If you are at all familiar with my work here at Apprising Ministries then you’ll know that I’ve been covering what appears to me to be a developing Evangelical Ecumenical Magisterium (EEM).

As I said before, it looks to have gained much momentum through the ecumenical Elephant Rooms 1 and 2 emanating from James MacDonald and assisted by his now co-host Mark Driscoll.

The emphasis for this EEM is ecumenical; as in syncretistic as well, where there seems to be a concerted effort to blend together various strains—their word is tribes—of Christendom.

We’re even seeing this extending to Roman Catholic apostates like the late Mother Teresa, who actually took her name out of her respect for so-called “Christian” mystic Teresa of Avila.

For example a few years ago EEM member Rick Warren, who captains the Southern Baptist flagship Saddleback Church, proudly tweeted the following information:

(source)

The link takes us to TIME Mother Teresa at 100: The Life and Works of a Modern Saint, with introduction by Rick Warren. Within that book we have a major figure in the SBC gushing ((Richard Lacayo, David Van Biema, Editors of Time Magazine, TIME Mother Teresa at 100: The Life and Works of a Modern Saint [[New York: Time Books, 2010]], 7.)) about a most devout Roman Catholic:

Teresa was transformed alright, but it wasn’t by the Spirit of God. Below are the words of the late Roman Catholic mystic from my personal copy of her book Life in the Spirit: Reflections, Meditations and Prayers.

You’ll be able to see her deception gleaned from her years of practicing Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM); a gospel of goodness with its denial of the genuine Gospel of Jesus Christ:

We never try to convert those who receive [aid from her organization] to Christianity but in our work we bear witness to the love of God’s presence and if Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, or agnostics become for this better men — simply better — we will be satisfied. Growing up in love they will be nearer to God and find him in his goodness. Every human being comes from the hand of God and we all know what is the love of God for us.

My religion is everything to me but for every individual, according to the grace God had given that soul. God has his own ways and means to work in the hearts of men and we do not know how close they are to him but by their actions we will always know whether they are at his disposal or not.

Whether you are a Hindu, a Moslem or a Christian, how you live your life is the proof that you are fully his or not. We must not condemn or judge or pass words that will hurt people. Maybe a person has never heard of Christianity. We do not know what way God is appearing to that soul and what way God is drawing that soul, and therefore who are we to condemn anybody? It matters to the individual what church he belongs to.

If that individual thinks and believes that this is the only way to God for her or him, this is the way God comes into their life — his life. If he does not know any other way and if he has no doubt so that he does not need to search then this is his way to salvation. This is the way God comes into his life. ((Kathryn Spink, Mother Teresa, Life in the Spirit: Reflections, Meditations and Prayers [[New York: HarperCollins, 1983]], 81, 82, emphasis mine.))

Now as loving as this might appear to us on the surface, it’s very definitely not the Gospel that was preached by Christ Jesus and His Apostles. There’s no need to be born again, nor is there any making disciples of Christ.

We also see that there’s no teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. However, the above fantasy is completely consistent with the delusion received by those who practice Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP).

This is the same CCP comprising the crown jewel of the spurious CSM aka Spiritual Formation espoused by the late Dallas Willard, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, ((http://www.worldmag.com/2013/05/christian_philosopher_dallas_willard_dies, accessed 2/17/14.)) and his spiritual twin Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster.

Here’s another example of why I have been warning you that nothing good is going to come from the current evangelical fad of practicing asceticism-lite through the so-called “spiritual disciplines” of CSM. Sure, many today sound so holy as they preach inclusivism.

The problem is, the Gospel of God is exclusive. Those of us hearing from the Lord will tell you all of this ecumenicism pushed upon us by that EEM misses the point of what God has told us in the following:

6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. (1 Corinthians 5:6-11)

In closing this, for now, you need to understand that those associated with—and listening to—this EEM are spreading leaven when they promote idolators like Mother Teresa and when they mainstream other spiritually immoral ones like Word Faith mogul T.D. Jakes.

Further reading

• T.D. JAKES CONFERENCE TO FEATURE SADDLEBACK CHURCH LEADER
• JAMES MACDONALD WAS A BIT LATE IN MAINSTREAMING T.D. JAKES
• T.D. JAKES REPENTS OF WORD FAITH HERESY AND MYTHOLOGY?