Jesus said on the Mount of Olives (Matt. 24) that deception would be the primary cultural sign of the last days. Even some of God’s “elect” might be deceived by false theologies. “Good would be called evil and evil good” (Isaiah 5:20). Men would substitute light for darkness and darkness for light. Apostasy would consume churches and denominations that were once solid.
Emergent Church Exposed & Defined
Articles
WARNING: There’s No Power in This Blood!
Christianity Todayonline says that vampires are hot stuff right now even for Christians. Visit a Christian bookstore or publishing house Web site and you might be surprised how many vampire-themed books you will see. What’s wrong with the picture? Legions of people will tell you that nothing is wrong.They are, in fact, trying to sanctify vampirism.
“Liberal Protestantism, in its determined policy of accommodation with the secular world, has succeeded in making itself dispensable.” That was the judgment of Thomas C. Reeves in The Empty Church: The Suicide of Liberal Protestantism, published in 1996. Fast-forward another fourteen years and it becomes increasingly clear that liberal Protestantism continues its suicide – with even greater theological accommodations to the secular worldview.
The tall, long-tailed natives of Pandora, a distant earth-like moon, fit into a unified spiritual network that links all of nature. They ride through the skies on powerful birds, climb the stony walls of magnificent hanging mountains, worship their goddess, and despise the corporate monstrosity that has invaded their habitat in search of priceless resources.
It is no secret that the ability of believers to present the authentic Christian faith is under attack on many fronts today. However, the free speech and liberty American Christians have long enjoyed to evangelize, give a biblical defense of the faith (apologetics) and to expose false beliefs (polemics) could very possibly soon be hampered as never before since the founding of the republic 200+ years ago.
More U.S. Christians mix in ‘Eastern,’ New Age beliefs
Going to church this Sunday? Look around.The chances are that one in five of the people there find “spiritual energy” in mountains or trees, and one in six believe in the “evil eye,” that certain people can cast curses with a look — beliefs your Christian pastor doesn’t preach.
In a Catholic church? Chances are that one in five members believe in reincarnation in a way never taught in catechism class — that you’ll be reborn in this world again and again.
As he embraces “the nonviolent Jesus of the Gospels” (the Jesus of “love and grace”), one Christian leader now debunks what he labels the “jihadist Jesus” of the “Second Coming” (the Jesus of “violence and domination”). According to Brian McLaren, “the Second Coming Jesus”—once held by an evangelical consensus to be one of the five fundamentals of the Christian faith—needs rethinking.[1]
On Saturday I had a spirited on-air discussion with a Bethel University professor who acted as spokesman for the college regarding its recent interfaith symposium. As I wrote last week, Buddhism was featured and there was a suggestion that there just might be “common ground” with Buddhism and Christianity when it comes to “meditation.” Hear the program at this link. The potential “common ground” regarding meditation would be an eastern-style mystical meditation. I saw once again how the East has been seducing the West for nearly 50 years.
Emergent Christians Join Muslims For Observance Of Ramadan
Leaders of the “emergent church” movement within evangelical Christianity are “observing” the Muslim month of Ramadan, writes the author of the bestselling new book, “The Islamic Antichrist,” which contends that the Beast of Revelation is most likely to emerge from within the Muslim world.
When I first began writing in the field in the late 70s and early 80s the term “Spiritual Formation” was hardly known, except for highly specialized references in relation to the Catholic orders.
Today it is a rare person who has not heard the term. Seminary courses in
Spiritual Formation proliferate like baby rabbits. Huge numbers are seeking to become certified as Directors to answer the cry of multiplied thousands for
spiritual direction. – Richard Foster1