On December 7-9, the Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future conference is being held at Northern Seminary in Illinois. According to Northern, the purpose of this “historic” event is to give “a challenge issued for evangelicals to rediscover their common mission and be energized by the Holy Spirit for ministry!” In a Christianity Today article, where the conference is featured, it states: “In light of these challenges, we call evangelicals to strengthen their witness through a recovery of the faith articulated by the consensus of the ancient church and its guardians in the traditions of Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, the Protestant Reformation, and the evangelical awakenings.”
Who will be some of those who will help evangelicals deal with these “challenges”? At the conference, speakers include Brian McLaren and Robert Webber (Ancient Future Worship), both whom heavily promote contemplative and emerging spiritualities. While there have been plenty of conferences with McLaren and other contemplative/emergent speakers, what makes this conference unique is the combination of both emergent leaders (McLaren and Webber) and long standing evangelical organizations like InterVarsity Press, Baker Books and Christianity Today. While all three of these have published quite a few pro-contemplative books/articles, teaming up with Brian McLaren is a bold step.
Brian McLaren, who has clearly shown his affinity towards a “new kind” of Christianity, one that goes beyond the borders of biblical Christianity, shares the spiritual sympathies of panentheist Marcus Borg and Tony Campolo.
Resources on the event website (see below) include Ruth Haley Barton’s Transforming Center and the Alban Institute.
To some, this may seem like just another report on another contemplative issue; however, what is taking place at this conference and what it represents is the future face of the new evangelicalism that is here to stay, and the glue that holds this new face together is mysticism and panentheism, both of which negate the message of the Cross. In fact, something that has unveiled itself within these circles in recent days is the idea that a truly loving God would never send His Son to a violent death on a Cross. God just isn’t like that.
In a document that organizers title The Call, one can view the various components of this calling. Part of this includes the section on the call to Spiritual Formation. The contemplative nature of this conference as well as the document that Christians are being asked to sign (The Call) is somewhat concealed with Christian terminology. However, when the outer layers are peeled away, you will see this is nothing more than the spirituality we have so often described. And now that mainline organizations like
Christianity Today and InterVarsity Press have come out of the closet and joined forces, the escalation of contemplative (which will eventually lead to one unified religion throughout the world – one that rejects the true gospel) will be unstoppable. We pray and hope that many believers will see this and do what they can to warn others.
Check out the AEF Call website for further information. Complete Speaker List
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.