Ambassadors For Christ
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THE EMERGING CHURCH AGENDA AND DOUG PAGITT
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This is a follow-up to the Apprising Ministries piece Doug Pagitt And The Emerging Church Agenda and gives you more evidence concerning the so-called ”conversation” of the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church that morphed into Emergence Christianity (EC). You need to understand that this cult of a postliberalism, now firmly within mainstream evangelicalism, was always a “revolution” with an agenda i.e. they really weren’t wanting to seriously listen to anyone who wasn’t going to get on-board with its desire to infiltrate the mainstream of the church visble.
A leading figure in this de-formation of proper biblical Christianity from its evil beginnings was heretical quasi-universalist pastor Doug Pagitt. In such pieces as Christianity 21: Emerging Voices Of A Pseudo-Christian Faith I warned you concerning the recently concluded EC apostasia-palooza Christianity 21 (C 21), which Pagitt put on along with his equally heretical friend and ”theologian in residence” Tony Jones. I also showed you that C 21 was to have alleged “innovative” and “most important voices for the future of Christianity” who supposedly spoke to “shape the future of our faith.”
C 21 featured such familiar EC names as Phyllis Tickle, the Empress of Emergence Christianity, “queer inclusive” ELCA “pastor” Nadia Bolz-Weber, Makeesha Fisher, Julie Clawson, and gay affirming PCUSA “pastor” Nanette Sawyer. And another C 21 “voice” was Danielle Shroyer who is “pastor” of Journey Church in Dallas, TX, whom I briefly introduced to you in Tony Jones And Courtney Perry Et Al. Yesterday in her post What do you do when a revolution isn’t sexy anymore? Shroyer is quite revealing re. the EC agenda as she writes:
I stumbled into this conversation as an eighteen year old college freshman in Waco, Texas. A few short years later, I felt as if I’d accidentally been placed among a fabulous group of people who happened to be sitting on top of a revolutionary volcano. It was thrilling, and sexy, and I quite literally believed that we were going to change the world…
I’ll freely admit- I went through a time of mourning that the sexiness of the new revolution is likely behind us. Those were some great moments. But then one day, something beautiful dawned on me: the reason why it doesn’t feel as new and cutting edge anymore is because it worked. These new ideas actually infiltrated such strange and previously unheard-of places as Bible colleges (who would have thought in 1999 that ANY place, much less a Bible college, would offer a degree in emerging church studies???) and denominational headquarters (whoever would have thought we’d gain the appreciative ear of the Archbishop of CANTERBURY?!) and the shelves of Barnes and Noble (who’d have guessed this conversation would produce stacks and stacks of books that publishers wanted to buy and readers wanted to purchase?!).
Who knew that there would be so many communities of faith across the GLOBE putting this theology and ecclesiology into practice for people trying to find a way to follow Jesus? If Andrew [Jones aka Tall Skinny Kiwi] thinks that 2009 is the year the emerging church conversation ceased to be controversial, it’s because we have convinced enough of the status quo that we’re right…
I remember a moment in 2004 at the National Pastors Convention/Emergent Convention in Nashville when Doug Pagitt and I were walking down the hallway. The evening general sessions were both underway, and as we walked past the door of the NPC session, we noticed there was an artist painting live on stage, and a camera was showing his work and displaying it up on huge video screens overhead for all to see. We looked at each other, wide-eyed.
The revolution we now call the emerging church movement may not be as sexy as it once was… But it is far from over…overall, I feel incredibly proud and humbled to have been a tiny, tiny part of what the Spirit is doing in our midst. (Online source, emphasis mine)
We note a couple of things above: 1) Such as these never were going to listen to dissenting views because they already had their own preconceived agenda to change [read: take over] the visible church with their “new ideas” by convincing “enough of the status quo” that they were “right”; and 2) Shroyer just happens to mention Doug Pagitt. This would be the same Doug Pagitt that Andrew Jones, who was also part of it, tells us in Is the Blogosphere Ready for Mark Driscoll? is the very one whom Leadership Network had assemble what “became Terra Nova and then Emergent”.
And any doubt as to the true motives of those in the inner circle of the EC is cleared up for us below by Shroyer in her later response to a commenter on her piece in the combox here:
I’d argue that yes, what has been labeled the emerging church conversation has begun the process of revolutionizing the theology and ecclesiological practices of the Church. We are reforming the traditions and ideas handed down to us by both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism and even Orthodoxy. Further, we are not only rethinking old things and reintroducing forgotten concepts; we are also creating entirely new ones. (Online source)
The issue’s pretty clear: For one to embrace this uber-ecumenical Emerging/ent/ence version of Christianity as a move of God they really must reject the Protestant Reformation. And as we close this out for now, I point you again to a lecture by Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989) whom even evangelical icon Billy Graham called “the most articulate spokesman for evangelical Christianity that I know.” While speaking circa 1985, because he felt the visible church was “in a rapidly accelerating apostasy,” Dr. Martin would include a lecture on what he had begun to call the Cult of Liberal Theology.
I want you to note carefully what I underlined above in the first quote from Shroyer; as you read the progression Dr. Martin will now show you that liberalism used to take over the dead and dying mainline denominations, pay close attention and you will then see how it is as a Liberalism 2.0 The Emerging Church Is Hijacking Evangelicalism:
There is a progression that takes place in liberal theology: It begins with a corrupt bibliology, a corrupt view of the nature and the inspiration of Scripture. They have a corrupt theology because once you are picking and choosing from the Bible what you want, your theology has to suffer from it, because your human reason is corrupt… every major theological seminary that has turned from orthodox Christianity began with disbelief of Biblical doctrine. There wasn’t a single exception.
This corrupt Bibliology then lead them to the next step. Their theology began to be touched by it, their view of the Cross, the Virgin Birth were both immediately questioned; then came the miracles of Christ… And finally they had emptied the Gospel of all its content; they were simply using the outward shell so that they go on collecting money from the people and the churches; because they knew that if the people in the pew knew that they were apostate, they’d throw them out. So the strategy was hang on to the trust funds; hang on to the money we’ve got; hang on the properties we control, and we will gradually educate the laymen into this new approach to theology.
And then finally we will take control of everything. The gradual process of feeding you theological poison until you become immunized enough so that you don’t know what’s happening to you. And when you wake up to what’s happening to you, it’s too late they’ve got everything. That is not a baseless charge, I stand prepared to prove that the Cult of Liberal Theology in the United States has deliberately and consistently followed this methodology to entrap, control and dominate the denominations and the churches of the United States and our educational institutions. (The Cult of Liberalism, available from Walter Martin Religious InfoNet)
See also:
THE NIGHTMARE BEGINNING FOR MAINSTREAM EVANGELICALISM
DR. WALTER MARTIN: AMERICAN THEOLOGIANS FROM BAD TO WORSE
EMERGING WRONG VIEW OF THE BIBLE
NEO-ORTHODOXY: AN EMERGENT OVERVIEW
THE EMERGING CHURCH SOWING ITS NEO-ORTHODOX CONFUSION ON SCRIPTURE
CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS STANDING UP FOR JESUS?
DR. WALTER MARTIN ON APOSTASY CIRCA 1985
Tim Conway: What Does The Discipline From The Lord Look Like?
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Hebrews 12:7-8 – It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Posted in Videos Tagged: ask, child, convert, Conway, [...]
The Armor Of God – Ephesians 6:10-13 – John MacArthur
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DOUG PAGITT AND THE EMERGING CHURCH AGENDA
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This online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries has been covering the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church that morphed into Emergence Christianity (EC)—and which is now a cult of a postliberalism firmly within mainstream evangelicalism—for some five years now. As you may know the EC is sometimes also called “the conversation”; however, any of us who’ve attempted real dialogue with leaders within this cult can tell you, it’s a one-way track reserved for those who agree with their de-formation of the Christian faith.
Now, that’s fine by me; what I object to is the EC public posturing that somehow they are the tolerant ones. But the truth is if you disagree with them, then you’ll quite quickly have the derogatory label “fundamentalist” [in EC-speak means: legalist] slapped upon you. And therefore, since you’re now somehow a “hater,” you are no longer worthy to be listened to. A case in point is a post from heretical quasi-universalist EC Doug Pagitt, which I mentioned in Doug Pagitt And Friends Attacked? And incidentally, I know who Pagitt was referring to; it wasn’t me, as one will see when those involved tell their own story.
However, as a pastor-teacher sent by Jesus, I used Pagitt’s post as a teaching object lesson illustrating precisely what I just said above. One need only read (unless he deletes more of them) Pagitt’s non-responsive self-righteous comments in the combox of his post Strangely Familiar. You see, for all the EC blather that we must be humble, etc. because we can’t know for sure what the text of the Bible says, when their EC agenda to high-jack the rest of the church visible is confronted, suddenly they become quite sure of one thing a priori: Anyone who dares disagree with their neo-Gnostic view of Christianity is absolutely wrong.
For example, consider below that the postmodern Pagitt certainly appears to think he knows for certain what Jesus meant when Christ was dealing with the Pharisees and Sadducees:
dougpagitt Says:
December 30th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
… Let me just say quickly that what Jesus was doing was flipping the accusation from the Pharisees and Sadducees back on them. They were accusing the sinner of being the problem and Jesus was defending the weak from the self-proclaimed righteous. Jesus was not a heresy hunter he was protecting from the self-righteous.
here are blog posts showing what I have been referring to.
http://www.reformata.org/2009/12/doug-pagitt-and-friends-attacked/
http://apprising.org/?s=doug+pagitt&submit=go (Online source)
Well, as I said at the conclusion of the AM article he references, if Doug Pagitt doesn’t like criticism, then he should repent of his sin of involvement with seducing spirits spreading doctrine of demons through the EC. I’ve got some news for Pagitt et al; should the Lord choose to sustain me along the Internet front of this spiritual Vietnam of a Truth War, I will continue to faithfully discharge my duty as a minister of the Gospel:
preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:2-4, ESV)
To quote the late great defender of the historic, orthodox Christian faith Dr. Walter Martin circa 1985, “Congratulations, we’re here; right now.” You see, this isn’t a game for me; and I for one, couldn’t care less that bigger “name” ministries aren’t telling it like it is: The EC has always had an agenda to capture the visible church with its reimagined version of liberalism, an upgraded Liberalism 2.0 that comes complete with a deadly virus which attacks the proper Christian spirituality of Sola Scriptura.
And that would be the Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) as taught by Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster along with his spiritual twin and Southern Baptist minister Dallas Willard, which has been rapidly spreading throughout mainstream evangelicalism under the guise of spurious Spiritual Formation. Take a look a Disciplines To Deception In Southern Baptist Convention and Lutheran Church Missouri Synod: Commission On Ministerial Growth Endorses Contemplative/Centering Prayer and you’ll see just how wide-spread the virus of CSM has become.
I’m serving notice that I have no intention of letting the EC high-jacking continue without a fight. As long as men like me are breathing, they’ll never achieve their goal of unity in the church visible and peace with the world. And, the Lord be praised, the very fact that Doug Pagitt, Tony Jones, Samir Selmanovic, and Jay Bakker now have to react publicly to what I write is proof that AM is having the effect that Jesus told me He wants it to have. After-all, now that we’re having dueling revelations with God, how do you know He didn’t tell me that? Answer: You don’t.
Sola Scriptura:
holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers,.. (Titus 1:9-10, NASB)
Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. (Romans 16:17-18, NASB)
See also:
THE EMERGING CHURCH SHARES IT’S LOVE FOR…
DOUG PAGITT AND A “CHRISTIANITY” HE LIKES
KEN SILVA AND DOUG PAGITT AGREE
EMERGING CHURCH PASTOR DOUG PAGITT
DOUG PAGITT AND CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALISM
*UPDATE* EMERGING CHURCH PASTOR SAMIR SELMANOVIC DOESN’T NEED TO BE RIGHT
DOUG PAGITT AND EMERGING CHURCH AGENDA
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I (c 21 sHROYER VOICE ECT)
C 21 “voice” Danielle Shroyer, whom I introduced to you e.g. in Tony Jones And Courtney Perry Et Al, is pastor” of Journey Church in Dallas, TX.
What do you do when a revolution isn’t sexy anymore?
dougpagitt Says:
December 30th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
… Let me just say quickly that what Jesus was doing was flipping the accusation from the Pharisees and Sadducees back on them. They were accusing the sinner of being the problem and Jesus was defending the weak from the self-proclaimed righteous.
Jesus was not a heresy hunter he was protecting from the self-righteous.here are blog posts showing what I have been referring to.
http://www.reformata.org/2009/12/doug-pagitt-and-friends-attacked/
http://apprising.org/?s=doug+pagitt&submit=go (Online source)
L
Is There Such a Thing as a Carnal Christian?
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Some compelling truth from Paul Washer.
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Suffering and Hope by John Piper
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I hope each one of you can take the time to listen to this incredible message:
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Planned From All Eternity
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“The ultimate fulfillment of God’s mercy in Jesus is not something that is supplied in time to correct a default in the system, but is something that is planned from all of eternity.”
-Alistair Begg
Update: Prayer and Help For My Mother, Carol
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Dear Friends,
My mom, dad, and I would like to thank each one of you who have prayed and encouraged my mom as she continues to battle cancer. We thank each one of you who have sacrificially given to help my parents with the overwhelming medical expenses. Mere words are not adequate to express our gratefulness to you and above all to our gracious, loving Lord Jesus Christ.
In addition to my mom’s health, over the past few weeks my wife has been battling some very concerning health issues. We humbly ask for your prayers.
Suffering, in many ways, can help reveal where a person’s heart really is. We hope these painful trials will push us away from the triviality of this world and all its trappings into a fuller reliance and joy in Jesus Christ alone.
My plan was to take down the banner but many of you have encouraged me to keep it posted so that is what I will do.
The Lord knows our needs and He will meet those needs in His perfect timing.
We are truly grateful to each one of you for your continued prayers and help.
Hebrews 13:14 ~ For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 ~ For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Colossians 3:1-3 ~ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
2 Corinthians 12:10 ~ For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
CONTEMPLATIVE/CENTERING PRAYER
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This so-called “spiritual discipline” is the chief vehicle of Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism and is without question a ”Christian” form of transcendental meditation. Consider the following from Contemplative (Centering) Prayer:
In 1974, Father William Meninger, a Trappist monk and retreat master at St. Josephs Abbey in Spencer, Mass. found a dusty little book in the abbey library, The Cloud of Unknowing. As he read it he was delighted to discover that this anonymous 14th century book presented contemplative meditation as a teachable, spiritual process enabling the ordinary person to enter and receive a direct experience of union with God.
This form of meditation, recently known as ‘Centering Prayer’ (from a text of Thomas Merton) can be traced from and through the earliest centuries of Christianity… (Online source)
The last statement is true to a point; as you’ll see in Keeping You Apprised Of: Contemplative/Centering Prayer it did not originate with Jesus or His Apostles, but circa third century from hermits in the desert of Egypt who’re romanticized today as “the desert fathers.” And as you can see the terms Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP) are synonymous for this practice of “wordless prayer.”
You’ll also see that practioners of CCP, such as Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster, will often refer to CCP as “the silence.” Foster tells us:
Contemplative Prayer immerses us into the silence of God. How desperately we in the modern world need this wordless baptism… Contemplative Prayer is the one discipline that can free us from our addiction to words. Progress in intimacy with God means progress toward silence… It is recreating silence to which we are called in Contemplative Prayer…
A Warning And A Precaution
At the outset I need to give a word of warning,… Contemplative Prayer is not for the novice. I do not say this about any other form of prayer… Contemplative prayer is for those who have exercised their spiritual muscles a bit and know something about the landscape of the spirit. In fact, those who work in the area of spiritual direction always look for signs of a maturing faith before encouraging individuals into Contemplative Prayer…
I also want to give a word of precaution. In the silent contemplation of God we are entering deeply into the spiritual realm, and there is such a thing as a supernatural guidance. While the Bible does not give us a lot of information on that, there are various orders of spiritual beings, and some of them are definitely not in cooperation with God and his way! … But for now I want to encourage you to learn and practice prayers of protection. (Prayer: Finding The Heart’s True Home, 155, 156, 157)
CCP has no place in the Body of Christ; because if it did, when Jesus was asked by His disciples how to pray, He would surely have mentioned this alleged ”wordless baptism” supposedly so necessary for, “Progress in intimacy with God [i.e. Law].” But the Master did not. How do we know; well, I’m glad you asked.
We know because God the Holy Spirit tells us in His inspired, inerrant, and infallible, text of Holy Scripture through His chosen vessel Luke:
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” (Luke 11:1-4, ESV)
See also:
CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY OF RICHARD FOSTER ROOTED IN THE EASTERN DESERT AND THOMAS MERTON
MEDITATING ON CONTEMPLATIVE/CENTERING PRAYER
There Is Forgiveness
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I believe men come to church because there is forgiveness. In the Christ of the church there is forgiveness. It may seem strange to some, when we hear of all the horrible crimes committed today, and the judicial system so lax in it’s attitude toward punishment. We may get the conclusion sometime as we look [...]
LUTHERAN CHURCH MISSOURI SYNOD: COMMISSION ON MINISTERIAL GROWTH ENDORSES CONTEMPLATIVE/CENTERING PRAYER
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Apprising Ministries has warned in posts e.g. Calvinist Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism? and Disciplines To Deception In Southern Baptist Convention that for years now Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) as taught by Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster along with his spiritual twin and Southern Baptist minister Dallas Willard has been rapidly spreading throughout mainstream evangelicalism under the guise of spurious Spiritual Formation.
What follows is yet another sad case in point. Yesterday in More Problems with Prayer in the LCMS – Commission on Ministerial Growth and Support Endorses “Centering Prayer,” by Pr. Rossow which ran at Steadfast Lutherans LCMS Pastor Tim Rossow informed us:
A few months ago we alerted our readers to the problematic theology behind the LCMS’s special prayer events. We posted these concerns on July 27 and July 28. Now we have the Commission on Ministerial Growth endorsing an ancient and heretical practice of mystical centering prayer. Here is what was sent out from the International Center of the LCMS this morning.
Encouragement for Busy Church Leaders, Sleep During Meditation“By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” Psalm 42:8 (ESV)
There are times during meditation and extended prayer such as Centering Prayer that we can lose awareness. When we regain awareness, it is as if we are waking up from a period of sleep. We have no recollection of what happened during the period of unconsciousness. This experience initially was of concern to St. Teresa of Avila, 17th century Christian mystic. She wondered what might have happened while she was not able to consciously monitor her experience. Was the blank time a result of being too undisciplined? Was it sleep? Was it of God, or was it a time when her mind was taken over by the Devil?
Teresa discussed her concerns with her spiritual mentor, none other than St. John of the Cross. Their standard became, “You shall know them by their fruits”. Her experience, and that of the nuns in her care, was that the result of these times seemed to be spiritually and mentally beneficial. Teresa came to understand these periods as one stage of prayer, which she described in her classic roadmap of prayerful experience, The Interior Castle…
If this all seems odd to you it should. If you do an internet search on “centering prayer” you will find plenty of helpful critiques of this less than orthodox practice.
This is another example of how there is poor doctrinal supervision in the LCMS. This endorsement of this Buddhist-like mystical prayer is coming right out of the International Center. President Kieschnick has created an environment in the LCMS which has allowed this sort of thing to go on even in the highest levels of synod. (Online source)
In addition to AM, among those doing Internet research in this area is the online apologetics and discernment ministry Lighthouse Trails Research (LTR). Years before I showed up LTR has long been exposing the rise in popularity within Protestant evangelicalism of practicing the neo-pietistic “spiritual disciplines” i.e. asceticism-lite of CSM. As I’ve said before, you need to know this a rapidly spreading—and very dangerous—fad; and if left unchecked, it’s soon going to be the cause of much division within the church visible.
CSM flowered within the antibiblical monastic traditions of apostate Roman Catholicism (anyone remember the Reformation?) and this type of SF, sweeping throughout evangelicalism, is rooted within the spurious spirituality of the Counter Reformation e.g. such as that advanced by figures like Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the militantly pro-Roman Catholic Church spiritual Gestapo Unit known as the Jesuits. But it’s these kinds of very wrong approaches to proper Christian spirituality that would cause Jesus to raise up His Reformers in the first place.
If you don’t know, the primary vehicle of CSM is a type of meditation in an altered state of consciousness called Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP), the terms are interchangable; and it’s found its way into the heart of the visible church through its embrace of the Trojan Horse of the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church that morphed into Emergence Christianity (EC)—and which is now a cult of a postliberalism firmly within mainstream evangelicalism. CSM was a core doctrine from its inception in hell.
As we close this out for now, I’ll share a bit of Keeping You Apprised Of: Contemplative/Centering Prayer concerning its actual origin:
You may recall that in a Christianity Today article called The Emergent Mystique that Guru McLaren has cited Foster along with his spiritual twin Dallas Willard—“with their emphasis on spiritual disciplines”—as “key mentors”of the Emerging Church rebellion against Sola Scriputra. And then we have this further corroboration concerning John Cassian and the desert hermits by Benedictine monk, Dom Laurence Freeman, Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation whose “spiritual teacher was John Main”:
One day, about 1700 years ago, two young Christian monks living in the Egyptian desert visited an abba, an elder. They asked him what prayer really means. Abba Isaac then gave them one of the clearest and most powerful explanations of prayer in the whole Christian tradition. He said there are many forms of prayer but that all of them point to the same source and goal: the “Prayer of Fire”. He meant the living prayer of Jesus present in the human heart through the Holy Spirit.The ‘prayer of fire’, Abba Isaac explained, consumes self-consciousness. It is the goal of all spiritual practice: union with ultimate reality, loving union with God, divinization. The question is – how can we find this mystery of love in our own centre; how do we pray at depth; how do we enter the transformative experience of union? It is the question many people today are asking and the question is the spiritual hunger of our age.
Meditation is “pure prayer”. Pure of thought, images and words. We leave all these behind to enter purity of heart. Pure of egocentricity because we are not asking for anything. We take the searchlight of consciousness off ourselves. We do this simple – but not easy – work by taking a single word, a prayer word. We repeat the word continuously. In Latin Cassian called it a “formula”, Main a “mantra”. (Online source)
So now you know. This is where the antibiblical practice of Contemplative/Centering Prayer originated; it was not practiced or taught by Jesus Christ nor by His Apostles, and it truly has no place at all in the life of the Christian. And that Lutherans would want to encourage mystic practices that were part of the Counter Reformation, and which are the antithesis of Luther’s correct emphasis on Sola Scriptura, is further evidence that evangelicalism is likely as apostate now as Rome was when Luther stood hammer in hand.
See also:
CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY OF RICHARD FOSTER ROOTED IN THE EASTERN DESERT AND THOMAS MERTON
MEDITATING ON CONTEMPLATIVE/CENTERING PRAYER
JOHN MAIN: INDIAN SWAMI A HOLY MAN OF GOD
DANGERS OF CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM: LECTIO DIVINA
PETER SCAZZERO PROMOTED BY RICK WARREN
DONALD WHITNEY AND EVANGELICAL CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM
A Cause for Concern
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The ‘carnal Christian’ teaching is, after all, the consequence of a shallow, man-centered evangelism in which decisions are sought at any price and with any methods. When those pronounced to be converts do not act like Christians, do not love what Christians love, and hate what Christians hate, and do not willingly serve Christ in his church, some explanation must be found other than calling upon them to ‘decide’ for Christ. They have already done that and have already been pronounced by the preacher or personal worker to be ‘Christians’. But when they don’t act like Christians something is wrong. What is it? The teaching I have sought to answer says that the trouble is that they are just ‘carnal Christians’; they have not made Christ ‘Lord’ of their lives; they have not let him occupy the throne of their hearts. Once this explanation is seen to be unscriptural it will also be seen to be closely connected with an initial error over evangelism itself. Too often, modern evangelism has substituted a ‘decision’ in the place of repentance and saving faith. Forgiveness is preached without the equally important truth that the Spirit of God must change the heart. As a result decisions are treated as conversions even though there is no evidence of a supernatural work of God in the life.
- Ernest Reisinger.
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DOUG PAGITT AND FRIENDS ATTACKED?
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Heretical quasi-universalist Doug Pagitt is beyond question a key voice in the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church that morphed into Emergence Christianity (EC)—and which is now a cult of a postliberalism firmly within mainstream evangelicalism. Now it seems Pagitt and others around him have recently been under some kind of attack.
Last night Pagitt tweeted:
Strangely Familiar – new post on dougpagitt.com – http://bit.ly/6EhrXy (Online source)
That link leads us to the post Strangely Familiar where, ever the promoter, Pagitt shares the short video below and informs us that it “shows an interaction” which:
is strangely familiar to how I, and a number of friends of mine, are treated by some Christian fundamentalists.
In this video Irshad Manji is called names (devil in disguise, lunatic deceiver) by a more fundamentalist muslim and Irshad tries to argue that calling her such names is hateful speech. Her detractor argues that it is not, basically, because it is “true”.
Oh, how familiar… I hope to have her on the radio show soon. (Online source)
Huh, after looking at the video, it sounds like Pagitt et al must have been dealing with “Christian fundamentalists” like Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church. Not to worry Doug, no one credible actually pays any attention to people like that; nor does the Body of Christ condone such behavior.
As far as so-called “hateful speech,” perhaps we remember this from Christ Jesus, Himself love in human flesh — “Why is My language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire” (John 8:43-44).
O, that’s right; Jesus was only talking there to false religious leaders, so I guess that would really have nothing to do with someone like Doug Pagitt. After-all, it’s not like he’s a published evangelical author and a well known leader, or anything, within the religious movement of the Emerging/ent/ence de-formation of the Christian faith.
My suggestion is, if Doug Pagitt doesn’t like criticism, then he should repent of his involvement with seducing spirits spreading doctrine of demons through the EC. I’m just sayin’…
See also:
THE EMERGING CHURCH SHARES IT’S LOVE FOR…
DOUG PAGITT AND A “CHRISTIANITY” HE LIKES
EMERGING CHURCH PASTOR DOUG PAGITT
BOB DEWAAY AND CHRIS ROSEBROUGH ON THE EMERGING CHURCH
THE EMERGING CHURCH HIGHJACKING EVANGELICALISM
THE EMERGING CHURCH SOWING ITS NEO-ORTHODOX CONFUSION ON SCRIPTURE
Newspaper Editorial – “Obama Is Greater Than Jesus”
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A Danish newspaper editorial has declared U.S. President Barack Obama as “the practical savior of our times.” They didn’t stop there however, going on to state:
“Obama is, of course, greater than Jesus – if we have to play that absurd Christmas game. But it is probably more meaningful to insist that with today’s domestic [...]
Paul Washer: Stop Worshiping & Idolizing Celebrity Preachers
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Is it possible to love the preaching of John Piper, Paul Washer, Tim Conway and still be lost? Yes.
Grace Community Church
San Antonio, Texas
www.gccsatx.com
www.illbehonest.com
www.hcmissions.com
Posted in Videos Tagged: Conway, Driscoll, idols, interview, john, macarthur, Mark, paul, Piper, Tim, washer 
Read Through the Bible in 2010
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The new year is just about upon us and many of us are making a renewed effort to read daily through the Bible in a systematic fashion. One of the most well known plans is the McCheyne Bible reading plan. The McCheyne Bible reading plan allows you to read through the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice in a year. You can view and print it out here.
You can also read from this plan online from the ESV Bible here. Simply pick the day’s date and all of the passages for that day are gathered onto one page.
Speaking of the ESV, I have an exciting giveaway prepared for January. Mrs. Leiter has provided 3 compact leather bound ESV Bibles that will go to 3 readers of this blog. Be on the lookout for that.
Open Letter to Joel Osteen #1.006 – “It’s Your Time: Activate Your Faith, Achieve Your Dreams, and Increase in God’s Favor”
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(New readers can click here to download the introduction and first chapter of Joel Osteen’s new book, It’s Your Time: Activate Your Faith, Achieve Your Dreams, and Increase in God’s Favor.)
Chapter 1: You’re Closer Than You Think!
Page 6
? “Take your dreams and the promises God has put in your heart and every day declare that they will come to pass. Just say something like, ‘Father, I want to thank You that my payday is coming. You said no good thing will You withhold, because I walk uprightly. And I believe even right now You are arranging things in my favor.’”
This is pretty thick, so it’ll take me a little bit to get through to the other side…
1. You teach that I should declare that the “dreams and the promises God has put in (my) heart” will come to pass. Where is the biblical instruction that we evaluate ourselves, to make sure that our dreams match up with God’s will for our lives?
You seem to forget that, as a result of our sin nature, we have these corrupt minds. Left to their own devices, we can very easily conclude that our dreams and desires – whatever they may be – must be from God and are therefore good. Talk about a slippery slope…
2. “Father, I want to thank You that my payday is coming. You said no good thing will You withhold, because I walk uprightly.”
What does it mean to “walk uprightly?” You never really go into detail on what the Bible teaches about upright living. Wonder why.
Also, I’m curious how often you preach on the life of Job. He was upright in the sight of God, yet God allowed everything – short of his life – to be taken from him. Doesn’t quite fit you’re the mold of your teaching, does it?
- “It never will change. You never will get well. You never will climb out of debt. That child never will straighten up. If you listen to those negative thoughts, you will likely become discouraged and give up on your dreams. Many times we miss out on God’s best because we give up too soon. We don’t realize how close we are to victory.”
1. You use the phrase, “God’s best,” over and over, but the Bible never refers to it. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that God’s will for the Christian involves both suffering and victory, which brings me to my next question:
2. “We don’t realize how close we are to victory.” Victory of what kind? This is so general that the statement is virtually useless.
- “Hold on to your faith. Another few days of believing, another few weeks of doing the right thing, or another few months of staying in faith and you will see that promise come to pass.”
Have to ask once again: Are you, Joel Osteen, a prophet of God? I ask because only a prophet of God could make such a statement and have any legitimacy in the matter whatsoever.
- “That’s what the scripture says in Hebrews 10:35. It tells us not to cast away our confidence, for it will be richly rewarded. That’s saying if we will stay in faith, if we will keep believing, keep hoping, keep doing the right thing, God promises there will be a reward.”
There’s no such thing as a short answer when Scripture gets twisted so badly. You’ve literally butchered this verse. If you don’t believe me, check out vv. 32-37 in context:
“But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: ‘For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.’” (NKJV)
1. “Endurance” in v. 36 refers to the enduring of “a great struggle with sufferings” from v. 32. This passage clearly speaks to the persecution that Christian believers were facing and would continue to face as a result of living out their faith in a world that hates God, and you’ve turned it into a prosperity passage. There’s a word for that: heresy.
2. Verse 36 refers to “the will of God,” not my petty dreams.
3. Verse 37 clearly refers to the second coming of Christ. That means that the confidence in v. 36 must be the confidence Christians are to have regarding His earthly return, and the eternal life we have in Him. You’ve taken this verse and completely turned it on its head.
For your sake, you might want to check out Rev. 22:18-19 before you preach, teach or write another word.
? “One translation says, in effect, ‘Don’t get discouraged. Payday is coming.’”
Which translation is that? The only reference I find is on Michael Brooks’ site, Life Coach Forum, where he also refers to the text without ever mentioning its translation of origin.
My guess? If there’s an N.I.C.I. – Name It and Claim It – translation out there somewhere, you’re using it…
See you next year (for more hoots and hollers),
Chris
(For new readers, my earlier analyses of Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile (by Rob Bell and Don Golden) is available for free download. Simply click on my title, Clear as a Bell, and decide for yourself whether or not Bell’s teachings match those found in God’s Word.)
