In this video John Ortberg and Dallas Willard attack the Biblical Gospel and the Biblical teaching on grace and replace it with a false gospel and false doctrine of grace.
Compare what you just heard these two men say to these passages of scripture:
“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Romans 3:19–25)
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—” (Ephesians 2:1–5)
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9)
Dr. Jason Lisle of Answers in Genesis does a great job on a recent program of refuting those who would argue against the existence of God and the biblical account of creation. Dr. Jason Lisle, an astrophysicist with a PhD, refutes the evolutionary account of origins, using his strong science background.
Dr. Lisle starts out by quoting Dr. Werner Gitt, one of the world's foremost experts in Information Science, who has said:
"There is no law of nature, no known process and no known sequence of events that can cause information to originate by itself in matter."
In layman's terms, this just means that information doesn't create itself....and even given enough time, information will not create itself. Information always involves an active, outside force acting upon disordered systems to make them become ordered and informational.
And that's just the start. Give this program a listen and see if Dr. Lisle doesn't open your eyes to the problems with Darwinian evolutionary "science."
And just as a side note......I absolutely love the work they're doing over there at Answers in Genesis. They have some of the brightest and best minds of today on staff, and they are literally turning on its ear the argument that anyone who believes in Young Earth creation simply can't be very educated. I think when the atheists, the secular humanists and the Darwinian scientists wake up at night grinding their teeth it's because they've been having nightmares about AIG. The thing I absolutely love about AIG is that they have burst onto the scene in such a major way and have become such a burr under the saddle for people who want to "scientifically reason away" a sovereign Creator God. Answers in Genesis just simply won't let them.
Reader Question: Mysticism is not primarily about practice. It is about insight. Practice or practices, techniques, disciplines are all secondary. They're pedagogical tactics, used because people won't see when you tell them 'see!'
The question is not whether we foolish humans think something is okay or not.....the question is what does the Bible say about such things?
Nowhere in the Bible do we have the instructions:
"If by plain teaching a man will not see the truth about God, then please attempt to reach him through whatever methods seem appropriate."
No, it never says that, and in fact, Paul rebuked the Colossians for chasing after empty, mystical visions after having laid hold of Christ:
"Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind." (Col 2:18)
The entire book of Hebrews also addresses this raging controversy of mysticism quite comprehensively. Humans have constantly gone after the tangible, the substantive in religious practices...because absent being in a real relationship with God, what has someone got? Bells and whistles. Icons and incense. Whipped up mystical states, whatever the vehicle might be: whether it is in the privacy of one's own room repeating a mantra to empty the mind, or in a concert hall swaying to throbbing, hypnotic music, repeating choruses over and over and thereby achieving the same mind-emptied state.
But as Christians, we have something far better than whipped-up mystical experiences: we have God's Word. Astonishing that such a thing could even exist, and astonishing that access to the mind of God is given to such as us.
Reader Question: "If man doesn't find God in his soul, 'totally depraved' as it may be, he won't find it anywhere."
This is the same argument that I pleaded for a number of years with my own father when he was witnessing to me and trying to help me see that my mystical experiences as a practicing Hindu were NOT from God, but were in fact, as stated above, whipped up mystical states (which is what the lost mind will resort to when it does not have God). No, I was convinced I had found God in my own soul, no better or different than what my father was claiming as a Christian.
Here's the bottom line on that: if in fact it is true that a man can find God in his own soul, then what is the point of the Cross? If I could get there as a Hindu, if mystical Jews can get there through Kabbalah, if Native American Indians can get there through Shamanism, then why the Cross?
I would submit to you that there is something even greater than whipped up mystical states demonically designed to comfort and lull the lost soul into thinking he knows God when in fact he is far from God......and that is forgiveness of sins. After that, who needs the cheap crack high of a mystical state?
Thank you to Linda Harvey of Mission America for recently having me on her radio program. I briefly gave my testimony and told why we write the Sola Sisters blog. We also discussed spiritual disciplines, and how these Christian sounding practices are not Christian....and are covertly bringing Roman Catholic monastic mysticism and eastern meditation practices into churches today.
Tim Keller's Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City continues its surprising slide into mysticism with a new quote from one its elders. We've previously documented several instances of new age mantra meditation practices being promoted or even taught at Redeemer, including a recent class offering called "The Way of the Monk," which taught attendees how to practice Roman Catholic monastic mysticism. When questioned about these practices, one elder responded:
"We at Redeemer are focused entirely as a church on our audience in the Center City. Our conviction is that this audience can discern among the incredible variety of sources for their spirituality and reason what is good and what is not. We believe we can draw on and refer to sources that may be outside of the core beliefs of orthodox Christianity historically and our audience can benefit from it without getting sucked into any heretical parts of that source. We believe this for the non-Christians that attend, who are completely contending within the world with all of the diverse input they might be getting, as well as for the believers." (Elder at Redeemer Presbyterian, NYC)
In making this statement, this elder at Redeemer has abdicated his right to serve as an elder.
"An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it." (Titus 1:6-9, my emphasis)
We need our elders to guard the flocks entrusted to them, "holding firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught." This means that elders must not allow sound teachings mixed with error to be brought into their churches, but should "refute those who oppose" sound doctrine.
Also, contrast this elder's statement to the life of the Apostle Paul, who basically spent his entire ministry calling out and refuting false teaching:
- Those denying the resurrection of Jesus (Corinthians)
What we need today are sober-minded, Godly men who take seriously their charge before God to guard their flocks, to bar the door, if need be, and say, "You will not bring false teaching into this church!" Where are such men?
"For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough." (2 Cor 11:4)
Roman Catholic priest Henri Nouwen, who was deeply influenced by mystic Thomas Merton, taught what the Bible warns us about: "another Jesus." This false "Jesus" that Nouwen taught was a Jesus of universal reconciliation. But for some reason, Nouwen has become the darling of the Emergent Church movement as well as many in the Evangelical camp. Who were these men (Henri Nouwen and Thomas Merton), in their own words?
"Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God's house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God." (Sabbatical Journey, Henri Nouwen's last book, my emphasis)
"The 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)
"I am going to become the best Buddhist I can." (Thomas Merton, Hiroshima Day Speech)
Henri Nouwen's teaching became part of something called the "Wider Mercy Doctrine" that has become very widely accepted in the world today, especially among missionaries. The Wider Mercy Doctrine is a teaching that has been the cornerstone of Universalist belief for centuries. It teaches that people can be saved whether or not they know about Jesus. But this is in direct contradiction to Scripture which clearly teaches an exclusive, narrow gospel:
"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)
So why is Saddleback pastor Rick Warren quoting Henri Nouwen and pointing the sheep of his flock toward an apostate Universalist?
“We may be 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.” - Benjamin B. Warfield (Read entire paper here)
This is a hard letter to write, because we've had some good times. But I'm sorry, it's over between us. And please believe me when I tell you this: it's not me, it's you. You see, I haven't changed. I'm still the same conservative gal, the one who sat around hoping that somehow, some way, this country would be set right again. And along you came, with a little sparkle in your eye, so full of national pride, so distraught and earnest over what was happening to our country right under our noses. Hegelian dialectic! Cloward-Piven! Fabian socialiasm! The third way! And suddenly, I wasn't the only one running up the hill, vainly shouting these things into the wind....you were right there with me. We were having such a good time. I was telling everybody about you!
And okay, sure, I knew you were a Mormon. But maybe, I said to myself, he's really a Christian. Maybe he's one of those "cultural Mormons," a Mormon in name only, who doesn't even know about all that kooky Mormon theology. After all, he talks about God and Jesus and salvation and atonement.... Looking back, I'm so ashamed of myself: I should have known better! After all, a large part of what I do is write about cults, and how they use the same terminology that Christians do, only with redefined meanings. Oh, how I wanted to believe.
"Bat Creek Stone"
But then, you changed. It all started with the rock. You know what I'm talking about, Glenn. It's no use getting all wide-eyed and coy with me, I'm onto you now. You brought out that rock, and exclaimed over its "Hebrew" inscription. At the time I didn't know what you were talking about, but after a little digging, I discovered that this rock, known as the Bat Creek Stone, is believed by Mormons to be evidence of ties between ancient Israel and Native American Indians. And I discovered that the Mormon Bible teaches that America will become God's latter-day base of operations for His restored church. (3 Neph 21:4) With these findings, your zealous patriotism was taking on new meaning for me.
Suddenly, we had taken a strange turn. I didn't want to be proselytized by someone who believed in Planet Kolob and spirit babies; I wanted the old Glenn back, the one with the blackboard, running back and forth between Cass Sunstein and Jim Wallis and Barack Obama, sweating and red-faced. You began to talk more about faith, and suddenly I could no longer pretend we were on the same page. "Get back to God," you earnestly spoke into the camera. "Whatever that means for you, go back to your church, your synagogue, your mosque, your whatever."
Excuse me, but....."Whatever that means for you?" As in, however you want to approach God is fine by me, just so long as you have a tidy little moral code that keeps you out of trouble? I couldn't believe it. I was crushed! No longer could I pretend that you were somehow secretly a Christian who hadn't yet mustered up the courage to leave his cult.
And then came the 8/28 rally. By that time, I couldn't even watch. My heart was already broken.
And then it began to dawn on me: I think I've been played. Not by you, Glenn. But by the Progressive Left Wingers. You see, all along, as your tide was rising, we Tea Partiers and conservatives were cackling about 2012, about "just wait!" and "oh boy, we'll show them!" But the Progressives weren't concerned in the least. Why was that? Could it be that, on the rising swell of your popularity, they were envisioning the possibility of a Mitt Romney run.....and instead of being concerned, they already had it mapped out? Instead of quaking with fear over the handsome, articulate, former governor of Massachusetts, they were ready and waiting with a loooong list of questions about temple garments, Brother Lucifer, and baptism for the dead? Maybe that's why they weren't worried about you or a possible Mitt Romney run....they were secretly rubbing their hands together with glee at the thought of "temple garments" being shown over and over again on CNN.
Oh dear, it's all starting to become clear to me. The truth is, we don't believe the same things. Your Mormon "gospel" of moralism and good works and America-as-the-promised-land is the kind of false gospel that the Bible warns about. And now I'm officially freaked out. Of course, I'm still conservative and want what's best for the country, but the bottom line for me is God....not country. Don't get me wrong. I love my country, and I'm heartbroken to see it sliding into socialism, but I'm sorry: God trumps country.
So Glenn, this is it, it's over. Now, instead of pleading with my friends to tune in, I'm begging everyone to wake up and realize that, as nice and earnest as you are, you are not a Christian. And to pray for you. But I want you to know that I still wish you the best, even though you scare me now. It's not me, Glenn. It's you.
A class being taught at Time Keller's Redeemer Presbyterian Church uses a book by "Christian mystic" Jan Johnson, who has taught and written extensively on a practice known as "contemplative prayer." Unfortunately, while contemplative prayer is a practice that sounds Christian, it has its roots in pagan, occultic practices. Johnson writes:
“Contemplative prayer, in its simplest form, is a prayer in which you still your thoughts and emotions and focus on God Himself. This puts you in a better state to be aware of God's presence, and it makes you better able to hear God's voice, correcting, guiding, and directing you.” (Jan Johnson, When the Soul Listens 1999, pg. 16)
Johnson's explanation of the initial stages of contemplative prayer leaves no doubt that "stilling" your thoughts means only one thing; she explains:
“In the beginning, it is usual to feel nothing but a cloud of unknowing.... If you're a person who has relied on yourself a great deal to know what's going on, this unknowing will be unnerving.” (Ibid., pg. 120)
This term "cloud of unknowing" comes from the writings of an unknown 14th-century monk, who wrote about contemplative meditation as a “teachable, spiritual process enabling the ordinary person to enter and receive a direct experience of union with God.” (http://contemplativeprayer.net)
The premise of the "cloud of unknowing" is that in order to really know God, mysticism must be practiced, and the mind has to be "shut down" or "turned off" so that the cloud of unknowing, where the presence of God awaits, can be experienced. But "shutting down the mind" is an occultic practice, and is therefore off-limits for Christians:
“When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire [an ancient occult practice], or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination [detestable] to the LORD…" (-Deuteronomy 18:9-12a)
So why then, is the occultic practice of contemplative prayer (also known as centering prayer, Lectio Divina, etc.) literally flooding into today's churches? My guess is that many Christians are simply naive about what exactly occultic mysticism is. Perhaps they think it comes with a warning label or that spooky music will start playing if somebody starts unwittingly doing a mystical practice. Whatever the case, mysticism can masquerade by many different names and is found in most faith traditions outside of Christianity: the Native American Indians have their shamanism, the Muslems have sufism, the Jews have Kabbalah, the Roman Catholics have monastic disciplines, the Hindus/Buddhists have yoga and meditation, etc. What unifies all these different cultural practices is that they all serve one purpose: to corrall the active, thinking mind so that a mystical state can be entered into through an altered state of consciousness. And, rather than feeling dangerous or scary, mysticism often gives a person a pleasant experience, sometimes even a profoundly spiritual experience. Unfortunately, the "spirit" connected to in spiritual mystical experiences is not God, as these practices are expressly forbidden by God.
But, most Christians today have virtually no knowledge of New Age/eastern meditation techniques, and so when these practices come into the church with "Christian" names and are taught by their leaders, they don't always immediately recognize that what they are being taught is occultic. The really scary part is that Christians can unknowingly enter into a mystical state if they do the practices as taught, because unfortunately, ignorance does not afford one protection in the spiritual realm. You can read here the harrowing testimony of a Christian woman who unknowingly practiced "Christian mysticism" and tells how it took her further away from God, rather than closer.
Christians, please beware of any practice or technique that is done for the purpose of emptying the mind or entering into an altered state of consciousness. This is not biblical, and is can be found nowhere in Scripture: In fact, just the opposite:
"And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words." (Matthew 6:7)
Does this not eerily sound like a description of the mantra meditation used in many faith traditions for the purpose of corralling the mind? Please, brothers and sisters, hold fast to truth and test all things against Scripture. We are living in perilous times, and sadly, ignorance is no protection against the wiles of Satan.
Lectio Divina at Tim Keller's Redeemer Presbyterian Church - material adapted from the book Sacred Companions by David Benner. (From David Benner's bio: "I first heard of spiritual direction through reading Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, and this quickly led me to an engagement with the Orthodox tradition of the Christian faith. It was here that I encountered the Jesus prayer – a gift from the Russian Orthodox Church – something that was to change the way I opened myself to God in prayer for ever. Here I also encountered the gift of using icons as an aid to prayer. This led me back to the Christian mystics I had long been attracted to but not ready to really engage, and to the discovery of the Benedictine and Cistercian traditions of centering prayer and lectio divina..... I discovered the Sufi mystical poets, Hafiz and Rumi, people who have been intimate spiritual companions since that first meeting. Within a few years, my wife and I were blessed to be invited to spend several extended periods of dialogue with Buddhists and Taoists at the Tao Fong Shan Centre for Christian Spirituality and Interfaith Dialogue in Hong Kong. Once I tasted the richness of meeting people of other faiths in this sort of sacred place there was no turning back. I quickly discovered that I had more in common with those on a spiritual journey within other religious traditions than I had with Christians who had allowed faith to be reduced to beliefs and counted the holding of these beliefs to be their journey. It remains so to this day.")
We are praying for the truth to be known and for the vacillation to come to an end. I posted something recently about Tim Keller's endorsement of a New Age book. His team at Redeemer Pres. NYC denied it. Well, someone is not telling the truth. We are certainly telling the truth, as an excerpt from this letter explains:
I know you are telling the truth when you say the church categorically denies any endorsement of new age teachings. That’s absolutely true. I know they deny it. Which is what makes all of this so baffling and frustrating. They deny it on one hand and endorse it on the other.The endorsements however are rather subtle and done in the more secret corners of the church – e.g. on the website and in the extracurricular classes the church holds.
NEVER are these endorsements made in public meetings and NEVER does Tim Keller endorse these things from the pulpit. In fact, Tim recently this summer mentioned new age meditation in a sermon. He rightly said that Christian meditation and new age meditation are not the same thing, and they’re not compatible. He correctly pointed out that new age meditation is all about emptying your mind and Christian meditation is about filling your mind with God’s Word.
Yet, on the Redeemer website, teachers who endorse this emptying-of-the-mind new age meditation are promoted. And in some previous classes the church has offered – this kind of meditation is taught. I’ve had several email conversations with Tim about this over the last few months, and the bottom line is he simply disagrees with where the church should draw the line in its endorsements and in its teachings. He says it’s okay to endorse teachers with whom we may disagree, even on major doctrines, as long as the specific thing the church endorses from each teacher is orthodox. So it is possible for them to categorically deny any endorsement of new age teachings while at the same time – for Dwayna and others to believe they have in fact endorsed new age teachings because they have endorsed teachers who do.
I’ll give just two quick examples which are representative of others.
For at least a couple of years the church sponsored a class led by Susan Castillo (a member and full-time staffer at Redeemer) called Way of the Monk. The class had such heavy new age overtones that many Redeemerites complained and they eventually cancelled the class.
The teacher, Susan Castillo was described as someone who has been going to monasteries for years to “honeymoon with Jesus”. And that’s what we were going to learn in the class – how to honeymoon with Jesus in the way ancient Catholic monks did. And one of the meditation “techniques” that was taught was the use of a “prayer rope”. The use of the rope was designed for those with fidgety minds to help them send all their thoughts through their shoulders and down their arms and into the rope – thus helping them “empty” their minds so they could “feel the presence” of God.
This even though Tim publicly states that new age meditation with its emphasis on emptying your mind – is not Christian. At the exact same moment Tim is stating that publicly, the church is conducting this class.
...I can't tell you how much I would love to believe their categorical denials, but in the face of the church’s actions, I can't.
In another example, on the Redeemer website, is an article written by a woman named Jan Johnson. She is also a proponent of this type of meditation, yet Tim has told me privately by email that the article she wrote on the site is fine and doesn't contain any doctrinal errors. I can agree with Tim on that. A valid argument could be made that the article on the Redeemer site is fine. (http://www.redeemer.com/connect/prayer/prayer_johnson_article.html).
At the bottom of that page under “About the Author” the church recommends her 1999 book called “Listening toGod”. I recently purchased that book and was stunned to find that every chapter starts off with a new age, emptying-of-the-mind technique.
For instance Chapter (or Session as it’s called in the book) 5 starts off with this instruction for meditation:
Warming Up 5-10 Minutes: Center yourself by breathing in and out several times. Relax your neck and then take time to let your muscles go limp. Offer your distracting thoughts to God, one by one. This is exactly what any good Yoga teacher or Buddhist monk would instruct their students to do in meditation. And I hope you see that it has no resemblance to any kind of Biblical meditation or prayer. Session 4 starts off with this instruction:
Warming Up 5-10 Minutes: Close your eyes and sit in the quiet. Relax yourself by breathing in and out several times. Loosen up each muscle one by one as you let go of the things that distract you. When you’re ready, consider this quiet question to help you focus your thoughts for meditation. Let’s say that someone delights in you. what color does that bring to mind?” Ignoring the theological question as to whether or not it’s a good idea for Christians to sit around imagining others delighting in us – rather than us delighting in God, this again is straight out of new age meditation where the goal is to put yourself into a lighttrance. The ultimate result if this is practiced consistently and often is to bring the believer into a feeling of “oneness” with everything and everyone.
In fact, that’s the purpose behind the Way of the Monk (which you can read more about here: http://www.whiterobedmonks.org/monkway.html). If you study this thoroughly you’ll eventually learn that the ultimate goal of these techniques is to lead people to a universalist view of salvation, where all religions are just different paths to the same end.
Jan Johnson is also a proponent of a meditation technique called the “cloud of unknowing” in which it is suggested that before we pray we should empty our mind of all thoughts – even thoughts of God himself! She does not however (to my knowledge) mention this in her book Listening to God. And Tim says since she doesn't mention it in that book – then it’s okay for the church to endorse that book, even though she talks about it in many of her more recent books.
Of course Redeemer vehemently denies sharing any of these beliefs. Yet they consistently continue to endorse people who do. So I’m left scratching my head and wondering why, if they really don't share these beliefs, do they have such a consistent track record of endorsing people who do?
In my email conversations with Tim this summer he simply draws a very strict line – believing that it’s okay to endorse and promote teachers who believe these things – as long as the church doesn't specifically endorse their errant teachings.
A Redeemer elder and friend told me that the church believes its members and attenders, saved and unsaved alike, are smart enough to discern the good from the bad. I believe this is a wildly risky way to lead the flock. If the church isn't actively teaching people what’s right and what’s wrong how are they supposed to know? And if the church is endorsing people who disagree with it on the most foundational doctrines (as do other people they endorse as well), how is the flock supposed to figure that out if the church doesn't tell them? No, most people once they know the church they trust endorses someone – will believe that that person and all that they teach is good.
And on a personal level I can tell you that many people at Redeemer are seriously confused on these issues. So many people I know there continue to believe there are many ways to God. Many people strongly believe there is nothing wrong with new age meditation despite Tim’s occasional mention of it. And it should be no surprise. Because in the background, the church is teaching classes in new age meditation (while insisting that it’s Christian meditation), and they’re endorsing authors, teachers and books that embrace new age meditation – while again at the same time, calling it Christian meditation.
If you look beyond what people say and look at the actual things that are being taught, you’ll sadly find no difference between what’s being taught and new age meditation.
"You had quoted bible in your comment. Everybody knows bible was written after Christ's death, invariably by fallible, mortal men. Then how can you trust Bible? How can we be sure that everything written in bible has actually come from God? Many such religious texts have been written, before and after bible, some with much more philosophical wisdom than bible."
Answer:
I would invite you to read two books that might help you understand the supernatural nature of the Bible:
(1) A Case For Faith - by Lee Strobel
(2) Evidence That Demands a Verdict - by Josh McDowell
These books are a good place to start if you really want to understand why Christians state emphatically, over and over, that the Bible is inerrant and written infallibly by God. Ponder this: if in fact there is a God supernatural and powerful enough to create things as complex as zebras and eyeballs and ecosystems and blue whales, with that kind of power, couldn't this God have found a way to create a Book, using human agents inspired by his Holy Spirt, that revealed who He was and what He requires of us? I would submit that He did, and a careful, comparative study between the Bible and the "holy writings" of other religious traditions reveals this.
"As for the reliability of the Bible, there is no other book (66 books, actually, but all with the same message) written over a span of 1500 years, by more than 40 different author - from kings to fishermen - who have written about a "plan" for mankind which demeans man and offers a salvation not based on works or any merit of man. What man would make up such a thing to make himself so powerless with no capability of getting to heaven, or even a relationship with God, by means of any work of his own?
No other book has as many early manuscripts which match; consider the Dead Sea Scrolls. These recently discovered scrolls prove the Bible has stayed intact with the same message as in the earliest manuscripts.
Then, there is the resurrection of Jesus. Roman guards were assigned to his tomb, yet He still left it and appeared to over 500 witnesses. If those witnesses knew they were lying about such a story, why did they die martyrs' deaths for a lie? They would have been crazy.
Last, but not least, Jesus had to have been a lunatic and a liar if He was not God in the flesh. He could have never been "good" if He had claimed to be the only Savior by fraud. Interestingly, He fulfilled over 300 prophecies from the Old Testament to the New Testament. No other "holy" book can compare, and no other so-called "god" can compare to the testimony and deity of Jesus.
But, the most profound reason of all that people don't believe in Jesus is because they have a love for their own sin and are in rebellion against a holy God. Man wants to remain autonomous, but he cannot. He can't escape his guilty conscience, no matter how he tries."
Let me close, dear Reader, by telling you that, despite this wretched condition in which mankind finds itself, today can be the day of salvation for you, if you will repent and place your faith in Jesus's sacrifice on your behalf. But, if you do not, you will perish on the day of Judgment. You say that it's not fair for so many to hear this message and reject it. Well, you yourself have now clearly heard the gospel message and the way of salvation. What will you do with this knowledge? How will you respond? I urge you to humble yourself and bend the knee before a high and holy God. He is mighty to save.
Answers in Genesis, the premier apologetics ministry for the biblical account of creation, published an article a few years ago about a remarkable man in Netherlands who decided to build a model of Noah's ark, based on the parameters given in Genesis 6-9. Dutch businessman Johan Huibers has constructed an ark replica that is roughly one-fifth the size of the biblical ark represented in the historical account given in Genesis. Huibers has stated that his desire in doing this project was to bring about a renewed interest in Christianity to Netherlands.
I remember reading this article when it came out, and being so thankful for faithful men like Johan Huibers. We are living in dark times that only seem to be getting darker, but thankfully, there are always a few people hanging around who take God at his Word, right?
The ark is an amazing thing to ponder, from many different angles. Here is just one aspect to consider, though I hope to cover more in future articles:
My family and I spent the day on the lake yesterday with another family, good friends of ours. Because there were 8 of us (instead of our usual 4) and also because it was one of the busiest weekends of the year (Labor Day weekend), my husband reserved a pontoon boat for us. It occurred to me at some point during the day that I never get nervous when we are on the pontoon, even in the choppiest, busiest "water traffic." Why is this? Because a pontoon boat is incredibly stable, with its wide, flat bottom and evenly dispersed weight. Even in the roughest swells, it never even comes close to tipping. We have gone out before in some really fun, fast speed boats, but those can capsize in stormy or rough water. And it also occurred to me that a pontoon is built roughly like the ark that God had Noah build.....which of course was why the biblical, historical ark was so stable, even in the most cataclysmic flood the world has ever seen.
Just another reason to give glory to God, for ALL wisdom comes from him......even in something so humble as boat building.
❝Above all, let us pray daily that our own Christianity may at any rate be genuine, sincere, real and true. Our faith may be feeble, our hope dim, our knowledge small, our failures frequent, our faults many. But at all events letus be real and true. Let us be able to say with poor, weak, erring Peter, 'You, Lord, who know all things, know that I love You.' ❞ (John 21:17) -J.C. Ryle
I identify so much with the Apostle Peter. My own Christian journey has been like his in some ways: starting out with a zeal for God but no knowledge, being refined, being foolish, learning and being refined more, more foolishness, and finally knowing at the end that HE is God and I am small, insignificant, sinful and wretched. And sometimes all I can do is say, Lord, despite all my wretchedness, my sin, my foolishness, search my heart...and know that I love you.
Okay, it's official: Mormonism is crazier than Scientology. If you are not familiar with what Mormon theology is, you must watch this short, 6-minute cartoon. Planet Kolob, spirit babies and baptism of the dead. And yes, this really is Mormon doctrine, and yes, they really do believe this.
This recent YouTube video with Caryl Matrisciana on the dangers of yoga is both sobering and informative, and explains why Christians should not attempt to "blend" their worship of God with the pagan practices of Hinduism. This is a very timely issue right now, given that a Hollywood movie starring Julia Roberts (Eat, Pray, Love) is about to be released and will be presenting a glowing cinematic portrayal of a sanitized, Americanized version of Hinduism.
Yoga is the salvific practice of Hinduism; in other words, it is the Hindu form of "salvation." But Hindus have no concept of sin against a holy God....instead, it teaches that man's greatest problem is his ignorance that he is "God" (or Brahman). Obviously, this is very different from the Christian understanding of what salvation is: Jesus's atoning death for the forgiveness of sins, and being made right with a holy God.
Just a few more reasons why yoga cannot be separated from its occultic origins are:
(1) The mantra meditation lowers mental barriers and opens one up to the demonic realm (though it often doesn't "feel" demonic at first...it feels "good" and "spiritual".....even holy);
(2) The yoga positions themselves are all prayer postures designed to honor one of the millions of hindu gods;
(3) The "Namaste" is an unbiblical practice. "Namaste" is when the yoga practitioners bow to one another while each says "Namaste." "Namaste" means "I am bowing to the 'God' within you." This is obviously not a biblical concept because we cannot assume that everyone we would meet in life has God within them. For the Christian, there are only 2 kinds of people: those who are spiritually dead (the lost), and those who are born again believers in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit. For me to practice the "Namaste" would mean that I would be giving false hope and assurance to the lost that I am recognizing them as my spiritual brothers and sisters.
(4) The yoga positions themselves are not only for the purpose of honoring and worshiping Hindu gods, but they are done in a very specific order for the purpose of aligning and opening up the"chakra" system. It is believed that this alignment will not only enable one to meditate more deeply, but will also awaken something called "kundalini," also known as "serpent power." In the yoga tradition, it is believed that a "serpent" lies coiled and sleeping at the base of the spine until it is "awakened" and begins to uncoil, slowly moving its way up the spine, and allowing the practitioner deeper meditation and union with "Brahman."
Brahman is supposed to be this infinite, transcendent reality from which all things came - including the millions of Hindu gods. The aim of yoga is to attain union with Brahman......basically, the ultimate purpose of yoga is to release people from the Wheel of Life, and their karmic debts, and to prepare its practitioners for death.
However, the response I often hear from Christians is this: "But as a Christian, I can 'do' yoga unto the Lord!" My question would be: How is that any different from the golden calf incident, recorded in Exodus 32:1-6, in which Aaron tried to claim that they were honoring the Lord with their syncretized religious worship?
"When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him." Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD." So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry." (Exodus 32:1-6, my emphasis)
This story is one of the most powerful biblical warnings there is against incorporating pagan practices into our worship of God. What most people don't realize is that this well-known incident wasn't about straight up paganism. No, this story records how God's chosen people blended together (1) what they had been taught to do by God with (2) pagan practices that were familiar to them from their years of captivity in Egypt. They knew about altars and making offerings to God. And they knew about pagan animal worship from their exposure to Egyptian culture. When Moses delayed returning to the people from atop the mountain where he was speaking with God, the people decided to create their own tangible way of worshiping God. So they set up an altar, added a little Egyptian flavor in the form of cow worship, and called it a festival for the Lord. And God saw this, and was very pleased? Not exactly. This is what the Bible records:
"Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.' "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation." " (Exodus 32:7-10, my emphasis)
God was not pleased - and only Moses' intercession on their behalf saved them from being completely destroyed by God. As if that weren't a clear enough warning against mixing pagan worship practices with worship of God, we are also warned in Deuteronomy against spiritual syncretism:
"The LORD your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land, and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, 'How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.' You must not worship the LORD your God in their way..." (Deut, 12:29-31a, my emphasis)
God is quite clear on how we are to worship and approach him - and it is not through blending our worship of him with pagan practices. I recognize that it is very hip and cool and popular in today's global, syncretized culture to meld different things together. We are most certainly an experience-driven culture, always seeking the fresh, exciting, "new" thing. And we also like our smorgasbord religions, with a little of this, a little of that. But we have clear mandates from Scripture about how we are to worship and approach God. We are to be set apart from the world - not syncretized with it - so that's God's truth will shine like a beacon in the darkness.
So, how did the story turn out? How did the Lord view the golden calf incident? Was He "honored" by the claim of the Israelites and Aaron that they were, in fact, worshiping him with their incorporation of pagan religious practices?
"He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it." (Exo 32:20)
Bottom line? Christians must not be tempted to "borrow" practices from false religions and fool themselves into thinking that they can honor the Lord in this way. And if they have done so, they should repent.....or they might just end up drinking ground calf juice.
Only in America could we find a way to romanticize the core theology of Hinduism to the point that it looks appealing - when in reality it is a religion of despair. The "Americanized" form of Hinduism, however, as artfully put forth in Eat, Pray, Love, "feels" very good to the sinful flesh. As a friend of mine pointed out....food binges, Eastern spirituality, and free love? Please! So much more appealing than the biblical concepts of crucifying the flesh, dying daily to self, and laying down one's life.
Julia Roberts needs to read Out of India by Caryl Matrisciana to get an understanding of the underlying ugliness and despair of true Hinduism. Writer and producer Caryl Matrisciana was born and raised in India, and witnessed first-hand the devastating effects of Hindu thought and beliefs on the culture around her. The goal of Hinduism is for its practitioners to realize that one's soul is identical to Brahman, the "Supreme Soul." Or, in layman's terms....we are all "god," which is the core theology of the New Age.
But, UNTIL a Hindu attains this knowledge, they are, according to eastern belief (Hinduism/Buddhism), trapped in the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth (reincarnation).....a theology which leads to utter despair.
We've written before about the fact that the New Age, that "dated" 80s movement starring Shirley MacLaine running down the beach with her crystals clanking, never really went away, it just became absorbed into our culture. New convert and "practicing Hindu" Julia Roberts has just proved this point...in spades. Hinduism and New Age Spirituality are here to stay.
(Amazon)
