# The Assemblies of God Warned Us About the N.A.R. in 1949 **Summary.** A YouTube discernment video arguing that the New Apostolic Reformation is the surviving form of the Latter Rain movement the Assemblies of God formally condemned at its 23rd General Council in 1949. The thesis: the denomination expelled Latter Rain rather than ending it, and the condemned doctrines migrated into looser, oversight-free charismatic networks that C. Peter Wagner later named the NAR. The speaker claims to hold the original 1949 minutes and constitution and reads the denunciation as "almost a checklist for today's New Apostolic Reformation." (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/The Assemblies of God Warned Us About the N.A.R. In 1949|The Assemblies of God Warned Us About the N.A.R. In 1949]]) - **Source type:** YouTube video / podcast (discernment, polemical-historical) - **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRnVJDi1Lkc - **Tradition represented:** evangelical/Pentecostal discernment — critical of NAR from within the broader charismatic family ## Key claims 1. **The 1949 condemnation was specific and documented.** At the 23rd General Council the Assemblies of God denounced the "New Order of Latter Rain," objecting to unauthorized power transference by laying on of hands, ministerial authority granted without theological training or oversight, the emerging five-fold ministry structure, and claims of direct revelation that bypass established church authority. 2. **Expulsion is not extinction.** The speaker's central argument: "the Latter Rain really didn't end. The Assemblies of God just pushed it out of the denomination," and the ideas "migrated into the looser networks" that kept developing them. This is a structural-survival claim about how condemned movements persist by relocating. 3. **The condemnation reads as a forecast.** The 1949 bullet points "almost read like a checklist for today's New Apostolic Reformation" — the very practices the denomination rejected became the blueprint for the networks Wagner later identified. 4. **Latter Rain split Pentecostalism.** The controversy drove a wedge into the movement, splitting it into the Assemblies of God proper (which kept the 1949 denunciation) and the Independent Assemblies of God. Inconsistent understanding of *which* doctrines to reject led to uneven application. 5. **Transferred power bypassed accountability.** Under the transference doctrine, "men and women who... had no idea about theology" could receive power and "preach whatever they wanted" by claiming "God is speaking through me" (the rhema / spoken word). Authority detached from formation. ## Historical context offered - The Latter Rain revival began at **Sharon Orphanage, North Battleford, Saskatchewan**, catalyzed by William Branham's post-WWII healing tours and Franklin Hall's teaching on "atomic power from God through fasting and prayer." - The movement spread fast enough that opposition "seemed futile"; the speaker notes there is no evidence Branham personally attended the Saskatchewan revival, and roots the end-times-revival framing back to Frank Sanford. ## Connections to existing wiki - Directly supplies the **primary-document grounding** that [[Latter Rain]] flagged as missing — that page's open `[!question]` specifically asked for the Assemblies of God 1949 statement. This source names the 23rd General Council and its objections, though it relays them secondhand (see caution). - Confirms and extends the lineage in [[Latter Rain]] and [[New Apostolic Reformation]]: Branham → independent networks → Wagner's NAR. - The "migration after condemnation" mechanic matches the vault permanent note *Condemnation Relocates Ideas to Looser Networks That Lack the Accountability That Condemned Them* (synthesized from this same source, 2026-06-14), and the NAR-critique structural notes catalogued in the vault [[NAR and Charismatic Authority Critique MOC]]. > [!contradiction] Affirm vs. reject apostolic-type ministry > The Assemblies of God position (per this source and the wiki's existing record) affirms that apostolic- and prophetic-*type* gifting can operate, but rejects the **formal restored office and governing title**. The NAR claims the offices themselves are restored as church government. Both sides are Pentecostal in origin; the dividing line is governance, not the supernatural as such. > [!question] Open > The speaker's lineage is largely "his opinion" by his own admission ("this isn't something you can go find any solid answers on"). The strong continuity claim (Latter Rain → NAR as essentially one movement) is plausible and well-attested in parts, but the "1949 minutes as checklist" reading should be checked against the actual General Council text and against scholarly accounts (Synan, R. M. Riss) before it anchors an analysis page. ## Source caution Investigative/polemical discernment content. The claim to hold the original 1949 minutes is unverified here. Biographical and procedural claims are recorded as stated, not endorsed — confirm against the published General Council record and independent church-history scholarship before using on a comparative-analysis page. ## Related - [[Latter Rain]] · [[New Apostolic Reformation]] · [[Pentecostalism]] · [[Apostolic Authority]] · [[Five-Fold Ministry]] · [[William Branham]] - See also: [[NAR and Charismatic Authority Critique MOC]]