LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS RESEARCH ARTICLES SEPTEMBER 2018
SEE: https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2018/newsletter20180924.htm; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
To Lighthouse Trails:
Walk to Emmaus logo from the Upper Room website (used in accordance with the US Fair Use Act for the purpose of critique, review, and education)Anyway, my church has segregated themselves from me because I refused to give my “happy testimony” about the walk. They think I’m a problem now. Much more to the story. I came home Sat. night feeling like I had just come home from the pits of hell. Everyone else that went said they had a great experience . . . weird. I don’t get it, and they seem different than the people I knew and cherished before the walk. I’m saddened by all this . . . my eyes have definitely been opened to the huge scale deception that’s taking our churches by storm! I didn’t even know any of this about this gigantic scheme until I went on the walk! I knew it was the last days. I knew about NWO [new-world order]. But I didn’t know about this particular infiltration.
Thank you for your work! My prayers are with you!!
Kayla
LTRP Comment: The following is a short article Lighthouse Trails previously wrote about Upper Room’s Walk to Emmaus with a mention of Tres Dias.
Walk to Emmaus and Tres Dias – A Walk to Deception
The Walk to Emmaus is a program put on by Upper Room Ministries. Upper Room promotes Spiritual Formation (i.e., contemplative spirituality), and if you want to understand the dynamics of Walk to Emmaus, then understanding the spirituality of Upper Room will help you:
List of places that do Walk to Emmaus
The Walk to Emmaus (The Upper Room) website
Chrysalis Walk to Emmaus
Book Alert: Soul Feast by Marjorie Thompson
Please Contemplate This by T.A. McMahon (Berean Call)
______________________________________________________
The Charisma article titled “The Ancient Spiritual Prayer Today’s Church Fails to Practice” states: “[Pastor] Shigematsu offers an easy step-by-step guide on how to do contemplative prayer in this video.”
The pastor who is featured on this video is Pastor Ken Shigematsu. Shigematsu is the author of God in My Everything: How an Ancient Rhythm Helps Busy People Enjoy God (2013) and Survival Guide for the Soul (2018, foreword by Ann Voskamp). In what he calls a “spiritual ecosystem,” Shigematsu provides a who’s who of New Age sympathizers and Catholic mystics in God in My Everything, that includes Thomas Merton, Evelyn Underhill, Kathleen Norris, Marva Dawn, Basil Pennington, Richard Rohr, Gerald May, Dorothy Bass, Parker Palmer, Joan Chittister and many of the usual evangelical/Protestant suspects such as Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson, Richard Foster, Ruth Haley Barton, and Gary Thomas. In that book, Shigematsu makes no apologies for encouraging Christians to practice various meditation exercises to help calm the mind.
Survival Guide for the Soul is a continuing saga of his earlier book God in My Everything with gleanings from many of the same sources but also added to the mix is contribution from mystics such as David-Steindl Rast, Henry Nouwen, Walter Brueggemann, Thomas Keating, Anne Lamott, John Ortberg, and Dorothy Day.* In Survival Guide, Shigematsu boasts that “The spiritual direction movement is growing, and there are now more than six thousand spiritual directors under the banner of Spiritual Directors International, most of whom serve in North America” (ch. 9, endnote #15). The spiritual direction movement is one of the outgrowths of the contemplative prayer/Spiritual Formation movement (i.e., every contemplative Christian needs a spiritual director to guide and direct his or her esoteric experiences to help avoid any dangerous altercations with devils and demons, which Richard Foster says can occur when practicing contemplative prayer).
If you are someone who is aware of the dangers and the true panentheistic, interspiritual nature of contemplative prayer, you have probably noticed that contemplative spirituality has moved from its infancy stage in the church to what appears to becoming the norm. Because the “big” guys in Christianity (e.g., Rick Warren, Christianity Today, YWAM, Charisma, Focus on the Family) are pushing fast forward to get the church through this mystical paradigm shift and the “little guys (e.g., Lighthouse Trails, The Berean Call) are written off as negative, divisive, and only worthy of being ignored and seen as being out of sync, contemplative spirituality (which encompasses all things emergent) will become the “new” Christianity, and all one has to do to get there is . . . breath in . . . and breath out.
To see the video on the Charisma site, click here.
*Most of the names mentioned in this article can be found on the Lighthouse Trails Research Project blog and in many of our published resources. Just use the blog’s search engine to look up the names.
Related Article:
The Christian of the Future-by Ray Yungen
______________________________________________________________
“EMERGENT INEBRIATES: Some Thoughts on Pub Theology”
By Larry DeBruyn
As he begins to rip into “a screaming guitar solo,” a band member sarcastically yells out at the audience, “Let’s go to church boys!”[1] Welcome to Pub Theology. As the reporter describes it, Pub Theology is “a Sunday night show that’s one part church and one part party.” Among other posters on the barroom walls, one alludes to the final verse of the biblical chapter on love. It reads, “Faith, Hope, Love and Beer” (The biblical text reads, “But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” 1 Corinthians 13:13, NASB).
Being “shaggy-haired, body-pierced and colored with assorted body art,” members of the Sunday evening pub rock group double as members of a mega-church’s “worship team” on Sunday mornings. Confessing to love both Jesus and rock ‘n’ roll, band members will burn through a pack of cigarettes and exhort the audience to visit the bar and buy beer during Sunday night “church.” Initially skeptical about hosting Pub Theology on Sunday nights, the bar owner now admits the band has turned an otherwise dead night into a profitable evening.
Regarding this new outreach–the mega-church’s ministerial staff approve of doing Pub Theology–one of the band’s members says: “We want to be sincere and authentic and be who we really are, whether that is wearing jeans and a T-shirt or having a beer. I think that is real” he continues, “and I don’t think it is wrong or that God is unhappy about that.” Relates another band member: “I can drink a beer and smoke a cigarette and play some of my favorite songs and hang out with my friends and maybe meet someone and tell them about Jesus.”
Interestingly, most of the band members were raised in religious homes. In fact, two of its members are former PKS (That’s an acronym for “preacher’s kids.”). Having been a former pastor, their father has now become the band’s “roadie” (That’s a term which refers to the managers and technicians traveling with the band.). The members account for the band’s existence and approach to ministry for reason of their holier-than-thou Wesleyan upbringing–you know, “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t go to R-rated movies, I don’t dance.”
On this point, and as a rebellious child of the 60s who too was raised in the legalistic environment of Western Michigan, let me say that I understand and somewhat sympathize with the band members’ rejection of legalism. But all rebels ought to be cautioned that, “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23). Yet God doesn’t make Christians from the outside in, but rather from the inside out. Though one’s Christianity is defined by inner faith not outer works, Paul did write that Christians are God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). So we must not assume the opposite attitude from legalism, that of antinomianism (i.e., that God’s grace cancels out any need to obey His moral and spiritual law). For as Paul asked: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:1-2). Contradicting antinomianism the writer of Hebrews orders us to, “Follow . . . holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled” (Hebrews 12:14-15).
Nevertheless, the casual and alcoholically lubricated atmosphere of Pub Theology raises an important issue, for as the reporter asks, “Does Pub Theology produce any lasting effects, or is it just a casual encounter with church in a bar—a spiritual one-night stand?” All the band’s claims of “doing ministry” notwithstanding—they do field questions about Christianity from the audience and callers-in, give inebriated individuals rides home, and have even seen one rescued drunk baptized a few days later in their church—Pub Theology shows every symptom of being a carnal “one-night-stand.” (Note: I do not use the word spiritual.)
First, Pub Theology is not church. If it is, then where’s the reading of Scripture, the apostles’ teaching, prayer and observance of the Lord’s Table? (Acts 2:42) But on this point, we can be certain that the band will avoid any impression of being too “churchly or preachy.” But beer steins are no substitute for communion cups. In fact, to the true church, the apostle Peter announced that, “the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries” (1 Peter 4:3).
Second, Pub Theology is not theology. Reportedly, the band’s opening song was Joan Osborne’s one-hit wonder, “What if God was one of us?” The lyrics add, “Just a slob like one of us.”[2] Imagine . . . God being a slob like the rest of the inebriated crowd at the bar. Given such a humanizing of God, what we’re dealing with is not Pub Theology, but pub idolatry. “And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things” (Romans 1:23). Do you think Joan Osborne’s lyrical questions in any way resemble or affirm the great Christological passages of the New Testament? (John 1:1 ff.; Colossians 1:15-17; Philippians 2:5-11). By the way, these cited passages are comprised of theological statements extracted from early Christian hymns. Would the pub theology band sing them? I’d think they’d estimate that the lyrics of these biblical hymns are far too dogmatic, stodgy, and preachy for the “boys” at the bar!
Third, Pub Theology is not Christian outreach. To attain a “spiritual” end, it employs carnal, fleshly, and worldly means. But the apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:18-19). If the song “What if God was one of us?” gives any indication, probably none of the other music the band plays includes “psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs.”
The apostle Paul would not have employed carnal means to attain spiritual ends. You can’t fight fire with fire. He wrote:
Pastor Larry DeBruyn
Used with permission from Larry DeBruyn in 2009. Larry DeBruyn passed away in 2017.
Original posting – October 5, 2009
ENDNOTES
[1] Unless otherwise noted, all quotations are taken from Robert King, “Faith, Hope, Love, Beer,” The Indianapolis Star, September 27, 2009, A1, A14. Article may be viewed online. See Faith & Values, Robert King, “Pub Theology conveys Christian message in Broad Ripple,” IndyStar.com, September 27, 2009, http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009909270384.
[2] Lyrics online at: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/onehitwonders/ifgodwasoneofuslyrics.html.
Photo from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission.
________________________________________________________________
Bono
Diane Butler Bass
Greg Boyd
Henri Nouwen
Ian Morgan Cron
Jim Wallis
Joan Chittister
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Leonard Sweet
Lynne Hybels
N.T. Wright
Phyllis Tickle
Richard Foster
Richard Niebuhr
Richard Rohr
Rick Warren
Ron Sider
Shane Claiborne
St. Thomas Acquinas
Thomas Merton
Tony Blair
Tony Campolo
Tony Jones
Walter Rauschenbusch
Awakening
Biphobia
Christian Palestinianism
Colonialism/Imperialism
Common Ground
Conflict Resolution
Consumerism
Cultural Relevance
Dialogue
Distribution of wealth
Diversity
Environmental Stewardship
Ethnocentrism
Faith-based initiative programs
Feminism
Gay
Gender identity
Homophobia
Islamophobia
Justice
Missional
Multiplicity
Politics of Jesus
Progressive Christians
Progressive politics
Reconciliation
Red Letter Christians
Revolution
Social gospel
Social justice
Solidarity
Stewardship renewal
Tolerance
*Most of these names can be found on our site. Just type a name into our search engine on either the blog or the research site.
Below is a 10-minute video clip of one of Roger Oakland’s “Emerging Church lecture series.”
_____________________________________________________________
“The Walk to Emmaus is an adaptation of the Roman Catholic Cursillo Movement, which originated in Spain in 1949.”- from the Walk to Emmaus websiteMantra Meditation is promoted at Upper Room Ministries also:
Walk to Emmaus is widely spread. It is estimated that over half a million persons have experienced a Walk to Emmaus weekend and today the Movement counts more than 300 communities distributed all over the United States as well as all over the world.1
“Mantra — The word comes from Sanskrit. Its two-syllabus mean: man or mind and tra or deliverance. A mantra is sound vibration that is intended to deliver the mind from distractions and a focus on the material world. A mantra is repeated like a chant and has a spiritual effect associated with the physical vibration. A mantra can be as simple as one syllable ‘OM’ or as more complicated such as, ‘OM SRI RAM JAI RAM JAI JAI RAM’.” From the Upper Room website (link now removed)Tres Dias is an offshoot of the Cursillo Movement and should be avoided as well.
List of places that do Walk to Emmaus
The Walk to Emmaus (The Upper Room) website
Chrysalis Walk to Emmaus
Book Alert: Soul Feast by Marjorie Thompson
Please Contemplate This by T.A. McMahon (Berean Call)
______________________________________________________
Welcome to the New (Contemplative) Christianity – Just Breath In . . . Breath Out
Pastor Ken Shigematsu showing Christians how to practice one form of contemplative prayer. (photo from a 2-second clip of the Charisma video; used in accordance with the U.S. Fair Use Act)
The acceptance of contemplative prayer has hit an all-time high in the church. And is it any wonder? Christian media, Christian publishers, pastors, mission societies, Bible societies, authors, radio hosts, youth leaders, women’s group leaders, and Christian ministry leaders are all promoting it more than ever. The video below that was posted on Charisma Magazine’s website on September 10th is yet another example of how Christian media (Charisma being one of the most popular Christian magazines today) is doing their part to get masses of Christians involved with contemplative prayer (remember our recent article on YWAM’s goal to get all YWAMer’s doing contemplative prayer).The Charisma article titled “The Ancient Spiritual Prayer Today’s Church Fails to Practice” states: “[Pastor] Shigematsu offers an easy step-by-step guide on how to do contemplative prayer in this video.”
The pastor who is featured on this video is Pastor Ken Shigematsu. Shigematsu is the author of God in My Everything: How an Ancient Rhythm Helps Busy People Enjoy God (2013) and Survival Guide for the Soul (2018, foreword by Ann Voskamp). In what he calls a “spiritual ecosystem,” Shigematsu provides a who’s who of New Age sympathizers and Catholic mystics in God in My Everything, that includes Thomas Merton, Evelyn Underhill, Kathleen Norris, Marva Dawn, Basil Pennington, Richard Rohr, Gerald May, Dorothy Bass, Parker Palmer, Joan Chittister and many of the usual evangelical/Protestant suspects such as Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson, Richard Foster, Ruth Haley Barton, and Gary Thomas. In that book, Shigematsu makes no apologies for encouraging Christians to practice various meditation exercises to help calm the mind.
Survival Guide for the Soul is a continuing saga of his earlier book God in My Everything with gleanings from many of the same sources but also added to the mix is contribution from mystics such as David-Steindl Rast, Henry Nouwen, Walter Brueggemann, Thomas Keating, Anne Lamott, John Ortberg, and Dorothy Day.* In Survival Guide, Shigematsu boasts that “The spiritual direction movement is growing, and there are now more than six thousand spiritual directors under the banner of Spiritual Directors International, most of whom serve in North America” (ch. 9, endnote #15). The spiritual direction movement is one of the outgrowths of the contemplative prayer/Spiritual Formation movement (i.e., every contemplative Christian needs a spiritual director to guide and direct his or her esoteric experiences to help avoid any dangerous altercations with devils and demons, which Richard Foster says can occur when practicing contemplative prayer).
If you are someone who is aware of the dangers and the true panentheistic, interspiritual nature of contemplative prayer, you have probably noticed that contemplative spirituality has moved from its infancy stage in the church to what appears to becoming the norm. Because the “big” guys in Christianity (e.g., Rick Warren, Christianity Today, YWAM, Charisma, Focus on the Family) are pushing fast forward to get the church through this mystical paradigm shift and the “little guys (e.g., Lighthouse Trails, The Berean Call) are written off as negative, divisive, and only worthy of being ignored and seen as being out of sync, contemplative spirituality (which encompasses all things emergent) will become the “new” Christianity, and all one has to do to get there is . . . breath in . . . and breath out.
To see the video on the Charisma site, click here.
*Most of the names mentioned in this article can be found on the Lighthouse Trails Research Project blog and in many of our published resources. Just use the blog’s search engine to look up the names.
Related Article:
The Christian of the Future-by Ray Yungen
______________________________________________________________
Some Thoughts Worth Considering
on "Pub Theology"
LTRP Note: Recently, a father called us very concerned about the growing popularity of “Pub Theology.” He asked if we had any information about it. The late Larry DeBruyn wrote the following article in 2009 and gave permission for Lighthouse Trails to post it. Since 2009, Pub Theology has indeed increased greatly in popularity, especially among evangelical millennials. Type “Pub Theology” (in quotes which narrows the results) into Google, and it comes up over 43,000 times! DeBruyn’s article offers some valid (and Scriptural) advice and insight on Pub Theology.“EMERGENT INEBRIATES: Some Thoughts on Pub Theology”By Larry DeBruyn
As he begins to rip into “a screaming guitar solo,” a band member sarcastically yells out at the audience, “Let’s go to church boys!”[1] Welcome to Pub Theology. As the reporter describes it, Pub Theology is “a Sunday night show that’s one part church and one part party.” Among other posters on the barroom walls, one alludes to the final verse of the biblical chapter on love. It reads, “Faith, Hope, Love and Beer” (The biblical text reads, “But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” 1 Corinthians 13:13, NASB).
Being “shaggy-haired, body-pierced and colored with assorted body art,” members of the Sunday evening pub rock group double as members of a mega-church’s “worship team” on Sunday mornings. Confessing to love both Jesus and rock ‘n’ roll, band members will burn through a pack of cigarettes and exhort the audience to visit the bar and buy beer during Sunday night “church.” Initially skeptical about hosting Pub Theology on Sunday nights, the bar owner now admits the band has turned an otherwise dead night into a profitable evening.
Regarding this new outreach–the mega-church’s ministerial staff approve of doing Pub Theology–one of the band’s members says: “We want to be sincere and authentic and be who we really are, whether that is wearing jeans and a T-shirt or having a beer. I think that is real” he continues, “and I don’t think it is wrong or that God is unhappy about that.” Relates another band member: “I can drink a beer and smoke a cigarette and play some of my favorite songs and hang out with my friends and maybe meet someone and tell them about Jesus.”
Interestingly, most of the band members were raised in religious homes. In fact, two of its members are former PKS (That’s an acronym for “preacher’s kids.”). Having been a former pastor, their father has now become the band’s “roadie” (That’s a term which refers to the managers and technicians traveling with the band.). The members account for the band’s existence and approach to ministry for reason of their holier-than-thou Wesleyan upbringing–you know, “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t go to R-rated movies, I don’t dance.”
On this point, and as a rebellious child of the 60s who too was raised in the legalistic environment of Western Michigan, let me say that I understand and somewhat sympathize with the band members’ rejection of legalism. But all rebels ought to be cautioned that, “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23). Yet God doesn’t make Christians from the outside in, but rather from the inside out. Though one’s Christianity is defined by inner faith not outer works, Paul did write that Christians are God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). So we must not assume the opposite attitude from legalism, that of antinomianism (i.e., that God’s grace cancels out any need to obey His moral and spiritual law). For as Paul asked: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:1-2). Contradicting antinomianism the writer of Hebrews orders us to, “Follow . . . holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled” (Hebrews 12:14-15).
Nevertheless, the casual and alcoholically lubricated atmosphere of Pub Theology raises an important issue, for as the reporter asks, “Does Pub Theology produce any lasting effects, or is it just a casual encounter with church in a bar—a spiritual one-night stand?” All the band’s claims of “doing ministry” notwithstanding—they do field questions about Christianity from the audience and callers-in, give inebriated individuals rides home, and have even seen one rescued drunk baptized a few days later in their church—Pub Theology shows every symptom of being a carnal “one-night-stand.” (Note: I do not use the word spiritual.)
First, Pub Theology is not church. If it is, then where’s the reading of Scripture, the apostles’ teaching, prayer and observance of the Lord’s Table? (Acts 2:42) But on this point, we can be certain that the band will avoid any impression of being too “churchly or preachy.” But beer steins are no substitute for communion cups. In fact, to the true church, the apostle Peter announced that, “the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries” (1 Peter 4:3).
Second, Pub Theology is not theology. Reportedly, the band’s opening song was Joan Osborne’s one-hit wonder, “What if God was one of us?” The lyrics add, “Just a slob like one of us.”[2] Imagine . . . God being a slob like the rest of the inebriated crowd at the bar. Given such a humanizing of God, what we’re dealing with is not Pub Theology, but pub idolatry. “And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things” (Romans 1:23). Do you think Joan Osborne’s lyrical questions in any way resemble or affirm the great Christological passages of the New Testament? (John 1:1 ff.; Colossians 1:15-17; Philippians 2:5-11). By the way, these cited passages are comprised of theological statements extracted from early Christian hymns. Would the pub theology band sing them? I’d think they’d estimate that the lyrics of these biblical hymns are far too dogmatic, stodgy, and preachy for the “boys” at the bar!
Third, Pub Theology is not Christian outreach. To attain a “spiritual” end, it employs carnal, fleshly, and worldly means. But the apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:18-19). If the song “What if God was one of us?” gives any indication, probably none of the other music the band plays includes “psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs.”
The apostle Paul would not have employed carnal means to attain spiritual ends. You can’t fight fire with fire. He wrote:
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5; compare Galatians 5:21 where Paul labels “drunkenness” a work of the flesh).So we conclude: Given the atmosphere surrounding Pub Theology, the description of love as it exists on a poster at “Sunday-night-church-in-a-bar” might be parodied to read: Now abide these four, “faith, hope, love, and beer,” but the greatest of these is beer!
Pastor Larry DeBruyn
Used with permission from Larry DeBruyn in 2009. Larry DeBruyn passed away in 2017.
Original posting – October 5, 2009
ENDNOTES
[1] Unless otherwise noted, all quotations are taken from Robert King, “Faith, Hope, Love, Beer,” The Indianapolis Star, September 27, 2009, A1, A14. Article may be viewed online. See Faith & Values, Robert King, “Pub Theology conveys Christian message in Broad Ripple,” IndyStar.com, September 27, 2009, http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009909270384.
[2] Lyrics online at: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/onehitwonders/ifgodwasoneofuslyrics.html.
Photo from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission.
________________________________________________________________
Key Players and Buzz Language
of the Social-Justice “Gospel”
The following two lists are from Mary Danielsen’s booklet,The Dangerous Truth About the Social-Justice “Gospel” (see article below). It’s good to be aware of both the names and the language. (see video clip at bottom of these lists)Some Key Players in the Social Gospel Movement*
Bill HybelsBono
Diane Butler Bass
Greg Boyd
Henri Nouwen
Ian Morgan Cron
Jim Wallis
Joan Chittister
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Leonard Sweet
Lynne Hybels
N.T. Wright
Phyllis Tickle
Richard Foster
Richard Niebuhr
Richard Rohr
Rick Warren
Ron Sider
Shane Claiborne
St. Thomas Acquinas
Thomas Merton
Tony Blair
Tony Campolo
Tony Jones
Walter Rauschenbusch
Some Buzz Words in the Social Gospel Movement
ActivistAwakening
Biphobia
Christian Palestinianism
Colonialism/Imperialism
Common Ground
Conflict Resolution
Consumerism
Cultural Relevance
Dialogue
Distribution of wealth
Diversity
Environmental Stewardship
Ethnocentrism
Faith-based initiative programs
Feminism
Gay
Gender identity
Homophobia
Islamophobia
Justice
Missional
Multiplicity
Politics of Jesus
Progressive Christians
Progressive politics
Reconciliation
Red Letter Christians
Revolution
Social gospel
Social justice
Solidarity
Stewardship renewal
Tolerance
*Most of these names can be found on our site. Just type a name into our search engine on either the blog or the research site.
Below is a 10-minute video clip of one of Roger Oakland’s “Emerging Church lecture series.”
_____________________________________________________________
Rob Bell's 'Love Wins' Revealed 'Startling' Multitudes of People Backing Universalism: Professor
BY STOYAN ZAIMOV
SEE: https://www.christianpost.com/news/rob-bells-love-wins-revealed-startling-multitudes-of-people-backing-universalism-professor-227433/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
A modern Christianity professor and author who opposes universalism admitted that he was "startled" by how many people came out supporting the belief following Rob Bell's 2011 book, Love Wins.
Michael McClymond, the author of The Devil's Redemption: A New History and Interpretation of Christian Universalism, said in an interview with The Gospel Coalition posted last week that ever since he was a student he has been engaged with biblical studies on the topic of salvation.
"Several years ago what really surprised me was not Rob Bell's book, Love Wins (2011), with its well-worn and hackneyed arguments. Instead, I was startled by the multitude of people I thereafter encountered holding that universalism was biblical and evangelical teaching," said McClymond, who teaches at Saint Louis University in Missouri.
Bell is the founder and former pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan, and has attracted significant controversy over his questioning of the traditional understanding of eternal punishment.
Although he is often associated with the term by critics, Bell has in the past insisted that he is not a universalist.
"No, if by universalist we mean there's a giant cosmic arm that swoops everybody in at some point whether you want to be there or not," Bell said back in 2011.
"That violates the laws of love and love is about freedom, it's about choice, it's about do you want to be there? Because that's what would make it Heaven," he added.
When it comes to the exclusivity and inclusivity of Christ, Bell said, "I think what happens is, especially for followers of Jesus, is there are sort of His exclusive claims that are often at the expense of the other things that He says ... be careful because I'm doing something for everybody."
He added: "How exactly that pans out, that's God's job."
As he has in previous interviews on the subject, McClymond said that Christian universalism has grown in certain pockets of the church, however.
"The point I wish to make is that universalism is the way that many religiously believing people — and contemporary academic theologians especially — would like for the world to be. The world as we might wish it to be is one in which God's grace extends to all persons without exception, and all persons freely and positively respond to it," the professor argued.
When it comes to people who are tempted toward universalism, he said: "Human salvation is inherently a good thing, and thus salvation for all — if it turned out that way — would not be something that any Christian would or should object to. The New Testament calls on believers to share the Good News and to evangelize among all nations, and to do so under the most difficult of circumstances."
He added, however, that as a theological author, he would "shudder at the thought of giving anyone false hope and false comfort, which in the book of Jeremiah is a distinguishing mark of the false prophet."
"Beginning with God's command to Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree in the garden, the whole of Scripture contains a message concerning 'two ways' — a way leading to life or reward, and another way leading to death or punishment. Because this idea of the 'two ways'' is so deeply rooted in the Bible, I would say that a church congregation that is Bible-preaching and Bible-reading will simply not entertain the idea of universalism," he added.