Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ (Hebrews 3:10)

Turning To Pagan Spirituality

Apprising Ministries continues to tell you the truth about an infestation of 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 postmodern Progressive Christian theology under their spiritual circus “big tent” of empty 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.

This was all a part of the plan of Druckerite Leadership Network to move away from sola Scriptura to man-centered dominionist theology; in fact, I showed you in Rick Warren Guilty For Endorsing The Cult Of Guru Richard Foster And His Reimagined Gnostic Mysticism, that while discussing what he calls The Discipleship/Spiritual Formation Movement, Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren praises both Foster and Willard. He’s become even more emboldened now; this is evidenced by Saddleback Church, Rick Warren, And Spiritual Disciplines, where at the Spiritual Disciplines page of its The Spiritual Growth Center at his Saddleback flagship we find a prominent recommendation of Richard Foster’s magum opus Celebration Of Discipline as well as The Spirit of the Disciplines by Willard, who’s also a—supposedly Protestant—Southern Baptist minister as is Rick Warren.

For the sake of many new readers to AM, and I ask older ones to please extend grace while I bring them up to speed, it’s critical for you understand that the crown jewel of this spurious CSM of Foster-Willardism is a form of meditation in an altered state of consciousness commonly referred to by these neo-Gnostics as Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP). Now, it stretches past the point of credulity to believe that Rick Warren, as well as his staff at Saddleback Church who’re recommending the works of Foster and Willard, are not familiar with the meditation of CCP that both of them practice and promote. With this in view then, in Rick Warren, The Daniel Plan, And Dominionism I talked about Warren’s latest ad campaign in his marketing of the church; something he calls The Daniel Plan (TDP), which is the opening program in Saddleback’s Decade of Destiny.

TDP features a trio of Doctors, Mark Hyman, Mehmet Oz, and Daniel Amen; of the three Amen is the only one reputed to be a Christian. You may also know that last time in Rick Warren Sows Confusion Concerning Meditation I brought you a video of Warren’s latest teaching concerning the subject of meditation as well as his interview with Amen below where he teaches Warren about a “very simple” mantra “meditation exercise from Harvard,” which he says is “not religious at all.” For now though, I draw to your attention a message delivered by Rick Warren January 22-23 2011 at Saddleback callled The Most Important Part Of The Day, which serves as Part 4 in Warren’s series The Prayer That Changes You: A New You For A New Decade and is available here.

Therein Rick Warren criticizes some “very, very, confused believers” he’s read on the Internet, anonymous but of course, supposedly warning people against Biblical meditation. As I said before, being that I’m one of those very confused believers on the Net, I can tell you plainly that no one I know has ever been arguing against meditating upon the Word of God; it’s simply a straw man Warren dreamed up. As you can see from Warren’s own words, in both of these videos, the attack on these nameless people was an ill-advised statement from Rick Warren because I showed you that he’s, at best, playing a shell game with terminology; and, at worst, being disingenuous on purpose. Here I’m about to give you further evidence of this; and while doing so, I’ll also show you more of what Warren is exposing his flock to through his open recommendation of the counter-Christian teachings of Daniel Amen.

Earlier, AM carried Personal Report On Saddleback Church Health & Fitness Seminar where Jennifer Pekich of Ponderings From Patmos: Biblical Truth For Modern Day Exiles offered her eyewitness testimony concerning what’s been going on with Warren’s TDP. Pekich also shared with us some of what she saw for sale during her visit to Saddleback Church for the opening of TDP; and among the books available was Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted (CYB) by Daniel Amen. More on Amen’s book CYB in a moment, first here’s the basics of what Warren said about meditation in the video of his message on prayer that changes people, which is no longer online.

What follows begins at the 31:43 mark:

So, what do you do? First, I read the Bible for a little bit…and I think about what I read. That’s the second thing you do. Now there’s a word for this…it’s called mediation (makes an eerie sound)…this has actually become a controversial word. Some very, very confused believers have actaully been teaching—I’ve seen it on the Internet—that Christians should be afraid of meditation… The Bible talks about meditation, and commands it. The problem is…words can mean different things…when I say meditation, some people think you’re talking about some New Age wacko-ism…

[W]hen the Bible says meditate, it’s not talking about zone out in some psychic New Age trance (makes an eerie sound again)…put your mind in neutral and contemplate the lint in your navel—Ummm. No,…[t]he Bible says meditation is focused attention on the Word of God. That’s actually the more accurate meaning of the term…the synonym for the word meditation is the word rumination… Rumination is to digest something so completely that you strain every ounce of…value,…meditation is thought digestion. It means to think about something so focused—repeatedly…the Bible calls it pondering…

If you take verse of Scripture, and you think about it over and over and over again—truth—that’s called meditation. Ok… It doesn’t mean, “Om”; it doesn’t mean go into a trance, it doesn’t mean hypnosis. It means thinking about the truth of God; in a relaxed, but serious way. That’s all it means. There’s nothing spooky about it, nothing mystical about it.

Well, let’s compare what Rick Warren has just said about meditation, keeping in mind that he’s told us “it doesn’t mean go into a trance, it doesn’t mean hypnosis,” to what TDP guru Daniel Amen teaches concerning meditation, which he says is important for a healthy brain. So there will be no mistake that Amen is not at all teaching the Biblical meditation Warren described above I give you the below, which comes from Amen’s own blog. As you can see, he’s taking about mind-numbing mantra meditation, which was never taught by Jesus Christ or His Apostles:

(Online source)

Now we have the proper context as I examine my personal copy of Amen’s book CYB where I find him telling us that to “calm the brain” we should:

Now, I see both meditation and hypnosis listed there, but I don’t see any mention of meditating upon the Bible; or “thinking about the truth” in God’s Word.  Then under Willpower Boosters Amen suggests:

Again we have meditation, but with no qualification that one would find rest and relaxation as one is pondering upon Holy Scripture. Next, under Brain-Heart Connection Boosters we find Amen now also recommending Yoga in addition to meditation:

Space  doesn’t allow a full apologetic concerning Yoga; here I’ll tell you that Yoga is a practice that:

comes from the Hindu vedas (scriptures)…and the awareness that main’s [sic] deepest and highest self is identical with the spirit of God. (Online source)

Despite the protests of some professing Christians to the contrary, those of us who’ve studied Yoga can tell you that it cannot be separated from its pagan pantheist roots. That aside, for now, it’s little wonder that Amen recommends meditation so highly as he tells us that we should:

And it’s crystal clear that in CYB Daniel Amen is not talking about the Biblical meditation Rick Warren defined above because in his book Change Your Brain, Change Your Life Amen gives us the following instructions concerning the type of mantra meditation that he’s teaching:

Earlier Rick Warren went out of his way to try and explain to us that meditation isn’t going into “some psychic New Age” state, which he called “wacko-ism.” He also said meditation “doesn’t mean, ‘Om’; it doesn’t mean go into a trance, it doesn’t mean hypnosis.” However, we’ve already seen that TDP guru Daniel Amen recommends hypnosis, and in addition, there’s a very key point of interest here in what Amen has just told us above: Since he’s teaching a form of meditation consistent with the transcendental meditation practiced in Hinduism, then our mantra that we’re to focus on in order to enter our altered state of consciousness, which fits the definition of a trance as we empty our minds, could indeed very well be, “Om.”

So, my question then becomes: Why would Rick Warren choose to expose his Christian congregation to this teacher of, by his own definition, “New Age wacko-ism”?

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Endnotes

[1] Daniel G. Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted [New York: Three Rivers Press, 2010], 62.

[2] Ibid., 51.

[3] Ibid., 174.

[4] Ibid., 28.

[5] Daniel G. Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness [New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999], 173.

See also:

RICK WARREN SELLING THE CHURCH AS CHANGE AGENT

RICK WARREN WANTS YOU TO DEVELOP YOUR ULTRAMIND

MEDITATING ON CONTEMPLATIVE/CENTERING PRAYER

CONTEMPLATIVE/CENTERING PRAYER AS “CHRISTIAN” MEDITATION

CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM SLITHERS EVEN CLOSER TO YOUR CHURCH

WRONG SPIRITUAL PRACTICES REPRODUCE SAME WRONG EXPERIENCES

MEDITATION AWAKENING FOR TRANSFORMATION OF THE GLOBAL FAMILY