Re-shaping Christianity

There is a new-ish movement blazing across the nation and even the world. It's called the "Emerging Church" movement, or "Emergent."

Scripture VERY clearly warns that "the last days" will be charactrized by great deceptions and "doctrines of demons." In fact, when his disciples asked Jesus what would be the signs of his coming, the very first thing he mentioned was to BEWARE not to be deceived.

Recently Robert Schuller (Crystal Cathedral) held a huge conference with the purpose of "redefining Christianity"! ! !  He had some very big-name people there.

Listen to this interview, and be educated about what's happening so that you will be fore-warned, and able to recognize the "doctrines of demons" as they start wreaking havoc both here and across the world.

http://www.olivetreeviews.org/radio/mp3/

When you get to the site, scroll down the center till you see the February 9th broadcast with Roger Oakland.

Among those involved were representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church and many Protestant  Churches. The purpose is to come up with a plan whereby they can destroy Christianity as we know it and totally revamp it.

One of the biggest supporters of this "movement" is Rick Warren who wrote the book: The Purpose Driven Church. Remember that the Bible has been given to us by God. As Paul stated in his letter to Timothy: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

While the Bible has been written by human hands, the words were inspired by God. Not only are the words inspired, but the Bible states humans are prohibited from altering the Scriptures by adding to or taking away from what God has said. Notice what we read in the Book of Revelation: For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Therefore according to Scripture, humans tread on dangerous ground when we take the liberty of adding to or deleting from what God has said. However, it is a fact that many seeker-friendly churches try to make the scriptures more "seeker-friendly", by altering the actual inspired Word of God and reinterpret it into the ideas or views of man. For example, consider this "new" version of the Bible written by Eugene Peterson, known as "The Message" It has been described as a "contemporary rendering of the Bible from the original languages, crafted to present its tone, rhythm, events, and ideas in everyday language," however, in reality, it is nothing more than Peterson's own thoughts, views and interpretation. He has taken the carefully translated words of the Bible and put them into his own words and chosen idioms.

For example, lets take a look at the following portion  of Scripture taken from John 3:17 - "that the world through him might be saved." Peterson's rendering reads: "He came to help, to put the world right again."  We all understand that  "saved" means that we can be redeemed from the judgment we deserve for our sins so that we can go to heaven. Substituting the word "help" in place of "saved" totally distorts the meaning of what Jesus said. And "to put the world right again" has nothing to do with the salvation of souls. In fact this sounds like the social gospel to reform the world through political action. Rick Warren is a strong defender of this so-called bible. What Rick Warren  and Eugene Peterson don't seem to grasp is that when we depend upon man's thoughts rather than God's thoughts it's a certainty that we will be deceived. As an Orthodox Catholic, I can only say to  Peterson and Warren, "If you want the truth and all the truth, read the Bible - not some man's conjecture about what he thinks God has said. Otherwise you have the potential of committing spiritual suicide."

It may be true that Christianity needs to be relevant  in order to be effective in peoples' lives, it is not wise to stray from biblical standards and still be sound Christian witnesses of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is apparent that this emerging church movement is more experience-based than Bible-based. Deviating from the Word of God for extrabiblical experience can open the door to deception.

In so many modern churches today, stained glass windows and icons have been replaced with video screens and stereo speaker systems. The sermon has been replaced by having a holistic experience.

I believe that this emerging-church movement is just one more tool of Satan to "dumb-down" Christianity so that people no longer know what God has said, much like the public school system has dumbed down two or three generations of Americans so that they no longer know the true history of our country's founding. How effective can experiential Christianity be when it comes to knowing who we are, where we are in time, and where we are headed?

A Christianity that is not based on the Scriptures is a false Christianity. It may be ecumenical and it may be successful in attracting numbers, but it is not biblical. It could even lead people to believe they believe, but instead they follow false teachers and false doctrine and are deceived. Jesus said He is coming again, How many of todays professing Christians will be ready when He returns?

+Gregori

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•An Understanding of the Ancient Canons

• Ancient Canons/Seven Ecumenical Councils

• A bit of understanding about the Fundamentalist Cults....

• Modern Day Ecumenism and its horrors

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