Seeing Through The Postmodern Smokescreen

Here in Part Three we begin with a bit of an unexpected direction and just a little taste of where all of this will be leading us as we continue to examine the New Light Quantum Spirituality of our brand “new kind of Christian” Emergent pastor/theologian Brian McLaren. For example, if this panentheism is true then we are told the creation itself is literally alive and metaphorically a part of the Body of God. Further this would mean that mankind also shares God’s divine nature, and that man is already in God and God in man through the initial creation. I know it’s a bit technical for some but please stay with me here. Using the logical argument posed by Dr. Walter Martin in his debate with Mormon apologist Van Hale years ago the issues becomes: “If God and man are both deity, then you no longer have God and man, you only have God.”

One may equivocate with words, which happens to be a strong suit for postmoderns, but this truth remains: God chose to speak to man through words that have actual meaning to us as propositional beings. And if these words don’t mean what standard dictionaries and lexicons have defined them to mean then we have lost all means of communication. This is the sad result of relativism in our culture today because the truth really is that “postmodernism” is simply a category made up by those who wish to believe it. From someone who as been following the Emerging Church and alleged postmodernism for months now I can tell you the bottom line is that this is simply a philosophical outlook that one decides to adhere to.

Sadly the Devil has been able to inject much esoteric discussion into the Lord’s Church, which is really only a “reimagined” (for our Emergent friends) first century Gnosticism. I can’t emphasize enough how appropriate the warning given by God the Holy Spirit in Colossians 2:8 is for the Church right now in this evil day – See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. O how I wish that Christians would heed this advice. This whole problem is actually all wrapped up in the old, old question of man’s philosophy: If a tree falls in the woods and there is no one around to hear it, does it in fact actually make a sound?

Perhaps I might paraphrase it this way for the spiritually obtuse among us: If Christ said, “you will know the Truth” and today few people are willing to believe that, does it now become an untrue statement? In his book Truth Decay associate professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary Doug Groothuis puts his finger right on the heart of this (non)issue when he writes:

I have taken a keen interest in postmodernism, a philosophy––or, better, a cluster of philosophies––that seeks radically to reconceptualize traditional notions of truth and rationality. Postmoderns fret mightily about arrogance and dogmaticism, but to avoid them they typically rebound into the equal and opposite errors of cheap tolerance and relativism. However, a belief in the objectivity of truth and importance for all of life does not entail an arrogant attitude of or an unbending, irrational dogmatism (12).

Put Away Childish Thinking

You know what this whole modern/postmodern thing really boils down to? Picture two four-year-olds sharing their differences. It goes something like this: “Did too.” “Nuh-uh.” “Did too!” “Nuh-uh!” (voices becoming louder) “Did too!!” “Nuh-uh!!”…etc., etc., until one finally gets tried of making a reply. Truthfully, in the end it doesn’t really change a thing does it? This is what we have going on here in this Emerging Church movement. They say: “We want to do church our own way, therefore we will tell everyone the Christian faith as it has been taught through the centuries just doesn’t relate to this culture; people want experiences with God, and not just doctrine.”

At this point, I wish to help you avoid falling into what I refer to as “wrestling with the serpent.” Any of you who are familiar with sharing the true Christian faith with those in non-Christian cults will recognize immediately what I mean by this phrase. If one does not know what they are doing they will very quickly find themselves twisting and turning and continually going from topic to topic trying to refute each point as it is brought up. So I will now state the main point that way too many on both sides of this issue are missing concerning the American Christian Church not being “relative” to the pagan culture native to these United States Of Self-Delusion.

This point would be that complacency, disobedience and adopting the ways of the cultures around the people of God has never been blessed by our Creator in the past, and our unchanging Lord has largely judged His Church in this narcissistic nation to be doing exactly that. I have said it on many occasions, but since this series has begun opening Apprising Ministries to many who have not read my previous work, I will say this one more time. Like it or not, the Christian faith is living in a real relationship with a Supernatural Triune Being Who literally dwells inside those believers who have been “born again.” And no matter how intellectual we like to think we are, no human being can ever convert another to Christ no matter what we do.

The opening of spiritually blind eyes and the re-creation of dead spirits is solely the realm of God the Holy Spirit. Here is what I recently explained to seventeen-year-old Ryan whom I had the privilege of being the instrument God used to bring him to Christ just two years ago. Through his devotion to his Lord this on-fire for God young man is already more mature than many older men I know of. He was feeling a bit frustrated by the lack of response as he shares his faith in Jesus to others around him. I told Ryan that it is only as we walk in obedient fellowship with our Lord that our witness for Him will ever be more effective, and much also depends on what God’s plan is for the particular generation in which a person may live.

Must We Be So Dull?

I humbly offer that rather than Christ’s Church being ineffective and not “relating” to (read: compromising with) this pagan “postmodern” culture, that instead based on Matthew 16:18 and Ephesians 1:11, we are having exactly the results that our Father wants for this sinful generation. My point being, since so many seem to feel we may be living at the end of the Age of Grace, then I would say this time in the American Christian Church (based further on the indifference I see to this series) would be found here in God’s Word:

For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good (1 Peter 4:17-19).

Although as His Christians we might like to put it out of our minds that we are to be the doulos of our Master, Christ does not. And I tell you in the Lord that He couldn’t care less about our little agendas or the way we think His Church ought to operate. You may not like to hear that, but it is a little word to the wise. I truly believe that amidst all our self-congratulation for our great “ministries” and our Biblical knowledge, if Jesus were standing in front of us today, He’d look at us and ask “Are you still so dull?” (Matthew 15:16) Well, you may recall in a previous piece I did warn you that as a pastor I would most likely approach some of these issues in apologetics just a bit differently than some others might.

Meditation Is Our Key

With that in mind we now have a good place to return directly to what I was saying above re. the doctrine of panentheism underlying the teachings of people McLaren knows personally such as Len Sweet. In part two we have more than adequately shown that Sweet holds to this idea of “creation spirituality” as taught by Matthew Fox. Again, the main issue is that this doctrine of panentheism holds that man is divine because he is a creation that is literally a part of God. We’ll return to this fallacy in a moment, but this creation spirituality also teaches that all of creation itself is alive and so also shares God’s nature. In coming articles I will clearly show you from primary sources that there is a similar theme found in eastern religions like Hinduism and Zen, in the New Age Movement, as well as with these so-called “Christian” mystics.

And the single “spiritual discipline” that runs through each and every one of these belief systems/world views is the practice of meditation. Look it up for yourself; and it’s coming to a church near you through the Emerging Church movement. In his book Soul Shaper Tony Jones, National Director for Emergent-US even tells the unsuspecting and spiritually gullible (apparently like David Jeremiah) about “the saints of the Christian church who have over the past two millennia labored at practicing and perfecting these disciplines” (O5). Well imagine that, among these “disciplines” described in Jones’ book we find meditation. But not meditation on the text of the Bible as Scripture teaches, but in seeking a mystical experience in the “presence” of God.

However, among “the saints” who practice the neo-paganism one finds in books written by Tony Jones, we will not find men like Charles Spurgeon or Jonathan Edwards, which is something he doesn’t happen to mention. How difficult it is to refrain here from getting after the “serpent” of logical contradictions involved with that concept of meditation; but suffice to say that if God is in man, and man is in God, then man would already be in the presence of God. Yikes! It’s no wonder these guys are pushing these methods of eastern a-logic upon us because anyone using the gray matter the Creator placed between our ears ought to see right through this idiocy. But this is the devastating effect that secular humanism and our careless misuse of technology has had on our society. Sadly by and large people today just can’t sit still long enough to develop sound reasoning skills and so they fall victim to these emerging falsehoods.

As we further develop the logical contradictions inherent in this “Evangelical” panentheism, I ask the reader to stop and think this through with me for a moment. For now, let’s sidestep whether this doctrine of panentheism is Biblical or not, and ask this question instead: Has this doctrine of the Emergent Church concerning “Christian” mysticism (let alone panentheism) ever been considered an “Evangelical” doctrine; and if not (which is my point), then why are we considering men like Brian McLaren and others who teach it Evangelicals? Believe it if you want; teach it if you must, but shouldn’t the Evangelical church have enough backbone to say: “Not in our churches you won’t.”

A Return To An “Evangelical” Spiritualism

Before we go further into the writings on panentheism by Sallie McFague and Marcus Borg in parts four and five I want to return to the main issue that this doctrine teaches. This key point would be that all of creation is divine as it is a part of God Himself. As I walk you through the incongruities inherent in this creation model you will be able to see that those of us who hold to the proper Christian concept of God as taught in the Bible will immediately recognize panentheism as a doctrine from the Devil himself. As this series develops I will show you that this type of “Christian” mysticism taught by Thomas Merton, Tony Jones and others of like delusion has now even penetrated mainstream Evangelicalism through men like Richard Foster and his teachings on contemplative prayer or centering prayer.

You need to understand that this/these practice(s) simply refer to the eastern pagan discipline of meditation by other Christian-sounding names. However reputable Church history shows that these practices were unknown in Apostolic doctrine, and even Tony Jones is forced to admit that in Soul Shaper:

Like the Jesus Prayer, Centering Prayer grew out of the reflections and writings of the Desert Fathers. John Cassian (c.360-c.430) came from the West and made a pilgrimage to the desert to learn the ways of contemplative prayer. After almost 20 years in the desert, Cassian…wrote his book The Conferences about his conversation with the Desert Fathers to acquaint Western Christians with their teachings (073).

Tony Jones then goes on to tell us something that Cassian “learned” which clearly is in conflict with 1 Corinthians chapter 2 (see–particularly vv. 12,16). I ask the reader to pay close attention here as Jones informs us Cassian taught that Abba Isaac (see–Matthew 23:9; abba=“father”) told him that for “‘true prayer’” there is a particular formula that “must ever be before you” and then the result will be “by God’s light the mind mounts up to the manifold knowledge of God,…like a spark leaping up from a fire” (ibid). If you keep following this series you will come to see that the language of this particular neo-pagan Gnosticism is virtually identical to that I will be quoting from those various religious systems mentioned above.

And just what “knowledge of God” does this magic formula of “light” eventually lead us to? We will show you what Alan Jones, a member of the Living Teachers Project tells us about this in his book Reimaging Christianity. Oh, and by the way, as a bit of background information about the Very Reverend Dr. Alan Jones, here is what “Christian” pastor Brian McLaren says of Jones and Reimagining Christianity:

It used to be that Christian institutions and systems of dogma sustained the spiritual life of Christians. Increasingly, spirituality itself is what sustains everything else. Alan Jones is a pioneer in reimagining a Christian faith that emerges from authentic spirituality. His work stimulates and encourages me deeply (back cover, emphasis added).

Is it just me, or has what McLaren just said all but been obscured here by the plethora of red flags that suddenly appeared! Here is a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who also teaches other pastors within the Evangelical church, expressly praising this “reimagined” neo-pagan spirituality of Alan Jones. This same Very Reverend Alan Jones who, as an Episcopal priest literally denies the atonement of his Lord and is a member of a most dubious group of spiritists as a “living spiritual teacher.” As Bud Press of Christian Research Service, my dear brother in Christ might say: “What in the world is the matter here; are we just stuck in stupid?”

Be that as it may, we now get back to where this alleged “knowledge of God” gained through the “Inner Light” revealed through meditation will lead us. In a long meandering explanation, which I have mercifully condensed here for the reader, while using an icon of the Virgin Mary as a backdrop our “living spiritual teacher” Alan Jones, whose work Brian McLaren said “stimulates and encourages me deeply,” enlightens us:

The mystical traditions all agree that in our helplessness we come closer to the real well of life deep within us…[r]enewal and transformation could begin by our waiting for our own secret to reveal itself in the pregnant silence–in the silence of the Virgin concerning the secret of God…in the silence we, too, by the grace of the Spirit give birth to ourselves–to the true self that is both secret and known, the self-in-God. Loved and in communion with all things, the soul is born in and out of the secret silence of God, This silence at the heart of mysticism is not only the meeting point of the great traditions but it is also where all hearts might meet (172,174, emphasis added)

Becoming Like The Most High

It should be pretty clear to those who have been able to follow the serpentine path here in our spiritual labyrinth that what this “living spiritual teacher” just told us has far more in common with the Dali Lama of Tibet than it does with Jesus Christ of Nazareth. One may already be coming to see that as this Evangelical panentheism oozes up from the “Christian” mysticism of Brian McLaren’s Emergent Church we are now laying the ground work for some “new” kind of universal religion in Christ’s Name. I had planned to be able to go through a bit more of the teachings on panentheism by Sallie McFague and Marcus Borg but I am feeling led by the Lord these subjects needed to be broached first. So when we continue our discussion you will learn in the next two parts more about both McFague and Borg who are also teachers whose work Brian McLaren has told us he enjoys and holds in high regard.

In closing let me return to our walk through the logical conclusions of this doctrine of panentheism because they do quite clearly reveal that at its satanic source is the Devil himself. We will elaborate on this further in another piece, but for now we see that this “Evangelical” panentheism necessitates that whatever God creates as a part of Himself must also share His nature–which is Deity. As such then Satan himself would also share this divine nature of God thus fulfilling his boast in Isaiah 14:14 – “I will make myself like the Most High.” In addition next we will see that since mankind is also divine we have now obliterated the uniqueness of Jesus Christ Who would no longer be monogenes–or the only begotten one of a kind Son of God–the God-Man.

And as if all of that wasn’t bad enough, in panentheism, because mankind shares God’s nature there would now be no need for the Cross where Christ Jesus defeated Satan (e.g. Colossians 2:13-15). In turn there would also be no need for the Christian doctrine of the new birth because mankind would be inherent deity. So now with Brian McLaren and this Evangelical panentheism just as with the Tower of Babel man himself attempts to become like the Most High without the intervention of God and His Christ. No doubt this plays great to the selfish pride of the sinful nature of man; but I ask you, exactly how many things that are antichrist does it take before we finally recognize that something is just not of Christ?

After all He did tell us to test the spirits, and I’d have to say we’re just a bit past due with this emerging from the shadows of Hell “Christian” spiritism. And should you choose to do a bit more research you will find that this reimagined Christianity espoused by men like Alan Jones and Brian McLaren, the Emergent disciple he spawned, is basically just a twist of an old philosophy known by its New Age buzzword as actualism. I mentioned above that Brian McLaren holds the work of Marcus Borg in high regard, and in Brian McLaren And The Emerging Church I told you that McLaren will be sharing platforms this spring and summer with him. Borg is a fellow with The Jesus Seminar and just happens to be a “living spiritual teacher” in the Living Spiritual Teachers project along with Alan Jones. How about that; what an interesting coincidence.

The New Age Emerges

Among the books Borg has co-authored is one called Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings where we are told: “Their subversive wisdom was also an alternative wisdom: they taught a way or path of transformation.” Now let us consider these words of “wisdom”:

It is of importance that you realize that today something new is happening. There is the emergence of a new kingdom in nature, the fifth kingdom; this is the Kingdom of God on earth or the kingdom of souls…Their work will largely be to summarize and make effective the work of those two great Sons of God, the Buddha and the Christ. As you know, One of them brought illumination to the world and embodied the principle of wisdom, and the Other brought love to the world and embodied in himself a great cosmic principle - the principle of love. (http://laluni.helloyou.ws/netnews/bk/discipleship1/disc1005.html, emphasis added)

Now, now before you get too upset at Dr. Marcus Borg I really must tell you that this last quote wasn’t actually from Borg. No that last bit of blasphemy was channeled from the spirit world through Alice Bailey in her book Discipleship in the New Age Volume I written in 1944. It was Bailey who first coined the term New Age and what she was saying was exactly the same thing Borg was saying in his book Jesus And Buddha: The Parallel Sayings. Not only that but to all except possibly the really, really faithful among the McLarenites it all sure sounds eerily reminicent of the “Christian faith that emerges from authentic spirituality" that Alan Jones has been “reimagining”; the very pantheistic emergent New Light “work” that our Christian pastor Brian McLaren has told us, “stimulates and encourages me deeply.”

At the risk of being branded an alarmist, I just don't think one ought to be opening up this door. You can trust me here you really aren’t going to want to be having a conversation with what is about to come emerging through their church. And with that in mind, perhaps this is a good place to end this part by returning to another paraphrase of the great old philosophical tree conundrum. “If the Bible says that mankind is hopelessly lost apart from his one and only Savior Christ Jesus of Nazareth but many people claiming to be “followers of Jesus” say they don’t believe it, would they even be “followers of Jesus” aka Christians?