Jezebels, Dominion & Democracy: Unmasking the New Apostolic Reformation’s spiritual warfare

Jezebels, Dominion & Democracy: Unmasking the New Apostolic Reformation’s spiritual warfare

Commentary by Walter Hesford | FāVS News

On Aug. 21 I zoomed into “The New Apostolic Reformation and the Threat to Democracy,” a webinar sponsored by Political Research Associates. The information provided was frightening.

According to this webinar, the New Apostolic Reformation, a world-wide movement promote locally by (among others), Doug Wilson of Moscow’s Christ Church, seeks to gain God-given dominion over all of us through spiritual warfare.

A foundational biblical passage interpreted as calling for spiritual warfare is Ephesians 6:10-12: “Finally, my brethren, Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (KJV).

As a Christian kid I remembered being stirred by these words, traditionally attributed to the Apostle Paul. Little though I be, I could be a knight for the Lord, standing firm with and for him in spiritual battle against a dark world.

The early Christians who first read or heard these words doubtless needed encouragement as they struggled to sustain their faith and their lives against the dominant culture and might of the Roman Empire.

In my maturity I “translate” the devilish “principalities and powers” of Ephesians into the forces of imperial oppression still at work in the world. I still hear the call to do my best to combat these forces, but not in the same way or as literally as those who belong to the New Apostolic Reformation.

Opponents not real humans, but zombie-like creatures

According to the webinar, some in this movement regard their political opponents not as real humans but as zombie-like creatures having been taken over by demons. These creatures tend be those of us on the Left who fail to realize that Trump is the appointed leader who will usher in the new world order in which God has dominion.

Some in this movement cast their opponents as reincarnations of evil people of the past. For example, Kamala Harris is currently seen as a modern-day Jezebel. In the Bible, Jezebel was a Phoenician princess who married Ahab, a 9th Century BCE King of Northern Israel, and convinced him to honor her gods and religious practices. She was denounced by the Hebrew prophet Elijah for leading the king and his people astray. She persecuted Elijah, while he foretold a bloody end for her and her husband (see 1 Kings 16:29-22: 40).

Jezebel became the archetype of powerful, seductive, wicked women, especially those who might subvert godly rule. As early as 2021, Harris was called such a woman by a Southern Baptist pastor who cited the danger that she would lead Biden astray, just as Jezebel did Ahab.

Now that Harris has become a presidential candidate, she has been cast as an even more dangerous Jezebel. According to Lance Wallnua of the New Apostolic Reformation, she’s the devil’s candidate, an emasculating woman who opposes God’s chosen man, Trump.

American Jezebels

In her 2018 book “Jezebel Unhinged: Loosing the Black Female Body in Religion and Culture,” Tamura A. Lomax argues that Black women have in particular been subjected to the Jezebel stereotype to keep them in their place. It’s interesting that as a Black woman and as, like the biblical Jezebel, a non-Jew married to a Jewish man, she and her husband embody an interracial and intercultural marriage so feared by racial and religious purists.

The first American Jezebel, however, was probably Anne Hutchinson — a white woman — who in the 1630’s defied the patriarchal Puritan hierarchy. She proclaimed that, empowered by the Holy Ghost, she had as much right to preach and interpret the Bible as any male clergy — actually more right, since many of the clergy showed no evidence of being divinely inspired. As Eve La Plante chronicles in her 2004 book, “American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson,” Hutchinson was considered a threat to the whole power structure of the Massachusetts Bay community, and so was banished.

Paradoxically, it is now the spiritual warfare of Doug Wilson, a New Apostolic Reformation apostle, that is seen by many as threatening the community of Moscow, since, for example, he and his followers have no use for public education (which he calls “government education”), the very foundation of an inclusive and democratic society.

Fortunately we have a fair number of bold Jezebels in our community ready and able to stand against this warfare.

The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.