A Wideness in Gods Mercy? (John MacArthur)
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See also: Hard to Believe: The High Cost and Infinite Value of Following Jesus
Documentary: The Forgotten Power Of The Public Proclamation Of The Gospel
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The film Go. Stand. Speak… delves into the doctrine of public preaching with experts such as Dr. George Grant, Paul Washer, Greg Gordon, Pastor John Reuther, Rusty Lee Thomas, David Legge, Ray Comfort, Stuart Migdon, Michael Marcavage, Jeff Rose, Shawn Holes, Sean Morris and other Christian leaders and uncovers the big question: is this quiet, [...]
CONTEMPLATIVE MONVEE: PLACING EXPERIENCE ABOVE SCRIPTURE
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“For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside.” (Mark 7:21-23)
Creating Your Own Way To Worship
In the Apprising Ministries post Monvee To Open Door For Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism In Evangelicalism I showed you yet another way that corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) perpetrated as so-called Spiritual Formation (SF) by Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster along with his friend and spiritual twin SBC minister Dallas Willard is slithering deeper into pretending to be Protestant mainstream evangelicalism.
As a former Roman Catholic I also brought to your attention that it’s beyond question this spurious CSM is nothing more than refried Roman Catholic mysticism with its pietism and asceticism romanticized for those who are ignorant of Church history, which you can see e.g. in Roman Catholic Monasticism Begins With “Desert Fathers”. You may recall that Monvee is billed as The Future Of Spiritual Formation; and according to Tony Morgan, “pastor of Pastor of Ministries at West Ridge Church near Atlanta,” it seems monvee will Reshape Spiritual Formation.
Like I pointed out previously, if you don’t know, Morgan is well-known in the Purpose Driven/Seeker Driven circles of Popes Of The Carolinas such as Perry Noble and his disciple Steven Furtick. This means we’re now seeing CSM in the broader Purpose Driven/Seeker Driven section of what I’ve been calling The Ecumenical Church Of Deceit (ECoD); and, though Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren himself Openly Recommends Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism, in Rick Warren Wants Us To Know Peter Scazzero we have seen that CSM guru Scazzero is hooked into the Willow Creek Association.
The other day in Philip Yancey Influenced By Apostate Roman Catholic Mystics I told you that when mainstream evangelicalism made the fateful decision to bring the Trojan Horse of the sinfully ecumenical Emerging Church de-formation of the Christian faith aka Emergent Church—that’s now morphed into Emergence Christianity (EC)—inside it’s walls it then opened itself to the EC version of Liberalism 2.0 that comes complete with the CSM virus, which sets out to short out one’s hard drive of critical thinking skills.
And now you know why we’re seeing this ”Protestant” version of Roman Catholic Counter Reformation spirituality, such as that promulgated by apostates (at best) like Ignatius of Loyola who founded the militantly pro-Roman Catholic Church spiritual Gestapo Unit known as the Jesuits, slithering its way into the mainstream of the church visible; albeit in a watered-down form minus little things like self-flagellation, fasting until near death, sleeping on cement floors, and the like. We have to be careful now not to be too extreme don’t cha know.
Why we wouldn’t want to offend anyone; however, as you can see e.g. in Calvinist Contemplative/Centering Prayer? we’re even seeing otherwise orthodox Reformed pastors, such as Acts 29 Network stalwarts Matt Chandler and Mark Driscoll, seemingly recommending these heterodox practices of CSM. Consider the following from Lighthouse Trails Research:
In an article written by Driscoll himself, ironically titled Obedience, Driscoll tells readers to turn to Richard Foster and contemplative Gary Thomas. Driscoll states:
If you would like to study the spiritual disciplines in greater detail … helpful are Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster, and Sacred Pathways, by Gary Thomas…
As for Gary Thomas, in his book Sacred Pathways (the one Driscoll recommends), Thomas tells readers to repeat a word for 20 minutes in order to still the mind. This is the basic principle in all Eastern and occultic methods. (Online source)
One wonders just how learning apostate Roman Catholic spirituality from a Quaker mystic could possibly prove ”helpful” to someone who professes Reformation theology. Dr. Gary Gilley has correctly called Foster’s Celebration of Discipline “an encyclopedia of theological error” as you can see for yourself in “Celebration Of Discipline” By Richard Foster An Encyclopedia Of Theological Error. And I happen to have the book Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas and the fact is that chapter 9 is a veritable ode of praise for contemplatives whom Thomas says:
simply want to bathe in the ocean of love God has for his children, while the rest of us seem unfortunately content to experience that love drop by drop.
Your Authentic, True, And Sinful Self Is Actually What Has Separated You From God
Thomas then continues on with his romanticizing of mystics as he tell us about the “Acts of Contemplatives,” which he calls “many forms of prayer and activities that contemplatives can make use of in addition to general contemplative prayer.” Next Thomas goes through “The Jesus Prayer,” “Secret Acts of Devotion,” “Dancing Prayer,” “Centering Prayer” (it’s the same as Contemplative Prayer), “Prayer of the Heart,” “Stations of the Cross,” and finally “Meditative Prayer,” which you’ll see mystics also refer to as “the silence” and/or “wordless prayer.”
Under that section Meditative Prayer Thomas goes into a short spiel about Ignatius of Loyola, whom I mentioned above; Thomas though tells that his, “The Spiritual Exercises, helped make mental prayer [i.e. Contemplative/Centering Prayer] more popular.” As you’ll see in Keeping You Apprised Of: Contemplative/Centering Prayer this type of meditation in an altered state of consciousness—a TM-lite sprayed with Christian terminology—was not practiced or taught by Jesus; nor was it practiced or taught by His Apostles, and it’s nowhere taught in Scripture.
Jesuit scholar J. William Harmless, professor of historical theology and patristic studies at Creighton University which is itself a Jesuit school, informs us in his book Mystics concerning Ignatius of Loyola:
I myself belong to one of these mystical communities, the Society of Jesus [Jesuits], founded in 1540 by a flamboyant Basque mystic, Ignatius of Loyola (1492-1556). Every Jesuit at least twice in his life must go through Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises. The Exercises (to vastly simplify it) requires that one undergo a thirty-day silent [means meditating] retreat in which one converses only with a spiritual director.
During that month, one prays a minimum of five hours a day using a wide variety repertoire of prayer forms. The most famous is what Ignatius called contemplatio,… Jesuit mystical spirituality cannot be written down; it is, at its very core, oral… I realized that Jesuit spirituality, like Zen [Buddhist] spirituality, is a lamplight transmitted generation to generation, orally, from teacher to disciple. (240, 241)
Quite pious-sounding but in reality a classic case of seeking individual, personal, experience with God, which by nature is highly subjective and as you’ll see in John MacArthur: Existential Neo-Orthodoxy Denies Sola Scriputra Dr. MacArthur is right when he says that:
[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.
What this CSM ends up producing is a centered on the self sappy psycho-babble form of Christianity as these mystics ”go within” themselves in search of “an authentic self” aka some supposed ”true self,” which at its core, is a denial of the doctrine original sin. Monvee provides us an example as we endeavor to find The Me I Want To Be with men like John Ortberg; encouraging us to seek direct experience with God via “practices you do yourself like prayer, mediation or solitude,” meaning the practice of the meditation in an altered state of consciousness of Contemplative/Centering Prayer.
From studying the fruits of meditation for years now, from many different religious sources, I can tell you that its prolonged practice eventually brings about a distorted view of reality. As I’ve pointed out before, you’ll hear Christians who practice CSM refer to this experience as “transformation” where the Buddhist would call it satori i.e. enlightenment; essentially this experience leads people into a fulfillment of 2 Timothy 3:2 — men will be lovers of self. The point being made is that those who meditate experience a “love” they claim is God, but God tells you they love themselves, i.e. mankind.
So despite their denial of original sin, and note how many around EC circles are now starting to openly deny it, the very experience itself is actually proof positive of the pride-filled sinful human nature.
See also:
THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT YOUR “TRUE SELF”
MYSTICISM: WHEN GOD SENDS AN EVIL SPIRIT
THROUGH ROB BELL “THE GREAT ENLIGHTENED ONES” TELL US MAN HAS DIVINE GREATNESS
IS DALLAS WILLARD A CHRISTIAN?
CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY OF RICHARD FOSTER ROOTED IN THE EASTERN DESERT AND THOMAS MERTON
9 MARKS: INTERVARSITY PRESS SEEMS ADRIFT
DISCIPLINES TO DECEPTION IN SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
Forced Recantations of Faith Continue
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I usually don’t have any commentary to add to these stories of our persecuted brothers and sisters beyond a call to remember them in our prayers. The pain speaks for itself. But something about this brother (and countless others for sure) that are forced to recant and then brutally beaten anyway breaks my heart. What humility to these dear ones and what evil that exists in the hearts of those who hate God. Please pray for these and all of our persecuted bretheren.
New Christians in northwest violently compelled to return to ancestor worship.
HANOI, Vietnam, January 18 (CDN) — A Vietnamese man violently forced to recant his fledgling Christian faith faces pressure from authorities and clansmen to prove his return to traditional Hmong belief by sacrificing to ancestors next month.
Sung Cua Po, who embraced Christianity in November, received some 70 blows to his head and back after local officials in northwest Vietnam’s Dien Bien Province arrested him on Dec. 1, 2009, according to documents obtained by Compass. His wife, Hang thi Va, was also beaten. They live in Ho Co village.
Dien Bien Dong District and Na Son Commune police and soldiers led by policeman Hang A Senh took the Christian couple to the Na Son Commune People’s Committee office after police earlier incited local residents to abuse and stone them and other Christian families. After Po and his wife were beaten at 1 a.m. that night, he was fined 8 million dong (US$430) and a pig of at least 16 kilos. His cell phone and motorbike were confiscated, according to the documents.
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The Fear Of God
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“The kind of God that appeals to most people today would be easy-going in his tolerance of our offenses. He would be gentle, kind, accommodating. He would have no violent reactions. Unhappily, even in the church we seemed to have lost the vision of the majesty of God. There is much shallowness and levity among us. Prophets and psalmists would probably say of us, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” In public worship our habit is to slouch or squat; we do not kneel nowadays, let alone prostrate ourselves in humility before God. It is more characteristic of us to clap our hands with joy than to blush with shame or tears.
We saunter up to God to claim his patronage and friendship; it does not occur to us that he might send us away. We need to hear again the Apostle Peter’s sobering words, “Since you call on a father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives in reverent fear.” (I Peter 1:17) In other words, if we dare to call our judge our Father, we must beware of presuming on him. It must even be said that our evangelical emphasis on the atonement is dangerous if we come to it too quickly. We learn to appreciate the access to God which Christ has won only after we have first cried, “Woe is me for I am lost.”
John Stott: The Cross Of Christ
Called To Suffer
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Some believers are very surprised when they are called to suffer. They thought they would do some great thing for God, but all God permits them to do is to suffer. Just suppose you could speak with those who have gone to be with the Lord; everyone has a different story, yet everyone has a tale of suffering. One was persecuted by family and friends…another was inflicted with pain and disease, neglected by the world…another was bereaved of children…another had all these afflictions. But you will notice that though the water was deep, they all have reached the other side. Not one of them blames God for the road He led them; “Salvation” is their only cry. Are there any of you, dear children, murmuring at your lot? Do not sin against God. This is the way God leads all His redeemed ones.
Robert McCheyne
3 Typical Misunderstandings Of Calvinism
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Accusation 1: A popular misunderstanding of so-called Calvinism is when a critic presents Calvinism as teaching: “God forces us into a relationship”. This is a complaint I hear often.
Answer: “Calvinism” teaches that when God calls a person to salvation, He does so freely and effectively. Not with a forced relationship, but with the effectual grace of a loving Father. God in His tender mercy and pure grace, changes the sinners heart of stone, and gives that person a heart of flesh and the gift of His Holy Spirit (Ezek 36:26, John 3:5). God creates light and life in the heart of a sinner, so that they freely and willing respond to Him. God does not compel us against our wills or violate our unique personalities. Instead, God’s grace frees us from our sin and enables us to see Jesus Christ as He truly is. In response, we freely choose to embrace Him out of thankfulness and love of our hearts. The grace of God effectually sets people free from sin to be the people He intended us to be.
Accusation 2: The second misunderstanding of Calvinism is when a critic presents Calvinism as teaching: “Calvinism teaches that when God’s involved you don’t have a choice”. (This is similar to accusation 1).
Answer: Calvinism does in fact teach that man has a choice and that God calls on all people to make a choice: We can continue in our rebellion and sin, or we can turn to Christ alone for forgiveness and salvation. Reformed theology teaches that all men in their natural lost condition, freely choose to reject God’s free offer. This is the free choice all fallen men make. We cannot separate a man’s will from his nature. And man’s fallen nature is dead and in bondage to sin. This teaching is based on texts of Scripture like (John 6:44, 65, Romans 1-3:18, Eph 2:1-3, 1 Cor. 2:14, 2 Cor. 4:3-4).
Yet, when God graciously calls a sinner (as I discussed in point 1), He is freeing that person from the bondage of sin and enabling them to respond to His grace (John 6:44,65). God chooses and man also chooses. Yet we believe God’s choice is foundational to man’s choice since it was made in eternity past (Eph 1:3-4).
Accusation 3: A third popular misunderstanding and rejection of Calvinism is when a critic responds to a high view of God’s Sovereignty with a statement similar to this; “I cannot accept that man is free and responsible to do what he wants to do, and God is also in complete control of man’s actions”.
Answer: Here, I can agree with the critics statement as presented: “man is free and responsible to do what he wants to do and God is also in complete control of his actions”. I would simply ask that the critic (or anyone else) to not draw a conclusion from this statement that I (or a Calvinist) would not affirm. I would not take all the statement’s possible meanings to be equally true, nor would I draw any conclusions from it beyond any Scriptural truths it may proclaim. With that caveat stated, the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers and then rising to second in command in the land of Egypt is a perfect example of this mysterious relationship from Scripture. Joseph (speaking to his brothers) says in Gen. 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” This passage explicitly teaches us that Joseph’s brothers evil deeds were done freely by the human agents. The brothers are fully responsible for their actions. At the same time, God sovereignty determined this event for good…and it saved many lives. Please note that this passage does not teach that God simply turned this bad situation around and made something good out of it. But the verse teaches that God was in sovereign control of these events and determining the events as well as the outcome (Gen 45:5-8). Here we see the mystery of God’s sovereign determination along-side human freedom and responsibility. Scripture bulges with these type of examples, and many more could be given. Calvinism attempts to hold the tension of these twin truths without down-playing either one. Both are simply true. There will always be room to grow and adjust our thinking along these lines as God reveals more to us through His word. Our job is to study His word and treasure it’s beauty along with the truths it contains, even when we cannot fully comprehend how it all “works”.
What Made It OK for God To Kill Women And Children In The Old Testament?
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Muslim Groups Demand Closure of Large, Legal Church in Indonesia
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Hundreds of demonstrators from outside area try to create image of local opposition.
JAKARTA, Indonesia, February 25 (CDN) — Hundreds of Muslims from outside the area where a 600-member church meets in West Java staged a protest there to call for its closure this month in an attempt to portray local opposition.
Demonstrators from 16 Islamic organizations, including the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), gathered on Feb. 15 to demand a stop to all activities by the Galilea Protestant Church (GPIB) in the Galaxy area of Bekasi City.
The Rev. M. Tetelepta, pastor of the church, told Compass that the church has had the required consent of local residents and official permission to worship since its inception in 1992.
Continue reading……
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Abraham: The Old Testament Pattern of Saving Faith – Romans 4:18 – Part 1
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James White: I John 5:1, Regeneration, Faith & Tradition-Driven Eisegesis
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“Is 1 John 5:1 relevant to the discussion of regeneration and faith? It surely is, even if many in evangelicalism today refuse to go deep enough into the text to discover that fact. A study of 1 John 5:1, 1 John 2:29 and 1 John 4:7, in light of Calvary Chapel’s Brian Brodersen’s comments.”
Related post:
James [...]
Questioning Our Leaders – The Essence Of Christian Integrity
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In light of the recent events regarding Ergun Caner, Wade Burleson of Grace & Truth to You has written a fine article on questioning our leaders, the importance of answerability and Christian unity. Asking questions of those in leadership, when appropriate, is not only morally right, but the very essence of Christian integrity. – JT
[...]
A Double Dose Of Calvinistic Humor
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Calvinistic Cartoons
And, just because laughter is good for the soul…..
Sacred Sandwich reader J. R. Nerlunker of Bedford, Iowa sent in this photo showing his mule, Molly Jo, wearing the unmistakable handiwork of Coddington Borax, the “Phantom Tagger.” The evidence suggests that the fugitive Borax has fled over the Missouri border and is now [...]
John MacArthur On Limited Atonement
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Filed under: Videos Tagged: atonement, Calvinism, election, Heaven, hell, john, limited, macarthur, many, potential, predestination, real, Sin, universalism, world 
CHRISTIANITY TODAY REVIEW OF A NEW KIND OF CHRISTIANITY BY BRIAN MCLAREN
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In recent posts such as Brian McLaren Invites You On His Quest To Destroy Christianity and New Kind Of Christianity Of Brian McLaren Is Old And False recently Apprising Ministries has informed you of the latest book by Brian McLaren. As you know McLaren, in addtion to being a leading guru in the sinfully ecumenical Emerging Church de-formation of the Christian faith aka Emergent Church—that’s now morphed into Emergence Christianity (EC)—is also one of the Living Spiritual Teachers alongside such as Deepak Chopra, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckhart Tolle, and Marianne Williamson.
What you may not be aware of is McLaren’s not acting alone in pushing this new form of Progressive Christianity i.e. liberal theology in his A New Kind of Christianity (ANKoC). In posts like The Emerging Church And Progressive Christian Theology After Google will be showing up more and more around the circles of the EC. In fact, the upcoming EC “heresy-fest” Theology After Google (TAG) will feature process theologian Philip Clayton, who’s a champion of this new form of progessive Christian theology.
Earlier in Brian McLaren Your Emerging Church Hypocrisy Is Showing I quoted the following part of a review of ANKoC by Dr. Mike Wittmer informs us that McLaren:
says that his new kind of Christianity is led by Doug Pagitt, who isn’t sure that Jesus is God; Marcus Borg, who argues that Jesus is dead; and Harvey Cox, a Harvard Divinity professor who wants to blow the whole thing up and construct a new view of God that will connect with our secular age. (Online source)
The name I want you to note above is uber-liberal Christian Harvey Cox. In the current addtion of something called the nick & josh podcast, which boasts of interviews with a who’s who of heretics, Philip Clayton discusses TAG. He also talks about a recent thing he did for his website Transforming Theology (see video below) and then informs us:
We had some pretty prestigious people, LeRon Shults is a very serious academic theologian; Serene Jones is the new president of Union Theological Seminary in New York, that bulwark of liberal theology. And those people stood up and responded to this call that Harvey Cox and I made together for a new form of theology, and a new form of Christian faith; or new forms of Christian faith. (10:49-11:18)
McLaren speaks highly of The Future Of Faith (TFoF), the latest book by Harvey Cox that Dr. Wittmer sums up above, in his ANKoC. In Curious Associations Ed Stetzer, Dan Kimball, And Tim Keller MissionSHIFT I told you that this book by Cox is an assault of biblical Christianity, but yet, is still supposedly about the rise and fall of belief and the coming age of the spirit. Now against this backdrop consider what McLaren writes of its back cover:
This important book has not only helped me understand the past. present, futre of this amazing phenomenon called Christianity . . . it has also motivated me to keep working to help make actual the possible future Cox envisions.
—Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian
As you can from McLaren himself, he’s working along with Clayton and Cox to “help make actual the possible future” they’re envisioning. The following endorsement from New Age guru Deepak Chopra, also on the back cover of TFoF, clarifies what kind of future we’re talking about:
Harvey Cox has been a voice of both reason and faith in our cynical times. Now, he offers a fresh vision for the resurrection of a new global Christianity that will restore our faith both in ourselves and in the divine.
—Deepak Chopra, author of Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment
O very nice; now we’re aiming to become so shifted in our “missional” faith that even a New Age mystic like Chopra can sign onto this resurrected new global Christianity. Considering the above, along with what you’ll hear in the video below, this next endorsement of TFoF proves most interesting:
The Future of Faith is insightful, provocative, and inspiring I found myself uttering a hearty evangeical “Amen” at many points!
—Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary and author of Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport
So with all of this in mind I point you now to the Christianity Today review, done by Emerging Church theologian Scot McKnight, concerning McLaren’s ANKoC. And as you read, remember that now we know McLaren’s ANKoC is really a synopsis of this new progressive Christian theology that will supposedly ”help make actual the possible future” of a “new global Christianity” where “evangelicals” like Richard Mouw and New Age gurus like Deepak Chopra can worship God as a brotherhood. Welcome to Olympic-lever postmodern Humpty Dumpty language.
But alas, for McLaren and the rest of his re-tooled Fatherhood of God, Brotherhood of Man, and the neighborhood where you live, not all neo-evangelicals and Emerging Church folk are quite ready to sign on just yet. And here I agree with McKnight when he says of ANKoC:
Unfortunately, this book lacks the “generosity” of genuine orthodoxy and, frankly, I find little space in it for orthodoxy itself. Orthodoxy for too many today means little more than the absence of denying what’s in the creeds. But a robust orthodoxy means that orthodoxy itself is the lens through which we see theology. One thing about this book is clear: Orthodoxy is not central.
Alas, A New Kind of Christianity shows us that Brian, though he is now thinking more systemically, has fallen for an old school of thought. I read this book carefully, and I found nothing new. It may be new for Brian, but it’s a rehash of ideas that grew into fruition with Adolf von Harnack and now find iterations in folks like Harvey Cox and Marcus Borg. For me, Brian’s new kind of Christianity is quite old. And the problem is that it’s not old enough. (Online source)
See also:
BRIAN MCLAREN A NEW KIND OF CHRISTIAN?
MEET MENTORS AND METHODOLOGY OF BRIAN MCLAREN
PUTTING BRIAN MCLAREN IN HIS PLACE
EMERGING CHURCH AND PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
TONY JONES, THE EMERGING CHURCH AND PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY
DOUG PAGITT AND ARROGANCE OF LIBERAL/PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANS
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR UNLEASHING THE EMERGING CHURCH VIRUS EMBED CODE?
Obama Administration Ripped For “Historic” Meeting With Anti-Religion Hate Groups
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From the CrossTalkBlog:
“The advocacy group In God We Trust today ripped the Obama administration for meeting to plot political strategy with 60 atheist activists representing organizations comprising the Secular Coalition of America.
“It is one thing for Administration to meet with groups of varying viewpoints, but it is quite another for a senior official to sit [...]
DAN SOUTHERLAND AND CULT-LIKE HOSTILE TAKEOVER TACTICS OF PURPOSE-DRIVEN/SEEKER-DRIVEN CHURCH TRANSITIONING
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The below segment from the Fighting for the Faith (FftF) program of Christian apologist Chris Rosebrough, airing weekdays at 6PM EST on Pirate Christian Radio, is related to the Apprising Ministries post Purpose Driven/Seeker Driven Popes Of The Carolinas Have Spoken, where I pointed out Perry Noble and Steven Furtick, the logical next generation off-spring of Leadership Network’s propped-up Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren, are now claiming to be receiving infallible visions from God regarding the methods and direction they are taking their churches.
It’s also related to The Druckerites Must Issue a Safety Recall For Their “Emerging Church” Product Line over at Rosebrough’s Extreme Theology where he explains:
Rick Warren, Bob Buford and Bill Hybels are the Druckerite “trinity”. All three of these men were personally mentored by the late business guru Peter Drucker and these three men more than any others are responsible for innovating the church by purposely changing congregations from a pastoral leadership model to a CEO / Innovative Change Agent leadership model.
All of these innovations were strategically crafted under the careful eye of Peter Drucker. And all of these innovations were incubated, introduced and injected into the church through the coordinated efforts of Drucker’s disciples through their different but intimately connected organizations; Leadership Network, the Purpose Driven Network and the Willow Creek Association. (Online source)
Also in The Stealth Offensive Of Neo-Liberalism Into Evangelicalism I pointed you to the January/February 2010 eJournal from 9 Marks of Mark Dever that discusses new forms of liberalism which have been slithering into mainstream evangelicalism. Therein 9 Marks’ Jonathan Leeman, while defining the liberalism we’re talking about in his Editor’s Note, virtually describes the Seeker Driven/Purpose Driven paradigm:
In general, the danger of liberalism, which we define broadly as gospel-denial within the church, occurs when we allow the world’s demands to ring a little too loudly in our ears. It occurs when we let the world dictate the terms of our beliefs or practices.
Or when we let the world determine, “These things are good and worthy, not those things,” or, “This is the salvation we are looking for.” As soon as we let the world influence the terms of the church’s life and mission, we have let another authority enter the house and tie up the king of the church, Christ. (Online source)
God’s sovereignty and His sense of humor are indeed quite powerful as the following tweet yesterday by Rick Warren is actually strong confirmation of what you’ll hear below in the FftF segment:
It drives Pharisees nuts to watch God keep blessing ministries they ridicule & despise.God’s sovereignty is often humorous. (Online source)
In his excellent book Redefining Christianity: Understanding The Purpose Driven Movement pastor Bob DeWaay brings out:
Rick Warren wrote the forward to Dan Southerland’s book entitled “Transitioning: Leading Your Church Through Change”. The book is designed to show pastors how to transition their traditional church into a Purpose Driven one. Rick Warren sells the book on the Purpose Driven website.
Some of the chapter headings reveal how heavily it depends on the concept of vision: “Preparing for Vision; Defining Vision; Planting the Vision; Sharing the Vision; Implementing the Vision, etc”. The future Purpose Driven Church is what the vision is all about. The vision includes the process of removing people who oppose becoming Purpose Driven. This book is very revealing.
Reading Southerland’s book will help people whose churches have changed from gospel preaching and Bible teaching churches to seeker churches understand what happened to them. Southerland characterizes those who resist this transition as “leaders from hell” who are of the ilk of Sanballat who resisted Nehemiah on a mission from God (ie: to convert the church to being a Purpose Driven seeker church) and that all who resist are misguided, have evil motives, or are just unwilling to change because of their being caught in traditions. (52)
As you may know, it’s one thing to read that Southerland believes he’s received this direct revelation from God to turn biblical churches into Seeker Driven/Purpose Driven churches, but it’s quite another to listen to Southerland et al tell you about themselves, which Rosebrough now gives you the opportunity to do. Rosebrough is right when he says:
These Druckerite, vision-casting, CEO-leader, so-called pastors—they’re not—there’s no such thing as valid criticism or a godly critic; and what does this come back to? Well, this comes back to what we’ve reviewed here at Fighting for the Faith, from the Church Transitions seminar—put on by Dan Southerland—who, by the way, was really kind of the official Purpose Driven church transition guy.
Their seminar was the thing that Saddleback would point to, as far as training pastors to basically change their church from being a place where God’s sheep were being fed with God’s Word, to basically entertaining goats.
Listen below as Rosebrough then goes on to thoroughly destroy biblically the central premise of the whole of the Seeker Driven/Purpose Driven movement in this segment of his FftF program.
See also:
SBC PROTESTANT PASTOR RICK WARREN DOUBLE-MINDED ON THE REFORMATION AND ROMAN CATHOLICISM
RADICAL APOSTATES, RICK WARREN AND PETER SCAZZERO
RICK WARREN AND SADDLEBACK CHURCH: PRAYER IS NOT FOR THE NOVICE
SADDLEBACK CHURCH PASTORS USING ROB BELL TEACHINGS
DR. ROD ROSENBLADT CALLS RICK WARREN’S MAN-CENTERED THEOLOGY “ROMAN CATHOLIC”
RICHARD FOSTER FORMING PROTESTANT SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION SPIRITUALITY
Always Fresh
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Here’s the message that never gets old. This is a great compilation of scriptures and commentary from David Wheaton over at The Christian World View.
“What must I do to be saved?” This question was asked to one of the followers of Jesus Christ nearly 2000 years ago and is still just as important and relevant of a question for you today. Have you ever thought about this question? Do you know the answer to the question?
I would like you to seriously consider this question today because your response will determine how you will live your life and where you will spend eternity after you die. So please, read this column carefully in its entirety.
“What must I do to be saved?” Here is how the follower of Jesus answered the question: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
It is a simple response, but what exactly does it mean to “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ”? And from what do you need to be “saved”? Let’s answer the latter question first.
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THE STEALTH OFFENSIVE OF NEO-LIBERALISM INTO EVANGELICALISM
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Apprising Ministries has been laboring to alert you in posts like Brian McLaren Invites You On His Quest To Destroy Christianity and The Emerging Church And Progressive Christian Theology After Google that now Progressive Christianity aka liberal theology is going to be showing up more and more openly around the circles of the sinfully ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church—which morphed into Emergence Christianity (EC).
However, we also need to note that it’s actually a reimagined (post) form of it i.e. Liberalism 2.0 that shows up particularly in the mystic myths of the Emergent trinity of Emerging Church guru Brian McLaren, heretical EC pastor Doug Pagitt, and his equally heretical “theologian in residence” Tony Jones. Sadly, because of increasing revisionist history indoctrinating so many for years now, coupled with ignorance of church history and growing biblical illiteracy, mainstream evangelicalism is far more liberal in its theology than you may even realize.
For these reasons the visible church now finds itself having to confront new forms of liberalism such as the neo-liberal reinterpreted postmodern progressive Christian theology mentioned above. However, we’re also seeing another type of liberalism within the Seeker Driven semi-pelagianism of Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren as well. So with this in mind, let me first point out that although I wouldn’t necessarily be in agreement with everything 9 Marks of Mark Dever teaches, and/or endorses, we are both coming from a place of being fundamentalist theologically.
But this is not to be confused with being “fundamentalist” per se; that noted, I say when a respected middle-of-the-road (using this in a positive sense here) mainstream evangelical ministry does an entire eJournal warning about liberalism within evangelicalism it would be wise for you to pay close attention. In this regard I would recommend making the time to check out the January/February 2010 eJournal from 9 Marks, which observes “some striking similarities between the ecumenical movement of the 20th century and evangelicalism today.”
Actually the title of this particular article is adapted from Phil Johnson’s contribution to the aforementioned 9 Marks eJournal—The Neo-Liberal Stealth Offensive. Phil Johnson begins his dead-on-target piece:
The gospel’s most dangerous earthly adversaries are not raving atheists who stand outside the door shouting threats and insults. They are church leaders who cultivate a gentle, friendly, pious demeanor but hack away at the foundations of faith under the guise of keeping in step with a changing world.
No Christian should imagine that heresy is always conspicuous or that every purveyor of theological mischief will lay out his agenda in plain and honest terms. The enemy prefers to sow tares secretly, for obvious reasons. Thus Scripture expressly warns us to be on guard against false teachers who creep into the church unnoticed (Jude 4), wolves who sneak into the flock wearing sheep’s clothing (Matt 7:15), and servants of Satan who disguise themselves as angels of light (2 Cor. 11:13-15).
Theological liberalism is particularly dependent on the stealth offensive… (Online source)
Liberalism does quietly slither in, often entering hidden inside of a current fad e.g. Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM), which is but a repackaged apostate Roman Catholic mysticism; and that’s why, in this case, there’s a very real reason we’re noticing “some striking similarities between the ecumenical movement of the 20th century and evangelicalism today.” I suggest you go back and do some homework concerning what happened to the now near dead mainline denominations in the late 60’s and early 70’s and how it was that they succumbed to a sinful ecumenicism.
If you do you’ll see that when they embraced this spurious CSM, which is a repudiation of the proper Christian spirituality of Sola Scriptura, they opened themselves to the very same seducing spirits currently crippling the presentation of the Gospel within mainstream evangelicalism right now. 9 Marks’ Jonathan Leeman defines the liberalism we’re talking about in his Editor’s Note:
In general, the danger of liberalism, which we define broadly as gospel-denial within the church, occurs when we allow the world’s demands to ring a little too loudly in our ears. It occurs when we let the world dictate the terms of our beliefs or practices.
Or when we let the world determine, “These things are good and worthy, not those things,” or, “This is the salvation we are looking for.” As soon as we let the world influence the terms of the church’s life and mission, we have let another authority enter the house and tie up the king of the church, Christ. (Online source)
And Michael Lawrence, associate pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC reminds us that “there’s more than one way to become a liberal.” Lawrence is absolutely right in How to Become a Liberal Without Attending Harvard Divinity School when he says:
to the extent that we have made the estimation of man the measure of our ministry, to the extent that we have allowed the sheep to determine the shape of our preaching or our own pride to set the boundaries of our labor, we have become liberals…
Other pastors, having started as evangelicals, become liberal. It’s not that they begin to deny the Formula of Chalcedon or the Nicene Creed. It’s not that they reject the bodily resurrection of Christ or the virgin birth. It’s simply that, over the course of their ministry, sound doctrine increasingly takes a back seat to effective practice and the demands of a growing budget. Hard truths are replaced by happy thoughts, tips for a successful life, and programs designed to attract crowds whose content is devoted to making those crowds feel loved and accepted.
A lot of these pastors are evangelists at heart. They want to reach people with the good news of the gospel. Yet in their relentless search for a better method of communication, they don’t always notice that they’ve trimmed the message in order to better communicate to the people.
Some of these comments apply to those pastors, but they’re not really who I have in mind either. The pastors I want to talk to are pastors like me. I don’t mean to be a liberal like my undergraduate friend. And I’m not a rock star evangelist who’s built a mega-church by walking the fine edge between relevance and faithfulness, always in danger of falling off that edge into a soft liberalism that loves Jesus, but mainly for what he can do for me, rather than for who he is… (Online source)
You can download the whole 9 Marks January/February 2010 eJournal PDF right here.
See also:
MEET MENTORS AND METHODOLOGY OF BRIAN MCLAREN
TONY JONES, THE EMERGING CHURCH AND PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY
DOUG PAGITT AND ARROGANCE OF LIBERAL/PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANS
THE EMERGING CHURCH AND PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY AFTER GOOGLE
EMERGING CHURCH AND PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR UNLEASHING THE EMERGING CHURCH VIRUS EMBED CODE?
ROMAN CATHOLIC MONASTICISM BEGINS WITH “DESERT FATHERS”
Calling Ergun Caner To Repentance
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Dr. Ergun Mehmet Caner, President of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, released a public statement yesterday on his website concerning the continued request by some for documentation of his many “debates”.
That public statement by Caner was prompted after a video surfaced of the Evangelism Conference (June, 2007) with Caner claiming to have debated three men: [...]
