Please read Stephan Joubert’s comment “Who wins when light and darkness cross swords?” on his blog before reading my rebuttal to his comment. I am very concerned about Stephan Joubert. I really am. As you may know I have written several commentaries exposing the man’s heresies and pleading with him to break his ties with false teachers like Ron Martoia, Rob Bell and Leonard Sweet. In one of my recent comments “The Moreleta Park DRC re-imagined” I emphasized the fact that you can only accompany someone on his spiritual journey when you are in full agreement with him on matters of vital importance (Amos 3:3). I have also shown how their path is fraught with error, deceit and gross misrepresentations of God and his Son. And yet Stephan Joubert continues to walk on this path with the three Emergent Church stooges. At least the original three stooges, Moe Howard, his brother, Shemp Howard and Larry Fine had the knack to make you laugh. The three Emergent Church stooges can only make you cry — indeed, weep over their souls. On May 18th Stephan wrote in his prayer (he always includes a short prayer at the end of his commentary):
I pray Lord, sometimes it feels as if I’m alone When I look around me, it looks as if a cloud of disbelief is washing over this world Teach me not to stare myself blind against everything that’s wrong Open my eyes to see your light Teach me to walk in the truth of Christ
What a fine an agreeable little prayer! I can really and truly add an amen to it, especially the very last sentence “Teach me to walk in the truth of Christ.” It reminds me of John the apostle of love who once wrote “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 4). Think of it, John was not overjoyed because his spiritual children walked in health, wealth and prosperity or in the re-imagined or repainted post modern paradoxical truths of the three stooges, but in the Truth of Jesus Christ. I can understand why John pinpointed Jesus’ TRUTH as the ultimate joy-maker and not these other Benny Hinnish Word of Faith and Emergent Church heresies, because the TRUTH of Jesus Christ is the only TRUTH that sets you free — free from error, deceit, deception, false Christs, false apostles and false teachers. Stehan’s prayer, “Teach me to walk in the truth of Christ” automatically entails the proposition to walk in the light of Christ. The two are inseparable. You cannot walk in His truth without walking in His light and you cannot claim to walk in his light when you do not speak the truth in accordance with God’s Word.
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. (Emphasis added).
The question remains: Does Stephan Joubert together with his three Emergent buddies, Ron Martoia, Rob Bell and Leonard Sweet speak according to God’s Word? Let’s begin with Leonard Sweet and listen carefully to what he says about “light,” one of the main features of Stephan Joubert’s blog commentary.
A surprisingly central feature of all the world’s religions is the language of light in communicating the divine and symbolizing the union of the human with the divine: Muhammed’s light-filled cave, Moses’ burning bush, Paul’s blinding light, Fox’s “inner light,” Krishna’s Lord of Light, Böhme’s light-filled cobbler shop, Plotinus’ fire experiences, Bodhisattvas with the flow of Kundalini’s fire erupting from their fontanels, and so on. (1)
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that Leonard Sweet is not referring to Jesus Christ as the Light of the world but a light that emanates from the angel of light, Satan himself (2 Corinthians 11:13 and 14). Don’t get me wrong Stephan, I’m definitely not scared of people who do not believe the way I do but I’m concerned about the multitudes who are being led astray by the likes of Leonard Sweet and his false light, and what’s more you are doing nothing to warn people against him. (Please note: I am not associating Moses’ burning bush and Paul’s blinding light with Satan. In both these instances it was Jesus Christ in his pre-incarnate epiphany who personally appeared to Moses and Paul. However it is exceedingly blasphemous to associate his two appearances with Moses and Paul with Muhammad’s light-filled cave, the Quakers’ [George Fox’s] inner light, Krishna’s Lord of light and the Bodhisattvas’ Kundalini light or fire erupting from their fontanels.) Stephan Joubert emphatically states that the Pharisees believed that darkness wins. Here are his words:
Jesus differs radically from this hide-and-criticize mentality. He was not scared to move around among the unclean ones. Lepers and sinners could even touch Him (Mark 1, Luke 5). That upset the overly religious ones, but Jesus was not scared that sinners or their sins were “contagious”.
Indeed, Jesus was never afraid to walk amongst sinners and allow them to touch him. As a matter of fact He had no other option but to walk amongst them because everyone He encountered was a sinner, even those who had already been redeemed (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8 and 9). His mission on earth was not to move amongst sinners because He was not scared of their sins being contagious (perish the thought) but to save lost sinners (Luke 19:10). And yet Stephan’s good friend and fellow journeyman, Ron Martoia unequivocally states:
Preaching about forgiveness from sin becomes increasingly ineffective in a postmodern world where a sense of guilt and obligation is less often operative. In contemporary American culture, one can no longer assume that people identify themselves as sinners in need of grace. People may not think of themselves as sinners going to hell, but they seek wholeness and recognize they’re not there, (Emphasis added).
Martoia is blatantly belittling the office of Jesus Christ’s Holy Spirit who was sent to convict the world of SIN, of righteousness and judgment (John 16:8-10). People who refuse to believe they are lost sinners on their way to hell are resisting the Holy Spirit and forfeiting the opportunity to be saved for all eternity. In fact, as long as they refuse to identify themselves as lost sinners, they cannot be saved (Matthew 9:11 and 12). Martoia and the people who do not think of themselves as sinners going to hell, are doing exactly what the Pharisees in Jesus’ time were doing, and that was to believe that they were the righteous ones who had no need of Jesus to redeem them from their sins and lost status. Contrary to Martoia who sagaciously (sagely) asserts that people no longer identify themselves as sinners in need of grace, Jesus declared that His entire mission to the world was to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). Who is the liar here — Jesus Christ or Stephan Joubert’s esteemed fellow emergent traveller? Why was Jesus made sin or rather why did His Father treat Him as a sinner? So that people may boast that they are not lost sinners because they no “longer assume that people identify themselves as sinners in need of grace?” What about his cross? Wasn’t that God’s ultimate demonstration of his divine and holy hatred of sin and his love for sinners? All the people, including Ron Martoia, who do not believe that they are sinners in need of grace, actually believe that the cross of Jesus Christ is foolishness.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (1Co 1:18 KJV)
These are the men with whom Stephan Joubert and his e-church love to associate and in whose “light” he has chosen to walk. He boasts that he has reported to God as a “one-man army” who is not afraid of the abundance of disbelief in the world. Nonsense! If he’d been a “one-man army” he would never have been so keen to cuddle up to men like Ron Martoia, Leonard Sweet and Rob Bell. His eyes are fixed on them and what does the Bible say when your eyes are wrong?
The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. (Luke 11:34-35 KJV)
The eye cannot function properly without light and the body cannot function properly without the eye. I fell over a chair yesterday and hurt my left leg. Although the sun was shining outside the curtains were drawn and I could not see the chair which I and my wife usually sit on when we have our telephone conversations. Wham! The chair didn’t feel a thing but flesh and blood did. Anyway, in the spiritual realm this is equally true. When your eye is single (receptive to the light of Jesus and his truth and the curtain of false doctrine is not drawn over your spiritual eyes) you will not stumble, fall and hurt yourself. The only difference between my fall over the chair and a fall into doctrinal error is that the latter does not only hurt you but others as well. Whenever Jesus taught his disciples in parables pure light shone on them and when they in turn took his light (teachings) and made it to shine on others they shared His light according to His will. When the eyes (like lamps) reacted properly to His light, they were able to function properly in the spiritual realm. Being receptive to Jesus’ teachings (light) would show that they were full of light (there was no darkness in them) and were benefiting from His teachings. I was shocked to read Stephan’s words:
Who wins when light and darkness meet? Well, the Pharisees believed that darkness wins. When holy and unholy was on the same terrain, they were of the opinion that the unclean walked away with the victory. That’s why religious folk had to avoid sinners. Even today many church people believe this. That’s why they make so little impact for God. They’re continually hiding in religious shelters and moaning about evil being on the increase. (Emphasis added)
The fact that evil is increasing is not a figment of one’s imagination but a biblically stated reality. Paul wrote to Timothy:
. . . evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. (2Ti 3:13 KJV)
The word “seducers” – γόης goēs – appears only here in the entire New Testament. It means, a “juggler, or diviner;” and then, a “deceiver, or impostor.” Here it refers to those who by seductive arts, lead persons into error, deceiving and making others believe that which is false and wrong is true and right. They are under delusion themselves. Indeed, the worst kind of delusion are the deluders themselves who sincerely believe that they are teaching others the light (truth) of Christ and not really knowing that they are in serious error (in utter darkness).
