Apprising Ministries continues warning you that spiritual deceptions are on the increase within the mainstream of the evangelical community as it surrenders the proper Christian spirituality of sola Scriptura for corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM). CSM is serving to obliterate doctrinal lines.

If we really want to see our young have any kind of future in this country, and if we really want to see revival in the American Christian Church—or wherever you may be reading this—then we’ll need to return to the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ, and not for some purpose driven dream, but to truly die to self.

And so we turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 17. Let us meditate upon the power of preaching the Cross. For some of you it will be the first time you’ve really been there. And for those of us who have been to the Cross before—may the Lord open our eyes to more fully understand the wisdom and majesty of the LORD God Almighty as we Survey The Wondrous Cross:

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:17-25)

In the booklet Why Did Christ Have To Die? we read:

Can you imagine what public reaction would be if a fundamental religious group adopted an electric chair as its symbol? Think of what it would be like to see an image of an electric chair on top of their meeting places or as jewelry hanging around their necks. Yet that’s what the cross amounts to. The cross was a means of capital punishment. Crucifixion was the way the Romans put their worst criminals to death. It was horrible–far worse than a gas chamber, firing squad, or even a hangman’s noose…

Even Christians fail to realize the implications of the cross. It has become so widely used as religious jewelry, as a symbol of love and hope, and even as a sign of good luck that it has lost much of its original meaning and horror. It has become so generally accepted, in fact, that everyone from devoted followers of Christ to atheists wear its image around their necks.

Let’s quickly look at verse 17 above — to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom. Dr. W. Harold Mare rightly pointed out words of eloquent wisdom “is literally ‘wisdom of speech’ in the Greek. Paul’s mission was not to couch the Gospel in the language of the trained orator, who had studied the techniques of influencing people by persuasive arguments.”

This really seems clear enough; and yet, today there is a ton of confusion in our Lord’s church visible over that profound principle taught in this verse. Hence the current glut of self-professed “leaders.” And, since we also know that — God is not a God of confusion but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33), then the source of this confusion must be—you guessed it—Satan himself.

Finally, Dr. Paul Marsh points out:

Worldly wisdom, that expression of carnality — [living according to human nature—self-ishness] — among Corinthian believers, is the very antithesis of the wisdom of God revealed in the cross of Christ…

Paul demonstrates the total alienation of thought between the worldly vision so prized by the Corinthians and the wisdom of God. The gospel, the word of the cross, is folly to the wise man of this age, but God will reveal their falsity, showing His foolishness as superior to their wisdom![1]

And this church in the Greek city of Corinth is in many ways similar to the self-seeking Emergent Church and its Guru Brian McLaren today—in love with the wisdom of man. But there is also another parallel with the pragmatic philosophy of Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren—also quite carnal in its own Seeker Driven practices—both are drowning in the same spiritual cesspool of worldly wisdom.

O yes, there are those will protest that the Emerging Church and the Seeker Driven Church are separate movements. However, the truth is, they were both launched by Leadership Network; and in time they will emerge more fully into one mission as they serve their father—the Devil—fulfilling the purpose of advancing his didaskalia daimonion — “teachings of demons.”

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End notes:

[1] F.F. Bruce, ed., New International Bible Commentary [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999], 1351.

See also:

“INWARD JOURNEY” TAUGHT BY MYSTICS LIKE RICHARD FOSTER IS DIVINATION

JOHN PIPER, RICK WARREN & FOSTER-WILLARDISM

MARK DRISCOLL AND NEO-REFORMED NEW CALVINIST CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY