by Rev. Jeffrey W. Ware

Presented to the Circuit 33 Meeting / Texas District Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, 11-7-07

Introduction

An age old devotional technique called Lectio Divina is gaining popularity  again here in the 21^st Century. Its growing popularity has made it the subject of lay and clergy studies,  retreats, and literature, not only within Roman Catholicism but also in wider  Protestantism including the Lutheran church. But what, exactly, is Lectio  Divina and does it have a place within confessional Lutheranism?

Lectio Divina is “divine reading” or “holy reading.”  In its most basic form Lectio Divina  is simply a technique for learning, meditating upon, and praying the Holy  Scriptures.  Various other  definitions shed light upon the contemplative aspect that is most usually  thought of as the goal of Lectio Divina.

Lectio Divina… represents an early monastic technique of  prayer which continues in practice though less widely, intended to achieve  communion with God as well as providing special spiritual insights and peace  from that experience.  It is a way  of praying with Scripture that calls one to study, ponder, listen and, finally,  pray from God’s Word (Wikipedia).[Lectio Divina is] a slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible, the  Word of God, to become a means of union with God (Dysinger).

History ofLectio Divina

It was most likely Origin (185-232) who laid the groundwork  for Lectio Divina as he put forth the  idea of reading to discover a deeper meaning that lay beyond the literal sense  of the biblical text.  “He used the  Greek phrase thea anagnosis to  describe scriptural reading for the purpose of finding a hidden message from  God” (Hagan).  This tradition  continued into monasticism where it became an important part of the daily  horarium. “It was, by the 5^th century pretty well an institution of  all monasteries.” (Hagan)

Benedict (480-543) extolled the value of “divine reading” in his Rule, making it a part of the  daily ritual of monks in the Benedictine Order.

Benedict envisaged his monks making about three hours a day  available for personal lectio. He  sees reading as one of the sources of spiritual energy, something that puts us  into contact with grace and thus makes possible an enhanced level of fervor and  unselfishness in daily living.  It  is clear that what Benedict has in mind is a very existential, life-related  reading and not just mindless paging through any volume that comes to hand  (Casey, 5).

He makes extensive mention of the specific times, during  each season of the church year, which are to be devoted to reading. Throughout the year he has at least two hours a day set aside for such  reading (Benedict).

Guigo II (1140-1193) was  the first to systematize Lectio Divina  into four steps or moments: reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation. Sometime around 1150 he wrote his famousScala Claustralium, “The Monk’s  Ladder.”  In this writing uses the  image of a ladder, reminiscent of Jacob’s ladder (Gen. 28) stretching from earth  into heaven.

This spiritual ladder is the means by which people “can climb from earth to heaven. It is a  marvelously tall ladder, but with just four rungs, the one end standing on the  ground, the other thrilling into the clouds and showing the climber heavenly  secrets.  Understand now what the  four staves of this ladder are, each in turn.Reading.   Lesson, is busily looking on Holy Scripture with all one’s will and wit.  Meditation is a studious insearching with the mind to know what was before  concealed through desiring proper skill. Prayer is a devout desiring of the heart to get what is good and avoid  what is evil.  Contemplation is the  lifting up of the heart to God tasting somewhat of the heavenly sweetness and  savour. Readingseeks, meditation finds, prayer asks,  contemplation feels.  The first  degree is for beginners, the second for those profiting from it, the third for  those who are devout, the fourth for those who are holy and blessed of God  (Guigo).

Guigo understands the four moments as a progression whereby  one ultimately achieves contemplative union with God. He “affirms that simple dedication to God’s word, if carried to its  logical conclusion, will conduct us to the lofty zones of contemplative intimacy  with God.  Thus it can be said that  the ultimate goal of lectio divina is  contemplation” (Casey, 59).

The Goal ofLectio Divina

Most understand the goal ofLectio Divina to be contemplation. That is to say, Lectio Divina  is radically different from the kind of reading that we commonly engage in  today.  “One does not engage in  Lectio Divina to acquire disinterested, intellectual knowledge. The intent of  Lectio Divina is to make the reading of Scripture a prayer, to create a two way  street for God and us” (Hagan).  This is a spiritual reading that has as its chief characteristic an attitude of  surrender to the word of God rather than the restless attempt to “get something” out of the text.

The gratuity of Lectio Divina is different from the utility of study. Study endeavors to master the word,Lectio Divina surrenders and yields  before it.  Lectio Divina also differs from  spiritual reading.  The last can  have as its end the acquisition of knowledge, the formulation of convictions or  the stimulus for generous self-giving. The aim of the former is union with God in faith and love (Olivera).

The four moments in Lectio Divina are to be seen as a progression. “What begins as reading becomes reflection or meditation; this leads to  prayer and ultimately to contemplative union with God. The Latin terms used traditionally arelectio >meditatio >oratio >contemplatio” (Casey, 57). However, this progression is by no means a rigid “method” of prayer  intended to be mechanically performed in one session. Neither is it a progression in the chronological sense.

Sometimes the steps of the ladder are not chronologically  connected. The prayer latent in  meditation on Scripture is released unpredictably later when engaged in an  entirely different activity.  Some  people combine reading, reflection, and prayer in a single ‘exercise’; others  separate them in time and space.  Many experience a delayed reaction.  The impact of their lectio may strike  months later.  There is a lot of  flexibility here that takes seriously different characters, different vocations,  different opportunities, and the changing seasons of life (Casey, 59).

A Deeper Look at  Lectio Divina

The selection of reading material is very important inLectio Divina. “The earliest interpretations, and some current ones, see Lectio Divina  limited exclusively to Holy Scripture” (Hagan). This is the most conservative position. Most modern practitioners would include other Christian writings. For the purposes of this paper, however, we will limit our discussion to  the application of Lection Divina in  the reading of Holy Scripture.

It is also important to set a definite time for reading  each and every day.  Lectio Divina requires a time  commitment each day from as little as a half hour to three or four hours a day. “Saint Benedict insists that the monk’s day includes definite times for  reading.  This is to say that such  periods are known in advance they are not subject to whim…” (Casey, 23). Location is also important.  Lectio Divina should take place in an  area that is free from distractions. It also helps if the location has some kind of spiritual significance.

Engaging in Lectio  Divina should not be taken lightly. Commitment is key. “Spasmodic periods of a few minutes of spiritual  reading may be of very positive value, but it is notLectio Divina. Lectio Divina as a formal discipline contemplates reading an entire  book from beginning to end.  Not at  one sitting, but from beginning to end” (Hagan). The importance of this fact will be discussed later.

It is also important to prepare the heart and mind. Modern practitioners of Lectio  Divina stress the importance of engaging in “transitional activity” prior to  reading in order to achieve the proper state of mind.  Deep breathing, proper posture, and prayer prior toLectio Divina helps to give the  reader focus helps the reader prepare for the encounter with God.

Now that we have a general idea of what is involved in  Lectio Divina let’s take a closer look at what takes place in each moment. Casey  shows that behind the four moments of Lectio Divina lies the ancient teaching that there are multiple “senses” of  Holy Scripture.  Each sense is  apprehended with a different faculty of human consciousness.

The Four Moments of Lectio Divina (Casey, 57).

Lectio engages  the literal sense of Holy Scripture by use of the human intellect in order to  understand the “historical” meaning of the text. This moment of Lectio Divina  is characterized by study of the text. This may range from a mere reading of the selection multiple times to  full blown exegetical study. Of key  importance is the reading of complete texts rather than mere selections of  texts.  This helps to avoid  misinterpretation.  As one appliesLectio Divina to Holy Scripture this  means reading whole books of the Bible. However, there is an aspect of this kind of complete reading that may be  unfamiliar to our western mindset.

Lectio Divina is not reading in the sense that our society  has educated us to understand reading. Our western culture has taught us to consider reading as a purely lineal  progression.  We start on page 1 and  proceed consecutively to ‘the end.’ Lectio Divina does in fact begin at the  beginning and end at the end, but it presumes much wandering in between. Repetition is critical to Lectio Divina. Back and forth, up and down, savoring and balancing what is presently  being read with what was recently read (Casey, 7).

Another aspect of properlectio is an attitude of passive,  silent receptivity.  One is to  become quiet during the reading in order to hear the voice of God.

Lectio is reverential listening; listening both in a spirit  of silence and of awe.  We are  listening for the still, small voice of God that will speak to us personally – not loudly, but intimately.  In  Lectio we read slowly, attentively, gently listening to hear a word or phrase  that is God’s word for us this day” (Dysinger).

A sense of expectation accompanies this receptive attitude. The Bible was written for salvation, therefore, we approach the text  expecting to hear from God.

However, we also recognize that God works in ways that we  often do not expect.  “What we  sometimes forget is that this gift of salvation often runs counter to our own  perceptions and expectations.  The  disposition that makes us capable of receiving salvation includes a willingness  to be guided and to be changed” (Casey, 6). Submission is an important aspect ofLectio Divina. We are to approach the  reading defenseless and ready to be changed and influenced. “We open ourselves to the text, we approach it in a spirit of faith and  obedience, ready to perceive in what we read the word of God, the will of God,  the action of God coming to save us.… We approach our reading as a disciple comes  to a master: receptive, docile, willing to be changed” (Casey, 6).

The lectio inLectio Divina lays the groundwork for  the three moments which follow and yet it is only the beginning. “The literal meaning of the text is always the point of departure: the  letter reveals the deeds and presents the persons, history is the foundation. The Spirit takes us beyond the letter, our theological life opens the  door of meaning to us” (Olivera). Meditatio  naturally flows from this first moment.

Meditatio  engages the Allegorical sense of Holy Scripture by use of the human memory in  order to contextualize the meaning of the biblical text. In this moment human memory is used to discover Christ and the Church  within and behind the biblical text in order to build faith.

In its most basic sensemeditatio could be described as  reflection and application. “We must take in the word – that is, memorize it – and while gently repeating it to ourselves, allow it to interact with our  thoughts, our hopes, our memories, our desires” (Dysinger). The individual engages the biblical text in a new way by beginning to  focus on a word or words that are of particular import. These words are repeated multiple times in order to commit them to  memory.  In the process the memory  is used to call forth prior knowledge and experiences. The individual applies the text to himself as he begins to see himself  within the context of Christ’s passion and as a member of the Church.

Meditation is not to be confused with exegesis. Rather, it is an intensely personal reading of Holy Scripture with  application to one’s own life. “To meditate is to chew and ruminate, for it is  to: repeat, reflect, remember, interpret, penetrate… One who thus meditates on  the Word is transformed according to the Word and becomes a mediator of the  Word.  When the text speaks to your  heart, you have reached and received a precious fruit of meditation” (Olivera).

This personal application of scripture inmeditatio serves two purposes. It effects both moral and experiential change.

Memory is more than the ability to recall information. In the traditional sense it involves living in the presence of what is ‘remembered,’ just as mindfulness of a loved one may accompany all our  activities.  This is what Jesus  meant when he spoke about ‘abiding’ or ‘remaining’ in his word (John 8:31; 15:7). To live in the presence of God alters our behavior and also effects a  qualitative change in our experience. It is a dynamic element in ongoing conversion.” (Casey, 72).

Oratio engages  the Tropological or behavioral sense of scripture by use of the human conscience  as the individual begins to live out the meaning of the text. The first expression of this is prayer. Oratio may simply be described  as praying the text, using the words of the text itself to form the words or  theme of one’s own prayer.  It has  also been described as opening one’s heart to God or even as conversation with  God. “Prayer understood both as dialogue  with God, that is, as loving conversation with the One who has invited us into  His embrace; and as consecration, prayer as the priestly offering to God of  parts of ourselves that we have not previously believed God wants” (Dysinger).

The application of the text to oneself inmeditatio reveals our lowly sinful  condition and creates in us a desire for a clean heart that we might know God. In this situation the heart itself is enflamed and led to pray for these  things.  In the midst of such prayer  God grants contemplatio.

What does God then, whose help is ever upon the righteous  and our ear at our prayer?  He  doesn’t wait until the prayer is fully ended, but he pierces in the midst of the  burning desire of that thirsty soul, and with a secret balm of heavenly  sweetness softens the soul and comforts it, and makes it be so overcome with  delight and joy that it forgets all earthly things for that hour, and he makes  it to lose itself in wonder, as if it were dead from knowing ourself. And as in fleshly works we are so overcome that we lose the guidance of  reason and so become all fleshly, right so in the ladder of contemplation our  fleshly stirrings are so cancelled out that the flesh does not win over the  spirit but is become all spiritual” (Guigo).

Contemplatio  engages the Anagogical or mystical sense of scripture by a special gift of the  Holy Spirit applied to the spirit of man such that God is met and personally  experienced as one reads text.  Contemplatio has been described in  various ways.  Central for most  authors is the concept of subjective experience of the divine. It is sometimes described as mere listening to God as one gains freedom  from one’s own thoughts as one’s mind, heart, and soul is opened to the  influence of God.  The idea of “resting” in the presence of God is also a common theme. It is perhaps best thought of as an indescribable experience of the  divine characterized by silence and feelings of delight, thirst, knowing, etc. The following two definitions attempt to get at the heart ofcontemplatio:

What is contemplation? It is a change in the consciousness  marked by two elements.  On the one  hand, there is a recession from ordinary sensate and intellectual awareness and  all the concerns and programs that depend upon it. At the same time, more subtly, it is being possessed by the reality and  mystery of God.  Having emptied  oneself in imitation of Christ (Philippians 2:7), one is filled with the  fullness of God. ‘Of his fullness we have all received, grace for grace’ (John  1:16).  The endowments of Christ  become ours – in particular his relationship with the Father. In graced living Christ becomes the doer of our actions; in contemplation  we become the subject of Christ’s prayer. There is a mysterious interpenetration of subjectivity in the realm of  supernatural existence.” (Casey, 39)To contemplate is to take silent delight in theTemplewhich is Risen Christ.  To  contemplate is to encounter the Word, beyond words. To contemplate is to live in the Risen One, rooted in the now of this  earth, reaching out to the beyond of the heavens. Contemplation is vision.  The  contemplative sees the resurrection in the cross, life in death, the Risen One  in the Crucified. Contemplation is the thirst caused by the seeming absence or  the satiety of mutual presence.  The  contemplative is at a loss for words, simply because he knows (Olivera).

Contemplation is, therefore, the final goal. Incontemplatio the individual finally  makes actual contact with the divine by ultimately transcending the text itself. “He who has revealed truth engraven in the innermost depths of his heart,  does not depend on the sacred text and is for others a living Bible” (Olivera).

Luther andLectio Divina on the Word of God

John Kleinig has shown that Luther’s life in the monastery  most certainly exposed him to the practice ofLectio Divina.

“Luther distinguished his own practice of spirituality from  the tradition of spiritual foundation that he experienced as a monk. This tradition followed a well-timed, ancient pattern of meditation and  prayer.  It’s goal was ‘contemplation,’ the experience of ecstasy, bliss, rapture, and illumination  through union with the glorified Lord Jesus.” (Kleinig, 4-5)

This “pattern of meditation and prayer” was none other thanLectio Divina. Luther’s reformation discovery of the Gospel led him, finally, to reject  this brand of spirituality.

Oswald Bayer shows how Luther’s “reformation discovery” led  him to a new understanding of Language. In his early years Luther dealt with the Word in terms of Augustinian and  Stoic theology, namely, that “language is a system of signs that refer to  objects or situations or of signs that express an emotion. In either case the  sign is – as a statement or as an expression – not the reality itself” (Bayer,  76).  In the case of holy absolution,  for instance, the word of absolution was understood to be a declaration of that  which has already happened in heaven. The absolution, in this case, is not the reality itself, rather, the  words signify or point to a reality that already exists.

Luther’s theological breakthrough was his discovery that  the word of God is the reality in itself. “That the linguistic sign is itself  the reality, that it represents not an absent but a present reality, was  Luther’s great hermeneutical discovery, his ‘Reformation Discovery’ in the  strict sense” (Bayer).  Luther had  discovered that the word “does what it says” and “says what it does” (Bayer).

It is clear that Luther’s fully developed understanding of  the word would have conflicted with the basic premise of Lectio Divina. Kleinig proposes that Luther’s Oratio, Meditatio, Tentatio was his corrective toLectio Divina.

In contrast to this rather manipulative method, Luther  proposed an evangelical pattern of spirituality as reception rather than  self-promotion.  This involved three  things: prayer (oratio), meditation (meditation),  and temptation (tentatio). All three revolved around ongoing, faithful attention to God’s word” (Kleinig,  258).

It has already been demonstrated that the ultimate goal ofLectio Divina is contemplation  whereby one comes into an experiential encounter God. In this encounter one is enabled to transcend the text of scripture and  achieve direct communion with the divine. The fundamental presupposition behind this is the idea that the word is  merely a sign.  The word is a  mediator between God and man which, while certainly important and useful, is not  the thing in itself.  True, actual,  communication with God cannot take place until one, by prayer and meditation, is  finally by God’s grace, enabled to go beyond the text to establish mystical  communion with God.  It is for this  reason that, in Lectio Divina the  word can only be the point of the departure or necessary beginning which leads  ultimately to the true goal of true communion with God on a purely spiritual  level.

In Luther’s Oratio,  Meditatio, Tentatio there is no room forContemplatio. The direct encounter with God happens in the word itself. The word does not merely signify God’s speaking to us. The word is, in fact, God speaking to us. There is no reality to be sought beyond the word of God.

Therefore if you want to be certain what God in heaven  thinks of you, and whether He is gracious to you, you must not seclude yourself,  retire into some nook, and brood about it or seek the answer in your works or in  your contemplation—all this you must banish from your heart, and you must give  ear solely to the words of this Christ; for everything is revealed in Him  (Luther, AE 24:257).One thing, and only one thing, is necessary for Christian  life, righteousness, and freedom. That one thing is the most holy Word of God,  the gospel of Christ, as Christ says, John 11[:25], “I am the resurrection and  the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live”; and John  8[:36] (Luther, AE 31:345).

The order in oratio,  meditatio, tentatio is important. In contrast to Lectio Divina  which sees the word as a means to an end, Luther’s list continually leads one  back to the word.  Oratio, meditatio, tentatio “describe  the life of faith as a cycle that begins with prayer for the gift of the Holy  Spirit, concentrates on the reception of the Holy Spirit through meditation on  God’s word, and results in spiritual attack. This in turn leads a person back to further prayer and intensified  meditation” (Kleinig, 258).

For Luther everything is focused on the word. Prayer does not stand above the text as a more spiritual exercise  divorced from the word.  Luther does  not see the believer seeking for something beyond and above the text in prayer. Rather, true prayer (oratio)  directs believers toward the Scriptures. In prayer the believer asks for understanding and steadfastness as he  approaches God’s word.  Furthermore,  the very words of scripture form the language of prayer itself.

Luther also completely redefinesmeditatio. Whereas in Lectio Divina  meditation is focused on the human memory and its ability to make the text  personal through the recollection of past events, Luther’s understanding of  meditation focuses on God’s word.  For Luther, meditation is simply the continual study of scripture. God’s word is not a mere sign that needs to be internalized in order to  be heard properly, it is the very voice of God that comes with power both to  kill and make alive.

Finally, Luther replacesLectio Divina’scontemplatio withtentatio. The goal is no longer subjective, experiential contemplation with God. Rather, in his addition of tentatio he refocuses our attention on the word as the goal. Tentatio (sufferings and  temptation) is a form of spiritual attack which drives the believer away from  the internalized self to the external word. Tentatio is not a goal. It is not the highest rung on a spiritual ladder to heaven. It is God’s way of turning self-seeking men back to the word and  therefore back to himself.

Conclusion

We must applaud Lectio Divina for its high respect for the word of God and for it’s many  helpful suggestions on how to approach it’s study. However, we have seen that, in the final analysis,Lectio Divina merely pays lip service  to the word in favor of its much loftier goal, namely, contemplation. It was finally unable to stand up to Luther’s full blown theology of the  word and was therefore rejected by him in favor of a new approach that kept the  word as the focal point and goal.  Lectio Divina’s growth in popularity  seems to be in line with certain trends within pop-Christianity that focus on  subjectivism and experientialism.  Luther’s oratio, meditatio, tentatio  is deserving of a much greater hearing in our Lutheran churches as a truly  faithful substitution and corrective for the kind of spirituality being promoted  in the church today.

Bibliography

Bayer, Oswald, “Luther as Interpreter of Holy Scripture,”TheCambridge Companion to Martin Luther, Edited  by Donald K. McKim,CambridgeUniversity Press, 2003.

Casey, Michael, Sacred Reading: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina,Liguori,MO, Ligouri/Triumph Publications,  1996.

Dysinger, Luke Fr., “Accepting The Embrace of God: The  Ancient Art of Lectio Divina,” St.  Andrew’s Abbey [website]; http://www.valyermo.com/Id-art.html; Internet;  accessed 22 December 2006.

Guigo II, “The Ladder of Four Rungs,”U.M.I.L.T.A [website];  http://www.umilta.net/ladder; Internet; accessed 22 December 2006.

Hein, Steven A., “Tentatio,”Logia (Eastertide, 2001), 33-41

Kleinig, John, “Meditation”Logia (Eastertide, 2001), 45-50.

Kleinig, John, “Oratio,  Meditatio, Tentatio: What Makes a Theologian?”Concordia Theological Quarterly; Vol.  66:3 (July, 2002), 255-267.

Luther, M. (1999, c1961). Vol. 24: Luther’s  works, vol. 24 : Sermons on the  Gospel of St. John: Chapters 14-16 (J. J. Pelikan,  H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther’s Works.Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Luther, M. (1999, c1957). Vol. 31: Luther’s  works, vol. 31 : Career of the Reformer I (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H.  T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther’s Works.Philadelphia: Fortress  Press.

Luther, M. (1999, c1960). Vol. 34: Luther’s  works, vol. 34 : Career of the Reformer IV (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H.  T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther’s Works.Philadelphia: Fortress  Press.

O’Hagan, John, “Lectio Divina,”Monastery of the Ascension [website];  http://www.idahomonks.org/sect810.htm; Internet; accessed 22 December 2006.

Olivera, Bernardo, “Bernardo Olivera on Lectio Divina,”The Order of St. Benedict [website];  http://www.osb.org/lectio/olivera.html; Internet; accessed 22 December 2006.

Wikipedia, “Lectio Divina,”Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  [website]; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectio_Divina; Internet; accesses 22  December 2006

Republished with permission. The original appears at Sound Witness.org right here.

See also:

MARTIN LUTHER ON CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICES LIKE LECTIO DIVINA

BETH MOORE AND JOHN PIPER LEAD LECTIO DIVINA-LITE AT PASSION 2012

DANGERS OF CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM: LECTIO DIVINA

Print this entry

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah  

Come, behold the works of the LORD, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire. “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah (Psalm 46:1-11)

Be Still, Use Your Mind, And You’ll Know You’re Being Mislead By Contemplative Gurus

The heart of this article here at Apprising Ministries is to bring to your attention that it’s quite common for those Protholics and Narcigetes who are teachers of the corrupt Contemplative/Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) of so-called Spiritual Formation (SF) to appeal to verse 10 of the above Psalm 46 in an attempt to justify their unbiblical practice of Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP), which is a type of meditation in an altered state of consciousness—i.e. transcendental meditation for the “Christian.”

For example you’ll definitely see this in this teaching of Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic “Roshi” Richard Foster as well as that of his spiritual twin ordained Southern Baptist minister Dallas Willard. Perhaps the best recent example would be the DVD Be Still And Know, an actual ode to CCP in which that dubious duo also appear. The “Bible Study Guide” that comes with it informs us:

Be Still is an interactive film that provides a contemplative look at the history, importance and power of prayer from a cross-denominational point of view… demonstrat[ing] contemplative reflection as a vital part of our everyday lives… featur[ing] some of today’s most highly respected Christian authors, educators, speakers and ministers including Dr. Henry Cloud, Richard Foster, Max Lucado, Beth Moore, Priscilla Shriver and Dallas Willard.[1]

Sure enough on page 9 under the subheading “Contemplative Prayer” we’re told that, “The Bible speaks specifically about being quiet and still before the Lord.” And the first verse used to support their contention that Scripture is speaking about being “quiet and still” in preparation for CCP meditation is Psalm 46:10. In Prayer: Finding The Heart’s True Home the aforementioned Richard Foster writes:

So many passages of Scripture provide a touchstone for Meditative Prayer: “Be still and know that I am God”; “Abid in my love”; “I am the Good Shepherd”; “Rejoice in the Lord always.”[2]

Then we have Ruth Haley Barton, a spiritual director, teacher ,and retreat leader trained through The Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. Co-Founder & President of The Transforming Center Barton has also been a featured speaker and teacher at Zondervan’s National Pastors Conference for the past couple of years heading up their Pastor’s Retreats. Her book Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence, and by the way you can purchase her books right from Lifeway Christian Stores of the “Protestant” Southern Baptist Convention,[3] has a foreword from Dallas Willard and an endorsement from Tilden Edwards who heads the interspiritual Shalem Institute.

In her chapter ”Beyond Words” where she describes her “journey” (I’m coming to hate that word) into the “silence and solitude” of CCP Barton opens with a quote from apostate Roman Catholic monk and mystic Richard Rohr and explains that “help came from a spiritual director” whom Barton met when she “sought her out for therapy.” Barton then tells us that:

this wise woman said to me, “Ruth, you are like a jar of river water all shaken up. What you need is to sit still long enough that the sentiment can settle and the water can become clear”… well, that image called to me with the hope of peace, clarity and a deeper level of certainty in God than I had ever known. In the desire [which] this image stirred up, I recognized an invitation to be still and know beyond my addiction  to noise, words, people and performance-oriented activity.[4]

What Is The Lord Telling Us When He Tells Us To Be Still And Know He’s God?

All of this sure sounds pleasing and it most certainly is the prevailing postevangelical view of Psalm 46:10 — “Be still, and know that I am God.” The huge problem for the growing band of evangelical CSM supporters in the Emerging rebellion against sola Scriptura is that this verse has nothing at all to do with the subject of prayer as the context should make clear. Taken in the context of this Psalm, an exclaimation of praise for the glorious absolute sovereignty of the LORD God Almighty, we have a reminder that those who belong to Him should “cease striving”; stop worrying, “be still,” rest quietly, in any kind of situation because the LORD is your God.

Yet how odd that evangelical and Emergent Church contemplatives content to embrace mystery ala Rob Bell will tell me that I can’t know for sure verse 10 really means what I just told you it does. However, in a perfect demonstration of double-mindedness these same wannabe Christian mystics are then certain that they know this verse is, in fact, teaching their spurious spirituality. Even so, the fact remains it’s these neo-Gnostics—with their supposedly superior understanding of the “real” meaning of Scripture—who’ve wrested this verse out of its context. Um, the Scriptures where out of the other side of their mouths they still tell us can’t be clearly understood.

As to a proper view of Psalm 46:10 in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary series Dr. Willem A. VanGemeren is right when he points out that:

the psalmist encourages the godly to “know” that the Lord is God. Though it was tempting to ally themselves with foreign powers, to rely on military strength, or to give themselves over to idolatry and pagan ways, the godly must learn to persevere to the end. The exhortation “be still” calls on them to stop doing one thing in favor of something else. What their temptation was may be implied from v.2: “Therefore we will not fear.”

Throughout the history of Israel and Judah, severe national distress brought the temptation to abandon true religion for the ephemeral security of political alliances, military strength, and worldly paganism (Realpolitik). Instead of choosing a negative option, the people of God distinguish themselves by the pursuit of godliness: “Know that I am God.” The “knowledge” of God includes a factual knowledge about him, his past acts, and his promises. But in this context the psalmist calls on them to commit themselves to the Lord and to seek his “refuge,” “strength,” and “fortress” (vv.1, 7, 11).[5]

Then in his own classic The Treasury of David Charles Spurgeon quotes Jonathan Edwards as teaching the following concerning Psalm 46:10:

Verse 10. Be still, and know that I am God. The great works of God, wherein his sovereignty appeared, had been described in the foregoing verses. In the awful desolations that he made, and by delivering his people by terrible things, he showed his greatness and dominion. Herein he manifested his power and sovereignty, and so commands all to be still, and know that he is God. For says he, I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. In the words may be observed,

A duty described, to be still before God, and under the dispensations of his providence; which implies that we must be still as to words; not speaking against the sovereign dispensations of Providence, or complaining of them; not darkening counsel by words without knowledge, or justifying ourselves and speaking great swelling words of vanity. We must be still as to actions and outward behaviour, so as not to oppose God in his dispensations; and as to the inward frame of our hearts, cultivating a calm and quiet submission of soul to the sovereign pleasure of God, whatever it may be. (Online source)

Next pastor Larry DeBruyn will now give us a good working knowledge of the Hebrew which underlies the English ”Cease striving”, “Be still”:

the verb “Be still” (Hebrew, rapah) is used 46 times in the Old Testament with meanings everywhere from describing laziness to ordering relaxation. Though the majority of versions translate the injunction “Be still”, other meanings are “Cease striving ” (NASB), “Be quiet” (NCV), “Desist” (Young’s), or “Calm down” (CEV). In no biblical usage or context does the Hebrew verb enjoin God’s people to meditate or contemplate. Rather, believers are to rest and trust in God. (Online source, emphasis his)

And in closing, if you are someone who has found themselves attracted to these seducing spirits and their doctrines of demons in CSM and CCP I will now leave you to contemplate the following sound advice and stern warning from Christian apologist Bob DeWaay in his article Contemporary Christian Divination: The False Claims and Practices of Christian Mystics:

I have debated people about these techniques many times. They often say, “God can do anything and use anything, you are tying to put God in a box.” You probably have heard that argument. When I was doing my research on divination for the previous issue of CIC, I thought about the “putting God in a box” accusation. The Biblical record shows that it is God who purposely limits the ways we can come to Him. If there is a “box” God made it. I think a better analogy than a box, is a sheepfold. It is a Biblical analogy.

Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber” (John 10:1). The true sheep enter the sheepfold through the door, Jesus Christ (John 10:7). He as the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep (John 10:11). He protects His sheep from the wolves, gives them pasture, and abundant life (John 10:10-15). Being in the sheepfold may seem restrictive compared to the adventures of exploring the bigger world out there unencumbered by the guidance of the Shepherd. However the restrictions are there to save our spiritual lives.

The restrictions God places on how and by what means we may legitimately come to Him and receive spiritual truth are for our own good. The spirit world that Christian mystics like Morton Kelsey want to explore is far more complex than even Jung and Kelsey give it credit for being. The dangers of deception are far more real. In fact, if we journey into the world of the spirits by means other that what God has ordained, we will be deceived, not may be deceived. The spirits who inhabit that world have been there for many thousands of years practicing the art of deception. They willingly give people whatever experience they would tend to think is from God. Jose Silva, who is Catholic, when he went into his alpha level to gain guides received Jesus and Mary. The spirits will give you what you would expect is from God in your own context. They will provide any experience that serves their deceptive purposes, including sending a spiritual “Jesus” (see 2Corinthians 11:4). The prohibitions on divination are there to protect us from these malicious entities.

So we are not putting God in a box, God is putting us in a sheepfold if we are willing to be there. The practices of “thinking outside the box” that are so popular today are fatal when it comes to spirituality. God has not left access to spiritual truth in the hands of innovative thinkers who like pioneers blaze new trails. God has given access to Himself, once for all, through Jesus Christ who is our heavenly High Priest. The truth is revealed once for all in the Scriptures. (Online source, emphasis his)

___________________________________________________________________________
End notes:

[1] Be Still (DVD © 2006 Twentieth Fox Home Entertainment LLC).

[2] Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding The Heart’s True Home [New York: Harper Collins, 1997], 149.

[3] http://www.lifeway.com/Keyword/barton+ruth+haley?Ntk=Author, accessed 1/16/12.

[4] Ruth Haley Barton, Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God’s Transforming Presence [Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2005], 29, 30.

[5] Frank E. Gaebelein, ed., Expositor’s Bible Commentary: With the New International Version of the Bible [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1976-92), in Zondervan NIV Study Bible Library, limited ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), CD-ROM, Psalm 46.

See also:

PRISCILLA SHIRER AND CONTEMPLATIVE/CENTERING PRAYER

“CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE” BY RICHARD FOSTER AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THEOLOGICAL ERROR

SPIRITUAL FORMATION IS PIETISM REIMAGINED

Print this entry

By Apprising Ministries special correspondent Daniel Neades of Better Than Sacrifice

We all want to hear from God.

Now you can share the secret closely guarded by our forebears in the faith.

This simple yet ancient formula will enable you to experience the voice of God speaking directly into your life:

1. Get hold of a reliable translation of the Bible, such as the NKJV or the ESV. (Sorry, no, The Messagedoesn’t work for this spiritual discipline.)

2. Open it.

3. Read.

The original appears complete with a comments section for you to weigh in on the discussion right here.

See also:

BETH MOORE THE MYSTIC

BETH MOORE SEEKING DIRECT REVELATION FROM GOD AT PASSION 2012

SBC’S BETH MOORE MERELY PRETENDING TO BE PROTESTANT

Print this entry

PLURA SCRIPTURA  ([ploo r-uh ] [skrɪpt ər’ uh])

[(1350–1400; Middle English  < Latin plūrālis,  equivalent to plūr-,  stem of plūs plus  + -alis -al); (1250–1300; Middle English  < Latin scrīptūra  writing. See script, -ure) ((Latin ablative, “by Scripture plus more”)*

1. Consisting of, containing, or pertaining to more than the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; the Scriptures plus something else.
2. The doctrine that the Bible contains knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness, and that superior spiritual insight may be found through the supplementation of revelations, dreams, impressions, experience, contact with the afterlife, voices, signs and wonders, psycho-social constructs, new theory, new thought, etc.
3. The idea that the doctrines to be admitted or confessed in the Christian faith are found directly within Scripture, as well as in other authorities considered co-equal, co-relevant, and or sublimely inspired, thus creating new revelation.
4. The doctrine of the authority of the personal witness of the Holy Spirit or spirit to the heart of each man as a necessary embellishment to the Biblical text.
5. The teaching that all things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; and that only the learned, the elect, or the leadership elite, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.
6. The evolutionary philosophy that the positive future of man, including world peace, is predicated upon the unity of world religious beliefs; syncretism.

*Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_scriptura and www.dictionary.com

See also:

PROTHOLIC

REFORMERGENT

DOMYSTIC

Print this entry

We are grateful for these fellow soldiers willing to sacrifice along with us so that AM can stand as a lighthouse of information to help guide the many who are without good local churches or who have to stand for truth within fading fellowships now being covered with this growing spiritual darkness.

Another way AM stays on the cutting edge of these troubling spiritual seas is with the assist from readers sending in tips concerning issues that are popping up to the surface now like spiritual icebergs. For example, the following from the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board (MBCB), which is the arm of the Southern Baptist Convention for affiliated local churches in Mississippi.

I’ve been monitoring Intel along the Internet Front for years now so I can tell you that a major factor contributing to the rapidly growing apostasy within spiritually spineless evanjellyfish is the spread of Counter Reformation spirituality through Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) ala gurus Dallas Willard and his spiritual twin Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster.

You need to realize that it’s even slithered deeply into the weakened heart of the evangelical community as you can see e.g. in Moody Publishers Publishes Book On Contemplative/Centering Prayer. Because it’s my job, here I’ll tell you again that CSM is not a neutral practice; and know this, my research shows that once someone begins dabbling in this they almost immediately begin to drift away from proper Biblical doctrine.

It is possible to dance in a minefield, but it doesn’t make it a good idea. Sure, to paraphrase Phil Johnson, you can rummage through the garbage and find enough edible scraps to make up a meal; but I’d rather eat one made with fresh food. The church visible is now suffering much from the libertine legacy of the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult operating within the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church with its postmodern obfuscation.

What seems to have been forgotten, because of the relentless bombardment of EC Humpty Dumpty language, is Jesus tells us to be on our guard against the leaven of false teachers:

Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?”

“Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (Matthew 16:6-12)

Don’t kid yourself; the current sorry state of the witness of the Christian faith demonstrates with crystalline clarity that we’re just as dense as those disciples. That aside, note again that Jesus said we are to beware of the leaven of false teaching; He didn’t say be the ones who actually add it in to our doctrine. Yet here’s another example of such in the Slowly Becoming Catholic as we turn to the SBC website for the MBCB and the below:

(Online source)

As we click in there under Resources – Personal & Corporate Prayer we find the following concerning a Romish and Emerging Church practice of “prayer stations” in Virtual PrayerWalking:

(Online source)

MBCB has redefined the term but for those involved with CSM the term “prayer walk” is often referring to the mild maze of the labyrinth, which has no place in the historic orthodox Christian faith. In What is labyrinth prayer walking? the research team at Herescope tells us:

occultic roots and definitions of new-fangled words…have risen to popularity in evangelicaldom. . . . Labyrinths as a form of prayer walking are rapidly increasing in popularity as a personal way to gain more spirituality. Several examples can be found at:

http://www.whfirstchurch.org/labwalks.htm
http://www.lessons4living.com
http://www.oursaviourslc.org/messenger.htm

According to Webster’s Dictionary, a labyrinth is “a structure containing an intricate network of winding passages hard to follow without losing one’s way; maze.” In Greek mythology “such a structure built by Daedalus for King Minos of Crete, to house the Minotaur,” a half-bull, half-man creature which was annually fed “seven youths and seven maidens from Athens.” A labyrinth is synonymous with something complicated, perplexing in arrangement, puzzling, intricate, and difficult to follow.

According to the occult reference The Seeker’s Handbook, the etymology of the word “labyrinth” has to do with “labor, birth, or rebirth. At sacred sites, such as Chartres, Glastonbury, and Knossos on Crete, a maze constructed of earthwalls, ruts, tiles, or underground windings, believed to have been used in initiations . . . .” (Online source)

Actually I first heard of this kind of thing when I was attending a hyper-Pentecostal Word Faith church early in my walk with Jesus. In fact, it has to do with a whacked view of spiritual warfare and supposedly claiming territory back from demons. My last time there the entire congregation was stomping around the church grounds claiming the church building for Jesus and decreeing new carpet for it.

Well, the only claiming and decreeing I did as I left that fellowship was to tell the Lord I was sorry that apparently I just don’t get it. You may find it interesting that later when I planted a mission church in that town, unbeknownst to me, the mother church overseeing the plant actually decided to put it in that very building. Apparently this was another example of the Lord’s sense of humor.

Be that as it may, notice that point number 5 above is very Henry Blackerby-esque in that one is expected to believe they’ll receive highly subjective direct revelation from the Lord during their time in the prayer walking prayer stations: Report back what God has said. Again, the SBC is reputed to discourage this kind of quasi-charismania; but based upon this we have more reason to say it’s actually the opposite.

Now we turn to something even more troubling for an outlet of the SBC, which is supposed to be the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. This would be the MBCB Annotated Bibliography on prayer. In closing this, for now, I’m only going to draw your attention to the largest leaven in this particular SBC lump. First there’s the late Roman Catholic monk and mystic Henri Nouwen:

The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life, Nouwen, Henri (2008)A collection of writings and short essays on prayer and public life. Themes include desire, solitude, listening, community, forgiveness, death, and eternal life. (Online source)

Really? Southern Baptists need to turn to a man who died a slave to the false gospel of the long apostate Roman Catholic Church and was a leading teacher of spurious CSM to learn about eternal life? For the benefit of whomever wrote this, solitude, listening, and even prayer also refers to the crown jewel of CSM; a form of meditation in an altered state of consciousness commonly known as Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP).

MBCB is not alone as the only Southern Baptists pointing us to Henri Nouwen as you can see in Setting Kay Warren Straight About Roman Catholic Mystic Henri Nouwen. But why would MBCB recommend that we learn the spirituality of Henri Nouwen; whose own devotion to CSM led him to deny the doctrine of original sin and convinced him that God already dwells within all of mankind:

Still, when we remain faithful to our discipline [of Contemplative/Centering Prayer], even if it is only ten minutes a day, we gradually come to see — by the candlelight of our prayers — that there is a space within us where God dwells and where we are invited to dwell with God…

One of the discoveries we make in [meditative] prayer is that the closer we come to God, the closer we come to all our brothers and sisters in the human family. God is not a private God. The God who dwells in our inner sanctuary is also the God who dwells in the inner sanctuary of each human being.[1]

Because Nouwen fully believed this mythology of classic mysticism, we’re not surprised he’d follow it to its logical conclusion; the delusion of universalism:

Today I personally believe that Jesus came to open the door to God’s house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her way to God.[2]

Its asinine for Southern Baptists to encourage people to add this leaven of Henri Nouwen into their doctrine. Then there’s the very next entry in the MBCB Annotated Bibliography on prayer:

Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, Foster, Richard (2002) A comprehensive introduction to, and survey of, the practice and experience of prayer for Christian life. Foster’s writing draws from many different traditions and experiences. Topics include: covenant prayer, meditative prayer, contemplative prayer, healing prayer, intercessory prayer, and radical prayer. Also includes scripture and subject index. (Online source)

Again, MBCB is not alone as Southern Baptists recommending the deceptive teachings of Quaker mystic Richard Foster as you can see in John Piper, Rick Warren & Foster-Willardism. From my years of studying Foster’s CSM mythology I can tell you that his musings absolutely do draw “from many different traditions and experiences.” Indeed it does; and you need to know that this even includes apostates and pagan religions.

However, the truth is, Contemplative/Centering Prayer—incontrovertibly mediation in an altered form of consciousness—has never been a part of the Biblical Christianity recovered during the Lord’s Protestant Reformation; because it is antithetical to the proper Christian spirituality of sola Scriptura. Consider the below from Foster’s latest book:

As we experience the unifying grace of recollection and the liberating grace of beholding the Lord, we are ushered into a third step in meditative prayer, the prayer of listening… When we come to the prayer of listening, we put away all obstacles of the heart, all scheming of the mind, all vacillations of the will.

There is a hushing of all “outward and earthy affection,” as Fenelon reminds us. A graphic phrase from St. John of the Cross, “My house being now all stilled,” instructs us in the quieting of all physical and emotional senses. The experiences of recollection and beholding the Lord have done their work.[3]

Notice that Richard Foster, as a mystic Quaker, refers to two other apostate (at best) mystics concerning meditation. Just last year in Kay Warren, Henri Nouwen, And Contemplative Spirituality I explained to you that François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon (1651-1715) aka Fenelon was a mystic and a very devout Roman Catholic bishop from France. He was especially known for his catechizing people into Roman Catholicism.

As far as John of the Cross (1542-1591), the fact is he was a major player in the Counter Reformation of the Church of Rome and, along with messed up mystic nun Teresa of Avila, founded “the Discalced Carmelites, [and was] doctor of mystic theology”[4] of the Roman Catholic Church. Jesus has already said of false teachers — “You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16) and He then told us:

“Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (John 7:24)

In the case of CSM and its CCP, which is the spurious spirituality of Rome’s corrupt Counter Reformation, stop judging it by its apparent piety and judge it by the right judgement of Holy Scripture as did God’s Reformers when they rejected it (cf. Acts 17:11). It’s well past time to recognize the rancid fruit and sinful ecumenicism of this CSM; e.g. consider CSM guru Richard Foster, a key mentor of the Emerging Church with Dallas Willard.

This warped and toxic neo-Gnostic serpentine spirituality, which slithered out from Rome, was core doctrine of the EC from its hatching in hell circa 1997. Its practice has produced the fruit of a more clearly delineated postmodern Progressive Christian theology—a Liberalism 2.0—that the EC often refers to as “big tent” Emergence Christianity; in other words, the Love Wins mythology of former EC rock star pastor Rob Bell.

This all is also a huge part of what Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, one of the unholy EC trinity of apostates along with universalist EC pastor Doug Pagitt, and his friend Dr. Tony Jones—the progressive “theologian in residence” at Pagitt’s Emergent Solomon’s Porch—began laying out systematically in his book A New Kind of Christianity. All of these ravenous wolves are dedicated practitioners of this CSM.

Finally, stop and think about this: Richard Foster’s Christian doctrine is so compromised that he’s listed as one of the great teachers of spirituality as part of the interspiritual Living Spiritual Teachers Project right alongside false religious teachers like Deepak Chopra, the Dalai Lama, Brian McLaren, Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckhart Tolle, and Marianne Williamson. I wonder, how long before the SBC also recommends such as these?

___________________________________________________________________________
End notes:

[1] Henri Nouwen, Here And Now [New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1994], 24, 25, emphasis mine.

[2] Henri Nouwen, Sabbatical Journey [New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1998], 51, emphasis mine.

[3] Richard J. Foster. Sanctuary of the Soul: Journey into Meditative Prayer (Renovare Resources Renovare Resources) (Kindle Locations 532, 537-539). Kindle Edition.

[4] http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08480a.htm, accessed 12/27/11.

See also:

ALABAMA BAPTIST CONVENTION (SBC) ENCOURAGES YOU TO LEARN LECTIO DIVINA FROM APOSTATE TONY JONES

BETH MOORE RECOMMENDS “JESUS CALLING” BOOK CLAIMING DIRECT DIVINE REVELATION

JAMES ROBISON AND RICK WARREN WORKING TO REVERSE THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

Print this entry

A major factor contributing to this is the spread of Counter Reformation spirituality and Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) ala gurus Dallas Willard and his spiritual twin Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster.

You need to realize that it’s even slithered deeply into the mainstream of evangelicalism as you can see e.g. in Gospel Coalition Contributor Mike Cosper Defends Retreat With Roman Catholics. CSM is not a neutral practice; know this, my research shows that once someone begins dabbling in this they almost immediately begin to drift away from proper Biblical doctrine.

I’ve recently been showing just how bad the fruit of this sad slide has become in pieces like Pathetic Protholics Like James Robison Are Reversing The Reformation and Rick Warren And Teachings Of Demons. If you make the time to actually examine the copious amount of documentation you will see men who have been a part of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is reputed to be the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, openly teaching the Roman Catholic Church is part of the Body of Christ.

I have told you before that the crown jewel of this spurious CSM is something called Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP), which is actually meditation in an altered state of consciousness, ie. transcendental meditation lightly sprayed in Christian terms. From studying this CSM and its CCP—perpetrated upon the Protestant community under the guise of so-called Spiritual Formation—I can tell you for a fact that all who dabble in it end up in sinful ecumenicism.

Another way of putting it is these practitioners end up Protholics; not really Protestant and not yet quite Roman Catholic. If you want a vivid illustration then consider Tim Keller Recommended Peter Scazzero Spreading Spurious Centering Prayer, where you see that Peter Scazzero—who’s taught CSM for Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren and still does for the Willow Creek Association—sounds less Protestant and more like Living Spiritual Teacher and Roman Catholic monk Thomas Keating.

Below Keating, whose devotion to CSM and CCP has led him to virtually become a pantheist, shares with you his warped spirituality that the inward journey of CCP helps anyone experience a “Higher Power” or God or “the Other” inside all of mankind, Christian or not:

Those under the delusion attained from the divination of CSM come to believe there’s “a spark of the divine” deep down within everyone, which thereby negates the need for regeneration of the sinner by God the Holy Spirit. Thomas Keating’s fellow Trappist monk, the late Thomas Merton—a leading authority on CSM/CCP—put it this way:

that expression, le point vierge, (I cannot translate it) comes in here. At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our mind or the brutalities of our own will.[1]

No way around it; what you’ve just read is an outright denial of the cardinal Christian doctrine of original sin. I also recently reminded you in Thomas Merton And The Gospel Coalition Blog that Merton’s life-long devotion to spurious CSM, and most particularly CCP, would make him far more like the Buddha than anything resembling the Christ. Read the disgusting idolatry of the apostate (at best) Thomas Merton for yourself from his own diary in Thomas Merton And The Buddhas.

All which brings us to the book Prayers for Today: A Yearlong Journey of Contemplative Prayer by Kurt Bjorklund, which you can see from the Moody website was published by them in September of this year:

(Online source)

Apparently Moody’s had a change of mind in recommending CCP as because back in 2007 they insisted:

(Online source)

Herein lies the problem caused by these syncretistic Protholics wishing to pretend to be Protestant in theology while practicing Counter Reformation spirituality originating within apostate Roman Catholicism: People e.g. like Moody and Donald Whitney use these Roman Catholic terms with meanings they attach to them. Therefore, they are the ones causing confusion not online apologetics and discernment ministries. The Reformers, many of whom were contemporaries of these whacked RC mystics, rejected these things.

I have this book by Dr. Kurt Bjorklund, pastor of Orchard Hill Church in Pittsburg, PA, and it’s essentially a book filled with rote prayers to be read and.or repeated. Though it’s chock full of prayers by mystics, the  book itself is not at all about contemplative prayer, aka centering prayer, e.g. as would be taught by those like Keating or Merton. So why bill it as such? It will disappoint those who practice CSM and (at best) sows confusion in evangelical circles; and (at worst) recommends Thomas Merton by using some of his work.

Under Day 88 PRAYERS FOR WISDOM/GUIDANCE we read:

Notice here that Merton is billing merely as a “priest,” which is misleading as one could assume he was an Episcopal priest when he died a slave to the false gospel of the Church of Rome. Next in that same section there’s:

Let me tell you a bit more about this “French theologian” François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon aka simply Fenelon. He was a mystic and New Avent, the online Roman Catholic encyclopedia, informs us he was a staunch Roman Catholic who was:

A celebrated French bishop… Fénelon was grounded not only in the practice of piety and priestly virtue, but above all in solid [Roman] Catholic doctrine,… In 1678 Harlay de Champvallon, Archbishop of Paris, entrusted Fénelon with the direction of the house of “Nouvelles-Catholiques”, a community founded in 1634 by Archbishop Jean-François de Gondi for Protestant young women about to enter the Church or converts who needed to be strengthened in the [Roman Catholic] Faith.

It was a new and delicate form of apostolate which thus offered itself to Fénelon’s zealand required all the resources of his theological knowledge, persuasive eloquence, and magnetic personality. Within late years his conduct has been severely criticized, and he has been even called intolerant but these charges are without serious foundation and have not been accepted even by the Protestant authors of the “Encyclopédie des Sciences Religieuses“; their verdict on Fénelon is that in justice to him it must be said that in making converts [to Roman Catholicism] he ever employed persuasion rather than severity”.

When Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, by which Henry IV had granted freedom of public worship to the Protestants, missionaries were chosen from among the greatest orators of the day, e.g. Bourdaloue, Fléchier, and others, and were sent to those parts of France where heretics were most numerous, to labour for their conversion. At the suggestion of his friend Bossuet, Fénelon was sent with five companions to Santonge, where he manifested great zeal,… (Online source, emphasis mine)

As you can plainly see—from a Roman Catholic source—Fenelon obviously had much theological knowledge concerning apostate Roman Catholicism; and further, Fenelon was also greatly zealous in his labor for “the conversion” of those Protestant “heretics” back into the Roman Catholic Church.

Remind me again why, as a former Roman Catholic, I would want to follow the teaching—and practice the mysticism—whose fruit would cause Fenelon to die faithfully serving the Roman Catholic Church that has placed its—never changed—anathema upon the very Gospel of Jesus Christ itself. Consider Acts 15:1-2.

It’s an incontrovertible fact that the mystics who developed CSM and CCP were led away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These practices so infected the theology of the Church of Rome that it would eventually lead to the Lord raising up His Reformers to return us to His Word. So why would Moody now recommend we practice CSM/CCP?

___________________________________________________________________________
End notes:

[1] Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander [New York: Doubleday, 1966], 158, emphasis mine.

[2] Bjorklund, Kurt (2011-09-27). Prayers for Today (p. 106). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

[3] Ibid.

See also:

“INWARD JOURNEY” TAUGHT BY MYSTICS LIKE RICHARD FOSTER IS DIVINATION

MARK DRISCOLL AND NEO-REFORMED NEW CALVINIST CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY

JUST SAY NO TO CONTEMPLATIVE/CENTERING PRAYER

Print this entry

A major factor contributing to this is the spread of Counter Reformation spirituality and Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) ala gurus Dallas Willard and his spiritual twin Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster.

You need to realize that it’s even slithered deeply into the mainstream of evangelicalism as you can see e.g. in Gospel Coalition Contributor Mike Cosper Defends Retreat With Roman Catholics. CSM is not a neutral practice; know this, my research shows that once someone begins dabbling in this they almost immediately begin to drift away from proper Biblical doctrine.

The following quote is from Richard Foster — Celebration Of Deception Evangelical Mysticism, an important Critcal Issues Commentary article by Christian apologist Bob DeWaay. It also highlights another aspect of the rancid fruit of CSM; a growing rebellion within evanjellyfish against Sola Scriptura. With this article DeWaay sends a clear Biblical warning concerning a core teaching of spurious CSM.

Foster’s musings are really rooted in classic mysticism and actually comprise a large part of the faulty foundation of the deformation of the faith originally espoused in the evangelical camp by the Emerging Church aka the Emergent Church. We’re now beginning to experience the price paid when leaders in mainstream churches turned their younger sectors over to wolves like Rob Bell with his Love Wins mythology.

And there’s no excuse; for example, two years ago I warned you that Rick Warren Now Openly Promoting Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism as he brought Protholic CSM guru Peter Scazzero in to the first Radicalis conference. Sadly however, as you can see in John Piper, Rick Warren & Foster-Willardism and Tim Keller And Contemplative Spirituality CSM has now infected the Reformed community.

Now there’s virtually no place left in the visible church where one can escape the ecumenical effects of the divination of CSM. Listen carefully; because I tell you in the Lord that Bob DeWaay is dead-on-target as he explains to you:

In February 2008, Christianity Today ran a glowing cover story about Evangelicalism’s recent embrace of medieval Roman Catholic mysticism entitled The Future lies in the Past… The article views Foster as one who continues to guide the movement… Foster’s “journey inward” is unbiblical and dangerous. I will show [in this article] that most of the spiritual disciplines that he calls “means of grace” are no means of grace at all—but a means of putting oneself under spiritual deception.

The Journey Inward

The Bible nowhere describes an inward journey to explore the realm of the spirit. God chose to reveal the truth about spiritual reality through His ordained, Spirit-inspired, biblical writers. What is spiritual and not revealed by God is of the occult and, therefore, forbidden. We have discussed this in many articles and have produced DVD seminars on the topic. But the concept of sola scriptura is totally lost on mystics such as Richard Foster. They, like the enthusiasts that Calvin and Luther warned against, believe they can gain valid and useful knowledge of spiritual things through direct, personal inspiration. Foster describes the idea of the disciplines that are the topic of his book: “The classical Disciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths. They invite us to explore the inner caverns of the spiritual realm.”

So Foster has conceptually repudiated sola scriptura on page one to replace it with a journey inward to explore the realm of spirits. Something must have been seriously amiss in evangelicalism already in 1978 to render this book a bestseller! It ought to have been repudiated on the spot. In a footnote to that statement Foster writes, “In one form or another all of the devotional masters have affirmed the necessity of the Disciplines” (Foster: 1). The devotional “masters,” by the way, are mostly Roman Catholics who never were committed to the principle of sola scriptura.

It is not surprising that they looked for spirituality through experimentation. But as an “inner light” Quaker, Foster never was committed to sola scriptura either. Forgetting that the Bible forbids divination, Foster explains what he is after: [W]e must be willing to go down into the recreating silences, into the inner world of contemplation. In their writings, all of the masters of meditation strive to awaken us to the fact that the universe is much larger than we know, that there are vast unexplored inner regions that are just as real as the physical world we know so well. . . . They call us to the adventure, to be pioneers in this frontier of the Spirit. (Foster: 13)

Realizing that his readers would likely take this as an endorsement of Eastern religions, he makes a disclaimer that it is not Transcendental Meditation (TM) or something of that ilk: “Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to empty the mind in order to fill it” (Foster: 15). But what Foster wishes us to fill our minds with are personal revelations from the spirit realm that we naively are to think are the voice of God. This sort of meditation is not meditating on what God has said, but uses a technique to explore the spirit world. In other words, it is divination. (Online source)

See also:

MARK DRISCOLL AND NEO-REFORMED NEW CALVINIST CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY

MYSTICISM: WHEN GOD SENDS AN EVIL SPIRIT

JUST SAY NO TO CONTEMPLATIVE/CENTERING PRAYER

Print this entry

See also:

LEONARD SWEET, FRANK VIOLA, AND THE THIRD WAY

RICHARD ROHR AND THE EMERGING CHURCH AS THE THIRD WAY

LIBERALISM 2.0 THE NEW PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

Print this entry

See also:

WHAT HAS WAYNE GRUDEM TO DO WITH TODD BENTLEY?

JOHN PIPER, RICK WARREN & FOSTER-WILLARDISM

PROMOTING CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM OK IN SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION

Print this entry

See also:

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM AT SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH OF DR. ED YOUNG

ALABAMA BAPTIST CONVENTION (SBC) ENCOURAGES YOU TO LEARN LECTIO DIVINA FROM APOSTATE TONY JONES

LIFEWAY ENCOURAGING SOUTHERN BAPTISTS TO PRACTICE LECTIO DIVINA

Print this entry