When Heaven Invades Earth by Bill Johnson has many alarming interpretations of Scripture. He distorts Scripture to support his theology and justify his understanding of the proclamation his version of the gospel. Paul said if anyone preaches a gospel different than the one you received, “let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:6-9). So, clarifying the correspondence or difference of Bill Johnson’s view of the gospel from that taught by the church since the time of Christ is crucial for us to understand. Johnson thought the truth of what he saw as the “original commission” was in the beginning, in Genesis 1, so let’s start there and see if he’s correct.
In Part 1 of this article, we looked at the evidence for dominion theology in When Heaven Invades Earth, and how that corresponded to C. Peter Wagner’s advocacy of it in Dominion! Your Role in Bringing Heaven to Earth. Both Johnson and Wagner thought it all began in Genesis 1. Wagner said, “the nuts and bolts of dominion theology” began there. Johnson thought the “backbone” of God’s original commission began with Genesis 1:28 and he said:
Adam and Eve were placed in the garden with a mission. God said, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.” It was God’s intention that as they bore more children, who also lived under God’s rule, they would be extending the boundaries of His garden (His government) through the simplicity of their devotion to Him. The greater the number of people in right relationship to God, the greater the impact of their leadership. This process was to continue until the entire earth was covered with the glorious rule of God through man. (p. 30)
Both Johnson and Wagner saw Genesis 1:28 as God establishing a government on earth. Peter Wagner said God established a government for the earth with Adam and Eve as its first governors. They had “full authority to take dominion in His name.” Wagner said:
But they were not puppets; they were free moral agents. What does this mean? This means they had a choice. God would not coerce them. On the one hand they could take dominion, but on the other hand they had the authority to give their dominion away.”
Wagner thought when God delegated authority for dominion over the creation to Adam, “Satan saw an opportunity to take back the authority he had lost.” When “satan” convinced Adam to disobey God, “Adam’s authority to take dominion over God’s creation was passed over to satan.”
The so-called “apple” became simply the visual symbol of Adam’s choice. Would he choose to obey God or would he go satan’s way? When satan convinced him to disobey God, history was suddenly changed. Adam’s authority to take dominion over God’s creation was passed over to satan. Worse yet, Adam put himself and the whole future human race under the authority of satan as well.
The Gap Theory and the Scofield Bible
Johnson elaborated on this point by Wagner with an unacknowledged application of the gap theory of creation. The gap theory was popularized by Thomas Chalmers early in the 19th century. Initially, it was an attempt to accommodate the evolutionary ages of geologists and astronomers into the creation record of the Bible. Got Questions said the gap theory believes that Genesis 1:1-2 described the initial creation of the universe, including animals (like the dinosaurs) that we know only from the fossil record. “Something happened [between verses 1 and 2] to destroy the earth completely— most likely the fall of Satan to earth—so that the planet became without form and void.” God then recreated the earth, beginning in verse 3, as the paradise Bill Johnson described in Genesis. What follows is Genesis 1:1-2 in the ESV:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Now look at the following study notes on Genesis 1 for the Scofield Study Bible:
The first act [Genesis 1:1] refers to the dateless past, and gives scope for all the geologic ages. . . The face of the earth bears everywhere the marks of such a catastrophe [Genesis 1:2]. There are not wanting intimations which connect it with a previous testing and fall of angels. . . Relegate fossils to the primitive creation, and no conflict of science with the Genesis cosmogony remains.
Incorporated into the Scofield Study Bible, the gap theory became an almost universally accepted teaching among those who used it. In “The Fall of Pentecostal Premillennialism,” Michael Buban noted the prominence the Scofield Bible had in Pentecostal seminaries; and we can assume, the pastors who came from them. Johnson described himself as a fifth-generation pastor. Both he and his father were originally ordained in the Assemblies of God, a pentecostal denomination. In “C.I. Scofield’s Influence on the NAR,” Leaving the Message said, “Scofield’s dispensationalism became deeply embedded in the doctrinal foundations of both fundamentalism and Pentecostalism, influencing their teachings, practices, and evangelistic efforts.”
In When Heaven Invades Earth, Bill Johnson’s comments clearly support his acceptance and use of the gap theory. He said mankind was placed by God in “the Father’s ultimate expression of beauty and peace: the Garden of Eden.” Outside of the Garden of Eden it was a different story. “It was without the order and blessing and contained within and was in great need of the touch of God’s delegated one—Adam.”
Satan had rebelled and had been cast out of heaven, and with him a portion of the fallen angels took dominion of the earth. It’s obvious why the rest of the planet needed to be subdued—it was under the influence of darkness. God could have destroyed the devil and his host with a word, but instead He chose to defeat darkness through His delegated authority—those made in His image who were lovers of God by choice. (p. 30)
Although it may be obvious to him, under the influence of the gap theory, interpreting Genesis 1:2 to mean the world was under the dominion of Satan, and thus in darkness, is not a correct understanding of the text. It forces a meaning on Genesis 1:1-2 and disregards verses 3 through 5, which says:
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Genesis 1:3-5 describes the creation of time. So, it seems when Bill Johnson imputed the gap theory onto Genesis 1, he set the stage for the dominion theology that permeates When Heaven Invades Earth from the very beginning of the book.
The Quest for the King and His Kingdom
After relating a story about the healing of a man named Luke at the end of chapter 1 of When Heaven Invades Earth, Johnson said stories like that were becoming the norm for a company of people “who have joined this quest for an authentic gospel—the gospel of the Kingdom.” He then said he would no longer make excuses for powerlessness because powerlessness was inexcusable. “Our mandate is simple: raise up a generation that can openly display the raw power of God. This book is all about that journey . . . the quest for the King and His Kingdom.”
In chapter 2, Johnson went on to say God’s plan for mankind to rule over the earth was never terminated. He said Jesus came to bear our penalty for sin and recapture what was lost, quoting from Luke 19:10: “to seek and save that which was lost.” He then said not only was humanity lost to sin, but our dominion over the earth was lost. “Jesus came to recapture both.” Yes, you can say our authority to rule as God’s stewards was forfeited when Adam ate the forbidden fruit. But look at the context of Luke 19:10 to see if it supports humanity regaining the dominion we lost over the earth.
Several English Bibles (i.e., KJV, NIV and others) translate Luke 19:10 as Johnson does: “to seek and save that which was lost.” However, the ESV has: “to seek and to save the lost,” which is a more accurate translation from the Greek. In Luke 19:8, Zacchaeus had said he would give half of his goods to the poor and restore fourfold to anyone he had defrauded. Jesus’s response to Zacchaeus in verse 19:9 was to say, “Today salvation has come to this house . . . 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” Jesus was affirming Zacchaeus’ salvation and not that he would recapture what we lost to the devil.
Yet, Johnson mentioned only the first part of the above quoted phrase and then said we were born to rule, citing Matthew 28:18-19 from The Great Commission, which he paraphrased as: “I got it all back. Now go use it and reclaim mankind.” Then he quoted the first half of Matthew 16:19, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” but didn’t include the second half of the verse, “and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” He said we were born to rule over creation and darkness.
Kingdom means: King’s domain. In the original purpose of God, mankind ruled over creation. Now that sin has entered the world, creation has been infected by darkness, namely: disease, sickness, afflicting spirits, poverty, natural disasters, demonic influence, etc. Our rule is still over creation, but now it is focused on the works of the devil.
Then in chapter 3, Johnson said the realm of God’s dominion is called the Kingdom. And the benefits of His rule were illustrated through His works of forgiveness, deliverance and healing. The Christian life, according to Johnson, has been harnessed to the goal verbalized in the Lord’s Model Prayer. “His dominion is realized when what happens here is as it is in heaven.” See “Deconstructing the Lord’s Prayer” for more on the Lord’s so-called “Model” Prayer and Johnson’s sense of dominion theology.
Now, look at Johnson’s use of the word, kingdom, which he said meant “King’s domain.” The Concise Oxford English Dictionary said one sense of kingdom was a territory ruled by a king, fitting Johnson’s use of the word as the king’s domain. But it also means “the spiritual reign or authority of God.” And it seems this second English sense is what Jesus meant in Matthew 4:17 when he called for the Jews to repent because the kingdom (basileia) of heaven was at hand (also in Matthew 16:19). Basileia appears 162 times in the New Testament and means kingship, royal power and rule, dominion, and kingdom.
Sounding eerily like dominion theology, the kingdom was commonly thought of by the Jews to be the restoration of the Davidic kingdom and the liberation of the Jewish people from their enemies. But in John 18:33, when Pilate asked Jesus if he was the King (basileus) of the Jews, Jesus replied, “My kingdom (basileia) is not of this world” (John 18:36).
Jesus didn’t act like the Jews expected their Messiah would act. Even John the Baptist began to wonder whether Jesus was the Messiah. So, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the one who was to come. Jesus told them to tell John what they have seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have good news preached to them (Matthew 11:5; Luke 7:22). Jesus identified himself as autobasileia, the kingdom in person; and his kingdom is not of this world.
According to Richard Gaffin in the “Kingdom of God” for the New Dictionary of Theology, this one kingdom has three successive stages: “a. the period of Jesus’ earthly ministry, b. the period from his exaltation to his return (the time of the church), and c. the period beyond his return.” It seems Bill Johnson would have us believe otherwise—that it is all about us fighting to regain dominion during the time of the church.
