Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
For those of you who are not aware of this movement even within mainstream churches, there is much to be learned. I believe this apostasy will be used in part in the great deception that will come upon the world when the False Prophet fosters the One World Religion. This is the Falling Away depicted in the Bible.
This thread is not meant to argue whether we are in the Last Days, so please do not bring in differing eschatological beliefs. This thread is meant for those who adhere to the premillenial return of Christ, who will come after the Great Tribulation.
I hope to use this thread as a learning tool to expose these false teachings, so expect many articles and resources to follow.
Quote:
CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM (CSM) OF SPIRITUAL FORMATION IS RECKLESS FAITH
By Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Sep 18, 2008 in AM Missives, Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism, New Spirituality, Spiritual Formation
They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and clasp hands with pagans. (Isaiah 2:6)
Selfish Subjectivity With Scripture Invites In Spurious Spirituality
Apprising Ministries wants you to know it’s simply beyond question that the vast majority of those in leadership within postevangelicalism and the Emerging Church hold to an existential [feelings-oriented]—and thereby highly subjective—neo-orthodox approach to Holy Scripture. And this is a major reason why the antibiblical teachings of someone like Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster would even have had a chance to sully the Body of Christ in the first place.
But in his oft-overlooked 1994 book Reckless Faith: When The Church Loses Its Will To Discern Dr. John MacArthur hits the target dead on as he shows you why this neo-orthodox centered on the self approach to the Bible is such a perfect fit for the neo-pietism of Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) at the corrupt core of so-called Spiritual Formation.
As you should be able to see from what Dr. MacArthur will say below—rooted as it is in the question: “Did God really say?”—this self-ish approach to Scripture is actually a necessity for this neo-gnostic “Christian” mysticism aka CSM to flourish as it is right now in the American Christian Church:
Dead on is dead correct, CG. Just like there's a slow slide of the stock market into oblivion, so is this slow, deceptive slide into CSM. The worst perpetrator of them all is Oprah Winfrey. There's been numerous discussions about the church of Oprah that became heated but that also is another indicator of just how deep this deception goes. Great post.
I was just reading "Oswald Chambers, and the devotion, stated: We are not to be "channels only", but to be sons and daughters of God We are not turned into spiritual mediums, but into spiritual messengers.~ "Ye shall be witnesses unto me"
Seems to me mysticism in Christianity was a blight in his day too. New age is not so new, same old lie, wrapped in weak truths.
^^
What if I called your church or YOU a blight? How would you feel? Would you feel I am sharing Christ's love? You are all so insulting to anyone who walks Christ's path differently than you. If you wish to keep bringing this subject up, then we can have an adult conversation about it. To continue to pass insults in the way you do is not rooted in a source of Love.
You refer to it as "New Age" in a way to dismiss it and turn it into some goofy "other". But what we are referring to here as "contemplative spirituality" echoes ageless wisdom that transcends all spiritual and scientific paths. In time, I suspect these wisdoms will be proven by science.
No one who is a true mystic is a "channel only". That is some psychic tool you can get for $25 / an hour or whatever. They are men and women of God (not simply children).
No one who is a true mystic is a "spiritual medium". They are spiritual messengers who are witnesses unto Christ.
The only difference is that those messages come from a source of personal experience and not just adherence to a book.
When you feel God speaking to you or guiding you or you feel some aspect of your life has worked out by hands beyond randomness, you too are a mystic.
When you believe that everybody survived an airplane crash by the grace of God, you too are a mystic.
You are recognizing and experiencing the Force of God at work in the world.
^^
What if I called your church or YOU a blight? How would you feel? Would you feel I am sharing Christ's love? You are all so insulting to anyone who walks Christ's path differently than you. If you wish to keep bringing this subject up, then we can have an adult conversation about it. To continue to pass insults in the way you do is not rooted in a source of Love.
You refer to it as "New Age" in a way to dismiss it and turn it into some goofy "other". But what we are referring to here as "contemplative spirituality" echoes ageless wisdom that transcends all spiritual and scientific paths. In time, I suspect these wisdoms will be proven by science.
No one who is a true mystic is a "channel only". That is some psychic tool you can get for $25 / an hour or whatever. They are men and women of God (not simply children).
No one who is a true mystic is a "spiritual medium". They are spiritual messengers who are witnesses unto Christ.
The only difference is that those messages come from a source of personal experience and not just adherence to a book.
When you feel God speaking to you or guiding you or you feel some aspect of your life has worked out by hands beyond randomness, you too are a mystic.
When you believe that everybody survived an airplane crash by the grace of God, you too are a mystic.
You are recognizing and experiencing the Force of God at work in the world.
The thing is Bluefly, these are indeed false teachings as they do not line up with the Word of God, and that's the whole point! None of my posts are an attack on you, but it's an attack on the belief system. I would love for you to understand the errors, and I pray that will be so. The reason why your beliefs are wrong is because they go against everything in Scripture. Like I said before, a Sovereign God would not have given us a written word that was full of man-made lies. We might as well not believe in Him at all if that were so. God is a jealous God and no other god should be worshiped before Him, and that includes Allah!
The thing is Bluefly, these are indeed false teachings as they do not line up with the Word of God
The Bible never mentions the Moon actually being another world, just a light in the sky, therefore we should stone Neil Armstrong to death. Clearly he had a demon.
The laws of physics aren't in the Bible, either... so clearly atomic power is evil. Einstein no doubt was a Satanist because he was drawing up arcane magical spells on how to harness some secret "energy" of a thing called "atoms". He should have just prayed to God instead and abandoned his evil desires to have "secret knowledge", maybe we'd all be happier living in mud huts staring at fire for entertainment.
The Bible never mentions the Moon actually being another world, just a light in the sky, therefore we should stone Neil Armstrong to death. Clearly he had a demon.
The laws of physics aren't in the Bible, either... so clearly atomic power is evil. Einstein no doubt was a Satanist because he was drawing up arcane magical spells on how to harness some secret "energy" of a thing called "atoms". He should have just prayed to God instead and abandoned his evil desires to have "secret knowledge", maybe we'd all be happier living in mud huts staring at fire for entertainment.
That makes no sense whatsoever and has nothing to do with my post.
In the days prior to Jesus Christ's return, familiar spirits (fallen angels) will not just mislead a few individuals; they will deceive the whole world into embracing a new system. Satan (whose name means adversary) will be the power behind the "coming one"-the great Antichrist. The origin of the Antichrist's religious system is clearly revealed by the apostle John in Revelation 17:5:
"And on her forehead a name was written: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth."
Another word for Babylon in the Old Testament was Chaldea. The Chaldeans were renowned for their use of metaphysical arts. They began the first mystery schools. Daniel 4:7 says: "Then the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers came in." This Mystery Babylon, then, would be the original source or mother of what is now New Age metaphysics.
Thus, when the apostle John identifies the Antichrist's spiritual format, he is making reference to the city and the people that first spawned occultism in ancient times. All of the other mystery schools flowed out of Babylon, teaching essentially the same thing--the higher self. John saw it as one unbroken line throughout history culminating in the Antichrist's rule with hundreds of millions being given over to familiar spirits. Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, gave us an account of this activity as the first century believers were daily confronting spirits not of God:
But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, "This man is the great power of God." And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time. (Acts 8:9-11)
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
