Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter
13 as we continue our in-depth study of Paul’s letter to
the church in
Several weeks’ back one of my co-workers was upset about what was going on in her church in Sheboygan. Her pastor came back from France and was now incorporating a new form of church service that is called, Taize. For many of you, you may not know what this is, but make no mistake about it, the name may not be familiar, but its practices most certainly are! Listen to what one article had to say regarding this practice. We are told:
“Taize is an ecumenical sung and silent participatory prayer service designed to achieve a contemplative state through music, song and silence.”
Practicing the silence with icons, candles, incense and prayer stations, this very contemplative community is attracting young people from around the world.
Reformed
Worship, a publication of Faith
Alive Christian Resources CRC
(Christian Reformed Church) Publications, carried an
article on their website that promotes the practice of Taize’
worship. The article, “How to . . . Plan in the Style of
Taize,” says that the students, faculty, and staff of Calvin
Theological Seminary spend time together once a week in “contemplative
services” in “the manner of the Community of Taize’.”
Taize is a form of contemplative worship that incorporates mystical practices and interspiritual beliefs as this article describes:
“Short chants, repeated again and again, give it a meditative character,” the brothers explain in a brief introduction printed in the paperback songbook. “Using just a few words, [the chants] express a basic reality of faith, quickly grasped by the mind. As the words are sung over many times, this reality gradually penetrates the whole being.”
For those who may wonder if Calvin Theological Seminary’s Taize’ is the same as the Taize’ in France, the article provides a link (to learn more) to Taize’ community in France.
This article in Reformed Worship is just another indication that contemplative spirituality is no respecter of denominations. Nearly all are affected and influenced.
- http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/taize.htm
Folks, make no mistake about it, we are in the last days and thus, the battle for the truth is intensifying. We are waging war against the false doctrines that are flooding into the church today and many are asleep, they just don’t care! John MacArthur wrote of this danger of moving away from God’s Word and going by feelings, going by experience, in his book, Reckless Faith. He wrote:
The evangelical consensus has shifted decidedly in the
past two decades. Our collective message is now short on doctrine
and long on experience. Thinking is deemed less important than
feeling . . . The love of sound doctrine that has always been
a distinguishing characteristic of evangelicalism has all but
disappeared. Add a dose of mysticism to this mix and you have
the recipe for unmitigated spiritual disaster.
- John MacArthur, Reckless
Faith, pp. 154-155
How do you get people to believe a lie? You take away the
truth so they don’t have anything to compare it to and that
is what we are seeing today. With that said, let’s begin
reading in Romans chapter 13, starting in verse 11 and see what
the Lord has for us this morning as we look at this topic of the
church being asleep, in part 6 of our series, IT IS TIME
TO WAKE UP!
Over the past several weeks we have seen how New Age teaching, Eastern Mysticism is alive and well. We have seen how this is being promoted and many are embracing it. And we have seen that there is a Jesus that is speaking to and through these people, but it is not the Jesus of the Bible. And what is interesting is that this Jesus has the same ecumenical message and this Jesus is giving the message that we are part of the God consciousness, that we too are God!
Now it is easy to see how the world can buy into this lie because they don’t have the truth, the truths of God found in the Word of God that will set them free from these lies. Let me clarify that. They do have the truth, they just don’t believe it or want to read it and thus, God gives them over to this lie, that they are God!
Let me give you a couple of examples of this New Age teaching, we did cover this already in great detail, and then I will show you how the church is now embracing this idea that we are God! First, James S. Gordon wrote:
Jesus was one soul who reached the state of Christ Consciousness; there have been many others. He symbolized the blueprint we must follow . . . The way is open to everyone to become a Christ by achieving the Christ Consciousness through walking the same path He walked. He simply and beautifully demonstrated this pattern.
- James S. Gordon, The Golden Guru: The Strange Journey of Bhagnan Shree Rajneesh, p. 236
And Alice Bailey wrote these words,
The significance of incarnation and resurrection is not that Jesus was human like us but rather that we are gods like him – or at least have the potential to be. The significance of Jesus is not as a vehicle of salvation but as a model of perfection.
- Alice Bailey, The Reappearance of Christ, p. 124
Remember I opened up with the pastor in Sheboygan bringing to his congregation a new form of worship, a new way of doing church called Taize worship. This is big in France, where this pastor received it, but it is spreading across this world. Listen to what Brother Pierre-Yves wrote in an article, Short Writings from Taize called, Saved by the Cross of Christ?
There is as well, in human beings, a desire for total self-sufficiency which distorts from the outset their desire for autonomy. The latter may be envisaged as something absolute, as if I were the unique center and as if God and other people were at the service of this absolute, an absolute which wishes to be free of all dependence and obligations. To be “like gods”, to be God in some sense (the God one imagines). This goes along with a rejection of any notion, imaginary as well, of a God who would subjugate me to his omnipotence. “Omnipotence”, yet another unreal dream. . . . In regard to sin, we must not immediately think of some moral fault, some failure. Sin is to be explained, at the spiritual level, as belonging to what we have just seen concerning that frenzied and egoistical self-seeking which is a fundamental inclination of human beings and to which I am constantly tempted to consent.
- Brother Pierre-Yves, Short Writings from Taize, Saved by the Cross of Christ?
What God are people imagining today? I believe they are beginning to imagine that they are God and for those of you who have rejected that notion, you just forgot that you are God; maybe it is a repressed memory! No, you are not God but that is what the New Age is teaching, that is what Eastern Mysticism is teaching and believe it or not, it is also what many in the church today are teaching, we are Gods! I am going to share some things with you, some of it you may be familiar with, but you need to see the progression of this garbage and now, because so many Christians are biblically illiterate, they are believing this lie!
We
have covered this before, but it is important that we understand
that this doctrine of believing that we are gods is an end time’s
prophecy that we see coming to pass before our eyes. And yes,
there have always been those that claimed to be the Christ, but
not on this large scale that we are seeing today! Remember what
Jesus said in Matthew 24:5, “For many will come in
My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive
many.” Also, in Luke 21:7-8 we
are told, “So they asked Him, saying, ‘Teacher,
but when will these things be? And what sign will there be when
these things are about to take place?’ And He said: ‘Take
heed that you not be deceived. For many will come in My name,
saying, “I am He,” and, “The time has drawn near.”
Therefore do not go after them.’”
As you read that you may come to the conclusion that Jesus is talking about those weird people who will claim to be Christ, they were around in the early church and they are around today, but I think there is more to it than that. You see, “many will come” Jesus tells us in Matthew and in Luke 21:8 the word “He” was added, it was not in the original manuscript. The King James writers inserted “Christ” and the New King James writers put “He” there, implying Christ, but that is not what the text says. It really says, “Many shall come saying ‘I AM.’” In other words, in the last days there will be many people claiming that they are god; many will claim that and we see that happening today!
Listen carefully to the following quotes of New Age teachers and you will see that what Jesus has said is happening right before our eyes! And we have talked about this a few weeks ago, but just to give you a few more statements before we talk about this issue coming into the church. We are told:
The first experience of unification with the Christ consciousness may come with the initial crossing of the psychic barrier and contact with the Christ Self or I AM Self.
- Anne P. and Peter V. Meyer, Being a Christ, p. 49
This Inner Self is called by many names such as: God-self, Higher-self, Christ Consciousness, I-AM, Buddha Nature, and many others.
- John Baughman, The New Age, p. 5
This I Am is God . . . This I AM is You. . . . Universe and Individual Consciousness. . . . God knowing Itself as God, God knowing Itself as You, and You knowing Yourself as God.
- John Randolph Price, The Planetary Commission, p. 98
Every man is an individual Christ; this is the teaching for the New Age. The experiences of contacting the Christ Self and the subsequent vibrational lifting are not to be reserved for a favored few. Every person in the world, sooner or later, will receive this lifting action. No one will be left out or left behind. Everyone will receive the benefit of this step in human evolution.
- Armand Biteaux, The New Consciousness, p. 128
Could it be that many Christians have been looking for “the Christ” in all the wrong places? Could it be that when Jesus said “no man knoweth the hour” of his return, it was because the return of the Christ comes now; within us, and is beyond space and time?
Jesus may have been hinting at this when he told us that ‘the kingdom of God is within you – not in some time, nor in some place, but within. When we look within, through meditation and the expansion of consciousness, we move beyond time, and meet face-to-face with the Christ.
- Gregory Barrette, The Christ is Now (Science of Mind, March 1989) p. 17
The Christ is You. You are the one who is to come – each of you. Each and every one of you!
- Life Times, Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 91
Christhood is not something to come at a point in the future when you are more evolved. Christhood is – right now! I am the Christ of God You are the Christ of God.
- John Randolph Price, The Planetary Commission, pp. 143, 145
I AM GOD! This is THE most basic tenant of Metaphysical spiritual understanding.
- A Metaphysical teacher
You are God in a physical body. . . . You are all power. . . . You are all intelligence. . . . You are the creator.
- The Secret
This is what the New Age teachers are saying, but what does God tell us regarding this issue that we are God? In Isaiah 45:21-22 we are told, “Tell and bring forth your case; Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, A just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me. Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” Also, in I John 5:12 John reminds us, “He who has the Son [not higher consciousness] has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
You see, there is no other God, there is only the true and living God and I don’t care what the so-called New Ager’s are teaching and it doesn’t matter if some spirit that calls himself Jesus has said it. If it goes contrary to Scripture, it is not true. It is a lie! So who are you going to believe? Who are you going to trust? Only the Lord gives life and He gives it to us abundantly if we would only trust in Him! May we not forget that for He is truth and in Him is no deception at all!
Now let me share with you what the so-called Christian church is getting into because as you will see, it is preparing people for The Lie, that we are Gods, just as Jesus said would happen in the last days. Paul reminds us in II Thessalonians 2:9-12, “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
What is “the lie” that is spoken of here? I have spoken of it already and I do believe it is not many lies but just one, THE LIE! Now I believe it is the same deception that was used in the Garden of Eden by Satan. In Genesis chapter 3 Satan challenged God’s Word, “God didn’t say that!” He denied God’s penalty for sin, “Get real, you are not going to die. Loosen up!” And lastly, he challenges the character of God, “God doesn’t want you to eat the fruit of that tree because when you do you will be like Him, God! He is holding back from giving you something that is good!” And in the end, The Lie is that we are God’s! That New Age philosophy has now been brought into the church and it is dangerous! Satan hasn’t changed his lie; he hasn’t needed to for we still fall prey to it. It may be dressed a little differently, but it is the same lie! If you doubt me, then listen closely to what I am going to say, listen to these quotes.
Kenneth Copeland
has this to say about us being God. He writes:
“Being in Christ Jesus makes you a new creature, or a new creation. The literal Greek text says ‘A new species of being which never existed before.’ When you become a new creature, your sprit is completely recreated. Old things are passed away, all things become new and all things are of God. You need to realize that you are not a spiritual schizophrenic-half-God and half-Satan-you are all-God.”
Elsewhere,
Copeland is more explicit:
“Every man who has been born again is an incarnation and Christianity is a miracle. The believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth.” (Word of Faith, 1980, KCP Publications, p. 14).
“I say this and repeat it so it don’t upset you too bad. When I read the Bible where (Jesus) says, ‘I am,” I say, ‘Yes, I Am, too (July 19, 1987 crusade).
“God’s reason for creating Adam was His desire to reproduce Himself. . . . He was not a little like God. He was not almost like God. He was not subordinate to God even.” (Following the faith of Abraham, tape).
Kenneth Hagin
tells us, “Man . . . was created on terms of equality with
God, and he could stand in God’s presence without any consciousness
of inferiority. . . . God has made us as much like Himself as
possible. . . . He made us the same class of being that He is
Himself. . . . Man lived in the realm of God. He lived on terms
equal with God. . . . [T]he believer is called Christ. . . . That’s
who we are; we’re Christ!”
(Zoe: The God-Kind of Life, pp 35-36, 41).
Morris Cerullo makes this bold claim: “Did you know that from the beginning of time the whole purpose of God was to reproduce Himself? . . . Who are you? Come on, who are you? Come on, say it: ‘Sons of God!’ Come on, say it! And what does work inside us, brother, is that manifestation of the expression of all that God is and all that God has. And when we stand up here, brother, you’re not looking at Morris Cerullo; you’re looking at God. You’re looking at Jesus.” (The Endtime Manifestation of the Sons of God, tape).
M. Scott Peck, a psychologist, wrote a book, The Road Less Traveled, which has been read by many Christians and New Age followers, and yet his words are not of God and that leaves only one other place they came from! He wrote, “God wants us to become Himself (or Herself or Itself). We are growing toward godhood. God is the goal of evolution.” (The Road Less Traveled, p. 270). How sad that Christians have read this book and yet see nothing wrong with his teachings! I have seen this book in Christian bookstores, in Christian book Distribution Company’s, being promoted by Christians! It is not at all Christian and yet, Christians are reading it and thus, do they believe we are God?
On the TBN program, Praise The Lord back on July 7, 1986, Paul Crouch made this comment: “Do you know what else has settled in tonight? This hue and cry and controversy that has been spawned by the devil to try to bring dissension within the body of Christ that we are not gods. I have His name. I am one with Him. I’m in covenant relation. I am a little god. Critics be gone.”
Copeland goes on to say, “You don’t have a God in you. You are one!” (The Force of Love, tape).
Now
if you don’t believe this is moving into mainstream evangelical
churches, you are not paying attention to what is going on.
Listen to this quote by emerging church author Leonard Sweet who spoke at the Catalyst
Conference in Atlanta, attended by thousands of evangelical leaders
from across the nation and was to speak at a Calvary Chapel worship
conference! We are told:
“The first of these five untheorized observations is that New Light embodiment means to be “in connection” and ‘in-formation’ with other Christians. Deeper feeling and higher relating go together. The church is fundamentally one being, one person, a communion whose cells are connected to one another within the information network called the Christ consciousness. New Lights offer up themselves as the cosmions of a mind-of-Christ consciousness. As a cosmion incarnating the cells of a new body, New Lights will function as transitional vessels through which transforming energy can renew the divine image in the world, moving postmodern from one state of embodiment to another.”
At the re-think conference a few years ago, back on January 17-19, 2008 at the Crystal Cathedral in California, we see this garbage being passed on to other leaders and lay people alike. This event was co-hosted by Erwin McManus and Robert Schuller, and the idea behind this event is to show that there is a paradigm shift underway. These speakers insisted that Christianity must be re-thought and re-invented if the name of Jesus Christ is going to survive here on planet earth now that we have entered the twenty-first century. I have news for them, it does not need to be re-invented, we need to get back to the basics of Christianity, get back to the Bible!
Roger Oakland, who was at the conference, tells us:
“The conference opened with an on-stage dialogue between Schuller and McManus. Schuller gave a brief overview of his accomplishments through his many years of ministry. He explained how pleased he was to be able to look back at the tremendous leaders he has mentored over the years, which include Willow Creek’s seeker-friendly pioneer pastor Bill Hybels, the six million member Church of God in Christ’s Bishop Charles Blake, and Rick Warren who has pioneered the purpose driven church and the purpose driven life.”
And what are these church leaders telling us? What are they promoting? Folks, it is nothing more than New Age doctrine with a veneer of Christianity, which is being striped away. Listen carefully to what they are saying:
“With
practice, you can develop the habit of praying silent ‘breath
prayers’“
Rick
Warren, from his
book (p. 299)
“[U]se ‘breath prayers‘ throughout the day, as many Christians have done for centuries. You choose a brief sentence or a simple phrase that can be repeated to Jesus in one breath.”—Rick Warren, Purpose-Driven Life, p. 89.
“Does Buddha have anything to offer non-Buddhists in the workplace? My answer is a wholehearted, ‘Yes.’— Ken Blanchard, co-author of the One Minute Manager, from the foreword and front cover of What Would Buddha Do in the Workplace?
Bruce Wilkinson tells us, “We have promoted an unbiblical message that becoming born-again is the answer to everything. It’s not. It changes your eternity, but it doesn’t change your sexual behaviour, for instance. The gospel does not always have the answer for modern-day dilemmas.”
From Youth Specialties, we are told: “I built myself a prayer room—a tiny sanctuary in a basement closet filled with books on spiritual disciplines, contemplative prayer, and Christian mysticism. In that space I lit candles, burned incense, hung rosaries, and listened to tapes of Benedictine monks. I meditated for hours on words, images, and sounds. I reached the point of being able to achieve alpha brain patterns...”— Mike Perschon, Youth Specialties Magazine, December 2004
“Choose a sacred word or phrase. Consistently use the same word throughout the prayer. Begin silently to repeat your sacred word or phrase” Mark Yaconelli, Youth Specialties National Pastor’s Convention.
“Spiritual ecstasy. The third phase of contemplative prayer ... a supernatural trance state . . .” Charisma magazine, Oct. 2004
“Contemplative prayer is nothing other than coming into consciousness of what is already there.” Brennan Manning, Signature of Jesus
“Brennan (Manning) is my friend, walking ahead of me on the path toward home. As I watch him from behind, I am drawn to more closely follow on the path. . . .” Larry Crabb, endorsement of Abba’s Child.
“I began practicing meditation, specifically breath prayer, once again. I integrated the use of Tai Chi and yoga” John Michael Talbot, Interview with Christianity Today 10/22/2001.
“Its [visualization] effect is to dissolve our internal barriers to natural harmony and self realization” Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization.
Matthew Fox tells us that, “We need to become aware of the Cosmic Christ, which means recognizing that every being has within it the light of Christ.” “Everyone is born a mystic and a lover who experiences the unity of things and all are called to keep this mystic or love of life alive.”
M. Basil Pennington wrote, “When we go to the center of our being and pass through that center into the very center of God we get in immediate touch with this divine creating energy . . . that the divine energy may have the freedom to forward the evolution of consciousness in us and through us, as a part of the whole, in the whole of the creation.”
“[T]he God who dwells in our inner sanctuary is the same as the one who dwells in the inner sanctuary of each human being.” (Here and Now by Henri Nouwen, p. 22).
“Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center.” (Streams of Living Water by Richard Foster, 1998, beginning of chapter 2 – a quote by Thomas Kelly).
“[Even people] who have yet to turn their lives over to Jesus Christ – can and should practice them. [spiritual disciplines].” (Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, p. 2).
“[I]f I find Christ, I will find my true self and if I find my true self, I will find Christ.” (Abba’s Child by Brennan Manning, p. 125).
Here
is another one, Bob Jones, who has received special revelation
about this new hope: “I have called the best of every
blood line in earth unto this generation . . . I have elected
to bring them forth in this generation . . . THE ELECT GENERATION
. . . even the bloodline of Paul . . . of David . . . of Peter,
James and John . . . They will even be superior to them in heart,
stature and love for me’ . . . Your children will possess
the spirit without measure . . . They will move into things of
the supernatural that no one has ever moved in before . . . coming
into the DIVINE NATURE of Jesus Christ . . . a Church that has
reached the full maturity of the GODMAN! This generation . . .
is going to see the beginning of this WORLD WIDE NEW ORDER.”
According to Paul Cain, “God’s raising up a new standard, a new banner, if you will, that’s going to radically change the expression, the understanding of Christianity in our generation . . . God has invited us to have a role in establishing a new order of Christianity . . . God is offering to this generation something He has never offered to any other generation . . . beware lest old order brethren rob you and steal this hope from you.” (Paul Cain, “You Can Become the Word!” 1989, Vineyard Prophetic Conference) (Discernment Newsletter)
Paul Cain makes it very clear that he believes we will become Christ. “The Lord has well planted this seed and the New Bride and the New Breed . . . He’s about to open the womb and He’s about to give birth to this New Thing . . . When the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us we beheld the glories of the only begotten of the Father and when you begin to become that Word I want you to know. The world will behold the glory of the Father and that’s what we’re waiting to see . . . I want you to know that we’re going to have some channeling one of these days, but it’s going to be channeled right out of the throne room of Heaven.” (Paul Cain, “You Can Become the Word!”, 1989, Vineyard Prophetic Conference)
“Christ is the same force as Lucifer . . . Lucifer prepares man for the experience of Christhood. (He is) the great initiator . . . Lucifer works within each of us to bring us to wholeness, and as we move into a New Age ... each of us in some way is brought to that point which I term the Luciferic Initiation . . . for it is an invitation into the New Age. (David Spangler Reflections on the Christ p.44-45)
Let’s look at what New Age prophetess Alice Bailey has to say about the role of the church.
“ . . . The church movement, like all else, is but a temporary expedient and serves but a transient resting place for the evolving life. Eventually, there will appear the Church Universal, and its definite outlines will appear towards the close of this century . . . This Church will be nurtured into activity by the Christ and His disciples when the outpouring of the Christ principle, the TRUE second Coming has been accomplished . . . the Christian church in its many branches can serve as a nucleus through which world illumination may be accomplished . . . the church as a teaching factor should take the great basic doctrines and (shattering the old forms in which they are expressed and held) show their true and inner spiritual significance. The prime work of the church is to teach, and teach ceaselessly, preserving the outer appearance in order to reach the many who are accustomed to church usages. Teachers must be trained; Bible knowledge must be spread; the sacraments must be mystically interpreted, and the power of the church to heal must be demonstrated.” Alice Bailey, The Externalization of the Hierarchy, 1957.
Did
you catch that? The New Agers plan to use THE CHURCH to bring
about their New Order. World illumination will be accomplished
THROUGH THE CHURCH. What kind of illumination are they talking
about? Do they mean acceptance of the Biblical Christ? Do
they mean repentance and acceptance of His shed blood as the sacrifice
for our sins and the ONLY way to eternal life? No, certainly
not, it is Lucifer preparing man for the experience of Christhood. And
just in case we are really dense she goes on to tell us that they
NEED the church to preserve its outer appearance to reach those
who are accustomed to its usages. IT IS TIME TO WAKE UP!!!!
This is where the church is heading, the apostate church of the last days and we need to be aware; we need to contend for the faith that has been entrusted to us. And I know, you may be thinking, “How can this happen?” Listen carefully to the words of New Ager Wayne Dyer. I think he is right: “When enough of us align in a certain way, reaching a critical mass, then the rest of us will begin to be affected and align that way also.” (Interview from Science of Mind magazine, 01/93)
And Perhaps the words of Alice Bailey, (who personified the New Age Movement) were right also when she said that the Age of enlightenment, (when everyone realizes they are one with each other and God), will come, not around the Christian church but rather through it! That should be a warning to us folks, it is happening!
A new world religion is being birthed right before our eyes? Few had considered those inside the church would be a midwife to this process. But not Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who said, “The fate of mankind, as well as of religion, depends upon the emergence of a new faith in the future.” Futurist Pierre Teilhard does not leave us guessing what he means, “a ‘religion of the future’ (definable as a ‘religion of evolution’) cannot fail to appear before long: a new mysticism, the germ of which (as it happens when anything is born) must be recognizable somewhere in our environment here and now. (p. 240 Jesuit priest Teilhard de Chardin, Christianity and Evolution)
“. . . I can be saved only by becoming one with the universe. Thereby, too, my deepest ‘pantheist’ aspirations. It was especially the image of God which Teilhard saw in need of urgent redefinition. Modern man has not yet found the God he can adore, a God commensurate to the newly discovered dimensions of the universe” (Ursala King,Towards a New Mysticism- Tielhard de Chardin and eastern religions, p.172).
Benjamen Creme who is the harbinger for the new Christ of this age (they believe there is a different christed individual for different times) says, The Master Jesus is going to reform the Christian churches” (Benjamen Creme, Reappearance of the Christ, p. 85).
Jesus speaking to Barbara Hubbard said, “Behold, I am writing anew, through scribes on Earth who are willing to listen to me again with new ears, in the light of the present crises on planet Earth” (Barbara Hubbard, The Revelation p. 265).
New age promoter David Spangler writes, “The New Age is here now and the Christ is functioning within the inner realms of the earth, both in his ascended state from the depths of his past ministry and in his greater state of Aquarian Revelation” (David Spangler, Revelation p.144).
The central idea of Universalism teaches that all religions hold elements of the truth and that no religion or religious teacher is fully right or wrong. This is one of the ways to build bridges to other religions, and make them united.
Rick Warren did an audio seminar with Leonard Sweet called The Tides of Change (1995). Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox at www.pastors.com endorses Sweet. SoulTsunami: Sink or Swim in New Millennium Culture (his endorsement is on the front cover.) Leonard Sweet teaches that we have an organic integration with those in the past.
In his book Quantum Spirituality: Under the topic of Sevening (On the seventh day [God] rested and drew breath.) he gives some 10 deep breathing exercises. “1. Get in touch with your lungs by closing your eyes. Visualize in your mind a tennis court” 8.”Hold your Bible and breathe meditatively. The breathtaking, nay, breathgiving truth of aliveness is more than Methuselean in its span: Part of your body right now was once actually, literally part of the body of Abraham, Sarah, Noah, Esther, David, Abigail, Moses, Ruth, Matthew, Mary, Like, Martha, John, Priscilla, Paul... and Jesus. 9. Keep breathing quietly while holding your Bible. You have within you not just the powers of goodness resident in the great spiritual leaders like Moses, Jesus, Muhammed, Lao Tzu You also have within you the forces of evil and destruction.” Resident in each breath you take is the body of angels like Joan of Arc and devils like Gilles de Rais, Genghis Khan, Judas Iscariot, Herod, Hitler, Stalin and all the other destructive spirits throughout history” (Quantum Spirituality p.300-301).
Benjamen Creme stated “Times as you know are changing and the changing times bring new personalities in different ways into the world of all conceptions of the bible story and the gospel and so on have to change, the people that will find it probably hardest of all to accept Maitreya are the leaders of the Christian and Jewish organizations. . . . they had the same problem 2,000 years ago with Jesus, Jesus was there among them and they didn’t recognize him.” (Art Bell broadcast, July 10, 1998).
Change and evolution seem to go hand in hand in the new mysticism. What does God say in the Bible? “I the Lord do not change.” So what is influencing this change?
Foster Explains his view of celebration: “We of the New Age can risk going against the tide. Let us with abandon . . . see visions and dream dreams . . . The imagination can release a flood of creative ideas [and] be lots of fun.” (Celebration of Discipline, Harper & Row, 1978, p. 170)
The
new spirituality does not reject the earlier patterns of the great
universal religions. Priest and church will not disappear; they
will not be forced out of existence in the New Age, they will
be ABSORBED INTO THE EXISTENCE OF THE NEW AGE.” (William
Thompson, in the Introduction of David Spangler, Rvelation: The
Birth of the New Ag ). We should note that Leonard Sweet states
he has corresponded with David Spangler and quotes him
several times favorably in his book Quantum Spirituality. Sweet
says in his footnotes #86. I am grateful to David Spangler
for his help in formulating this “new cell” understanding
of New Light leadership.”
David Spangler who Sweet favorably quotes also speaks of Lucifer as: “The true light of this great being can only be recognized when one’s own eyes can see with the light of the Christ, the light of the inner sun. Lucifer works within each of us to bring us to wholeness, and as we move into the New Age, which is the age of man’s wholeness, each of us is brought to that point which I term the Luciferic Initiation, the particular doorway through which the individual must pass if he is to come fully into the presence of his light and his wholeness.
Lucifer comes to give us the final gift of wholeness. If we accept it, then he is free and we are free, that is the Luciferic Initiation. It is one that many people now, and in the days ahead, will be facing, for it is an initiation into the New Age. (David Spangler, Reflections on the Christ, Findhorn Lecture Series, 3rd ed., 1981; p. 45)
So as you move away from the truths of God found in the Word of God, this is what you get! Remember that old car slogan, “You asked for it, you got it, Toyota!” Well, we can change that to, “You asked for it, you got it, New Age!”
Please don’t be asleep to what is happening, this is the most dangerous thing that has come into the church in our lifetime, this mixture of New Age and Eastern Mysticism. In fact, David L. Smith correctly sees this danger as he wrote, “Not since Gnosticism at the dawn of the Christian era has there arisen a philosophy as pervasive and threatening to orthodox Christianity as the New Age movement . . . It would be difficult to find any area of life, which has not been touched or redirected to some degree by the concepts of this movement.” May we be listening and discerning regarding this issue!
Let me share this regarding Sue Monk Kidd, who appeared to be a Christian, went to a Christian church, but listen carefully to what she is about. We are told:
Sue
Monk Kidd’s spirituality is spelled out clearly in her book
When the Heart Waits. She explains:
There’s a bulb of truth buried in the human soul [not just Christian] that’s “only God” . . . the soul is more than something to win or save. It’s the seat and repository of the inner Divine, the God-image, the truest part of us.
Sue Monk Kidd, an introspective woman, gives a revealing description of her spiritual transformation in her book God’s Joyful Surprise: Finding Yourself Loved. She shares how she suffered a deep hollowness and spiritual hunger for many years even though she was very active in her Baptist church. She sums up her feelings:
Maybe we sense were disconnected from God somehow. He becomes superfluous to the business at hand. He lives on the periphery so long we begin to think that is where He belongs. Anything else seems unsophisticated or fanatical.
In
her first and second books, Monk Kidd was writing from a Christian
perspective. That is why the back cover of God’s Joyful Surprise
was endorsed by Virtue, Today’s Christian Woman,
and (really proving my point) Moody Monthly. But with
her third and fourth book, Monk Kidd had made the full transition
to a spiritual view more in tune with Wicca than with Christianity.
Now she worships the Goddess Sophia rather than Jesus Christ:
We also need Goddess consciousness to reveal earth’s holiness. . . . Matter becomes inspirited; it breathes divinity. Earth becomes alive and sacred. . . . Goddess offers us the holiness of everything.
There is one portion in Monk Kidd’s book The Dance of the Dissident Daughter that, for me, stands out and speaks right to the heart of this issue. I want my readers to grasp what she is conveying in the following account. No one can lightly dismiss or ignore the powers behind contemplative prayer after reading this narrative:
The minister was preaching. He was holding up a Bible. It was open, perched atop his raised hand as if a blackbird had landed there. He was saying that the Bible was the sole and ultimate authority of the Christian’s life. The sole and ultimate authority.
I remember a feeling rising up from a place about two inches below my navel. It was a passionate, determined feeling, and it spread out from the core of me like a current so that my skin vibrated with it. If feelings could be translated into English, this feeling would have roughly been the word no!
It was the purest inner knowing I had experienced, and it was shouting in me no, no, no! The ultimate authority of my life is not the Bible; it is not confined between the covers of a book. It is not something written by men and frozen in time. It is not from a source outside myself. My ultimate authority is the divine voice in my own soul. Period.
- Ray Yungen, A Time of Departing, pp. 134-136
I realize that the last several weeks have not been very encouraging, they have been informative but I want you to see how all this religious activity is moving us closer towards a one-world religion. Listen to this warning that was missed years ago and see if the same is happening today in the church, for it is just as evil, it is just as deadly. Warren B. Smith tells us,
In the introduction to a 1999 publication (Sixth Pressing) of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, Konrad Heiden describes how everything that Hitler was about to do was telegraphed in his early writings:
For years Mein
Kampf stood as proof of the blindness and complacency of the
world. For in its pages Hitler announced — long before he
came to power — a program of blood and terror in a
self revelation of such overwhelming frankness that few among
its readers had the courage
to believe it. Once again it was demonstrated that there was no
more effective method of concealment than the broadest publicity.
Somehow, Christians don’t seem to grasp Jesus’ warnings about the tremendous
deception that characterizes the time of the end. Perhaps deceived into thinking that we can’t be deceived, we don’t take seriously enough His warnings that a Hitler-like antichrist figure will one day rise to rule the world — and that many people calling themselves “Christians” will support this spiritual counterfeit who will actually come in the name of Christ. Our adversary wants us to believe that these warnings are for another people at another time. Yet through Scripture, and in our heart of hearts, the Spirit of God tells us that they are not. As we study the Bible, and as we watch and pray and observe the events all around us, we come to understand that these future times described by Jesus are now suddenly and undeniably upon us.
- Warren B. Smith, Reinventing Jesus Christ The New Gospel, pp. 116-117
We are going to conclude this section of Romans chapter 13 dealing with the subject of the church awakening out of her spiritual sleep because the Lord is coming back next time as we look at the issue of discernment, is it biblical? I think that is an important subject for us to look at. As I rap things up this morning, listen to these words from Benjamin B. Warfield. He wrote, “We may by mystics, or we may be Christians. We cannot be both. And the pretension of being both usually merely veils defection from Christianity. Mysticism baptized with the name of Christianity is not thereby made Christianity. A rose by any other name will smell as sweet. But it does not follow that whatever we choose to call a rose will possess the rose’s fragrance.”
That was not written last year or 10 years ago or 50 years ago. Benjamin B. Warfield lived from 1851 to 1921 and what he said back then applies to us today and it is even more alarming when you see how the door has been opened to New Age and Eastern Mysticism. As much as people may not like what I have said. As much as some may not agree with what I have said. Let me leave you with this to think about. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” The Amplified Bible says, “There is a way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death.” And The Living Bible puts it like this, “Before every man there lies a wide and pleasant road that seems right but ends in death.”
Yes, there are many roads out there, there are many paths for people to follow after God by, but there is only one that is true and that is through Jesus Christ, all other roads lead to death! And the bottom line is, this. It doesn’t matter what you think, what you believe to be true, it is as Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6. May we not forget that because He is the only way!