
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Monday, August 11, 2014

People for the American Way’s Leftist Diatribe Against a Brazilian Conservative


People for the American Way’s Leftist Diatribe Against a Brazilian Conservative

By Julio Severo
The American Way should be to expose and destroy tyrannies, especially socialism. But do not tell that to the People for the American Way (PFAW), which, according to WorldNetDaily, is “an atheist socialist organization which, through publications like its ‘Right Wing Watch,’ dedicates itself to the destruction of conservatives in general.”
Former leftist U.S. President Bill Clinton in People for the American Way
The latest attack from “Right Wing Watch” was against me, Julio Severo, in a piece entitled “BarbWire Pundit Defends Brazil’s Past Violent Dictatorship, Fears Looming ‘Gay Agenda.’” My BarbWire article, “U.S. Betrays Military Men Who Protected Brazil from Communist Threat,” just exposes that the Obama administration is betraying military men who protected Brazil from violent and bloody communist revolutions and rules. It also stresses that in this time in Brazil there was freedom to proclaim the Gospel, and that Billy Graham, Rex Humbard and Pat Robertson reached millions with their Christian message.
According to its website, “Right Wing Watch” has a special mission to attack conservatives opposed to the gay agenda, abortion and Muslim ideology.
“Right Wing Watch” has denounced C. Peter Wagner, founder of the New Apostolic Reformation, for his influence on the conservative candidacy of Rick Perry for the U.S. presidency in 2010. Wagner is best known for leading the conservative resistance to the efforts by Liberation Theology adherents to hijack the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 1974. The hijack was successful only years later through the Theology of Integral Mission, which is the Protestant version of the Liberation Theology.
“Right Wing Watch” has also denounced WorldNetDaily for its exposé of John Brennan, the director of CIA who converted to Islam and allegedly was recruited in Saudi Arabia. Islam is undeniably violent. Saudi Arabia is one of the most violent tyrannies in the world. But the real enemy, for PFAW, is WorldNetDaily.
PFAW has also attacked Joseph Farah, the owner of WorldNetDaily, for saying that “Obama Is ‘At War With God.’”
In another piece, “Right Wing Watch” says: “Franklin Graham Blasts ‘Anti-Christ’ Obama Administration, ‘Ungodly’ World Vision For Accepting Gays.” Graham is the son of the most famous American evangelist, Billy Graham. He is also the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
There are many other PFAW attacks on Graham, including: “Franklin Graham Endorses Vladimir Putin’s Anti-Gay Crackdown.”
Of course, Graham did not endorse any crackdown. He just supported the Russian law that protects children from homosexual propaganda. Does PFAW endorse forcing Russian children to be exposed to the immoral and nasty gay propaganda? Does PFAW endorse pedophilia?
The excellent stance of Graham was the cover story in Decision magazine, a famous evangelical publication of BGEA, entitled: “Putin’s Olympic Controversy.”
The Russian law protecting children was not praised only by Graham. The World Congress of Families, which is the largest pro-family and pro-life organization in the world, praised it too. Its spokesman, Don Feder, defended it in his article: “Sochi and The Left’s Human Rights Hypocrisy.” But again, “Right Wing Watch” attacked Feder in its malevolent article “World Congress Of Families Spokesman: Putin Will Save America From ‘Heady Elixir Of Sexual Rights.’”
So, according to PFAW, homosexual activists need unrestricted access to children. And if you try to protect them, you are the problem. You are violent.
According to PFAW, children should be exposed to messages about Islam as a “religion of peace.” And if you try to protect them, you are the problem. You are violent.
Norman Lear, founder of PFAW
People for the American Way (PFAW), founded by Norman Lear, has partnered with leftist and pro-abortion organizations and receives grants from many groups, including the Ford Foundation. In 2013, the Ford Foundation, which has been a population control investor for many years in Brazil, gave $300,000 to PFAW.
According to Conservapedia, “98 percent of the PFAW’s political contributions went to Democratic Party candidates.” This is, PFAW is solidly committed to Obama’s pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality party.
This definitely is not the American way. Population control; advocacy of abortion, Islam and homosexuality; efforts to withdraw protection of children from the homosexual propaganda: this is not the American way.
The American way, as lived by George Washington and other real Americans, was virtue and respect to God. But PFAW wants to pervert it into depravity and disrespect to God. By the way, Washington did not accept homosexuality and he would never have accepted the Islamic ideology. And absolutely he would have supported every effort to protect children from homosexual propaganda and to chastise homosexual propagandists.
If PFAW dislikes conservative Christians, it should not spare George Washington and his original American way.
The PFAW’s leftist diatribes against Franklin Graham, C. Peter Wagner, Don Feder, the World Congress of Families and me just put me in a worthy company. I am sure that Washington would have been pleased to join us.
I am also sure that Josef Stalin and the tyrannical Saudi kings (who have no tolerance for Christians and free speech) would have been pleased to join the so-called “People for the American Way” — better labeled “People for the Anti-Christian Way.”
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