The Signs and Wonders Movement Hit The Nazarene Denomination Part Two

The Signs And Wonders Movement Hit The Nazarene Denomination Part Two



There is no fresher or more intimate revelation than Scripture. God doesn’t need to give us private revelation to help us in our walk with Him. “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16 – 17; emphasis added). Scripture is sufficient. It offers all we need for every good work.

Christians on both sides of the charismatic fence must realize a vital truth:God’s revelation is complete for now. The canon of Scripture is closed. As the apostle John penned the final words of the last book of the New Testament, he recorded this warning: “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life, and from the holy city, which are written in this book” (Rev. 22:18-19). Then, the Holy Spirit added a doxology and closed the canon.

When the canon closed on the Old Testament after the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, there followed four hundred “silent years” when no prophet spoke God’s revelation in any form.

That silence was broken by John the Baptist as God spoke once more prior to the New Testament age. God then moved various men to record the books of the New Testament, and the last of these was Revelation. By the second century A.D., the complete canon exactly as we have it today was popularly recognized. Church councils in the fourth century verified and made official what the church has universally affirmed, that the sixty-six books in our Bibles are the only true Scripture inspired by God. The canon is complete.

John MacArthur



This article is going to be less about Dan Bohi and more on the problems of extra biblical revelation.

In another of Dan’s speech’s from Crossroads Tabernacle July 5 2010 at around 46:47 Dan states when talking about Exodus chapter 14 “This is what I think happened.” Then he goes way off the map and starts talking about this little chubby boy who probably carried loaves and fishes and then the kid yells out “Mom lets get wet”. Dan then goes off on another bunny trail and talks about faith and how a little child shall lead them and that you need water to be born again and then millions follow into the water.

Interesting story but that was not at all what happened in the scriptures in Exodus 14. The real scary thing was that around 48:06 someone in the crowd goes “Wow” as Dan tells this story.

Dan also compares the pillar of fire and pillar of cloud to the Holy Spirit.

Scripture however proclaims this to be an angel of the Lord.

Now Dan has been proclaimed by some as being a prophet of God.

And it is also advertised that Dan reads through his Bible once every 30 days.

Hmmn

Also a thing about the Word Faith/Signs and Wonders crowd. Notice they have to dig into the Old Testament to help proof text what they say because even though there were signs and wonders that accompanied the sharing of the gospel. But to say it was the norm for the early church I believe is error and we need to keep in mind what scripture states about the end times.

You know I never hear John MacArthur or Justin Peters proclaim how often they read the scripture’s. I know they encourage everyone to read the scriptures for themselves though. But do you know how I can tell that both John and Justin read their Bibles?

They rightly divide the Word of God.

Teachers that proof text, go off on stories and bunny trails are more often than not just trying to wrap scripture around something that they have thought up instead of rightly dividing the Word of God.

These kind of teachers should be avoided.

So again the question is does God still speak to us?

And again I would say to you of course God does but through his Word.

When we are praying for a new job of course its great to ask God for a job because we know Gods Word says we should work



2 Thessalonians 3:10

New King James Version (NKJV)



10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.

We should seek Gods will in everything we do but why do we make it so complicated?

We also know-

Proverbs 3:5-6

New King James Version (NKJV)

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,And He shall direct your paths.

Its all a matter of trust.

I know people with very good hearts really want to do Gods perfect will and honor Him with their lives.

I think this is a worthy endeavor for sure but should we be listening to voices in our heads or voices in someone elses head?

Some would set themselves up as spiritually elite and they have just a little more Holy Spirit than the rest. This is to have power (not ordained by God) over other people.

So again should we be listening to voices in our heads?

John MacArthur states..

The charismatic movement began barely a hundred years ago, but its influence on evangelicalism can hardly be overstated. Its chief legacy has been an unprecedented interest in extrabiblical revelation. Millions influenced by charismatic doctrine are convinced that God speaks to them directly. “The Lord told me …” has become the favorite cliché among these Christians.

Not all who believe that God speaks to them make prophetic pronouncements as outlandish as those broadcast by charismatic televangelists, of course. But they still believe God gives them extrabiblical messages—either through an audible voice, a vision, a voice in their heads, or simply an internal impression. In most cases, their “prophecies” are comparatively trivial. But the difference between them and Hinn’s predictions is merely one of scale, not of substance.

Similar ideas have found sweeping acceptance even among noncharismatic Christians. Evangelicals have eagerly devoured Experiencing God, by Henry Blackaby and Claude King, which suggests that the main way the Holy Spirit leads believers is by speaking to them directly.According to Blackaby, when God gives an individual a message that pertains to the church, it should be shared with the whole body. As a result, extrabiblical “words from the Lord” are now commonplace even among noncharismatic evangelicals.

That is precisely why modern evangelicalism’s infatuation with extrabiblical revelation is so dangerous. It is a return to medieval superstition and a departure from our fundamental conviction that the Bible is our sole, supreme, and sufficient authority for all of life. In other words, it represents a wholesale abandonment of the principle of sola Scriptura. Historic Protestantism is grounded in the conviction that the canon is closed. No “new” revelation is necessary because Scripture is complete and absolutely sufficient.

Scripture itself is clear that the day of God’s speaking directly to his people through various prophetic words and visions is past. The truth God has revealed in Christ—including the complete New Testament canon—is his final word (Heb. 1:1-2; cf. Jude 3; Rev. 22:18-19).

Scripture—the written Word of God—is perfectly sufficient, containing all the revelation we need. Paul tells Timothy: “From infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:15-17).

That passage makes two very important statements. First, “all Scripture is God-breathed.” Scripture speaks with the authority of God himself! It is certain, reliable, and true. Jesus himself prayed in John 17:17, “Your word is truth.” Psalm 119:160 says, “All your words are true.” These statements set Scripture above every human opinion, every speculation, and every emotional sensation. Scripture alone stands as definitive truth. It speaks with an authority that transcends every other voice.

Second, the passage teaches that Scripture is utterly sufficient, “able to make you wise for salvation” and able to make you “thoroughly equipped for every good work.” What clearer affirmation of the absolute sufficiency of Scripture could anyone ask for? Those who seek fresh messages from God have, in effect, scorned the absolute certainty and absolute sufficiency of the written Word of God. And they have set in its place their own fallen and fallible imaginations.

Does this mean God has stopped speaking? Certainly not, but he speaks today through his Word. Does the Spirit of God move our hearts and impress us with specific duties or callings? Certainly, but he works through the Word of God to do that. Such experiences are in no sense prophetic or authoritative. They are not revelation, but the effect of illumination, when the Holy Spirit applies the Word of God to our hearts and opens our spiritual eyes to its truth.

We must guard carefully against allowing our experience and our own subjective thoughts and imaginations to eclipse the authority and the certainty of the more sure Word.

The signs and wonders camp as well as the Emergent church camp also buy into visualization or imaginative prayer.

Richard Foster recommends visualizing prayer in his popular book Celebration of Discipline:

“Imagination opens the door to faith. If we can ‘see’ in our mind’s eye a shattered marriage whole or a sick person well, it is only a short step to believing that it will be so. … I was once called to a home to pray for a seriously ill baby girl. Her four-year-old brother was in the room and so I told him I needed his help to pray for his baby sister. … He climbed up into the chair beside me. ‘Let’s play a little game,’ I said. ‘Since we know that Jesus is always with us, let’s imagine that He is sitting over in the chair across from us. He is waiting patiently for us to center our attention on Him. When we see Him, we start thinking more about His love than how sick Julie is. He smiles, gets up, and comes over to us. Then let’s both put our hands on Julie and when we do, Jesus will put His hands on top of ours. We’ll watch and imagine that the light from Jesus is flowing right into your little sister and making her well. Let’s pretend that the light of Christ fights with the bad germs until they are all gone. Okay!’ Seriously the little one nodded. Together we prayed in this childlike way and then thanked the Lord that what we ‘saw’ was the way it was going to be” (Celebration of Discipline, 1978, p. 37).

This is not biblical prayer; it is occultism.

Davis Cloud writes and warns..

Visualization prayer is not faith. Faith is not based on imagination; it is based on Scripture. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). God has given us everything we need in Scripture and our part is to believe what God says. “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31). We have everything we need to know about Christ for the present in the Scripture, and we accept it by faith. “Whom HAVING NOT SEEN, ye love; in whom, THOUGH NOW YE SEE HIM NOT, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8).

visualization prayer is presumptuous because it goes beyond divine Revelation. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” By going beyond what the Bible says and trying to delve into Bible history through the imagination, I am leaving the revealed things and entering the secret things.

Fifth, visualization prayer is dangerous. It is dangerous because it adds to Scripture. If I get in the habit of visualizing Bible scenes, I can easily think that my visualizations are authoritative. I can fall into Rome’s error of accepting extra-biblical revelations. It is also dangerous because demonic entities can involve themselves in my vain imaginings.

Consider an example given by emerging church leader Tony Jones in his book The Sacred Way. His friend Mike King made John 1:37-39 the focus of contemplative practices at a spiritual retreat. While practicing the Ignatian exercise of imaginative prayer he put himself into the biblical scene. He imagined himself sitting around John’s breakfast fire with the disciples, listening as they carried on an imaginative conversation. He imagined seeing Jesus approach and embrace John. He imagined hearing them tell stores of their childhood. He imagined them laughing. Then he imagined Jesus getting up and leaving, with John’s two disciples following. He imagined them walking into the desert and coming to a clearing, when suddenly the imagined Jesus turned around began interacting with him.

“When Jesus turned around, the two disciples of John whom I was following parted like the Red Sea and Jesus came right up to me, face to face. Jesus looked past my eyes into my heart and soul: ‘Mike, what do you want?’ I fell at the feet of Jesus and wept, pouring my heart out” (The Sacred Way, p. 79).

Notice that the imaginative prayer practitioner feels at liberty to go far beyond the words of Scripture to fantasize about the passage, creating purely fictional scenes. And observe that the Jesus that he imagines (which is certainly not the Jesus of the Bible because we do not know what that Jesus looks like and nowhere are we instructed to imagine seeing him) takes on a life of its own and interacts with him. This is either pure fiction and therefore absolutely meaningless, or it is a demonic visitation akin to a vision of Mary.

King says that he was powerfully affected by this imagined event. “That day changed me profoundly and is something I will have for the rest of my life, for Jesus said, ‘Come, and you will see…”

He thus pretends that Jesus actually said this directly to him, when in fact he only imagined it in a purely fictitious sense.

So be careful of the signs and wonders movement.

Here is what scripture states about those who seek after signs and wonders.

If any man shall say to you, “Lo, here is Christ,” or, “There!,” believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. (Matt. 24:23-25)

Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, “Master, we would see a sign from thee.” But He answered and said unto them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. But there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah.” (Matt. 12:38-39)

I would like to end this article with some wise words and words of caution from my brother in the Lord and dear friend Mike Oppenheimer.

Paul who was the apostle in which many of the signs and wonders were done through had a very different view than those today. He warns in the last days that the Church in the last days will be removed from the faith, a departure from the word. Over and over Paul teaches about adhering to doctrine and faith in Christ with no mention of signs and wonders. Even in his epistle to Timothy he tells him to stir up the gift within but he does not say anything about miracles but do the work of an evangelist. Today experience is knowledge or what is falsely called knowledge. This is how one gets their input, by a sign and a miracle they have experienced. Faith is trusting what you cannot see, if you can see it its not faith. You don’t get credited for something you can see but what you cannot.

Experiences that we see today are from the outside, the scripture says he has deposited in us the divine nature, he works in us from the inside. This is a completely different way of operation. The miracles in the bible through the apostles hands almost unanimously were to those who did not believe. If you had a miracle happen in your life praise the Lord, lets just be careful in our confidence to think any or every miracle is from God or genuine.

If you are strong in faith you don’t need signs and wonders to know that the Father cares for you. You don’t need to be further convinced of God by the exhibiting of power. We don’t need signs and wonders to prove that He exists or that He hears our prayers. Faith comes by hearing the word about Christ (Romans 10:17) we believe what we read. Without seeing any evidence of supernatural manifestations, we can believe because God has granted us grace to believe based upon the testimony of His Word. Faith is to work from his word. The Lord requires faith, however we are more blessed who believe without seeing (John 20:29). Faith is the foundation upon which rests every thing we receive in our spiritual life. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). But its not presumption nor is it imaginative.

If we look at the people who have had supernatural experiences, we’ll find that, in many cases, when the signs and wonders cease, their faith ceases. It was not true faith, but rather mere belief in what they could deny seeing. They believed because they saw, but they did not have true faith, it was temporary.

The Signs And Wonders Movement Hit The Nazarene Denomination

I had started out with this as a review of Dan Bohi’s preaching but I want to get more into the signs and wonders movement (which in my opinion Dan is part of) and what the scriptures teach us about signs and wonders and how God speaks to us today.

D Martin Lloyd-Jones states

“Let us imagine I follow the mystic way. I begin to have experiences; I think God is speaking to me; how do I know it is God who is speaking to me? How can I know I am not speaking to man; how can I be sure that I am not the victim of hallucinations, since this has happened to many mystics? If I believe in mysticism as such without the Bible how do I know I am not being deluded bu satan as an angel of light in order to keep me from the living and true God? I have no standard..The evangelical doctrine tells me not to look into myself ,but to to look into the Word of God; not to examine myself, but to look at the revelation that has been given to me. It tells me that God can only be known in His own way, the way the way which has been revealed in the scriptures himself.

But Dan says in the M11 conference around 10:31″I believe its not going to come with better preaching.” Then he goes on to say “How many sermons do we have to hear?

Dan speaking about the anointing coming back (I didnt know it had left and Im sure it hasnt with good godly preachers who rightly divide the Word of God).

Dan goes on to say at around 11:31 “I dont think the preachers have to preach that good. ” “I dont think they have to plan so hard.” “I think they just need to flow in the spirit”

Dan then talks about releasing the prophetic at around 12 he states “Theres a power in His Word” “And I’m not talking about quoting verse’s and chapter.” Im not talking about having a good sermon”.

I want everyone though to listen to Dans speech themselves just google Dan Bohi and M11.

I found two statements (among others) very disturbing.

At around 21:30 Dan talking about Jesus in the desert “The third time He didn’t say its written He states “It says”. “I think when the word and the spirit come together it no longer remains logos it becomes rehema,it becomes revelation. And see without revelation we perish.

In my opinion Dan does not do a good job in rightly dividing the Word of God here. Yes Jesus did say “It is said” but my Lord was referring to Deut 6:16 where it was written. Dan goes the route many other Word Faith teachers go and try to compare this to rehema which means something different to the Word Faith folk even though logos and rehema are used interchangeably in the New Testament. Word Faith folk tend to turn this into a power struggle stating you can’t have power without the rehema.

Just one example here about what Im talking about. In 1 Peter 1:23-25, Peter describes how we are born again by the word of God. In verse 23, when he saying that the Word of God (by which we are born again) is incorruptible, Peter uses the Greek word “logos” for the “word” of God. In verse 25, after contrasting the Word’s incorruptibleness with the corruption of the world, Peter restates that the Word (by which the gospel is preached to us) endures forever. This phrase “endures forever” is simply a rephrasing of the description “incorruptible,” only in this verse, Peter uses the phrase, “the word of the Lord” to refer to the “word of God” in verse 23. But, this time Peter switches and uses the Greek word “rhema” for the “word” of the Lord. This is yet another occurrence where we see “rhema” and “logos” being so indistinguishable that they are used interchangeably.

The fact that “rhema” and “logos” are used interchangeably by New Testament authors is yet another demonstration that there is not enough distinction in the Bible between the two words to substantiate the Word Faith doctrine in which “rhema” words and “logos” words are two different categories.

Again its all about power with these folks. And I tend to see it with this camp as mans power not God’s. Gods Written Word does have power the Word Faith movement has tried to blur the lines here and turn it into something its not.

Then in 25:10-25:41 Dan compares what he was doing to what Benny Hinn does. Go listen for yourselves. Now I want to say that Dan does not mention Benny by his last name. But I dont know any other Benny who does what Dan was speaking about.

Again in my opinion I believe this is textbook Ken Hagin/Benny Hinn/Word Faith false teaching. But you need to go listen to Dan and decide for yourselves.

Now does God really speak to us like that? At specific times in the day (people love to quote exact times I believe because it empowers them as spiritually superior).

From Gary Gilleys book “Is That You Lord”?

“How does one know that he is hearing the voice of the Lord in the first place? Is it possible that the voice many believe they are hearing is the voice of their own thoughts,imaginations,desires, or something more insidous?”

“Many Christians now rely on far more inward promptings than on their Bible knowledge to decide what to do in a situation.”

“The final court of appeals determining the identity of the voice of God, if it is such, must be the direct instructions or at least the examples found in Scripture. The Scriptures claim to be the Word of God (2 Tim 3:16,17; 2 Peter 1:20,21) . They are inspired once for all, by the Holy Spirit, enabling prophets and apostles, using their own personalities to write Gods Word as He intended (Heb 1:1,2; 2:3,4; Acts 5:12, 2 Cor 12:12:. I believe with the closure of scripture , direct, infallible,authoritative revelation from God has ceased for this age. (ReV 22:18,19;Eph 2:20;3:5;Jude 3,4,;2 Peter 3:2).

It is instructive to note that paul wrote his last epistle tp pastor/friend Timothy about leading the church of God, he did not encourage Timothy to focus on new revelations, impressions, feelings or hunches. Rather he continually turned him to the Word of God and the doctrines contained therin (2 Timothy 2:2-14,15; 3:15-17; 4:2-4)

Donald S Whitney states

“The evangelistic method of Jesus and the apostles was not to urge people to seek direct experiences with God; instead they went about preaching and teaching the Scriptures (see Mark 1:14-15)

The bigger problem I see with Dan as well as the Nazarene denomination is that this is just more experience based Christianity wrapped up in a different package than what the Emergent Church is selling. Its no wonder the emergent Nazarenes don’t seem to have a big problem with Dan.

Again its the same old stuff I saw in the Word faith churches I was in as a young Christian.

Does the Scriptures teach that there is a big end time revival with Joels or Elijahs army leading the way with great signs and wonders doing greater things than Jesus did.

NO

The scripture teaches that there will be a great falling away (2 Thess 2:3)

Lying signs and wonders”For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Matt. 24:24

2 Thessalonians 2:9-15

“Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.”

Hardly what is being preached from many pupits today.The thing that really flagged me on all this was not just the “touch not mine anointed” and warning that the wrath of God would come on me if we touched Dan Bohi.

It was the fact that people (some who are friends) seemed to forget this verse

Acts 17:11
New King James Version (NKJV)

11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

No problem examing what Paul said.

Why not the same standard with Dan Bohi or any one else for that matter?

Do you think maybe God told them so?

Well I would encourage you to not just take my word for it. But go listen to the sermons and see for yourselves. Then come to your own conclusions.

More on the signs and wonders movement to come!

New DVD The Emerging Church

We have a new DVD out warning the Body of Christ about the heresy of the Emergent Church. The DVD features Gary Gilley, Ray Yungen,Mike Oppenheimer, Johanna Michalesen, and Sandy Simpson.
The DVD was put out with the Nazarene denomination because the Emergent Church has been bought into the denomination via some of its leadership and is currently being overrun by Emergent heresy.
But the DVD applies to all the Body of Christ and is currently being used in many different churches and denominations as a teaching tool.
You can of course order copies free of charge by sending me a email at nogoofyzone@hotmail.com











Here is a link to the preview on U Tube


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmo6sJnbrOA

Truth or Lie's Rick Warren's Moral Facade

Truth or Lies?
Rick Warren's Moral Facade
By Berit Kjos - April 9, 2009
Home

Emphasis added
"'Hear this now, O foolish people, without understanding,
who have eyes and see not, and who have ears and hear not:
Do you not fear Me?’ says the Lord. ‘Will you not tremble at My presence...?'
But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart;
They have revolted and departed.
They do not say in their heart, 'let us now fear the Lord our God,
Who gives rain... in its season...'" Jeremiah 5:21-24
In an article titled "Rick Warren disavows support for Prop. 8," Jim Brown writes,

"California mega-church pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Life Rick Warren says he apologized to his homosexual friends for making comments in support of California's Proposition 8, and now claims he 'never once even gave an endorsement' of the marriage amendment."[1]

During a recent CNN interview on Larry King Live, Warren assured his host that-

"During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never -- never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop. 8 was going."[2]

But he was lying! According to Brown, Pastor Warren had "issued a clear endorsement of the marriage amendment while speaking to church members." Ponder Warren's stated position two weeks before the Prop. 8 vote on November 4:

"The election's coming just in a couple of weeks, and I hope you're praying about your vote....

"Now let me say this really clearly: we support Proposition 8 -- and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8. I never support a candidate, but on moral issues I come out very clear.

"This is one thing, friends, that all politicians tend to agree on. Both Barack Obama and John McCain, I flat-out asked both of them: what is your definition of marriage? And they both said the same thing -- it is the traditional, historic, universal definition of marriage: one man and one woman, for life. And every culture for 5,000 years, and every religion for 5,000 years, has said the definition of marriage is between one man and a woman.

"Now here's an interesting thing. There are about two percent of Americans [who] are homosexual or gay/lesbian people. We should not let two percent of the population determine to change a definition of marriage.... So I urge you to support Proposition 8, and pass that word on. I'm going to be sending out a note to pastors on what I believe about this."[3]

So where does Pastor Warren actually stand on this issue? What is the source of his moral cues? God's Word -- or forceful leaders who have traded His unchanging Truth for today's evolving moral pragmatism?
His recent statements suggest a total moral U-turn. According to Brown, Warren regrets his earlier position. "There were a number of things that were put out. I wrote to all my gay friends -- the leaders that I knew -- and actually apologized to them. That never got out," he admitted.

Those "gay friends" may serve him well in today's global battlefield for fame and power. As America follows Europe into a moral freefall, Warren's spiritual leadership fits right in. So did his attempt to offer a non-offensive interfaith prayer at Obama's inauguration:

"Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all. May all people of goodwill today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet. And may we never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before you...."

I wonder what kind of accountability Warren referred to. It surely wasn't Biblical. Yes, God will hold us accountable -- but to His standard, not to the shifting standards of Warren or Obama, who approve immorality and despise God's Truth. Look at what God says:

"'Woe to the rebellious children,' says the Lord,
'Who take counsel, but not of Me,
And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit,'" Isaiah 30:1

"...the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.... Professing to be wise, they became fools.... Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves.... God gave them up to vile passions. ... And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased [depraved] mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness." Romans 1:18-32

"Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?
No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
At the time I punish them, they shall be cast down,' says the Lord." Jeremiah 6:15
As American sovereignty fades under the darkening shadows of an anti-Christian world government, few are prepared to stand firm against the forces that are eroding America's Christian foundations. Instead, the vast majority -- whether they identify with Christianity or not -- have dismissed God's Word and warnings. Making His view of sin irrelevant, they have distorted the true gospel of Christ: the "good news" of redemption from the legal judgment that we (sinners) deserve. Apart from that Biblical gospel, the cross and the resurrection become meaningless.

We can't manipulate Truth without facing consequences. We can't justify sin without blinding ourselves and confusing others. And we can't receive new life in Jesus Christ (regeneration) without--

His merciful (undeserved) grace
Spirit-given conviction of our sins and our continuing enslavement to sin
His substitutionary and atoning death on the cross -- taking the punishment of our sin
In the light of that transformational Truth, we see the cross and the resurrection as the center of history. Everything the Old Testament promised pointed forward to the cross. And all the New Testament promises are based on the cross -- and point us to the resurrection and eternal life in Jesus Christ. As He told us,

"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'" John 14:6
"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matthew 7:13-14

Yet, countless "Christians" have claimed to follow Him -- even as they scorn that narrow gate:

"...he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep." John 10:1-5

"...certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ." Jude 4

"Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock... to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears." Acts 20:28-31

No wonder Paul's warnings were accompanied by tears. Many in his beloved churches were caught up in sensual sins and unholy distractions. Distorting the cross and despising "the narrow road," they ignored the call to die to self and share Christ's suffering.

"The wide road" is well traveled in our times. Popular, amoral, and tolerant of everything but God's Word and way, it is paved with nice-sounding intentions and a feel-good "common ground." But it actually leads to arrogance, hostility, division and destruction. After all, "the whole world lies under sway of the wicked one." John 5:19

What then will we choose? The world's compromising highway and delightful illusions -- for this season of time? Or the narrow way that leads to eternal life with our wonderful Lord for all eternity?

"...many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame -- who set their mind on earthly things.

"...our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body...." Philippians 3:18-21

Brian McLaren his view on hell,the atonement and other issues

Unbeliever Brian McLaren and his views on hell and the atonement. Scary that this guy was voted one of the top influential evangelicals by Time Magazine.

source-http://www.time.com/time/press_releases/article/0,8599,1022576,00.html
Folks this guy is not a saved Christian.
He is a Christian in name only.
The video was taken from the bleeding purple podcast found here.

http://www.enteuxis.org/leifh/bleedingpurple21b.mp3

Brian denies that Jesus was God instead Brian lumps Jesus in with Gandhi and Martin Luther King JR and suggests its best to think of Jesus as one of many rather than lift him up as some extraordinary example.
Brian doesn't want us to think of Christianity as an exclusive religion.

But Jesus said in John 14:6
"6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

Which contradicts what Brian states.

Do you believe Brian McLaren or Jesus Christ?

You cant believe both.

Brian is also quoted in Preacher Magazine a Nazarene magazine to pastors.
Here-http://www.nph.com/nphweb/html/pmol/emerging.htm

Brian also well as he speaks at Nazarene colleges.

If the Nazarene leadership doesn't even think to protect its own leadership from false teachers who do you think guards the sheep?

Come on folks wake up out of the stupor you are in.

Here are some more Brian McLaren quotes

"I don't think we've got the gospel right yet. What does it mean to be 'saved'?.... I don't think the liberals have it right. But I don't think we have it right either. None of us has arrived at orthodoxy."
––Brian McLaren, The Emergent Mystique, Christianity Today, 2004

"Tony [Campolo] and I might disagree on the details, but I think we are both trying to find an alternative to both traditional Universalism and the narrow, exclusivist understanding of hell [that unless you explicitly accept and follow Jesus, you are excluded from eternal life with God and destined for hell]."
--Brian McLaren’s Inferno 2, Out of Ur, May 2006

"What if Jesus' secret message reveals a secret plan?".... What if he didn't come to start a new religion--but rather came to start a political, social, religious, artistic, economic, intellectual, and spiritual revolution that would give birth to a new world?"
––Brian McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus, p. 4

“.... Alan Jones is a pioneer in reimagining a Christian faith that emerges from authentic spirituality. His work stimulates and encourages me deeply.” (Brian McLaren's comments on the back flap of Alan Jones' book Reimagining Christianity where Alan Jones states the following about the Christ's crucifixion: "The Church's fixation on the death of Jesus as the universal saving act must end, and the place of the cross must be reimagined in Christian faith. Why? Because of the cult of suffering and the vindictive God behind it." (p. 132)
"The other thread of just criticism addresses the suggestion implicit in the cross that Jesus' sacrifice was to appease an angry god. Penal substitution [the Cross] was the name of this vile doctrine." (p. 168)

“The church latched on to that old doctrine of original sin like a dog to a stick, and before you knew it, the whole gospel got twisted around it. Instead of being God’s big message of saving love for the whole world, the gospel became a little bit of secret information on how to solve the pesky legal problem of original sin.”
--Brian McLaren, The Last Word and the Word After That, p.134

"I must add, though, that I don't believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts."
---Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy, p. 260

"I am a Christian because I believe that, in all these ways, Jesus is saving the world. By “world” I mean planet Earth and all life on it, because left to ourselves, un-judged, un-forgiven, and un-taught, we will certainly destroy this planet and its residents. And by “the world” I specifically mean human history, because again, it was and is in danger, grave danger, ultimate danger, self-imposed danger, and I don’t believe anyone else can rescue it.”
---Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy, p. 97

Warren Smith on "The Shack"

From my friend and brother in the Lord Warren Smith



THE SHACK & Its New Age Leaven
God IN Everything?

By Warren Smith

“A little leaven leaventh the whole lump.”
- Galatians 5:9



The Shack is being described as a “Christian” novel and is currently ranked number one on the New York Times bestseller list for paperback fiction. Many believers are buying multiple copies and giving them to friends and family. The Shack reads as a true story, but is obviously allegorical fiction. The book conveys postmodern spiritual ideas and teachings that challenge biblical Christianity – all in the name of “God” and “Jesus” and the “Holy Spirit.” Author William P. Young’s alternative presentation of traditional Christianity has both inspired and outraged his many readers. All the while his book continues to fly off the shelves of local bookstores.

Much like New Age author James Redfield’s book The Celestine Prophecy, The Shack is a fictional vehicle for upending certain religious concepts and presenting contrary spiritual scenarios. Allegorical novels can be a clever way to present truth. They can also be used to present things that seem to be true but really are not. Some books like The Shack do both.

I was drawn into the New Age Movement years ago by books and lectures containing parabolic stories that were not unlike The Shack. They felt spiritually uplifting as they tackled tough issues and talked about God’s love and forgiveness. They seemed to provide me with what I spiritually needed as they gave me much needed hope and promise. Building on the credibility they achieved through their inspirational and emotive writings, my New Age authors and teachers would then go on to tell me that “God” was “in” everyone and everything.

I discovered that author William P. Young does exactly the same thing in The Shack. He moves through his very engaging and emotional story to eventually present this same New Age teaching that God is “in” everything.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me first provide some background material concerning this key New Age doctrine that “God is in everything.” A good place to start is with Eugene Peterson, the author of the controversial Bible paraphrase The Message. After all, Peterson’s enthusiastic endorsement of The Shack is featured right under the author’s name on the front cover.

Ironically, it was Peterson’s endorsement that caused me to be immediately suspicious of this high-profile, bestselling “Christian” book. Through his questionable paraphrasing of the Bible, Peterson had already aligned himself in a number of areas with New Age/New Spirituality teachings. One obvious example was where he translated a key verse in the Lord’s Prayer to read “as above, so below” rather than “in earth, as it is in heaven.” “As above, so below” was a term that I was very familiar with from my previous involvement in the New Age Movement. This esoteric saying has been an occult centerpiece for nearly five thousand years. It is alleged by New Age metaphysicians to be the key to all magic and all mysteries. It means that God is not only transcendent — “out there”— but He is also immanent — “in” everyone and everything.

But, as I found out just before abandoning the deceptive teachings of the New Age for the Truth of biblical Christianity, God is not “in” everyone and everything. The Bible makes it clear that man is not divine and that man is not God (Ezekiel 28:2, Hosea 11:9, John 2:24-25, etc.) In Deceived on Purpose: The New Age Implications of the Purpose-Driven Church, I quoted the editors of the New Age Journal as they defined “as above, so below” in their book, As Above, So Below:

“'As above, so below, as below, so above.' This maxim implies that the transcendent God beyond the physical universe and the immanent God within ourselves are one.” (p. 32)

My concern about Peterson’s undiscerning use of “as above, so below” in the Lord’s Prayer was underscored when the 2006 bestseller, The Secret, showcased this same occult/New Age phrase. In fact, it was the introductory quote at the very beginning of the book. By immediately featuring “as above, so below” the author Rhonda Byrne was telling her readers in definite New Age language that “God is in everyone and everything.” Towards the end of the book, The Secret puts into more practical words what the author initially meant by introducing the immanent concept of “as above, so below.” On page 164 The Secret tells its readers—“You are God in a physical body.”

Most significantly, in his book The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom, New Age leader Benjamin Crème reveals that a New World Religion will be based on this foundational “as above, so below” teaching of immanence — this idea that God is “in” everyone and everything:

“But eventually a new world religion will be inaugurated which will be a fusion and synthesis of the approach of the East and the approach of the West. The Christ will bring together, not simply Christianity and Buddhism, but the concept of God transcendent — outside of His creation — and also the concept of God immanent in all creation — in man and all creation.” (p. 88)

New Age matriarch Alice Bailey, in her book The Reappearance of the Christ, wrote:

“…a fresh orientation to divinity and to the acceptance of the fact of God Transcendent and God Immanent within every form of life. “These are foundational truths upon which the world religion of the future will rest.” (p. 88) [link added]

In a November 9, 2003 Hour of Power sermon – just two months before he was a featured speaker at the annual meeting of the National Association of Evangelicals – Crystal Cathedral minister Robert Schuller unabashedly aligned himself with this same New Age/New World Religion teaching. The man who claims to have mentored thousands of pastors, including Bill Hybels and Rick Warren, stated:

“You know in theology — pardon me for using a couple of big words — but in theology the God we believe in, this God of Abraham, is a transcendent God. But He is also an immanent God. Transcendent means up there, out there, above us all. But God is also an immanent God — immanence of God and the transcendence of God — but then you have a balanced perspective of God. The immanence of God means here, in me, around me, in society, in the world, this God here, in the humanities, in the science, in the arts, sociology, in politics — the immanence of God…. Yes, God is alive and He is in every single human being!”

But God is not in every single human being. God is not in everything. One of the many reasons I wrote Deceived on Purpose was because Rick Warren presented his readers with this same “God in everything” teaching. Quoting an obviously flawed New Century Bible translation of Ephesians 4:6, Rick Warren — whether he meant to or not — was teaching his millions of readers the foundational doctrine of the New World Religion. Describing God in his book, The Purpose-Driven Life, he wrote:

“He rules everything and is everywhere and is in everything.” (p. 88)

Compounding the matter further, “immanence” has been taught as part of the Foundations class at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church. An ill-defined reference to immanence on page 46 of the Saddleback Foundations Participants Guide plays right into the hands of the New Spirituality/New World Religion by stating:

“The fact that God stands above and beyond his creation does not mean he stands outside his creation. He is both transcendent (above and beyond his creation) and immanent (within and throughout his creation).”

All of this discussion about “God in everything” immanence is to explain why The Shack is such a deceptive book. It teaches this same heresy. This book ostensibly attempts to deal with the deeply sensitive issues surrounding the murder of a young child. Because of the author’s intensely personal story line, most readers become engaged with the book on a deep emotional level. However, the author’s use of poetic license to convey his highly subjective, and often unbiblical, spiritual views becomes increasingly problematic as the story line develops. This is most apparent when he uses the person of “Jesus” to suddenly introduce the foundational teaching of the New Spirituality/New World Religion — God is “in” everything. Using the New Age term “ground of being” to describe “God,” the “Jesus” of The Shack states:

“God, who is the ground of all being, dwells in, around, and through all things….” (p. 112)

This false teaching about a “God” who “dwells in, around, and through all things” is the kind of New Age leaven that left unchallenged could leaven the church into the New Age/New Spirituality of the proposed New World Religion. And while many people have expressed a great deal of emotional attachment to The Shack and its characters — this leaven alone contaminates the whole book.

Clearly, the “Jesus” of The Shack is not Jesus Christ of the Bible. The apostle Paul chided the Corinthians and warned them that they were vulnerable and extremely susceptible to “another Jesus” and “another gospel” and “another spirit” that were not from God (2 Corinthians 11:4). In the Bible, the real Jesus Christ warned that spiritual deception would be a sign before His return. He further warned that there would be those who would even come in His name, pretending to be Him (Matthew 24:3-5;24).

Without ascribing any ill motive to William Young and his book The Shack, the author’s use of spiritual creativity seems to give a “Christian” assent to the New Age/New Spirituality of the proposed New World Religion. His mixing of truth and error can become very confusing to readers, and God is not the author of confusion (I Corinthians 14:33).

Dr. Harry Ironside, pastor of Chicago’s Moody Memorial Church from 1930-1948, emphasizes the fact that truth mixed with error results in “all error” — a direct refutation of the Emergent Church teaching to find “truth” wherever it may be found — including books like The Shack. Ironside wrote:

“Error is like leaven, of which we read, ‘A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.’ Truth mixed with error is equivalent to all error, except that it is more innocent looking and, therefore, more dangerous. God hates such a mixture! Any error, or any truth-and-error mixture, calls for definite exposure and repudiation. To condone such is to be unfaithful to God and His Word and treacherous to imperiled souls for whom Christ died.” (quoted in The Berean Call, April 2008)

The Shack has touched the hearts and emotions of many people. While there are many other examples of the author’s unbiblical liberality, introducing the heretical New Age teaching that “God dwells in, and around, and through all things” is in and by itself enough to completely undermine any value the book might otherwise have for faithful believers. To allow yourself to get carried away by this story, while disregarding the book’s New Age/New Spirituality leaven, is to fall prey to the “truth-and-error” mixture that pervades The Shack. And as Dr. Ironside warned—“God hates such a mixture.”

Before Christians buy one more copy of this book, they need to come to terms with what this author is ultimately teaching and what it is they are passing along to their friends and fellow believers.


The Truth:

“And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (1 Timothy 4:4)

Warren Smith is the author of numerous articles and books on the topic of the New Age/New Spirituality and how it is entering the evangelical church.

Deceived on Purpose: The New Age Implications of the Purpose-Driven Church
The Light that was Dark: From the New Age to Amazing Grace
Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel

FYI

Hi to all: I am wrapping up being at a conference in Tempe,AZ with a lot of friends and brothers and sisters in the Lord. Spent some great time with my friend and brother Buck Storm worshipping the Lord and playing some wonderful music. Always good to play music with Buck.
Also spent a lot of time with our good friends Don and Sue Butler. Iron sharpens Iron.
Plus it was great to meet Jacob Prasch, David Hocking, Bill Koening, Dr Rick Oliver, Randall Price as well as spending some time with my friend and brother in the Lord Warren Smith.
Warren did a great job on exposing the book "The Shack". More to come on that as well as topics the others addressed.
Pastor John Higgins was a wonderful host as well.
More to come on all this and lots of information coming this week once I get back and have had time to rest.

I will also be shutting off all comment's on all my blogs and website's.
It is a free country and people can respond to what I write and post on their own blogs.
To many times debate just turns into a schoolyard fight with people just gathering to watch the fight.
People in both camps.
I will lose hits because when you have guys like Richie Abanes, Greg Horton, or even Michael Newnham at Phoenix Preacher.
It all just crumbles down to petty bickering, and foollish talk .
None of which builds up the Body of Christ.

There is a lot more unity than you would think.
At the conference I saw people who didnt agree 100% with each other come together with a common purpose.
I was also very encouraged to see the huge amount of young people at the conference who were hungry for truth and acurate information in this great time of deception.
I have asked some people mostly in the Nazarene denomination to reply publically they can still do that from their own blog, websites and or pulpits.
Again more on all this later this week.
We will also be expanding our links page make sure you check that out.
I can still be contacted by email for any concerns
More to come next week.
Peace and Blessings
Tim Wirth

Mass Hypnosis disguised as worship music at a Todd Bentley service

This really ticks me off as a Christian musician. This is old Todd Bentley stuff. I commented on this before but not only was Todds band not very good at all but cant people see this is not of God?Wow amazing the deception going on in Gods name these days. Watch as this misguided women whip up peoples flesh into a frenzy.Also note the other video which show the false revival by comparision eye opening as well. None of this is of God folks. Not because I say so. But because scripture-Gods Word says so-Tim

An ex faith healer explain tricks used

Great video by Todd Friel. You can also apply this to contemplative and centering prayer which is being promoted by the Emergent Church and others.

Allelon, Missional and The Nazarene Connection

New article by Sandy Simpson. Lots of information-
Peace Tim

What is the history and mission of Allelon?

Long Answer: On the “history” section of the Allelon site (http://www.allelon.org/history.cfm) there is no real history of the movement presented. That is because I suspect they do not want people to know too much about the dubious the history of the movement. The leadership of the EC is currently Brian McLaren, Leonard Sweet, Richard Foster (McLaren said of Richard Foster, “with (his) emphasis on spiritual disciplines, (he is a) key mentor for the emerging church” … his organization is called Renovare), Doug Paggit, Alan Jones, Dan Kimbal, Erwin McManus, Michael Horton and many others. Their influences are Thomas Merton (Roman Catholic mystic and one of Richard Foster’s chief mentors along with George Fox), Morton Kelsey (a certified Jungian analyst), Basil Pennington (who promoted Christianizing Eastern mysticism for use in the churches), Benedictine Monks (Roman Catholics), Ignatius Loyola (Benedictine monk), Madeleine L'Engle (New Age author), Thomas Keating (originator of “centering prayer” taken from Zen sesshin), Harvey Cox (an activist for the syncretism of all religions), Agnes Sanford (of the Inner Healing movement and promoter of occultist Carl Jung), Madame Guyon (pantheist), John of the Cross (a Roman Catholic Desert Father), Evelyn Underhill (authored Practical Mysticism, an expression of Hindu/Catholic “spiritual” exercises), Thomas Kelly (contemplative and Universalist), Tilden Edwards (contemplative prayer and East/West mystical “bridge” promoter), William Vaswig (Renovare member who, like Foster learned his meditation from Agnes Sanford and a great admirer of occultist Carl Jung and his “sitting in silence” therapy), Karen Mains (Jungian adherent who has a spirit guide), Lynda Graybeal (promoter of Spiritual Formation and the Renovare Bible), Jean-Pierre de Caussade (Roman Catholic Jesuit monk), Meister Eckhart (pantheist), George Fox (Quaker founder, contemplative and Universalist), Henri Nouwen (Buddhist sympathizer and New Ager), Teresa of Avila (Desert “Mother” contemplative who practiced centering prayer), Brother Lawrence (who taught the emptying of the mind), Julian of Norwich (pantheist), Siang Yan Tan (psychologist), Lao-Tse (Taoism), Zarathrustra (Zorastrianism), David Spangler (New Age teacher), Matthew Fox (apostate ex-priest of the Catholic Church), John Main (a Roman Catholic priest and monk of the Order of Saint Benedict, a contemplative), Brennan Manning (author of The Ragamuffin Gospel and promoter of contemplative prayer), Marianne Williamson (New Ager), Ken Wilber (New Ager and author of A Theory of Everything, a term Leonard Sweet says is his idea), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (African Anglican Archbishop who promotes Interfaithism and the UN), Mark Mossa (RCC Jesuit scholastic), Leo Tolstoy (Russian novelist baptized as a Mormon), Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Russian novelist and founding father of Existentialism), Walker Percy (novelist and Catholic existentialist) and the list of New Agers and false teachers goes on and on. (http://web.archive.org/web/20080212062607/http:/www.abrahamic-faith.com/James/Richard-Foster.html and other sources such as Wikipedia.)

This should make people suspect because of the fact that one of their adherents, Eddy Gibbs, claims that Church history needs to be redefined through the lens of EC ideas. If they cannot present their own history, on what basis should people have confidence that they can or should be redefining Church history?

In a slickly produced video on the Allelon website they speak of their mission, not their history per se (http://www.allelon.org/history.cfm). Brian McLaren is featured on the video so one can see clearly that the history of Allelon is directly tied to that of the Emerging Church (EC) leadership, since McLaren in one of the founders of the movement. The video shows one of the Allelon “Summer Institute” sessions were held at Fuller Seminary in CA. Fuller is the biggest promoter of every false doctrine out there, which started with C. Peter Wagner and John Wimber and their “signs and wonders” classes and continuing in featured speakers from every false Latter Rain revival movement. Now they are one of the biggest promoters of the latest “new thing” by sponsoring EC “dialogs” with the likes of McLaren and others featured on the video. George Fox University, a Quaker (Friends) institution, is also mentioned on the video and many segments were filmed there. GFU is another hotbed of EC ideas partly because of the influence of Richard Foster and Leonard Sweet there. They claim that they are introducing “something radical and transforming to the Church.” Isn’t Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross for the sins of men and the living and active Word of God radical and transforming enough for the Church? When you get away from these things is it really “radical and transforming” or is it just another type of Gnosticism or new revelation? One of the participants on the video, Steve Taylor, PHD, who it says is a pastor, author, teacher, blogger, states this:

“So much of the emerging/postmodern conversation, which I’m part of and I’m committed to …” (Video, http://www.allelon.org/history.cfm)

Looks like commitment to EC and postmodernism may be more important than the Gospel. Chris Erdmen, D. Min, a pastor, writer, professor, blogger says admits that the Emerging Church doesn’t know where they are going but “together we’ll find a way”. But we are not the ones who decide where we are going. The Bible is our map. Since McLaren took the EC “off the map” this is what you end up with … a type of religion marked by uncertainty and run by consensus. Dr. Eddy Gibbs, a professor at Fuller, states that their whole curriculum is now going to the EC missional model.

We have a particular burden for people involved in new forms of missional communities (sometimes called "emerging"), people starting new congregations within denominational systems, and people in existing congregations, who are working towards missional identity and engagement. Our desire is to encourage, support, coach, and offer companionship for missional leaders as they discern new models of church capable of sustaining a living and faithful witness to the gospel in our contemporary world. (http://www.allelon.org/history.cfm)

Gibbs also states that Fuller needs to look at “everything”, including the teaching of Greek and Hebrew and Church history “through missional eyes”.

I’m not for the dumbing-down of theology. But I believe we need a missional theology. That means going through our total curriculum, even to the way you teach Greek and Hebrew, and looking at that through missional eyes. The way you teach church history …” (Dr. Eddy Gibbs, http://www.allelon.org/history.cfm)

So, in essence, it is the intent of the leadership of the EC to strain everything through the grid of EC “missional” teachings and postmodern thought rather than looking at these issues based on what the Bible and the Holy Spirit have and are teaching us. This represents a form of cultural fairytale hermeneutics instead of contextual Biblical hermeneutics. Apparently the diaprax is complete among the EC promoters and they intend to get all the churches in line with their “new” paradigm, rewriting the Bible and history in the process. We see this process already being played out in the Indigenous Peoples Movement (WCGIP), Bible societies, and in organizations tied to the New Apostolic where history is being rewritten to offer a “god” who has always been at work in every culture, has left enough evidence in those cultures for people to be regenerate, and makes God into a pantheistic, postmodern, culturally based and understood, god. This is evidenced by EC adherent Dr. Leanne van Dyke when she states on the video:

In sort of a “post-Christendom world”, missional theology paints the “God picture” very big and then puts us, the Church, in relationship to that God. (Dr. Leanne van Dyke, http://www.allelon.org/history.cfm)

Just how big that painting is can already be seen in the promotion of God as being the “God of Japan”, the “God of the Hawaiians”, the “God of the First Nations”, etc. by people like Richard Twiss, Daniel Kikawa, and many other WCGIP promoters. Looks like the EC is in lockstep with the erroneous ideas spread by people like Don Richardson, C. Peter Wagner and a whole host of NAR proponents. The question is: which god is “that god” she is talking about? Dr. Mark Lau Branson of Fuller Seminary states this on the video:

“Now that you’ve figured out there is no plan, what’s next? And simply having someone articulate that, that we’re not real sure what the plan is, but there are still leadership capacities, there are still ways to interpret your church and your community, there are still ways to understand yourself better as a leader …: (http://www.allelon.org/history.cfm)

Sounds like they have deconstructed Christianity but are not sure just how to reconstruct it. This shows the fallacy of the diaprax that Christianity is and has been for some time ineffective at transforming people’s lives. The EC promoters were so stuck in vilifying the Church they forgot that getting “off the map” would get themselves lost in the chaos of existentialism. That is exactly what is happening according to Dr. Craig van Gelder.

The word missional has become a catch phrase. An awful lot of energy, on the one hand, but high ambiguity and confusion, oftentimes, on the other hand. (http://www.allelon.org/history.cfm)

What would then make the scheme these people have cooked up attractive to any true believer? When you get away from the Biblical mandate and Biblical teachings, you end up with a lot of misspent energy that leads to ambiguity and confusion. Why is it that Gelder is not heeding his own words and getting out of this movement?

We have to find a way of being church were people are in a way that’s authentic to the Gospel but helpful and transformative to their lives. (Bishop Graham Cray, http://www.allelon.org/history.cfm)

It becomes quite apparent when listening to Cray do his diaprax on the failings of the Church, that he knows little or nothing of Church history, which he and his associates are desperately trying to rewrite. I happen to be a PK and MK and I know what it is like to give up everything, move to a far away place, learn the language, and give your life as an example in both caring for people beyond your own country and preaching the Gospel at the same time. Shame on the EC leadership for suggesting that this has not been done before they came along with their “new paradigm”. Again I stress that “missional” has nothing to do with mission work.

To understand the word “missional” you have to go to the source. Brian McLaren coined the term “missional”, not in reference to traditional mission work in the churches, but in reference to the praxis of spreading the concepts and ideas of the EC movement. His original” off the map” series ends the dialectic with the praxis of a “missional” response to his EC teachings.

Brian McLaren, on the other hand, is not concerned about these matters (preaching salvation). In reply to his own question about who is in heaven and hell, he neatly sidesteps the whole issue by asking another series of questions, "Isn’t it clear that I do not believe this is the right question for a missional Christian to ask? Can’t we talk for a while about God’s will being done on earth as in heaven instead of jumping to how to escape earth and get to heaven as quickly as possible? Can’t we talk for a while about overthrowing and undermining every hellish stronghold in our lives and in our world? (as cited in The Kingdom of Emergent Theology - Part 2 by Gary Gilley, Think On These Things, 10/07, http://www.svchapel.org/Resources/Articles/read_articles.asp?id=140)

So Allelon is in full compliance and agreement with Brian McLaren and is the outworking of his and other EC leadership vision. This is bolstered by their recommendation of reading materials on their site with books by by Brian D. McLaren, Alan Roxburgh, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Scott Boren, Craig Van Gelder, etc. (http://astore.amazon.com/allelon-20)

In the Allelon purpose statement they mix what the New Testament says about Christians loving one another in the context of the Church with loving the world.

The word allelon is a common but overlooked New Testament word that is reciprocal in nature. Christian faith is not an individual matter. Everything in the life of the church is done allelon for the sake of the world. A Christian community is defined by the allelon sayings in Scripture. We are to love one another; We are to pursue one another's good; We are to build up one another; We are to bear with one another in love; We are to bear one another's burdens; We are to be kind to one another; We are to be compassionate to one another; We are to be forgiving one another; We are to submit to one another; We are to consider one another better than ourselves; We are to be devoted to one another in love; We are to live in harmony with one another. (http://www.allelon.org/history.cfm)

This is a good example of taking the Bible out of context, which is another hallmark of EC leadership. The passage they are quoting, in part Col. 3:12-15, is talking about love within the context of the body of Christ, not love of the world or its way of thinking.

Col. 3:14-15 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

The word “allelon” is used in the Bible, in every case except one, with regards to the unity and love within the body of Christ, not regarding unity or love for the world. (http://net.bible.org/search.php?search=greek_strict_index:240) Examples:

2 Cor. 13:12 Greet one another (allelon) with a holy kiss.
1 Thes. 4:18 Therefore encourage each other (allelon) with these words.
Acts 4:15 But when they had ordered them to go outside the council, they began to confer with one another (allelon),
Rom. 12:10 Be devoted to one another (allelon) with mutual love, showing eagerness in honoring one another (allelon).

The only exception is Matt. 24:10 where Jesus talks about the apostasy and how people will betray one another.

Matt. 24:20 Then many will be led into sin, and they will betray one another (allelon) and hate one another (allelon).

Interestingly this is what the EC is doing, turning Christianity on its ear with false doctrines that divide families and churches. Those who do not agree with the new paradigm and enter praxis are vilified, demonized and finally ostracized (thank the Lord). Perhaps this is the allelon they are talking about.

We are not in unity with the world. We can have compassion for the people of the world by preaching the Gospel to them and trying to help them in their times of need, but we are not to have unity with the world. So the basic premise of Allelon is in error from the start.

Our Mission
At Allelon, our overarching mission is to educate and encourage the church to become a people among whom God can live, as sign, symbol, and foretaste of his redeeming love and grace in their neighborhoods and the whole of society- ordinary women and men endeavoring to participate in God's mission to reclaim and restore the whole of creation and to bear witness to the world of a new way of being human. (http://www.allelon.org/history.cfm)

Nowhere in their mission statement do they mention the Gospel. It is also not the job of Christian or the Church to “restore the whole of creation”. That is Dominionism, which is another tenant of the EC showing that they are teaching the same false doctrines as the New Apostolic Reformation, or Latter Rain. The Gospel will, by the Holy Spirit, “restore” a relationship to God in individuals who repent and believe, and create in them a new creation. But Allelon is not talking about individuals but the “whole of creation”. Only Jesus Christ’s return at the beginning of the Millennium will restore creation, which is at the moment in the domain of the evil one. The mission of the true believer today is to continue to obey the Great Commission, not get involved in schemes to save the planet.

What is the Mission In Western Culture Project?

Long Answer: The Mission In Western Culture Project (MWCP) is also a project of Allelon. The diaprax of MWCP is evident on their home page. Their “three elements” or fundamentals are: “Our changed context, Mission is about the Missio Dei (the mission of God), and Missional theology sees the Church (the people of God) as a contrast society.” (http://www.allelon.org/projects/mission_western_culture.cfm).

The first element is a vilification of the Church.

We are now living in a changed social context, what might be described as both postmodern and post Christian. … Modern evangelism developed in a time when people assumed the Christian story was a normal, regulative part of the culture within which they lived. Most folk knew the basic Gospel story in one form or another. Evangelism fulfilled the role of presenting an apologetic, which pressed for commitment. It worked in a world where the culture-at-large understood the basic Christian story. This is no longer the case. (http://www.allelon.org/projects/mission_western_culture.cfm )

We are not living in a post-Christian world yet unless the Rapture has already taken place. We have always been living in a sinful world ruled by Satan that has no interest in the things of the Spirit. But that is nothing new. Nor is postmodernism, which is basically relativism and subjectivism. That has been with us since the beginning. Evangelism has always been around in history but has never been a “normal, regulative part of culture.” Perhaps you could make that claim about certain Western cultures, but others have never been “regulated” by the “Christian story”. If you move beyond that very few cultures have been “regulated” by any form of Christianity. Mission work was not the work of apologetics but the work of first time proclamation in most cases. Only in the Western world were people very thinly knowledgeable about Christianity. Even then the true Gospel message was and is still a shock to most people if presented correctly. To say it is no longer the case is to say that Biblical evangelism no longer works in this modern culture. That is hogwash. It doesn’t work because EC proponents have moved beyond it into a new map of their own making, one of confusion and existentialism.

The second element states this:

Mission is about the Missio Dei (the mission of God). If the West, including North America, is once again a mission field where the central narratives of the Gospel are being either lost or profoundly compromised by other values and stories, then the focus of this mission is the God who has encountered us in Jesus Christ ? the One whom we confess in the Trinitarian confession of Father, Son and Spirit. This may seem such an obvious statement that requires no explicit comment, but that?s not the case. In Western societies, churches have shifted their focus from God to how God serves and meets our needs. Jesus Christ has been packaged as a choice in the spiritual food court used to meet the private needs of individuals. The result is a debased, compromised, sterilized Christianity, which misrepresents the Gospel. The gospel is not just a matter of personal salvation; rather, it is a call to participate in the communal and global purposes of God. The biblical narratives revolve around God?s mission in, through, and for the sake of the world. The focus of attention is toward God not the other way around. The missio dei is about a God-centered rather than a meeting-personal-need centered understanding of Jesus? life, death and resurrection. (http://www.allelon.org/projects/mission_western_culture.cfm)

The Gospel is being lost not because there are so many other religious “stories” abounding but because many churches are no longer preaching the Gospel and have not been for some time. That almost empty void has been filled with other things, by the devil I might add. If the Church would get back to the Gospel we would see more people being saved. It is counterproductive, in fact counterintuitive, to widen out our “story” to include other stories just so we can fit in. It is true that many mega churches have shifted their focus off of God to “felt needs”. But the solution to that problem is not to declare that the Gospel is “not just a matter of personal salvation”. The whole point of the Gospel IS personal salvation (John 3:3, 7). Without that a person will not be light and salt no matter how well he interacts and agrees with other “stories”, ie. religions. God’s purposes, in this time, are not to take over the planet. His purpose is for people, individuals, to recognize their sin, repent and believe in Jesus Christ as their only Savior and Lord, then move on to serve Him by witnessing to others. Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world but it takes a personal belief and commitment to appropriate that price paid for the wages of sin to each and every individual. The goal of the true Christian today is not to save the world or the planet, but to be witnesses for Him (Acts 22:15, 2 Cor. 5:20) often speaking as the vast minority (Luke 12:32, Matt. 7:14, Rom. 11:5). This “misso dei” is, then, a misapplied term being used to serve a Dominionist agenda. Dominionism is clear false doctrine.

The third element states this:
Missional theology sees the Church (the people of God) as a contrast society. We recognized that our culture continues to move through massive levels of discontinuous change, which is rapidly de-centering the church from its former place at the center. This raises fundamental questions about the relationship between Christian life and the pluralist culture in which we live. In terms of the latter, the message of Jesus is the breaking-in of God?s Kingdom reign into the world. Therefore, the church is the called-out community of God in midst of the specificity of a culture. The church is an ecclesia, which means an assembly that has been called out in a public way as a sign, witness, and foretaste of where God is inviting all creation in Jesus Christ. The church, in its life together and witness in the world, proclaims the destiny and future of all creation. The God we meet in Jesus calls the church to be a community of people who no longer live for themselves and their own needs but as a contrast society whose life together manifests God?s future for the whole of creation. (http://www.allelon.org/projects/mission_western_culture.cfm)
The church has never been the center of society, not by a long shot. God is not in the process of “breaking in” His Kingdom. He is in the process of redeeming sinners who will participate in His Kingdom when it is established. If people are busy “breaking in” what they perceive as God’s Kingdom they will be shocked to find out they were not living in obedience to the Lord when He comes (as a thief). We are to do more than be a community of contrast. We are to be a community of truth proclamation and truth life. If the truth of redemption is not clearly proclaimed all our Christian machinations will have been in vain. It is true that our culture should be that laid down by Christ and the Apostles. But we cannot do that by compromise with the world, only by contrast and the real contrast are the exclusive claims of Christ in a world that does not believe.

Joh 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.
Ac 4:12 Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

It is already a hate crime in some countries to make exclusive claims of salvations against the truth claims of others. If EC followers cannot distinguish between the exclusive claims of Christ and the “truth” claims of other religions because the EC leadership is enamored with those other “stories” and “truths” then how can they call this progress? Where there is no understanding that the Bible is THE Truth (John 17:17) , that Jesus Christ is THE truth (John 14:6), there can be no truthful dialog or salvation, for that matter.
Who is Alan Roxburgh and what is his connection to Allelon and the Mission In Western Culture Project?

Long Answer: Alan serves as the Vice President for Allelon Canada. He is the Director of Educational Resources throughout North America and serves as the coordinating team leader for the Mission in Western Culture Project. He has over twenty-seven years of experience in church leadership as a pastor of congregations in small towns, urban centers and the suburbs and in denominational leadership. As seminary faculty he was responsible for teaching in the areas of leadership development and domestic missiology. Alan is ordained in the Baptist Federation of Canada. (http://www.allelon.org/roxburgh/?page_id=2)

ALAN J. ROXBURGH, formerly pastor of churches in Toronto and
Vancouver, completed a Master of Theology at the University of Toronto
in philosophical theology, and the Doctor of Ministry degree at Northern
Baptist Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. As an original member of Gospel
and our Culture Network (GOCN), Dr. Roxburgh has helped author
two foundational books: The Church Between Gospel and Culture
(Eerdmans, 1996) and, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the
Church in North America (Eerdmans, 1998). He has also written two other
books on the challenges of missional identity on North America: Reaching
a New Generation (InterVarsity Press, 1991 & Regent Press, 1998); and,
Leadership, Liminality and the Missionary Congregation (Trinity Press, 1998). (http://www.percept1.com/pacific/PDF/CrossingBridge.pdf)

Northern Baptist Seminary is now teaching and endorsing the Emerging Church. (http://www.seminary.edu/cur.student/documents/DMIN7615-KUHL.july.18.22.2005.pdf) The University of Toronto is a completely liberal school. In their course descriptions one of their courses is “Cultivating a Culture of Generosity” offered through Emmanuel College which promotes the Emerging Church. (http://www.utoronto.ca/knox/pages/Continuing%20Education/ConEd%202008%20brochure.pdf) So apparently the type of “theological” education Roxburgh received has influenced or been influenced by the paradigm of the EC. Of course Fuller Seminary offers Roxburgh materials. (http://www.fullerseminarybookstore.com/search_results.php?id_author=726) Roxburgh is of course the VP of Allelon and heads the Mission in Western Culture Project under Allelon.
Roxburgh Teachings

Long Answer:

There’s been a dis-ease in the back of my mind for a while about the directions of the missional conversation in North America. I’ve written about one: it’s too ecclesiocentric. Most of what I read with missional in its title is about the church and making the church work with new formulas and programs. The missional conversation is about what God is up to in the world; church conversations are a sub-set we’ve turned into the main thing. (Alan Roxburgh, Seeking a Missional Imagination, http://www.allelon.org/roxburgh/?p=60)

I am not saying everything Roxburgh teaches is false. What I am saying is that he is laying error alongside truth, which ends up nullifying the true things he is saying by leading people into error. That is the case with all false teachers. Not all false teachers start out that way, but some start out good then fall into the apostasy, which is rife with false teachings. If he would only take his own advice about his “dis-ease” with missional teachings maybe he could find his way back out. But even his dis-ease is based on a false idea. The Church IS what God is up to in the world, therefore “church conversations” are of paramount importance and the “main thing” if Christians are to preach the Gospel to the world. The main focus of the Lord is on His Church first (1 John 4:4-5, 5:5). The Church is then set with the task of reaching the world, but not by pretending that the world knows anything about God, which is what EC leaders mean by “what God is up to in the world”. The Bible is clear that the world rejected God (1 Pet. 2:4), were without God (Eph. 2:12) and did not know God (1 Thes. 4:5, Gal. 4:8). God was a mystery to them (Col. 1:27), they had no hope (Eph. 2:12) and they continued in idolatrous worship (1 Cor. 10:20, 12:2).

Roxburgh goes on to indict the church and teach an idea that is not biblical.

I read books that, basically, retreat into the realm of some ideal imagination that is supposed to provide formulas and methods for the ailing mission of the church in the West. We haven’t got past our Cartesian dualism with its romantic idealisms about the nature of God’s mission in the world. We need a different imagination. (Alan Roxburgh, Seeking a Missional Imagination, http://www.allelon.org/roxburgh/?p=60)

First of all, the only reason mission work is ailing is because of the false teaching going on around the world in churches these people had no part in planting. Now people from those churches are being diapraxed to have a bad attitude toward Christan mission work so that they will follow these unbiblical latecomers who use their imaginations instead of follow the easily understood commands of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. They have gone beyond what is written and instead are building a new paradigm based on their own ideas.

1Co 4:6 Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.
Isa 65:2 All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations—
Eze 13:2 "Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: ‘Hear the word of the LORD!

What we need is not a new paradigm based on the imaginations of men, but a clear understanding and application of the eternally relevant Word of God.

This series offers frameworks for understanding how our metaphorical maps have changed. It proposes ways of developing maps for cultivating local communities of witness and mission. (Missional Map-Making: Chapter Five, by Alan Roxburgh, February 15, 2008, http://www.allelon.org/articles/article.cfm?id=741)

This teaching shows that the foundation laid by Brian McLaren in his “Off The Map” series is being carried to fruition by other EC leaders like Alan Roxburgh. The maps have not changed, nor is postmodernism anything really new. The Bible states that even back in the times of the Judges “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6) All you have to do is look at the resources for sale in the Allelon store to see that they are promoting the books of other EC leaders. The board of advisors for Allelon are: James V. Brownson (Reformed Church of America), Inagrace T. Dietterich (an ordained United Methodist pastor), Richard Foster (Quaker and founder of Renovare), Darrell L Guder (Presbyterian minister), George Hunsberger (Western Seminary, Presbyterian), Pat Keifert (Luther Seminary, Lutheran) , Brian Mclaren (Cedar Ridge Community Church, non-denominational), Leonard Sweet (lots of degrees, no obvious church affiliation), Eugene Peterson (Regent College, BC), Dallas Willard (School of Philosophy at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles) (http://www.allelon.org/advisory_board.cfm).

One of the most basic rules of good leadership is to do all that cultivates trust in your leadership. Trust is critical for innovating a culture of missional transformation. Leaders who have become aware of these issues need to spend the time understanding what the alternatives to strategic planning involve, as well as what might be the appropriate places for using strategic planning. Therefore, the initial step is to develop a reading list that will assist you to begin reframing your own understanding. What is involved quite literally, is a changing of our maps. Strategic planning represents a specific map of how we see reality, understand people and the nature of change. Time is required to understand and dwell in an alternative map. It is imperative to take this time. People in congregations will leaders this kind of time, as we continue to build and develop trust among our people. (MISSIONAL MAPMAKING -- An Art of the Mission-Shaped Church by Alan Roxburgh, Allelon Publishing, 2008, http://www.allelon.org/pdf/MAPSchpt5.pdf)

I’m sorry but, no matter how well-intentioned this article is, it shows the messy gobbledygook (you need to read it to see what I am talking about) that the EC has gotten itself into by reading the wrong authors and following business models of church development put out by the likes of Rick Warren, Bill Hybels and their mentors like Peter Drucker. It is well documented that the leaders of churches who are deep into EC have already been “developing a reading list” … but of all the wrong authors. If they had put the Bible on the top of their reading list they would know that what the Apostles wrote with regard to church planting and development is more than sufficient to any time in history, including this postmodern era. The fact that so many churches have strayed away and are having a hard time finding a way back is not going to be helped by reading EC tomes. The problem is not changing maps but getting the original map back in play. It is amazing to me that someone who calls himself a Christian would not recognize just how far off he has wandered when he states that we need a strategic planning map to let us understand “how we see reality, understand people and the nature of change”. It is called, pick up your Bible (not The Message Bible), open it up, and learn all about reality, people and change. The problem is that EC leadership has been dwelling for far too long on “an alternative map” drawn by people like Brian McLaren, Leonard Sweet and other EC leaders rather than on the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostles and prophets.

The questions we need to ask about missional, therefore, are not drawn from the world of business or the social sciences, nor are they about how to apply supposed New Testament patterns to the contemporary church. Questions about what God is up to in the world require us to ask what kind of space church leadership must indwell at this moment in late modern societies. (a quote by Alan Roxburgh in Spaces Between by Len Hjalmarson, http://www.allelon.org/missional_journey/?p=158)

Again, well intentioned as it may seem, Roxburgh admits that he does not want “missional” church shaped by the “world of business or the social sciences” though, if truth be told, that is where much of the material of the EC has been culled. But then he goes on to state that churches should also not “apply supposed New Testament patterns to the contemporary church”. But as I see it this is one of the main problems with churches today … that they often stray way too far away from the early church model. That model is a model that has been almost entirely done away with by mega churches with their postmodern poling and throwback traditions that emulate the early Roman Catholic Church instead of the early New Testament church. But then his solution is to require churches to “ask what kind of space church leadership must indwell at this moment in late modern societies.” I know what I am about to say is not necessarily what he meant, but this sounds very pantheistic and metaphysical to me, not Biblical at all. It is no wonder that the average Christian who finds himself or herself attending EC conferences come away with their minds feeling like they have been turned into rice pudding. True Christian leadership are not concerned with indwelling “space”. They are concerned with obeying the Word of God and not running away from it.

Heb 2:1 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
1Ti 1:6 Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk.

The EC leadership are using strange unbiblical language that lead to unbiblical ideas. True believer will recognize strangers who bring a different Word.

Joh 10:5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice."

As in the time of John, these new teachers want to lay down the new game plan, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.
“In these biblical narratives God is constantly present in places where no one would logically expect God’s future to emerge and yet it does over and over. There is nothing in these stories about getting the wrong people off the bus and the right people on to accomplish great ends and become the best organization in the world. This God who calls us is always calling the wrong people onto a bus that isn’t expected to arrive.” (Missional Leader, A. Roxburgh, Pg 18, http://www.backyardmissionary.com/)

God is only “present”, in other word at work, in places where the Church is present. This implies that God is at work in pagan cultures through pagan religions in lieu of His Church and the Gospel. If the bus is the bus of false religion, truth laid alongside error, and pagan culture then it is the wrong bus and no believers should be on it. If they are called and sent by God to those places they will be riding the bus of orthodoxy, of the Gospel, of compassion, and of truth.
Alan Roxburgh was up next. He addressed the question of the conference, “What is a missional leader?” And then he gave us his standard responses: “I don’t know,” “Does it matter?” “Who cares?” Why do we want a definition so desperately? Because we are moderns. Definitions are modern constructs. The need to define the missional church and missional leadership is a modern need to define, name, control and plan. So, if I do what I’m not supposed to do (create a definition), the best I could say is, “a missional leader is one who can change as the world changes around him/her.” (http://timneufeld.blogs.com/occasio/2007/06/index.html)

So there need be no definition for “missional”? Could this be a bad excuse for having none? There is always a definition for everything, unless you are a subjectivist who believes that “truth” is always in a state of flux. If definitions are impossible to nail down, then truth is also.

As our culture changes our perceptual maps become dated and the lenses we use become less and less helpful. When this occurs we tend to work harder at our frameworks. Many leaders assume that simply adjusting the map will provide the answers needed. These men and women have not recognized that we are dealing with "discontinuous" change. The old lenses are not allowing them to see things "as they really are." Roxburgh quotes from Surfing the Edge of Chaos, that in times of discontinuous change "equilibrium is death." (Alan Roxburgh, The Sky Is Falling !?!, http://www.nextreformation.com/wp-admin/reviews/falling.htm)

I would completely disagree with Roxburgh’s quote of “Surging the Edge of Chaos”. There is nothing more necessary during time of change than equilibrium, the equilibrium of the never changing, eternal Word of God. The problem is the lenses EC leadership are looking through are the lenses of culture rather than the lenses of Scripture. If they want to understand modern culture all they have to do is look at it through the lessons of history and theography of the Bible. It is there we can find answers on how to reach people, not with new programs set on top of new programs which never work and only confuse the core issues.

What is the Nazarene connection to all this?

Long Answer: The Allelon Missional Schools Project was launched after papers were written to explain the teachings of Allelon. The four papers what were written were by Dr Dean Blevins: Nazarene Theological Seminary - Kansas City, Dr Mark Lau Branson/Dr Ryan Bolger: Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Dr S. Mark Heim: Andover Newton Theological School, Dr J. Nelson Kraybill: Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana (http://www.allelon.org/articles/article.cfm?id=335)

The tradition of the Church of the Nazarene is best described as Methodist, or
“Wesleyan” to acknowledge Holiness and some Pentecostal movements often framed as renewal movements inside Methodism. … As will be seen; missional proclivities remain woven, to some degree, into the DNA of Wesleyan praxis. (http://www.allelon.org/ARTICLES/article.cfm?id=327)

Of course one has to wonder how you can have a “missional proclivity” long before that concept was even being used. But this shows that the EC leadership is using the emphasis on praxis already in the Wesleyan churches like the Nazarenes to attempt to ride their false ideas in on that bandwagon.

The 2006 ALLELON SUMMER LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE -- Training and Formation for Missional Leaders was held at Eagle Nazarene Church, 1001 W. State St., Eagle, ID, cost $250. (http://www.churchinnovations.org/05_news/pii_v6_i1/pii_v6_i1_lewis.html)

Notice that Alan Roxburgh was a teacher at this Nazarene church seminar. Here is part of what they presented.

Forming Missional Leaders
Alan Roxburgh and Mark Priddy will provide participants with a clear, well-tested process for identifying the skills and capacities needed to innovate missional life in an existing leadership context. Because pre-course work is involved, the registration deadline for this course is April 30.

So they are not teaching Biblical concepts but “innovating” missional ideas among the leadership of churches.

Forming a Missional Order
This course, led by Tim Keel and Gary Waller, will provide a primer on basic thinking (theology, history, and cultural reflection) about the movement toward ordered communities, the communal considerations, and commitments needed to develop missional environments and the habits and practices necessary to birth missional communities. (http://www.churchinnovations.org/05_news/pii_v6_i1/pii_v6_i1_lewis.html)

They are moving toward “ordered communities” with “communal considerations”? Sounds like Utopian hippie talk to me. The term “birthing” is taken right out of the New Apostolic Reformation. Do Nazarenes want to be innovated into communities where the leadership has total apostolic control over their thoughts, “habits and practices”? If I were a Nazarene I would be really skeptical of this movement at this point.

On the web site “Emergent Nazarenes” there are a whole list of contributors from the Nazarene denomination who are urging the Nazarenes into the EC. (http://emergentnazarenes.blogspot.com/)

The current general superintendents, elected in 2005, are the following: Paul G. Cunningham, James H. Diehl, Nina G. Gunter, Jesse C. Middendorf, Jerry D. Porter and J. K. Warrick. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Nazarene) As far as I can tell all of the above are allowing the Emerging Church into the Church of the Nazarene. On the official Church of the Nazarene site, http://www.nazarene.org they have a whole subset of the site dedicated to Emerging (http://www.nazarenemissions.org/10002/story.aspx). Even their banner on the nazarene.org site uses the words Christian … holiness … missional. Missional is a term of the Emerging Church, not of Biblical Christian churches. The Global Mission Conference, though exposing youth to other cultures, is using the terminology of the EC to bring the young generation into line with EC ideas. (http://www.nazarenemedialibrary.org/MediaView.aspx?mediaId=347e0fe9-5e3f-46e6-8e1a-743ce8db1be7) Terms like “encountering stories” and making them part of yours, “a conversation in God’s global story”, “experience global prayer”, “discuss responsible compassion”, “engage in conversation”, “join the coversation”, and “join the story” are all expressions that are being used in EC conferences. The “missional church” is also expounded upon on the Nazarene main site on this page: http://www.nazarenemedialibrary.org/ using the search term “missional”.

An article by Ron Benefiel who is president of Nazarene Theological Seminary is posted on the Allelon site. (Response to Craig Van Gelder’s - “ENGAGING THE MISSIONAL CHURCH CONVERSATION AS A FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING MISSIONAL THEOLOGY” by Ron Benefiel, President, Nazarene Theological Seminary, Kansas City, MO, http://www.allelon.org/projects/Benefiels_response_CVG.pdf) In that article he states: “I have jotted down some of what I understand to be some of the theological and sociological challenges in moving from the church that “is” toward the missional church that I understand we are called to be.” The problem is that The Bible has not called us to be “missional”, at least not the way it is being defined in the EC. We are called to carry out the Great Commission and to encourage and build one another up in the Faith, that is in sound doctrine. We are to be light and salt to the world, but we are not called to work with every nere-do-well who comes wafting through our churches, denominations or organizations with a “new map”. But it is obvious to me that Nazarene Theological Seminary is being guided by the EC, not solid Biblical teaching. Maybe they should just rename the school “Nazarene Missional Semniary” or “Nazarene We Love McLaren Seminary” or some more appropriate name because they are now spouting the same new unbiblical ideas as the EC and have little interest, apparently, in what the Bible says about how we should carry out the task of evangelism or the teaching of sound doctrine. To be “theological” we must follow what God says, not men who use their imaginations to come up with ways to empower, enrich and make a name for themselves.

So it appears that EC is a done deal in the Church of the Nazarene as it is in many other mainline denominations. Why churches allow individuals with false teachings to come in from the outside and bombard their churches with unbiblical ideas is beyond me.

Long Answer: The Allelon Missional Schools Project was launched after papers were written to explain the teachings of Allelon. The four papers what were written were by Dr Dean Blevins: Nazarene Theological Seminary - Kansas City, Dr Mark Lau Branson/Dr Ryan Bolger: Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Dr S. Mark Heim: Andover Newton Theological School, Dr J. Nelson Kraybill: Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana (http://www.allelon.org/articles/article.cfm?id=335)

The tradition of the Church of the Nazarene is best described as Methodist, or
“Wesleyan” to acknowledge Holiness and some Pentecostal movements often framed as renewal movements inside Methodism. … As will be seen; missional proclivities remain woven, to some degree, into the DNA of Wesleyan praxis. (http://www.allelon.org/ARTICLES/article.cfm?id=327)

Of course one has to wonder how you can have a “missional proclivity” long before that concept was even being used. But this shows that the EC leadership is using the emphasis on praxis already in the Wesleyan churches like the Nazarenes to attempt to ride their false ideas in on that bandwagon.

The 2006 ALLELON SUMMER LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE -- Training and Formation for Missional Leaders was held at Eagle Nazarene Church, 1001 W. State St., Eagle, ID, cost $250. (http://www.churchinnovations.org/05_news/pii_v6_i1/pii_v6_i1_lewis.html)

Notice that Alan Roxburgh was a teacher at this Nazarene church seminar. Here is part of what they presented.

Forming Missional Leaders
Alan Roxburgh and Mark Priddy will provide participants with a clear, well-tested process for identifying the skills and capacities needed to innovate missional life in an existing leadership context. Because pre-course work is involved, the registration deadline for this course is April 30.

So they are not teaching Biblical concepts but “innovating” missional ideas among the leadership of churches.

Forming a Missional Order
This course, led by Tim Keel and Gary Waller, will provide a primer on basic thinking (theology, history, and cultural reflection) about the movement toward ordered communities, the communal considerations, and commitments needed to develop missional environments and the habits and practices necessary to birth missional communities. (http://www.churchinnovations.org/05_news/pii_v6_i1/pii_v6_i1_lewis.html)

They are moving toward “ordered communities” with “communal considerations”? Sounds like Utopian hippie talk to me. The term “birthing” is taken right out of the New Apostolic Reformation. Do Nazarenes want to be innovated into communities where the leadership has total apostolic control over their thoughts, “habits and practices”? If I were a Nazarene I would be really skeptical of this movement at this point.

On the web site “Emergent Nazarenes” there are a whole list of contributors from the Nazarene denomination who are urging the Nazarenes into the EC. (http://emergentnazarenes.blogspot.com/)

The current general superintendents, elected in 2005, are the following: Paul G. Cunningham, James H. Diehl, Nina G. Gunter, Jesse C. Middendorf, Jerry D. Porter and J. K. Warrick. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Nazarene) As far as I can tell all of the above are allowing the Emerging Church into the Church of the Nazarene. On the official Church of the Nazarene site, http://www.nazarene.org they have a whole subset of the site dedicated to Emerging (http://www.nazarenemissions.org/10002/story.aspx). Even their banner on the nazarene.org site uses the words Christian … holiness … missional. Missional is a term of the Emerging Church, not of Biblical Christian churches. The Global Mission Conference, though exposing youth to other cultures, is using the terminology of the EC to bring the young generation into line with EC ideas. (http://www.nazarenemedialibrary.org/MediaView.aspx?mediaId=347e0fe9-5e3f-46e6-8e1a-743ce8db1be7) Terms like “encountering stories” and making them part of yours, “a conversation in God’s global story”, “experience global prayer”, “discuss responsible compassion”, “engage in conversation”, “join the coversation”, and “join the story” are all expressions that are being used in EC conferences. The “missional church” is also expounded upon on the Nazarene main site on this page: http://www.nazarenemedialibrary.org/ using the search term “missional”.

An article by Ron Benefiel who is president of Nazarene Theological Seminary is posted on the Allelon site. (Response to Craig Van Gelder’s - “ENGAGING THE MISSIONAL CHURCH CONVERSATION AS A FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING MISSIONAL THEOLOGY” by Ron Benefiel, President, Nazarene Theological Seminary, Kansas City, MO, http://www.allelon.org/projects/Benefiels_response_CVG.pdf) In that article he states: “I have jotted down some of what I understand to be some of the theological and sociological challenges in moving from the church that “is” toward the missional church that I understand we are called to be.” The problem is that The Bible has not called us to be “missional”, at least not the way it is being defined in the EC. We are called to carry out the Great Commission and to encourage and build one another up in the Faith, that is in sound doctrine. We are to be light and salt to the world, but we are not called to work with every nere-do-well who comes wafting through our churches, denominations or organizations with a “new map”. But it is obvious to me that Nazarene Theological Seminary is being guided by the EC, not solid Biblical teaching. Maybe they should just rename the school “Nazarene Missional Semniary” or “Nazarene We Love McLaren Seminary” or some more appropriate name because they are now spouting the same new unbiblical ideas as the EC and have little interest, apparently, in what the Bible says about how we should carry out the task of evangelism or the teaching of sound doctrine. To be “theological” we must follow what God says, not men who use their imaginations to come up with ways to empower, enrich and make a name for themselves.

So it appears that EC is a done deal in the Church of the Nazarene as it is in many other mainline denominations. Why churches allow individuals with false teachings to come in from the outside and bombard their churches with unbiblical ideas is beyond me.

Can you summarize the teachings of Allelon and Alan Roxburgh?

Long Answer:

The EC promoted and taught by groups like Allelon is full of the teachings of false teachers who have introduced ideas and practices that are not Biblical. Here is a partial list:

Pantheism
Anointing "in" objects, cities, nations
Veneration of objects/icons used to visualize
Slain in the "spirit"/Drunkenness in the "spirit"
Synergy
Globalism
Dominionism/Save the planet
Contemplative Prayer/Labyrinth
Visualization
Centering down
Spiritual mapping
Yoga
Martial arts
Repetitive music/mantra
Automatic writing/journaling
Interfaithism
Universalism
Female deities
Astrology
Auras/personal prophecy
Portents/signs
Postmodernism/Relativism
Feelings based discernment
Other false doctrines such as disdain for the Rapture and Second Coming, a low view of the Bible and high view of new revelation, a vilification of the Church and mission, a disdain for the Gospel which includes teaching on hell and judgment, and a putting down of Christ’s death on the cross.

For a further treatment of this subject, go to: http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/newageinthechurch.html

Here is a summary of some of the specific false teachings of Allelon:

The word Greek word allelon as used by Allelon is not referring to the “one another” or allying of Christians for the sake of the world but it is referring specifically to unity of the Faith within the body of Christ. Allelon states that “Everything in the life of the church is done allelon for the sake of the world.” Yet the word allelon is about unity in the Spirit and in the Faith within the Church context. We are not to be in unity with the world, nor are we to dialog with them in order to come to consensus. We are to live and preach the truth of the Gospel. So their whole premise in the name of the organization is not biblically correct.
Theology, Greek, Hebrew and Church history should not be taught through the lens of the EC missional paradigm, but through the lens of Scripture and the facts presented there.
EC’s “painting the God picture very big” is evidencing itself in Universalism, Interfaithism and an erroneous view that God has always had a way for the Gentiles to be reconciled to God apart from the preaching of the Gospel.
If leaders in the EC state that missional theology is not sure of its plan and is ambiguous and full of confusion, why would anyone subscribe to it? Why then are they bringing this missional stuff into all the churches with such certainty?
Mission and church work are routinely vilified and deemed ineffective, if not detrimental, to Christian outreach. Yet most of the EC leadership who are using this as a diaprax are liberals who have slipped into, especially, evangelical churches when the church leadership who are supposed to be watchmen were asleep at the gates.
Brian McLaren, who is on the advisory board of Allelon, is no longer concerned about preaching the Gospel but about changing the maps of Christianity. But when you sideline the Gospel you sideline any way of reaching this generation.
Allelon’s stated mission is to restore the whole of creation. God’s Son will restore the creation at His second coming. We are to preach the Gospel and live it out in order that people will repent, believe and have a new creation created in them. Today the world is under the control of the evil one, and the offer of Satan to Christ at His temptation, giving Him all the kingdoms of the world if He would bow down and worship the devil, was a real one. We are at war against principalities and powers in this time and space. God’s Kingdom is being established in the hearts of men, not in the world. The world today is under the dominion of the evil one (1 John 5:19). Allelon is teaching the false doctrine of Dominionism.
Allelon claims the maps of Christianity need to be changed. If this “map” is referring to the Bible this is a denial of one of the core doctrines of the Faith, that is the inerrancy and complete sufficiency and authority of the written Word of God. If this “map” is referring to plans to reach the unreached, then the Bible is sufficient to teach us how to do that. If the maps need to be changed due to cultural changes, then Allelon needs to stop looking at reality through the map of modern culture and read the Bible with regards to the right way to preach the Gospel and teach sound doctrine and relate to every issue of life. Christians should not relate to postmodernism by becoming a postmodern or re-imaging the Church, the Bible and Jesus Christ to look postmodern. They should read their Bibles to realize postmodernism is not a new way of thinking at all (Judges 17:6). It is a rebellious, terribly erroneous way of thinking and needs to be roundly rebuked and rejected by any true believer. We need to teach sound doctrine in order that God may change people’s belief systems (Rom. 12:2). Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. This needs to be lived out and taught to unbelievers. When we become followers of Christ we get a new culture, that which is taught by the foundational Apostles and Jesus Christ.
When Roxburgh and Allelon claim: “God is constantly present in places where no one would logically expect God’s future to emerge and yet it does over and over” they purposely forget or are willfully ignorant of the fact that God is not present in the sense of the Gospel message or redemption or any real understanding of God until one is sent to tell about these things (Rom. 10:14). The Church has to be present for God to be present in that sense. Yes, God is omnipresent. No, God is not pantheistic nor has He been bringing people to salvation apart from the Good News of His Son (John 14:6).
When Roxburg responds to the question “What is a missional leader” with “I don’t know,” “Does it matter?” and “Who cares?” that pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter. But for an EC leader, whose life is now revolving around defining that very issue, to not know the answer to this question should make people a little frightened to see this flippant attitude and lack of the ability to frame his arguments.
The statement by Roxburgh that that “in times of discontinuous change, equilibrium is death" is backwards. We need an anchor, a solid rock in changing times, not a drifting anchor without a rope.
The statement by Roxburgh that preaching the Gospel to people and asking for a commitment is no longer the case that fits our modern world is backwards. Christ asks us to understand and believe the Gospel and make a commitment to Him upon repentance. That fact will never change as society changes to become subjective. Postmoderns must learn to accept objective truth or else there is no way for them to be saved.
The Mission In Western Culture Project (MWCP) states: “The gospel is not just a matter of personal salvation; rather, it is a call to participate in the communal and global purposes of God.”. Of course we are called to serve the Lord in the world, but we are not to be like the world. The Gospel is, first and foremost, all about personal salvation. There is no such thing as salvation of cultures and nations, or global salvation. God is about the business of saving individual people and changing them from the inside out. We are not called to be global Christians, only Christians who will be salt and light wherever the Lord puts us. We need to be obedient to Him, not to some global apostolic programs that have never worked. We are not here to change the world, only stand for truth and let God change people.
The Mission In Western Culture Project states: “the message of Jesus is the breaking-in of God’s Kingdom reign into the world”. God will “break in His Kingdom”, so to speak, when He comes. Till then we live in an age of devolution into evil, the church falling away into apostasy (2 Thes. 2:3), and the coming short-lived reign of the AntiChrist (1 John 2:18). This world is still in the domain of the evil one (Matt. 4:8-9, Eph. 2:2, John 16:11, Eph. 6:12) and Christians had better stop listening to Dominionists on this subject or else they will end up holding lamps without oil and will be surprised by the coming of the bridegroom.
Allelon is another praxis of the EC and its teachings. Since they recommend books by the leadership of the EC, people like Roxburgh have their books endorsed by them, they liberally quote from them, endorse their books and reflect the teachings of the leadership, the false teachings of the EC leadership ALL apply because everyone in the EC is being exposed to them. Here are some quotes by the EC fathers of the movement that show where they are coming from:

Spirituality refers first of all to the universal gift of aliveness that exists within all religions and outside of religions. (Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, pg. 253)

A surprisingly central feature of all the world’s religions is the language of light in communicating the divine and symbolizing the union of the human with the divine: Muhammed’s light-filled cave, Moses’ burning bush, Paul’s blinding light, Fox’s “inner light,” Krishna’s Lord of Light, Böhme’s light-filled cobbler shop, Plotinus’ fire experiences, Bodhisattvas with the flow of Kundalini’s fire erupting from their fontanelles, and so on. Light is the common thread that ties together near-death experiences as they occur in various cultures. (Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, pg. 146)

… A New Light movement of 'world-making' faith have helped to create the world that is to, and may yet, be. Then, and only then, will earthlings have uncovered the meaning of these words, some of the last words poet/activist/contemplative/bridge between East and West Thomas Merton uttered: "We are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity." (Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, pg. 10)
"Fourth, New Light embodiment means to be 'in connection' and 'information' with other faiths. To be in-formation means to know each other’s songs almost as well as one knows them oneself, and to enlarge the community to include those whose conceptions of God differ from ours in form. To be in connection means to be able to sing, not only selected stanzas, but all the verses" … "One can be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ without denying the flickers of the sacred in followers of Yahweh, or Kali, or Krishna. A globalization of evangelism 'in connection' with others, and a globally 'in-formed' gospel, is capable of talking across the fence with Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Muslim--people from other so called 'new' religious traditions ('new' only to us)--without assumption of superiority and power."(Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, p. 129-130)

ALAN JONES (Author of Reimagining Christianity) "The Church's fixation on the death of Jesus as the universal saving act must end, and the place of the cross must be reimagined in Christian faith. Why? Because of the cult of suffering and the vindictive God behind it" (Alan Jones, Reimaging Christianity, p. 132).

“Universalism is not as bankrupt of biblical support as some suggest,” (Brian McLaren, The Last Word and the Word After That, ( San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003), pp. 103 (cf. pp. 182-183)

“It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts,"… "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" (p. 194). (Brian McLaren, An Emergent Manifesto, Baker Books, referenced http://simplyagape.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html)

"I don't think we've got the gospel right yet. What does it mean to be 'saved'?.... I don't think the liberals have it right. But I don't think we have it right either. None of us has arrived at orthodoxy."––Brian McLaren, The Emergent Mystique, Christianity Today, 2004

"I must add, though, that I don't believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion.”---Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy, p. 260

The phrase ‘the Second Coming of Christ’ never actually appears in the Bible. Whether or not the doctrine to which the phrase refers deserves rethinking, a popular abuse of it certainly needs to be named and rejected. (McLaren, Everything Must Change, Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007), pg. 144.)

And yet, all the time I could feel myself drifting toward acceptance that gay persons are fully human persons and should be afforded all of the cultural and ecclesial benefits that I am. (”Aha!” my critics will laugh derisively, “I knew he and his ilk were on a continuous leftward slide!”) … In any case, I now believe that GLBTQ can live lives in accord with biblical Christianity (at least as much as any of us can!) and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state. (Tony Jones, Same Sex Marriage Blogalogue: How I Went from There to Here, Online source, bold theirs)