Leaving the NAR Church: Catrina’s story

“We ladies had a morning of being taught how to prophesy. We were told to tell ourselves, ‘I’m going to start prophesying, even if I have to start in the flesh.’”

Catrina has moved from church to church between Australia and New Zealand, always having to leave as the N.A.R. infection spread. In this series, I want to take readers beyond the textbook What is the New Apostolic Reformation Movement explanation, into the personal experiences from those who have been there, and what happened when God opened their eyes to the truth.

Here is Catrina’s story in her own words:

My husband and I were both saved in an Anglican church in Sydney Australia. I just woke up one Sunday morning when I was seventeen and knew I had to go to the church just down the road. I was terrified, but went and was saved during the liturgical morning prayer. My husband-to-be came along later and was also born again in this church.

We married and moved to New Zealand. We attended his small childhood village church. We had good fellowship but even there, as I look back, there was an us-and-them mentality. Several years later we started attending a prophetic Christian Outreach Centre (COC). We moved back to Australia and stayed in the COC movement. In one church we ladies had a morning of being taught how to prophesy. We were told to tell ourselves “I’m going to start prophesying, even if I have to start in the flesh.”

We moved towns, but stayed in the COC church. We discovered that Benny Hinn and went through the Toronto and Pensacola “revivals”. One of the pastors from Perth, Australia, would “impart” Holy Spirit laughter into us. I also saw him spitting on his hand before praying for people with their eyes closed. Gross. We had a ten to fifteen minute “tithing preach” each service, which included a claim-it prayer. I was claiming inheritances! (Never mind who died…) I might add that we were at church every time it was open, even though we were self-employed. Church and our teens had me out seven nights a week.

I stopped attending this church first, and then my husband decided he’d had enough of tithing when the pastor announced that the church was going to start tithing by faith to H.O.. He was outraged at the hypocrisy.

We moved back to New Zealand and attended a Baptist church. They started on the Forty Days of Purpose program and I pretty much dipped out by the end of the first week. So we moved on to a Presbyterian church, where the pastor had gone to to Spokane and came back with SOZO and Terraforming. We had actually done that in Australia.

He said one day that he was going to preach on healing until every one got it. I got it that day, right up to the top of my head! I told my husband I wasn’t going. He went the next week, and then he had had enough.

Anyway, I was at a reformed college at Auckland and we started to attend the church next door to it. What a breath of fresh air to hear the grace of God preached day after day. My husband ministered on the sound/computer table, and I sang. Last year we studied the Heidelberg Catechism. What a pleasure that was! How awesome is our God!

Thanks for allowing me to share my story.


Author’s Note:  You can read the entire series of NAR testimonies here.  If you would like to send me your story about your NAR church experience and what happened when your eyes were opened, you can email me here. I will be changing your first name to keep you anonymous.

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10 Responses to Leaving the NAR Church: Catrina’s story

  1. Stacey April 6, 2017 at 6:44 pm #

    What’s H.O.? You mentioned tithing to it.

  2. Manny1962 April 6, 2017 at 7:51 pm #

    For anyone wanting to know where ZOSO began:

    “Called ” Zoso “ because it resembles a word, this glyph is one of four enigmatic symbols appearing on the cover of rock group Led Zeppelin’s album Four. Each member of the band chose a personal emblem for the cover; this symbol was chosen by guitarist Jimmy Page as a personal emblem.

    The symbol is probably derived from a sixteenth century treatise by mathematician and occultist Gerolamo Cardano, where it is used to represent the planet Saturn for purposes of magic. Page is a Capricorn, a sign ruled by Saturn, and Saturn, of course, is the planetary ruler of lead. The symbol also bears a strong resemblance to characters of the “alphabet of the Magi,” a seventeenth century text used exclusively for fashioning magical talismans. What it means personally to Page is unknown, as he has never publicly revealed its meaning, but his interest in magic and “Crowleyanna” is well known. (He even operated an occult bookshop called “Equinox” for a time.) Page’s symbol appears among symbols of the OTO in ephemera related to Kenneth anger’s film “Lucifer Rising.””

    “Girolamo Cardano was an Italian doctor, natural philosopher, and mathematician who became a best-selling author in Renaissance Europe. He was also a leading astrologer of his day, whose predictions won him access to some of the most powerful people in sixteenth-century Europe. In Cardano’s Cosmos, Anthony Grafton invites readers to follow this astrologer’s extraordinary career and explore the art and discipline of astrology in the hands of a brilliant practitioner.

    Renaissance astrologers predicted everything from the course of the future of humankind to the risks of a single investment, or even the weather. They analyzed the bodies and characters of countless clients, from rulers to criminals, and enjoyed widespread respect and patronage. This book traces Cardano’s contentious career from his first astrological pamphlet through his rise to high-level consulting and his remarkable autobiographical works. Delving into astrological principles and practices, Grafton shows how Cardano and his contemporaries adapted the ancient art for publication and marketing in a new era of print media and changing science. He maps the context of market and human forces that shaped Cardano’s practices—and the maneuvering that kept him at the top of a world rife with patronage, politics, and vengeful rivals.

    Cardano’s astrology, argues Grafton, was a profoundly empirical and highly influential art, one that was integral to the attempts of sixteenth-century scholars to understand their universe and themselves.”

    Theosophy:

    “Theosophy is a collection of mystical and occultist philosophies[1] concerning, or seeking direct knowledge of, the presumed mysteries of life and nature, particularly of the nature of divinity and the origin and purpose of the universe.[2] Theosophy is considered part of Western esotericism, which believes that hidden knowledge or wisdom from the ancient past offers a path to enlightenment and salvation.

    Theosophy comes from the Greek theosophia (θεοσοφία), which combines theos (θεός), “God”[3] and sophia (σοφία), “wisdom”, meaning “Divine wisdom”. From the late 19th century onwards, the term Theosophy has generally been used to refer to the religio-philosophic doctrines of the Theosophical Society, founded in New York City in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky, William Quan Judge, and Henry Steel Olcott. Blavatsky’s major work, The Secret Doctrine (1888), was one of the foundational works of modern theosophy.[4] As of 2015, organizations descended from, or related to, the Theosophical Society were active in more than 52 countries around the world.[a] Modern Theosophy has also given rise to, or influenced, the development of other mystical, philosophical, and religious movements.”

    Helena Blavatsky:

    “Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Russian: Еле́на Петро́вна Блава́тская, Yelena Petrovna Blavatskaya; 12 August [O.S. 31 July] 1831 – 8 May 1891) was a Russian occultist, spirit medium, and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an international following as the leading theoretician of Theosophy, the esoteric religion that the society promoted.”

    • SusanJ April 7, 2017 at 2:25 am #

      I certainly think people need to keep away from SOZO but the Greek word does mean saved/healed/delivered. Have you got on to something else Manny with the definition of ZOSO?

      • Manny1962 April 7, 2017 at 7:15 am #

        Good morning Susan,

        The word SOZO, heal, rescue, preserve, as in the Bible had no other attached practice to it. Biblical healing as per the apostles is at complete odds with the “SOZO” that is practiced by modern proponents, modern practice has more in common with theosophy, eastern mysticism, its roots are mystical, and ungodly. So like everything today, for every good thing, there’s a dark duplicate.

        • SusanJ April 7, 2017 at 8:41 am #

          Agreed:-) Just could not figure about ZOSO.

  3. Manny1962 April 6, 2017 at 9:41 pm #

    If anyone thinks the practice of SOZO is not demonic, then you need to do further research for yourself, the NAR is equally occultic.

    • Maggie April 7, 2017 at 1:38 pm #

      Amen, Manny. True inner healing (saved/healed/delivered) comes by the work of the Holy Spirit when we repent and have faith in Jesus Christ and have our mind renewed by reading of the Bible and prayer. NOT NAR Sozo hocus-pocus–no model in the Bible for that!

      NAR Sozo incorporates popular psychology, as well as methods taken from the New Age/occult, and snippets of Bible verses taken out of context.

      It is no wonder to me that the NAR has had a need to develop practices for deliverance from demonization because of all the occultic activity they are involved in.

  4. Manny1962 April 7, 2017 at 8:05 pm #

    Hello Maggie,

    You’re right, we are seeing churchianity being totally engulfed from every side. New Age, the occult, Eastern ways, all foretold to happen right before our Lord’s return. Look at how savage the sheep are getting toward anyone questioning their rockstar-idol-preacher! Even if their error is obvious and plain to see, they stick to their favorite idol.

    • Maggie April 7, 2017 at 9:57 pm #

      Manny,
      I was recently following up on info regarding the mindset of cults, as well as in domestic emotional abuse, and the trauma bonding (“Stockholm syndrome”) resulting from the cognitive dissonance caused by conflicting information (I love you/I hurt you). For example, when a prophet’s prophecy is proven false, the follower’s dedication to the prophet is actually REINFORCED instead of questioned. I think this dynamic can only occur if the follower is already enamored with the prophet (rockstar-idol-preacher) and does not want their fantasy to be shattered by the truth. I imagine that is the reason why the Antichrist will be ultimately accepted–that is, people will not have a love for the truth. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12: “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”) I hope my explanation makes sense.

  5. Manny1962 April 7, 2017 at 10:19 pm #

    Maggie,

    Very astute, it makes sense. And there it is again “signs and wonders.” The Bible is just so succinct! In Jesus day they craved signs and wonders! The Antichrist will give them “signs and wonders!”

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