Emergent Church Spreading Spiritual Cancer

Opinion Editorials dot com (a project of Frontiers of Freedom) ^ | 4-18-08 | Marsha West

[Terriergal]

Emergent Church Spreading Spiritual Cancer

Marsha West

In the Sixties the counterculture rejected consumerism, individualism, traditional values and ideas, and protested against their parent’s middle class values. Thus began an all out assault on what had made America prosperous for two centuries.

Now a similar assault on historic orthodox Christianity is underway that’s gaining momentum. Some Christians believe a paradigm shift is taking place in the Church and as a consequence “everything must change.” This is anything but good news for Christendom, my friends. In a radio interview with Worldview Network’s Brannon Howse, Professor Peter Jones of Westminster Seminary warned listeners that the Christian theistic West has been turning back to pagan, pantheistic monism. Many in contemporary western culture now hold to a pantheistic belief in the unity of nature and God, of body and spirit -- all is One.

Pantheism is a major tenet of the New Spirituality movement (NSM), once called the New Age movement. Other names used are Self-spirituality and Mind-body-spirit. The movement is largly eclectic with inspiration drawn from all the major world religions, which include Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Shamanism, Wicca, the metaphysical New Thought movement, and Neo-Paganism, to name a few. The goal of NSM is a shift in “planetary consciousness.” Their focus is not only on the West but also on the entire planet!

NSM is producing a movie to promote the new paradigm. In an article on Christian Worldview Weekend [1], Brannon Howse gives details: “New Spirituality gurus like Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson, alongside leftist environmentalists like Al Gore and religious figures such as Archbishop Desmond TuTu. Their message is the same, as though it was taken from the same script. ‘A massive worldwide phenomenon is in progress, offering seeds of great hope for the future…We are in the middle of the biggest social transformation in history, THE SHIFT.’”

In order to move the West away from theism, the shifters must first reinvent biblical Christianity. Enter Oprah Winfrey. It would seem Oprah has been planning The Shift for many years. In 1987 she read the late Eric Butterworth’s book “Discover the Power Within You.” His book changed how Oprah looked at life and religion. She was convinced that Jesus didn’t come to teach us about His divinity, as the Bible teaches, but to teach us about our divinity! (Oprah’s code word is “Christ consciousness.”) She recommended Butterworth’s book to her audience and sales soon skyrocketed.

(read more at OpinionEditorials.com)

[Eva]

I was just reading about the Emergent Church this week while doing some research on Liberation Theology. They have a lot in common, though the emergent church is not as heavily invested in politics and is directed at the middle class with some education.

I remember during the Clinton administration, Sidney Blumenthal wrote a very long editorial describing Clinton’s political philosophy and the Third Way. It was three whole news paper pages long. Part of the article described a new church that incorporated the same tenets as this emergent church. He may have even called it that. It was described as unifying instead of dividing people. In other words people would give up all their beliefs that separated religions and join the state devised church. Muslims, Hindus, Christians, all under the same roof.

It sounds like the Rev. Wright’s church, doesn’t it?

[ModelBreaker]

Just another iteration of multifarious Protestantism.

Huh? It's just another heresy. They've been coming and going since long before there was Protestantism. Some in and some out of the whatever the organizational structure of the Church happened to be at any given time.

We had 'em in the 1st century--Paul's epistles spend a lot of time stomping on heresy--at that point, there was no particualar organizational structure, just folks preaching the Gospel. We had 'em when there was only a Catholic Church ("get out of purgatory free, cards", e.g.). And we have them today, when the Church has many branches (Catholic and Protestant heretics abound in the structure of both).

They will continue until Christ remakes the world. Fortunately, we have scripture, which does not change, and which always seems to call some Christians back to the fold.

[Bosco]

"Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him,
that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? " - 2 Thess 2:1-5

"But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons" - 1 Timothy 4:1

We shouldn't be too surprised, but ready to give a defense, ready in season and out.

[allmendream]

Even that crap seems a step up from the “Black Liberation Theology” crap Oprah was listening to in the Rev. Wright’s “church”.

[bioqubit]

Just another iteration of multifarious Protestantism.

---

You might be right about that. At the far end of the “conventional” spectrum is univeral unitarianism or the UUs. A close look at their theology would be pretty hard to separate from New Age thinking. My problem with the UUs is that their form of worship is pretty passionless. You find a lot of very intelligent, very well educated people making up their congregations, but they left their hearts somewhere else. Surprisingly, there is a lack of what I would call “God-centered” feeling among UUs.

Fundamentalist baptists would definitely not get along with them.

Only because I spent a lot of time with New Age types am I inclined to defend them. They start out with good intentions which can end up in bad places. Also, the New Age crowd has at least as many sub-groups in it as the Protestants and Catholics, as well as the rest of Christianity.

In fact, there are aspects of New Age philosophy that are almost monastic in their outlook. For many people, the stumbling block is mysticism. New Age philosophy is strongly oriented towards mysticism. AND there are a number of Christian mystics to refer to. Thomas Merton, in our time, was close to it. There was also St. Teresa of the Cross, as well as others I can’t remember right now.

Their lives were examples of singular devotion that did not fit well with the rest of the world. To some people, there is an antagonistic relationship between mysticism and organized religion. The former eschews sects, group identities and such. The latter depends on well-defined institutions, rules, etc. For some, mysticism is like a row boat where you have to do your paddling to God, while organized religion is like the cruise liner that just takes you there.

It is within this mystical context that they invoke the idea of “Christ Consciousness”. In fact, there was a book somewhere in the early 1900s that introduced this idea. The table of contents lists roughly a dozen individuals, including Jesus, of course, who most deeply embodied the teachings of Christ. And that is where we should focus, the teachings themselves, if we are to sort out whatever is going on with the Emergent Church stuff.

A clever and mischeivious theologian could easily weave together a set of beliefs that are Christian and seem Christian, but are not. To the extent that the Emergent Church downplays or disavows Jesus....well, that shouldn’t be hard to figure out.

[Eva]

It’s almost funny to think that we thought the false preachers were people like Marjoe, whose only real power was to bilk people of their money.

[Uri’el-2012]

a>Just another iteration of multifarious Protestantism.

Now, now, there is no need to create yet more division among the Churches known to God. Even His Holiness of Rome acknowledges that there are valid Churches who do not recognize his authority.

Rather, test each the beliefs of each Church against the declarations of faith and beliefs put forward by the Church Fathers. The Nicean Creed, for instance, and the prayer of Saint Patrick.

12 posted on April 18, 2008 8:19:31 AM MDT by jimtorr

Acts 17:11
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than
the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great
eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see
if what Paul said was true.

Better to measure everything against the Holy Word of Elohom.

Psalm 118:
8 It is better to take refuge in YHvH Than to trust in man.

9 It is better to take refuge in YHvH Than to trust in princes.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai

[jimtorr]

I cite the Prayer of St. Patrick because it contains a brief summary of the basic concepts of what it means to be Christian. Example:

I arise today Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through the belief in the threeness, Through confession of the oneness Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism, Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial, Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension, Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

But, yes, the real test of a Church is its adherence to scripture. The scripture acknowledged as having authority by the Church Fathers, and the scripture given to the earlier Prophets.

[Ready2go]

Thanks so much Terriergal for posting this.

I gave my testimony on another thread the other day, but I’ll post it here too.

I met two ladies that had been Roman Catholic’s all their lives...they went to Catholic schools...faithfully attended Mass...went through all the motions the church offered, but didn’t know Jesus as their Personal Lord and Savior.

They spent hundred of hours listening to sermons, but neither of them understood them, or had a personal relationship with Jesus.

When I first met the ladies they wanted to know why I had so much Joy and Peace. I’m a born-again Christian who found Jesus just by reading my Bible.

When I started sharing with them what the Bible said they started reading their Bibles, they said they were always discouraged against reading the Bible themselves?

They both accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, became filled with the Holy Spirit and started telling all their friends about Jesus.

They had always pictured Jesus as a dead Jesus hanging on the cross. Once He became alive to them it changed their lives.

They had no idea that they were going to have eternal lives in either Heaven or Hell.

Heaven and Hell weren’t real places to them. They only knew about purgatory and that they were to pray for those folks that were there.

They didn’t know they’d someday have a perfect ressurected body just like Jesus has now. To them the idea of Heaven would be just floating around on a cloud somewhere.

They didn’t know “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord”. They thought they’d be laying in a grave somewhere until the end of time.

They didn’t know they could just ask God themselves for the forgiveness of their sins.

They had no idea about Jewish customs in Jesus time.

They knew nothing about The Rapture and how it compares to The Jewish Wedding.

http://www.godonthe.net/evidence/marriage.htm

http://www.waitingforjesus.com/therapture.html

They didn’t know anything about Bible Prophecy. And how God told us in the last days there would be a one world religion.

In fact that’s how I was able to talk with them about the Bible.

They had been deceived into going to “A Course in Miracles” (The garbage that Oprah’s teaching right now) and this was many, many years ago when they went.

They were empty and searching for something to fill the void. I was able to show them that this was a New Age teaching and not from God.

So I’m just saying these two ladies didn’t get anything out of going to school, or church for all those years. It wasn’t until they read the Bible for themselves that they finally found Peace & Joy...after they found Jesus.

Please know I’m not bashing anyone’s religion or faith...I just understand how someone could go through their entire life, and not have a personal relationship with Jesus.

This was over 20 years ago and I was able to show the girls that the world was being set up for a one world religion.

We had many ads in our small local trade paper advertizing the Lord Matria

This is a definite sign of the end times that Jesus predicted in Matthew 24 scenerio.

This New Age doctrine is setting the stage for the Antichrist to come on the scene to establish a one world religion & one world Government.

New Agers believe that a “Super Man” of great intelligence whose name will be “lord Matria” will usher in a “New Age” of enlightment and spiritualality.

All those who oppose lord Matria will be evicited from the earth if they deny him as the one true God. (Their explaination for when the Rapture happens)

Paul the Apostle tells us that when the Beast comes on the scene after the Rapture of the Church he will tell the world he is God, (2 Thess 2: 3-4).

Oprah Winfrey & her friends deny the Bible as the word of God and rejects the fundamentals of Christian doctrine. But the worse part of this, is that Jesus is downplayed as nothing more but one of many gods leading the way to “lord Matria”.

This is setting the stage for the great deception and Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

[Uri’el-2012]

The scripture acknowledged as having authority by the Church Fathers, and the scripture given to the earlier Prophets.

To suggest that the Holy Word of Elohim has been preserved
only through man is suggesting that the creator of the universe is impotent.

b'SHEM Yah'shua

[MrB]

Oprah claims to be a Christian, yet rejects the concept that Jesus is the only way to God the Father, as He said Himself,

thus disproving her assertion that she’s a Christian.

[GOPPachyderm]

Bob DeWaay is a great source for information at Critical Issues Commentary, and at the Twin City Fellowship website. Great pastor too!

[count-your-change]

An interesting article to be sure. The Christian congregation at Colossi was warned, “Look out: perhaps there may be someone who will carry you off as his prey through the philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary things of the world and not according to Christ.” (Col. 2:8)
Old empty deceptions repackaged and retitled whether as a ‘social gospel, new ageism, emergent church, kabala’, it's still the same thing.

[444Flyer]

I heard him speak recently. Thank God that there are still men taking a stand for the truth in America’s ever declining spiritual condition. He’s a very smart guy and a Godly man.

[jimtorr]

The written, living word of God is all we have that carries any authority.

[Uri’el-2012]

The written, living word of God is all we have that carries any authority.

Amen !

[arthurus]

Ưs have theology?

[Terriergal]

Are you saying he preserved it through animals? Or something other than the channel of man, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit?

[Terriergal]

We love Bob DeWaay.... wonderful humble TRUE pastor.

[444Flyer]

Wasn’t sure if you have seen this. It might be worth posting.

“Lessen focus on eternity, McLaren says at Willow Creek student ministries conference”

http://www.bpnews.net/printerfriendly.asp?ID=27867

This guy is going to be in big trouble with the Lord if he doesn’t see the error of his teachings. He will lead people right into the pit of Hell.