By Roger Oakland
Understand the Times, International
Recently, I read a Facebook post by a southern California pastor that the “emerging church” was no longer a problem for him or his church. He stated that the emerging church was just another passing fad that had come and then disappeared never to be heard of again. His church was going to focus on what was positive and insinuated that “hyper-discernment ministries” were scaring his sheep into believing they were living in the last days and that apostasy was rampant.
The comments by this pastor are not uncommon. In fact, fewer and fewer shepherds today are warning the sheep in their flocks of the dangers lurking not only outside the fold but also within the fold. A good shepherd must keep watch over his flock as many wolves are lurking around seeking whom they may devour. Ignoring these dangers does not make the problems go away. Sheep can easily be misled by false unbiblical teachings that are like a grain of arsenic in a milk shake. The milk shake may look and taste good but the grain of arsenic will be enough to kill someone.
When a pastor makes the claim that the emerging church is a thing of the past, this shows he is either uninformed or he is willingly ignorant. Sad to say, it can be both, and he may not even know it. The emerging church has many stealth methods to find its way under the radar. Satan is a master deceiver and knows what he is doing. In the early stages of the emergent church takeover, the methods may have been somewhat more obvious, at least to those with God-given discernment.
Now that the clear majority of churches have been inoculated with the poison, it appears that the majority of sheep have fallen victim to the poison and have fallen asleep. Discernment is diminishing. Worse yet, the shepherds (i.e., pastors and teachers), who are supposed to protect the sheep, have fallen asleep. They are still looking for ways to replace the older generation who “smelled a rat” and left. Now these pastors are looking for ways to fill the pews with novel ideas that appeal to the “carnal mind” (Romans 8:7).
There is one area that will illustrate that the emerging church is still alive and active in many churches, ministries, Christian colleges, and seminaries. One of the most effective ways for contemplative mysticism, along with other eastern mystical beliefs, to creep in is through recommended books for the women of the church in the “Ladies Ministry.” Millions of Christian women are reading books like Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, and books by Beth Moore are read and studied more than the Bible.
In fact, in many churches, these books replace the Bible altogether. Rather than teach verse-by-verse through a book of the Bible, the leader of the women’s study teaches page-by-page through a book that is very appealing to the flesh and provides additional revelation to the Bible. When a discerning woman in the study goes to the pastor and expresses her concerns, she is often chided for being divisive, or her concerns are totally overlooked.
One of the problems is this: often the pastor’s wife is the leader of the women’s study. He may or may not recognize that his own wife is off track. Whatever the case, recognizing the danger of what is going on and taking action is not in his portfolio—he doesn’t want to rock the boat. Soon the women have their husbands reading the books they are reading, and they too become inoculated with unbiblical ideas. Before long, the church that was once right on, is right off.
Emergent apostasy is spreading like wildfire around the world. The only way to slow this delusion down is to shine the light of God’s Word on Satan’s plan. However, therein lies the problem. Human pride will never be corrected by the truth unless leaders will humble themselves. Unfortunately, most who have chosen the path they are on have no intention to change. Even when they are chided with love, they hurl back nasty names rather than repent.
(Roger Oakland is the author of Faith Undone and The Good Shepherd Calls, both which address the emergent church.)
The Open Brethren church in New Zealand – where i live and was raised – does not have pastors/ministers, the elders take it in turn to preach, each church is autonomous and not answerable to a local or national body politic. This is a rue form of spreading the word that each of you have taken personally and can now share, don’t use pastors, preach the word God gives you.
Amen. It has infiltrated “all” churches in my area. Even a dear friend of mine who has a pastor as a dear friend told her ‘Jesus Calling’ was okay. After a warning she promptly quit reading it, but I was upset that the pastor told her it was a good read. How could he be trusted now? But she does unfortunately. The ladies are not just reading Beth Moore they are reading everything except the Bible in it’s context. Even a dear family member studies Beth Moore and to her I’m nuts! I tried to tell her, but she won’t listen. She looks at me as if I’m an alien. I really am tired of hearing “let go, let God”, “judge not”. The men are no different they are doing the same in their studies. There is no separation what so ever between the denominations either. Today The SDA church and The Roman Catholic Church are just another denomination. One big happy camp just like the Bible said it would be. The pied piper (also known as Pan) who plays the music is the devil. Reminds me of Daniel 3:4-7 which is the ultimate goal isn’t it?
Upon relocating to a new area of the US, we found a local church to attend.Initially it appeared to be a “fit.” The pastor shared similar concerns & convictions at first. We had been told by him his church had been heading toward’s a seeker-friendly church, but the red flag of concern was discerned by him and others and they attempted to cease in that direction. As time went on, there were red flags that we discerned: it didn’t matter what Bible translation was used; Beth Moore studies were being used by one of the woman teachers, a liberal bent pervaded in & across many of the members, contemporary music that did not glorify the Lord, but instead was emotional & entertaining, psychological principles blended into some of those who taught and/or gave a message, and so much more. There was much concern, and we talked to the pastor from time to time of what we were discerning. After almost 4 years we were convicted to leave that church. In addition to the emerging church manifestation, psychological “self” messages, the awareness of free masonry activities of the worship leader and others in that church and more lighter goings on led us to leave. The pastor covered for all that, and we exited!!!
Error never goes away; it just gets repackaged.
It’s because it’s no longer emerging as we warned about for years it has now emerged. It is by and large fully accepted. We rarely go to church anymore as we just sit there and shake our heads in disagreement . These are supposedly bible believing fundamentalist churches. What I find with the leadership of churches and denominations is that they really don’t believe they have a bible in the English language that can be fully trusted. How do you really dig into biblical doctrine without Gods preserved word?
Thank you for this post. The church I attend is led by a pastor and elders who I truly believe highly esteem the Word of God. I was alarmed to know of a “secret” Beth Moore study for certain women in the church. When I questioned one of the elder’s wives about it she said it was fine because the more mature women who were present could make sure those that were younger in the faith weren’t misled by any confusing teaching from Beth Moore. Seriously, all of these women are misled. I was at this same woman’s home for a small group gathering and very much not to my surprise, she had a well used copy of Jesus Calling on her coffee table. When I tried to talk to my pastor about my concerns, his response was that contemplative prayer, Beth Moore and the emergent nonsense are a passing fad – nothing to see here folks, just move along… He also referred to me as austere and pugnacious when he came to the hospital to pray for me prior to a surgery. I believe this emergent, contemplative movement is endemic in the church, not unlike a virus. The only anti-viral so to speak is the Word of God and God given discernment. Please do not grow weary in doing well – many of us are grateful and thankful for the work of Lighthouse Trails.
Thank you, Mr. Oakland, for your words of wisdom and discernment. Once every 18 months, I preach/teach specifically on apostasy – so the members of the church do NOT forget about the subject. God bless you and your work in the Lord’s ministry to His saints and lost souls.
I can’t count the times I have ran into this situation, and that describes it exactly! It also goes to show how alive and well the emergent church is, ironically. Yes, it is always through the women’s ministry… as if satan still knows that the woman can be more easily deceived… and she takes that tempting bite… and boom. It’s too late and deception wins. I ended up leaving what appeared to be a very conservative church, albeit the women’s ministry. They always sneak the mysticism in at the ladies’ retreats and functions. I recall at one such event a woman speaker was introduced who someone met at a ‘ladies’ retreat,’ and they listed her accolades…”attended Bethel university…spiritual formation… Shadow mountain…” and the list went on. Some of the women did gasp, which was funny. I got up to use the restroom and never came back!
Yes, the Emergent church is still very much alive and well….in an updated form…..PLEASE, PLEASE Lighthouse Trails and Roger Oakland, please consider addressing how the two “ministries”: 1) The Gospel Coalition, and, 2) Together for the Gospel are being used to add to and complete the 3-legged stool you, Roger, spoke so clearly of in your DVD’s published several years ago. Please address this issue to warn, yet again, those who think they are following “safe” authors and speakers who are blending Emergent ideas with conservative views. It is interesting to note that these groups are of the Neo-Calvinist and Reformed camps found in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), and the Presbyterian Conservative branch (PCA) who hold tightly to another man’s teachings and whose views are addressed in Lighthouse Trails recent publication, “Calvinism: None Dare Call It Heresy”. In addition, it appears The Gospel Coalition has also helped to promote the recent REVOICE conference held in Louisiana in July. The subject of this conference directly relates to a booklet Lighthouse Trails published a while back, and the Emergent Church has no problems with the concepts discussed at this conference. Please, we need your voice on this issue to warn!! Concerned in Idaho