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June 20, 2011
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Ann Voskamp’s Best Selling Book One Thousand Gifts – A Collision of Inspiration and the New Spirituality

One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp is a 2010 Zondervan title that is a New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon Best-Seller. The author is a contributing writer for DaySpring, and she has a blog that receives 40-50 thousand visitors every week.1 Voskamp has risen quickly in popularity, with invitations to various conferences and other events. (In April, she spoke in Portland Oregon at the Q Conference sharing a platform with popular Christian figures like Luis Palau and Louie Giglio).

Ann Voskamp’s sincerity and her desire for a relationship with the Lord are unarguable. Her honesty in her own shortcomings and frailties is admirable. Her description of how she witnessed the death of her baby sister (run over by a farm truck) when she herself was very young is heart-wrenching. What’s more, few would disagree with the overall key theme of the book that we should give thanks to God in everything (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Voskamp shares how practicing thanksgiving and gratitude has changed her life. Thinking about 1 Timothy 6:6 (“godliness with contentment is great gain”), it is true that being thankful and content does have great gain in the believers life.

But One Thousand Gifts, as well-meaning as the author may be, is not a book we can recommend and in fact is one we must warn about. We do not want to cause distress to Ann Voskamp; but given the high popularity of her book, we are compelled to issue this warning.

It is clear by reading One Thousand Gifts that Ann Voskamp reads and admires several mystics, panentheists, and universalists. Her book is peppered with quotes by Sarah Ban Breathnach (a New Age author launched into stardom by Oprah), Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, Evelyn Underhill, Brennan Manning, Annie Dillard, Thomas Acquinas, Buddhist sympathizer and Catholic convert Peter Kreeft, Walter Brueggemann, Francis de Sales, Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Henri Nouwen, and Jean-Pierre de Caussade. Many of the statements Voskamp says in her book would resonate with these authors showing that Voskamp has absorbed some of the beliefs of these people. In addition, Voskamp’s popular blog lists a number of contemplative/emerging authors on her book list page: Richard Foster (Celebration of Discipline), Adele Ahlberg Calhoun (Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, a primer on Eastern style meditation), and emerging church author Phyllis Tickle are included.

In reading One Thousand Gifts, we are reminded of author Sue Monk Kidd (The Secret Life of Bees), who started off as a conservative Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher, but when she began reading Thomas Merton and other mystical writers, her spiritual outlook changed dramatically. The progress of Monk Kidd’s spiritual change can be seen from one book to the next. Today, she is a self-proclaimed worshipper of the goddess Sophia and states in her book The Dance of the Dissident Daughter that God is in all things (panentheism) even graffiti and excrement. Monk Kidd says:

Deity means that divinity will no longer be only heavenly … It will also be right here, right now, in me, in the earth, in this river, in excrement and roses alike. (p. 160)

Ann Voskamp echoes Monk Kidd when she states that God is “present in all things,” even “sewage flowing downriver” (p. 110-111)

The last chapter of One Thousand Gifts, “The Joy of Intimacy,” Voskamp devotes to what she calls ”intimacy” with God. But brace yourself, you won’t find the way she talks about intimacy with God in the Bible. We share the following with you not to shock you for theatrical sake – its to show where the “new” Christianity is heading. We think it important, in light of the many young women who are reading this book, to quote Voskamp’s view of “intimacy” with God which she also calls the “mystery of that romance.” Voskamp says:

Mystical union. This, the highest degree of importance. God as Husband in sacred wedlock, bound together, body and soul, fed by His body, quenched by His blood . . . God, He has blessed – caressed. I could bless God – caress with thanks. It’s our making love. God makes love with grace upon grace, every moment a making of His love for us. . . . couldn’t I make love to God, making every moment love for Him? To know Him the way Adam knew Eve. Spirit skin to spirit skin. . . The intercourse of soul with God is the very climax of joy . . . To enter into Christ and Christ enter into us – to cohabit. (pp. 213, 216-217).

We find Voskamp's mixture of sexual and spiritual language when referring to a relationship with God offensive. The most “intimate” relationship anyone ever had with God on this earth was the one Jesus Christ had with His Father; but nowhere in the Bible does Jesus (or the disciples) use sexual language and innuendos to describe the relationship between God and man. And in fact, the Bible tells us that sexual union was given to man, in the confines of marriage between a man and wife, for procreation; the Bible also tells us that in our eternal heavenly home, there will be no marriage (the need for procreation will not exist). If we, as Christians, were supposed to think about our relationship with God in sexual terms, wouldn’t God have made that clear in His word? It’s like the contemplative prayer movement that emphasizes repeating a word or phrase over and over to be intimate with God. But nowhere are we instructed to do this in Scripture. It’s as if the Holy Spirit who inspired men to write the books of the Bible left out vital elements that now contemplatives and emergents are enlightening us to. God forbid that we should think so. Books like One Thousand Gifts have added to what God has said in His Word.

Voskamp isn’t the only emerging-type author to use sexual language when talking about intimacy with God. We see an increase in books and speakers talking about” intimacy with God” (most of these writers are proponents of contemplative – that’s no coincidence – but rather signs that tantra spirituality (sexual experiences combined with mystical experiences)) is entering the church now. One of the most popular books today on marriage, Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas (promoted by Calvary Chapel, Focus on the Family, and Rick Warren) is laced with quotes by or references to (about a dozen instances) Mary Anne McPherson Oliver’s book, Conjugal Spirituality, a primer on tantric sex; McPherson Oliver says that “mystical experiences can be associated with erotic love.” McPherson Oliver tells readers to use mantras and breath prayers during the sexual experience to help induce the tantric mystical experience. The fact that one of today’s most popular Christian books on marriage has so many references to this book is a telling sign of what has entered the evangelical/Protestant church. The popularity of One Thousand Gifts is another sure indication.

Today, the “new” progressive Christianity is more sensual than spiritual. Appealing to the senses (making it sensual) and the carnal man rather than strengthening the spiritual man within. Scripture warns us though: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). One Thousand Gifts may be the poster book, so to speak, for the latest carnally-minded book, taking a place in line with The Shack.

For an in-depth review of One Thousand Gifts, please read Bob DeWaay’s review titled: “Romantic Panentheism, a Review of One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp”

 
Ann Voskamp’s Best Selling Book One Thousand Gifts – A Collision of Inspiration and the New Spirituality
How Much Does the Gospel Weigh?
Van Impe ministry abandons TBN in clash over Islam (and criticism of Rick Warren & Robert Schuller) ?
Romantic Panentheism, a Second Review of One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
U.N. Human Rights Council Retaining Its Bias Against Israel
USA Today: ‘I’m a Marxist,’ Dalai Lama tells Chinese students
NY homosexual marriage bill now in hands of GOP Senate
New Installment of “Attack of the Evange-hellicals” From My Word Like Fire Ministries
Letter to the Editor: Pastor Stopped Purpose Driven/Emergent Teachings After Learning of the Errors
My Father’s Footsteps – Imprisoned for his faith – The third time
THE EMERGENT MANIFESTO (of Hope?)
Two New Releases, New Batch of Seconds, and In My Father's House Gone to Print
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How Much Does the Gospel Weigh?

In last week’s article, “The Cost for Being Careless About Gospel,” we established how the Gospel is a standard  and the central theme of the entire Bible. We can think of it like a balancing scale, weighing truth against error. But how much does the Gospel weigh? That might sound like a foolish question, but let’s take a moment to see how a balancing scale works. Basically, it is an arm extending from both sides with a fulcrum in the middle. A standardized weight is then placed on one side, and subsequently everything placed on the other arm of the scale with be measured and valued by that standardized weight. A false scale, as Proverbs states, uses a deceptive weight purported to be a standardized weight when it really is not. Consequently, everything weighed on that scale for the next five, ten, or a thousand years will have an erroneous result. A false scale just keeps on lying because the standard is wrong.

If  we are going to use the Gospel as a standardized weight, knowing how much the Gospel weighs might be worth pondering. The prophet Zechariah gives us a clue:

And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD. (Zechariah 11:12-13)

Again, what was forecast in the Old Testament, is fulfilled in the New, and in Matthew 26:15 we see that when Judas asked the chief priests what price they would give for delivering Jesus to them,  it says, “they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.” This was the value the priests of that day placed on Jesus. But what follows is most significant. When Judas returns later to the chief priests and elders, he says:

I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.  (Matthew 27:4-7)

It was the chief priests of that day, not Judas, who placed the value of Jesus and measured out thirty pieces of silver.

Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value. (Matthew 27:9)

But when Judas threw the money down on the temple floor, he realized that the money was worthless in comparison with the man he had betrayed. But even more so, it was a prophetic statement of God from centuries past that the value placed on Jesus would be as erroneous as it could possibly be.

The price of Jesus and what He did for us, weighed out, is immeasurable. When weighed against anything else, the Gospel always tips the scale. It is the standardized weight that no matter what you compare it with, the item you are weighing will come up lacking.

Over the centuries, man has come up with all sorts of ideas and philosophies that have only served to prove how priceless the Gospel really is. Jesus truly is the Son of God, and He truly paid our debt on the Cross. But today, more than ever, the Gospel is under attack, and we need to faithfully hold on to it and defend it as the standard that is true.

We are all too familiar with all the vain teachings that have been used to discredit the Gospel message over the last two thousand years. Paul warns to steer away from such teachings:

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

To Timothy, whom he regarded as a son in the faith, Paul has a strong exhortation at the end of his first epistle:

O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called. (1 Timothy 6:20)

Having strongly opposed the Gospel in the past, Paul knew what it is to be greatly deceived by one’s own reasonings and the thoughts of the culture. He was recognized as one of the greatest intellectuals of his time, yet one day on a road to Damascus he discovered that all of his profound learning did not measure up to God’s standard. Paul later used his intellectual abilities to become one of the strongest defenders of the faith in human history.

Today, there is a whole barrage of religious leaders who use their intellectual prowess to persuade Christians to abandon the fundamentals of the Christian faith for something more intellectually palatable to the postmodern mind. These leaders are holding up a new standard suggesting the standard of the Gospel is outdated and a new standardized weight needs to be placed on the balance. Many of these emerging progressive leaders make it sound like they have made a new discovery that no one has thought of before they came along. Using their philosophical reasonings, you will hear them question how a God of love could send His son to die a cruel death on a cross for the sins of others. They will further maintain that a God of love would never send anyone to Hell – a place that in their own minds does not exist.2 Human reason then and not the teachings of the Bible become the tests of truth. You have perhaps seen book reviews of Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins where we learn that the long-held truths of the Bible must now bend to intellectual fabrications of what God must be like. Yes, a new standard has replaced the standard of the Gospel by which truth and all of Christian doctrine can be weighed. But this is nothing new, as philosophers of the past have believed that the human intellect is a wellspring of innate knowledge and ultimately the only source and deciding factor of truth.

The “New” Science vs. the Gospel

In this postmodern era, some arrive at many of the same conclusions from a slightly different vantage point. They hold that the realm of science (a “new” quantum science they say) offers the wealth of knowledge we are looking for. Some, like Leonard Sweet, have suggested that if we look at the physical world at the sub-atomic level, we will actually find God. At first, it seems like a wonderful idea to think that we can prove to an unbelieving world the existence of God. A good idea, that is, until we realize that we are again talking about another Gospel – for to “discover” that God exists in all of creation at the sub-atomic level suggests a panentheistic view of God. Yet Romans 1 distinguishes the creature from Creator (verse 25). In fact, the panentheistic view contradicts and discredits the whole Genesis account. Paul clarifies that there are two realities – physical and spiritual – and they are not the same (1 Corinthians 15:35-50). From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible actually makes it very clear that God is separate from His creation. My question is, if God is spiritual rather than physical, when the scientists discover God at the sub-atomic level, what god will that actually  be?

Needless to say, what is being passed off as cutting-edge spirituality is what Paul warned about when he talked about “vain philosophies” and “science falsely so called.” The fact is, God has given mankind the ability to reason and to make empirical observations, but no amount of human reasoning and scientific experimentation, in and of themselves, will enable man to arrive at God outside of that which is revealed in the Bible.

For the Christian, the Gospel has been and always will be that standardized weight and the pivot from which we measure truth from error. Today, more than ever, the church is plagued by such a vast assortment of spiritualities and false teachings, some of which are so subtle, that even the most discerning are vulnerable to dangerous deception.

The sad truth is that most church going, self-proclaiming Christians today do not understand the times in which we live and would prefer that “negative” “trouble-making” organizations such as Lighthouse Trails would cease to exist. But as long as the Lord allows, and in spite of many adversaries, those of us who defend the faith and contend for His Word are often reminded of our Lord’s words of admonition to work “while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4).

However, something needs to be said here: Although Lighthouse Trails exists as a source of information, this is not our highest calling. We believe God has called us to work “[f]or the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12). For the “perfecting of the saints” to happen, Christians need to learn to think on their own. Too many ministries exist that create a following of dependents rather than discipling men and women of God who are strong in the faith. The Lord is our strength and in Him and His Word we have everything we need to live an overcoming life (2 Peter 1:3). Paul put it succinctly when he said this concerning our Lord:

In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. (Colossians 2:3-4)

Let us cling to the priceless treasure we have in Christ. None of us will ever have a perfect hold of all Christian doctrine – as Paul says we see as looking through a glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12), but if we hold fast to our Savior and Lord, and hide His Word in our hearts, we will have all we need to get us through.

How much does the Gospel weigh? More than the weight of all the sins of mankind put together. Christ’s death on the Cross bore that load, and nothing can takes its place.

Notes:

  1. Celebrating the Resurrection, But Denying the Atonement 
Van Impe ministry abandons TBN in clash over Islam (and criticism of Rick Warren & Robert Schuller)

By Bob Unruh
© 2011 WND


Jack Van Impe

A Christian ministry’s decision to expose as “false teachers” several celebrity ministers it believes are corrupting biblical teachings has prompted a rift, with Jack Van Impe Ministries dropping plans to work in the future with Trinity Broadcasting Network, where it has broadcast for more than two decades. 

“I Will Not Be Silenced! I will not allow anyone to tell me what I can and cannot preach,” Van Impe said in a statement when TBN would not allow his program to air. 

“When I see heretical teaching leading to apostasy, I will speak out,” he said. “The Bible says ‘All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:’ (II Timothy 3:16). The Apostle Paul also gives instructions in Titus 1:9-11, 13 ‘Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers … Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake…Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.’” 

Van Impe said he immediately called his media agents and told them, “I no longer wanted to air my program on Trinity Broadcasting Network; we will take the tremendous amount of money that we were spending there to obtain new stations that will allow us to continue to reach every square mile of America with the truths of the Bible without this network.”  Read more: Van Impe ministry abandons TBN in clash over Islam http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=311473#ixzz1PZ6JC7zh

To further understand the Rick Warren/Robert Schuller connection, read Deceived on Purpose by Warren B. Smith

Romantic Panentheism, a Review of One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT BOB DEWAAY: For about eight months, Lighthouse Trails has not been using material or selling products by Bob DeWaay. This book review is the first article by Bob we have used since last October. We have not issued any statement until now. Coincidentally, as we were about to post this book review by Bob, Sola Sisters blog issued a statement about Bob. We resonate with this statement and thus are posting a link to it. We have been in communication with Bob DeWaay and his church leadership, Twin City Fellowship, since this situation began last fall. Reading Sola Sister's statement will help to explain. http://solasisters.blogspot.com/2011/06/sin-church-discipline-and-thoughts.html Please pray for Bob, his wife and family and for Twin City Fellowship.

Book Review of One Thousand Gifts By Bob DeWaay
Used with permission from By Grace Alone blog

We live in a theological age (postmodern) where the rational and cognitive are questioned and replaced by the sensual and mysterious. Many churches promote the idea of worshipping God with all five senses. Feelings trump clear Biblical exegesis, systematic theology, statements of faith, and any other rational approach to Christian theology. Into this milieu comes a book that takes romanticism to a new level, using sensuality to invoke religious feelings and ostensibly true devotion. The book is One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, a Canadian farmer’s wife.

Written entirely in the present tense, using an approach to the English language that takes numerous liberties for the sake of creating poetic feeling (like using adjectives when the rules of grammar demand an adverb and consistently having adjectives follow rather than precede the nouns they modify), Voskamp weaves a tale of discovering devotion to God through encounters with nature and art. In her experience, Voskamp found the secret to joy through what she calls eucharisteo (“giving thanks” transliterated from the Greek).

My purpose is not to begrudge Voskamp her religious feelings, nor to disagree with the basic thesis that Christians ought to give thanks to God in all things, but to object to the panentheistic worldview revealed in the book and the romanticism that accompanies it. First we will explore those two ideas.

Panentheism

Panentheism is the belief that God is in everything. It is to be distinguished from pantheism that teaches that God is everything. The very popular Emergent movement is panentheistic as is New Age theology. Since God is in everything, then God can be discovered and understood through encounters with nature. Voskamp shows that she knows what is wrong with pantheism, but unwittingly (or perhaps not so unwittingly) replaces it with panentheism:

Pantheism, seeing the natural world as divine, is a very different thing than seeing divine God present in all things. I know it here kneeling, the twilight so still: nature is not God but God revealing the weight of Himself, all His glory, through the looking glass of nature.[i]

Her statement is not a valid implication from passages such as Psalm 19 and Romans 1 that speak of general revelation. For one thing, nature is fallen and does not reveal “all His glory” (Christ does that) and what can be discerned about God through nature is not saving knowledge, but condemning knowledge. Romans makes that clear:

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. (Romans 1:20-23)

Pagan nature religions do not provide messianic salvation. Paul claims that salvation comes only through the gospel (which comes to us through special, not general revelation). The confusion between these two categories is shown throughout Voskamp’s book. For example: “And every moment is a message from the Word-God who can’t stop writing His heart” (Voskamp: 86). The pagans live in the same time-space world that we do and do not thereby have infallible, inerrant, and binding revelation from God. They live in darkness. Seeking messages from God through the moments in this world will lead to pagan mysticism and not anything that is clearly and bindingly revealed by God. Voskamp claims that the ability to see God in everything is the key to getting such messages.

Voskamp would likely recoil from the notion that she is promoting pagan nature religion or mysticism. But she does put Christians on the same footing as the pagans by taking them on a journey with her to find God in nature and art. The concepts about God that are distinctively Christian in her book are borrowed from special revelation (the Bible) and brought with her on her journey of discovery. But she never makes a distinction between general revelation and special revelation and by integrating the two so seamlessly, elevates nature to the status of saving revelation. Since God is supposedly in everything, then God can be found in everything.

Panentheism is found throughout One Thousand Gifts. Since so much of the current evangelical world is being seduced by panentheism, we need to understand what is unbiblical about it. Many are confused and think that panentheism is logical implication from the Christian concept of omnipresence (that God is everywhere). This confusion has left the door open for the New Age to enter the church. That God is not limited spatially (there is nowhere where He is not – Psalm 139:7-10) is a valid, Biblical concept. But panentheism describes an ontological, not spatial category. Ontology is the study of being. It is the study of what something is in its essential nature. Panentheism teaches that God’s essence or being is in everything. This is not the doctrine of omnipresence (though it would affirm it). If God in His essence and essential being is found in everything, then there is nothing unique about Christ (which is precisely the New Age claim). Biblically, nature does not reveal God and His glory in the same way Christ does. Nature reveals God obliquely and only in a condemning, not saving, way. Christ reveals God in His divine nature and speaks God’s inerrant words. Jesus spoke inerrant, binding words that will be our judge on the last day (John 12:48). The moon does no such thing.

As an example of her panentheism, Voskamp describes an experience where she finds salvation by gazing at a full moon in a harvested wheat field:

Has His love lured me out here to really save me? I sit up in the wheat stubble, drawn. That He would care to save. Moon face glows. We are head to head. I am bare; He is bare. All Eye sees me (Voskamp: 115).

Her experience is described in salvific terms: “It’s dawning, my full moon rising. I was lost but know I am found again” (Voskamp: 118). She claims an “inner eye” that sees God in a panentheistic way: “If my inner eye has God seeping up through all things, then can’t I give thanks for anything? . . . The art of deep seeing makes gratitude possible” (Voskamp: 118). In Romans 1, “seeing” God through general revelation in a way that makes all humans culpable is true for all, not just special enlightened ones like Voskamp.

There are other troubling things about the claim that salvation can be found in seeing God in the harvest moon. One is that Voskamp implies that for her, “salvation” is being saved from an unhappy life filled with ingratitude. She never mentions God’s wrath against sin (she does mention sin but not in the context of substitutionary atonement). Another is that she completely confuses and merges general and special revelation. General revelation does not offer saving knowledge, whatever the meaning of her experience “chasing the moon” (her terminology). Yet another is that panentheism is implied here and throughout the book.

In theology we have the concepts of immanence (God is close at hand) and transcendence (God is exalted above and beyond us and the creation). Both are important in Christian teaching. These are relational and ontological categories and not spatial ones as I mentioned before. Voskamp is very confused in this regard and her confusion will likely be imparted to most of her readers. As in liberal and Emergent theology, immanence is promoted at the expense of God’s transcendence.

Consider this passage that reveals both immanence and transcendence: “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isaiah 57:15). That God is “high and exalted” means that the Creator is separate from His creation, is above and beyond it, and thus transcendent. God is not one of the many nature gods of the pagans. “Above and beyond” when used in this way denote God’s essence and being (ontology) not His spatial relationship to the universe.

But God is also “with the contrite.” Here we see the key to understanding immanence. It does not say that God is universally “with” all people if they only had the right “inner eye.” The Bible says “The Lord is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous” (Proverb 15:29). “Far from” and “near” in such contexts are relational and not spatial. God hears prayers and personally relates to those who seek Him and are willing to come to Him on His terms. This relationship is available through Jesus Christ who is to be believed and trusted and is not available through the moon. God is near to all sinners spatially, because in Him they live and move and have existence (Acts 17:27). But if they refuse to repent and believe God as He has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ whom He raised from the dead, they will remain far from Him in a relational sense (see Acts 17:30-32). The moon cannot resolve the problem of the sinner’s lost condition, but the Son will if they seek him (Acts 17:27).

Voskamp’s panentheism is not compatible with Christian theism. This worldview is very popular in today’s culture, inside and outside the church, but it is not from God. It is a departure from the faith once for all delivered to the saints. My notes taken as I read Voskamp reveal panentheism on many pages (16, 31, 54, 89, 109, 110, 112, 118, 119, 124, 137, 138, 185, and 195). It is no exaggeration to say that the entire book is written from a panentheistic perspective. She even finds Christ in everyone, including the lost encountered in the inner city: “A long night doing what we’ve come to do, to bless Christ in the other” (Voskamp: 185). The Bible claims that only believers are indwelt by Christ through the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). Voskamp’s panentheism spills into universalism as it does in Emergent and the New Age. It colors everything she teaches.

Romanticism

Romanticism arose in the early 19th Century as a reaction against the Enlightenment and rationalism. The idea was that truth could be found in feelings, art, and the intuitive rather than through empirical investigation and the rational. At the conclusion of my book on the Emergent Church, I suggested that Emergent was a new Romanticism.[ii] I was able to express that idea to Doug Pagitt personally, and he did not offer disagreement, but silence. I am quite sure that the assessment is accurate. Romanticism, old and new, has a common enemy which is the Enlightenment.

Voskamp is not so concerned about the Enlightenment or other philosophical considerations, but displays Romanticism throughout her book. In fact it could be mistaken for a romance novel with God the desired lover. Here is an example:

I long to merge with Beauty, breathe it into lungs, feel it heavy on skin (she also eschews personal, possessive pronouns). To beat on the door of the universe, pound the chest of God . . . No matter how manifested, beauty is what sparks the romance and we are the Bride pursued, the Lover pursuing, and known or unbeknownst, He woos us in the romance of all time, beyond time. I ache for oneness (Voskamp: 119).

The Bible speaks of the Bride of Christ (the church) but does not describe the universal call of the gospel in sensual terms of a lover pursuing His love interest (who may have no interest in return). God is commanding sinners to repent. The gospel calls for repentance and faith, not romantic feelings looking for satisfaction.

Voskamp’s romanticism is enhanced by her skill at describing things in a most sensual manner. The sensual terminology is designed to create a mood, a feeling, a sense of romantic mystery that longs for discovery and fulfillment. Those like me, who relish theological concepts clearly described to be understood and discerned, will be horribly frustrated by the book. The point is not ideas to be judged true or false, but feelings to be relished. For example:

The full life, the one spilling joy and peace, happens only as I come to trust the caress of the Lover, Lover who never burdens His children with shame or self-condemnation but keeps stroking the fears with gentle grace (Voskamp: 146).

This sensuality finds its apex in the last chapter of the book which begins with this sentence: “I fly to Paris and discover how to make love to God” (Voskamp: 201). As a true Romantic, she finds the ultimate intimacy (her term) through various experiences in Paris. I will deal with that in a section about mysticism. For now I will point out that the term “intimacy” is not found in the Bible. It is a sensual term that enhances the romantic appeal of Voskamp’s book.

The sensual terminology of One Thousand Gifts permeates the book. There is a whole chapter inspired by a soap bubble in a sink, one about driving across a bridge, and the aforementioned one on gazing at the moon. For those who have not read the book, I offer an example of over-wrought sensual (in the broad sense of appealing to one’s senses) terminology:

April sun pools into a dishwater sink, liquid daylight on hands. The water is hot. I wash dishes. On my arms, just below the hiked sleeves, suds leave delicate water marks. Suds glisten. And over the soaking pots, the soap bubbles stack. This fragile tension arched in spheres of slick elastic sheets. Light impinges on slippery film. And I only notice because I’m looking for this and it’s the rays falling, reflecting off the outer surface of a bubble . . . off the rim of the bubble’s inner skin . . . and where they meet, this interference of light, iridescence on the bubble’s arch, violet, magenta, blue-green, yellow-gold. Like the glimmer on raven wing, the angles, the hues, the brilliant fluid, light on the waves (Voskamp: 62).

This is indicative of how the entire book reads. Sensuality pervades throughout. Romanticism values feelings and experience over truth and concrete data. If washing dishes can be turned into a romantic experience, the job becomes something special, as does life. Voskamp offers her readers an escape from the mundane through seeing beauty in all things.

God and Time

Voskamp’s point in the soap bubble chapter is to teach the theological error that time is the essence and nature of God. She gains that idea through wrongly interpreting the self-designation of God as I AM to be proof that time is of the essence of God so therefore God is to be found in the present (Voskamp: 69, 70). Her ideas are remarkably similar to Echkart Tolle’s (New Age pantheist) ideas taught in his books The Power of Now and The New Earth. [iii] Tolle speaks of “Presence, and I AM” as realities to be discovered by enlightened ones. Voskamp writes: “Time is where God is. In the present. I AM – His very name” (69). God’s point in revealing Himself to Moses was not that God is in the present. God is the eternal existent One whose being is not contingent on anything outside of Himself. Finding God is the present is the point driven home by Eckhart Tolle and is not a Biblical idea.

Voskamp makes other statements that at are in serious theological error: “I hardly breathe . . . time is only of the essence, because time is the essence of God, I AM” (Voskamp: 69, 70).[iv] The theological debate about God’s relationship to time is very complex. There is a common teaching that God is timeless (based on the idea of God’s changelessness and the fact that time involves change). But that time is God’s essence is not an implication of I AM terminology and is theologically false. Tolle teaches a concept called “being present” which to him is linked to consciousness of deity. Voskamp has a similar idea: “When I’m present, I meet I AM, the very presence of a present God” (Voskamp: 70). What would it mean to be “not present”? Evidently “being present” for Voskamp has to do with some sort of consciousness that is not always true.

God’s relationship to time is a worthy topic, howbeit a very difficult and complex one. But Voskamp is not really interested in theology understood cognitively, but rather in romantic feelings about God. Her chapter on time, based as it is on the soap bubble, is about feelings and discovery, not theological conceptions:

I am a hunter of beauty and I move slow [sic] and I keep the eyes wide, every fiber of every muscle sensing all wonder and this is the thrill of the hunt and I could be an expert on life full, the beauty meat that lurks in every moment. I hunger to taste life. God. (Voskamp: 71)

This is about seeing (an art for the spiritually enlightened) God in the moment and in all things (panentheism). It is not really about God’s relationship to time, but about our attentiveness and awareness that will cause use to see God (Voskamp: 77). God’s relationship to time is a romantic notion for Voskamp, not so much a theological one. This should be pleasing to postmodern readers who despise systematic theology.

New Age Sensibilities

New Age ideas are found throughout One Thousand Gifts. For example she cites Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who is a darling with New Age writers: “Nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see” (Chardin as cited by Voskamp: 122). It is possible that a false teacher like Chardin could have some true ideas; but Voskamp cites him (as part of the heading of a chapter) precisely at his point of error (and hers). The idea that everything is holy and nothing profane is popular but fully unbiblical. It comports with the idea of panentheism. If indeed God is in everything, then nothing is profane. Rob Bell makes the same error in Velvet Elvis when he claims everything is holy.[v] The Bible tells us to separate the holy from the profane: “Moreover, they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean” (Ezekiel 44:23). The concept of the profane and unclean is also found in the New Testament.

What is holy and what is unholy are revealed by God. That certain enlightened ones with an elevated ability to see can see everything as holy is unbiblical. Being able to have a romanticist notion that heightened feelings and sensibilities will cause everything to be holy and beautiful is Voskamp’s point, but it leads her readers astray. She cites Chardin because she shares his ideas.

New Age panentheist Matthew Fox also approves of Chardin:

Teilhard de Chardin calls the Cosmic Christ the “third nature” of Christ, meaning that it takes us beyond the fourth-century conciliar definitions of Christ’s human and divine natures into a third realm, “neither human nor divine, but cosmic.” He comments that this has “not noticeably attracted the explicit attention of the faithful or of theologians.” Clearly Chardin saw the paradigm shift that was implicit in powerful celebration of the Cosmic Christ.[vi]

Fox describes himself as a panentheist who sees God in all things.[vii] Ironically I was reading Fox when I was asked to review Voskamp. The similarity of their ideas is easy to see, though Voskamp may not have gotten her ideas from Fox. But why are Christian authors like Voskamp teaching panentheism and promoting New Age ideas?

Emergent writers speak of the “rhythm of God in the world,” an idea promoted by Doug Pagitt. In their thinking this rhythm is to be found and tuned into through man-invented practices.[viii] What is important to understand is that the idea that nothing is profane and that God’s rhythm can be found in all things is panentheistic and not Christian. The Christian view is that the created order, because of sin and rebellion, contains good and evil, the holy and the profane. Satan deceives people into thinking that they can tap into something good by using the right techniques rather than listening to what God has said in the Bible.

Voskamp promotes a means of “seeing” that reminds me of Pagitt and other Emergent teachers:

I speak the unseen into seeing and I can feel it, this steady breathing in the rhythm of grace—give thanks (in), give thanks (out). The eyes focus, apertures capturing Beauty in ugliness. There’s a doxology of praise that splits the domestic dark. (Voskamp: 128).

What she means is that seeing God (holiness) in all things is a special spiritual ability by those who learn how: “Contemplative simplicity isn’t a matter of circumstances; it’s a matter of focus” (Voskamp: 127). Voskamp cites postmodern mystic Annie Dillard favorably in regard to “seeing” in the contemplative sense (Voskamp: 127). Voskamp tells her son about “seeing” as she understands it—which is so very New Age:

“The practice of giving thanks . . . eucharisteo . . . this is the way we practice the presence of God, stay present to His presence, and it is always a practice of the eyes. We don’t have to change what we see. Only the way we see.” (Voskamp: 135).

Seeing God in all things becomes the mechanism for transcending the sorrows of the mundane and finding good feelings to overcome the bad ones. She continues to teach: “The only way to fight a feeling is with a feeling” (Voskamp: 136). Perhaps Biblical truth would be an alternative. Like all postmodern panentheists, for her the subjective rules over the objective. This is also the essence of romanticism.

The real problem is not our failure to see God in everything, but our failure to believe what God has said, and by grace obey. The grand claim of the Bible is that “God has spoken” (Hebrews 1:1, 2). The question is whether we will listen to what God has said or not. Those who are totally alienated from God and teach pagan ideas claim to see God in everything (like Eckhart Tolle). Voskamp offers what is also offered by the New Age panentheists. The reality is that feeling close to God is not the same as drawing near to God as discussed in the Bible. Voskamp offers romantic feelings.

A Romantic Encounter with God

Voskamp’s romanticism reaches its pinnacle in chapter 11. There she describes a trip to Paris where she has an intimate encounter with God through art and architecture. God “woos” her through this encounter and she falls in love. She writes, “I am falling in love. . . . I’m accompanied by this Voice whispering to me new words, new love—urging me, Respond, respond” (Voskamp: 206). The entire chapter is laced with sensual terminology.

At Notre Dame Cathedral, carried away by the experience, she claims to have found the holy: “This air is old, the ground, holy” (Voskamp: 207). On the contrary, the New Testament does not describe holy places, especially not Roman Catholic cathedrals filled with pagan icons and grotesque gargoyles such as at Notre Dame (which means “our lady” referring to the virgin Mary). What exactly, from a Biblical perspective, makes Notre Dame Cathedral “holy”? Are Roman Catholic buildings and statuary inherently holy? Evidently Voskamp thinks so. But then again, a romantic will see that which is good and desirable in any and all things.

There, in a Catholic cathedral which ought to invoke our objection, Voskamp, as do her role models, the mystics of the Middle Ages, finds “intimate union” with God. She describes her experience in this way:

My eyes follow the stone arches rising over us, granite hands clasped in prayer over souls. I think of all who have gone before, the hands of medieval peasants who chiseled the stone under which I now stand. I think of those long-ago believers who had a way of entering into the full life, of finding a passage into God, a historical model of intimacy with God. I lean back to see the spires. (Voskamp: 208).

As I mentioned before, the Bible never uses the term “intimacy.” We take a huge leap of faith to assume that medieval mystics found a secret to intimacy with God through means other than the gospel itself. Medieval mystical practices are not prescribed in the Bible. Yet Voskamp favorably cites Catholic mystic, Henri Nouwen (Voskamp: 205). Mystical teachers and a pagan religious site inspire Voskamp’s journey to find romantic intimacy with God.

Purgation, Illumination, Union: Mystical Union with God

Amazingly, Voskamp unabashedly teaches the path to mystical union that has its roots in ancient, pagan, Rome. This path is taught in the Catholic Encyclopedia.[ix] This threefold path is “common to all forms of mysticism, Christian or otherwise” writes Pastor Gary Gilley who rightly warns the church about it.[x] Voskamp extols the medieval mystics who were instrumental in the building of Notre Dame (Voskamp: 208). She writes about them:

I think how lives, whole generations, were laid down to built this edifice, to find a way in. But they thought the steps to God-consummation were but three: purgation, illumination, union. (Voskamp: 208)

She then describes these steps in glowing terms as she experienced them (Voskamp: 209).

New Age teacher Matthew Fox also endorses these steps and others as the means of a paradigm shift from the Christ of the Bible to the cosmic Christ:

In terms of the history of spirituality, this paradigm shift is from the three stages of purification, illumination, and union that mysticism inherited from Proclus and Plotinus (not from Jesus or the Hebrew Bible since neither of these thinkers was either Jewish or Christian) to the four paths of delight (via positive), letting go (via negative), creativity (via creativa), compassion, i.e., celebration and justice making (via transformative). Today “to enter the mysteries” means to enter the mysteries of the four paths of creation spirituality—mysteries of delight, darkness, birthing, compassion. In this section we will explore more fully how the paradigm shift can also be named as moving from the quest for the historical Jesus to the quest for the Cosmic Christ.[xi]

Mysticism and the practices Voskamp endorses that promote it, do lead to a Cosmic Christ, that is a creation centered one rather that the Christ who bodily ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God. The mystical Christ is immanent only, not transcendent. He is contacted by unbiblical, mystical means rather than through the gospel that saves us from God’s wrath against sin.

Voskamp admits that union with Christ is true for all who have repented and believed (Voskamp: 209, 210). She thereby has an understanding that was lacking for the Catholic mystics she extols. So to keep the experience and practice, she posits the union of the threefold path as a higher order experience for Christians: “An ever deepening union, one we experience on the skin and in the vein, feel in the deep pit of the being, an ever-fuller realization of the Christ communion” (Voskamp: 210). So, ordinary Christians have union, but not the deep union that mystics enjoy. This union is what she has as a sister to Brother Lawrence (Voskamp: 210). She describes the experience of union:

I remember this feeling. The way my apron billowed in the running, the light, the air. The harvest moon. I remember. The yearning. To merge with Beauty Him Himself. But here . . . Now? Really? . . . I am not at all certain that I want consummation. (Voskamp: 211)

She then describes this consummation in yet more sensual terms, as being “courted by God” (Voskamp: 211).

Sensuality

Since this idea of consummation (union) is obviously a higher order experience she seeks and finds in Paris, it is therefore something beyond what ordinary Christians have. Voskamp is a mystical pietist.[xii] She ponders: “I am not at all certain that I want consummation . . . And who wouldn’t cower at the invitation to communion with limitless Holiness Himself?” (Voskamp: 211). Obviously, for her “consummation” is a sensual term, that is not true for all Christians or reserved for the eschaton (and still true for all Christians). It is a higher order experience for certain Christians to be had now if they have the ability to see and experience. This experience is mediated, for Voskamp, by the romantic feelings of Paris.

The sensuality of her terminology is so very inappropriate. She cites 1Corinthians 6:17 which is a warning against fornication and is about all Christians being “joined to the Lord” and applies it to the sensual, higher order experience she is wooed to in Paris (Voskamp: 211). Since 1Corithians 6:17 is about what is already true for all Christians, how does it apply to her invitation to some sort of sensual consummation for Christians? It does not. So she is abusing the passage to promote her pietistic, unbiblical experience. Here is her description of what happens (found in the same paragraph with the citation from 1Corinthians 6:17):

I run my hand along the beams over my loft bed, wood hewn by a hand several hundred years ago. I can hear Him. He’s calling for a response; He’s calling for oneness. Communion (Voskamp: 211).

This sensually described invitation to oneness and consummation is presented as a union that is a higher order experience, otherwise she would not need it and would frankly have nothing special to offer her readers. She is being “wooed” into “mystical union” (Voskamp: 212, 213). She calls this a romance (Voskamp: 213).

The sensual terms she applies are piled one upon another, painting a picture that is quite graphic and I think horribly inappropriate. Terms found just on two pages include: “wooing, intimate pursuit, passionate love, caressed, making love, embrace, union, intimate, burning of the heart, intercourse disrobed, and etc.” (Voskamp: 216, 217). She makes explicit what she is speaking of: “To know Him the way Adam knew Eve” (Voskamp: 217). This terminology goes on, page after page: “intercourse, climax, cohabit, delight wildly, union experientially, leap into Arms” (Voskamp: 218, 219).

She offers a higher order experience for Christians, described in most sensual and provocative terms. This experience is to be had now, and is not the eschatological consummation all Christians await. It helps to go to Paris and a Roman Catholic cathedral to find this experience. There is nothing in this that is Biblical. There are not two types of Christians—ordinary ones and others who have achieved the ultimate, mystical union. This sort of false thinking is what lead people into monasteries to waste their lives looking for something that evidently the gospel itself does not offer. Do we need to mimic the error of the monastic mystics?

Conclusion

As fraught with theological error that this book is, its basic premise is true: as Christians we ought to be thankful people who give thanks in all things. The Bible teaches us that. But do we need to jettison Christian theism in favor of panentheism and objective truth in favor of romantic feelings and higher order experiences to become thankful? No! God has already provided everything that pertains to life and godliness (2Peter 1:3). When Peter urged Christians to grow in their faith and in Christian virtues, he did not point to a higher order experience based on romantic feelings—he called them to remember:

Therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. And I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, (2Peter 1:12, 13)

Peter also mentions sensuality and it is not good: “For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error,” (2Peter 2:18).

There is enough sensuality in the world without us having sensual desires stirred up under the guise of a higher order religious experience in the context of a panentheistic worldview. Voskamp’s book feeds into the romantic sensibilities of its postmodern readers. But it does nothing to promote the faith once for all delivered to the saints. It pushes the church even further down the unbiblical road of mysticism that so many are already on. We need to reject this and instead return to objective, Biblical truth.

End Notes


[i] Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts; (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010) 110. All further references from this book will be in brackets within this article.
[ii] Bob DeWaay, The Emergent Church – Undefining Christianity; (Minneapolis: DeWaay, 2009), 204.
[iii] http://www.eckharttolle.com/ see my review of Tolle’s The New Earth: http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue114.htm
[iv] The ellipses are in the original and used to create a pause.
[v] See http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue104b.htm for a discussion of Bell’s misuse of the term “holy.”
[vi] Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, (New York: HarperCollins, 1988), 83.
[vii] Ibid. 70.
[viii] I discuss Doug Pagitt’s idea of God’s “rhythm” here: http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue99.htm
[ix] http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14254a.htm
[x] http://www.svchapel.org/resources/book-reviews/4-christian-living/121-finding-our-way-again-the-return-to-the-ancient-practices-by-brian-mclaren
[xi] Op. Cit.; Fox, 82.
[xii] See my article on pietism: http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue101.htm

 

U.N. Human Rights Council Retaining Its Bias Against Israel

By Patrick Goodenough
CNS News

(CNSNews.com) – The U.N. General Assembly is set to pass a resolution on Friday afternoon that will retain Israel as the only country out of 192 member-states to be the target of a dedicated permanent item on the agenda of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The move comes two days after an Obama administration official gave a speech saying that its deeper engagement with the United Nations has helped to counter the body’s anti-Israel bias.

The General Assembly vote will ensure that, as the Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC) approaches its sixth year, its disproportionate focus on Israel will remain. The resolution adopts the outcome of a five-year review which the U.S. and other mostly Western democracies had hoped would improve the council by removing some of the identified faults.

However, two of the most glaring flaws – the skewed attention paid to Israel and the absence of enforceable criteria for HRC membership – will remain unchanged. Click here to continue reading.

 
USA Today: ‘I’m a Marxist,’ Dalai Lama tells Chinese students
By Cathy Lynn Grossman
USA TODAY 

Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, leading a ceremony at the University of Minnesota last week, told Chinese students he was a Marxist.
Usually what we hear from the Dalai Lama is an insistent yet soothing voice for compassion and peace.

 So Tsering Namgyal, a journalist based in Minneapolis, was jolted by the Dalai Lama’s talk to 150 Chinese students this month at the University of Minnesota. Writing at Religion Dispatches, he says:

 Midway through the conversation, His Holiness, much to their surprise, told them “as far as socio-political beliefs are concerned, I consider myself a Marxist … But not a Leninist,” he clarified.

 After all, China is constantly pressing to legitimize its takeover of Tibet in world opinion. Meanwhile, the Buddhist spiritual leader is the global symbol of Tibetan opposition and what the opposition considers the obliteration of its independence and religious culture. Click here to continue reading.

Related:

How the “Quantum Christ” (God is in everything) is Transforming the World . . . and Entering the Church!

TIME Magazine Favorite The Dalai Lama Promotes “Peaceful Marxism”

 

My Father’s Footsteps – Imprisoned for his faith – The third time

Courtesy Kjos Ministries

From A Small Price to Pay by Harvey Yoder

The prison door shut behind me with a bang. I heard the key turn in the huge lock, then the guard’s footsteps faded away. Three days of solitary confinement. That was the usual procedure before being admitted into a prison. I was alone.

But not really. Christ was present with me. And I had another reason not to feel alone. In fact, I was rather excited. Memories were flooding my mind. After nearly eight years of relative freedom, I had once again been arrested. This time, I had gone to visit a Christian woman in Leningrad. When I returned to my sisters’ house after midnight, they had come out to greet me. Two officers had appeared out of the shadows and told me I was under arrest….

At the trial, the usual accusations were held against me—teaching minors about God, holding meetings without permission from the state, not registering our churches with the state.

This time, they added a new charge. I was charged with creating an unhealthy environment because too many people had crowded into one space. Some expert had come up with the idea that it was not sanitary for so many people to be breathing the same air for an extended period of time. I wanted to ask them who was going charge the government with creating an unhealthy environment the trams, buses, and trains. Those public transport vehicles were far more crowded than our meeting places. But I knew it was hopeless to say anything….

Now, here in my cell, I was reflecting on what my mother had told us after Papa had been arrested. “He is in Sverdlovsk in prison.” This was all we knew for some time.

Now I was in Sverdlovsk. I was in the same prison my father had been in! This excited me, for my mind went back to my memories of Papa. Had he spent time in this very cell?

Even though my breath was quite visible in the cold air, I eagerly examined the cell walls. Had Papa left some message behind, scrawled on the wall? Had he stood here, looking up at the barred window that let in a small patch of light from the waning day?… It was quite possible that my father really had been in this cell. It was one of the cells that held all the new inmates.

Forty years had passed since Papa had been in this prison. When I had been unloaded from the Black Raven, I imagined my father walking through the courtyard, standing at attention on the granite slab as his sentence was read. When I stood on that slab upon my arrival, I tried to fit my shoes into the worn spaces that marked the granite. So many thousands of prisoners had stood there that there were actually small hollows where the shoes had worn away the surface of the hard stone. Here was where my father had stood! Click here to continue reading. (Excerpt from A Small Price to Pay – courtesy Kjos Ministries)

THE EMERGENT MANIFESTO (of Hope?)

by Roger Oakland
Understand the Times

Do you remember the Communist and Humanist Manifestos? Do you recall the statements that were made to establish the religion of atheism and humanism? Now we have the Emerging Church Manifesto. If you have not read it, you should. Apostasy is underway.

The word manifesto is a fairly strong term. The idea that a document has been drafted promoting a particular position designed to change the planet is clearly insinuated. However in the case of Christianity, the promotion of a manifesto at the beginning of the 21st century implies that Christianity needs to be upgraded to provide a new and re-invented belief system.

Such is the case with the publication of a book titled Emergent Manifesto of Hope edited by Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones, two emergent leaders both members of Leadership Network, a think tank group of Christians founded in the 80’s by Bob Buford and inspired by Peter Drucker. This group led an onslaught of ideas promoting the emerging church as we know it.

The Emergent Manifesto of Hope is a declaration to the world and the church that Christianity as we once knew it, will be no more. Clearly there is an agenda by all contributing authors that the next generation of Christians will be devoted to building the kingdom, through and by whatever means it takes.

For example, one of the contributors is Samir Selmanovic who wrote:

The emerging church movement has come to believe that the ultimate context of the spiritual aspirations of a follower of Jesus Christ is not Christianity but rather the kingdom of God. …to believe that God is limited to it [Christianity] would be an attempt to manage God. If one holds that Christ is confined to Christianity, one has chosen a god that is not sovereign. [1]

I find this statement very interesting in light of what several of my former colleagues in Canada now believe. They believe they are training students to build the kingdom by taking “Jesus” to the people.

You see the emergent church is headed towards building a kingdom. This kingdom will include anyone and everyone. All religions are welcome. You can throw Jesus into the mix if you want. However the common denominator is not Jesus. The common denominator is the kingdom.

Further, Selmanovic clarifies what is meant by “kingdom building.” He stated:

Is our religion [Christianity] the only one that understands the true meaning of life? Or does God place his truth in others too? Well, God decides, and not us. The gospel is not our gospel, but the gospel of the kingdom of God, and what belongs to the kingdom of God cannot be hijacked by Christianity. [2]

Perhaps there are those who are going emerging and they don’t know where “emerging” is diverging from biblical Christianity. They only want to do what is effective to reach this generation for Jesus. This of course is understandable.

However, this is a perfect example of how deception works. You must always start with the truth. If you told the lie up front, then those with even the least bit of discernment would soon understand the plot. This is what has happened to many in the emerging church. What they are doing, they think, seems right. Now you have been warned. I hope and pray some will see the light. (For more information, read Roger Oakland’s book, Faith Undone.)

Note:
[1]  Pagitt and Jones, editors, An Emergent Manifesto, p. 192
[2]  Ibid. p. 194

Related Information:
Tickle’s Great Emergence: A Reformation Every 500 Years?

NY homosexual marriage bill now in hands of GOP Senate

By Michael Gormley
Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. – The effort to legalize gay marriage in New York is getting an all-out lobbying effort from Democrats and celebrities, but there’s still no sign of wavering among a critical bloc of Senate Republicans who led the defeat of the measure and blunted national momentum two years ago.

 Advocates for gay marriage in New York, trying to revive the national campaign, may be just two votes away from winning in Albany in the closing five days of the legislative session.

 Each side is funded by more than $1 million from national and state advocates that’s being used in media blitzes and in promised campaign cash for lawmakers who side with them. The effort, organized by Democratic Gov.

 Andrew Cuomo as a top policy objective, drew three Democratic senators and one Republican, James Alesi, to the cause on Monday. Half a dozen senators remain uncommitted publicly and others could still cast surprise votes on the Senate floor, as several did in 2009. Click here to read more.

New Installment of “Attack of the Evange-hellicals” From My Word Like Fire Ministries

LTRP Note: John Lanagan, from My Word Like Fire Ministries, is a former homosexual. Today, he is happily married and is serving the Lord and contending for the faith. In 2010, John began writing a fiction story called Attack of the Evange-hellicals. He  has been presenting installments on his website for over a year now. Below is another chapter of the story. He has also given a link to all the former chapters for those who haven’t had the chance to read them yet.


By John Lanagan

First, this advertisement –

“New cereal based on hit movie to help kids with universalism, homo-spirituality”

(This made-up product advertisement is brought to you on behalf of the totally made-up Evange-hellicals movie franchise.)

It’s sweet, it’s crunchy, and it is part of the burgeoning line of products associated with the hit movies, Attack of the Evange-hellicals, and the kid-friendly, G-Rated Attack of the Evange-hekkicals.

“We’re doing it for the kids,” said Mary Mae Daphne, spokeswoman for the new product. “With a number of prizes in each cereal box, we hope to educate youngsters about the value of universalism and homo-spirituality.”

Evange-hekkicals Cereal is now on store shelves, and Ms. Daphne noted that many boxes have plastic figures of Episco-contemplatives Linda and Jill Billings, along with tiny labyrinths. The lesbian, Episco-contemplative priests are two of the most popular characters in the hit movies.

When asked about Bible fundamentalist opposition to using a cereal as a teaching tool, Ms. Daphne shrugged, and replied, “Those people all eat oatmeal.”

And now, back to our feature…

Chapter 28: RIFLES AND PARADE

The gay community didn’t know what to do about former gay activist Mike Minor. He and his fiance, Charlene, entered gay bars, and events, and attended gay pride parades, where they preached and handed out Bibles. Their testimony astounded many, gave hope to many, and outraged many.

Mike Minor, due to years of unchecked sexual activity, had recently been diagnosed as HIV positive. When he revealed the test results to Charlene, she just shrugged. “You’re the man God gave me.” Click here to continue reading chapter 28 and for links to previous chapters.

Letter to the Editor: Pastor Stopped Purpose Driven/Emergent Teachings After Learning of the Errors

Dear Lighthouse Trails:

Concerning the last article here, by Steve Muse, I want to share a word of encouragement to him and to you!  After learning in the past year of the attacks on the people of God, the church, from reading at Lighthouse Trails website, God led me to share with my three pastors . . . Senior, and two young assistants . . . the information I learned from you.  In the past few months, they have stopped the “Emergent, Rick Warren, and all of the other false teachings, and are once again preaching and teaching the Word of God!!  And guess what?!  Souls are being saved so wonderfully that it is almost too much to take in . . . the change is so dramatic that all I can do is praise our Wonderful Lord as I stand in awe at His marvelous Grace!! 

The one other area of concern, and yes, even suffering for some of us, is the “music.” Instead of the lovely organ and piano, and sometimes violin music, along with the old hymns of the church, we have a rock-style band on the “stage” leading us in choruses that have no tune, and most of which never even mention the Name which is above all names!!  The songs contain the words Lord and God, but never Jesus!!  There is no way for, especially a babe or an unbeliever, to know who this God is or anything about Him. If they don’t know Jesus, they will never truly know God!!

Thank you for your ministry!!  God has used it to help me to be the “watchman” of whom brother Muse wrote in his article.  I am so grateful to Him, and to you!

In His Love,
H.W.

LTRP Note to readers: Please read Larry DeBruyn’s article, “The Music and the Mystical” 

Two New Releases, New Batch of Seconds, and In My Father's House Gone to Print

Lighthouse Trails Publishing News:

New Products: We are now carrying to new items: Roger Oakland's Creation DVD lecture series: Searching for the Truth on Origins. There are 4 DVDs with 14 lectures, nearly 12 hours of lecture. You will greatly appreciate Roger's clear and compelling manner in presenting this vital information on Creation vs. Evolution. We have now reviewed Harvey Yoder's biography God Knows My Size! Silvia Tarniceriu. This is a true story from being the former Iron Curtain; it's a book you will have a hard time putting down.

New Batch of Seconds: From time to time, we receive books back from one of our distributors. We have just received a batch in, and they are selling as Seconds for reduced prices. These books are usually scuffed on the covers with almost no damage to the inside pages. Click here to see the latest batch.

New Book Gone to Press: In My Father's House by WWII Christian resistance worker Corrie ten Boom has gone to press. This book has been out of print for some time, and Lighthouse Trails was very delighted to sign a contract with the Corrie ten Boom Foundation last year. The book has now gone to press, and we expect it back from the printers in about 3 weeks. This special Lighthouse Trails edition has several pictures that were not in previous editions. You may pre-order a copy today if you like. This book is not only a wonderful inspiring story of Corrie ten Boom's years before The Hiding Place, it is like a primer on raising a family with God's Word as the foundation of the home.



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