ECUMENICAL MADNESS AND THE EMERGING WORLD CHURCH - NEW EVANGELICALISM
EXPOSED*

BY: Ken Silva

“When you come to appear before Me, who has asked this of you, this
trampling of My courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings!”

My guess is that there are some who have come to read this and are
awaiting a thorough biblical analysis of this cult which has emerged
within new evangelicalism. Some Christians hoping for Bible verses with
which to confront the Emergent, and the Emergent looking for verses with
which they can dispute. And this is one of the important points I am
making in this short piece. The so-called “conversation” of the Emerging
Church movement is not really interested in dialogue because they have
already decided beforehand what they believe. In my experience with
pastors of Emerging churches I’ve yet to meet one who was actually
willing to consider an opposing view.

All one need do to see the truth of what I have just shared is to take a
quick peek at Emergent What? , for example, and watch them descend like
piranha upon anyone who happens to disagree with their pontifications.
Well thought out arguments from Holy Scripture have been presented only
to be immediately dismissed because one or more the resident Emergents
simply say that the other person’s “interpretation” is wrong. Based on
letters I am receiving from brother pastors I am trying to help you see
here that if one truly wishes to understand the Emerging Church movement
it really is rather simple. This entire cult that is blossoming within
our Lord’s Church is nothing more than a rebellion against authority of
any kind, and most particularly the Bible itself.

This is why the traditional apologetic approach so common in
evangelicalism today is useless. There is no reason to try and coddle
this rebellion and to find its “good points.” Yet this also is a sad
sign of these tepid times in our Lord’s Church where we lack men with
strong spiritual backbone. A tragically false over emphasis on the love
of God is now so ingrained in the American Christian Church that we are
literally afraid of our own spiritual shadows. I am thankful to see that
recently Dr. John MacArthur, who has been a real blessing to the Church
of our Lord, did a whole series on the lack of discernment in
Christianity today. And with that lack of discernment has come an
unwillingness to speak out against the false teaching that is now so
rampant.

A New Reformation Of Love?

It’s time for us to come to see the bigger picture because the Emergent
Church itself is a primary part of the new evangelical Ecumenical Church
of Deceit that has nearly fully arrived on the scene of timid American
Christianity. The other major cogs in this Devil-designed serpentine
vehicle to enable people in these later times to abandon the faith and
follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons would be the
Purpose Driven Church and the Word Faith Church. And what needs to be
further understood is that they themselves are judgments upon the
apostatizing Christian Church that have been allowed by the Lord Himself
just as He permits their Mother in Rome to exist. Well, at least until
they all finally serve His ultimate purposes. God does not sleep.

I am currently in dialogue with a couple of brother missionaries who are
stationed in Europe and sadly they are battling much more advanced
versions of these terrible excuses for Christianity. Men and women, it’s
not like our Lord didn’t try and prepare us. For instance, in the mid
50’s A.W. Tozer saw these travesties like these coming and wrote:

If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation, it must be by other means
than any now being used. If the Church in the second half of this
century is to recover from the injuries she suffered in the first half,
there must appear a new type of preacher. The proper,
ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly
type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay and asks no
questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make
the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried
and found wanting.

Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the
old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a
voice from the Throne. When he comes (and I pray God there will be not
one but many), he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our
smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, denounce
and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition
of a large segment of Christendom.

Such a man is likely to be lean, rugged, blunt-spoken and a little bit
angry with the world. He will love Christ and the souls of men to the
point of willingness to die for the glory of the One and the salvation
of the other. But he will fear nothing that breathes with mortal breath.

But unfortunately instead we have seen the rise of almost the exact
opposite type “leader.” One who fears almost anything and instead of
defending the honor of God he or she seeks rather to please their fellow
man. The reason I mentioned my missionary brothers is that it has
partially been through their correspondence that the Lord has been able
to help me see the state of the Church in this country from a fresh
perspective. What has come emerging as I have talked with them is that
many they have been in dialogue with regarding the Emergent Church,
so-called “Christian” mysticism, and seeker sensitive doctrine feel God
is bringing about a new reformation. This one is to be a reformation of
unity, love and acceptance.

The Devil’s Double Play Combo Shows Up Again

The practice of contemplative spirituality–which has been sweeping
through the Church for a few years now–is what is behind this growing
false sense of the love of God. This practice is really meditation with
no real difference than that practiced in TM or Zen. Here’s a quick
example of how it slithered its way into the modern Christian Church. In
my library is a book called Spiritual Healing: The Art and Science of
Meditation which is edited by Willis Kinnear. This book is published by
Science of Mind Publications, a division of Religious Science
International, which itself is a Mind Science cult founded by Ernest
Holmes. And who should show up on the back cover? None other than Norman
Vincent Peale who says: “I am very grateful for [this] wonderful book.”

Peale was a practitioner and advocate of meditation himself and this
“spiritual discipline” was then picked up by his most prominent
disciple, one Robert Schuller. So from the Devil’s deadly duo the
practice of meditation then found its way to Rick Warren, who also
endorses contemplative spirituality, into the Purpose Driven Church.
Meanwhile in the early 90’s an idea was hatched to develop a parallel
seeker sensitive movement for the young that developed into the Emerging
Church. One of the doctrines at its very core is the new spirituality of
so-called “Christian” mysticism. Quaker Richard Foster, who is one of
the “key mentors” of the EC, now had a forum from which to teach his
warped concept of “spiritual disciplines” gleaned from his mentors such
as heretical Roman Catholic monk Thomas Merton.

Then “theologians” like Brian McLaren, who seems to have been waiting
for an opportunity such as this, and Tony Jones would rise to prominence
as they encouraged these practices further. Jones has written the
definitive book on the subject of spiritual practices/disciplines called
The Sacred Way. In fact the recommended resources in the back of this
book reads like a veritable “who’s who” of dubious sources and misguided
mystics. I am currently working on a more in depth look at this whole
subject of contemplative prayer/meditation and how we are told to
practice it by Jones and Richard Foster. The main point of this little
piece is to encourage you not to waste time in fruitless arguments from
Scripture with people who are involved in this spiritual “Tower of
Babel” because the deception runs soul deep.

By all means you must be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks
you to give the reason for the hope that you have (1 Peter 3:15).
However, at the same time the Bible also tells the Christian – And the
Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone,
able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently
instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them
to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and
escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his
will (2 Timothy 2:24-26). The time has certainly arrived where the true
follower of Jesus must conform ourselves to what the Bible tells us is
proper Christian conduct.

Lovers Of Themselves

Because the next chapter of that same book I just quoted also tells us –
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days (2 Timothy
3:1). That doesn’t sound too much like there’s going to be a new
reformation of love and unity to me. After all, what could possibly be
construed as “terrible” about that? But let’s look closely at something
that is quite revealing in the very first clause of the next verse –
People will be lovers of themselves (v.2). Customarily when this is
preached it is with the idea people shall be lovers of their own selves
– as the King James Version puts it. As in conceited and in love with
themselves, or self-centered.

Undoubtedly this is happening now and as long as the Lord tarries this
loving of one’s “felt needs” and one’s self will only grow worse.
However, I believe the Lord would wish me to inform you that this truth
concerning the last days where mankind will be lovers of themselves has
an even deeper spiritual meaning. Through contemplative
prayer/meditation people will also become lovers of mankind itself. You
can already see this beginning as the seeker sensitive Ecumenical Church
of Deceit attempts to undo the Reformation brought about by God the Holy
Spirit. She must do so in preparation for a new dance with her Mother in
Rome, which will then lead people to a false unity that is actually
based on mankind’s love for himself. You see, men shall be lovers of
their own selves – their own kind.

Now think back to what the Holy Spirit tells us in Romans 1:25 – They
exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created
things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Mankind is
preparing to worship himself through the “enlightenment/transformation”
that invariably comes to all who continue the practice of transcendental
meditation. Remember 2 Thessalonians 2:10 – they refused to love the
truth and so be saved. Do you think you can find a better fit for this
verse than the postmodern Emergent Church? But what happens in the next
two verses? For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that
they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not
believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

Yes, these verses find their ultimate fulfillment when the Antichrist
himself finally shows up, but don’t you remember God has already told us
– even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the
last hour. Beloved, we need to understand the times we live in, as God
abandons those who refuse to love the truth they will begin to worship
themselves, which is idolatry and that is to delight in wickedness. As
this new evangelical Ecumenical Church of Deceit further becomes lovers
of themselves and their own agenda you will see the following words from
our Lord Jesus Christ may even have a fulfillment in our time as well:

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate
each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.
(Matthew 24:10-12)

Can you see, a falling away–an apostasy. Betraying and hating each other
when people who profess to be Christian hate men like myself who are
only trying to call them back to the true Christian faith, calling them
away from idolatry and back to the worship of God. False prophets have
appeared preaching peace and love, deceiving people into a counterfeit
sense of unity as they now attempt to build a spiritual “Tower of Babel”
through the practices of mysticism long ago condemned by the Lord. And
because God is abandoning these people who refuse to love the Truth we
are seeing an increase of wickedness, until the love of most is growing
cold. O no, but not as it might first have appeared.

Once we may have thought that as the end of the Age of Grace approaches
there was going to be a decrease of spirituality, but instead it now
appears as if there will instead actually be an increase of religious
fervor. Still though the love of Truth, the love for God, and for His
Christ will grow cold…until finally Jesus asks – “when the Son of Man
comes, will He find faith on the earth?” You must understand that the
Master knows there will be faith on the earth, mankind will have plenty
of faith in himself. You see, our Lord’s melancholy question actually
means: “When I return, will I find faith in the holy and majestic LORD
God Almighty as revealed in the Bible on the earth?”

He who has an ear, let him hear…