Definition:
The combining of the
world's religions
While
the majority of the Christian church has become seduced and mesmerized
by Purpose-Driven, mysticism, the emerging church and so on, interspirituality
is on the move. Evangelical leaders as well as New Age gurus and
other religious leaders across the world are joining in this effort.
The common ground between them all? Contemplative spirituality
God in Everything?
The Premise of Contemplative Prayer
by Ray Yungen
It
was Alice Bailey (the famous occult prophetess who coined
the term New Age), who made this startling assertion:
It
is, of course, easy to find many passages which link
the way of the Christian Knower with that of his brother
in the East. They bear witness to the same efficacy
of method.
What
did she mean by the term "Christian Knower"? The answer
is unmistakable! ... [O]ccultism is awakening the mystical
faculties to see God in everything. In Hinduism, this
is called reaching samadhi or enlightenment. It is the
final objective of yoga meditation: God in everything—a
force or power flowing through all that exists. William
Johnston believes such an experience exists within the
context of Christianity. He explains:
What
I can safely say, however, is that there is a Christian
samadhi that has always occupied an honored place
in the spirituality of the West. This, I believe,
is the thing that is nearest to Zen. It is this that
I have called Christian Zen.
The
famous psychologist Carl Jung predicted this system
would be the yoga of the west. Christian Zen? Christian
yoga? These seem to be oxymorons, like military pacifism
or alcoholic sobriety. Christians, conservative ones
at least, have always viewed these concepts as heretical
and anti-biblical. The word most commonly used for it
is pantheism—all is God. But when one looks at the Christian
Zen movement one discovers a similar term, which for
all practical purposes, means the same thing. This term
is called panentheism—God is in all things....
[Does]
panentheism have a legitimate place in orthodox Christianity?
This is a vital question because panentheism is the
foundational worldview among those who engage in mystical
prayer. Ken Kaisch, a Episcopal priest and a teacher
of mystical prayer, made this very clear in his book,
Finding God, where he noted:
Meditation
is a process through which we quiet the mind and the
emotions and enter directly into the experience of
the Divine.... there is a deep connection between
us ... God is in each of us.
Here
lies the core of panentheism: God is in everything and
everything is in God. The only difference between pantheism
and panentheism is how God is in everything.
This position of the panentheist is challenging to understand:
Your outer personality is not God, but God is still
in you as your true identity. This explains why mystics
say, all is one. At the mystical level, they experience
this God-force that seems to flow through everything
and everybody. All creation has God in it as a living,
vital presence. It is just hidden.
The
theological implications of this worldview put it at
direct odds with biblical Christianity for obvious reasons.
Only one true God exists, and His identity is not in
everyone. The fullness of God’s identity, in bodily
form, rests in Jesus Christ and Him only! Click here to read more of this
excerpt from A Time of Departing, 2nd ed. pp. 28-30
Listen
to the words of a few who are bringing interspirituality
on the world scene.
"The
rise of community among cultures and religious traditions ...
makes possible what we can call 'interspirituality': the assimilation
of insights, values, and spiritual practices from the various
religions and their application to one's own inner life and
development." —Wayne Teasdale who coined the
term "interspirituality," The Community of Religions
(Bear in mind, Brian McLaren endorsed the back cover of a book,
The Seeker's Way by Dave Fleming, which included an entire chapter
written by Teasdale)
"A
'highest common factor' links the world's religious traditions
[through] 'the metaphysic that recognizes a divine reality
substantial to the world of things and lives and minds.'"—Ronald
S. Miller and the Editors of the New Age Journal, As Above,
So Below
"I
must add, though, that I don't believe making disciples must
equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be
advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become
followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu,
or Jewish contexts."—Brian
McLaren (leader of the Emerging Church movement), A Generous
Orthodoxy
"[M]ysticism
provides some hope for common ground between Christianity and
Islam."—Tony Campolo, Speaking My Mind
"The
deceived church of the end-time is not merely the product
of human errors of judgment caused by poor spiritual insight,
but it clearly also shows signs of a satanic spirit of error.
"It
is becoming more evident by the day that the kingdom of darkness
has a calculated plan to deceive and misdirect the Christian
church to the extent that members will become unfaithful to
the true Christ and give their cooperation to prepare the
human-centred, earthly kingdom of the cosmic Christ of all
faiths (the Antichrist). The image of Christ is gradually,
as unnoticeable as possible, changed to become conformable
to the multireligious image of the Antichrist."
—Read Entire Article
On May 15th,
2005, all across the globe, millions of people gathered in stadiums
to pray together. While this may seem like a wonderful event
to many, and who should question a prayer gathering of this
magnitude, the underlying framework of this event must be examined.
"I
don't know all the statistics -- I'm just a country preacher -
but I do know there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God,
and one Father who is in us and above us all - and there
is the One campaign." —Pastor
Heb Lusk, with Rick Warren on the One Campaign
While
evangelicals like Tony Campolo and Brian McLaren encourage a merging
of Christianity and Islam, true believers are being persecuted
for refusing to deny their faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone.
What a terrible blow Campolo and others deliver to Christians
martyred throughout history!
Marianne
Williamson and Barbara Marx Hubbard
(Read with Caution)
