January 6, 2009
Click the post title to be taken to the source.
“God-centered evangelism believes all men are fallen and will not come to God by their own power or will, because they are deaf, blind, dead and have no power for spiritual good. Their minds are at enmity with God, and left to themselves, they will not seek God. Men need new natures. We call this regeneration. Regeneration is the work of God alone, and this great work always produces conversion, which is repentance toward God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Regeneration is a big theological word that views salvation from God’s side—it is the instantaneous impartation of life. Paul calls it new creation. One may, or may not, be conscience of the exact moment when it takes place in them.
Conversion, on the other hand, is viewing salvation from the human side. Repenting is something man does. Believing is something man does. Both are a result of what God does. This order is important if you are ever to understand the difference between God-centered and man-centered evangelism.”
-Ernest Reisinger, Today’s Evangelism pgs 98-99
January 6, 2009
Click the post title to be taken to the source.
The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)
Spiritual Deception Always Begins With Satan’s Pick Up Line, “Yea, Did God Say?”
The idea for this short piece germinated as I answered an email I had received here at Apprising Ministries from a former minister of apologetics for a group in England but who’s now a church planter in Barbados. They’d taken issue with how I have written concerning the Emerging Church rebellion against Sola Scriptura and Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP); you see, in their opinion, what I should do is to simply point out the books and/or websites belonging to these Emergent Church leaders that clearly show their false teaching.
I explained that the type of work I do along the often ugly Internet Front of this spiritual Vietnam Truth War is not the typical apologetic they’d likely be used to. Those familiar with AM know I’ve referred to that style of writing as the plus/minus approach. It’s by far the most common method, which no doubt you’ve seen many times. One begins by listing the 3-5 good things about a given subject, this is then followed by the 8-10 bad things, in order to reach the foregone conclusion that they can’t recommend said subject. And as I’ve said before it’s not wrong; however, I just chose to leave out the often patronizing step one is all.
For our purposes here though the main point I wish to draw out is this idea about simply listing materials by false teachers, which then clearly outline their aberrant and heretical doctrine. That would be very nice indeed, wouldn’t it? O, if only false teachers would be so kind as to openly announce to us that they are false teachers; and then, how great would it be if they would go on to supply us with a very complete and detailed outline listing all of the things about which they are wrongly teaching. But unfortunately, in the real world, that’s just never been their M.O.
At this point, an incident Bob DeWaay shares in his fine scholarly work The Dangers of Deception proves to be quite edifying. Pastor DeWaay, whom I hear has a book on the Emerging Church coming soon, tells us that a “former missionary” had “recounted a story that illustrates the reality of the spirit world.” DeWaay then writes:
Here is the story in his words:
A twelve-year-old boy in Taiwan was having strange experiences. He felt as though someone was often following him but when he turned around, he saw no one. Often in the morning after a fitful sleep he would have bruises and tell his parents that someone had been hitting him in the night as he slept. His parents took him to medical doctors who could find nothing wrong with the boy. Finally, they took him to a blind fortune-teller – one who had a reputation for his effectiveness in perceiving the spirit world.
This fortune-teller told the boy and his parents that the boy was born as a twin and that the other twin had died at birth. This was of course known to the parents, but few other people knew about this as they had kept it a secret. The fortune-teller went on to say that the boy’s problems were caused by the spirit of the deceased twin who was angry about being neglected. His parents had not been faithfully worshiping him and providing for him in the spirit world. Therefore, this spirit was punishing them by harassing their son (his twin). The solution was to set up an altar for the spirit of the deceased twin, worship him with food and incense, and burn spirit money on his behalf. When the family did as they had been instructed, the boy’s strange experiences ceased.
One might ask, “How can it be that this worked”? The answer is that Satan has good reasons to make it work. The spirits tormenting the child were doing what evil spirits delight to do. The fortune-teller is connected to real spiritual knowledge. The spirits told the fortune-teller of the twin. The spirits gave him the “prescription” and other spirits quit their tormenting because by doing so, they have immersed that whole family in the animistic beliefs of spirit worship. Imagine how solid would be their beliefs and how unlikely would be their turning to Jesus Christ. Divination and spiritism work — that is what makes the danger so great. Deceptions that do not “work” have a short shelf life. (Online source)
And so it is as we approach the subject of CCP, which is the main vehicle for the corrupt quasi-Eastern Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) now becoming all the rage in apostatizing evangelicalism as advanced by Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic “Roshi” Richard Foster. While I’m not aligned with either the charismatic or Pentecostal movements I’m also not a strict cessationist. Now my only reason for mentioning this is in order that the reader understand I personally do not immediately discount claims made that are of a spiritual nature as some do.
Let me also say here that sometimes I really wish it was so easy; simply dismissing out of hand everyone who claims to have an experience with God, but that would be to limit His omnipotence, not a good idea. As Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989), a recognized authority on religious cults having their origin in the United States, used to say: “All experience must be tested by Scripture; and never the reverse.” But unfortunately, years and years of, “What does that verse mean to you?” Bible studies have paved the way for this current Emergent Church rebellion against Sola Scriptura.
You also need to realize that its right now poised for an all-out offensive as you can see e.g. in “Enough With the Bible“. Couple the above with the past ten years of a relentless re-educating process aimed at indoctrinating evangelical Protestants to accept the Counter Reformation CSM of apostate Roman Catholicism and *Presto* you have today’s mainstream Christian version of what Dr. John MacArthur called “Reckless Faith” as far back as 1994:
[Contemplative Spirituality aka] Mysticism is perfectly suited for religious existentialism; indeed, it is the inevitable consequence. The mystic disdains rational understanding and seeks truth instead through the feelings, the imagination, personal visions, inner voices, private illumination, of other purely subjective means. Objective truth becomes practically superfluous.
Mysticial experiences are therefore self-authenticating; that is, they are not subject to any form of objective verification. They are unique to the person who experiences them. Since they do not arise from or depend upon any rational process, they are invulnerable to any refutation by rational means… Mysticism is therefore antithetical to discernment. It is an extreme form of reckless faith. Mysticism is the great melting pot into which neo-orthodoxy, the charismatic movement, anti-intellectual evangelicals, and even some segments of Roman Catholicism have been synthesized.
But The Same Wrong Spiritual Practices Reproduce The Same Wrong Experiences
I never cease to be amazed how God works because literally as I was writing this piece I received a call from Paul Walker, one of the pastors on AM’s board of directors. Walker fills you in further in Labyrinth-Walking Now Welcome in the SBC but he’d just gotten off the phone with the editor of Missions Mosaic, a magazine printed by the Women’s Missionary Union of the Southern Baptist Convention, expressing his rightful disgust that this SBC ministry is now recommending—among other aspects of CSM—Lectio Divina and walking a labyrinth.
He’d done his best to point out that this CSM is actually the type of divination DeWaay was writing about in the article cited above and which God condemned in Deuteronomy 18. Sadly, she wouldn’t listen to him anymore than Ravi Zacharias would listen to me. As Walker reported, “I was ‘reassured’ that their doctrinal editor had read the article and signed off on it. I plead with this person to repent of these practices and was told that this person’s own SBC church has a labyrinth where they had such ‘a wonderful experience’.” As MacArthur just said: Mysticial experiences are therefore self-authenticating.
The easiest way to discover how the more conservative segment of the American Christian Church embraced her own demise is to look back at this Emerging Church as it starts circa 1997 with the Young Leaders Network spawning the Terra Nova Project via Doug Pagitt. I’ve covered this elsewhere so the simplest way for me to attempt to make it clear as to how we got here today is to remind you that the majority of these youth leaders and youth ministers from which this Emergent rebellion against the final authority of God’s Word would grow were semi-pelagian missionary types who were already largely neo-orthodox (at best).
As such they were already predisposed to this kind of reckless faith of CSM because, for results, they placed orthopraxy ahead of orthodoxy. You need to understand that so-called “Christian” mysticism aka CSM, which has CCP as its prime practice, was a core doctrine from the inception of the EC. Emergent Swami Brian McLaren already told you that in the 2004 Christianity Astray Today article called The Emergent Mystique when he called Richard Foster and his spiritual twin Dallas Willard “key mentors” of the Emerging Church. With it they found the proverbial Trojan Horse within which to bring CSM inside the mainstream evangelical camp itself.
Well, it is as was pointed out in Ravi Zacharias International Ministries Embracing Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (Pt. 2) the fact is that the Lord’s Reformation came about in the first place because of this very same kind of Tower of Babel-like spirituality still within the apostate Church of Rome today. And sadly, it seems that even evangelical ministries RZIM would have us return to what had so disgusted God that His Spirit moved upon His Reformers who risked their very lives in order to wrest His Church away from Satan’s seducing spirits who had infiltrated it.
Therefore, because this Emergent rebellion against the Bible does not speak in accord with Isaiah 8:20, and has called us to return to the Egypt of apostate Roman Catholic spirituality, it’s crystal clear to those of us whom God has sovereignly, and graciously, given eyes that see this whole CSM revival is a counterfeit form of Christianity and therefore cannot a genuine move of the Holy Spirit. But that does not, however, rule out CSM producing very real, and very pleasant, experiences. Remember what DeWaay said: Deceptions that do not “work” have a short shelf life.
We must acknowledge that a lot of what e.g. I’m covering here at AM is inter-related because they are moved by the very seducing spirits who’ve been known in Scripture for duping people with “nice” experiences. Haven’t you read — They say to the seers, ”See no more visions!” and to the prophets, ”Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions” (Isaiah 30:10). Or — “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ’Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace. (Jeremiah 6:14). Quite obviously these pleasant and peaceful things weren’t of God.
And neither is this syncretistic Emerging idea of learning truth about God from other religions. Only the really spiritually obtuse and/or unregenerate could miss what the Lord has said here — the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons (1 Corinthians 10:20). Well, here’s a real blast from the past: Adam and Eve tried to learn about God from a demon—in fact, the prince of demons—and it really didn’t work out too well. Maybe it’s time to take Scripture at face value; flee evil.
For now, concerning this Sola Scriptura-denying CSM, I prayerfully leave you to contemplate the following from God’s Word. Men and women, the isssues touching on CSM and its CCP involve spiritual deceptions that are beyond man’s intellect, which is why no one should venture into the spiritual realm without the protection of God the Holy Spirit. But this is precisely what the unregenerate engaging in CSM are, in very fact, doing. Now notice above in our opening text that we’re told in verse 9 to expect all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders.
One of the major doctrines of demons advanced by seducing spirits to the very gullible evangelical public is that if someone has a “nice” and/or “good” experience of a supernatural sort it’s automatically assumed to be of God. Wrong; very wrong. In verse 9 above we find very good reason to be fearful. In this generation, you’d best be sure that you really do have a relationship with God through Christ because these miracles, signs and wonders will look exactly the same as the true miracles, signs and wonders done by the original Apostles.
As a matter of fact, the very same Greek words are also used by God in Hebrews 2:4 regarding the miracles, signs and wonders done of the Holy Spirit in the first century! And common sense will tell you that the closer to the original a counterfeit is the more effective it’s going to be. So just because something appears to work; or feels good, or seems so “loving,” it most certainly does not necessarily mean that it is of God. Therefore, it doesn’t take a degree in theology to understand spurious spirituality always ends is deadly deception and with CSM we’ve been there, and done that, before.
January 6, 2009
Click the post title to be taken to the source.
Read the doctrinal statement at Glenview New Church, and meet the new spirituality in all its, uh, splendor. They call this “A New Christianity.”
The Church – The Lord’s universal church includes all people who live a good life according to their own religious beliefs. One teaching of the New Church says, “Every person is saved who acknowledges God and lives well.” The Lord makes sure that all people have the opportunity to learn these two most basic principles of religion, working through many churches in many nations. Yet He offers us much more than the “basics.” The New Church is where you will find specific teachings about what He asks of us and how He leads us.
I have news for them. This isn’t Christianity at all but an apostate counterfeit. If all religions lead to God and heaven, Jesus Christ could have saved Himself a lot of trouble by never coming to earth to be crucified. Everybody could have just gone Buddhist and embraced a fat little idol. Or they could have become Thetans with Scientology and watched for their mothership returning to earth. Or they could have become Muslims and blown themselves up to the greater glory of Allah. The possibilities are endless, but none of these paths lead to the one true God.That path is found by faith alone in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. All else is error.
We’re going to see more and more of this foolishness posing as Christianity in the days to come, as the exlclusive message of Christ in the Gospel is rejected in favor of an “all paths lead to God” universalism. It’s being promulgated within evangelicalism now by emergents like Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt and friends.
January 6, 2009
Click the post title to be taken to the source.
Pastor John Chisham continues his review of the latest book by Rob Bell, the Elvis of the Emergent Church rebellion against Sola Scriptura:
Well, we have traveled through Egypt and through Sinai with Bell, and we see very clearly through his poetic use of the language that he believes man’s story is rooted in the fact that Adam and Eve (and Mankind)
“chose to go their own way, to explore outside of the boundaries given by their maker, and, as a result, the relationship suffers”.(pg 25)
And, because mankind chose to go their own way, or ‘sin’ some of the strong of mankind chose to exploit the weak, and therefore oppress them, because their relationship with God is suffering., or has been completely broken because we are spiritually dead. You see, the problem is, according to Bell, is that we have become less human…
January 6, 2009
Click the post title to be taken to the source.
I have believed the best way to debate atheism is not on the level of evidence, but presuppositions. This article addresses one of the best arguments against atheism.
——-
by Dr. Jason Lisle
Atheists are “coming out of the closet” and becoming more vocal about their message that “there is no God.” Professor Richard Dawkins (Britain’s leading atheist) is encouraging those who share his views to express their opinion. Author of The God Delusion, Dawkins says he wants to “free children from being indoctrinated with the religion of their parents or their community.”1 Will Christians be prepared to “give an answer” to the atheists’ claims?2
Materialistic atheism is one of the easiest worldviews to refute. A materialistic atheist believes that nature is all that there is. He believes that there is no transcendent God who oversees and maintains creation. Many atheists believe that their worldview is rational—and scientific. However, by embracing materialism, the atheist has destroyed the possibility of knowledge, as well as science and technology. In other words, if atheism were true, it would be impossible to prove anything!
Materialistic atheism is one of the easiest worldviews to refute. A materialistic atheist believes that nature is all that there is. He believes that there is no transcendent God who oversees and maintains creation. Many atheists believe that their worldview is rational—and scientific. However, by embracing materialism, the atheist has destroyed the possibility of knowledge, as well as science and technology. In other words, if atheism were true, it would be impossible to prove anything!
Reasoning involves using the laws of logic. These include the law of non-contradiction which says that you can’t have A and not-A at the same time and in the same relationship. For example, the statement “My car is in the parking lot, and it is not the case that my car is in the parking lot” is necessarily false by the law of non-contradiction. Any rational person would accept this law. But why is this law true? Why should there be a law of non-contradiction, or for that matter, any laws of reasoning? The Christian can answer this question. For the Christian there is an absolute standard for reasoning; we are to pattern our thoughts after God’s. The laws of logic are a reflection of the way God thinks. The law of non-contradiction is not simply one person’s opinion of how we ought to think, rather it stems from God’s self-consistent nature. God cannot deny Himself ( 2 Timothy 2:13), and so, the way God upholds the universe will necessarily be non-contradictory.
Laws of logic are God’s standard for thinking. Since God is an unchanging, sovereign, immaterial Being, the laws of logic are abstract, universal, invariant entities. In other words, they are not made of matter—they apply everywhere and at all times. Laws of logic are contingent upon God’s unchanging nature. And they are necessary for logical reasoning. Thus, rational reasoning would be impossible without the biblical God.
The materialistic atheist can’t have laws of logic. He believes that everything that exists is material—part of the physical world. But laws of logic are not physical. You can’t stub your toe on a law of logic. Laws of logic cannot exist in the atheist’s world, yet he uses them to try to reason. This is inconsistent. He is borrowing from the Christian worldview to argue against the Christian worldview. The atheist’s view cannot be rational because he uses things (laws of logic) that cannot exist according to his profession.
The debate over the existence of God is a bit like a debate over the existence of air.3 Can you imagine someone arguing that air doesn’t actually exist? He would offer seemingly excellent “proofs” against the existence of air, while simultaneously breathing air and expecting that we can hear his words as the sound is transmitted through the air. In order for us to hear and understand his claim, it would have to be wrong. Likewise, the atheist, in arguing that God does not exist must use laws of logic that only make sense if God does exist. In order for his argument to make sense, it would have to be wrong.
How can the atheist respond?
The atheist might say, “Well, I can reason just fine, and I don’t believe in God.” But this is no different than the critic of air saying, “Well, I can breathe just fine, and I don’t believe in air.” This isn’t a rational response. Breathing requires air, not a profession of belief in air. Likewise, logical reasoning requires God, not a profession of belief in Him. Of course the atheist can reason; it’s because God has made his mind and given him access to the laws of logic—and that’s the point. It’s because God exists that reasoning is possible. The atheist can reason, but within his own worldview he cannot account for his ability to reason.
The atheist might respond, “Laws of logic are conventions made up by man.” But conventions are (by definition) conventional. That is, we all agree to them and so they work—like driving on the right side of the road. But if laws of logic were conventional, then different cultures could adopt different laws of logic (like driving on the left side of the road). So, in some cultures it might be perfectly fine to contradict yourself. In some societies truth could be self-contradictory. Clearly that wouldn’t do. If laws of logic are just conventions, then they are not universal laws. Rational debate would be impossible if laws of logic were conventional, because the two opponents could simply pick different standards for reasoning. Each would be right according to his own arbitrary standard.
The atheist might respond, “Laws of logic are material—they are made of electro-chemical connections in the brain.” But then the laws of logic are not universal; they would not extend beyond the brain. In other words, we couldn’t argue that contradictions cannot occur on Mars, since no one’s brain is on Mars. In fact, if the laws of logic are just electro-chemical connections in the brain, then they would differ somewhat from person to person because everyone has different connections in their brain.
Sometimes an atheist will attempt to answer with a more pragmatic response: “We use the laws of logic because they work.” Unfortunately for him, that isn’t the question. We all agree the laws of logic work; they work because they’re true. The question is why do they exist in the first place? How can the atheist account for absolute standards of reasoning like the laws of logic? How can non-material things like laws exist if the universe is material only?
As a last resort, the atheist may give up a strictly materialistic view and agree that there are immaterial, universal laws. This is a huge concession; after all, if a person is willing to concede that immaterial, universal, unchanging entities can exist, then he must consider the possibility that God exists. But this concession does not save the atheist’s position. He must still justify the laws of logic. Why do they exist? And what is the point of contact between the material physical world and the immaterial world of logic? In other words, why does the material universe feel compelled to obey immaterial laws? The atheist cannot answer these questions. His worldview cannot be justified; it is arbitrary and thus irrational.
Conclusions
Clearly, atheism is not a rational worldview. It is self-refuting because the atheist must first assume the opposite of what he is trying to prove in order to be able to prove anything. As Dr. Cornelius VanTil put it, “[A]theism presupposes theism.” Laws of logic require the existence of God—and not just any god, but the Christian God. Only the God of the Bible can be the foundation for knowledge (Proverbs 1:7; Colossians 2:3). Since the God of Scripture is immaterial, sovereign, and beyond time, it makes sense to have laws of logic that are immaterial, universal, and unchanging. Since God has revealed Himself to man, we are able to know and use logic. Since God made the universe and since God made our minds, it makes sense that our minds would have an ability to study and understand the universe. But if the brain is simply the result of mindless evolutionary processes that conveyed some sort of survival value in the past, why should we trust its conclusions? If the universe and our minds are simply the results of time and chance, as the atheist contends, why would we expect that the mind could make sense of the universe? How could science and technology be possible?
Rational thinking, science, and technology make sense in a Christian worldview. The Christian has a basis for these things; the atheist does not. This is not to say that atheists cannot be rational about some things. They can because they too are made in God’s image and have access to God’s laws of logic. But they have no rational basis for rationality within their own worldview. Likewise, atheists can be moral, but they have no basis for that morality according to what they claim to believe. An atheist is a walking bundle of contradictions. He reasons and does science, yet he denies the very God that makes reasoning and science possible. On the other hand, the Christian worldview is consistent and makes sense of human reasoning and experience.
Help keep these daily articles coming. Support AiG.
Footnotes
“Atheists arise: Dawkins spreads the A-word among America’s unbelievers” The Guardian, October 1st, 2007. http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2180901,00.html Back
See 1 Peter 3:15. Back
Christian philosopher Dr. Greg Bahnsen often used this analogy. Dr. Bahnsen was known as the “man atheists most feared.” Back
January 6, 2009
Click the post title to be taken to the source.
True conversion and regeneration is vital to being a Christian. Unfortunately, all too many in the professing church today believe that because they once said a prayer or walked an aisle that they completed “God’s checklist of salvific criteria” and are now on their way to heaven. Mark Kielar of CrossTV gives a good summary of what a true, spiritual conversion is as opposed to the false, hypocritical, manmade “conversion” that is causing so much division in the professing church these days.
This is part of the “How God Converts the Human Soul” series. It is wonderful. I highly recommend getting it. You can find the series at CrossTV’s website here:
http://www.crosstv.com
http://www.lanechaplin.com
Author: LaneCh
Keywords: true spiritual conversion regeneration false walk aisle sinner’s prayer sinners sinner charles finney heresy
Added: January 5, 2009
