Seeking and finding new havens of error and deceit

We all know the idiom: “Out of the frying pan into the fire” which simply means, If you get out of one problem, but find yourself in a worse situation, you are out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Since the release of the Sarel van der Merwe’s DVD “Nuwe Strominge in die Teologie” in which he revealed the heresies and false doctrines taught at the DRC’s Theological Faculty in Pretoria (PU), many Christians have become disillusioned with the Dutch Reformed Church. Many have abandoned their “mother church” and are seeking new havens in other churches. Unfortunately they have become so captivated by the friendliness, warmth and congeniality of the members of other churches that they  are inadvertently caught up in other and sometimes worse heresies and false doctrines without realizing it. No wonder the Bible warns:

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

A Church that is heartily enthused by the confusion in the DRC and other non-Adventist churches, and who is passionately and actively involved in making proselytes, is the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Their leaders are avidly and vigorously pointing out the errors and deception in all the mainline Christian churches because they believe that people ought to leave non-Adventist churches and join the SDA Church in order to be saved and also because Jesus Christ does not intercede for non-Adventists. In May 2002 SDA General Conference President Jan Paulsen delivered a speech to gathered SDA Church leaders in which he made the following remarks:

“ . . . we believe that being Seventh-day Adventists has direct bearing on our salvation; . . . I would risk my whole spiritual life and salvation were I to leave what I am now and join any other community.”

Their revered prophetess Ellen Gould White (November 26, 1827 – July 16, 1915) wrote as follows:

“I saw that God has honest children among the nominal Adventists and the fallen churches, and before the plagues shall be poured out, ministers and people will be called out from these churches and will gladly receive the truth….But the light will shine, and all who are honest will leave the fallen churches, and take their stand with the remnant”. Early Writings, p 261.  (The remnant being in the SDA Church of course).

“I saw that as the Jews crucified Jesus, so the nominal churches had crucified these messages [of the Investigative Judgment], and therefore they have no knowledge of the way into the most holy, and they cannot be benefited [sic] by the intercession of Jesus there. Like the Jews who offered their useless sacrifices, they offer up their useless prayers to the apartment which Jesus has left; and Satan, pleased with the deception, assumes a religious character, and leads the minds of these professed Christians to himself…” Early Writings. p. 261

The doctrine of The Investigative Judgment espouses the belief that Christians’ sins are not yet fully forgiven and that they are still counted as guilty before God until proven worthy of complete forgiveness by their good works. Indeed, Mrs. White taught that a believer’s sins are not yet blotted out or forgiven: they are merely pardoned. She taught that one’s eternal destiny will be ultimately determined by a weighing of a believer’s good works and bad works when their name comes up in the Investigative Judgment.

“Sins that have not been repented of and forsaken will not be pardoned and blotted out of the books of record, but will stand to witness against the sinner in the day of God”. The Great Controversy, p. 486.

“The work of the investigative judgment and the blotting out of sin is to be accomplished before the second advent of our Lord” The Great Controversy, p. 485

Paul wrote with great conviction and certainty:

Col 2:13-14 And you who were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful carnal nature), [God] brought to life together with [Christ], having [freely] forgiven us all our transgressions, Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross.

Even those sins you and I have not as yet committed are all atoned for completely. Does that mean that we have a lease on sin and that we should keep on sinning? No! absolutely not, but if we audaciously believe that we can no longer sin we do not have the truth as an abiding reality in us (1 John 1:8). And yet, strange as it may seem, the Seventh Day Adventists believe that you can be sinless.

“Those only who through faith in Christ obey all of God’s commandments will reach the condition of sinlessness in which Adam Iived before his transgression”. Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 1118

“In order to let Jesus into our hearts, we must stop sinning.” Signs of the Times, March 3. 1898

“To be redeemed means to cease from sin.” Review & Herald, September 25, 1900

Who is the liar? — Jesus Christ who inspired Paul of Tarsus to write “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:33-39) or the false prophetess, Ellen G. White? If Christians were to be convicted, judged and sentenced for every unrepentant sin, who is going to stand guiltless before God? David cried out:

Psalm 130: 3 If You, Lord, should keep account of and treat [us according to our] sins, O Lord, who could stand?

How could Ellen G. White and all the subsequent leadership members of the SDA Church ever have known that they had confessed and repented of every sin in thought, word and action? How can today’s leaders and members of the SDA Church ever know that they have confessed and repented of every single sin in thought, word and action? Yes! of course it is possible to repent of your sins in bulk such as the publican who merely cried out: “Oh God be merciful to me a sinner” and was declared righteous by God, but it is quite impossible to remember every single sin you had done in thought, word and action in the past. A belief such as this can only lead to a doctrine of uncertainty with regard to one’s salvation and indeed, it is exactly what the SDA Church teaches.

In Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 155, (1900 edition), Mrs. White states,

“Those who accept Christ, and in their first confidence say, I am saved, are in danger of trusting to themselves . . . Those who accept the Savior, however sincere their conversion; should never be taught to say or feel that they are saved. This is misleading“.

“No sanctified tongue will be found uttering these words ['I am saved'] till Christ shall come, and we enter in through the gates into the city of God…As long as man is full of weakness; for of himself he cannot save his soul; he should never dare to say, ‘I am saved”. Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 314.

What does God’s Word say?

1 John 5:9-13 If we accept [as we do] the testimony of men [if we are willing to take human authority], the testimony of God is greater (of stronger authority), for this is the testimony of God, even the witness which He has borne regarding His Son. He who believes in the Son of God [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Him] has the testimony possesses this divine attestation] within himself. He who does not believe God [in this way] has made Him out to be and represented Him as a liar, because he has not believed (put his faith in, adhered to, and relied on) the evidence (the testimony) that God has borne regarding His Son. And this is that testimony (that evidence): God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who possesses the Son has that life; he who does not possess the Son of God does not have that life. I write this to you who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) the name of the Son of God [in the peculiar services and blessings conferred by Him on men], so that you may know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that you [already] have life, yes, eternal life.

Once again, who is the liar here? — Almighty God who cannot lie or the greatly revered prophetess of the SDA Church, Ellen G. White?

Perhaps you’ve noticed how utterly confusing the SDA Church doctrines are. They assert that no one can know of a certainty that they are saved until Christ returns and yet they confirm that you can be sinless. In the same breath they also say that the sins of a Christian are not yet forgiven and that they are still on record before God. Does being allegedly sinless make you a perfect candidate for heaven? How on earth can you trust a church that changes faith into a kind of ping-pong game in which the rules are changed without any ado? The confusion does not end here. There are more and even worse heresies in the SDA Church. Perhaps you would care to ponder the following grossly unbiblical doctrines of the SDA Church.

The sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross was not the final atonement

“Now while our great High Priest is making the atonement for us, we should seek to become perfect in Christ.” The Great Controversy, p 623.

“. . . Instead of coming to the earth at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844, Christ then entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to perform the closing work of atonement preparatory to His coming”. The Great Controversy, p. 422

“Instead of the prophecy of Daniel 8:14 referring to the purifying of the earth, it was now plain that it pointed to the closing work of our High Priest in heaven, the finishing of the atonement . . . Testimonies for the Church. vol. 1. p. 58

As you can see this particular doctrine is linked to the year 1844. It concerns a false prophecy by the Millerite Adventist, William Miller, who predicted that Jesus Christ’s Second Coming would occur on October 22, 1844. When that never happened, Hiram Edison amongst others, deftly changed the prophecy by claiming that Daniel 8:14 did not refer to Christ’s Second Coming but His entry into the Holy of Holies of the heavenly sanctuary. This convenient new interpretation was adopted by Ellen G. White who later said:

“The scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and the central pillar of the advent faith, was the declaration, ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.’” (quoting Daniel 8:14) (Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p409, 1888. See also her later statement, “The correct understanding of the ministration in the heavenly sanctuary is the foundation of our faith.” White, Evangelism, p. 221. As cited by Cottrell)

One of the core doctrines of the SDA Church, known as the central pillar of the Advent faith, is therefore based on a false prophecy that was cleverly changed to cover up the so-called Great Disappointment. This was not the only false prophecy made in the ranks of the SDA Church. Ellen G. White made several more false prophecies among others that many Adventists living in 1856 would see the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

Over 135 years ago, Mrs. White made another fascinating prophecy during a meeting in Battle Creek, Michigan in May of 1856. She declared that some of those who were in that meeting would die, and become “food for worms,” and that some of them would live on and become “subjects of the seven last plagues,” while still others would “remain upon the earth to be translated at the coming of Jesus”. Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p. 131-132.

What does the Bible say about false prophets?

Deuteronomy 18:20-22 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. And if you say in your [minds and] hearts, How shall we know which words the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or prove true, that is a word which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

When God inspires a prophet to foretell the future it will come to pass one hundred percent. If it does not come to pass it proves without a shadow of a doubt that the so-called prophet speaks presumptuously and is therefore a false prophet. God has NOT spoken through that prophet and you are not supposed to listen to him or her. However, if you prefer to follow lies, God is not going to prevent you from doing so. In fact, He allows false prophets in our midst to test us whether we truly love Him.

Deuteronomy 13:1-3 IF A prophet arises among you, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder he foretells to you comes to pass, and if he says, Let us go after other gods–gods you have not known–and let us serve them, You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being.

Satan is our sin bearer

“It was seen, also, that while the sin offering pointed to Christ as a sacrifice, and the high priest represented Christ as a mediator, the scapegoat typified Satan, the author of sin, upon whom the sins of the truly penitent will finally be placed”. The Great Controversy, p. 422

“As the priest, in removing the sins from the sanctuary, confessed them upon the head of the scapegoat, so Christ will place all these sins upon Satan, the originator and instigator of sin”. The Great Controversy, p. 485

“Their sins are transferred to the originator of sin”. Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 475

What does the Bible say?

1 Peter 2:24 He personally bore our sins in His [own] body on the tree [as on an altar and offered Himself on it], that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.

John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming to him and said, Look! There is the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!

This SDA Church doctrine demotes Christ Jesus and exalts Satan.

The sins of a repentant sinner are not forgiven. God still holds them on record against him/her

“All who have truly repented of sin, and by faith claimed the blood of Christ as their atoning sacrifice, have had pardon entered against their names in the books of heaven; as they have become partakers of the righteousness of Christ, and their characters are found to be in harmony with the law of God, their sins will be blotted out, and they themselves will be accounted worthy of eternal Iife”. The Great Controversy, p. 483

Mrs. White states that no sin was ever blotted out before October 22, 1844. “At the time appointed for the judgment – the close of the 2300 days in 1844 – began the work of investigation and blotting out of sins”. Christ In His Sanctuary, p. 122

“The work of the investigative judgment and the blotting out of sins is to be accomplished before the second advent of the Lord….it is impossible that the sins of men should be blotted out until after the judgment at which their cases are to be investigated… When the investigative judgment closes, Christ will come…” The Great Controversy, p. 485

“When the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, then the sins of the repentant soul who has received the grace of Christ and has overcome through the blood of the Lamb, will be removed from the records of heaven, and will be placed upon Satan, the scapegoat, the originator of sin, and be remembered no more against him forever”. Selected Messages, bk. 3, pp. 355-356

The SDA Church is doing the very same thing the Roman Catholic Church, whom they so vociferously criticise, is guilty of and that is to deny the complete efficaciousness of Jesus Christ death on the cross.

What does the Bible teach?

John 19:30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, It is finished! And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

1 John 1:9 If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action]

1 John 2:12 I am writing to you, little children, because for His name’s sake your sins are forgiven [pardoned through His name and on account of confessing His name].

Hebrews 1:3 He is the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God's] nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power. When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high,

Hebrews 9:26 For then would He often have had to suffer [over and over again] since the foundation of the world. But as it now is, He has once for all at the consummation and close of the ages appeared to put away and abolish sin by His sacrifice [of Himself].

Isaiah 44:22 I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions, and like a cloud your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.

Some Christians will have to stand before God without Christ’s mediation

”Those who are living upon the earth when the intercession of Christ shall cease in the sanctuary above are to stand in the sight of a holy God without a mediator.”The Great Controversy, p. 425).

“When Jesus ceases to plead for man, the cases of all are forever decided. This is the time of reckoning with His servants.” Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, p. 191

If Jesus has accomplished an everlasting redemption for whomsoever believes in His vicarious death on the cross, which of course He has, then every single repentant sinner will stand before God “IN Christ,” washed in His precious blood, holy and blameless. They can and will never stand before God outside of Jesus Christ.

God offered Satan his pardon in heaven

“God in His great mercy bore long with Lucifer. He was not immediately degraded from his exalted station when he first indulged the spirit of discontent, nor even when he began to present his false claims before the loyal angels. Long was he retained in heaven. Again and again he was offered pardon on condition of repentance and submission.” The Great Controversy, p. 495-496.

Angels would have died for man

An angel told Mrs. White that “Angels were so interested for man’s salvation that there could be found among them those who would yield their glory and give their Iife for perishing man”. Early Writings, p. 127.

This doctrine demotes Jesus Christ  to the level of just another created being, apart from some of the angels, who was willing to offer up his life as a ransom for many. In fact the SDA Church actually believes that Jesus Christ is just another angel—Michael the Archangel. Adventists are very firm in their belief that Jesus is Michael the Archangel.  They must take this position because this is what their prophetess, Ellen G. White taught. They also believe that Jesus is God.  There is a glaring contradiction here.  Hebrews 1:13-14 says that Jesus is not an angel.

The Holy Spirit can abandon/leave a Christian

“O my brethren, will you grieve the Holy Spirit, and cause it to depart?” Selected Messages, bk. 1, p. 126.

If it were true that the Holy Spirit leaves a Christian when he/she grieves Him, it would mean that a saint can lose his/her salvation.

What does the Word of God say?

John 14:16-17 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever—The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.

There is no hell

Seventh-day Adventists, like Jehovah’s Witnesses, teach that when a believer dies his soul “sleeps”. Some believe that you entirely cease to exist.

A general statement of the Seventh-day Adventist doctrine of death is as follows:

“So when a man dies he does not live somewhere else. He is not in heaven, not in hell, not in purgatory. He is not alive at all, anywhere, in any condition whatsoever. He is dead. And to be dead does not mean to be alive. To be dead does not mean to go to heaven; it does not mean to go to hell; it does not mean to go to purgatory. Indeed, it does not mean to go anywhere at all. It means simply an end of life . . . Death is cessation of life, an absence of life, the exact opposite of life. So in death there is no life. The man does not live; the body does not live; the soul does not live; the spirit does not live; the mind does not live. Intelligence ends, consciousness ends, memory ends, knowledge ends, thought ends. All that has comprised the man ends” (C.B. Haynes When A Man Dies, p. 20).

Is this man still alive? If not, then his eyes have been opened to see what lies he believed.

Ellen G. White, the alleged prophetess who founded the SDA denomination, stated her revulsion of the doctrine of Hell:

“How repugnant to every emotion of love and mercy, and even to our sense of justice, is the doctrine that the wicked dead are tormented with fire and brimstone in an eternally burning hell. . . . And how utterly revolting is the belief that as soon as the breath leaves the body the soul of the impenitent is consigned to the flames of hell! … the doctrine of natural immortality first borrowed from pagan philosophy, and in the darkness of the great apostasy incorporated into the Christian faith, has supplanted the truth. . . . The theory of eternal torment is one of the false doctrines that constitute the wine of the abomination of Babylon. . . . But those who have not, through repentance and faith, secured pardon, must receive the penalty of transgression … covered with infamy, they sink into hopeless, eternal oblivion. . . . There will then be no lost souls to blaspheme God as they writhe in never-ending torment; no wretched beings in hell will mingle their shrieks with the songs of the saved” (The Great Controversy,” pp. 469,470,477,478,483)

Only those who keep the Sabbath (Seventh Day, Saturday) will be saved

“The change of the Sabbath is the sign or mark of the authority of the Romish church.” … “The keeping of the counterfeit Sabbath is the reception of the mark.” (Ellen G. White, Great Controversy, Vol. 4, page 281.)

“Here we find the mark of the beast. The very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, on the part of the Catholic church, without any authority from the Bible.” (Ellen G. White, The Mark of the Beast, page 23)

Why don’t Adventists clearly identify themselves when they have “Prophecy Seminars” or health classes?

Jesus once said: “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in a synagogue and in the temple [area], where the Jews [habitually] congregate (assemble); and I have spoken nothing secretly.” Individuals or organizations that operate in secrecy cannot be trusted. When Adventists hold their meetings, aimed primarily at taking members from other churches, they generally do not identify who they are and deftly operate in secrecy. The following is a list of a few Adventist organizations or organizations with very similar beliefs:

• “It Is Written” television programs and seminars
• “The Voice of Prophecy” radio programs and seminars
• “The 5-day Plan to Stop Smoking”
• “Revelation Seminars”
• 3ABN TV Network
• Many “Health Seminars” or “Vegetarian Cooking” classes held at Adventist schools or local churches
• Adventist hospitals, health centers, clinics, and nursing homes
• SDA parochial day schools, boarding schools, high schools- also called “Academies” and colleges and universities
• Loma Linda University is their flagship medical center and world-class medical school
• Andrew’s University is their seminary in North America
• “Amazing Facts” radio broadcasts and literature
• “Amazing Facts” crusades
• “Light Bearers”

Adventist Publishers:

• Review & Herald Publishing
• Pacific Press Publishing
• Southern Publishing

Seventh-day Adventist magazines often used as Adventist proselytizing tools:

• Adventist Review
• Listen
• Liberty
• The Signs of the Times

The SDA “Ministry Magazine, is sent out regularly to thousands of Christian pastors and church leaders of other churches despite the fact that they are called “Sunday worshipers” and bearers of the mark of the beast. Don’t be misled by its is slick and evangelical looks, because it contains many useful articles. What your pastor probably doesn’t know is that between every issue he receives is an issue intended only for Adventist pastors. There they debate issues such as how to interpret Ellen G. White, her role and function in the church, the Sabbath, the Investigative Judgment and other Adventist “distinctives” or fundamental Seventh-day Adventist doctrines.

It’s safe to say that the goal of everything the Seventh-day Adventist church does is to advance Adventism around the world and to attempt to make you or your family Seventh-day Adventists. As I’ve already pointed out in the beginning of this comment, there are many disillusioned former DRC members who have abandoned their church and are deceptively and cunningly being recruited to join the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Decide for yourself whether you have jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.

(Emphasis added throughout)

The subtle inhibition or suppression of the true meaning of the cross of Jesus Christ

A review of the Congress held at the Mosaic Church in Fairlands, Johannesburg (4 –5 September 2009)

Main speakers: Ron Martoia, Stephan Joubert, Johan Geyser, Trevor Hudson, Willem Nicol and Gys du Plessis

During the Break-out sessions the speakers were Willem Nicol, Gavin Sklar-Chik, Rex van Vuuren and Annemarie Paulin-Cambell

Huge wooden crosses draped with beautiful white, red or purple cloths have become one of the most fashionable accoutrements in the Emergent Church’s places of worship. Its inescapable visibility on the elevated stages of their churches and congress venues may be an awe-inspiring reminder of Jesus Christ’s cruel sacrificial death more than 2000 years ago but sadly their teachings which is solidly embedded in contemplative spirituality impede and even out rightly shun the true meaning of His cross. At best it has become one of the many objects they use to facilitate and enhance their experiences of an altered state of consciousness during their contemplative or centered prayer binges. Before I venture into an evaluation of all the speakers’ contributions in the light of Scripture during the next few weeks, I would like to get down to the nitty-gritty of contemplative spirituality in my following introductory notes.

In the Presence of God

What lies at the heart of contemplative spirituality? What inspires contemplatives in the Emergent Church to indulge in practices that have their origin in Eastern mysticism? Thomas a Kempis wrote that man will remain restless until he has been united with Christ (De Imitatione Christi, Book II, chapter 1) and others have maintained that man will remain restless until he finds rest in God. This is a sound biblical principle which we find beautifully expounded in the book of Jeremiah and in Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28.

Isaiah 48 22 There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.

Isa 57:20, 21 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, for it cannot rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.

Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.

Although the majority of people may deny it, man has  been acutely aware of his separation from God (or a Higher Entity as some would like to refer to him, her or it) ever since the Fall. Had mankind not been so acutely aware of this separation religion as such would have been a complete obsolete. In fact, all religions with the exception of Christianity, are man’s own efforts to outmanoeuvre his separation from God. However, there is a vast difference in semantics between the biblical view of separation and that of the Eastern view thereof.

The biblical view simply says: “BEHOLD, THE Lord’s hand is not shortened at all, that it cannot save, nor His ear dull with deafness, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1, 2). It is evident that God wants to eliminate the separateness between Himself and wicked sinners but is unable to do so unless the cause of the separateness (sinfulness of man and his lost status) is effectively dealt with according to His standard and not ours.

The Eastern mystical view of separation from God is that there is actually no such thing as a separation. Any notion of a separation is merely an illusion caused by a lack of a deeper understanding and attitude which you can change by practicing eastern mystical disciplines of meditation and yoga. Your inevitable interconnectedness with God, and non-separateness from him, stems from the belief that “God is all and All is God, and since you are part of the All, you’re part of God.” Feelings of separateness are caused by wrong attitudes in regard to this belief. You simply need to adjust your attitude, turn to God, as it were, to see God benevolently waiting for your return and thus eradicate the illusionary separateness. Yet another Eastern mystical view of separation from God is based on the assumption that when we see separations among people we also see a separation between ourselves and God. Only when everyone realizes that there is one God, one race ands one prayer, as Sufi Sheikh explains, will there be peace to the human race.

God has never and will never accept any effort on the part of mankind to bridge the huge chasm between Him and us. His magnanimously holy standard, and His alone will suffice while all our own efforts to reach Him and to come into and dwell in His presence will inevitably lead to a presence that is not of God. Even the contemplative practitioners, such as Willem Nicol, admits in his book “Stem in die Stilte, p. 97” (“Voice in the Silence, p. 97”) that “evil spirits may speak to you while you wait on promptings.” Why would anyone in his right mind want to indulge in spiritual disciplines and practices that have the potential to bring you in touch with evil spirits? To say the least, it borders on insanity to yield to spiritual disciplines that have the potential of inviting evil spirits to speak to you.

That God cannot and will not accept our efforts to approach Him in his holy presence is already evident in die Old Testament when God commanded Moses:-

Exodus 20:25 And if you will make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone, for if you lift up a tool upon it you have polluted it.

Mankind’s “tools” of whatever kind to build a humanly hewn altar in order to reach and enter into God’s magnanimously holy presence is defiled and polluted. The next question of course, is: what is it that pollutes our humanly hewn “altars?” There’s only a single answer to this question — our inherited self-centered old Adam nature. This nature, of which Paul wrote so extensively in Romans 7, has the natural inclination to think and believe it can please God by doing and accomplishing something good. This reminds me of what Ron Martoia said at the conference held at the Pierre van Ryneveld DRC on 28 August this year on the “goodness” of man. He said that the emergent church is in the business of making better humans which, of course, implies that all of humanity is already good and that we only need to make them better. That’s not what the Gospel teaches, and by the way this is the Gospel Ron Martoia, Stephan Joubert, Nelus Niemandt and all their emergent buddies claim to proclaim. Jesus, whom they also claim to follow, said that no one is good but God. It not only means that God alone is one hundred percent good but also that He is the only One who is able to judge righteously between good and “good.” Now wait a second, you may want to argue, shouldn’t that be between good and bad or good and evil? Nope! God is the only One who can judge righteously between good and “good.” Many things seem to be good in our estimation because it works. Anything that has the desired effect and accomplishes what we anticipate it to do, is good. Pragmatism has done more harm to our societies than anything else because it inspired us to develop the warped idea that, like Robin Hood, we may steal from the rich to give to the poor because it is the “good” thing to do.

There is a continued and concerted global effort to validate and corroborate the “goodness” of paranormal and “spiritual” experiences induced by meditation and contemplative disciplines such as contemplative or centering prayer through science. The entire field of quantum physics is focused on bridging the gap between the paranormal and science. Some very interesting research has already been done on the human brain to prove that man’s perceptions and ideas of God and who He is, is mapped in his brain. In their book How God Changes Your Brain, Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman wrote the following on page 10 :-

One of the main purposes of this book is to help readers expand their understanding and appreciation of spiritual practices and experiences. In fact, religious beliefs are vastly more complex and diverse than public opinion polls show. From a neurological perspective, God is a perception and an experience that is constantly changing and evolving in the human brain, and this implies that America’s spiritual landscape is virtually impossible to define. You can’t nail God down for good or for bad. And you can’t intuit a person’s innermost values based upon their creed or the church they choose to attend. If more people realized that everyone was talking about something fundamentally personal and different, perhaps a degree of distrust would fall away. (Emphasis added) [Thomas says: Only the Christian fundamentalists fundamentally different way of thinking and talking is way off base because it is intolerably anti the fundamentally personal and different views of other relisions. Therefore it should be fundamentally marginalized.]

To survive in a pluralistic society, we must evolve our spirituality and our secularity, integrating religion and science in a way that can beneficial to all. But to do this we must overhaul antiquated religious notions that interfere with the religious freedoms of others. Most important, we will need to devise innovative ways to promote peaceful co-operation between people, especially between those who hold different religious views. In this respect, scientists, psychologists, sociologists, theologians, and politicians must forge new cooperative alliances in order to improve our global interactions with others. (Emphasis added)

The spiritual practices and experiences to which they refer are all related to meditation and contemplative exercises. In fact, their entire approach is based on the assumption that “God” can change your mind for the better (the word Ron Martoia and other contemplatives use is  the biblical “metanoia” but in a completely and fundamentally different way. I will elaborate on his use of the word in a later comment) through contemplative exercises. On pages 6 and 7 the two authors explain in more detail the alleged benefits of contemplative disciplines.

Along with my research staff at the University of Pennsylvania and the Center for Spirituality and the Mind, we are currently studying Sikhs, Sufis, yoga practitioners, and advanced meditators to map the neurochemical changes caused by spiritual and religious practices. Our research has led us to the following conclusions:

1. Each part of the brain constructs a different perception of God.

2. Every human brain assembles its perceptions of God in uniquely different ways, thus giving God different qualities of meaning and value.

3. Spiritual practices, even when stripped of religious beliefs, enhance the neural functioning of the brain in ways that improve physical and emotional health.

4. Intense, long- term contemplation of God and other spiritual values appears to permanently change the structure of those parts of the brain that control our moods, give rise to our conscious notions of self, and shape our sensory perceptions of the world.

5. Contemplative practices strengthen a specific neurological circuit that generates peacefulness, social awareness, and compassion for others. (Emphasis added).

In a nutshell it means that the changing of your brain through spiritual contemplative disciplines such as contemplative and centering prayer or meditation is a very powerful tool to change the world, simply because it produces and enhances like-mindedness, but it is a like-mindedness (unity) that contradicts the unity the Bible teaches. Sadly, however, this is a very far cry from Jesus Christ’s command to go into all the world, make disciples of the nations and to teach them to observe everything He taught us. The emergent contemplatives have an enormous problem with this particular way in making followers of Christ. Oh yes! they have nothing against making men followers of Christ (Jesus Christ who?) but the offence of His cross must be removed from people’s brains. It is steeped in rigid doctrines and as such hampers man in his contemplative endeavours to achieve peacefulness, social awareness and compassion amongst all peoples and their great variety of spiritualities. An observant New Age adherent made the following interesting remark on his site.

Personally I really love the sciences exploring spirituality. Walderman and his co author on the book Andrew Newberg go deep into the kind of territory that could potentially begin to unify our understanding of some of the aspects of religion and spirituality from a non dogmatic or ideolagized view. That is of course from the perspective of their own scientific ideology. Within it though there is a clear intent to explore and explain within the parameters of psychology and neuroscience.  (Emphasis added)

The contemplatives’ main purpose is to uproot every form of fundamentalism (particularly Christian fundamentalism that clings to rigid biblical doctrines and dogmas) and to use and promote mysticism as the crossing bridge of ultimate boundaries.

Crossing Boundaries

Wayne Teasdale sums up the crossing of boundaries through mystical practices as follows on the site called “Council of Spiritual Practices”

Interspirituality is a term to describe the breaking-down of the barriers that have separated the religions for millennia. It is also the crossing-over and the sharing in the spiritual, aesthetic, moral and psychological treasures that exist in the different traditions of spirituality living within the world religions. The deepest level of sharing is in and through one another’s mystical wisdom, whether teachings, insights, methods of spiritual practice, and their fruits, The mystical life, in its maturity, is characteristically, naturally, even organically interspiritual because of the inner freedom and liberation the mystical Journey ignites in the depths of the person. It frees us from the obstacles within us that would hold us back from that generosity and willingness to partake from the mystical springs of other traditions. To drink this precious nectar requires openness and a capacity to assimilate the depth experience of these venerable traditions. More and more it is becoming common for individuals to cross over the frontiers of their own faith into the land of another or others. So much so is this the case that we can speak of this new millennial period as the Interspiritual Age. This development is momentous news for the human family because up until this point humankind has been divided, segregated into spiritual ghettos. Out of this separation has come so much misunderstanding and thousands of wars sparked by mutual suspicion, isolation, competition and hostility.

The Interspiritual Age promises to melt away the old barriers, and with them, the old antagonisms. This is one reason why it should be nurtured and encouraged. Interspirituality opens the way to friendship among members of differing faiths. Friendship creates bonds of community between and among the religions through their members, and community’ represents a shift from the old competitive, antagonistic model to a new opportunity, a new paradigm of relationship that seeks to meet on common ground.

If the mystical experience of other traditions is genuine and if it is on the same level as Christian contemplation in its fullness in the transforming union, the spiritual marriage between God the soul, then one implication is that Christianity does not have a monopoly on wisdom as it relates to the nature of the Divine. Christian theological formulations do not exhaust the infinite reality and subtlety of the Divine nature. This means that we can learn from the inner experience of other forms of spirituality. Christianity’s understanding of God is not complete in this sense, nor is the experience and understanding of the other traditions complete without the Christian contribution. Buddhism, for example, needs the insight on the Divine, an insight won from thousands of years of mystical consciousness. Complementarity is thus the direction toward which the mystical leads us. In this way, humankind can cross the boundaries to reach the further shore of our eternal homeland.

The moment Christians begin to partake in the dangerous disciplines of contemplative or centering prayer (also called “Christian meditation) a paradigm shift “emerges” in their brains that leads them to believe that the Christian faith does not have a monopoly on divine truth. It is for this very reason that distinguished and well-respected people like Stephan Joubert and many others as well as church communities such as Mosaic Church, e-Church, e-Kerk and many other emerging DRC churches can say without the slightest compunction that truth can be found in other religions such a Buddhism and even atheism.

We are indeed living in perilous times when, as Paul succinctly stated, men will have the form of godliness but will deny the power of the Gospel. What is the power of the Gospel?— to gaze intently at huge crosses or candles with the purpose of bringing on mystical experiences that induce euphoric feelings of happiness, contentness, peace, compassion, love and an interconnectedness between all religious persuasions? Certainly not! The power of the Gospel is the cross of Christ and His cross alone. Most sadly, the Mosaic Church is not following the way of the cross but that of Cain which is a Christ-less, cross-less and blood-less religion. (Hebrews 9:22). Their leadership is misleading multitudes into a mystical world of contemplation, believing that they are leading them into the very presence of God but, in fact, are being led astray from the One Who died for them on the cross and Who said: “If the world [including the religions of the world] hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you (John 15:18).

1 Corinthians 1:18  For the story and message of the cross is sheer absurdity and folly to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition, but to us who are being saved it is the [manifestation of] the power of God.

You are invited to watch this space on my blog for I intend to evaluate every speaker’s contribution at the Mosaic Church Congress in the light of God’s Word. My intention is to bring those who have been deceived back to the Word of God and Jesus Christ who warned: “Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.” (Luke 21:8)

E-church heresies or “genuine copies of the original”

I have it on the highest authority that the sowing of doubt is one of the most dangerous forms of telling a lie. Think of it . . . the most idyllically beautiful place on the earth became the backdrop for the downfall of the whole of mankind and it all started with “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” or as the Amplified Bible renders it.”Can it really be that God has said, You shall not eat from every tree of the garden?” No wonder the author of Genesis described the serpent as the most subtle and crafty beast of the field and Jesus called him the father of all lies from the beginning whose lies are murderous tools, killing, maiming and destroying everyone who believes his lies. Another equally dangerous way of sowing doubt is to juxtapose the truth with the lie without demarcating the lie from the truth. In layman’s terms it is called NOOMA /015 or “YOU ARE THE GOSPEL.” I’ll explain what I mean in a minute or two. [You can watch the video clip here.]

Genuine copies of the original

As a kid, years ago, I saw a movie that fascinated me. A bunch of criminals hired (by “gentle” persuasion) an amateur painter who had an exceptional talent to reproduce the oil paintings of the old masters. The thieves would then break into art museums, swap some of the original paintings with the reproductions and make a fortune by selling the  stolen paintings on the black market. The reproduced paintings were so perfectly done that even the most educated art dealer was unable to distinguish between the fake and the original paintings. However, there was one man who had studied the original paintings all his life and was able to effortlessly detect a fake painting. Needless to say, the criminals tried to kill the man but he outwitted them again and again.

Reproductions or copies in the spiritual realm are one of Satan’s cleverest methods to steer people away from Jesus Christ and his salvation. In fact, he is a past master at reproducing a “gospel” that comes so close to the original that multitudes of people are led astray on a daily basis. Peter, whose testimony that Jesus is the Son of the living God became the rock on which Christ promised to build his church, had scarcely finished uttering these profound divinely inspired words when Satan viciously and maliciously provoked him to not have the things of God in mind but the things of men (Matthew 16:23). Multitudes of deceived preachers and teachers who believe they have the things of God at heart are being used of Satan in a similar way to promote his counterfeit “gospel.” Rob Bell, one of the more popular young preachers in the emergent church, who has been dubbed the new Billy Graham, is one of the major proponents of the emergent church’s Gospel reproductions. His presentation of these reproductions, particularly in his series of videos called NOOMA, are so convincing that the unsuspecting listener is easily hood-winked into believing that it is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is very alarming to see that the electronic church in South Africa, known as e-church and e-kerk under the  auspices of Stephan Joubert, Dries Lombaard and Dries Cronje are increasingly promoting him on their blogs and websites. In a short article written by Dries Cronje that appeared on e-church (6 June 2008) he sings the praises of Rob Bell that just about tops the praises Jesus received when He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to present Himself publicly and openly as the Jewish Messiah. In his discussion of Bell’s NOOMA video #15, Dries Cronje makes the following statement:

Rob Bell sketches the background for his important message by sharing the origins of words like evangelical and ecclesia from his vast knowledge of the first century world. He touches issues at the heart of what it means to be a Christian and part of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Then he reaches a stunning conclusion. I don’t want to spoil the NOOMA for you, but he makes the bold claim that… You are the good news. You are the gospel.

Only someone who does not know the original and genuine Gospel is capable of saying something so utterly anti-God and anti-biblical. He may as well have said “You are God” because the Gospel (the Word of God) was made flesh and dwelt among us as Immanuel (God with us). Where did this anti-God and anti-biblical reproduction of the Gospel stem from? It has its roots in the infamous incarnational spirituality that espouses the belief that Christ ought to be incarnated into the world cultures by means of community service and the doing of humanitarian deeds. It was probably Eugene Peterson, the author of a transliteration of the Bible called The Message, that introduced the idea of an incarnational spirituality to an unsuspecting church. His transliteration of 1 Thessalonians 1:7-10 reads as follows:

^7-10Do you know that all over the provinces of both Macedonia and Achaia believers look up to you? The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master’s Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say anything anymore—you’re the message! People come up and tell us how you received us with open arms, how you deserted the dead idols of your old life so you could embrace and serve God, the true God. They marvel at how expectantly you await the arrival of his Son, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescued us from certain doom.

Jim Montgomery from DAWN Ministries, claims that the LORD spoke to him these words.

‘See to it that I, the Lord, truly become incarnate… in every small group of people on earth.”

In an interview with Relevant Magazine Leonard Sweet responded as follows to one of their questions:-

Relevant Magazine: You’ve said a bit in the past about the church needing to use the medium of pop culture as a vehicle for the Gospel. Why is that?

Leonard Sweet: Because it’s the Roman road; it’s the road people are traveling on; it’s the dominant global culture. For the church not to speak to pop culture, not to use images that come from it and sounds that come from it, smells that come from it, well … that’s not being very incarnational … In order to incarnate Christ into the culture that is there, then we have to look to redeem pop culture.

I remember some time ago a dear sister of mine in the Lord, who makes much ado about nothing (Peterson’s The Message), told me that we should stop preaching the Gospel and start living it. Well! that sounds just grand, but is it the Gospel truth? Even Jesus, the only Person who ever lived a perfect sinless life and did more good deeds of love and compassion than anyone else in the entire family of the human race, once said: “ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (Johan 15:3). The preaching of the Gospel, the spoken word of God, is sharper than a two-edged sword that divides asunder soul and spirit and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and not you or your wonderful life of community service to put a broken world back together again. Saving faith comes by hearing and hearing by the preaching of the unadulterated Gospel of God (Romans 10:17). If I were to sum up the main purpose of those who espouse an incarnational spirituality I would have to say their main aim is to downplay and even openly denigrate the uniqueness of God’s Word. If you can get people to believe that the Bible is just another holy book with no inherent uniqueness of its own, and indeed to sow seeds of doubt as to the distinctive matchlessness of the Bible, you can mesmerize people into believing just about anything you say. This is exactly what Rob Bell sets out to do in his NOOMA video no. 15. Let us now place some of the things he says in his video under the microscopic scrutiny of the Word of God to see whether the things he says are true.

He kicks off by saying “Sometime in the First Century, around the year 30, a movement was started by a group of Jews who insisted that their Rabbi, a man named Jesus from the Galilee region in Israel had risen from the dead after being crucified by the Roman Empire. They claimed that after His resurrection they had seen Him and that they had had conversations with Him and eaten meals with Him. And then they said that He had ascended to heaven and that someday he would return.” I would like you to take special note of two things he says that are completely out of touch with the Word of God.

• A movement was started by a group of Jews. (The Christian faith is not just a movement that was started by a group of Jews. In fact, his disciples were hardly in any position to start anything due to their timidity and fear of being captured and crucified like their Lord subsequent to his crucifixion, resurrection and shortly after his ascension. When Mary Magdalene, Mary and Salome went to Jesus’ grave to anoint his body, they found the great and heavy stone that sealed the sepulchre rolled away. Inside they saw a young man clothed in a long white garment who told them that Jesus had risen from the dead. Did they immediately go out to start a new movement proclaiming that He had risen? Hardly! because the Bible says the women who first visited his grave were sorely afraid and did not tell anybody that He had risen, despite the angel’s bidding to tell his disciples that He was going to meet them in Galilee. Only when Jesus  personally appeared to Mary Magdalene did she take courage to tell the disciples that she had met with Him and seen Him. What were the disciples reaction when they heard the awesome news of his resurrection? Did they immediately start a new movement insisting that He had risen from the dead? Hardly! because they did not believe Mary Magdalene. Eventually, when more and more of his followers were informed that He had risen from the dead but failed to believe, He rebuked them sternly for their unbelief and hardness of heart (Mark 16:14). It was only on the Day of Pentecost, when the promise of the Holy Ghost’s indwelling power became a reality, that the disciples and everyone who received the life quickening empowerment of God’s Spirit were able to preach the Gospel with conviction and without fear. Jesus and His Spirit inaugurated the Christian faith. They did not merely start a movement or a club or an institution. They did not even establish a Gospel, but the Gospel and the only Gospel that saves sinners from God’s eternal judgment in hell. None of these facts are even once mentioned by Rob Bell in his NOOMA video. Could it be that he is following a certain agenda and this this agenda is to rethink and re-interpret the Gospel?)

• The Roman Empire crucified Jesus Christ. (The Roman judicial system put Jesus on trial and through a series of illegal processes found him guilty and crucified him. Roman soldiers drove the nails through his hands and feet and it was a Roman soldier who pierced his side with his spear. But, it was the Jewish Sanhedrin, through the heinous betrayal of Judas (a Jew), who delivered him over to the Roman authorities. And yet Jesus declared that no man had the power to take his life unless He willingly and lovingly laid it down Himself [John 10:18]. He expressly told Pilate at his bar that he could have no power at all against him except it were given him by his Father [John 19:11]. Isaiah 53: 10 says that it pleased God to bruise his Son and Peter declared on the Day of Pentecost: “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain” [Acts 2:23]. The wicked hands that crucified Him were merely the instruments God used to prove his unfathomable love and to accomplish his will in saving the many who would believe. These facts are supremely important and cannot be ignored because they speak of the magnanimity of God’s love for a dying world. Nevertheless, Rob Bell fails to mention these facts even once. The question is: why does he circumvent the essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by the omission of these facts?)

Although it is evident that Bell has no intention of putting “the movement a group of Jews started,” as he refers to the Christian faith, on par with many other religious movements that existed during the reign of the Roman Empire, the inherent danger of his statements is that they may and actually do sow doubt in the hearts of his listeners. To prove that the Jewish movement was not regarded as that unique in the Roman Empire and that its first century citizens were not particularly impressed by these Jewish Christians’ claim that their God had risen from the dead and ascended to heaven, he mentions several idolatrous practices in those days that also believed their gods had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven. He proceeds to explain that the gods Mithra and Attis were believed to have risen from the dead and ascended to heaven. In his short history lesson he also mentions that the Caesars were worshipped as gods and that many of the words the early Christians used to describe their movement were derived from the Caesars vocabulary — words such as euangelion and ekklesia which the Caesars used to propagandize their military conquests and political achievements, and the places of worship they established where their subordinates declared them to be Lord. The new Jewish movement usurped these words and changed them into evangelical and church, according to Bell, and used them to describe their own places of worship where they declared Jesus Christ as their Lord. Bell’s interpretation of the meaning of these words aren’t correct. For one, the word ekklesia or ecclesia means “called out ones” and expresses the essence of the new birth which is to be called out of the corrupt world system and to be grounded in God’s Kingdom where everyone worships and obeys Jesus Christ as their Lord and King. Paul explained this spiritual principle in Colossians 1:12-14.

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins (Emphasis added)

The alarming thing about Rob Bell’s Nooma video is that, while he downplays the very core of Christianity by juxtaposing Christ’s death and resurrection with those of other Roman gods such as Mithras and Attis, he brings to the fore both the Roman Caesars’ and the early Christians’ efforts to make a better place of this world. Both had the same idea but the only difference is that the Roman Empire with her Caesars pledged to do it through military might, coercion and strict laws while the Christians ventured to do it through love, compassion and service. Here’s what Bell says in his video:

Now, for them [the Christians], this future restoration had nothing to do with leaving this world, it was all about the restoration, the renewing and the reclaiming of this world. And so they saw in Jesus’ resurrection the beginning of this universe-wide movement to put it all back together. Well. This, of course, brought them into direct conflict with the Roman Empire, because remember, for the Caesars, it was all about Caesar’s belief that he was making a better world through his power, through his armies and through his wealth . . . For them, this Gospel was about serving the world, especially those on the underside of the Empire. For them it was about serving, not ruling. And so they took this Empire propaganda term “gospel,” and they used it to describe this new world that Jesus and his followers were making right under the nose of the Empire, because their way, the way of Jesus, was totally opposed to the way of Rome. And so, when we read accounts of how they lived, we read that they shared their possessions, they fed the hungry and that they carried each other’s burdens. Well, it’s because the Gospel for them was a whole way of life, a whole new world, right in the midst of this one.

The Gospel according to Bell which is a very clever counterfeit of the original Gospel of Jesus Christ, revolves around the restoration of the world through acts of love, compassion and selfless sacrificial living amongst the poor, the destitute and especially those on the underside of the world. Although these humanitarian deeds should be part of every Christian’s make-up, Peter and the disciples seem to have been very careful not to place too much emphasis on it for fear that it might deter them in the preaching of the Gospel, something Bell hardly ever does according to Scripture.

Acts 6:1-4 NOW ABOUT this time, when the number of the disciples was greatly increasing, complaint was made by the Hellenists (the Greek-speaking Jews) against the [native] Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked and neglected in the daily ministration (distribution of relief). So the Twelve [apostles] convened the multitude of the disciples and said, It is not seemly or desirable or right that we should have to give up or neglect [preaching] the Word of God in order to attend to serving at tables and superintending the distribution of food. Therefore select out from among yourselves, brethren, seven men of good and attested character and repute, full of the [Holy] Spirit and wisdom, whom we may assign to look after this business and duty. But we will continue to devote ourselves steadfastly to prayer and the ministry of the Word.

Negligence of the unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ for the sake of humanitarian deeds of love and compassion is not a service but a gross disservice to the community. In that case you may as well become a second Mother Theresa who abounded in deeds of love and compassion but sent thousands into a Christ-less eternity because she believed it was her duty, not to make the people she cared for disciples of Jesus Christ, but to make of a Hindu a better Hindu, of a Muslim a better Muslim and of a Catholic a better Catholic . . . and in doing so to make a better place of our crooked and corrupt world. Or perhaps, like Rob Bell, you may want to attend one of the Dalai Lama’s Seeds of Compassion Conferences and learn how to join hands with other religions in making a better place of our world. The incarnational spirituality doesn’t seem to care by whom or what the incarnation is done. All that matters is the restoration, the renewing and the reclaiming of this world which is nothing short of a giant resurrection rescue of this world as Rob Bell describes it. Really? Is that what Jesus taught his disciples to do — to restore this world to a new euphoric Garden of Eden where everyone may continue to live as he pleases, worship whom he pleases and to just love, love and compassionately love one another without really caring where people are going to spend eternity?

Did Jesus send his disciples out to restore all things and to renew and reclaim the world?

The word “ecclesia” as I mentioned earlier means “that which is called out,” and conveys the idea that a sent messenger heralds a stern warning to everyone to come out (separate) themselves from the world of the lost and indeed the world of Satan. In the book of Revelation this herald not only sounds a word of warning to come out of the world but also out of the Babylonian religious system (end-time church) which is going to provide a haven for every conceivable religious persuasion (Revelation 18:4). Therefore, the call of God is not to restore, renew and reclaim the world but to separate oneself from it. This of course does not mean that the present-day disciples or followers of Christ should turn a blind eye to the suffering caused by sin and the injustices in the world; it means not to compromise the Gospel of salvation for the sake of an interreligious collaboration to make a better place of our world. It is not of God. In fact, the Spirit of the Lord expressly warns that in the last days when all the religions of the world begin to work together to bring about peace through love, compassion and service, sudden destruction is going to come upon them (11 Thessalonians 5:3).

From whom or what must we reclaim the world? From Satan, the god of this world?

When Satan tried to tempt Jesus into worshipping him by offering Him all the kingdoms of the earth, He did not deny the devil’s claim that all the kingdoms of the earth belonged to him. Indeed, he is presently the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4: 4) and will not capitulate his position until He is forced to do so by Jesus Christ when He returns to set up his Kingdom of Peace for a thousand years. Only then all things will be restored (Isaiah 65; Revelation 20).

Matthew 4:8-10 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

The Emergent Church may be of the opinion that they are restoring, renewing and reclaiming the world and that they are instrumental in the giant resurrection rescue that is allegedly underway, but they are actually succumbing to Satan’s temptation to worship him in return for the kingdoms of the earth. This is no surprise because God’s Word clearly states that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13). The most dangerous deceivers are those who claim to be Christians but have no qualms in asserting that there are truths in religions other than the Christian faith. E-church and e-kerk, engineered by Stephan Joubert, Dries Lombaard, Dries Cronjé and others, have openly supported Rob Bell’s claim that there is truth in other religions such as Buddhism. Some of you may query my allegation that they are succumbing to the wiles of the devil and actually bowing to his whims to grant them the kingdoms of the earth if they but worshipped him. Paul clearly states in 1 Corinthians 10:20 “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.” The worst form of fellowshipping with idolaters who sacrifice to devils is when you unashamedly allot truth to those religions while Jesus Himself said: “I AM the Truth.” He is the complete embodiment of truth and anything or anyone from whatever religious persuasion that rejects His claim as being the only truth are not in fellowship with the Triune God and neither are those “Christians” who avow that there is truth in other religions.

Are you the Gospel?

No you are NOT the Gospel. If you have the testimony of the Holy Spirit in your heart that you are a child of God, then you are merely a sheep of the Good Shepherd who has sent you out amongst ravenous wolves to preach the unadulterated Gospel of God (Matthew 10:16) so that others may be saved according to Scripture (remember Colossians 11:12-14).

The Unholiness of the Renovaré Brotherhood’s “Holiness.”

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Adherents to the Emergent Church have an uncanny ability to tell their congregants what to do without explaining what they really have in mind. They have the knack to use biblical terminology very skilfully and expertly but often fail to elucidate the biblical meaning of the words they hit to and fro like a little ping-pong ball. “Holiness” is one of these words. I encountered this again in one of Stephan Joubert’s regular contributions on e-church under the title “No Steroids for Holiness.” Although it may be a very clever post-modernish title it wreaks of heresy from the very outset, especially when one takes into account who it was who coined the witty little maxim. But allow me to use Stephan’s own words:

You can’t cheat your way to holiness. Or can you? Presently, I am at the Renovare Conference in St Antonio, Texas where the theme is: The Jesus Way. Yesterday evening I listened to one of my spiritual heroes, Eugene Peterson. In his fine presentation he stressed that there are no spiritual steroids for holiness. You have to live a holy life, one day at a time. (Emphasis added)

Have you noticed the little ink spots in Stephan’s declaration of holiness?

What is Renovare?

Here are a few facts about “Renovare”

• Renovaré is a movement within the emergent church that was started in 1988 by Richard Foster, a Quaker theologian. The Quaker’s theology is based on the belief that everyone (believers and unbelievers) have an “inner light” which can lead them to truth while they wait and listen to its subjective leading, particularly with the assistance of contemplative practices such as “the silence” and “centering prayer.” Paul Lacout, in Quaker Faith and Practice, described a “silence which is active” causing the Inner Light to “glow.” Their complete reliance on the leading of the inner light has just about ousted the objectivity of God’s Word and its clear-cut doctrines. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Stephan Joubert pledges not to return to the Bible and the church but to advance forward to God (the inner light that guides all of mankind into the Truth)

• As soon as you begin to tamper with biblical doctrine heresy becomes your way and not as the Renovaré brotherhood claims “The Jesus Way.” The Quakers’ assertion that believers and unbelievers have an “inner light” substantiates their equally heretic belief in Universalism. George Fox and Robert Barclay as well as other respected leaders in the Quaker movement hold to the lie that all people are already saved from sin or will eventually be saved from it, the reason being that the Light is within everyone and nobody will therefore be cast into hell. Then there are those within the Quaker movement, such as the Quaker Universalist Group who believe that it is unnecessary to have any faith in Jesus Christ. People of other faiths or no faith at all have no need of salvation because they already have Light within them. Calvinism has a similar pet heresy. Although they do not believe that all men will eventually be saved, thanks to Calvin’s doctrine with regard to the reprobates, they too proclaim that all the elect will be saved without faith. Saving faith, they say, is given as a gift  after the elect had been infused with the inner Light of God by the Holy Spirit (monergism as opposed to synergism).

What does the Word of God teach us about the Light?

John 3:19-21 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (Emphasis added)

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)

• Richard Foster, the author of the Renovaré study Bible, endorses many Universalists and pantheists. Here are some of the revealing things they have said in their books:

“The Inner Light, the Inward Christ, is no mere doctrine, belonging peculiarly to a small religious fellowship, to be accepted or rejected as a mere belief. It is the living Center of Reference for all Christian souls and Christian groups - yes, and of non-Christian groups as well” Thomas Kelly: A Testament of Devotion.

“It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, … now I realize what we all are …. If only they [people] could all see themselves as they really are … I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other … At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusions, a point of pure truth … This little point ..is the pure glory of God in us. It is in everybody. Thomas Merton: Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

Asia, Zen, Islam, etc., all these things come together in my life. It would be madness for me to attempt to create a monastic life for myself by excluding all these. I would be less a monk. Rob Baker & Gray Henry: Merton and Sufism.

The common denominator between Merton’s brand of Christianity and other religions is mysticism, in particular Buddhism. Stephan Joubert’s spiritual excursion to the Renovaré Conference in San Antonio, Texas is consequently no coincidence. He is merely strengthening his affiliation with his brothers and sisters who are extending a hand of brotherly affection to religions such as Buddhism, and affirming his agreement with Rob Bell who said that truth may also be found in other religions such as Buddhism. When Merton could no longer resist the mystic appeal, he intended to turn his back on Christianity. Guess who advised him to remain a Christian? No! You’re wrong. It was not a concerned Christian but a Hindu swami named Dr. Bramachari. He assured Merton that he could find the very same mysticism within the ranks of the Christian mystics. (Henri J M Nouwen: Contemplative Critic). Dr. Bramachari seems to be far better informed than most Christians of Paul’s warning in 2 Corinthians and seems to know that Merton can do more damage within the ranks of Christianity if he remains therein stead of becoming a converted Buddhist or Hindu.

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 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.

Merton affirmed that he could incorporate these mystical traditions into his own Christian tradition if he practiced tolerance of and an openness to Buddhism, Hinduism and other Asian mystical religions. Richard Foster’s entire philosophy is based on Merton’s and others’ contemplative spirituality and their efforts to bridge the gap between Western and Far Eastern spiritualities. Why would someone like Foster who claims to follow The Jesus Way endorse and follow Merton’s heresies? The underlying reason is to forge a new Christianity which gullibly utilizes Christian terminology, such as The Jesus Way and holiness, and gathers together every conceivable religious persuasion under a single umbrella called mysticism, simply because everyone has the Inner Light. Roger Oakland asks a similar question in his book “Faith Undone”

Why would someone who claims to be a Christian as Foster does, after reading and understanding Merton’s position on East­ern religion, promote his ideas? Foster knows the kind of prayer Merton stood for was different from biblical prayer. He admits that Merton’s prayer lined up with that of Zen masters and Bud­dhist monks. And yet he said, “Merton continues to inspire count­less men and women.”[i]

Stephan Joubert  is obviously one of the countless men and women who have been inspired to follow in the Jesus Way of spurious disciples such as Richard Foster, Eugene Peterson and Thomas Merton. The Renovaré (Renewal) Spiritual Formation Bible which was released in 2005 has impacted many people to strive for a renewal in the church. Besides Foster, editors included Dallas Willard, Walter Brueggemann, and Eugene Peterson.

What does the Renovaré Study Bible propagate?

• A great deal of the Old and the New Testament prophecies revolve around Israel, God’s chosen people. Dave Hunt wrote in the second part of “Israel and Prophetic Proof” in a recent edition of The Berean Call  the following:

Israel is the major topic of Bible prophecy, mentioned more than 2900 times, nearly twice as many times as her Messiah. Without Israel there would be no Messiah and no salvation for anyone, Jew or Gentile.

And yet, the Renovaré fraternity deliberately ignore Bible prophecy and re-interpret key prophecies in Scripture without the slightest compunction. In their zeal to make a better place of this world and to usher in the Kingdom of God by caring for the poor and downtrodden (which could be a good thing if the preached the unadulterated Gospel to them, which of course they don’t) they have re-interpreted “Israel” in terms of all the homeless in the world. Jeremiah 31:7-14 is undoubtedly a prophecy relating to the final restoration of Israel in their own promised land. Not so, says the Renovaré Study Bible; It is a promise to all the homeless and downtrodden people in the world. The Gospel cannot possibly be the Good News when Israel is left out of the equation. Sever them from the Gospel then you also need to sever the Messiah from it, which is impossible because Jesus Himself once said “ . . . salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). The Renovaré brotherhood, including Stephan Joubert. boast that they are following The Jesus Way and striving to live a life of holiness (without steroids of course). This is holy (or is it wholly) impossible when you dislodge Israel who gave us our Messiah from the prophecies. All the prophecies (and promises) in the Old and New Testament concerning Israel are all “yea and amen” in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20) and anyone who proclaims anything contrary to Christ’s prophecies relating to Israel are not following the Jesus Way but another way of another Jesus who is blazing the way to eternal destructio0n.

Who is the Jesus the Renovaré brotherhood are following?

Isaiah 9: 6-7 is one of the most magnanimous prophecies in the Old Testament predicting the advent of Jesus Christ.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

In their quest for holiness (without steroids of course) and to prove that they are genuine followers of The Jesus Way the Renovaré brotherhood, spearheaded by Richard Foster and Eugene Petersen (one of Stephan Joubert’s spiritual heroes and the author of the abominable and unbiblical “The Message”) have deliberately denigrated the above prophecy pertaining to Jesus Christ as well as many other Old Testament prophecies that point to Him. Here’s what they dare to do despite the stern warning in Revelation 22: 18 and 19.

1. The Renovaré “scholars” continually downplay the powerful Old Testament prophecies of Christ (pp. 22, 32, 1375, 1377-8, 1384, etc.).

2. They proclaim that the key prophecy in Isaiah 9:6-7 of the coming Messiah, who is “the mighty God, the everlasting Father,” refers to “human agents” ( p. .997).

3. Their holinesses (without steroids) declare that Isaiah’s prophecies are merely “tradition” (pp. 982, 983),

4. They would have us believe that much of that book was not written by Isaiah (there are “three authors”– pp. 982, 1068),

5. One of their most glaring proofs that they are indeed following The Way of Jesus and running afer holiness (without steroids) is their blunt denial that chapter 53 prophesies Christ’s sacrifice for our sins (p. 984)! So please, if you have a burning desire to follow the Jesus Way, tear Isaiah 53 out your Bilbe.

6. Renovaré describes the book of Isaiah as “poetic imagination … Isaiah imagines,” etc. The Renovaré “scholars” declare, “The prophets of Israel are not to be thought of primarily as…predictors of the future … they were poets” (p. 1079). Through poetry, Jeremiah attempts “to make sense of the events of his day …” (p. 1080). This is not holiness without steroids but Blasphemy with steroids, Stephan Joubert!

7. Renovaré rejects the powerful prophecies of Daniel, including the proof of 9:24-26 that Jesus is the Christ. They never say a word about the image foretelling the four world kingdoms and revival of the fourth (Roman Empire) under ten heads (2:36-45) to be destroyed by the Messiah when He sets up His everlasting kingdom. Nor is there a word about the future apocalyptic significance of the four beasts of Daniel 7 coinciding with Revelation 13. The wrath of God poured out upon earth during the Great Tribulation (Renovaré avoids that term) are described as “natural disasters straight out of Exodus” (p. 2268). Yet even the magicians in Egypt told Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God” (Ex 8:19).

So, what is holiness anyway?

Holiness, in a nutshell, is to be like your Creator and Saviour.

1 Peter 1:15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

In practice it means that God’s children should talk, think and act completely different from what our world system expects its citizens to do. It comes down to separateness, severance, apartness from the world system and everything it advocates and stands for. The idea of separateness is seen throughout the Bible. Let’s ponder the following verses from Scripture.

Mark 10: 34-36 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

If you proclaim to be a Christian who follows The Jesus Way you dare not associate with false teachers and preachers. Holiness also means to separate yourself from them. it is impossible to plead holiness (without steroids) while you associate with people whose false teaching God hates, to such an extent that He said through the mouth of his disciple,. Paul:

Galatians 1: 8 and 9 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 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.

Here are a few verses that warn us not to associate with false teachers and preachers.

2 John 1:10 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.

Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

2 Timothy 3:5-14 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; (Emphasis added).

I have pleaded with you many times before, Stephan, and I want to do so here again: Repent of your disastrous way which is clearly NOT The Jesus Way and definitely NOT the way of holiness. It is the way that leads to destruction. You are misleading many people in South Africa. Please stop playing with fire and repent!

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[i] Richard Foster, Devotional Classics, op. cit., p. 61.

A New Divinely Decreed Way of Saving Lost Souls in South Africa

God has apparently authorized and lain a brand new foundation for the salvation of tens of millions of South Africans. He allegedly decided that the sacrificial death of his Son on the cross is inadequate and deficient and has now co-opted a woman, Elza Meyer, who is one of the leader pastors at the Moreleta Park Dutch Reformed Church, to assist Jesus Christ in His vicarious punishment for our sins on the cross. Elza’s son, Pieter, was instrumental in bringing about this new way of salvation. Here’s what Elza wrote on her blog “Turn2God.”

During the Eastern Cape conference demons attacked my body. We were unable to break the effect thereof until I phoned my son, Pieter, late that night asking him to pray for me. He claimed 10 million souls, saved and baptized in exchange for the attack on my life. It immediately stopped. The Moreleta Park congregation was led to formulate a new goal for the congregation, namely 10 million souls within ten years. The overriding aim is to reach 10 million souls with the Gospel and to make them disciples of Jesus Christ. (Emphasis added)

How are they going to proclaim the Gospel? Are they going to tell the lost souls they wish to reach for Christ that God wants to save them because He allowed Elza Meyer to survive a severe demonic attack on her life? No . . .? Do I here a choir of Moreleta Park congregants singing “No! we are not going to do it that way”? The irony is that they have already begun to do it that way on Elza’s blog “Turn2God.” Have they never heard of Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians 3:11?

1 Cor. 3: 11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

You are dead wrong, brother Paul. Haven’t you heard of the brand new cornerstone and foundation that was lain in the Moreleta Park Dutch Reformed Church recently? No . . .? How silly of you. Well, God is going to save 10 million lost souls within ten years in South Africa (a million a year) in exchange for Elza Meyer’s survival of a very severe demonic attack on her body. What did you say Paul? Did I hear you say, “Blasphemy?” No, no, no, no and again no, Paul. How dare you call it blasphemy? You’re too old fashioned. We’re living in the enlightened postmodern days and we are re-inventing Christianity. We are finding new ways of presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the one you received directly from Him. Elza’s way is just one of the many other ways the Gospel is being presented to lost souls in South Africa. Our South African pastors are some of the most resourceful in the world . . . don’t you think, Paul?

I just love to read the Word of God and to unearth truths that I would never have thought I’d find there. I was rather surprised to find the following gem in the Bible.

Luke 16:8 . . . for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

Nah!, never brother Luke! You must be kidding! Well, I thought so until I read a blog where an atheist asks the question “Isn’t sanctimony a sin?” in his discussion of Elza Meyer’s unbiblical claim. While thousands of women (and perhaps just as many men who are under the petticoat government at Moreleta park congregation) who claim to be Christians are in awe of Elza’s new way of presenting the Gospel and have even set a new goal for the Moreleta Park congregation, there seems to be at least one person, an unbeliever, who has the presence of mind to see through the whole charade and is kind enough to sound a word of warning against the sin of sanctimony. You can read what the word “sanctimony” means right here and believe me its not pretty, not pretty at all.

What on earth is going on in our beloved country? Elza Meyer says “Return to God.” Stephan Joubert says: “Nope” that’s the wrong direction. Christians are not supposed to return to the Bible or to God. They must advance and move forward to God, and the way forward is to boldly go where no man has gone before.” It kinda reminds me of Buzz Lightyear in “Toy Story” who ventured to go to infinity and beyond until he realized his wings were fake. Then there’s Jannie Pelser and Graham Power who say “No! our way is the best. Let’s hand out new norms and values (ethics) to every single person in our beloved South Africa and everything will  be just hunky-dory.” Do they actually think they are going to reach millions of lost souls in South Africa with this kind of cacophony of lies?

Angus Buchan’s appearances thus far at the Moreleta Park Dutch Reformed Church doesn’t seem to have had any lasting effect on the pastors, and the husbands and wives in their congregation. Wherever oom Angus preaches he admonishes the men to love their wives and the wives to submit themselves to their husbands. What kind of mighty men has oom Angus nurtured in the Moreleta Park congregation at his Mighty Men Conferences who do not warn their wives against Elza Meyer’s erroneous doctrines, or are they all in submission to their wives under a petticoat government? Elza Meyer herself isn’t much of a good example to the wives who seems to be governing the male pastors and the entire congregation with an iron fist, and leading the way for the entire congregation to buy into her unbiblical demand for the salvation of 10 million lost souls in exchange for her miraculous survival of a severe demonic attack on her life. Is it really true that not a single male pastor or other male congregant hasn’t warned her of her unbiblical teachings?

There is only one single, acceptable and efficient foundation (claim) Christians may present to the Lord for the salvation of lost souls, and guess what . . . . ? It is definitely not Elza Meyer’s survival of a severe demonic attack on her body. That’s pure and simple blasphemy and she and her son, as well as the entire Moreleta Park DRC congregation need to ask God’s forgiveness for their waywardness and rebellion. It was Jesus Christ’s own torn and blood-drenched body, and his alone, that brought about reconciliation between lost sinners and Almighty God. You find the same heresies being taught in Roman Catholicism. Padre Pio who regularly experienced stigmata for about 45 years, claimed that more spirits of the dead visited him in his cell in the monastery than living people, and the other monks said they heard multitudes of voices talking with him and he said that these people were coming from purgatory on their way to heaven thanking him for suffering for their sins to get them out of there. In fact, as a novice he asked the superior when he first became a monk, for permission to suffer for the sins of the world and he was granted permission. So, the stigmata (which was nothing else than demonic attacks) was supposedly his suffering. The suffering of Christ was not sufficient but he had to add to it.

Return to God? You bet, but not in the way Elza Meyer and her Hadassa sisters and Mighty Men are urging South Africans to do it. God will never allow sinful man to barter for lost souls on the basis Elza Meyer, her son and the entire Moreleta Park DRC  put forward to Almighty God. You’re deceived and you are deceiving others. Stop your nonsense!

The Prize-Winning Oxymoron of the Week

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An adulterous divorcee who had left his wife for another woman regretted his sinful life and sought reconciliation with his ex-wife. However, he did not know how to go about it and visited a marriage counsellor for some advice.

Divorcee: Dr. I know that my ex-wife still loves me but I feel so ashamed of my gross ill-treatment of her that I do not know how I should approach her in order to return or to turn back to her. Help me please and tell me how I should return or turn back to her.

Doctor: Return or turn back to her? No, no, no, no, my dear friend, you’ve got it all wrong. There’s no such thing as returning or going back to your wife to seek reconciliation. Change your direction. Rather go forward to your wife.

Divorcee: Forward, doctor?

Doctor: Yea man, forward. Admittedly, it is not my bright idea. I picked it up from this blog I happened to stumble on. An Afrikaans guy, I think his name is Stephan Joubert, made it clear that reconciliation does not mean to return or go back, but to go forward.

Divorcee: Well doc, I doubt whether my wife will understand me when I tell her, “Honey, I’m very sorry for all the heartache I caused you. I still love you and would like to go forward to you.” She would say to me “Huh? Are you kidding me? Are you trying to be funny? What kind of a joke is that?”

Doctor: That will be 450 bucks, thank you.

Strange? Weird? No, not really. The Emergent Church followers of Jesus are so convinced that their re-interpretation of the Bible is the Gospel truth that even their oddest semantic inventions make them leap with joy. New semantic inventions? Well, they have no qualms with taking some words in Scripture and giving them “new”  meaning or to use their opposites in order to twist Scripture.

“Return to” and “turn back to” are expressions that God uses to urge lost sinners and backsliders to be reconciled to Him. Of the 17 times the phrase “Return to Me” appears in the Bible 10 of them refer to reconciliation with God. (I used the New American Standard Bible: 1995). Therefore in most cases it has a spiritual meaning that has more to do with a change in heart and mind and not a change of direction.

Jeremiah 3:6, 7 Then the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

Amos 3:13-4:1 “I will also smite the winter house together with the summer house; The houses of ivory will also perish And the great houses will come to an end,” Declares the Lord. “Yet You Have Not Returned to Me”

Zechariah 1:3 “Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Return to Me,” declares the Lord of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says the Lord.

Hosea 11:5 Because they refused to return to Me. The sword will whirl against their cities, And will demolish their gate bars And consume them because of their counsels. So My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call them to the One on high, None at all exalts Him.

Jeremiah 24:7 ‘I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.

Malachi 3:7 “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’”

Jeremiah 4:1 “If you will return, O Israel,” declares the Lord, “Then you should return to Me. And if you will put away your detested things from My presence, And will not waver, And you will swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ In truth, in justice and in righteousness; Then the nations will bless themselves in Him, And in Him they will glory.”

Isaiah 44: 22 “I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud And your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”

Nehemiah 1:19 I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.

Joel 2:12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, Return to Me with all your heart,

I have read and heard some shocking things coming from the mouth of Stephan Joubert but the following remark tops everything. On the same blog mentioned above he said:

Leonard Sweet, world renowned futurist, theologian, author, speaker and the guru of those who seek God’s plans in new, meaningful ways, including myself, refuses to use the term retraite or retreat. He’ll immediately tell you that Christians never retreat. We advance. Therefore, the gatherings that he hosts at his island and mountain homes are called advances!

Christians shouldn’t turn back to the Bible or the church. Then we’re heading in the wrong direction. We move forward to God. We advance.

It sounds very pious and, oh so wonderful to say “We advance. We move forward to God” but the question is, “which God?” How are you going to know which God if you do not first return to His Word? How are you ever going to know that you need the God of the Bible if you do not return to His Word? Christians, and especially the “Christians” of today, desperately need to return to the Word of God, for it His Word that declares “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). The reason for their lack of knowledge is because most of them listen to and heed the advice of men and women who have lost their way, thinking that they are advancing toward God. We learn from Scripture that the Bible was written and designed for the following reasons:

1. Instruction (Romans 15:4)
2. Regenerating. (James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23)
3. Quickening. (Psalm 119:50,93)
4. Illuminating. Psalm :130)
5. Converting the soul. Psalm 19:7)
6. Making wise the simple. Ps 19:7)
7. Sanctifying. (John 17:17; Ephesians 5:26)
8. Producing faith. (John 20:31)
9. Producing hope. (Psalm 119:49; Romans 15:4)
10. Producing obedience. Deuteronomy 17:19,20)
11. Cleansing the heart. (John 15:3; Ephesians 5:26)
12. Cleansing the ways. (Psalm 119:9)
13. Keeping from destructive paths. (Psalm 17:4)
14. Supporting life. Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4)
15. Promoting growth in grace. (1 Peter 2:2))
16. Building up in the faith. (Acts 20:32)
17. Admonishing. (Psalm 19:11; 1 Corinthians 10:11)
18. Comforting. (Psalm 119:82; Romans 15:4)
19. Rejoicing the heart. (Psalm 19:8; 119:111)
20. Work effectually in them that believe. (1Thessalonians 2:13)
21. The letter of, without the spirit, killeth. (John 6:63; 2 Corinthians 3:6)
22. Ignorance of, a source of error. (Matthew 22:29; Acts 13:27)
23. Christ enables us to understand. (Luke 24:45)
24. The Holy Spirit enable us to understand. (John 16:13; 1 Corinthians 2:10-14)
25. No prophecy of, is of any private interpretation. (2 Peter 1:20)
26. Everything should be tried by. (Isaiah 8:20; Acts 17:11)

The Word should be:-

1. The standard of teaching. 1Pe 4:11.
2. Believed. Joh 2:22.
3. Appealed to. 1Co 1:31; 1Pe 1:16.
4. Read. De 17:19; Isa 34:16.
5. Read publicly to ALL. De 31:11-13; Ne 8:3; Jer 36:6; Ac 13:15.
6. Known. 2Ti 3:15.
7. Received, not as the word of men, but as the word of God. 1Th 2:13.
8. Received with meekness. Jas 1:21.
9. Searched. Joh 5:39; 7:52.
10. Searched daily. Ac 17:11.
11. Laid up in the heart. De 6:6; 11:18.
12. Taught to children. De 6:7; 11:19; 2Ti 3:15.
13. Taught to ALL. 2Ch 17:7-9; Ne 8:7,8.
14. Talked of continually. De 6:7.
15. Not handled deceitfully. 2Co 4:2.
16. Not only heard, but obeyed. Mt 7:24; Lu 11:28; Jas 1:22.
17. Used against our spiritual enemies. Mt 4:4,7,10; Eph 6:11,17.

Saints:-

1. Love exceedingly. Ps 119:97,113,159,167.
2. Delight in. Ps 1:2.
3. Regard, as sweet. Ps 119:103.
4. Esteem, above all things. Job 23:12.
5. Long after. Ps 119:82.
6. Stand in awe of. Ps 119:161; Isa 66:2.
7. Keep, in remembrance. Ps 119:16.
8. Grieve when men disobey. Ps 119:158.
9. Hide, in their hearts. Ps 119:11.
10. Hope in. Ps 119:74,81,147.
11. Meditate in. Ps 1:2; 119:99,148.
12. Rejoice in. Ps 119:162; Jer 15:16.
13. Trust in. Ps 119:42.
14. Obey. Ps 119:67; Lu 8:21; Joh 17:6.
15. Speak of. Ps 119:172.
16. Esteem, as a light. Ps 119:105.
17. Pray to be taught. Ps 119:12,13,33,66.
18. Pray to be conformed to. Ps 119:133.
19. Plead the promises of, in prayer. Ps 119:25,28,41,76,169.
20. They who search, are truly noble. Ac 17:11.
21. Blessedness of hearing and obeying. Lu 11:28; Jas 1:25.
22. Let them dwell richly in you. Col 3:16.

The wicked:-

1. Corrupt it. 2Co 2:17.
2. Make, of none effect through their traditions. Mr 7:9-13.
3. Reject it. Jer 8:9.
4. Stumble at it. 1Pe 2:8.
5. Obey not it. Ps 119:158.
6. Frequently wrest, to their own destruction. 2Pe 3:16.

(Taken from: Torrey, R. (1897). The new topical text book : A scriptural text book for the use of ministers, teachers, and all Christian workers (New Revised and enlarged.). New York: Fleming H. Revell Co.)

It is obvious that Stephan Joubert doesn’t want you to enjoy all the above spiritual benefits in your life and that’s why he says:

Christians shouldn’t turn back to the Bible or the church. Then we’re heading in the wrong direction. We move forward to God. We advance.

I would like to urge and encourage Stephan Joubert and his emergent buddies who support him in his carnal efforts to move and advance toward God to repent and return to the Bible. In doing so they will learn some of the most awesome realities about the position the genuine children of God already have in God and therefore do not need to move or advance toward God. Let’s kook at a few of these awesome realities.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. ^He that loveth me not keepeth not my words: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.

John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you  . . .

Ephesians 2: 6 & 7 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Wow! Think carefully! Let the above words sink deep into your soul and spirit, dear child of God. The genuine children of God are already IN Jesus Christ, seated IN Him at the right hand of the Father in heaven, and God has already made His abode (dwelling) IN them. They do not need to move or advance toward God. God is not in some remote place toward which His children must move or advance. They really only need to ABIDE IN HIM. Stephan Joubert and his emergent buddies are preaching and teaching a gospel of salvation by works, which is no gospel at all (Galatians 1:7). They are following the way of Cain who thought he could bring himself into the presence of God by means of his own efforts and good works. It is a false Gospel with a false Jesus and a false spirit. Paul wrote:

2 Corinthians 11:2-4 For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.

Stephan Joubert and his emergent buddies, Nelus Niemandt, Rob Bell and Leonard Sweet, have written several books. I may be wrong but I get the impression that they want Christians to return to their books in stead of the Bible. May God have mercy on us.