Apprising Ministries has been warning you about the judgments coming upon the church visible now that mainstream evangelicalism has embraced the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church; which is why EC rock star pastor Rob Bell can argue for the heresy of Christian Universalism in his Love Wins mythology and still be considered an evangelical.

I’ve also reminded you that at its rotten core the EC contained the practice of corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM)—and its crown jewel Contemplative/Centering Prayer, which is itself a form of meditation in an altered state of consciousness; the “key mentors” within being  Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster, along with his spiritual twin Dallas Willard, who at last check is with the Southern Baptist Convention. 

Due to a growing dry and dead orthodoxy within mainstream evangelicalism, sparks from this spurious CSM have now fanned into flame among its younger sectors after years of EC teachings being used in Young Adult and Youth Ministries. Unfortunately, evangelical leaders remained silent while EC leaders began to be published in evangelical publishing houses, which has now opened the door for neo-Gnostic mysticism right into the heart of the Christian community.

You need to know that as a direct result of this our time is going to be one of growing confusion as spiritual darkness falls on apostatizing evangelicalism. Much of the visible church has already moved away from the proper Christian spirituality of sola Scriptura and into a highly subjective murky mysticism where one decides truth about God by what they “feel” He is saying. As this infection progresses you’ll notice increasing dueling revelations in these private words allegedly from God.

Well, guess what; this is now beginning to happen within broader evangelicalism as evidenced by The Power of a Whisper: Hearing God, Having the Guts to Respond, the latest book by Church Growth Movement guru Bill Hybels, and Recognizing God’s Voice; which is a recent sermon series by Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren, where he makes the outlandish claim to his congregation that by following the 7 tests he outlines in the sermon they all can be “absolutely certain” when God is speaking directly to them.

And it’s not like I’m the only one seeing this; consider the following from mainstream evangelical apologist Greg Koukl, who is hardly a radical ODM type:

I’ve made what I think is a telling observation about those who hold to a dual source of special revelation. Whenever an organization says, “We believe the Bible is inspired plus we believe our leadership is inspired,” or “We believe the Bible is inspired plus we believe this other book of ours” (like the Book of Mormon, for example) “is inspired,” the Bible always ends up taking the back seat instead of being on equal footing with these other sources of special revelation.

I think most Christians will be comfortable with that assessment. This, though, raises a question about Evangelical claims to multiple sources of special revelation. For all our talk about sola Scriptura, many also hold that God speaks to them on a regular basis giving true information about Himself and specific directions for their lives. Their claim is, essentially, “I believe the Bible is a bona fide source of information and the Spirit also gives private information directly to me.” The second step frequently follows the first: The personal, subjective sense of what a person thinks God is telling him trumps the objective Scripture. (Online source)

In closing this, for now, let me mention that one of the fruits of mysticism is a preversion of the love of God. You listen to so many preachers today and you’ll hear them emphasizing God’s love in ways that sound more and more erotic. This is precisely what the old Roman Catholic mystics did; and the second part of mystic deception is that they come to believe God is crazy in love with mankind.
 
That’s the reason why I refer to this mystic mush god as having a man-shaped hole in his/her/its heart. As this darkness grows you’ll see evangelicals wanting more and more to “put aside our differences” because God wants us “to love one another, not confront one another.” Sadly, mysticism’s only going to grow now that it’s even in the so-called New Calvinist camp; and mysticism first produces ecumenicism, which when persued ends up in universalism.

Dark days ahead…

See also:

FIRST SERMON BY ROB BELL AT MHBC

ROB BELL DEFENDING LOVE WINS MYTHOLOGY

APPRISING MINISTRIES: ROB BELL RESOURCES