Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
(Proverbs 9:8-10)

Words Do Have Definite Meaning

Well, the answer to that question will be tied up in the nebulous relativism of so-called “postmodernism” where words magically morph into whatever one wants them to mean. When Dr. Walter Martin (1928-1989) wrote the chapter “Scaling the Language Barrier” for his classic book The Kingdom of the Cults he would have had no way of knowing that now we will also have to apply its proven principles to those who consider themselves evangelical Christians!

In the book Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches: Five Perspectives Dan Kimball informs us via a subheading “I am still a conservative evangelical, but not ‘one of those’ conservative evangelicals” (85). Can’t you just hear the smarmy tone as he would hiss “not ‘one of thoooose’ conservative evangelicals.” Now just who might Dan be referring to…O…possibly someone like myself who insist that we do have “access to God’s Truth” (ibid). But it doesn’t logically follow we then claim to “know all answers” which is a common Emergent straw man.

Here’s a bit more information for you concerning Dan Kimball, and I do happen to think he’s a nice guy, which shows he is actually quite dangerous to the historic orthodox Christ faith we know is the Truth. And Kimball is especially harmful to this faith which was once for all delivered to the saints because he is heavily involved with and connected to leaders within this neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church. According to Wikipedia Kimball is also “currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree at George Fox Evangelical Seminary” (GFES).

You need to know that GFES is an extension of George Fox University which was founded by the Quakers and named after their mystic founder George Fox so not surprisingly it “is committed to spiritual formation” (Online source) aka contemplative spirituality. It’s also important to note that both Emergent Guru Brian McLaren and Quantum panentheist Leonard Sweet are on staff as Adjunct and Visiting Professors. Yes, Dan Kimball is more readily accepted in evangelical circles than some of the others in the Emergent Church but Kimball himself is an advocate of contemplative mysticism , though in fairness he has told me he doesn’t know what Contemplative/Centering Prayer is.

Gnostic Mysticism Makes It Shadowy Return

I still find this is rather odd however because in Kimball’s own book Emerging Worship under “Helpful Books” he recommends as a good resource Soul Shaper: Exploring Spirituality And Contemplative Practices In Youth Ministry by Tony Jones the national coordinator of Emergent Village which is just chock full of contemplative practices from apostate Rome. And one of those alleged spiritual disciplines just happens to be centering prayer. I cover it further in Emergent Church: Soul Shaper Tony Jones but read it for yourself:

In Soul Shaper Tony Jones advocates some sixteen “ancient-future” spiritual tools such as The Jesus Prayer, Lectio Divina, Silence and Solitude, Stations of the Cross, Centering Prayer, and the Labyrinth. Here Jones begins defining his postmodern approach to youth ministry by combining aspects of what he sees as common spirituality in Evangelicalism, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions along with eastern religious practices gleaned from Buddhism and Hinduism. These soul shaping “disciplines” will later become even more developed in his next book The Sacred Way.

And should you wonder why this insideous Emergent rebellion against the Bible is subtly slithering into more and more mainstream evangelical communities here is what the Pied Piper of Purpose Driven Rick Warren said about Dan Kimball’s book The Emerging Church:

This book is a wonderful, detailed example of what a purpose-driven church can look like in a post-modern world. My friend, Dan Kimball, writes passionately from his heart, with a deep desire to reach emerging generations and culture. While my book, The Purpose-Driven Church, explained what the church is called to do, Dan’s book explains how to do it with the cultural-creatives who think and feel in post-modern terms. You need to pay attention to him because times are changing.

Rick Warren
Saddleback Church, author of Purpose-Driven Church and Purpose-Driven Life (Online source)

In Rick Warren Promoting the Emergent Takeover of the SBC you’ll see that Rick Warren gives Kimball a forum where he personally recommends Lectio Divina. But Pastor Jon Cardwell, who is a contributor at my other website Christian Research Net, explains in his excellent article Lectio Divina, Central to Ecumenicism that Lectio Divina is a:

method of prayer makes no bones about repeating text, directly violating the Lord's will as Jesus condemns this sort of tom foolery as pagan: “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking” (Matthew 6:7). That our Lord tells us that vain repetition is particularly pagan should be good enough for us to shun this method.

Love Must Tell The Truth

I am thankful that Dan Kimball has been kind enough to have been in personal dialogue with me off and on this past year and this has helped while I have also been personally researching Kimball’s theology from his books. And as I told Tony Jones in our phone conversation a while back just because I come hard at what I perceive as heretical doctrine doesn’t mean I hate those I see ensnared by it. No doubt we could have a vigorous debate one day soon and not make it a personal issue, but I am not about to let false teaching come emerging into my Lord’s Church without a stiff and vigorous fight (see–Jude 3, Greek).

My main findings concerning Dan’s erroneous ideas regarding the genuine faith of Jesus Christ are contained in Dan Kimball and Doctrine which also has links within it taking the reader to other articles. But the bottom line is that Dan Kimball does not hold to the doctrines of grace and instead is actually very active in working to reverse the Reformation. Our love for the purity of the glorious Gospel of our Lord should constrain us to defend it in prayerful hope to make others aware of information they may not have about these Emergent men with their Hollow theology.

That so many pastors and leaders don’t see it just shows how deep these Emergent vipers have penetrated into the Body of Christ. The fact is that this contemplative Emergent snake will swallow the American Christian Church whole if we don’t immediately separate from it and pull out of anything which has been given over to this new Cult of Liberal Theology.