For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 7:4-6, KJV)

Ignoring Warnings At Her Own Peril

Because she ignored the warnings of her watchman concerning the very grave spiritual danger of Contemplative Spirituality, which had only been on the horizon of the American Christianity, it’s now even penetrating the evangelical camp of our Lord’s Church itself. If you haven’t I encourage you to make the time to read Meditating on Contemplative/Centering Prayer.

Then you will better be able to recognize the source of this attack on God’s Reformation of His Church right now coming through the Purpose Driven Church, the Emergent Church – the Trojan Horse in which it arrived – and the Word Faith Church, the major pillars in Satan’s new evangelical Ecumenical Church of Deceit (ECoD), daughter of the apostate Church of Rome.

While speaking recently at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Dr. John MacArthur, by no means a radical, made the startling and dead on statement that America has been abandoned by God. At the same time a reader of Apprising Ministries had written me with some insightful thoughts as to why he sees the Emergent Church with its emphasis on “spirituality” now becoming so popular so quickly.

I shared with him that it has been my contention all along that an arid intellectualism has all but put out the fire of the Holy Spirit in many Christian’s lives, but not their desire for “more” in their relationship to the Lord. And then on the other side of this critical issue there are those so hungry for a touch of God they go to those other extremes which always end up as experience over Scripture.

Being that I’m not a cessationist I have no problem with those who experience God and because the Lord has also given me a love for study I also have no difficulty with people who want to know God intellectually through His Word. However at the same time, if these two areas are not humbly balanced through obedience to the Lord, by prayer, and by complete submission to the text of the Bible then you end up with the ECoD of the spiritually corrupt new evangelicalism.

The end result for those who persist in the forbidden practices of Contemplative Spirituality, which originated with heretical Desert hermits and then flowered through the anti-biblical monastic traditions of the Roman Catholic Church, is a false sense of the love of mankind and the deception that we are somehow divine. I talk about this in The Emergent “One” and how through the misplaced mystic belief that there is some kind of True Self deep inside we end up with mankind in love with himself (see–2 Timothy 3:2).

You think this is far-fetched? Then you may wish to consider what I show in SBC Embraces Emergent Church And Contemplative Spirituality. This is one of the titles available from Lifeway Christian Stores True Self/False Self: Unmasking the Spirit Within by the late Roman Catholic monk M. Basil Pennington, a fellow trappist monk and personal friend of the Mystic Monk Thomas Merton. Merton himself is one of the prize Buddhas of those caught up in heretical Contemplative Spirituality.

Battle Is Your Calling

The very clear and present danger in all of this is that it lulls the Church into a coma of complacency and into believing the war is now over. This way she willingly lays down her arms and then wanders straight into the deadly fallacy of interfaith/interspirtual worship. Men like Rob Bell and Brian Mclaren of the neo-liberal cult of Emergent Church are already teaching that Christ already redeemed all men at the Cross so there is no need to preach the Gospel of the new birth.

These things taught by demons are exactly what A.W. Tozer is sounding the trumpet about as he warns us in the important teaching that follows. So beloved, pick your Sword of the Spirit back up and fight these seducing spirits and their doctrines of devils. Cower before these deceivers no more and let us ride to the sound of the guns. Let them know my brothers and sisters that this glorious battle for the absolute Truth of our King of kings and Lord of lords is to the end!

For all that is in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:16-17)

Someday the church can relax her guard, call her watchmen down from the wall and live in safety and peace; but not yet, not yet….

The healthiest man has enough lethal bacteria in him to kill him within twenty-four hours except for one thing-the amazing power of the human organism to resist bacterial attack. Every mortal body must fight its internal enemies day and night. Once it surrenders its hours are numbered. Quite literally it must fight or die….

The church lives in a hostile world. Within and around her are enemies that not only could destroy her, but are meant to and will unless she resists force with yet greater force. The Christian would collapse from sheer external pressure were there not within him a counterpressure sufficiently great to prevent it. The power of the Holy Spirit is, therefore, not optional but necessary. Without it the children of God simply cannot live the life of heaven on earth. The hindrances are too many and too effective. (TIC, 086-087)

“Thank You for the power of the Holy Spirit within me to wage this constant warfare for me. In my flesh I am so weak for such unrelenting battle. Give Your strength today. Amen.” (Tozer on Christian Leadership, November 11)