RATHEREXPOSETHEM

THE CHURCH MILITANT Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.

Saturday, June 11, 2016

ECUMENICAL "TOGETHER 2016" ORGANIZER MEETS WITH POPE FRANCIS TO UNITE CHRISTIANS, CATHOLICS ON NATIONAL MALL~ANN VOSKAMP'S MYSTICAL "ROMANTIC PANENTHEISM"

ONE IN SPIRIT, BUT NOT BASED ON THE WORD OF GOD; JUST WHAT THE POPE WAS HOPING FOR TO DECEIVE A MILLION OR MORE

Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them".

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? 2 Corinthians 6:14-15

SEE: http://pulsemovement.com/nick-hall/

ECUMENICAL "TOGETHER 2016" ORGANIZER MEETS WITH POPE FRANCIS TO UNITE CHRISTIANS, CATHOLICS ON NATIONAL MALL

BY HEATHER CLARK

SEE: http://christiannews.net/2016/06/10/together-2016-organizer-meets-with-pope-francis-to-unite-christians-catholics-on-national-mall/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

WASHINGTON — An ecumenical event featuring Hillsong United, Lecrae, Michael W. Smith, Josh McDowell, Ravi Zacharias, Francis Chan and other renown evangelical and Catholic speakers and musicians that is set to take place in Washington, D.C. is raising concerns as it seeks to draw a million attendees to “link arms” in unity, including with the Vatican.

“Together 2016” is an event to be held on July 16 at the National Mall in Washington, and seeks to unite those of various backgrounds to “stand together for Jesus.” Both Christians and Catholics alike will be featured at the prayer and worship event.

“Together 2016 is about laying aside what divides us to lift up Jesus who unites us,” organizer Nick Hall of PULSE told Christian News Network. “We are coming together in historic unity to pray for a reset for our nation.”

“Jesus said that His followers are family. We believe that it is time for a family gathering,” he also said in an official statement. “It’s not about what divides us, but about the one who unites us—Jesus. The world sees division. We can change that.”

This week, Hall announced that Jorge Bergoglio, also known as Pope Francis, will be delivering a video message to those in attendance.

“We are humbled and honored by his involvement and are eager to share his message with the crowd that gathers at Together 2016,” he told the Christian Post. “That His Holiness would choose to speak into this historic day is a testament to the urgency and the need for followers of Jesus to unite in prayer for our nation and our world.”

Hall traveled to Rome on Thursday to meet with the Roman Catholic leader and other Vatican officials ahead of the event.

“We’ve been praying for this and God has been answering our prayers,” he said in an online video in speaking of Bergoglio’s support of the gathering, explaining that he and a representative from the Vatican discussed how to unite Christians and Catholics.

Hall also noted that he and Bergoglio would be praying together on Friday.

“This is just what God’s been doing,” he asserted.

Supporters of the event include The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, the Luis Palau Association, CRU (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ), Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, Premiere Productions, the National Day of Prayer, YWAM, the American Bible Society and other organizations.

Confirmed speakers include Francis Chan, Ravi Zacharias, Josh McDowell, Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd and National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference President Samuel Rodriquez. Music will be provided by Michael W. Smith, Hillsong United, Lecrae, Kari Jobe, Jeremy Camp, Lauren Daigle, Casting Crowns, Kirk Franklin, Andy Mineo and Matt Maher, among others.

“I love the name Together,” Joel Houston of Hillsong United said in a statement. “There’s a power in unity and a blessing that comes when people put aside their differences and gather together for one purpose. Our prayer is for this to be a reset for us as a generation of the church—in America and beyond.”

Worship leader, Matt Maher, who identifies as a Roman Catholic, has outlined at other ecumenical events that he believes it is his calling to work toward to the unification of Christians and Catholics.

“We’ve never seen a unified church before in the history of the church since the Reformation. We don’t even know what it looks like,” he said at OneThing 2015. “I think what the work of unity starts with [is]: It starts with us praying together. It starts with us fellowshiping together. It starts with us having a common respect for each other, a love for each other.”

However, not everyone believes that Christians should link arms with Roman Catholics and set aside major differences that go to the heart of the gospel.

“Nick Hall either does not know the exclusivity of the gospel of God or he does not know the Roman Catholic plan of salvation because they are diametrically opposed,” Mike Gendron of Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries told Christian News Network. Gendron is a former Roman Catholic who now teaches evangelicals how to share the gospel with Catholics.

“We’re divided on how one is born again: Rome says water baptism, the Bible says the work of the Spirit. We’re divided on how one is justified: Rome says faith plus works, the Bible says faith. We’re divided on how one is purified of sin: Rome says purgatory, the Bible says the blood of Jesus. We’re divided on the essentials of the gospel: Rome has other mediators, the Bible says it’s Christ alone,” he explained.

Gendron said that Jesus himself came to divide with truth, and prayed that His Church would be sanctified with that truth.

“It was the Lord Jesus Christ who came to divide: He divides with His word and His gospel. He divides mother against daughter, father against son—and we must remain sanctified and not united with any who are not born again,” he explained. “More than ever, we must maintain the exclusivity of the gospel of Christ. What hope does an unbelieving world have unless we maintain the purity of the gospel?”

Gendron also stated that he is concerned about the message that it will send when Christians see evangelical leaders involved with an event that validates Roman Catholicism, and therefore does not view those in the religion as a mission field.

“This is going to put the gospel off limits to many Roman Catholics who are there, so it will also confuse the evangelical Church,” he said.

In addition to concerns about unification with the Vatican, there are also questions about Hall’s inclusion of Andy Mineo at the event following his defense of profanity earlier this year on Twitter.

“Do you guys really think if a person uses ‘profanity’ (words we’ve given meaning) in their music they couldn’t possibly be Christian? Why?” Mineo asked, and later responded to a follower who said Christians shouldn’t be using profanity, “Your idea of Christianity is black and white. One day you’ll understand there is grey and it’s ok.”

As previously reported, some have likewise expressed concern over Kirk Franklin’s appearance on profane rapper Kanye West’s new album.

“When I was sitting in the studio with Kirk—Kirk Franklin—and we’re just going through it, I said, ‘This is a gospel album with a whole lot of cursing on it, but it’s still a gospel album,’” West stated in a recent interview on Big Boy Radio. “It’s the gospel according to Ye.”

Hall did not respond to Christian News Network’s question as to whether an artist’s behavior is a factor when being vetted, or if there is a vetting process at all for speakers and musicians.

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THE NON BIBLICAL, NON DOCTRINAL APPROACH TO CREATE THE ONE WORLD CHURCH OF HERESY AND APOSTASY

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Ronnie Floyd, Lecrae, and Hillsong Unite with the Pope at Monumental Together 2016 Gathering

BY BRANDON HINES

SEE: http://pulpitandpen.org/2016/06/08/hillsong-ronnie-floyd-lecrae-join-pope-at-monumental-together-2016-gathering/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

As has been thoroughly covered elsewhere, the Together 2016 is hosting many theologically questionable people whom are widely popular with evangelicals. This rogue’s gallery includes Hillsong UNITED, Christine Caine, Kari Jobe, Kirk Franklin, the rapper “who happens to be Christian,” Lecrae, SBC President, Ronnie Floyd, Josh McDowell, Tedashii, Trip Lee, “God’s lover” Ann Voskamp, Matthew West, and Roman Catholic musician Matt Maher. It has to the attention of the Pulpit & Pen that Matt Maher won’t be the only Roman Catholic featured at this event. Pope Francis has added himself to the lineup, stating that he will speak to the audience via video. Founder of PULSE, Nick Hall, who helped organize the event, said,

We are humbled and honored by his involvement and eager to share his message with the crowd that gathers at Together 2016…That His Holiness would choose to speak into this historic day is a testament to the urgency and the need for followers of Jesus to unite in prayer for our nation and our world.

Many of the people in the lineup have already demonstrated a lack of Christian common sense. For example Kirk Franklin helped write a profane gospel album with Kanye West and Ravi Zacharias gave a evangelically weak lecture at the Mormon Tabernacle and often speaks with Christian figures of ill-repute such as Christine Caine. Now Zacharias, West, and their compatriots will engage in a partnership with the Pope of Rome himself. This isn’t a mere demonstration of a lack of common sense. This is a flouting of biblical admonition.

Sadly, inappropriate partnerships are nothing new for Southern Baptist President, Ronnie Floyd. In 2015, Floyd spoke at the ecumenical IHOP OneThing Gathering, hosted by NAR luminary, Mike Bickle. Floyd made it clear that he believed the doctrinal differences between he and Bickle were minimal. He has taken a similar and more concerning position with regard to the Together 2016 gathering. In a letter he wrote to the events’ producers, he stated:

In 1997, Promise Keepers held their Stand in the Gap rally on the National Mall. I had the privilege to speak to over 1.3 million men who attended from all over America. It was one of the greatest moments of my life. Unquestionably, the scene of a sea of men gathered to experience the Lord together was epic.

Now is the time for another million or more people from our generations to come together on the National Mall in Washington D.C. A gathering of people from all backgrounds of life and every ethnicity joining together in one place, at one time, for one day to unite around Christ and His hope for America and the World

Our greatest need in America is for the next Great Spiritual Awakening to occur. What if Saturday, July 16, 2016 was the day that God brought Spiritual Awakening to the National Mall in Washington D.C.? Do not miss Together 2016.

It’s incredible that the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, a denomination that has historically stood on conservative biblical truth, has not only displayed a lack of discernment by partnering with an IHOP dominionist but with the false-gospel-proclaiming pontiff of the apostate Roman Catholic Church.

It does’t take a great theologian to figure out that God is not going to bring a revival through false worship that He hates.

Roman Catholicism teaches many dangerous doctrines. Chief among these is the teaching that Christians are saved by a combination of faith and works (Council of Trent, Canon 9). Rome also teaches that the Bible is not sufficient, but that the Bible and Church Tradition are equal in authority. In these Catholics traditions are seen things like praying to dead saints and the sanctification of Mary as a Co-mediator with Christ. The Catholic Church teaches many doctrines that should cause Bible-believing Christians to separate from them. Yet Ronnie Floyd chooses to speak at a conference with the Pope.

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ANN VOSKAMP'S "ROMANTIC PANENTHEISM" LEADS THOUSANDS ASTRAY WITH CATHOLIC MYSTICISM

SEE OUR PREVIOUS POST:

http://ratherexposethem.blogspot.com/2014/02/reposted-roma-downey-new-age-advocate.html;

QUOTE: "Lysa Terkeurst promoting "breath payers" in her book "Made to Crave", and who endorsed Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand Gifts. Ann Voskamp has a blog where she shares how to do Lectio Divina. Both of these women are deceiving many women with their contemplative mysticism."

See Lighthouse Trails Research about "breath prayers":
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/breathprayer.htm, and "lectio divina":
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=10887.

Together2016, Ann Voskamp Declare Scripture Insufficient

BY JEFF MAPLES

SEE: http://pulpitandpen.org/2016/06/10/together2016-ann-voskamp-declare-scripture-insufficient/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Pulpit & Pen recently confirmed and reported that the Pope of Rome will be joining Southern Baptist President, along with Hillsong United, Lecrae, and many other professing evangelical Christians in Washington D.C. for an ecumenical fornication-fest. The event, dubbed Together 2016, is estimated to host over 1 million attendees.

Recently, a tweet appeared from Together2016’s official Twitter account that stated the following:

“We don’t need an explanation from God like we need an experience of God.”@AnnVoskamp is joining us on 7.16.16! pic.twitter.com/TWhY1zLW6k

— Together 2016 (@JesusIsTheReset) May 11, 2016

This tweet is a reference to one of Ann Voskamp’s recent blog posts where she writes:

We believe. Because we know. He knows our grief. We know His goodness. And the truth is – we don’t need an explanation from God like we need an experience of God.

One person on Facebook commented,

I genuinely feel sorry for people like her who don’t know the awesome experience of hearing from God through His word. I used to be one of them and I can attest that it’s a frustrating, restless way to live when you chase “experiences” all over the place. Beginning to learn His Word and therefore His will is what has brought me peace and rest.

Voskamp is noted for her bad theology and romanticizing of her relationship to God. In her book, One Thousand Gifts, she wrote of an “experience” she claimed to have with God that shows, at best, a complete lack of understanding of God’s love for his people. Some of the excerpts depict a seemingly sexual relationship with God. She writes:

“I fly to Paris and discover how to make love to God.” (One Thousand Gifts, p 201)

“I run my hand along the beams over my loft bed, wood hewn by a hand several hundred years ago. I can hear Him. He’s calling for a response; He’s calling for oneness. Communion” (One Thousand Gifts, p 211)

“I remember this feeling. The way my apron billowed in the running, the light, the air. The harvest moon. I remember. The yearning. To merge with Beauty Himself. But here…….Now? Really?…….I am not at all certain that I want consummation…….And who wouldn’t cower at the invitation to communion with limitless Holiness Himself?” (One Thousand Gifts, p 211)

And in another blog post she wrote, she said,

And she laughs loud and we’re carried and hey, who needs Ryan Gosling and his “Hey Girl” meme when you’ve got God with His “Hey Beautiful” promise?

Voskamp’s prioritizing of an experiential relationship with God over God’s Word is representative of the over-arching theme of the entire Together 2016 event. Voskamp will be among many other popular Chrislebrities confirmed to be present at the event. Amy Spreeman of Berean Research reports,

This so-called revival is bringing Assemblies of God Supt. George O. Wood and Southern Baptist Convention president Ronnie Floyd together to link arms in spiritual unity with the Pentecostal Charismatic Churches of North America, Grace Communion International (formerly the Armstrongism Worldwide Church of God), and a host of familiar Chrislebrities including Hillsong United, Kari Jobe, Francis Chan, Lecrae, Nick Hall, Passion, Crowder, Kirk Franklin, Ravi Zacharias, Jeremy Camp, Bob Lenz, Andy Mineo, Michael W. Smith, Lauren Daigle, Christine Caine, Mark Batterson, Matthew West,Jo Saxton, Mike Kelsey, Casting Crowns, John K. Jenkins Sr., Josh McDowell, Laurel Bunker, Luis Palau, Tedashii, Tasha Cobbs, Lacey Sturm, York Moore, Trip Lee, Samuel Rodriguez, Ronnie Floyd, Reid Saunders, Jose Zayas, Jennie Allen, Nabeel Qureshi, Ann Voskamp, KB, Christine D’Clario, Matt Maher, Sammy Wanyonyi, Lindsey Nobles, Amena Brown, and Josh Brewer.

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? – (2 Corinthians 14-16)

Question to the Editor: What About One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp?

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=9593; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Dear Lighthouse Trails:

A group of friends who are believers are doing a book study on “One Thousand Gifts” by Ann Voskamp. I thought I heard the word “Eucharist” mentioned. Do you know anything about the book or author? Just curious,

Blessings to you, _______

Our Review from 2011:

“Ann Voskamp’s Best Selling Book One Thousand Gifts – A Collision of Inspiration and the New Spirituality”

One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp is a 2010 Zondervan title that is a New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon Best-Seller. The author is a contributing writer for DaySpring, and she has a blog that receives 40-50 thousand visitors every week.1 Voskamp has risen quickly in popularity, with invitations to various conferences and other events. (In April, she spoke in Portland Oregon at the Q Conference sharing a platform with popular Christian figures like Luis Palau and Louie Giglio).

Ann Voskamp’s sincerity and her desire for a relationship with the Lord are unarguable. Her honesty in her own shortcomings and frailties is admirable. Her description of how she witnessed the death of her baby sister (run over by a farm truck) when she herself was very young is heart-wrenching. What’s more, few would disagree with the overall key theme of the book that we should give thanks to God in everything (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Voskamp shares how practicing thanksgiving and gratitude has changed her life. Thinking about 1 Timothy 6:6 (“godliness with contentment is great gain”), it is true that being thankful and content does have great gain in the believers life.

But One Thousand Gifts, as well-meaning as the author may be, is not a book we can recommend and in fact is one we must warn about. We do not want to cause distress to Ann Voskamp; but given the high popularity of her book, we are compelled to issue this warning.

It is clear by reading One Thousand Gifts that Ann Voskamp reads and admires several mystics, panentheists, and universalists. Her book is peppered with quotes by Sarah Ban Breathnach (a New Age author launched into stardom by Oprah), Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, Evelyn Underhill, Brennan Manning, Annie Dillard, Thomas Acquinas, Buddhist sympathizer and Catholic convert Peter Kreeft, Walter Brueggemann, Francis de Sales, Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Henri Nouwen, and Jean-Pierre de Caussade. Many of the statements Voskamp says in her book would resonate with these authors showing that Voskamp has absorbed some of the beliefs of these people. In addition, Voskamp’s popular blog lists a number of contemplative/emerging authors on her book list page: Richard Foster (Celebration of Discipline), Adele Ahlberg Calhoun (Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, a primer on Eastern style meditation), and emerging church author Phyllis Tickle are included.

In reading One Thousand Gifts, we are reminded of author Sue Monk Kidd (The Secret Life of Bees), who started off as a conservative Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher, but when she began reading Thomas Merton and other mystical writers, her spiritual outlook changed dramatically. The progress of Monk Kidd’s spiritual change can be seen from one book to the next. Today, she is a self-proclaimed worshipper of the goddess Sophia and states in her book The Dance of the Dissident Daughter that God is in all things (panentheism) even graffiti and excrement. Monk Kidd says:

Deity means that divinity will no longer be only heavenly … It will also be right here, right now, in me, in the earth, in this river, in excrement and roses alike. (p. 160)

Ann Voskamp echoes Monk Kidd when she states that God is “present in all things,” even “sewage flowing downriver” (p. 110-111)

The last chapter of One Thousand Gifts, “The Joy of Intimacy,” Voskamp devotes to what she calls “intimacy” with God. But brace yourself, you won’t find the way she talks about intimacy with God in the Bible. We share the following with you not to shock you for theatrical sake – its to show where the “new” Christianity is heading. We think it important, in light of the many young women who are reading this book, to quote Voskamp’s view of “intimacy” with God which she also calls the “mystery of that romance.” Voskamp says:

Mystical union. This, the highest degree of importance. God as Husband in sacred wedlock, bound together, body and soul, fed by His body, quenched by His blood . . . God, He has blessed – caressed. I could bless God – caress with thanks. It’s our making love. God makes love with grace upon grace, every moment a making of His love for us. . . . couldn’t I make love to God, making every moment love for Him? To know Him the way Adam knew Eve. Spirit skin to spirit skin. . . The intercourse of soul with God is the very climax of joy . . . To enter into Christ and Christ enter into us – to cohabit. (pp. 213, 216-217).

We find Voskamp’s mixture of sexual and spiritual language when referring to a relationship with God offensive. The most “intimate” relationship anyone ever had with God on this earth was the one Jesus Christ had with His Father; but nowhere in the Bible does Jesus (or the disciples) use sexual language and innuendos to describe the relationship between God and man. And in fact, the Bible tells us that sexual union was given to man, in the confines of marriage between a man and wife, for procreation; the Bible also tells us that in our eternal heavenly home, there will be no marriage (the need for procreation will not exist). If we, as Christians, were supposed to think about our relationship with God in sexual terms, wouldn’t God have made that clear in His word? It’s like the contemplative prayer movement that emphasizes repeating a word or phrase over and over to be intimate with God. But nowhere are we instructed to do this in Scripture. It’s as if the Holy Spirit who inspired men to write the books of the Bible left out vital elements that now contemplatives and emergents are enlightening us to. God forbid that we should think so. Books like One Thousand Gifts have added to what God has said in His Word.

Voskamp isn’t the only emerging-type author to use sexual language when talking about intimacy with God. We see an increase in books and speakers talking about” intimacy with God” (most of these writers are proponents of contemplative – that’s no coincidence – but rather signs that tantra spirituality (sexual experiences combined with mystical experiences)) is entering the church now. One of the most popular books today on marriage, Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas (promoted by Calvary Chapel, Focus on the Family, and Rick Warren) is laced with quotes by or references to (about a dozen instances) Mary Anne McPherson Oliver’s book, Conjugal Spirituality, a primer on tantric sex; McPherson Oliver says that “mystical experiences can be associated with erotic love.” McPherson Oliver tells readers to use mantras and breath prayers during the sexual experience to help induce the tantric mystical experience. The fact that one of today’s most popular Christian books on marriage has so many references to this book is a telling sign of what has entered the evangelical/Protestant church. The popularity of One Thousand Gifts is another sure indication.

Today, the “new” progressive Christianity is more sensual than spiritual. Appealing to the senses (making it sensual) and the carnal man rather than strengthening the spiritual man within. Scripture warns us though: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). One Thousand Gifts may be the poster book, so to speak, for the latest carnally-minded book, taking a place in line with The Shack.

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ALSO FROM LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS RESEARCH:

Ann Voskamp’s Best Selling Book One Thousand Gifts – A Collision of Inspiration and the New Spirituality

SEE: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=6604

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FROM KEN SILVA'S APPRISING.ORG:

SEE:

CONCERNING ONE THOUSAND GIFTS BY ANN VOSKAMP

http://apprising.org/2012/05/28/concerning-one-thousand-gifts-by-ann-voskamp/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Apprising Ministries has been warning about, and documenting, the sad slide of largely pretending to be Protestant evangelicalism into becoming what I’ve referred to as The Ecumenical Church Of Deceit (ECoD); and much of the current sorry state of the church visible can be traced back through to the semi-pelagian (at best) man-centered Church Growth Movement birthed out of Fuller Theological Seminary.

Keep in mind this is coming from one who is not a strict cessationist; the root roughly begins with the charismatic revival as it spreads through the Jesus People/Movement circa early 1970′s out into various denominations and into what became the Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission.[1] This is the cesspool from which the new liberalism of the Seeker Driven methodology of letting culture define the church would spring.

As Dr. John MacArthur said:

And I’ll tell you, how do you know it’s the new liberalism? Because you can’t stop a seeker-friendly movement, because it’s going to be redefined, it’s going to be redefined, it’s going to be redefined… It’s relentlessly being redefined because the culture changes so fast in a media-driven society. It changes so fast!…

So, there’s a flow going on here. And where is it going? It’s going toward the Emerging Church. That’s why you can have all those people—Rick Warren and Brian McLaren—way out on the edge of the Emergent Church, you can have all those people at the same conference in San Diego all speaking, and, in between, sessions on Yoga. If you just look at the roots of something—and look where it’s going: if you let the culture define the church, there’s no way to catch up. (source)

The fact is, within contemporary evangelicalism there’s been a re-education process spewed at us by these leaders of the man-loving ECoD as she does her best to please her harlot mother, the Church of Rome, with her own apostate Roman Catholicism; essentially undoing the the Lord’s Reformation. Look at these various factions, like the Purpose Driven/Seeker Driven sector and the neo-liberal cult of the Emerging Church 2.0 with its reimagined i.e. new form of Progessive Christianity they call Emergence Christianity, as having the same product. That being church; that they then are selling to different markets using different forms of advertising.

As these kinds of 1 Peter 4:17 judgments are sent upon the church visible by Jesus, the result is a growing apostasy and spiritual blindness. Evangelicals are now turning away from the proper Christian spirituality of sola Scriptura to corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM)—and its crown jewel Contemplative/Centering Prayer, which is itself a form of meditation in an altered state of consciousness. The “key mentors” of CSM being Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster, along with his spiritual twin Dallas Willard, who at last check is with the Southern Baptist Convention.

Sadly, this dumping of discernment has opened the door for highly subjective experiences—allegedly with God—to come right into the very mainstream Protestant sectors of the visible church. Take for example this literal vision wildly popular Southern Baptist Bible teacher tells us she had circa 2002: (Video no longer available).

And we’re supposed to believe Jesus sees the Roman Catholic Church as part of the Body of Christ: (Video no longer available).

Well, I have news for you; since this vision wasn’t from God, then at best Beth Moore encountered a demon. At worst, Satan himself. Shouldn’t we be concerned with this? It’s against this context I tell you that one of the more popular books of this kind of refried mystic mythology of Roman Catholicism making the rounds in evangelical women’s Bible studies over the past year or two is One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. We’re really not surprised to see that this book is published by Zondervan who tells us using classic mystic-speak:

Ann Voskamp invites you into her grace-bathed life of farming, parenting, and writing—and deeper still into your own life. Here you will discover a way of seeing that opens your eyes to ordinary amazing grace, a way of living that is fully alive, and a way of becoming present to God that brings you deep and lasting joy. (source)

Now I’m pleased to point you to Romantic Panentheism, a Review of One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp by Christian apologist Bob DeWaay, where we find out just how far off-track this book actually is:

We live in a theological age (postmodern) where the rational and cognitive are questioned and replaced by the sensual and mysterious. Many churches promote the idea of worshipping God with all five senses. Feelings trump clear Biblical exegesis, systematic theology, statements of faith, and any other rational approach to Christian theology. Into this milieu comes a book that takes romanticism to a new level, using sensuality to invoke religious feelings and ostensibly true devotion…

[There is a] panentheistic worldview revealed in the book [as well as] the romanticism that accompanies it. Panentheism is the belief that God is in everything. It is to be distinguished from pantheism that teaches that God is everything. The very popular Emergent movement is panentheistic as is New Age theology. Since God is in everything, then God can be discovered and understood through encounters with nature. Voskamp shows that she knows what is wrong with pantheism, but unwittingly (or perhaps not so unwittingly) replaces it with panentheism:

Pantheism, seeing the natural world as divine, is a very different thing than seeing divine God present in all things. I know it here kneeling, the twilight so still: nature is not God but God revealing the weight of Himself, all His glory, through the looking glass of nature.[2]

Her statement is not a valid implication from passages such as Psalm 19 and Romans 1 that speak of general revelation. For one thing, nature is fallen and does not reveal “all His glory” (Christ does that) and what can be discerned about God through nature is not saving knowledge, but condemning knowledge… Pagan nature religions do not provide messianic salvation. Paul claims that salvation comes only through the gospel (which comes to us through special, not general revelation). The confusion between these two categories is shown throughout Voskamp’s book…

Voskamp would likely recoil from the notion that she is promoting pagan nature religion or mysticism. But she does put Christians on the same footing as the pagans by taking them on a journey with her to find God in nature and art. The concepts about God that are distinctively Christian in her book are borrowed from special revelation (the Bible) and brought with her on her journey of discovery. But she never makes a distinction between general revelation and special revelation and by integrating the two so seamlessly, elevates nature to the status of saving revelation.

Since God is supposedly in everything, then God can be found in everything… Her experience is described in salvific terms: “It’s dawning, my full moon rising. I was lost but know I am found again” (Voskamp: 118). She claims an “inner eye” that sees God in a panentheistic way: “If my inner eye has God seeping up through all things, then can’t I give thanks for anything? . . . The art of deep seeing makes gratitude possible” (Voskamp: 118). In Romans 1, “seeing” God through general revelation in a way that makes all humans culpable is true for all, not just special enlightened ones like Voskamp.

There are other troubling things about the claim that salvation can be found in seeing God in the harvest moon. One is that Voskamp implies that for her, “salvation” is being saved from an unhappy life filled with ingratitude. She never mentions God’s wrath against sin (she does mention sin but not in the context of substitutionary atonement)… Voskamp’s panentheism is not compatible with Christian theism. This worldview is very popular in today’s culture, inside and outside the church, but it is not from God. It is a departure from the faith once for all delivered to the saints…

Romanticism arose in the early 19th Century as a reaction against the Enlightenment and rationalism. The idea was that truth could be found in feelings, art, and the intuitive rather than through empirical investigation and the rational. At the conclusion of my book on the Emergent Church, I suggested that Emergent was a new Romanticism[3] I was able to express that idea to Doug Paggit personally, and he did not offer disagreement, but silence. I am quite sure that the assessment is accurate. Romanticism, old and new, has a common enemy which is the Enlightenment.

Voskamp is not so concerned about the Enlightenment or other philosophical considerations, but displays Romanticism throughout her book. In fact it could be mistaken for a romance novel with God the desired lover… Voskamp’s point in the soap bubble chapter is to teach the theological error that time is the essence and nature of God. She gains that idea through wrongly interpreting the self-designation of God as I AM to be proof that time is of the essence of God so therefore God is to be found in the present (Voskamp: 69, 70). Her ideas are remarkably similar to Echkart Tolle’s (New Age pantheist) ideas taught in his
books The Power of Now and The New Earth[4]…

Voskamp is not really interested in theology understood cognitively, but rather in romantic feelings about God… This [idea] is about seeing (an art for the spiritually enlightened) God in the moment and in all things (panentheism). It is not really about God’s relationship to time, but about our attentiveness and awareness that will cause use to see God (Voskamp: 77)… New Age ideas are found throughout One Thousand Gifts. For example she cites Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who is a darling with New Age writers: “Nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see” (Chardin as cited by Voskamp: 122).

It is possible that a false teacher like Chardin could have some true ideas; but Voskamp cites him (as part of the heading of a chapter) precisely at his point of error (and hers). The idea that everything is holy and nothing profane is popular but fully unbiblical. It comports with the idea of panentheism. If indeed God is in everything, then nothing is profane. Rob Bell makes the same error in Velvet Elvis when he claims everything is holy.[5]…

Emergent writers speak of the “rhythm of God in the world,” an idea promoted by Doug Pagitt. In their thinking this rhythm is to be found and tuned into through man-invented practices.[6] What is important to understand is that the idea that nothing is profane and that God’s rhythm can be found in all things is panentheistic and not Christian. The Christian view is that the created order, because of sin and rebellion, contains good and evil, the holy and the profane…

The real problem is not our failure to see God in everything, but our failure to believe what God has said, and by grace obey. The grand claim of the Bible is that “God has spoken” (Hebrews 1:1, 2). The question is whether we will listen to what God has said or not… Voskamp’s romanticism reaches its pinnacle in chapter 11. There she describes a trip to Paris where she has an intimate encounter with God through art and architecture. God “woos” her through this encounter and she falls in love…

At Notre Dame Cathedral, carried away by the experience, she claims to have found the holy: “This air is old, the ground, holy” (Voskamp: 207). On the contrary, the New Testament does not describe holy places, especially not Roman Catholic cathedrals filled with pagan icons and grotesque gargoyles such as at Notre Dame (which means “our lady” referring to the virgin Mary)… There, in a Catholic cathedral which ought to invoke our objection, Voskamp, as do her role models, the mystics of the Middle Ages, finds “intimate union” with God…

Amazingly, Voskamp unabashedly teaches the path to mystical union that has its roots in ancient, pagan, Rome. This path is taught in the Catholic Encyclopedia.8[7] This threefold path is “common to all forms of mysticism, Christian or otherwise” writes Pastor Gary Gilley who rightly warns the church about it.[8] Voskamp extols the medieval mystics who were instrumental in the building of Notre Dame (Voskamp: 208)…

Mysticism and the practices Voskamp endorses that promote it, do lead to a Cosmic Christ, that is a creation centered one rather that the Christ who bodily ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God. The mystical Christ is immanent only, not transcendent. He is contacted by unbiblical, mystical means rather than through the gospel that saves us from God’s wrath against sin…

As fraught with theological error that this book is, its basic premise is true: as Christians we ought to be thankful people who give thanks in all things. The Bible teaches us that. But do we need to jettison Christian theism in favor of panentheism and objective truth in favor of romantic feelings and higher order experiences to become thankful? No! … There is enough sensuality in the world without us having sensual desires stirred up under the guise of a higher order religious experience in the context of a panentheistic worldview.

Voskamp’s book feeds into the romantic sensibilities of its postmodern readers. But it does nothing to promote the faith once for all delivered to the saints. It pushes the church even further down the unbiblical road of mysticism that so many are already on. We need to reject this and instead return to objective, Biblical truth. (source)

Endnotes:

[1] http://tinyurl.com/2do9obh, accessed 5/28/12.

[2] Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts; (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010) 110. All further references from this book will be in brackets within this article.

[3] Bob DeWaay, The Emergent Church – Undefining Christianity; (Minneapolis: DeWaay, 2009), 204.

[4] http://www.eckharttolle.com/ see my review of Tolle’s The New Earth:http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue114.htm

[5] See CIC Issue 4 for Bell’s misuse of “holy.”

[6] I discuss Doug Pagitt’s idea of God’s “rhythm” here: CIC Issue 99

[7] www.newadvent.org/cathen/14254a.htm

[8] http://www.svchapel.org/resources/book-reviews/4-christian-living/121-finding-our-way-again-the-return-to-the-ancient-practices-by-brian-mclaren