Coming Soon to a Church Near You: Watch Out.

Google "labyrinth." Google "contemplative prayer." Google "centering prayer." Google "emergent church." Google "Brian Mclaren" (the lead figure in the emergent church). I have spent the last few days doing just that; googling (I assume this is a term that Webster has accepted by now) and finding blogs, articles, and resources on these topics from the proponents' perspective. I have read only one opposing viewpoint article.


Then I read the Bible-- quite the opposing viewpoint. I will let you do the legwork if you want, but the overall scheme I see in the aforementioned practices affiliated with the emergent movement is this: The powerful and exclusive gospel of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has been reduced to a loving God (too loving to crucify his Son on our behalf, by the way) that one can experience in a mind-emptying time of silence and reflection into ourselves and/or opening up to the Holy Spirit spirit world. 

To the emergent, what God says is enough is not enough. Flawed, distorted and deceptive in their theology, the practices of the emergent fall into a spirit world we are not meant to experience. They want to eat the forbidden fruit. And many people are unknowingly following them into divination and sorcery, into false teaching. Many people are not discerning that these teachers are false prophets, of whom Jesus said: "Watch out.... They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves" (Mt. 7:15).

Take a look at the most widespread and seemingly most innocent practice as a "for instance". The popular practice of contemplative prayer is rapidly gaining ground and taught to many in the church, especially the youth. The goal of contemplative prayer is to be "a teachable, spiritual process enabling the ordinary person to enter and receive a direct experience of union with God" (http://www.contemplativeprayer.net/). But, in Ephesians 3:16-17 Paul prays "that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." We cannot be more unified with God than we are through faith in Christ. The experience that contemplative prayer brings is for the sake of the emotional high, not to humble ourselves to draw close to God as the Bible instructs over and over again (James 4:5 and I Peter 5:6 to cite a couple).

The following is a how-to guide for contemplative prayer from Contemplative Outreach, Ltd. http://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/methodcp.htm:

1.       Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within.

2.       Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.

3.       When engaged with your thoughts*, return ever-so gently to the sacred word.

4.       At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.

*Thoughts include body sensations, feelings, images, and reflections.”

The practice of contemplative prayer is superficial in the attempt to give more credence to an experience than to the instructions of the Living God. Not only superficial, but dangerous.  Prayingchurch.org (a website of the ELCA) asserts that "Contemplative prayer can develop our relationship with Jesus Christ so that we commune with God beyond words, thoughts, feelings, and actions." An opponent of the practice defines it as "a belief system that uses ancient mystical practices to induce altered states of consciousness (the silence) and is often wrapped in Christian terminology; the premise of contemplative spirituality is pantheistic (God is all) and panentheistic (God is in all). The purpose of contemplative prayer is to enter an Altered State Of Consciousness in order to find one's True Self, thus finding God" (http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/cp.htm). In the case of defining contemplative prayer, it seems that the proponents and opponents agree.


One can only guess what kind of spirits a contemplative prayer opens to in meditation. If the argument is by definition, "finding the true self, thus finding God", what kind of pride and arrogance is that? What difference is there between mystical Christian contemplative prayer, Buddhist nirvana or New Age oneness with the cosmos? I don't see any difference-- it is giving Satan a foothold.


In these and other practices of the emergent church, one's own experience trumps the Bible. The Bible becomes defined by us, interpreted in light of our experience, instead of our lives and experiences defined by the Bible. The leaders brag of their postmodern mindset and pridefully see themselves more enlightened than the rest of us, especially those of us who dare to be the f-word (fundamental, that is).

However, we must remember the Bible clearly declares that “Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)  We are to find our comfort and hope in the Scriptures and Bible-based prayer and fellowship with God. This doesn't mean that God cannot or does not use our personal experiences to draw us closer to Himself or to fulfill His will. But the truth in the Scriptures is enough-- there should be no manmade additions or subtractions. God can use our experiences to focus on the written Biblical principles, not give us new revelations. The very idea that we have a revelation that falls out of the realm of Scripture is arrogant, even blasphemous.  (a few of the ideas espoused in this paragraph are rooted in http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com)

Some of the ideas of the emergent church are enticing. These ideas are wrong. If we feel we have been compromised in some area, we need to get back into the very Word of God. Know it, study it, digest it. 

"Follow the pattern of sound words...in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you" (2 Timothy 2:13).

God is waiting to pour out His mercy on us as we humble ourselves before Him, the One True God.