For at least the past six years now online apologetics and discernment ministries like
Lighthouse Trails Research, as well as here at
Apprising Ministries, have been warning about the sinfully ecumenical [i.e. Reformation repudiating]
Emergent Church aka the
Emerging Church.
Sadly, it’s now grown into a neo-liberal cult operating within evangelicalism infecting it with their new postmodern form of
Progressive Christian quasi-universalism under their spiritual circus “big tent”
Emergence Christianity.
Here’s the heart of the matter: The EC would prove to be a Trojan
Horse where Satan has been able to off-load his ne0-Gnostic mystic
corruption
Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM), an infestation of which is now becoming pandemic within the very heart of the church visible.
If you didn’t know what effect this cult of postmodern Liberalism
2.0 is having upon the professing Christian community, then I strongly
suggest that you make the time to actually look at the evidence I’ll
bring before you in
Mainstream Evangelicalim Embracing Contemplative Mysticism and
In Touch Magazine Of Charles Stanley Promoting Contemplative New Monasticism.
Then I want you to tell me wherever in the proper Biblical doctrine
of Reformation theology do we find “Protestant” CSM ala that supposedly
“discovered” by
Living Spiritual Teacher and
Quaker mystic
Richard Foster, and now perpetrated as supposed
Spiritual Formation with an able assist from his spiritual twin SBC minister
Dallas Willard? Answer: We don’t.
With all of this in mind then, I continue on where
Promoting Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism Ok In Southern Baptist Convention left
off. I told you that we’d visit a major SBC megachurch and that you’d
see this church has a teacher of contemplative spirituality i.e.
mysticism right on its own staff. I also mentioned that you’ll be able
to watch his sermon from last Sunday right within my next piece.
The video is below and you’ve probably realized the church in question is
Second Baptist Church in Houston, TX where
Dr. Ed Young, Sr. is the senior pastor. Now the sermon I’ve spoken of was done by
Gary Thomas, whom I mentioned previously e.g. in
Mark Driscoll And Contemplative Idolatry, which also gives you futher illustration concerning how far CSM has slithered into the whole of the church visible.
If you didn’t know, Thomas’ bio informs us:
Gary Thomas is a bestselling author and international
speaker whose ministry brings people closer to Christ and closer to
others. He unites the study of Scripture, church history, and the Christian classics to foster spiritual growth and deeper relationships within the Christian community. (Online source, emphasis mine)
We’ll return to those so-called “Christian classics,” but for now, in
addition to his international ministry, we find out that Dr. Ed Young,
Sr. announced that Gary Thomas had “joined the staff of Second Baptist
Church as writer in residence and a member of the preaching team” this
past October:
(
Online source)
So let’s keep in mind as we go on that Thomas was well known within
evangelical circles prior to joining the preaching staff at Young, Sr.’s
huge SBC megachurch Second Baptist Church (2ndBC). In fact, Young. Sr.
himself was very familiar with the work of Gary Thomas:
“If Gary Thomas writes a book, you need to read it. It’s
as simple as that. He has incredible insight into spiritual truths and
is able to make those truths graspable for all audiences. In Pure
Pleasure Gary reminds us it is OK for Christians to feel good—even have
fun! A refreshing message at the right time for contemporary believers.
You are going to enjoy this book.”
—Dr. Ed Young, Second Baptist Church, Houston, Texas (Online source, emphasis his)
My concern here is the propensity of Gary Thomas to push the spurious
CSM mentioned above so I’m going to focus upon the evidence
documenting his teaching; another time we’ll talk further about CSM
itself, and its crown jewel
Contemplative/Centering Prayer, which is itself a form of meditation in an altered state of consciousness. Let me focus your attention upon Thomas’ book
Sacred Pathways (SP); this book forms the basis of his sermon below.
From my personal copy of SP I can tell you that Thomas shares with
his readers a form of “mantra meditation,” which is traced to Dom
(father)
John Main
(1926-1982). It’s important to note that Main was an apostate Roman
Catholic priest and monk of the Order of Saint Benedict (OSB). He’s also
universally known by those in the so-called “contemplative tradition”
as the man who rediscovered “the practice of pure prayer, or Christian
meditation.”
Not upon Scripure mind you; no, this is using a “holy phrase” also
known as a mantra in order to enter into an altered state of
consciousness. Chapter 9 of Thomas’ SP happens to be a veritable ode of
praise for sola Scriptura-repudiating contemplative mystics, some of
which you’ll hear in his sermon below. Thomas dreams the following
mythology about mystics telling us they:
simply want to bathe in the ocean of love God has for his
children, while the rest of us seem unfortunately content to experience
that love drop by drop.[1]
Thomas then continues on with his romanticizing of mystics as he
tells us about the “Acts of Contemplatives,” which he calls “many forms
of prayer and activities that contemplatives can make use of in addition
to general contemplative prayer.” Next Thomas goes through “The Jesus
Prayer,” “Secret Acts of Devotion,” “Dancing Prayer,” “Centering Prayer”
(it’s the same as Contemplative Prayer), “Prayer of the Heart,”
“Stations of the Cross,” and finally “Meditative Prayer.” You’ll
also see mystics refer to this as “the silence” and/or “wordless
prayer”[2]; but, the truth is, it’s nowhere taught in Scripture.
Under that section
Meditative Prayer Thomas goes into a short spiel about
Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the
Jesuits,
the militantly pro-Roman Catholic Church mystic group who on orders of
the Pope functioned very much like a spiritual Counter Reformation
Gestapo Unit during the Protestant Reformation; you may have heard of
the Inquisition. Thomas though tells that “The Spiritual Exercises, [of
Ignatius of Loyola] helped make mental prayer more popular.”[3];
and this mental prayer Thomas is speaking of here is CCP.
You should know that CCP was never practiced or taught by Jesus; nor
was it practiced or taught by His Apostles, but rather, it orginated
with 4th century desert hermits in Egypt. All of this romancing of
mystics sounds quite pious; however, in reality it’s a classic case of
seeking individual, personal, experience with God, which by nature is
highly subjective. Frankly, the prolonged practice of CSM does serve to
bring the practioner into ignoring the Protestant Reformation.
As an example I’ll show you now that in the
Free Resources section of Thomas’ website we find those Christian classics mentioned earlier under
Classic Christian Authors:
(Online source)
You’ll see Thomas is already sowing confusion because Francis De
Sales (1567-1622) was “Bishop of Geneva, [and] Doctor of the Universal
[Roman Catholic] Church”[4], Nicholas Herman aka Brother
Lawrence (1605-1691) was a Roman Catholic priest “in the Carmelite order
mean[ing] his spiritual practices were derived from or heavily
influenced by Teresa of Avila”[5], and François de Salignac de la
Mothe-Fénelon (1651-1715) was a “celebrated French [Roman
Catholic] bishop.”[6]
Each of those men died as slaves serving the false gospel of the
apostate Roman Catholic Church; the same organization that placed its
anathema upon the very Gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sins,
salvation by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in the finished
work of Christ alone on the Cross. With all due respect, under what
authority does Gary Thomas now come along and reverse the Reformation to
pronounce such as these Christians?
Does Dr. Ed Young, Sr., twice president of the SBC—reputed to be the
largest Protestant denomination in the United States—also hold this
same view? The
Other Christian Classics contains a host of other Counter Reformation, and counter sola Scriptura, Roman Catholic mystical works including
The Cloud of Unknowing, which Thomas says is “considered a classic of mystical spirituality,” and
Experiencing The Depths Of Jesus Christ by Madame Guyon, who was even considered heretical by Rome.
In closing this out, for now, we also find
Dark Night Of The Soul by John of the Cross, who was a disciple of the aforementioned emotionally troubled Carmelite nun
Teresa of Avila. As I showed you before in my
In Touch Magazine Of Charles Stanley Promoting Contemplative New Monasticism Dr. Gary Gilley is right as he explains:
The phrase “dark night of the soul” has become, on a
popular level, the description of a period of deep depression or
dryness, but this is certainly not what St. John meant…
Classical mysticism is composed of three parts: purgation, in which
the senses and spirit are purged of all desires; illumination, in which
God supernaturally floods the soul with His love while the individual
remains passive; and union, in which the soul is united with God in
perfection.
Such an individual will be able to skip purgatory since purgatory’s
work has been completed in this life (pp. 107-108, 174). To this pursuit
the medieval monks and hermits devoted their lives.
The mystical way is nowhere supported by Scripture, even though St. John makes many attempts to do so… (Online source)
Yet Thomas tells us this apostate Roman Catholic monk is, “One of my
favorite authors, John wrote with an unparalleled passion for God.” I
wonder, is this also what Dr. Young believes? Keep in mind that the
Protestant Reformers, contemporary with Avila and her disciple, rejected
their mystic musings; but now we’re to believe that they were in error
because people like Gary Thomas hundreds of years after the fact know
more than they did?
From years of studying mysticism I can tell you that people who
persist in CSM eventually end up with a delusion that somehow the
Reformation is over. However, if you’d actually make the time to
read, and to check the sources within for yourself, you’ll find the
answer is absolutely not to the following question:
Has The Roman Catholic Church Really Changed?
Finally, consider the following from Thomas’ latest book
Thirsting for God: Spiritual Refreshment for the Sacred Journey (T4G):
I sought guidance for devoting myself to becoming close
to God,… I opened a book that was written 1500 years ago, an Eastern
Christian classic by John Climacus called The Ladder of Divine Ascent. I
felt as if something that had atrophied inside me was suddenly being
nursed to life.
I soon found myself meeting new friends, spiritual soul mates who
were on the same search, like John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, who
joined forces in the sixteenth century to bring renewal to a stale
religious order.[7]
Thomas is “spiritual soul mates” with Roman Catholics advancing a
different gospel during the Protestant Reformation? Sounding not a
little like EC icon
Rob Bell or
Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru
Brian McLaren in T4G we see Thomas tell us:
So many of our theological discussions today highlight
issues upon which we profoundly and often vehemently disagree. But as I
met these writers throughout church history, I soon witnessed a
beautiful tapestry of common truth that gave stunning witness to the
accepted faith of the wider church…[8]
Does Gary Thomas not realize the “theological discussions” of the
Protestant Reformation involved the Gospel itself? If we don’t share
that “common truth” then we have no basis for Christian
koinonia
i.e. fellowship. Yet you’ll see below that Thomas is in the midst
of teaching his revisionist history to the congregation of 2ndBC, one
the biggest churches in the entire SBC.
Thomas tells us:
I would like to introduce you to some precious Christian
brothers and sisters who have walked this life before us… The men and
women who wrote the Christian classics were masters at understanding the
spiritual life…
We may not accept every single doctrine they teach,…[but t]hey taught basic Christian spirituality.[9]
Herein we reach the heart of the matter; I’ve shown you irrefutable
evidence that Thomas includes a bevy of Roman Catholics among the
authors of these “Christian classics.” Then he refers to them as
“precious Christian brothers and sisters” whom he tells us were “masters
at understanding the spiritual life” and “taught basic Christian
spirituality.” Ask yourself: How could a master of Christian
spirituality end up preaching a false soteriology and then devote
themselves to a church that cursed God’s Gospel?
As a former Roman Catholic, I say until next time remember, it is still written:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him
who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different
gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you
and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a
gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is
preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be
accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9)
________________________________________________________________________
End Notes:
[1] Gary Thomas,
Sacred Pathways [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000], 182.
[2] Ibid., 182-189.
[3] Ibid., 189.
[4]
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06220a.htm, accessed 7/14/11.
[5]
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/brotherlawrence.htm, accessed 7/14/11.
[6]
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06035a.htm, accessed 7/14/11.
[7] Gary Thomas,
Thirsting for God: Spiritual Refreshment for the Sacred Journey [Eugene: Harvest House, 2011], 12.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid., 12, 14.
See also:
PROMOTING CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM OK IN SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
SOUTHERN BAPTIST SOUL SHAPING RETURN TO RELIGIOUS BONDAGE
DISCIPLINES TO DECEPTION IN SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
RICK WARREN, SADDLEBACK CHURCH, AND SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES
JOHN PIPER, RICK WARREN & FOSTER-WILLARDISM
SADDLEBACK CHURCH OF RICK WARREN USING ROB BELL TEACHINGS
CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM PRODUCES A FALSE SENSE OF REALITY
source:
http://apprising.org/2011/07/14/dr-ed-young-promoting-contemplative-spiritualitymysticism-for-his-southern-baptists/
