November 7, 2008
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This following subjective spiritual babble from Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster is not evangelical Christianity but yet this is the man your pastors turn to for their “Protestant” Spiritual Formation. Better wake up soon…
“The Immanuel Principle is ultimately cosmic,” according to Foster. “We are to reign with God and be with God forever and forever. In the past God worked first directly, then indirectly with his people. Since Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection, God works both directly and indirectly. Quakers in the gathered silence experience God both directly and indirectly.”
I noticed that the focus on the with-God life circumnavigates inconsistencies found in Scripture and differing opinions about theology. By looking at how God revealed himself to people throughout Biblical history negates all those arguments. “You bypass it all,” stated Foster. “You put your focus on how God has been with a person and what does that say to me, now? What are their strengths and weaknesses and how does that apply to me? It’s all about developing charact — character that goes on into the future where we will reign with God and be with God eternally. (Online source)
See also:
THE TERMINOLOGY TRAP OF “SPIRITUAL FORMATION”
RICHARD FOSTER AND QUAKER BELIEFS
“CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE” BY RICHARD FOSTER AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THEOLOGICAL ERROR
SO YOU WANT TO BE LIKE CHRIST… DITCH THE DISCIPLINES OF DALLAS WILLARD
CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM (CSM) OF SPIRITUAL FORMATION IS RECKLESS FAITH
November 7, 2008
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Some solid advice from Paul Washer at Apprising Ministries.
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November 7, 2008
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Some solid advice from Paul Washer at Apprising Ministries.
November 7, 2008
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This following subjective spiritual babble from Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster is not evangelical Christianity but yet this is the man your pastors turn to for their “Protestant” Spiritual Formation. Better wake up soon…
“The Immanuel Principle is ultimately cosmic,” according to Foster. “We are to reign with God and be with God forever and forever. In the past God worked first directly, then indirectly with his people. Since Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection, God works both directly and indirectly. Quakers in the gathered silence experience God both directly and indirectly.”
I noticed that the focus on the with-God life circumnavigates inconsistencies found in Scripture and differing opinions about theology. By looking at how God revealed himself to people throughout Biblical history negates all those arguments. “You bypass it all,” stated Foster. “You put your focus on how God has been with a person and what does that say to me, now? What are their strengths and weaknesses and how does that apply to me? It’s all about developing charact — character that goes on into the future where we will reign with God and be with God eternally. (Online source)
See also:
THE TERMINOLOGY TRAP OF “SPIRITUAL FORMATION”
RICHARD FOSTER AND QUAKER BELIEFS
“CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE” BY RICHARD FOSTER AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THEOLOGICAL ERROR
SO YOU WANT TO BE LIKE CHRIST… DITCH THE DISCIPLINES OF DALLAS WILLARD
CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM (CSM) OF SPIRITUAL FORMATION IS RECKLESS FAITH
November 7, 2008
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I fell asleep during the local evening news tonight. I slept right up to the time when the NBC evening news came on. Their lead-in woke me up. As I heard the gloomy economic news, I found myself wondering where all of this was going. I actually had to force myself to turn the TV off and get alone with God for a bit. It was tough to make myself do that because there was a voice inside me demanding that I despair, worry, and doubt. However, during my evening devotional I read the following from Spurgeon’s Evening by Evening.
“And ye shall be witnesses unto Me.”-Acts 1:8
In order to learn how to discharge your duty as a witness for Christ, look at His example. He is always witnessing: by the well of Samaria, or in the Temple of Jerusalem: by the lake of Gennesaret, or on the mountain’s brow. He is witnessing night and day; His mighty prayers are as vocal to God as His daily services. He witnesses under all circumstances; Scribes and Pharisees cannot shut His mouth; even before Pilate He witnesses a good confession. He witnesses so clearly, and distinctly that there is no mistake in Him. Christian, make your life a clear testimony. Be you as the brook wherein you may see every stone at the bottom-not as the muddy creek, of which you only see the surface-but clear and transparent, so that your heart’s love to God and man may be visible to all. You need not say, “I am true:” be true. Boast not of integrity, but be upright. So shall your testimony be such that men cannot help seeing it. Never, for fear of feeble man, restrain your witness. Your lips have been warmed with a coal from off the altar; let them speak as like heaven-touched lips should do. “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand.” Watch not the clouds, consult not the wind-in season and out of season witness for the Saviour, and if it shall come to pass that for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s you shall endure suffering in any shape, shrink not, but rejoice in the honour thus conferred upon you, that you are counted worthy to suffer with your Lord; and joy also in this-that your sufferings, your losses, and persecutions shall make you a platform, from which the more vigorously and with greater power you shall witness for Christ Jesus. Study your great Exemplar, and be filled with His Spirit. Remember that you need much teaching, much upholding, much grace, and much humility, if your witnessing is to be to your Master’s glory.
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November 7, 2008
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When I graduated from a Sourthern Baptist seminary I was versed in Karl Barth,…and Jugen Multmann; all the German theology that closed every church in Germany. And it wasn’t until I got in the Bible that I realized that most of what I had learned was worthless. And so you get into God’s Word; you get—you want to learn how to preach?
Find the preachers that God has most used throughout history and read them. Your Charles Spurgeon, who was a Calvinist; your Alexander MacLaren, who was not. Read books of men who were on fire; you read books of men who God used to change countries. Read their biographies; read their sermons, read their theology. You don’t wanna read a book from some man who was never used of God to do anything except waste trees.
And then find men on this earth that are walking now—they won’t be necessarily popular and they won’t have the biggest churches, but truth comes out of their mouth—and get there; and stay there, and learn from them. Come under a godly group of elders, who love you enough, to care about you, to teach you; be there, and learn.
Paul Washer, (Online source)
November 7, 2008
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I wonder how long this guy would be rapping if he did a book/CD signing at a bookshop in Saudi Arabia? I doubt if he has any Middle Eastern, or for that matter, European tours planned.
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November 7, 2008
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I wonder how long this guy would be rapping if he did a book/CD signing at a bookshop in Saudi Arabia? I doubt if he has any Middle Eastern, or for that matter, European tours planned.
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November 7, 2008
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If you don’t believe that God foreknows and wills all things, how can you believe and rely on his promises? Here is a portion of Martin Luther’s refutation of Erasmus’ The Freedom of the Will, entitled, The Bondage of the Will:
“Still more intolerable is your classifying ‘free-will’ among the ‘useless doctrines that we can do [...]
November 7, 2008
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Over at Apprising Ministries.
November 7, 2008
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Adapted from Yes Lord, May You Save Us!
Yes Lord, may You save us. May You save us from weak-kneed effete Christian cowards today afraid of their own spiritual shadow who masquerade as ministers of God. May You wake up Your Church and give us eyes to see the dark red sky this morning.
O Lord, send us some real men of God anointed to preach the Gospel in the Holy Spirit with power! Men who know the hour grows late and who have the baptism of boldness to preach to the crowds:
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:7-9)
And God, may You raise up men powerful in Christ whose hearts break with Your compassion for those trapped in their sin; may they love these people enough to tell them the Truth: Repent or perish. In Jesus’ Name, may You bring those still lost home to You. Amen.
November 7, 2008
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Watch a 3 minute video; “for a free chance to WIN”, your choice of 1 of 3 vehicles. Details here.
More info here.
November 7, 2008
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by R.C. Sproul
Perhaps the most remarkable statement I ever heard a man utter from the pulpit was: “He has a penurious epistemology, which tends to be myopic.” I was seated in the balcony of the church when that statement was made, and I could not restrain myself from laughing aloud. I nudged my wife Vesta and said, “I just might be the only person in the church who understood what that man said.” What is a penurious epistemology? A penurious epistemology is a theory of knowledge that is poverty-stricken or on the verge of bankruptcy. Such a view of knowledge, if it tends towards myopia, is simply suffering a bad case of near-sightedness. I’m afraid that the American church suffers from a similar sort of myopia.
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November 7, 2008
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knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21, ESV)
Physical Training Is Of Some Value, But Godliness Has Value For All Things
Apprising Ministries has brought this up before and here I’ll say it again: No one credible writing in the area of Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism(CSM) is saying that spiritual growth is unnecessary nor are we saying “discipline” is bad thing. Men and women, any of my football players who enjoyed their success on the field the years I was a head coach at the local secular high school will gladly back me in this. The very first talk I would give them along with their parents each season explained what discipline is and its very beneficial role in life.
I would explain that discipline was rooted in teaching and in this case it would help them to become better football players. Each year I would begin by asking them: “Is discipline a bad thing?” The new players would answer, yes; and it was kind of rewarding to watch as the veteran players would immediately begin to explain to the new ones what I had already taught them: “Discipline is good; punishment is bad. If you don’t break your discipline there will be no need for anyone to be punished.”
The major issue which is going to have to be addressed by the Body of Christ today is terminology like Spiritual Formation (SF) as well as that associated with subsequent “spiritual disciplines,” or practices, said to have come emerging from it. This spurious CSM/SF was allegedly rediscovered by Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster and then this reimagined “Christian” mysticism was given a pseudo-intellectual veneer by Foster’s friend and spiritual twin SBC minister Dallas Willard, who was once a member of the Quaker church Foster used to pastor.
However the late Roman Catholic monk Thomas Merton, mystic mentor to Richard Foster and longtime practioner of CSM, is in a much better position to tell us where it actually originated than either Foster or Willard. And so we turn here to Merton’s book Spiritual Direction & Meditation. In my personal copy of his book Thomas Merton, the apostate (at best) whom Foster says shared “priceless wisdom for all Christians who long to go deeper in the spiritual life,” informs us why spiritual directors—who taught so-called spiritual formation—would become necessary in the first place.
Merton tell us that the:
original, primitive meaning of spiritual direction suggests a particular need connected with a special ascetic task, a peculiar vocation for which a professional formation is required. In other words, spiritual direction is a monastic concept. It is a practice which was unnecessary until men withdrew from the Christian community in order to live as solitaries in the desert.
For the ordinary member in the primitive Christian community there was no particular need of personal direction in the professional sense. The bishop, the living and visible representative of the apostle who had founded the local Church, spoke for Christ and the apostles, and, helped by the presbyters, took care of all the spiritual needs of his flock.
(11, emphasis mine)
You should now be able to see that this is already in contradiction to what Jesus told His Christians we must be doing — “As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). So if today’s perpetrators of this refried Romanism of CSM/SF within evangelicalism e.g. like Emerging Church pastor Rob Bell can make the case that Christ Jesus—and His Apostles—spent their lives living “as solitaries” in secluded caves then we have indeed rediscovered “ancient/future” Christianity; but they can’t.
As a matter of fact my friend Bob DeWaay, pastor of Twin City Fellowship who—just as I do—has personal experience with charismatic Pentecostalism, pointed out the problem of this rebirth of asceticism-lite within Protestantism in his scholarly article Colossian Heresy, Part 2: How Colossians Warns Against Spiritual Elitism and False Spiritual Warfare Teachings. DeWaay is dead on target when he says, “part of the problem in Colossae was asceticism. The idea is that self-denial can create a higher level spiritual situation.”
DeWaay then explains that:
Today these matters still “appear” to be pious and exemplary. This version of elitism will be around until Christ returns. It has never disappeared in church history. There are always those who can be convinced that if they have stricter rules, dietary laws, or some other version or rigorous self-denial, they can get closer to God… We need not restrict Paul’s warning to any particular kind of legalism or asceticism. It applies to any that arise at any time in history from any source… One cannot escape the hostile powers, better his fate or destiny, or get closer to God by the means of following man-made rules. The idea is that one can “ascend” to a higher place by such practices… (Online source)
Or in the case of the “man-made rules” of CSM, as I showed you in “Heaven, We Have A Problem!”, even evangelicals such as respected apologist J.P. Moreland will now tell you that CSM is about “the development of sensitivity to the inner affective movements of the soul.” In fact in his book Kingdom Triangle it becomes patently obvious that Moreland’s personally involved in this type of spurious CSM when he praises the supposed great “contributions and achievements” of “the Desert Fathers to Henry Nouwen and Richard Foster.”
As one who has been studying these issues for a couple of years now from primary sources I have purchased personally I can tell you that Moreland speaks the jargon of CSM well as he enlightens us in words, which could have been written by Thomas Merton himself:
The empty self is now as epidemic in America (and much of Western culture) and…the empty self undermines growth as a disciple. The empty self is actually a ubiquitous incarnation of what is more broadly called the false self. Roughly, the false self is the self we present to others, perhaps unconsciously, in order to make the world safe for us,…the false self is a tangled web of internal tapes…the true self is the person we really are,… Our practice of discipleship and spiritual formation must be done with a clear view of the empty self… (141)
However, this type of psycho-babble is also quite reminiscent of Norman Vincernt Peale disciple Robert Schulleras well and is at its core a repudiation of total depravity bordering on semi-pelagianism; and being charitable, if not outright pelagianism. And since the focus here isn’t on this spiritually sick love of self I will simply refer you to The Real Truth About Your “True Self”. For now we’ll begin to wrap this up as DeWaay goes on to inform us:
Given the spiritual climate of Ephesus and Colossae, Paul is likely countering any idea that Christians are still under the sway of the stoicheia ["elementary principles"]. People living in convents and taking “oaths of poverty” cannot thereby get one iota closer to God if they even know Him at all. Early in church history, after Constantine popularized Christianity, people fled into the desert to seek escape from the corrupting influences they saw around them. However, what they found was that the old sinful self came out there with them. Paul said that however pious such strict religious practices may seem, they “are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”
Very early in my Christian life I was taken in by this kind of teaching. I tried my very hardest to be the best Christian I could. I was either fasting or feeling guilty about not fasting. I was trying to force myself to pray more and more, day and night. Anything that seemed desirable, I felt the need to give up. I loved football and tried so very hard to give up watching it and not let any thoughts about football teams enter my mind. I gave up all the music I liked. I gave up all TV. I labored to be the best “Christian” in Bible college. The whole sad experiment ended in dismal failure. I was trying to get closer to God and be a great man of God.
What actually happened was that after seven months of this, I became so angry and judgmental of all the “lesser” Christians around me (whom I called “carnal” simply for going about normal life) that I was actually robbed of the basic fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, etc. All my “higher” level Christian living turned out to be as “carnal” as any of those I looked upon as lesser. God kindly brought me back to His grace and mercy, where there is everlasting joy. (Online source)
In closing, I’ll give you one quick example about what’s at stake here. We take Lectio Divina (means “sacred reading”), which is becoming all the rage as a neo-pietism spreads through evangelicalism from these artificial “spiritual disciplines” Foster supposedly rediscovered. Um, right; the Lord’s Reformers missed these disciplines rooted in the aceticism and mysticism practiced by Counter Reformation figures like Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Avila so God then had to choose an ecumenical non-Protestant Quaker mystic to restore them to the Church in 1978. Yeah, nothing cult-like there.
Apostate Roman Catholic Practices Cannot Be Redeemed By Protestants
But things like Lectio Divina cannot be made “safe” because they didn’t originate with Protestants; we don’t get to then redefine these practices of apostate Roman Catholicism. Yet this is exactly what is causing such a huge problem in the Body of Christ right now as men like Donald Whitney mean well while they labor to make it appear as if some of these monastic practices were ever part of what Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989) so often called “the historic orthodox Christian faith” to begin with. As further illustration of what I mean we take the following from well-respected Reformed blogger Tim Challies.
This comes from Challies’ review of Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life:
And so this book is an examination of spiritual disciplines – disciplines provided by God which are designed to help us grow in godliness, allowing us to become more and more conformed to the image of Christ. The disciplines Whitney writes about are:
* Bible intake
* Prayer
* Worship
* Evangelism
* Serving
* Stewardship
* Fasting
* Silence and solitude
* Journalling
* Learning
The book is prefaced with an examination of the reason for disciplining ourselves in the spiritual disciplines and Whitney teaches here that we are to do all things for God’s glory. Because God requires each of these disciplines of us, there is danger in neglecting any of them. (Online source, emphasis mine)
Can anyone point to a specific list of these spiritual disciplines within the Bible; no. And “God requires” e.g. journaling in Scripture; where? We could now just as easily ask: Who made Donald Whitney a law-giver; we’re not to let any man act as our judge. So suppose I say to Whitney: “Go jump in the lake—I refuse to practice the existential and highly subjective practice of journaling and you have no authority to command me to do so or then suggest that I’m not properly ‘disciplined’ if I don’t.” Can you see how this actually ends up a transgression of Sola Scriptura; and worse, may even take us back to what DeWaay is talking about above.
Now let me be crystal clear here: In no way do I think Donald Whitney teaches CSM ala Foster/Willard et al; he is a brother in the Lord, a nice man, and does attempt to distance himself from the heretical Foster. But that said, in my firsthand study of books and materials by teachers of CSM like Foster and Willard—whose far-reaching influence within evangelicalism completely dwarfs that of Whitney—I can see that their version of spiritual disciplines is what the vast majority of people are thinking of when SF is discussed. Men and women, their materials have been used in seminaries for years in a positive fashion and are required reading in virtually every evangelical Protestant SF course, which itself then touches on many areas of ministerial studies.
I have spoken of The Cult Of Guru Richard Fosterfor very good reason; if he says something in the spiritual arena it is swallowed, you’d do well to think about that. And J.P. Moreland speaks the sad truth when he shows you just how far off the rails from Sola Scriptura mainstream evangelicalism is right now when he writes in Kingdom Triangle:
If I were going to launch out in this area [of spiritual formation]… I would invest myself in absorbing… Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart… Richard Foster’s Celebration of Disciplinehas earned the title of a contemporary classic…[and] Henri Nouwen’s The Way of the Heart is a must read. (157)
1) You need to understand that Willard’s corrupt contemplative teachings mirror those of Foster; and 2) the practice of CSM led Nouwen, another Roman Catholic priest/monk, to end up a universalist. From my own copy of his book Sabbatical Journey:
Today I personally believe that Jesus came to open the door to God’s house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her way to God. (51)
And still that didn’t stop Ravi Zacharias, a revered evangelical apologist, from emphatically declaring, “One of the greatest saints of recent memory was Henri Nouwen.” Watch for yourself in Ravi Zacharias Answers “Can A Person Live A Sincere Christian Life As A Homosexual?” But with all of these people using the same terminology, albeit with slightly different meanings, we’re then led to what you’ll see discussed in Managing Editor for Biola Magazine Confirms Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism at Biola.
There 25 year-old Brett McCraken gives us his eyewitness testimony concerning this “Protestant” university where:
we dare to introduce students to ancient methods of contemplative, meditative prayer. We dare to engage the students in Lectio Divina, an ancient method inherited from the Desert Fathers of deeply reading and meditating upon a scripture. It’s not new-agey or mystical; it’s simple, quiet, and meaningful. The bible takes center stage. What is wrong with that? Evidently these critics of Biola are worried that by having an entire chapel service of silent meditation,… (Online source)
No; instead, one’s subjective experience and untrustworthy feelingsabout the text of the Bible “takes center stage.” Now from reading Whitney’s works, and from talking with people who know him personally, I understand that when he speaks e.g. about contemplation and meditation Whitney does so with a meaning consistent with that of, say, the Puritans i.e. consciously dwelling upon what God has said in Scripure. Personally I would say Whitney is speaking about means of grace such as we see in Acts 2:42 — They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
In other words “contemplation” to Whitney is the completely valid expression of thinking deeply about what God is saying in a given passage of the Bible, which is not of private interpretation. However, the Roman Catholic/Foster-Willard approach ends up as an attempt to go within and “feel” what God is saying to “me” in Scripture. And so, as we *ahem* meditate further upon this you should now be able to see that this is actually an existential, neo-orthodox approach to Scripture, which first crept into neo-evangelicalism ala Billy Graham almost from its inception and would then be spread rapidly throughout the Body of Christ by its Christianity Today magazine.
And may the Lord have mercy upon us because we are only now beginning to pay the price of years of Bible studies where one goes around the room asking: “What does this verse mean to you; what does it mean to your-self?”
See also:
“CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE” BY RICHARD FOSTER AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THEOLOGICAL ERROR
SO YOU WANT TO BE LIKE CHRIST… DITCH THE DISCIPLINES OF DALLAS WILLARD
CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM (CSM) OF SPIRITUAL FORMATION IS RECKLESS FAITH
ORIGIN OF CONTEMPLATIVE/CENTERING PRAYER
November 7, 2008
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Shariah Law at the US Treasury, millions, including the slavering media jackals, worshiping a new messiah, and occult prophets trumpeting the emergence of “Maitreya”, the World Teacher. All of this will be talked about on today’s free ranging Crosstalk Show. Tune in live at 2pm Central at our website or listen later to the podcast.
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November 7, 2008
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If you can’t handle the Truth concerning the “give the people what they want” powerless “Christianity” of our tepid times then do yourself a favor and do not read this piece at Apprising Ministries.
November 7, 2008
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You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? (James 4:4-5)
Give The People What They Want; The Powerless “Christianity” Of Our Tepid Times
Today in her piece Save Us From Your Followers, Lord, (Including the Producers of This Film) over at Slice of Laodicea Ingrid Schlueter brings to our attention:
There’s a new movie buzz among evangelicals. It’s been several hours since the last one so it’s about time. This time it’s a Christian movie about…how bad and stupid Christians are and how we need to change everything because we all look like Fred Phelps. Got that?
And the producers are “just trying to start a conversation…” as they use half-truths and movie manipulation to do it. This film uses some great Third Reich movie demonization techniques to make Christians look as reprehensible as possible. The Christian Problem. Hmmm. Something must be done about that. (Online source)
Because she’s my friend I know Ingrid understands when I say that for too long now she’s been much more “man” than so many of the men around the bloated blogosphere busy blogging about nothing while the enemy sets up shop even deeper within the mainstream evangelical camp.
The movie Ingrid is talking about is called Lord Save Us From Your Followers by “Writer/Director/Producer” Dan Wilson and “Executive Producer” Jeff Martin. From the synopsis:
Though nine out of ten Americans claim a belief in God, public expression of faith is more contentious as ever… Lord, Save Us From Your Followers is the energetic, accessible documentary that explores the collision of faith and culture in America. Fed up with the angry, strident language filling the airwaves that has come to represent the Christian faith, director (and follower) Dan Merchant set out to discover why the Gospel of Love is dividing America… (Online source)
Well, let’s see if we can clear up the big mystery for Dan the “follower” (of men?) by introducing him to the actual Jesus. The following is from “Writer/Apostle” Matthew who shares his eyewitness testimony of Christ’s exclusive and “contentious” message; Dan, He was crucified for it don’t ya know:
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ’a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ ”
“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34-39)
Well I dunno Dan, I’m not a Hollywood figure, only the lowly pastor of a small church in rural New England, but that doesn’t really sound like Jesus is trying to organize some all-inclusive Love Train to me. It also doesn’t sound like those of us who are Christians should be bowing before the feet of unregenerate rebels who hate God. O, I have no right to judge their hearts; and I don’t.
This is what our Creator, Christ Jesus of Nazareth says:
As it is written: ”There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10-18)
And the Lord does know their hearts because He made them. So, if you don’t like what you just read; as Dr. Walter Martin would often say, “Your argument is with the Lord; when you win that one, come back and argue with me.” So I say: Yes Lord, may You save us.
May You save us from weak-kneed effete Christian cowards afraid of their own spiritual shadow who masquerade as ministers of God. Wake up Your Church and give us eyes to see the dark red sky this morning. O Lord, send us some real men of God anointed to preach the Gospel in the Holy Spirit with power!
Men who know the hour grows late and who have the baptism of boldness to preach to the crowds:
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:7-9)
And God, may You raise up men powerful in Christ whose hearts break with Your compassion for those trapped in their sin; may they love these people enough to tell them the Truth, such as the following from Charles Spurgeon:
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. (Luke 16:13, KJV)
O unclean man, how can you dream of salvation while you are defiled by filthiness? What, you and your harlot, members of Christ! Oh, you know not my pure and holy Master. He receives sinners, but He rejects those who delight in their iniquities. You must have done with your indulgence of sin if you would be cleansed from the guilt of it.
There is no going on in transgression and yet obtaining salvation: it is licentious supposition. Christ comes to save us from our sins, not to make it safe to do evil. That blood that washes out the stain brings with it also a hatred of the thing that made the stain. Sin must be relinquished, or salvation cannot be received.
I spoke very plainly just now, but some here of pure heart little know how plainly we must speak if we are to reach some men’s consciences, for it shames me when I think of some who year after year indulge in secret sin, and yet are frequenters of the house of God. You would think they surely were already converted or soon would be when you saw them here, but if you follow them home, you would quite despair of them.
O lovers of sin, do not deceive yourselves; you will surely reap that which you sow. How can grace reign in you while you are the slaves of your own passions? How can it be while you are anchored to a secret sin that you should be borne along by the current of grace toward the desired haven of safety? Either you must leave your sin, or you must leave all hope of Heaven; if you hold your sin, Hell will ere long hold you. May God deliver us from the love of sin, for such a deliverance is salvation.
(At the Master’s Feet, November 7)
November 7, 2008
Click the post title to be taken to the source.
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? (James 4:4-5)
Give The People What They Want; The Powerless “Christianity” Of Our Tepid Times
Today in her piece Save Us From Your Followers, Lord, (Including the Producers of This Film) over at Slice of Laodicea Ingrid Schlueter brings to our attention:
There’s a new movie buzz among evangelicals. It’s been several hours since the last one so it’s about time. This time it’s a Christian movie about…how bad and stupid Christians are and how we need to change everything because we all look like Fred Phelps. Got that?
And the producers are “just trying to start a conversation…” as they use half-truths and movie manipulation to do it. This film uses some great Third Reich movie demonization techniques to make Christians look as reprehensible as possible. The Christian Problem. Hmmm. Something must be done about that. (Online source)
Because she’s my friend I know Ingrid understands when I say that for too long now she’s been much more “man” than so many of the men around the bloated blogosphere busy blogging about nothing while the enemy sets up shop even deeper within the mainstream evangelical camp.
The movie Ingrid is talking about is called Lord Save Us From Your Followers by “Writer/Director/Producer” Dan Wilson and “Executive Producer” Jeff Martin. From the synopsis:
Though nine out of ten Americans claim a belief in God, public expression of faith is more contentious as ever… Lord, Save Us From Your Followers is the energetic, accessible documentary that explores the collision of faith and culture in America. Fed up with the angry, strident language filling the airwaves that has come to represent the Christian faith, director (and follower) Dan Merchant set out to discover why the Gospel of Love is dividing America… (Online source)
Well, let’s see if we can clear up the big mystery for Dan the “follower” (of men?) by introducing him to the actual Jesus. The following is from “Writer/Apostle” Matthew who shares his eyewitness testimony of Christ’s exclusive and “contentious” message; Dan, He was crucified for it don’t ya know:
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ’a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ ”
“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34-39)
Well I dunno Dan, I’m not a Hollywood figure, only the lowly pastor of a small church in rural New England, but that doesn’t really sound like Jesus is trying to organize some all-inclusive Love Train to me. It also doesn’t sound like those of us who are Christians should be bowing before the feet of unregenerate rebels who hate God. O, I have no right to judge their hearts; and I don’t.
This is what our Creator, Christ Jesus of Nazareth says:
As it is written: ”There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10-18)
And the Lord does know their hearts because He made them. So, if you don’t like what you just read; as Dr. Walter Martin would often say, “Your argument is with the Lord; when you win that one, come back and argue with me.” So I say: Yes Lord, may You save us.
May You save us from weak-kneed effete Christian cowards afraid of their own spiritual shadow who masquerade as ministers of God. Wake up Your Church and give us eyes to see the dark red sky this morning. O Lord, send us some real men of God anointed to preach the Gospel in the Holy Spirit with power!
Men who know the hour grows late and who have the baptism of boldness to preach to the crowds:
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:7-9)
And God, may You raise up men powerful in Christ whose hearts break with Your compassion for those trapped in their sin; may they love these people enough to tell them the Truth, such as the following from Charles Spurgeon:
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. (Luke 16:13, KJV)
O unclean man, how can you dream of salvation while you are defiled by filthiness? What, you and your harlot, members of Christ! Oh, you know not my pure and holy Master. He receives sinners, but He rejects those who delight in their iniquities. You must have done with your indulgence of sin if you would be cleansed from the guilt of it.
There is no going on in transgression and yet obtaining salvation: it is licentious supposition. Christ comes to save us from our sins, not to make it safe to do evil. That blood that washes out the stain brings with it also a hatred of the thing that made the stain. Sin must be relinquished, or salvation cannot be received.
I spoke very plainly just now, but some here of pure heart little know how plainly we must speak if we are to reach some men’s consciences, for it shames me when I think of some who year after year indulge in secret sin, and yet are frequenters of the house of God. You would think they surely were already converted or soon would be when you saw them here, but if you follow them home, you would quite despair of them.
O lovers of sin, do not deceive yourselves; you will surely reap that which you sow. How can grace reign in you while you are the slaves of your own passions? How can it be while you are anchored to a secret sin that you should be borne along by the current of grace toward the desired haven of safety? Either you must leave your sin, or you must leave all hope of Heaven; if you hold your sin, Hell will ere long hold you. May God deliver us from the love of sin, for such a deliverance is salvation.
(At the Master’s Feet, November 7)
November 7, 2008
Click the post title to be taken to the source.
This is an important point in discussion concerning spiritual formation: No one credible writing in the area of criticism of contemplative spirituality is saying that spiritual growth is unnecessary nor are we saying “discipline” is bad thing.
More at Apprising Ministries.
ShareThis
November 7, 2008
Click the post title to be taken to the source.
This is an important point in discussion concerning spiritual formation: No one credible writing in the area of criticism of contemplative spirituality is saying that spiritual growth is unnecessary nor are we saying “discipline” is bad thing.
More at Apprising Ministries.
ShareThis
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