This growing apostasy has now brought us to a point in postmodern America where the Evangelical church is facing the exact same issue as that encountered by Charles Haddon Spurgeon with the encroaching liberals in the Baptist Union of his day. Today we can see a New Downgrade No-Controversy developing where a flaming heretic like Benny Hinn, and men like Emergent Church Guru Brian McLaren through his a-logical double-speak has been able to fool weak-willed leaders within the Church of our Lord into accepting as Evangelicals men who actually deny the Gospel that’s preached by Evangelicals. How ridiculous is that!

2 Timothy 2:23-25; Titus 1:9

Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth… He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

A Personal Perspective

Being that the Lord is being kind enough to open the doors for new readers to find Apprising Ministries I begin this article with a quick bit of important background information regarding this work in Christ and the position from which I write it. First of all, this website was literally given to me August 31st of this year, I never asked for this forum. For those who don’t know I am a high school graduate having never attended any college–Bible or otherwise–am not seminary trained, nor have I ever been “indoctrinated” into any particular denominational way of thinking. Although the title “reverend” (which I do not hold in high esteem) was bestowed upon me by the Southern Baptist Convention I was actually called by God as one of His pastor-teachers long before that. Make whatever you will of this, but it is my personal conviction that after numerous attempts to more formally pursue my education, which the Lord chose to prevent, I am convinced He has decided to raise me up in this particular way; further than that I refer the reader to John 7:16-18.

My theology is somewhere a cross between that of C.H. Spurgeon, A.W. Tozer (minus his more mystic bent), and Dr. Walter Martin. It is also my conviction that I have arrived through personal study of the Bible in the Presence of the Lord at what I simply call a biblical position. Therefore I am not a Fundamentalist or an Evangelical–though I have some affinities with both–I only refer to myself as a Christian, and my sincere goal for the cause of my Lord is to give every ounce of strength He gives me to do only what He wishes me to do; now matter what–to the end. In hopes that in this way, by always remembering – by the grace of God I am what I am – I might then achieve my only real goal in this life: Do what I am supposed to do for my gracious Lord and then get out of this cesspool of a world system and arriving home to the words – “Well done, good and faithful servant” (see-Matthew 25:14-23).

Who Is An Evangelical?

The purpose of this article is to shine additional light onto the deception of the Emerging Church, which is rapidly emerging as a non-Christian pagan cult operating within the Evangelical camp of our Lord’s Church. Strong words, but it’s about time someone came out and called this movement exactly what it is – didaskalia daimonion – the doctrines of demons. Shame on our so-called leaders–with much more of a forum than I–for sharing platforms with a man like Brian McLaren, a pastor adrift who denies the very Gospel of Jesus Christ that he is supposed to proclaim clearly to others. Take for instance the Congress 2006 coming to the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA in February of next year. On the bill of so-called “Inspirational Speakers – redefining (watch that word) love in culturally relevant ways,” we see James T.Meeks, executive vice president of the National Rainbow–PUSH Coalition, Brian McLaren and Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

What I’m about to share is exactly the reason why I would no longer call myself an Evangelical. From Tim Stafford’s Christianity Today article entitled “Good Morning, Evangelicals” we read the following compromised stance concerning the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3, NKJV). Watch here as NAE president Ted Haggard provides us with a most impressive display of advanced fence straddling. I’ve condensed it here for brevity and to prevent nausea:

Who Is an Evangelical?

“When I became president of the NAE [National Association of Evangelicals],” Haggard tells the Inquirer’s Nussbaum, “the talk was about doing away with the term evangelical. Evangelicalism was morphing and changing so much that people were wondering if the term applied. The first decision I made as president was to start using the term prolifically and defining it simply. I define an evangelical as a person who believes Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that the Bible is the Word of God, and that you must be born again.”

[Nussbaum asks] “Because, by your definition, Jimmy Carter is an evangelical.”

“He is.”

“Bill Clinton?”

“He is an evangelical.”
(http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/011/20.41.html)

I see Bill Clinton is an Evangelical. The man who brought about as much shame as could possibly be brought to the highest office in the land; a man who used his training as a lawyer in an unsuccessful effort trying to avoid moral responsibility for his sin by attempting to have us redefine the word “is.” “Redefine,” “reexamine,” “reemerge,” you know, come to think of it, Bill Clinton would fit in rather well with the rubbery rhetoric of Brian McLaren and the Emergent Church. So I guess Haggard is right here taking into account how lukewarm the Evangelical community has now become. Why look who else qualifies as an Evangelical according to president Haggard:

Evangelicalism is a continuum of theologies all the way from Benny Hinn to R. C. Sproul. The R. C. Sproul crowd has a hard time with Benny Hinn, and the Benny Hinn crowd has a hard time with R. C. Sproul. But they’re all evangelicals. (ibid.)

Benny Hinn, the extremely flamboyant proponent of virtually every heresy of the Word Faith Movement–an obvious distortion of Christianity–is an Evangelical according to Haggard, who then compares Hinn’s “crowd” with that of Dr. R.C. Sproul. While I don’t agree with Sproul on everything he is at least an orthodox Christian theologian, but even Hank Hanegraaff–who is a far cry from his predecessor at CRI–has called the Word Faith Movement of which Hinn is undoubtedly a leader, “a deadly cancer that is ravaging the Body of Christ” (Christianity In Crisis, back cover). The last time I checked if a patient has cancer and it is at all possible to do so the cancer is then surgically removed, but under no circumstances is it to be welcomed as a healthy part of that person’s body.

Perhaps we’ve all forgotten what “pastor” Hinn has taught regarding the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, which even Evangelicals profess to believe is the heart of the Gospel of our great God and Savior. Well, most of them seem to, at least publicly:

“He [Jesus] who is righteous by choice said, ‘The only way I can stop sin is by Me becoming it. I can’t just stop it by letting it touch Me; I and it must become one.’ Hear this! He who is the nature of God became the nature of Satan where He became sin!” (Trinity Broadcasting Network, December 1, 1990).

“Jesus was born again [in hell]” (Our Position in Christ part 1, 1991, ).

“My, you know, whoosh! The Holy Ghost is just showing me some stuff. I’m getting dizzy! I’m telling you the truth – it’s, it’s just heavy right now on me… He’s [referring to Jesus] in the underworld now. God isn’t there, the Holy Ghost isn’t there, and the Bible says He was begotten. Do you know what the word begotten means? It means reborn. Do you want another shocker? Have you been begotten? So was He. Don’t let anyone deceive you. Jesus was reborn. You say, ‘What are you talking about?’… He was reborn. He had to be reborn… If He was not reborn, I could not be reborn, I would never be reborn. How can I face Jesus and say, “Jesus, You went through everything I’ve gone through, except the new birth?”
(ibid.)

And here’s a little bonus teaching from “Evangelical” pastor Benny Hinn straight out of Isaiah 14:14 and Genesis 3:5; and who was actually the source of this demonic doctrine of deception?

Are you ready for some real revelation knowledge… you are god.

You are a little god on earth running around.
(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/bennyhinn206053.html)

So here we have an “Evangelical” pastor who not only denies the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, but he then goes on and blasphemes by teaching mankind is also god. Does that sound vaguely familiar, perhaps you will now recall Isaiah 14:14 where Lucifer says – “I will make myself like the Most High”; or how about Genesis 3:5 where Satan tells Eve a variation of this lie when he says – ye shall be as gods. Do we really think that when the awesome and majestic Yahweh Elohim hears these kinds of things He just winks and says – “Imagine that; what an interesting coincidence.”

Oh, I know the argument well: “But he apologized for these statements; Hinn repented (and repented and…).” Well, I’ll leave the Lord judge his heart, but I will encourage you to follow Christ’s advice to “Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment” (John 7:24). For you see an insoluble problem remains here, and that would be that Hinn clearly claims “revelation knowledge” from God the Holy Spirit when he teaches this heresy. And I can find no reference in Holy Scripture to the LORD God Almighty of biblical revelation being schizophrenic. But here we see the problem of the mainstream Evangelical church and the inevitable result of Robert Schuller’s psycho-philo-theological “new” reformation which gave birth to this whole seeker sensitive Church Growth Movement in the first place. This skubalon has so grieved God the Holy Spirit that He has withdrawn enough of His power today that obvious false teachers like Schuller and Hinn, and now the not so obvious McLaren, have been allowed to remain within our Lord’s Church like parasites sucking vital resources away from true works of God.

The Pagan Cult Among Us

It is my firm conviction in Christ that this current growing apostasy is the direct result of ministers of the Gospel in so-called postmodern America forgetting the most important aspect when it comes to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And you have no excuse because it is written: our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 1:5) and we simply cannot win people to Christ by our own pragmatic methods because the Bible also says – “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty (Zechariah 4:6). A sappy sentimentality and a false sense of the love of God we have sown, and a sappy sentimentality and a false sense of unity in the Body of Christ we have reaped. You need to ask yourself why it is that you can’t see it?

In my previous two pastoral missives I presented the case as to why I believe this schismatic movement known as the Emergent Church is actually a non-Christian pagan cult being allowed to operate from within our Lord’s Church. The second article took this assertion a step further and presented another important facet in the case of Brian McLaren denying the Gospel itself. This was done from an interview that he posts on his own website with additional documentation from Mike Oppenheimer’s fine article on the Emergent Church Now Ready for Prime Time Players which you can read here. What the Lord has laid on my heart is the importance of shining light onto this Emerging from the shadows Church with its obvious roots in the cult of liberal theology, primarily through so many pastors and leaders within this movement who have a neo-orthodox view of Scripture at best. Another major concern should also be the Emergent Church exposing unwitting sheep to various practices of pagan mysticism–if not outright Gnosticism.

You must understand that when the Evangelical church allowed counterfeit minister Robert Schuller to come in under the guise of an orthodox Christian pastor in the early seventies, the tragic result has been the devastating effect that his psycho-babble has had on Evangelicalism. Schuller’s spiritual strychnine actually originated in the ooze of metaphysical Gnosticism in the Mind Science cults, and now many Evangelical pastors as far reaching as a Charles Stanley have ended up with this serpent of “self-love” slithering in to inject its venom into their teachings. I believe Christ is prompting me to tell you that Brian McLaren–who is also a soft-spoken heretic like Schuller–is Satan’s next viper; only this time the Devil is after your kids. Can’t you see how this “gray-haired professorial-type,” who sounds so intellectual to those who aren’t trained in logic is now such a deadly threat to the impressionable young?

Are You Sure That’s The Gospel?

As we now add what we’ve learned so far to the text I opened this article with let me point out in no uncertain terms why I see the below as a denial of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the cause for my labeling Brian McLaren an apostate at best, but an heretical teacher for sure. Those of us who have the correct view of the Bible know that our Lord has said – God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready (Psalm 7:11-12, KJV). And while the feedback from emergers that I have encountered shows they will only laugh in derision at these words of warning, I remind them anyway that it is also written: Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life (Galatians 6:7-8). And if you are His, these words from the Spirit of the Lord within this work will pierce your pride. If not…

I present a short excerpt from the article “Interview with Brian McLaren about the previous ‘A letter to Friends of Emergent,’” from McLaren’s own website as an illustration and example of his denial of the Lord he says he serves and the Jesus he says he follows. The anonymous interviewer asks pastor McLaren:

Q: You wrote, “Which reminds us that none of us has a complete grasp of the gospel…. It’s very dangerous to assume you’ve perfectly contained the gospel in your little formula.” I think with all the other change going on, one thing we’ve got to hold firm on is the gospel.
A: What do you mean when you say “the gospel?”

Q: You know, justification by grace through faith in the finished atoning work of Christ on the cross.
A: Are you sure that’s the gospel?

Q: Of course. Aren’t you?
A: I’m sure that’s a facet of the gospel, and it’s the facet that modern evangelical protestants have assumed is the whole gospel, the heart of the gospel. But what’s the point of that gospel? (http://www.anewkindofchristian.com/archives/000133.html)

A person who would be opposed to my position that McLaren is a wolf in sheep’s clothing who is seen here denying the Gospel of Jesus Christ would say something along the lines of: “Maybe you need to contact McLaren personally, you shouldn’t just take things you have read by him without giving him the chance to explain. In the interest of fairness you should ask him what his definition of the ‘gospel’ is.” And men and women this is precisely the weak-kneed approach to Christianity that so many Evangelical leaders have taken for so long in this nation that Christ is now standing outside of His Laodicean church and trying to get back in.

In this quote McLaren is asked what in his opinion is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and instead of answering directly he does nothing but ask the question again in reverse. It is McLaren who then sounds like the skeptic or an antagonist to the Christian faith by passing up a chance to answer directly–which would require taking an actual position–and instead he plays amateur philosopher further confusing the issue. Let me make this as absolutely clear as I can relative to making a stand since my position is the bold claim that I am a minister personally sent by Christ Himself to preach His Gospel. If the Lord doesn’t now back up my claim and protect this little “mom and pop” ministry He has given me, then I will very quickly be destroyed; and even as such I ride to the sound of the guns. For my faith in my Master is such that I say today is as good a day as any other to die in battle for our glorious Lord.

In this section of the above article McLaren has the chance to clearly say whether or not he personally believes that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is “justification by grace through faith in the finished atoning work of Christ on the cross.” First he answers a question with a question, “are you sure this is the gospel,” instead of acting in his alleged capacity as one of Christ’s pastors and teaching this person–as well as a world-wide audience–what the Good News is that he is supposed to defend. The next part of McLaren’s “answer” is this convoluted response, “it’s a facet of the gospel…that modern evangelical protestants have assumed is…the heart of the gospel.” No, this is not merely an assumption, it is the Gospel; but shouldn’t someone who receives remuneration as a minister of that Gospel at least be required to actually know what it is? How low does this Evangelical standard now go?

And now we have arrived at this absurd question: Can someone be an Evangelical who denies the Gospel preached by Evangelicals? But if this Emergent Church a-logical double-speak has been able to fool leaders within the Church of our Lord into accepting heretics as brothers, then how in the world could we possibly expect our precious young to be able to see through it? Let’s suppose you were to ask me the same question about the Gospel and I do apologize in advance if this answer ends up being a little too technical, but an important point needs to be made: Is the Gospel “justification by grace through faith in the finished atoning work of Christ on the cross?” My answer: Yes.

Yet still there are those who ask: “What would Jesus do; wouldn’t He go to the source Himself and ask Brian McLaren what he meant by his response.” That’s foolishness; are we really to suppose that the Master had nothing better to do than to have private interviews with each and every member of the Pharisees and Sadducees as to what they personally taught? And this is the exactly our problem here; if McLaren does believe the apostolic doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, then he had the perfect chance to answer the question directly and to avoid any and all confusion, but he didn’t. And 1 Corinthians 14:33 says – God is not a God of disorder but of peace. This would then leave only one other source for this minister to be receiving his confusing “messages,” and based on his low view of the Bible, the words Hath God said spring to mind.

The True Pastor Must Hold To Sound Doctrine

In the opening text we see that the pastor must be able to teach, to gently instruct and He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. I think we could agree that this might best be done by speaking clearly so that those to whom you present the Gospel might then know what it is that you have actually said to them. So maybe it is trendy in Emergent Church circles over a glass of wine in candlelit rooms with the incense burning to have these kinds of deep pseudo-philosophical discussions about what the Gospel might mean if we redefine our re-approach to a reapplication of the word atonement after some Buddhist-style chanting, but in the end it will never actually change the trustworthy message of the sound doctrine that Christ and His Apostles preached with such crystalline clarity that it would end up costing all but John their very lives.

But instead of clarity from a supposed minister of the Gospel all we get from Emergent Church Guru Brian McLaren is ambiguity like this from his book A Generous Orthodoxy:

Missional Christian faith asserts that Jesus did not come to make some people saved and others condemned. Jesus did not come to help some people be right while leaving everyone else to be wrong. Jesus did not come to create another exclusive religion – Judaism having been exclusive based on genetics and Christianity being exclusive based on belief (which can be a tougher requirement than genetics!).Missional faith asserts that Jesus came to preach the good news of the kingdom of God to everyone, especially the poor. He came to seek and save the lost. He came on behalf of the sick. He came to save the world. His gospel, and therefore the Christian message, is Good News for the whole world (p.110)

One has a hard time squaring this with what the Bible itself actually says about Christ’s mission because we read in John 3:18 – Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus says – “narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:14). And later Jesus is quoted again by the Apostle John as the Master says – “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” You see it’s one thing to semi-imply something might possibly be true, it is quite another to actually preach the Gospel.

Oh but according to Guru McLaren, this is precisely the problem, we apparently don’t know what this Gospel is. Unfortunately Christ Jesus was wrong when He said – “I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18) because we are to believe that until Brian McLaren came along Satan’s forces have been able to obscure the Master’s message. For we are told in Christianity Today below that the Emergent Guru doesn’t think that the Church of our Lord has even understood His Gospel. If only Christ-God Himself in human flesh-had been as good a teacher as McLaren, then men like the Apostle Paul and Jonathan Edwards and Charles Haddon Spurgeon would have at least had a chance to be effective for the Kingdom of God. And no one can see the makings of a cult leader here?

McLaren is popularizing the work of the late British missionary Lesslie Newbigin, who returned from a lifetime in India to spend his last years reflecting on the need for a new theology of mission. “According to Newbigin, the greatest heresy in monotheism is a misunderstanding of the doctrine of election,” McLaren says. “Election is not about who gets to go to heaven; election is about who God chooses to be part of his crisis-response team to bring healing to the world.”

McLaren doesn’t just want to turn the doctrine of election upside down (or, as Newbigin argued, right side up)—he has questions about other cherished words in the evangelical vocabulary.

“I don’t think we’ve got the gospel right yet. What does it mean to be ‘saved’? When I read the Bible, I don’t see it meaning, ‘I’m going to heaven after I die.’ Before modern evangelicalism nobody accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, or walked down an aisle, or said the sinner’s prayer.”

It’s not that McLaren is interested in joining the liberal side of modern Protestantism. “I don’t think the liberals have it right. But I don’t think we have it right either. None of us has arrived at orthodoxy.” (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/011/12.36.html)

Brothers In Denial Of The Atonement

Brian McLaren has endorsed the recent book Reimagining Christianity: Reconnect Your Spirit without Disconnecting Your Mind, by the Very Reverend Alan Jones, Episcopal priest and Dean of Grace Cathedral. In his article “Now Ready for Prime Time Players,” Mike Oppenheimer of Let Us Reason Ministries brings our attention to the key question here as he asks:

Who is Alan Jones? Episcopal priest and Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco that promotes the labyrinth. He is a promoter of inter-spirituality and a mystic. He is also a member of the Living Spiritual Teachers Project which is a group of about twenty-five that include Zen and Buddhist monks, New Agers and even Marianne Williamson (who promotes a Course in Miracles, a book that denies almost every authentic Bible teaching of Jesus Christ.) http://www.letusreason.org/current73.htm

On the front flap of the book, before I share what McLaren says, we’re told that “Dr. Jones inspires you to think, to question, to dig deeper into the truths of existence as a way of deepening your spirituality rather than accepting rigid dogma.” Episcopal priest and lecturer, The Rev. Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor, also says “Here is a book for all who suspect that God is greater than religion, who regard imagination as a spiritual path,…” Just how far onto the broad road of religion does one have to get before they are considered out of the faith?

Walter Brueggemann of Columbia Theological Seminary also endorses this mockery of true Christianity and tells us what this book is actually about when he says “Alan Jones combines the power of the mystical, the honesty of the skeptical, and the eagerness of the romantic.” But does our Guru pick up this clear example of “just tell everyone what they want to hear” theology; I’m afraid not for here is what McLaren says in his own endorsement:

“It used to be that Christian institutions and systems of dogma sustained the spiritual life of Christians. Increasingly spirituality itself is what sustains everything else Alan Jones is a pioneer in reimagining a Christian faith that emerges from authentic spirituality. His work stimulates and encourages me deeply.” (back flap)

And in Reimagining Christianity where Alan Jones is “reimagining a Christian faith that emerges from authentic spirituality” that McLaren just told us “stimulates and encourages” him “deeply,” on page 168 we read a crystal clear denial-by the Guru’s brother of denial-of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, a cardinal doctrine of the historic orthodox Christian Church. The heretical Jones writes: “implicit in the cross that Jesus’ sacrifice was to appease an angry God. Penal substitution was the name of this vile doctrine.”

So this denial of His Lord’s great sacrifice on the cross is the kind of antichrist doctrine our “new kind of Christian” Brian McLaren finds so stimulating and encouraging! Oppenheimer is quite right when he says:

McLaren has no excuse; this should be repugnant to any true believer. Are we to believe Jones has authentic spirituality when he rejects the work on the cross by God our savior! If this does not make you angry, we should read it all in its context, Jones further states: “The other thread of just criticism addresses the suggestion implicit in the cross that Jesus’ sacrifice was to appease an angry God. Penal substitution was the name of this vile doctrine. I don’t doubt for one moment the power of sin and evil in the world or the power of sacrificial love as their antidote and the peculiar power of the cross as sign of forgiveness and restoration, but making God vengeful, all in the name of justice, has left thousands of souls deeply wounded arid lost to the Church forever.

“What does the image of the cross mean to me? It is a sign of the necessary crucifixion of ideologies in the face of concrete human experience-the crucifixion of power plays, the crucifixion of a god we think we can conceptually control. It also is a sign of humanity’s need to find someone to blame for its ills. When we suffer or are threatened, we look for scapegoats. Scholar Rene Girard suggests that scapegoating is the idée fixe at the heart of our culture. It is, for him, the mechanism on which society, culture, and religion are based. The murder of the innocent and our ability to make acts of scapegoating violence sacred seem to be built into us. The cross speaks directly to this dark issue of scapegoating” (p.168, emphasis mine).(http://www.letusreason.org/current73.htm)

So let us not have anymore equivocation and playing with words about why Brian McLaren didn’t directly answer the question regarding the Gospel of the substitutionary atonement of Christ which was posed to him earlier. He should at least be man enough to come out publically and make his own stand for what he believes just as I have made mine. Oh, and here’s a little bit about the “church” of The Very Reverend Dr. Alan Jones, the man whose work so “stimulates and encourages” our Emergent Church Guru. On the website of Grace Cathedral we are thus welcomed:

We believe in one God, known to us in Jesus Christ, also known by different names in different traditions. We seek to challenge and transform the world, beginning with ourselves, and to celebrate the image of God in every person. We are a house of prayer, worship and service for everyone, welcoming all who seek an inclusive community of love. (http://www.gracecathedral.org/church/, emphasis added)

The One Pathway To The Center

And this farce of a Christian church is also renowned for it’s two labyrinths, “an outdoor labyrinth, made of terrazzo stone, and the indoor wool tapestry labyrinth. These were designed by The Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress, Executive Director of Veriditas™, the World-Wide Labyrinth Project.” Here is a bit about labyrinths from this same website:

The labyrinth is an ancient pattern found in many cultures around the world. Labyrinth designs were found on pottery, tablets and tiles date as far back as 4000 years. Many patterns are based on spirals from nature. In Native American culture it is called the Medicine Wheel and Man in the Maze. The Celts described it as the Never Ending Circle. It is also called the Kabala in mystical Judaism. One feature they all share is that they have one path which winds in a circuitous way to the center…

Artress led the effort to reintroduce the labyrinth into the world as a spiritual tool… Labyrinths are currently being used world-wide as a way to quiet the mind, find balance,and encourage meditation, insight and celebration. They are open to all people as a non-denominational, cross-cultural tool of well-being… There are many ways to describe a labyrinth. It is a path of prayer, a walking meditation, a crucible of change, a watering hole for the spirit and a mirror of the soul. May you be nourished.
(http://www.gracecathedral.org/labyrinth/labyrinths_new.shtml)

In his books Journey Into Christ the heretical Alan Jones, McLaren’s New Age blood brother of denial who so “stimulates and encourages” our Emergent Church Guru, also teaches us:

The path of metanoia is a way of glory which leads us home. Paranoia (to be out of your mind) is that process by which the mind is unhinged and the personality splintered and fragmented. Metanoia (to turn the mind, to be right in your mind), which is usually translated in the New Testament as repentance, means the restoration of mind, the coming together of the shattered fragments of the self. It means a turning to God as the source and the power of life. (http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/b_review/brev_20041112.shtml)

Men and women, can’t you see the pantheism of the One World New Age universal religion being espoused here? Ask the Lord to open your eyes and then look further. Can you see it now in this excerpt from Guru McLaren’s brother in denial as Jones continues “reimagining a Christian faith that emerges from authentic spirituality” here in his sermon Who Is God?

In the beginning, before there were any beginnings and endings, there was no place that was not already God! And we call this unimaginable openness, “Ain Soph” – Being-without end. Then came the urge to give life to our world and to us. But there was no place that was not already God. So “Ain Soph” breathed in to make room, like a father steps back so his child will walk to him. Into the emptiness “Ain Soph” set vessels and began to fill them with divine light, as a mother places bowls in which to pour her delicious soup. As the light poured forth, a perfect world was being created!

The good news is that the Great Religious Traditions are beginning to listen to one another. Is there a great Planetary Story emerging which is truly inclusive and which treats the earth as sacred? Is the human race in labor with a new version of its purpose and destiny? Or is it the same old story of division and hatred? If we are going to survive and flourish, we need to listen to one another’s stories over and over again so that God can speak to us in new ways. (http://www.30goodminutes.org/csec/sermon/jones_3710.htm)

As I asked before, now I ask again: Just how far out onto the broad road of religion that leads to destruction today does someone have to go to finally be considered out of the faith? As I asked before, now I ask again: Can you be an Evangelical and deny the Gospel Evangelicals preach? I tell you in the Lord that the things described within this article are a blatant indication of the terrible New Downgrade going on right now within the Evangelical church; and this apostasy is very quickly growing to grow worse unless some men with real backbone like C. H. Spurgeon arise with the fortitude to make an actual stand, and not just in the safety of your office or your church either-but publically where it counts.

And then in “Emergent Delusion,” his spot-on critique of Brian McLaren’s book Bob DeWaay of Critical Issues Commentary provides the following telling quote from a “mystical” experience McLaren recalls having:

I felt that every tree, every blade of grass, and every pool of water become especially eloquent with God’s grandeur. Somehow they seemed to become transparent—or perhaps translucent is the better word—because each thing in its particularity was still utterly visible and unspeakably important . . . These specific, concrete things became translucent in the sense that a powerful, indescribable, invisible light seemed to shine through. . . . It was the exuberant joy of simply seeing these masterpieces of God’s creation…and knowing myself to be among them. It was to be one of them, and to feel and know that “we”—all of these creatures, molecules, and phenomena—were together known and loved by God, who embraced us all into the ultimate “We.” (178) (http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue87.htm)

Guru McLaren’s Emerging Christianity Exposed

Men and women, I admonish you to test the spirits, because these are clearly not the words of an orthodox Christian pastor, for this is actually the Hindu pantheism of the New Age. And DeWaay further points out that McLaren says, “The Christian faith, I am proposing, should become (in the name of Jesus Christ) a welcome friend to other religions of the world, not a threat.”(p.254) Synthesis is precisely the essence of a generous orthodoxy. McLaren laments, “Western Christianity has (for the last few centuries anyway) said relatively little about mindfulness and meditative practices, about which Zen Buddhism has said much. To talk about different things is not to contradict one another; it is, rather, to have much to offer one another, on occasion at least.”(p.255) We are being offered a synthesis of world religions in dialogue.(p.256, 257) (ibid).

So you have seen here for yourselves that “pastor” McLaren teaches us that the Church militant of our Lord shouldn’t be seen as a “threat” to these other false religions who are not really worshipping God at all. But I tell you, if this Emergent Church guru really was a minister sent by Christ, then he would know that these people actually worship demons-and ultimately this is the worship of Satan himself. Now, I wonder, just who it is that might have originally come up with this particular idea? Don’t you see that Brian McLaren is not speaking by the Spirit of God? Can’t you recognize the deceiving spirits and things taught by demons yet? And just think of the grave spiritual danger of having our bright and inquisitive young people being exposed to these Emergent Church pastors of pagan mumbo jumbo and the slithering reasoning of rubbery men like Brian McLaren. What is going to happen when they ask a simple question such as the one posed by the Philippian jailer in Acts 16:30 – “What must I do to be saved?” One can only imagine the answer:

Well, what do you think? Is there something to actually be saved from is yet another question, is it not? For you see, it really all depends upon your perspective, do you understand? If you were saved already, then why would you even need to ask such a question? For in your culture “god” can mean many things, and together we must search for the answer to this great mystery. Yet we ask, can someone be saved–as far as we might understand that term–until he knows what it is he that might be saved from? Now, there are the more conservative among us who dare to possibily think that Christ would be the Savior of all men; but is that all there really is to the Gospel? I’m sure this is an aspect of it, but I must ask you, what really is the point of the Gospel?

I think you can see that this jailer would likely go away scratching his head saying, “I don’t know that I’ve ever heard jell-o speak before.” No, this type of mystical mumbo jumbo from Emergent Church guru Brian McLaren is clearly not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but rather it is simply a rehashing of the old, old story “The Emperor’s Clothes.” I encourage you to make the effort to get a copy of a cassette tape from Dr. Walter Martin called “The Cult of Liberal Theology” and you will be able to see that the serpentine pagan cult of the Emergent Church movement is actually nothing more than the rapacious reemergence of the cult of liberal theology with cool hair, fully laced with the same deadly spiritual venom but with the added poison of postmodern skepticism.

A.W. Tozer speaks for me when he says:

The period in which we now live may well go down in history as the Age of No Reason. Self has more worshippers today among civilized men today than any other god. For millions the cult of Self has become god; now if this god would let us Christians alone I for one would let his cult alone. The whole spongy, fetid mess will sink someday under it own weight and become excellent fuel for the fires of Hell, a just recompense which is meet, and it becomes us to feel compassion for those who have been caught in its tragic collapse. Tears and silence might be better than words if things were slightly otherwise than they are.

But the cult of Self is seriously affecting the Church. The pure religion of Christ that flows like a crystal river from the heart of God is being polluted by the unclean waters that trickle from behind the altars of abomination that appear on every high hill and under every green tree from New York to Los Angeles. O Lord I pray for any of your servants who may be caught within this cult of Self… This whole spongy, fetid mess has trapped so many… (adapted from Ron Eggert, Tozer On Christian Leadership)

This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men. But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.