A TRUE AND FAITHFUL WITNESS
Are you committed to being a true and faithful witness to the Lord Jesus Christ of the New Testament Gospel?
Flags and Banners...Spiritual Power Tools? By Orrel Steinkamp
The Plumbline, Volume 7, Number 5, November/December 2002
In the last Plumbline, I argued that Tabernacle of David (TOD) teaching is
the unseen and underlying theological foundation for many of the new
worship forms currently being introduced in a variety of churches today.
Although many of these worship experiences are excessively emotional, the
major difficulty is the teaching that often accompanies these worship
expressions, namely that TOD worship is a necessary ritual to “invoke” and
“attract” the manifest presence of God.
Beyond this is the further teaching that TOD worship practice becomes a
spiritual warfare technique. Worship is no longer simply a believer offering
praise for the singular purpose of ascribing worship to God, but rather
worship becomes a spiritual cause and effective law to which God is
expected to respond. When properly practiced this type of worship expects
God will show up. The only gauge to whether God shows up is the outbreak
of what appears to be involuntary physical manifestations. The difficulty with
this scenario is that God is no longer sovereignly free to accomplish His will.
Rather man initiates pro-active influence upon the spirit world so that God is
obligated by spiritual law to do what man expects Him to do.
Associated with TOD worship is the use of flags and banners and dancing.
Let us say at the outset that there is no problem with flags and banners in
themselves. The church has for centuries used banners and sometimes
flags to symbolize truths that are anchored in God’s revealed word. But in
the TOD scheme of things flags and banners are not just flags and banners
expressing God’s truth. Rather, flags and banners are suggested to be
“spiritual power tools.” The act of flag waving becomes the causal reason
why God’s special presence occurs. The flag processionals, so popular in
some circles today, are not just a witness of faith, but become a force in
themselves. These flags and banners, initiated by believers, coax the Spirit
to respond. Man becomes pro-active and the spirit world becomes reactive.
The www.foolishthings.com website begins its homepage with the following
statement:
“Worship flags are spiritual power-tools. The flag ministry is seen by some
as foolishness…harmless at best; perhaps an irreverent display of
emotionalism at the worst. ‘But God has chosen the foolish things to shame
the wise…(I Corinthians 1:27)…I have been involved with worship flags for
several years, first as seamstress to a master flag minister, and now as a
warrior, worshiper, and intercessor with flags. I can tell you that something
incredible happens in the spirit when we purposefully and prayerfully raise
our flags…. I create worship and warfare flags suitable for the beginner
through advanced flag ministers, in sizes geared to the home, the sanctuary
and presentation dances. You will find a variety of styles and colors to suit
all the moods of the Holy Spirit.”
As noted in the above quote a new ministry role of ‘flag minister’ has been
instituted. The flag minister has the responsibility to lift the right banner at
the right time. This flag ministry relies heavily on the symbolic use of color in
worship. In an article posted on the above website, Linnie Anderson and
Michelle Young have a long list of colors in worship. A sampling of these
colors include: Red: the blood of Christ; Purple: authority, and sonship; Blue:
revelational knowledge; White: the Bride, purity; Turquoise: River of God;
Orange: passion, power, and fire. Flags and banners are then spiritually
choreographed by the flag minister in association with dance and timbrels.
Also posted on www.foolishthings.com is an article by Sandi Ramsey entitled
“Prophetic Dancing.” In this article under the heading, ‘The Dancing
Intercessors,’ Ramsey states the following:
“We are called to be the vessels through which ‘His kingdom comes and His
will is done on the earth as it is in heaven.’ We often stand in this place
where heaven touches earth during worship and we see similar
manifestations…Many times intercessors will begin to writhe in pain and find
themselves in the depths of spiritual labor. This is not strange or a new
thing. This is the Word of God. We must yield ourselves and work with the
birth pangs in order for the work of the Lord to be birthed.”
What are we to make of this? Are flags and banners and prophetic dancing
not acceptable just because they are new and different from what we have
experienced? No. It is rather the teaching that these physical acts become
“spiritual power tools” that make spiritual things happen.
Flag ministers see their source of spiritual power in the Holy Spirit. The
trigger that makes these so-called anointings of the Spirit happen is a
physical act on the part of man. Related to this, are those today who have
brought water pistols to church and when they squirt each other the water
produces a ‘slain in the spirit’ experience. But even on the day of Pentecost
the spiritual phenomena that occurred was not induced by banners, flag
waving, spiritual squirt guns or whatever. Rather the disciples waited for
God in obedience. In order to appear biblical, flag raisers and prophetic
dancers take us to the O.T. On the other hand, even here they are making
inaccurate comparisons.
Beyond this O.T. proof-texting is the improper lifting of historical situations
from the O.T. and giving Old Covenant practices the same value and
equivalency as in the New Covenant. Furthermore, who decides what in the
Old Covenant is for today? Who decides that banners and flags are New
Covenant practices? If we use O.T. text to validate flags and banners, why
not institute an order of Levitical priests who impose a whole series of food
laws declaring various foods unclean, etc.? On what basis do we isolate and
require flags and banners? There is a basic rule of biblical interpretation
that must be followed and the rule is simply that only O.T. practices that are
re-stated by the apostles in the N.T. are valid for N.T. Christianity. To import
poor imitations of Old Covenant practices into the New Covenant is to go
against the flow of God’s historical revelation of His will.
New Covenant Gentile Christianity has been freed of the Old Testament
instructions for worship and to re-impose them is to regress back into the
Old Covenant. The model for the church is not the Old Testament but the
Apostolic Church. Let’s be obedient to the intent of God’s Word!
For More Articles Like This Go To: www.atrueandfaithfulwitness.com
The Plumbline, Volume 7, Number 5, November/December 2002
In the last Plumbline, I argued that Tabernacle of David (TOD) teaching is
the unseen and underlying theological foundation for many of the new
worship forms currently being introduced in a variety of churches today.
Although many of these worship experiences are excessively emotional, the
major difficulty is the teaching that often accompanies these worship
expressions, namely that TOD worship is a necessary ritual to “invoke” and
“attract” the manifest presence of God.
Beyond this is the further teaching that TOD worship practice becomes a
spiritual warfare technique. Worship is no longer simply a believer offering
praise for the singular purpose of ascribing worship to God, but rather
worship becomes a spiritual cause and effective law to which God is
expected to respond. When properly practiced this type of worship expects
God will show up. The only gauge to whether God shows up is the outbreak
of what appears to be involuntary physical manifestations. The difficulty with
this scenario is that God is no longer sovereignly free to accomplish His will.
Rather man initiates pro-active influence upon the spirit world so that God is
obligated by spiritual law to do what man expects Him to do.
Associated with TOD worship is the use of flags and banners and dancing.
Let us say at the outset that there is no problem with flags and banners in
themselves. The church has for centuries used banners and sometimes
flags to symbolize truths that are anchored in God’s revealed word. But in
the TOD scheme of things flags and banners are not just flags and banners
expressing God’s truth. Rather, flags and banners are suggested to be
“spiritual power tools.” The act of flag waving becomes the causal reason
why God’s special presence occurs. The flag processionals, so popular in
some circles today, are not just a witness of faith, but become a force in
themselves. These flags and banners, initiated by believers, coax the Spirit
to respond. Man becomes pro-active and the spirit world becomes reactive.
The www.foolishthings.com website begins its homepage with the following
statement:
“Worship flags are spiritual power-tools. The flag ministry is seen by some
as foolishness…harmless at best; perhaps an irreverent display of
emotionalism at the worst. ‘But God has chosen the foolish things to shame
the wise…(I Corinthians 1:27)…I have been involved with worship flags for
several years, first as seamstress to a master flag minister, and now as a
warrior, worshiper, and intercessor with flags. I can tell you that something
incredible happens in the spirit when we purposefully and prayerfully raise
our flags…. I create worship and warfare flags suitable for the beginner
through advanced flag ministers, in sizes geared to the home, the sanctuary
and presentation dances. You will find a variety of styles and colors to suit
all the moods of the Holy Spirit.”
As noted in the above quote a new ministry role of ‘flag minister’ has been
instituted. The flag minister has the responsibility to lift the right banner at
the right time. This flag ministry relies heavily on the symbolic use of color in
worship. In an article posted on the above website, Linnie Anderson and
Michelle Young have a long list of colors in worship. A sampling of these
colors include: Red: the blood of Christ; Purple: authority, and sonship; Blue:
revelational knowledge; White: the Bride, purity; Turquoise: River of God;
Orange: passion, power, and fire. Flags and banners are then spiritually
choreographed by the flag minister in association with dance and timbrels.
Also posted on www.foolishthings.com is an article by Sandi Ramsey entitled
“Prophetic Dancing.” In this article under the heading, ‘The Dancing
Intercessors,’ Ramsey states the following:
“We are called to be the vessels through which ‘His kingdom comes and His
will is done on the earth as it is in heaven.’ We often stand in this place
where heaven touches earth during worship and we see similar
manifestations…Many times intercessors will begin to writhe in pain and find
themselves in the depths of spiritual labor. This is not strange or a new
thing. This is the Word of God. We must yield ourselves and work with the
birth pangs in order for the work of the Lord to be birthed.”
What are we to make of this? Are flags and banners and prophetic dancing
not acceptable just because they are new and different from what we have
experienced? No. It is rather the teaching that these physical acts become
“spiritual power tools” that make spiritual things happen.
Flag ministers see their source of spiritual power in the Holy Spirit. The
trigger that makes these so-called anointings of the Spirit happen is a
physical act on the part of man. Related to this, are those today who have
brought water pistols to church and when they squirt each other the water
produces a ‘slain in the spirit’ experience. But even on the day of Pentecost
the spiritual phenomena that occurred was not induced by banners, flag
waving, spiritual squirt guns or whatever. Rather the disciples waited for
God in obedience. In order to appear biblical, flag raisers and prophetic
dancers take us to the O.T. On the other hand, even here they are making
inaccurate comparisons.
Beyond this O.T. proof-texting is the improper lifting of historical situations
from the O.T. and giving Old Covenant practices the same value and
equivalency as in the New Covenant. Furthermore, who decides what in the
Old Covenant is for today? Who decides that banners and flags are New
Covenant practices? If we use O.T. text to validate flags and banners, why
not institute an order of Levitical priests who impose a whole series of food
laws declaring various foods unclean, etc.? On what basis do we isolate and
require flags and banners? There is a basic rule of biblical interpretation
that must be followed and the rule is simply that only O.T. practices that are
re-stated by the apostles in the N.T. are valid for N.T. Christianity. To import
poor imitations of Old Covenant practices into the New Covenant is to go
against the flow of God’s historical revelation of His will.
New Covenant Gentile Christianity has been freed of the Old Testament
instructions for worship and to re-impose them is to regress back into the
Old Covenant. The model for the church is not the Old Testament but the
Apostolic Church. Let’s be obedient to the intent of God’s Word!
For More Articles Like This Go To: www.atrueandfaithfulwitness.com
HOME
Rick Warren
Forty Days: False Gospel
Forty Days: A Closer Look
Forty Days: Which Jesus?
PDL: God's Wisdom
PDL: Exalting the Fallen Creation
PDL: A Purpose-Shaped
Worldview
Antichrist
Will Antichrist Be Revealed
Before the Tribulation?
The Great Harlot
"Mystery" Babylon
"Emerging" Church
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell - Part 1
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell - Part 2
Church Growth Movement
Schuller, Hybels & Warren
Review of Schuller's "Self-Esteem"
False Apostles, False
Prophets, False Revival
River of Seducing Spirits
Spiritual Warfare Script
Deception of Spiritual Warfare
Flags & Banners...Spiritual Power
Tools?
Davidic Warfare/Worship?
Jesus of the "Signs" Now the
"Christ" of Apostolic Government
Mystical Christianity?
Tenney's Mystical Deity Chase
Richard Foster: Quaker Mystic?
Willard and "The Way of Jesus"
What Oswald Chambers
Might Have Thought About
Todays "Christianity"
Rick Warren
Forty Days: False Gospel
Forty Days: A Closer Look
Forty Days: Which Jesus?
PDL: God's Wisdom
PDL: Exalting the Fallen Creation
PDL: A Purpose-Shaped
Worldview
Antichrist
Will Antichrist Be Revealed
Before the Tribulation?
The Great Harlot
"Mystery" Babylon
"Emerging" Church
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell - Part 1
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell - Part 2
Church Growth Movement
Schuller, Hybels & Warren
Review of Schuller's "Self-Esteem"
False Apostles, False
Prophets, False Revival
River of Seducing Spirits
Spiritual Warfare Script
Deception of Spiritual Warfare
Flags & Banners...Spiritual Power
Tools?
Davidic Warfare/Worship?
Jesus of the "Signs" Now the
"Christ" of Apostolic Government
Mystical Christianity?
Tenney's Mystical Deity Chase
Richard Foster: Quaker Mystic?
Willard and "The Way of Jesus"
What Oswald Chambers
Might Have Thought About
Todays "Christianity"