Unity and Satan’s Church
In
my final years at 107.9 Life[less] FM I found myself walking a very fine line.
You see, Life[less] FM’s mission statement declares its objective is to preach
the ‘relevance’ of the Gospel – not the Gospel itself but the relevance of it. This kind of unbiblical reasoning is known as ‘being relevant to
the culture’ and is completely and utterly unbiblical. Nowhere does the Bible
instruct believers to be ‘relevant’ but here we have the wisdom of man once
again taking pre-eminence over the inerrant Word of God. So being opposed to
this kind of compromising thought a confrontation with the powers that be at
that establishment was inevitable. Unlike previous managements of Life[less]
FM, the manager during my final years there was a woman who not only assumed
the august title of C.E.O but who also went out of her way, often to fanatical
extremes to promote the doctrine of unity. It was inevitable that she and I
would come into conflict over this issue seeing I have long been an exponent of
the view that “Unity that comes at the cost of the truth is a unity not worth
having”. Wendy Rush (the CEO in question) held a far differing belief. She
maintained by word and action that unity was no threat to the truth within the
Christian Church and that we should all ‘just get along’ for the glory of God.
How she could come to such an asinine conclusion baffled me for years until I
realised that she, along with a growing number of others were part of what is
variously known as: The Emerging Church Movement, The Church Growth Movement,
Spiritual Formation, Missiology, Interspirituality
and Contextualisation.
You
see folks as much as it is desired unity between opposing worldviews is not
possible unless of course one is prepared to sacrifice the absolute on the altar
of expedience. Simply put, to secure smooth seas one must not rock the popular
boat with inconvenient things like the truth. Rush and her contemporaries need
to be reminded that Christianity stands alone in its rightful proclamation that
it is representative of the ONE who is the ONLY way to God the Father. His name
is Y’shua not Buddha, not Mohammed, not Krishna, not the Dalai lama, not Ray
Moon, not Jim Jones, not the Pope, not Mary, not Joseph Smith, not the
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, John Lennon, not Ashley Evans, not Brian
Houston (who are both foolishly following the Purpose Driven paradigm into
perdition) nor Benny Hinn – only Y’shua and Y’shua ALONE, the same One who taught separation
from false movements not integration with them. Believers are not called to
‘Christianise’ the world, they are called to ‘come out and be separate’.
The
Father’s Word is explicitly clear that in the last days the adversary Satan
would construct for himself a ‘church’ over which he would rule sovereign. The
Bible describes this monstrosity as a ‘whore’ and rightly so. She has many
spiritual lovers, been intimate with a plethora of faiths, ideologies,
doctrines and rituals. She is pantheistic not pure. She is all accommodating
not discerning. She is popular not faithful. Notice the churches described in
the book of Revelation. The two commended without rebuke for their
faithfulness,
The
following article from Lighthouse Trails exposes the clear and present danger
of compromise and how it has surreptitiously pervaded the professing Christian
church, and serves as a timely warning for the days that lay ahead.
Yours
in His Everlasting Embrace
Tony
Dean
©
2007
Episcopal priest claims to be both Muslim and Christian.
The
Rickety Road to Ruin.
Article Courtesy: Light House Trails
The June 17th headline in the Seattle Times newspaper
reads, "I Am Both Muslim and Christian." Janet Tu,
religion reporter for the Times has written the piece on an Episcopal
priest named Ann Holmes Redding.
Interestingly, the article quotes Kurt Fredrickson, director of the doctor of
ministry program at the pro-contemplative / emerging Fuller Theological
Seminary in
But there is a twist to this story, and obviously, it's one the Seattle
Times didn't include in their own report. While Fuller Theological Seminary
and probably most evangelical institutions would say you can't be both
Muslim and Christian, in truth they are saying the opposite every day. How
you ask? Simply by promoting contemplative and/or the emerging church, which
countless Christian organizations, ministries, schools and churches do now. One thing is important to understand - If
there is a promotion of contemplative (i.e., spiritual formation), then there
is a promotion for emerging spirituality (the belief system of the emerging church).
That is because the premise of contemplative is the premise of emerging, and
both end up in the same camp - interspirituality of
which
Some may be thinking right now, the emerging church proponents may be
practicing mystical exercises but they would never agree with
When Rick Warren told an interfaith audience at the 2005 UN Prayer Breakfast
that God didn't care what religion they were, they just needed to add Jesus to
their lives, what he meant was that you can stay Hindu, or Buddhist, or Muslim,
but you need Jesus. It's called the New Missiology.
It promotes the following ideas:
1. You can keep your own religion - Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism - you
just need to add Jesus to the equation. Then you become complete. You become a
Buddhist with Jesus, a Hindu with Jesus, a Muslim with
Jesus and so on.
2. You can throw out the term Christianity and still be a follower of Jesus.
3. In fact, you can throw out the term Christian too. In some countries, you
could be persecuted for calling yourself a Christian, and there is no need for
that. Just ask Jesus into your heart, you don't have to identify yourself as a
Christian.
Rick Warren isn't the only one promoting the new missiology.
In fact, momentum is growing daily, and new missiology
evangelists are increasing by number steadily. While Don Miller, author
of the very popular, Blue Like Jazz says, "the beginning of sharing
my faith with people began by throwing out Christianity" (p. 115), and
Brian McLaren says "It may be advisable in many
(not all!) circumstances to help people become
followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish
contexts," Baker Books' new release, An Emergent Manifesto of Hope
takes the belief to astounding new heights (see our book review).
In the Manifesto, under the chapter "The Sweet Problem of
Inclusiveness," the following statements are made. These are all in
context and from the same author, Muslim raised Samir
Selmanovic who later served as a Seventh Day
Adventist pastor and now is part of Emergent Village. Selmanovic
states:
"Christianity's idea that other religions cannot be God's
carriers of grace and truth casts a large shadow over our Christian
experience" (p. 191).
"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
"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. Soren Kierkegaard argued that the moment one decides to become a
Christian, one is liable to idolatry" (p. 193).
"Is our religion the only one that understands the true meaning of life?
Or does God place his truth in others too? ... 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" (p. 194).
The message that Selmanovic is preaching is none
other than what Alice Bailey calls the rejuvenation of the churches,
where Christianity will be melded into the other religions of the world,
ultimately leading to a universal global religion, and in which the gospel
message of Jesus Christ will be completely compromised. Ray Yungen,
in his book, A Time of Departing, explains this in depth.
Some may think that Selmanovic's anti-Christian
statements are isolated, that other emerging leaders don't carry it that far.
But they do. Dan Kimball's book, They Like Jesus But
Not the Church is a perfect example of this hammering away at Christianity
-- the only belief system with the truth and the only one that offers
salvation freely through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Kimball condemns what
he calls fundamentalists (which he defines as Bible literalists), and yet
leaders like Josh McDowell and others commend and endorse him. Erwin McManus
says it is his goal to "destroy Christianity" yet David Jeremiah and
others promote him.
If Christianity is redefined as "just one of the great religions,"
the obvious next step will be "Jesus is just one of the great masters
among many."
Emerging spirituality is quickly overtaking much of
mainstream Christianity, right before our very eyes. If your pastor or youth
leader is telling your church to be involved with spiritual formation, they are
taking you down a road the same as Samir Selmanovic when he says he seeks "to bring progressive
Jews, Christians, Muslims, and spiritual seekers of no faith to become an
interfaith community for the good of the world," or when he says,
"We have one world and one God," and "Imagine: One
humanity, One pulpit, A rich diversity of voices, All learning from one another
and cherishing the traditions of one another."1
Jesus asked the question "[W]hen the Son of man cometh, shall he find
faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8). That's a sobering question that we
should ponder.
For more information:
A book review: They Like Jesus But
Not the Church
Emergent Manifesto: Emerging Church Coming Out of the
Closet
Church-less Christianity - Christ-izing
Other Religions