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YOU MIGHT NOT RECOGNIZE CALI GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE CHE AHN, BUT HIS
BRAND OF MILITANT CHRISTIANITY SHOULD FEEL FAMILIAR  
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Keri Ladner
August 13, 2025
Religion Dispatches
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_ "Joel’s Army"—the militant Protestant movement that fueled both
the January 6 insurrection and the recent political assassinations in
Minnesota—is rearing its head once again, this time in the 2026 race
for California governor. _

, Che Ahn Instagram page

 

Joel’s Army”—the militant Protestant movement that fueled both
the January 6 insurrection and the recent political assassinations in
Minnesota—is rearing its head once again, this time in the 2026
race for California governor. Pasadena megachurch pastor Che Ahn, who
announced his candidacy earlier this month with an anodyne press
release, told his audience
[[link removed]] just a few months
earlier: “We are the family of God, but we are also in the army of
God. And the moment you’re born again, God calls you to
warfare.” 

Not that one could look at the announcement of Ahn’s candidacy
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in which he describes himself as “an internationally respected
evangelical leader, successful businessman, and longtime community
advocate,” and immediately see the militant rhetoric and beliefs
that have fueled his career as an apostle of the New Apostolic
Reformation. And Ahn doesn’t merely position himself as a mainstream
conservative; he’s aiming for a more universal appeal, describing
his vision for California’s politics as one of “compassionate
justice.”

There’s been a growing awareness in recent years that metaphorical
talk of militaries and God’s armies by charismatic
Christians—particularly those associated with the New Apostolic
Reformation—is, well, far less metaphorical than many had previously
realized. Ahn’s embrace of moderate political rhetoric belies a
decades-long career of violent rhetoric. 

“The attack that the devil has on children, think about it,” Ahn
shared in a video on X
[[link removed]] earlier this
summer. “The number one killer is abortion. We’re seeing teen
suicide among children, number two killer.” Plenty of evangelicals
who’ve never subscribed to MAGA are deeply pro-life, but what’s
notable is the language he uses. The video’s caption reads, “The
enemy is after our children. This isn’t cultural—it’s
spiritual.” In other words, Ahn understands the political struggles
around abortion, trans kids, and the drivers of teen suicide as
matters of spiritual warfare. 

In a 2009 memoir
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long before it became an evangelical idiom, he showed that he is
deeply involved in fulfilling the dominionist Seven Mountain Mandate
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the belief that Christians must take control of every aspect of
society. “God is God of all, and He is tired of humanistic, selfish
man claiming the forefront of the ‘seven mountains of society,” he
wrote. “God’s intent is for _His _people to be in the forefront
of all societal realms” [emphasis in original] (page 61). 

To that end, he founded his Pasadena-based apostolic network, Harvest
International Ministries, to help fulfill the Seven Mountain Mandate,
not only in nearby Hollywood and public schools, but also in
government itself—America’s and beyond: “We now have members who
have successfully run for parliament in their respective nations;
others are nearing the top of the ladder in their government
roles.” 

The guiding principle for the takeover of the Seven Mountains,
especially the mountain of government, is the radical militarism of
Joel’s Army and its spinoff, Elijah Revolution. The Joel’s Army
movement bases its political theology on an idiosyncratic
interpretation of Joel 2 that sees it as prophesying an End-Times
military force that utterly destroys the enemies of God. Elijah
Revolution, popularized in no small part by Ahn’s ministry partner
Lou Engle, teaches that America is in the grip of a demonic spirit
that the Bible calls Baal. In _The Call of the Elijah Revolution: The
Passion for Radical Change_, Engle and his co-author, James Goll
(likewise a long-time partner of Ahn), wrote in 2008:

Enough of the prophets of Baal! Enough of all the trash coming out of
Hollywood and the television studios! No more tolerance and no more
compromise! Enough of abortion, drugs, and violent crime that are
destroying our generation! Enough of laws that remove God and the
prophetic voice of the Church from the public arena! We will not run,
we will not give in, we will not quit, until all the ‘altars to
Baal’ are removed from our land!

Teachings about the Elijah Revolution so fully saturate Ahn’s
political theology that, as noted earlier, it was the source material
for the speech he gave at Freedom Plaza on January 5, 2021
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to the crowd that would attack the US Capitol the next day: “I
believe this week, we’re going to throw Jezebel out, and Jehu’s
going to rise up, and we’re going to rule and reign through
President Trump and under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.”

Ahn’s Harvest International Ministries now encompasses upwards
of 25,000 churches and faith-based ministries around the world
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largest megachurches in the United States. While Ahn may not be a
traditional politician (and while he hardly appears to be a plausible
frontrunner in California’s political landscape), whether he wins or
not his influence over MAGA evangelicals paints the possibility that
he could affect the race’s outcome. At the very least he will almost
certainly raise his and the NAR’s profile, and in so doing he may
even lay the groundwork for his or another NAR candidate’s future
success.

_KERI LADNER received her PhD at the University of Edinburgh and is
the author of End Time Politics: From the Moral Majority to QAnon
[[link removed]] (Fortress
Press, 2024)._

_RELIGION DISPATCHES [[link removed]] is an
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the intersection of religion, politics, and culture._

_Religion Dispatches offers new ways to think about how religion works
in (and on) American culture and politics. We invite an open
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_Religion Dispatches is a publication of Political Research
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been researching, monitoring, and publicizing the agenda and
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_Learn more about Political Research Associates at
politicalresearch.org. [[link removed]]_

* religion
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* the ultra right
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* Politics
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* California
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* elections
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