Apprising Ministries last talked about Rob Bell, former rock star icon of the Emerging Church, in pieces such as Rob Bell Affirms Gay “Christians” & Brian McLaren Is Really Happy and Influence Of Richard Rohr On Rob Bell And His Love Wins Mythology.

You’ve seen that since departing Mars Hill Bible Church Bell has been coming out of the closet as the full blown pro-homosexual progressive neo-liberal I told you he was. A source close to Bell himself tells me that he was likely even getting set to perform same-sex marriages at MHBC.

Rob Bell isn’t as much in the public eye since leaving MHBC but back in September I brought to your attention an event called That Show Rob Bell and Carlton Cuse Have Been Working on:

The details revealed that this new TV show is going to be Bell’s quasi-Christian postmodern liberalism pureed together with other “spiritual issues” from his sidekick Cuse:

For those of you familiar with Rob’s work in sermons, videos, and tours– this might best be described as a newly conceived extension of  all that, thrown into a blender with the spiritual issues Carlton explored in the show LOST.

So it’s a live show?

For now. We are test driving it — workshopping and experimenting — with the intention of eventually doing a version of the show for broadcast so more people can share the experience. (source)

If you thought Rob Bell was going away, you thought wrong. While he is pretty much old news in Emerging Church circles, Bell is still influencing a new audience of so-called “spiritual seekers” as well as younger professing evangelicals who’re just discovering him.

Now we come to An Evening With Rob Bell coming up this Saturday evening, Nov. 3:

On Saturday, November 3, 2012 at 7:30 pm, Rob Bell, “the most exciting voice in the church today,“ according to Time Magazine, will be exploring the deeper questions of life and faith at Christ Church Greenwich, as part of their Courage and Faith program.(source)

One of the more heretical voices n the church today is more like it. Christ Church Greenwich (CCG) is an off the rails mainline Episcopal church who tell us “our worship is grounded in the very best of our Anglican tradition” ((http://www.christchurchgreenwich.org/Our-Liturgy/8050466, accessed 10/31/12.)) and features a youth pastrtix:

The Rev’d Jennifer M. Owen, Curate and Youth Minister

Jenny, a recent graduate from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, serves as Curate and Youth Minister at Christ Church Greenwich. Originally from San Clemente, CA, Jenny adopted the Northeast as her home when she moved to Manhattan in 1995 to attend New York University where she received a BA and MA in European Politics and Policy. In seminary she especially enjoyed her study of scripture, theology of the early church, ethics and Christian spirituality…

During her time in New York City, Jenny found a sanctuary where she could worship God, be in relationship with a loving Christian community and explore her faith and doubts at her home parish, Church of the Ascension… She served as a seminarian intern at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Naugatuck and St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church and School in New Haven.

In addition to regular opportunities to lead in and preach during worship, Jenny served on the leadership team for an Emmaus weekend for youth in Naugatuck and coordinated a joint mission with St. Thomas’s New Haven and St. John’s North Haven bringing a small group to Bondeau, Haiti to build a playground and minister with the people of Ste. Marie Madaleine Episcopal Church and School…

As Curate and Youth Minister at Christ Church, Jenny shares the liturgical and pastoral responsibilities with the Rector and clergy as well as lay ministers of the congregation. Working with youth and families, Jenny is passionate about journeying with people of all ages as we wrestle with our faith and seek to serve God, each other, our communities and our world. (source)

The evening with Rob Bell is part of CCG’s Conversations on Courage and Faith and Faith and rooted in corrupt Counter Reformation Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM), which incontrovertibly flowered within long apostate Roman Catholicism, and has also had a profound effect upon the mythology of Rob Bell as well.

Most particularly the delusion that comes from practicing the crown jewel of spurious CSM, a form of meditation in an altered state of consciousness known as Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP); i.e. transcendental meditation which has been lightly sprayed with Christian terminology.

In fact, the website features the quote below from the late apostate Roman Catholic mystic Thomas Merton, a Golden Buddha of CSM whose lifelong devotion to CCP made him more like the Buddha than Christ as you can see for yourself from his own diary in Thomas Merton And The Buddhas:

(source)

For those with eyes that see, it’s beyond question that the eventual fruit of CSM is universalism. The truth is, Rob Bell is a sad example of what happens the longer one dabbles in it. Actually, CSM a la Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mysticRichard Foster and his spiritual twin Dallas Willard was a core doctrine of the EC.

No less an authority as Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren already clearly told us that Foster and Willard were “key mentors for the emerging church,” ((http://www.brianmclaren.net/archives/000271.html, accessed 10/31/12.)) which they did under the guise of so-called Spiritual Formation. But it’s really a romanticized version of Roman Catholic Counter Reformation spirituality.

This is essentially a gnosticism, where they believe they are the truly enlightened ones having direct experience with God through so-called spiritual disciplines of CSM. What it’s not, is evangelical Protestant Christianity; and worse, this highly subjective CSM is truly hostile to the proper Christian spirituality of sola Scriptura:

having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
(2 Timothy 3:5-7)

Further reading

• ROB BELL AND POSTMODERN NEO-LIBERALISM
• ROB BELL COMES OUT GAY AFFIRMING
• STRAIGHTENING OUT MICKEY MAUDLIN’S LESSONS FROM PUBLISHING ROB BELL’S “LOVE WINS”