Thread by @TaylorMatthewD

This is such a great question, & one I've pondered much:

Is the New Apostolic Reformation still Protestant?

As Lindsay raises, they say they've undergone a new reformation & step past strict sola scriptura by adding in new prophecy.

I have many semi-organized thoughts... 1/

https://twitter.com/beyerstein/status/1776993329848148404

First, let me be clear that no NAR leader I've spoken to & no NAR-authored book I've read says they don't believe in the absolute primacy of the Bible. The NAR is contiguous enough with broader evangelicalism to know that crossing that line would be a big no-no. 2/

They know this is a touchy subject & a wrong-answer could lose them a lot of Christian credibility, so they're careful to affirm their robust view of the total authority (sometimes they'll even throw in the old evangelical shibboleths: inerrancy or infallibility) of the Bible. 3/

So NARers might say that it's a straw-man argument to accuse them of ditching the authority of the Bible.

But they *will* admit they use prophecy to "illuminate"/ "unveil" new meanings in the biblical text. This seems to at least run counter to the Spirit of sola scriptura. 4/

In the NAR narrative, there have been many evolutions of Christianity: Catholic -> Protestant. Lutheran -> Anabaptist. Anglican -> Wesleyan. Wesleyan -> Pentecostal. So old-school evangelicals resent NAR types b/c they're the new thing -- Ché Ahn told me this in an interview. 5/

And there definitely is a post-Protestant vibe around theology in NAR circles (really, in most Independent Charismatic arenas) where the theological debates of yesteryear are deemed irrelevant or abstruse.

It's the antithesis of Confessional Protestantism & creedal fights. 6/

So that's a pretty good case, I guess, as to how the NAR leaders are culturally beyond Protestantism or maybe "Post-Protestant" in their orientation.

But I think I'm more convinced of their contiguity with Protestantism (esp. evangelicalism) than their rupture. 7/

First, it's fascinating to me, for a movement so insular in terms of education (using informal networks or unaccredited schools of supernatural ministry), how much Protestant theological vocabulary these NAR leaders have picked up along the way. 8/

They see themselves largely as "evangelical." In fact, Ché Ahn using the above evolutions illustration was his answer to my question about how he feels about his fellow Fuller grads thinking him a heretic. He was saying that the NAR is *the next evolution of evangelicalism.* 9/

And the more I've observed, the more I think Ahn might be more right than wrong on this question. Their ideas, theologies, & practices have spread far & wide in evangelicalism in the Trump Era.

The Seven Mountains is everywhere today in non-charismatic evangelical groups. 10/

In fact, @PaulDjupe & I have run a survey that we're hoping to publish the results of soon. It shows something truly remarkable: Many of the beliefs we think of as distinctly NAR (e.g., not evangelical) -- i.e. strategic spiritual warfare or modern apostles & prophets... 11/

... almost all of those overtly NAR ideas receive more than 50% support & agreement among self-identified evangelicals.

This is why I can have no truck with the Pivec & Geivett thesis that the NAR is not "evangelical" (they sometimes say "biblical" but mean the same). 12/

While the NAR theology (meme-ology?) was certainly on the fringes of American evangelicalism in the early 2000s when it began, I'd argue that--by virtue of their viral ideas & their piggybacking off Trump support--today these ideas are immensely popular & almost mainstream. 13/

"Protestant" & "evangelical" have always been fluid words, moving targets. They shift meaning -- connotation & denotation -- according to the zeitgeist & commonsense of the day. "Evangelical" meant something different in 1860 than in 1960. 14/

Really, "Evangelical" meant something diff. in 2008 than in 2020.

What I saw in 2020 was a shift to where "evangelical" appeared to mean: white, Trump-supporting, conservative Protestant.

Post-2020, I think you could reasonably add "charismatic" to the list of adjectives. 15/

In what might be the fastest connotational shift in American evangelical history, the NAR leaders & ideas are actively grafting themselves into evangelicalism in a way that might be significantly changing the meaning of the term "evangelical" beneath our very feet. 16/