Brennan Manning

[Sing4Him]

WHOM WILL YOU SERVE BRENNAN MANNING?


The Mush God of Mystical “Illumination”:

[Jesus] said, GOD IS LOVE — period. But there is more to the message of Jesus. He insisted that His Father is crazy with love, that God is a kooky God who can scarcely bear to be without us.
(teacher of Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, 171)
Or ...

The LORD God Almighty of Biblical Revelation:

the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity.
(Pastor A.W. Tozer, The Quotable Tozer I, 77,78)

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:15)

http://www.apprising.org/archives/2008/06/whom_will_you_s.html

[Sing4Him]

DR. GARY GILLEY REVIEW: “THE RAGAMUFFIN GOSPEL” BY BRENNAN MANNING


Apprising Ministries is pleased to point you to the following book review by my friend Dr. Gary Gilley, pastor of Southern View Chapel in Springfield, IL.:thumb In addition Gilley also produces a fine series of ongoing articles called Think on These Things which deal with a wide range of important issues facing the Body of Christ today.

In this succinct review piece referenced below Gilley examines The Ragamuffin Gospel by teacher of Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism Brennan Manning. And sadly as Gilley correctly points out:

Manning is a former Roman Catholic priest who left the priesthood to marry. He has recently divorced his wife. He is a recovering alcoholic who lapses every so often. He is a product of pop-psychology and Roman Catholic mystics rather than Scripture. He is on the cutting edge of the contemplation prayer movement which is steadily leading evangelicals toward Eastern mysticism. He is questionably a universalist who has nothing good to say about the church but adores AA. Yet somehow he is all the rage among many evangelicals.
You can read this review from Dr. Gary Gilley here:

The Ragamuffin Gospel

by Brennan Manning

Manning is a former Roman Catholic priest who left the priesthood to marry. He has recently divorced his wife. He is a recovering alcoholic who lapses every so often. He is a product of pop-psychology and Roman Catholic mystics rather than Scripture. He is on the cutting edge of the contemplation prayer movement which is steadily leading evangelicals toward Eastern mysticism. He is questionably a universalist who has nothing good to say about the church but adores AA. Yet somehow he is all the rage among many evangelicals. The Ragamuffin Gospel is praised and endorsed by Michael W. Smith, Rich Mullins, Max Lucado, Eugene Peterson and Philip Yancy. It is the testimony of a beat-up, knocked-down sinner being saved by the grace of God. That’s the good news; no doubt this message centering on the grace of God is the primary draw of the book. There is nothing wrong, actually there is everything right, about that message. It is in the details where Manning strays.


•The sources for his philosophy of life range from Catholic mystics to Paul Tillich to Norman Mailer to Carl Jung.


•His use of Scripture is scanty but when he attempts to support his views from the Bible he usually goes astray (e. g. pp. 37, 142, 166-7, 220).


•He confuses “loving sinners” with “accepting their sin” (p. 33) and believes that forgiveness precedes repentance (pp. 74, 167, 181). This leads to continuous hints of universalism (pp. 21, 29, 31, 33, 37, 74, 223, 232) although he never directly claims to be a universalist.


•He is heavily soaked in pop-psychology which taints all he says: accepting self (pp. 49, 152, 229); self-intimacy (p. 49); loving ourselves (pp. 50, 168); inner child (p. 64); forgiving yourself (p. 115); self-image (pp. 147-148); self-worth (p. 148).


•He accepts a postmodern worldview and calls for us to be open-minded about truth, reality and Christ (p. 65).


•He consistently presents a lopsided view of God. God is loving and forgiving but never a judge, disciplinarian or punisher (p. 75), contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture.


•God is not man’s enemy, contrary to Romans 5 that says we are the enemy of God if we are not saved (p. 76).


•We are told that God does not test us or promote pain (p. 76).


•He believes that God speaks today outside of Scripture (pp. 94, 117, 186-187, 229) and that the presence of God is a felt experience that we should seek (pp. 45, 46, 94, 162, 229).


Add all of this up and we have a book that makes some good points, especially about God’s grace, but distorts so much about God and truth as to render it worse than useless—it is downright dangerous.

http://www.svchapel.org/Resources/BookReviews/book_reviews.asp?ID=218

[RefinedbyFire]

I'm tired of Scripture being twisted here, being twisted there, being tinkered with here, being tinkered with there...

It seems like many men dance around the true Gospel because they probably have a sense Christ is the light and truth, thus, are attracted to the idea His salvation, but some don't want to give up sin (or what they see as the pleasures of sin), nor want to deny themselves, and give their life to Christ. It seems like they are trying to find a way around what He spoke, while still trying to be saved by Him...or something.

[dramama]

thanks for posting this...my SIL who is a "reverend" in a four square church gave me that horrible drivel of a book to read. Read page one and returned it to her, she's so far off on anything biblical :ohno I'm saving this info....it's been around for quite a few years, doing it's damage.