The Circle Makers

In a book written by Mark Batterson called, The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears, Batterson insist that one can draw a circle around various issues and desires, and God will intervene mightily.—C.H. Fisher

“THE CIRCLE MAKERS”

By C. H. Fisher
TruthKeepers

There is this familiar and oft-quoted excerpt from a poem, “Outwitted,”  by Edwin Markham;

“He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him In !”

Is it possible to cause a rebellious heretic to change his heart and mind with nothing but love?  Of all the people to attempt to win with love, the rebellious heretic is the most difficult.  It seems good on the surface, a Christian thing to do, roping a rebellious heretic with a circle of love and taking him in.  In fact, professing Christians often quote the excerpt as if it is a noble example of true Christianity.  But I’m not certain that it was Christianity that Markham determined to win his rebellious heretic to.

Before writing his poem, Markham became a mystic under the influence of Thomas Lake Harris.  Harris, who had contact with spirit entities such as “The Lily Queen”, was the leader of a small religious cult.  As a winemaker, he claimed that his wine was filled with “divine breath” and thus free from noxious properties including the effects of alcohol.  Markham also became a Mason. His first wife divorced him over his adulterous affair.  To my knowledge he never practiced Christianity.  So exactly what he meant by his poem we may never know.

There is some circle drawing going on in Christianity today that appears to be based on the same fanciful notion that Markham wrote about.  Popular pastor and author Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church (and other professing Christians) has been teaching an imaginative salvation plan called Kingdom Circles.  It is a method of inclusion whereby false religions and cults are accepted into Christianity without renouncing their sin or heresy.  The plan involves a large circle with a number of small circles on its perimeter.  The large circle supposedly represents the Kingdom of God, and the smaller circles represent false religions and cults.  The portion of the small circles that fall inside of the large one is considered light, and the portion on the outside of the large circle is darkness.  Thus, a Muslim has his dark portion in the kingdom of Satan with his light portion in the kingdom of God.  Of course, this defies the Word of God, but that does not matter to the circle makers.  They drew circles and took them in.

One of Warren’s associates and collaborating authors Dr. Mehmet Oz practices Reiki.  During a workshop with her husband, Dr. Oz’s wife conducted a Reiki experience that went as follows. Click here to continue reading this article.

2 thoughts on “The Circle Makers

  1. My pastor asked me to review Batterson’s The Circle Maker. It is much more shrewdly contrived than Jesus Calling, but is just as non-biblical. Let me know if you would like my review. I can put it into drop box for you, or just email you the MS Word file. New subject: I was asked this morning about Bill Johnson and his church. Thanks for all your articles on him. Scary. Yb, Bruce

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