Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat. (Psalm 127:1-2)

Conversating With Uber-hip And Way Cool Dreamers

O happy new year! And I can hardly wait. Coming January 22-24, 2007 is the totally awesome Faith Forward Forum. Their website tells us they are “calling Faith Forward a ‘forum’ because this really is about the conversation.” We’re also told that, “In addition to our keynote addresses, you’ll engage in direct dialog with many of the presenters – both face-to-face and via technology in small, informal settings like our blogger’s cafe.” In this way we can converse with some extreme hip and “very cool thinkers.”

All sounds tres emerging, dontcha think. Well, it is! Just look at some of those who are going to be there:

From futurist Leonard Sweet, renowned emergent church planter Chris Seay, “media-rich” pastor Ed Young, Jr, youth pastor and uber-blogger Judah Smith, Diving Nobodies author Jim Palmer , Hollywood studio executive Michael Flaherty (Walden Media) and director of the National Human Genome Research Institute Francis Collins (featured in Time cover story 11/13/06) and many more.

We’ll get to a few of the “many more,” but first it’s important for us to know that this uber hip “Faith Forward Forum [FFF] promises to challenge your thinking and equip you to become a true leader of cultural change.” Wow, all that’s missing is the awakened human potential advocate and distinguished futurist cultural architect Erwin Raphael McManus! And FFF also exhorts us we’d best not dare:

miss this unique opportunity to rub shoulders with the most respected and innovative thinkers of our time. Engage in a dialog about what is happening in our emerging culture — and learn how to make a relevant impact in your community. Be a part of the solution, and join the conversation!

Ya gotta luv it! Round and round we’ll go in relativisitic dialogue with people who don’t believe in absolutes. You just couldn’t ask for less. And it’s gonna be an underwhelming gas too daddy-o. So just who are some of these “most respected and innovative thinkers of our time” in their own mind? Well, it’s a virtual who’s who of the Ecumenical Church of Deceit (ECoD) of the warped and toxic spirituality of the new evangelicalism, that’s who. Now we’ve already seen this will be an emerging church conversational kind of a thingy e.g. with Chris Seay. FYI Seay is “Pastor/Lead Elder” at Ecclesia, a “holistic, missional, Christian, community. FFF also informs us that Seay is “founder of one of the earliest examples of generational church planting and a leader in the emerging church discussion.”

As a matter of fact Seay was an original member of the team of emerging leaders that Leadership Network asked Doug Pagitt to assemble for what was once known as the Terra Nova Project. This would later would morph into Emergent Village as the emerging church movement slithered on into the Body of Christ. And who could forget Dr. Leonard Sweet. FFF also wants to be sure we are aware that Sweet is, “Arguably the leading futurist to the church.” Um, duh. Not to mention Sweet’s the best known panentheist in all of Quantum Spirituality as well as a good friend of Guru Brian McLaren, himself a leading theologian in the convoluted conversation that is the new cult of liberal theology we call the Emergent Church.

The Devil Begins To Further Weave Together His ECoD

Sorry though, the Elvis of Emergent Rob Bell is not going to be there so “youth pastor” – Rob Bell wannabe – “and uber-blogger” Judah Smith is just going to have to do. But then coming in from the Purpose Driven Church side of things in the ECoD things we will have the dapper and dynamic “media-rich” Ed Young, Jr. of Creative Pastors: Life and Leadership Featuring Ed Young. Zowie! Young, who is Senior Pastor of Fellowship Church tells us, “CreativePastors can add serious voltage to your vision. I encourage you to check out our resources and see where your creative journey will lead you!” And that sure sounds like more bang for your buck to me baby.

For the prissy progressive [read: liberal] “Christians” there’s Dr. Diana Butler Bass author of the book Christianity For The Rest Of Us. Fellow of the Jesus Seminar and Living Spiritual Teacher Marcus Borg says its, “The most important book of the decade about emerging Christianity and the renewal of mainline congregations.” Yep you guessed it, these are the very same “congregations” killed by the original cult of liberalism in the first place. O and we can’t completely reverse the Protestant Reformation without sharing the platform with an apostate Roman Catholic so FFF also includes Fr. C. Lou Martin. Sorry Martin doesn’t have a nifty high tech website but he is “currently the Senior Pastor at Saint Anthony of Padua Church and Most Precious Blood in Baltimore, Maryland.”

Still don’t think the new evangelicalism is about Satan blending together disparate deceitful spirits and their own doctrines of demons into his ECoD on the way back to his pride and joy the apostate Church of Rome? Then you’e going to want to consider that among these “innovative thinkers” at FFF is big “Bishop” Eddie Long of the Word Faith Church thing. Long has…ahem–well, long been a fan favorite among the spiritually seducing staple of heinous heretics regularly appearing on the Trinity Broadway to Destruction Network. The bodacious “Bishop” is Senior Pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church where they are currently making some noize “building the House” while “advancing the Kingdom.”

Also representing the dominion theology of the “King’s Kids” in the Word Faith Church section of the ECoD is another “Bishop” called Kenneth Ulmer senior pastor of Faithful Central Bible Church where they’re “building champions for divine deployment.” FFF informs us Ulmer “will share lessons he’s learned from the expanding urban ministry of Los Angeles’ Faithful Central Bible Church, which purchased the Great Western Forum for its 20,000+ congregation…[and] discuss how churches can usher in social and economic change in metropolitan areas.” Well, if we’re not going to preach the actual Gospel of Jesus Christ our demonically deployed champions might as well make those poor souls comfortable before they’re off to an eternity in Hell.

The Father Of Man-loving Worship

And just who would you suppose has the drawing power to be able to assemble such a stunning array of ECoD stars. Why it’s none other than the father of this whole new reformation of man-centered theology Robert Schuller, “Founding Pastor of the Crystal Cathedral.” FFF also tells us this most impressive man of God is “a speaker and motivator and is sought for his goal-setting ideas for business conventions and conferences at locations worldwide…he and his wife, Arvella, started this ministry with $500 by renting the Orange Drive-In Theatre and building a worldwide ministry.” But sadly this worldly success has come to Robert Schuller because he bought the Devil’s lie – “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me” (Matthew 4:9).

You need to come to see that this new reformation of “deeds not creeds,” as Rick Warren puts it; this man-centered theology of the love of them-selves (see–2 Timothy 3:2), is the very rotten root of the whole of the ECoD and of this Faith in Hyper-Reverse Forum in particular. I’d tell you how you can go about attending this most prestigious love fest of man’s ability to fail but I don’t want your blood on my hands. Don’t say you haven’t been warned. And before anyone has a heart attack the following quote from The Message is used by design to show these fools what the Lord says to them–even from their own Bible of man-love:

Why the big noise, nations? Why the mean plots, peoples? Earth-leaders push for position, Demagogues and delegates meet for summit talks, The God-deniers, the Messiah-defiers: “Let’s get free of God! Cast loose from Messiah!” Heaven-throned God breaks out laughing. At first he’s amused at their presumption; Then he gets good and angry. Furiously, he shuts them up…

I know I for one look forward to that Day. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.