No Repentance from Willow Creek - Only a Mystical Paradigm Shift

[Sing4Him]

No Repentance from Willow Creek - Only a Mystical Paradigm Shift
Source: Lighthouse Trails

Recently, headlines about Willow Creek filled the front pages of several online news outlets. The caption stated: "A Shocking Confession from Willow Creek Community Church." Some wondered if Willow Creek's pastor Bill Hybels was repenting from past errors in ministry techniques.1 But a Lighthouse Trails commentary showed that this "shocking confession" was actually a re-enforcement of Willow Creek's efforts to "transform this planet" through contemplative and emerging spiritualities. The LT commentary stated:

It is no new thing that Willow Creek wishes to "transform the planet." They are part of the emerging spirituality that includes Rick Warren and many other major Christian leaders who believe the church will usher in the kingdom of God on earth before Christ returns. This dominionist, kingdom-now theology is literally permeating the lecture halls of many Christian seminaries and churches, and mysticism is the propeller that keeps its momentum. If Willow Creek hopes to transform the planet, they won't be able to get rid of the focus on the mystical (i.e., contemplative). Their new Fall 2007 Catalog gives a clear picture of where their heart lies, with resources offered by New Age proponent Rob Bell, contemplative author Keri Wyatt Kent, and the Ancient Future Conference with emerging leaders Scot McKnight and Alan Hirsch as well as resources by Ruth Haley Barton and John Ortberg. Time will tell what Willow Creek intends to do about strengthening its focus on "spiritual practices" and "transform[ing] the planet."
Well, it appears it isn't going to take a lot of time to see what their future intentions look like. The most current issue (Fall 2007) of Willow Creek's magazine, Willow (in hard copy and also online) gives a clear view of the organization's spiritual emphasis. The issue titled Ministry Shifts has a subtitle that says: "The landscape of our ministries is shifting. Brace yourself for the aftershocks."

Article titles in this Willow issue certainly make a statement that things are going to change: "Seismic Shifts," "Rediscovering Spiritual Formation," "Stemming the Tide," "The Changing Face of Worship," "Shifts in Missional Mindset," and "The Next Great Debate." With such commitment to change, it's no wonder Willow Creek supports Brian McLaren, who is currently on his "Everything Must Change" tour (named for his new book).

In the first article, "Seismic Shifts," the message is straightforward: "Change or die. ... If the local church refuses to change, it will die. ... But the winds of change are blowing. Leaders and entire congregations are making the choice to try something new. They are looking at the world, culture, norms and trends and they are daring to take a chance, venture a risk, find another way." Bell explains that the other articles in the issue give "snapshots" of how the church is now shifting.

In the first article to follow, "Rediscovering Spiritual Formation," meditation promoter Keri Wyatt Kent writes positively about "monastic communities" and "the emergent church." Quoting or favorably referring to one mystic after the next (Richard Foster, Ruth Haley Barton, David Benner, John Ortberg, etc.) Kent paints a picture that shows mysticism's role in this seismic shift Willow Creek proclaims. She correctly states that while there are some "conservative" Christians who are suspect of spiritual formation, by and large the term and "the practices" have become "mainstream." These practices, of course, are the mystical practices that are the energy behind the spiritual formation movement.

Kent identifies Scot McKnight as part of this mystical shift. McKnight acknowledges the Catholic connection to contemplative practices, and amazingly, Kent brings into her article Catholic priest Richard Rohr. Why amazing? Rohr's spirituality would be in the same camp as someone like Matthew Fox who believes in pantheism and panentheism. For Willow Creek to include him in Willow speaks volumes about the level of spiritual deception that Willow Creek is now under. If Kent is right that spiritual formation is now mainstream, then this deception is mainstream as well.

While the Willow issue says that they are not moving away from biblical principles, nothing could be further from the truth. For those reading this who may be new to the terms contemplative prayer and spiritual formation, it is quite simple. A mantric-style meditation is practiced so that the pray-er can enter a silent, altered state, which supposedly allows him or her to hear God's voice and be transformed. However, because the premise of contemplative prayer is panentheistic (God in all), it is actually occultic in nature. We can say that, because in occultism all things are one, and there is no distinction between God and man - both enjoy equal glory. This is why research analyst Ray Yungen believes that the mystery of iniquity talked about in the book of Revelation could very well be mysticism. If man is brought under the delusion that he is part of God and one with God (with or without Jesus), then the Cross and the Gospel become of no effect (theoretically). It is Satan's ultimate desire to be equal to God (Isaiah 14:14), and he tried to convince Eve of this in the Garden of Eden and continues to this day with his seductive alluring.

Some people have said that contemplative spirituality and the emerging church are just passing whims or trends. But that isn't true, and Keri Wyatt Kent see that. She explains: "Spiritual formation is not a passing fad, but it does continue to shift and to change as the Church and its people grow." Of course, what this really means is that where once the true nature of contemplative had to be disguised, more and more it can come out of the closet. No passing fad here. Contemplative is pure New Ageism, the devil's religion to put it bluntly.

For those who realize that contemplative spirituality is the vehicle through which the kingdom-now, emerging church, dominionist views draw their strength and momentum, Willow Creek's "shocking confession" will indeed be very shocking. As Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, and most other major leaders in Christianity today, stand arm and arm with contemplatives and emerging spirituality, those who understand biblical prophecy about the days prior to Christ's return will realize that history is being made. But unfortunately, Scripture warns that Satan will deceive the whole world (Revelation 12:9) and that a great falling away will occur. Let us be sober-minded and diligent to stand for biblical truth and the Gospel that alone can save the soul that turns to Jesus Christ in humility and repentance, acknowledging Him to be God, Lord, and Savior.But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. I Thessalonians 5:1-8
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/

[true2yeshua]

For those who realize that contemplative spirituality is the vehicle through which the kingdom-now, emerging church, dominionist views draw their strength and momentum, Willow Creek's "shocking confession" will indeed be very shocking. As Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, and most other major leaders in Christianity today, stand arm and arm with contemplatives and emerging spirituality, those who understand biblical prophecy about the days prior to Christ's return will realize that history is being made. But unfortunately, Scripture warns that Satan will deceive the whole world (Revelation 12:9) and that a great falling away will occur.

Sadly, the great falling away has been underway for some time, yet it appears many are oblivious to it. What is upsetting is when we attempt to herald the warning many label us as 'heresy hunters' or 'fundamentalists' - YES, I gladly wear that label.

Thanks for this article, Sing.

Maranatha!

[AnotherOldGuy]

Where in scripture is this 'great falling away'?

[A Berean]

Where in scripture is this 'great falling away'?

2Thessalonians2:3 "Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;"

[Lexie]

Sing,

Rick Warren is basically promoting the United Nations Eath Charter Millennium Development Goals

-----------------------------------

Rick Warren Launches New Plan to Multiply Impact Worldwide



By Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter
Wed, Oct. 17 2007 02:59 PM ET


Saddleback Church, one of the largest churches in the nation, has launched a new global vision to multiply impact on the local and international levels.

Within the next three years, megachurch in the Lake Forest, Calif., aims to launch nine new off-site campuses in addition to its San Clemente campus, which meets every weekend at the local high school, and step up its global P.E.A.C.E. plan. By 2010, Saddleback hopes to see 10,000 more lives changed and baptized.

"One of the most important words in the Christian life [is] 'go,'" said Rick Warren, founding and senior pastor of Saddleback, during his "Multiplying Our Impact" sermon series last month. "The Christian life is a journey and over and over again God says you are to go. We are not a passive faith; you are a 'going' faith."

Thousands of Saddleback congregants and staff have been on the move to open a campus in Corona and Irvine late this year and early 2008. Two pastors have already been picked out of the Saddleback staff to lead the sites, which will have their own live worship music and video feed from the main Lake Forest campus. The campuses will host smaller congregations of 400 to 600 people.

Matt McGill, pastor of regional campuses for Saddleback, calls the expansion "decentralized congregations" rather than the popular term "multi-site" which more churches are venturing into.

"We clearly are looking at this strategy as one church meeting in decentralized locations to be most effective in reaching those communities for Christ," said McGill.

"Our shift to a regional approach is not about making worship more convenient for our members or emptying seats from our Lake Forest campus," he noted. "We’re making this shift to empower our people for evangelism and to reach new communities in the name of Jesus."

The expansion, called the 10x10 vision, also includes 10,000 small groups in homes, work, school and on the Internet and 1 million personal invitations given out by church members.

Answering critics of the multi-site approach, which has become the next big thing for effective outreach, McGill said there will always be critics of any new methodology but methodologies must always change in order to be as effective as possible in the generation we live, he commented. But the message in the church, meanwhile, never changes.

"What we have seen is that many churches that see the lostness that surrounds them are willing to embrace new modern methodologies to communicate the unchanging message of the hope of Jesus," said McGill.

How much technology is too much?

McGill has three tests to answer the popularly asked question.

First, the worship test. "When we worship technology – love it and depend on it more than God – we have gone too far."

Second, the fruitfulness test. "Are we seeing changed lives? If there is no life change, and we still stick to the technology, then we have gone too far."

Third, the test of conviction. "Any choice to use technology is a decision that should come from a clear heart, from a place where you believe God is leading."

Global 10x10

Nearly four years after launching a sweeping plan to fight the global ills of the world, Warren introduced P.E.A.C.E. 2.0 – the next phase of the PEACE plan. Some 7,400 Saddleback members have volunteered to take overseas PEACE trips to tackle the five "global goliaths" that are affecting billions of people – spiritual emptiness, self serving leadership, poverty, pandemic diseases, and lack of education and illiteracy. The initiative's main emphasis has been the local church and mobilizing churches worldwide to Plant churches, Equip leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick, and Educate the next generation "the way Jesus did," as Warren says.

Now, Warren is building a PEACE Coalition of partners that includes the government and NGOs and businesses in addition to churches. The "P" in PEACE 2.0 now stands for "Promote reconciliation" while churches will continue to focus on planting churches.

By December 2010, Saddleback hopes to have 10,000 more people go on global PEACE trips; 10,000 people per year involved in local PEACE projects; and 10,000 churches in the PEACE Coalition.

Why? Because it's the responsibility of the church to do it, said Warren. And Saddleback wants to be part of God's plan of exposing every tribe, language, people and nation to the gospel.


------------------------------------------

The UN The ONE Campaign


Interfaith “Bread for the World” Feeds the Hungry

*

“ONE is students and ministers, punk rockers and NASCAR moms, Americans of all beliefs and every walk of life, united as ONE to help make poverty history.” —The ONE Campaign (Emphasis added)15


One of the founders of The ONE Campaign is the professing Christian organization, Bread for the World.16 In Bread for the World’s “The Power of ONE” handbook on The ONE Campaign, the following statements are found (emphasis added):

*

“It is time for each of us to be ONE.” —Rev. David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World

*“This is a new effort to rally people in the United States – ONE by ONE. Together, we stand as God’s living presence to help others help themselves in a historic compact for compassion and justice for the most vulnerable people in our world. This campaign is joined by similar initiatives in several countries around the globe to work to achieve the Millennium Development Goals …”

*“‘The ONE Campaign and the Millennium Development Goals embody God’s passionate desire for reconciliation and reordering of our broken world. In an age when inequity and inequality among God’s children threaten to destabilize nations and destroy generations … I am pleased to endorse the work of the ONE Campaign …’” —Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop and Primate, The Episcopal Church, USA

*“When we as individuals take action, we strengthen the community God seeks to form. ONE by ONE we can join them to help God’s children afflicted with AIDS, extreme poverty and hunger.”

*“‘One’ also affirms that the world’s people who are poor and hungry are each uniquely children of God …”

*“One by one, each of us stands as God’s living presence in the world that often seeks to divide, alienate and exclude, offering instead the vision of a world redeemed, reconciled and united. That’s the power of one.…

*“God calls individuals into community: to come together, find common ground and work with singleness of purpose, to be one.”

*“Bind us together in singleness of purpose.… Help us to become one with You and your whole human family.” (From a prayer)17


First, the anti-God goals of the U.N. do not even remotely fit in with God’s “reconciliation and reordering of our broken world.” Neither is standing together in interfaith unity standing “as God’s living presence”! Rather than “the community God seeks to form,” this is actually the Angel of light’s emerging counterfeit kingdom of World Servers.


Second, as mentioned earlier, God makes it clear in His Holy Scriptures that only true believers in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, have been adopted into His family and become God’s children. It is universalism that denies this essential scriptural truth. God does not save people (make them His children) according to how poor or rich they are. This would be a denial of His Gospel of Christ which requires faith not circumstances for salvation.

*

“But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.… For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:22, 26)

*“Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?” (James 2:5)


Yet loving God has a broad meaning today that encompasses love for false gods. “The Power of ONE” handbook also contains bulletin inserts for churches who wish to become involved in The ONE Campaign. In deference to religious tolerance and inclusiveness, these inserts refer to Jesus as “God’s true One” and say the following:

*

“As Christians, we know that ONE is a very powerful number. Though called by different names, there is one God.” (Emphasis added)18


This is not referring to the different names of God in the Holy Scriptures. This is referring to the (New Age) New Spirituality’s Oneness, the basis of interfaith unity (the new world religion) in which “unity in diversity” reigns. This New Spirituality teaches that God’s unity exists in the diverse expressions the many religions (faiths) have given God. Therefore, the false gods in different religions are actually only “different names” for the ONE God.


In other words, the growing belief is that God has revealed Himself in different ways to different religions. Therefore no religion (faith) is without the truth, and in the unity of all the “fullness of truth” will be revealed. This is the epitome of relativism. No matter how strongly those in rebellion to God and His Word believe the opposite, God always has been and always will be Who He says He is in His true Word. And no one can approach Him apart from feeding on the true Bread of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ.

*

“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)


Nevertheless, the power of ONE continues to be preferred over the power of the one Lord God.


Bread for the World, which published “The Power of ONE” handbook, “is playing a leadership role in this new [ONE] campaign” (emphasis added).19 Despite its claims to be a Christian organization, it is on an interfaith path. On June 6, 2005, it sponsored “the first-ever Interfaith Convocation on Hunger.”20


This Convocation featured “a joint prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral,” and was to be “one of the broadest efforts among U.S. faith leaders.”21 Scheduled to attend were 45 Jewish, Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, mainline Protestant, and Evangelical leaders, including from the National Council of Churches.22 Among the Evangelicals scheduled to attend were Richard Cizik, of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Brian McLaren, a leader in the anti-scriptural Emerging Church movement.23


This Interfaith Convocation is a prime example of how today’s “Christianity” is sacrificing truth on the altar of unity in the name of purpose. Interfaith services greatly promote the belief that all religions in attendance are praying to and worshipping the same “God.” Thus all in attendance are part of the “family” of God, united as ONE in diversity.


The following quotes are from the Program of this Interfaith service (emphasis added)24:

*

“The living God, the moving Spirit of God, the Breath of life itself has called us together in celebration and struggle to reach out toward each other as our God reaches out toward us. Arise, sisters and brothers and let us worship God.”

*

“We stand together as leaders of faith communities across the United States and we echo the words of the sacred texts of our various faiths.”


This latter Response by the faith leaders was followed by “Readings from Sacred Texts”—Sikh, Hebrew, Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist. Later, the Congregational Response included committing “in the presence of the Holy One” to also “bring others in our synagogues and churches, our mosques, temples and communities into a movement that works to end hunger, poverty and disease in our world” (emphasis added). A South African Hymn then repeated its only phrases of the entire song -- “You hold the key,” “Open the door,” and “Walk through.” This was then followed by a “Prayer of Thanksgiving for Gifts”:

*

“… we know that your Spirit is moving when people of many faiths stand in one accord to feed as we have been fed.” (Emphasis added)


God’s Word explicitly declares that “the world cannot receive” “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17). It isn’t the Holy Spirit who is working in interfaith oneness.

*

“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” (Ephesians 2:2)


This spirit, the god of this world and Angel of light, is luring the world into an interfaith pursuit of his counterfeit peace and light. In spite of the fact that those attending the Interfaith Convocation belong to religions (faiths) that deny the Lord Jesus Christ, the different religions who attended joined with one voice in singing, “The Peace of the Earth”:

*

The peace of the earth be with you,

the peace of the heavens too;

the peace of the rivers be with you,

the peace of the oceans too.

Deep peace falling over you;

God’s peace growing in you. (Bold added)25


Then again with one voice the religions sang the Recessional Hymn which repeated its only words over and over and over, “We are marching in the light of God” (emphasis added).


No matter how many times something is stated, it does not make it true. The peace and light of the true God is found only through the Lord Jesus Christ on the narrow way of His absolute truth. No matter how many people join together as ONE, the broad way will never see the peace and light of God. There is an eternal difference between being “people of faith” and people of the faith.


God has been warning His people for thousands of years through His true prophets and Scriptures against much of what is occurring today. His Word contains a multitude of instances where His people are to remain separate. There is no communion between light and darkness and the narrow way and the broad way. God told Isaiah:

*

“Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces … Take counsel together and it shall come to nought … For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence … And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.… To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.” (Isaiah 8:9-15, 20-22)


Yet instead of heeding the warnings of the loving Lord God, the world prefers to heed the lies of the diabolical Master Deceiver:

*

“… recognition of the true brotherhood of man, based on the one divine life, working through the one soul and expressing itself through the one humanity; recognition, therefore, of relationship both to the divine life throughout the world and to mankind itself. It is this developing spiritual attitude which will lead to right human relations and eventual world peace.” —Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul26

http://inthenameofpurpose.org/chp16.htm

----------------------------------------------------------
Rick Warren Brian Mclaren The One UN toolkit for the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
http://action.one.org/issues/
-------------------------------------------------------------
This statement below was made by Rick Warren


Warren went on and gave insight into his end times view
“If Jesus Christ does not come back a thousand years from today there will be no organizations or government… there will be a Church.”

How does he know there will be no organizations or government? Of course there will be a Church, Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail. I don’t think the way things are going we will need to wait 1,000 years to find out. however what he is saying in a subtle way is that the church will rule the world- WITHOUT CHRIST BEING HERE. Think about this statement and the theology behind it. It is very wrong.

http://www.letusreason.org/Popteac26.htm

[A Berean]

Sing,

Rick Warren is basically promoting the United Nations Eath Charter Millennium Development Goals

-----------------------------------

Rick Warren Launches New Plan to Multiply Impact Worldwide



By Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter
Wed, Oct. 17 2007 02:59 PM ET
Saddleback Church, one of the largest churches in the nation, has launched a new global vision to multiply impact on the local and international levels.

Within the next three years, megachurch in the Lake Forest, Calif., aims to launch nine new off-site campuses in addition to its San Clemente campus, which meets every weekend at the local high school, and step up its global P.E.A.C.E. plan. By 2010, Saddleback hopes to see 10,000 more lives changed and baptized.

"One of the most important words in the Christian life [is] 'go,'" said Rick Warren, founding and senior pastor of Saddleback, during his "Multiplying Our Impact" sermon series last month. "The Christian life is a journey and over and over again God says you are to go. We are not a passive faith; you are a 'going' faith."

Thousands of Saddleback congregants and staff have been on the move to open a campus in Corona and Irvine late this year and early 2008. Two pastors have already been picked out of the Saddleback staff to lead the sites, which will have their own live worship music and video feed from the main Lake Forest campus. The campuses will host smaller congregations of 400 to 600 people.

Matt McGill, pastor of regional campuses for Saddleback, calls the expansion "decentralized congregations" rather than the popular term "multi-site" which more churches are venturing into.

"We clearly are looking at this strategy as one church meeting in decentralized locations to be most effective in reaching those communities for Christ," said McGill.

"Our shift to a regional approach is not about making worship more convenient for our members or emptying seats from our Lake Forest campus," he noted. "We’re making this shift to empower our people for evangelism and to reach new communities in the name of Jesus."

The expansion, called the 10x10 vision, also includes 10,000 small groups in homes, work, school and on the Internet and 1 million personal invitations given out by church members.

Answering critics of the multi-site approach, which has become the next big thing for effective outreach, McGill said there will always be critics of any new methodology but methodologies must always change in order to be as effective as possible in the generation we live, he commented. But the message in the church, meanwhile, never changes.

"What we have seen is that many churches that see the lostness that surrounds them are willing to embrace new modern methodologies to communicate the unchanging message of the hope of Jesus," said McGill.

How much technology is too much?

McGill has three tests to answer the popularly asked question.

First, the worship test. "When we worship technology – love it and depend on it more than God – we have gone too far."

Second, the fruitfulness test. "Are we seeing changed lives? If there is no life change, and we still stick to the technology, then we have gone too far."

Third, the test of conviction. "Any choice to use technology is a decision that should come from a clear heart, from a place where you believe God is leading."

Global 10x10

Nearly four years after launching a sweeping plan to fight the global ills of the world, Warren introduced P.E.A.C.E. 2.0 – the next phase of the PEACE plan. Some 7,400 Saddleback members have volunteered to take overseas PEACE trips to tackle the five "global goliaths" that are affecting billions of people – spiritual emptiness, self serving leadership, poverty, pandemic diseases, and lack of education and illiteracy. The initiative's main emphasis has been the local church and mobilizing churches worldwide to Plant churches, Equip leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick, and Educate the next generation "the way Jesus did," as Warren says.

Now, Warren is building a PEACE Coalition of partners that includes the government and NGOs and businesses in addition to churches. The "P" in PEACE 2.0 now stands for "Promote reconciliation" while churches will continue to focus on planting churches.

By December 2010, Saddleback hopes to have 10,000 more people go on global PEACE trips; 10,000 people per year involved in local PEACE projects; and 10,000 churches in the PEACE Coalition.

Why? Because it's the responsibility of the church to do it, said Warren. And Saddleback wants to be part of God's plan of exposing every tribe, language, people and nation to the gospel.


------------------------------------------

The UN The ONE Campaign


Interfaith “Bread for the World” Feeds the Hungry

*

“ONE is students and ministers, punk rockers and NASCAR moms, Americans of all beliefs and every walk of life, united as ONE to help make poverty history.” —The ONE Campaign (Emphasis added)15


One of the founders of The ONE Campaign is the professing Christian organization, Bread for the World.16 In Bread for the World’s “The Power of ONE” handbook on The ONE Campaign, the following statements are found (emphasis added):

*

“It is time for each of us to be ONE.” —Rev. David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World

*“This is a new effort to rally people in the United States – ONE by ONE. Together, we stand as God’s living presence to help others help themselves in a historic compact for compassion and justice for the most vulnerable people in our world. This campaign is joined by similar initiatives in several countries around the globe to work to achieve the Millennium Development Goals …”

*“‘The ONE Campaign and the Millennium Development Goals embody God’s passionate desire for reconciliation and reordering of our broken world. In an age when inequity and inequality among God’s children threaten to destabilize nations and destroy generations … I am pleased to endorse the work of the ONE Campaign …’” —Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop and Primate, The Episcopal Church, USA

*“When we as individuals take action, we strengthen the community God seeks to form. ONE by ONE we can join them to help God’s children afflicted with AIDS, extreme poverty and hunger.”

*“‘One’ also affirms that the world’s people who are poor and hungry are each uniquely children of God …”

*“One by one, each of us stands as God’s living presence in the world that often seeks to divide, alienate and exclude, offering instead the vision of a world redeemed, reconciled and united. That’s the power of one.…

*“God calls individuals into community: to come together, find common ground and work with singleness of purpose, to be one.”

*“Bind us together in singleness of purpose.… Help us to become one with You and your whole human family.” (From a prayer)17


First, the anti-God goals of the U.N. do not even remotely fit in with God’s “reconciliation and reordering of our broken world.” Neither is standing together in interfaith unity standing “as God’s living presence”! Rather than “the community God seeks to form,” this is actually the Angel of light’s emerging counterfeit kingdom of World Servers.


Second, as mentioned earlier, God makes it clear in His Holy Scriptures that only true believers in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, have been adopted into His family and become God’s children. It is universalism that denies this essential scriptural truth. God does not save people (make them His children) according to how poor or rich they are. This would be a denial of His Gospel of Christ which requires faith not circumstances for salvation.

*

“But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.… For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:22, 26)

*“Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?” (James 2:5)


Yet loving God has a broad meaning today that encompasses love for false gods. “The Power of ONE” handbook also contains bulletin inserts for churches who wish to become involved in The ONE Campaign. In deference to religious tolerance and inclusiveness, these inserts refer to Jesus as “God’s true One” and say the following:

*

“As Christians, we know that ONE is a very powerful number. Though called by different names, there is one God.” (Emphasis added)18


This is not referring to the different names of God in the Holy Scriptures. This is referring to the (New Age) New Spirituality’s Oneness, the basis of interfaith unity (the new world religion) in which “unity in diversity” reigns. This New Spirituality teaches that God’s unity exists in the diverse expressions the many religions (faiths) have given God. Therefore, the false gods in different religions are actually only “different names” for the ONE God.


In other words, the growing belief is that God has revealed Himself in different ways to different religions. Therefore no religion (faith) is without the truth, and in the unity of all the “fullness of truth” will be revealed. This is the epitome of relativism. No matter how strongly those in rebellion to God and His Word believe the opposite, God always has been and always will be Who He says He is in His true Word. And no one can approach Him apart from feeding on the true Bread of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ.

*

“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)


Nevertheless, the power of ONE continues to be preferred over the power of the one Lord God.


Bread for the World, which published “The Power of ONE” handbook, “is playing a leadership role in this new [ONE] campaign” (emphasis added).19 Despite its claims to be a Christian organization, it is on an interfaith path. On June 6, 2005, it sponsored “the first-ever Interfaith Convocation on Hunger.”20


This Convocation featured “a joint prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral,” and was to be “one of the broadest efforts among U.S. faith leaders.”21 Scheduled to attend were 45 Jewish, Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, mainline Protestant, and Evangelical leaders, including from the National Council of Churches.22 Among the Evangelicals scheduled to attend were Richard Cizik, of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Brian McLaren, a leader in the anti-scriptural Emerging Church movement.23


This Interfaith Convocation is a prime example of how today’s “Christianity” is sacrificing truth on the altar of unity in the name of purpose. Interfaith services greatly promote the belief that all religions in attendance are praying to and worshipping the same “God.” Thus all in attendance are part of the “family” of God, united as ONE in diversity.


The following quotes are from the Program of this Interfaith service (emphasis added)24:

*

“The living God, the moving Spirit of God, the Breath of life itself has called us together in celebration and struggle to reach out toward each other as our God reaches out toward us. Arise, sisters and brothers and let us worship God.”

*

“We stand together as leaders of faith communities across the United States and we echo the words of the sacred texts of our various faiths.”


This latter Response by the faith leaders was followed by “Readings from Sacred Texts”—Sikh, Hebrew, Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist. Later, the Congregational Response included committing “in the presence of the Holy One” to also “bring others in our synagogues and churches, our mosques, temples and communities into a movement that works to end hunger, poverty and disease in our world” (emphasis added). A South African Hymn then repeated its only phrases of the entire song -- “You hold the key,” “Open the door,” and “Walk through.” This was then followed by a “Prayer of Thanksgiving for Gifts”:

*

“… we know that your Spirit is moving when people of many faiths stand in one accord to feed as we have been fed.” (Emphasis added)


God’s Word explicitly declares that “the world cannot receive” “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17). It isn’t the Holy Spirit who is working in interfaith oneness.

*

“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” (Ephesians 2:2)


This spirit, the god of this world and Angel of light, is luring the world into an interfaith pursuit of his counterfeit peace and light. In spite of the fact that those attending the Interfaith Convocation belong to religions (faiths) that deny the Lord Jesus Christ, the different religions who attended joined with one voice in singing, “The Peace of the Earth”:

*

The peace of the earth be with you,

the peace of the heavens too;

the peace of the rivers be with you,

the peace of the oceans too.

Deep peace falling over you;

God’s peace growing in you. (Bold added)25


Then again with one voice the religions sang the Recessional Hymn which repeated its only words over and over and over, “We are marching in the light of God” (emphasis added).


No matter how many times something is stated, it does not make it true. The peace and light of the true God is found only through the Lord Jesus Christ on the narrow way of His absolute truth. No matter how many people join together as ONE, the broad way will never see the peace and light of God. There is an eternal difference between being “people of faith” and people of the faith.


God has been warning His people for thousands of years through His true prophets and Scriptures against much of what is occurring today. His Word contains a multitude of instances where His people are to remain separate. There is no communion between light and darkness and the narrow way and the broad way. God told Isaiah:

*

“Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces … Take counsel together and it shall come to nought … For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence … And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.… To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.” (Isaiah 8:9-15, 20-22)


Yet instead of heeding the warnings of the loving Lord God, the world prefers to heed the lies of the diabolical Master Deceiver:

*

“… recognition of the true brotherhood of man, based on the one divine life, working through the one soul and expressing itself through the one humanity; recognition, therefore, of relationship both to the divine life throughout the world and to mankind itself. It is this developing spiritual attitude which will lead to right human relations and eventual world peace.” —Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul26

http://inthenameofpurpose.org/chp16.htm

----------------------------------------------------------
Rick Warren Brian Mclaren The One UN toolkit for the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
http://action.one.org/issues/
-------------------------------------------------------------
This statement below was made by Rick Warren


Warren went on and gave insight into his end times view
“If Jesus Christ does not come back a thousand years from today there will be no organizations or government… there will be a Church.”

How does he know there will be no organizations or government? Of course there will be a Church, Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail. I don’t think the way things are going we will need to wait 1,000 years to find out. however what he is saying in a subtle way is that the church will rule the world- WITHOUT CHRIST BEING HERE. Think about this statement and the theology behind it. It is very wrong.

http://www.letusreason.org/Popteac26.htm

With antichrist, his "faux bride" prepares a place FOR HIM :fear. For us, Jesus Christ prepares a place for His Bride. This is that one world "Whore" religion being set up all over the world.

[goinghome]

With antichrist, his "faux bride" prepares a place FOR HIM :fear. For us, Jesus Christ prepares a place for His Bride. This is that one world "Whore" religion being set up all over the world.

Well said!!!

[A Berean]

"This statement below was made by Rick Warren


Warren went on and gave insight into his end times view
“If Jesus Christ does not come back a thousand years from today there will be no organizations or government… there will be a Church.”

How does he know there will be no organizations or government? Of course there will be a Church, Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail. I don’t think the way things are going we will need to wait 1,000 years to find out. however what he is saying in a subtle way is that the church will rule the world- WITHOUT CHRIST BEING HERE. Think about this statement and the theology behind it. It is very wrong."

http://www.letusreason.org/Popteac26.htm

Warren et al are building a "kingdom" for themselves and for the AC, but it is not the Kingdom of our God and His Christ.

[AnotherOldGuy]

2Thessalonians2:3 "Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;"
There is no 'great' there. And that verse does not say "falling away".

[A Berean]

There is no 'great' there. And that verse does not say "falling away".

Quote:
Originally Posted by A Berean
2Thessalonians2:3 "Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;"