Rick Warren & John Piper... Piper Gives Theological "Thumbs Up" -- Can We Trust Rick However To Tell Him the Truth?

UPDATE: Please, I ask that you include the comment section in your reading and understanding of this post. It is essential that you understand the back-story to this post and not simply dismiss it due to not knowing the full story of Rick Warren and why many out there (me included) are holding his feet to the fire.

As you meander through this post and its links, keep in mind that the whole premise of the emergent church is to be agreeable, at all costs. Keep in mind as well that it was Rick Warren and Bill Hybels who allowed Brian McLaren onto the main stage of American Churches... someone who denies the following:

...McLaren has finally admitted that those of us who’ve been saying that he denies the fall of man, hell, Christ’s penal substitutionary atonement, the inerrancy and authority of scripture and Christ’s return in glory to judge both the living and the dead were right all along...

So there seems to be some backpeddling here. How much of it is noteworthy, I cannot really say. I can say that double-talk in the emerging movement is major, and not minor. I will give two examples from the post "John Piper Promotes Rick Warren..." You be the judge. These two posts I wish to highlight here are:

• John Piper Promotes Rick Warren at Desiring God 2010;
• Is John Piper Aware Of Rick Warren’s Political Connections With A Suspected Terrorist?

A great post on Rick Warren popped up on my radar screen. First, it is heartening to hear John Piper go through some of the issues that have been bugging me ("us" -- people who are challenging the emerging movement in their churches and the magnetosphere). I may enlighten you that this is a Messianic Jewish site... a group of people that I love very much. You must keep in mind however, as you read, that there is a cultural rift (not a Doctrinal rift) between our two believing camps. I wish to thank the Rosh Pina Project for the following. It will add to my "Rick Warren" tab.

Here, Rosh Pina points out that there seems to be some disconnect with what Rick Warren tells people, and what he has said in the past:

Piper claims Warren believes in salvation only in Jesus Christ – how does he explain Warren’s comment that it takes “more than faith” to be saved? And Warren’s comments about the “test” God sets every believer?

The question becomes, then: "has Rick Warren lied openly, and publicly... causing one to question Rick's sincerity when talking to one person as compared to another?" Again, Pina:

Have a look at this video on how Warren has angered both sides of the homosexuality debate. Warren’s utter hypocrisy is enough to make any man marvel – surely Piper is aware of this?

New Age Sympathizer Leonard Sweet To Speak at Pastor Skip Heitzig's Calvary Chapel Church

This is imported entirely from Lighthouse Trails Blog (the front page of their blog can be found here). I imported it because I want my readers to see the depth that the church has fallen into this hole of compromise. This story and others can be found at Lighthouse Trails main site. I highly suggest their many products.

From Warren B. Smith's book, A "Wonderful" Deception:

If we want to possess a magical crystal for our New Age work, we need look no further than our own bodies and the cells that make them up.[1] —David Spangler 1991  

I am grateful to David Spangler for his help in formulating this “new cell” understanding of New Light leadership.[2]—Leonard Sweet 1991

Leonard Sweet, in acknowledging [New Age leaders] Willis Harman, Matthew Fox, M. Scott Peck, and the others he refers to as “New Light leaders” in Quantum Spirituality, states:

I believe these are among the most creative religious leaders in America today. These are the ones carving out channels for new ideas to flow. In a way this book was written to guide myself through their channels and chart their progress. The book’s best ideas come from them.[3]

Speaking of spiritual “channels,” Sweet expresses his personal gratitude in Quantum Spirituality to channeler and veteran New Age leader, David Spangler. . . . A pioneering spokesperson for the New Age, Spangler has written numerous books over the years that include Emergence: The Rebirth of the Sacred, Revelation: The Birth of a New Age, and Reimagination of the World: A Critique of the New Age, Science, and Popular Culture. His book Revelation: The Birth of a New Age is a compilation of channeled transmissions he received from his disembodied spirit-guide “John.” At one point in Revelation, Spangler documents what “John” prophesied about “the energies of the Cosmic Christ” and “Oneness”:

As the energies of the Cosmic Christ become increasingly manifest within the etheric life of Earth, many individuals will begin to respond with the realization that the Christ dwells within them. They will feel his presence moving within and through them and will begin to awaken to their heritage of Christhood and Oneness with God, the Beloved.[4]

Unbelievably, in a modern-day consultation that bears more than a casual resemblance to King Saul’s consultation with the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:7), Leonard Sweet acknowledges in Quantum Spirituality that he was privately corresponding with channeler David Spangler.[5] In Quantum Spirituality, Sweet writes about what he calls his “new cell” understanding of New Light leadership, then closes his book by thanking Spangler for “his help in formulating this ‘new cell’ understanding of New Light Leadership.” Sweet writes:

I am grateful to David Spangler for his help in formulating this “new cell” understanding of New Light leadership.[6]

LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS REPORT: This coming June, Calvary Chapel Albuquerque (a veteran Calvary Chapel church pastored by Skip Heitzig) will host the National Worship Leader Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico and will feature New Age sympathizer and emerging church leader, Leonard Sweet. The NWLC event will take place in three different U.S. locations with Sweet participating in two of them. The worship conference is presented by Worship Leader magazine, whose chief editor is Chuck Fromm (Chuck Smith, Sr.'s nephew). On the conference website, a banner promotion by Greg Laurie, (another veteran Calvary Chapel pastor) sits in a prominent spot. Laurie states: "In Worship Leader magazine, you hear from the leading thinkers, artists, and pastors on how we can more effectively worship God."[7]

With general promotion of Worship Leader magazine by someone as popular as Greg Laurie, and with the conference taking place at one of the larger Calvary Chapel churches, undoubtedly, the event will be accepted by many Christians as a credible, trustworthy conference. But Leonard Sweet's involvement should cause serious concern for believers.

Leonard Sweet has been a leading figure in bringing the "new" spirituality into the evangelical church for more than a decade and a half. From his book, Quantum Spirituality (which without question shows his unswerving affinity toward major New Age leaders and the New Age philosophy that God is IN all things) to his audio series, The Tides of Change, with Rick Warren in 1995, to his book he co-authored with atonement denier Brian McLaren, A is for Abductive: the Language of the Emerging Church [see an example from this book], to a number of other books he has written that continue to show his New Age propensities, Sweet has consistently proven himself to be a New Age sympathizer. And for him to be included in a conference at a Calvary Chapel church (after the founder of the movement denounced the emerging spirituality a few years ago) speaks volumes about the slide into deception that the evangelical church is making.

Warren Smith, in his cutting-edge book A "Wonderful" Deception (an expose on Rick Warren, Leonard Sweet, and the "new" emerging Christianity), wrote two strong documented chapters specifically on the New Age views of Leonard Sweet. Perhaps one of the most troubling things Smith reveals about Sweet is Sweet's statement about "the father of the New Age movement,"[8] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Sweet calls the late panentheist Chardin “Twentieth-century Christianity’s major voice.”[9] But Chardin does not represent biblical Christianity–on the contrary, he falls in a spiritual camp that embraces the “cosmic Christ,” which is the "I AM God" in every creature. Even though this christ-consciousness-in-all-people belief rejects the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, Sweet has openly aligned himself with Chardin. In Sweet’s book, Aqua Church, he favorably quotes Chardin arrogantly saying: “Christ is in the Church in the same way as the sun is before our eyes. We see the same sun as our fathers saw, and yet we understand it in a much more magnificent way."[10] Sweet’s alignment with Chardin’s New Age views is nothing short of heresy.

The following quotes from Chardin underscore his New Age worldview and belief in a universal New Age Christ. He writes:

[T]he Cross still stands. . . . But this is on one condition, and one only: that it expand itself to the dimensions of a new age, and cease to present itself to us as primarily (or even exclusively) the sign of a victory over sin.[11]

A general convergence of religions upon a universal Christ who fundamentally satisfies them all: that seems to me the only possible conversion of the world, and the only form in which a religion of the future can be conceived.[12]

I believe that the Messiah whom we await, whom we all without any doubt await, is the universal Christ; that is to say, the Christ of evolution.[13] (emphasis added)

As the world moves further toward major spiritual darkness, how can Christian leaders be so willing to embrace those who say they represent Christianity but in essence are helping to bring in a false gospel and a false universal New Age christ, one that will eventually deceive the whole world (Revelation 12:9)?

By what is shaping up, it appears it may not be too long before the spirituality of Leonard Sweet, Rick Warren, and some Calvary Chapel pastors will all bear the same shade of the new spirituality, one which occultist Alice Bailey said would usher in the New Age/New Spirituality cosmic "Christ." And with the throttle pulled all the way back on contemplative mysticism* (the vehicle that will convince the masses to embrace this "Christ"), it's just a matter of time until Leonard Sweet and Rick Warren's tides of change will become a reality, and the stage will be set for the great falling away the Bible speaks of: "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition." II Thessalonians 2:3

For those who may be skeptical about what we are saying here about the role that mysticism will play in this great deception, consider the words of Leonard Sweet:

Mysticism, once cast to the sidelines of the Christian tradition, is now situated in postmodernist culture near the center.… In the words of one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century, Jesuit philosopher of religion/dogmatist Karl Rahner, “The Christian of tomorrow will be a mystic, one who has experienced something, or he will be nothing.”[14]

The question must be asked, what is Skip Heitzig thinking by giving Leonard Sweet a platform at his Calvary Chapel church? If Calvary Chapel goes in the direction of Leonard Sweet, Rick Warren, and others, Calvary Chapel could end up embracing the same New Age/New Spirituality teachings of Teilhard de Chardin, David Spangler, and Karl Rahner.

In Warren Smith's 10th and 11th chapters of A "Wonderful" Deception, Smith succinctly describes the New Age/New Spirituality of Leonard Sweet. We hope you will read this vital information (which we have provided in the links below) and see for yourselves the serious predicament the Christian church is presently in. Let us warn our friends, families, and the body of Christ about what is going on and encourage them to "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:3).

Chapter 10, A "Wonderful" Deception: Rick Warren, Leonard Sweet, and Sweet’s “New Light” Leaders

Chapter 11, A "Wonderful" Deception: Chief Saddleback Apologist Defends New Age Sympathizer Leonard Sweet * To understand the spiritual formation (i.e., contemplative prayer) movement and its impact on countless Christians today, also read Ray Yungen's book, A Time of Departing (which includes sections on Rick Warren and Leonard Sweet).

Notes:

1. David Spangler and William Irwin Thompson, Reimagination of the World: A Critique of the New Age, Science, and Popular Culture (Sante Fe, NM: Bear & Company Publishing, 1991), p. 62.
2. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality (Dayton, OH: Whaleprints for Spirit Venture Ministries, 1991, 1994), p. 312.
3. Ibid., ix.
4. David Spangler, The Revelation: Birth of a New Age (Elgin, IL: Lorian Press, 1976 ), p. 177.
5. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, op. cit., p. 338, #42.
6. Ibid., p. 312.
7. http://www.nationalworshipleaderconference.com/
8. Mike Oppenheimer, "A NEW Anointing-Pentecost" (Let Us Reason Ministries, http://www.letusreason.org/Current66.htm).
9. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, op. cit., p. 106.
10. Leonard Sweet, Aqua Church, p. 39.
11. Teilhard de Chardin, Christianity and Evolution, pp. 219-220.
12. Ibid., p. 130.
13. Ibid., p. 95.
14. Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, p. 76, quoted by Ray Yungen in A Time of Departing, p. 160.

Related Articles:

• 2009 National Worship Conference Brings Contemplatives, Laurie, and Sweet Together Rick Warren’s Small Group
• Conference Speaker [Sweet] Says Small Groups Lead to “Christ Consciousness”

Rick Warren on Uganda's Law on Capital Punishment and Homosoxeual

ABC Links American Christians to Anti-Gay Death Penalty in Uganda, Ignores Rick Warren's Condemnation

Warren & Hybels Emergent Recall -- Very Important (Imported) Post from Extreme Theology -- Interview with Doug Pagitt

...McLaren has finally admitted that those of us who’ve been saying that he denies the fall of man, hell, Christ’s penal substitutionary atonement, the inerrancy and authority of scripture and Christ’s return in glory to judge both the living and the dead were right all along...

The Druckerites Must Issue a Safety Recall For Their “Emerging Church” Product Line

Rick Warren, Bob Buford and Bill Hybels are the Druckerite “trinity”. All three of these men were personally mentored by the late business guru Peter Drucker and these three men more than any others are responsible for innovating the church by purposely changing congregations from a pastoral leadership model to a CEO / Innovative Change Agent leadership model. All of these innovations were strategically crafted under the careful eye of Peter Drucker. And all of these innovations were incubated, introduced and injected into the church through the coordinated efforts of Drucker’s disciples through their different but intimately connected organizations; Leadership Network, the Purpose Driven Network and the Willow Creek Association.

What many people don’t realize is that the Emerging Church is a product created by and promoted by the Druckerites.

If you don’t believe me then it is time for you to listen to or re-listen to my interview with Doug Pagitt regarding the genesis of the Emerging Church. Pagitt provides us with an expert insiders look at how the Emerging Church came into being and got off of the ground. What you will discover is that without the Druckerites there may have never been an ‘emerging church’. The Druckerites formed, bankrolled and promoted the Emerging Church much the same way a music marketing company might form and promote a boy band like the Backstreet Boys or N Sync. 

Here’s the interview.

After listening to Pagitt’s retelling of the story of the emergence of the Emerging Church is it any wonder then why Druckerites like Rick Warren and Bob Buford lent their support and credibility to the Emerging Church? They were responsible for creating it.

Take a look at who endorsed Dan Kimball’s 2003 book The Emerging Church. In that list you will see both Druckerites as well as out right Emergent Heretics all singing the praises of Kimball’s book.  In fact, Rick Warren AND Emergent Apostate Brian McLaren both wrote the forward to the book.

Emergent Innovators List

....Read It All Here

.

.

Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Metaphysics (Part II) ~ Ray Yungen (click on the book[s] for link)

(Rick Warren Part II ~ See Part I)

I draw your attention now to a section in The Purpose Driven Life under Day 11, "Becoming Best Friends with God." In this section, Warren begins by telling readers that more than anything else, God wants to be our friend, that "we were made to live in God's continual presence,"[9] and that "we can now approach God anytime,"[10] but he adds there are "secrets"[11] to having a friendship with God. One of those secrets he refers to is a form of contemplative spirituality called "breath prayers."[12] He says that a relationship with God will never happen by just attending church and having a daily quiet time. He then offers an example of someone who learned this secret and had an intimate relationship with God. This person was a Carmelite monk named Brother Lawrence.

The fact that Brother Lawrence was in the Carmelite order means his spiritual practices were derived from or heavily influenced by Teresa of Avila who reformed that order in the previous century. In a book titled Christian Mystics, Professor Ursula King makes the startling revelation that:

[G]iven her [Teresa of Avila] partly Jewish background, her thinking was also affected by Jewish Kabbalistic mysticism, elements of which can be detected in her writings.[13]

Brother Lawrence is often quoted by contemplative authors for his habit of what he called "practicing the presence of God."[14] But what was the actual nature of this presence? Was it something that would reflect the true character of God? I find the following account from a devout advocate of Brother Lawrence both questionable and disturbing:

It is said of Brother Lawrence that when something had taken his mind away from love's presence he would receive "a reminder from God" that so moved his soul that he "cried out, singing and dancing violently like a mad man." You will note that the reminders came from God and were not his own doing.[15]

Brother Lawrence says that secret phrases must be "repeat[ed] often in the day,"[16] and "for the right practice of it, the heart must be empty of all other things."[17] He speaks of the trouble of wandering thoughts and says that the habit of practicing the presence of God is the "one remedy"[18] and the "best and easiest method"[19] he knows to dissolve distractions.

Rick Warren has not only favorably introduced this monk to his readers and called his ideas "helpful"[20] but has sandwiched between his comments on Brother Lawrence an unusual rendering of Ephesians 4:6 from the New Century Version concerning God that reads, "He rules everything and is everywhere and is in everything."[21] However, Warren neglects to rectify this misleading translation and alert the reader to the fact that Paul is speaking here of the Church body as uniquely united in Christ by one single faith under one single God as is clear by what immediately precedes the verse in question:

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all. (Ephesians 4:4-6a)

And lest anyone should think Paul is speaking in terms of an all-inclusive God-is-in-everybody religion, he only says this after making one of the most concise presentations of the Gospel recorded in Scripture:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. . . . But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2: 8,9,13)

Without Warren giving any explanation to the verse he quotes, the implication is that God is in all creation, including all persons. Many reading The Purpose Driven Life may very well take this to mean that God is in all. Former New Age follower, Warren Smith, in his book Deceived on Purpose: The New Age Implications of the Purpose Driven Church, expounds:

Rick Warren's implication... that God is "in" every person is at the very heart of all New Age teaching. The Bible does not teach this. The New Century Version that Rick Warren quotes is dangerously mistaken in its translation of Ephesians 4:6.... New Age teachers with their New Spirituality are trying to co-opt this scripture to make it apply to the whole human race.[22]

Shalem Institute, founded by Tilden Edwards and located in Washington, DC, sees Brother Lawrence as someone whose contemplation' includes the belief that God is in everything:

Christian contemplation means finding God in all things and all things in God. Brother Lawrence, the 17th century Carmelite friar, called it "the loving gaze that finds God everywhere.[23]

Rick Warren has taken Brother Lawrence's advice of repeating A "little internal adorations" throughout the day a step further and tells his readers that "practicing the presence of God" can be accomplished through breath prayers. Warren states:

The Bible tells us to "pray all the time." How is it possible to do this? One way is to use "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.[24]

Warren then advises readers to use visual reminders throughout the day and gives an example of others who practice breath prayers—Benedictine monks, known for their contemplative spirituality and interspirituality. According to Warren, this breath prayer that the monks practiced (and now we should practice) involves taking a "simple phrase" such as "I belong to you" or "You are my God" and "Pray it as often as possible."[25]

British metaphysical author Carolyn Reynolds, in her book Spiritual Fitness, defines meditation simply as "repeated sounds or phrases."[26] That is exactly what Warren is promoting. He assures readers, "Practicing the presence of God is a skill, a habit you can develop."[27] The key word here is "skill," which reflects Richard Foster's influence that Christians need to be trained in order to interact with God in any profound way. But it is the nature of this method that betrays the danger of the contemplative approach.

In Foster's book, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, Foster encourages readers to "bind the mind" with "breath prayers,"[28] quoting Theophane the Recluse and making reference to Brother Lawrence, calling him a practitioner of this type of prayer. Very likely, this Is where Warren picked this up.

I believe this is a question that needs to be asked, "Is breath prayer a valid practice?" In Sonia Choquette's book on psychic development, Your Heart's Desire, she says, "All of us need to take the time to expand our mental awareness in order to hear inner guidance."[29] The way she suggests doing this is through the same principle as breath prayer. One repeats, "I am calm" over and over again.

When a word or phrase is repeated over and over, after just a few repetitions, those words lose their meaning and become just sounds. Have you ever tried repeating a word over and over again? After three or four times, the word may begin to lose its meaning, and if this repeating of words were continued, normal thought processes could be blocked, making it possible to enter an altered state of consciousness because of a hypnotic effect that begins to take place. It really makes no difference whether the repeated words are "You are my God" or "I am calm," the results are the same. So, if you use Warren's method or the occult method, the use of a mantra will take you to the same place.

What Warren is teaching is a derivative of The Cloud of Unknowing, an ancient primer on contemplative prayer, written by an anonymous monk. Contemplative priest, Ken Kaisch, teaches his students this method of prayer found in Brother Lawrence's writings and describes what the term "presence" means:

You will be gradually able to tune into God's presence... you will have a sense of slow, vibrant, deep energy surrounding you... Let yourself flow with this energy, it is the Presence of our Lord... As you continue to dwell in the Presence, the intensity will grow. It is extremely pleasurable to experience.[30]

Warren not only promotes breath prayers on Day 11 in The Purpose Driven Life but also on Day 38, where he tells readers how to become "world-class Christian[s]" through the "practice [of].. breath prayers."[31] In addition to these two references, there are four references to using breath prayers on Warren's pastors.com website, which reaches thousands of pastors throughout the world. And on the main Purpose Driven website, Warren again promotes this practice in an article titled "Purpose Driven Life: Worship That Pleases God."[32]

 

• Footnotes

9. Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), p. 85.
10. Ibid., p. 86.
11. Ibid., p. 87.
12. Ibid., p. 89.
13. Ursula King, Christian Mystics (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1998), p. 138.
14. Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, (Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, online version at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/lawrence/practice.html).
15. Gerald May, The Awakened Heart (New York, NY:HarperCollins, First HarperCollins Paperback Edition, 1993) p. 87, citing from The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, translated by John Delaney, Image Books, 1977, p. 34.
16. Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, online version, op, cit.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, op. cit., p. 88.
21. Ibid.
22. Warren Smith, Deceived on Purpose (Magalia, CA: Mountain Stream Press, 2004), pp. 81, 83.
23. A Shalem Senior Staff, "Contemplative Spirituality" (Shalem Institute, http://www.shalem.org/publication/articles/contemplative spirituality.html/view?search term=brother %20lawrence).

[This site has changed and I cannot confirm this articles address, not that it doesn't exist. I found interesting this bit of info from the site]:

Matthew Fox Coming to Shalem

Shalem is thrilled to host Matthew Fox as this year's presenter at the Gerald May Seminar. Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day with Shalem and Matthew Fox as he talks about Earth Spirituality and the Mystical Tradition. April 23-24, 2010

Register early before it sells out! Click here for more info.(http://www.shalem.org/)

24. Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life, op. cit., p. 89.
25. Ibid.
26. Carolyn Reynolds, Spiritual Fitness (Camarillo, CA: DeVorss & Company, 2005), p. 105.
27. Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life, op. cit., p. 89.
28. Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, op. cit., p. 124.
29. Sonia Choquette, Your Heart's Desire (New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, 1997), p. 107.
30. Ken Kaisch, Finding God: A Handbook of Christian Meditation (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994), pp. 63, 64.
31. Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life, op. cit., p. 299.
32. Rick Warren, "Purpose Driven Life: Worship That Pleases God" 

(Purpose Driven website, http://www. purposedriven.com/en-US/AboutUs/PDintheNews/Archives/Worship_that_pleases_God.htm, accessed 12/2005).

The Emerging New Age Ethic/Theology of "Love" (e.g., Not Thinking Critically) -- or, What do Oprah, Rick Warren, and Ken Blanchard Have in Common? (Answer: A Course In Miracles)

One should read this update/caveat to these posts for the whole story.

(Rick Warren Part I ~ See Part II)

"Oprah and Friends" to teach course on New Age Christ

Oprah Winfrey will be letting out all the stops on her XM Satellite Radio program this coming year. Beginning January 1, 2008, Oprah & Friends will offer a year-long course on the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles. A lesson a day throughout the year will completely cover the 365 lessons from the Course in Miracles “Workbook.” For example, 

• Lesson #29 asks you to go through your day affirming that “God is in everything I see.”
• Lesson #61 tells each person to repeat the affirmation “I am the light of the world.”
• Lesson #70 teaches the student to say and believe “My salvation comes from me.”

By the end of the year, “Oprah & Friends” listeners will have completed all of the lessons laid out in the Course in Miracles Workbook. Those who finish the Course will have a wholly redefined spiritual mindset—a New Age worldview that includes the belief that there is no sin, no evil, no devil, and that God is “in” everyone and everything. A Course in Miracles teaches its students to rethink everything they believe about God and life. The Course Workbook bluntly states: “This is a course in mind training” and is dedicated to “thought reversal.”

It is funny that the New Age and Emergent ("conservative Evangelicals") movements are so closely tied. Before we get much further, we Must introduc a man, Ken Blanchard, who was introduced to one of the largest congregations in America by one of the "bigger than life" Evangelical pastors, Rick Warren (pastor of Saddleback Church). Ken was introduced in a video clip of him visiting Saddleback. Rick said he [blanchard] was coming onto help with Rick's global P.E.A.C.E. Plan, saying he's...

"... signed on to help with the P.E.A.C.E. Plan, and he's going to be helping train us in leadership and in how to train others to be leaders all around the world." (Ray Yungen, A Time Departing, p. 163)

Before we go any further, we must get to know whom Ken Blanchard is and why this guilt by proxy is important:

Guilt by proxy: Guilt by promotion or proxy is a much more powerful premise than guilt by association. Whereas the latter shows connection through merely association, guilt by promotion or proxy shows endorsement and actual support and encouragement. (Ibid., p. 86)

We May get to know a bot more about Blanchard and his brand of Christianity by looking at books and organization he started, has endorsed, wrote forewords to of glowing reviews after Blanchard converted to Christianity. I will list here a few books that he has either glowingly endorsed or wrote a foreword to. The first book we will deal with that he wrote a foreword to is a book entitled What Would Buddha Do At Work, by Frank Metcalf. In it Blanchard wrote:

Buddha points to the path and invites us to begin our journey to enlightenment. I... invite you to begin (or continue) your journey to enlightened work. (Ibid., p. 163)

Another book that Blanchard wrote the foreword to is a book by Jim Ballard called, Mind Like Water:

In the book, Ballard describes methods for practicing Eastern/New Age meditation. Ballard states:

I signed up for the yoga meditation lessons . . . founded by Paramahansa Yogananda [a Hindu guru].... I had evidently reached a level of consciousness beyond the usual ... I continue to consider meditation far and away the most important thing I do.

And yet, of the book, Blanchard writes glowing remarks:

Jim Ballard's wonderful book Mind Like Water . . I hope that you and countless other readers will find in Mind Like Water some ways to calm your mind and uplift your consciousness.

(Ibid.)

Another book that Ken Blanchard gave glowing reviews for is a book by New Age author Vijay Eswaran, who teaches in his book In the Sphere of Silence that silent meditation and the clearing of your mind completely of any thoughts,

...if it is practiced properly, is a very powerful tool. It is not just oriented to any one religion, it is universally accepted and practiced by almost all faiths on the planet. It is through silence that you find your inner being. (Ibid., p. 164)

On Vijay's website for the book we find this endorsement by Blanchard:

Effective leadership is more than what we do; it starts on the inside. Great Leaders are able to tap inner wisdom and strength by cultivating the habit of solitude. This book is a wonderful guide on how to enter the realm of silence and draw closer to God. (Ibid.)

In yet another endorsement, Ken says on the back cover of The 10-Minute Energy Solution that the author, Jon Gordon "is a master at teaching people the power of positive energy. If you want to increase your joy and effectiveness, as well as your energy level, read this book" (Ibid., p. 165). What techniques does Blanchard endorse here? Well the book teaches how to improve energy levels through,

...meditation, yoga, breathing exercises, and other such techniques. Throughout the book, Gordon quotes favorably from the Dalai Lama, meditator Daniel Goleman, Thich Nhat Hanh, New Agers Marilyn Ferguson and Wayne Dyer, and from A Course in Miracles. Gordon promotes panentheism (God in all) by saying things such as: "You came from this source [speaking of God] and you are this source? (Ibid.)

Ahhh, full circle, what is A Course in Miracles? The Watchman Expositor has this little quick intro to this work:

In October 1965, Helen Schucman, an associate professor of medical psychology at Columbia University in New York, began receiving channeled messages from a speaker who would later identify himself as Jesus Christ (A Talk Given on `A Course In Miracles', Kenneth Wapnick, May 9, 1981, p. 10). For the next ten years the voice is said to have dictated "in an inaudible voice" the three volume, 1,188 page, 500,000 word book known as A Course In Miracles (Psychology Today, September 1980, p. 75).

One of Schucman's colleagues was Dr. William Thetford, a clinical psychologist at Columbia University. While he never heard the voice, he was instrumental in the publication of the Course. Raised in the Christian Science church, Thetford believed the Course was a representation of the "original teachings of Jesus" (The Holy Encounter, Sept./Oct. 1990, p. 5).

In 1972, Schucman and Thetford meet Dr. Kenneth Wapnick of the Foundation for Inner Peace. The Copyright for the Course was turned over to Wapnick and his organization in 1975. This action is followed in September of the same year with the publication of the first edition of A Course In Miracles (Ibid, p. 7).

Put simply, this channeled work is a prime example of the literal doctrine of demons (1 Tim 4:1). The Urantia book is another prime example, as is the Book of the Law, by Alistair Crowley. Another channeled work was done by Carl Jung, who channeled an entities wordsduring a three day (evening) session. Jung self-reportedly channeled and transcribed Basilides words. The finished work was more than an exercise in automatic writing -- the contents have been described as a "core text in depth psychology." One Curmodeon wrote this about it:

....Through the profound influence of this haunting, Jung wrote a short essay called the Septem Sermones ad Mortuous (the Seven Sermons to the Dead) , under the pseudonym Basilides (a second Century Gnostic writer). In his autobiography, Jung says that “I was compelled from within, as it were, to formulate and express what might have been said by Philemon. This was how the Septem Sermones ad Mortuous with its peculiar [Gnostic] language came into being.”[vii] The sermons are directed at deceased Christian souls who arrive at the Jung household because they have failed to find liberation through the church. The first six sermons present a Gnostic world view, and prepare the dead for the final sermon. Here, Jung tells them to stop seeking salvation outside of themselves, but to look inward toward the “innermost infinity,” which is also referred to as the inner “Star” or the “one guiding god.” Having received this revelation, the restless dead disappear and rise into the night sky, apparently to find their own inner stars. Jung’s sun worship and Gnostic predilections appear in full force in this essay.[viii]

Much more could be documented to establish Jung’s deeply anti-Christian world view. Surely, the burden of proof lies on anyone who would attempt to draw healing waters from such a polluted well. (Douglas Groothuis, "Carl Jung: Beware," The Constructive Curmudgeon, July 22, 2006)

Who would draw from such a poisoned well? Isn't the onus on them and those who taught them?

In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in "muchness" and "manyness," he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist C. G. Jung once remarked, "Hurry is not of the Devil; it is the Devil."

[....]

We simply must become convinced of the importance of thinking and experiencing in images. It came so spontaneously to us as children, but for years now we have been trained to disregard the imagingtion, even to fear it. In his autobiography C. G. Jung describes how difficult it was for him to humble himself and once again play the imagination games, of a child, and the value of that experience. Just as children need to learn to think logically, adults need to rediscover the magical reality of the imagination.

(Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (1978), pp. 13 and 22 respectively).

Remember, this same "Christian" told us that this meditative prayer (often called centering prayer or contemplative prayer) has the ability to do the following, seemingly speaking from his own experience:

After awhile there is a deep yearning within to go into the upper regions beyond the clouds. In your imagination allow your spiritual body, shining with light, to rise out of your physical body. Look back so that you can see yourself lying in the grass and reassure your body that you will return momentarily. Imagine your spiritual self, alive and vibrant, rising up through the clouds and into the stratosphere. Observe your physical body, the knoll, and the forest shrink as you leave the earth. Go deeper and deeper into outer space until there is nothing except the warm presence of the eternal Creator. Rest in His presence. (Ibid., 27)

We can see where Jung's imagination brought him, and where it brings Richard Foster, who ends his book calling us to "imagine," take note of the capitalization of New Age in this "Christians" writings:

We of the New Age can risk going against the tide. Let us with abandon relish the fantasy games of children. Let's see visions and dream dreams. Let's play, sing, laugh. The imagination can release a flood of creative ideas, and exercising our imagination can be lots of fun. Only those who are insecure about their own maturity will fear such a delightful form of celebration. (Ibid., p. 170)

So my question is, was Richard Foster a pagan, non-Christian when he published this first edition, and now magically he is with the publishing of the 25th anniversary edition?

Much like a politician whom might say, if you are against Obama's policies, you must be racist, or the Bushite who says if you are against the Iraq war effort you must be unpatriotic -- Richard Foster uses the immature card for those who disagree, making himself out to be a theological elite. Poppycock! So what about Ken, is there more depressing news about him? Of course there is. Ray Yungen  in his excellent book A Time of Departing: How Ancient Mystical Practices are Uniting Christians with the World's Religions (where much of this information came from) seals up any doubt on the nature of Blanchard's beliefs by noting that for the entire relationship he has had on training people at Saddleback for Rick Warren, he was on a board at an outright New Age organization (p. 165 of Ray's book):

But perhaps Blanchard's most telling involvement with the New Age is his role with an organization called The Hoffman Institute, home of the Hoffman Quadrinity Process. Not only has he given a, strong endorsement for the program, saying (after he partook of it) that it "made my spirituality come alive" but is also a current board member of the Hoffman Institute, along with several New Agers. This is an organization that was founded by a psychic and is based on panentheism (i.e., God is in all) and meditation! In the book, The Hoffman Process, the institute's mystical perspective is laid out clearly:

I am you and you are me. We are all parts of the whole.... You can use a short meditation to remind yourself of this connection to all others in this world of ours.... As you breathe, feel that breath coming from your core essence.... When you are open to life, you start noticing the divine in everything.

I wish to quote a bit more on Rick Warren from another author's dilligent work. Some of it may be repetition of what we covered here, but there is much more. This info comes from a book I highly recommend entitled Contemplative Mysticism: A Powerful Ecumenical Bond, by David Cloud. David may be a little to rigid or legalistic on peripheral doctrines (like women not being able to even teach Sunday school for instance), but we agree on the essentials, where I argue that the Rick Warrens and Richard Fosters of the world are compromising these essentials in the name of conservative theology. I will again post a list of subjects I drew from the books he dropped off to me and a theologian that he and I discussed (and he defended as "conservative," in the theological sense, not in the political sense) pastor from my past church) at the end for confirmation that the church I attended is headed down a dangerous path. Here is Cloud's summation (pp. 185-187), and please keep in mind that Blanchard became a "Christian" in the mid-eighties:

Rick Warren has yoked up with mystic Ken Blanchard on various occasions, and Blanchard is intimately associated with New Age paganism. Blanchard visited Saddleback in 2003 and Warren told the church that he had “signed on to help with the P.E.A.C.E. Plan, and he's going to be helping train us in leadership and in how to train others to be leaders all around the world” (Ray Yungen, A Time of Departing, pp. 162, 163). Warren teamed up with Blanchard in the Lead Like Jesus conferences and audio series. Warren used Blanchard's materials in a Preaching and Purpose Driven Life Training Workshop for Chaplains at Saddleback in 2004 (A Time of Departing, p. 167). Warren also endorsed Blanchard's book Lead Like Jesus.

Blanchard, in turn, has strong New Age associations. He wrote the foreword to the 2007 edition of Ballard's book Little Wave and Old Swell, which is inspired by Hindu guru Paramahansa Yogananda. This book is designed to teach children that God is all and man is one with God. In the foreword Blanchard makes the following amazing statement: “Yogananda loved Jesus, and Jesus would have loved Yogananda.” I was a disciple of Yogananda before I was saved, and there is no doubt that he did NOT love the Jesus of the Bible!

Blanchard's recommendation appears on the back cover of Deepak Chopra's The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. He wrote the foreword to Ellen Ladd's book Death and Letting God, which promotes clairvoyance. He endorsed the 2005 book Zen of Business Administration, which is subtitled “How Zen practice can transform your work and your life.”

Blanchard joined members of the New Age occultic project The Secret in January 2008 for a one-day seminar entitled “Your Best Year Ever” (“Ken Blanchard Joins 'The Secret' Team,” Lighthouse Trails, Jan. 14, 2008). Rhonda Byrne, the author of The Secret, thanked “Esther Hicks and the teachings of Abraham.” Abraham refers to a group of spirit guides that Hicks channels. The Secret teaches the New Age doctrines that man is god. “You are God in a physical body ... You are all power ... You are all intelligence ... You are the creator” (p. 164).

Lighthouse Trails wisely observes:

“Did Rick Warren know of Blanchard's sympathies when he brought him in to help at Saddleback? Of course he did. And do you think that Rick Warren and Ken Blanchard are going to train their 'billion' soldiers for Christ how to practice New Age mysticism and learn how to go into altered states of consciousness? You bet. And that is definitely something to be concerned about” (“Rick Warren Teams up with New Age Guru,” Lighthouse Trails, April 19, 2005).

Warren is also closely associated with New Age mystic Leonard Sweet. He teamed up with Sweet in 1994 to produce the Tides of Change audio set published by Zondervan. A photo of Warren and Sweet are pictured on the cover. Warren endorsed Sweet's book Soul Tsunami, the endorsement appearing on both the front and back covers. Warren invited Sweet to speak at the 2008 Saddleback Small Groups Conference called Wired.

Sweet promotes a New Age spirituality that he calls New Light and “the Christ consciousness.” He describes it in terms of “the union of the human with the divine” which is the “center feature of all the world's religions” (Quantum Spirituality, p. 235). He says it was experienced by Mohammed, Moses, and Krishna. He says that some of the “New Light leaders” that have led him into this thinking are New Agers Matthew Fox, M. Scott Peck, Willis Harman, and Ken Wilber, plus the Catholic-Buddhist Thomas Merton. In his book Quantum Spirituality Sweet defines the New Light as "a structure of human becoming, a channeling of Christ energies through mindbody experience" (Quantum Spirituality, p. 70). He says humanity needs to learn the truth of the words of Thomas Merton, "We are already one" (Quantum Spirituality, p. 13). Sweet draws heavily from Catholic mysticism. He says:

"Mysticism, once cast to the sidelines of the Christian tradition, is now situated in postmodernist culture near the center. ... In the words of one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century, Jesuit philosopher of religion/dogmatist Karl Rahner, `The Christian of tomorrow will be a mystic, one who has experienced something, or he will be nothing"' (Quantum Spirituality, 1991, p. 11).

Observe, then, how close are the ties between contemplatives and the New Age! And contemplative spirituality is the bridge.

This is only a tiny glimpse into this frightful matter. Rick Warren does not believe that all religions worship the same God or that man is God, but his enthusiasm for contemplative practices and his lust for the newest thing have brought him and his followers into close association with those who do. He is promoting the same type of "spiritual" practices that are nurturing the New Age and his thinking is being corrupted by being this illicit association. Evangelicals who are reading and recommending books by mystics would be wise to take heed to this warning. If they delve into Catholic contemplative practices they are in great danger of being corrupted by this illicit endeavor.

I think this may make my case about Rick Warren, I think we should all cock our collective head and wonder why a church via their pastor's (plural) recommend works by Henry Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Richard Foster, Rick Warren, Ken Blanchard, Doug Pagitt, Tony Jones, Shane Claiborne, Brian McLaren, Beth Moore, and the like. When you see names like this start to pop up at official and non-official church functions and recommended as "normative" literature a believer should read, then its time to look closer and ask yourself this question, "How can I Think Biblically, Critically, and compare what people say about the Word of God to the Word of God." You should be able to discern whether these items on the following list combined is an attack on the central tenants of our faith:

1. that the first three miracles in John were inserted by writers to “woo in pagans,” as they are themselves adopted from pagan stories (so John lied to save souls... the "greater good" thing, or, the church at a later date corrupted Scripture in order to save souls, so which parts of Scripture are not corrupted?);
2. the Virgin Birth was also a deep seated fear of sexuality and not really a miracle;
3. books that teach that penal substitution as a vile doctrine;
4. that Hell is not a place for persons to be placed after a future judgment, and that Hell is actually here now and that we must bring in God’s Kingdom (separate from that future judgment);
5. these books say we do not have the Gospel right yet;
6. they teach that traveling to Buddhist temples and practicing meditative techniques in these temples is Christian;
7. they show that many of the practices rejected by the Reformers are in fact useful to the Christian;
8. they show that Yoga can make one closer to God and to realize and experience the “divine;”
9. they teach that the doctrines of the Trinity, nature of Christ, nature of Scripture, and the nature of marriage are “still on the table,” doctrinally;
10. teach that Paul was really communicating Platonism and not bringing us Scripture;
11. altered states of consciousness gained through "centering prayers" brings you closer to God;
12. I could go on...

You can say that these types of positions challenge the essentials. "Church, where is your discernment?" Keep in mind I stayed at NP for quite some time after this first encounter with this movement at NP. I realized it ran much deeper than I thought, and my almost 12-year tenure came to an end with the use of a particular book with the men's college group.  All the above and following and previous posts on this topic are to encourage and give resources to my freinds at NP to discern what is on the horizon, as well as a resource for the many dedicated readers here at RPT, whom I thoroughly enjoy and respect.

Speaking of resources, here are a few recommends:

The Big Four

 

This post is dedicated to the following Scriptures about defending and fighting for the essentials:

• 2 Cor 10:4-5; Luke 12:49-54;
• Jude 3-4;
• Galatians 1:6-10;
• 2 Cor 11:2-4, 13-15;
• 2 Cor 13:5

If you do not know what the difference between Law and Gospel is, I encourage you to listen to a critique of a Dallas Willard Q and A with students:"Is Dallas Willard a Christian"