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By Frances Swaggart
Wake Forest University professor and author, Charles Kimball, recently made this statement, “We must accept that some of our traditional ways of thinking are no longer adequate. . . . Narrow views are becoming increasingly dangerous in a world where terrorists have access to weapons of mass destruction. . . . Christians, Muslims, and Jews are all talking about the same God, but they don’t perceive him in the same way.”18 “The world’s religions are at a crossroads, forced to choose between paths of suspicion and violence or mutual cooperation and peace. . . .”19 Today, the Church of Jesus Christ is indeed facing a rising religious trend which says
“followers of Jesus” do not have to identify themselves as “Christians.” It actually culminates from several streams which range from religious politics, to new missions strategies, to modern experience-driven congregations, but what many fail to recognize is that this thinking actually fits occult theosophy to a tea! This is exactly what New Age occultists have been planning to introduce to Christianity for years!
TRUTH?
Occultist, Alice Bailey, said, “What is this church of Christ? It is constituted of the sum-total of all those in whom the life of Christ or theChrist-consciousness is to be found or is in process of finding expression. . . . Is it [The Church] spiritual enough to let go of theology and . . . widen its horizon and recognize as truly Christian all who demonstrate the Christ spirit, whether they be Hindu, Mohammedan, or Buddhist, whether they are labeled by any name other than that of orthodox Christian?”20 “The Christ has no religious barriers in His consciousness. It matters not to Him of what faith a man may call himself.”21 Yet, America’s most prominent “pastor,” as well as many others, whole-heartedly agree: “I happen to know people who are followers of Christ in other religions.”22 “I don’t see many people interested in Christendom. But I see a lot of people interested in God.”23 Former U.S. President, Jimmy Carter, a prominent Baptist, said, “the desire for oneness is a powerful force for global good. Differences of belief — even among Muslims, Jews, and Christians — are outweighed by a common commitment to truth. . . .”24 Such leaders try to convince the public that there is still a greater spiritual “truth” or “awareness” that humanity must seek to discover, but this is deception! The Greatest Truth has already been revealed!
As we discussed in the previous article, people are taught that they may simply “add Jesus” to the culture in which they were raised. In Mission Frontiers, Bulletin of the U.S. Center for World Mission, editor Ralph Winter makes this statement: “Isn’t it getting clearer that we’re never ever going to persuade all the Muslims to call themselves Christians and this itself is a very peripheral issue? Can’t we recognize that it’s not important, nor helpful — not merely impossible — to make very many Muslims to identify with the cultural stream called ‘Christianity’? . . . Our task may well be to allow and encourage Muslims and Hindus and Chinese to follow Christ without identifying themselves with a foreign religion. . . .”25 “Speaking at InterVarsity Fellowship’s Urbana Missions Conference, in February, 1997, Winter stressed the need to ‘de-westernize’ the Gospel. According to Winter, the key task of the West should be to allow other cultures to develop their own distinct kind of Christianity.”26 According to Sandy Simpson and Mike Oppenheimer in their new book, Idolatry in Their Hearts, “the new idea being presented is that God has left certain elements in every culture that are redeemable qualities, pathways to Himself. . . . They believe that in every culture God has left treasures and worthy traditions within the indigenous cultures to be used. They teach that we can bring Jesus Christ to the people and then leave them to worship God in their own cultural and religious ways . . . ‘redemptive analogies’ can be found in most, if not all, cultures”27
CULTURE?
Such stupidity has never been the nature of any true conversion experience in Christ, no matter the person’s background or the time period in history. Speaking of His Disciples,Jesus said,“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (Jn 17:16). And just exactly what makes up this “present evil world”? (Gal 1:4) — Cultures! People groups and their societal norms! Because people are spiritual beings, the societies they construct will naturally worship something. Therefore, we always see that Believers who have truly been Born-Again no longer want anything to do with the gods their native culture serves. This includes American culture, by the way, despite the fact that many of America’s spiritual affinities are hidden in secular terms. The truth is that the very basic definition of Salvation is to be Saved out of a world whose inhabitants are lost and dying in sin. This is why the Bible teaches Christians that they belong to a heavenly culture, not the cultures of this world. New Believers even acquire a new family when they come to Christ. “And He stretched forth His Hand toward His Disciples, and said, Behold My mother and My brethren!” (Mat. 12:49). Listen to this explanation of true Salvation experience taken from Idolatry in Their Hearts: “Those who heard the Gospel preached to them and recognized the freedom in Christ offered were Saved and delivered from the evil in their cultures. They immediately wanted to make a statement about the difference God had made in their lives. Can we blame them, in retrospect, for putting on clothes, stopping cultural activities that were tied to the demonic? Can we fault them for no longer being involved in sexual immorality, abuse, perversion, murder, and the occult?”28 This point is tremendously important. The heart of a true convert desires to display outward signs of an inward change! They want a testimony; they want a witness! You see, culture is the very thing from which Christ calls true Believers to separate! The Holy Spirit repeatedly cries: “. . .Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues”(Rev.18:4). Just as all sins of the human heart, the hindering yokes of your culture were broken by a Mighty Lamb! Jesus Christ is the Liberator, and when Jesus freed you at Calvary, He not only freed you from hurtful sins, He also freed you from chains that once felt comfortable, lies that once felt true, and prisons that once felt like home. You can be freer than you know. The things that are familiar to us are always more comfortable (even when negative) than the things that are unknown, but this is where Faith is used — in uncharted territory! Recognize this freedom and walk in it; you do not have to live in bondage! Be free in Jesus’ Name! “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (Jn 8:36). “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage”(Gal 5:1).
THE HIJACKING OF FAITH?
In the previous article, we also mentioned that Senator Barack Obama accused the Christian-right of hijacking faith.29 Strangely enough, we find that Christians, as a whole, have already been accused of “hijacking” the faith — and by the so-called Christian Church itself. Just exactly how someone hijacks his own faith is a mystery to me, but this sort of terminology is found in an extremely troubling book recently released by the modern “emergent church.” In fact, they call it their “manifesto,” eerily mimicking communities such as the communists and humanists who had similar declarations of their own! The Emergent Manifesto of Hope, is a collection of essays written by various emergent church leaders. It is edited and compiled by Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt, released by Emersion, a publishing partnership between Baker Books and the Emergent Village. Pagitt says the Manifesto “provides a rare glimpse inside the emerging church.”30 Muslim raised Samir Selmanovic, who later served as a Seventh Day Adventist pastor and is now part of the Emergent Village, makes this statement in the book: “Is our religion the only one that understands the true meaning of life? Or does God place his truth in others too? . . . The gospel is not our gospel, but the gospel of the kingdom of God, and what belongs to the kingdom of God cannot be hijacked by Christianity.”31
A VILE DOCTRINE?
This certainly is a hostile mind-set, don’t you think? Sounds a little like Christians are being called terrorists as if we are forcefully trying to eliminate other peoples’ beliefs. True Christianity only asks for freedom of speech, not the right to stop others from having beliefs of their own. But, these false shepherds are saying they want Christ without Christianity, Jesus without the Cross! They accuse Christians of “hijacking” faith when they are the ones cluttering the only true path to God. Their Manifesto of Hope declares there is hope but hope outside the Blood! The real terrorism facing the world today is this ever-increasing agenda to separate Christ from the Cross! In fact, one leader regularly speaking into the life of the “emergent church,” Alan Jones, directly called Christ’s atoning death a “vile doctrine”: “The other thread of just criticism addresses the suggestion implicit in the cross that Jesus’ sacrifice was to appease an angry God. Penal substitution was the name of this vile doctrine.”32 The “Emergent Church” is made up of mostly young people who basically “add Jesus” to postmodern culture. They claim that in so doing they have not changed the traditional faith, but in reality, they have done no different than the missionaries previously mentioned who tell foreign nations all they have to do is “add Jesus” to their ancient pagan religions.
THE AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURES
This youthful, peer-oriented segment of society was actually the easiest to conform to new age thought; all that had to be done was present the “broad way” as the “cool” way and the “narrow way” as if it were completely out of style! Scot McKnight, professor at North Park Seminary in Chicago, wrote an article for Christianity Today in February 2007, describing this new sect: “Emerging churches identify with the life of Jesus, transform the secular realm, live highly communal lives, they welcome the stranger, serve with generosity, participate as producers, create as created beings, lead as a body, and take part in spiritual activities.”33 Columnist, James L. Evans, says that you will not find this group trying to convert people from one faith to another faith; they are not evangelistic in the traditional sense. He explains: “one of the central concerns of the emergent Christian movement is the desire for their faith community to be all-inclusive — to welcome the stranger. This concern has resulted in high tolerance for people of other faiths. Emergent Christians have serious doubts about doctrinal ideas which hold that some are in and some are out — that is in or out with God.” Evans also says that emergent Christians “tend toward a more liberal social view. They are concerned about the poor and about the environment. The emphasis here for emergent Christians is on serving and being generous. They think it is more important to live and act in faithful ways rather than obsessing about what we should believe. This concern for people and the world is not a stance related to any political party. For emerging Christians, caring about people in this world is their mission in life.”34 Commenting on this group, Dave Hunt’s Berean Call ministries makes the statement: “The person who truly cares about an individual is willing to share the ‘words of Eternal Life’ (Jn. 6:68) with them. Most ‘Emergent’ Christians dismiss the authority of the Scriptures, deny the literal fulfillment of prophecy, and find reasons to excuse almost any behavior. They promote a Jesus conjured up from their own imagination and offer a gospel of good works centered on establishing ‘His’ kingdom on earth. This is the old liberalism and communal counterculture dressed in biblical garb. Tragically, they are a magnet to today’s evangelical youth.”35
CONNECTED?
Another excuse made by the modern church to try and justify its compromise is the idea that we need to “connect.” At the UCC’s 50th anniversary convention, Obama also said, “I’m hopeful because I think there’s an awakening taking place in America. . . . People are coming together around a simple truth — that we are all connected, that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper.”36 We are now supposed to connect with sinners, connect with other faiths, connect with all realms of society and culture in order to make the world a more “Christian” and “safer” place, but this makes no sense for the Believer, because if we “connect” with the world, we will at the same time have to “tolerate” their values. The more we connect, the more we will tolerate! In contrast to such thinking, David said, “I am become a stranger unto My brethren, and an alien unto My mother’s children” (Ps. 69:8).
Frances Swaggart
18 Charles Kimball. 2007 Community Prayer Breakfast at Harborside Event Center, Fort Myers. http://www.thebereancall.org/node/5681)
19 Ibid
20 Alice Bailey, From Bethlehem to Calvary, Chapter Seven - Our Immediate Goal, The Founding of the Kingdom,
http://laluni.helloyou.ws/netnews/bk/bethlehem/beth1083.html
21 Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul, The Reappearance of the Christ. Chapter III - World Expectancy, http://laluni.helloyou.ws/netnews/bk/reappearance/reap1018.html.
22 Aspen Ideas Festival, The Aspen Institute, July 6, 2005, “Discussion: Religion and Leadership,” with David Gergen and Rick Warren. http://www.aspeninstitute.org/site/c.huLWJeMRKpH/b.901097/k.C0C7/Agenda.htm. Transcribed from the audio available at Lighthouse Trails Research Project, http://www.lighthousetrails research.com/newsletternovember05.htm.
23 As quoted in “Rick Warren: Global Baptists ‘are all in this together’” by Trennis Henderson, Western Recorder, Baptist Congress Today, July 30, 2005, http://www.bwanet.org/Congress/congress today29f.htm.
24 “A World of Baptists” by Greg Warner, Associated Baptist Press, 8/5/05, The Baptist Standard, http://www.baptiststandard.com/postnuke/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=... quoting Denton Lotz, BWA General Secretary.
25 (Winter.“Twelve Frontiers of Perspective” Mission Frontiers)
26 Al Dager. The World Christian Movement. Sword. 2001, p. 58-59.
27 Idolatry In Their Hearts. Sandy Simpson and Mike Oppenheimer Apologetics Coordination Team 2007 (p.17-18)
28 Ibid. Taken from “Radical Contextualization” http://herescope. blogspot.com
31 (http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index .php? p=627&more=1&c=1) (p. 194)
32 (Alan Jones. Reimagining Christianity, 2005 p.168)
33 (Scot McKnight, Christianity Today in February 2007)
36 The Christian Post. Obama Points to Rick Warren, T.D. Jakes as Models for Faith-Driven Action. By Michelle Vu Mon, Jun. 25, 2007
By Frances Swaggart
