In early March, the Cruz for President campaign announced the formation of an official Religious Liberty Advisory Council. One of the members of Cruz' advisory council, Bishop Harry Jackson, appears to have the official power, through his participation in a major prophetic organization associated with the radical New Apostolic Reformation movement, to add new teachings to the Bible -- in a similar manner as Mormon prophet Joseph Smith's discovery of scripture that comprises the Book of Mormon which, for the Church of the Latter Day Saints, augments and completes the Bible.

Harry Jackson has been a longtime member of a group called the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders that began in 1999 under the initiative of Cindy Jacobs, who then invited C. Peter Wagner to preside over the group. In 2008, Wagner officially passed leadership of ACPE on to Jacobs (1), with whom Harry Jackson works closely -- such as in a 2007 effort to block the Hate Crimes Bill.

ACPE is perhaps the most important group of prophets in the global New Apostolic Reformation movement that church growth specialist Peter Wagner has played a major role in launching and helping organize.

Interviewed at length about the NAR in 2011 for National Public Radio, Peter Wagner has called for members of his movement to "take dominion over everything". Wagner describes "dominion" as a process of "subduing" in which his movement becomes "the head not the tail" and NAR members rule "like kings".

Harry Jackson has himself promoted the NAR's characteristic teaching on the "Seven Mountains" which encourages believers to develop influence and control in seven key sectors of society, and referred to the Apostle Paul as the "Osama Bin Laden of his day".

Beyond ACPE, Harry Jackson's extensive involvement in Wagner's NAR movement includes being listed as teaching a Wagner Leadership Institute (WLI) course in Malaysia, in 2014. Courses taught by the globally active WLI are one of the top ways the NAR spreads its doctrine.

Another WLI course instructor has been Ugandan NAR leader Julius Oyet, who claims to have helped co-author Uganda's notorious, so-called "kill the gays" bill.



NAR doctrine holds that its movement prophets can receive divine revelation directly from God. ACPE's two-dozen odd prophets have the ability to issue prophetic statements that can, in effect, add new scriptural teaching to the Bible. The one catch is that these prophetic statements cannot contradict scripture.

One 2007 edict from an ACPE member clarified God's will concerning abortion -- as an act that requires a compensatory shedding of blood. In 2008, ACPE head Wagner stated,

"There are principles in the Bible that you can put together and make a case for it, but you look up the word 'abortion' in your Concordance--it's not there. See? And, so, all I'm saying is that's a good, live example of something that we have received from the Holy Spirit that is now legitimate.. But the Holy Spirit has revealed to us that abortion is murder. See?"



In 2004, Bishop Harry Jackson appeared in a video interview in which Jackson and the founder of the Elijahlist website (one of the NAR's main event and news clearinghouse sites, which boasts of having Sarah Palin as a daily reader) Steve Schultz discussed their mutual membership in the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders.

Harry Jackson's name appeared on ACPE membership rosters from 2004 through 2010 (1,2,3,4,5) published on the Elijahlist website. Since 2011, ACPE has neglected to publish its full member list. But there are indications Jackson's association with ACPE continues.

In 2012, Jackson joined ACPE head Cindy Jacobs at a rally against same-sex marriage and in 2013 filmed a fund-raising infomercial for Jacobs' ministry. In 2014, shortly after a prophetic statement from Cindy Jacobs' ministry concerning possible race riots over an impending grand jury verdict in the Ferguson, MO shooting death of Michael Brown, Harry Jackson flew to Ferguson along with Alveda King, who appears to have joined ACPE in 2016.

In a February 3, 2008 appearance at a West Coast NAR church, during a question and answer period, C. Peter Wagner revealed the radical power that ACPE prophets can wield. Wagner was emphatic -- there's nothing whatsoever about abortion in the Bible. "But the Holy Spirit has revealed to us that abortion is murder," Wagner explained:

"the Holy Spirit still speaks to us today and we can hear from the Lord, and He gives us information, actually, that you can't find in any of the 66 books of the Bible--even though none of it contradicts the Bible. If the Holy Spirit ever says anything that contradicts the Bible, then it's false, see? But there's a lot of truth that the Holy Spirit gives us that the Bible doesn't even touch, doesn't even bring up, see? And so, I mean, like I say... You know, a big one that the Bible doesn't even touch is abortion. Nothing in the Bible that condemns abortion. But the Holy Spirit has revealed to us that abortion is murder. See? Now, that's not in the Bible."

The Call co-founder Lou Engle was quoted in an official ACPE prophecy for the year 2012 was listed as an ACPE member from 2004 through 2007 (1,2,3).

One of Engle's prophetic doctrines presents a chilling example of how those who channel the voice of God can use their divine gift:

In late 2007, Lou Engle released his Doctrine of the Shedding of Innocent Blood that was originally published on the website of his The Call organization. Stated Engle,

"Surely blood requires blood in God's judgment. God so highly values humanity that He protects it with His severe judgment. A day of reckoning is set if man does not obey Him... Where there is shedding of innocent blood, there is no atonement for the land. There is a blood pollution problem on America's soil. The most "dangerous terrorist" is not Islam, but God. One of God's names is "the Avenger of Blood." Have you worshipped [sic] that God yet?"

Because of Lou Engle's status as a prophet in ACPE, we can guess that Engle's teaching may have been considered within the NAR movement to have the force of Biblical scripture.

In 2008, Lou Engle joined Bishop Harry Jackson, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on C-SPAN for a one hour public discussion on issues such as abortion and traditional marriage.

In a 2009 blog post, Engle compared late-term abortion doctor George Tiller to an Auschwitz death camp worker, writing,

"Tiller is being charged with 19 counts of illegal late-term abortions after he claimed ignorance of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, a federal bill signed into law in 2002 that protects children born alive from infanticide by abortion doctors. [...] Why should an abortion doctor be found guilty for criminal activity and a governor who has done everything to cover and protect that crime be exalted? Was it only the Auschwitz death camp workers who were guilty of killing the Jews or were the political leaders who sanctioned it guilty as well? The answer is obvious to anyone who has a heart."

Little more than two months later, Dr. Tiller was gunned down in the lobby of his church, by antiabortion activist Scott Roeder.

Harry Jackson is one of several members of the Ted Cruz For President Religious Liberty Advisory Council who are involved in the New Apostolic Reformation movement. Pastor Jim Garlow and Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, also on the council with Jackson, have had extensive association with NAR organizations.

In addition, head of a leading pro-Cruz super-PAC David Barton has numerous ties to the New Apostolic Reformation movement including a longtime friendship with ACPE head Cindy Jacobs.

Major NAR leaders to have endorsed Cruz' presidential bid include Charisma magazine publisher Stephen Strang and International House of Prayer head Mike Bickle, who has claimed claimed that God sent Hitler to hunt the Jews.



Top NAR leaders have repeatedly emphasized in their writings the need for believers to destroy or neutralize, by burning, smashing, or flushing down toilets, objects deemed to be unholy, including profane books and "idolatrous" religious texts (such as Books of Mormon), religious relics (such as statues of Catholic saints, the Buddha, or Hindu gods), and native art (such as African masks, Hopi Indian Kachina dolls, and totem poles.)

According to New Apostolic Reformation doctrine, objects to be destroyed include those associated with Mormonism, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Hinduism and eastern religions generally, Christian Science, native religions, and Baha'i.