A TRUE AND FAITHFUL WITNESS
Are you committed to being a true and faithful witness to the Lord Jesus Christ of the New Testament Gospel?
The "WAY" of Jesus or Jesus as "THE WAY"
To: All true saints of Jesus Christ – This is frightening!
Via Vita evidently had a conference in California this past February 25, 2006
The title was “Ancient Spiritual Wisdom: Principles and Practices for Life”
On their home page they advertise this conference as being “about spiritual
transformation, and about spiritual principles and practices as they were
actually taught by Jesus and his early followers.”
The conference page purports that “Two thousand years ago, Christian
spirituality was new to the world. This was a time before churches as we
know them.” In other words, this conference is returning us to our ancient
“spiritual” roots. (These roots, as articulated, are really mysticism and not
truly Christian.) And notice at the bottom of the page the list of “spiritual”
things that are important:
1) Most people are unfamiliar with “spirituality” as Jesus taught it.
2) These principles even predate Jesus.
3) One of these principles is the concept of your spirit created in the image
of God.
4) This “image of God” called spirit effects your entire being.
5) Your fullest potential is of primary importance.
6) The spiritual realm can be accessed through techniques.
So does Jesus Christ coming and work make Him our Mediator or does He
bring the “knowledge” of some mediation principle and technique? It certainly
is not both. You can read about the seeds of these “ancient” principles in
their first engagement with man in Genesis 3 when the serpent approached
Eve with a question and some follow-up thoughts.
Now notice the conference speaker page: Dallas Willard, John Ortberg, Tony
Jones, etc.
We must understand that many in our modern day “churches” in using the
term LORD have impregnated it with a different meaning than Holy Scripture.
LORD has come to mean “Lead Avatar of Spirituality and Purpose.” And so
this is what "Lord" Jesus is now supposedly doing. But this is not our Lord as
articulated in the Holy Scriptures. The God of the Bible has provided for us a
Lord who is Savior from sin and Mediator before Him. This is the Jesus of the
Bible.
And I do not believe this “emerging” of ancient spirituality is going away nor
is it a flash in the pan. The “emerging” paradigm is really a “converging”
paradigm toward embracing and coming under the catholic umbrella through
mysticism. The “purpose-driven” model is a converging model as well. We
just don’t fully see it quite yet. But there are clear indications if we would just
open our eyes. And the reason this is "frightening" is because much of these
"mystical" teachings and practices are even entering into our "evangelical"
churches and not many national leaders are giving warning.
You could see this mysticism in the first edition of Richard Foster’s
Celebration of Discipline which I do a brief review of here.
"And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
And the earth shook, and the rocks were split." Matthew 27:51 ESV
Copyright 2006 David Sheldon. All rights reserved.
For More Articles Like This Go To: www.atrueandfaithfulwitness.com
To: All true saints of Jesus Christ – This is frightening!
Via Vita evidently had a conference in California this past February 25, 2006
The title was “Ancient Spiritual Wisdom: Principles and Practices for Life”
On their home page they advertise this conference as being “about spiritual
transformation, and about spiritual principles and practices as they were
actually taught by Jesus and his early followers.”
The conference page purports that “Two thousand years ago, Christian
spirituality was new to the world. This was a time before churches as we
know them.” In other words, this conference is returning us to our ancient
“spiritual” roots. (These roots, as articulated, are really mysticism and not
truly Christian.) And notice at the bottom of the page the list of “spiritual”
things that are important:
1) Most people are unfamiliar with “spirituality” as Jesus taught it.
2) These principles even predate Jesus.
3) One of these principles is the concept of your spirit created in the image
of God.
4) This “image of God” called spirit effects your entire being.
5) Your fullest potential is of primary importance.
6) The spiritual realm can be accessed through techniques.
So does Jesus Christ coming and work make Him our Mediator or does He
bring the “knowledge” of some mediation principle and technique? It certainly
is not both. You can read about the seeds of these “ancient” principles in
their first engagement with man in Genesis 3 when the serpent approached
Eve with a question and some follow-up thoughts.
Now notice the conference speaker page: Dallas Willard, John Ortberg, Tony
Jones, etc.
We must understand that many in our modern day “churches” in using the
term LORD have impregnated it with a different meaning than Holy Scripture.
LORD has come to mean “Lead Avatar of Spirituality and Purpose.” And so
this is what "Lord" Jesus is now supposedly doing. But this is not our Lord as
articulated in the Holy Scriptures. The God of the Bible has provided for us a
Lord who is Savior from sin and Mediator before Him. This is the Jesus of the
Bible.
And I do not believe this “emerging” of ancient spirituality is going away nor
is it a flash in the pan. The “emerging” paradigm is really a “converging”
paradigm toward embracing and coming under the catholic umbrella through
mysticism. The “purpose-driven” model is a converging model as well. We
just don’t fully see it quite yet. But there are clear indications if we would just
open our eyes. And the reason this is "frightening" is because much of these
"mystical" teachings and practices are even entering into our "evangelical"
churches and not many national leaders are giving warning.
You could see this mysticism in the first edition of Richard Foster’s
Celebration of Discipline which I do a brief review of here.
"And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
And the earth shook, and the rocks were split." Matthew 27:51 ESV
Copyright 2006 David Sheldon. All rights reserved.
For More Articles Like This Go To: www.atrueandfaithfulwitness.com
HOME
Rick Warren
Forty Days: False Gospel
Forty Days: A Closer Look
Forty Days: Which Jesus?
PDL: God's Wisdom
PDL: Exalting the Fallen Creation
PDL: A Purpose-Shaped
Worldview
Antichrist
Will Antichrist Be Revealed
Before the Tribulation?
The Great Harlot
"Mystery" Babylon
"Emerging" Church
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell - Part 1
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell - Part 2
Church Growth Movement
Schuller, Hybels & Warren
Review of Schuller's "Self-Esteem"
False Apostles, False
Prophets, False Revival
River of Seducing Spirits
Spiritual Warfare Script
Deception of Spiritual Warfare
Flags & Banners...Spiritual Power
Tools?
Davidic Warfare/Worship?
Jesus of the "Signs" Now the
"Christ" of Apostolic Government
Mystical Christianity?
Tenney's Mystical Deity Chase
Richard Foster: Quaker Mystic?
Willard and "The Way of Jesus"
What Oswald Chambers
Might Have Thought About
Todays "Christianity"
Rick Warren
Forty Days: False Gospel
Forty Days: A Closer Look
Forty Days: Which Jesus?
PDL: God's Wisdom
PDL: Exalting the Fallen Creation
PDL: A Purpose-Shaped
Worldview
Antichrist
Will Antichrist Be Revealed
Before the Tribulation?
The Great Harlot
"Mystery" Babylon
"Emerging" Church
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell - Part 1
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell - Part 2
Church Growth Movement
Schuller, Hybels & Warren
Review of Schuller's "Self-Esteem"
False Apostles, False
Prophets, False Revival
River of Seducing Spirits
Spiritual Warfare Script
Deception of Spiritual Warfare
Flags & Banners...Spiritual Power
Tools?
Davidic Warfare/Worship?
Jesus of the "Signs" Now the
"Christ" of Apostolic Government
Mystical Christianity?
Tenney's Mystical Deity Chase
Richard Foster: Quaker Mystic?
Willard and "The Way of Jesus"
What Oswald Chambers
Might Have Thought About
Todays "Christianity"