Posted by WilliamWBirch on November 4, 2011

Romans 14:1-4 "Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. 2For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 3Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. 4Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand."

As I prayed about the meaning of it, the Lord reminded me of how He restored Peter after He had denied Jesus. Remember that Peter had boasted in pride about his own faith that he would never abandon Jesus or deny Him. Yet, he did deny Him three times within Jesus’ hearing just as Jesus told him he would do. When Jesus restored him and asked him if he loved Him, He told Peter what he could do as an act of love toward Him. It was Jesus’ passion and purpose to die for all of mankind so that they wouldn’t have to spend eternity in hell. Jesus wanted Peter to "feed My sheep." Many today think that they are to beat the sheep into subjection, but if we do that we are beating the very ones Jesus died for and instructed not just Peter, but all of us to do… feed His sheep. We get so caught up in being "right" about an issue that even if we don’t beat them, many times we do not feed them. We all grow at different rates.  Also, we have not all had the same life experiences to learn from. So where one may be more mature in one area, the other may be more mature in another because God has already brought them through certain trials to teach them. Jesus would rebuke His disciples from time to time about having little faith, but that is fine, He is the Lord.  Romans COMMANDS US to bear with those who are weak in faith either in all areas or in just some areas of life. Jesus isn’t concerned about how RIGHT WE ARE in a debate, He wants us to lead and plead with not only the sinner but also the faithful who simply may not understand. HE IS NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH. He rebuked the Pharisees for traveling land and sea to win one convert but then because of their harsh rigidness would make that convert more a “child of hell” than they themselves were.

Romans 14:9-11 "For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11For it is written:
“As I live, says the LORD,
Every knee shall bow to Me,
And every tongue shall confess to God.”

We see here that God will have His day and that one day everyone will know He is Lord. The question is, did we show everyone in our life the love and forgiveness that Christ did so that they could know Jesus died for them. Could they look at the way we treated them and know it was true that Jesus cried out from the cross, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." John 3:17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." Do we negate such a message of love by being harsh with our brethren? Romans 14 is saying that we are RIGHT in thinking we can now eat foods as long as is is received with thanksgiving, but if our eating of that food causes our brother to be offended then we have sinned against our brother.

Romans 14:12-18 "So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. 13Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.
14I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. 16Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; 17for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men."

Yes, we are to "prove all things" but we must be cautious in the way in which we do it. We must prove things, not people’s hearts, that’s the work of the Holy Spirit, not ours. I see all too often mere men trying to do the work of the Holy Spirit and it is ruinous in the hearts of the hearers! This is what the Holy Spirit was saying through Paul in Romans 14:22 "Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves." In other words, don’t go around all puffed up because you have faith in areas that others don’t.  Don’t be haughty because you understand and someone else doesn’t. We are ambassadors of Christ, we have been given a ministry of reconciliation, so that the world and even the apostate church, His bride for whom He died, would be reconciled unto Him.

Romans 14:19-22 "Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. 20Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. 21It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. 22Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves."

When I get too critical of others, the Lord reminds me of this scripture.

James 5:9-11 "Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! 10My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. 11Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful."

My heart breaks for some of the bickering I’ve seen within the church and I kept silent asking for the Lord to intervene by His Spirit and I would not speak up until He instructed me to. Children of God, we must get back to feeding His sheep, His sheep, His sheep, they aren’t ours to do with what we will!! Behold, the Judge is at the door!!! And He has a message for His church! GET OUT OF MY SEAT!!!!!!

May God have mercy on us all. Please LORD, restore us unto Yourself!

Written by WilliamWBirch from his blog “WilliamWBirch.net” on September 27, 2011

The apostle Paul closes his letter to the church at Corinth with these words: “If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha” (1 Cor. 16:22 NASB). “Maranatha” (μαράνα θά) translates, “Our Lord, come.” The word for “accursed” in Greek (ἀνάθεμα) refers to “a thing devoted to God without hope of being redeemed” (link). I give you the original Greek words here so that you can see how nearly every letter used to make up “anathema” is also used for “Maranatha,” mentioned only here in the New Testament. Speculation has been made about the connection of the two terms, but this post is not meant to further that conversation.

I do wonder, however, if those who profess to be followers of Christ but who do not love Jesus are those who are devoted to God without hope of being redeemed (anathema) when the Lord returns (Maranatha). What is more important, in my opinion, is the immediate question posed to all who profess to be Christians: Can you admit with honesty and integrity that you love Jesus? I did not ask whether you “believe in God” or if you “believe (in a historical way) in Jesus Christ,” nor did I ask if you are perfect. I also did not ask if you love Jesus perfectly. But some people profess to believe in God or in Jesus and the confession amounts to nothing more than mere words. Do you love Jesus?

I heard a story about a pastor’s son, now in his thirties, who supposedly “accepted Christ” at a young age but presently demonstrates no fruit (evidence) of a changed heart or life (and has not since his youth). The son cannot confess that he loves Jesus. The pastor baptized his young son, and this pastor has always been a passionate proclaimer of God’s word, including the doctrine of necessary perseverance. In other words, the pastor has always been convinced — as is the son today — that once a person “accepts Christ” (and of course follows that “acceptance” with believer’s baptism), he or she is saved eternally. Nothing that person can do (or not do?) will forfeit his or her salvation, since salvation is by grace through faith in Christ and not of works (i.e., any deeds we do).

Fair enough. I will not take any issue with the doctrine of Perseverance (or the contrary view). This post is not about Perseverance. The moral of that brief story of the pastor’s son is that this son has the mistaken view that he is still saved — saved, even though he cannot confess that he loves Jesus — saved, even though there is no evidence whatsoever that his heart has been changed as a result of “accepting Jesus.” I want to address this son and all like him. Friend, the matter is not merely that you are not “living as you should.” The matter is much more severe. You cannot confess to love Jesus, which speaks volumes about your present condition with regard to salvation.

I admit that I am uncomfortable with the language of “accepting Jesus.” In my Southern Baptist context, I have heard the phrase used by pastors. They mean no harm by its use. For them, the phrase means the same as “receiving Jesus.” For John the Immerser (Baptist, Baptizer) states, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12 NASB). I prefer the language of receiving Christ as Lord and Savior (not just as Savior but also as Lord). I do not think the Greater (King Jesus) needs to be “accepted” by the lesser (sinful human beings). If stated any other way, we (the lesser) need to be “accepted” by God (the Greater) through Christ — this is the biblical way to understand the matter, in my opinion. For Scripture states that God “predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:5-6 NKJV, emphasis added).

If you cannot confess with honesty and integrity that you presently love Jesus, you can be guaranteed one of two truths: 1) that salvation has not yet come to you (so that you still need to be born again), or 2) that you have backslidden into a state from which you need to turn away or forsake. The words of John the Immerser still speak to you today: “Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8 NASB). I like the way the New Living Translation reads: “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.”

This message was given to Jewish people who were relying on their heritage to make them right with God. Some “professing Christians” today are relying on their baptism, or their connection to God through a parent or a grandparent, or their good deeds, or, in the case of the pastor’s son, on a pastor’s teaching of perseverance — that a one-time confession of accepting Christ rather than an on-going faith in and love for Jesus amounts to eternal security and salvation — to make them right with God. They fail to consider that each individual will have to appear alone before the judgment seat of God in Christ to give an account of his or her life. Faith and repentance are individual experiences. No one will be admitted into God’s presence by someone else’s faith and repentance.

Scripture teaches that “the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5 NASB). When a person believes or trust in Christ for salvation, the Person of the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within that individual. The “love of God,” whether it is love for God or His love for us and others, is then evident in that person. The person who does not love, Scripture teaches, does not belong to Christ: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8 NASB).

We had no love for God prior to being born again: “This is real love — not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” (1 John 4:10 NLT). More to the point, Jesus Himself states, “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me” (John 14:24 NASB). Our faith in and love for Jesus is most clearly demonstrated when we obey (a result of repentance) His commandments. Those who live their lives for themselves, in direct disobedience to Christ, do not love Him. No matter what they profess about their supposed Christianity or their belief in God or in Jesus Christ, if they do not love Jesus (exhibited by a life of obedience), they are not now and will not later be saved, but instead cursed.

Today is still the day of salvation. May the Lord grace your heart toward repentance and faith in Jesus, demonstrated in genuine love for Christ through obedience. My greatest fear, for many people whom I know, is that they will be among those to whom Jesus says, “I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws” (Matt. 7:23 NLT). For Jesus confesses, “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter” (Matt. 7:21 NLT). Please, do not let this moment of grace pass you by. Trust in Christ Jesus and you will be born again and/or reconciled to the Lord. You will then love Him in sincerity and with humility, obeying Him from the heart. Do not be deceived: Our Lord will return (Maranatha), and those who do not love Him will be without hope of being redeemed or saved (anathema).

Hi Ryan,

Here we go, start at the beginning of Luke 22 as it leads up to Luke 22:31. Jesus knows what is in our hearts and if we are really the person we are saying we are! Peter was not the rock yet! But soon to be after he fell so in love with Jesus that he could never deny Him again.

Think of this, in the midst of our trials a miracle happens, our heart becomes His, we begin to love and trust God unconditionally!!! God loves us unconditionally, Job loved Him unconditionally. Do we? Or is he asking us 3 times if we love Him as He did with Peter? Many people never think of loving God unconditionally. No matter what happens to us, Peter soon did, Job did. Jobs wife blamed her husband and Almighty God- was that her faith test too? Job chose to love Him and told Him even though you slay me I will trust you! Many people do not grow spiritually because they blame God for the trial, they hurt and they do not understand why He would allow it? It is for our ultimate good. He has the right to test our hearts! He is purifying them. He is the Potter! We are the clay. In the end those who trust Him and allow Him to change them will be priceless fruit to Him! We are being redeemed into the fullness of Christ dwelling in us during the trial!! Yes, Christ in us the hope of Glory!! The first Adam failed, the second Adam is the Great Eternal High Priest that will never die and never fail!

How did Peter fall so deeply in love with his savior? The same way we do, through the trials!

To sift means to beat, separate, and reveal. As the husk is beaten off of the grain and separated and then who we are is revealed!! Jesus says if you want any part of me you have to drink my blood and eat my flesh! Many turned back! They still do today. Some turn away then come back and follow Him as Peter did. At first Peter said Lord I’m ready to go with you to prison or even unto death. After denying Jesus his heart was changed forever, to the point of asking to be crucified upside down….His undying, passion and alliance won many souls to his savior. He came from a not so certain identify, through the sifting process that turned him into a Lion! He learned who the real Peter was, the person God created him to be. Peter thought he knew himself. It took Jesus confronting him in the darkest hour then God revealed to him who he really was. Then God began revealing his love for him personally. Peter would never doubt again and go on fearlessly. We have to be with Jesus and have him show us who we really are. We will enjoy ourselves when we see who we really are! It is Christ in us! He is changing our very nature into His! Father make them one as you and I are one! Once we have our true identity in Christ! We know who we are! A new creature! And we will like being around other people who know who they are in Christ! We are made for the real fellowship in the second Adam not the falseness of the fallen first Adam.

Later on by one look from Jesus, Peter knows he is forgiven! He had denied him 3 times he was afraid when the servant girl recognized him. Later he preaches to 3,000. He has gone from fear to great faith! Jesus prays for him and tells him, "Peter now go strengthen your brethren!!" That became his life’s assignment and purpose on earth!! His writing inspired by the Holy Spirit has encouraged and strengthened us for centuries. Isn’t this every Christians life’s purpose? What a calling? We can strengthen each other and that person will go strengthen many others.

You have been faithful with a little, so He has given you much more, and many more souls to look after.

The greatest thing we have to give to the people around us is our true personhood in Christ! That is how others see Jesus in us! That pure unadulterated view of His love for Peter changed him forever. He captures our hearts the same way.

Satan understands us being sifted as he was sifted too! His pride made him fail his test; he chose to want to be above God rather than to love Him! God cast him down to earth!

We Christians are constantly being sifted, we may not recognize it, but we are either about to be sifted, or have just finished being sifted or we are about to be sifted again! That is the process of God increasing our faith in us, the rhythm of life! Since we are in the battle between God and the devil, The spirit of truth and the spirit of error, the antichrist spirit which is always operating, resisting the righteousness of Christ and the church. But the gates of hell shall not prevail…

Ryan if you take what is in the letter you wrote to me, it is the follow up FRUIT of this. These are only light afflictions; we have not suffered to bloodshed yet. I heard this; “no preacher is really a preacher until he has suffered for Jesus.” It is true, or we cannot identify with His deep suffering He endured in His Love for us! And the victory of overcoming the world for us so He could send us into it.

He did say to Peter I have prayed that your faith will not fail. So it appears that Peters faith was the trial…Jesus wanted all of his heart and no more unbelief and fear operating in him and organized the circumstances to train and test him!! Lord let us not miss the moments of your visitation when you are testing our faith!!! It is how we grow into people of great faith.

The sifting process is going on in our church as well as each individual. If we are following Him our faith is going to be sifted and tested and it will increase or decrease every day by how much His Word is dominating us in everything we think and do. We are either walking in faith (trust) or in fear (unbelief). We choose to follow you Lord with our whole heart in great faith and honor You. The man who trusts Him will NEVER be put to shame! He desires to impart GREAT faith in all of His people. To do GREAT things for those who know their God…. Do we really understand if God is for us who can be against us? May we all encourage one another and pray for each other’s strengthening. Amen!

Randy

THIS IS A STORY THAT CONTAINS THREE STORIES; EACH STORY HAS A MESSAGE.

Story # 1: Soldiers who are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome from their experiences during their service to the U.S. are being encouraged to turn to eastern style meditation techniques to find help through a program called Patriot Outreach. A free CD to any solider promises to give “effective help with Anger, Stress, Pain, Combat Stress and even P.T.S.D.” The CD presents an exercise in meditation that listeners are told to practice three times a day: http://copingstrategiescd.com/downloads/cdquality/CopingStrategies_FullCD_128K.mp3.

This exercise involves a focusing technique that is used during eastern-style meditation. The name of the exercise is called “Be Still and Know,” taken from Psalm 46:10. This is the main Bible verse used by contemplatives to “prove” that the Bible condones going into the “silence” through various meditation practices (mantras, lectio divina, breath prayers, etc). As Lighthouse Trails has shown in the past, the verse has been taken out of context. Nowhere in Scripture are we instructed to enter an altered state of mind using focusing or repetitive techniques in order to hear the voice of God or in this case relax and rid one’s self of stress, anxiety, and anger. Sadly, Patriot Outreach is pointing soldiers to something that could ultimately harm them spiritually.

Patriot Outreach is associated with radio talk show host from Oregon, Roy Masters. Masters is the founder of the Foundation of Human Understanding Worldwide (please use discernment if entering this site) and an outspoken advocate for meditation practices. Master’s website offers a number of products to teach meditation techniques, including the Be Still and Know CD.

Story #2: On July 19th, WorldNetDaily posted an article titled “Military praises ‘fantastic’ new post-traumatic stress therapy.”  The article is written by WND‘s managing editor David Kupelian and is basically an infomercial for a CD called Be Still and Know, which offers a meditation technique for soldiers and veterans presented by Patriot Outreach.  Kupelian offers this supportive quote:

Patriot Outreach is an organization that provides the useful tools for our troubled soldiers and arms them with a renewed inner strength – a strength never to be shaken or stirred by angry thoughts or uncontrolled emotion. …

While we understand thatWorldNetDaily offers the writings from those of many different views, they maintain a strong defense of conservativism and generally attract those with Judeo/Christian principles. Thus, it is surprising, to say the least, that Joseph Farah (WND founder) would allow an article to be posted (by his managing editor, no less) that outrightly promotes eastern meditation techniques, given that the overall philosophy/theology of eastern religion does not line up with Judeo/Christian or conservative standards.

Kupelian’s article draws strongly on the emotions, as he talks about soldiers who are suffering terribly from their experiences in the service. Lighthouse Trails holds a deep compassion for these soldiers who have risked their lives in the military; however, we find WorldNetDaily’s promotion of eastern meditation techniques as a valid solution more of an insult to these soldiers and veterans than a help. Thus, we call for WorldNetDaily to retract this article and make a formal, public apology to soldiers and veterans everywhere. If they do not, then they are making a statement to all that they embrace the ideologies that they have stood against for so long. How’s that you say? Mysticism is of the same ideology framework as evolution, abortion, homosexuality, pedophilia, and anti-semitism. We call it the death religion. It takes practitioners away from the One, the only One who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). It is interesting to note that David Kupelian has written books on the topic of evil (including The Marketing of Evil). If he understood that  meditation does not produce good “fruit” but rather bad outcomes, perhaps he would reconsider his views on this topic.

Story #3: On the WorldNetDaily article promoting eastern meditation techniques, there are about five dozen comments by readers. While there are some comments that completely oppose what is being said in Kupelian’s article, a large number of the comments are praising the article. Here are a few of the praises:

Great article. Make it go viral, spread the message, lives are at stake every day.

Hey this is just AWSOME! If it can save just one of those troops lives then I say CHARGE ON!

This is wonderful! Next step is for the Be Still to go viral all over the internet so we can regain America and a free world!

And on they go. If these comments were made by readers of a New Age or contemplative  newspaper or magazine, one could hardly be surprised to hear these comments. But these are coming from readers of WorldNetDaily; and what this shows is that the mystical mindset is infiltrating even conservative circles. This also shows thatWorldNetDaily has not made enough effort to speak up against spiritual deception. They have spoken up about many important issues affecting society and the church, but it appears that they have underestimated the wiles of the devil.

This isn’t the first time Lighthouse Trails has reported on David Kupelian. In 2008, we wrote “WorldNet Daily VP Wrong about the Mystics.” In that article, we stated that Kupelian wrote a WND article that featured and promoted a number of mystics. Now, three years later, he is promoting outright New Age meditation. This is a classic example of why we so strongly issue these warnings about Christian authors who are reading and writing about the mystics. Eventually, they are drawn into mysticism.

We can only hope that WorldNetDaily, who has a large percentage of Christian readers, will retract Kupelian’s article promoting eastern meditation techniques and set their readers straight. But sadly, they have grown an audience of which many will not like to hear such a retraction; so now there is going to be a cost to do the right thing. One thing is likely, they’ll lose some readers either way they go.

Because it is relevant to this week’s WND article, here is our 2008 article below:

On January 18th, 2008, WorldNet Daily posted an article by WND Vice President, David Kupelian. The article came out in WND’s publication Whistleblowerthe previous month and is currently in wide circulation on the Internet. It is for this reason that Lighthouse Trails is compelled to respond. The information in the article could potentially mislead many into following the teachings of mystics and panentheists from the past.

Kupelian’s article, titled “If God is everywhere, why do so few people find Him?”does not refute the notion that God is everywhere but on the contrary backs up the idea by favorably referencing mystics who believed that God was in everyone. Kupelian throws in ambiguous comments like “Christianity is a mystical religion, not a legalistic one like Islam” which adds fuel to his persuasive recommendations about mystics such as Madame Guyon and St. John of the Cross. He also refers to George Fox, founder of the Quaker movement, and William Penn, also a Quaker. Of Penn, Kupelian states:

Penn, a Quaker and close friend of the movement’s founder George Fox, is quite dramatically saying God can somehow be found in stillness, echoing David the psalmist who wrote, “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)

What many WND readers may not know is that Quakers (not all) traditionally believe that all humans have a Divine light within. That is what prompted Quaker Thomas Kelly to say: “Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return…. In that abiding yet energizing Center we are all made one” (pp. 29, 38, A Testament of Devotion). Kelly stated that the “Slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened … is within us all” (p. 29). He says the “Inward Christ” dwelled not just in the Christian’s heart, nor was something to be “accepted or rejected” but is “the living Center of Reference for all Christian souls … and of non-Christian groups as well” (p. 34).

George Fox would concur with Kelly. The three following statements by Fox George Fox illustrate this well:

“Walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone.”

“The Light shines through all.”

“There is that of divinity in all things.”

Kupelian comes to the defense of two mystics, Madame Guyon and St. John of the Cross, stating:

Whatever doctrinal reasons the Catholic Church might have had for rejecting Guyon, it’s hard to dispute the classic wisdom, espoused here, of seeking God in stillness.

But of that stillness, Guyon expressed these thoughts:

May I hasten to say that the kind of prayer I am speaking of is not a prayer that comes from your mind. It is a prayer that begins in the heart …. prayer that comes from the heart is not interrupted by thinking! (Madam Guyon, Experiencing The Depths of Jesus Christ p. 4)

G. Richard Fisher of Personal Freedom Outreach has written an excellent critique of Madame Guyon titled “The Mindless Mysticism of Madame Guyon.” Fisher’s research leaves no room for doubt as to Guyon’s mystical affinities. 1It is Guyon who said: “Here [the contemplative state] everything is God. God is everywhere and in all things.”2 Lastly, St. John of the Cross who said: “My beloved [God] is the high mountains, and the lovely valley forests, unexplored islands, rushing rivers.”3

Ray Yungen explains the problem: “To absolve these mystics of fundamental theological error, one has to also defend panentheism.”4 We are not proposing that David Kupelian of WorldNet Daily is a panentheist. However, the examples he is using as examples werepanentheists. And for the sake of many WND readers, this is something that has to be pointed out.

Notes:
2. Timothy Freke, The Spiritual Canticle, the Wisdom of the Christian Mystics(Godsfield Press, 1998), p. 60.
3. Willigis Jager, The Search for the Meaning of Life(Ligouri, MO, Liguori/Triumph, 1995), p. 125.
4. Yungen, A Time of Departing, 2nd ed. (Silverton, OR: Lighthouse Trails,) p. 74.

“For who hath known the mind of the Lord,
that he may instruct him?
But we have the mind of Christ.”
Emphasis added, 1 Corinthians 2:16, KJV

On the heels of the hippie era of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the New Age Movement (NAM) rose in prominence during the late 1970s, and remains popular today. One component of NAM spirituality was meditation associated with “Transcendental Meditation” (TM), a Hindu religious practice that was popularized and introduced to the Western culture by the Beatles and their personal guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1914-2008).[1] The Maharishi is credited with introducing Hindu mysticism to western culture along with that religion’s spiritual disciplines such as Yoga. A savvy marketer, he seized every opportunity to repackage Hindu spirituality to sell to American culture, one part of which consisted of meditative techniques that promised practitioners “increased creativity and flexibility, increased productivity, improved job satisfaction, improved relations with supervisors and co-workers,” and so on.[2] At that time TM was marketed so as not to appear as a religion, but propagandized to be a way to realize “better health, stress relief and spiritual enlightenment.”[3]

One of the most enticing claims of TM was that it could, via “mass meditation sessions,” create a corporate and convergent inner peace that would in an ultimate way reduce violence and war in the world.[4] Give peace a chance, sang the Beatles. In other words, achieving inner peace through meditation would affect world peace, as long as sufficient numbers of the world’s population engaged the practice (i.e., attaining critical mass). This appealed to the Viet Nam War generation which stridently, sometimes violently, opposed that war. In an incarnating, even Messianic way, personal peace achieved by meditation would produce international peace. Thus, many began practicing meditation with the desire of producing global effects. They would repetitively chant a “mantra”—a sacred Sanskrit word that if repetitively repeated possessed magical power, it is believed, to invoke the presence of a deity.[5] If engaged in over a prolonged period of time, the repetition of the mantra would cause the meditators to abandon their rational mind so as to experience a soulful oneness and peace with themselves and the world.

Engaging in meditative chanting promised that its practitioners would feel themselves become detached from reality and in that state experience serenity, joy, attunement to God, spiritual power and a vibrant connection with the universe. The goal was emptying the mind, leaving reality and getting “high” within. Meditation (sometimes facilitated by, in a Woodstock way, listening to rock music, experimenting with sex, and smoking pot or popping hallucinatory drugs—you know, a little help from “my friends”) often induced what can be called “altered state[s] of consciousness.”[6] The following quotes show how meditation connects to mysticism:

• “Meditation in the eastern faith was a path to nirvana [i.e., an ideal condition of perfect harmony and peace] or perfection.”[7]
• “The mystical realm of meditation can be quite exhilarating at first. It produces feelings and experiences of heightened awareness, euphoria and even ecstasy. The act of meditation in this sense can be an addiction since the seeker will want more of this sensation. In fact, meditation can quickly be discarded as an inefficient method of attaining this ‘high’ if other methods work better. Meditative paths to exhilaration lead to feeling that one is connecting with the ‘divine.’”[8]
• “Ecstasy can be deliberately induced using religious or creative activities, meditation, music, dancing, breathing exercises, physical exercise, sex or consumption of psychotropic drugs.”[9]

Another pathway to realize the perfection of “true enlightenment” is to engage the martial arts, a discipline that, according to Gaylene Goodroad in her book My Life in ‘THE WAY’, includes “emptying heart and mind of all earthly desire and vanity.”[10] In that context, voiding the mind would result in realizing one’s “divinity” or “godhood.” These mind-body-spirit “paths” or “ways” (sometimes called “spiritual” disciplines) promise higher enlightenment, self-realization, understanding, gentleness, harmony, unity, self-awakening, self-perfection.[11] As one makes progress through stages or up the spiritual ladder, attaining unto higher states produces a sense of wholeness within one’s soul.

Yet another pathway to mystical meditation is visualization. This is what Carl Jung called “active imagination,” which was a way to “have a direct experience of God as a star or sun within.”[12] Occultists define visualization as not just a method of meditation, but also a psychic way to invoke spiritual presences:

VISUALIZATION A loose term for numerous practices in which mental pictures are called up and used for different purposes: to contact someone telepathically, heal from a distance, achieve a desired state (happiness, peace, courage), attain a desired goal or possession (fame, money, sexual charm). Encompasses many popular practices now in use, though the discipline itself is very ancient and seems to have been developed in almost every culture of the past. May be divided into two classes: CREATIVE VISUALIZATION for the purpose of producing external effects and the use of visual imagery for inner exploration of the processes of the unconscious, as in the Jungian work….[13]

If all of this mystical meditation sounds a bit self-centered and self-preoccupied, it is because it is. Dr. Martin Erdmann, in his key article “The Spiritualization of Science, Technology, and Education in a One-World Society,” explains how achieving altered consciousness was an agenda of the Human Potential Movement. Briefly outlined, he states his thesis:

Inspired in part by Aldous Huxley’s publications and his advocacy of psychedelic drugs, intellectuals such as Willis W. Harman emphasized irrational meditative/mind emptying exercises, or the use of hallucinogens as a more congenial basis for scientific and technological progress. Calling for a new metaphysic of science/technology, the proponents of the Human Potential Movement perceive the religious heritage of the West—based on Christian premises—as the greatest impediment of an evolving “cosmic conscience.” In gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the spiritual and material processes of the universe, a mystically inclined elite of technically enhanced human mutants would be able to usher in a homogeneous world socialist society, perhaps not altogether different from the one envisioned in Brave New World.[14]

Dr. Erdmann details how Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) hoped for a “brainwashing” and/or “a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude” to a dictatorship, and began experimenting with mystical experiences and hallucinogens.[15] The mind-expanding potential of these experiences were seen as connected with a latent, untapped spiritual potential resident in the mind of man. Willis Harman began researching altering human consciousness as means to facilitate political change, especially through the shifting of values, including “bringing something like ‘person-changing technology’ into the educational system (e.g., meditation, hypnosis, sensitivity training, psychodrama, yoga, etc.”[16]

Indeed, this history may help explain why at this time meditation is rising in popularity. The activity has become a useful tool, a natural means, for attaining unto and entering into a new consciousness for the purpose of changing beliefs, attitudes, values, morals and worldviews. Meditative techniques (spiritual disciplines) assist persons to see the world in “a new light,” to look at the world in a new perspective, to believe in a different way. In the hippie era, meditation was a useful tool for deconstructing the tired old ways of viewing and doing things. Many of the Hippie youth turned to reject their nominal Christian background. This occurred because mystic activities gave them a seductive peek into the eastern evolutionary belief system. Through meditation, and as they experienced their consciousness changing, the youthful rebels began in a corporate way to feel themselves becoming larger than life. Their reality expanded. The universe seemed reachable. Immortality seemed attainable. Unreality became reality.[17]

But attaining unto this altered state of consciousness portends spiritual danger—that in such a state of mind, spiritual entities or demons can suggest to or possess the mind. A passive or empty mind will not remain an empty slate. Something, or someone, will fill it. Voided minds are permeable, suggestible, impressionable and malleable. Insatiably, they desire filling by something . . . anything. Hence, meditation serves as an open doorway into the world of the occult, a world of supernatural phenomena and forces. In a synthetic way, hallucinogenic drugs also assisted users to experience the new consciousness.[18] One author explains how like meditation, mind-altering drugs can become “dangerous doorways of demonic deception . . . can open up… the human soul”:

During Hindu meditation, an adept yogi will usually experience many of the same visions, wild bright lights, strange etheric sounds, and encounters with spirit-beings that many people have described after ingesting LSD . . . An ex-Hindu Brahmin priest explains: “‘Often while in deep meditation the gods became visible and talked with me. At times I seemed to be transported by astral projection to distant planets or to worlds in other dimensions. It would be years before I would learn that such experiences were being duplicated in laboratories under watchful eyes of parapsychologists through the use of hypnosis and LSD’.”[19]

Another doorway to the altered state of consciousness is music:

There is a certain music that enhances and in many cases instigates the same type of spiritual transformation as that experienced by the adepts of Hinduism. It is called New Age music. Strictly, by definition, New Age music is any music designed to produce in the mind and spirit of the listener either the altered state, the altered world view, or both.[20]

Self-induced, mind-emptying and mind-altering disciplines/devices desensitize the Christian’s sensitivity to biblical reality as the mind abandons its defenses and letting go of restraints, no longer can discern truth from error. Mind-emptying meditation, like that promoted in sensitivity training groups related to the Human Potential Movement, has as its philosophical foundation the mantra of, “accept anything as valid.”[21] So there is to be no questioning (there are no wrong answers), challenging or negativity expressed against the new sensitivities. To this end, entering an altered state of consciousness serves to anesthetize persons against discernment as they are overcome by a lax, apathetic and permissive state of mind. This happens in spite of the biblical call to be sober minded.

Sober to the End

“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober” the Apostle Peter wrote to the early church (1 Peter 1:13; 4:7; 5:8). The opposite of being sober is, in a Bacchic sense, being drunk with wine (Bacchus was the ancient “party” god of drunkenness and revelry.). Obviously, sober-mindedness deters one from being influenced by the devil or demons (1 Peter 5:8), as also does the filling with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). The Lord is on record as being against using devices and/or spiritual disciplines to alter consciousness. As the Apostle Paul identified with the Corinthian readers of his letter, “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). Believers are not to entertain practices that will distract them from thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ. To this end, the Holy Spirit directs our minds toward Christ. In this light, Paul wrote to the Colossians, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2). If a believer’s consciousness needs to be altered, the Lord will do it through His Word as the Holy Spirit centers our consciousness upon Him (John 15:26). In a self-induced way, altering one’s consciousness, or emptying one’s mind, distracts one from the mind of Christ, the mind that objectively is focused and centered upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Consciousness altering is a human work, and while it may induce seeing paranormal visions, hearing paranormal voices or experiencing paranormal visitations, such altering will corrupt the believers mind “from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3).

Therefore, Scripture prohibits engaging in all mind-altering activity; especially that induced via drugs. The English New Testament variously translates the Greek word pharmakeia, from which we get our English word pharmacy, by the nouns “witchcraft” (Galatians 5:20) or “sorceries” (Revelation 9:21; 18:23; 21:8).[22] These references associate drugs with “idolatry.” From these references, we ascertain that pagans commonly employed drugs to enhance their spiritual experiences. In order to access the occult world, an emptying of the mind through meditation (delusion), or altering the mind through hallucinogens (drugs), can induce a experiential alchemy of death-defying enlightenment. Attaining unto such a state, meditators and/or druggies embrace the primeval Satanic lie, “you shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4), an experience that becomes extremely deceptive, alluring, seductive, and addictive. Scripture condemns activities that induce The Lie (Deuteronomy 18:9-12). Scripture also pictures druggies as being separated from the City of God, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:14-15). It’s just that serious.

The opposite of attaining unto a state of altered consciousness by engaging in so-called spiritual disciplines is being “sober minded.” In a paranormal state, if achieved, one’s soul goes out of control, thus evidencing that it is not a fruit of the Holy Spirit; for one of the fruits He produces in the believer is “self-control” (Galatians 5:23, NASB).

Sober-mindedness is listed as a qualification of church leadership ( 1 Timothy 3:1-2, Titus 1:8, 2:2). Young men are also exhorted to be “sober-minded” (Titus 2:6), and likewise young women (1 Peter 2:4). To be “sober” is enjoined upon all believers, for as Peter instructs, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). After Jesus healed the demoniac, Mark records that he came about to be “in his right mind” (Mark 5:15; See also Luke 8:35.). To resist the devil and demonic influences requires a sober mind (James 4:7). If we do not retain a right mind, the devil will not flee from us, but rather will find a entry point through which he will attempt to influence, if not control, our lives.

Attaining unto altered states of consciousness is the essence of paganism, the fountainhead of which was the religion of Babylon, that religious system which through the ages has been the mother lode of mysticism, and in the last days will allure and seduce “inhabitants of the earth [to become] drunk with the wine of her fornication” (Revelation 17:2). This spirituality the Apostle John named the great infidelity, “the great whore” (Revelation 17:1). Becoming drunk with wine suggests a religion which thrives upon attaining altered states of consciousness—states which are achieved by drinking alcohol, doing drugs, listening to music or cultivating the silence of the contemplative mind. All of this and more may be contrasted to Paul’s word to the Ephesians (the church located in the center of the locale where the many-breasted fertility goddess Diana was worshipped) when he wrote, “be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).

The exact opposite of mind-numbing meditating is the rehearsing of God’s Word on one’s mind for edification, encouragement and strength. Scriptural meditation involves going over and over Scripture in one’s consciousness.[23] In this activity, in one’s “right mind,” the Holy Spirit seals the eternal truths of God in the soil of the regenerate human soul thereby bringing the life of the Word of God to the inner man (2 Corinthians 2:16).

In contrast to the meditation that can numb the soul against perceptions of the present reality, Scripture instructs believers to, “not sleep, as do others; but [to] watch and be sober” (2 Thessalonians 5:6) [Emphasis added]. As the Ten Virgins, we are to not sleep, but to watch and be alert in these last days before Christ comes again (Matthew 25:1-13).

“False christs” are here, and they anesthetize us from embracing Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Luke 21:8). Among other aspects attendant of true spirituality, entering into altered states can produce in people a pseudo-reality (visions, voices and visitations) that desensitizes them to, even anesthetizes them against, a conscious awareness that Jesus is coming again. In the light of His Second Coming, Christians are to live soberly in this present age as they look forward to that blessed hope of the glorious appearing Jesus Christ (Titus 2:12-13; Compare Proverbs 23:30-33.). To this end, we are to look upward, not inward.

If the weight of some of its gurus and their publications and publicists provide any indication, the pan-evangelical movement is becoming inebriated through engaging in mind altering activities that include meditation with the intent of emptying the mind.[24] Attaining altered consciousness opposes Scripture’s call for Christians to be sober-minded. Thus, one can only wonder what the results might be if the Lord administered a spiritual breathalyzer test to pan-evangelicals.[25] Would they puff a BrAC of 0.08 (that’s legally drunk)? By way of contrast, might truly regenerate Christians, those who have been regenerated, sealed, baptized and indwelt by the Spirit of the Living God, and who by faith apply the other activities of the Holy Spirit to their lives, blow a BrAC of 0.00?

So dear readers, it’s better to remain sober-minded as Scripture urges than to engage consciousness-altering activities that inebriate the soul against the true work of the Spirit in us.

Endnotes:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharishi_Mahesh_Yogi.
2. Ibid., footnote 105: Don McPherson, “Maharishi Claims Meditation Push Can Help Canada,” Montreal Gazette, March 24, 1975.
3. Ibid, footnotes 88 & 142: “Indian guru Maharishi Yogi dies,” BBC News, February 6, 2008. Retrieved August 26, 2010. Regush, Nicholas (July 30, 1977). “No bargains on road to enlightenment,” Montreal Gazette. “Caption under photo reads: ‘Maharishi Mahesh Yogi sells mantras for $150’.”
4. Ibid, footnote 77: van den Berg, Stephanie (February 5, 2008). “Beatles Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Dies”. The Sydney Morning Herald. AFP. Archived from the original on August 30, 2010.
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantra.
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_state_of_consciousness.
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana.
8. The author, Sarah Leslie, is writing from firsthand experience with this type of meditation. See “Confessions of an Ex-Mystic,” Harrisburg, PA conference talk, available: http://home.etcable.net/hestervanboven/products.htm.
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstasy_(emotion).
10. My Life In ‘THE WAY’ is available online as an e-book at http://mylifeintheway.blogspot.com (link at the bottom of the page), p. 3. See also: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/03/my-life-in-way.html.
11. Ibid, pp. 8, 9.
12. Richard Noll, The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement (Princeton University Press, 1994), p. 114. Noll explains: “The star or sun was depicted by the swirling sun of the swastika, the “ancient Aryan sun wheel,’… a symbol of god that could be found in the ancient homelands of the Aryans… in the form of circular mandalas.” The meditation of the labyrinth may be connected to this same idea. See: http://mennolite.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/“would-mennonites-actually-walk-the-labyrinthswastika”/
13. The Seekers Handbook: The Complete Guide To Spiritual Pathfinding by John Lash (Harmony Books, 1990), p. 398. See also: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/10/popular-neoevangelical-terms-what-do.html.
14. http://www.discernment-ministries.org/Articles/The%20Spiritualization%20of%20Science,%20Technology%20and%20Education.pdf See also: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2009/05/spiritualization-of-science.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2011/03/technocracy-transhumanism.html.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid, quoting from Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), Alternative Educational Futures in the United States and in Europe: Methods, Issues and Policy Relevance (Paris: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 1972). Dr. Erdmann writes in the footnote to this quote that “This report was prepared by the CERI as Volume 8, background report No. 12, of Proceedings from the Conference on Policies for Educational Growth, organized by the OECD in Paris, France, June 3-5, 1970. Abstract: This book contains four papers by noted educational planning experts that, together, cover practically all the implications of undertaking ‘futurological’ studies in education…. Willis Harman focuses on alternative future states of American society that represent, in some sense, alternative dominant belief and value systems.”
17. Again, this is part of the author’s own personal experience.
18. During the hippie era, this author experienced these very things firsthand, including the quest to get spiritually “high” by whatever means would seem to work best at the moment.
19. Mark Spaulding, The Heartbeat of the Dragon: The Occult Roots of Rock & Roll (Light Warrior Press, 1992), p. 74, citing Rabi Maharaj, Death of A Guru, p. 75. (Harvest House 1984).
20. Ibid, 188.
21. The authors both have experienced sensitivity training, Sarah, who was trained in conducting sensitivity groups which was connected to the Human Potential Movement (HPM) and Humanistic Psychology, and Pastor Larry, who experienced sensitivity training while a public school teacher in the late 60s. That sensitivity training is connected to HPM is her personal observation. See also: http://www.discernment-ministries.org/Articles/The%20Spiritualization%20of%20Science,%20Technology%20and%20Education.pdf.
22. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word kesheph, also translated “sorceries,” appears to refer to mental states induced by ingesting intoxicants (Isaiah 47:9, 12). Another Hebrew word used in a similar context is cheber, which is translated “charmer” (Deuteronomy 18:11) or “enchantments” (Isaiah 47:9, 12).
23. See Pastor Larry DeBruyn, “On Meditating,” Guarding His Flock Ministries, http://guardinghisflock.com/2011/04/27/on-meditating/#more-1741.
24. Beware of semantic deception. Frank Viola, advocating an altered state of consciousness for Christians in his 2011 book Revise us again (David C. Cook), p. 72, openly admits that playing with semantics is the name of the game: “To describe fixing one’s heart upon the Lord, some people use the phrase ‘turning to the Lord.’ Others use the word ‘gazing.’ Others say ‘beholding’ or ‘looking into the face of God.’ Still others say ‘contemplating,’ ‘centering,’ ‘abiding,’ or ‘partaking.’ Others describe it as ‘meditating.’ By and large, it’s semantics.” [Emphasis added.]
25. By way of contrast, in our use of the breathalyzer metaphor we are not suggesting we’re against true manifestations of the Holy Spirit as were the scoffers at the first Pentecost who scorned the Spirit’s work by accusing the recipients of being drunk (Acts 2:13, 15).

posted by Discernment Research Group @ 4/28/2011 11:15:00 AM  

Grace and Peace,

Dennis

On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 9:22 PM, Dennis Tolar <dwtolar> wrote:

My cousin, Randy Murieen, has been diagnosed with colon cancer. He went in for a colonoscopy today and they admitted him immediately and scheduled him for surgery in the morning. Randy is a true servant of God and has led many souls to Christ. Please pray for a successful surgery and a full recovery. Thank you in advance for your prayers.

Here is a selection from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening Devotions

“We would see Jesus.”
- John 12:21
Evermore the worldling’s cry is, “Who will show us any good?” He seeks satisfaction in earthly comforts, enjoyments, and riches. But the quickened sinner knows of only one good. “O that I knew where I might find HIM!” When he is truly awakened to feel his guilt, if you could pour the gold of India at his feet, he would say, “Take it away: I want to find HIM.” It is a blessed thing for a man, when he has brought his desires into a focus, so that they all centre in one object. When he has fifty different desires, his heart resembles a mere of stagnant water, spread out into a marsh, breeding miasma and pestilence; but when all his desires are brought into one channel, his heart becomes like a river of pure water, running swiftly to fertilize the fields. Happy is he who hath one desire, if that one desire be set on Christ, though it may not yet have been realized. If Jesus be a soul’s desire, it is a blessed sign of divine work within. Such a man will never be content with mere ordinances. He will say, “I want Christ; I must have him-mere ordinances are of no use to me; I want himself; do not offer me these; you offer me the empty pitcher, while I am dying of thirst; give me water, or I die. Jesus is my soul’s desire. I would see Jesus!”
Is this thy condition, my reader, at this moment? Hast thou but one desire, and is that after Christ? Then thou art not far from the kingdom of heaven. Hast thou but one wish in thy heart, and that one wish that thou mayst be washed from all thy sins in Jesus’ blood? Canst thou really say, “I would give all I have to be a Christian; I would give up everything I have and hope for, if I might but feel that I have an interest in Christ?” Then, despite all thy fears, be of good cheer, the Lord loveth thee, and thou shalt come out into daylight soon, and rejoice in the liberty wherewith Christ makes men free.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The Agenda of Rick Warren’s “Daniel Plan“
“The hope for real social transformation need not rest on circumstantial evidence. One major arena, health care, has already begun to experience wrenching change. The impending transformation of medicine is a window to the transformation of all our institutions….

“The autonomy so evident in social movements is hitting the old assumptions of medicine hard. The search for self becomes a search for health, for wholeness.…

“No one has realized how vulnerable the old medical model was. Within a few short years, without a shot’s being fired, the concept of holistic health has been legitimized….”

“For many Aquarian Conspirators, an involvement in health care was a major stimulus to transformation.“
- Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy, 1980.[1]

 “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”
(Daniel 1:8)
When Rick Warren launched his Daniel Plan prescription for health several weeks ago as a massive campaign to alter the health of evangelicals in American, many discerning saints expressed shock and dismay at his open association with New Age doctors. While this fact is upsetting, there are equally disturbing issues about Warren’s Daniel Plan that cannot be ignored.

With Rick Warren at the helm, the CHURCH is now in the BUSINESS of health care REFORM. This is the 3-legged stool. It is the integration of church/state/corporate that business guru Peter Drucker (Rick Warren’s mentor) proposed as the method for restructuring Society.[2] In this model the Church assumes a powerful new role as Change Agent Provocateur, a cheerleader for change and transformation in Society (as illustrated in the diagram at the top of this post*).

The Blueprint for Health Care Reform
The pivotal book that officially launched the New Age movement was Marilyn Ferguson’s The Aquarian Conspiracy, published in 1980. This book was “an important New Age manifesto [that] attempt[ed] to announce and popularize what the New Agers chose to publicly display in their Movement.”[3] The book set forth futuristic thinking that has become so commonplace in our culture that an entire generation has grown up believing its basic assumptions. One of the key topics in this book was Ferguson’s assertion that the radical overhaul of society could be based upon health care “reform” — a “transformation” explained in the chapter “Healing Ourselves.” Ferguson wrote:

“The new paradigm of health and medicine enlarges the framework of the old, incorporating brilliant technological advances while restoring and validating intuitions about mind and relationships.”(p. 247)

Ferguson’s New Age “holistic” health care model included “Bodymind perspective,”(p. 247) the exploration of the role played by the brain in the body’s overall health. Ferguson’s expanded definition of the “mind” incorporated spiritual things from the occult world. This broadened “holistic” health model, with its “body-mind-spirit” connection(p. 248), proved to be a key entry point for new theologies, philosophies and practices. Holistic health became the the easiest vehicle with which to deceive an entire population into adopting tenets of the eastern mystical worldview.[4]

Ferguson proposed a vast array of consciousness-expanding rituals that promised “body-mind-spirit” healing — including “meditation, biofeedback, relaxation techniques, autogenic training, running, listening to music.”(p. 251) Ferguson touted research stating that “‘The yogis have learned to let go of those excess levels of self-stressing neurophysiological activity and simply quiet themselves down.’”[5] She also stressed the role of new psycho-spiritual technologies in altering consciousness. But note: meditation and its many related mind-altering activities weren’t an end in themselves. According to Ferguson, they were for the purpose of changing people’s worldviews:

“Just as some psychotechnologies increase the fluctuation of energy through the brain, enabling new patterns or paradigm shifts to occur, bodywork alters the flow of energy through the body, freeing it of its old ‘ideas’ or patterns, increasing its range of movement. Structural integration, the Alexander method, Feldenkrais, Applied Kinesiology, Neurokinesthetics, bioenergetics, Reichian therapy, and hundreds of other systems initiate transformation of the body.”(pp. 255-6) [emphasis added]

This New Age blueprint for health care reform altered the very meaning of the term “health.” In modern American society today the word “health” now connotes the entire “body-mind-spirit” connection. Three decades after Ferguson’s book came out, the evangelical world has comfortably adopted the “body-mind-spirit” worldview of the New Agers.[6] Many eastern mystical “holistic health” ideas were simply re-written into biblical terminology and passed off to evangelicals as higher forms of spirituality. Today, meditation, contemplation, drumming, etc. are becoming commonplace. This is the face of the seeker-sensitive church. By accommodating itself to the eastern worldview, the Church fools itself into thinking it is more “culturally relevant.” So the next step in the seeker-sensitive journey is for the Church to become an “agent” of “cultural renewal.”

Kicking the 3rd Leg into High Gear
Rick Warren has now plunged into a role as Change Agent for health care reform in America. It is significant that he chose some genuine New Age gurus to be his partners.[7] This association provides an indication about how Rick Warren defines “health.” Researcher Jennifer Pekich wrote an account of her personal experience at the Saddleback Health and Fitness Seminar. Her report on Rick Warren‘s new Daniel Plan revealed that the real agenda is not about healthy parishioners. It is about radical community transformation. She writes:

By the time I settled into listening more intently, the second speaker, Mark Hyman, began. It didn’t take too long to figure out what the basis of his message was. We “need to heal with community” (he termed this “accompaniment”), “we’re here for the sake of each other,” this plan “is our way out,” this plan “saved me,” and in fact will “change the world.” Saddleback was being told they were a “test community” to show the world how to live “healthy and sustainably.”

Jennifer continues her report:

I about fell off my chair when Dr. Hyman stated, “The key to the success of the “Daniel Plan” is “group living“…”individuals” will not succeed, our only hope lies in “community.” And with that, it was announced that the “Saddleback community” would be an example of “sustainable living” and would set the course to “change this world“…and the crowd went wild![8]

What is this Daniel Plan? Obviously it doesn’t have anything to do with the biblical Daniel. Rick Warren was well-schooled in Leadership Network’s marketing model which encourages pastors to snap up a biblical-sounding term, apply it on to any new plan or program, and voila! It becomes a marketing logo! Note the emphasis on community in this description:

The Daniel Plan is designed to help people adapt a healthy lifestyle through a comprehensive 52-week journey–not just another short-lived diet. With the inspiration to know and live God’s Prescription for Health, The Daniel Plan supports you with world-class professional Doctors, small-group support, tools, resources and an online community![https://www.saddleback.com/thedanielplan/healthyhabits/ ] [emphasis added]

Being part of the community means that you go into the databank. The Daniel Plan is a massive health assessment for all evangelicals gullible enough to turn in personally identifiable health data to a Rick Warren’s massive secretive databank.[9] The Daniel Plan asks users to create their own health profile online that divulges intimate medical information:

In order for us to support and guide in this journey, we need to know more about the history of your health and your current physical state. This profile will also help you track your progress, connect with others working the program, and get your questions answered. [https://www.saddleback.com/thedanielplan/getstarted.html] [emphasis added]

A broad range of health data will be collected on participants. (We guess the participants will yield their right to privacy! They will provide to Dr. Rick information that was previously confidential between them and their personal physicians.) At the Daniel Plan website, the “WEEK 1: Measure Your Way to Success!” explains:

Click “Get Started,” and create your “Health Profile” where you will enter in information about your current condition. The site will save your statistics so you can compare your progress down the road. All the information is private, voluntary, and optional.

To help you get started on this journey, get your height, weight, blood pressure, measurements, and “before” pictures taken on your church campus this weekend. Then, you can add this information to your profile. We also recommend knowing your Body Mass Index (BMI), completing the Medical Symptom/Toxicity Questionnaire (MSQ), and if possible, getting a “full blood panel.“

Coming soon…watch an in-depth video explanation from Dr. Mark Hyman regarding “Knowing Your Numbers.” In addition, the doctors will be providing optional quizzes to help gauge your starting point.[http://saddleback.com/thedanielplan/][10] [emphasis added]

“Private” is not defined in the above disclaimer about collecting health information. Furthermore, this personal “Health Profile” data is being collected for broadly unspecified purposes. Who are Rick Warren’s partners in this endeavor? With whom will he share this data? Will this Church data be passed along to the State? Turned over to Corporations? (In other words, the other two legs of the 3-legged stool)? Given Warren’s close association with Bill Gates, who is heavily involved in funding health care reform around the world, one can only guess how far-and-wide the Daniel Plan data could be divulged.[11]

Health Police
Let’s just pause for a moment in this report to do a reality check about this new role of the 3rd leg of the stool. First, what is a CHURCH doing in the BUSINESS of assessing HEALTH CARE? Second, what is a CHURCH doing amassing a huge databank of intimate health data on evangelicals? Third, what is a CHURCH doing at the forefront of the health care reform agenda? Fourth, what is a CHURCH doing working with obvious New Age gurus?[12]

Note how cleverly Warren has maneuvered the Church into a position of Agent Provocateur. This fits in with the Dominionist “cultural renewal” model where the Church assumes a key role in managing the transformation of Society, i.e. transforming “culture.” In this case, specifically health care. By assuming this pivotal role the Church is no longer the conscience of Society. It is not functioning as salt and light to a dark world. Rather it is acting as a Change Agent working in collaboration with the State and Corporate Business to facilitate transformation. As Change Agent the Church loses its prophetic voice against injustice. It becomes a collaborator with the State. This is the new “missional” church whose agenda has changed from that of preaching the Gospel and saving lost souls, to that of working on restructuring the health care “domain” (one of the “spheres” or 7 mountains) of Society.[13]

Since “health” is so broadly defined, and since “health” is what is being assessed, hard questions need to be asked about the intended performance “outcomes.” Why is Dr. Hyman running numbers? What definitions will be applied to “effective” or “successful” measures of health improvement? What about those whose health is by nature inevitably physically declining — the elderly, the incurably infirm, those who have a debilitating degenerative disease or irreversible handicap? What about those whose prognosis can only be measured in steady decline? How will they fit in with the “success statistics” that comprise “wellness”? In Peter Drucker’s utopian world only those who possess “human capital” are deemed worthy citizens, and those assessed without it have no safe place in Society.[14] Scary. . .

To put the Church’s role in this 3-legged stool into perspective, consider briefly Michelle Obama’s key role in maneuvering the Corporate and State legs of the stool. A recent New York Times article explained:

“After wrapping her arms around the retail giant Walmart and trying to cajole food makers into producing nutrition labels that are easier to understand, Michelle Obama, an advocate of healthy eating, has set her sights on a new target: the nation’s restaurants.”[15 ]

This article explains how the First Lady has been “seeking partnerships with industry” and meeting with representatives from the “National Restaurant Association… in a bid to get restaurants to adopt her goals of smaller portions and children’s meals that include healthful offerings…. Obama and her team are also quietly pressing the levers of industry and government….”[16] Food police obviously have an interest in what is happening with the health police, and vice versa. This is all about controlling your diet – what you eat! While Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan is busy assessing everyone’s girth and monitoring their caloric intake and weight-loss results, Michelle Obama is racing to overhaul the national diet by actually changing available food choices.[17]

So while Rick Warren activates the Church leg of the stool,[18] other pressures are being brought to bear on the Corporate and State legs to bring all into conformance with global consciousness and standards. And thanks to Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan, we are provided with an obvious clue that these standards will be managed and monitored by the New Age/New Spirituality model of health care reform.

So it might be questioned, should Bible believers, like Daniel of old, choose not to defile themselves by partaking in the Daniel Plan with its obvious New Age and One World overtones and control mechanisms? How much better it would be for Christians to choose to satisfy their spiritual appetite by feeding on Him who is the Bread of Life.

The Truth:
“And Jesus said unto them, ‘I am the Bread of Life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger’. . .” (John 6:35)

*“Figure 2″ at the top of this post is Exhibit A, a graphic representation of what this post is concerned about. It comes from Eric Swanson, To Transform A City: Whole Church, Whole Gospel, Whole City (Zondervan, 2010). Figure 2 comes from the Foreward, p. 11, and it provides a visual chart of the “7 domains of culture,” of which Healthcare is the 7th. The Church in this diagram is seen encompassing the other 6 secular “domains.” The book explains, “The missional church sees itself as the people of God… already deployed across all domains of culture.” This is an incredible visual of the Dominionist church model. Swanson acknowledges Bob Buford of Leadership Network on p. 13. To see Eric Swanson’s new “gospel,” watch the youtube video http://learnings.leadnet.org/2010/06/eric-swanson-on-the-show-this-week.html, which is also posted in the context of an article “What Is Dominionism?” posted at http://apprising.org/2011/01/26/what-is-dominionism/.

Endnotes:
1. Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s (JP Tarcher, 1980), p. 241, 257, emphases added.
2. Peter Drucker was Rick Warren’s mentor, a well-known fact divulged in numerous articles in mainstream publications. See Herescope, Nov. 18, 2005, “Peter Drucker’s Mega-Church Legacy,” http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/11/peter-druckers-mega-church-legacy.html
3. Constance Cumbey, The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow: The New Age Movement and Our Coming Age of Barbarism (Huntington House, 1983), p. 55. This book puts Marilyn Ferguson’s book into context and explains the Aquarian Conspiracy’s Luciferian history and agenda.
4. It is outside the scope of this small blog post to analyze the various holistic health movements that happened over the past 40 years. Some changes in the old medical model were obviously beneficial. But note that the New Agers sought to redefine the term “mind.” See Berit Kjos’s key article “Mysticism & Global Mind Change” for a more thorough discussion on this topic: http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/007/global-mind-1.htm
5. Ferguson, Ibid, quoting Kenneth Pelletier’s research, p.251.
6. One of the subheadings in Ferguson’s chapter on “Healing Ourselves” is “Health and Transformation.” Transformation and reform are words used interchangeably when she discussed the emergence of the holistic health care model. It is important to note that Ferguson emphasizes the role of “spirit” in healing, but this has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit. This is not unlike psychic healing, which she says “may prove a useful adjunct to medicine in the future.” (p. 276)
7. A quick Google search of Rick Warren’s three doctors, Mehmet Oz, Daniel Amen, and Mark Hyman, illustrates their New Age proclivities. See, for example, Marsha West’s article, “Rick Warren introduces ‘The Devil Plan,” Jan. 24, 2011.
8. Jennifer Pekich, “Saddleback Health & Fitness Seminar – Infomercial for Sustainable Development,” January 20, 2011, http://ponderingsfrompatmos.blogspot.com/2011/01/saddleback-health-fitness-seminar.html [emphases added]. Listen to Jennifer’s interview on Crosstalk radio with host Ingrid Schleuter at http://www.crosstalkamerica.com/shows/2011/01/rick_warren_dr_oz_and_the_dang.php
9. See the Herescope post, October 30, 2006, “Rick Warren: Is He Scary?” http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/10/rick-warren-is-he-scary.html This article is the most important post we have ever published.
10. Note that there is a totally inadequate legal disclaimer that accompanies this program! http://saddleback.com/thedanielplan/legal/
11. See this extremely important article about databanking personally identifiable information: “When Johnny Takes the Test,” http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/OtherPDFs/When%20Johnny%20Takes%20The%20Test_Fields_Leslie_Hoge__2005_10pg_Edu.pdf Also see the following Herescope posts: “Bill Gates Fund$ Rick Warren,” 1/30/07, http://herescope.blogspot.com/2007/01/bill-gates-fund-rick-warren.html and “The Great Outpouring of Wealth, 8/10/10, http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/08/great-outpouring-of-wealth.html. There are many other Herescope posts over the years that pertain to Rick Warren’s global endeavors, his internationalist ties, and his work to transform society that connect these points. Readers are encouraged to follow the links and read back articles if they are curious about the scope of this topic.
12. This obviously isn’t about physical health or there would be no need to bring in the gurus. This is all about Marilyn Ferguson’s New Age “body-mind-spirit” health. The Daniel Plan is a clever way to desensitize people in the pews to the New Age holistic health care reform model.
13. Eric Swanson, To Transform A City: Whole Church, Whole Gospel, Whole City (Zondervan, 2010), Ibid.
14. For a full discussion of this point, see the monograph, “The Pied Pipers of Purpose, Part 1: Human Capital Systems and Church Performance,” http://www.discernment-ministries.org/Purpose_Driven.pdf
15. “First lady wants to see healthful items on menus,” by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and William Neuman, New York Times, 2/6/11, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/us/politics/07michelle.html.
16. Ibid.
17. See “The Pizza Choice Game,” by Sarah Leslie, http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/sarah-leslie/pizza.htm
and “Food Tactics,” http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/009/discernment/1-9-food-tactics.htm. For a scary look at the New World Order component of this health and diet agenda, see Berit Kjos’s excellent compilation of articles about “Global Food [& Land] Control” at http://www.crossroad.to/News/food.htm
18. See this http://saddleback.com/mc/m/903D around the 15 minute mark and for the next few minutes, where Rick Warren says that “national grocery chains” are going to be getting behind the Daniel Plan. Note that the Daniel Plan is also one of the first initiatives for Rick Warren’s Decade of Destiny. See http://apprising.org/2010/10/12/rick-warren-presents-us-our-destiny-doctor/ and http://apprising.org/2010/10/03/decade-of-destiny-with-rick-warren/, and http://apprising.org/2010/07/23/destiny-driven-dominionism-and-rick-warren/ for background information.