Willow Creek Expose December 2003/Revised 2004
BILL HYBELS’ $73 MILLION WILLOW CREEK AUDITORIUM OPENS
Completion of the 7,200-seat, $73 million, auditorium keeps Willow Creek in the ‘top ten’ largest church auditoriums in the country. The lobby includes a water wall, escalators, 12 kiosks connecting the church’s Web site, and an indoor coffeehouse with fireplace. Pastor Mark Ashton said, “This is really about creating a space for transformation to happen in peoples’ lives.” Ashton has led “TruthQuest Coffeehouse” and “The Biggies” where he not only promoted “The Matrix”, which he claimed to see eight times, but rhythmically read his way through the opening of the book of Genesis to prove it is really only “poetry.” As Willow Creek slips further from a “community church” to a “community center,” co-leaders Ashton and Richard Angle promote that Christianity does not have a corner on all truth anyway and that we can “find truth in all corners of the universe.” Angle approved practicing yoga and tai-chi, and the leadership can be found at the National Pastors Conventions alongside Purpose Driven Rick Warren, Moody’s Joseph Stowell, and Catholic mystic Brennan Manning where they include yoga and labyrinths as a common part of this “transformation.”
Christians are so uninformed about occultism that it must be blatant for them to recognize it. Matthew 7:22, 23 warns us that during the apostasy it is the “church leaders” who are led astray and will take their congregations with them. Make sure you are following the Lord and not “men.” Our generation is being prepared for deception through psychic powers as a result of tapping into some alleged universal force. Even top scientists are convinced that human potential includes incredible powers of the mind through reaching the right state of consciousness. This religious science will promise to lead humanity into the experience of its own divinity centered on self-love and self-worship of man. We are being conditioned to accept the coming satanic religion of Antichrist as a scientific mind technology—the coming transformation into a new age.
SPIRITUAL FORMATION AT WILLOW CREEK COMMUNITY CHURCH 2003-4
1. Not necessarily “AN ORDINARY DAY WITH JESUS.”
2. MARK ASHTON—
TruthQuest 2003: “The beginning of Genesis is a poem.” “….the truth can be found in all kinds of corners of the universe….”
3. RICHARD ANGLE—TruthQuest 2003: Struggles with homosexuality and is a leader at Willow Creek. “…Christianity doesn’t have a corner on all truth…you can find truth in a lot of things. As we get in touch with how people of other faiths think, then, I think we have more of a bridge that we can build to them.”
4. BILL HYBELS—Senior Pastor: mentor has been Robert Schuller who believes ALL WAYS LEAD TO GOD. Hybels trained homosexual pastors with Schuller.
5.
JOHN & NANCY ORTBERG—Late teaching pastors: teach New Age ‘centering’ and train pastors at conventions with labyrinths, yoga, and spiritual directors (
Yoga).
6. KATHY DICE—Late director of women’s ministries: was let go after 911
7. NANCY BEACH—Teacher at Willow Creek—National Pastors Convention…labyrinths..
8.
SIBYL TOWNER—Women’s mentor trainer/teacher—Numerology, Lectio Divini, covenant groups, breath prayers, promotes Richard Foster, Parker Palmer, Tilden Edwards, and works with Karen Mains’ “Hungry Souls.”
9. MINDY CALIQUIRE—Spiritual formation leader who led the congregation in meditation with arms outstretched and palms up winter 2003. Fosters “inner growth” on her web site. Look “up” not “in” Mindy!
10.
GILBERT BILEZIKIEN—Influential teacher; egalitarian.
11. RUTH HALEY BARTON—Spiritual director; praised by mystics; work with Tilden Edwards…
12. KERI WYAT KENT—Women’s teacher; speaks at retreats with labyrinths, centering, …various meditative..”
13. SUSAN SHADID—Children’s ministries; helped lead mentor training with Sybil Towner
14. MYSTIC QUAKER RICHARD FOSTER--“Foster teaches quietism, mantras, centering, Buddhism, Yoga, T.M.(TM wants to do away with Christianity!), spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola(Loyola killed Christians for Catholicism and Catholics say “anathema “ to those who claim the true Gospel which has nothing to do with Catholic rituals.”
15. TILDEN EDWARDS—“…. trainees at least need to be with someone who is their director, who can help them attend to the Master of Loving Truth within.”
16. MYSTIC QUAKER PARKER PALMER—“The soul: It is like a wild animal: tough, self-sufficient, resilient, but also exceedingly shy…if we are willing to go into the woods and sit quietly at the base of a tree, that wild animal will, after a few hours, reveal itself to you.” (THIS SOUNDS SCARRY!)
17. IGNATIUS LOYOLA—“He wrote spiritual exercises and, with the Jesuits, they would meditate and put themselves into a trance and levitate. The Jesuits were known for being the most cruel order of priests in what became what was known as the bloodiest time in the history of mankind.”
18. MYSTIC QUAKER GEORGE FOX—“The nickname “Quaker” came from the shaking aroused by inner struggles of individuals facing their inner motives “under the Light” in the Quaker meetings. They believe they have revived true Christianity and all other religions are false.”
19. ROB BELL-- Bell is well-known at Bill Hybels’ Willow Creek--“I preached that sermon one time at Willow Creek and the goat pooped right on the stage. A great moment in that fine church’s history... I feel like I helped them go to a whole new level of ministry in the Chicago suburbs. The same thing happened here at Mars Hill....”
20. DEPARTURE FROM THE SCRIPTURE IN THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH TODAY—Church Growth, Charismatic, Psychological, Consumer, and the Ecumenical church.
NOT NECESSARILY AN “ORDINARY DAY WITH JESUS”
Hailed by “mystics,” RUTH BARTON is a “spiritual director,” teacher, and retreat leader trained through Tilden Edwards’ Shalem Institute. She is cofounder of “The Transforming Center,” a community of Christian (?) men and women who shape and care for the souls of leaders—equipping them to guide their churches and organizations in becoming “SPIRITUALLY TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES” that discern and do the will of God(?). In 1995 John Ortberg and Ruth Barton unveiled “spiritual formation” at Willow Creek with their book “An Ordinary Day With Jesus.” Similar to mystic Richard Foster, who is promoted at Willow Creek and teaches astral projection, “An Ordinary Day With Jesus’” curriculum teaches to “pray the ordinary.” Too many mystics had the problem of abandoning family and responsibilities and this method is said to be the way to find A RHYTHM THAT IS MORE BALANCED FOR THIER JOURNEYS INWARD AND OUTWARD OF ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
God’s Word will stand up to man in his normal waking states of “consciousness,” but the typical Eastern or Hindu world view of inducing trance-like states of awareness opens people up to accepting bizarre teachings. Once you contact your “force from within” be prepared for takeover. Those who employ mysticism (altered states) renounce Jesus Christ as the only way and adopt a very different form of “spirituality.” INSTEAD OF SEEKING THE TRUTH OF JESUS CHRIST, TRUTH IS FOUND IN ‘ALL CORNERS OF THE UNIVERSE.’ Christianity is to be transformed from a sin-and-redemption focus to one that sees God manifest in creation—creation centered spirituality. Animism and repudiation of God’s command for man to take dominion over the planet are both occult beliefs. Those who do not believe in the God of the Bible believe that the creation itself somehow is God. Trees, animals, people and everything in the universe are all supposed to be parts of one big whole, which began by itself and guides its own destiny.
Actively engaging in EMPTYING YOUR MIND through occulitc/Hindu practices will leave you wide open to the demonic realm. Although we don’t fully understand how the mind (metaphysical) and the brain (physical) act, this is the realm in which the demons work and they understand it perfectly. DEMON POSSESSION HAS A LOGICAL EXPLANATION. If your mind can affect your own brain, then the similar non-physical nature of another mind might also be able to affect your brain. This gives rise to hearing voices, or seeing visions, or having the mind speak or write by controlling your body the same way you normally control your body. The unconscious, or the subconscious, was something that Freud really made popular in his theories in psychotherapy, the religious science. In the process of subjecting his patients to dream analysis and hypnotic trance in pursuit of childhood memories, Freud discovered that there was an unconscious side to consciousness. He concluded that it was in fact the most important part. He also suspected that it might be greater in scope than the individual’s own experience (tapped into a great universal something). Spirit possessed Carl Jung decided, with encouragement from his “spirit guide Philemon,” that at this unconscious level all minds are part of what he called the collective unconsciousness (Hindu concept) and described it as the source of mystical powers. NOT ON ANY SCIENTIFIC BASIS, these twin beliefs were accepted by faith by the disciples of Freud and Jung and became the foundation for the many psychologies and therapies that followed. Due to this nearly everyone accepts, as scientific fact, the religious belief that this vast unexplored region of inner space, your subconscious, is a reservoir of magical powers. There is this great reservoir called the unconscious, or subconscious, that is the seed of all your motivations. You do all these things without your even understanding because it comes from “somewhere deep inside you.” ON THE LESS THAN SOLID FOUNDATIONS OF SUCH THEORIES AND MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES THAT SEEM TO CONFIRM THEM, THE HUMAN POTENTIOAL MOVEMENT HAS BEEN BUILT. Self-improvement seminar leaders assure us that by simply LOOKING WITHIN OURSELVES we can discover all truth, all knowledge, and all power. In order to mind this supposedly unlimited potential, psychologists have attempted to explore unconsciousness THROUGH EASTERN MYSTICISM’S ALTERED STATES. States of consciousness that were first explored through hypnosis and then LSD. The further one retreats from normal consciousness, the more enlightened one becomes (22 Years of Expository Teaching—tapes by Pastor Jim Mooberry; TheFaithfulWord@ameritech.net: VARIOUS “Hypnosis.”).
Finding the inner-self? Altered states of consciousness? Hypnosis....it’s all the same. “....for all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord...” (Deuteronomy 18:9-13). Currently, the WILLOW CREEK BOOKSTORE is stocked with HENRY NOUWEN and RICHARD FOSTER’S contemplative books which replace biblical concepts with “centering prayer” that is said to be the same process as integrating the conscious with the unconscious as described by JUNGIAN PSYCHOPHERAPY. Carl Jung, who was suicidal and communed with a demon, taught beliefs about archetypal images, the occult and the collective coconsciousness. SPIRITUAL FORMATION is a new paradigm and “consciousness revolution.” Individual thinking and application of reason are discouraged for this new shift to “intuitive right brain” modes. The transformation of the old becomes new. THE OLD IS DISCARDED AND THE NEW IS INTRODUCED TO BRING ABOUT A SMOOTH TRANSITION INTO THE NEW GLOBAL COMMUNITY. To the new world advocate, there is no other viable alternative to the future survival of civilization than that of a new global community under a common leadership. During Hitler’s day, those not captivated by mind control and meditative techniques were motivated by a rapid hate campaign directed against the Jews. Expect to experience a new hate campaign against Christians to become more evident.
The apostle Paul states that there are those who preach a Jesus other than the Jesus preached, “For if he that commeth preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him”(2 Corinthians11:4).
Scripture warns us not to learn the way of the heathen, “Thus saith the Lord, ‘Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them’” (Jeremiah 10:2).
The integrity of His name is linked inextricably to the integrity of His Word. God has exalted His Word above His own name, “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified they word above all thy name” (Psalm 138:2).
MARK ASHTON
http://home.comcast.net/~m.fairlady Willow Creek Apostasy: “The Matrix”
http://www.xenos.org/xsi/breakouts.htm “Pastor of Seeker Small Groups”
http://home.comcast.net/~m.fairlady Willow Creek Apostasy: “TruthQuest/Biggies”
“The Biggies is a safe place to explore answers and hear others’ questions. This is a six-week seminar designed to allow you to wrestle through these questions - regardless of your spiritual perspective. You may have high knowledge about these subjects or low knowledge. You may be Christian, Atheist, Buddhist, New Age... or just searching. Multiple perspectives enrich our discussion, so all are welcome! There will be variance in each class, but you can expect high-impact teaching from Mark Ashton and other teachers, Q&A with experts in the subjects, and table discussion with other people who are also progressing on their spiritual journey. Please join us on Sundays at 9:00-10:15 a.m. in the Atrium, from January 18 through February 22. Mark Ashton will be the primary instructor for the Biggies class. Mark is the author of nine publications about Jesus and evidence for Christianity. He has spoken extensively at universities, churches and conferences - both domestically and internationally.” (
http://www.willowcreek.org/biggies.asp ).
Mark Ashton was the host of Willow Creek TruthQuest’s “Hidden Spirituality in the Matrix” last June. TruthQuest hopes to “provoke people” with great spiritual questions and spiritual thoughts...they love to discuss “big questions of life” like reality, truth, freedom, choice, and God. Mark confessed to watching the Matrix up to eight times just to figure out its many “intentional meanings.” He went to great lengths in discussing and promoting the movie. In fact, as he describes in the movie, he does an excellent job himself with the subtle use of “double meanings.” Subtly, the program added confusion to many. He confesses that “the Matrix” captured him with its philosophical components that were different than any other movie...he needed to see what those subtle details where. He said that the “kicker” is the movie’s “philosophy and spirituality.” Mark comments, “We look at all this ‘intentionality’ and ‘we wonder’...what are they trying to say.” Mark was intrigued by the second level of meaning in the movie...the reality shift. He claims that people like this movie because of the “question” that drives them to...the “deeper issues.”
Richard Angle announced that future events with TruthQuest that summer would include a plunge or field trip to the Islamic Foundation of Villa Park. A Muslim speaker would host lunch and a teach a great case for Islam from the Islam perspective (7/26/03)…he promoted that it would “clarify your beliefs” if you investigate other’s beliefs.” But what if you don’t have thorough understanding of basic Christian doctrine like the guests they encourage everyone to bring….? Even Mark Ashton proved his limited understanding “The Biggies” gathering on January 25 when he firmly taught that the first part of the book of Genesis is “poetry.” This lack of understanding is very dangerous for someone claiming to “know the biggies.” I look at Mark Ashton and all of his “TruthQuest’s intentionality” and I wonder…what is “he” trying to say. TruthQuest co-host Richard Angle announced he is taking a class in Buddhism presently just to see “if there are any foundations.” Both Ashton and Angle claim that “Christianity does not have an angle on the truth and that truth can be found in all kinds of corners of the universe.”(TruthQuest 1/9/04). (Ashton, Mark, Willow Creek Truthquest tape: “Hidden Spirituality in the Matrix”, 6/13/03).
In Willow Creek’s Bookstore I purchased the November/December 2003 issue of “Books and Culture: a Christian Review,” a publication of Christianity Today International. On p.22 I found a book review that helped me understand the “angle with the culture” that was surfacing. “What Heresy?” by Frederica Mathews-Green, who “claims” to be a Christian, expresses an author’s interest with Gnostic theology and texts as she reviews a new book. Not unlike Richard Foster’s non-Christian call for “renewal,” she felt that Christianity was “called afresh” to what she claims to be “the truth about God” in this book review. Her truth was the false idea that “God is within and permeates all creation.” SHE BELIEVES THAT IT IS THE CULTURE THAT EITHER EMPHASIZES OR NEGLECTS THE FACT THAT ANYONE CAN EXPERIENCE GOD DIRECTLY. She goes on to describe it not only as a “direct” but an “electrifying” encounter with the interior presence of God. She claims that she had her first contemplative experience as a “non-Christian” and that anyone can experience this because “GOD IS WITHIN EVERYTHING HE CREATES (pantheism).” So when the Gnostics claim that “The Kingdom of God is within you,” in Frederica’s opinion, it’s hardly a heretical statement. She goes on to report that today’s Neo-Gnostics would find a crowd around them, from 17th century Spanish nuns to 21st century American Pentecostals, saying, “That sounds like what I’m talking about.”
Although Frederica is right about Pentecostals and nuns following this thought, she is “clearly wrong about Christianity and the true God of the universe.” Sadly, both Pentecostals and mystic nuns have sought an “experience” and not true Christianity. Reliance upon outside, rational, and experimental proofs like deep breathing exercises (yoga), and meditation yield to inner, intuitional, and experimental proofs, but we need to follow God’s Word which establishes the values we are to believe and by which we are to act.
RICHARD ANGLE
http://home.comcast.net/~m.fairlady Willow Creek Apostasy: “The Matrix”
http://home.comcast.net/~m.fairlady Willow Creek Apostasy: “TruthQuest/Biggies”
TruthQuest has been gathering for about four years now. “Hopefully,” TruthQuest host Richard Angle explained, “people ‘Christians and non-Christians’ will gather together for charitable, open conversation in a way that all will benefit.” What they want to do at TruthQuest is share and learn from other’s opinions and for others to learn from them. White tablecloths were set with flowers and candles at each table. The coffee was good, there was a fine assortment of sweets spread, a musical guest, and people interested in why you where there. The Coffeehouse gathering seeks to “reach the culture” and “answer the big questions people have about their faith.” With an interactive format, their hope is that “people from all religious backgrounds” will come to discuss and learn about issues related to “spirituality.” Both hosts, Mark Ashton and Richard Angle, knew a lot of Bible facts and shared a lot of good points with the audience, but as the evening moved on the “truth” came out. In order to “reach the culture” Mark and Richard not only mistakenly promoted doing what the culture (world) is doing, but a false gospel. “…Christianity doesn’t have a corner on all truth…you can find truth in a lot of things. As we get in touch with how people of other faiths think, then, I think we have more of a bridge that we can build to them,” Angle commented. Mark Ashton immediately followed claiming, “I’m real close to Richard…I love to find truth in all kinds of corners of the universe.” Richard says he makes it his business to find out what other religions believe. Currently he is working on a course in Buddhism just to see what it is like and to see if it has any “foundations.”
“Willow Creek started in the 1970’s as a youth group, then it moved to a movie theater, and we just keep making it up as we go along” was how Richard Angle (
truthquest.richard@willowcreek.org ) described Willow Creek’s “historic roots” at the November “Truthquest Coffeehouse” on the topic “The Joy of Sects.” Richard opened with, “In Acts 2 the Apostle Peter...as he preached and 3,000 people were added to their number….not specific....like fundamental, Baptist…there were no separate distinctions among the people.” A panel of members from Willow Creek who came from different faiths answered questions. Willow Creek claimed its sole basis to be the 66 books of the Bible along with teachers to help them. The Roman Catholic rep chose to humorously mention that masturbation is a sin to RC’s, and, on a more serious note, recommended that Willow could learn from reading about the walks of prior pilgrims like Francis of Assisi. The Liberal rep shared that Liberals include Marxist ideas, compassion like Buddhism, objectivism, dialectic, free and open inquiry to Scripture, and belief that the kingdom of God is here and now...that is the reason for the emphasis on social justice...and Willow was learning from the liberals and something was “already in the wings.” Richard, Willow’s rep, made it clear that not getting married was especially important to him... “Do All Paths Lead to the Same Destination?” (
http://www.leaderu.com/wri/articles/paths.html ) was available for group discussion.
“Crossfire: Homosexuality” by Jarrett Stevens, 2003, tape #X0242. Jarrett announces at the top of the meeting, “..whatever your sexual identity is… we’re going to start discovering that how people aren’t exactly like us and that’s sometimes hard and weird and we have to figure out what to do with that.” One panel and staff member commented, “The Bible does not condemn desires…..there’s nothing wrong with desires.” When the question is raised, “Could someone love God and struggle with desiring someone of the same sex, this is a part of who they are, they’re wrestling with their desires, they’re in all different places of ‘I want to yield to God…blah, blah, blah, can I still be in leadership at Willow Creek?’” Truthquest’s Richard Angle answered, “I hope so...I have recognized those desires in myself and I am in leadership at this church.” (Bill Hybels trains homosexual pastors with Robert Schuller, 1997;
http://www.llano.net/baptist/hybelsn&v.htm )
BILL HYBELS
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/exposes/hybels/general.htm “General Teachings/Activities”
http://home.hiwaay.net/~contendr/5-2003.html ;
http://home.comcast.net/~m.fairlady “Protestant No More”
http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/hybels.htm “Hybels and Willow Creek”
http://www.llano.net/baptist/hybelsn&v.htm “Homosexual pastor training with Rick Warren ”
http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/hybels.htm “Quotes Scott Peck; Robert Schuller his inspiritation”
People are seductively being introduced to the rituals of Hindu worship in our churches today. At Willow Creek’s Wednesday night service, winter 2003, a "spiritual formation leader," Mindy Caliguire, was introduced. This was a special night of prayer for those who had concerns about our situation in Iraq. This guide led the body in ways best described as the New Age. The entire congregation was instructed to relax their arms and put their palms up and be silent and meditate for a few minutes. Bill Hybels praised her for how “deeply” she had just been praying. He introduced her as someone who is not seen much but was “very active” behind the scenes with the elders in the area of spiritual formation.
On the back of Brennan Manning’s 2003 book “A Glimpse of Jesus: A Stranger to Self-Hatred,” Bill Hybels comments “I attempt to read everything Manning writes.” Former Catholic priest/present Catholic mystic, Brennan Manning combines Eastern mysticism, psychology, the New Age movement, liberation theology, Catholicism and Protestantism. He claims his debt to the Catholic Church is enormous with its mysticism, beauty, the Eucharist, which he believes is true, and the long history of fine writers and thinkers. Manning regularly meditates (centering prayer) and reports having many visions and encounters with God.
http://www.faithalone.org/journal/1997ii/Caddock.html“Our values are our rock solid convictions—who we are at Willow. We are going to try to understand the culture. Jesus used to say every once in a while you have to change wineskins. When new wine is being made you have to put it in new containers. The old message needs to be re-packaged. It needs to be continually re-packaged so we can make sense to people living in the culture. That is a core value here. We will never change the message, but we will understand the culture and bring that unchanging message in undiluted uncompromising to the culture in a culturally sensitive way. It is a value of our church to be authentic with each other and to stop playing the games. You can’t get anywhere when people are playing games, the footing is soft...you can’t trust what people are saying to each other. Freedom comes when you don’t have to pretend anymore. It’s what Jesus meant when He said you can be free indeed. Cuz you can anticipate radically accepting love from each other--the freedom to no longer have to pretend. We hold that very highly here. If teachers come in and they try to be better than we know they really are we don’t let them teach anymore. If vocalists get up and they start singing songs that they don’t live out in their lives, we go.. you know what, it ain’t going to work. If it leads to truth telling, and confrontation, and sometimes having to do clean up and reconciliation its a lot better to go through the mess of that than to go on with masks on and all the pretending. Don’t you agree?” (Bill Hybels, “Vision Night,” 2003)
Bill Hybels, speaking to his congregation, said, “...In a survey you have said that you, and a lot of your friends, think maybe that all world religions are essentially the same. They are just overlays and all their doctrines are quite similar, and they all point the same directions, so what’s the big deal.. Why is it important to choose the right one if they are all basically the same. Instead of me preaching about it, we thought we’d bring experts from some of the major world religions and we would let them describe their beliefs and then we would let you, intelligent people, come to your own conclusions.” If you saw a variety, a lot of differences in these religions, you need to know the law of non-contradiction says, “Positions that are different from one another can not be equally true.” You’ve gotta figure out which you believe... on where you are going to drive that stake in the ground and say, on the evidence, on the search that I’ve done, this is what I believe....this is what I stake my life and my eternity on. We live in a very diverse world and we have to learn to get along with and respect and show deference and kindness to people who represent different religions and we have had a wonderful time.... with these brothers and sisters (panel of world faiths) who came to us to help us. I hope that as we leave that you will leave with the words of Jesus on your mind who said that the greatest of these, the highest kingdom law, or value, is the law of love...and while we may disagree about where it is where we drive our stake of conviction and belief we are called to be compassionate and understanding and respectful of those who believe differently. Do you agree with that statement? (“I Have a Friend Who....Thinks All Religions Are the Same..” Bill Hybels and guests Pt. 2, 2003 tape #0318). Why did Bill Hybels address members of very different faiths as “brothers and sisters”? We need to learn as much as possible about what someone believes before accepting him as a brother in Christ. God’s principles never change, and His law does not need additions. Without teaching his congregation biblical right from wrong, Hybels leaves his congregation on “shaky ground.” He leads them into the “wrong boat” where they will be forever tossed about by the waves of his “ever-changing wineskins” mentality.
Bill Hybels chose to interview President Clinton at Willow Creek because he is a leader, he was willing to talk about his successes and failures as a leader, and the congregation was going to learn from that. “…..when the day comes that you’re to proud to learn from someone’s mistakes, you’re just too proud…I think Christian leaders have to grow and grapple with how to respect people that we have vehement disagreements with…. somewhere along the way some of us have caved to a form of behavior that legalizes tearing people down, ridiculing people, believing the worst about people, rumor mongering, even hating. People who we have political differences with still matter to God.” Then Bill Hybels chose to berate and go into the details of some of the “Christians” who protested what he was doing, mimicking what he was just trying to correct in others. He continued, “GOD LOOKS AT IT HOLISTICALLY” and I thought that by having the president here we would no longer be able to theorize about these things…You’re going to have to look at a man and contend with your feelings… and…decide if you can agree to disagree with somebody….listen with ‘OPEN-MINDEDNESS.’”
In 1987, Bill Hybels mentor and inspiration, Robert Schuller, who believes that Christ is not the only way to heaven, said “it was time for the Protestants to go home to Rome.” Schuller also went to Rome to get the pope’s blessing before building his Crystal Cathedral. Scott Peck (frequently quoted at Willow) announced in 1983 that he had become a Christian, but his all-embracing definition of Christian included no statement of faith, and “millions of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, atheists, and agnostics.” (11/18/97 World ad)(emphasis mine). The Roman Catholic Church is at the forefront of this movement to unite religions, specifically Pope John Paul. The World Council of Churches promotes church unity and the unity of the human family. Ecumenism in the Middle East is in the process of making churches more open. It is also an attempt to bring the church, the synagogue, and the mosque closer to one another. It is a vision of one god for all the faiths. ROME CURSES THOSE WHO HOLD TO THE JUSTIFICATION OF FAITH ALONE. SHE TEACHES THAT GRACE IS CONFERRED CONTINUALLY THROUGH HER SACRAMENTS. This makes a place for her as a necessary means through which inner righteousness is given (1994 Catechism: “Justification is conferred in baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy.”) If inner righteousness is located in the person, not Christ, it can be lost and may need to be conferred again and again. Rome uses conferred justification to claim that the work of her sacraments is the work of the Holy Spirit: “Sacramental grace is the grace of the Holy Spirit, given by Christ and proper to each sacrament.” Sacraments replace Jesus Christ.
The Hybels have shown approval and respect for the author of the book "Codependent No More," Melodie Beattie. In her two sequels, "Beyond Codependency" and "Codependent Guide to the Twelve Steps," she promotes humanistic psychology. In "Codependent No More" she strongly promotes and endorses Alcoholics Anonymous/12-step programs. Beattie strongly advocates and teaches her readers to seek any "Higher Power." Beattie also endorses and highly recommends reading "A Course In Miracles," which is full of New Age teaching and "was dictated by a spirit guide" (masquerading demon). It is published by the New Age organization Foundation for Inner Peace. Beattie also endorses the best selling New Age book in the U.S. "The Road Less Traveled" by M. Scott Peck. Hybels speaks favorably of M. Scott Peck a number of times in his books and in various articles, yet never gives one word of warning about any New Age connections.
http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/hybels.htmJOHN & NANCY ORTBERG
http://www.caresonline.com/Presenters.html “Bible Study Videos—(New Age/altered states) centering, and (Monastic) rule of life”
http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/fbns/fbns464.html “Female Pastors”
http://www.nationalpastorsconvention.com/sched/nashville/4.php “National Pastors Convention—labyrinths, yoga, spiritual directors….”
http://home.hiwaay.net/~contendr/5-2003.html ;
http://home.comcast.net/~m.fairlady “Protestant No More”
John Ortberg is a speaker and has been a teaching pastor at Willow Creek. He is currently transitioning to Menlo Park Presbyterian in Menlo Park, California. Ortberg’s education includes a Master of Divinity degree and doctorate in clinical psychology from Fuller Seminary, where he currently serves on the board of trustees. Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, the second largest worshipping congregation in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (PCUSA), announced the extension and acceptance of an invitation to Rev. John Ortberg to serve as Teaching Pastor. John will join the staff at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in September 2003. For 129 years, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church has sought to be a community that is becoming more like Jesus. For more information about Menlo Park Presbyterian Church please visit
http://www.mppc.org/ .”
Nancy Ortberg was also teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church. She served as an area leader for Axis, a ministry dedicated to reaching unchurched 18-20 somethings and discipling them toward full devotion to Christ. Nancy spoke on a regular basis to the Willow Creek community, as well as to thousands of church leaders from around the world who visit Willow conferences. She also travels globally to speak on issues relating to the post-modern church. A native of California, Nancy holds a Master of Arts degree from Talbot Theological Seminary. She and her husband have three children.
http://www.judson-il.edu/news/storydetail.asp?type=jnew&storyid=266Both Ortbergs have various web sites for seminars and speaking engagements around the world; also videos and books ministry. Note Nancy’s New Age “centering” and John’s “Rule for Life.” The “Rule for Life” was written by St. Benedict in the early years of monasticism and is still used in monasteries, convents, and the Cenacle retreats like the one in Warrenville where Keri Wyat Kent is employed; also the terminology used in "The Discipleship for a New Age by Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul.
http://beaskund.helloyou.ws/netnews/bk/discipleship1/disc1390.html"Book of Rules" for Disciples of a New Age- “He walks upon the water and is not submerged therein.”
At the National Pastors Convention February 26-March 1, 2003 meetings were planned one-on-one with spiritual directors to explore your presence and call in your life. You get to embark on an hour-long journey through the prayer experience of Labyrinth. A personal guided meditation tour to help you “deeply” relate with God. Ruth Barton was scheduled to teach seminars on spiritual transformation (what are we "transforming" into?). General session speakers included John Ortberg and Rob Bell.
In 1995 John Ortberg and Ruth Barton unveiled “spiritual formation” at WCCC. The following year John was responsible for the push for equality of women at WCCC; those in leadership positions had to submit "joyfully" to women in leadership. Ruth is a graduate of Wheaton College, recently served as president of the Chicago chapter of Christians for Biblical Equality.
KATHY DICE
http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-ivpress/author.pl/author_id=6 “Bible Study guides”
http://home.hiwaay.net/~contendr/5-2003.html ;
http://home.comcast.net/~m.fairlady “Protestant No More”
Kathy Dice was the original director of women's ministries at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois. A Bible teacher, she has written several Bible studies that have been used at Willow Creek.
The original leader of the women’s ministries at Willow Creek, Kathy Dice, had been let go after 911. She had been moved from her position to work on writing Bible studies and then was told they could not support her anymore. Aware of the liturgical influences, Kathy Dice recalled that sometimes they would just like to light a candle. God wants us to read the Bible so we can get to know Him and understand His will for our lives. Jesus always prayed and served according to the will of His Father. The occult uses various methods of altering the consciousness as means of salvation. Candles offer a natural focus for psychic work in which gazing into the flame is considered one of the most spiritual forms of meditation. “The use of a mantra, or power word spoken softly can be used as you look into the flame. Although the word “Om” is said to be the sound of the universe that brought it into being, you can also use any rhythmic, resounding word as a focus. For the occultist, past-life work, astral projection and divination can all begin with the act of lighting a candle and then letting the feelings and images flow....you should have your arms resting comfortably in your lap with palms upwards. You will also then concentrate on your “breathing” to the point where you actually become your breathing as you focus on the candle and let its warm light fill your mind.” (Eason, Cassandra, “Candle Power,” Cassel & Co., 1999)
NANCY BEACH
http://www.nationalpastorsconvention.com/sched/nashville/4.php “National Pastors Convention—labyrinths, yoga, spiritual directors….”
Nancy oversees the use of creative arts at Willow Creek Community Church and serves on the church's Management Team. She's also a gifted teacher and speaks at both weekend and New Community services.
SIBYL TOWNER
“Hungry Souls” website’s methodologies and ideologies were taught, and recommended in a mailer at the end of the 2003 spring women’s study “Practicing Your Faith” at Willow Creek.
http://teamsundays.gospelcom.net/hungrysouls/bios.html Biographies--Sybil
http://teamsundays.gospelcom.net/hungrysouls/mentortraining.html Mentor training--Sybil
http://teamsundays.gospelcom.net/hungrysouls/beinghungry.html Ignorant Protestants learn “breath prayers”
http://teamsundays.gospelcom.net/hungrysouls/mentortraining.html “Personal trainers”
http://teamsundays.gospelcom.net/hungrysouls/alongside.html “Vibrations of life” (New Age Nature Worship)
http://teamsundays.gospelcom.net/hungrysouls/pilgrimages.html “Sacred Journeys” (Pagan rituals)
http://teamsundays.gospelcom.net/hungrysouls/spiritualdisciplines.html “Rule for Life”
http://home.hiwaay.net/~contendr/5-2003.html ;
http://home.comcast.net/~m.fairlady “Protestant No More”
Sibyl is heading up mentoring for women at WCCC and various other ministries there; also a trainer for the Hungry Souls Website with Karen Mains from Mainstay Ministries. Former occultist, now a Christian and author of the book “The Beautiful Side of Evil,” Johanna Michealson was a nurse for a psychic surgeon and a student of Silva mind control. She was taught the Silva method, that through visualization she could contact her guru. Since she thought she was a Christian, it seemed that it would be alright to visualize Jesus. Through meditation her visualized guru was Jesus just as she requested. At first this Jesus appeared kind and loving… But as the meditation sessions continued “Jesus” showed himself as a beastly character and made it clear to Johanna that she would suffer immensely if she failed to carry out his instructions.” (Dark Secrets Of The New Age, p. 113) After God caused Johanna to realize what was happening, what visualization was, its source, purpose, and the Satanic aspects of it, it took several months for the harassing “voices” and unsolicited apparitions to leave her alone. It took going to God in prayer and confessing her sin of being involved in this occult and denouncing it and asking the real Jesus to come into her life.
Women’s study February-May ’03 at Willow Creek; “Practicing Our Faith” by Dorothy C. Bass, endorsements:
1. “..remarkable...it includes some of the most insightful Christian voices of our time, but because its members prayed and talked and worked together to create this volume, modeling the way the church is meant to do its work.” PARKEY PALMER (mystic Quaker)
2. “..the essays challenge us to practice our faith with greater dedication and imagination. Drawing inspiration from Biblical tradition and from contemporary literature as well as their own experience…forge more deliberate and rewarding connections with ‘the sacred.”” Robert Wuthnow, Princeton U.
3. “ ..the inseparable domains of the Biblical and the mystical are precisely what we need as we prepare to enter the 21st century.” Maria Harris, author of Fashion me a People and Proclaim Jubilee!
p. xi “Practices are those shared activities that address fundamental human needs and that woven together, form a way of life. Reflecting on the practices as they have been shaped in the context of Christian faith leads us to encounter the possibility of a faithful way of life, one that is both attuned to present-day needs and taught by ‘ANCIENT WISDOM.’”
p. xii “We are guided by a variety of Christian models-the Black church, the Society of Jesus (JESUITS), the Society of Friends (QUAKERS), and young churches led by the apostle Paul-as we reflect on the importance of giving truthful testimony, making discerning choices, and shaping worthy communities.”
Sybil showed a clip from the movie “The Matrix” in her mentor training class at Willow Creek and recommended it. She also recommended the class to more keenly observe nature. At the end of a women’s mentoring class in which Sibyl Towner was the main leader, Sibyl was all excited about a spiritual exercise she had just done with a three-year-old relative. She said she had used it sixty-six times and offered it to a woman in the class if she wanted to try it. In this game she was excited because she felt the child "was ready" because she liked being "found by the great shepherd." A new generation is being reared up in the occult. Numerology is the analysis of hidden or prophetic meanings of numbers. On the web site “Creative Numerology” by Christine DeLorey, you will see notorious words of rebellion riddling her home page. Even her site address contains “free soul.” Her new book is called “Life Cycles: Your Emotional Journey To Freedom and Happiness.” It claims to be based on the principles of Free Will and the Cycles of Nature. She brings this ancient science out of the “unknown” and into the expanding consciousness of today’s reality. Readers who are “open minded” will become more emotionally aware of their current reality and its opportunities. She states that it is up to each of us to create “our own” realities and she offers simple “repeatable formulas” of numerology to describe the intricate emotional aspects of our lives. “Imagination” is one of the motivating agencies that helps transform your beliefs into physical experience.
http://www.numerology.freesoul.com/Contents.htm “Creative Numerology”
MINDY CALIGUIRE
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/soulcare/whysoulcare.html “Foster real ‘inner growth’”
http://fm2.forministry.com/qryArticlePrint.asp?Record=2772http://home.hiwaay.net/~contendr/5-2003.html ;
http://home.comcast.net/~m.fairlady “Protestant No More”
Mindy led the entire congregation at Willow Creek’s prayer night (winter 2003) for Iraq in a common New Age pose, instructing everyone to relax and extend their arms out and palms up. Bill Hybels praised her for “how deeply” she had just been praying (why does the "way" or "depth" matter in how she prays? The Pharisees were known for such displays.) He also let the congregation know that she was “very active” behind the scenes with the leadership in “spiritual formation.”
“A Powerful Prayer Focus No one knew. Bill Hybels didn’t know. The Programming team didn’t know. People at the service didn’t know. But God knew. With a leading from the Holy Spirit, Bill ended a recent weekend message on “Security” by offering people the opportunity to step toward the “solid” rocks on the stage to receive prayer. Hundreds responded at each service. “There is a current deep hunger for prayer,” says Mindy Caliguire, director of both the Ministry of Prayer and Spiritual Formation. “Willow Creek has many ways of touching people who are ready for that.” People are being touched at both weekend and New Community services. “Just before the war began,” Mindy says, “we devoted an entire New Community to prayer. It was incredible to see our congregation gathered in small groups, praying by name for those serving in the military.” Just as incredible: volunteers followed up by praying for each of the 3,500 people who had requested prayer that night. More recently, the series When Faith Gets Tested offered another opportunity for individual prayer. “Again, hundreds and hundreds of people came forward to receive prayer,” Mindy says. “We prayed along the lines of Greg Ferguson’s new song that so beautifully described key ways that God moves in our lives: ‘Fear Taker,’ ‘Peace Maker,’ ‘Storm Smoother,’ ‘Soul Soother.’”
http://www.willowcreek.org/news/prayer.aspMindy is the head of spiritual formation for the leadership at WCCC; she also teaches women’s classes at WCCC. She is involved with her husband Jeff in “Soul Care Communications,” an organization which fosters “inner growth” and has a special emphasis on journaling. Journaling emphasizes one's "inner life." There is a distinct danger in spending too much time on one's own thoughts rather than on God's Word. Christians need reflection on "God's will" found in the Scriptures. We cannot serve God from our "own" heart because of our sinful nature.
The late psychic Edgar Cayce describes occult forces as the application of unseen or unfelt laws to the physical or material life...(4185-2). “Know self and ye would know the occult” (33443-1). Occultists use journaling to contact the spirit world. Dana D. Eilers lists the New Age practices in her book "The Practical Pagan," 2002,
GILBERT BILEZIKIAN
www.wayoflife.org/fbns/fbns/fbns464.html “Female Pastors”
http://www.llano.net/baptist/nivfembible.htm “…a quiet, unstoppable reform movement…says Bilezikian…”
http://www.llano.net/baptist/genderneutralniv.htm “Gender Neutral Bible”
http://home.comcast.net/~m.fairlady “Dr. B., Angelina, Oprah and the “Nature” of Things Purple
Bilezikian a founding elder and an influential theologian at WCCC. Egalitarians assert that women should be pastors, elders, and co-heads of families. They twist Scripture just like George Fox did to make this possible. Professor emeritus at Wheaton College and author of "Beyond Sex Roles," is pushing the move at Willow Creek that believes “there cannot be authentic community as described in the New Testament without the full inclusion of the constituency of members into the ministry life and leadership of the group.” In the book "Mothers of Feminism; The Story of Quaker Women in America" there are obvious parallels that can be made with Bilezikian’s book "Beyond Sex Roles."
RUTH HALEY BARTON
http://www.napce.org/archives/confer01/confer01.html “National Pastors Conference…labyrinths…”
http://www.gospelcom.net/cgi-ivpress/author.pl/author_id=868 “An invitation to ‘silence’… book”
http://www.thetransformingcenter.org/ruthsbio.asp “Ruth’s ‘transforming center’”
http://www.heartsandmindsbooks.com/articles/jan02.htm “Mystics review their friend Ruth Barton”
http://www.shalem.org/mission.html Shalem’s Mission and History
Barton is a spiritual director, teacher and retreat leader trained through the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation(Tilden Edwards!) and the Pathways Center for Spiritual Leadership (Nashville, Tennessee). She is cofounder of The Transforming Center, a community of Christian men and women who shape and care for the souls of leaders--equipping them to guide their churches and organizations in becoming spiritually transforming communities that discern and do the will of God.
Educated at Wheaton College and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Barton has served on the staff at several different churches, including Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois. She co-authored with John Ortberg "An Ordinary Day With Jesus;" presented spiritual formation in 1995 with John Ortberg at WCCC; President of Chicago chapter of Christians for Biblical Equality; spiritual formation minister at WCCC. Ruth is a spiritual formation speaker for NAPCE pastors conferences. At the conferences, one-on-one spiritual directors and training are offered (This is clearly Occultic—a Christian does not seek a "director" when relating with God.)
“Since our opening 20 years ago, Hearts & Minds has emphasized a selection of contemplative writers, spiritual and devotional classics and has attempted to foster an appreciation for Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant mystics ...Some mystics, as most of us know, tend to so emphasize the ecstatic spiritual experience that they seem disinterested in ordinary life....So, we struggle: just how does all this deeper spiritual language translate into daily life? And does it empower us for a life of thoughtful discipleship in the modern world, or does it lead us to retreat into what is sometimes called “navel-gazing”?”......“pray the ordinary” as Foster puts it, and find that rhythm of a balanced journey inward and outward.....it will serve as a helpful follow up for those using An Ordinary Day With Jesus, by considering the significant work of Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson and that postmodern evangelist Len Sweet’s powerful invitation to “mezzuzah your universe.”
http://www.heartsandmindsbooks.com/articles/jan02.htmKERI WYATT KENT
http://www.cenacle.org/ “One of Keri’s retreat spots…labyrinths…”
http://www.gospelcom.net/ivpress/keriwyattkent “Lectio Divina, Centering Prayer…retreat with Keri”
Keri is teaching women’s ministry classes at WCCC (other teachers included Char Tofilon, and Lynn Siewert—Lynn clearly instructed mantra prayer/meditation); she is involved in Cenacle Retreat House Spirituality Center-Interactive Retreats where you can experience “God within” in a variety of ways-through art, walking the labyrinth, Franciscan priest’s prayers, chanting, meditation, Indian sound mysticism, and other journeys to your creative center. She frequently speaks at MOPS.
The Garden of the Soul Retreat
http://www.gospelcom.net/ivpress/keriwyattkentWish you could create more space for God in your life? Want some practical teaching on spiritual disciplines for your leadership team, your ministry? Keri is currently accepting bookings for The Garden of the Soul Retreat. This interactive retreat allows your group to learn and practice the concepts taught in Keri's book, The Garden of the Soul. Keri will help you customize the retreat: you select the topics and practices you want to include. This can includes teaching on solitude, meditation, reflective reading and other spiritual practices, as well as time to practice them. You can also have Keri guide your group through disciplines such as Lectio Divina, centering prayer, guided solitude exercises and more.
SUSAN SHADID
http://www.willowcreek.com/events/children/breakoutsb.asp “Willow Creek Association ‘Breakout’..training”
Teacher from the Middle East who taught spiritual mentoring with Sibyl Towner in the women’s mentoring classes recently. She also has web sites for WCCC Promiseland.
RECOMMENDED AUTHOR: RICHARD FOSTER
http://www.watch.pair.com/message2.html“Foster teaches quietism, mantras, centering, Buddhism, Yoga, T.M., spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola, Eastern religion and other non-Christian techniques.” At the 1979 World Congress of Hinduism it was stated that their main mission in the West had been a great success and that the end of Christianity has come near. At the 1981 TM conference in India a spokesman claimed that the entire mission of TM’s emergence is to counter the demon of ever spreading Christianity. Hinduism is based upon the same ideas that the Bible says the serpent introduced to Eve in the Garden of Eden. Yogis teach the same lie, “death is merely the doorway to reincarnation and that humans can become gods.” The serpent has been known as “energy” or “the force” and worshipped as the symbol of wisdom and immortality in every religion and culture. Only in the Judeo-Christian Bible is the serpent identified as deceiver, destroyer, and archenemy of God and man.
Foster is being promoted in thought and books at Willow Creek. Foster’s book “Spiritual Classics” is currently stocked under classics at the Willow Creek bookstore. In his book, Thomas Merton has a chapter and there are not only discussions on the meaning of “silence,” but, on page 128, Quaker founder George Fox’s experience with “hearing a voice” is detailed. Foster is a mystic Quaker and a psychologist at Fuller Seminary. Along with William L. Vasivig Foster directs the Renovare movement. In his book, "Celebration of Discipline," instruction is offered using guided imagery in occult practices of visualization, meditation, and astral travel. In the forward to the book, "Power Healing" by John Wimber, Foster endorses Wimber’s apostolic role and claims that the author speaks with confidence as one who is living out of the divine center. The Eastern mysticism term, "divine center," means God is a universal consciousness, residing within everyone, guiding them on the path to evolutionary perfection. In a similar manner Quaker Quietists believe "God is within." Renovare is an ecumenical movement that disregards doctrine.
In 1991 Foster’s second “National Conference on Personal Spiritual Renewal of Christian Leaders” had more than one thousand pastors and leaders in attendance, the directors praised occultist/psychiatrist Carl Jung as a great psychiatrist emphasized personal renewal through ‘meditative prayer’ involving ‘centering down’ to become quiet and passive, then used guided imagery and visualization of Christ. Foster called for unity in the body of Christ through the ‘five streams of Christianity,' the contemplative, the holiness, the charismatic, social justice and the evangelical.
RECOMMENDED AUTHOR: TILDEN EDWARDS
http://www.shalem.org/http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1994/v51-1-article11.htm “ yoga….”
Tilden Edwards is also supported and his name is referred to in the books used in the women’s classes. He is an Episcopal priest and founder and director of the Shalem Institute For Spiritual Formation(Ruth Barton). You can purchase his book “Spiritual Friend” in Willow Creek’s bookstore. Edwards describes in his book, "Spiritual Friend," Paulist Press, 1980, pp. 210-212, a time of grouping together of the Catholics and Protestants. He calls this grouping a reconstellated understanding of direction in which no one is thoroughly confident and that it is a humble sense of equality. He writes of a dimension of charisma that can only be attended as an unfolding process and how the program can provide launching, sensitising, and securing platforms, yet they are only puny in comparison to the spirit’s movement in the person when the time has come. Future "spiritual friends" were to be selected mainly from those who have a B.A. or equivalent and express commitment to Truth through a particular major religious tradition and at the same time are open to learning from other traditions. In 1978 they had about 50 people apply for their first program. He was disappointed with having no black applicants. They chose a group of almost equal numbers of men and women and of Roman Catholics and Protestants, and a good mix of parish clergy, religious community members, chaplains, seminary faculty, advanced students, formation directors, and laity working in various church and community situations.
Tilden claimed it was unfortunate that they had no apprenticeship to a master because we still live in a relatively masterless time and trainees at least need to be with someone who is their director, who can help them attend to the Master of Loving Truth within. He described the training as a mid-wife, attending the birth of deeper spiritual sight through cleansing, aligning, and resting. This faithfully appropriated integrative sight is what "makes" a good spiritual director. It is not the accumulation of knowledge. It is the nakedness of sight. The program can be taken for graduate academic credit...some are taking it as part of academic doctoral programs in Christian Spirituality at Catholic University..and some as part of master of divinity programs. (pp. 210-212, Tilden Edwards, Spiritual Friend, Paulist Press, 1980,).
In a wise introduction to A New Christian Yoga, Tilden Edwards, Executive Director of The Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington, D.C., explains: Many Christians today, from monks to lay people to clergy, find themselves turning to hatha yoga as a way of more fully living out an incarnational Christian faith. That faith has valued the human body as a precious divine gift worthy of Christ. For a variety of unfortunate historical reasons, however, it has never, in practice, paid systematic, positive attention to the body in spiritual formation. To the degree Christ asks us to see and share his inspirited body as itself a sign of God's loving presence with us, we could say that the body itself is a sacramental reality. "This is my body-take and eat-"; incorporate into yourself my body-spirit, reveal God in your whole being.
http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1994/v51-1-article11.htmRECOMMENDED AUTHOR: MYSTIC QUAKER PARKER PALMER
http://csf.colorado.edu/sine/transcripts/palmer.html “Discovering the ‘sacred’”
The soul: “It is like a wild animal: tough, self-sufficient, resilient, but also exceedingly shy…if we are willing to go into the woods and sit quietly at the base of a tree, that wild animal will, after a few hours, reveal itself to you.” (THIS SOUNDS SCARRY! Clearly not Christian.....)
Parker Palmer is also enthusiastically endorsed and quoted by Sibyl in her mentoring classes. Parker is also a Quaker. He, not unlike the Dalia Lama, believes that a life illuminated by spirit and infused with soul will transform education. “As we go into these five days together, let us remember one thing about the soul. It is like a wild animal: tough, self-sufficient, resilient, but also exceedingly shy…if we are willing to go into the woods and sit quietly at the base of a tree, that wild animal will, after a few hours, reveal itself to you. And out of the corner of your eye, you will glimpse something of the wild preciousness that this conference is looking for. I ask for guidance for myself and, as Quakers say, hold the entire conference in the light, to be here, to be present to each other in the right spirit, speaking our truth gently and simply…ground in our own experience and expanded by experiences that are not yet ours. Compassionate toward that which we do not yet understand, not only as a kindness to others but for the sake of our growth and our students and the transformation of education. Amen.” Notice his talk follows the Dalai Lama at a recent conference.
RECOMMENDED READING: IGNATIUS LOYOLA
“Around 1550 the Jesuits began infiltrating every religion and denomination to destroy them for the mother church.”
Loyola was responsible for torturing and killing Protestants in the Counter Reformation. He was the first general of the Jesuit army. He wrote spiritual exercises and, with the Jesuits, they would meditate and put themselves into a trance and levitate. The Jesuits were known for being the most cruel order of priests in what became what was known as the bloodiest time in the history of mankind. The Catholic Church was convinced that it was the kingdom of God on earth and saw the Protestant Reformation as a threat. It determined to regain what it had lost and to put the whole world under its religious domination once and for all. After spending time healing a broken leg and reading about pious Roman saints, Loyola felt inadequate. He confessed his sins for three days at a shrine of the Virgin Mary. His conscience troubled him yet he choose to earn his salvation by obedient service to the pope rather than except Christ’s free offer of salvation. The Jesuits believed that to kill or torture is justifiable if it is done for the cause of the church. Around 1550 the Jesuits began infiltrating every religion and denomination to destroy them for the mother church. Later they started their own schools, colleges, and universities. They saw education, not unlike the Dalia Lama, Parker Palmer, or Tilden Edwards, as a way to serve the church by strengthening people who were already members and reclaiming those who had become Protestants. This agenda is sounding very familiar lately.
A Christian is still condemned by the Roman Catholic Church today which has over 100 anathemas against Christians that were pronounced by the Roman Catholic Councils of Trent and Vatican II. Rome curses those who hold to “justification of faith alone.” She teaches that grace is conferred continually through her sacraments. This makes a place for her as a necessary means through which inner righteousness is given (1994 Catechism: “Justification is conferred in baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy.”) Inner righteousness is located in the person, not Christ, and it can be lost and may need to be conferred again and again. Rome uses conferred justification to claim that the work of her sacraments is the work of the Holy Spirit: “Sacramental grace is the grace of the Holy Spirit, given by Christ and proper to each sacrament.” Sacraments replace Jesus Christ.
There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. John 12:48.
If we, or an angel from heaven, should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! Galatians 1:9
QUAKER INFLUENCE: GEORGE FOX
http://www.georgefox.edu/acedemics/undergrad/cresdesc/rel.htmlQuakers are frequently quoted amongst leaders in the women's ministry at Willow Creek. As we research the founder of Quakerism we can see the connections. George Fox was the founder of Quakerism. He was described as an inward and serious child. He was kept away from playing with other children since he was different and quite withdrawn. His mother encouraged him to spend many hours of solitary meditating and Bible reading. When his mother died he continued on in his "religious struggles" with great loss. After seeking a pilgrimage for anyone who could answer his spiritual yearnings he had a religious experience where he actually heard a voice (masquerading demon)say: "There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition." Fox concluded that Jesus Christ was the "Light within" that everyone had the potential to experience. Fox believed, not unlike Gilbert Belizekian, that there was "that of God" in all men and that we are all a "holy community" where no one has dominance over another and where there is no reason for war.
Like Gilbert Belizekian, Fox pushed a strong egalitarian movement and set up women preachers as he twisted Scripture to make sense of his “experiences” and explain his unscriptural choices. Quaker women sought equality from their beginnings and had women teachers and circuit preachers known to abandon their large families at the start. In some of their earlier travels they appeared to enjoy arguing with young theologians and even went to such extremes as walking through the streets naked to oppose hypocrisy. Their acts were considered to be under the direct leading of the Holy Spirit. Some of their experiences were described as response to falling deeply in love and they would follow whatever the Spirit wanted. The nickname “Quaker” came from the shaking aroused by inner struggles of individuals facing their inner motives “under the Light” in the Quaker meetings. They believe they have revived true Christianity and all other religions are false.
Margaret Fell, wife of George Fox, instructed to “let the Eternal Light search you…for this …will rise up and lay you open…naked and bare before the Lord. …Keep down your Minds that questions and stumbles at the power of God. Puritan Francis Higginson writes during the summer of 1652: Groups met in homes or on crags sometimes a hundred or two hundred in a swarm…..and continue all night long. They have no singing of psalms, no reading or exposition of Holy Scripture, no administration of sacraments…. Their speaker for the most part uses the posture of standing, or sitting with his hat on, his countenance severe, his face downward, his eyes fixed mostly towards the earth, his hands and fingers expanded, continually striking gently on his breast, …his voice low, his sentences incoherent…Some stand in the market place…and cry “Repent, repent, woe, woe, the judge of the world has come.” They exhort people to mind the Light within, to hearken to the voice and follow the guide within them, to dwell within…The priests of the world (they say) do deceive them, ….they speak of living under the cross, and against pride in apparel and covetousness. (The Quakers by Hugh Barbour and J. William Frost, Greenwood Press, 1988, Westport, CT.)
In 1648 Fox stood up and opposed a meeting of Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, and Anglicans when a woman was silenced and not allowed to speak in the church. Fox said that because the church is a spiritual household in which Christ is the head that women may be allowed to prophecy and speak. In 1656 he wrote a tract where he explained that he thought that people respond "to a certain measure" of their attained Light of the teaching of Christ in their heart. He taught that 1 and 2 Timothy, where Paul writes that women are to keep silent in churches, is only Paul’s "attained level of knowledge on the subject."
Fox needed to attain the truth found in: 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness." And "Every word of God is flawless; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words, or He will rebuke you and prove you a liar." Proverbs 30:5,6
In his second tract he believed Paul was merely speaking to a particular group of unsaved women who had not been raised to that "certain level of understanding" so he didn’t actually condemn the preaching of all women. Unfortuantely he was not instructed in the Scriptures on the fact that all Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). Or that every word is flawless and He is a sheild to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words, or He will rebuke you and prove you a liar (Proverbs 30:5,6). Fox continued to write and defend women and stated that the Holy Spirit is available to everyone and no one had the right to stop it. (sounds like Bill Hybels in his membership book p. 119 where he states divisions and hierarchies will not be tolerated). As his followers turned to him for advice and counsel (instead of the Scriptures), Fox was compelled to bring others to the liberating experience he knew and to also confound false teachings.
In 1654 pairs of those who "had received the calling from the Quaker light" set out to reach all parts of England. At a gathering at a rented hall in a tavern in London, and at an orchard in Bristol: John Audland, who very much trembled, stood up, full of dread and shining brightness on his countenance, lifted up his voice as a trumpet, and said, "I proclaim spiritual war with the inhabitants of the earth who are in separation from God." Some fell on the ground, others crying out under the sense of the opening of their spiritual states.
("The Story of Quaker Women in America" by Margaret Hope Bacon, Harper & Row Publishers, 1986)
"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than Christ." Colossians 2:18
ROB BELL
http://www.worldmag.com/world/issue/04-10-04/national_4.asp “Keeping It Real,” World Magazine 4/10/04
http://home.comcast.net/~m.fairlady “Rob Bell’s Reframing of Mars’ Hill”
http://nationalpastorsconvention.com/2003/bios/speakers/bell.php “NPC Rob Bell speaker 2003”
http://nationalpastorsconvention.com/programs/gs/sandiego.php “Stowell, Warren, Manning—NPC”
http://nationalpastorsconvention.com/sched/nashville/full.php?printIt=yes “Ruth Haley Barton, Compolo, Manning, Gordon MacDonald, Howard Hendricks, Townsend & Cloud, Nancy Beach, Margaret Becker, John Ortberg—labyrinths, yoga, contemplative prayer, sustainable life forum: Ecology, Post Evangelical book club, seizing your divine moment…”
http://www.youthspecialties.com/sabbath/future.php “Mike Yaconelli: labyrinths, silence, meditation—for youth.”
http://www.willowcreek.com/servicebuilder/servicepages/service.asp?servid=154 “Bell at Willow Creek”
http://cci.gospelcom.net/ccihome/PPF/pg/convention/toc/program/default.asp “Assoc. of Christian Camps and Conferences—Rob Bell bio.—Youth Specialties, Willow Creek, NOOMA..”
The Webster Dictionary defines subvert as “to PERVERT OR CORRUPT BY AN UNDERMINING OF MORALS, ALLEGIANCE, OR FAITH.” It is to “OVERTHROW OR OVERTURN FROM THE FOUNDATION—to turn from beneath.” FULLER GRADUATE Rob Bell has been working on “reframing faith in Jesus Christ” through misinformation, theatrics, and doubts. The 33-year old pastor Rob Bell claims to emphasize “realness” at his MARS HILL BIBLE CHURCH in Grandville, Michigan. Bell is well-known at Bill Hybels’ Willow Creek and has spoken at the NATIONAL PASTORS CONVENTIONS with various Willow Creek leaders as well as Catholic mystic Brennan Manning, Gordon MacDonald, Moody’s Joseph Stowell, Saddleback’s Rick Warren and the late contemplative Youth Specialties’ Michael Yaconelli. SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION is promoted at these conventions with SUSTAINABLE LIVING, LABYRINTHS, YOGA, SPIRITUAL DIRECTION, CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER, AND ECOLOGY.
In the 4/10/04 WORLD magazine an article on GEN-X CHURCHES writes that Rob Bell is KEEPING IT REAL. For those who are turned off by the “watered-down preaching” of many boomer churches, a new generation of evangelicals was forging A NEW BREED OF CHURCH. Aware that the self-esteem message is bankrupt, Bell promotes sharing personal struggles and being passionate about spiritual transformation because THIS IS WHAT TODAY’S GENERATION WANTS. Another NEW MOVEMENT is predicted in 20 years when the children of Gen-Xers come of age. In the spring of 2004 Christianity Today’s “Leadership Journal,” Rob Bell described his subversive art of preaching. BELL SAID HIS WHOLE PACKAGE IS “SUBVERSIVE.” LIKE JESUS. His plan is to “rescue preaching with poets and artists” and say great things about GOD AND THE REVOLUTION…
Let’s take a CLOSER LOOK at Rob Bell as he describes his preaching style: “I preached that sermon one time at Willow Creek and the goat pooped right on the stage. A GREAT MOMENT IN THAT FINE CHRUCH’S HISTORY… I FEEL LIKE I HELPED THEM GO TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL OF MINISTRY in the Chicago suburbs. The same thing happened here at Mars Hill—I GUESS IT’S A THEME IN MY PREACHING (laughter)… I had a shepherd and a sheep on stage, and I brought all the kids down. Then I wanted them to run all over the building, all over the place shouting, ‘GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST.’ AND AT THAT MOMENT THE SHEEP IS POOPING ON THE STAGE. So I’m trying to tell the kids to go, and they’re all staring at the sheep. IT WAS A GREAT MOMENT.” Not only is Bell “subversively blasphemous,” he “weaves New Age thought” throughout his ideas: “Jesus said, ‘Look at those birds, look at the tree… The world of the Scriptures is full of pictures. Jesus says, ‘Spirit is like wind.’ The Eastern mind thinks in terms of pictures, the Western mind in words. The Eastern thinks, ‘God is a rock.’ The Western mind makes a statement of faith—more comfortable with definitions and precision… Today you have a culture that thinks in images. I’m a child of television, part of a whole generation that’s image-based in its thinking.”
The apostle Paul purposefully avoided the ideas of the culture, which happened to consist of various sects of philosophers. He called it a “vain thing” (Acts 17:21-25). These people were not genuinely interested in “old-fashioned ways” and at their “theater at Mars’ hill” they merely desired to “hear something new.” They preferred telling and hearing. Knowledge begot in this manner was flashy and superficial. They wanted new schemes and new notions in philosophy, and new forms of religion, for new gods that came newly up, new demons, new fashioned images and altars; they were given to change. We are to deliver the Gospel the same way as Paul did without changing it. We don’t want to soften the Gospel just so we don’t offend anyone do to our cultural sensitivities of our day. Our culture is slowly accepting pornography, homosexuality, adultery, criminal actions by public leaders, and perversion of the original Constitution. Seminaries where our future ministers were trained, have been infiltrated and a “higher criticism” of the Bible has been introduced. The new ministers have been “socialized” so that they will accept change in government and never speak out to warn others. The postmodern believes that there is no absolute truth, but the Gospel message is a truth that is unchanged by time or circumstances. It is an absolute. If we add to or subtract from the Gospel we don’t have the Gospel message anymore. Our lives depend on this unchanged message.
DEPARTURE FROM THE SCRIPTURE IN THE EVANGELICAL CHUCH TODAY: CHURCH GROWTH, PSYCHOLOGICAL, CHARISMATIC, CONSUMER CHURCH, ECUMENICAL CHURCH
Pastor Jim Mooberry has taught from Scripture that, “The church age is like a field, which is going to grow by the “seed”—the Word of God.” “Now the parable is this: The seed is the Word of God” (Luke 8:11). The apostles were concerned with the neglect of study of the Word. “Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, ‘It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables” (Acts 6:3). Church growth actually equals the Word of God “being kept spreading.” Samaria had “received the Word of God and that was what qualified them to be a church. “And the word of God increased; and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the truth” (Acts 6:7).
“Now when the apostles which were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John” (Acts 8:14). The ministry was to proclaim the Word of God. “And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister” (Acts 13:5).
“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe”(1Thessalonians 2:13). The Word of God is not human opinions. “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (Hebrews 4:11).
Many have given their lives for the Word of God. “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held”(Revelation 6:9).
Jesus says that the only thing that matters and can give you life is the Spirit and He does His work through the Word. “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). The apostle Peter says that you owe your very existence to your new life. The very existence that comes in our life and makes us new born to the Word of God. That’s what does it, not anything else. When you share your testimony with someone you may be wetting their apetite… but when it comes right down to it they need to hear the Word of God because that’s what brings faith. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:23). Sanctification is the setting apart of our hearts day by day to God. The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in making you holy, more like Christ proceeds from the Word of God—that’s the truth that sets you free when you understand it. “Sanctify them through the truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17). “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (1 Peter 1:3). We can do without anything else, but we cannot do without the Word of God. When we begin to move away from the Word of God as our soul ministry, our soul hope, by the degree that we move away from it, it is the degree that the church gets weakened and eventually falls.
The “PSYCHOLOGICAL CHURCH” moves into a form of Gnosticism. GNOSTICISM IS “HIDDEN KNOWLEDGE.” IT WAS THE BASIS FOR THE MYSTERY RELIGIONS OF PAGANISM. In a sense, what secular psychology has said is that we have tapped into wisdom and understanding about the human soul and human nature. This is denial of the sufficiency of the Scripture for human wisdom. This movement began in the liberal seminaries and churches with classes on the psychology of religion—why people have faith and whether or not it was positive—because Freud had said it was all a big neuroses to have faith and believe in religion. In the 40s—60s it began to move into more evangelical realms. By the 80s it had gone mainstream and now it is the mainstream of evangelicalism today.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:17-17). The Word of God “is adequate.”
“Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” (Proverbs 30:6).
In church history, anything that was called new was bad. In theology new has almost always been bad. Today, because we live in an evolutionary mindset where things are betting better… new and better almost go together. “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20). There is an opinion that is mutual. The world thinks that the wisdom of God is foolishness and God says the world’s wisdom is foolishness as far as he is concerned. To substitute human wisdom for God’s Word seems to be of the uttermost ridiculousness, but has been made to sound as though is in fact what we’ve been waiting for, for centuries. Moody Bible Radio used to specialize in programs of worship and praise and Bible teaching and now they have much more counseling programs and call-in counseling programs than they have ever had in Bible teaching if you look at their schedule.
The “CHARISMATIC CHURCH” IS A MOVEMENT AWAY FROM SOLA SCRIPTURA INTO MYSTICISM. Mysticism is the idea that truth can be found through experience. It is a denial of the authority of the Scripture for human experience. “I have discovered truth, I have labeled an experience truthfully by my own experience and intuition.” This began in our century around the turn of the century in 1900 in Bethal, Kansas with the beginning of the Pentecostal church. For decades it was considered a very occult-like sect by many although there were many dear Christians that were involved, but they were just mistaken in their understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit. It was pretty much limited to Assemblies of God and Pentecostal worship until 1960 in the Episcopal church in Van Ives, California where Dennis and Rita Bennet used the rector of the Episcopal church there supposedly to get the second blessing and this experience. It moved then into the denominations and that’s sometimes called the second wave around Charismatic teachers. Where it spread out from just the Pentecostal Assembly of Gods and Church of Gods into the mainline denominations. It even spread into Catholicism. The third wave is the Vineyard movement and it has spread now into all evangelicalism. DENOMINATIONS REALLY HAVE NO BARRIERS ANYMORE. Our brothers and sisters who are in these movements may have the best of motives—but they’ve mad a mistake.
“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them”(Isiah 8:20). If a teaching is brought forth that is not in accordance with the Word of God then it does not proceed from light, but from darkness. Not all of our experiences are from God. It doesn’t men we are not Christians, but we have to subject them to a very strict scrutiny by the Word of God to know their true character. We don’t want to know what you “feel” or what “you did,” but “THUS SAITH THE WORD OF GOD.” “Now concerning the spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led” (1 Corinthians 12:1-2). “Human experience (mysticism) led you to the idols…”
The “CONSUMER CHURCH” is heading toward pragmatism (if it works then it is valid). THIS IS THE DENIAL OF THE POWER OF SCRIPTURE FOR HUMAN METHODS. In the 60s and 70s this raised its head with the Evangelical church—called the “church growth movement.” IT WAS CHAMPIONED AT FULLER SEMINARY. Peter Wagner was one of the early leaders, Lyle Schaller has written around 50 books in this movement. While they had some legitimate observations about patterns of growing churches they took a very sociological viewpoint approach and they ended up saying that they were certain things that you could do that would ensure that your church would grow. If your church wasn’t growing, something was wrong. This exploded to a great degree in the late 80s because of the WILLOW CREEK COMMUNITY CHURCH idea of the “seeker service.” It is often a withdraw of just trusting the power of the Word of God to do what is supposed to do—bring people to Christ. ROBERT SCHULLER’S CRYSTAL CATHEDRAL has a waterfall inside it—the architect took Schuller’s theological concept “we need to put man back in the garden…. That is the most amiable place for man to hear the Word of God and be impacted by it.” He took it very literally and created a garden aspect in that church… BUT THERE IS VERY LITTLE “WORD OF GOD” IN SCHULLER’S SERVICES.
“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it”(Isaiah 55:11).
The ECUMENICAL CHURCH IS ALL ABOUT “Being one” and it denies the primacy of Scripture for human union. Brethren are allowing important central doctrines to not matter in their quest for union. But it is headed toward pantheism. If we are to be “one” organizationally on this earth then we are going to have to give up some of the distinctions of what the faith is and we ultimately go into what is called pantheism. This ecumenism movement gathered a lot of steam in the 40s-60s especially with the “World Council of Churches”(WCC). Back then, evangelicals stayed away from it like the plague. Their big push was for church union for the sake of impacting society. This is now in the evangelical church. In the “Evangelical and Catholic Accord,” evangelicals are coming together expressing their visible union for the sake of impacting our society. But stopping all of the abortions and crime will not save our society—ONLY THE WORD OF GOD CAN SAVE US. Political action is not going to have that great of an impact—PREACH THE WORD OF GOD INSTEAD.
“And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, ‘Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good” (1 Kings 22:13). Micaiah saw the Word of God as primary, never to be sacrificed. DOCTRINE DOES DIVIDE. When something is true and something is false it can’t help but divide. We cannot sacrifice the Word of God for some glorious human union.
“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry” (2 Timothy 4:2-5). This has happened over and over again in history and will have its greatest manifestation in the last days. Christians will put themselves in such a way, turn away, in such a position that they cannot even hear the Word of God… they don’t want to hear it. (
Mooberry).
