Entire Johanna Michaelsen Interview

This is the entire interview with Johanna Michaelsen from the Concerned Nazarenes/Concerned Christians DVD.

 

done

Pastor Joe the Volcano

Pastor Joe nicknamed the Volcano by some big thug at Naz Net got a really bad rap at General Assembly.

Here was the quote from Naz Net “There were at least 3 security guards who were hovering in the room because apparently there were some threats of physical harm against the speakers.”

Where did this guy get the information he put out online?

Who knows maybe it was just gossip to make the Concerned Nazarene group look bad. Mike never quoted his source. Perhaps because there was no source. Doesnt really matter at this point.

This was of course a lie. The only thing Jon, Jesse and Scott have to fear is the truth of Gods Word.

Pastor Joe spoke up afterwards wanting a forum for people who oppose the Emergent Church heresy. A “Thats not likely” or something to that sort was uttered by Jons dad Jesse Middendorf.

Thats ok the truth will still get out.

Here is Pastor Joe in action and it shows his passion for Gods Word and Gods Truth.

Thomas Keating and Ken Wilbur on Contemplative prayer

One of the modern fathers of contemplative/centering prayer is Catholic Father Thomas Keating with new age/Buddhist Ken Wilbur.
Now Ken does not even pretend to be a Christian and he of course is not.
Ken Wilbur is endorsed and promoted by Rob Bell, Len Sweet and Brian McLaren all Emergent Church leaders promoted by many in the leadership of the Nazarene denomination.

Here is Brian McLaren’s endorsement of Ken Wilbur on Brians site.

“A Theory of Everything and The Marriage of Sense and Soul
These two books by philosopher Ken Wilber are not ChThe Next Christendomristian books, but the way of thinking Wilber promotes and exemplifies which he calls integral thinking and which I call emergent thinking  is powerful and important, in my opinion. (Thanks to Jay Gary for this recommendation.)”end quote

Its important to note that Brian even admits that Kens way of thinking is Brians way of thinking.

The same goes for Rob Bell and Len Sweet and thats why they endorse Ken Wilbur and his writings.

What does light have to do with darkness I would ask you.

Notice how they speak about contempative prayer is and what its objectives are.

Plus the fact they are stating that all religions are one.

Here is the U Tube video on what Contemplative /Centering prayer is and does. Interspirituality is also endorsed.

Its important to note that Keating was a fan and friend of Thomas Merton who lead a life of promoting inter spirituality and oneness between the world religions.

Here is the video

 

Do Catholics and Protestants agree on doctrine

Open Theism-The Doctrine of God Under Assault-By Mark Rathel

How do advocates of open theism explain the novelty of their viewpoint in light of millennia of Christian history? Open theists charge that the classical view of God’s attributes, particularly divine foreknowledge, unchangeableness and timeless nature, owe more to Greek philosophy than biblical revelation. Once the early church established the tradition, succeeding generations of Christians blindly read Scripture through the lens of this philosophical-based tradition.

A blanket accusation of the early theologians’ indebtedness to Greek philosophy unfairly slams Greek philosophy and the response of early Christian theologians to their intellectual cultural. First, Greek philosophy was not a monolithic system. In response to their charge that Greek philosophy shaped the formulation of the traditional understanding of God, I ask the open theists “which Greek philosophy?” Early Greek philosophy included naturalism, agnosticism, atheism, pantheism and hints of monotheism.

Second, in reality, much of Greek philosophic theism contradicted the worldview of early Christians. For example, Plato denied the possibility of an incarnation, advocated that God has no relations with mankind, denied that God has the capacity to love, and maintained that God is uninterested in history. Aristotle’s God was unaware of the existence of any other being. The Divine Being of Neo-Platonism lacked personhood; in this pantheistic system the universe exists as a result of emanation rather than creation. The core teachings of Greek philosophy about the Divine Being, therefore, oppose the personal, loving, Trinitarian God of the early Christian creeds. All forms of Greek philosophy denied the goodness of matter and viewed the concept of resurrection as revolting.

Third, open theists overstate the influence of Greek philosophy on early Christian theologians. In analyzing the publications of the advocates of open theism, they cite secondary sources, rather than primary sources, as evidence of the influence of Greek philosophy on the formation of the Christian doctrine of God. In contrast, esteemed Yale professor Jaroslav Pelikan classified the claim that classical doctrine developed out of Greek philosophy as a distortion. Indeed, according to Pelikan, the development of the church’s doctrine was a process of dehellenization, that is, a process of removing Greek metaphysics. Pelikan did acknowledge the influence of philosophy upon early theologians – the theology of the heretics. For example, Arius rejected Neo-Platonism due to the influence of Neo-Platonic thought.  

Open theists criticize the classical doctrine of God as a development of pagan philosophy. Yet, many open theists seem blind to the indebtedness of open theism to process philosophy.

Process philosophy developed in the United States in the twentieth century. Alfred North Whitehead of Harvard University and Charles Hartshorne of the Universities of Chicago and Texas served as the guiding lights. Clark Pinnock esteems the anti-trinitarian Whitehead highly; he even identifies Whitehead as a Christian. Therefore, while Pinnock acknowledges the influence of Whitehead upon him, he can claim that a “pagan” philosophy did not influence him in a manner similar to his claim that “pagan” philosophy influenced early Christian theologians. 

Open theism properly rejects process philosophy’s denial of creation, the trinity, and interdependence of God and the universe. God in process thought is di-polar: transcendent as well as limited, eternal as well as contingent. The world is God’s body; thus, God and the world are mutually dependent. God and all reality are in the process of development. God continually synthesizes new experiences and develops toward greater perfection. God is a supreme “omnipassive” relativist. The future, therefore, is free and open.

Gregory Boyd, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Charles Hartshorne, explains open theism in terms of a dance in which God and creation join. In Boyd’s illustration, God is dipolar, structure and freedom comprise the polarities. Creation, rather than man, is in the image of God. The created order exhibits the same polarities of structure and freedom as God. Boyd claims, “The future is partly open as well as partly settled.” A relativist God waits for man to create the future.

If they were alive today, Whitehead and Hartshorne would rejoice at their influence on evangelicals.

Frank Peretti — The Chair

If you ever get a chance to see Frank Peretti go. One of the producers of the DVD Buck Storm will be on a Bible cruise to Israel with Frank in November of this year.

This is just a excert but the fixed point of reference Frank is talking about here is the Bible and scripture just to set this up.

Frank is a very solid Bible believing Christian who writes some great books as well.

In all the tension of late I figured we needed some comic relief with some solid truth behind it.

Enjoy

Sincerely in Christ

Tim

 

John MacArthur on the Emergent Church pt 1 and pt 2

Of course Emergent Nazarenes will state that John MacArthur is not a Nazarene.

But they will listen to Brian McLaren and Len Sweet and a host of other non Nazarenes because they bolster their cause on their war against the truth of Gods Word.

 

Emergent Church Spreading Spiritual Cancer by Marsha West

EMERGENT CHURCH SPREADING SPIRITUAL CANCER

 

By Marsha West

April 18, 2008

NewsWithViews.com

In the Sixties the counterculture rejected consumerism, individualism, traditional values and ideas, and protested against their parent’s middle class values. Thus began an all out assault on what had made America prosperous for two centuries. 

Now a similar assault on historic orthodox Christianity is underway that’s gaining momentum. Some Christians believe a paradigm shift is taking place in the Church and as a consequence “everything must change.” This is anything but good news for Christendom, my friends. In a radio interview with Worldview Network’s Brannon Howse, Professor Peter Jones of Westminster Seminary warned listeners that the Christian theistic West has been turning back to pagan, pantheistic monism. Many in contemporary western culture now hold to a pantheistic belief in the unity of nature and God, of body and spirit — all is One.

Pantheism is a major tenet of the New Spirituality movement (NSM), once called the New Age movement. Other names used are Self-spirituality and Mind-body-spirit. The movement is largly eclectic with inspiration drawn from all the major world religions, which include Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Shamanism, Wicca, the metaphysical New Thought movement, and Neo-Paganism, to name a few. The goal of NSM is a shift in “planetary consciousness.” Their focus is not only on the West but also on the entire planet! 

NSM is producing a movie to promote the new paradigm. In an article on Christian Worldview Weekend [1], Brannon Howse gives details: “New Spirituality gurus like Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson, alongside leftist environmentalists like Al Gore and religious figures such as Archbishop Desmond TuTu. Their message is the same, as though it was taken from the same script. ‘A massive worldwide phenomenon is in progress, offering seeds of great hope for the future…We aare in the middle of the biggest social transformation in history, THE SHIFT.’” 

In order to move the West away from theism, the shifters must first reinvent biblical Christianity. Enter Oprah Winfrey. It would seem Oprah has been planning The Shift for many years. In 1987 she read the late Eric Butterworth’s book “Discover the Power Within You.” His book changed how Oprah looked at life and religion. She was convinced that Jesus didn’t come to teach us about His divinity, as the Bible teaches, but to teach us about our divinity! (Oprah’s code word is “Christ consciousness.”) She recommended Butterworth’s book to her audience and sales soon skyrocketed. 

Who was Eric Butterworth? A theologian, lecturer and author who delivered the message of the Unity School of Christianity (part of the heretical Metaphysical movement) that “looks within” to find Christ. “Try telling someone in the Metaphysical movement…about the wages of sin…andand they will look at you as though you are an anachronism — a thrrowback to a less-enlightened age. The ideas of an enslaving sinful nature, of being alienated from God, and of God’s wrath are, to them, extremely offensive.”[2] He considered sin ‘’self-inflicted nonsense.” 

In 1987 Forbes magazine summarized Eric Butterworth’s message thus: ”We alone have the power within us to solve our problems, relieve our anxieties and pain, heal our illnesses, improve our golf game or get a promotion.”[3] 

But this article is not about Oprah’s spiritual poison, it’s about spiritual deception that’s spreading like cancer in Christendom. (More on Oprah’s latest attempt to indoctrinate the masses through the occult teaching “A Course in Miracles” in my next article.)

In John 8:31-32 Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 

There is a growing movement afoot in the postmodern Church that does not abide in God’s Word; hence they do not know the truth. The movement calls itself “Emergent” or “Emerging Church” (ECM) and it’s emerging away from orthodox Christianity, spreading its spiritual cancer throughout the globe. ECM change agents have made inroads into evangelicalism, big time. What they preach is a counterfeit social gospel. They say they bring a “message of peace.” Their hope is to make Christianity more palatable to the world. Sounds altruistic, doesn’t it? But don’t believe it! In order to accomplish their lofty goal, the shifters must first repackage the Church. 

So they’re touring the country, promoting their social gospel and message of peace to the masses. Prominent ECM leader Brian McLaren is spearheading the “Everything Must Change” tour. According to McLaren’s website the planet is in Deep Shift’ 
A time of transition
rethinking 
re-imagining
and re-envisioning.

But really, it’s all about re-shaping the true Gospel of Jesus Christ into a false gospel and re-imaging Jesus Christ into the New Age Cosmic Christ! 

McLaren created Deep Shift to provide spiritual guidance for organizations who are open to this. On the DeepShift.orgwebsite he states that he will work with leaders, “inviting them to discover where the gifts of their people and God’s purposes in the world meet. Deep Shift provides support as leaders make their own personal deep shift and guide their organizations through the transition and transformation necessary to ignite the loving energy of people to work for the good of the world. As guides, we provide coaching, consulting, and resources for people leading in deep shift — faith community and church leaders, nonprofit leaders, ethical business leaders and others.” 

Maharishi McLaren’s re-imaging of the modern Church is on it’s way — whether evangelicals want re-imaging or not. The transformation, he boasts, “is for the good of the world.” 

You may not have heard about The Shift yet, but you will – soon! Shifters, like pod people, are in our midst. Some of your friends and acquaintances could be shifters, only you don’t know it yet. Shifters have wormed their way into church leadership (pastors deacons, elders), worship services, Bible studies, Sunday school, seminaries, Christian schools, youth groups, camps. They lecture, write for Christian news sources and they’re all over the Internet. Now they’re touring the country. Many shifters are familiar faces on TV and have become media darlings. Browse through your local Christian bookstore and you’ll find their names lined up on shelves. Brian McLaren, Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, Marcus Borg, Dallas Willard, Leonard Sweet, Erwin McManus, Phyllis Tickle, Rob Bell, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt, Tony Jones, Scot McKnight, Eddie Gibbs, Ryan Bolger, Jeff & Sherry Maddock, Peter Rollins, to name a few. Every one of them are theological liberals! 

But shifters are offended when they’re labeled liberal. And besides, liberal is so yesterday! And let’s be honest here; liberal has a negative connotation, thanks largely to vociferous conservatives (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Joseph Farah, James Dobson, Gary Bauer, Phyllis Schlafly, Brannon Howse, Don Wildmon, Matt Drudge, Melanie Morgan, Tony Perkins and Hugh Hewitt – whew!) who are on the front lines of the culture war exposing liberalism’s globalist, big-government, radical feminist, rabid environmentalist, pro-abortion, anti-gun, peace at any cost, gay rights, anything goes, sick twisted agenda. Balking at being called liberal, they hide behind the trendy term, “progressive.” Many “Progressive Christian” leaders are highly critical of the Christian Right and their role in politics. (See link 9 below)

ECM’s beginnings

In his article, “Understanding the Emergent Church” Walter Henenger says that while some of ECM’s leaders came of age in the “new paradigm” churches of the Sixties and Seventies, “the real starting point was the mid-1980s, when Gen X ministries began catering to youth culture. Often organized as churches-within-a-church, they adopted cutting-edge ministry methods but generally retained the structural DNA of their parent megachurches.” But in the late Nineties they came to realize that they had failed to connect with postmodern people. During a 1997 meeting of the Young Leaders Network, pastor Doug Pagitt turned the discussion to the subject of postmodernism. “Light bulbs appeared over heads around the room,” continues Henenger, “and postmodernism has been the organization’s focus ever since. The Young Leaders Network soon morphed into the Terra Nova Theological Project, which eventually became Emergent. Its leaders went from niche marketers of religious services to global heralds of a massive, irresistible paradigm shift. Heady stuff.”[4]

A brief explanation of modernism and postmodernism is in order. In his article “Preaching to the Post/Modern Choir”[5]Shane Lems offers this pithy definition:

“Modernism embraces definite truth, absolutes, foundations, rationalistic thinking, and certainty, while postmodernism embraces emotions, authenticity, community, tolerance, and denies unquestionable foundations. Modern preaching highlights the propositional, didactic, and intellectual while postmodern preaching stresses the narratival, communal, sensual, and authentic.” 

What exactly is ECM? 

Well for one thing Emergents believe that the monologue of the Christian Right is over and a new “conversation” (a term they prefer over movement) is “bringing together a wide range of committed Christians and those exploring the Christian faith in wonderful ways,” boasts Brian McLaren, “and many of us sense that God is at work among us. As would be expected, there have also been criticisms.”[6] I must digress for a moment to pose a question to Pastor McLaren: If God is now at work in the postliberal ECM as its leaders contend, was God not at work in the movement to Reclaim America for Christ for several decades? Just thought I’d ask.

What is ECM’s mission?

According to Emergent leader, Tony Jones, “At a basic level, Emergent’s mission is no different from any other group of Christ-followers: we want to follow Christ and we want to help others follow Christ. Of course, where it gets tricky is when we start talking about what it looks like to follow Christ. All along, Emergent has been about the melding of theory/theology and praxis, and we want to promote fresh, creative, and imaginative thinking about each. It seems that many organizations get to emphasize one side over the other in the theory-praxis equation, but we really are going to struggle to keep both of those in an equal, reflective symbiosis. What does it mean to be the church? What does it mean to follow Christ? We want to serve as a catalyst for conversations that attempt to answer those two questions, and to bring together the most creative people we can find for those conversations. But, conversation alone leads to paralysis by analysis, which is why we have always made sure that conversations are led primarily by practitioners rather than theoreticians and consultants.” Huh?

ECM’s missional concern

Emergents are concerned about being missional in a postmodern world. “The word missional emphasizes a return to the church’s identity as existing for the world—tto be God’s stewards over creation, to be a light to the nations, to be witnesses of the inaugurated kingdom of God on earth.”[7] In this regard Emergent leaders have been critical of evangelicalism. They believe evangelicals have not been effectively missional in a postmodern world. Naturally, many evangelicals find this view arrogant and self-righteous. Sadly, ECM’s arrogance has caused division between them and evangelicals.

What is the ECM protesting?

“Whatever the Emerging Movement is,” explains Scot McKnight, “it is clearly a protest movement. Sometimes it can appear to be cranky, but there is substance and there is focus in what the Emerging Movement is protesting. And, though sometimes the resolutions fall flat or fail to materialize or collapse into the unworkable, there are genuine resolutions being worked out. What is the Emerging Movement protesting? Let me count the ways,” quips McKnight. “That’s not an attempt to be funny,” he assures us, “there is a list of at least ten items the Emerging Movement is protesting, and most would agree that it has its finger on some hot buttons. And let it be said that its primary focus in protestation is the evangelical movement and, sometimes but not always, the mega-churches that so clearly define and set the tone for the evangelical movement.”[8]

One hot button issue is abortion. Because they’re mostly liberals, many Emergents are pro-aborts. It pains me to do so, but I’ll let this go and move on.

Here’s the rundown on some of what ECM believes, from an article by Joseph Farah posted on WorldNetDaily.com [9]: 

Capital punishment is wrong, despite the clear, unequivocal biblical commandments to take life for life.

Most Christians are too war-like and are guilty of “not loving our enemies.”

Universal health care should be provided by government.

Poverty should be eliminated by the U.S. government, not just in the U.S., but throughout the world.

The minimum wage should be significantly increased.

The U.S. should sign the Kyoto Protocol as a step toward solving the phantom crisis of global warming.

The U.S. should pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan and address the real problem of terrorism by creating a Palestinian state and addressing the root cause – poverty.

We should make condoms available throughout the Third World to fight AIDS.

Farah lists more of ECM’s beliefs but I’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so I’ll move on. (In the article [9] he exposes Red Letter Christians, a movement headed by Tony Campolo and Jim Wright who are trying to “seduce evangelical Christians into anti-biblical, socialist, tyrannical politics.”)

ECM is also about “rediscovering spirituality” 

“Emerging church practitioners are happy to take elements of worship from a wide variety of historic traditions, including Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism, the Orthodox church, and Celtic Christianity. From these and other religious traditions emerging church groups take, adapt and blend various historic church practices including liturgy, prayer beads, icons, spiritual direction, and lectio divina.”[10] In other words, whatever unbiblical practice floats your boat. 

ECM’s Quaker influence 

“The Religious Society of Friends…although not bornn from a conflict with modernism, has nonetheless influenced the emerging church movement through mystics such as Richard Foster. This influence is often seen in the mystical tendencies of emergent worship and devotion. Some emerging churches mirror the Quaker rejection of church hierarchy while valuing the sacred as a personal, subjective experience, others utilize their particular denominational structures for church leadership.”[11]

Bringing God’s kingdom to earth

“To Brian McLaren,” says Pastor Gary Gilley, “the most prolific emergent writer, the ultimate goal of Jesus (and God) is the kingdom of God, brought to earth. Just how is the kingdom brought to earth? Through our good works. McLaren states, ‘I hope that they [his neighbors] and I will become better people, transformed by God’s Spirit, more pleasing to God, more of a blessing to the world so that God’s kingdom(which I seek, but cannot manipulate) comes on earth as in heaven (emphasis mine).’”[12]

A new path

Many shifters, like Campolo and Wright, are hard-core leftists who are doing everything in their power to lead the Church down a new path, away from Sola Scriptura, into what Pastor Ken Silva calls the “emerging cult of the new liberal theology” and a “spiritual cancer.” Without Scripture, how is it possible to establish what is true about God? Oh, I know! To find answers you must get in touch with your “inner self” through meditation! To that end ECM leaders urge believers to embrace unbiblical contemplative prayer and other occult practices. (I addressed this topic in Christians are mixed-up…in mysticcism! If the link doesn’t work, scroll down to Recommended Reading.) 

On the DeepShift.org website, Pastor McLaren points visitors to the new path: 

“We hope this is a beginning for you to be on this new path, believing in Jesus in a new way, ready to act for change in your own life, in your community, the public and the world. We hope this is a beginning for you to connect with new people who are on this same path and journey for encouragement, support, relationship and depth.”[13]

The part that bothers me the most is “believing in Jesus in a new way.” What does he mean? Could he be referring to the “Cosmic Christ?”

McLaren makes clear his intentions for 2008 on McLaren.com when he says, “Rather than accepting invitations in 2008, I’ll join a creative team of friends to develop and present about ten regional gatherings, half in the winter/spring and half in the fall. These gatherings will be called ‘Deep Shift 2008.”[14]

McLaren’s mission? (My comments in brackets)

“DeepShift will call people to a deep shift in their thinking about [Jesus Christ], faith, church life, mission, ministry, art, justice, leadership, community, and worship. It will emphasize deep personal inner transformation [through contemplative prayer] integrated with deep organizational transition as well, in the context of the ‘Generous Orthodoxy’ I write and speak about.” 

McLaren on hell and the cross

In a 2006 interview McLaren calls the doctrine of hell “false advertising for God.” “[T]his is one of the huge problems with the traditional understanding of hell, because if the Cross is in line with Jesus’ teaching, then I won’t say the only and I certainly won’t say … or even the primary or a primary meaning of the Cross … is that the Kingdom of God doesn’t come like the kingdoms of this world by inflicting violence and coercing people. But that the kingdom of God comes thru suffering and willing voluntary sacrifice right? But in an ironic way the doctrine of hell basically says no, that’s not really true. At the end God get’s his way thru coercion and violence and intimidation and uh domination just like every other kingdom does. The Cross isn’t the center then, the Cross is almost a distraction and false advertising for God.”[15]

In my research I ran across a panel discussion on You Tube, “Let’s Talk Post-Modernism and the Emergent Church.”[16]Here highly regarded orthodox theologians R.C. Sproul, Albert Mohler and Ravi Zacharias had a “conversation” about postmodernism, modernism, liberalism, and ECM. 

The main thrust of ECM, the scholars say, is its rejection of modernism and its embrace of postmodernism. Why reject orthodoxy? Because the orthodoxy are absolutists. Absolutists want to reinsert categories of right and wrong, whereas postmodernists balk at doctrinal assertions. They gave as an example Brian McLaren’s position on homosexuality in a Time Magazine interview. Following is the excerpt from Time: “Frankly, many of us don’t know what we should think about homosexuality. We’ve heard all sides but no position has yet won our confidence so that we can say ‘it seems good to the Holy Spirit and us.’ That alienates us from both the liberals and conservatives who seem to know exactly what we should think.” So McLaren suggested a five-year moratorium on making pronouncements. And what will we do in the meantime? He went on to say, “[W]e’ll practice prayerful Christian dialogue, listening respectfully, disagreeing agreeably. When decisions need to be made, they’ll be admittedly provisional. We’ll keep our ears attuned to scholars in biblical studies, theology, ethics, psychology, genetics, sociology, and related fields. Then in five years, if we have clarity, we’ll speak; if not, we’ll set another five years for ongoing reflection.”[17]

Um…the Bible says homosexuality is a sin, Brian. (Lev. 18:22, Lev. 20:13, Rom. 1:26-28, 1 Cor. 6:9-10,)

McLaren’s wishy-washy comment on homosexuality obviously did not go over well with the panel. Near the end of the discussion Albert Mohler commented that his response to the homosexual question is the very essence of postmodernism. He then cautioned, “It is the abdication of Christian responsibility. It is the abdication of Christian conviction and it is a cave in of Christian courage. We do have an answer! And it’s not like we don’t know what it is!” 

As R.C. Sproul said so well, ECM appeals to Christians “who don’t want to have to deal with theological conflict.” These same folks relativize doctrine, and that makes Sproul angry. He then points out that disagreeing doctrinally is a “bad thing.” Looking rather grim-faced he said, “We can’t be satisfied with it. Because truth is too important to kill it in the streets for the sake of peace! You can’t do it!” Bravo!

Ravi Zaccaris puzzled, “These men and women who were the progenitors of this [movement]…what brought this about? Are they bored with God?!” The problem, he explained, is “Non critical people listening to this stuff absorb it.” After reading McLaren’s books, Zaccaris wonders what he believes at present. “Maybe something on Monday, something else on Tuesday?” he said grimly. “He’s an anti-doctrinal individual. It’s pitiful to see something like this actually gain currency.” 

The Emergent movement is most definitely gaining currency, especially with young people and those who are dissatisfied with mainline evangelicalism. Which is the reason it’s imperative that committed Christians take a deeper look into the “conversation.” Listen carefully to the language to see whether or not what a person purports is within the pale of orthodoxy. In other words, check to see if it’s biblical. Because if the “conversation” doesn’t line up with Scripture, it’s not from God. And if it’s not from God…it’s ffrom the pit of hell. 

In another You Tube video I came across, Todd Wilken, host of Issues Etc., was interviewing Pastor and author John MacArthur on his response to ECM.[18] MacArthur believes the problem is that Emergent leaders have a non-Christian attitude. Moreover, they have a “very worldly, carnal, unsanctified approach to the Bible.” With regard to truth, he made this comment: “Truth is everything, and the truth is contained in the Bible.” He also mentioned that progressives “do not accept the authority, inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible. They do not accept that everything in the Bible is absolutely true and that it is clear that it can be and must be understood and applied.” And the reason they reject it? According to MacArthur, “They don’t like a lot of the things it says.” 

Scott Diekmann, a Christian apologist who believes “segments of the ‘Evangelical’ Church are in danger of compromising the Gospel at crucial points” wrote an 8-part article on ECM. In part 8 he states that part of the problem with Emergents is that “some have substituted the doctrines derived from the inerrant and inspired Word of God with a doctrine based on an uninspired melding of Scripture, experience, mysticism, and imagination. That lack of Scriptural fidelity has at times led to a redefined Gospel, a message that is predominantly Law rather than Gospel, and pastors who have failed to present the whole counsel of God.”[19]

What this is really all about is truth. False teachers stare at Truth but fail to recognize the identity of truth. Jesus himself said, “I am truth.” Thus we know that Truth is an aspect of God Himself. Christianity is the only truth because it is anchored in the Person of Jesus Christ. Moreover, truth is crucial to a realistic worldview. Which is why committed Christians mustn’t buy into the lie that truth is a matter of preference or opinion. In case you haven’t notices, in our postmodern culture we are experiencing the death of truth – and the death of truth could mean the death of civilizzation! I wrote this down, but I don’t remember who said it. “Truth is true if no one believes it. A lie is a lie if everyone believes it.” And that’s the truth!

Before I wind this up, I want to stress that celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and “Progressive Christian” leaders are pressing a large number of believers into apostasy, even into rank heresy. This is a serious threat to the Church! The threat shouldn’t be taken lightly nor tolerated. So ECM and “New Spirituality” must be thoroughly understood and debunked. What’s more, committed Christians must expose shifters for what they are — occultists! 

Footnotes:

1, THE SHIFT movie trailer—Youtube.com 
2, Addressing the “Positive Gospel” of the Metaphysical Movement by Dean C. Halverson
3, Rev. Eric Butterworth, 86; Preached Positive Attitude By Douglas Martin
4, Understanding the Emergent Church—Nicene Council website
5, Preaching to the Post/Modern Choir By Shane Lems, Modern Reformation Magazine; Volume 17; Number 2; March/April 2008; page 14.
6, A Response to Recent Criticism By Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, Spencer Burke, Brian McLaren, Dan Kimball, Andrew Jones, Chris Seay
7, Understanding the Emergent Church—Nicene Council website
8, What is the Emerging Church? Protest—jesuscreed.org, posted by Scot McKnight
9, What are Red Letter Christians? By Joseph Farah
10, Wikipedia.com
11, Wikipedia.com
12, The Kingdom of Emergent Theology - Part 1(September 2007 – Volume 13, Issue 9) By Gary E. Gilley
13, DeepShift.org
14, Everything Must Change: Why Come–video on Youtube.com—Brian McLaren
15, Brian McLaren Calls Hell and the Cross “False Advertising for God“—Lighthouse Trails website
16, Let’s Talk Post-Modernism and the “Emergent Church” Youtube.com panel–R.C. Sproul, Albert Mohler and Ravi Zacharias discuss ECM
17, Brian McLaren on the Homosexual Question: Finding a “Pastoral Response” Out of Ur website
18, John MacArthur on the Emergent Church Part 1—Youtube.com—Host, Todd Wilkins, inverviews JohnMcArthur
19, The Emerging Church, Part 1: An Overview By Scott Diekmann

Recommended Reading:

1, Christians are mixed-up…in mysticism!

© 2008 Marsha West – All Rights Reserved

Thomas Merton Part 2

Quoting Jacob Needleman (p.110), Lost Christianity, (a Bantam New Age Book):
In the quarter of a century that Merton lived as Trappist monk at Gethsemani, Kentucky, he delivered a tremendous body of written work dealing with Christian mysticism, the contemplative tradition, monasticism, and the Eastern religions, particularly Zen, which he felt had a crucial role to play in the West by revealing the contemplative, mystical core of normal human life and therefore of the Christian tradition as well.

One of Merton’s last essays, “The New Consciousness,” begins, “Christian renewal has meant that Christians are now wide open to Asian religions, ready, in the words of Vatican II, to “acknowledge, preserve and promote the spiritual and moral goods” found among them.*

But “it is not that simple.” Merton proceeds to list the strong activistic, secular and anti-mystical tendencies that militate against the recovery of contemplative Christianity in the West. Zen, to Merton is the best hope because it rejects all doctrinal dispute and offers itself as something completely unclassifiable in familiar Western theological, moral or philosophical terms. “The real drive of Buddhism is toward an enlightenment which is precisely a breakthrough into what is beyond system, beyond cultural and social structures, and beyond religious rite and belief… What this means then is that Zen is outside all structure and forms.” *(Zen and the Birds of Appetite, pp. 4-5).

Zen according to Merton, offers us the pure act of seeing, pure consciousness. It is this, Merton writes, that is the real meaning of knowledge in meditation and contemplation leading to salvation in Christ.”

“The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion .. . . It is beyond words . . We are already one.”

Thomas Merton

Below are additional quotes by Merton:

“And in the last public utterance of his life, delivered on the day of his death in Bangkok, he said: ‘And I believe that by openness to Buddhism, to Hinduism, and to these great Asian traditions, we stand a wonderful chance of learning more about the potentiality of our own traditions, because they have gone, from the natural point of view, so much deeper into this than we have.” quote from the book, Lost Christianity by Jacob Needleman, p.112.

Toward the end of his life, Merton developed an interest in Buddhist and other Far Eastern approaches to mysticism and contemplation, and their relation to Christian approaches. He was attending an international conference on Christian and Buddhist monasticism in Bangkok, Thailand, when he was accidentally electrocuted on 10 December 1968.

According to a website dedicated to Merton:
In 1968 a meeting occurred in the Himalayas between the two most influential monks of the 20th century, a meeting that would shape the dialogue between the worlds of East and West a meeting between His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama and Thomas Merton. Shortly thereafter Merton unexpectedly died prompting the Dalai Lama to commit the remainder of his life to fulfilling Merton’s wish of bringing the worlds of East and West together in compassion. This commitment resulted in the historic Gesthsemani Encounter in 1996 at the Abbey of Gethsemani, home of the late Thomas Merton, attended by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and world leaders of the Eastern and Western religious traditions.

Why would some mystical experiences lead individuals in an ecumenical interfaith direction?
That’s a question you need to ask yourselves as many enter the Emergent Church and its experiences.

Thomas Merton

Most if not all Emergent teachers and followers pull on Thomas Merton his writings and practices. As a former Catholic there were plenty of Merton books around my house which I read as well. 

Here is some information on Thomas Merton both quotes and a very good article by my sis in the Lord Jackie Alnor. The quotes and article say it all on who this false Emergent Movement follows.

As we have stated before Trevecca  Nazarene University went to a Spirtual Formation Retreat to Mertons old abbey in  Trappist Kentucky.

 

 

http://www.trevecca.edu/spiritualformation/retreat

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index.php?p=1389&more=1&c=1

Dan Boone refers to Thomas Merton as a spiritual giant.

 

‘I’m deeply impregnated with Sufism.’” Thomas Merton, from The Springs of Contemplation, p. 266
atholic lay monk Wayne Teasdale says this of
Thomas Merton:
“Thomas Merton was perhaps the greatest popularizer of interspirituality. He opened the door for Christians to explore other traditions, notably Taoism (Chinese witchcraft), Hinduism and Buddhism.”
[Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World's Religions - Wayne Teasdale]
Thomas Merton said: 
“I see no contradiction between Buddhism and Christianity … I intend to become as good a Buddhist as I can.” 
(David Steindl-Rast, “Recollection of Thomas Merton’s Last Days in the West” (Monastic Studies, 7:10, 1969)

Here is the article by Jackie Alnor-

Thomas Merton: The Contemplative Dark Thread     By Jackie Alnor
Twenty-some years ago, my sister Janet and I signed up for a field trip sponsored by the Crystal Cathedral to a Vedanta monastery in the nearby Saddleback Mountains. At that time we were working together on a discernment newsletter called “The New Age Alert” and attended as part of our research. The field trip was being promoted as an educational adventure to examine the similarities and differences of two supposedly opposite extremes of religious expression. The tour guide was a lady who was a long-time member of Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral and she introduced herself as an aficionado of comparative religions.The day started with a guided tour of the Crystal Cathedral grounds after we all met up at the statue of Job in the courtyard. Then after the tour of the most decadent ostentatious so-called house of God on the planet (that’s another story altogether), we boarded buses that took us on a short jaunt to the nearby wilderness. A man with a shaved head, in a red robe, with a blank look on his face greeted us. He told us not to concern ourselves with the fact that we would be ignored by all the Vedanta monks because they are in silence.   The red-robed automatons kept at their work on the beautiful grounds of this gated cloister, without glancing in the direction of this group of mostly trendy Orange County housewives walking past. The blank stares on the faces of these men were a bit unnerving for Janet and me. They gave us the creeps, quite frankly. Their expressions remind me of the cult leader who led his thirty-nine followers to suicide to catch a ride on the Comet Hale-Bopp some ten years later. The “holy man” who was our guide to the grounds led us into a beautiful den with a fireplace and a large mahogany desk upon which a vase of freshly-cut flowers had been placed. The room was filled with books in built-in shelving and the furnishings looked like a blast from the past of a bygone era. We stood around in a circle as the monk gave us the history of the den. He told us that this was the retreat of a famous author named Aldous Huxley. Huxley had waited out World War II there as a place to get away from it all and as he tried unsuccessfully to establish a religious college there. “‘After seven years, he turned the property over to the Vedanta Society,” according to a published report in the July 15, 2006 issue of the New York Times. ”’They were trying to combine Eastern and Western philosophy and religion, but were ahead of their time,’’ said Swami Tadatmananda, 70, who leads the monastery.” The monk pointed to a book that was on a side-table that was next to me and said that it was one that Huxley wrote while he was there. I asked if I could pick it up and he nodded. I can’t recall the title, but the weirdest thing happened when I opened it. It was as if some evil spirit shot out of it and encircled the room. As it did, everyone’s stomachs rumbled loudly, one right after another, except for Janet’s and mine. Janet confirmed that she too could detect the swirling presence of this thing – it was felt, not actually seen. At that point all the Orange County housewives got uncomfortable because of their noisy tummies and we all made a hasty retreat out of that haunted den. At that time, I didn’t know who this Aldous Huxley guy was. However, his name would crop up from time to time in my investigations of the rising New Age Movement in the decade of the ‘80s. Many good Christian books were written exposing the dangers of new age influences in the church and by the decade of the ‘90s, born-again believers were pretty-much inoculated against eastern mysticism.     Huxley’s Influence on Thomas Merton But now in the decade of the 00s, the latest craze in the church today, known as the Emergent Church/Conversation, is bringing a revival of mysticism into Evangelicalism. These EC leaders write books quoting the very mystics like Huxley who in the past sought God in all the wrong places. These books point Christians to the mystical practice of what is called contemplative/centering prayer that was popularized by one of Huxley’s contemporaries, the late Thomas Merton. Merton was a Roman Catholic Trappist monk and a anti-war peace activist during the Vietnam war. He was a prolific writer who coined the term “centering prayer” to describe the style of mind-emptying meditation that seeks to empty oneself and lose oneself into the void he interchangeably calls “the life of the spirit” and Nirvana. He held to the belief that all religions had the same basic truth and Christianity could not lay claim to the whole counsel of God. This put him on shaky ground in his own religion that professes to be the “one true church.” One Merton biographer traces Merton’s affection for mysticism to Huxley. “”Merton’s attraction to Asia developed gradually. The first concrete evidence of it dates back to November 1937, when he had come under the influence of Aldous Huxley. Since the 1930s Huxley, formerly a skeptic, had been attracted to mysticism and investigated Christian as well as Hindu and Buddhist mysticism. His newly acquired mystical views found expression in Ends and Means (1937), which Merton read at the suggestion of Robert Lax…. Huxley not only aroused in Merton an interest in mysticism but also drew his attention to the resemblances in the experiences of eastern and western mystics. In particular, Huxley pointed out similarities in the views of the anonymous author of the Cloud of Unknowing and of Meister Eckhart with those of the Buddha and India’s foremost philosopher, Sankara.” [Thomas Merton and Asia: His Quest for Utopia, by Alexander Lipski -- ©1983, Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, MI, page 5.] In Merton’s own words, he held this occultist in high esteem. From his own journal entry of November 27, 1941, Merton wrote, “I spent most of the afternoon writing a letter to Aldous Huxley and when I was finished I thought: ‘Who am I to be telling this guy about mysticism?’ I reflect that until I read his book, Ends and Means, four years ago, I had never even heard of the word mysticism. The part he played in my conversion, by that book, was very great. . . . Ends and Means taught me to respect mysticism. Maritain’s Art and Scholasticism was another important influence, and Blake’s poetry. . . . Anyway, what do I know to tell Huxley? I should have been asking him questions.” [The Secular Journal of Thomas Merton, ©1959, Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, New York, pp. 268-269]. The one thing these two men had in common was an interest in mysticism and the occult and both studied eastern religions to learn their techniques of crossing over to the other side, as it were. They opened many a door to evil spirits who gave them the mystical experiences they longed for. The Hindu holy men that they so admired are of the sort you might see on TV programs such as “Mysteries of the Unknown” – the guys sitting on beds of nails or piercing their cheeks with steel knives without feeling any pain. And Merton was so fascinated by these “holy men” that he even adopted the name “Rabbi Vedanta” as an alias. Several months before his death, he wrote to a friend in California, “There will come some mail for me there probably between now and 30th. This will include a mysterious and mystic package addressed to Rabbi Vedanta, care of you. Have no fear. ‘Tis only I under the beard.” [The Hidden Ground of Love: The Letters of Thomas Merton, edited by William H. Shannon, ©1985 Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, p. 243]. Merton’s friendship with Huxley spanned several decades, up until Huxley’s death on November 22, 1963, the same day that President Kennedy was assassinated and on the same day that C. S. Lewis died. As Merton’s interest in eastern philosophy grew, he would keep his friend Huxley up-to-date. In a letter dated November 27, 1958, Merton wrote to his friend taking issue with his observation that the use of psychedelics could be a shortcut to transcendental experiences. “May I add that I am interested in yoga and above all in Zen, which I find to be the finest example of a technique leading to the highest natural perfection of man’s contemplative liberty. You may argue that the use of a koan (a puzzle with no logical solution used in Zen Buddhism to develop intuitive thought) to dispose one for satori (a spiritual awakening sought in Zen, often coming suddenly) is not different from the use of a drug. I would like to submit that there is all the difference in the world, and perhaps we can speak more of this later. My dear Mr. Huxley, it is a joy to write to you of these things.” [Hidden Ground, p. 439.]     Sufi Mysticism By now you can see that Merton was a believer in all religions – he created his own syncretistic brand of religion while remaining under the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. He gave equal attention to the mystical traditions within Catholicism, Zen Buddhism, and Hinduism. But he was an equal-opportunity mystic who was drawn to the common thread of “Satan’s so-called deep secrets” found in all the world’s false religions, including his own. He even delved into the mystical branch of Islam and corresponded for many years with a Muslim Sufi cleric by the name of Abdul Aziz. In November, 1960, Aziz had requested that Merton send him one of his books called Seeds of Contemplation that he wrote in 1949, but Merton was too ashamed to send it to him. He apologized to his Sufi friend saying that it “contains many foolish statements…and reflects an altogether stupid ignorance of Sufism.” At that time Merton thought that true spirituality existed only in the Roman Catholic Church. But as he toyed with other religions, they soon got a grip on his mind and soul. In the same letter to Aziz dated November 17, 1960, Merton offered the Sufi information on whom he considered Catholicism’s number one mystic. He wrote, “I might also refer you to the life of St. John of the Cross… which has some interesting pages on the possible influence of Sufism in the mysticism of St. John of the Cross.” [Hidden Ground, p. 44.] Merton also made the claim that the Sufi mystics worship the same God as Christianity and all the religions. He wrote, “As one spiritual man to another, if I may so speak in all humility, I speak to you from my heart of our obligation to study the truth in deep prayer and meditation, and bear witness to the light that comes from the All-Holy God into this world of darkness where He is not known and not remembered. . . . May your work on the Sufi mystics make His Name known and remembered, and open the eyes of men to the light of His truth.” [Ibid, pp. 45-46]. Merton believed that the Sufi, Zen, and Vedanta monks all shared in the same light as he did – and I’m sure that is the case. After all, Satan comes as an angel of light and they all recognized that same “light” in one another. Merton even went so far as to redefine the feast of Pentecost to suit the sensitivities of this Sufi cleric. In a letter dated May 13, 1961, Merton wrote to Aziz, I will “keep you especially in mind on the feast of Pentecost, May 21st, in which we celebrate the descent of the Holy Ghost into the hearts and souls of men that they may be wise with the Spirit of God. It is the great feast of wisdom.” [Ibid. p. 49] Merton actually believed that these men who worshiped false gods were given some great wisdom by God and that Pentecost is a holy day to celebrate a feast of wisdom given to all men irregardless of what God one puts faith in. Merton confided in Aziz what he actually believed, knowing that his own church authorities would probably not approve if they knew just how far he took it. In his January 2, 1966 letter to the Sufi cleric, Merton revealed his heretical ideas of an impersonal God. “My prayer is then a kind of praise rising up out of the center of Nothing and Silence. If I am still present ‘myself’ this I recognize as an obstacle about which I can do nothing unless He Himself removes the obstacle. If He wills He can then make the Nothingness into a total clarity. If He does not will, then the Nothingness seems to itself to be an object and remains an obstacle. Such is my ordinary way of prayer, or meditation. It is not ‘thinking about’ anything, but a direct seeking of the Face of the Invisible, which cannot be found unless we become lost in Him who is Invisible. I do not ordinarily write about such things and I ask you therefore to be discreet about it. But I write this as a testimony of confidence and friendship. It will show you how much I appreciate the tradition of Sufism. . . . I am united with you in prayer during this month of Ramadan (Muslim holy day) and will remember you on the Night of Destiny.” [Ibid. p. 64.]     Another Way to Perfection   Merton was a prolific writer which was partly due to his isolation in a Trappist monastery in Kentucky where his fellow monks held to vows of silence. But Merton had a lot to say and he couldn’t share it with his fellow monks, so he corresponded with religious leaders, including his friend the Dali Lama, a man that many Buddhists believe to be an ascended master. Merton biographer Alexander Lipski wrote that “Merton argued that Zen meditation shatters the false self and restores us to our paradisical innocence which preceded the fall of man.” [Thomas Merton and Asia: His Quest for Utopia by Alexander Lipski -- ©1983, Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, MI, page 29.] Can Zen Buddhism really restore mankind to the innocence that Adam and Eve enjoyed in the Garden of Eden? If that were possible, then such men could not die, because when Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, death entered into the human race. This claim is tantamount to saying that Zen meditation is the means for spiritual perfection and justification, totally stepping on the blood of Christ. Thomas Merton might have truly committed the unpardonable sin with this heretical belief. “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened…and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned” (Hebrews 6:4-8). “Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29). How many people today who have a fascination for the writings of Thomas Merton run the risk of following him into perdition?     Poet/Artist William Blake Merton’s philosophy in life can be seen clearly in his admiration of the poet and artist William Blake (1757-1827). Scripture did not enter into Merton’s search for experiencing the Divine; it was not sufficient for him. In fact, I have read all of his journals and can count on one hand the Bible verses he quoted. The Word of God did not factor into Merton’s life. He was basically a humanist who worshipped imagination and human reasoning. William Blake influenced Merton’s choice of Catholicism as the organizational structure in which to live out his brand of spiritualism. Merton biographer Raymond Bailey documented how this took place. “An important link in Merton’s thought is the work of his master’s thesis, written in 1938. It was a study of William Blake, whose ideas influenced both his theology and his poetry. . . . Tom said that it was through Blake that he had come to the Church and to Christ. The thesis was an exposition of Blake’s philosophy; indeed, it was an apologetic for the poet’s Christianity. ‘As mystic,’ Merton argued, ‘Blake belongs to the Christian tradition of the Augustinians and the Franciscans.’ Already Merton was cognizant of similarities between Christian and oriental mysticism. He called attention to Blake’s acquaintance with Hindu philosophy. He drew attention to ideas common to Blake and Meister Eckhart, in whose thought Merton was to develop a vital interest during the sixties. [Thomas Merton on Mysticismby Raymond Bailey, ©1974, Doubleday & Co., Inc, Garden City, NY, p. 44.] And yet both Blake and Eckhart were steeped in the occult and got their mysticism from Hindu sources. Eckhart’s ideas were considered heretical even by Catholic Church authorities because his teachings expressed a belief in pantheism. And Blake’s poetry is some of the darkest and most demonically inspired drivel one could read. Like attracts like, no doubt. Perhaps that is why the demonized lead singer of the 60s group, The Doors, Jim Morrison, named his group after one of Blake’s poems and chose dark sayings of Blake’s to use in one of his songs.     The Door’s Jim Morrison “Its name was taken from Aldous Huxley’s book on mescaline, The Doors of Perception, which quoted William Blake’s poem, “If the doors of perception were cleansed / All things would appear infinite.”  Morrison identified with Blake and “famously lived by an oft repeated quote from William Blake: ‘The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.’” “Morrison once confessed that ‘We’re more interested in the dark side of life, the evil thing, the night time.’”  The last two lines of a Blake poem were incorporated into The Doors 1967 song, “End of the Night.”     Every morn and every night Some to misery are born. Every morn and every night Some are born to sweet delight. Some are born to endless night A former girlfriend of Morrison’s gave some insights to his fascination with William Blake. In the late 60s, she used to go out to the desert with him to use peyote and see strange visions. Morrison had believed that the spirit of a dead Indian shaman inhabited his soul and he connected to the spirit out there in the desert. “We had visions in the desert,” she wrote of her and Morrison’s experiences in a book called “An Unholy Alliance.” “It is like William Blake; he would see visions like Blake did, angels in trees, he would see these, and so would I. And Jim showed me that this is what a poet does. A poet sees visions and records them.”  Merton recognized that Blake communed with angels, though he would not come right out and admit that they were fallen angels. Merton had written a Forward to a book about, of all things, wooden furniture made by the Shakers religious sect. He wrote, “The peculiar grace of a Shaker chair is due to the fact that it was made by someone capable of believing that an angel might come and sit on it. Indeed the Shakers believed their furniture was designed by angels – and Blake believed his ideas for poems and engraving came from heavenly spirits.” [Religion in Wood: A Book of Shaker Furniture by Edward & Faith Andrews, Introduction by Thomas Merton. ©1966 Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, pg xiii].     Same Vocabulary; Warped Definitions Both men confused the gifts of the Holy Spirit for man’s natural talents and through the use of the imagination, they were exercising their gifts. Merton wrote in the Shaker book, ‘When imagination, art and science and all intellectual gifts, all gifts of the holy Ghost are looked upon as of no use, and only contention remains to man, then the Last Judgment begins … For Blake, as for the Shakers, creative imagination and religious vision were not merely static and contemplative. They were active and dynamic, and imaginative power that did not express itself in creative work could become highly dangerous.” [Ibid. pg. xiv] Besides getting Pentecost and the filling of the Holy Spirit wrong, Merton also distorted the meaning of the new birth. He accepted the false religious systems of the world and adopted their corruption of Christian doctrines. Merton wrote to a Sufi cleric in a letter dated March 22, 1968, “I also enclose a copy of something I wrote last fall ‘Rebirth and the New Man in Christianity,’ which will show that I was already in complete agreement with you. It may also give you some introduction to the idea of rebirth which is so important in Christianity – just as it is in Sufism.” [Hidden Ground, p. 42]. Merton admitted that venturing into the recesses of the mind via contemplative methods could be highly dangerous because it led to a dark and foreboding place. In a letter written to the abbot of a Cistercian monastery, Merton said, “My brother, perhaps in my solitude I have become as it were an explorer for you, a searcher in realms which you are not able to visit – except perhaps in the company of your psychiatrist. I have been summoned to explore a desert area of man’s heart in which explanations no longer suffice, and in which one learns that only experience counts. An arid, rocky, dark land of the soul, sometimes illuminated by strange fires which men fear and peopled by specters which men studiously avoid except in their nightmares.” [Hidden Ground, pp. 156-157.] When Merton said that “explanations no longer suffice,” he no doubt was referring to Bible doctrine that he didn’t see as sufficient. In that same letter he said that he distrusts the language of Christianity. And what are those “specters” and “strange fires” he says he encounters? When Merton could find no Bible teaching to endorse his experiences, he quit looking there for answers and turned to other religions. Some things never change. This perceived inadequacy of the Word of God drives many unregenerate professing Christians to other places for their reassurance. Merton is consistent in his descriptions of his spiritual path’s dark side. He wrote a fellow pacifist on February 13, 1967, telling him about his spiritual experimentation using tongue-in-cheek humor, but getting his message across quite clearly. He wrote, “I guess my head is so addled with Zen and Sufism that I have totally lapsed into inefficiency, and am rapidly becoming a backward nation if not a primitive race, a Bushman from the word go, muttering incantations to get the fleas out of my whiskers, a vanishing American who has fallen into the mythical East as into a deep dark hole.” [Hidden Ground, p. 299] From Eckhart to Blake to Huxley to Morrison and to Merton, the common denominator they all shared was a metaphysical experience, via Kundilini or psychedelic drugs that were a shortcut to the same dark place. And tragically Merton influenced so many young minds when he was alive and his influence continues to poison professing Christians to this day. People are unknowingly opening doors to the evil influences of demonic hosts.     Merton Continues to Corrupt One newspaper published an article about Merton in 1998. “Thirty years later, what Merton has given to his countless spiritual devotees has never stopped; through his books and books about him, Merton might exert more global influence than ever.” ["30 Years After His Death, Noted Monk Thomas Merton is Remembered," By Art Jester, Knight Ridder Newspapers, December 12, 1998.] Merton’s writings are quoted by today’s advocates of his contemplative prayer methodology that he derived from dark sources as already documented. Look in the notes of any modern book on prayer, and see if you find Merton quotes. This leaven of doctrines of devils has found its way into such popular “Evangelical” books as Richard Foster’s Celebration of Disciplineand Brennan Manning’s, Ragamuffin Gospel, books that grace the shelves of many church bookstores. Chuck Smith Jr., pastor of Capo Beach Calvary (though he’s no longer affiliated with Calvary Chapel, the movement founded by his father Chuck Smith Sr., but still retains the name), often quotes Merton in his own sermons, such as in his March 12th 2006 message, “It Is Enough.” In fact, a woman who attends Capo Beach Calvary wrote this writer an email on March 17, 2006 singing the praises of the men her pastor admires. “I also thoughtfully enjoy the writings of Thomas Merton, Brennan Manning (that great ragamuffin!) and of course the writings of Richard Foster! These men have something worth listening to. Blessings, B.” She seemed to get pleasure in rubbing my nose in the success of the apostasy. In fact, a common term used by Emerging Church leaders like Chuck Smith Jr. is the word “transformation.” This word is thrown around a lot by today’s contemplatives in a way to distort the Bible teaching of being transformed into the image of Christ. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” Romans 8:29. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” Romans 12:2. Yet, here’s how Merton and contemplatives who emulate him see the use of the word transformation: “While considering certain external imitations of Zen unsuitable for westerners, Merton, to the end of his life, believed that the transformation of personal consciousness through Zen would bring about a more equitable, peaceful society.” [Utopia, pp. 35-36.] So it is through Zen meditation that Merton and his breed achieve this transformation of their consciousness that amounts to a new age paradigm shift right out of the confines of Christianity. Another Merton biographer described it this way: “This ancient Christian method, as it was taught and shared in this renewal, received a new packaging and a new name. The name given it was Centering Prayer, a name inspired by Father Louis’s (Merton’s real first name) teaching. In speaking about this kind of prayer, he would say things such as this: ‘The fact is, however, that if you descend into the depths of your own spirit…and arrive somewhere near the center of what you are, you are confronted with the inescapable truth, at the very root of your existence, you are in constant and immediate and inescapable contact with the infinite power of God.’ And like this: ‘A man cannot enter in to the deeper center of himself and pass through the center into God unless he is able to pass entirely out of himself and empty himself and give himself to other people in the purity of selfless love.’” [Thomas Merton Brother Monk: The Quest for True Freedom, by M. Basil Pennington, ©1987 Harper & Row, San Francisco, p. 160.] Another biblical sounding term Merton and other eastern contemplatives throw around is “incarnational.” Jesus was God incarnated in human flesh and this word is brandied about to sound biblical but the meaning of it changes to apply to those calling themselves Christians. Another biographer (seems Merton has an endless supply of them) put it this way: “For Merton conceives Christ as being at the center of the universe and hence, it is in Christ and only in him that the world can truly make sense. Because everything converges on Him, the person most closely related to Christ in contemplative prayer is, in Merton’s view, the person who is most deeply embedded in the world. For such a person is no longer limited by narrow provincial views (Bible views?) … Rather, detached from such superficiality because of his own closeness to Christ, he is …thus is able to find a truly incarnational involvement that will bring him into the deepest contact with reality.” [Merton’s Theology of Prayer by John J. Higgins SJ ©1971, Cistercian Publications, Spencer, MA, p. 125.] The “Christ” Merton speaks of is not Jesus Christ of the Gospels since Merton’s “Christ” is accessible to anyone in any religion at any time of their choosing. This Cosmic Christ is what the Bible refers to “another Christ.” Merton’s quest for the so-called undiluted reality of Zen was a liberation from all “structures, forms, and beliefs,” that brings one to the true transcendent self of Buddhism. In other words, Merton hated the very form of religion that held him in Catholicism, but was in bondage to the security he got from the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani where he could live and write in isolation without having to think about how he might make an honest living. Merton’s tone with Catholic authorities was guarded, totally different from his openness with his eastern religious friends.     Merton Grovels Before Popes Two letters to two different popes were preserved and published. No hint of his eastern proclivities were revealed to either of them. In the November 10, 1958 letter to Pope John XXIII, Merton begins his letter with the words, “My dear Holy Father: This is one of you children who comes to kneel at your feet…” In this letter, Merton quotes scripture – something he rarely ever does. He wrote, “Humbly prostrating ourselves before Your Holiness, my novices and I beg you to grant us the favor of your Apostolic Blessing, so that we may be holy monks and deeply fervent priests, that we may unite in our hearts perfect contemplation and apostolic zeal and that Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the way, the truth and the life, may be known and loved by all. [The Hidden Ground of Love] And to Pope Paul VI, on July 26, 1963, after greeting the pope with “”Most Holy Father: Humbly prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness,” Merton wrote, “It will be my own devoted effort to help the novice to become true contemplative monks, men of God, totally devoted to the love and contemplation of Jesus Christ (one of the few times Jesus’ name is mentioned in his letters), and deeply concerned, at the same time, with all the interests of His Church in the troubled times in which we live.” [Ibid. p. 487.] Had Merton revealed what he was actually teaching the under-monks, the pope just might have stripped him of his hair shirt. Not long ago, a Catholic priest was excommunicated for promoting ideas of pantheism and the Cosmic Christ. His name was Matthew Fox and his main protagonist was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, better known today as Pope Benedict XVI. Another Merton biographer described just how far into error Merton went at the end of his life: “In his last years Merton became engrossed in the commonplaces of Eastern and Western mysticism. He was one of those for whom ‘ecumenical’ meant ‘worldwide or universal in extent and influence.’ His understanding of the unity of the world, a panentheistic God, and a cosmic Christ prohibited a narrowly defined humanity or limited theater of God’s action. The universality of the human quest for authentic being seemed to hold for him the potential for establishing a transcultural family of man.” [Merton on Mysticism, p. 15.]     Is the Monk Catholic? There was a part of Thomas Merton that remained very Catholic: his attraction to icons and statues. He saw them as doorways to his contemplative invisible inner world. And his devotion to the Queen of Heaven, the many faces of Mary drew him as well. And yet even in this, he found a way to connect these facets of Catholicism to Eastern religions. On September 12, 1959, he wrote to his friend Czeslaw Milosz, one of Merton’s Catholic spiritual guides who shared his attraction for Buddhism, a letter that revealed his devotion to Mary: “Christ loves in us, and the compassion of Our Lady keeps her prayer burning like a lamp in the depths of our being. That lamp does not waver. It is the light of the Holy Spirit, invisible, and kept alight by her love for us.” [Striving Towards Being: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz, edited by Robert Faggen, ©1997, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, p. 53.] In a letter dated January 30, 1961, he also told his Muslim Sufi friend about their mutual attraction to Mary: “Mary is believed to have appeared at a village in Portugal called Fatima: but this name certainly derives from the time when the area was under the Moslems and the village must have been named after the daughter of the Prophet. Hence there is a mysterious joining of Christian and Moslem elements in this devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.” [Hidden Ground, p. 48.] Merton’s attraction to icons far exceeded most Roman Catholic tradition. On December 5, 1965 he wrote to his friend Marco Pallis, a student of Tibetan art, religion and culture and author of the book Peaks and Lamas who had sent him a gift of an expensive icon of the “virgin and child” a common Catholic view of Jesus as a child subordinate to His mother. With the icon, Pallis wrote Merton a note, “Here is a small token of my love: this ikon . . . Your karma evidently wished you to receive it…the Mother of God…four saints in attendance.’ Merton responded: “Where shall I begin? I have never received such a precious and magnificent gift from anyone in my life. I have no words to express how deeply moved I was to come face to face with this sacred and beautiful presence granted to me in the coming of the ikon to my most unworthy person. At first I could hardly believe it. And yet perhaps your intuition about my karma is right, since in a strange way the ikon of the Holy Mother came as a messenger at a precise moment when a message was needed, and her presence before me has been an incalculable aid in resolving a difficult problem. . . . Let me return to the holy ikon. Certainly it is a perfect act of timeless worship, a great help. I never tire of gazing at it. There is a spiritual presence and reality about it, a true spiritual ‘Thaboric’ light, which seems unaccountably to proceed from the Heart of the Virgin and Child as if they had One heart, and which goes out to the whole universe. It is unutterably splendid. And silent. It imposes a silence on the whole hermitage…I see how important it is to live in silence, in isolation, in unknowing. There is an enormous battle with illusion going on everywhere, and how should we not be in it ourselves?” [Hidden Ground, p. 473-474.] One Orthodox online dictionary defines “The Taboric Light” as “the light that surrounded Christ in the Transfiguration, the goal sought in contemplation by the hesychasts, was a theophany, or manifestation of God, through His uncreated energies.”  Merton tosses around terms like “Karma” and “Thaboric light” more than he ever quotes God’s revelation to man: the Bible. If any presence accompanied this icon, it surely wasn’t from God since He has forbidden the idolatry of religious idols such as this. Perhaps the Roman Catholic Church opened themselves up to such deceiving spirits by removing the second commandment out of their catechism.     Invisible, but not Forgotten It is remarkable that elements within the church today would point to dead heretics such as Merton as a source for any kind of spiritual truth. The man was truly demonized and corrupted many undiscerning souls who no doubt are with him in hell to this day. And that brings us to the details of the untimely death of Louis “Thomas” Merton. Here is a chronology of the events leading up to Merton’s demise in his own words: To Dorothy Day, July 25, 1968: “I have a big thing coming up. I am to go to Asia as peritus for a regional meeting of abbots and also to attend a meeting of leaders from non-Christian religions. I hope this may mean a deepening of understanding and a chance to enter more deeply into the mind of some of the Asian monastic traditions.” [Hidden Ground, p. 154.]   To W. H. Ferry, California friend, July 28, 1968: “No plans need be made for meeting people, except maybe a poet or two in SF, and I may stop at the Esalen Inst (a new age center to this day). In Big Sur as they are hoping I’ll give them a conference some time.” [Hidden Ground, p. 241.] Nov. 21, 1968 from Merton a month before he died: “I have been in India about a month & have met quite a few interesting people. Seen monasteries, temples, lamas, paintings, jungles – not to mention the arch-city of Calcutta. Quite an experience. I will be going on soon on Ceylon & Indonesia. Hope you are both well. It was good to see you in SF. Best, Tom Merton” [Striving Towards Being, p. 178.] To Richard S. Y. Chi, a Buddhist philosopher, Nov. 21, 1968: “I have been in India over a month, mostly in the Himalayas, and have had good conversations with the Dalai Lamaand with many others high in the Tibetan Buddhism – including some extraordinary mystics. . . . During my stay here I have added a bit to my knowledge of Madhyamika. (footnote: School of Mahayana Buddhism developed by Nagarjuna in the second century A.D. It stressed the notion of emptiness: ‘Everything is the void.’) I am eager to reread Shen Hui in the light of this study and look forward very much to seeing your book.” [Hidden Ground, p. 125.] On December 10, 1968 Merton was in Bangkok, Thailand preparing to gather with local Buddhist monks. He got into the shower that had a fan above blowing on him, and he reached up and accidentally touched it and was electrocuted. He was 53-years-old. He reached the place in the afterworld that fascinated him so much in life. I seriously doubt that it impressed him once he arrived with no way out. Both he and a fellow monk had had premonitions that he would not be coming back from Thailand alive. “By a strange coincidence, it has been noted that he concluded his last conference in Bangkok with the words:                                             ‘so I will disappear.’