Cedric Fisher: "earnestly contending for the faith."

Month: November 2013 (Page 1 of 3)

Emergence Christianity

Brian McLaren and his associates are in the process of establishing a new religion called Emergence Christianity.  McLaren’s CANA project appears to be an attempt to coalesce the various individual efforts into a single powerful force.  Other individuals that are involved in the formation of this new Christianity included Rick Warren, Rob Bell, Tony Jones, and Doug Pagitt.  It is my opinion that they will find willing participants in Joel Osteen, Oprah Winfrey, and other like-minded individuals including the heads of denominations.  They apparently believe that the existing Christianity is inadequate for today’s culture.  Since Christianity is in doldrums and chock full of heresy and heretics (not to mention that most professing Christians are anemic and willfully ignorant), a case might be made for the charge of inadequacy.  However, it is not God’s plan that has failed, but rather a failure on the part of Christians to carrying out His plan.  Therefore, a new Christianity is not the answer, but instead a revitalization of true Christianity.  Professing Christians must return to God in full surrender, obeying Him in all things, and maintaining intimacy by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Taking advantage of the stagnation and malaise of the last day’s environment in Christianity, McLaren and his fellows are insisting that Christians are mistaken about long-standing traditions and doctrines.  They believe that Christianity suffers spiritually because Christians never learned how to pray properly.  Therefore, they have employed Spiritual Formation, which includes Contemplative Prayer and other pagan practices.  By involvement in these pagan rituals Christians are supposed to become more spiritual and in tune with the Cosmic Christ, who is the “Christ” of their new Christianity.  They declare that Christians also are historically wrong about the cults, paganism, the New Age Movement, and secularism.  Thus, they have begun establishing agreements with those entities.

My question is; if Christians have been so wrong throughout the centuries, then what is Emergence Christianity predicated on?  Since McLaren and his associates have boldly declared that it is fatally flawed, its basis certainly cannot be historic and traditional Christianity.  It cannot be God’s word or their version would not be significantly different than existing Christianity. Although the major denominations disagree on certain issues, there is no mistaking the fact that most of them are Christian in essence if not in practice. No such identity exists in the Emergence version. The case might be made during the present apostasy in American that Christianity in practice has for the most part entered a crisis of spiritual destitution. However, instead advocating for a revival, McLaren is calling for a replacement. There needs to be an explanation concerning where this replacement is coming from. The source of McLaren’s replacement Christianity may be exposed if we compare Emergence Christianity with true Christianity.

Since American Christianity in practice is mostly an unfit example of comparison, I will use the example of Christianity in nations where Christians are persecuted.  There can be no purer form of Christianity in practice than in nations where the price of being a true Christian is the greatest.  Therefore, how does McLaren’s version stack up to the persecuted church?  Emergence Christianity intends to join with the state, to mingle with socialist programs and other state-sponsored initiatives.  The persecuted Christians oppose state-sponsored and regulated Christianity.  They do so unto the point of material loss, torture, imprisonment, and even death. Emergence Christianity has embraced paganism, cults, and the New Age Movement (Although Emergent Christians claim their pagan practices, such as Contemplative Prayer, are rooted in ancient Christianity, they are mistaken).  Persecuted Christians resist paganism, and reject affiliation with cults and the New Age Movement.  They do not count their breaths while uttering a mantra, entering an altered state of consciousness, and receiving a spirit guide.  They pray with words for hours, calling out to God for the salvation of their persecutors.  Emergence Christians disdain God’s word and especially the Apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament.  They pervert the Bible or manipulate it to support what they believe.  The persecuted Christians love God’s word and risk their lives to own a Bible or a fragment of scripture.  They will sit for hours to hear preaching or teaching of the word of God.  Emergence Christianity has no divine continuity. It began with the initiative and cooperation of secular and religious individuals.  The persecuted Christians have divine continuum that treads its way back to the early church.  They accept the scriptural example of Christianity.  Their leaders are scarred with the brutality of a satanic regime that is committed to converting or eradicating them.

It is easy to see by this short comparison that McLaren and friends are forming a new Christianity that has no foundation in God Almighty.  They are not building upon the foundation stone, the Rock, Jesus Christ.  Their goal is not to build upon the legacy of the godly ancestors of Christianity.  They are instead building upon Roman Catholic mystics (that were in fact heretics) and a menagerie of individuals whose belief systems range from bizarre to more bizarre.  It is a religion that would most likely be accepted by the very nations that persecute true Christians.  There were no biblical influences in the formation of Emergence Christianity.  Their fruit is as the works of darkness. They treat that which is sacred as profane and the profane as sacred.  The conclusion must be that Emergence Christianity is counterfeit Christianity.  It is the same counterfeit Christianity that has been at war with the kingdom of God from the moment the disciples left the Upper Room.  Emergence Christianity has found fertile soil in the American society that teems with the cooperate afflictions of hedonism, heresy, and apostasy.  Additionally, the great majority of professing Christians that are not yet apostate are apathetic and willfully ignorant.  McLaren and his group of apostates insist that only their redesigned Christianity will be relevant in such a society.  With that haughty statement I can agree, but it is a curse rather than an honor.  However, while they prepare the religious sector for the False Prophet and Antichrist, God’s people are preparing to endure unto the coming of the true Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This is a time of powerful deception and a great apostasy. Some professing Christians have descended into the great delusion from which they cannot be recovered.  It is no mystery that blatant and rampant sin has caused this dreadful state of affairs.  However, American Christians are easily deceived because of two major errors, flawed soteriology and faulty eschatology.  They believe that they either cannot lose their salvation no matter how wicked and apostate they become, or that they are going to escape all the harshness of the end times even though they are lukewarm, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.  I am not going to argue about it.  Instead I will warn everyone who reads this article that he or she had better not run to a pastor to escape conviction about these issues.  The time has come for every individual to work out his or her own salvation with fear and trembling.  I advise every sincere professing Christian to pray and read the Bible until his or her heart is filled with love and devotion to God.  One can ride a false doctrine all the way to hell, but there is no way to miss heaven when one is full of love and devotion to God.  Is there any difference between believing a false doctrine and believing a true doctrine falsely?  I hope and pray that everyone understands my reasoning here.  God’s word is clear that eventually, the final veil of darkness will ascend from the depths and humanity will enter a period of unprecedented evil.  That event has begun.  There have been many warnings.  There is no excuse for being unaware of the hour.  Ignorance and apathy is, other than apostate, the worst possible condition to be in at the moment.  Being unprepared to endure such a time is the most asinine mistake a professing Christian could make.  There are no second chances beyond the portals of eternity, no debating doctrine, and no one to blame but ourselves.

 

Christianizing Mormonism

When Richard J, Mouw, president emeritus of Fuller Theological Seminary, spoke at the Orem LDS Institute of Religion November 15, 2013, he epitomized the mindset that drives the present apostasy in Christianity.  Mouw stated, “There’s more commonality than we realized in the way we talk about Jesus and his atoning work.”  He went on to declare that “the hope that shines within us” (Christians and Mormons) is a shared belief in “the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.”  One might better understand Mouw’s line of reasoning by his glowing endorsement of the Book of Mormon.

“But when you stop and read it,” he said, “a lot of the doctrine looks and sounds like our doctrine, with language that sounds like the kinds of things we say.”

One could say the same thing about other religious books.  But what’s the line of resonating here?  God did not send us an almost perfect Christ, nearly perfect salvation plan, or Scriptures that magnanimously spread apart to allow the inclusion of erroneous doctrine.   So why is Mouw ecstatic about the book of Mormon that “looks and sounds like”, but in fact is not God’s word?  Imagine if you discovered that everything your fiancé told you was almost true.  Would you still marry?  Would you leave a pastor that took great pains to speak the truth to accept one that spoke almost truth?  It is baffling to me why a Christian would base his or her acceptance of a religion on a book that contained almost truth.  We should not discern Mormonism by its almost truthful book, but by God’s perfect truth.

Mouw continued to declare that Mormons and evangelical Christians “say the same things” about Jesus Christ.  That may be true on the surface to a certain degree, but true Christians do not say that Jesus is the brother of Lucifer as do Mormons.  Everything else the Mormons say about Jesus is predicated on that and equally false LDS doctrine.  Of course, one would expect to find similarities since Joseph Smith plagiarized greatly from the Bible as well as borrowing from the Masonry and Islam.  It does not mean that Mormons and Christians believe the same about Christ.  Further, Christians have known about those similarities from the beginning.  Why did we not join with the Mormons from the beginning if the similarity is a premise for ecumenism?  If that question were to be posed to Mouw or one of his associates, namely Rick Warren, the answer would most likely be that God has decided to do a new thing in this century.  The New Reformation that Warren is calling for apparently includes the “shalom” between Muslims and other cults and diabolical religions.  Mouw declared in his speech, “The best thing we can do together is to defend the rights of Muslim women to wear a burqa, or the religious rights of Sikhs or Jehovah’s Witnesses.”  To present the proper context for that statement he went on to say, “We need to figure out how we can work together in the battle to maintain our religious rights.”  I disagree.  The best thing that Christians can do is to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

That last statement may indicate the true purpose in Mouw’s warm words for Mormonism.  Ever since Mitt Romney’s failed bid for the presidency, it appears that certain denomination leaderships, such as the Assemblies of God, have ramped up the process of forming an agreement with the LDS. They apparently believe that the agreement is necessary to resist the federal government encroachment of religious rights. However, eschatological prophecy will be fulfilled no matter how many coalitions are formed to prevent the madness of a antichrist society. Further, Christian leaders must beware that in forming a coalition with a cult they do not provide an opportunity for the cult to snatch souls from Christianity.

Additionally, there is Mouw’s straw man argument that Christians and Mormons are shouting and demonizing one another. “These are profound teachings that we both talk about,” Mouw said. “These are the things we need to be talking about rather than shouting at each other and demonizing each other.” I do not know of any shouting at and demonizing of Mormons. Even if that were so, it would not be a reason to require Christians to have fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness. By the way, it is not “shouting or demonizing” to speak truth.  Mormonism is a diabolical religion whose apologists have been attempting for years to convince everyone that they are also Christians. The litmus test is to ask the LDS to renounce the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, the secret Mormon rituals, their false doctrines, and confess the true and complete Gospel of Jesus Christ. I don’t believe that they are going to do that, or that the professing Christians who are fraternizing with them are encouraging such a move.

The objective is obviously an ecumenical agreement with the LDS cult.  It is based on a faulty premise that God has called us to commit such an error.  The question that must be asked is, “Who stands to gain by such an ecumenical endeavor?”  Christianity does not stand to gain anything at all unless the goal is to prove that we are willing to compromise our faith. Mormons stand to gain a great deal, which is the reason that they have been insisting that they are also Christians.   Look at it this way; if the Satan has any chance of bring down a Christian, he must first infiltrate his mind.  To accomplish that feat, he must lure him into position to be infiltrated. God’s word tells us to abstain from fleshly lusts that war against our souls.  Therefore, believers are careful about what they allow to access their minds.  We guard our hearts and minds by rejecting evil thoughts, imaginations, and everything that exalts itself against the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Professing Christians that fraternize and form alliances with diabolical religions and cults are as individuals that invite Satan inside for a friendly chat.   The guard is gone, the resistance is no more, and all caution is thrown to the wind.  Although some of these individuals believe they will remain Christians, it is not the case for many of the ones who follow their lead.  Therefore, the gain is completely in favor of Mormonism.  Christianity will not require Mormons to become true Christians, but Mormons will attack the ranks of weak or unsuspecting Christians like a virus.  Christianity has to come down into the deception to fraternize with Mormons because they cannot come up.  If Mormonism were to rise up from the deception, it would mean the end of their religion.

The final analysis is that Mouw and his associates appear unable to grasp the basic elements of satanic deception.  However, a greater and more ominous factor seems to be in the mix.  In my opinion, they had a preconceived plan to befriend not only the Mormons, but also Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and other religions and cults.  The purpose is to form a global coalition of religions, a One World Religion not dissimilar to the coming One World Government.  Compromise is simply a small pragmatic price to pay for the culmination of their goal.

What do they hope to gain by this coalition?  They hope to gain world peace and unity with freedom from religious persecution.  It is an honorable goal on the surface.  Nevertheless, the means and method by which is it achieved is antithetical to the kingdom of God.  Thus, it is a direct assault on the kingdom of God.  It is entirely possible that from such a platform of ecumenism and compromise, the False Prophet will stand and perform lying signs and wonders.    Mouw and his accomplices would bend heaven to provide a protective arch over hell.  It does not seem to matter if true Christianity is lost in the rumpus of ecumenical fervor.  They have been altering Christianity for several decades, morphing it into a religion that flaunts paganism and a cosmic Christ.  No wonder the cults believe that Christianity has sufficiently changed (weakened) enough to accommodate them.  Its exclusivity became lost in the Emergent Movement’s substitution of major Christian distinctives with elements of the New Age and secular culture.

This decay did not happen overnight.  It has been long in the making.  I personally believe that it is now too far gone to turn around.  Consider that not only do most professing Christians not know about the diabolical decadence of Christianity, but they do not care.  This ignorance and apathy is indicative of both why the decadence exists and why with cannot be aborted.  In my opinion, contemplative spirituality is the door that led to this deception.  In nearly all of the recent forays by professing Christians into ecumenism, contemplative spiritually has been in the mix.  It appears to be the catalyst of the great and final deception.  Contemplative prayer causes an individual to become deceived and thus susceptible to demon possession.  One would have to be completely deceived to make or believe the statements that Mouw made concerning Mormonism.  I do not know how or why Mouw became deceived or to what extent, but I can declare that he is deceived about Mormonism.

It is for these reasons that I believe that Mouw, Wood, Warren, and others have sinned greatly against the Body of Christ.  Mouw’s statement, “God has placed us in the world, in this nation, and calls us to seek the shalom together,” is indicative of the aberrant paradigm that they have bought into and now promote.  God never called true Christians to join in peace and fellowship with diabolical religions and cults.  There is no biblical paradigm for what they have done and are doing. Instead, there are strong scriptural warnings against their actions. Here are but a few of them:

“Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” (1 Corinthians 15:33 NKJV)

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” (Ephesians 5:11 NKJV)

Therefore, “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” (2 Corinthians 6:17 NKJV)

“But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.” (1 Corinthians 5:11, NKJV)

The present apostasy in Christianity is in my opinion the final one before the revealing of the Antichrist.  It is very large and rapidly getting larger.  There are many elements to the apostasy, but one major factor drives it all and that is deception.  Christ warned us that the final deception would be very clever and a large number of people would succumb to it.  Although there have been other apostasies and deceptions, I firmly believe that we are at the end of the age and are witnessing the deception that Christ warned us about in Matthew 24:24.  Many Christian leaders are succumbing to the lure of this deception.  It is as if they never gave any thought to the fact that it could come upon them or to the manner and means of its arrival.  The manner of this deception is not only the subtraction of truth, but also the addition of clever, truth-sounding, lies.  In some cases it is only the addition of clever, truth-sounding, lies.  Adding lies to truth will indeed obscure truth and minimize or alter its result.  However, Satan knows that some, perhaps much, truth must remain in order to make the deception more appealing and undetectable.  Therefore, it is no doubt that one might find more in common with deception and deceivers than one might disagree with.  Consider that when the serpent tempted Eve, there was more truth in his statements than error.  Satan will give you a truckload of truth if you will swallow a spoonful of poison.  The most clever deception is like a drop of cyanide in a glass of fresh water.

 

The Chaos Makers

Historically, when God’s people have been stressed by chaos and calamity (wars, natural disasters, and other catastrophes) in the secular realm, we have had our churches to turn to.  Presently, we are facing major chaos in both the secular and religious realms.  Christianity is in chaos with widespread acceptance by its leadership of New Age paganism in the form of contemplative spirituality, the rejection of biblical doctrines essential to true Christianity, a strong movement to merge Protestantism with Roman Catholicism, numerous other heresies.  I must stress here that not one of the heresies appears to be a grassroots initiative.  In fact, many professing Christians are ignoring these evil intrusions into Christianity.  Other ones are completely unaware of the degradation.  As a result of apathy and willful ignorance, the Christian realm appears to be degrading at the same pace as the secular realm.  The situation has gotten so ominous that some of the leaders of major evangelical denominations appear to be satanic moles.  They appear to be deceived to the point of delusion.  The question is, where are true Christians going to turn for encouragement and hope as the secular and Christian realm becomes increasingly corrupt?

Before I answer that question, please allow me to present some essential information.  First, one sociologist concluded from research that society can only endure so much before it submits to the source of the pressure in an attempt to alleviate it.  In my opinion, the American society is on the verge of submitting.  I believe that is the goal of the ones who are creating all the disturbances in the religious and secular realms.  They are wittingly or unwittingly assisting the culmination of Satan’s plan to procure, by hook or by crook, the world as his sovereign kingdom.  They are the Chaos Makers.  The Chaos Makers are like puppets in the hands of the controlling power moguls.  They worm their way into positions of influence and create disruption, which leads to anxiety, which eventually results in submission. Dancing to the satanic song of chaos, they are thrilled with the sound of complaining.  It incenses them to turn up the pressure.

Someone said (I cannot remember who), “This Chaos is being orchestrated; the collapse of our economy, the degeneration of our morality, the environmental movement, the dissolving of religious foundations, the weakening of family ties and even global warming, are being orchestrated and used to bring the America to its knees so that we willingly accept the solutions of those in power. Of course these solutions will only place more power and control in the hands of those causing the chaos.”

They perpetrators of chaos will not back off because it is counterproductive to their goal of “divide and conquer”.  When they hear the people moaning under the stress, they press the pedal to the floor, ala, Saul Alinsky, and go in for the kill.  It does not matter to them if they are proven wrong, or are caught in a faux pas.  They will lie and doublespeak to cause more outrage and stress.  This is a battle.  Therefore, we should not expect the enemy to back off and apologize when we groan and accuse him of landing a dirty blow.   

Most Americans cannot be awakened to the clever schemes operating behind the volatile changes in our secular society.  Their minds have been completely taken over by the charismatic leaders and their mesmerizing verbiage.  Likewise, many professing Christians do not have a clue about the sinister activities in Christianity.  Christian leaders have taken a page from the political handbook or their PR people. When confronted with their errors, they spin, doublespeak, and wiggle way like an eel.  Professing Christians are in denial that have depended on a few people for information and guidance.  They have been cheated and don’t know it.  The fact is that secular and religious societies have been dumbed down until only a few know what is happening.  The rest dwell in the blissful ignorance of wildebeest moments away from becoming a feast for a pride of lions.

Now for the answer to where true Christians can to turn for encouragement and hope as the secular and Christian realm becomes increasingly corrupt.  It is a simple answer and most people know what it is.  We have to turn our hearts and minds more toward God and away from this temporal realm.  It is easy to get caught up in politics, in listening to an endless stream of talk radio, watching hours of Fox news.  But does any of that investment of time make us stronger?  Do we actually discover some piece of essential information that will help us deal with the stress of this dark period?  Remember that our enemy depends on us becoming stressed to the limit and beyond.  It is essential to his plan that we all become so burdened down with the chaos, that our senses are hammered with outrage after outrage, until we become despondent.  If this is the last days, then we cannot do anything to stop the decadence of the temporal realm.

I do not spend all this enormous amount of time and effort trying to start a revolution against the ones who are desecrating our nation and Christianity.   Instead, I am attempt to alert people so that they can be prepared.  An essential part of the preparation process is to make certain that we have enough “oil”.  We are not going to get “oil” from Fox News or the talk shows.  We can only get it by prayer, feasting on God’s word, and devoting ourselves more and more to His perfect will.  In my opinion, our nation and Christianity is too far gone to restore.  I firmly believe that the next phase of the chaos will include persecution of Christians in this nation.  The great majority of professing Christians are completely unprepared to face harsh times.  They have been lured into fighting hopeless battles with inadequate weapons in the enemy’s territory.  They have become fodder for the chaos makers.  Christ and the apostle Paul gave us the answer if we will heed it.

“And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?  And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.  For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things.  But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Luke 12:25-31 NKJV)

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.  For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4 NKJV)

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