I don't have an ego
Posted on 10/19/2013 8:50:26 PM PDT by jodyel
Lighthouse Trails has watched in dismay over the past few years as Charles Stanley’s In Touch magazine has made the decision to promote contemplative/emergent names. When our editors picked up a copy of the August 2013 issue and saw a feature article written by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, we decided to call In Touch Ministries to find out who was responsible for the content in the magazine. Sadly, the response we received from the editorial department at In Touch left us with a sinking feeling that the evangelical church has been seduced and there was no turning back.
We’ll talk about the phone call in a minute but first a look at Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.
In June of 2011, Lighthouse Trails free lance writer Mike Stanwood wrote “Contemplative Spirituality Lands on Charles Stanley’s In Touch Magazine . . . Again.” In this article, it was revealed that in the January 2011 In Touch magazine issue, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove was featured in an article written by In Touch Managing Editor Cameron Lawrence. That article, titled “The Craft of Stability: Discovering the Ancient Art of Staying Put,” highlighted the “ intentional Christian community” at the Rutba House (Wilson-Hartgrove’s home) and their “daily prayer routine.” The In Touch article stated that Rutba House is an evangelical community rooted in the Protestant tradition and that Wilson-Hartgrove is an ordained Baptist minister, yet it also reported that Rutba’s community principles are borrowed from Benedictine monks and that all of their efforts are based on St. Benedict’s “rule of life.”
In Stanwood’s article, he points out that Wilson-Hartgrove is part of the “New Monasticism” movement within the emerging church. To help you understand just how serious this situation is with Charles Stanley and his ministry, read this following section of Stanwood’s article:
Wilson-Hartgrove is most recently known for co-authoring Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals with new monastic activist Shane Claiborne. Other books he has authored may also fall into the emerging/contemplative category. For example, one such book called New Monasticism: What It Has to Say to Today’s Church (1) has been endorsed by mystic proponents Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle, Tony Campolo, and Catholic priest and centering prayer advocate Richard Rohr. The mystics resonate with the “new monasticism” – this is plain to see.
On the surface, the new monasticism may look OK with its many good works of helping the poor and the needy. But the underlying belief system does not line up with biblical doctrine; rather it is about establishing an all-inclusive kingdom of God on earth now where individual salvation is replaced with a community salvation for the whole world. Atonement has less emphasis on Jesus Christ as the only atonement for man’s sins and instead becomes an at-one-ment where all of creation is “being” saved by coming together as one (and yes, seeing the divinity of man). This is the kind of “atonement” that McLaren, Tickle, and Rohr would resonate with.
It is important to see that they don’t just resonate with the good works coming out of the new monasticism; born-again Christians have been performing good works by helping the poor and needy for centuries and continue to do so. While this new monasticism supposedly distinguishes itself by its good works, in reality it is mysticism and the foundational beliefs of mysticism (i.e., panentheism, kingdom now, etc) that distinguish it. And it is that element that Tickle, McLaren, and Rohr embrace.
Additional resources on Wilson-Hartgrove’s website include a DVD called Discovering Christian Classics: 5 Sessions in the Ancient Faith of Our Future, a five-week study with contemplative advocate Lauren F. Winner (Girl Meets God) for high school or adult “formation.” A description of this DVD states:
“You will discover the meaning of conversion and prayer from the Desert Fathers and Mothers; how to love from the sermons of St. John Chrysostom; St. Benedict’s Rule of Life and how it became one of the foundations of Western Christian spirituality; how to have an intimate relationship with God according to The Cloud of Unknowing; and what it means to ‘pick up your cross” in the Imitation of Christ by Thomas A. Kempis.’”
Another book Wilson-Hartgrove has authored, called The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture, refers readers to the wisdom of Lao-tzu, the desert monastics, Thomas Merton, Benedictine spirituality, panentheist and interspiritualist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and Benedictine nun Joan Chittister.
In a Beliefnet interview one year ago, Wilson-Hartgrove shared how “we need the wisdom of those who’ve gone before us.” This wisdom he is referring to comes not from the Bible, but from the contemplative “Benedictines (who) taught us to start the day with common prayer.”1
After seeing what is at the core of Wilson-Hartgrove’s spiritual wisdom, it is not surprising to learn that he recently made an appearance at the [very emergent] Wild Goose Festival .2 According to an article in the Christian Post, the Wild Goose Festival was a “four-day revival camp in North Carolina featuring music, yoga, liberal talk and embracing of gays and lesbians.”
The fact is, anyone who is drawn to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, as Wilson-Hartgrove is, has got to be following a different spirit and another gospel or at the very least greatly deceived. Chardin, who is attributed to the term “cosmic Christ,” did not hide the fact in his writings that he believed, not in the Christ of the Bible, but a christ consciousness in every human being.
While we do not challenge Wilson-Hartgrove’s sincerity or concern for the poor and needy, we must challenge his consistent promotion of contemplative mystics and emergent leaders, and he certainly does not seem like a proper fit with In Touch Ministries, that is unless In Touch is going emerging. The reason we say this about Wilson-Hartgrove’s sincerity has to do with the phone call we had with two editors of the editorial staff of In Touch magazine on July 24, 2013. One of the editors we spoke with was Cameron Lawrence, the Editor in Chief (and also the one who wrote the 2011 In Touch article featuring Wilson-Hartgrove). Lawrence asked us if we had ever spoken with Wilson-Hartgrove personally, suggesting that he was a sincere man who lived out the Gospel by helping the needy. We answered him by stating that the issue at hand was not a private matter but rather a public issue because Wilson-Hartgrove is a public figure (books, conferences, articles, etc). We said that it did not matter what he might say in a private conversation, but it did matter what he was teaching others. And it mattered greatly that In Touch was promoting him.
When we spoke with Cameron Lawrence, we told him we wanted to know who was responsible for putting the article by Wilson-Hartgrove in the magazine to which he told us “the entire editorial staff” made the decision. We asked him if he would be interested in seeing some of our documentation to which he answered, “I have been on the Lighthouse Trails website, and I didn’t find it helpful.” The other editor we spoke with, who wished to remain anonymous, said it sounded like we were on a “witch hunt” to which we responded, “No, we are part of a Gospel-protection effort.”
At times like this, it is difficult not to become discouraged by the lack of interest in Christian intelligentsia and leadership regarding the contemplative/emerging issue. What more can we say to show them what seems so obvious to ourselves and many other Bible believing contenders of the faith? A number of years ago, when the Be Still DVD (a contemplative infomercial) came out and we saw Charles Stanley’s name in the credits as someone who supported the DVD, we contacted his ministry and spoke with a personal assistant. He accepted our offer for a free copy of A Time of Departing but said that Charles Stanley would be too busy to read it.
If the mystics whom Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove gravitates to are right, then Jesus’ words that He is the only Way to the Father are wrong. You can’t have it both ways. The opposite view – the contemplative – is that God is in all things, including all people. This is what all mystics believe, across the board. And if that were true, then the need for a Savior would vanish, and there wouldn’t be any need for ”one way” to God because man is already indwelled with God and a part of God.
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6
Endnotes: 1. New Monasticism & The Emergent Church: FS Talks with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove: http://blog.beliefnet.com/flunkingsainthood/2010/06/new-monasticism-the-emergent-church-fs-talks-with-jonathan-wilson-hartgrove.html.
2. Learn more about the Wild Goose Festival here: Left-Leaning ‘Wild Goose’ Festival Draws Ire of Evangelicals
I am so glad that you have shown your delight in your life in responding to this general commandment of Jesus. For the general information of all, here are the recorded commands that Christ gave to His disciple, and hence to you and me. Here they are:
What are 49 Ways to Love God and Others? The theme of all Scripture is to love God with all of our hearts and to love one another. (See Matthew 22:40 and John 13:34.)
1.Repent—Matthew 4:17—Humility
2.Follow Me—Matthew 4:19—Meekness
3.Rejoice—Matthew 5:12—Joyfulness
4.Let Your Light Shine—Matthew 5:16—Generosity
5.Honor God’s Law—Matthew 5:17–18—Love
6.Be Reconciled—Matthew 5:24–25—Responsibility
7.Do Not Commit Adultery—Matthew 5:29–30—Self-Control
8.Keep Your Word—Matthew 5:37—Truthfulness
9.Go the Second Mile—Matthew 5:38–42—Deference
10.Love Your Enemies—Matthew 5:44—Creativity
11.Be Perfect—Matthew 5:48—Sincerity
12.Practice Secret Disciplines—Matthew 6:1–18—Faith
13.Lay Up Treasures—Matthew 6:19–21—Thriftiness
14.Seek God’s Kingdom—Matthew 6:33—Initiative
15.Judge Not—Matthew 7:1—Discernment
16.Do Not Cast Pearls—Matthew 7:6—Discretion
17.Ask, Seek, and Knock—Matthew 7:7–8—Resourcefulness
18.Do Unto Others—Matthew 7:12—Sensitivity
19.Choose the Narrow Way—Matthew 7:13–14—Decisiveness
20.Beware of False Prophets—Matthew 7:15—Alertness
21.Pray For Laborers—Matthew 9:38—Compassion
22.Be Wise as Serpents—Matthew 10:16—Wisdom
23.Fear God, Not Man—Matthew 10:26—Boldness
24.Hear God’s Voice—Matthew 11:15—Attentiveness
25.Take My Yoke—Matthew 11:29—Obedience
26.Honor Your Parents—Matthew 15:4—Honor/Reverence
27.Beware of Leaven—Matthew 16:6—Virtue
28.Deny Yourself—Luke 9:23—Determination
29.Despise Not Little Ones—Matthew 18:10—Tolerance
30.Go to Offenders—Matthew 18:15—Justice
31.Beware of Covetousness—Luke 12:15—Contentment
32.Forgive Offenders—Matthew 18:21–22—Forgiveness
33.Honor Marriage—Matthew 19:6—Loyalty
34.Be a Servant—Matthew 20:26–28—Availability
35.Be a House of Prayer—Matthew 21:13—Persuasiveness
36.Ask in Faith—Matthew 21:21–22—Patience
37.Bring in the Poor—Luke 14:12–14—Hospitality
38.Render to Caesar—Matthew 22:19–21—Gratefulness
39.Love the Lord—Matthew 22:37–38—Enthusiasm
40.Love Your Neighbor—Matthew 22:39—Gentleness
41.Await My Return—Matthew 24:42–44—Punctuality
42.Take, Eat, and Drink—Matthew 26:26–27—Thoroughness
43.Be Born Again—John 3:7—Security
44.Keep My Commandments—John 14:15—Diligence
45.Watch and Pray—Matthew 26:41—Endurance
46.Feed My Sheep—John 21:15–16—Dependability
47.Baptize My Disciples—Matthew 28:19—Cautiousness
48.Receive God’s Power—Luke 24:49—Orderliness
49.Make Disciples—Matthew 28:20—Flexibility
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Please forgive me for being so tardy on this response --
You did, as it is clear you have been trolling for bites throughout this whole topic, seeking to engage and contradict non-Romanists who have defended The Faith, though thy proceeded from the basis of the wholly adequate platform of Scripture alone, to effectively logically and spiritually confute your weak and insupportable claims. I will not repeat what has already here been demonstrated under this topic headline.
I am evangelizing you.
No, you are not trying to convert me (and others); you are trying to pervert me through offering another gospel of a different kind (heteron), by another spirit of a different kind (heteron), by presenting me another Jesus of the same kind (allon), yes, but still another (allon) Jesus, whom you indicate cannot have said to a Devilish approach "It stands written (by Moses penning down the spoken inspired sayings hremati of The Jehovah/preincarnate Jesus, The God)(perfect tense, written as more permanent than a lead stylus accenting the engraving of His Words in a solid rock=--Job 19:24--as a completed action with abiding results, originallly written once and or all in Deuteronomy 8:3), 'Man (anthropos, a human being, as a metonymy for all mankind, thus singular masculine to include also females) doth not live (future tense, middle deponent voice, indicative, 3rd person singular)(himself gain life by inference, physically ingesting) by (epi, upon or idiomatically as a consequence of or because of) the bread loaf (literal food physically and figurative-literal token of Christ's Passion spiritually) only, but (also) by (preposition epi again) each-and-every word (all the words, individually and collectively, properly interpreted; every hrema saying) that proceedeth (present tense, a still-ongoing process reinstituted in John Baptist after God's 400-year silence to the Jews, up until the time of John Theologian's death; that poureth out) of (prep. dia with genitive, of/through) God's (genitive, Jehovah/Jesus/Risen Christ's) mouth (anarthrous, genitive, singular, neuter).'
The devil tried to corrupt Jesus through his adroitness in fatally modifying Scripture by adding one word to Psalm 91:11-12 passage, thus misdirecting its meaning (as you have done previously in this discourse). I'm not buying, and encourage others also, to disregard your false claims based on supposed authoritativeness of the Roman Church which cast into question the plain sense of the Holy Scripture.
On the title page of my Bible(s) I have placed my personal reminder of the utter reliability of Scripture alone:
Nothing more! Rev. 22:18, Prov. 30:5, 6
Nothing less! Rev. 22:19, Deut. 8:3
Nothing else: Gal. 1:8, Is. 8:20, 2 Cor. 11:3-4
And you resist.
I am absolutely standing meek toward the right, but rebellious toward the wrong.
And who are you, that seeks to assert power over me to insist against my will that I accept you poor catechistic crutch rather than Scriptural admonishment to correct and control me? If you want unity, start to begin to comply with a correct interpretation of the Holy Scripture. In this note, you have supplied not one sound Scriptural basis for your claims. That leaves me no authority to even wish you a good day. (2Jn. 8-11)
I stick with the Immersionists, constantly existing throughout the ages, and persecuted to to death by the Romanist creators of a sacral society imitating a dead Judaizing sacral society perpetrating these murderous auto da fes and Bible-burnings. I stand with the New Testament people of the Way, titled "Christian" in Antioch of Syria; the Montanists, Novations, Paterins, Purists, Cathari, Donatists, Paulicians, Arnoldists, Henricians, Albigensians, Waldensians, Anabaptists, Baptists, and "Plymouth brethren" whose blood was shed on the trail from the Ascension of Chist Jesus from the beginning until now by inquisitions; they rejected the seducing of nominal christians into Platonism on the one hand and into the state on the other hand by the unauthorized sacral society. IMHO
We cannot talk until you come to grips with your fatally weak apology and cling to the sufficient Holy Scripture for salvation and exploring of the Holy Faith, as well as abandoning tradition of fallible patristics, logic without spiritual sense, and personal experiences, as buttressing arguments. Amen. Maran atha.
There's no evidence of it on FR!!!
I am familiar with the Catholic behavior of making an appearance of scriptural debate while in fact deflectinbg the scriptural argument against the additions of Catholicism.
Ironically, for all Catholics spew about doing good works in addition to faith to earn salvation, that still doesn’t leave non-Catholic Christians out in the cold as anyone who has true faith WILL have good works.
We don’t add them to our intellectual assent in the vain thinking that intellectual assent + good works = saving faith.
Anyone with true saving faith has died to self and is a new creature in Christ, has the Holy Spirit living in them to will and to do according to God’s good pleasure.
*Good works* naturally flow from the life of the believer as the result and evidence of the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
BECAUSE??
Likewise...
...that works of the law, especially Catholic Law, do not save, because they are not what the New Testament consistently calls "requirements."
Satan’s oldest tactic.
“Did God REALLY say.....?”
Get people to question the authority of God and His word.
Once they do that, they’re easy pickings. They’ll swallow any lie.
Very good point, in fact, one of the best. Sort of forgotten in this discourse up til now, eh?
A clear case of carnal versus spiritual.
Without quibbling with the modernistic translation, yeah, when something is to be our way of life, that means necessary. In verse 9, it is grace, not salvation that is not a result of works, and indeed, by grace alone we are saved.
you should study the Reformers
Good grief, for what? I am interested int he Church Christ founded, not in inventions of some German semiliterate monks 1500 years later. No sale, thanks. I know enough of Protestant phony theology to despise it.
One can never do enough "good works" to save oneself
No one says we can. By we should "walk in them" nonetheless through faith, and by Grace, we may obtain salvation if we do.
We will either love Him, or we won't.
Right. We love -- we do works of love. We don't -- we invent "sola fide" theologies instead.
Continuing in the faith however, shall be The Way for "good works" to at all come about
That is roughly accurate:
with fear and trembling work out your salvation. For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will. (Phil. 2:12-13)
But why then do you contradict this by insisting that works are not necessary? God is not going to ask you anything unnecessary.
I am happy though you now appear to understand the distinction between salvific good works and sundry ceremonial, boastful, for-wages works of certain Pauline passages in Galatians and the Romans.
The Catechism indeed allows for salvation of Muslims, Jews and even Atheists; surely if a Protestant “honor Sacred Scripture, taking it as a norm of belief and a pattern of life, and who show a sincere zeal” he may be saved; but not a Protestant who only reads the Holy Scripture to deny it and deny Christ’s Holy Church. Necessary for this condition on non-Catholic bliss is the desire to unite with the Church. When I see such desire in a Protestant, I help him along with this conversion, for he cannot stay Protestant forever and be saved. A quick conversation usually reveals who is interested in salvation and who is not.
Shove off, troll.
Don't tell me what I am trying to do.
encourage others also, to disregard your false claims based on supposed authoritativeness of the Roman Church
That is not what I ask a Protestant to do. What I ask all to do is read the Holy Scripture and by the authority of the Holy Scripture, on which we agree, come to recognize the truth of the Catholic Church and her divine authority, and see the error of the theological fantasies of the so-called reformers.
who are you, that seeks to assert power over me
A baptized and confirmed Catholic Christian.
I stick with the Immersionists
Good grief, I thought I heard of everything. Thank you overall for this fascinating post; have a good day.
That is because when a Protestant mentions that St. Peter was renamed Rock, and given the Keys of Heaven, and a prayer of Christ to lead the Church, — that all that was based on the confession of Peter and not on the person of Peter, — then in the mind of a Protestant he destroyed the scriptural basis of papacy. But of course it is not so, for surely it is the faith of Peter and the divine appointment that gave him the faith and not, for example, Peter’s hair or sense of humor or skin tone, or skills as a fisherman, — not, in short, his peculiar person, — that mattered in his papacy.
Aha. True that, they don't. But they teach you something.
You sound upset. Is it something I said?
If it's by works, it's then merited and ceases to be grace.
Romans 11:6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
Amen...and it's why Jesus said we could know them by their "fruit". A rotten tree produces - quite by nature - bitter fruit, if any at all, and a good tree, one that was established correctly, produces good fruit - also by its nature - with some producing much and others, less. This speaks to motive, as well. Because the unregenerate can do good deeds and seem to be good people. The Catholic Church even contends that those who never hear of Jesus Christ, or their church, can "achieve" salvation: "Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience." (Lumen Gentium).
What is most ironical is the few here that INSIST that "Protestants" cannot possibly be saved unless they join to the Roman Catholic Church, yet they allow that an unbeliever (someone who had never believed in Christ) can be saved if they do their best according to their own consciences. I'm glad I only have to answer to Almighty God, who knows my heart and my faith, rather than bigots who don't even follow their OWN church's proclamations. If we have the Holy Spirit, we will produce fruit that pleases God - it will be natural.
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