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As contemplative
prayer is fast becoming a household
and church wide term, partly due
to projects like the Be Still DVD
recently released by Fox Home Entertainment,
some may ask, "What's so bad about
this practice anyway?" Something
that New Agers seem to understand,
but so many Christians miss, is
the fact that the silence, which
undergirds the whole contemplative
movement, is the common denominator
that ultimately leads to what is
termed interspirituality, which
in turn diminishes the message of
the Cross.
Those who practice contemplative
prayer are in great danger, and
it is this that motivates many of
us to continue our pleas for discernment.
Many Christian leaders appear to
be reluctant to speak up against
the spiritual formation (i.e., contemplative)
movement, and in fact may even be
on the verge of joining hands with
those in it. If a Christian leader
is not taking a solid biblical stand
against contemplative, then that
leader is failing to alert his flock
to a warning they need to hear.
These are strong words, but if we
as Christian believers do not defend
the precious faith, which is the
only means of salvation for mankind,
who will?
"And
he who does not take his cross and
follow after Me is not worthy of
Me. He who finds his life will lose
it, and he who loses his life for
My sake will find it" (Matthew 10:38-
39). |
God in Everything?
The Premise of Contemplative Prayer
by Ray Yungen
It
was Alice Bailey (the famous occult
prophetess who coined the term New
Age), who made this startling assertion:
It
is, of course, easy to find many
passages which link the way of
the Christian Knower with that
of his brother in the East. They
bear witness to the same efficacy
of method.
What
did she mean by the term "Christian
Knower"? The answer is unmistakable!
... [O]ccultism is awakening the
mystical faculties to see God in
everything. In Hinduism, this is
called reaching samadhi or enlightenment.
It is the final objective of yoga
meditation: God in everything—a
force or power flowing through all
that exists. William Johnston believes
such an experience exists within
the context of Christianity. He
explains:
What
I can safely say, however, is
that there is a Christian samadhi
that has always occupied an honored
place in the spirituality of the
West. This, I believe, is the
thing that is nearest to Zen.
It is this that I have called
Christian Zen.
The
famous psychologist Carl Jung predicted
this system would be the yoga of
the west. Christian Zen? Christian
yoga? These seem to be oxymorons,
like military pacifism or alcoholic
sobriety. Christians, conservative
ones at least, have always viewed
these concepts as heretical and
anti-biblical. The word most commonly
used for it is pantheism—all is
God. But when one looks at the Christian
Zen movement one discovers a similar
term, which for all practical purposes,
means the same thing. This term
is called panentheism—God is in all things....
[Does]
panentheism have a legitimate place
in orthodox Christianity? This is
a vital question because panentheism
is the foundational worldview among
those who engage in mystical prayer.
Ken Kaisch, a Episcopal priest and
a teacher of mystical prayer, made
this very clear in his book, Finding
God, where he noted:
Meditation
is a process through which we
quiet the mind and the emotions
and enter directly into the experience
of the Divine.... there is a deep
connection between us ... God
is in each of us.
Here
lies the core of panentheism: God
is in everything and everything
is in God. The only difference between
pantheism and panentheism is how God is in everything. This position
of the panentheist is challenging
to understand: Your outer personality
is not God, but God is still in
you as your true identity. This
explains why mystics say, all is
one. At the mystical level, they
experience this God-force that seems
to flow through everything and everybody.
All creation has God in it as a
living, vital presence. It is just
hidden.
The
theological implications of this
worldview put it at direct odds
with biblical Christianity for obvious
reasons. Only one true God exists,
and His identity is not in everyone.
The fullness of God’s identity,
in bodily form, rests in Jesus Christ
and Him only!
Click here to read more of this
excerpt from A Time of Departing,
2nd ed. pp. 28-30 |
Does Amazon.com Know Something
Christians Don't Know?
Amazon.com has paired
the new Be Still DVD with a New Age
movie, What the Bleep Do We Know?
Frequently, Amazon.com pairs
together titles of books or DVDs with
those of similar content or nature.
The Be Still DVD is no exception,
except that instead of pairing it
with a Christian film Amazon has paired
it with a pro-New Age, interspiritual
film called What
the Bleep Do We know? (connected
with Global Peace activists Marianne
Williamson and Walter Cronkite).
It looks like Amazon has the jump
on many Christians in this case -
they figured out the nature of the
Be Still DVD before Christian leaders
and many Christians have.
Click
here to see the two DVDs together. |
2006 Global Day of Prayer
The Annual Global Day
of Prayer is coming again in June,
uniting more and more people every
year.
This annual event that started
just a few years ago is growing each
year. Here is a
list of participating countries. |
Criswell College and the
Emerging Church Movement?
The Criswell Theological
Review, a publication of Criswell
College, devotes an entire issue to
discussing the Emerging Church movement.
In the Spring
2006 edition of the Criswell Theological
Review (a publication of Criswell
College), articles written by Emerging
Church authors and an interview with
Brian McLaren leave one to wonder
just what exactly CTR editor, Alan
Streett, had in mind when he put this
issue of the newsletter together.
Correctly recognizing Brian McLaren
as a leading representative of the
Emerging Church indicts the movement.
One can only wonder at this point
if Criswell College (named after Dr.
W.A. Criswell - Rick Warren's mentor),
heading towards Emergent?
Related Information:
Colleges
and Seminaries That Promote Contemplative
Spirituality
|
Leadership Network Launched
the Emerging Church Movement!
Many think that the
Emerging Church movement was started
by a bunch of young people who wanted
a hip atmosphere at church ... not
so at all.
According to an article in the recent
edition of Criswell
Theological Review,written
by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill, it
was the Leadership Network that initiated
the Emerging Church movement. Driscoll
states:
In
the mid-1990s I was a young church
planter trying to establish a church
in the city of Seattle when I got
a call to speak at my first conference.
It was hosted by Leadership Network
and focused on the subject of Generation
X. ... Out of that conference a
small team was formed to continue
conversing about postmodernism ...
By this time Leadership Network
hired Doug
Pagitt to lead the team and
organize the events. He began growing
the team and it soon included Brian
McLaren. Pagitt, McLaren, and
others such as Chris Seay, Tony
Jones, Dan
Kimball, and Andrew Jones stayed
together and continued speaking
and writing together as friends....
McLaren, a very gifted writer, rose
to team leader in part because he
had an established family and church,
which allowed him to devote a lot
of time to the team. That team eventually
morphed into what is now known as
Emergent. (Mark Driscoll, "A Pastoral
Perspective on the Emerging Church")
Incidentally, in Driscoll's article
about the emerging church, he left
out the one element that counts the
most - the emerging church's affinity
with contemplative spirituality. As
I have often said, remove contemplative
from emerging and all you have left
is coffee, couches and candles.
It is more than significant
to understand the implications that
Leadership Network actually launched
the Emerging Church. To understand
just how pervasive the connections
are, it is necessary to take a look
at CCN (Church
Communications Network which is
an Innovation Series of Leadership
Network). CCN carries most
of today's top Christian leaders including James Dobson, Nicky Gumbel
(creator of the Alpha course) Richard
Foster (a speaker for the Be Still
CCN conference), various Saddleback
pastors, including Rick Warren, Bob
Buford (founder of Leadership Network)
and the list goes on and includes
several emerging leaders such as McLaren,
Leonard Sweet and Erwin McManus. The
point is that while many are saying
they do not agree with the emerging
church and what it stands for, some
of these same so called critics have
been behind it all along.
Related
Information:
*Other
partners of Leadership Network
include:
Josey
Bass (publishers of Brian McLaren),
Zondervan (partnering with Youth
Specialties and many contemplatives),
Lifeway (from the Southern Baptist
Convention)
Emergent
and Jewish Leaders in First Ever
Meeting
Read the Criswell Theological
Review - Spring 2006 Edition |
Christian Ministry Leader
Urges Prayer as Dalai Lama Visits
Mayo Clinic
By Mary Rettig and Jenni
Parker (Agape Press)
April 7, 2006 "Olive Tree
Ministries founder and director Jan
Markell says the patients and staff
at the famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
Minnesota, need a prayer of protection
on April 17. She believes a guest
who will soon be visiting the hospital
may pose a greater danger to the patients
than the illnesses that brought them
there.
"Markell says she was informed by
a supporter of her ministry that on
that date in mid-April, the Tibetan
spiritual icon, the Dalai Lama, will
be visiting the clinic and speaking
on "practices that encourage a peaceful
mind and positive ways to live during
difficult times." ... From her own
personal experience at the medical
facility, the head of Olive Tree Ministries
says she knows the Rochester clinic
is a place where many people go as
a last resort when they have exhausted
all other hope for treatment of their
diseases. Because of this, the Tibetan
Buddhist leader's impending visit
is "a disaster waiting to happen,"
she contends.
"'You've got hundreds if not thousands
of people like that, in that mental
state,' Markell observes, 'and then
along comes this false prophet, who
probably is going to give them some
kind of lie because he represents
everything that has to do with the
New Age movement.'"
Read Entire Article, Christian
Ministry Leader Urges Prayer as
Dalai Lama Visits Mayo Clinic |
Most Major Christian Leaders
Joining Together Under One Roof
From New Age sympathizers
to Emergent Leaders to Evangelicals,
CCN is bringing them all together.
What does Leonard Sweet (Quantum
Spirituality), Peter Wagner (Church
Growth), Hank Hanegraff (Bible Answer
Man), James Dobson (Focus on the Family),
Rick Warren (Purpose Driven), Mike
Yaconelli (Youth
Specialties), Brian McLaren, Max
Lucado, and many other Christian leaders
all have in common? They are all part
of the fast growing Church
Communication Network (a partner
of Leadership Network).
You may be thinking right
now, "With so many well-known and
trusted leaders, how could this be
dangerous? They can't ALL be wrong,
can they?
In February, CCN presented Larry
Crabb with The Papa Prayer. "This...is
all about a way to pray, a way to
talk to God a little and listen a
lot, a way to get better acquainted
with God and yourself - through a
special kind of two-way conversation,
a way to pray that lets us experience
His life in us and releases that life
to trickle, sometimes gush, out of
us into others."
See more information on Larry
Crabb's connections to contemplative.
View the list of speakers at CCN |
Beth
Moore and the Be Still DVD
Many have asked us whether Beth Moore
has placed a statement on her website
denouncing her involvement with the
new Be Still DVD that Fox Home Entertainment
just released this month. As of the
writing of this newsletter, the answer
is no. And after having viewed the
DVD, I think I can understand why.
There is no indication on the DVD
that Beth Moore is against contemplative
prayer, and in fact when we spoke
with her assistant, she told us that
Beth Moore did not have a problem
with Richard Foster or Dallas Willard's
teachings. Thus we do not expect to
see such a statement on her website.
In the meantime, the Be Still DVD
is being widely promoted and can be
found even in your local video rental
stores. Couple this DVD with the fast
growing CCN (Church Communication
Network) and we can safely say that
contemplative prayer is quickly becoming
"normal" in Christendom. But before
we are too swift to think "oh well,
maybe it isn't that bad," listen to
these words by mystic Richard Kirby:
"The
meditation of advanced occultists
is identical with the prayer of
advanced mystics."
That
statement is taken from Ray Yungen's
book, A
Time of Departing.
Ray saw this coming back in 1994 when
he sat and listened to Richard Foster
and soon realized Foster was promoting
the teachings of mystic Thomas Merton.
Ironically enough this was about the
same time the Emerging Church was
being formed by the Leadership Network
(See article 5).
Read more on the Be Still DVD |
Missing the Point About the
Emerging Church
Scholars who are now
critiquing the emerging church may
be missing the most important element
of all.
Many think that one of the big problems
with the Emerging Church is their
view on relativism (the belief that
there are no absolutes). But they
may be wrong, very wrong. McLaren
himself rejected relativism in a Powerpoint
presentation we viewed last year.
Relativism does not describe the Emerging
Church. As McLaren himself said, it
has to go beyond that ... and indeed
it does. Where do we go from relativism,
according to McLaren ... what else
.... interspirituality. But remember
interspirituality is the outcome of
contemplative prayer and is the uniting
of all religions and the denial that
Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation.
So many of the scholars who are analyzing
the emerging church may be missing
something that is right under their
noses. Want to find out where the
emerging church is really heading
... you are going to have to look
beyond the obvious. When you reach
that destination, you may be in for
the shock of your life.
More on the Emerging Church |
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