For people will be lovers of self… (2 Timothy 3:2)

Love Mankind With All Your Heart

Apprising Ministries continues documenting the growing influence of Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) right into the timid heart of the squishy evanjellyfish pretending to be Protestant community. I’ve told you that the main catalyst for this spiritual skubalon is the Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster along with his spiritual twin, Southern Baptist minister Dallas Willard; both of whom teach the same spurious spirituality, which they’ve been pawning off for years as so-called Spiritual Formation.

Though it’s metastasized throughout the church visible now, through the spiritual cancer that is the neo-liberal cult of the sinfully ecumenical Emergent Church, don’t you kid yourselves; the CSM of Foster-Willard-ism has long been used undercover right within your mainstream evangelical seminaries since at least the early 80′s. Sadly, by its embrace of the Emerging Church aka the Emergent Church with its postmodern form of Progressive Christianity, mainstream evangelicalism now finds itself circled back around into the exact same battle concerning the authority of the Word of God—the Bible—as was faced by the Protestant Reformers.

You should know that one of the fruits of CSM is ecumenicism; and for the more hardcore neo-Gnostics even interspirituality. As you see, e.g. Emerging Church Leader Samir Selmanovic Worships With Witches, such as these become deluded enough to actually seek to discover “God in the other” i.e. religions. In fact, this “big tent” Emergence Christianity believes “we Christians are going to be saved by grace, like everyone else,…[and] if non-Christians can know our God, then we want to benefit from their contribution to our faith”[1] as Selmanovic mused in a book edited by universalist Emerging Church pastor Doug Pagitt, and his equally heretical friend Tony Jones.

Of course this is but a man-centered myth but one which is spreading. By far right now the number one item in our search feature and incoming traffic at Apprising Ministries is something being called Chrislam, which:

is an attempt to syncretize Christianity with Islam. While it began in Nigeria in the 1980s, Chrislamic ideas have spread throughout much of the world. The essential concept of Chrislam is that Christianity and Islam are compatible, that one can be a Christian and a Muslim at the same time. Chrislam is not an actual religion of its own, but rather is a blurring of the differences and distinctions between Christianity and Islam. (Online source)

Just more compromise and attempting to seek peace with the world, which brings us to Churches Asked to Share Pulpits with Muslims by Adelle M. Banks of Religion News Service at the interspiritual Beliefnet website where she tells us:

Religious and human rights activists are asking U.S. churches to invite  Jewish and Muslim clergy to their sanctuaries to read from sacred texts next  month in an initiative designed to counter anti-Muslim bigotry.

The June 26 initiative, called “Faith Shared: Uniting in Prayer and  Understanding,” is co-sponsored by the Interfaith Alliance and Human Rights  First. Leaders of the two Washington-based groups said the event hopes to  demonstrate respect for Islam in the wake of Quran burnings in recent  months…

More than 50 churches in 26 states already have committed to the initiative, including the Washington National Cathedral and New York’s Riverside Church. (Online source)

Actually there are now 60+ churches committed for this Sunday. As you’ll see below, this Faith Shared: Uniting in Prayer and  Understanding is right in line with our opening text and the new command of many leaders within the visible church that we are to love mankind with all our hearts:

(Online source)

So it’s painfully obvious whose rights are being protected first. Interfaith Alliance says that:

Faith Shared asks houses of worship across the country to organize events involving clergy reading from each other’s sacred texts. An example would be a Christian Minister, Jewish Rabbi and Muslim Imam participating in a worship service or other event. (Online source)

I was recently asked by a reporter from World Net Daily what I would say about these Christian churches that are involved with this project. My answer was they should have their spiritual heads examined because God has told us in no uncertain terms not to do things like this:

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

“Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

The False Religion Of Islam Is Idolatry, Which The One True And Living God Hates

True, the Christian is not to be hostile to individual Muslims; that’s a given concerning the Lord instructs us to love your neighbor as yourself (cf. Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 19:19). However, disciples of Jesus Christ are also to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37), which means that we must also hate what He hates.

God hates idolatry:

Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the Lord your God… For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,but the Lord made the heavens…

They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but wood! … No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. (Leviticus 19:4; Psalm 96:5; Jeremiah 10:8; 1 Corinthians 10:20)

Despite the man-pleasing mythology of this spiritual circus big tent postmodern form of Progressive Christianity, God hates other religions; He always has, which is obvious from the very first of the Ten Commandments — “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). The capricious and unknowable god of Islam is not the loving and personal God revealed in the Bible, which means it is demonic; and therefore, an idol. There’s no way a Christian pastor-teacher can allow idolators to share about their demonic idols during a service for the worship in Jesus Christ of the only God there is (cf. Isaiah 45:21-22; Mark 12:29-32).

As I close this out, for now, here is a sample of what the Qu’ran teaches about our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus of Nazareth:

O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, “Three”; desist – it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs. (Surah 4:171)

They have certainly disbelieved who say that Allah is Christ, the son of Mary. Say, “Then who could prevent Allah at all if He had intended to destroy Christ, the son of Mary, or his mother or everyone on the earth?” And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them. He creates what He wills, and Allah is over all things competent. (Surah 5:17)

They have certainly disbelieved who say, ” Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary” while the Messiah has said, “O Children of Israel, worship Allah , my Lord and your Lord.” Indeed, he who associates others with Allah – Allah has forbidden him Paradise, and his refuge is the Fire. And there are not for the wrongdoers any helpers. (Surah 5:72)

The Messiah, son of Mary, was not but a messenger; [other] messengers have passed on before him. And his mother was a supporter of truth. They both used to eat food. Look how We make clear to them the signs; then look how they are deluded. (Surah 5:75)

The Jews say, “Ezra is the son of Allah “; and the Christians say, “The Messiah is the son of Allah .” That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved [before them]. May Allah destroy them; how are they deluded? (Surah 9:30)

Quite obviously this isn’t Jesus Christ; following is an excerpt from Will The Real Jesus Please Stand Up? as the Jesus of Islam introduces himself:

I am the Jesus of the faith of Islam. I am merely one of the many prophets of Allah, and his last and greatest prophet—Muhammad—“Peace be upon him,” supersedes me as God’s last revelation. I am not the Son of God, nor am I part of any Trinity. Through the angel Gabriel, Allah revealed to my fellow prophet Muhammad in The Qu’ran that God is not a trinity and they do blaspheme who say that He is. I was nothing but a slave upon whom Allah showed favor.

Although I was sinless in this life I did not atone for anyone else’s sin because I am just one of those who are near to God. Like Allah’s earlier prophets of God, such as Moses, Abraham and Elijah, I was a man who did perform many miracles and taught about the ways of the unknowable Allah. And I was a Messiah but I did not die on the cross. Somehow I was able to fool my captors and then substitute Judas Iscariot for me on the cross; or, it could have been that Allah miraculously delivered me from the hands of the Romans and the Jews before I could be crucified.

Muslim scholars aren’t sure which—and after-all—it was a long time ago. Allah’s Word, the Qu’ran, says that I was taken bodily into Heaven without having died; but in a later chapter, it then says that I died and will be resurrected. Apparently it is the will of Allah to reveal some other time which of those things really happened.

Now from his The Gospel According to Islam Dr. John MacArthur correctly shares with you the proper Christian position concerning compromise like Faith Shared: Uniting in Prayer and  Understanding:

Ever since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the already ecumenical climate in America has reached new heights. In an effort to distinguish between the extremist Muslim terrorists and the mainstream Muslim population, the media has called for an even higher level of tolerance and acceptance of the religion of Islam than usual…

When evangelicals capitulate and attempt to soften the offense of the gospel [by joining with Muslims] in this way, they blur the lines between the god of Islam and the God of the Bible. But now is not the time for blurring lines. Now is the time to draw lines—lines between truth and error, and between the one path to heaven and the many paths to hell.

Islam rejects the Trinity and the God of the Bible, insisting instead that Allah alone is the one true deity. It denies that Jesus is God, that He died on the cross, and that He was raised from the dead. Instead, say Muslims, Jesus was but one of thousands of prophets sent by Allah, the greatest of them being Mohammed. In other words, Jesus was merely a man.

Islam rejects the salvation of forgiveness through Christ, teaching that only Muslims can be saved. According to the Koran, if a person follows Islam and does enough good deeds to outweigh the bad, Allah may allow him to enter paradise, but even then he can’t be certain. The only sure pathway to heaven is killing and being killed in jihad, a holy war.

Islam gives lip service to the Bible as a holy book, but it undermines and denies every fundamental doctrine about sin and salvation taught in the Bible. In fact, Islam today is the most powerful system on earth for the destruction of biblical truth and Christianity—thousands of Christians are dying under Islamic persecution, especially in the Middle East, Africa, Indonesia, and other parts of Asia.

Clearly, Islam and Christianity are mutually exclusive. Both claim to be the only true way to God, but both cannot be right. There is no atonement in Islam, no forgiveness, no savior, and no assurance of eternal life. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of hope; Islam is a religion of hopelessness.

Making these kinds of distinctions may not be politically correct, but it is critical if the purity of the gospel is to be protected. Put simply, there is no salvation outside of Christ. When this truth is compromised, the gospel is abandoned—and so is the only hope that we can offer to those who are not our enemies, but rather our mission field. (Online source)

If we really love Muslims, for whom Christ also died, then we will be willing to tell them the truth…

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End Notes:

[1 ] Samir Selmanovic, “The Sweet Problem of Inclusiveness – Finding Our God in the Other,” in An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones editors [Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007], 196.

See also:

THE RISE OF CHRISLAM?

EXPLAINING CHRISLAM

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICALS SEEKS COMMON GROUND WITH MORMONISM

EVANGELICAL IMAMS WOOING ISLAM

IS SHANE CLAIBORNE A CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM?

KEEPING YOU APPRISED OF: ISLAM

CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM—THE SAME GOD?