The Moreleta Park DRC Re-imagined

Let’s just drop the bomb right from the word go and ask ourselves: “Is the Moreleta Park DRC a Christian church or what?” Well, of course they are, you may  protest immediately. How can we doubt their sincerity, enthusiasm, love and commitment to the Christian cause when you read the following statement on their website.

We are a congregation that aims to be like Jesus, act like Jesus and to take other people with us on our journey.

God has been on a journey with people throughout the ages. The Bible tells of God’s concern for and involvement with people. He is on a journey with each one of us.

He also has a unique plan for our congregation’s journey. Let us go on this journey together. Live near to the Father, walk in Jesus’ footsteps, listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. On this road you are going to meet travellers who will love you and to whom you may be of service. Build a relationship with them from without your relationship with God. Obey the Word of God and serve one another in love.

Their point of departure is to be:

True and faithful to Scriptures

Filled with the Holy Spirit, and to

Pray

In their above “statement of faith” (?) the MPDRC uses the word “journey” no less than five times, indicating that they seem to be very serious about their journey. However, it is not the journey that determines your ultimate destinatination (heaven or hell) but the path on which you journey.

Pro 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

No one will deny that their virtues are indeed Christian values but the question is whether they are following the Jesus of the Bible when they invite speakers who publically violate Christ’s immutable and infallible doctrines? All the above wonderful Christian virtues mean very little when you allow your flock to sit under the teaching of modern-day false prophets and apostles who have no qualms whatsoever to preach another Jesus, another spirit and another Gospel. Are the pastors, the elders and deacons of the Moreleta Park DRC truly faithful to God’s Word when they wilfully disobey God’s command in 2 John.

Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ but goes beyond it does not have God. The person who abides in the teaching of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your home or even greet him, for the one who greets him shares in his evil deeds.

On the eve of their Missions Fest in February last year I wrote and extensive comment on the heresies Tony Campolo, their main speaker at that event, espouses. The fact that the leadership team of the Moreleta Park DRC, (Dirkie van der Spuy, Sarel Visser, Elza Meyer, Johan Smith, Dolf Kruger, Peet Grobbelaar, Willem Badenhorst, Pieter Badenhorst and last but not least Stephen Temeki) are quite prepared to host men like Tony Campolo proves that they are also quite willing to take him and other heresy preachers along with them on their spiritual journey and by doing so to show that they are in full agreement with their heresies. To what, you may ask, do I owe this? The Bible very distinctly says that you can only join in on someone’s journey when you are in full agreement with them on matters of vital importance (Amos 3:3: “Shall two walk together, except they have agreed?”).

I really think the above pastors who are responsible for the shepherding of the Moreleta Park DRC flock owe their congregation and the alleged 90% Christian population in South Africa (according to oom Angus Buchan) an explanation and they should tell us whether they are in full agreement with the many heretical things the false apostle, Tony Campolo, has said in the past. Let us now take a thorough look at some of the things Tony Campolo has said or written and decide for yourself whether it is in harmony with God’s Word. Please remember the following severe warning from Scripture.

Isaiah 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

Mr. Campolo, you now have the floor. Please speak up loud and clear so that our beloved friends above may hear you plainly. Let’s conduct a mock interview where I ask the questions and you answer them (Reader, please note that Campolo’s answers are not fictitious; they are genuine answers that came from his lips but the questions are devised in accordance with his answers.)

Thomas: Mr. Campolo, in Romans 8:9 Paul of Tarsus asserts that only those who have the spirit of Christ living within their innermost beings belong to Him. Would you say that this is an accurate assessment of the difference between believers and unbelievers?”

Tony: “I’m not convinced that Jesus only lives in Christians.” (Tony Campolo, Charlie Rose show on January 24, 1997)

Thomas: As you also most certainly may recall, Paul said that the cross of Jesus Christ is the power and wisdom of God to those who are being saved but sheer nonsense and foolishness to those who perish (1 Corinthians 1:18). How does his assessment of the difference between believers and unbelievers compare with your own and would you say that anyone who rejects the blood of Christ’s cross are as equally redeemed as those who believe in the blood of his cross?

Tony: “What I am trying to say is that Jesus who incarnated God 2,000 years ago is mystically present and waiting to be discovered in EVERY person you and I encounter” (Tony Campolo, “A Reasonable Faith” 1983 page 171)

Thomas: John, the apostle of love, reiterates Paul in 1 John 5 when he says: “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in him: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he hath not believed in the witness that God hath borne concerning his Son. And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life.” Surely, you should be reluctant to argue against God whose own testimony asserts that there are some who have the Son of God and others who do not have Him. Are you prepared to reject God’s own testimony in regard to believers and unbelievers?

Tony: “One of the most startling discoveries of my life was the realization that the Jesus that I love, the Jesus who died for me on Calvary, that Jesus, is waiting, mystically and wonderfully, in every person I meet. I find Jesus everywhere.” (Tony Campolo in an address at Prestatyn in the UK, 1988) . . . “I do not mean that others represent Jesus for us. I mean that Jesus actually is present in each other person.” . . . and  “That a new humanity will be brought forth from this Christ consciousness in each person.” (Tony Campolo “A Reasonable Faith” 1983 page 192 and 65.)

Thomas: If the cross of Jesus Christ is not the determining factor in making a true assessment of the difference between believers and unbelievers, what would you say is the common denominator between Christians and believers of other faiths?

Tony: “Beyond these models of reconciliation, a theology of mysticism provides some hope for common ground between Christianity and Islam. Both religions have within their histories examples of ecstatic union with God, which seem at odds with their own spiritual traditions but have much in common with each other.” (Tony Campolo, “Speaking My Mind,” Page 149).

” . . . .what can I say to an Islamic brother who has fed the hungry, and clothed the naked? You say, “But he hasn’t a personal relationship with Christ.” I would argue with that. And I would say from a Christian perspective, in as much as you did it to the least of these you did it unto Christ. You did have a personal relationship with Christ, you just didn’t know it.” (Tony Campolo EVANGELICALS AND INTERFAITH COOPERATION, An Interview by Shane Claiborne).

Thomas: I take it that this means that anyone can have a personal relationship with his wife without knowing it – a kind of incognitant, incognita relationship? Wouldn’t any woman be offended to find out that her husband has an intimate relationship with her but he doesn’t know it? I would like to suggest that Tony Campolo be introuduced to oom Angus Buchan who would tell him in no uncertain terms that you cannot possibly have a relaitonship with someone without knowing it.

Tony: “We cannot allow our theologies to separate us” (speaking on the relations between Muslims and Christians) (Tony Campolo EVANGELICALS AND INTERFAITH COOPERATION, An Interview by Shane Claiborne)

Thomas: Could you please elaborate a little more?

Tony: “What can we learn about that kind of spirituality that can help us find common ground? No theological statements were made, no compromising beliefs, no attempts to come to a common denominator. And yet, a kind of spiritual oneness.

That’s the place where we come together, in common need and common suffering, as we reach out to one another in love, leaving judgment in the hands of God, sharing out of our own faith. I mean the last thing we are asking in those times is—is your theology the same as mine?—and vice-versa. All of the sudden in the hour of suffering there is a commonality. And that’s where we meet. It’s in mystical spirituality and in communal mutuality that’s where we come together.”

“It seems to me that when we listen to the Muslim mystics as they talk about Jesus and their love for Jesus, I must say, it’s a lot closer to New Testament Christianity than a lot of the Christians that I hear. In other words if we are looking for common ground, can we find it in mystical spirituality, even if we cannot theologically agree, can we pray together in such a way that we connect with a God that transcends our theological differences?” (Tony Campolo, EVANGELICALS AND INTERFAITH COOPERATION, An Interview by Shane Claiborne).

Thomas: Am I correct in saying that the kind of prayers you refer to as being the catalyst for the different religions to find common ground and to connect to a God that transcends our theological differences are the contemplative or centering kinds of prayer?

Tony: “…during times of reflection I sensed that believing in Jesus and living out His teachings just wasn’t enough. There was a yearning for something more, and I found that I was increasingly spiritually gratified as I adopted older ways of praying—ways that have largely been ignored by those of us in the Protestant tradition. Counter-Reformation saints like Ignatius of Loyola have become important sources of help as I have begun to learn from them modes of contemplative prayer. I practice what is known as “centering prayer,” in which a sacred word is repeated as a way to be in God’s presence.”

“I’ve got to push everything out of mind save the name of Jesus. I say His name over and over again, for as long as fifteen minutes, until I find my soul suspended in what the ancient Celtic Christians called a “thin place”–a state where the boundary between heaven and earth, divine and human, dissolves. You could say that I use the name of Jesus as my koan.”
(Tony Campolo “Mystical Encounters for Christians” www.beliefnet.com)

Thomas: Are you suggesting that contemplative spirituality (centering prayer, labyrinths, lectio divina, meditation, etc.) is in the process of supplanting any religious doctrines, especially the Christian doctrine as we’ve come to know it since the time of Jesus’ apostles and does it conveniently put to death the warning of Jesus in Matthew 6:7 that  “. . . when ye pray, [we should not] use vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”

Tony: “Today, some of the most spiritual people I know claim to be without religion.” (Tony Campolo “Mystical Encounters for Christians” www.beliefnet.com)

Thomas: I’m sure you will agree that the salvation of mankind is the most important doctrine there is and that all Christians are duty bound to uncompromisingly spread it far and wide so that people may be saved and go to heaven when they die?

Tony: “He saved us in order that He might begin to transform His world into the kind of world that He willed for it to be when He created it. … When Jesus saved us, He saved us to be agents of a great revolution, the end of which will come when the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of our God” (Tony Campolo “It’s Friday but Sundays Coming”, page 106)

“Our call is to be God’s agents, to rescue not only the human race but the whole of creation.” (Tony Campolo TEAR TIMES, “Why care for creation?” 1992)

Thomas: Oh! and I’ve always thought, as I’ve learnt to believe since my Sunday School days, that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” Isn’t that still God’s main priority today?

Tony: ” . . . Isn’t God’s message to sinful humanity that He sees in each of us a divine nature of such worth that He sacrificed His own Son so that our divine potentialities might be realized? . . . The hymn writer who taught us to sing “Amazing Grace” was all too ready to call himself a “wretch” . . .  Forgetting our divinity and over-identifying with our [Freudian] anal humanity . . . Erich Fromm, one of the most popular psychoanalysts of our time, recognized the diabolical social consequences that can come about when a person loses sight of his/her own divinity . . . ” (Tony Campolo “Partly Right” 1995.)

” . . . going to heaven is like going to Philadelphia . . . There are many ways . . . .It doesn’t make any difference how we go there. We all end up in the same place.” (Tony Campolo “Carpe Diem: Seize the Day”, 1994, pages 85-88)

Thomas: The hymn writer who called himself a wretch was in full agreement with what Paul once said: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” It is obvious that they had chosen to go on the same journey and to agree on matters of vital importance. Its a real pity that Paul and the hymn writer didn’t know of their own innate divine nature which was of such worth that God sacrificed His own Son so that their divine potentialities could be realized. Nonetheless, let us continue. If everyone is going to heaven, as you say, then hell which you admit exists, will only be occupied by Satan and his angels. Am I correct? Or should we rather remain faithful to the biblical doctrine of Jesus who said: “Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it.” (Matthew 7:13 and 14). (Emphasis added)

Tony: We don’t have to give up trying to convert each other. What we have to do is show respect to one another. And to speak to each other with a sense that even if people don’t convert, they are God’s people, God loves them, and we do not make the judgment of who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. (Tony Campolo, EVANGELICALS AND INTERFAITH COOPERATION, An Interview by Shane Claiborne).

What’s the point in trying to convert people to Jesus Christ when the unconverted are already God’s people? It more or less sounds like the woman who wanted to make a custard pie out of an already fully baked custard pie. Does that sound like an impossibility? You bet! It reminds me of Calvinists who preach the Gospel to people who by virtue of their total depravity are entirely incapable of understanding the Gospel and yet they continue to proclaim the Gospel because God has already predestined His elect before the foundation of the earth to go to heaven. A staunch Calvinist once said: “Jesus died on the cross for us who are going to heaven.” Although they wouldn’t admit it, it resembles your (Tony Campolo’s) assumption that we are so wonderfully worthy that He sacrificed His own Son for us on the cross. The only difference is that you proclaim that all people are worthy of Christ’s death on the cross (Universalism; syncretism) while the Calvinists avow that only the elect are worthy of his death (Monergism). What the man I quoted earlier actually said was not that Jesus Christ died on the cross because we are all hell deserving creatures (including the so-called elect) but that He only died for the elect who have been bound for heaven since time immemorial (or before the foundation of the earth). Wow, how much worthier than that can you get?

Anyway, thank you Tony. I’m sure your friends in the Moreleta Park DRC have a much clearer view of your beliefs. There’s just one last thing. If we all end up in the same place as you said and yet you simultaneously assert that we cannot make the judgement of who is going to heaven and who is going to hell, where is this place we are all going to — heaven or hell? I agree that we cannot know who will eventually end up in hell because many people who are at present unrepentant may still repent and be saved. However, we can know that anyone who refuses to accept Jesus’ vicarious death on the cross as the only means for their redemption, will end up in hell if they remain unrepentant. Jesus said: “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for except ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24).

But wait a sec. The Moreleta Park DRC’s woes do not end with Tony Campolo. They have invited another false prophet, Bruce Wilkinson, to address them during their Pentecost services from 16-19 May this year. On the morning of 18 May he will be speaking on the subject of leadership and how to grow in the sphere of influence, and during five consecutive sermons he will speak on his new book “You were born for this.” As you may know he is famed for his very popular book “The Prayer of Jabez.”

One of today’s most popular buzz words in the world of psychology and sadly also in the church is “self-esteem” and many post-modern religious leaders who have come under the influence of men like Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller have gladly jumped onto this deceptive bandwagon. I use the word deceptive because the unbiblical doctrine of “self-esteem” has taken on new meaning with nice sounding expressions such as “God’s dream for you,” “miracle workers,” and “how to make friends and influence people.” The catch phrase “God’s dream for you” has become popular amongst believers as well as unbelievers.

Who does not want his personal dreams to come true? In fact, it is one of the major traits of man’s deceitful and desperately wicked heart (Jeremiah 117:9) to always want things to go his way. Indeed, it actually undermines the biblical truth that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). I have often wondered what today’s super apostles would do if they too had to be content with the dream (will) God had for Paul of Tarsus? “ . . . he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel: for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake (Acts 9:15).

If you truly love God with all your heart, soul and strength you will always be content with HIS PURPOSE for your life (not Rick Warren’s infamous and deceitful “Purpose Driven Life”). If it is his will for you to be cast in prison so that HE may reach a single prison ward for his Son Jesus Christ, He will do so. So what’s your big dream, fellow Christian? To become rich and prosperous? . . . to become a popular super televangelist? . . . to be a great miracle worker and healer of the sick? . . . to be one of the most influential Christians in your church and teach others how to pray a prayer that God ALWAYS answers? . . . to positively teach others how to be positively positive in all things? . . .  to incarnate Jesus Christ into all the cultures through your good philantropic work amongst the poor (aka the Emergent Church) so that YOU may bring God’s Kingdom on earth? . . . to transform the society by virtue of your puny little norms and values (aka Jannie Pelser of the Dutch Reformed Community Church in Rand and Dal, Krugersdorp)? Do you want to succeed in all these things? Don’t fret, its as easy as eating choclate icecream. Bruce will teach you how to pray his magical Jabez prayer and voila you will succeed at what you were born to do.

Jesus’ apostles who were martyred and put to death death and all the subsequent Christian martyrs who followed suit never needed to pray Bruce’s magical prayer so that they may accomplish their “dream of martyrdom.” It was done for them by God’s enemies. Think of that! They needn’t have done anything, let alone pray a prayer that Bruce says God always answers, to suceed at what they were born to do. No Bruce, the only thing they needed to do was to pray “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup (of suffering and martyrdom) from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Now don’t you listen to Benny Hinn whose supercharged anointed lips Satan and the Dragon from the deepest abyss manipulated to say: “Never ever, ever, go to the Lord and say ‘If it be thy will . . .’ Don’t allow such faith-destroying words to be spoken from your mouth.” Nevertheless, we shouldn’t rock the Moreleta Park DRC boat too much because there are many of its congregants who just adore and worship Benny Hinn. This, at least seems to be standard procedure at the Moreleta Park DRC because the post modern garbage that we should not allow doctrine to divide poeple but rather unite them in love applies.

The children of God needn’t look to others and their popular books to find out what God’s dream (will) is for their lives. They only need to study the Word of God to know exactly what his will (dream) is. They only need to memorize and put into practice 1 Peter 1:16 to guide them on the right track for their spiritual journey: “You must be holy because I am holy.” Transformation or change in a child of God’s life can only be accomplished when he obeys God’s command in 1 Peter 1:16. And yet, contrary to God’s Word, Bruce Wilkinson has developed a new dream machine.

The journey toward your Big Dream changes you. In fact, the journey itself is what prepares you to succeed at what you were born to do. And until you decide to pursue your Dream, you are never going to love life the way you were meant to. (Bruce Wilkinson, “The Dream Giver,” Pages: 76)

Psycho babble? . . . Pop Psychology? No not really! Just plain nonsense. Have you noticed the phrases “your Big Dream changes you,” “what you were born to do,” and “to love life the way you were meant to?” If the dream you should follow is supposed to be God’s dream for your life, why does he call it “your big Dream?” Most people’s big dream is to become rich in the shortest possible time, drive the hottest and most recent car and to live in a house that outdoes that of their next door neighbour. You only have to visit the homes of the most successful and influential Word of Faith preachers to see what I mean. And of course, to accomplish your Big Dream you will obviously need a mantra which you can repeat over and over again so that you may visualize and realize your Big Dream. Here again Bruce has come to the rescue when he wrote his blockbuster book, “The Prayer of Jabez.” In the opening words to his book, the author writes:

Dear Reader, I want to teach you how to pray a daring prayer that God always answers. It is brief  – only one sentence with four parts –and tucked away in the Bible, but I believe it contains the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God….

Thousands of believers who are applying its truths are seeing miracles happen on a regular basis. Will you join me for a personal exploration of Jabez? I hope you will! (Emphasis added)

Its a great pity that neither Jesus nor Paul knew of Jabez’s prayer because if they had they never would have prayed the way they did: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt” (He prayed it three times). Paul also prayed three times: “And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted overmuch. Concerning this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Ah but Bruce has found a prayer that God always answers, no matter who you are and what you have done. Not even sin in your life will prevent God from listening and answering your Jabez-prayer which completely and effectively cancels out God’s warning in Isaiah 59: 1 and 2: “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

Do you remember the verse I quoted from Isaiah earlier? “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them”? How, you may ask, are Bruce Wilkinson and his followers (including the Moreleta Park DRC) dodging God’s Word? First of all his statement that “your big Dream changes you” is grossly unscriptural. If it were possible for your big dream to change you then each and everyone’s personal big dream, of which there may be millions, are capable of changing you equally well. If, for instance, my big dream and my wife’s big dream differ, whose big dream is the better one too change us? However, when a single criterion from God becomes the universal yardstick for change then all the other manmade models (such as your big dream) are all null and void. They mean nothing. Is there such a criterion from God? Well I should think so when we look at Romans 12:2:

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Your own big dream automatically tends to conform you to this world system which is bent on success, wealth, prosperity and a bright future. God’s will or dream for believers does not necessarily include these things as we’ve already seen in His dream for Paul of Tarsus (John 16:33; Acts 14:22). Has Bruce Wilkinson together with the many pastors of the Moreleta Park DRC ever included suffering for Christ and his Word in their big dreams? Neither did Paul but he humbly and worshipfully submitted him to God’s dream without ever having to pray the prayer of Jabez. When God told Ananias to tell Paul “this is my dream for you” he didn’t protest and say, “I had something more congenial and benevolent in mind. Wouldn’t you consider making a slight alteration in your dream to suit mine?”

“The phrase “what you were born to do” and the title of his book “You were born for this” is an extension of Robert Schuller’s “possibility thinking” and “big dream” dreams. In the introduction to his YouTube publicity video he says that “GOD wants to use YOU to do miracles. EVERY DAY . . .” Who is the YOU in his book? To present us with a biblical answer we first need to say with unequivocal certainty that all people are born but not all people are born again. Do you, as I, sense the ecumenical serpent slithering in through the back door?

It is quite evident that Bruce Wilkinson wants to include all people and not only Bible believing Christians in his army of miracle workers. This alone immediately poses a huge problem. Having admitted that God alone can do miracles, the implication is that only those who have received God (the Holy Spirit) in their innermost being through the new birth can be the delivery persons or facilitators of God’s miracles to other people. Nah! humbug! you may say. God is capable of using anyone, even people of other faiths, to deliver his miracles. Yes indeed, God is all-powerful and can use whomsoever He wills; He even uses Satan sometimes as the book of Job so eloquently proves.

Be that as it may, the question is not whether He can or cannot use unbelievers; the overriding question is whether He would use them as facilitators of His miracles when they themselves are in need of the greatest miracle in the entire universe – the new birth in and through Jesus Christ? You see, the carnal crave after miracles most often prevents unbelievers from finding and experiencing redemption in and through Jesus Christ. In stead of leading unbelievers to Jesus Christ, these so-called miracles present them to a false Jesus (demonic entity) whose main aim it is to destroy their lives. A case in point is another blockbuster book called A Course in Miracles. Many readers testify that they have encountered Jesus Christ through “A Course in Miracles”  . . . but who is this Jesus in reality? The following excerpt comes from an article the ex-New Ager, Warren Smith, wrote here.

New age leader Marianne Williamson claims that a number of years ago, after a “nervous breakdown” and in the midst of her study of A Course in Miracles, she met “Jesus.” One night she said she felt the presence of “Jesus” by her bed. “I was not normal and I knew it,” she said. Not understanding the deceptive spirit world and the importance of testing the spirits, she started talking to the presence that she assumed was the real Jesus:

“So I said to Jesus, ‘Look, if you can give me back my life, if you can restore me somehow, then I will do whatever you want me to do for the rest of my life.’ Like people make a pact with the devil, I made a pact with Jesus.” (1)

Williamson’s career skyrocketed after her book A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles was enthusiastically endorsed by Oprah Winfrey on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Williamson has been an internationally recognized New Age/new gospel leader ever since.

She and Neale Donald Walsch co-founded The Global Renaissance Alliance—which includes many prominent New Age leaders—to further the New Age teachings that would soon be alternately described as the “New Spirituality.” The “Jesus” that Williamson follows is the false New Age “Jesus” of A Course in Miracles, not the real Jesus of the Bible.

Once again I would like to draw your attention to God’s word in Amos 3:3: “Shall two walk together, except they have agreed?” The apostate church is increasingly walking in agreement with New Agers, especially when you consider the who’s who list of speakers invited to address their churches. Robert Schuller, our Hour-of-Power-Chrystal-Cathedral veteran and disciple of the 33rd degree Freemason Norman Vincent Peale, had no qualms whatsoever to invite Gerald Yampolsky to be the guest speaker at his church on 17 October 2004. According to Warren Smith the entire series of books written by Yampolsky are based on “A Course in Miracles.” Schuller sang the praises of all of Yampolsky’s “fabulous works” on his TV show “Hour of Power” and even boasted that some of Yampolsky’s books were for sale at their bookstore. Schuller even hosted “A Course in Miracles” study groups in his church for some time. What doctrines do A Course in Miracles teach?

• Jesus is not God incarnate but merely “an elder brother entitled to respect for his greater experience.” The Jesus of the Course explains, “There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. This leaves me in a state which is only potential in you. I bridge the distance as an elder brother to you on the one hand, and as a Son of God on the other” (A Course In Miracles, Vol. 1, p. 5).
• “There is no need for help to enter Heaven for you have never left. But there is need for help beyond yourself as you are circumscribed by false beliefs of your Identity, which God alone established in reality.” Helpers are given you in many forms. There names are legion, but we will not go beyond the names the course itself employs. The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his self from Self, as all illusions do. “Jesus remains a Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true. And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusion. Jesus became what all of you must be”. (Thus Jesus was nothing but a mortal man with the Christ consciousness like any other man to demonstrate that the world is only an illusion [the Hindu word is “Maya”]). One of the Course’s main purposes is to “teach the Course’s reinterpretations of traditional Christian principles such as sin, suffering, forgiveness, Atonement, and the meaning of the Crucifixion” (Foundation for A Course In Miracles, “Forgiveness,” p. 4).
• As the Course declares, no one has left Heaven. We are all presently and in reality still in the presence of God, but we have created this illusionary World that is supposedly separated from God through sin and rebellion from “. . . false perceptions. It is born of error, and it has not left its source”. Because Man believes he is separated from God, through his own ego and mistaken beliefs, Man has created the reality in which he now finds himself. “The effect of the ego’s belief in separation, which is its cause; the thought of separation given form; the world, being the expression of the belief in time and space, was not created by God. . . . The World of separation reinforces the ego’s belief in sin and guilt, perpetuating the seeming existence of this world” (Glossary-Index For A Course In Miracles, p. 168).
• “Once an individual has been caught in the world of perception he is caught in a dream. He cannot escape without help, because everything his senses show him merely witnesses to the reality of the dream.” (A Course In Miracles: What Is It?, p. 7). If the world is merely an illusion then everything you do in your physical body is also but an illusion. Hence the doctrines of sin and the consequences of sin (death) is also merely an illusion. “. .  sin is not real, and all that you believe must come from sin will never happen, for it has no cause” (p. 179). A similar claim is made on death’s behalf. “Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem” (Vol. 3, p. 63). (Emphasis added)

Where does Bruce Wilkinson fit into this cacophony of lies, deceit and treachery? Well, to begin with, he is an ardent admirer of Robert Schuller  who just loves to promulgate Gerald Yamposky’s miracles. Here is how he sings the praises of Robert Schuller during an Hour of Power binge on April 24, 2005:

I love this church. I love being here. I love walking on this property. I just felt like I was one step away from heaven when I came on this property this morning. I read a book this [Mair's] past week. Somebody gave it to me, and it traced the past fifty years of Christianity in America and it began to talk about how the transition occurred in our country that eventually led to seeker service, it led to Rick Warren, it led to Bill Hybels and Willow [Creek]. And do you know this book – you probably haven’t even seen it yet – this book brought all that back to a person who said this was the grandfather of it all who influenced this person, this person, and this person and from that it became the massive movement it is today. And the person that they named in the book was none other than the pastor of this church. That’s amazing ladies and gentlemen! Truly amazing! It is truly amazing! Yes! [The congregation gives Schuller a standing ovation] You know it’s only if you are a visionary do you know the price tag it takes to be the real leader, I mean way out front on the edge. People like to shoot people on the edge. (2)

What does Bruce Wilkinson’s “one step from heaven” look like?

• It is permeated with the positive thoughts of Norman Vincent Peale who said:

“There is, as I see it, nothing like Masonry. It is unique in its fellowship which spreads over much of the earth, in addition to our own country.  Moreover, this in-depth fellowship spans the years, even the centuries, running back into antiquity. To me it means a personal relationship with great historical personalities and, taken by and large, also with about the finest body of men whom it is possible to assemble anywhere”. (Peale in the Introduction to “Freemasonry, A Celebration of the Craft,”)

• It is defiled with the teachings of Freemasonry who says amongst many other things, the following:

“When the Mason learns that the key to the warrior on the block is the proper application of the dynamo of living power, he has learned the Mystery of his Craft. The seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands” (Manly Hall, 33rd degree Mason, in Lost Keys of Freemasonry page 48).

“Lucifer is God, and unfortunately Adonay is also God.  . . .  Lucifer, God of Light and God of Good, is struggling for humanity against Adonay, the God of Darkness and Evil”. (Albert Pike, 33rd degree Mason, Grand Commander, and author of Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, in his Instructions to the 23 Supreme Councils of the World on July 14, 1889)

• It is permeated with the ill-founded and ungodly beliefs of Robert Schuller:

“I don’t think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and, hence, counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth, and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition”. (Robert Schuller, in Time magazine, March 18, 1985)

The most effective mantras employ the “M” sound. You can get the feel of it by repeating the words, “I am, I am,” many times over…. Transendental Meditation or TM… is not a religion nor is it necessarily anti-Christian. (“Peace of Mind Through Possibility Thinking,” pp. 131-32)

“The classical interpretation of this teaching of Christ on ‘bearing our cross’ desperately needs reformation….”

“The cross Christ calls us to bear will be offered as a dream . . . an inspiring idea that would incarnate itself in a form of ministry that helps the self-esteem-impoverished persons to discover their self-worth through salvation and subsequent social service in our Savior’s name . . . “

“So the proclamation of possibility thinking is the positive proclamation of the cross! . . .”

“Christ was the world’s greatest possibility thinker. Do we dare follow him?” (“Self-Esteem,” pp. 22, 117-19)

Are these the “birds of a feather that flock together” the Moreleta Park DRC likes to be associated with? Are these the men with whom they are prepared to go on a spiritual journey? The question remains:

Is the Moreleta Park DRC a Christian Church? Hardly, when you take into account the people they invite to speak at their church.

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(1) Elena Oumano, Marianne Williamson: Her Life, Her Message, Her Miracles (New York: St. Martin’s Press: St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 1992), p. 91–92.

(2) Hour of Power, April 24, 2005. Bruce Wilkinson speaking at the Crystal Cathedral. Transcribed by author. No longer available online on Hour of Power website. (Note: Some of the actual comments made by Wilkinson in the telecast were changed or omitted from the edited Hour of Power online transcript.)