For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1, ESV)

Apostate Roman Catholic Mystical Spiritual Formation Has No Place In The Body Of Christ

My friend and brother in arms along this often ugly and neglected Internet Front of the Truth War Jim Luppachino of Watcher’s Lamp points out the Pope Calls for World to Return to Mary’s Heart. If this phony fronting the Roman Catholic Church, perhaps the single best version of Christianity ever concocted by the Devil, meant the Mary of the Bible in a way it would be alright because she really loved the actual Jesus. But this antichrist doesn’t; he means the demon impersonating her in various “visions.” But what’s all this got to do with Biola University? If you’re not one of the multitudinous Rip Van Winkles masquerading as evangelical “leaders” within the visible church today and you have eyes that see read on.

Lately here at Apprising Ministries I have been warning the Body of Christ about apostatizing “Protestant” evangelicalism’s sordid lust affair with Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) and its antibiblical Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP), which is all simply a reimagined form of the alleged ”Christian” mysticism from apostate Roman Catholicism. The reason for this is really quite simple, we are witnessing the spread of The Cult of Guru Richard Foster deep within mainstream Protestant evangelicalism and with it a neo-pietism masquerading as Spritiual Formation (SF) as espoused by Southern Baptist minister Dallas Willard and his spiritual twin Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster.

Unfortunately it remains to be seen if the Church has any ministers left with the intestinal fortiutude to publicly back what they have told me privately concerning the teachings of Richard Foster, who, following in classsic Quakerism, is a highly ecumenical Reformation-rejecting mystic who’s basic theology is already a repudiation of Sola Scriptura. Now I ‘spose I ain’t the brightest bulb in the Lord’s lamp but even I can see it’s absolutely asinine that evangelical Protestants should turn to someone whose very messed up mystic musings are derived from major apostate voices of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation movement.

Yet it simply a fact that Foster has been forming the basis of so-called SF in their Protestant seminary classes for years and as a result we are hearing way too much talk about so-called “spiritual disciplines.” As I pointed out in Means of Grace: Searching the Scripture you need to understand that these are largely artificial repainted ascetic practices of Roman Catholic monks and monkettes which greatly contributed to God bringing about the Protestant Reformation in the first place. And yes, it was the Spirit of the Lord Who moved men like Martin Luther, who as a former monk had forgotten more about ascetic “disciplines” than mystic monk wannabes Foster and Willard will ever know.

If you’ve bought into their mystic malarkey of centered on the self spiritual formation I will remind you here that the Biblical term for growing in the grace of God is discipleship. And the proper term the Protestant Reformers would use for things e.g. like fasting, prayer and studying the Bible would be “the means of grace” and not the Roman Catholic term “spiritual disciplines,” which has now become a new form of pietism. And if you don’t think this has grown into a cult of Foster-Willard then consider just how many times these mystical dreamers with their  “feelings” from the flesh are appealed to in virtually every writing on the subject.

Sadly, we also have major voices within evangelicalism who are now trying to “save” terms associated with mysticism e.g. like “silence and solitude” and import them into the work of powerful men of God like Jonathan Edwards. The problem is mystics as far back as the deceived desert hermits used those terms first and they referred to a form of “wordless” corrupt “Christian” meditation. Protestants shouldn’t even be trying to reinterpret their meaning and bring this centered on the self experience-oriented “worship” which then interprets Scripture according to what they “feel” God has said. O how the Church needs voices like Dr. Walter Martin who used to constantly ask the most important question we can ask as darkness continues to fall upon this late hour: “But what does the text of the Bible itself say?”

This is the background you need to keep in mind as I now point you to a letter from a student at Biola University published at From the Lighthouse… blog which informs us:

Biola’s entire chapel has been reformatted to become a totally postmodern way of doing things. Any time the Bible is pulled out it is simply just read, about 1 verse or maybe a couple in a passage. There is no expository preaching or much explanation. The new Chapel director is a total emergent, postmodern embracing person who leads the entire student body through the motions of contemplative prayer.

Last chapel the entire session was dedicated to being silent and listening to the Bible being read slowly, then having people focus in on it and do the entire contemplative prayer thing. This was Lectio Divina, which was mentioned by name… (Online source)

This letter is actually quite similar to one AM recently published in Concerning Leonard Sweet of the Emerging Church and Christian Education. Now concerning itself Biola University: A Private Christian University In Southern California, which called Dr. R.A. Torrey as its first dean, tells us:

From an institute to a university, Biola’s cornerstone has remained the same: commitment to Jesus Christ, the inerrancy of Scripture and biblical Christianity (within an evangelical Protestant framework), as well as to the spiritual, academic and holistic growth of those who are personally committed to Him. (Online source)

And its “Mission, Vision & Values” statement confirms that BU in in fact not Roman Catholic but rather a Protestant evangelical university:

Biola University’s vision is to be an exemplary Christian university characterized as a community of grace that promotes and inspires personal life transformation in Christ which illuminates the world with His light and truth. Further, as a global center for Christian thought and an influential evangelical voice that addresses crucial cultural issues,…

We believe that there is truth; it is knowable and revealed in God’s inerrant Word. As a result we can live with unshakeable confidence and hope knowing that the Bible and God’s truth have direct application to our lives, our work, our relationships and the culture around us. We believe that holding a biblical worldview is foundational to understanding life and Truth. (Online source)

I make this clear because by making these claims within the Body of Christ Biola University  Christians should now take up their Bibles and begin to carefully judge this university as such.