HT: Wretched

See also:

JOHN PIPER RECOMMENDS BOOK BY EMERGING CONTEMPLATIVE LAUREN WINNER

RICHARD FOSTER’S RENOVARE PROMOTING EMERGING HERETIC TONY JONES

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

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“I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:9-11)

You Can’t Handle An Abundant Life Unless You’re Born Again

So, you want an abundant life; then first of all you must come to understand the truth that mankind does not deserve anything from God but death for our rebellion against Him. And no, that doesn’t sound pleasant; but spending an eternity in conscious torment in a literal place Jesus Himself referred to as Hell sounds just a bit less pleasant, doesn’t it? One must come to God on the narrow road of following Christ; complete surrender, no questions asked, or go your own broad way with the esteem of self: “I want what I want and I want it now,” which ends in Hell.

Those are your choices. And I tell you in the Lord that anyone who promises you otherwise like the Emerging Church rock star pastor Rob Bell is lying to you. This online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries has been documenting for you how doctrinal lines continue to be erased with great rapidity in what’s becoming The Ecumenical Church Of Deceit (ECoD). I’ve already warned you that evanjellyfish is only just beginning to pay a heavy price for its foolish embrace of the sinfully ecumenial Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church—which has now grown into a full-blown neo-liberal cult operating within its walls.

Evangelicalism was already infected with the spiritual cancer of the semi-pelagian (at best) Church Growth Movement (CGM), which was released by its host Fuller Theological Seminary, and quickly metastasized throughout the church visible. And part of the price being paid is how deeply the CGM arm of the Emerging Church has carried its new postmodern version of Progressive Christian theology—aka “big tent” universalist Emergence Christianity—into the bloodline of the Purpose Driven/Seeker Driven mainstream of the visible church.

Under the guise of the postmodern Humpty Dumpty language of “missional” in came the new man-centered missional mantra summed up as follows, which has become the new gospel:

God loves you so much that He created you for a great purpose. He offers you hope and a wonderful plan for your life. So you need to discover the dream that God has placed in your heart and unlock your destiny.

He wants you to follow the lifestyle of Jesus and learn His ways enabling you to be a co-creator with God because we’re the King’s kids. Then together we will help Him make the world a better place, just as God dreams for it to be.

But you then say: “God wants me to have life and that more abundantly.” Let me ask you honestly, just who is it that’s saying He doesn’t? However, God’s idea of an “abundant” life e.g. for Jim Elliot and Nate Saint was for them to be murdered by the very people they were trying to reach for Christ. That ended up being their driving purpose; this was how these “followers of Jesus” were missional in seeking the best life now that God could give them. Still want to be a “Christ-follower”; or more accuarately, a Christian?

Then let’s consider the great Apostle Paul’s abundant life from his own testimony:

Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.

Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:23-28)

O and now let’s look at the greatest abundant life ever lived, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Who is only God Himself in human flesh. The Father’s idea for His “abundant” life was for all of the disciples of His only begotten Son to abandon Him; for Christ to be brutally crucified and punished for our sins. So away with all this seeker sensitive rubbish; this centered on self and man-pleasing infomercial gospel of pseudo-Christianity! Don’t listen to all this irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge” (1 Timothy 6:20).

The Spirit prompts me today and so I come before you with a Word from God; and this is what I hear the Lord saying — “These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you” (Psalm 50:21). But now in all their great human wisdom men like Rob Bell and Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren think that mankind is just too sophisticated for the “old-fashioned” and horribly “out-dated” preaching of Christ on the Cross and then letting God the Holy Spirit do His work so that it is God alone Who receives the glory?

Friend, let me ask you: Do you want to come to the Master’s table through some supposedly better life that you believe you’ve lived and for what you think is upon that table? Or, rather are you coming to Jesus whether there is anything nice for you in this life on His table or not? For you see, the absolute truth is that your abundant life will only begin when you as His slave, who is deserving of nothing, have the Master Himself as your only desire. And there’s something that’s worth meditating upon.

See also:

ON THE FEAR OF GOD

WHERE ARE CHRIST’S SOLDIERS?

WHY DOES GOD ALLOW FALSE TEACHERS?

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Church Leaders Who Permit Carnality from NCFIC on Vimeo.

HT: The End Time

See also:

RICK WARREN AND TEACHINGS OF DEMONS

STEVEN FURTICK, JAMES MACDONALD, AND JOEL OSTEEN

GOSPEL COALITION COUNCIL MEMBER JAMES MACDONALD LOVES PERRY NOBLE

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See also:

THE EMERGING CHURCH PUSHING FOR WOMEN PASTORS

DAN KIMBALL OF THE EMERGING CHURCH TO SPEAK FOR RICK WARREN

WHAT’S NEW AT THE BUILD-A-gOD SHOP

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You likely know that he’s resigned from Mars Hill Bible Church and turned it over to his good friend and fellow apostate Shane Hipps to pursue—among other things—producing secular television.

It figures to be exciting at MHBC as Bell is scheduled to be on hand tomorrow, December 18, likely to share more deception surrounding the Christian Universalism (CU) of his Love Mythology.

CU is the eventual resting place of everyone who persists in the anti-Christian practice of corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) and its crown jewel, a form of meditation in an altered state of consciousness commonly known as Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP), which was adapted from pagan religions and then flowered in the monastic traditions of apostate Roman Catholicism.

What needs to be understood in this regard is that Bell believes the same things as Hipps and is just as heavily involved with CSM/CCP as Hipps; the difference is, Hipps is much clearer in deliniating his heresy. In other words, Bell has a gift of cleverly disguising his false teaching in postmodern fog; Hipps not so much. Now, since Hipps came to MHBC I’ve been talking with numerous sources there. who contacted me.

As you may know, at first there was quite a bit of unrest as Hipps came onboard and I also know people who left that fellowship. Remember now, this all happened at MRBC not too long before Rob Bell dropped his book openly advancing his Love Wins mythology, in which he (at best) argues for CU. You can see for yourself in Rob Bell And Christian Universalism that he’s hinted at it for years.

So sources were telling me during that earlier time “there is a large (and growing) number of us” becoming disenchanted with the direction of MHBC. Indeed much of the unpleasant discord was actually traced back to the ”arrival” of Shane Hipps, which “didn’t sit well with a large group of us.” As I said, Hipps is much more open with his theology than Bell.

It seems that during a leadership meeting with MHBC staff Hipps would even share a “passage from Baha’u’llah,” founder of the non-Christian cult of the Bahá’í Faith. According to my source, involved with lower level leadership, apparently Hipps said the passage was part of the “inspiration for” his Wind In The Sail sermon; you can read a transcript of it in my 2009 post Shane Hipps Exposed.

The following gives you the general idea of what Hipps may have drawn from:

it is useful to think of God’s Will and man’s will as working in combination with one another. This relationship is easily visualized by thinking about a sail boat. The wind is like the Will of God. It moves the boat and blows in whatever direction it will. Without the wind, there is no movement at all… And of course, in this analogy, the sailor is like the mind and heart of man which decides which way to turn the rudder. All these forces work together to determine the journey of the boat, which is the soul. (Online source)

The source tells me that they personally were fine with MHBC being sympathetic in their celebrating spiritual diversity; however, just how diverse MHBC seems to be is rather eye-opening as this apparently even includes using the “Quran” and “The Pāli Tipitaka.” The latter involves:

a universal, scientific method towards purifying the mind. It is the practical essence of the teachings of the Buddha, who taught Dhamma – the Universal Law of Nature. (Online source)

My source also told me that “we’ve done a group Lectio Divina” using the Gnostic “Gospel of Thomas.” However, they did go on to say that the aforementioned sermon by Shane Hipps “struck a sour note.” Unfortunately, it seems they took some spiritual Pepto and got over it. Fast forward to today. Seems Shane Hipps now appears to be interested in making a new friend.

You may recall a couple of years ago in Emerging Church To TransFORM Outlaw Preachers I told you about the Emerging Church website TransFORM, a networking group created by Steve Knight of Emergent Village. You should also know that most all of the familiar names in the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church existential rebellion against the authority of God’s Word are to be found within.

If you want to understand how far the evil pro-homosexual agenda has penetrated eveangelicalism then it’s very important for you to realize that the EC has long ago embraced a bunch self-described, largely gay-affirming, Outlaw Preachers (OP). In Meet Outlaw Preachers I focused your attention upon this rather rapscallion bunch of largely biblically illiterate, *cough* “preachers” who’ve come slithering up all around “pastor” Jay Bakker.

OPs include such EC luminaries as Queermergent’s Adele Sakler and self-described “Queer Affirming” ELCA pastrix Nadia Bolz-Weber, who was pushed forward when she was featured at the EC apostasia-palooza Christianity 21 put on by heretical theologian Tony Jones along with his equally heretical quasi-universalist “pastor” Doug Pagitt.

The pro-homosexual agenda may now be slithering toward MHBC as earlier today pastrix Bolz-Weber tweeted to Shane Hipps:

(Online source)

To which Shane Hipps would reply:

(Online source)

After they both appear at Big Tent Christianity—Phoenix don’t be too surprised to see pastrix Bolz-Weber preaching this Big Tent Postmodern Liberal Christianity from the pulpit at MHBC. More indication that this fellowship has long ago left anything resembling evangelicalism for the spiritual dead sea of universalism.

We have no reason to doubt what we’ve been hearing about Shane Hipps and MHBC; especially when we consider the last post from Hipps personal blog below where he offers “comfort.” Not from God’s Word; no, but from an unbelieving Sufi mystic by the name of Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273):

(Online source)

Seriously pastor Hipps; you’re teaching pastor at one the more influential evangelical churches in the world and to offer comfort for people who are weary and grief-filled you actually felt you needed to turn to a pagan idolator who denied Christ Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Well, Jesus did tell us:

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
(Luke 6:45)

It is written — “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?” (Amos 3:3) Answer: No, they do not.

See also:

MUSLIM RECEIVES COMMUNION AT MARS HILL BIBLE CHURCH OF ROB BELL?

WHERE SHANE HIPPS DERAILED

SHANE HIPPS, CO-PASTOR WITH ROB BELL, SAYS ALL RELIGIONS VALID

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This has largely been done by looking back through the corridors of church history and dragging in anything that even remotely claimed to be Christian—heretical or not—and then questioning as to why said subject should not now be a legitimate form of the Christian faith.

While the issue of women being ordained elders and pastors has been debated within some of evangelicalism, up until now it’s remained more in the charismatic and Pentecostal fringes. The larger denominations had for the most part still maintained the proper Biblical position that women cannot be elders.

However, as one whose work in the Lord is to monitor Intel along the Internet Front and assess trends within the larger visible church, it’s my considered opinion this will be changing. You need to know that placing women in the pastorate is now going to be a real push by those influential within the Emerging Church.

Take for example the following tweet today from EC theologian Scot McKnight:

(Online source)

As we follow the link we come to McKnight’s Emerging Church comrade Dan Kimball‘s post praising Scot McKnight – new e-book “Junia Is Not Alone” about women and church leadership. In his typical EC maybe-I-do or maybe-I-don’t hold his views Kimball calls McKnight his “New Testament theological friend, guru.”

He then tells us what we already knew; McKnight takes a position in favor of women pastors:

No matter what your viewpoint is on this issue, this little e-book is worth a read. By the title, you can already know that Scot comes to an egalitarian conclusion. (Online source)

Kimball then shares his belief in the EC postmodern partyline:

I personally want to be looking at different perspectives of all types of issues to try and understand them. I don’t want to ever automatically suppose that my view I first learned in a church or in a denomination is always the one that has the most biblical backing to it.
(Online source)

Very people-friendly and pious, but that’s not the attitude of the Christian. As one involved in apologetics, counter-cult evangelism and Comparative Religion these past 24+ years I love discussing with people what they believe. Following love my neighbor as myself, of course I want to understand what they believe.

However, it doesn’t matter one iota what a church or denomination teaches or how sincerely they believe it; it matters what the text of the Bible says—period. I don’t have “to ever automatically suppose” anything. I only need to read what God’s Word says on a given subject; that’s where EC reps like McKnight and Kimball err.

To no one’s surprise, in attempting to make his case for women elders McKnight asserts a priori Junia was a female apostle:

In Junia is Not Alone, I will tell the story of Junia. Alongside her story, we will encounter others like her—women who had a wonderful voice, and then no voice, and who are experiencing a re-voicing. Now to the Story of Junia.

Junia Is Not Alone: How She Fits into the Bible

Junia, who had no idea she would someday be the subject of endless discussions, appears innocently enough in Romans 16:7 alongside her husband, Andronicus.[1]

Since this isn’t the main point of this piece I’ll simply point out that in his Junia Is Not Alone McKnight is, at best, being misleading in his treatment of Junia. The fact is, Christian apologist Matt Slick is correct when he points out:

The early church fathers are not in agreement about the gender of Junia. There even seems to be evidence that strongly suggests Junia was a male. Commentaries differ on the gender. Translations differ on how Romans 16:7 is to be rendered into English. (Online source)

Having studied this issue of women pastors for years I can tell you the arguments raised by the Emerging Church in favor of this unbiblical position are not new at all. However, to their core demographic in the younger sectors of the woefully uncathecized evangelical community they do appear to be.

The truth is, many of them have been used since the 1960′s when the secular feminist agenda slithered into apostate mainline and neo-orthodox colleges and denominations with their dead churches. Unfortunately, evangelicals are only now beginning to pay the price for years of allowing EC wolves to chew up their young.

___________________________________________________________________________
End notes:

[1] McKnight, Scot (2011-12-01). Junia Is Not Alone (Kindle Locations 54-61). Patheos Press. Kindle Edition.

See also:

THOUGHTS ON WOMEN PASTORS

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

MARTIN LUTHER SAYS NO…TO WOMEN PASTORS

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See also:

THE CROSS HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE ANSWER

TEACHINGS OF DEMONS ON CHURCH GROWTH

THE WATCHMAN

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Pious Words And Deeds Have Never Fooled God

Sadly, by the way we live today—and the ease in which a rapidly increasing number of serpentine deceptions are slithering into the mainstream evangelical camp—we are demonstrating that there’s far too much of our opening text within the visible Christian church today. Take for example the sinful ecumenicism of the Emerging Church aka the Emergent Church and its poisonous Emergence Christianity.

This Trojan Horse unloaded highly subjective Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) ala Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster and his spiritual twin Dallas Willard into mainstream evangelicalism, inciting full-on rebellion against Sola Scriptura. You can see how far CSM has spread e.g. in the Apprising Ministries piece Tim Keller Recommended Peter Scazzero Spreading Spurious Centering Prayer.

Using our text from the Bible above we can see that it is indeed possible to worship God in vain, and to end up with man-made doctrine; no matter how sincere—or well-intentioned—someone might be. And especially so, if we’re not careful to follow the Divine command of 1 Thessalonians 5:21 to — test everything. Notice, not some things; no, we are to test everything.

And so it now becomes obvious why it’s so important to know your Bible today; as a matter of fact, it’s absolutely critical for finite, corrupt, degenerate, sinful mankind not to trust in his flawed reasoning—himself. Listen carefully to Jeremiah 17:9 — The heart [of mankind] is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I like the way the King James Version reads — the heart is desperately wicked.

We need some objective standard of measurement—the Bible—to examine whether ideas, or rules, have come from God, man, or Satan. Otherwise, people are forever lost upon the Sea of Relativity; a ship without anchor—drifting from one conflicting opinion to another—with no real way to decide anything on a given issue, since no one person’s opinion can be considered any more right than anyone else’s.

Haven’t you ever watched a political debate, or a talk show, and observe them as they just go ’round and ’round and ’round—ad infinitum, ad nauseum? I realize that we’d all like to think we’re right; that we’re all God’s children, that God is unfair not to let people whom we consider good into His Heaven apart from the blood of Christ; and that all religions will somehow eventually lead to God.

But the Bible—His infallible, eternal, and inerrant Word—says it isn’t so. And the LORD God Almighty—by definition—is perfect and right. If we happen to think in a way that is contrary to His revealed Word, then we are…just…wrong. It really is as simple as that. There simply isn’t any Humpty Dumpty language of Alice in Wonderland; and further, you don’t have the option of holding your breath until you get your way.

Sorry about that; all you sallow seeker sensitive preachers with your Robert Schullerisms and postmodern purveyors of Bellesque mystery polluting the church today, the absolute truth is that we live in the world God created, and He makes the rules. We who are Christians—being bought with a price—-are to honor God by representing the Lord Jesus Christ, the living Word of God, without one iota of compromise.

So many difficult issues face us and the world is looking for answers “in all the wrong places,” as the popular Country song goes. However, can we afford to just sleep on when they need the absolute truths found only in the written Word of God? Beloved, it is up to us to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world; but if we don’t believe there is such a thing as absolute truths—then how can we?

Who would commit themselves to something they are not sure of; now do you see why the church today is so pathetically weak? God had His original Apostles seal their testimonies in their own blood; you just can’t get any more committed than that, yet how committed are we? Is it really such a surprise that Satan and his forces of evil minions are now mounting such a mighty attack on the Bible?

Just look at what’s happening as the visible Christian church loosens its own grasp on the Holy Scriptures…

See also:

OPRAH WINFREY, JOEL OSTEEN & CHRISTIAN POST

STEVEN FURTICK, JAMES MACDONALD, AND JOEL OSTEEN

TIM KELLER RECOMMENDED PETER SCAZZERO SPREADING SPURIOUS CENTERING PRAYER

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And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:11-16).

To Speak The Truth Boldly And Plainly Is To Speak The Truth In Love

We hear much about verse 15 of our text today – Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. If we are to fully understand this verse we need to look back at the whole of our opening text.

As we do we see that this oft-quoted verse is primarily talking to those of us who have been called into leadership positions within the Body of Christ. For those who may not know, in my case I am pastor-teacher of a very small church that currently meets in the home of one of our members. In addition the Lord has been kind enough to also give me this forum to teach, and I do not take it lightly (cf. James 3:1). Now for sure we will need to keep in mind that, in a secondary sense, these verses do indeed apply to all Christians as well. The most important thing to remember here is that in every case the true disciple of Christ must comport himself just as his Master Jesus of Nazareth did while He was here on His earth.

Your key to really getting behind what God the Holy Sprit is saying here is the building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith. And I can tell you from first hand experience we are certainly far from that in the church visible right now. As unfortunately speaking the truth in love today will require us to tell the professing Christians that many claiming to be His people are currently struggling with spiritual pride. If more of my ministering brethren were willing to “take the heat” for it, they would also be telling you that the evangelical community is not an easy one to preach/teach in. The reason being, there are so many who will just simply disregard what is taught if they personally don’t happen to like it. Since I’m not a machine even I would love to be liked; so I sincerely do wish I could tell you differently, but truly I can’t.

Please understand, I most certainly do not advocate placing yourself under just anyone’s teaching, nor would I tell you to just take any teacher’s word for anything — but test everything; hold fast what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). However, speaking the truth in love to you, the fact is that not enough people in the Christian camp are actually doing this. Rather, too many who would call themselves Christians just go by “what I’ve always been taught”; or they tend to revert to the infamous: “I don’t need to study, I have the Holy Ghost.” Yes, and so did the Apostle Paul who wrote our text about the critical role the pastor-teacher must be allowed to play in the Church for the edifying of the Body of Christ.

I have said all that, to say this. We now live in an era where people are sensing the Lord may even return “in our lifetime.” Whether He will or not is in His providence alone; but did you ever think that just maybe it is His Spirit Who is stirring us to this feeling? My point being, perhaps we need to better interpret the signs of the times (cf. Matthew 16:1-4), and come to recognize what that reddening sky above us this morning means. When you see someone like me using vitriolic language in this public witness for Christ, please know there is good reason  for it. We go the woodshed long before you do. My position in this forum is to speak the Truth boldly and to mince no words in doing so. The intent in the Lord is to make the message more difficult to ignore, as well as to provoke thought and discussion.

Why you know, this is actually what the Bells and the McLarens of the Emergent Church will tell you they are doing. The main difference perhaps, is that oftentimes people aren’t really sure what is actually being said by these leaders within the emerging convoluted “conversation.” Say what you will about me, but at least it’s fairly obvious where I stand—and this too is by careful design. Still I must tell you that, even though it is often not perceived this way today, to speak boldly and plainly is to speak the truth in love. As apologist James Spencer often says: “Truth without love is too harsh, love without truth is too soft.”

Men and women, today I tell you again that you’ve been sold a batch of ill-gotten goods about the proper way we are to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3, NKJV). Let show you one quick example of what I’m talking about. When the Christian teacher speaks publicly—and especially in a time of apostasy—he is to be clear and direct. I know the increasingly ecumenical seeker sensitive crowd numbed by Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism won’t like this, but I’m not here for them to like me—quite the opposite. If we look at Matthew 23, for instance, there we will see Jesus speaking in a public setting. Do you think that an exchange like that happened just the one time?

But notice, during the Apostle Peter’s recollections of some of our Lord’s public discussions with religious leaders who opposed the Truth, there is a similar instance described in Mark 12. Look at verse 28 — And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another—the KJV uses reasoning together—in other words, in public debate. Now we move to the next part of the verse; let’s watch the result of the Master’s strong stance for Truth — seeing that [Jesus] answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” The Master’s good public exchange leads to this man later approaching Christ privately to learn more. And if you read the rest of this conversation it is likely that it eventually lead to this man getting into the Kingdom of God. Those under the spell of Rob Bell should note that this inspired text makes it very clear that this man wasn’t already in the Kingdom through his adherance to his religion.

It’s my prayer this will help clear up possible misconceptions in this area about what the function of a preaching-teaching ministry for Jesus Christ is, and more specifically, what I’m often doing publicly here at AM. However, my larger intent is to speak to my fellow workers in online apologetics and discernment—whether you be formally in ministry or not—and to exhort you that we must speak the Truth boldly when we preach in public; for this is to speak the truth in love. And then as people may come to us privately we will be afforded the opportunity to approach the same subject in a more gentler manner. For instance, anyone who has taken the time to write me concerning their differences with something I have taught will attest (if they be honest) that I have answered them according to 2 Timothy 2:24-25:

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.

With this understood however, because of these times in which we live—and due to the unbridled arrogance of this pagan postmodernism into which Christ has sent us—it will require our Lord’s true ministers to approach the more public stance much like John the Baptist did. As you recall he wasn’t exactly the proto-typical ecumenical seeker sensitive purpose driven emergent sort now, was he? In fact, the man of whom Jesus said “among those born of women none is greater than John,” had but a six month public ministry and then “off with his head.” For you see, Joseph Parker put it quite well when he said:

The man whose little sermon is ‘repent’ sets himself against his age, and will for the time being be battered mercilessly by the age whose moral tone he challenges. There is but one end for such a man — ‘off with his head!’ You had better not try to preach repentance until you have pledged your head to heaven.

Friend, how about you; have you pledged your head to Heaven? A look at the Biblical record reveals that our Lord’s prophets have most often been drawn from unexpected people, and were somewhat difficult to listen to; and especially so to those who are apostatizing. And brother pastor-teacher, if you would presume to stand behind a pulpit, then this is exactly the role you have been called to. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Can you hear Him…

When I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria; for they deal falsely; the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid outside. But they do not consider that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds surround them; they are before my face. (Hosea 7:1-2)

Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers devour his strength, and he knows it not; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not. The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him, for all this. Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria. (vv. 8-11)

Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me. They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me. (vv. 13-14)

Beloved, it’s time for us to try and awaken those who claim to be Christian from this dream they’ve had foisted upon them that we can just live a life of ease and compromise with the world because somehow the LORD God Almighty “understands” now how difficult it is to strive to live a perfect and holy life in our sin-sick society today:

 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’ (Revelation 2:5-7)

C’mon…we’re almost home…

See also:

GOD IS AGAINST THE NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION AND T.D. JAKES

RICK WARREN TWEETS A MESSAGE TO KEN SILVA?

TIM KELLER RECOMMENDED PETER SCAZZERO SPREADING SPURIOUS CENTERING PRAYER

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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

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