But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self.
(2 Timothy 3:2, NASB)

For some time now here at Apprising Ministries I have been tracking the elevation of the love of self within evangelicalism and the even worse new evangelicalism. The following is a prime example and comes from a sermon on breathing by Emergent Church communicator and Pastor Rob Bell.

Just look at the man-centered myth in this adulation of man from a cultural icon within this Emergent cult of the new liberal theology which has now come slithering into the Body of Christ:

There is a greatness [in mankind]. The writer here [of Psalm 8] uses the word “glory and honor” that resides in every single human being. Fragile and yet filled with the potential for glory and honor.

I love how Nelson Mandela puts it in one of his writings. He says, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”

And then he concludes by saying, “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. We were born to manifest the glory – put on display, to show – the glory of God that is within us.” He says, “you may be a dirt clod, but there is greatness and power and glory that resides in every singe human being.”

(Week 330 05/29/05, audio sermon 12:27-13:28, transcription on file)