C. Peter Wagner says he gave the New Apostolic Reformation its name, and he has been a prominent leader in that movement for decades. He seldom gives interviews to non-friendly media, but he did one on Fresh Air yesterday. From NPR’s summary:
Among the topics discussed on Monday’s show are: Wagner’s explanation about a recent video that has been shown on television in which he claims the emperor of Japan had sex with the sun goddess, a power of darkness headed by the kingdom of Satan, and how that resulted in the decline of the Japanese stock market; how demons figure into the belief structure of NAR; the role of prophets and apostles within NAR; what Wagner means when he describes the NAR’s mission as taking dominion over business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, family and religion; how he felt when he found out that Ted Haggard, his World Prayer Center co-founder, had used drugs and had sex with men; spiritual mapping; and the role of Jews and Israel in preparing for the second coming.
Hear it here.
When I posted the original “emperor’s sex with the sun goddess” video back in 2009 (with accompanying stories) I couldn’t have imagined it would become such a salient issue.
Oh COME ON. Can’t these guys do any research at ALL?!
The Emperors of Japan are said to be DESCENDANTS of the sun goddess Amaterasu (rather, by being descendants of one of her grandsons, who was sent to the Earth to rule it), not lovers, and furthermore, ALL Japanese people are said to be descendants from gods, or “kami”, according to Shintoism.
Eh, it’s not exactly an uncommon claim for emperors and kings.
The pharaohs were said to be descendants of Ra, and married their sisters to keep the divine bloodline “pure”. The later Ptolemy pharaohs, though essentially Greek, adopted much of the Egyptian mythos and way of life, including this squicky little family secret.
This particular trope (might be a whole family of tropes, even) is Older Than Dirt.