Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. “I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.”

“And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.” (Jeremiah 3:6-9, NASB)

Encouraging And Endorsing Spiritual Adultery In The SBC

Now it gets even worse for Southern Baptists in the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSCNC) as the current Spiritual Formation Interest Survey (SFIS) from BSCNC is flat out contemplative mysticism. A Southern Baptist affiliate in North Carolina was kind enough to send me a copy of this SFIS and the accompanying brochure put out officially from BSCNC itself. You may recall that I wrote about this seriously off the rails SBC Convention in Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (SBC) and Contemplative Spirituality.

But this brochure and its accompanying survey means that now contemplative Gnostic mysticism is actually endorsed and distributed to SBC churches in North Carolina from the BSCNC state level right on down to your local SBC church. O how fast and far the SBC sinks in North Carolina. This Spiritual Formation brochure features “Spiritual Formation Coach” Wendy Minton Edwards who has “close to 30 years of experience in ministry education, training, and discipleship.” As a matter of fact Dr. Edwards does have an “earned a Doctorate of Ministry in Spirituality from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary.”

So undoubtedly Dr. Edwards does know her field of Spiritual Formation. This becomes obvious in the December issue of the SpiritLines Newsletter featuring her glowing endorsement of Living Spiritual Teacher Richard Foster and on the SpiritLines blog talking about Prayer Retreats at the Shalem Institute of Tilden Edwards. My point here isn’t to go into all of that but to follow up on From Baptist State Convention Of North Carolina To Renovare And Richard Foster where I initially informed you concerning Dr. Edward’s heavy involvement in contemplative Gnostic mysticism. I can tell you it is currently a sad state of spiritual affairs for people in SBC church in NC.

Here are some of the things on the SFIS distributed by their State Leadership from Spiritual Mysticism Guru Wendy Edwards to their local churches. After completing it we’re told to send or fax the “completed survey” directly to Guru Edwards. I would put my name and my “Spiritual Formation Responsibility” at the top and then add the requisite personal contact information. Then under the General Heading “Spiritual Formation Areas of Interest or Responsibility” I would check everything that might apply concerning areas of “Spiritual Disciplines” I am personally involved in and/or teach within my SBC church.

The Emergent Church Continues Its Penetration Of The SBC

Among these various “disciplines” of contemplative Gnostic mysticism, which themselves flowered in the anti-biblical monastic traditions of the apostate Church of Rome, we find “Sabbath Observance”, “Silence and/or Solitude”, and “Meditation”. In actual fact eastern-style meditation is what the so-called “Christian” mystics mean when they speak of “silence and solitude.” Then on the backside of the SFIS form are other practices of contemplative mysticism such as “Spiritual Mentors”, “Spiritual Directors”, and the rather spiritistic and New Age-sounding “Soul Friends”.

And then we come to the section entitled “Contemplative Prayer”. Now all doubt as to the future mystical direction of SBC-affiliated churches in the BSCNC on their way home to Rome is clearly revealed when under this category of Contemplative Prayer we read:

Breath Prayer
Lectio Divina or Scripture Praying
Labyrinth Prayer Walking
Prayers of Examen [aka Ignatian Examen, founder of the Jesuits]
Listening or Meditative Prayer

This list from BSCNC Spiritual Formation Coach Edwards in her SFIS survey of spiritual practices that one will already find in SBC churches in North Carolina could actually have come right out of The Sacred Way by Tony Jones. This is also happens to be a book that comes highly recommended by Emergent Guru Brian McLaren himself. In a prior article of mine called Contemplative Prayer and Meditation I point out:

Emergent Church theologian Tony Jones, who is the National Coordinator for Emergent Village, is to be considered a primary source concerning these mystic practices having written extensively on the subject. In his book The Sacred Way (SW), Jones provides us with a list of what he refers to as “Contemplative Approaches to Spirituality.” These “spiritual disciplines” would be: “Silence and Solitude, Sacred Reading, The Jesus Prayer, Centering Prayer, Meditation, The Ignatian Examen, Icons, Spiritual Direction, and The Daily Office.” (5)

So again I am sounding a clarion call for Southern Baptist pastors and leaders in North Carolina to quit cowering behind the excuse of autonomy and finally begin speaking out against this Romish garbage being introduced into your churches by the spiritually corrupt BSCNC. You should know that this contemplative Gnostic mysticism is pagan and God hates it. And it is up to you–whether it be from behind the pulpit or in the pew–to speak up now before the Lord sends even stronger delusions among you. For the sake of our Christ the time has now arrived to throw spiritual adulterers like Guru Wendy Minton Edwards out of God’s Church.