Apprising Ministries &#187; Tony Jones

TONY JONES, THE EMERGING CHURCH AND PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY

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

TONY JONES ARGUES FOR OPEN MARRIAGE AND POLYAMORY

Ken Silva pastor-teacher — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 01:11:52 +0000

As an online apologetics and discernment labor in the Lord Apprising Ministries is doing what we can to expose the warped and toxic teachings of the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church, ^[1] which tragically, mainstream evangelicalism chose to embrace rather than purge from its ranks.

So let’s consider that we now have on our hands the Love Wins mythology of EC rock star pastor Rob Bell, where a supposed minister of the Gospel is actually pressing forth the argument for Christian Universalism—contra evangelicalism—while still being considered an evangelical in good standing himself.

Now think that Fuller Theological Seminary, “an evangelical, multidenominational, international, and multiethnic community,” ^[2] sponsors the podcasts of heretical EC universalist Doug Pagitt and Dr. Tony Jones, his equally heretical progressive/liberal “theologian in residence” at his Emerging Church, is now a professor with FTS. ^[3]

By this point you ought to be able to see we have some very real problems inside the church visible, and particularly within the mainstream of the evangelical community. Today Jones tweeted that his latest book has dropped:

(Online source)

It’s very telling that Jones would want to make sure we see that Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, part of the unholy EC apostate trinity with Jones and Pagitt, has pronounced his blessing upon Jones’ book. Even Phyllis Tickle, the very Empress of Emergence herself, gushes:

Jones’s…research is…the experiential knowledge and realistic assessment of one who has been in the movement from its inception in this country…

This is one piece of work that…[is] a way of charting not only where Emergence is, but also where it has to go and is going. (Online source)

But that’s for another day; here we’re concerned with what Tony Jones is revealing about his own spiritual life of immorality. First, we see the other day he tweeted:

(Online source)

The post he brings us to is also most revealing:

(Online source)

Now Tony Jones—a leading progressive/neo-liberal theologian in the Emerging Church—announces that he adheres to the flawed philosophy of relativism, which we really don’t find all that surprising. However, it does speak loudly as to why Jones has absolutely no business whatsoever teaching within the evangelical community—let alone at one of its leading institutions instructing in Christian spirituality.

The question you need to ask is how possibly can a moral relativist truly be an orthodox Christian minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ without adhering to the moral absolutes of God’s inerrant and infallible Word in the Bible? Answer: He couldn’t. You see, a relativist believes that the subjective experience of another may be true for them; and ultimately that there is no known transcendent truth.

Jones quotes Fish:

Neither “I believe in moral absolutes” nor “I don’t” will be a reason in the course of ordinary, non-philosophical, deliberation.

Now that’s some pragmatism that I can believe in! (Online source)

However, pragmatism is not at all in line with the Christian who is a doulos i.e. slave of God through Christ Jesus; but it is perfectly suited for an apostate rebel against the final authority of Holy Scripture. The truth is, the relativist can never arrive at any actual absolutes because they always have to concede that the beliefs of another might be true for them.

Not only is relativism totally antithetical to Christianity, it’s also self-defeating. To make the statement “truth is relative” is to state an absolute, which we’re to then take as true. Well, if this is a truthful statement, then not all truth is relative, and so, that initial proposition is false. It’s just a sinful way of thinking in a futile attempt to avoid moral absolutes.

That noted, the philosophy of relativism does happen to be a perfect fit for fools like Dr. Tony Jones who wish to argue in favor of practices of sexual immorality. In Christianity 21 To Attack Christian Sexuality I brought to your attention a July 11th blog post by Jones where he quotes the homosexual writer Dan Savage, whom he calls “America’s premier sex advice columnist.”

Jones lets us know that Savage opines “monogamy is right for many couples” but some:

people need more than one partner, [Savage] writes, just as some people need flirting, others need to be whipped, others need lovers of both sexes. (Online source)

Keep in mind here that I’m having to cover these kinds of delicate sexual issues now because people like Tony Jones, with their spiritually deviant desires, are considered mainstream evangelicals. Now that we noted this, the people who would need “lovers of both sexes,” and thus multiple sexual partners, would be the bisexuals of the LGBT community.

As I continue, this will be important to keep in mind because Jones—an aggressive advocate for that LGBT community—then attacks monogamy himself:

This, of course, will immediately irk most Christians. Christianity has traditionally — although not unequivocally — held to a strict standard of monogamy…the American moment was a particularly puritanical. (Online source)

Can you see; Tony Jones has just fired the first shot in marshalling an assault, from within the evangelical community, upon the proper Biblical Christian ethic of monogamy within the marriage of a man to a woman. Jones then, at the very least, hints of a belief in the fairy tale for adults that is the theory of evolution when he says:

Savage’s sexual ethic is primarily one of realism: human beings are animals who, until very recently, procreated like animals. It is evolutionarily dishonest to demand monogamy of a species predisposed against it. It’s not impossible to be monogamous, he says, but it is super difficult,… (Online source, bold his)

Quite obviously, this does not fall in line with a Biblical worldview; but it would be just fine for a relativist like Tony Jones. Although Dr. Jones makes an error logically as he commits the fallacy of argumentum ad populum, I want you to look very carefully at what he says next:

I do know a few things: 1) [Savage is] a h**luva lot more realistic about sex than most Christians I’ve talked to about sex; 2) based on my experience on this blog and at the Wild Goose Festival, a lot of Christians really want to talk about sexuality; and 3) many Christians are ready for our conversations about sexuality to expand beyond “what to do with the gays,” and instead have a more fully-orbed dialogue about sexuality and human identity.

I also know that, for the first time in my life I’ve met Christians who are in “open” marriages or are practicing polyamory — and I’m committed that my theological/ethical response to them be both Christian and pragmatic/realistic. (Online source)

Behold where the Emerging Church will now begin trying to move the younger sectors of evangelicalism, who like the leaders in the neo-liberal cult within the EC, largely do not hold to sola Scriptura themselves: open marriages and practicing polyamory (many partners). Here you have a professor of Christian spirituality with a well known ostensibly evangelical seminary arguing against monogamy.

Do you see a problem here? Do you think this is all going to just go away if we simply ignore it? Do you really think that Tony Jones will magically stop pushing the evil pro-gay agenda, which has to argue that polyamory is acceptable for the Christian because of the bisexuals in the LGBT community? And he’s just told you that he knows “Christians” who “are practicing polyamory.”

This is why I’ve been telling you that evangelicalism is only now beginning to pay the price for years and years of using their own Young Adult and Youth ministries as human guinea pigs for Emergent apostates like Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt. I truly wonder, what in the world will it finally take for evangelical leaders to see that their fruit is just as absolutely rotten as it possibly gets?

In closing this, for now, you need to know there’s good reasons for Jones to argue for polyamory for the Christian, he may have a personal reason and Rachel Swan from Sweet Bi and Bi attends Solomon’s Porch. In her post Our Soapbox Swan tells us:

if you look over ——> there in the sidebar, you will note that one of the communities I heart is Solomon’s Porch. Sweetie and I started attending a little over a year ago… From the website “Solomon’s Porch is a community seeking to live the dreams and love of God in the way of Jesus.”… Last night, Sweetie and I gave a soapbox sermon. Its not so much sermon-y, but more a talk like thing. (Online source)

Swan also informs us that she’s a, “Bartender turned God chaser, Queer (bi), Un-Cool, Friend to the Other”; and of her “soapbox” with her female companion, and Tony Jones would tweet to his friend Rachel Swan concerning her talk like thing:

(Online source)

It’s one thing to talk about sexuality according to Scripture. However, let me put this into proper perspective for you; clearly here we have relativist Fuller Theological Seminary professor Tony Jones, at the very least, using the argument of Dan Savage in his attempt to make a case for “open marriages” and “practicing polyamory.” In Biblical terms, Jones is pushing for sexual immorality.

The key questions then become: Is this really evangelicalism; for that matter, is it even Christianity?

________________________________________________________________________________
End Notes:

Back to note 1 — Far from dead, the upgraded Emerging Church 2.0—through delusions received in spurious CSM—has been busy forging together its new postmodern form of Progessive Christianity theology, a Liberalism 2.0 many call Emergence Christianity, which Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren begins laying out in his latest book A New Kind of Christianity.

Back to note 2 — http://tiny.cc/l61al, accessed 8/10/11.

Back to note 3 — http://tiny.cc/5lzjo, accessed 8/10/11.

See also:

TONY JONES, THE EMERGING CHURCH AND PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY

DOUG PAGITT AND HIS SOLOMON’S PORCH AFFIRM HOMOSEXUAL SIN

DOUG PAGITT COMES AFTER THE NEO-CALVINIST CABAL

RARE AUDIO AND VIDEO FROM CHRISTIANITY 21

Ken Silva pastor-teacher — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 20:04:02 +0000

This could be audio of apostate Emergent Church universalist pastor Doug Pagitt and his fellow apostate, progressive/liberal “theologian in residence” at his Emerging Church, Dr. Tony Jones while they lead the group in a li’l early morning chanting:

Below we possibly have footage of “queer inclusive” ELCA “pastor” Nadia Bolz-Weber and Phyllis Tickle, the Empress of Emergence Christianity, presiding over a time of whirling dervishes:

CHRISTIANITY 21 TO ATTACK CHRISTIAN SEXUALITY

Ken Silva pastor-teacher — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 03:09:21 +0000

Apprising Ministries first brought this Emerging Church apostasia-palooza conference Christianity 21 (C21) to your attention in Tony Jones And Christianity 21: The Future Of Apostate Christianity.

You may know that the apostate Dr. Tony Jones is to teach “The Doctor of Ministry cohort in Christian Spirituality” ^[1^] at Fuller Theological Seminary and is the progressive/liberal “theologian in residence” at the Emerging Church of his good friend and fellow apostate, Emergent Church universalist pastor Doug Pagitt.

The dubious duo of Jones and Pagitt, two-thirds of the unholy EC trinity along with Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, were the instigators who unleashed the original C21 ^[2] via their JoPa Productions. C21 entirely featured women as speakers and was billed by JoPa as 21 “Voices” who would supposedly be revealing “the way the Christianity will be changing in coming days.”

Among the spiritually motley crew making up these voices at C21 was LGBT advocate Seth Donovan, former “professional f**k-up” and self-professed “queer affirming” ELCA pastrix Nadia Bolz-Weber—sense a theme here—as well as the Empress of Emergence Christianity ^[3] Phyllis Tickle. Tickle tells us she’s glad that sola Scriptura is now passe and that, because it is the mainstream of the visible church can finally change the way we approach the issue of homosexuality. ^[4]

Now we need to get set for C21 #2 as the other day Doug Pagitt would tweet:

(Online source)

The link takes us here:

We’re also reminded that it’s been a few years since the initial C21 heresy-fest:

Now we can see that, in addition humanity and spirituality, C21 will be focused upon sexuality. As fitting with his usual M.O. our apostate FTS professor Tony Jones began pushing the envelope with his July 11 post What’s a Christian to Do with…Dan Savage? Savage happens to be a gay man who’s behind the It Gets Better project for the LGBT community and is actually rather hostile to the Christian faith.

He’s also editor of The Stranger and is best known for his syndicated column Savage Love. Neither of these are appropriate for the Christian, which is why I did not link to them. Jones tells us his Savage post:

THE NEW CHRISTIANS WITH CHRISTIANITY WORTH BELIEVING—NO SOLA SCRIPTURA: YES, WOMEN PASTORS AND QUEER CHRISTIANS

So Jones would have us believe there’s something “strangely compelling” that “should, or must, be taken seriously” in the work of Dan Savage. It seems rather peculiar for a professor with a major seminary reputed to be mainstream evangelical to “confess” to us that:

almost every week, I pick up a copy of the City Pages, the Twin Cities alt weekly, during a regular Wednesday meeting at Common Roots in Minneapolis. And when I do, I immediately flip to the back pages where, between ads for erotic massage and gay love phone lines, I find Savage Love, the column of America’s premier sex advice columnist, Dan Savage.

In fact, it seems that Savage may be America’s premier sex ethicist as well. (Online source)

Resisting the urge to wrestle with the snake here, I’ll simply say that I personally find this choice of regular reading material kind of odd for a supposed Christian minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Leaving that aside, Tony Jones tells us that Savage “was reared Catholic, and he’s now an agnostic, or atheist.” Jones also informs us that:

In any case, he is an outspoken opponent of religion. However, unlike other atheists I follow on Twitter and elsewhere — Penn Gillette and Bill Maher, to name a couple — I find Savage far more interesting, far more compelling, and far more important for me, as a Christian theologian, to take seriously. (Online source)

Again, this strikes me as an unusual statement. Now we hit the heart of the matter and why I’m drawing this column to your attention as it pertains to the upcoming C21. Pay careful attention as Jones points out that “Savage was profiled at length in the New York Times by Mark Oppenheimer.” Note that the issue of mongamy is the subject of the quote below as Jones says:

In, “Infidelity Will Keep Us Together,” Oppenheimer writes,

Savage believes monogamy is right for many couples. But he believes that our discourse about it, and about sexuality more generally, is dishonest. Some people need more than one partner, he writes, just as some people need flirting, others need to be whipped, others need lovers of both sexes.

We can’t help our urges, and we should not lie to our partners about them. In some marriages, talking honestly about our needs will forestall or obviate affairs; in other marriages, the conversation may lead to an affair, but with permission. In both cases, honesty is the best policy. (Online source)

Here we’re actually getting a prequel as to where “sexuality” will be headed for C21; it will begin to attack the proper Biblical sexuality within the marriage of a man to a woman. It’s not hard to figure out as Jones opines:

This, of course, will immediately irk most Christians. Christianity has traditionally — although not unequivocally — held to a strict standard of monogamy. At least in theory. In practice, Christian men have, over the last two millennia, had the opportunity for sexual dalliances through mistresses, concubines, and prostitutes. Of course, there were puritanical moments in history, but the American moment was a particularly puritanical. (Online source)

Can you see; Tony Jones has already fired the first shot. Of course, Satan’s servants always have a little truth to sweeten the taste of their poison lies.You ask, “did you just say this professor for FTS is a servant of Satan?” Yes, absolutely. Now, Jones is right when he says, “Christianity has traditionally — although not unequivocally — held to a strict standard of monogamy.” Then he tries to use the fact that sinners are prone to sin to somehow normalize “sexual dalliances through mistresses,” etc.

I’m actually a little surprised by this tactic from Dr. Jones, who as a “Christian theologian,” should know he’s using a non sequitur. Just because people who profess to be Christian have committed the sin of sexual immorality—regardless of how they did so—it does not logically follow this should be taken as legitmate behavior for the Christian. I can almost hear the hiss as Jones says the deviant ideas expressed by Savage “will immediately irk most Christians”; but we note, apparently not Tony Jones.

Of course we find those statements abhorrent; they are counter to what God has outlined as proper Christian spirituality in His inerrant and infallible Word in the Bible. Yet, it seems for Jones, those who would hold “to a strict [Biblical] standard of monogamy” are “a particularly puritanical” bunch. Again, there’s some truth to this because the Puritans did try and order their lives by what God said in Holy Scripture; but the C21 brood within the Emerging Church is now attacking that kind of life, i.e. godliness.

This becomes painfully obvious as Jones furthers his outright assault on Biblical morality while he praises Savage; whom he tells us would draw the sexual line at “pedophilia.” For now anyway; Jones continues:

The ethic of honesty is what Savage calls for in his column, week after week telling his readers that if they’ve got a kink or a fetish, they should tell their partner about it. And, if you’ve picked smartly, your partner should be GGG: good, giving, and game. (Online source, bold his)

I’m sorry that this has to be covered; but at the same time, I would never have allowed apostates like Tony Jones, lovers of self and rebels against God’s Word, to have set up shop in the mainstream of the church in the first place. The question you need to ask is: Why would a Christian theologian be attacking the Christian ethic of monogamy? Let me answer it this way; suppose you married a woman who has “a kink,” let’s say for arguments sake, of wishing to be bisexual and you’re a smart “GGG.”

You’d then have to be “giving, and game,” which means your “partner” requires at least one more sexual partner. Now you see, in order for those in the EC like Tony Jones to champion the pro-gay agenda of the LGBT community, they have to kick out monogamy; so that’s where they’re headed. Jones now, at the very least, hints of a belief in the fairy tale for adults that is the theory of evolution when he says:

Savage’s sexual ethic is primarily one of realism: human beings are animals who, until very recently, procreated like animals. It is evolutionarily dishonest to demand monogamy of a species predisposed against it. It’s not impossible to be monogamous, he says, but it is super difficult, and you’ll be more likely to succeed if your partner is GGG. (Online source, bold his)

Quite obviously, this does not fall in line with a Biblical worldview; which makes the next statement from a professor with an ostensibly evangelical institution rather startling. Yet Jones goes on to say, “I don’t know if Savage’s ethic jibes with a biblical, Christian view of sexuality.” Let me help here; no, it doesn’t. Now let’s be clear; the Christian will say that Dan Savage, and apparently Tony Jones, are welcome to their beliefs. That’s not the issue; the issues is, it is not Christian sexuality.

As I get ready to close this out, for now, Dr. Jones makes another error logically as he commits the fallacy of argumentum ad populum. However, it is most informative as to where C21 sexuality is headed because Jones reveals that he thinks Dan Savage is a “lot more realistic about sex” than:

most Christians I’ve talked to about sex; 2) based on my experience on this blog and at the Wild Goose Festival, a lot of Christians really want to talk about sexuality; and 3) many Christians are ready for our conversations about sexuality to expand beyond “what to do with the gays,” and instead have a more fully-orbed dialogue about sexuality and human identity.

I also know that, for the first time in my life I’ve met Christians who are in “open” marriages or are practicing polyamory — and I’m committed that my theological/ethical response to them be both Christian and pragmatic/realistic. (Online source)

Behold where C21 Emergence Christianity will now begin trying to move the younger sectors of evangelicalism who largely do not hold to sola Scriptura themselves: open marriages and practicing polyamory (many partners). That’s why I’ve been telling you evangelicalism is only beginning to pay the price for using their own Young Adult and Youth ministries as human guinea pigs for Emergent apostates like Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt. What will it finally take to see that their fruit is just as rotten as it gets?

Let me also give you a clearer picture of the hypocrisy inherent within the homosexual lobby and Dan Savage in particular. I’ll leave you with Homosexual Savage Bullies Conservative, While Promoting Anti-Bullying Campaign by Stacy Lynn Harp over at the Christian Post blog. Let me warn you, it’s not for the squeamish; but because of the Emerging Church and its corrupt Christianity 21 you need to know that:

homosexual sex columnist Dan Savage appeared in on the website Funny or Die that was intended to threaten Republican Rick Santorum, with the redefining of the name “Rick”.

The reason that this is concerning is because Dan Savage successfully did a smear campaign on Rick Santorum a few years ago, when he took Rick Santorum’s last name and added a nasty meaning to it. I’m sorry to have to do this to you, but I must share the definition that homosexual activist Dan Savage attached to Rick Santorum’s name,…

Sadly, to my knowledge, Dan Savage has been able to get away with this libel and not suffer any consequences for his actions. All that you have to do is Google Rick Santorum’s name and you can see the vilification.

Now, Dan Savage has launched another brutal attack on Rick Santorum – under the guise of humor – by threatening to redefine his first name, “Rick”. You can see the video at Funny or Die, but be warned: It’s pretty nasty.

Here’s the point of me bringing this up: Despite the fact that Dan Savage, who is a very militant homosexual activist (as proven by the aforementioned actions), ironically is the very same Dan Savage that started the “It Gets Better Project” in September of 2010. The purpose of the “It Gets Better Project” is to inspire hope in young people, presumably homosexual, who are facing harassment and bullying. Yes, you read that correctly.

So let’s get this straight… Homosexual sex columnist, Dan Savage, intentionally smears Republican Rick Santorum, simply because Rick states the truth about homosexual activity, so Savage intentionally libels Santorum and gets away with it, while at the same time sets up an ANTI-BULLYING PROJECT because he cares about others being bullied for being homosexual. Meanwhile, liberal outlets like CNN and The Washington Post enjoy Savage attacking Rick Santorum and make jokes about it…

It’s sad and yet it’s not surprising because, in this perverse age that we live in, good is called evil and evil is called good. The spirit working through Dan Savage is truly seeking to kill, steal and destroy anyone, like Rick Santorum, who stands up for biblical truth.

I just wonder how much the founder of an anti-bullying campaign can actually get away with bullying anyone who does not agree with his position. If it’s okay for a homosexual activist to libel a person online and then threaten to defame their first name online, and not suffer any consequences, then where is society going to draw the line? …

It is argued by those on the left, who are blinded by the spirit of the age, that homosexuals do not have special rights. The truth is that they completely have special rights. They have the right to bully, harass, intimidate, slander, vilify, libel and defame, with immunity, anyone who disagrees with the sin of homosexuality. So, the next time someone tries to convince you that there are no special rights for the homosexual community, please remember Rick Santorum and the actions of Dan Savage. (Online source)

Well said, Stacy.

________________________________________________________________________________
End Notes:

Back to note 1 — http://www.fuller.edu/academics/school-of-theology/dmin/csc.aspx, accessed 8/7/11.

Back to note 2 — You can find out more about this heresy fest in Tony Jones And His Pastor Doug Pagitt With JoPa Productions And Christianity 21 and Doug Pagitt Invites You To Christianity 21.

Back to note 3— Far from dead, the upgraded Emerging Church 2.0 has been busy forging together its new postmodern form of Progessive Christianity theology, a Liberalism 2.0 many call Emergence Christianity, which Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren begins laying out in his latest book A New Kind of Christianity.

Back to note 4 — In pieces like Doug Pagitt And Homosexual Sin and Jay Bakker Critiques Ken Silva At Religion DISPATCHES I told you that the EC is making a concerted push within mainstream evangelicalism the deviant and sinful lifestyle of having sexual relations with another of the same sex, i.e homosexuality, is a viable one for the regenerated Christian.

FOR EMERGENCE CHRISTIANITY OUT GOES THE BIBLE AND IN COMES “QUEER CHRISTIANS”

THE EMERGING CHURCH: “A QUEERING OF EVANGELICALISM”

HOMOPRESSION IS AT LEAST AS BAD AS HOMOPHOBIA

MILEY CYRUS AND GAY MARRIAGE

Я U READY FOR THE LESBIAN NATIVITY SCENE?

DOUG PAGITT AND HOMOSEXUAL SIN

TONY JONES WITH RARE FOOTAGE OF DOUG PAGITT PREPARING TO PREACH

Ken Silva pastor-teacher — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 22:39:43 +0000

See also:

DOUG PAGITT AND KEN SILVA

TONY JONES, THE EMERGING CHURCH AND PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY

TONY JONES WORSHIPS A DEMON

Ken Silva pastor-teacher — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 01:37:21 +0000

The online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries has been covering the damage that’s been done by evangelicalism’s embrace of the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church—with its “big tent” Progressive Christianity aka Emergence Christianity.

By using warped and toxic teachings of EC leaders like Emerging Church rock star pastor Rob Bell the mainstream of the visible church has been poisoning its own young.

And since squishy evanjellyfish has now followed the mortally wounded mainline denominations out of the closet, with its man-love of heart murmur spirituality at the expense the God-centered spirituality of sola Scriptura, I’ve also been giving you peeks at its bleak future of division and compromise of God’s Word.

You need to know that such as these are neo-Gnostic fools who, through their practice of existential corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism ^[1] (CSM), have now convinced themselves that they are the truly enlightened ones who are receiving special revelation from God as they use a form of meditation in an altered state of consciousness commonly known as Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP).

It truly is transcendental meditation-lite sprayed with Christian terminology; and CCP definitely opens the door for deception. For example, you can get a good picture of the devastating delusions coming into the mainstream of the evangelical community when you consider the following tweet from Fuller Theological Seminary professor Dr. Tony Jones ^[2]:

(Online source)

Obviously, this is not the one true and living God revealed in Holy Scripture and in the God-Man, Christ Jesus of Nazareth. Let’s put this into a form that the apostate (at best) Dr. Tony Jones himself should be able to follow. Jesus taught us as His Christians to pray — “Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9).

And further Jesus says:

And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. (John 5:37-38)

Clearly the god Jones worships is not the One Jesus brings us to. So now imagine the lunacy in the Lord’s Name that I am using arguments here which I also use when witnessing to non-Christian cultists; only this concerns a professor in one of the best known evangelical seminaries in the United States.

That noted, God’s infallible and inerrant Word, the Bible, informs us:

Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god…Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”

For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (Isaiah 44:6; Galatians 8:4-6)

Since this feminine mush god of progressive/liberal Emerging Church theologian Tony Jones is not really a god, but rather an idol, we are now dealing with a pagan idolator. The Lord then says to us:

what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. (1 Corinthians 10:20-21)

Therefore, Tony Jones worships a demon:

having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (2 Timothy 3:5)

________________________________________________________________________________
End Notes:

Back to note 1 — This CSM, a repackaged Roman Catholic mysticism, taught by the dubious duo of Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster along with his spiritual twin Dallas Willard, is openly recommended in that camp; often referred to as so-called Spiritual Formation.

Back to note 2 — Jones comprises the unholy EC trinity of apostates along with Doug Pagitt, his heretical universalist pastor of Solomon’s Porch where he’s “theologian in residence,” with the third member being Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren.

I showed you previously in Fuller Theological Seminary Professor Tony Jones And Christian Spirituality Cohort that Jones will be teaching “The Doctor of Ministry cohort in Christian Spirituality” (i.e. CSM) with asists from McLaren, Lauren Winner, and the Empress of Emergence herself Phyllis Tickle.

THE WILD GOOSE OF THE EMERGING CHURCH IS NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT

EMERGING CHURCH PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGIAN TONY JONES POINTS TO ROB BELL

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

Ken Silva pastor-teacher — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 01:53:45 +0000

Having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (2 Timothy 3:5)

New Protholic Spirituality

Leading online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries has been helping you to survey the battlefield of this spiritual Vietnam of a Truth War.

We can see now that the new liberalism of the Church Growth Movement and its seeker-friendly/sinner-sensitive missional methodology of letting culture define the church has destroyed faith in the all-sufficiency of God’s infallible and inerrant Word in the Bible. I’ve told you that a major arm of this diseased tree (cf. Matthew 7:15-18) is the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church—with its “big tent” Progressive Christianity aka Emergence Christianity.

Circa 2000 mainstream evangelicalism made an horrendous decision to open the sheep pens of their Young Adult and Youth ministries and literally lead these wolves right in to their most vulnerable sheep. A corrupt core doctrine of the EC rebellion against the proper Christian spirituality of sola Scripture was repackaged Roman Catholic mysticism ala the highly subjective Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) taught by Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster along with his spiritual twin and Southern Baptist minister Dallas Willard. It also happens to be beyond dispute that this dubious duo acted as key mentors of the Emerging Church.

Establishing this as our vantage point I’ll now continue showing you just how far said spurious CSM—today masquerading as so-called Spiritual Formation—has penetrated into the Southern Baptist Convention itself, which is reputed to be the largest “Protestant” denomination in the United States. We again take for example the SBC flagship Saddleback Church of Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren, whom I showed you in What’s Going On With Dr. John Piper? has now been blessed by Dr. Piper as “theological and doctrinal and sound.”

Perhaps now you’ll consider the evidence I’ve given you e.g. in Rick Warren Saddleback Church, And Spiritual Disciplines or Steve Gladen, Saddleback Church Small Groups, And Quaker Mystic Spirituality or Rick Warren And Purpose Driven Roman Catholics or Saddleback Church, Rick Warren, And Spiritual Disciplines, or Saddleback promoting the false gospel of apostate Emergent icon Rob Bell as you’ll see in Saddleback Church Of Rick Warren Using Rob Bell Teachings.

This article builds upon earlier ones concerning CSM and the rearing of its ugly head in SBC organizations and churches such as Houston, We Have A Problem At Second Baptist Church and Promoting Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism Is Ok In The Southern Baptist Convention and In Touch Magazine Of Charles Stanley Promoting Contemplative New Monasticism and Dr. Ed Young Promoting Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism For His Southern Baptists. You should get the idea this has become a serious problem.

We focus this time upon evidence of CSM being encouraged and promoted elsewhere in the SBC, which I first showed you almost two years ago in Southern Baptist Convention And “Insightful” Emerging Church Heretic Tony Jones; you’re going to find out that it’s still there. Since the point of this piece is to show the lunacy in the Lord’s Name of a state convention of the suppposedly conservative Southern Baptist Convention sending us to an apostate neo-Gnostic like Tony Jones, I’m only going to highlight a couple of other issues along the way.

My point is to help you see just how far off the rails some are becoming in the SBC as they send their sheep to a wolf so he can teach them Counter Reformation spirituality that even involves Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP). If you don’t know CCP, the crown jewel of CSM, is a form of meditation in an altered state of consciousness that is a key part of Lectio Divina. No less an authority than the late Roman Catholic monk and supposed “Spiritual Master” M. Basil Pennington, a fellow Trappist with his good friend and Golden Buddha of CSM Thomas Merton (1915-1968), explains in his book Lectio Divina:

For the past twenty-five years we have been sharing Centering Prayer in all parts of the world. In all our prayer workshops we have always included lectio. For the monk and nun, lectio and contemplation, Centering Prayer, are all part of one reality.[1]

I return now to presenting the actual evidence; the below was shot today at the website of the State Board of Missions of the Alabama Baptist Convention (SBC) under recommended Discipleship Resources:

(Online source)

Note that we find a source paper called Spiritual Disciplines: Pathway to Christian Maturity (SDPCM), which apparently originated with the Georgia Baptist Convention, the SBC convention for that state. As you can see following, SDPCM opens with a quote from Richard Foster’s magnum opus of spurious spirituality, which Dr. Gary Gilley correctly called a virtual encyclopedia of theological error.[2]:

(Online source)

This begs the question: What “classical Disciplines of the spiritual life” is this Quaker mystic, and since when were Quakers Protestant evangelicals, talking about? While reviewing Foster’s partner in spiritual crime Dallas Willard’s book of mythology called The Spirit of the Disciplines Christian apologist Bob DeWaay is dead-on-target when he informs us:

The spiritual disciplines that are supposedly necessary for spiritual formation are not defined in the Bible. If they were, there would be a clear description of them and concrete list. But since spiritual disciplines vary, and have been invented by spiritual pioneers in church history, no one can be sure which ones are valid. (Online source)

Resisting the urge to wrestle with the snake, we leave the cult of Foster-Willardism aside; instead, let me ask you: Would you find it odd for Protestant Southern Baptists to be told they need to learn Christian spirituality from a Roman Catholic monk who died in spiritual slavery to an apostate church that anathematized the actual Gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, the Alabama Baptist Convention (ABC) and the Georgia Baptist Convention (GBC) don’t.

You see, next in SDPCM we’re told:

(Online source)

It’s Time To Examine The Defiled Fruit Of Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism

These kinds of things really have to be seen to be believed. Welcome to evangelical spiritual Bizarro World. So, seriously, we’re actually supposed to believe that this Roman Catholic monk “Brother” Lawrence (1614-1691), whose real name was Nicholas Herman, was so “keenly aware of God” that he did “those things that pleased and honored Him.” Then if he was so close to God, why did Lawrence/Herman give his life to the advance of the false gospel preached by the Church of Rome? ABC and GBC do remember the Reformation, don’t they?

Respected online apologetics and discernment ministry Lighthouse Trails Research also brings out that Lawrence/Herman was of the “Carmelite order mean[ing] his spiritual practices were derived from or heavily influenced by”[3] the emotionally troubled mystic RC nun Teresa of Avila. As we return our attention back specifically to SDPCM, ABC and GBC encourage us in the practice of “silence and solitude,” which is mystic-speak for the aforementioned transcendental meditation-lite of CCP.

This is done complete with a misappropriation of Psalm 46:10, which has nothing to do with emptying one’s mind in meditation, and with the postmodern Humpty Dumpty language mystics are so fond of, “It is in solitude and silence that one may more fully discover how best to use his words.” What does a sentence like that even mean; and I can just as easily turn around and say that as one uses their mind more often they will become more fully aware of when someone is simply making things up about God with zero Biblical basis, no.

Perhaps the leadership of ABC and GBC ought to spend some time in silence and solitude and meditate upon the following from Jesus — “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). As I begin to close this out, for now, in SDPCM we in the Protestant SBC are also introduced to the Roman Catholic mystic practice of Lectio Divina by, of all people, the heretical “gay affirming” Tony Jones.

In case you’re not aware, Jones just happens to be the Progessive Christian i.e. postmodern liberal “theologian in residence” at the church social gathering of his equally heretical quasi-universalist pastor Doug Pagitt; and along with Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, this spiritually perverted pair comprise the unholy trinity of the Emerging Church. Even so, see for yourself that ABC and GBC want us to learn how to really read the Bible from the supposedly “insightful” Tony Jones.

We’re told that:

(Online source)

Where to start; we see a reference to the meaningless phrase “practice God’s presence” that forms the diseased heart of “Brother” Lawrence’s book. No human being can practice attributes of Deity; it’s as absurd as practicing walking on water or resurrection from the dead. God is always present to the Christian, He already dwells within us. As someone who’s been in the ministry field of Comparative Religion, and has studied mysticism for many years, I can tell you this paper pushed by SBC outlets ABC and GBC is really quite naïve.

That understood, it is true that the practice of “lectio divina can be traced back” to a Roman Catholic mystic monk by the name of Benedict “500 years after the birth of Christ and has been a part of monastery life ever since.” This is to admit Lectio Divina was not practiced by Jesus, nor was it part of His Apostles’ teaching, which is why they never spoke of it in the pages of Holy Scripture. If this isn’t reason enough to reject it, the fact it is integral within the antibiblical monastic traditions of apostate Roman Catholicism should do it.

SDPCM also informs us that Lectio Divina “is not peculiar to the [Roman] Catholic Church.” This is true, it isn’t; sadly you’ll also find it practiced in the mortally wounded mainline denominations who long ago embraced ecumenicism and caved in to the Cult of Liberal Theology. These denominations are now in their spiritual death throes after their own rejection of sola Scriptura; but they’re only just a few years ahead of mainstream evangelicalism because it poisoned its own younger sectors by using practices of CSM on them as spiritual guinea pigs.

Dr. Gary Gilley and his son Brian now take us through the four stages of Lectio Divina; by the way, the quotes they use below come from the book The Trinity, a Journal by CSM guru Kenneth Boa. The Gilleys explain that Lectio Divina:

is Latin for “holy reading,” and is increasingly becoming a popular method of contemplative “Bible reading” in mystical and emergent circles… Ken Boa, another promoter of mystical Christianity, explains that lectio divina involves four movements:

Reading (Lectio)

“Since lectio divina engages the whole person, your bodily posture is important. A seated position that is erect but not tense or slouched is best…. Remember that unlike ordinary reading, in lectio you are seeking to be shaped by the Word more than informed by the Word”

Meditation (Meditatio)

“Meditation is a spiritual work of holy desire and an interior invitation for the Spirit to pray and speak within us (Romans 8:26-27)…Meditation will do you little good if you try to control the outcome.” Incorporating the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola is recommended for meditation.

Prayer (Oratio)

Boa informs us that “Oratio [Prayer] is a time for participation in the interpenetrating subjectivity of the Trinity through prolonged mutual presence and growing identification with the life of Christ.”

Contemplation (Contemplatio)

To the uninitiated, contemplation often is confused with meditation but they are not the same. In ordinary circles meditation describes deep thinking and analyzing with a rational mind and some may use contemplation as a synonym for this activity. But contemplation in mystical circles “is a theological grace that cannot be reduced to logical, psychological, or aesthetic categories…It is best for us to stop talking and ‘listen to Him’ in simple and loving attentiveness. In this strange and holy land we must remove the sandals of our ideas, constructs and inclinations, and quietly listen for the voice of God.”(Online source)[7]

The bottom line is this: Neo-Gnostics like Tony Jones have unbuckled themselves from the Word of God and are instead spiritually free-falling down through the subjective experiences of their practice of CSM. The truth is they’ve dived out into the ignis fatuus of creating their own Christianity featuring a mystic mush god with a man-shaped hole in his/her/its heart. Look at the fruit of CSM; Tony Jones self-professes to be aligned with Progressive Christianity[4], which denies cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith and rejects the inerrancy of Scripture.

Quaker mystic Richard Foster is on record telling us that his CSM “circumnavigates inconsistencies found in Scripture.”[5] First of all, this is also a denial of the inerrancy of Scriputure, and 2) he’s just told you that his mystic experiences will be the grid through which he forces Holy Scripture. Foster’s version of Christianity is so adulterated that he is listed right along with unbelieving pagan religious leaders like the Dali Lama, Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson as a great “spiritual teacher” at the Living Spiritual Teachers Project.

Let’s consider how deluded Dallas Willard, Foster’s fellow fable spinner, has now become from years of his practicing the CSM of Foster-Willardism. He is so truly in love with the self (cf. 2 Timothy 3:2) he’s even tried to get us to believe that anyone “worthy of being saved, they will be saved.” Willard also muses, “It is possible for someone who does not know Jesus to be saved.”[6] This certainly isn’t even in line with the SBC’s vaunted Baptist Faith & Message, let alone with what God Himself has revealed in the pages of His inspired Holy Scripture.

So remind me again, why is it that the Alabama Baptist Convention and the Georgia Baptist Convention of the Southern Baptist Convention would want us to learn the warped and toxic spiritual practices taught by these dreamers? Its also the fruit of CSM that has the Emerging Church, which Foster and Willard helped mentor spiritually, on a Wild Goose Chase with another Jesus than the one we’ve always proclaimed, and to receive a different spirit from the one we received, and to accept a different gospel from the one we’ve always accepted (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:4).

From where we stand right now I would hope you will be able to see there’s nothing insightful about that…

________________________________________________________________________________
End Notes:

[1] M.Basil Pennington, Lectio Divina: Renewing the Ancient Practice of Praying the Scriptures [New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1998] , ix. emphasis mine.

[2] Cited in “Celebration Of Discipline” By Richard Foster An Encyclopedia Of Theological Error.

[3] http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/brotherlawrence.htm, accessed 7/16/11.

[4] http://tiny.cc/omwc6, accessed 7/16/11.

[5] http://www.fum.org/QL/issues/0506/foster.htm, accessed 7/16/11.

[6] Cited in Is Dallas Willard A Christian?

[7] The original credited Gary E. Gilley, Brian E. Gilley, “The New Mystic Youth: No Longer Just Pulp Fiction ,” The Quarterly Journal, Personal Freedom Outreach, Vol. 27, No.4, October-Decemember 2007 , 4, 8-11.

TONY JONES AND CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALISM

CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY OF RICHARD FOSTER ROOTED IN THE EASTERN DESERT AND THOMAS MERTON

DALLAS WILLARD ENCOURAGES CONTEMPLATIVE/CENTERING PRAYER

CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM (CSM) OF SPIRITUAL FORMATION IS RECKLESS FAITH

CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM PRODUCES A FALSE SENSE OF REALITY

TONY JONES AND COURTNEY PERRY ET AL

EMERGING CHURCH PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGIAN TONY JONES AND MULTIFARIOUS “MARRIAGE”

Ken Silva pastor-teacher — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 18:23:03 +0000

As part of our online apologetics and discernment ministry Apprising Ministries been documenting the New Downgrade within evangelicalism, the root of which roughly begins with the charismatic revival as it spreads through the Jesus People/Movement circa early 1970′s out into various denominations and into what became the Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission.[1]

This is the cesspool from which the new liberalism of the Church Growth Movement and its seeker-friendly/sinner-sensitive missional methodology of letting culture define the church would spring. A major arm of this diseased tree (cf. Matthew 7:15-18) is the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church—with its “big tent” Progressive Christianity aka Emergence Christianity.

Among its earler leaders in forging this psuedo-Christian religion was a spiritually libertine trio that I often refer to as the unholy EC trinity of apostates; and this would be Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, universalist Emerging Church pastor Doug Pagitt, and his friend Tony Jones, who’s the progressive/liberal “theologian in residence” at Pagitt’s social gathering called Solomon’s Porch.

One of the things these Emergent neo-Gnostic snakes are busy attempting to do on their Wild Goose Chase is to convince us that their idolatrous mystic mush god with a man-shaped hole in his/her/its heart is the God of the Bible by taking us mentally off-roading into the muddy terrain of murky postmodern Humpty Dumpty language. You need to be wary of such as these because while they do use Christian terminology, it’s all been redefined.

In fact, double-speak is really not a new tactic at all. It was used previously by their evil forebears in the original cult of liberalism. They started swallowing up church related schools and denominational leadership positions within the now mortally wounded mainline denominations; as they did liberal theologians gutted Christian terminology of its original meanings and carefully repacked it with what was known at the time as modern theology.

Next they retrained pastors to be able to teach it and then sent them out among the unsuspecting sheep to gradually feed their spiritual poison to them; inoculating them slowly so that by the time the people in the pews might wake up, it would be too late. Well guess what; this is the same methodology used by spiritually corrupt leaders within the Emerging Church, many of whom secured publishing deals within evangelicalism through Leadership Network.

What apparently many don’t yet realize is, not only did evanjellyfish lack the spiritual spine to stand up against this neo-liberal onslaught, circa 2000 it actually opened the doors to its own churches and literally brought wolves right into the sheep pens of their Young Adult ministries and Youth Groups. Now some eleven years later the younger sectors of much of evangelicalism are mortally wounded spiritually and have all but abandoned the proper spirituality of sola Scriptura.

One area you’re “soon” going to see this played out is in the arena of a growing acceptance within evangelicalism that the deviant and sinful lifestyle of having sexual relations with another of the same sex, i.e homosexuality, is a viable one for the regenerated Christian. I first began warning you about this a year ago in articles like Doug Pagitt, The Emerging Church, And Affirming Homosexuality and Doug Pagitt And The Emerging Church Gay Agenda.

Having been in the ministry fields of apologetics, evangelizing non-Christian cults, and Comparative Religion for some 24 years now I have already seen the argumentation currently being put forth by Emergents like Pagitt and his JoPa pal Tony Jones. However, these younger evangelicals haven’t seen them, and so, they don’t know that they’re essentially just the same old tired and long ago debunked arguments originally used by liberal theologians.

Make no mistake, this postmodern form of progressive Christianity is a Liberalism 2.0 and isn’t quite the same as old liberalism; it contains a neo-Gnostic metaphysical component that was not really present among the old guard. That said, because it begins with essentially the same corrupt Bibliology, Liberalism 2.0 lands in many of the same places as old liberalism; most particularly, as you see with the Love Wins mythology of EC rock star pastor Rob Bell, a universalism.

The thing to keep in mind is these emerging progessive neo-liberals appeal to the same arguments as their predecessors using essentially the same redefined terminology while attempting to deconstruct the historic orthodox Christian faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (cf. Jude 3). With this fresh on our minds I’ll begin to close this out, for now, by bringing you to a short post yesterday from Emergent postmodern progressive theologian Tony Jones, which he called Biblical Marriage.

Jones tells us, “Bruce Bawer at The Dish recounts the multifarious forms of ‘marriage’ cataloged in the Bible.” He then quotes some of the passages Bawer cites in the post Jones links for us, each of which contain polygamy, and then closes by saying, “Though I haven’t read it yet, I assume this is the same trajectory in the Unprotected Texts: The Bible’s Surprising Contradictions About Sex and Desire.” More on that in a moment. First, I’ve tracked the warped and toxic teachings of Tony Jones for years now.

So I’ll tell you that it’s very likely he’s hoping the book really does try and slam the marriage covenant of our Creator, which seems evident with pieces like Tony Jones: Stop Performing (Legal) Marriages. In any event, bringing the subject of polygamy into the discussion supporting same-sex marriage was a classic strategy used by liberals who eventually poisoned dying mainline denominations. Their problem is that God never ordained polygamy; He put up with it, but never sanctioned it.

And further, it doesn’t really help the pro-gay marriage position at all because nowhere in Scripture do we ever have a same-sex marriage; the polygamous marriages all involve man to woman. I’ll leave you this time by pointing out that Red Letter Christian Tony Jones no doubt has his own reasons for separating so-called “legal and sacramental marriage,” but likely it’s going to put him in conflict with other “gay affirming” ECers down the broad road.

That aside, there’s a very real reason why the Emerging/ent/ence de-formation of Christianity is so interested in the issue of same-sex marriage. For you see, once it is recognized as a legal marriage (and it’s only a matter of time) then their argument will be homosexual relations within “marriage” cannot be considered sin; to such as these, it’s considered their escape clause from the sin of sexual immorality. I just gave you another example concerning how blurred doctrinal lines are becoming over this issue.

In Jay Bakker, Homosexuality, And Gospel Reductionism I reminded you that gay affirming “pastor” Jay Bakker, who is a close friend of Tony Jones, has recently forged a friendship with Andrew Marin. If you don’t know, Marin is the President and Founder of The Marin Foundation, author of the book Love Is An Orientation. I also told you that Marin still has the reputation of taking a conservative evangelical view concerning homosexuality, despite his sending quite obviously mixed signals.

For example, like having both EC guru Brian McLaren—along with his good friend Tony Jones—listed among blogs he actually reads. You may recall that Jay Bakker, who heads up a rather repugnant bunch of self-appointed Outlaw Preachers, is tip of the spear for the Emerging Church advance of the evil pro-gay agenda within mainstream evangelicalism. Yet the ostensibly conservative Andrew Marin has told us that he’s “excited”[2] to lend his credibility to someone like Jay Bakker.

One wonders, why Marin would wish to promote Bakker, who shouldn’t be teaching a Sunday School class—let alone be considered a pastor, and his horribly misguided teachings about homosexuality and grace. The reason is, once each state within the United States makes same-sex marriage legal, then all of these younger “evangelicals” will be completely in agreement: As I said a moment ago, sexual relations between members of the same sex within a “marriage” cannot be considered a sin by the Christian community.

While I don’t agree with all of his conclusions concerning the issue of homosexuality and the Body of Christ, Dr. Al Mohler is dead-on-target here:

There is no escaping the fact that we are living in the midst of a moral revolution. And yet, it is not the world around us that is being tested, so much as the believing church. We are about to find out just how much we believe the Gospel we so eagerly preach.
(Online source)

I tell you again, there’s a very dark and threatening same-sex storm looming just barely off the coast of your own local evangelical church; and it’s, right now, beginning to approach hurricane force.

________________________________________________________________________________
End Notes:

[1] http://tinyurl.com/2do9obh, accessed 7/13/11.

[2] http://tiny.cc/24sh4, accessed 7/13/11.

See also:

THE NIGHTMARE BEGINNING FOR MAINSTREAM EVANGELICALISM

NOT SO GAY WRITING ON WALL OF APOSTATIZING EVANGELICALISM

JESUS DEFINES MARRIAGE FOR RED LETTER CHRISTIANS

HOMOPRESSION IS AT LEAST AS BAD AS HOMOPHOBIA

HOMOPRESSIVE AS JAY BAKKER

EMERGING CHURCH PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGIAN TONY JONES POINTS TO ROB BELL

Ken Silva pastor-teacher — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 23:35:43 +0000

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
(Isaiah 6:8-10)

Sadly, In Times Like These Many Won’t Listen

The online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries has been documenting the growing falling away of the mainstream evangelical community; and I’ve warned you that there is a tsunami of apostasy—pushed along by 1 Peter 4:17 judgments—headed toward the church visible.

Not a few of these judgments have come through evanjellyfish’s foolish embrace of the sinfully ecumenical Emergent Church, with the unholy trinity of apostates, Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, universalist Emerging Church pastor Doug Pagitt, and his friend Tony Jones, the progressive “theologian in residence” at Solomon’s Porch, among its leaders.

Sadly, spiritual blindness continues to spread across the lukewarm landscape of the visible church leading to a real dearth of discernment within. Into this vacuum have come all kinds of deceptions and false prophets. One of those would certainly be the Love Wins mythology of Emerging Church iconic orator Rob Bell. With this in mind I point you to a tweet the other day from Tony Jones:

(Online source)

The link takes us to Rob Bell’s Editor Speaks Out by Jones where this professor with Fuller Theological Seminary—sad but true—wants us to know:

Mickey Maudlin, Senior VP and Managing Editor at HarperOne (and a former editor of Christianity Today) has spoken out about his satisfaction at seeing Love Wins do so well in sales — but also his “deep sadness about the book.” (Online source)

Jones continues by reminding us that “as many as six condemning books being rushed to press, the Southern Baptist Convention passing a resolution against Bell, and many evangelical leaders joining in the condemnation.” Of course, to apostates masquerading as Christians, this would be a bad thing. My comment to Jones was:

By the way, I took the liberty to include my thoughts above via screen shot here because I knew that this leader within *cough* “the conversation” would quite quickly remove them; sure enough in little more than an hour we found:

You see, this way it’s easier to pretend that I won’t dialogue with critics or those I write about; well, actually this only serves to show the truth about whom it is that’s not willing to converse. Just so you know, the friend I refer to is Dr. Larry Dixon, a seminary professor himself who’s written a small but in-depth book thoroughly refuting Bell’s foolish Love Wins mythology called “Farewell, Rob Bell”: A Biblical Response to Love Wins.

As Dixon tells us about his book:

The Evangelical world seems to be dividing very quickly into the pro-Bellums and the ante-Bellums, but that’s not what this book is about… Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, provided a jacket blurb for Love Wins which says, “It isn’t easy to develop a biblical imagination that takes in the comprehensive and eternal work of Christ. . . . Rob Bell goes a long way in helping us acquire just such an imagination — without a trace of the soft sentimentality and without compromising an inch of evangelical conviction.”

That last part of Peterson’s endorsement — “without compromising an inch of evangelical conviction” — I find very difficult to understand. As a seasoned (read “old”) theologian, I have major issues with Bell’s evangelical conviction and believe his 200-page broadside should be taken seriously. Christianity Today recently quoted Peterson as saying, “There’s very little Christ, very little Jesus, in these people who are fighting Rob Bell.”

My desire in this book is not to “fight Bell,” but to carefully evaluate the doctrine he is presenting and to respond to the charge that we Evangelicals have hijacked the Jesus story. Christian leaders have the responsibility of testing all things and holding fast to that which is good (I Thes. 5:21). There is a faith, a content of truth, which we need to understand, enjoy, and defend (Jude 3). We are commanded in I Timothy 4 to “Watch your life and doctrine closely.

Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (v. 16). Love Wins is not a work of poetry or a fictional essay, but rather is a theological treatise intended to challenge the prevailing viewpoint among Evangelical Christians. It is our duty to understand Love Wins and to respond to it charitably and biblically…

The purpose of this book is to help church leaders and serious Christians understand where Bell is coming from. Those who have not read or do not intend to read Love Wins will be asked by others about Bell and his viewpoint. This book will provide a brief, biblical response to his book.[1]

The Quiet Arrogance Of The Supposed Loving And Tolerant Ones

Did you catch the emerging arrogance of Eugene Peterson’s pronouncement; here it is below:

That quote comes from an interview with Peterson conducted by Timothy Dalrymple called Eugene Peterson: Would Jesus Condemn Rob Bell? over at Patheos, which is becoming a real haven for heretics. By the way, I’m not speaking of Dalrymple, whom I’ve had the pleasure of conversing with before. Here’s the fuller context of Peterson’s pontification:

TONY JONES, THE EMERGING CHURCH AND PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY

There’s a ton wrong with Peterson’s pablum above; but let’s zero right in on this hubris: There’s very little Christ, very little Jesus, in these people who are fighting Rob Bell.” Where to start; first of all, let’s put to rest once and for all that these whom the Emerging Church look to as their spiritual guides, such as Eugene Peterson, are the humble ones. You’ve just read Peterson pronouncing definitively that people who’ve been critical of Rob Bell are actually fighting against what Jesus would be doing and are, at the very least, not Christlike.

Seriously Eugene Peterson; so you and Rob Bell are the godly ones, and men who correctly criticized Bell by defending the Gospel from his attack upon it, e.g. Al Mohler and John MacArthur, have very little Jesus in them. Buckle up now because we’re mentally off-roading again into the murky and muddy postmodern wasteland of Humpty Dumpty language. Remember, the disagreement these men have with Rob Bell, and the Lord bless them for it, has to do with the Gospel itself! If one can convert to Christ while in hell, then we’re dealing with another gospel entirely.

I covered this in more depth the other day in Supernatural Gatherings In The New Downgrade so here I’ll just remind you that in his God Is Still Holy and What You Learned in Sunday School Is Still True: A Review of “Love Wins” pastor Kevin DeYoung reveals to us the gospel preached by Rob Bell:

According to Bell, salvation is realizing you’re already saved. We are all forgiven. We are all loved, equally and fully by God who has made peace with everyone… Bell is saying God has already forgiven us whether we ask for it or not, whether we repent and believe or not, whether we are born again or not…

Bell categorically rejects any notion of penal substitution. It simply does not work in his system or with his view of God… (Online source)

DeYoung is dead on target: This is not the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name, salvation by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in the finished work on the Cross of Christ alone, which is integral to the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). Yet, as I said before, Rob Bell continues right on in good stead within the evangelical community despite his preaching a different gospel. These are sad times indeed. Sadly, witness pathetic Protholic evangelical leaders so scared of their own spiritual shadows, and too timid to defend the purity of God’s Gospel, to throw that apostate out of the Lord’s church where he belongs.

Maybe Eugene Peterson picked up his delusion in a recent session of Contemplative/Centering Prayer, a form of meditation in an altered state of consciousness that’s the crown jewel of the current infestation of corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism, but he muses that Christ’s Church needs “to reexamine our doctrines of hell and damnation.” Nah, sorry about that; the evangelical Protestant doctrines in that regard happen to be what Jesus Himself taught, and what His infallible and inerrant Word teaches. The problem we’re running into here is largely rooted in the propaganda known as the New Perspective on Paul (NPP) and its warped view of salvation, which certainly affects the gospel those deceived by NPP teach.

In his article Have We Misunderstood Paul All Along: A Critical Look at the New Perspective on Paul Dr. Gary Gilley unveils its cult-like mentality:

The NPP proponents see themselves as the first people since the early Church Fathers who have rightly understood Paul and his message. This is the case, they say, because believers in the past have used the wrong grid through which to filter the words of Paul, at least since Augustine, and especially since Martin Luther.[2]

Right; O poor dumb church, couldn’t grasp the Gospel until these guys showed up. Yet this is confirmed by Phil Johnson, executive director of the Grace to You ministry of Dr. John MacArthur; Gilley tells us that Johnson well “summarizes what is being taught by [NPP purveyor N.T.] Wright and his followers”:

“In a nutshell, they are suggesting that the apostle Paul has been seriously misunderstood, at least since the time of Augustine and the Pelagian controversy, but even more since the time of Luther and the Protestant Reformation. They claim first-century Judaism has also been misinterpreted and misconstrued by New Testament scholars for hundreds and hundreds of years, and therefore the church’s understanding of what Paul was teaching in Romans and Galatians has been seriously flawed at least since the time of Augustine.” (Online source)

This is what you need to understand to know why such as these eschew talk of individual salvation and proper soteriology; Gilley will now bring to light that, along with other cardinal doctrines of the historic orthodox Christian faith, the NPP redefines the Gospel—thereby changing it into a different gospel—which is no gospel at all (cf. Galatians 1:6-9):

Of the many things wrong with [the NPP] definition of the Gospel, two are crucial. First, it transfers the focus of God’s people from the proclamation of redemption to social enhancement of the planet. For, as Wright points out, his gospel is not merely the announcement that Jesus is Lord (something true before the cross, by the way), but the rallying point from which the Church is to “bring the whole world under the lordship of Christ.”

Our mandate under the NPP is not to rescue people “from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). Rather our mandate is to rescue the planet and ultimately to crown Christ as Lord over all earthly systems and structures. God’s people are to set up the kingdom which Christ began. This is a clear “kingdom now” perspective found in postmillennialism.

That is, we are in the kingdom now and our job is to advance the kingdom to the point where Christ can declare kingship over the earth and ultimately reign in person. For now this shakes out to be a social agenda… In order to make the NPP “work,” it becomes necessary to redefine ordeny fundamental doctrines of the faith.[3]

So, as I see it, there’s very little Christ, very little Jesus, in these people who are defending Rob Bell.

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End Notes:

[1] Larry Dixon, “Farewell, Rob Bell”: A Biblical Response to Love Wins [Columbia: Theomedian Resources, 2011], 1, 2, 3.

[2] Gary Gilley, “Have We Misunderstood Paul All Along: A Critical Look at the New Perspective on Paul ,” The Quarterly Journal, Personal Freedom Outreach, Vol. 27, No.3, July-September 2007 , 8.

[3] Ibid., 12.

THE EMERGING CHURCH AND THE WILD GOOSE CHASE INTO PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY

FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PROFESSOR TONY JONES AND CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY COHORT

TONY JONES AND CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALISM

DOUG PAGITT AND CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALISM

ROB BELL AND CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALISM

DOUG PAGITT AND HOMOSEXUAL SIN

AN EMERGING KERFLUFFLE?

Ken Silva pastor-teacher — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 02:13:17 +0000

FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PROFESSOR TONY JONES AND CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY COHORT