…they are full of things from the east and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. (Isaiah 2:6)

Postmodern Calvinism And Counter Reformation Spirituality

This online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries has been blessed of Jesus to be used as one of His “go-to” ministries in the area of the ne0-Gnostic corruption called Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM), which is now pandemic within mainstream evangelicalism through its foolish embrace of the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church with its quasi-universalism in a new version of Progressive Christian theology under their spiritual circus “big tent” Emergence Christianity.

You need to understand that this spurious CSM—the refried Roman Catholic mysticism “discovered” by Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster, and now perpetrated within the mainstream of evangelicalism as supposed Spiritual Formation—with an able assist from his spiritual twin SBC minister Dallas Willard—was a core doctrine in the EC right from its hatching in Hell. Along this line, in recent posts such as Acts 29 Network And Reformed Counter Reformation Spirituality? and Acts 29 Pastor Matt Chandler On Being A Reformed Charismatic I’ve shared some concern about so-called New Calvinism.

There’s very good reason for such concern as Mark Driscoll and his Acts 29 Network are growing in popularity and influence within the younger sector of the Reformed Camp; being blessed as they are by Dr. John Piper, who’s seen as a father of this New Calvinism. Now let’s consider that Darren Patrick is Vice President of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network as well as lead pastor of The Journey. Emerging Church luminary Andrew Jones, who blogs as Tall Skinny Kiwi, tells us that a couple of years ago:

Darrin Patrick spoke at Covenant Theological Seminary and put together a little history of the emerging church in USA (or at least two groups within it – Emergent Village and Acts 29) and its really quite good and fair… (Online source)

Jones then informs us that Patrick “comes up with three streams,” which would be:

1. Emerging Conversational, concerned with theological revision and Missio Dei. Emergent Village, bloggers, bi-vocational pastors, Seminary students. (Includes Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt, etc)
2. Emerging Attractional, concerned with revising methods of church and in particular, the large group worship. This includes two groups:
a) neo-reformed (Mark Driscoll, Patrick, etc) who preach expositionally, and
b) non-reformed, neo-seeker (Erwin McManus, Andy Stanley, John Burke) who preach topically .
Both groups are risktakers and creative.
3. Emerging Incarnational, concerned with structural revision within the church. Downplay large group worship and like house church. Alan Hirsch, Lance Ford, Bob Hyatt, Neil Cole, Johnathon Cambell. (Online source, emphasis his)

And part of this “neo-reformed” New Calvinism involves their recommendation of the book Celebration of Discipline (CoD) by the aforementioned sinfully ecumenical Quaker mystic Richard Foster, the leading purveyor of spurious CSM; as I said before, along with Dallas Willard, who believes, teaches, and confesses the exact same skubalon as Foster. Willard’s role is to give this Roman Catholic Counter Reformation mysticism a kind of scholastic veneer; and as a result, people often don’t even realize that what Foster teaches, Willard himself does as well regarding this spurious spirituality.

The truth is that the very rotten core practice of this CSM is Contemplative/Centering Prayer, which is sometimes referred to as practicing “silence and solitude” or by the ridiculous moniker “wordless prayer”; but it’s actually a type of meditation in an altered state of consciousness that’s virtually identical to that practiced in Eastern religions such as Zen Buddhism and the transcendental meditation of Hinduism. And yet this kind of spurious spiritual formation—so-called “Christian” mysticism, which really developed in the antibiblical monastic traditions of apostate Roman Catholicism, is now showing up in more and more evangelical churches.

Yes, Mark Driscoll has distanced himself from the more progressive liberals in the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church, with which he once closely worked while the Emerging Church was spawned; such as the unholy EC trinity of apostates, Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, universalist Emerging Church pastor Doug Pagitt, and his friend Tony Jones, the progressive “theologian in residence” at Solomon’s Porch. However, it’s becoming clear that he hasn’t moved away from Counter Reformation spirituality of key mentors of the Emerging Church such as Richard Foster and Dallas Willard.[2] Their teaching is precisely the opposite of the Reformation theology Mark Driscoll professes.

Welcome to the Wonderland of Humpty Dumpty language and the oxymoron of postmodern Calvinism.

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Endnotes:

[1] http://tinyurl.com/2ag3spk, accessed 1/16/11.

[2] So stated by Emerging Church guru Brian McLaren in Brian’s Annotation to “The Emergent Mystique” – CT article.

See also:

MARK DRISCOLL AND CONTEMPLATIVE IDOLATRY

THE NEW CONTEMPLATIVE CALVINISM

MORE QUESTIONS CONCERNING DR. JOHN PIPER

DR. JOHN PIPER AND MORE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

TIM KELLER ENDORSING COUNTER-REFORMATION CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY?

TIM KELLER AND CONTEMPLATIVE PASTRIX ADELE CALHOUN

CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM (CSM) OF SPIRITUAL FORMATION IS RECKLESS FAITH