NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICALS SEEKS COMMON GROUND WITH MORMONISM

The online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries has been documenting the growing falling away of the mainstream evangelical community. 

I’ve also warned you that there is a tsunami of apostasy—pushed along by 1 Peter 4:17 judgments—headed toward the church visible.  Not a few of these judgments have come through evanjellyfish’s foolish embrace of the sinfully ecumenical Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church headed by the unholy trinity of apostates, Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren, universalist EC pastor Doug Pagitt, and his friend Tony Jones, the progressive “theologian in residence” at Solomon’s Porch

Here’s a quick synopsis of how we came to live in this age, which has critically obscured our reverent fear of the LORD God Almighty. Satan finally succeeded in raising up his next generation of what Dr. Walter Martin, who was widely recognized as the “father of modern cult apologetics,” had called the Cult of Liberal Theology. And in an onslaught against the Body of Christ beginning just after the first World War the Devil started playing the heartstrings of mankind’s selfish sinful nature like a master violinist. A veritable symphony of insipid indifference and tepid tolerance, which continues to serve the purpose of amusing the enemy of men’s souls to this very day.

A perfect example is the EC’s new version of postmodern Progressive Christian theology—a Liberalism 2.0—under their spiritual circus “big tent” of empty Emergence Christianity; now one of its biggest proponents, Emerging Church rock star pastor Rob Bell, is all but Out Of The Closet For Universalism and set to unload what appears to be a form of heretical Christian Universalism right within the heart of the visible church. Spiritually spineless evanjellyfish is actually defenseless against this because for years now it’s been using the warped and toxic teachings of such as these in their own Young Adult and Youth ministries, which has collapsed the pillar of sola Scriptura in its own younger sectors.

Syncretism is the order of the day as evidenced by what seems to be a Chrislamic movement. Take for example the latest book by theologian Miroslav Volf who puts forth the highly subjective postmodern mythology “that Christians and Muslims, notwithstanding their important and ineradible differences, have a common and similarly understood God.”[1] With this in mind let me remind you that Phyllis Tickle, easily the Empress of this Emergence apostasy, has mused that Mormonism Is Arguably The Fourth Great Abrahamic Faith; and she’s not alone. As you can see in SBC’s Richard Land Says Mormonism Fourth Abrahamic Faith Land, who’s President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission for the Slowly Becoming Catholic, dreams that:

perhaps the most charitable way for an evangelical Christian to look at Mormonism is to look at Mormonism as the fourth Abrahamic faith. (Online source)

Only in the postmodern Wonderland of Humpty Dumpty language could this be so; from having studied Comparative Religion and non-Christian cults for 23+ years now, I can assure you that Islam and Mormonism are not Abrahamic faiths. As you’ll read in Keeping You Apprised Of: Islam, the god of the Quran is not the God of the Bible; and Mormonism teaches polytheism (many gods), which is in complete conflict with the monotheism (one God) of the Bible. Which now brings me to Press Release: Evangelical Leaders Meet in Utah from the National Association of Evangelicals where we’re told:

The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) Board of Directors, which includes the CEOs of 40 denominations and representatives of a broad array of evangelical organizations and churches, will gather in Park City and Salt Lake City on March 10, 2011 for its semiannual board meeting.

This meeting is the first to be held in Utah, where the majority of its residents are Mormons. In addition to board business, the NAE leaders will meet with Utah Gov. Gary Herbert at the Governor’s Mansion to discuss various issues of concern to evangelicals. The board will also meet with a leader from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). 

“We hope this time of dialogue with LDS leaders will deepen our understanding of the Mormon faith and contribute to the ongoing work of evangelicals in Utah,” said Leith Anderson, NAE President. “For the sake of Christ and his kingdom, we seek to represent biblical evangelicalism to those who wouldn’t hear or know. We also look for common ground on issues where we can work together.” (Online source)

Yes, that sounds very pious; but I find myself wondering, whatever happened to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ—God the Son; co-eternal with God the Father? After-all, Anderson et al have the example of the Apostle Paul in Holy Scripture; permit me to show you:

And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” (Acts 18:4-6)

Notice carefully that God the Holy Spirit doesn’t say anything about the Apostle Paul looking for common ground on issues where they could work together. Instead, God tells the Christian that we shouldn’t be aligned with unbelieving pagan idolators, which is precisely what the Bible teaches they are:

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corintians 6:14-18)

Years ago Dr. John MacArthur was among those who rightly opposed the Evangelicals & Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium document, another example of evangelicals compromising of the Gospel; this begs the question: How can we share the Christian mission with people committed to the false gospel of apostate Roman Catholicism? What MacArthur says below also applies to these foolish Chrislam proponents and to those seeking common ground with the non-Christian cult of Mormonism:

[I]f they are already anti-abortion, and pornography, and homosexuality; they are going to use all of their energies within the framework of their system to go after that. We are committed to that, and we are going after that. There is already a collective movement.

Once you then sort of try to define that as “common spiritual mission” built on “common spiritual unity” you just take doctrine and throw it out the window, and perception is violated, particularly because the Catholic Church claims to be true Christianity, and when we reverse 450 years of history, and just throw our arms around the Roman system, which I think we have to say,…in all honesty, is not a group of wayward brothers but is an apostate form of Christianity.

It is a false religion, it is another religion. When you throw your arms around that you literally have to undo any doctrinal distinction. (Online source

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End notes:

[1] Miroslav Volf, Allah: A Christian Response [New York: HarperOne, 2011] , 262.

[2] Phyllis Tickle, The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why [Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2008], 127.

See also:

IS SHANE CLAIBORNE A CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM?

CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM—THE SAME GOD?

THE “GOD” OF GLENN BECK