“In May, you’re going to see some of the disciplinary hand of God come down upon those people that have been standing in the path of what he wants to do.” Walnau’s imprecatory prayers—or petitions for God to curse or in some cases eliminate one’s enemies—came in response to the criminal indictment of Donald Trump and suggested that God’s answer to these prayers might come in the form of a “backlash… by the American people.”
This would be concerning enough in light of Walnau’s prominence (on Michael Flynn’s ReAwaken America tour, for example), but it appears to be a trend. The week before, Andrew Whalen of Texas-based Vanquish Prayer Warriors had also prophesied vigilante violence. On an April 3rd episode of Elijah Streams TV, he said that God had given him a dream in which he told Donald Trump that his greatest desire is to see “Obama and Hillary hanging from a rope.” In fact, he added, God confirmed that, “that’s what justice is demanding.”
The disturbing claims that God is calling his people to organized vigilante violence is happening in the context of the evolving theology of the New Apostolic Reformation.
The spirit of January 6th
This is the vision of the leg of Dominionism most visibly associated with NAR. It’s important for reporters, scholars and, well, citizens in any and every country, to recognize that this obviates and transcends conventional categories and understandings of both evangelical Christianity and politics.
For many, it’s the legacy of a mid-twentieth century offshoot of Pentecostalism called the Latter Rain Movement that makes the NAR sound strange; and for some—too strange to be taken seriously. And yet, despite its role as a mobilizing force in Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity—the largest growth sector in both American and global Christianity—the NAR is poorly understood and seldom mentioned.