Yesterday's Herescope post concluded
with an astounding quote from Henry A. Wallace, a high-level U.S. government
official holding various offices during the decades of the 1930s-40s. In his
statement to the Federal Council of Churches "emergency" meeting in December
1933, he called for the creation of a "community of purpose" -- a "modern
adaptation of the theocracy of old."
This statement is strikingly similar to the modern-day calls for a "Second
Reformation" (Rick Warren), otherwise known as the "New Apostolic
Reformation" (C. Peter Wagner, one of Warren's key advisors). Previous
Herescope posts have examined this topic in detail. Of particular
significance is the dominionist element in these calls for another
Reformation. The
doctrine of building the kingdom of God on earth is an essential
component.
One of the themes utilized to garner support for this kingdom-building was
the concept of "one world." This is an oft-used mantra of the World Council
of Churches (WCC) to this day. It is a theme which has now been picked up by
most evangelial mission agencies.
Continuing with an excerpt from pp. 161-162 of Dr. Martin Erdmann's landmark
book, Building the Kingdom of God on Earth: The Churches’ Contribution to
Marshal Public Support for World Order and Peace, 1919-1945 (Wipf and Stock
Publishers, 2005), available here, note that Henry Wallace was intentionally
suggesting a new ideology -- a new kingdom worldview -- in order to
facilitate the creation of this one-world:
"A 'one world' community of purpose"
In this address to the FCC [Federal Council of Churches, forerunner to the WCC, ed.], Wallace insisted on a radical reformation of Christianity itself. Only a willingness on the part of the churches substantially to alter its dogma and practice would suffice to meet the needs of the day. The old virtue of helping those who had suffered hardships must give place to a new conception of a community of purpose. The basis for such a change is disclosed in the closing paragraph of his address.
“This spiritual cooperation to which I refer depends on a revival of deep religious feeling on the part of the individual in terms of the intellectual concept that the world is in very truth one world, that human nature is such that all men can look on each other as brothers, that the potentialities of nature and science are so far-reaching as to remove many of the ancient limitations. This concept which now seems cloudy and vague to practical people must be more than the religious experience of the literary mystic. It must grow side by side with a new social discipline. Never has there been such a glorious chance to develop this feeling, this discipline as in this country today.”[48]
According to Wallace, the new
religious feeling must come from the realization that the world is one – an
emphasis which would presumably lead to a principled detachment from the
competing propositional claims of truth made by the religions that actually
inhabit that ‘one world’. It would be the outgrowth of the new sociological
knowledge made available by science, not the belief in a sovereign God.
Wallace placed his emphasis more on the creation of a new humanism than the
imposition of a new theocracy.
It is both interesting and revealing that the leadership of the FCC would
see a kinship between the philosophy of Franklin Roosevelt and Henry Wallace
and its own concept of the kingdom of God on
earth. The insistence that the social aims of the New Deal did not fully
meet the requirements of this secularised concept of the kingdom of God is
nothing more than an acknowledgement that the humanistic theology of
the Council was more progressive in its implications than the philosophy of
the New Deal architects who faced the political realities of hour and what
could and could not be pushed through Congress.
Nevertheless, the editor of the Bulletin was enthusiastic about this
address. He stated that Wallace was a man of vision who aptly visualized a
better social order and devoted his energies to securing a co-operative
instead of a competitive economic organization. As his address showed,
the editor alleged, Wallace had been influenced both by the Old Testament
prophets and by the life and teaching of Jesus.[49] Henry A. Wallace was
certainly a very religious person. His beliefs, however, were not rooted in
historic Christianity. Wallace became notable for his mystical outlook on
life. [50] [See
The Freemasons]
The Truth:
Henry A. Wallace had no compunctions about integrating his spirituality with
State. He is credited with being responsible for putting the occultic "all
seeing eye" and the Great Pyramid on the back of the dollar bill. His
eclectic mixture of esoteric theologies and world religions co-mingled
conveniently with the call for a "one world" in which there would be a
new "social discipline." The WCC today, sequel to the FCC, is known for
espousing just such an admixture.
And neo-evangelical leaders are now finding "common ground" with this global
group? Is it any wonder, then, that some of these strange admixtures of
doctrine are showing up in evangelicaldom? (See last Friday's Herescope
post)
"For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed." (Isaiah 9:16)
All emphases added. Reprinted with permission.
Endnotes.
48. Federal Council of Churches, Federal Council Bulletin 17, no 1
(January 1934), New York, 7-8.
49. Ibid.
50. See Dwight Macdonald, Henry Wallace: The Man and the Myth (New York:
Garland Publ., Inc. 1979) 116-127: 'Formal religion, however, is not the
important part of Wallace's abundant other-wordly life. He delighted
especially in esoteric knowledge, strange creeds in which the scientific and
the supernatural are blended. His faith . . . seems to be an amalgam of
Buddhism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Mohammedanism, and Eddyism'. To which
might be added: theosophy, spiritualism, numerology, and astrology. 'Wallace
dabbles in astrology and can draw a horoscope. He is quite familiar with the
theory that the future can be predicted from certain markings on the Great
Pyramid' (118); and Norman D. Markowitz, The Rise and Fall of the People's
Century: Henry A. Wallace and American Liberalism, 1941-1948 (New York: The
Free Press, 1976) 333-342.
© 2005 by Discernment Group
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/02/using-change-to-facilitate.html
* * *
See also Global Dominionism: Past and Present
Using CHANGE to facilitate TRANSFORMATION
C. Peter Wagner Redefines Genesis 1 & Wilkinson's Dream For Africa is Shattered
Dominionism and the Rise of Christian Imperialism
A Blinding Darkness | Global Day of Prayer | The Second Reformation
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