The Kingdom of God, here and now: Part 1

It is by no means surprising that Stephan Joubert has dedicated an entire chapter to the Emergent Church’s eisegesis of the KINGDOM OF GOD in his prize-winning book Jesus, A Radical Leap. In fact, one of the EC’s main doctrines (yep! they too have their pet doctrines; those things oom Angus Buchan advises us to set aside) revolves around the Kingdom of God of which the forging of relationships and service are the two main pillars. As shocking as it may sound the fact is that their pet doctrines aren’t based on solid biblical truth but on the channelings of the demon, Djwhal Khul through the occultist Alice Bailey. I have said it on several occasions in the past and would like to repeat it here: THE EMERGENT CHURCH IS THE CHOSEN INSTRUMENT TO IMPLEMENT THE DEMON, DJWHAL KHUL’S CHANNELED MESSAGES THROUGH ALICE BAILEY. To prove this, a few things Alice Bailey and her ascended master, Djwhal Khul, said about the KINGDOM OF GOD and RELATIONSHIPS will suffice.

Your spiritual goal is the establishing of the Kingdom of God.

One of the first steps towards this is to prepare men’s minds to accept the fact that the reappearance of the CHRIST is imminent. You must tell them everywhere that the Masters and Their groups of disciples are actively working to bring order out of chaos. You must tell them that there IS a Plan, and that nothing can possibly arrest the working out of that Plan. You must tell them that the Hierarchy stands, and that it has stood for thousands of years, and is the expression of the accumulated wisdom of the ages. You must tell them above all else that God is love, that the Hierarchy is love, and that Christ is coming because He loves humanity.

“This is the message which you must give at this time. And with this responsibility I leave you. Work, my brothers.”¹

Allow me to draw your attention to Bailey’s words: “the Masters and Their groups of disciples are actively working to bring order out of chaos.” The world is in turmoil. No one can deny it.  Wars, extreme poverty, environmental disasters, AIDS and other pandemic diseases, crime, corruption, lawlessness, terrorism and hatred are all horror ingredients of a recipe for chaos. The million dollar question is: How do we escape our chaotic world, or rather, how do we transform our chaotic world? The EC’s solution to these problems sounds something like the following: “Well, one of the ways is to roll up your sleeves and start doing something constructive in your immediate vicinity. Visit AIDS patients in hospitals and clinics, give your alms toward the building of new shacks for the poor, and feed the hungry. These are all biblical standard procedures. But please do not preach to them the doctrines of sin, righteous judgment, redemption and sanctification, heaven and hell. They only tend to divide our societies into ‘us and them, ’saved and unsaved,’ ’holy and unholy,’” as Stephan Joubert has said so often in the past. Ron Martoia, a good friend and fellow journeyman of Stephan Joubert says:

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). (Read here.)

His words ring perfectly true to those of the demon, Djwhal Khul , who channeled his messages through Alice Bailey.

“It is time that the church woke up to its true mission, which is to materialize the kingdom of God on earth, today, here and now . . . People are no longer interested in a possible heavenly state or a probable hell. They need to learn that the kingdom is here, and must express itself on earth . . . The way into that kingdom is the way that Christ trod. It involves the sacrifice of the personal self for the good of the world, and the service of humanity . . .”² (Emphasis added).

As a quick reminder of what the occultist Alice Bailey and the Emergent Church mean by “sacrifice of the personal self for the good of the world” I would like to take you back to a post I wrote some time ago here:

I must once again emphasize that this is in direct opposition to the biblical view of the “self” that needs to be denied and crucified daily in order to enjoy the abundant life Jesus Christ promised every newly-born child of God. Those of you who have been confronted with New Age teachings in your church and especially in the Emergent Church will have realized by now that the new emerging spirituality must at all cost rethink, re-invent, revamp, and re-interpret the core doctrines of Christianity or at least bring them on par with other religions that supposedly also cradle the truth. With this in mind, I would now like to invite you to evaluate with me Ron Martoia’s so-called ATTENTION/AWARENESS, which is also called insight meditation or witness awareness as he terms it. He begins his comment “Insight Mediation….Witness Awareness” with the following remark. One of the great tools in ATTENTION/AWARENESS development (and this is very vertical) is what is called insight meditation or witness awareness.  This is essentially being able to watch yourself and your thoughts arising with nonjudgmental viewing. Non-judgmental because judgment causes us to push stuff we need to be aware of into our shadow egoic selves.  We hide this from our view because we don’t like what we see and when that happens our ability to attend to it ceases. We have not done much in the Christian world to address this issue of shadow. (Emphasis added) Please pay close ATTENTION to his use of the term “shadow egoic selves” and his suggestion that Christians should be doing much more in the Christian world to address the issue of shadow. The “shadow egoic self” is just another way of describing the Buddhist concept of “No-self” or “Non-self,” the delusionary or illusionary product of the so-called five skandhas. The “shadow egoic self” says Martoia, is the spot where we put the stuff we don’t like, causing us to lose our ability to attend to those things. By pushing those things of which we are being judgmental into the shadow egoic self (No-self” or “Non-self) we are actually feeding and boosting the “ego” which is but a delusion in the Buddhist world. The ultimate goal or purpose is to achieve like-mindedness and unity without the distractions of a judgmental mindset which in turn can only be achieved by means of the setting aside of sound doctrine and the biblical requirement for godly discernment (1 John 4:1).

The “here-and-now” establishment of the Kingdom of God is also a prime concern and goal of Stephan Joubert, although he does not say it so bluntly. On page 100 of his book Jesus. a Radical Leap he writes:

Jesus used the term “Kingdom of God” as a master symbol or a living metaphor as Bill Easum (Leadership on the Other Side, 2000) calls it, to articulate the new Godly reality which He Himself inaugurates, as well as to depict God’s present and coming dominion. In short, it is an umbrella term of Jesus’ vision with regard to God’s new world that emerges in the midst of other realities of the day. The kingdom comes amid the other existing earthly and spiritual realities and establishes a new reality where God’s shalom, his heavenly peace, is realized. (Emphasis added).

The notion that God’s kingdom gradually grows in the midst of other mundane and spiritual realities is not biblical; it is completely unbiblical. In our present situation where chaos is rampant Satan is still the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) and the possessor of all the kingdoms of the world and he can give it to whomsoever he pleases (Matthew 4:8, 9). To suggest that God’s kingdom shall come here and now amid other existing mundane and spiritual realities is to shun the dream God gave King Nebuchadnezzar. We learn from Daniel’s interpretation that the last kingdom (God’s Kingdom) will only be established when a little Stone out of the mountain smites the image and destroys in a single blow. The Stone smites the image; hence it is not a gradual overthrow or a slow disintegration, but a sudden destruction. The Stone is not rolled against the image ever so gently and gradually. The Emergent Church teaches that Gentile world powers (cultures and societies) are going to be transformed gradually until the leaven of the kingdom of God has permeated the entire lump. In that way, the Millennium will be ushered in and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. As Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger said: “The gospel of emerging churches is not confined to personal salvation; it is social transformation arising from the presence and permeation of the reign of Christ.” (Quoted in “Jesus, a Radical Leap” p. 152). (Emphasis added).

There is not a single word or hint in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream that these Gentile world powers are going to be transformed internally until at last they will assume the characteristics of the kingdom of God. The Bible paints a very different picture. Instead of becoming more and more like the kingdom of God these Gentiles powers are going to wax greater and greater in rebellion and opposition to God, until the final great Gentile world power will arise; and in a moment of time, the little Stone, Jesus Christ Himself, cut out of the rock without hands, is going to be hurled at the feet of the image, and Gentile dominion will go down with a big crash. Therefore, the nations of the world are not going to be transformed so that the world may become a better place; they are going to be judged for their rebellion. There will be no Kingdom of God until Christ returns.

The main reason why the Emergent Church believes that the kingdom of God will be ushered in gradually amid the present chaos, stems from their belief that the kingdom of God (represented by the Imago Dei) is already within every person although most people are not aware of it yet. They need to be made aware or awakened to their innermost potential to release the power of presence into the world with the specific intent to transform the world from chaos to sanity. Here’s how Eckhart Tolle explains it. While viewing the video clip bear in mind that the E-church fraternity, including Dries Cronjé and Stephan Joubert as well as its regular commentators, speak very highly of Eckhart Tolle and his book A New Earth. Read here.

A New Earth

What Tolle actually says is that the entire world needs to undergo a paradigm shift or transformation from the egoic self (a Buddhist term and carrier of the judger gene, according to Ron Martoia) to the true self which resides in every person. The emergence of the true self can and will only be accomplished by a complete shift in consciousness through meditation, centering prayer or contemplative prayer as well as other mystical practices. When this shift in consciousness kicks in the kingdom of God (a new heaven which is the inner world in every person) and a new world (which is the outer manifestation of the kingdom of God) will come to fruition.

This so-called shift in consciousness is just another way of referring to the Luceferic Initiation into the kingdom of Satan and his Antichrist. In an internet article The Luciferic Initiation Wendy B. Howard of End time Ministries shares her experience at the “First Religion and Cultural Diversity Conference” in Melbourne, Australia. She writes:

New Age mystics past and present have written books proclaiming that the world is being prepared for a large scale initiation rite or union with “the Christ.” Wendy B. Howard of Endtime Ministries recently attended the “First Religion and Cultural Diversity Conference” in Melbourne, Australia. She reported the attendance of many religious dignitaries of global reputation who have succumbed to the Gnostic influence of Matthew Fox. “At Parliament House in Melbourne, I spoke with two high level priests of the Anglican church, Archbishop Peter Hollingworth, who is a committee member of the New World Order’s Commission for the Future, and the Assist. Bishop of Perth, David Murray – both are avid followers of the New Age ex-Dominican Matthew Fox. Fox who teaches that there was no Fall, no Redemption, and celebrates earth worship, adores ‘Mother Nature’, embraces occultism and believes in mass murder by the “shrinking” of the population of the earth! Fox who is a friend of the Luciferian David Spangler who advocates that all people on earth should undergo the Luciferian initiation!”3 And what is the Gospel according to David Spangler? “Lucifer works within each of us to bring us to wholeness, and as we move into a New Age . . . each of us in some way is brought to that point which I term the Luciferic Initiation, the particular doorway through which the individual must pass if he is to come fully into the presence of his light and wholeness. Lucifer prepares man in all ways for the experience of Christhood . . . The light that reveals to us the presence of the Christ . . . comes from Lucifer. He is the light-giver, he is aptly named the Morning Star because it is his light that heralds for man the dawn of a great consciousness . . . He stands…as the Great Initiator, the one who hands the soul over to the Christ.”4 (Emphasis added)

Please take special note of the jargon they use. The term “presence” regularly pops up in Eckhart Tolle’s books. In fact, one of his most successful books is called The Power of Now. On page 104 he says the following:

“Don’t get attached to any one word. You can substitute ‘Christ’ for presence, if that is more meaningful to you. Christ is your God-essence or the Self, as it is sometimes called in the East. The only difference between Christ and presence is that Christ refers to your indwelling divinity regardless of whether you are conscious of it or not, whereas presence means your awakened divinity or God-essence.” — Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (Novato, CA: Namaste, 1999), p. 104.(Emphasis added).

You may also have noticed that Ron Martoia uses the same word “wholeness” to describe man’s innate need for completeness and peaceful unity or one-ness. “Wholeness” is a New age term and has as it core aim the integration of Western and Eastern religious philosophies. Alice Bailey wrote in her book Education in the New Age,

The world today suffers from a cultural provincialism based on the dualism of an outward-looking, objective attitude of the Western world, and an inwardness or subjectivity of Oriental societies. Each  of these civilizations, in its extreme form, is over-balanced in its own direction. In harmonious living, man must integrate both ideals to achieve wholeness [^{there’s that word again}] for himself and his world. This, it seems to me, is one important theme of the present work.

For the future, the remedy for the social schisms and psychological fissions that have handicapped and obstructed our modern efforts to overcome the divisions of humanity, lies in a restoration of unity of principles upon which an integration of human values and achievements can be attempted. The educational implications of this development are clear. As the Tibetan indicates, on subjective levels we must provide for the resynthesis of human personality and for the overcoming of the double consciousness that has resulted from the cultural fission which made the “self-negation” of the peaceful civilization of the Orient the overpowering concept of its culture, and the aggressive “individualism” of the Occident the ideal of Western man. Accordingly, we need not only the political synthesis of a World Federation in which the Eastern and Western hemispheres function like the right and left lobes of man’s brain, with the seat of the World Brain serving as the point of decussation of the planetary nerves, but we need also a planetary way of life, a planetary ethics, and a planetary way of feeling to supply the powerful drive we shall require for the great tasks that lie ahead of us. (Emphasis added)

The remedy, she says, for the double consciousness, represented by the “self-negation” (or the negation of the “egoic shadow self”) of the Orient and the aggressive “individualism” of the Occident is to attune them to a new unified consciousness. This, she says, will be accomplished by a “World Brain” serving as a synthesizing catalyst between the right and left lobes of man’s brain (Eastern and Western hemispheres). Who or what is the “World Brain?” It is none other than the grand master of deception, Satan himself. And how is he going to accomplish the so-called initiation into a new consciousness? You guessed it: mysticism, contemplative prayer, centering prayer, meditation, lectio divina, labyrinths, and even yoga.

Here again we see that New Agers and the Emergent Church have a common source who teaches them the same principles of wholeness, awareness, awakened divinity, collectively awakened consciousness  and unity. Eckhart Tolle, for example, echoes the very same sentiments as Bailey when he says that the new heaven is the new consciousness that arises in the inward world of human beings (i.e. the inward subjectivity of the Oriental societies) and the new earth is the outward manifestation of the new inward consciousness (i.e. the outward-looking, objective attitude of the Western world). So they are all working toward a unified and global collective consciousness which will ultimately achieve a common goal and that is to build the the kingdom of God on earth, here and now. The core feature of this emergent and growing kingdom is its overriding inclusiveness. No one is excluded. Brian McLaren explains the phenomenon of the kingdom’s inclusiveness as  follows :

“Jesus seems to say, ‘The kingdom of God doesn’t need to wait until something else happens ^{(He is of course referring to the Second Advent of Jesus Christ).} No, it is available and among you now…. Invite people of all nations, races, classes, and religions to participate in this network of dynamic, interactive relationships with God and all God’s creation!” . . .  the kingdom of God will be radically, scandalously inclusive. As we’ve seen, Jesus enjoys table fellowship with prostitutes and drunks . . . He affirms and responds to the faith of Gentiles.⁵

By the by, Stephan Joubert happily and favorably quotes Brian McLaren  in his book, Jesus, a Radical Leap, on page 186: “A new world needs a new form of Christianity. Well, we have a new world . . .! Why would anyone who claims to love and follow Jesus Christ with all his heart include a quote of someone who proclaims and believes things that are completely contrary to the teachings of Jesus? Didn’t the apostle of love, John, advise us NOT to greet (bid God’s shalom on) and NOT to receive persons in your home who do not preach Christ’s doctrine? (2 John 1:11, 12).

There is no mention of the need for repentance and redemption in Brian McLaren’s above description of the kingdom and neither does Stephan Joubert suggest in the very slightest that one needs to be saved in order to gain access to the kingdom of God. Yes! he does refer to the well-known verse in Luke 19:10 which says that He had come to seek and to save lost sinners (page  69) and yes, he also mentions the word metanoia (repentance) (p. 70-71) but his interpretation of both these terms are somewhat at variance with the Bible. His view of sin is more of an effort to prove that Jesus had come to abolish the institutionalized hierarchy (Jewish priesthood, temple service, Sanhedrin etc. as well as today’s institutionalized churches) in favor of the poor, the downtrodden and the culturally marginalized. On page 110 he says:

According to the Gospels Jesus focused his service on those who fell in the leaders’ category of sinners. For example, Jesus invited a tax collector by the name of Levi to become one of his disciples (Mark 2:13-14). A large number of sinners and tax collectors subsequently ate with them. When the scribes saw it they were shocked. They asked Jesus’ disciples:” How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?” (v. 16) upon which Jesus answered: “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick.” (v. 17). (Emphasis added)

Stephan Joubert deliberately wants to leave you with the impression that Jesus’ disciples were gathered only from amongst the poor, the tax collectors, the downtrodden and the marginalized. That is just not true. He had many disciples from the Pharisees and the Scribes and even from the house of Herod who truly believed in Him and followed Him. (Acts 6:7; Acts 13:1, 1). Manaen, mentioned in Acts 2, was probably of the royal household of Herod Antipas. He was therefore a man of rank and education and his conversion proves that the preaching of the Gospel was not entirely confined to or focused on the poor and those who fell in the leaders’ category of sinners, as Stephan Joubert likes to think.

In journalism it is customary to indicate with dots (. . .) the words you omit in your quote from an original manuscript or book. If Stephan Joubert had remained loyal to this journalistic law he would have added some dots after Jesus’ words “. . . but they that are sick” indicating that He also said another important thing directly after that. What did Jesus say that was so important or at least as equally important as the quoted section? He said: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Admittedly, Stephan Joubert does refer to the second part of this verse on page 9 but with a very subtle twist to it. In stead of the word ”righteous” he uses the phrase “the right path”—”Jesus says that He did not come to call people who are on the right path, but sinners.” (Please remember that in Joubert’s book sinners are those who fall in the church leaders’ category of a sinner).

The word “dikaiosune { dik-ah-yos-oo’-nay}” means to be in a state or position or condition of approval or of acceptance before God. it means that the wrath of God that hung over your head is now removed through Jesus Christ. (John 3:36). Stephan Joubert’s use of the phrase “the right path” in stead of “righteous” is misleading. Were there no persons on the right path (believed on Him as the Scriptures say) when He first appeared as a babe in the flesh on earth? Of course there were! Did He not come to the earth to die for them too? Why is it so important to make a distinction between “right path” and “righteous”? It is of the utmost importance not only for a correct understanding of the context in which He said it but also for a correct understanding of the very essence of sin and of God’s soteriology (doctrine of salvation).

In the first instance we may observe that it certainly does not mean that “Jesus focused his service on those who fell in the leaders’ category of sinners.” it implies that Jesus’ mission to the earth was primarily based on the Scribes’ and Pharisees’ outlook on sin. Jesus’ mission and service certainly did not rely on their interpretation or category of sin but on his own and his Father’s outlook on sin. What is THEIR outlook on the essence of sin? In its most quintessential format sin means to miss the mark. The next question of course is: whose mark? Is it man’s own fleshly devised mark or is it God’s infinitely holy and spiritually superior mark? Had it been man’s own fleshly devised mark that defined the essence of sin, you could easily have agreed with Stephan Joubert that Jesus focused his service on those poor wretched sinners who fell in the leaders’ category of sinners. In turn, it implies that they alone (the Pharisees and Scribes) were the real culprits in God’s eyes and that the poor, the downtrodden and the outcasts were His favorites. Missing the mark is to miss God’s standard of divine approval or acceptance which is his Law. Rich and poor have all alike broken God’s Law and missed the mark.

The Pharisees and Scribes reckoned: If you keep the letter of the Law to its very brim you are righteous. No! says Jesus, your self-imposed self-righteousness is the very essence of sin because it disqualifies you from God’s demand for righteousness which is to believe (trust) on Me alone for your salvation. Interestingly enough, Jesus never disowned the Pharisees’ and Scribes’ demand for righteousness. In fact He said:

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:19-20).

Wow! did you hear that? How could Jesus possibly use the Scribes’ and Pharisees’ righteousness as a barometer to determine who will go to heaven or not? And yet He did it. He obviously held their demand for righteousness in high esteem. We can similarly show much respect for peoples’ of other faiths such as the Muslims who do not smoke, indulge in liquor and rule their lives strictly in accordance with their faith. Indeed, their lives are often dire finger-pointers at the carnal lives of many who call themselves Christians and who have no qualms about smoking, drinking, carousing and whooping it up at parties, living-in as unweds, indulging in sex before marriage, homosexual marriages etc. etc. etc.

The Muslims’ demand to live circumspectly is indeed something to value dearly. However, Jesus demanded a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and the Pharisees. What kind of righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees? What kind of righteousness exceeds that of those who strictly adhered to God’s Law? There is only a single kind of righteousness that exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees and any other religion—the imputed righteousness of God through faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the ONLY Savior of mankind. If you do not have His imputed righteousness you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. It matters very little whether you are rich or poor; God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). Rich and poor, Pharisee and Scribe, servant leaders and their followers will spend eternity in hell trying to figure out what collective or relational salvation means without ever finding an appropriate answer, simply because their own self-imposed righteousness never exceeded the righteousness of the Pharisees and the Scribes.

What lies at the root of Stephan Joubert’s and the Emergent Church’s ill-advised and obsessive compulsive desire to deconstruct the institutionalized church which, according to him, is akin to the Pharisaical Sanhedrin and everything it stands for (aka Eckart Tolle’s apocalyptic [“Revelation” kind of] vision of the collapse of the old man-made order) in favor of a New Order and a new kind of God’s kingdom where everyone may feel at home? In a recent comment on their E-church website he said the following about the kingdom of God:

According to Jesus, God’s kingdom is meant for those who do not fit into the circles of the religious folks – the tax collectors, non-Jews, unclean, poor and rich. Strangers and the marginalized are also included here. God’s reign arrives everywhere when people grab onto the grace of God with beggar hands. In the coming world of God, they will be the new guests of honor at his never-ending feast. (Emphasis added).

No! incorrigibly, eternally, irrefutably NO! The kingdom of God is NOT meant for the unclean and those who do not fit in the circles of the religious folks. The Kingdom of God is for those (the rich and poor, tax-collectors, the Jews and non-Jews, the strangers and the marginalized) whose righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and the Scribes, whose righteousness exceeds that of the law-abiding religionists.

For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. (Ephesians 5:5-6)

Have you noticed the grave warning to those who teach people otherwise? Paul calls them the children of disobedience on whom God’s wrath abides.

To answer my own question “what lies at the root of Stephan Joubert’s and the Emergent Church’s ill-advised and obsessive compulsive desire to deconstruct the institutionalized church?” I would again like to quote something the demon, Djwhal Khul, inspired Alice Bailey to write down:

“He [‘Christ’] emphasized the necessity for cooperation, indicating that if we truly follow the Way, we shall put an end to competition, and substitute for it cooperation.…

“Love, brotherhood, cooperation, service, self-sacrifice, inclusiveness, freedom from doctrine, recognition of divinity - these are the characteristics of the citizen of the kingdom, and these still remain our ideals.”⁶ (Emphasis added)

The emboldened section in the above quote is self-evident but I would like to draw your attention to a few things. “Freedom from doctrine” is perhaps the fundamental reason why the Emergent Church smirks at the institutionalized church. A few quotes from the lips of some of the leading protagonists of the Emergent Church will adequately demonstrate this. But before I give them the chance to speak, here follows a quote from he lips of Alice Bailey that says it all.

“The kingdom and the service!…

“We must grasp this; we must realize that we shall find release only in the service of the kingdom. We have been held too long by the dogmas of the past, and there is today a natural revolt against the idea of individual salvation through the blood sacrifice of Christ.… It is essential that today we face the problem of the relation of Christ to the modern world, and dare to see the truth, without any theological bias . . . It is quite possible that Christ is far more inclusive than we have been led to believe … We have preached a God of love and have spread a doctrine of hate. We have taught that Christ died to save the world and have endeavored to show that only believers could be saved . . . But Christ founded a kingdom on earth, wherein all God’s children would have equal opportunity of expressing themselves as sons of the Father. This, many Christians find impossible to accept . . .

“Individual salvation is surely selfish in its interest and its origin. We must serve in order to be saved, and only can we serve intelligently if we believe in the divinity of all men and also in Christ’s outstanding service to the race. The kingdom is a kingdom of servers, for every saved soul must without compromise join the ranks of those who ceaselessly serve their fellow men.”⁷

Bailey is absolutely right when she says that there is a natural revolt against the idea of individual salvation through the blood of Christ. Stephan Joubert hardly mentions the blood of Christ in his book, Jesus, A Radical Leap.” In his book The Great Omission , author Dallas Willard says this about the blood of Christ:

The gospel of sin management produces vampire Christians who want Jesus for his blood and little else . . . At the heart of right-wing theology is the individual forgiveness of sins. On the left it is the removal of social or structural evils. The current gospel then becomes a gospel of sin management. Transformation of heart and character is no part of the redemptive message. Moment to moment human reality is not the arena of faith and eternal living. What right and left have in common is neither has a coherent framework of knowledge and practical direction adequate to personal transformation toward the abundance and the obedience emphasized in the New Testament.

Brian McLaren echoed Willard’s view of the blood of Christ in an interview in which he put forward his theory of atonement:

Dallas Willard also addresses this issue in “The Divine Conspiracy.” Atonement-centered understandings of the gospel, he says, create vampire Christians who want Jesus for his blood and little else. He calls us to move beyond a “gospel of sin management” – to the gospel of the kingdom of God. So, rather than focusing on an alternative theory of atonement, I’d suggest we ponder the meaning and mission of the kingdom of God.

The moral of the story is that you will never be allowed to enter the Kingdom of God unless you come to Christ Jesus on his terms and for the daily management of your sins through his shed blood. Not only is faith in his shed blood the only requirement to enter into the most holy of holies in heaven (Hebrews 10:19), it is also needed for the daily cleansing of your sins (1 John 1:7-9).

It is a contradiction in terms to encourage people to move to the gospel of the kingdom of God by virtue of a movement beyond a gospel of sin management. It is to deny that Jesus is the only Door to God’s Kingdom and that He had to shed his blood (lay down his life) in order to become that Door. Had He not shed his blood on the cross He could never have been that Door and neither could anyone enter into God’s Kingdom. Its as simple as that.

In reality, their aim is to move away from cross-teachings to wisdom- or sage-teachings. The post-modern creature no longer wants to hear about Jesus and the demands of his cross. That’s simply too condescending and it tends to infringe on their preferred lifestyles, such as homosexuality, which they refuse to give up. They have a greater affinity for Jesus as a teacher of love and of compassion and of caring for the poor, the downtrodden and the marginalized. That’s the kind of Jesus they want; not a Jesus that judges and condemns you when you fall into the leaders’ category of sinners. “They like Jesus but not the church” (aka Dan Kimball”), which has become one of the Emerging Church’s rallying cries, is simply another way of saying “We like Jesus but not his cross or the teachings and the demands of his cross.” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Of all the religions that reject Jesus as the only Savior of the word, the Emergent Church is by far the most dangerous. It looks like the real McCoy; it sounds like the real McCoy but it isn’t. it is a counterfeit religion that follows another Jesus, preaches another gospel and is infused with another spirit.

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^1. Alice Bailey: The Externalization of the Hierarchy – Section IV – Stages in the Externalization. http://www.light-weaver.com/externalisation/exte1302.html

^2. Alice Bailey (Alice Bailey (Emphasis added) (Alice Bailey, From Bethlehem to Calvary, Chapter Five – The Fourth Initiation, The Crucifixion,

^3. W.B. Howard, Endtime Ministries, P.O. Box 238, Landsborough, Queensland, 4550.

^4. Cathy Burns: Jay Gary, The Millennium Doctor, pp. 2,3.

^5. Romans and Syrophonecians and Samaritans.” (Brian McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that could change everything (Nashville: Thomas Nelson’s W Publishing Group, 1006), page 74 & 94).

^6. Alice Bailey, From Bethlehem to Calvary – Chapter Seven Our Immediate Goal – The Founding of the Kingdom. http://www.congregator.net/esoteric/bethlehem/beth1078.html

^7. Alice Bailey (Alice Bailey (Emphasis added) (Alice Bailey, From Bethlehem to Calvary, Chapter Five – The Fourth Initiation, The Crucifixion

Die Trojaanse Perd in die NG Kerk

WAT ELKE BESORGDE LIDMAAT EN PREDIKANT MOET LEES!

Die Trojaanse Perd in die NG Kerk

– die Kanker van Evolusie en Liberalisme

’n Voëlvlug oor die hoofstukke van die boek:
Perspektiewe oor teologiese veranderinge binne die NG Kerk oor die afgelope ongeveer vyftig jaar word aan die begin van hierdie boek gegee. Melding word gemaak van die heersende roeringe en die ingrypende implikasies vir die geloof van lidmate en die praktiese lewe van die Kerk.

Daar word gekyk na hoe die ommekeer in Skrifbeskouing ook nie Skrifkritiek en Skrifgebruik onaangetas gelaat het nie. Dit het tot gevolg dat Bybelwaarhede soos die opstanding van Christus, Sy maagdelike geboorte, Sy Godheid en selfs Sy plaasvervangende sterwe verloën

word. Daar kan selfs gevra word: Is die hart van die evangelie nie uitgeruk nie? Die liberale aanslag het verdoemende gevolge op vele terreine. Die hantering van homoseksualiteit word bespreek as voorbeeld van die gevolge van verkeerde besluite aangaande Skrifbeskouing.

Nuwe strominge soos die Ontluikende Kerk en die “Nuwe Hervorming” (NH) kom onder die vergrootglas. Ernstige kommer word uitgespreek oor die ongereformeerde rigting wat hierdie strominge ingaan en die traagheid om met leertug teen teoloë op te tree wat meelopers hiervan is.

Enkele gedagtes word uitgespreek oor die Evangeliese Inisiatief (EI). Alhoewel daar waardering is vir die getuienis wat die EI uitdra ten opsigte van wat die waarheid is, is die vraag: Doen die EI genoeg om ’n omkeer te bewerkstellig?

Evolusie, wat gesien word as die vrot appel in die NG Kerk se kis, kry uitgebreide aandag, omdat die omhelsing van evolusionisme verwoestende en verreikende gevolge het op sake wat deel is van die gereformeerde belydenis.

Die hoofstuk oor die huwelik en saambly toon aan wat met ’n sogenaamde minder veroordelende verklaring ten opsigte van saambly beoog word, naamlik om vir die soveelste keer akkommoderend te wees. Ons kan nie die Woord van God verander om by die kultuur van die dag of om by mense se sienings en filosofieë te pas nie. In Sy Woord is dit duidelik dat seks buite die huwelik deur God verbied word.
Die agste hoofstuk toon aan presies hóé ongelyk die speelveld tussen liberales en behoudendes al geword het. Die media werk op vele terreine aktief mee om postmodernistiese liberalisme in die kerk in te voer.

Skrywers:

• Dr. Henrietta Klaasing (Skrywer en boeksamesteller)

• Dr. Hennie Mouton (Skrywer en boeksamesteller)

• Ds. Gideon Aggenbag (Skrywer)

• Daniel Louw (Skrywer)

• Ds. Jan Louw (Skrywer)

• Ds. Hanan Viljoen (Skrywer)

• Dr. Koos Visser (Skrywer)

Bydraers:

• Anna Louw

• James Maré

• Pieter Pelser

• Dr. Kobus Stapelberg

• Sarel van der Merwe

• Ellison Mouton

Bestellings

Vir bestellings, kontak Chris Groenewald by:

E-pos: cnnadvies@iburst.co.za
Faks: 012 993 4106
Sel: 082 551 3102
Posadres: Posbus 34093, Glenstansia, 0010

Rekening naam: Forum
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ABSA Menlynplein

Om posgeld te spaar kan die boek ook na bestelling en betaling by Chris, self in Doringkloof Centurion afgehaal word by ons sentrale verspreider Heiner Müller. Chris sal sy kontakbesonderhede aan belangstellendes verskaf.

Sekondêre verspreiders waar die boek direk gekry kan word, en posgeld ook tot ‘n mate gespaar kan word, is:

• Augustine Bookroom, Constantia Park, Pretoria, (Elsabe du Plessis Holdt) 083 302 0388 [www.augustine.co.za]

• Redding Christelike Boekwinkel, Crookstraat 7, Mosselbaai 044 691 1700

• Henrietta Klaasing, Groblersdag, Tel: 082 855 2412

• Daniel Louw, Secunda, Tel: 082 441 7892

• Jan Louw, Secunda, Tel: 017 634 2321

• Anna Louw, Ladybrand, Tel: 082 7755 097

• Gideon Aggenbag, Uitenhage, Tel: 041 961 0888

• Koos Visser, Middelburg, Tel: 013 243 0296

• Burger Vivier, Boksburg, Benoni, Brakpan en Kempton Park, Tel: 083 229 5028

• Anton Mostert, Trompsburg (Suid Vrystaat), Tel: 051 713 0544 of 082 951 7036

• Christelike Mobiele Lektuur (Edgar Laue), Gustav Voight Sentrum (Independence avenue), Posbus 20927, Windhoek, Namibië, Tel: 0026461 234466

Doctrines of Demons & E-Church heresies

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; (1Timothy 4:1)

Wouldn’t you, the reader, agree that when the Spirit of God speaks expressly (very distinctly) that all of mankind should listen intently and obey promptly? You do? Well, why then are some of the adorable and highly respected men and women in our beloved country disobeying God’s urgent warning and happily departing from the faith to listen to and proclaim the lies of Satan and his demons? Could it be that they are not saved or perhaps they are real Christians who  merely have fallen into apostasy because they just love to rebel against God? Please bear in mind that Paul refers to THE faith and not A faith. It is the only faith (doctrine) that saves; no other faith is capable of procuring eternal redemption for lost souls. And yet these so-called men and women of God have no qualms whatsoever to set aside THE doctrines of THE faith and to present mankind with doctrines that are not of God which Paul, the real gentleman that he was, expressly (very distinctly) calls doctrines of devils. Are you going to reprimand Paul and say to him “Paul, you have no right to accuse our most esteemed Transformational Architects of giving heed to seducing spirits. It is not politically correct to trace their teaching to devils. In our culture and society is is more humane and politically correct to say, as Stephan Joubert  has said in the past, that there is truth in all religions, not only the Christian faith. In fact, Paul, it is no longer THE faith but only A faith amongst many others that are equally important to listen to and pay your respect.” No!, said Paul, these impostors must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families by teaching things they ought not to teach (Titus 1:11).

Do you recognize the men and women in the following slideshow? You should because they are all in the vanguard of changing the face of Christianity in South Africa and throughout the world.

 

What are doctrines of demons? How do we distinguish between the doctrines of devils and the doctrine of Christ? Why is it so important to discern acutely between doctrines of devils and the doctrine of Christ? Why are so many esteemed spiritual leaders in South Africa and throughout the world wading ever deeper into the muddy pools of the doctrines of devils?

The main reason why it is imperative to train ourselves in discernment is because it is not always so easy to distinguish between the doctrines of devils and the doctrine of Christ. If the children of God were immune to the doctrines of demons Jesus would never have warned them against the possibility of being deceived (Matthew 24:4). Brother Paul also warned against false prophets and teachers and their subtle deception in his second epistle to the Corinthians.

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

First of all, the solemnity of being caught up in erroneous doctrines and its dire consequences for those who cuddle up to them is made apparent in several passages in Scripture. Consider for a moment the following:

Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. (2 John 1:9-11)

As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:9)

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 1:3-4)

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. (2 Peter 2:1)

Satan and his demons are at their most dangerous when they inspire their false prophets to masquerade as apostles and teachers of Christ and to infiltrate the church by stealth. This has been going on since the institution of the church at Pentecost and will continue exponentially until Christ returns at his Second Coming. But why does God allow it to happen? Why doesn’t He just protect his children against the false apostles and prophets? One of the reasons, I believe, is to test his children with the purpose of purifying their faith and their love for Him.

If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 13:1-3).

Moses presents two diametrically opposed persons in the above passage — those who hearken or listen to false apostles and those who do not. Jesus said:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. (John 10:1-5)

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27) (Emphasis added)

In all of the more than 40 years as a saved person I have come across many “Christians” who say that we should set aside our petty doctrines for the sake of, peace, unity and mutual love.

You can watch the YouTube video here.

Did you hear that? Have you listened very closely to what oom Angus says in the above video? Did you notice the oxymoron? He actually said: “We will serve the Lord by setting aside the petty doctrines of Jesus Christ.” He could just as well have said: “We will serve our country and our fellowmen by putting aside the constitution and the laws of our land.” Wow! now that is what I call Mighty Men guts and grit. What does God’s doctrine say?

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Mat 5:19-20)

The irony is that, while oom Angus calls for the setting aside of petty doctrines, he is holding the book of God’s doctrine, commonly known as the Bible or God’s Word, in his hand. Although he cannot be classified as an Emergent Church adherent his video is an excellent metaphor of the EC’s strategy which is to hold God’s Word in the hand while their lips proclaim things that are totally at variance with it’s teachings. In any case, paradoxes are one of the EC’s pet idols.

Is there anyone who can encourage oom Angus to watch the following video?

Listen very carefully to Luther’s words in the embedded YouTube clip:

“. . . who have afflicted the Christian world and ruined the bodies and souls of other men. If I were to retract those I shall be like a cloak that covers evil.”

You can watch the entire YouTube video here.

There are many so-called men of God who think it a minor thing to set aside biblical doctrines for the sake of peace and harmony whilst they indifferently don cloaks that cover evil and in doing so ruin the bodies and souls of men, women and children.

The motive, therefore, is not that the population of South Africa (white, black, colored and Indian) should be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ but that peace should prevail throughout the country — at what cost? Well, of course, at the cost of setting aside our doctrinal issues. Neither you nor your “aside-setting-of-doctrinal-issues-brethren” will be able to say as Joshua did in Joshua 24:15 “but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” if you disregard God’s doctrines. You can only serve the Lord with all your heart when you love and obey His doctrines. Isn’t that what Jesus taught us?

No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Luke 16:13).

There is no such thing as neutrality in your servitude — you are a servant of either the one or the other. Likewise, there can be no neutrality in your servitude to doctrine, simply because there are but two kinds of doctrines – the doctrines of God and the doctrines of demons. It is impossible to set aside any doctrines; you will either adhere to the one while setting aside the other. You are only replacing the one set of doctrines with that of another. Whenever you set aside God’s doctrines you are merely replacing it with the doctrines of Satan and his demons and whenever you set aside or renounce Satan’s doctrines you are similarly replacing it with God’s doctrines. You cannot possibly live in a vacuum void of any doctrines. It is either the one or the other. You cannot be neutral. Even when you claim to have no doctrines at all you are actually clinging to a doctrine of Satan and his demons because he alone proclaims the lie that there are no doctrines. In fact, it is like saying there are no laws in our country. To say that we should set our petty doctrines aside is equal to saying: “let us put the laws in our country aside.” Can you imagine what chaos, anarchy and bloodshed would envelop our entire country when that should ever happen?

They are listening to the voices of strangers and these strangers are not human beings but none other than demons who encourage and motivate them to spread their devilish doctrines. Their plea for peace, unity and love may seem to promote a horizontal kind of love but it certainly does not enhance a vertical love toward God, simply because they are ruling out the proof for one’s love for God which is in the observance of the doctrine of Christ (John 15:10; 2 John verse 9). In fact in their endeavor to promote unity and love they are echoing the very same sentiments of the New Age.

Mass actions are organised in which large groups of people congregate on fixed times and at particular places for co-ordinated meditation sessions. The aim with these meetings is to focus cosmic energy on a country or society that badly needs peace, unity and harmony. This practice is regarded to be most effective if it is performed at one of the strong focal points for cosmic energy. Among these places are Table Mountain in Cape Town, Stonehenge in England, the Egyptian pyramids, the Olympus Mountain in Greece, the Ganges River in India, Mount Fuji in Japan, and Central Park in New York. (Read here) (Emphasis added).

Jesus said:

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. (John 15:10).

It follows that if our vertical love relationship with God is sustained by our love for and obedience to his precepts (commandments, doctrines) our horizontal love relationship with our brothers and sisters will also be sustained by our love for and obedience to his precepts.

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. (1 John 5:2)

We cannot possibly claim to have an agape love relationship with God and our brethren if we do not observe and obey his doctrine. Anyone who claims to love God and their brethren and seeks peace with everyone whilst they willfully set aside so-called petty biblical doctrines is not in love with God or their brethren. They may take the Name of Jesus Christ on their lips ad infinitum and reverently speak of his crucifixion and his resurrection but if they do not remain in his doctrine they don’t have God the Father or the Son (2 John verse 9).

We may conclude that the very first doctrine Satan and his devils devised to deceive mankind is a “love” doctrine that looks and sounds so much like the real thing, the result being that a multitude of saints are continually falling into their trap. This false love has given rise to a new rallying cry which you may have noticed on the internet many times: “The first Reformation was about belief; this one’s going to be about behavior. . . . The first one was about creeds; this one’s going to be about our deeds.”^[1] (Rick Warren). Whose deeds are they — “our deeds” as Warren says or are they the deeds of devils?

Partakers of their evil deeds

From this point onward I would like to focus your attention on the words “For he that bids him God speed is a partaker of his (the false teacher’s) evil deeds” (2 John 1:11).

In one of his recent comments (“Confessions of un-faith”) Stephan Joubert wrote the following:

Today everybody reads Richard Dawkins. Skeptics quote Stephen Hawking. Un-faith is the in-thing! Un-faith wins. People believe in un-faith to set them free from faith. Or something like that.

Having read this over and over and trying to understand how Stephan Joubert manages to say things without knowing what his fellow Christ-followers are saying on their website at the same time, I can only shake my head in complete amazement. He seems to be completely oblivious of some of the things Dries Cronjé has been promulgating on their website. To show you what I mean I am going to replace the names Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking with three others in Stephan Joubert’s above quote:

Today everybody reads Eckhart Tolle. Skeptics quote Richard Rohr and Cynthia Bourgeault. Un-faith is the in-thing! Un-faith wins. People believe in un-faith to set them free from faith. Or something like that.

What is the difference between reading Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking and Eckart Tolle? — Zilch, nada, nothing, zero. They are all hooked on doctrines of demons. The e-church fraternity claim to be radical followers of Jesus Christ but they don’t seem to have any qualms at all to promote and speak very highly of Christ-rejecters and Christ-gainsayers. Here is what Dries Cronjé says on the e-church website:

So, what’s good reading lately…?
I have tremendously enjoyed the following books recently:
Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening by Cynthia Bourgeault.

Let us now briefly look at some of the things Cronjé enjoyed so tremendously in the books of the above mentioned authors.

Eckhart Tolle

“God, the scripture is saying, is formless consciousness and the essence of who you are.”— Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (Penguin, 2005), p. 21). (Emphasis added).

This is nothing else than the New Age teaching that we are all God and that you only need to become aware of it. Tolle says:

“Awareness is the power that is concealed within the present moment. . . . The ultimate purpose of human existence, which is to say, your purpose, is to bring that power into this world.” — Eckhart Tolle (A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose). (Emphasis added)

And who or what does he say is that power you are supposed to bring into the world?

“Don’t get attached to any one word. You can substitute ‘Christ’ for presence, if that is more meaningful to you. Christ is your God-essence or the Self, as it is sometimes called in the East. The only difference between Christ and presence is that Christ refers to your indwelling divinity regardless of whether you are conscious of it or not, whereas presence means your awakened divinity or God-essence.” — Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (Novato, CA: Namaste, 1999), p. 104.(Emphasis added).

An admirer of Eckhart Tolle wrote the following comment on Oprah Winfry’s website.

Posted on Apr 9, 2008 6:01 PM
Last monday nights show, at the end, when oprah was just kinda talking with eckart about himself, left me thinking about how so spiritual he is, and that i will be able to grasp and use some of the teachings, but not to the level at wich he’s at, It made me come to a possible awareness that could this be our jesus (sorta speak) here now but in a diffrent form?, isnt what eckhart is teaching just trying to help us all in the same way jesus did when he was alive? - just a thought, whats yours?

This, my dear friends, is the essence of the heretical teaching of the Emergent Church called Incarnational Spirituality. It doesn’t require you to preach the Gospel or to teach others to observe and obey Christ’s doctrines (Matthew 28:19-20). All you need to do is to ooze forth your God-essence or Christ-essence into the world and voila — a new golden age of peace and joy and prosperity will emerge.

The following excerpt was taken from “The Great Heretical Idea: Oprah and Eckhart Do the New Age Shift” by Warren Smith.

The “shift” Williamson, Oprah and Tolle describe is “awakening” to the “Christ within” and the “God within.” “Shift” is the key word. It means to move from one position to another – as in shifting one’s awareness away from the mind and “ego” to the collective “Christ consciousness” or “Christ within.”

. . . Marilyn Ferguson [in her “”The Aquarian Conspiracy”) introduced this concept of the “shift,” connecting it to the mystical ideas of Teilhard de Chardin – the father of the New Age movement – “whose new perspective would trigger a critical contagion of change” which would result in the “rapid transformation of the human species, beginning with a vanguard” of emerging leaders. She explained how scientist-philosopher Thomas Kuhn coined the term “paradigm shift” to describe “a distinctly new way of thinking” which entailed accepting new truths. When “the new paradigm gains ascendance” and “a critical number of thinkers has accepted the new idea, a collective paradigm shift has occurred.”

. . . In both his book and his class with Oprah, Tolle reiterated the words that New Age leader Barbara Marx Hubbard was given by her New Age “Christ” – “evolve or die.”[ Tolle, A New Earth, p. 21. Barbara Marx Hubbard lecture at Texas A & M University, September 11, 2002, information taken from The Aggie Daily, September 12, 2002. Warren Smith, Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel (Ravenna, OH: Conscience Press, 2002), pp. 16, 19.] In other words, don’t feel any pressure, but if you don’t “shift” your point of view, and “get it” that “we are all one” and that “we are all God,” our planet will probably be destroyed and our human species will become extinct.

Ron Martoia

Like his New Age counterparts Ron Martioa, one of today’s most esteemed transformational architects,² places a lot of emphasis on the necessity for awareness. However, his approach is more subtle and dangerous because he uses the biblical term “Metanoia” (Repent) to deceive his readers and followers into receiving the doctrines of demons. In his manifesto “The Transformational Trek Tribe” Martoia also speaks about a “New Earth” but he deceptively calls it “The Kingdom of God.” Not unlike Tolle whom he adores, he too claims that a huge shift in our consciousness is necessary.

To us Jesus says, “Wake up, change your mind, change your little thinking and start to waken to a bigger world out there. There is an invisible new reality you are going to engage and it is full of a new kind of life.” In the modern world in which we live this type of thinking will require a pretty big shift. (Emphasis added)

. . . You are part of something bigger than yourself. So why not engage practices that put you in touch with that bigger reality? Why not touch it, feel it, sense it and experience it?

. . . Jesus’ invitation #2 is into this bigger reality where the life of God is all around us, animating all that is and inviting us in to enjoy it! Again we will not be believing our way into this reality – we will be practicing and experiencing it. No bible studies or small group meeting will help. But practices designed to bring us awareness about that larger invisible reality will! Want to be a part of something that changes the game? That is what this tribe is all about . . . living, experiencing, sensing, and being! (Emphasis added)

Ron Martoia is actually saying “Faith in Jesus Christ and his immutable doctrine is OUT. Experiencing, sensing and being is IN.” What are the practices designed to bring about a metanoic awareness (a bigger mind) and to experience and sense the larger invisible reality? How do you become a part of something that changes the game and how do you determine who may partake in the “pretty big shift” in consciousness. In the very last paragraph of his manifesto Ron Martoia gives the answer:

Grow the tribe – pass the manifesto you just read to anyone on your mailing list that you think would be interested in this journey… or print it out and give it to them. There has to be at least a dozen you can think of. Their religious or lack of religious affiliation does not matter at all. This tribe will be composed of all sorts of people, many considering themselves spiritual but not religious.

This explains why Ron Martoia says that “we will not be believing our way into this reality – we will be practicing and experiencing it. No bible studies or small group meeting will help.” Faith in Christ Jesus, his cross and the Bible is a stumbling block to peoples’ of other faiths and the irreligious but spiritual people. So there must be another way we can assemble peoples’ of all faiths into one big united and loving tribe — MEDITATION!. Yep! MEDITATION in all its various formats, i.e. contemplative prayer, meditation (insight meditation), stillness and even yoga, is supposedly the doorway that leads to God’s Kingdm on earth here and now where people of all religious persuasions may partake of the benefits of the new golden age as one united tribe.

There is absolutely no difference between Ron Martoia, his e-church buddies in South Africa and New Agers who follow Eckhart Tolle’s teachings.

Cynthia Bourgeault

Author of many books and a teacher at retreats throughout the USA, Cynthia Bourgeault of the Episcopalian Church, has had a profound influence on the Emerging Church. Like so many others in the emergent fold who boast that their contemplative and spiritual architectural expertise is changing the face of Christianity, she too claims that, in reference to the incarnation of Christ: “Unfortunately Christianity as a religion has never had a metaphysical understanding of its own truth.” By “metaphysical”⁴ she simply means that Christianity has remained bogged down by its cerebral and propositional understanding of the Scriptures, thus bypassing the real meaning of the word “metanoia” (repent) which you can only grasp through meditation.

Whatever form of meditation you practice, it is in essence simply a method for detaching yourself from thinking (which tends to reinforce the egoic process) long enough for you to begin to trust this other, deeper intelligence moving inside you. It provides you with another way to think: from “beyond the mind” — which, incidentally, is what the word metanoia, usually translated as “repentance,” actually means.— Cynthia Bourgeault, Mystical Hope

The “deeper intelligence” moving inside you is not the “higher self” or “the real essence of your own godhood” (aka Eckhart Tolle) which you encounter when you do your metanoiac meditations. They are demonic entities with whom you come into contact when you deliberately shut down your divinely given faculty to think and reason actively and not passively. Passivity brought about by stillness or any form of meditation is very dangerous. In fact, most of the doctrines of demons are transmitted or channeled through meditation.

The following excerpt comes from an article written by Douglas Groothuis, professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary and the author of several books, including ”Unmasking the New Age” and “Confronting the New Age.”

Differences in various forms of Eastern meditation aside, they all aim at a supposedly “higher” or “altered” state of consciousness. Meditation guides claim that normal consciousness obscures sacred realities. Therefore, meditation is practiced in order to suspend rational patterns of thought.

This helps explain why so many Eastern mystics claim that divine realities are utterly beyond words, thought, and personality. In order to find “enlightenment,” one must extinguish one’s critical capacities—something the Bible never calls us to do (Rom. 12:1-2). In fact, suspending our critical capacities through meditation opens the soul to deception and even to spiritual bondage.⁵

The following excerpt from Cynthia Bourgeault’s book “The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New Perspective on Christ” is a classic example of how demons feed willing channels with their doctrines:

Who Screwed Up?

Unfortunately, Christianity as a religion has never had a sufficient metaphysical understanding of its own core truth. The message gets obscured by its primary interpretive vehicle: the theology of fall and redemption. Virtually all Christian teaching begins from the supposition that Jesus’s incarnation is brought about by the fall of Adam and happens in response to it. “As in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive” is the classic Pauline formulation of this idea (1 Corinthians 15:20). The primordial parents Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and plunged the world into chaos; Jesus came to rescue it. Thus, incarnation is framed from the start within the context of God’s response to a mistake that should never have happened in the first place. This assumption, in turn, deeply colors our understanding of the phrase, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” It sounds like: “God didn’t give up on us; God bailed us out.”

In a more mystical nuancing of this same basic idea, we encounter the theology of “O felix culpa”—”O happy fault“— to quote the first line of a traditional Gregorian Advent hymn which expresses this theology particularly clearly. Rather than blaming Adam and Eve, this line of argument claims, we ought to be grateful for them because their mistake set in motion the chain of events through which Christ would fully reveal himself to this world. Without that initial fall there would have been no need for the redemption. In the most subtle versions of this teaching (as in Karl Barth’s Christ and Adam) linear cause and effect are reversed, and we see Adam and Eve falling into this space/time continuum out of God’s “prior” decision (that is, already made in eternity) to reveal himself in human form. Rather than being the cause of the fall, Adam and Eve become the instruments of the ultimate divine self-communication. This is a much more affirmative teaching, which brings the theology of fall and redemption to its most mature expression.⁶ (Emphasis added)

Indeed, there would have been no need for redemption but the reversal of the linear cause and effect, making the Fall something to be grateful for, elevates the original sin of Adam and Eve to something which ought to be embraced. It mollifies the destructive nature of mankind’s original sin. We find the same kind of reasoning in Romans 5 and 6 where Paul had to nip it in the bud.

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 5:19-21; 6:1-4).

To suggest that God foreordained Adam and Eve to fall into sin so that they may not be seen as the cause of the Fall but rather as instruments of God’s grace, is not of God.

Apart from her doctrinal blunders, Cynthia Bourgeault is also an ecumenist par exemplar. I found the following information on a blog that confirms her ecumenical slant.

I’m back from Birmingham and the weekend with Cynthia Bourgeault. . . .Bourgeault remarked early on that it is the contemplatives (i.e., the wisdomkeepers) of all traditions who carry the best hope for humanity rising above sectarianism and fundamentalism and the violence that such levels of consciousness engender. In other words, it is the contemplatives and the wisdomkeepers who will not only break down the walls of hostility and fear and misunderstanding which separate Christianity from Islam or Islam from Judaism, but they are also the ones whose visionary consciousness will erase the boundaries that keep Chrsitianity and neopaganism so at odds. . . .

Bourgeault recommended a few authors/books: the writings of Kabir Helminski, Michael Brown’s The Presence Process, and even Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now.

It was a wonderful weekend. Lots of meditation;  . . . Next year Contemplative Outreach Birmingham is bringing one of the founders of Centering Prayer, Fr. William Meninger OCSO, to Birmingham for their February conference. I hope to be there.

Indeed, Christianity and neo-paganism are finding a comfortable niche in contemplative spirituality and meditation, simply because the source that inspires them to journey on the same path of destruction is the very same person who plunged the world into chaos in the beginning of time.

One of the most devastating lies ever to be concocted by demons is the suggestion that Jesus had a physical relationship with Mary Magdalene and that they had a daughter. Dan Brown’s film The Da Vinci Code brought the lie to the broader world’s attention when it was released in 2003. Cynthia Bourgeault speaks very highly of it in her book “The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New Perspective on Christ.” According to her the West has tainted May Magdalene’s character by portraying her as a repentant prostitute from whom Jesus cast out seven demons. Bourgeault continues by saying:

But scholars have conclusively demonstrated that this picture of her is a medieval fabrication, largely attributable to the sixteenth century theologian and pope St. Gregory the Great.⁷

In her final analysis she concludes that “Jesus practiced a path of chastity, of full singleness and purity of heart” “ . . . [b]ut whether that involved a dimension of physical celibacy, we simply do not know.” (pp.79, 80).

These are the doctrines of demons Stephan Joubert and Dries Cronjé promote on their website. May God have mercy on their souls and may they come to a true biblical repentance before they die.

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⁽¹⁾ http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/peace-un.htm#2

⁽²⁾ “God brings along insightful and visionary leaders to put us back on track. Leaders who bring with them new visions and new containers for formation and transformation. I believe Dr. Ron Martoia is just such a leader. Through his deep, and sometimes sacred-cow shattering, honest engagement with scripture, culture and humanity, I believe that Ron has truly earned the title of Transformational Architect. His newest container, the Transformational Trek Tribe (ttTribe), is a perfect example of how he can pull together a wealth of resources from a wide field of studies and apply them to the goal of transformation in and through Jesus. I had been looking for a way for my Pastoral Staff to share resources and share some sort of common thread of learning, affirmation and challenge. Then along came the ttTribe…”— Christian McCabe, Bahamian artist, musician, and pastor.

“Ron’s style is not to skirt around thorny issues, but to approach them head on, thoughtfully and meticulously deconstructing the facts from the fiction. His work is well researched, extremely well written, but what sets it apart from other such excellent texts are his ideas! … [The ttTribe Manifesto] is only 12 pages long, but perhaps these are among the best 12 pages I’ve read this year … I will be making this required reading for my students!”— Dion Forster, South African author and leader.

“For years several of us have been talking about creating state-of-the-art learning opportunities for emerging and re-emerging leaders, but Ron Martoia has taken the lead in moving beyond talk to creative action. Any chance you get to be around Ron, I encourage you to take it. The kinds of people he brings together are exactly the kinds of people who make for a truly liberating and educating learning community.”— Brian McLaren, author of Finding Our Way Again, The Secret Message of Jesus, and A New Type of Christianity.

⁽³⁾ There is an invisible reality out there but it is definitely not new. It has been in existence since the beginning of time and is occupied by Satan and his demons (Ephesians 2:2).

⁽⁴⁾ Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind-A New Perspective on Christ, p 94:

⁽⁵⁾ Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.November 2004, Vol. 48, No. 11, Page 78

⁽⁶⁾ Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind-A New Perspective on Christ, p 94, 95.

⁽⁷⁾ Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind-A New Perspective on Christ, p 81:

E-Church heresies: On with the motley

In one of his recent posts on E-church’s website Stephan Joubert wrote the following motley in honor of his ill-perceived interpretation of the Kingdom of God.

According to Jesus, access to the kingdom of God happens through metanoia, or the way we translate it: “repentance” (Mark 1:15). Today, repentance is often downscaled to moral behavior adjustments. However, to Jesus metanoia is not a moral course alteration that leads to two different worlds – one home to sinners, and another one way over there where the holy ones congregate. Metanoia means think and live radically different – every day, everywhere, and amongst everyone – in the light of God’s new reign that has already come.

As in most of his posts, he once again grossly contradicts the Word of God. In the book of Acts the word metanoia has an entirely different meaning than his and Martoia’ interpretation of it.

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. (Acts 2:36-47).

Stephan, did you notice that only those who had been saved, were added to the church? The church was in fact home to sinners who had repented and were saved. They were separated from the unbelievers, and by whom . . .? By God Himself who added to the church daily those who were being saved. Stephan is trying his level best to incorporate (integrate) believers AND unbelievers in his Kingdom of God where no distinction is made between holy – unholy, believers – unbelievers, lost sinners – saved sinners, saved – unsaved, us – them, etc. They are now all part of the Kingdom of God. Has Stephan never read the portion in Scripture where Jesus described the Kingdom of God as follows:

But when the king came in to view the guests, he looked intently at a man there who had on no wedding garment. And he said, Friend, how did you come in here without putting on the [appropriate] wedding garment? And he was speechless (muzzled, gagged). Then the king said to the attendants, Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the darkness outside; there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. (Matthew 22:11-13, Amplified Bible)

The King of the Kingdom of God Himself commanded the person without a wedding garment (Isaiah 61:10) to be cast out of the Kingdom of God into the darkness outside because he had not repented and received a wedding garment. I must say, Stephan Jobert’s metanoia is not radical at all when you take into account how superlatively radical Jesus Christ is/was in his separation of believers from unbelievers. Of course it does not mean that believers shouldn’t live radically different from unbelievers “every day, everywhere and amongst everyone.” But living radically amongst everyone without telling them that they need a wedding garment in order to meet the King’s demand to enter his Kingdom and not to be cast into the darkness outside, is radically contrary to the will of God.

The Amplified Bible explains the meaning of metanoia thus:

And Peter answered them, Repent (change your views and purpose to accept the will of God in your inner selves instead of rejecting it) and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of and release from your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Even The Message, Eugene Peterson’s transcription of the Bible which the emergent fraternity love to quote, links the word “repentance” to “the forgiveness of sins” (a radical moral and behavioral adjustment).

Peter said, “Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites.”

The New International version renders verse 38 as follows:

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

The pronoun “your” used as an attributive adjective is omitted in the KJV. The Greek New Testament translation renders it “eis aphesin tōn hamartiōn hymōn.” Walfoord and Zuck explains:

Peter’s answer was forthright. First they were to repent. This verb (metanoēsate) means “change your outlook,” or “have a change of heart; reverse the direction of your life.” This obviously results in a change of conduct, but the emphasis is on the mind or outlook. The Jews had rejected Jesus; now they were to trust in Him. Repentance was repeatedly part of the apostles’ message in Acts (v. 38; 3:19; 5:31; 8:22; 11:18; 13:24; 17:30; 19:4; 20:21; 26:20).

A problem revolves around the command “be baptized” and its connection with the remainder of 2:38. There are several views: (1) One is that both repentance and baptism result in remission of sins. In this view, baptism is essential for salvation. The problem with this interpretation is that elsewhere in Scripture forgiveness of sins is based on faith alone (John 3:16, 36; Rom. 4:1-17; 11:6; Gal. 3:8-9; Eph. 2:8-9; etc.). Furthermore Peter, the same speaker, later promised forgiveness of sins on the basis of faith alone (Acts 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18).

(2) A second interpretation translates 2:38, “Be baptized . . . on the basis of the remission of your sins.” The preposition used here is eis which, with the accusative case, may mean “on account of, on the basis of.” It is used in this way in Matthew 3:11; 12:41; and Mark 1:4. Though it is possible for this construction to mean “on the basis of,” this is not its normal meaning; eis with the accusative case usually describes purpose or direction.

(3) A third view takes the clause and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ as parenthetical. Several factors support this interpretation: (a) The verb makes a distinction between singular and plural verbs and nouns. The verb “repent” is plural and so is the pronoun “your” in the clause so that your sins may be forgiven (lit., “unto the remission of your sins,” eis aphesin tōn hamartiōn hymōn). Therefore the verb “repent” must go with the purpose of forgiveness of sins. On the other hand the imperative “be baptized” is singular, setting it off from the rest of the sentence. (b) This concept fits with Peter’s proclamation in Acts 10:43 in which the same expression “sins may be forgiven” (aphesin hamartiōn) occurs. There it is granted on the basis of faith alone. (c) In Luke 24:47 and Acts 5:31 the same writer, Luke, indicates that repentance results in remission of sins. (1) (Emphasis added)

Therefore, the biblical metanoia” does not specifically only deal with a change of mind to the extent that you must begin to think and live radically different. A true biblical “metanoia” (repentance) must inevitably translate into the forgiveness of your sins. It is impossible to think and live radically different without the remission of your sins which, in essence, is a moral shift from a life that is void of God and his will to one that is filled with God and his will.

Joubert’s interpretation of the word “metanoia,” i.e. “to think and live radically different” stripped of any moral behavioral adjustments, allows it to be entrenched in any cultural and spiritual context. For a Muslim, a Hindu and a Jew it would mean that their own perceptions of thinking and living radically different within the parameters of their respective religions constitute a “metanoia.” But it can hardly represent a true biblical “metanoia” because, as we’ve seen, a biblical “metanoia” inexorably goes hand in hand with the remission of your sins (a moral paradigm shift). Since it is God alone who is capable of forgiving sins unto righteousness it is most certainly wrong to believe that “metanoia” (repentance) is merely a way of thinking and living radically different. A drug addict or an alcoholic can begin to think and live radically different from their old lifestyles by attending a 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous course and still miss out on a true biblical “metanoia,” in other words, a “metanoia” that leads to the forgiveness of sins and an eternal home with God where the holy ones congregate.

Stephan Joubert’s anti biblical definition of “metanoia” holds true to the equally anti-biblical notion that everything is holy. The emergent fraternity have come up with a “brilliant” solution to the complex problems in this world; they claim that everything is holy. Rob Bell says: “We throw ourselves into our work because everything is sacred.” (2) Nonetheless, I must warn you not to speak judgmentally or disparagingly of Rob Bell and his Velvet Elvis, simply because Stephan Joubert believes that every word that comes from his mouth is pure Gospel. Hogwash! If everything was already sacred and holy the Holy Spirit would never have inspired Paul to write the following about the last days:

You must realize, however, that in the last days difficult times will come. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, (2Timothy 3:1-2)

I wonder why God said: “ . . . touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Corinthians 6:17). He must have been delirious when He said this. How can you touch an unholy or unclean thing when everything is holy?

One of the main reasons everything should be deemed holy is to accommodate the unholy pantheistic lie that Jesus is in everything and everything is in Jesus (Read here).  If this is true, it would ratify the notion that He is already reigning on earth in his Kingdom which, according to Stephan Joubert, is already here. Is it really? Jesus doesn’t seem to t think so. He very emphatically said: “ . . . the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. “ (1 John 5:19), that Satan is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), and that he is the prince of the powers of the air (Ephesians 2:2) as well as the possessor of the Kingdoms of the world. In Matthew 4 it is significant that Jesus did not challenge Satan’s claim to the Kingdoms of the earth and his right to surrender these Kingdoms to whomsoever he wished. In fact, He viewed them as Satan’s dominion and that he had the right to do with them what he willed.  If all the Kingdoms of this earth under Satan’s control are holy, then Satan himself must be holy. Perish the thought!

In Acts 3 the apostle Peter said an amazing thing:

And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance [not aware of what you were doing], as did your rulers also. Thus has God fulfilled what He foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ (the Messiah) should undergo ill treatment and be afflicted and suffer. So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return [to God], that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing (of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh air) may come from the presence of the Lord; And that He may send [to you] the Christ (the Messiah), Who before was designated and appointed for you–even Jesus, Whom heaven must receive [and retain] until the time for the complete restoration of all that God spoke by the mouth of all His holy prophets for ages past [from the most ancient time in the memory of man]. (Acts 3:17-21)

Here God very clearly says that his Son MUST remain seated at his right hand in heaven UNITL the time for the complete restoration of all things. In other words, the Kingdom of God cannot visibly appear on earth while his Son still remains in heaven. It can and will only manifest on earth at his Second Advent. Paul also mentions it in Romans 8:

For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God’s sons to be made known [waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship]. For the creation (nature) was subjected to frailty (to futility, condemned to frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it–[yet] with the hope That nature (creation) itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption [and gain an entrance] into the glorious freedom of God’s children. We know that the whole creation [of irrational creatures] has been moaning together in the pains of labor until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves too, who have and enjoy the firstfruits of the [Holy] Spirit [a foretaste of the blissful things to come] groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies [from sensuality and the grave, which will reveal] our adoption (our manifestation as God’s sons). (Romans 8:19-23). ⁽³⁾

Walfoord and Zuck  explains the above as follows:

The Creation waits in eager anticipation (lit., “for the strained expectation [apokaradokia is used only one other time in the NT, in Phil. 1:20] of the Creation keeps on eagerly awaiting”) for the sons of God to be revealed. The verb for “eagerly waits apekdechomaiis used seven times in the New Testament, each time to refer to Christ’s return (Rom. 8:19, 23, 25; 1 Cor. 1:7; Gal. 5:5; Phil. 3:20 Heb. 9:28). Ther revealing of the sons of God will occur when Christ returns for his own. They will share His glory (Rom. 8:18; Col. 1:27; 3:4; Heb. 2:10; and will be transformed (Rom. 8:23). All of nature (inanimate and animate) is personified as waiting eagerly for that time.

If God’s reign has already come, as Stephan Joubert says, we should immediately stop praying “Let thy King come . . .”

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⁽¹⁾ Walvoord, John F. ; Zuck, Roy B. ; Dallas Theological Seminary: The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL : Victor Books, 1983-c1985, S. 2:359

⁽²⁾ Rob Bell Velvet Elvis – Rethinking the Christian Faith, (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2005) 77.

⁽³⁾ Ibid, 472