“Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?” (Amos 3:3)

Fashioning God Into The Image Of Man

As part of our online apologetics and discernment labors Apprising Ministries has been documenting the New Downgrade within evangelicalism and I’ve been talking about The Build-A-God Shop, a venue where you can come in and share the characteristics of the god of your choosing.

Right now deep within its bowels there are those who are furiously constructing a version of the mush god of mysticism with a man-shaped hole in his/her/its heart. This is particularly typified by the Emerging Church aka the Emergent Church, a sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult with its new postmodern form of “big tent” Progressive Christianity—a Liberalism 2.0—sometimes referred to by these rebels against the final authority of God’s Word as Emergence Christianity.

However, you need to know that such as these are neo-Gnostic fools who, through their practice of existential corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM), have now convinced themselves that they are the truly enlightened ones who are receiving special revelation from God as they use a form of meditation in an altered state of consciousness commonly known as Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP). It truly is transcendental meditation-lite sprayed with Christian terminology; and it definitely opens the door for deception.

You can get a good picture of the devastating delusion of CCP by comparing the First Sermon By Rob Bell AT MHBC to what the Emerging Church rock star pastor Rob Bell sounds like now with his Love Wins mythology. This infatuation with mysticism within the Emergent Church is beginning to produce some really rather bizarre ideas such as those I’ve mentioned previously in The Emerging Church And Transgender Agenda In Elementary Schools and Doug Pagitt Points Us To Evolutionary Evangelist Michael Dowd.

Of course all of this foolishness then serves to negate the proper Christian spirituality of sola Scriptura and ends up getting it exactly backward; where the Christian is to measure all experience by Scripture (cf. 2 Thessalonians 5:21), the EC wild goosers interpret the Bible against the what they think they have heard from God in their CSM and supposedly seen in the lifestyle of Jesus. Cue the 90’s song What If God Was One Of Us; I’ve told you that EC mystic mush god is essentially a bigger version of man; and in fact, he/she/it is really but a mirror of themselves.

With all of this in mind I point you to Left-Leaning ‘Wild Goose’ Festival Draws Ire of Evangelicals by Christian Post contributor Anugrah Kumar. It’s another report on the current EC apostasia-palooza, the Wild Goose Festival (WGF), which I first discussed in The Emerging Church On A Wild Goose Chase. As the Lord would will, being that He’s caused Apprising Ministries to become a leading critic of the Emerging Church, Yonat Shimron pulled a quote from my article in her piece Left-leaning Christians to rally around ‘Wild Goose’ that ran over at the interspiritual website Beliefnet as well as USA Today Religion and Huffington Post.

This comment of mine has certainly gotten plenty of blogosphere mileage also showing up yesterday in With a smearing of mud, ‘Wild Goose’ takes flight by Patrick O’Neill at the National Catholic Reporter. Now today the following from me surfaces yet again in Kumar’s commentary at Christian Post who first shares that “Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy,” had said WGF is rooted in “gnostic beliefs that Christianity has repeatedly rejected.” Then Kumar writes:

Ken Silva, a Southern Baptist blogger from New Hampshire-based Apprising Ministries, agrees with Tooley. “The wise Christian will have nothing to do with these neo-Gnostic fools who’ve unbuckled themselves from the Word of God and have embarked upon their Wild Goose Chase of subjective experience,” he said on his blog. (Online source)

Yes, I do agree with Tooley; CSM/CCP is an existential and highly subjective approach to spirituality that has more in common with the New Spirituality of Deepak Chopra than it does the historic orthodox Christian faith. You think I overstate; then make the time to actually look at the evidence I present e.g. in Seducing Spirits SoundingThe Same. You should know that Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren began laying out the new postmodern progessive/liberalism now preached by the Emerging Church 2.0 in his recent book A New Kind of Christianity (ANKoC). Unfortunately, while there was a minor stir for a moment, people missed the implications of what McLaren did.

In ANKoC McLaren speaks highly of progressive/liberal theologian Harvey Cox, of Harvard Divinity fame; he’s also very instrumental right now in assisting progressive/process Christian theologian Philip Clayton down in the basement of the The Build-A-God Shop helping to construct this Emerging mystic mush god. Cox has written a book called The Future Of Faith, from which McLaren drew much for his ANKoC; as a matter of fact, on the back cover of this book by Cox we see McLaren himself literally gushing:

This important book has not only helped me understand the past, present, future of this amazing phenomenon called Christianity . . . it has also motivated me to keep working to help make actual the possible future Cox envisions
—Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian

Now the wise person is going to ask: Just what does this “possible future Cox envisions,” which Brian McLaren is so “motivated” to “help make actual,” look like? Well Lord willing, should funding allow, I’ll be showing you more and more aspects concerning this new form of postmodern liberalism in days to come; here we’re concerned with this mystic mush god they’re busy building. I’ve already shown you in Stranger And Stranger Global Bedfellows Emerging that the endorsements for Harvey Cox’ vision are rather revealing as to where we’re heading—into a neo-Gnostic Global religion:

The Future of Faith is insightful, provocative, and inspiring—I found myself uttering a hearty evangelical ‘Amen’ at many points!
—Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary and author of Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport

The Future of Faith is a tour de force. As passionate and challenging as his classic, The Secular City, Cox’s new book invites the faithful, the skeptical, and the fearful intp a spirit-filled version of Christianity that can renew a hurting world.
—Diana Butler Bass, author of A People’s History of Christianity

Cox brings the eye of an historian and the heart of a theologian to explain where we’ve come from and where we’re going. The Future of Faith is an essential guide to that future.
—Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners and author of The Great Awakening

Harvey Cox has been a voice of both reason and faith in our cynical times. Now, he offers a fresh vision for the resurrection of a new global Christianity that will restore our faith both in ourselves and in the divine.
—Deepak Chopra, author of Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment [1]

While I put this all into its proper perspective for you, let me remind you of something I brought out before; when a pantheist proponent of New Spirituality—once known as the New Age Movement—like Deepak Chopra can sign on to your “big tent” supposed “resurrection of a new global Christianity,” then it’s safe to say that you’ve officially departed from anything even remotely resembling the faith proclaimed through the years by the Christian church. And I’m guessing it ought to be cause for concern that Mouw, supposedly a Calvinist, can join hands in fellowship with such as these who repudiate the Lord’s Church Reformers and preach a different Gospel.

Perhaps you may not be aware of a couple of exploits involving Richard Mouw’s Fuller Theological Cesspool and the dastardly duo of the EC, universalist EC pastor Doug Pagitt of Solomon’s Porch along with his progressive/liberal “theologian in residence” Tony Jones—the other two-thirds of the unholy EC trinity with Brian McLaren. Permit me to enlighten you to Fuller Seminary Is Promoting Emerging Church Heretic Doug Pagitt and Fuller Theological Seminary Professor Tony Jones And Christian Spirituality Cohort, which also will feature guru McLaren and fellow heretic Phyllis Tickle, the Empress of Emergence Christianity, on hand to teach their counter Reformation CSM.

But such is sad state of the mainstream of the church visible with our leaders so scared of their own spiritual shadows they say nothing; not to mention being hopelessly paralyzed by postmodern Humpty Dumpty language where words are folded and shaped like origami until they have no fixed meaning. Here we have a major, ostensibly evangelical, seminary giving its classes over to people who actually deny the faith. What has developed into the Emerging Church 2.0—complete now with its own version of pseudo-Christian progressive theology—was never merely a casual conversation; it was always designed by Satan as a serious spiritual attack aimed at capturing the younger sectors of evangelicalism, which has now largely been accomplished.

Postmodern Liberalism Using The Same Strategy To Conquer As Original Liberalism

Evangelical leaders can continue their dead-on impressions of Rip Van Winkle but the point remains; because of a relentless barrage of EC propaganda from its own church-related schools, institutions, and publishing arms aimed specifically at those who would represent the future of the Christian community, younger sectors of the mainstream are now quite confused as to what the Christian faith even is. I told you long ago this Emergent menace was like spiritual “know-it-all” thirteen-year-olds determined to have their own way as they go out look for any heresy even marginally considered Christian to then drag back into God’s visible house so we’ll be forced to hash heresy again that had already been dismissed.

The Lord be praised that there are some people beginning to notice; my friend Don Koenig writes today in his post The Great Apostasy of the Evangelicals:

I think the most shocking thing going on in our nation is not that Marxists are actively running and ruining America. After all, people that reject God in any nation are going to look for a human substitute for God.

The most shocking thing in America is that heretics are now taking over the Christian Evangelical movement in America and few Evangelicals notice or care. (Online source)

Now you stand upon the terrain necessary to view this very important Wild Goose gathering of the Emerging clans, who’re now emboldened enough to more literally lay out in the open their perverted quasi-Christian neo-Gnosticism. Returning to the aforementioned Christian Post piece, Kumar is correct that:

The Wild Goose, a Celtic metaphor for the Holy Spirit, is a “festival of justice, spirituality, music and the arts” to discover where justice and spirituality intersect, according to organizers, mostly from the Emerging Church Movement, who inaugurated the event on Shakori Hills in North Carolina’s Piedmont region Thursday. (Online source)

However, it goes a little deeper than the Wild Goose as merely the metaphor for the Holy Spirit in Celtic Christian mythology; for you see, an Geadh-Glas, the Wild Goose, embodies “that the Holy Spirit is the representative of God’s femininity.”[2] And further:

The first, great Celtic son was Morien, also known as Pelagius.  Pelagius was a spokesman for Celtic theology.  Pelagius has been labeled as a heretic by traditional theologians because they favor a Latin version of Christianity. (Online source)

No, Pelagius was labeled a heretic because he denied the cardinal doctrine of original sin thereby negating sola gratia:

Pelagius, whose family name was Morgan, taught that people had the ability to fulfill the commands of God by exercising the freedom of human will apart from the grace of God.  In other words, a person’s free will is totally capable of choosing God and/or to do good or bad without the aid of Divine intervention.

Pelagianism teaches that man’s nature is basically good.  Thus it denies original sin, the doctrine that we have inherited a sinful nature from Adam. (Online source)

Since most of the Emergent wild goose chasers are also pelagian heretics Celtic mythology is a perfect fit for these centered on the self (c. 2 Timothy 3:2) neo-Gnostics. As I said in The Emerging Church On Its Wild Goose Chase, for those swept into this neo-liberal cult, it is an inexhaustible love of mankind, a learning to be more human, no doctrinal stands, and anything goes beliefs on their long road to nowhere with their neo-Bohemian worship of the created. Kumar continues:

The Wild Goose Festival is an attempt to reimagine Christianity for the 21st century under a bigger, wider, more inclusive tent “to establish the premier venue for 20-somethings who love God but aren’t thrilled with institutional Christianity, particularly the religious right,” Washington, D.C.-based Religion News Service said. (Online source)

Actually, WGF is another social networking source to hook up those who are redefining what cult expert and wisely respected evangelical Christian apologist, Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989), would so often refer to as “the historic orthodox Christian faith.” Please understand that I do not agree with everything Martin taught; that said, I use him here because he was so widely regarded as a top tier Christian scholar and spokesman who was not afraid to touch hot-button issues of his day. Quite obviously the church visible lacks anyone like this right now as the leaven of the Emerging Church spreads unchecked while its leaders quietly whimper, “Can’t we all just get along?”

Kumar then tells us about the staff of WGF:

members of the organizing committee, which includes:  Mike King, CEO of the Youthfront ministry and executive editor of Immerse: A Journal of Faith, Life and Youth Ministry; Ian Cron, a speaker, retreat leader, Episcopal priest and author; and Joy Wallis, first women to be ordained as a priest in England. (Online source)

Gives us more reason to denounce this wild goose chase after another Jesus than the one we’ve always proclaimed, and to receive a different spirit from the one we received, and to accept a different gospel from the one we’ve always accepted (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:4). King has been warping youth with this spurious CSM for years now, Ian Cron comes endorsed by a who’s who of heresy and pastrix Wallis is in open rebellion against the Word of God. Not surprisingly, many of those lavishing praise upon Cron are also speaking at WGF, such as:

Living Spiritual Teacher and Roman Catholic mystic Richard Rohr, alongside his fellow Red Letter Christians Shane Claiborne, Jim Wallis and Brian McLaren

We’re also told by Kumar that among WGF speakers we’ll find “‘evangelical progressives’ like Tony Campolo“; who is neither progressive nor evangelical, and “author Jay Bakker, the pastor son of former televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.” I’ve told you before e.g. in Jay Bakker Critiques Ken Silva At Religion Dispatches that gay-affirming “pastor” Jay Bakker heads up a rather rapscallion, and largely Biblically illiterate, bunch in the Emergent Church who’ve crowned themselves Outlaw Preachers, Well you need to realize that Bakker is also tip of the spear for the ongoing EC advance of their pro-gay agenda to convince your young evangelicals that the deviant and sinful lifestyle of homosexuality is a viable one for the regenerated Christian.

Such is the time you now live in, and this is just how far that a pernicious postmodern progressive Christianity has slithered into the heart of the Christian community. You’d better get prepared because this is no longer simply an issue tearing apart mortally wounded mainline pretending to be Protestant denominations; that Christian Post is covering WGF is further indication of the popularity and influence within the mainstream of people like Bakker, who shouldn’t even be teaching Sunday School, let alone be pastor of a Christian church. You watch, in the not so distant future a major evangelical figure will come emerging from their closet and announce that they are gay; this will then detonate the homosexual debate right within the heart of the conservative Christian community itself.

It’s but a matter of time now that truth is bring decided by fickle feelings rather than by the objective standard of God’s Word in the infallible and inerrant Scriptures contained in the Bible. Kumar notes that after its hatching from hell circa 1997 this:

Emerging Church Movement has invited criticism from mainstream Christians. In “Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church,” theologian D.A. Carson says the movement, which arose as a protest against the institutional church, modernism and seeker-sensitive churches, comprises those who believe the modes of expressing the Gospel should appeal to a postmodern mindset.

Many of the movement’s thinkers take a reductionistic view of modernism, are dismissive of confessional Christianity, and are reluctant to assert that Christianity is true and authoritative, the [sic] Carson says. (Online source)

What the EC actually is, would be another arm of the man-centered Church Growth Movement vomited out of the belly of Fuller Seminary; in other words, as the Purpose Driven/Seeker Driven marketing strategy ala Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren is aimed at more middle-of-the-road evangelicals, so the Emerging Church is designed to sell the same product, i.e. “church,” only to the pouty postmodern set. However, what we’re ending up with through reductionist views, deconstruction, CSM, and postmodernism’s irrational philosophy is not Christanity at all. The effects are devastating; for example, look how far the heresy of Open Theism is advancing as respected evangelical theologian Roger Olsen enlightened us just the other day:

As everyone knows, I’m not an open theist but I have defended open theism as a legitimate evangelical option.  I personally knew Clark Pinnock and know Greg Boyd, John Sanders and William Hasker.  These were/are godly men who base their views of God’s foreknowledge on Scripture… (Online source)

Um, I think not; but I’ll resist the urge to wrestle with the serpent here. Since it’s not the point of this piece to argue Open Theism, let me just tell you that it’s about to get even worse for the spiritually spineless in evanjellyfish because the parallel track of panentheistic process theology has also been brought into The Build-A-God Shop as well, which you can see from The Emerging Church, Doug Pagitt & Process Theology. As I close this, for now, I bring you back one last time to Left-Leaning ‘Wild Goose’ Festival Draws Ire of Evangelicals by Christian Post contributor Anugrah Kumar who tells us:

While evangelicals say the attempt to revive the Emerging Church Movement is doomed to yet another failure, Wild Goose proponents think it is “unstoppable.”

“In the spirit of vibrant, category-defying Celtic Christianity, we saw our desire embodied in the Celtic Church’s way of speaking about the enigmatic Holy Spirit: The Wild Goose, who wanders where she will. Who can tame her? No one. Far better it is to embark on a Wild Goose Chase, and see the terrain of our faith be transformed,” the organizers say on the festival’s website. (Online source)

Let me remind you, there’s no need to revive this Emerging Church 2.0 because it’s already metastatizing as a spiritual cancer in the visible body of Christ; and as you can see from what the organizer’s say on the WGF website below, we’re not dealing with an actual move of God:

(Online source)

Now, these emerging neo-Gnostics—the spiritual equivalent of 1960’s hippies—are welcome to their wild goose chase; but they should not be permitted to pass it off as truly representative of the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). As long as the Lord chooses to allow dwindling funding to keep me here along the Internet Front of this Vietnam of a Truth War you can count on me doing everything in my power to stand against these Emergent vipers who’ve arisen from within our own selves who’re speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them (Acts 20:30); and further, let it also be known that:

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. (1 Timothy 1:5-7)

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End Notes:

[1] Harvey Cox, The Future Of Faith [New York: HarperOne, 2010], back cover.

[2] http://tiny.cc/y22d1, accessed 6/25/11.

See also:

BIG TENT PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY AS LIBERALISM 2.0

BRIAN MCLAREN SPEAKS AS A UNIVERSALIST

DOUG PAGITT AND HIS SOLOMON’S PORCH AFFIRM HOMOSEXUAL SIN

JAY BAKKER, HOMOSEXUALITY, AND GOSPEL REDUCTIONISM

ROB BELL AND POSTMODERN NEO-LIBERALISM

MYSTICISM AND POSTMODERNISM, THE EMERGING CHURCH, AND EVANGELICALISM

EVANGELICAL CHURCHES PROMOTING ISLAM?