PART 4
EMERGENT CHURCH MOVEMENT
NOW READY FOR PRIME TIME PLAYERS.
When we look to change ourselves in ways outside the work of Christ (adopting other spiritual practices?) or start searching for other ways to influence people or draw them to Christ not found in the Scripture, we are being disobedient to the commands of the apostles which they received from Jesus.
At a recent Emergent Conference, Brian McLaren was one of the speakers. He used a PowerPoint presentation (this is posted on his web site.) These are quotes from that presentation: �?U>What if the dominant method [of] knowing truth is being replaced by a new methodology ...�?nbsp; �?I>We embrace historic spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation, contemplation, study, solitude, silence.�?(referenced from lighthousetrailsresearch.com)
McLaren makes it seem as if we do not have the truth revealed, that we should still be searching to learn it . If he is presenting a new methodology then those terms we know must mean something different (especially those underlined). What is the method that a Christian is to learn the truth from? The Bible of course, the Holy Spirit will lead us and teach us the spiritual meaning of the word and we can apply it in our lives. This is the key difference to understanding where he (and others) are taking the church�?nbsp;
In the PBS interview pt.2 Lawton points out, �?I>McLaren is at the forefront of a controversial new effort to rethink Christianity for a new generation.�?/P>
Not surprising that Orell Steincamp makes this observation of Tony Jones (who was appointed as their National Director June 2005); he views McLaren's books and writings with approval and being part of this movement: “And books written by pastors and consultants about 'doing church in a postmodern world' are nothing new, nor are treatments of postmodernism by Christian academics. Leonard Sweet and Stanley Grenz have garnered thousands of readers in the pastorate and seminaries. ... McLaren, however, is saying something much different. He goes beyond promoting a change in pastoral technique. He's challenging pastors to rethink their message, not just how they deliver the message. He's not writing about a change in context, he's writing about changing the content. (emphasis mine). (http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2002/OO3/16.32.html)(�?/I>Post-Evangelicalism�?Books & Culture, Christianity Today, May/June 2002).
Changing the content? To make his direction clear we find Brian McLaren gives his approval of the book Reimagining Christianity. He says of the book: �?I>Alan Jones is a pioneer in reimagining a Christian faith that emerges from authentic spirituality. His work stimulates and encourages me deeply.�?(emphasis mine)
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.)
In seeking to �?I>redefine ourselves,�?should we be taking instruction and inspiration from those who are openly hostile to Christianity? While McLaren is moved and inspired by this book we need to know what exactly he is endorsing. Alan Jones writes on p.132 in his book “Reimagining Christianity,�?The Roman Catholic writer James Carroll certainly thinks so. He believes that we have made the sacred mistake of putting the cross at the center of Christianity in the wrong way. Carroll insists that Catholics must not only "reverently and silently" remove the cross from Auschwitz but, far more fundamentally, must remove the cross from the center of Christianity. The Church's fixation on the death of Jesus as the universal saving act must end, and the place of the cross must be reimagined in Christian faith. Why? Because of the cult of suffering and the vindictive God behind it.
“Such writing disturbs our inherited certainties and, for some, seems to mean the total dismantling of traditional Christianity. It also invites us to learn a new language. Many Christians have come to see that the very foundational documents of Christianity are polluted (St. John's gospel in particular, with its insistent mantra of the Jews, the Jews, the Jews as responsible for opposing and killing Jesus). This language must go. Believers are being challenged in their understanding of who and what Jesus thought he was. This is good. This doesn't mean that I agree with Carroll in every particular, but I do think that basic beliefs should always be open to reimagining�?/FONT> (Alan Jones, p. 132 Reimagining Christianity).
Jones also agrees with Duffy stating the doctrine of the Cross is a myth made up by man but is beneficial nonetheless (p. 133).
“Duffy is right when he insists: The cross is not some arbitrary demand of God imposed on a hapless victim. . . but a marker where human beings find them- selves, at the intersection of justice and mercy, time and eternity, death and life. All of which, of course, is the language of myth: but myth is the coin of religion, which makes sense of our world by telling such stories.�?/FONT>
What! Is this promoting authentic spirituality? Again let me remind you what McLaren said - Alan Jones is a pioneer in reimagining a Christian faith that emerges from authentic spirituality. His work stimulates and encourages me deeply.�?/FONT>
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).
The apostle Paul said “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified�?1 Corinthians 2:1-2). Paul preached “Jesus Christ and him crucified�?(1 Corinthians 1:18,23). The book of Acts tells us that the apostles preached Christ crucified. If Jesus told us to pick our cross to follow him why is McLaren recommending a book that holds it to scorn. Do these men hate the cross? I have not heard such disdain for it except from the Moonies and other cult groups who deny who Christ is and why He came. The participators in New age movement (now known as the new spirituality) think of the cross in exactly the same manner.
Jones admits "Christianity as a set of beliefs doesn't work for me. At the same time, I acknowledge the need for ritual and celebration in my life and find fulfillment and joy in many traditional practices. I light candles and ask for the prayers of the saints.... These disciplines ... do not require me to believe literally in angels and the Virgin Birth." (p. 31).
Christianity can’t work unless one believes in the doctrines of Scripture; one must have real faith. The virgin birth is a necessary part to understand how God became flesh otherwise we have no teaching on the incarnation. One must embrace the crucifixion to be forgiven for their sins by God who became man.
Among these statements of the cross Alan Jones in his book Reimagining Christianity explains his panthiestic worldview- �?I>The goal of the converted life is to find God in all things and is based on the conviction of the unity of reality. Everything is connected�?(p. 200). �?I>Jesus and Buddha have this in common with all great spiritual teachers-- to make human beings more conscious of themselves�?(p. 194).
How can McLaren recommend a book like this unless he himself embraces these teachings? Other religious beliefs, a denial of the cross, Christ as one of many spiritual teachers etc.. This sounds like the Bahai’s or something said straight out of the New Age Movement. However there are more problems with Brian McLaren endorsement of books; the utter lack of discernment is further exhibited when he endorsed Tony Campolo's Speaking My Mind, where Campolo states: "[M]ysticism [contemplative prayer] provides some hope for common ground between Christianity and Islam.�?(p.149). To fulfill this pattern McLaren has also endorsed Dave Fleming's book, “The Seeker's Way.�?McLaren writes: "I'm a huge fan of all Dave Fleming's work. He's brilliant for starters, and more - he's an energetic and engaging writer who lives what he writes about. I'm especially enthusiastic about 'The Seekers' Way' because it presents an approach to spiritual life and growth that is accessible to everyone and gives resources both to the beginner and the seasoned seeker."
He had to have read this book to endorse it. On http://www.theseekersway.com we have this description- Dave Fleming is a spiritual seeker, leadership coach and organizational midwife. He works with businesses, churches, non-profit organizations and individuals to help them express the inherent greatness that lies within.�?/P>
A believer in Christ does not call himself a spiritual seeker (beginner or seasoned) when they have found the truth in Jesus Christ. But the facts show Fleming is still searching. Dave Fleming's book has a chapter admiring Wayne Teasdale who believes in a global spirituality, that within the world religions we could all reach the same place through meditation. On the Living Spiritual Teachers Project website it says: The twenty-first century has been dubbed the "age of interspirituality" by Brother Wayne Teasdale �?/I>�?I> by the sharing different spiritual traditions from all the world’s religions. In Teasdale’s book the Mystic Heart, the preface is written by Dr. Bruteau who states a universal spirituality based on mysticism is going to save the world�?(quoted in A Time of Departure p.133 by Ray Yungen). This is reminiscent of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's book The Phenomena of Man, where he said of this new mysticism emerging, �?I>I can be saved only by becoming one with the universe,�?the very essence of mysticism. Brian McLaren is endorsing people who do not uphold historic Christianity. They are promoting an ancient enemy of the faith- Gnosticism/ mysticism, only in 21st century dress.
Inter-spirituality is about mix and match. A new open acceptance has now found a home in the church. Instead of holding to a narrow road view they now accept a wider approach to their spiritual worldview. The new Openness of God means that there is no absolute way, and that God is more lenient than we ever imagined. They have become so anti- denomination that we have gone to another extreme-to interfaith by adopting other religious practices.
Fleming interviews spiritual seekers as Marcus Borg (Jesus Seminar), Lauren Winner, Wayne Teasdale (promoter of inter-spirirtuality), Alan Jones (inter-spirirtuality), Joan Chittister (described as Benedictine sister with an ecumenical outreach and vision) Phil Gulley, and Jim Mulholland. The Seeker’s Way speaks to those who want more than what they have found thus far,�? encouraging them to embrace their search with joy and passion and giving them a broad framework from which to construct a seeker’s faith. Not a book about finding answers or making a case for faith, The Seeker’s Way helps those who seek to open themselves to a journey characterized by meaning, authenticity, & wholeness.
I can only conclude that McLaren is not confused on what he believes but knows exactly what he believes in and is introducing to the church. As do many of these men that congregate together have the intent of reshaping the church and Christianity.
McLaren on his site recommends Wilber, Ken. A Theory of Everything. Shambala, 2000. His comment says”�?Wilber promotes and exemplifies �?which he calls “integral�?thinking and which I call �?U>emergent�?thinking �?is powerful and important, in my opinion�?(Thanks to Jay Gary for this recommendation.)
I wonder if Jesus would have the same “opinion�?contrary, I think He would have an absolute statement on this.
Shambala happens to be a new age counterfeit city of the new Jerusalem which they claim is floating invisibly in our atmosphere. (Jay Gary also holds to new age concepts.)
Topics in the book include: a leading model of human evolution called "spiral dynamics" Wilber's ground-breaking "all quadrant, all level" approach for integrating the realms of science and religion.
As Wilber explains, it is "a model that would unite all the known laws of the universe into one all-embracing theory that would literally explain everything in existence�?(ed. Note: Wilber is not God, how could he do this?)
“the integral search finally succeeds by finally letting go of the search itself, there to dissolve in a radical Freedom and consummate Fullness that was always already the case, and one abandons a theory of everything in order to simply be Everything, one with the All, in this endlessly fulfilled moment.�?/FONT>
Wilber is describing the mystical experience of oneness that new age adherents and mystics are united in, (panentheism).
Leonard Sweet also references Wilber several times in his book “Quantum Spirituality�?stating: �?I>The Christian of tomorrow will be a mystic, one who has experienced something, or he will be nothing.�?/I> 45. See the dialogue between David Spangler and Ken Wilber, “Critiquing the New Age,�?I>Yoga Journal, July/August 1988,49. Ken Wilber, “Eye to Eye: Science and Transpersonal Psychology,�?Ken Wilber, The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development. Eddington’s article “Defense of Mysticism,�?in Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World’s Great Physicist, ed. Ken Wilber.
Sweets affiliation with Wilber is concerning. In an ad for Ken Wilber Kosmic Consciousness (audio CD) �?U>Before the birth of the universe there existed your "Original Face," the limitless Self that has been present throughout the unfolding of inert matter into life-and that continues to dwell within us at every level of consciousness. Where is this grand evolution taking us-and how can each of us participate more fully in it? On Kosmic Consciousness, Ken Wilber invites you to find out.�?(emphasis mine)
It contains- How meditation works and why it is the most reliable tool for personal development; The chakra system, a paradigm for the unfolding self; Altered states of consciousness- how they can catalyze (or hinder) transformation; the enneagram; Tantra (yoga); Reincarnation-myth or provable phenomenon? Ascending, descending, and "non-dual" spiritual paths.
This is blatant mysticism, making use of other religions, Kosmic Consciousness has long been an accepted term for the mystical experience of oneness through various occult methods, and McLaren And Sweet are fine with this!
No matter what you call the practices now taking place in the church one needs to be aware of those who want to introduce “a new spirituality. �?.. as New Agers ... once the occult . . . terminology is removed, we have concepts and techniques . . . acceptable to the general public. So we can change the names and . . . open the New Age door to millions who normally would not be receptive�?/I> (New Age leader Dick Sutphen, Infiltrating the New Age Society in What Is, Summer 1986, p.14 quoted in Dave Hunts book Occult Invasion)
Well they no longer need to do this, they only need to sanctify it by calling it Christian and it is sanitized for church use. Even if one will not concede that these men are actively participating in new age spirituality, one cannot deny they have embraced at least some of the same values, ideology, and practices.
Consider this explanation from Mike Perschon- �?/FONT>I worked as a church planter the following year and began using contemplative elements in worship from the outset. We held "thin place" services in reference to a belief that in prayer, the veil between us and God becomes thinner. Entire nights were devoted to guided meditations, drum circles, and "soul labs." At soul labs we used the rave culture's approach of multiple rooms for different music to create a number of prayer stations, where people could try various approaches to contemplative prayer.
“Now all I need to do is close my eyes and begin deep breathing or whisper a phrase from a Logos meditation, and my heart is opened to feel God's presence. Like anything else we do, the contemplative life becomes more and more natural with practice.
The morning after I expressed my intention to the group, a young lady came to me with a concerned expression. "You're going to teach us to meditate?" she asked."That's right," I said. "Isn't that New Age or Buddhist?" she asked. "Well, Buddhists do meditate, and there are many New Age meditative practices, but what I'm going to teach is Christian meditation." I silently promised myself to never use the word meditation in a public Christian setting ever again. "What's the difference?" "Well, on the surface, nothing. The approach to meditation for a Buddhist looks an awful lot like what I do. The difference is the reason we're doing it. The Buddhist empties the mind for the sake of emptying it. The Christian empties the mind to fill it with Christ." "I don't know about this." Responded the woman (Desert Youth Worker Disciplines, Mystics, and the Contemplative Life by Mike Perschon)
Good reply, her discernment was working; but alas it was ignored as Perschon went on. It becomes clear that certain leaders involved know exactly what they introducing to the sheep. The fact is, a Buddhist empties the mind to reach illumination to have oneness. A Christian does not empty his mind to be filled, we are not to do this. We actively and willfully surrender portions of our life to Christ for Him to fill it and control us. David said he meditates on God's Statutes, works, precepts, majesty, and His WORD (Ps.119).
Paul echoes David’s sentiment “Whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-- meditate on these things�?I> (Philippians 4:8). Jesus uses the word meditate as he explains about giving a testimony before adversaries “Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer�?(Luke 21:14). Clearly He meant thinking of what one will say.
Near the end of the first part of the PBS interview with some of the leaders in the Emerging Church Mr. JONES' response seems to sum it all up: The emerging church is a place of conversation and dialogue and movement. Where that's going to go, we don't know. We're figuring this out together. We don't have an agenda of what it looks like at the end of the road. We just want to gather up people who are on this road, who want to go together on it.
(part one- http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week845/cover.html
part two- http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week846/cover.html
You don’t get to a goal when you don’t know what road you are traveling on. This reminds me of being on a boat on a river that is carried with the current without any steering, the crew admires their surroundings of the sun and sky, calling it a beautiful day. They comment on how quickly they are traveling together- being unaware that a waterfall is just up ahead around the bend.
We need to understand that many know what they are involved in but do not care. They (not all) may not have an agenda what it will be in the end but they certainly have an agenda in how they are traveling to get there. There are too many statements that refer to the mystics writings, too many practices that resemble the mystics for them not to know what they are doing.
LET US REASON MINISTRIES
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