Rethink and Break Forth: Shall Seventh-day Adventists Send
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Rethink and Break Forth: Shall Seventh-day Adventists Send Their Leaders to Drink From Cisterns Such as These? Kevin Straub, January
1, 2008 We
cannot be complete in Christ and yet be ready to grasp those things that come
from the so-called great men of the earth, and place their wisdom before the
wisdom of the greatest Teacher the world has ever known. To seek knowledge
from such sources is represented in the word as seeking to drink from broken
cisterns that can hold no water. {7T
204.4} God has
placed in our hands a banner upon which is inscribed: "Here is the
patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and
the faith of Jesus." Revelation 14:12. This is a distinct, separating
message, a message that is to give no uncertain sound. It is to lead the
people away from the broken cisterns that contain no water, to the unfailing
Fountain of the water of life. {7T
150.2} Not as judges of people but as inspectors of fruit, are we to
decide whose counsel to take and the truth we are to present. We cannot rely
on those that make void the law of God, however attractive their words and
works. (Ethel Price) Introduction: If we
would just read those three quotes and obey them, I would not have to write
any more. It is sad. I was once welcome to expose these things
in our church. In the early 90’s, I
did a mini-series presentation from our Red Deer SdA church pulpit on the New
Age Movement, as I had studied it for a decade and had done independent
course work towards my Christian university degree. Now that it has come home to roost, it is
not so well received. But I am getting
ahead of myself. We
are now told by the Super-Size-Me church leaders that the Megachurch,
Purpose-Driven, Church Growth Movement paradigm does not work. It has not been attracting the “unchurched”
so much as the bored “other-churched” and furthermore, it has not been
producing spiritual “grown-ups.” In
fact, it has been determined through in-house research that the more
spiritually grown up the congregant, the less attractive they find these
environments. These are their own published conclusions. They
say that now it is time to “take out a clean sheet of paper.” When I read about this great Willow Creek
realization and confession, I was thinking, “here we go. What are they going to bring on, now? This will be the time to really rev up the
deceptions. We can expect it to get a
whole lot darker, almost guaranteed.” I see
it happening. It is not new, but has
been developing all the while the CGM paradigm was failing. Now, we are to metamorphosis into whatever
higher spiritual plane in which we are supposed to be dwelling through the
birthing process implied in the term “ Now,
just as Seventh-day Adventists have been drinking, -- no, gulping – from the cisterns of the
Church-Growth Movement gurus (we are the largest denominational group that
has attended the seminars at Willow Creek, seeking to import the
seeker-sensitive, felt-needs paradigm into Adventism), we have also been
turning toward the philosophies and practices of the Emergent Church. It will not be my purposes in this paper to
expose these inroads; I will save that for
another time. (Or you can get a
copy of a DVD presentation which I have on this subject, Innovation and Emergence, by Sandy Clark.) What I intend to do here is to give a brief
overview of what the EC is, some of the buzz words, and who are some of its
leaders. This work is by no means
complete; in fact, it will be just an introduction to the subject as I have
only begun to do some research and reading on it. I am
putting this together in haste so that I may place the information before our
local church leaders and members that a more informed decision may be made
with regard to the church board’s decision to fund our worship leaders to
attend the upcoming Break Forth
conference in Pastor
Gary Gilley, of independent Southern
View Chapel in listed
as follows: The Emerging Church – Part 1 (April 2006) The Emerging Church - Part 2 (May 2006) The Emerging Church - Part 3 (June 2006) The Kingdom of Emergent Theology -
Part 1
(September 2007) The Kingdom of Emergent Theology -
Part 2
(October 2007) The Kingdom of Emergent Theology -
Part 3
(November 2007) See
also Lighthouse Trails Research for
hours of research and reading on this topic.
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/ “. . . mysticism, New Age ideology, and a return to (Note:
See the end of this paper for a glossary which defines the terms that relate
to the EC.) It is
yet more capitulating to surrounding culture, only this time not in the
accommodation of worldly tastes in entertainment but in the philosophical accommodation
to postmodern thinking. The
Devil is playing on many peoples’ understanding that Christianity today is
thoroughly corrupt and introducing the EC as the solution; a return to true
spirituality. Out with the
contemporary big-production style worship and in with the experiential and
the mysterious. “People increasingly long for the mystical and the spiritual
rather than the evidential and facts-based faith of the modern soil. Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church, ( “The things that the seeker-sensitive church removed from
their churches are the very things [postmodern] nonbelievers want to
experience if they attend a worship service.” Ibid., 115 “The postmodern wants to reconnect to the past. They want traditions and religious symbols
rather than slick excellence, polished performance and state-of-the-art
structures found in modernity. . . .
The emerging church appears to be the latest flavor of the day in a church
age which allows itself to be defined by its culture rather than by
Scripture.” Gary Gilley, The “. . . the emergent church is a movement chasing a
culture.” Ibid., p. 1 I
dare say, isn’t that what Those
in the EC paradigm are sometimes referred to as “contemplatives.” The “Spiritual Formation” movement is just
another way of saying “Contemplative Spirituality.” This depicts the mystic elements of the new
spirituality, with it New Age practices of meditative/contemplative/breath
prayers, candles, labyrinth exercises, yoga, lectio divina, etc.
The contemplatives “. . . are interested in religious experiences and
feelings. They want a sense of the
supernatural. They are not interested
in systematic theology, tightly woven apologetic arguments or logical
reasoning. But they are attracted to
spiritual mystery.” Ibid., p. 2 One
can certainly sympathize with this, as many of us are indeed weary of “ ‘church-lite,’ consumer spirituality, church buildings that
look like warehouses or malls, CEO pastors, educational programs structured
like community colleges and church services that are reminiscent of a
Broadway musical.” Ibid., p. 2 So
what believers are made to think is that they are making a return to “vintage
church” but this is a deception, for this does not refer to a return to the
primitive church of the apostolic faith, but to a vintage church that has
been derailed by medieval Catholicism.
The sensory experiences of the latter has been foisted on
contemplatives as spiritual experience. “. . . just as the seeker-sensitive church saw felt-needs as
the means of linking with unbelievers, so the emerging church sees spiritual
experience as that means. The
philosophy is basically the same, just the methods have changed.” Ibid., p. 2 We’ve
touched a little on methods, now
let’s look quickly at the message. The
church of today is said to be emerging from a traditional understanding of
the church into a “postmodern expression.”
Post- as a prefix is difficult to use as a definition of anything,
because it only defines what you are not.
However, defining postmodernism need not be impossible, for one need
only look around to find: a plethora of philosophies in every sphere; blowing
winds of doctrine from every direction; many living in their own idea of
reality; and the ability of the contemporary mind to hold many of the
conflicting simultaneous ideas in an Orwellian mode called “doublethink,”
(that apparatus which is very useful to the globalist elite, New World Order
folks – I heard a lady in London say, “we have to sacrifice our freedoms for
liberty”), and one has a fix on our world of no boundaries, no truth, if a
fix can be had on something so slippery! “Attempting to combine postmodern philosophy with biblical
theology is a tricky business, as one might imagine; we should not be
surprised that unanimity in the understanding of this attempted merger will
not be found. . . . Truth claims are held with suspicion within postmodernism.
. . . Since the very heart of
postmodernity is rejection of absolute authoritative truth, yet Christianity
claims to be the proclamation of absolute authoritative truth, a head-on
collision is almost unavoidable. What
is to be done? Something has to give
and that something seems to be truth.”
Ibid., p.3 “Experience, not Scripture, becomes the basis for truth. [Albeit a malleable truth, for the people
are taught that their reality is just a model and it must remain subject to
revision and revolution, upon the basis of new experience.] ‘People today,’ Leonard Sweet writes, ‘are
starved not for doctrines but for images and relationships and stories.’ [Leonard Sweet, Andy Crouch, et. Al., The Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives,
Leonard Sweet, ed., ( This
synopsis must be kept concise, I know, but before we leave it, I have to make
mention of three more defining –isms
that relate to the EC philosophy. Deconstructionism – is
a literary approach that seeks out apparent contradictions in a text in order
to come up with new ideas that may even be out of harmony with the original
text. Humpty Dumpty says, “When I use
a word, it means what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” That’s deconstruction. It “guts words of their meaning and
redefines them according to one’s own preference” (Gilley, p. 4). Pluralistic Relativism –
The outcome of EC philosophy is that all paths lead home. Nobody is right and everybody is
right. After deconstruction, this is
all that is left. We may not like this
very much, but we should get used to it for now, because it is a good
treatment for the cancer of final
orthodoxy as found in absolutist/colonial/totalitarian modernity, say EC
leaders, such as Brian McLaren in A
Generous Orthodoxy, pp. 286-7. Ecumenism --The
EC is ecumenism on steroids. In fact,
why call it Christian, at all? The new
missiology says that God doesn’t care what religion you are, just add Jesus
to what you already have: 1. You can keep your own religion —
Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism — you just need to add Jesus to the
equation. Then you become complete. You become a Buddhist with Jesus, a Hindu
with Jesus, a Muslim with Jesus and so on. 2. You can throw out the term
Christianity and still be a follower of Jesus. 3. In fact, you can throw out the term
Christian too. In some countries you could be persecuted for calling
yourself a Christian, and there is no need for that. Just ask Jesus into your
heart, you don't have to identify yourself as a Christian. http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newmissiology.htm Here is what is said by some popular
postmodernists: "For me, the beginning of sharing my faith with people
began by throwing out Christianity and embracing Christian spirituality, a
nonpolitical mysterious system that can be experienced but not
explained."—Donald Miller,
Blue Like
Jazz, p.
115. "I must add, though, that I don't believe making
disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be
advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of
Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts."—Brian McLaren
(leader of the Emerging
Church movement), author of "I'm not talking about a religion this morning. You may
be Catholic or Protestant or Buddhist or Baptist or Muslim or Mormon or
Jewish or you may have no religion at all. I'm not interested in your
religious background. Because God did not create the universe for us to have
religion."—Rick Warren,
September 2005, United Nations, Interfaith Prayer Breakfast to 100
World Delegates. Now,
before moving on to the upcoming conference in This is a Training
Agency for the “But perhaps what is most disturbing in this isn't that
Schuller is having contemplative and New Age promoting speakers to his
upcoming event -- that really will come as no surprise to many. But what is
disturbing is that some of these speakers (who promote contemplative
and/or the New Age) are welcomed with open arms to evangelical conferences,
seminaries and churches. [Including
Seventh-day Adventist conferences and churches].” (Coming
from the Lighthouse Newsletter, Sept. 26, 2006, http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletter092606.htm). Schuller’s
latest move is to hold a “Rethink Conference” at his Crystal Cathedral. With
an unusual mix of Christian and non-Christian speakers, the conference will
take place January 17-19, 2008. He is co-hosting the conference with Among
the thirty speakers lending their names and varying degrees of credibility to
Robert Schuller’s conference are Lee Strobel, Dan Kimball, Charles Colson,
George Barna, Rupert Murdoch, George Herbert Walker Bush Sr., Larry King, and
Rick Warren’s wife Kay Warren. (While Rick Warren has tried desperately to
deny his spiritual ties to Schuller, his wife’s presence at the conference
speaks volumes.) From
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com we can read about the Rethink Conference http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58405 : It's an all-star conference set for the Crystal Cathedral in Lee
Strobel -- former atheist, teaching pastor at Willow
Creek. Apparently an EC Leader, has
recently spoken at contemplative conference, the 30th Annual of
the CMA (Christian Management Ass’n), Mar. 12-15, 2007. Also involved with Alpha Course, a program
of affirmative party-on feel-goodism, espousing the ecumenical,
deconstructionist, dominionist, charismatic spiritualistic, and New Age
philosophies and sophistries, while avoiding the full gospel call to
repentance and the sanctified life. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~emcd/TheNewAgeOfAlpha.pdf Erwin
McManus -- Erwin McManus is a promoter of the New Age. He admits
himself that his book (The David Nasser –
convert from Islam, emerging church movement leader, calls U2’s Bono the
“pope of the emerging church.” Maybe a
joke, but lets us know where he is coming from. Ministered recently in And Many, Many more presenters in
workshops for training in modern methods of entertaining worship techniques
employing the world’s musical tastes, drama, comedy, etc. Lots of folks out of Willow Creek, Crystal
Cathedral (Robert Schuller) etc.
Seminars in prayer, evangelism, healing, children’s ministries,
finance, etc. 1 In
general, a neo-evangelical would be defined as one who has taken a
"lower view" of Scripture, has developed a more open, inclusive
spirit toward liberalism, and has become ecumenical in evangelism efforts.
The movement was one born of compromise, nurtured on pride of intellect,
growing on appeasement of evil, and doomed by the judgment of God's Word
(Lightner, p. 109). In general, the neo-evangelicals "are radical -- theologically,
politically, and socially" (Pickering, p. 131). One of the chief
spokesmen of neo-evangelicalism would be Billy Graham; chief
neo-evangelical scholars would be Edward Carnell, Carl Henry, and Bernard
Ramm; major neo-evangelical organizations would be the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE),
The World Evangelical Fellowship, the Lausanne Committee, Campus Crusade
for Christ, and InterVarsity
Christian Fellowship; and major neo-evangelical periodicals
would be Christianity Today and Moody Monthly. Chris
Seay -- Highly regarded for his innovative thinking, Chris Seay is
a leader in the emerging church discussion. He is the founding pastor of Currently,
Chris pastors Ecclesia, a
progressive Christian community in Chris
travels extensively speaking on faith and postmodernity. He has authored
several books including The Gospel according to Tony Soprano and The
Gospel Reloaded. Eric
Bryant -- Eric
serves as an elder, speaker, and navigator overseeing the leadership team at
Mosaic (Erwin McManus’ Carl
Albrecht -- Carl, one of the
Christian world’s most noted drummers, has played on 70+ Integrity Music
projects; Maranatha Praise Band recordings, and numerous Christian, pop, and
country projects working with such artists as Bob Fitts, Michael W. Smith,
and LeAnn Rimes. His video teaching series is considered the top worship
drummer resource. The
reader can download the brochure located at the link given above and see the
dozens of speakers and seminars of which I am speaking. What we fail to understand in much of this
is that we don’t need to learn from these people how to engage with the world
in ministry and how to conduct our worship.
We have the counsels and instructions all right before us in the
little red books. Why aren’t we
reading them and following their heaven-sent light? Why do we scorn and shun these things? Are we afraid to be viewed as peculiar,
fanatical, straight-laced? Surely that
would be the case. We would not
receive the world’s accolades for being true to our calling, but the level of
spirituality and true heart religion amongst our people would surely
improve. We could lose numbers in the
process, but the Scriptures make no push for numbers. We are to preach the truth and leave the
results with God. As I am doing now. Looking
over the workshops that are running, you will find that they are heavily
geared towards the entertainment aspects of “worship.” In
addition there is a whole lineup of contemporary gospel music artists to
entertain with evening Rock Concerts: Third Day --
“. . . not only one of the best Christian bands of the ‘90s but one of
the best rock bands, period.” Mercy Me – “.
. .Christian music’s fastest-selling
new act to one of the most successful bands in all musical genres, . .
. propelled into the mainstream
spotlight . . .” Counsels, Admonitions and Warnings from
the Pen of Inspiration: "If God has any new light to communicate, He will let His
chosen and beloved understand it, without their going to have their minds
enlightened by hearing those who are in darkness and error. . . . God is
displeased with us when we go to listen to error, without being obliged to
go. . . and the light around us becomes contaminated with the
darkness." EW 124-5 "There is to be no
compromise with those who make void the law of God. It is not safe to
rely upon them as counselors. Our testimony is not to be less decided now
than formerly; our real position is not to be cloaked in order to please the
world's great men. They may desire us to unite with them and accept their
plans, and may make propositions in regard to our course of action which may
give the enemy an advantage over us. 'Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them
to whom this people shall say, A
confederacy' (Isa. 8:12). While we should not seek for controversy,
and should not needlessly offend, we must present the truth clearly and
decidedly, and stand firm to what God has taught us in His Word. You are not
to look to the world in order to learn what you shall write and publish or
what you shall speak. [Or how you shall worship?] Let all your words and works testify, 'We
have not followed cunningly devised fables' (2 Peter 1:16). 'We have also a
more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a
light that shineth in a dark place'" (2 Peter 1:19). {2SM 371.1}. “Watchmen on the walls of “This is a time of general departure from truth and
righteousness, a time when we must build the old waste places, and with
interested effort labor to raise up the foundation of many generations. {RH, December 6, 1892 par. 10} "Thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The
restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath,
from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy
of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor
finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou
delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high
places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."
{RH, December 6, 1892 par. 11} "Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people
in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid
of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the
worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be forever, and my
salvation from generation to generation. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm
of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old . . . .
" {RH, December 6, 1892 par. 12} “While you hold the banner of truth firmly proclaiming the law
of God, let every soul remember that the faith of Jesus is connected with the
commandments of God. The third angel is represented as flying through the
midst of heaven, crying with a loud voice, "Here are they that keep the
commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." The first, second, and
third angels' messages are all linked together. The evidences of the abiding,
ever-living truth of these grand messages, that mean so much to us, that have
awakened such intense opposition from the religious world, cannot be
extinguished. Satan is constantly seeking to cast his hellish shadow about
these messages, so that the remnant people of God shall not clearly discern
their import, their time, and place; but they live, and are to exert their
power upon our religious experience while time shall last. {RH, December 6, 1892 par. 14} “The influence of these messages has been deepening and
widening, setting in motion the springs of action in thousands of hearts,
bringing into existence institutions of learning, publishing houses, and
health institutions; all these are the instrumentalities of God to co-operate
in the grand work represented by the first, second, third angels flying in
the midst of heaven to warn the inhabitants of the world that Christ is
coming again with power and great glory. The prophet says, "I saw
another angel come down from heaven, having great power: and the earth was
lightened with glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, “When Jesus began his public ministry, he cleansed the temple
from its sacrilegious profanation. Among the last acts of his ministry was
the second cleansing of the temple. So in the last work for the warning of
the world, two distinct calls are made to the churches. The second angel's message
is, " Again,
I ask, what are we doing in Let
us not be these people: “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask
for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find
rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.” Jeremiah 6:16. An (Compiled
by author, using www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com as
the basic springboard for research.) Intro
to glossary: As
you read through the following list of terms, you will realize that you are
looking at unadulterated New Age spirituality. This list is not comprehensive, for then it
would also include such items as “Renovare Study Bible,” “Enneagram” “Soaking
Prayer,” “Reiki” “Christian Yoga,” and much more, but it is not my intent to
write a book. The purpose here is to
facilitate an understanding of the EC/Contemplative Spirituality through
giving a definitive rundown of the terms which denote the kind of philosophies
and practices that are embraced by the New Age, Postmodern, Contemplative,
Emergent “Church.” Once a person is
aware of the basis of Contemplative New Age Spirituality, it should not be a
difficult matter to discern it when it is presented through teachers,
leaders, and brethren under whose spiritual sphere of influence you are
subject.
Alpha – the state
associated with relaxation, meditation, and dreaming. It is desired by contemplatives as a way to
go into the stillness and experience God.
Shamans, Witches and Occultists of all kinds, recognize it as “the
heart of witchcraft,” and “the springboard for all psychic and magical
workings.” (Lori Cabot, Power of the Witch). Breath Prayer --
picking a single word or short phrase and repeating it in conjunction with
the breath. In this context it would be a Biblical or Christian spiritual
word or prayer of a short sentence that can easily be uttered within one
breath. This is classic contemplative
mysticism as found in the Eastern religious practices such as yoga and
Buddhism and other New Age practices.
Its purpose is to “empty the mind in order to fill it.” It is just another method of using
meaningless repetition to put the mind into an altered state of
consciousness, known as “alpha.” Contemplative Prayer – As it is expressed in a modern day
movement it is the technique or method in which one silences or empties the
mind of thought through repetition, usually of a word or phrase or focus on
the breath, such as the “breath prayer.”
The desired silence achieved thereby would be an absence of thought,
all thought. The purpose of contemplative prayer is to enter an altered
state of consciousness in order to find one's true self, thus finding God. This true self
relates to the belief that man is basically good. Proponents of contemplative
prayer teach that all human beings have a divine center and that all, not
just born again believers, should practice contemplative prayer. Centering
Prayer – Prayer or spiritual discipline
such as Lectio Divina or even shamanistic drumming, that takes one into the
altered state of consciousness aka “the silence.” It can be viewed as synonymous with
Contemplative Prayer. “. . . a return to tradition and orthodoxy, to past
practices, observances, and customary ways of worshiping. But it is not
simply a return to the past—at least not in all cases. Even while drawing on
deep traditional resources, many participants are creating something new
within the old forms. They are engaging in what Desert Fathers, The --
In the early Middle Ages, there lived a group of hermits in the wilderness
areas of the Experiential
Prayer – Meditative, centering prayer
exercise to clear and focus the mind.
Can be achieved through the labyrinth rituals. See http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/whitingsarticle.pdf Interspirituality –
beyond ecumenism, interspirituality is the outcome of contemplative prayer
and is the uniting of all religions and the denial that Jesus Christ is the
only way of salvation. It is common
for folks to define their religious affiliation as “interspiritual.” Labyrinths
– A “Prayer Tool,” the labyrinth is a
winding walk through a maze pathway, that one takes physically. It is another way to perform contemplative
or centering prayer in which all paths lead to God, the middle-eye of “Divine
Illumination” (the mystical realization of our own Divinity) at the
center. Walking a Labyrinth is a
personal meditative activity and can be understood as a path of contemplation
or prayer for people in seeking the Divine or seeking peace without regard to
any particular religious tradition.
The Labyrinth has been part of the esoteric world for a long time and
its roots are deep into the occult, New Age, and pagan world; its uses and
purposes are as a “conduit for the mystical.” According
to the international Labyrinth Society it is
"a single path or unicursal tool for personal, psychological and
spiritual transformation. Labyrinths are thought to enhance right brain
activity.” (See “Alpha”). The
labyrinth exercise is broken into three parts: "• Purgation (Releasing) ~ A releasing, a letting
go of the details of your life. This is the act of shedding thoughts and
distractions. A time to open the heart and quiet the mind. (
http://www.gracecathedral.org/labyrinth ). (See http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/teichrib/labyrinth.htm for
more details.) Lectio Divina
-- Means “Sacred Reading” wherein the
practitioner reads a text or a portion of Scripture for an experience rather
than an understanding. It is to be
done repetitively, in a state of stillness.
Also known as “Centering Prayer.”
Participants are encouraged to boil the reading down to its essence of
a word or phrase and repeat it as a mantra. Practicing the Presence of God
-- Going into the silence to there
experience the oneness with the Divine, through the practice of the
interspiritual disciplines. Can also
refer to the use of the repetitious breath prayer, akin to the Catholic
practice of praying the rosary. Prayer Stations – A place set aside for prayer. It can be set up with a combination of
candles, incense, crosses, icons, Scripture passages, devotional questions, a
prayer notebook, and a soft place to kneel or sit. There can even be a guide
or helper there to pray with you. Can
also be called “Contemplative
Gathering Stations” or “Journey to the Cross.” "Stations of the
Cross" is a Catholic ritual with 14 prayer stations, each one with
pictures or sculptures that depict the various "stages" of Jesus
Christ's final days. This is a practice that began centuries ago and was
sanctioned by the Pope Clement XII in 1731. In more recent days the practice
has spilled over from the Catholic church into the evangelical church. Sacred Spaces – an
atmosphere conducive to Contemplative Prayer/Worship/Spirituality, created by
setting mood through props, art, furniture, fabric, lighting, incense, music,
etc. Derives from occult ritual in
which there is a sensory environment created in order to draw the spiritual
forces into a specific physical dimension and space. Silence, The --
One of the disciplines is the practice of the silence. Contemplative Henri Nouwen speaks of it as
“descending with the mind into the heart.”
And as many contemplatives teach, anyone can practice entering the
silence and get results. Silence is
described as a stilling of the mind. As Ray Yungen puts
it, it is like putting the mind in neutral. Witches call this the alpha state and
Laurie Cabot, a well-known witch, calls it the heart of witchcraft. Spiritual Directors, Spiritual Direction,
and/or Spiritual Directorship – Mentors and mentoring
programs in Spiritual Formation.
Spiritual direction is "the contemplative practice of helping another
person or group to awaken to the mystery called God in all of life," and
they respond "to this call by tending the holy around the world and
across traditions. Spiritual directors
are trained up from all spiritual backgrounds, including SdA’s. Spiritual direction is a long-established practice in
the Roman Catholic tradition and eminently compatible with the hierarchical
structures and priestly roles of the Roman Church. It was developed by Jean du Vergier de Hauranne in the
mid-17th century. An enemy
of the Huguenots, he became known as St. Cyran after becoming the abbot of
the Benedictine monastery by that name.
(Christopher Baker, ed., Absolutism and the Scientific
Revolution, 1600-1720: A Biographical Dictionary, p. 101; Greenwood Press: 2002). Spiritual
Directorship is the new priesthood, an “interspiritual” office, for the
purpose of bringing the world under one religion of Jesuit control. It is a confessional, which has its roots
in and is connected to Ignatian spirituality (Jesuit). To become a Jesuit one must go through a
program of Spiritual Exercises under the instruction of a Spiritual Director.
Basically,
the Spiritual Director functions as a kind of Father confessor. Derek J. Morris (former Professor of
Homiletics and Pastoral Theology at Southern College of Seventh-day
Adventists) quotes Elizabeth O’Conner describing the process: “It is an
open relationship where your fear, feelings of rebellion, critical attitudes,
misgivings, etc., are confessed… Your Spiritual
director is one to whom you want to reveal your hidden self.” (Elizabeth
O’Conner, Call to Commitment, New
York: Harper and Row, 1963, p. 201). Morris
also writes: “For much of the Christian era the practice of spiritual
direction was confined to Catholicism, particularly monasticism and the Society of Jesus [the Jesuits]. In
recent years, there has been a revival of interest in spiritual
direction as a
resource for spiritual formation
among both Catholics and Protestants.”
(Derek J. Morris, Spiritual
Formation in Ministry, p. 7).] Spiritual Disciplines –
Spiritual Disciplines, rightly understood and practiced are a good and
necessary thing. We need to pray,
read, study, and meditate thoughtfully
upon the words of inspiration, witness and evangelize, etc. The counterfeit Spiritual Formation is
effected through its own Spiritual Disciplines. It is a deceptive arena, for much of the
writing on the disciplines includes many good and helpful things to the
Christian that seeks God outside of his/her own self and not in the
silence of an emptied mind. Therein
lies the danger. “Typically, those who begin following the teachings of the . .
. [contemplatives], and begin
promoting the silence, continue steadily on a downward spiral into outright
mysticism and deception.” (Ray Yungen, A Time of Departing, 2nd ed.,
pp. 190-192.) These
other disciplines are Contemplative Spiritual rituals, exercises and
practices such as meditative prayer (with its “centering down” and
visualization exercises), lectio divina (scripture mantra), entering the
stillness of the silence, solitude, journaling (as God’s channeled thoughts
through automatic writing), etc. Spiritual Formation -- Spiritual Formation is just another
term for Contemplative Spirituality. The idea behind Spiritual Formation is
that we need certain practices and disciplines in order to be like Christ. “The best way to understand this process is to recall what
happened during the Dark Ages when the Bible became the forbidden book. . . .
I believe history is repeating itself. As the Word of God becomes less and
less important, the rise in mystical experiences escalates, and these
experiences are presented to convince the unsuspecting that Christianity is
about feeling, touching, smelling, and seeing God. The postmodern mindset is
the perfect environment for fostering spiritual formation. This term suggests
there are various ways and means to get closer to God and to emulate him.
Thus the idea that if you do certain practices, you can be more like Jesus.
Proponents of spiritual formation erroneously teach that anyone can practice
these mystical rituals and find God within. Having a relationship with Jesus
Christ is not a prerequisite.” (Coming from the Lighthouse Newsletter,
Oct. 08, 2007). http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletter100807.htm Stillness, The – see Silence,
The Taize –
A Contemplative worship service. Taize
is an ecumenical sung and silent participatory prayer service designed to
achieve a contemplative state through music, song (repetitive chant) and
silence. Practicing
the silence with icons, candles, incense and prayer stations, this very
contemplative interspiritual community is attracting young people from around
the world. |