It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1, NASB)

How Would You Know If You Were Being Taught False Doctrine?

At the Lifeway: Biblical Solutions for Life website of the Southern Baptist Convention we read:

Together again for 2009! Join us for a rare and unique opportunity to hear three internationally-renowned Bible teachers — Kay Arthur, Beth Moore, and Priscilla Shirer — at one weekend event. LifeWay presents Deeper Still: The Event in Greensboro, Orlando, and Oklahoma City!

Go deeper in God’s Word as you sit under their teaching, and listen as they share their views together during a panel discussion. Go deeper in prayer with thousands of women across North America… (Online source)

Men and women, this “Event” will feature some of the Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism-lite gleaned from apostate Roman Catholicism, which is slithering deeper still into the Slowly Becoming Catholic, allegedly the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. Your key to spotting this CSM i.e. asceticism-lite is often found with the term “deeper.” The implication is that unless you practice so-called spiritual disciplines you haven’t gone “deep” enough in your relationship with God.

However, a word of caution; the idea of a deeper relationship with God is not wrong in and of itself. But it is the Lord Who draws us; we cannot “work” it up. And as I brought out in The Terminology Trap of “Spiritual Formation” what’s causing such a huge problem in the Body of Christ right now would be men e.g. like Donald Whitney mean well while they labor to make it appear as if there are some “safe” versions of these so-called “spiritual disciplines” originating in antibiblical monastic practices.

My advice is: Wake Up! Practices of CSM cannot be made safe because they didn’t originate with Protestants; we don’t get to then redefine them, and they never were a part of what Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989) so often called “the historic orthodox Christian faith” to begin with. This repulsive rubbish of CSM is largely, and literally, taken from Counter Reformation (Hello!) figures like Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the spiritual Gestapo called the Jesuits, and the emotionally troubled nun Teresa of Avila.

You may recall a while back 20th Century Fox released a DVD called Be Still And Know which featured:

contemplatives as Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Calvin Miller and Priscilla Shirer, along with some names that may surprise you? Max Lucado, Beth Moore. An acknowledgement list at the end includes Brennan Manning and Dr. Charles Stanley. (Online source)

With Be Still and Know both Moore and Shirer are, at the very least, involved with promoting the spiritual deceptions of Contemplative/Centering Prayer. At the 2:18 mark of the commercial below Beth Moore reads the text above, which flatly contradicts engaging in the religious bondage of the neo-pietism of spurious Spiritual Formation ala Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic “Roshi” Richard Foster; and since when were Quakers evangelicals?

Moore then says dramatically, “Several years ago Christ began to place a tremendous burden on my heart for the people of God to know the freedom of God.” Really; how would we know? And if so, do we now have a prophetess among us with special revelation from God concerning His “freedom” because the Word of the Lord came to Beth? And what if I as a pastor-teacher also was to say, “A couple of years ago Jesus placed a tremendous burden on my heart for the people of God to know the freedom of God.”

Now suppose I then went on to say that one of the best ways to embrace the freedom of God is simply to read the Bible; to pray consciously, then do what it says in His Word and come away from false teaching advanced by contemplative dreamers. Avoid their spirituality of the self and do not be subject again to a yoke of [its] slavery because they teach you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds (Jeremiah 14:14). I mean, how would you know?

See also:

DOES PSALM 46:10 TEACH CONTEMPLATIVE/CENTERING PRAYER?

THE VERY CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER OF CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM (CSM)

EVANGELICAL RIP VAN WINKLES EMPLOY QUAKER MYSTIC RICHARD FOSTER FOR BEDTIME FABLES

MANY CHRISTIANS DISCOVERING MEDITATION…AND DONALD WHITNEY

RICHARD FOSTER: IMAGINATIVE MEDITATION DISAPPEARED; WELL NOW, IMAGINE THAT

EMERGING EASTERN-STYLE MEDITATION FOR GLOBAL PEACE…AND WORSE…