Articles

The Myth There Was No J In Hebrew [video]

Paula White Exposed [video]

THAT’s My King! Pastor Lockridge [video]

Powerful Prayers from Children-This Will Shake You [video]

The Fear of the LORD is to Hate Evil: Pride, and Arrogancy #shorts [video]

Exploding the Lies – one by one. There are always the whiners who are looking to take issue with that which is of God, namely the written Word of God. Beware of the deceitful detractors – who, as their father the devil, whisper questions and doubts upon the LORD, His character, and His Word. Share to bless. The LORD kept His promise to preserve His Word to us (Psalms 12:6-7). Always remember saints, it is SATAN who is always behind the doubt casting upon God’s words, sowing confusion. Yet we have the “MORE sure word of prophecy” in the “exceeding great and precious promises” of the Holy Scriptures (2 Peter 1:3-4; 19-21, etc.). See Genesis 3:1; Mark 4:15, etc.. God kept His promise to preserve His Word to us in English in the King James Bible and in Spanish the Reina Valera, etc.

Beware of the uptick in the use of the cult of “yah” ….. that always puts up red flags for this disciple. HIS name is JESUS CHRIST. SAY IT WITH ME OUT LOUD – JESUS CHRIST!!!!! EVERY KNEE WILL BOW TO JESUS CHRIST!

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of JESUS every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that JESUS CHRIST is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11

There is “NONE other name” whereby one can be saved.

“… Jesus Christ of Nazareth … Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:10, 12

ANY QUESTIONS?

Gail Riplinger on the name false names Yahweh, Yahushua, and Yuhuah.

Riplinger on the name game.

The name of God is spelled with the Hebrew letters yod, heh, vav, and heh, read from right to left and then transliterated into English as JHVH (called the Tetragrammaton). In the KJV Old Testament it is translated ‘JEHOVAH’ seven times (and rendered ‘LORD’ the remaining times; see New Age Bible Versions, pp. 373-385). Each of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet paints a picture. The letters in the name of God illustrate the following:

J = jod It suggests a ‘giving, extending hand’ (Marc-Alain Oauknin, Mysteries of the Alphabet, New York: Abbeville Press, 1999, p. 207).

H = heh =
It represents an ‘enclosure,’ like heaven or a window (Mysteries, p.191).

V = vav = It symbolizes a nail (Mysteries, p. 168). A ‘v’ in English is a pictogram of the chiseled end of a nail.

H = heh =
The H is repeated at the end of the name because “Jesus was risen” and “received up into heaven” again (Mark 16:19).

God reached his hand out of the windows of heaven, and we put a nail in it; having taken our punishment for sin, he has returned to heaven. The “nail” “pierced” “hands” of Jesus were foretold in Ps. 22:16 and Isa. 22:23-25. (Dr. Floyd Jones has even suggested that the sign recorded in John 19:19 might have been written in Hebrew, “JESUS OF NAZARETH AND THE KING OF THE JEWS,” creating an acrostic of the name JHVH, as the vav for ‘and’ begins the word for King, melek (see Hebrew O.T. Gen. 14:8 for Hebrew form). This could explain why the Jews immediately asked Pilate to change it to “he said, I am King of the Jews” (v. 21).

Jesus is a transliteration of the Hebrew ‘Joshua,’ meaning ‘JEHOVAH is salvation.’ Jesus Christ is shown to be the J, the jod “the arm of the LORD” in Isaiah 53:1-12 and Isaiah 59:16, which says, “therefore his arm brought salvation.” Isaiah 63:2, 5 repeats this theme. The jod, is a picture of an arm and hand, drawn in a tiny and compact form. Professor Ouaknin traced the jod from pictograms of a praising upright arm and hand, to outstretched arms, as if on a cross, and finally, to an arm and hand reaching down, like the letter  reaching like Jesus  to rescue perishing mankind (Mysteries, pp. 200-207).

In the 19th century, as unbelieving German critics of the Bible were hammering away at the word of God, they tried to refashion God’s name, JEHOVAH. They asserted that the God of Israel’s name should be pronounced Yahweh because, to them, he was nothing more than an offshoot of the pagan deity “Yaho.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Jews, who generally did not utter the name of God, had used, but ceased using the name JEHOVAH “centuries before the Christian era” notes the classic scholar’s edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. It affirms that, “…reading what actually stood in the text, they would inevitably pronounce the name Jehovah” (Encyclop)dia Britannica, 11thedition (New York: Encyclop)dia Britannica, Inc., 1910-11), vol. 15, pp. 311-314, s.v. Jehovah). The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia admits that in the “older system of transliteration, Jehovah” is the pronunciation. It states, “In the Masoretic text the usual form would give the pronunciation Yehowah [pronounced, Jehovah]” (The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1912), vol. VI, p. 117, s.v. Jehovah; vol. XII, p. 470, s.v. Yahweh).

Thousands of years ago, perhaps 3,600, the name JEHOVAH was given by God to Moses. It is seen first in Genesis 2:4 in the Hebrew Old Testament and translated in Exodus 6:3 in the KJV. In his scholarly book, A Dissertation Concerning the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language, Letters, Vowel Points and Accents, John Gill (1697-1771), eminent theologian and writer, documents the use of the very name JEHOVAH from before 200 B.C. and throughout the centuries of the early church and the following millennium. The Hebrew’s Mishna allowed the name as a salutation (Berachoth, ix, 5); according to Thamid, the priests in the temple could use the true name, but those in the country could only use Adonai (vii, 2); Maimonides said the name was used by the priests in the sanctuary and on the Day of Atonement (Moreh Nebukim, I, 61, and “Yad chasaka,” xiv, 10). Even commentators such as Nicholas of Lyra, Tostatus, Cajetan, and Bonfrere defended the pronunciation ‘JEHOVAH’ as received by Moses on Mt. Horeb. The name is found in the writings of Raymund Martin in the 1200s and Porchetus in the 1300s. Theodore Beza, Galatinus, and Cajetan, among many others, use it in the 1500s. Scholars such as Michaelis, Drach and Stier proved the name as the original. The 1602 Spanish Bible uses the name Iehova and gave a lengthy defense of the pronunciation Jehovah in its preface. In “the 17th century the pronunciation JEHOVAH was zealously defended by Fuller, Gataker, Leusden and others, against the criticisms…”(EB, pp. 311-314). (Martin: Pugio fidei, ed. Paris, 1651, pt. III, dist. ii, cap. iii, p. 448, and Note, p. 745; Galatinus: “Areana cathol. veritatis,” I, Bari, 1516, a, p.77; Porchetus: Drusius, “Tetragrammaton,” 8-10, in “Critici Sacri,” Amsterdam, 1698, I, p.ii, col.339-42; “De nomine divino,” ibid., 512-516; see also p. 351 et. al; Michaelis: “Supplementa ad lexica hebraica,” I, 1792, p. 54; Drach: “Harmonic entre l’Eglise et la Synagogue,” I, Paris, 1844, pp. 350-53, Note 30, pp. 512-16, 469-98; Stier: Lehrgebaude der hebr. Sprache, 327.)

“Genebrardus seems to have been the first to suggest the pronunciation Iahue [pronounced Yahweh], but it was not until the 19th century that it became generally accepted” (EB, pp. 311-314). Anti-Semitic German liberals, like Driver and Delitzsch, eagerly grasped the new pronunciation, Yahweh. They and other unsaved ‘higher critics,’ denied that the Old Testament was actually given by God. They grasped at any straw to shelter their unbelief, asserting that the Old Testament was the creation of men who adopted and adapted stories, words, and names from neighboring pagan religions and languages. The higher critics used the new pronunciation, Yahweh, as so-called proof that the God of Israel was nothing more than a tribal god, whose name had evolved from pagan gods like Yaho or Ya-ve, worshipped by the Babylonians and Canaanites, the Hebrews’ captors and neighbors. They said, Yahweh “meant Destroyer” (EB, p. 312). The German critics said, “Yahweh is not a Hebrew name;” such a pronunciation would prove the Hebrews borrowed it (EB, 310-314). Critic Rudolf Kittel asserts, “yahu…do[es] not lead back to a pronunciation represented by Yehovah (or Jehovah)” (The New Schaff, vol. XII, p. 470, s.v. Yahweh). The critics cited ancient documents, like the “magical texts,” Aramaic papyri, and Babylonian tablets that tell of pagan gods named Yaho, Yahu, or Ya-ve. this pagan deity and mocking the God of Israel?)

Driver tried to provide as evidence, an Ethiopic list of magical names for Jesus, which included Yawe. Other Bible critics, anxious to find a linguistic, rather than a supernatural source for the name of the God of Israel, grasped the ‘Canaanite connection’ and the new pronunciation. (These critics include: von Bohlen (Genesis, 1835, p. civ.), Von der Alm (Theol. Briefe, I, 1862, pp. 524-527), Colenso (The Pentateuch, V, 1865, pp. 269-84), and Goldziher (Der Mythusbei den Hebr#ern, 1867, p. 327). (See also: Driver, Studia Biblica, I. 20; I, 5; Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, 1910-11, vol. 15, pp. 311-314, s.v. Jehovah; Delitzsch, “Wo lag das Paradies,” 1881, pp. 158-164; “LesestKcke,” 3rd ed., 1885, p. 42, Syllab. A, col. I, 13-16).

Even the Oxford English Dictionary warns that “this origin is now disputed” (OED, s.v. Jehovah). So let’s examine why the critics of ‘JEHOVAH’ are wrong. The first letter, jod, could be pronounced in Hebrew, as ‘ye’ in Yeshua, the Hebrew pronunciation of Jesus, but it could not be pronounced that way in English. The English pronunciation and spelling of words which begin with the same Hebrew letter (jod) and vowel pointing (silent sheva Je ) – words like Jerusalem, Jericho or Jew – break the critic’s Canaanite idol, Yaho, in pieces. It cannot be pronounced ‘Ya’ in English. The sound of the Hebrew letter jod came into English as the letter ‘I,’ used as a consonant and having the soft ‘g’ sound, like today’s ‘j.’ In the past the letter ‘I’ was used as both a vowel (i) sound and as the consonant ‘j’ sound. The OED says that the sound of ‘j,’ though originally printed as ‘I,’ was pronounced as a soft ‘g’ (Oxford English Dictionary, Unabridged, 2nd Edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991, s.v. J). The ‘JE’ sound in JEHOVAH was spelled ‘IE’ and pronounced as ‘JE.’ To distinguish the consonant sound (soft ‘g’) of the letter ‘I’ from the vowel sound of ‘I,’ many scribes in the 1200s began putting a tail on the soft ‘g’ ‘I’,’ making it look like our modern ‘J.’ The Spanish, in the 1500s, were the first to more consistently try to distinguish the consonant I (soft ‘g’) sound as the shape of a ‘J.’ At that same time English printers used ‘J’ and ‘I’ fonts interchangeably (as documented elsewhere in this book). During the 1600s, most languages began consistently using the extended ‘I’ form, now called a ‘J,’ to represent the ‘j’ (soft ‘g’) sound. (World Book Encyclopedia, Chicago, Ill.: Field Enterprises, vol. 10, s.v. J.)

The Hebrews used Psalm 119 to teach the Hebrew alphabet. Psalm 119:73 was used to teach, the letter Jod (not yod), the hand pictogram. Interestingly, the first words of verse 73 are “Thy hands” ! These Hebrew letters are shown in King James Bibles printed by Cambridge University Press. The transliteration of the Hebrew letters  as the Roman letters Yahweh requires a German accent (‘Je’ is ‘Ya’ in German), invented vowels, and a translator who does not know that the Germans, who transliterated it that way, pronounce the letter ‘w’ as ‘v’! Only the Latins (Roman Catholicism) and Germans (Higher Criticism), using the Roman alphabet, team up to pronounce ‘J’ as ‘Y.’ (There are no native German words that begin with ‘y.’) Even the untrustworthy Hebrew Aramaic Interlinear Old Testament, by Jay Green, admits, “…the letter J in German is pronounced like an English Y. The bulk of theological studies having come from German sources, there has been an intermixed usage in English of the J and the Y. Our English translations of the Bible reflect this, so we have chosen to use J, thus Jehovah, rather than Yahweh, because this is established English usage for Biblical names beginning with this Hebrew letter. No one suggests we ought to change Jacob, Joseph, Jehoshaphat, Joshua, etc. to begin with a Y, and neither should we at this late date change Jehovah to Yahweh” (The Interlinear Hebrew Aramaic Old Testament, 2nd ed., Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers, 1993, vol. 1, p. xii).

In summary, ‘JEHOVAH’ and ‘JESUS’ have always sounded and been pronounced exactly as they are today, as ‘JEHOVAH’ and ‘JESUS,’ although the type fonts used to represent these sounds sometimes looked like ‘Iehovah’ and ‘Iesvs.’ The letter ‘V’ is the other disputed consonant in JEHOVAH. “The vav is pronounced like a V in vehicle,” writes Professor Marc-Alain Ouaknin of the Department of Comparative Literature at the Hebrew Bar-Illan University and the Jewish Research and Study Center in Paris. Therefore the ending in JEHOVAH would be pronounced in Hebrew and in English as, ‘VAH’ not ‘weh.’ Professor Ouaknin also said that the letter vav went into the Greek alphabet, “bearing the name digamma and being pronounced “v” as in vehicle.” (Mysteries, pp.168, 170). The Ww in Gesenius’ [German] Hebrew Grammar and other Hebrew textbooks is pronounced Vav, in English and Hebrew. Readers misunderstand charts which say “Pronunciation…w,” not knowing that the letter ‘w’ is pronounced as a ‘v’ in German The sounds of Vav and the vowel which follows it, Kamatz (a), can be heard on the instructional Hebrew web site http://www.ejemm.com, pronounced exactly as it would be in JEHOVAH. (E. Kautzsch and A.E. Cowley, Gesenius Hebrew Grammar, 2nd English Edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910, pp. 2628 et. al; See also Menahem Mansoor, Biblical Hebrew, Grand Rapids,Mich: Baker Book House, 1980, pp. 18, 19, 21.)

Even Americans have heard Hogan’s Heroes, Sergeant Schultz say to Colonel Klink, ‘Ya vool Kammandant,’ (spelled “Ja wohl Kammandant,” meaning ‘Yes, indeed Commander’). In German restaurants Schultz said, ‘viener schnitzel’ (spelled wiener), vile he listened to the tunes of V gnr (spelled, Wagner) and Lood-vikh fan Beethofen, (spelled, Ludwig van Beethoven). In German, the letter ‘v’ is pronounced like an ‘f.’ Consequently, in Hebrew textbooks it was necessary to put the letter ‘w’ after the Hebrew vav (‘v’) so that German readers would know that the Hebrew letter ‘v,’ was not the German ‘f’ sound, but the sound of the letter ‘v’ represented by their letter ‘w.’ English speaking textbook authors and seminary professors have misunderstood this and misconveyed to their students that the Hebrew letter should be pronounced like the English ‘w,’ not the German ‘w.’

Where did the phony ‘weh’ sound in Yahweh come from? As Green said,  “German sources.” In German “the “v” sound is rendered by the “double u” (“w”). Although the German critics spelled the name Yahweh, they pronounced it, Yahveh. “In German…W takes the value that V has in English…In German the same symbol w is called Vey, because in that language it has the value of the English v…” (EB, s.v. V; s.v. W; see also The Mysteries of the Alphabet, pp. 168, 170, 171). Because Germans use the letter ‘w’ for the ‘v’ sound, those reading or translating German theological works have brought in the German letter ‘w’ for ‘v.’ It is not to be pronounced like an English ‘w,’ but like a ‘v.’

To further compound the confusion, unbelieving Catholic Bible critics have brought their Latin ‘w’ pronunciation to the letter ‘v.’ “The Latin V, however, was…like the English w…Early borrowings, like wine(Latin vinum [pronounced winum]) [and] wall (Latin vallum [pronounced wallum]), retain the w sound and are therefore spelt with w” (EB, s.v. V; s.v. W). So we have Latin speaking Roman Catholic scholars and liberal German higher critics joining together to fight WW II against the God of Israel and the word of God. Even the NIV translators and editors of the corrupt Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament admit that confusion arises in part “because of past German influence on Hebrew studies.” Imagine 19th century anti-Semitic German scholars recasting the name of the God of Israel in the mold of Yaho, a pagan idol, who speaks with an untrained German accent! To further compound the confusion, there are two conflicting Hebrew systems of pronunciations: 1.) the Ashkenazi, a German method from Jews who immigrated to Germany and central Europe and then some to America and 2.) the classic Sephardi. (R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Bruce Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Chicago: Moody Press, 1980, vol. 2, p. x; The American Dictionary of the English Language, s.v. W; Mansoor, p. 33.)

Where did the VOWELS in JEHOVAH come from? Most believe the Bible record which states that the vowels in JEHOVAH were heard as, “the LORD said unto Moses…my name JEHOVAH” (Exod. 6:3). The statement, “the LORD said unto Moses,” is repeated over and over in the book of Exodus. Moses heard the pronunciation of words.“ And the LORD said unto Moses, Write…in a book…And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD” (Ex. 17:14, 24:4, 34:27, Num. 33:2, Deut. 31:9, 24.) The book titles in the KJV state that the first five books of “Moses” are the “beginning” of the “old testament” (Luke 24:27, 2 Cor. 3:14, 15).

-Gail Riplinger

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Apostasy

Richard Foster Exposed

Wait, WHAT, WHO are Christ’s disciples to celebrate?

“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Galatians 6:14

A Biblically based commentary on current issues that impact you

Richard Foster—Celebration of Deception

by Bob DeWaay

Christianity Today ran a glowing cover story about Evangelicalism’s recent embrace of medieval Roman Catholic mysticism entitled The Future lies in the Past.¹ The article traced the beginning of the movement as follows: “The movement seems to have exploded in a 24-month period in 1977-1978, which saw the publication of Richard Foster’s bestselling Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth and Robert Webber’s Common Roots: A Call to Evangelical Maturity.”²

The article views Foster as one who continues to guide the movement: “From Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, and living practicing monks and nuns, they [those going back to Roman Catholic mysticism] must learn both the strengths and the limits of the historical ascetic disciplines.”³ So Foster was instrumental in starting a movement that is still growing 30-plus years later.

The irony about this particular CIC regarding Foster’s 1978 book is that in 1978 I myself was living in a Christian community committed to practicing much of what he promotes in Celebration of Discipline (even though we had not learned it from him directly). So I am not criticizing a practice about which I know nothing (or one in which I have no experience). I am criticizing a practice I foolishly allowed to deceive me for a significant portion of my early Christian life. When it comes to being deceived by mysticism, I have had abundant involvement. The only way I escaped it was through discovering and adopting the Reformation principle of sola scriptura.

In this article I will show that Foster’s “journey inward” is unbiblical and dangerous. I will show that most of the spiritual disciplines that he calls “means of grace” are no means of grace at all—but a means of putting oneself under spiritual deception.

The Journey Inward

The Bible nowhere describes an inward journey to explore the realm of the spirit. God chose to reveal the truth about spiritual reality through His ordained, Spirit-inspired, biblical writers. What is spiritual and not revealed by God is of the occult and, therefore, forbidden. We have discussed this in many articles and have produced DVD seminars on the topic. But the concept of sola scriptura is totally lost on mystics such as Richard Foster. They, like the enthusiasts that Calvin and Luther warned against, believe they can gain valid and useful knowledge of spiritual things through direct, personal inspiration.

Foster describes the idea of the disciplines that are the topic of his book: “The classical Disciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths. They invite us to explore the inner caverns of the spiritual realm.”⁴ So Foster has conceptually repudiated sola scriptura on page one to replace it with a journey inward to explore the realm of spirits. Something must have been seriously amiss in evangelicalism already in 1978 to render this book a bestseller! It ought to have been repudiated on the spot. In a footnote to that statement Foster writes, “In one form or another all of the devotional masters have affirmed the necessity of the Disciplines” (Foster: 1). The devotional “masters,” by the way, are mostly Roman Catholics who never were committed to the principle of sola scriptura. It is not surprising that they looked for spirituality through experimentation. But as an “inner light” Quaker, Foster never was committed to sola scriptura either.

Forgetting that the Bible forbids divination, Foster explains what he is after:

[W]e must be willing to go down into the recreating silences, into the inner world of contemplation. In their writings, all of the masters of meditation strive to awaken us to the fact that the universe is much larger than we know, that there are vast unexplored inner regions that are just as real as the physical world we know so well. . . . They call us to the adventure, to be pioneers in this frontier of the Spirit. (Foster: 13)

Realizing that his readers would likely take this as an endorsement of Eastern religions, he makes a disclaimer that it is not Transcendental Meditation (TM) or something of that ilk: “Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to empty the mind in order to fill it” (Foster: 15). But what Foster wishes us to fill our minds with are personal revelations from the spirit realm that we naively are to think are the voice of God. This sort of meditation is not meditating on what God has said, but uses a technique to explore the spirit world. In other words, it is divination.

What we learn about the spirit realm either is revealed by God (once for all in Scripture) or gleaned by man-made techniques. That distinction is the difference between Christianity and paganism. Only Bible believers know what God has said about Himself and what He wishes to reveal about the unseen spirit world. Foster’s material continues to be popular because we live in an age where being spiritual pioneers on a journey into the unseen realm of the spirits is the essence of popular piety. It is the spirituality of secular talk shows.

To fully understand the degree of Foster’s deception, he even calls these techniques to the inner journey “means of grace”: “They [the Disciplines] are God’s means of grace” (Foster: 6). As with all who teach spiritual disciplines, there are no boundaries to these false “means.” For example, consider this recommended practice: “After you have gained some proficiency in centering down, add a five- to ten-minute meditation on some aspect of the creation. Choose something in the created order: tree, plant, bird, leaf, cloud, and each day ponder it carefully and prayerfully” (Foster 25). This after he had just taught breathing exercises (a means of “centering down”). Then he makes a startling claim: “We should not bypass this means of God’s grace” (Foster: 25). And there we have it: meditating of a leaf can be a means of grace!

Foster’s journey inward is to discover a spirit world that is available for any who search for it: “How then do we come to believe in a world of the spirit? Is it by blind faith? Not at all. The inner reality of the spiritual world is available to all who are willing to search for it” (Foster: 18). He claims that this spiritual search is analogous to scientific experimentation. Never mind that every pagan culture that has existed has believed in the “spiritual world.”

Spirituality of the Imagination

The Bible does not have anything good so say about the imagination. For example: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; They speak a vision of their own imagination, Not from the mouth of the Lord'” (Jeremiah 23:16). A search of the KJV for “imagination” yields 14 verses, and in each case it is a bad thing. According to the Bible, the imagination is where people go when they do not want to listen to God.

However, for Foster the imagination is central: “The inner world of meditation is most easily entered through the door of the imagination. We fail today to appreciate its tremendous power. The imagination is stronger than conceptual thought and stronger than the will” (Foster: 22). Some of the authorities he cites on this point are C. G. Jung, Ignatius of Loyola, and Morton Kelsey. Jung is famous for his concept of the collective unconscious, and Kelsey was an Episcopal priest committed to Jungian principles. Kelsey wrote many books promoting mysticism. The advice Foster gleans from these teachers is that we must learn to think in images and take our dreams to be a possible doorway into the spirit world. Foster claims that dreams are something we already have and can help us develop the use of the imagination. He says, “Keeping a journal of our dreams is a way of taking them seriously” (Foster: 23).

There is, Foster warns, a danger to this process: “At the same time [that we ask for dreams to be God speaking to us], it is wise to pray a prayer of protection, since to open ourselves to spiritual influence can be dangerous as well as profitable” (Foster: 23). I would say that is asking God to protect us as we use various techniques to go where He does not want us to go (into the world of the spirits to gain information). The danger he warns of is far greater than Foster imagines. Those who take the journey inward will be deceived—every time! We are not equipped to gain spiritual information from that realm. That is why God speaks to us through His ordained mediators (the inspired Biblical writers); otherwise we would be fishing in the dark in a medium we are not suited for.

Foster teaches his readers to use their imaginations to experience Biblical stories with the five physical senses. Here is what he claims will happen:

As you enter the story, not as a passive observer but as an active participant, remember that since Jesus lives in the Eternal Now and is not bound by time, this event in the past is a living present-tense experience for Him. Hence, you can actually encounter the living Christ in the event, be addressed by His voice and be touched by His healing power. It can be more than an exercise of the imagination; it can be a genuine confrontation. Jesus Christ will actually come to you. (Foster: 26)

Showing that Foster’s ideas are still influential in our day, Greg Boyd cites some of Foster’s words here to support what he calls “cataphatic prayer” which uses the imagination and images as a means to contact God and gain spiritual information.⁵ Those who endorse this practice assume they are not being deceived by spirits, but I cannot see on what grounds.

Foster prescribes a practice using one’s imagination that mimics astral projection to the degree that he actually includes a footnote disclaimer stating that it is not astral projection (Foster 28). It begins by telling his readers to imagine themselves going out into nature into a beautiful place (Boyd describes how he practices this, as well as its results⁶). After enjoying the sights and smells (in your imagination) these are the next steps:

In your imagination allow your spiritual body, shining with light, to rise out of your physical body. Look back so that you can see yourself lying in the grass and reassure your body that you will return momentarily. Imagine your spiritual self, alive and vibrant, rising up through the clouds and into the stratosphere. . . Go deeper and deeper into outer space until there is nothing except the warm presence of the eternal Creator. Rest in His presence. Listen quietly, anticipating the unanticipated. Note carefully any instruction given. With time and experience you will be able to distinguish readily between mere human thought that may bubble up to the conscious mind and the True Spirit which inwardly moves upon the heart. (Foster: 27, 28)

I must ask how one knows whether “True Spirit” is not a deceiving one? Mysticism’s fatal flaw is that it naively assumes that Christians having subjective religious experiences must therefore be having Christian experiences that are truly from God—even if the experiences were provoked through unbiblical practices similar to those used by pagans.

Mental Alchemy

Foster’s approach to prayer is laced with mysticism as well. He claims that prayer needs to be learned from people who have the right experiences and are “masters” who know what they are doing. Foster does not teach ordinary prayer, whereby we bring our needs and requests to the Lord and know that He hears us (because He promised that He does). Here is why he thinks such prayer fails:

Often people will pray and pray with all the faith in the world, but nothing happens. Naturally, they were not contacting the channel. We begin praying for others by first centering down and listening to the quiet thunder of the Lord of hosts. Attuning ourselves to divine breathings is spiritual work, but without it our praying is vain repetition (Mt. 6:7). Listening to the Lord is the first thing, the second thing, and the third thing necessary for successful intercession. (Foster: 34)

Of course this means we have to become mystics if we want to pray.

He teaches that we first must hear personal revelations from God, using meditation techniques such as he teaches, before we pray. He says: “The beginning point, then, in learning to pray for others is to listen for guidance . . . This inner “yes” is the divine authorization for you to pray for the person or situation” (Foster: 35). No! Foster is wrong! The only authorization we need to pray is the Biblical command to pray—not personal revelations.

For Foster, meditation (mystical style) is necessary but not sufficient. He also brings the imagination into the process: “As with meditation, the imagination is a powerful tool in the work of prayer” (Foster: 36). He credits Agnes Sanford⁷ for helping him see the value of using the imagination in praying. Foster writes, “Imagination opens the door to faith. If we can ‘see’ in our mind’s eye a shattered marriage whole or a sick person well, it is only a short step to believing it will be so” (Foster: 36). Sanford got her ideas from Theosophy, New Thought, Jung, and Emmet Fox. These ideas, echoed by Foster, come from the unbiblical “mind over matter” thinking of that era. That kind of thinking uses creative visualization to change reality or channel spiritual power. Foster suggests, “Imagine the light of Christ flowing through your hands and healing every emotional trauma and hurt feeling your child experienced that day” (Foster: 39).

In his 1985 book, The Seduction of Christianity, Dave Hunt labeled creative visualization such as what Foster promotes, “mental alchemy.”⁸ Hunt warned the church that Foster promoted such mental alchemy in Celebration of Discipline, and as we have shown, he, in fact, does. So how is it that 24 years after Hunt’s warning Foster is more popular than ever with Evangelicals? The answer is end times deception. Now, a huge movement that claims to be a reformation promoting Foster, Willard and their versions of mysticism does exist (i.e., The Emergent Church). Things have gotten so very much worse.

Spiritual Directors

Once mysticism and the supposed need to gain personal revelations from God are embraced, there arises a need for new “masters” who are better at navigating the spirit world. Pagan societies have always had such persons. They are called “shamans.” Eastern religion calls them “gurus.” Deceived Christians call them “spiritual directors.” Foster explains, “In the Middle Ages not even the greatest saints attempted the depths of the inward journey without the help of a spiritual director” (Foster: 159). The problem, according to Foster, is that the churches (in 1978) lacked “living masters”:

No doubt part of the surge of interest in Eastern meditation is because the churches have abrogated the field. How depressing for a university student, seeking to know the Christian teaching on meditation, to discover that there are so few living masters of contemplative prayer and that nearly all of the serious writings on the subject are seven or more centuries old. No wonder he or she turns to Zen, Yoga, or TM. (Foster: 14)

Foster’s dream has come true. Today people can even practice Yoga in a Christian church. We have Christian TM; it is called contemplative prayer. Yes, Eastern religion has come right into the church, and Foster has helped usher it in.

But what about “living masters” or spiritual directors? In 1972 Morton Kelsey lamented their lack: “Indeed I would suggest that everyone who is serious about relating to the spiritual realm find himself a spiritual director, if there were more men trained and experienced in this way.”⁹ That “problem” has been solved in a huge way. Evangelical theology schools are now offering masters degrees in “spiritual formation” in order to equip people to be “spiritual directors.” Here is what Biola University says about its program: “This degree is designed to equip men and women for the ministry of spiritual direction, discipleship, formation and soul care in the local church and for further academic training in spiritual formation.”¹⁰ Spiritual Directors International will help you find a spiritual director regardless of your religion.¹¹ Richard Foster’s own Renovare, which purports to “encourage renewal in the Christian church,” has a list of spiritual direction programs.¹²

Foster explains the purpose of the spiritual director: “He is the means of God to open the path to the inward teaching of the Holy Spirit” (Foster: 160). Apparently, in a full-blown rejection of sola scriptura where the Holy Spirit’s teaching is mediated to the church through the Biblical writers only, we need mediators for personal revelations beyond scripture.

Foster explains how spiritual directors lead: “He leads only by the force of his own personal holiness” (Foster: 160). In Roman Catholicism the Pope is called “his holiness” and in Tibetan Buddhism the Dalai Lama is called “his holiness” but now evangelicals are developing a class of people who evidently deserve the title. How exactly are we to judge when someone has gained “personal holiness” sufficient to be a spiritual director and mediate spirituality to others? Foster says, “Though the director has obviously advanced further into the inner depths, the two [master and disciple] are together learning and growing in the realm of the Spirit” (Foster: 160). Foster cites Roman Catholic mystic Thomas Merton about how this works: “The spiritual director was something of a ‘spiritual father who begot the perfect life in the soul of his disciple by his instructions first of all, but also by his prayer, his sanctity and his example. He was . . . a kind of ‘sacrament’ of the Lord’s presence in the ecclesiastical community” (Foster: 161).

End Times Delusion

When it comes to end times deception, Foster is on the cutting edge of embracing it. Consider what he wrote: “In our day heaven and earth are on tiptoe waiting for the emerging of a Spirit-led, Spirit-intoxicated, Spirit-empowered people. . . . Individuals can be found here and there whose hearts burn with divine fire” (Foster: 150). Such inclinations have led to massive deception. They smack of the Latter Rain deception, now embodied in such false teachers as Rick Joyner and Mike Bickle. They are elitist. They are in line with the beliefs of the Emergent Church as well. He also says: “Our century has yet to see the breaking forth of the apostolic church of the Spirit” (Foster: 150). Now we have the New Apostolic Reformation claiming to be just that. Foster’s ideas now embody the massive apostasy and end times deception that characterize our age.

Foster’s teachings have taken the church as far away from the Reformation principle of sola scriptura as the Roman Catholic Church ever was. The only thing left is for them to bring us all the way back to Rome. Christianity Today praises Foster for pointing us in that direction.

In early 2008 I wrote a CIC article about how abandoning the principle of sola scriptura would lead evangelicals back to Rome.¹³ It was partly a response to the CT article praising mysticism. The response I received was rather unexpected. I was contacted by former evangelicals who had rejected sola scriptura and had gone back to Rome! They wanted to debate me about sola scriptura. Sadly, my point was proven. As a response to their misguided challenge our church hosted a seminar on sola scriptura, called Faith at Risk 4.¹⁴ In the seminar Gary Gilley and I defended the scriptures as the sole authority for the church.

The aforementioned CT article discusses a new monasticism, former evangelical leaders converting to Roman Catholicism, and mystical practices like lectio divina—and they call all of it a good and hopeful thing. Chris Armstrong, the author of the article, concluded, “That they [evangelicals] are receiving good guidance on this road from wise teachers [Foster and Willard] is reason to believe that Christ is guiding the process. And that they are meeting and learning from fellow Christians in the other two great confessions, Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox, is reason to rejoice in the power of love.”¹⁵

Who is left to defend the principles of the Reformation? One would think Reformed theologians are, but they aren’t doing their job. In the last CIC article we mentioned Reformed theologian Donald Whitney who wrote: “Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline has been the most popular book on the subject of the Spiritual Disciplines in the last half of the twentieth century. The great contribution of this work is the reminder that the Spiritual Disciplines, which many see as restrictive and binding, are actually means to spiritual freedom.”¹⁶ That from a teacher in a Reformed seminary?

If a book that teaches Christian TM, Christian astral projection and mental alchemy by means of the imagination is a “great contribution,” then something is seriously wrong here. The delusion is so widespread that I see no other explanation for it than the end time deception predicted by Paul: “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,” (1Timothy 4:1). Another passage warns: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths” (2Timothy 4:3, 4).

That time now is here. We are accountable to God for what we believe and practice. Those who wish to persevere in the faith in this age of delusion must base their beliefs and practices only on the truths found in Scripture. Foster’s journey into the world of the spirits will deceive all who enter it.

Issue 112 – May / June 2009

End Notes

1. Chris Armstrong, “The Future lies in the Past” in Christianity Today, February 2008.
2. Ibid. 24.
3. Ibid. 29.
4. Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (New York: Harper & Row, 1978) 1. All subsequent citations from this book will be bracketed within the text in this fashion: (Foster: 1).
5. Greg Boyd, Seeing is Believing, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004). Boyd cites Foster to prove that the Lord will actually come to us through our use of “imaginative meditation.” I deal with this issue more fully in CIC issue 83 July/August, 2003: HTTP://CICMINISTRY.ORG/COMMENTARY/ISSUE83.HTM
6. Ibid. 111-125.
7. I write about Sanford’s inner healing theories in CIC Issue 96: HTTP://CICMINISTRY.ORG/COMMENTARY/ISSUE96.HTM
8. Dave Hunt and T. A. McMahon, The Seduction of Christianity (Eugene: Harvest House, 1985) 138.
9. Morton Kelsey, Encounter With God, (Bethany Fellowship: Minneapolis, 1972) 179.
10. http://www.biola.edu/spiritualformation/programs/ SEE PDF
11. HTTP://WWW.SDIWORLD.ORG
12. HTTP://WWW.RENOVARE.ORG/JOURNEY_TRAINING_DIRECTION.HTM
13. CIC Issue 105; March/April 2008: HTTP://CICMINISTRY.ORG/COMMENTARY/ISSUE105.HTM
14. Watch this seminar HERE
15. Armstrong, Future
16. DONALD S. WHITNEY, SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES FOR THE CHRISTIAN LIFE (COLORADO SPRINGS: NAVPRESS, 1991) 23.

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Sinlessly Perfect? I Doubt it [podcast]

Yes the LORD commands His people to “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16) Yet we should ask whether or not His desire is for His people to tout to others that they are “sinlessly perfect” or does His Word rather reveal that His people are to be dependent upon Him through the humility of Christ and crucified life He ordained us to walk in? Did the apostles walk around telling people they were sinlessly perfect? No. Didn’t Paul confess his own utter poverty of spirit outside of the saving, present grace of Christ? Yes. (Romans 7:18, 24, etc.) Are there biblical warnings about claiming that one is sinlessly perfect? Yes. (Job 9:20; Proverbs 20:9)

“But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:15-16

Saints, would it be accurate to observe that we cannot possibly begin to appreciate this “so great salvation” that is Christ until we understand how lost, helpless, and alienated we were in our sin? (Ephesians 2:1-10; Hebrews 2:3) We must pray and study to understand the biblical doctrine of inherent sin, fallen mankind, and the holiness of God …. in order to begin to be able to appreciate the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.

“If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.” Job 9:20

Solomon said:

“Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” Proverbs 20:9

Speaking of king David’s imperfections, even nearing the end of his life on earth, one commentator writes:

“Surely there can be little ground for the doctrine of perfectionism, otherwise David, whose religion was so earnest and so deep, would have been nearer it now than this chapter shows that he was.” Expositor’s Bible

“For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” Ecclesiastes 7:20

I am not a good person, neither are you – “There is none righteous, no, not one“ (Romans 3:10). Admit it. The sooner we become HONEST with that which is more than obvious, announcing freely and transparently – that there is “NOOOO good thing” in us except CHRIST, the sooner God will begin a new, deeper work in us! (Romans 7:18, 24) The Cross!

God is able to establish our hearts in His grace and to multiply His grace to us (Hebrews 13:9; 2 Peter 3:18)

ALL of our deeds are not perfect (1 John 1:8-10). “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life” (Proverbs 6:23). The truly righteous remain humble, teachable, and repentant. Note verse 21 saints:

“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” John 3:19-21

Saved by Divine Grace and Yet Now Made Perfect by Your Flesh?

“Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” Galatians 3:3

The Galatian believers had begun their walk with Christ by responding to the conviction of the Spirit, repenting, putting their faith in Christ, and being regenerated. Yet, now they were allowing false teachers to seduce them back under the law, law-keeping for righteousness – to attempt to please God by their own self-will and performance.

Jesus’ disciples must live a set apart life. Living sinless? Well, it can be done: Here’s the key – “In him (Jesus) is no sin. He that abideth in him sinneth not” (1 John 3:5-6). We whom Jesus has saved must “cleanse ourselves from ALL filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). Yet, the only way to be sinless is in presently abiding in Him and that begins with the essential of announcing our own poverty in self which is being poor/desperately dependent on Him in spirit (Matthew 5:3, 6). Yet some insist that they are perfect by their own will, ability, and doing. This is the exact error of the Galatians which caused them to fall from saving grace (Galatians 5:4). They left Christ for something else – law keeping. Leaving Christ, departing from faith, and casting off trusting fully in HIS saving grace, is deadly. Realizing there is “NO good thing” in us except Christ, is essential to abiding saved in Him (Romans 7:18, 24; John 15:1-6). Galatians 3:3 says it all – “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3). The great apostle of Jesus was desperate for the LORD, ever seeking His holy face and dreadfully not wanting “to be found having mine own righteousness which is of the law” (Philippians 3:9-10).

“The great secret of abiding in Christ is the deep conviction that we are nothing, and He is everything.” Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ

Heart purity and a sinless life emanate only from intimate union and abiding with a holy God. This occurs as we consent to the cross and not by human effort alone. Jesus raises up those who are truly bowed down – crucified with Christ (Psalms 145:14; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3, etc.). One cannot possibly “stop sinning” until they come to Jesus and He saves them, making them new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). Only then can the regenerated disciple “put off the old man” and “put on the new man” (Colossians 3:9-10). There MUST be something to “put off” …. that inherent sinful nature, otherwise no such language would be in Scripture (Colossians 3).

Beware of the sinless perfectionists who speak of overcoming sin outside of the daily cross and the saving, enabling grace of God. It’s only possible by God’s enabling grace in and through a true abiding relationship.

If we claim we are sufficient in and of ourselves and because of our own “natural ability” to do right, and can be perfect (which God requires) without Christ and our total trust IN HIM, we are apostate. Memorize Romans 4:4-5.

We cannot be “made perfect BY the flesh” or by means of our own self-will and effort alone. If that were possible WHY then did Jesus come? We are only perfect in the sense of Christ’s perfection AS we abide in Him (John 15:1-6). As we do, we will “walk in the light, as he is in the light … and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Here’s the whole verse:

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7

Yes, we are “new creatures” in Christ and must humble ourselves before Him, put off the old man, put on the new man, and walk in the Spirit with Him. Yet, the victory Christ has wrought and ordained for us to walk in daily all begins with acknowledging instead of denying that there is something to deny and die to and “put off” (Colossians3:5; 2 Corinthians5:17-18). Denying that we have inclination toward sin is not the answer. Crucifying the deeds of the body by the power of the Holy Spirit is the answer (Romans 8:12-14). Many are getting hoodwinked by this self-righteous “I can do it with my own ‘natural ability’” spirit. This is a Christ-denying devil-exalting heresy, doctrine of devils (1 Timothy 4:1-3). Many who are not grounded in the grace and Word of Christ are adopting this error of Pelagianism which fosters self righteousness. They are aggressively teaching this sinless perfectionism (in the flesh) error to others. These people seem to have one common denominator – they have studied the teachings of Charles Finney or Mike Desario. Beware!

Many of those who preach sin without saving, rescuing, enabling, overcoming divine grace are perhaps still trapped in their own sins. They have no answer for others and therefore we should wonder if they have the LORD’s answer for and in their own lives. If they did, would they not be full of His great joy and sharing with others how to be delivered? Why are they content with condemning others in sin? Is God willing that ANY should perish? See 2 Peter 3:9.

Never forget to make a decision to be deepened in the essential truth that it’s “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.”

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:5-7

WHEN we realize that God is “Holy, holy, holy,” we will no longer wrongly condemn others if they sin, just because the flavor of their sin differs from that sin which we’ve committed, knowing that the sin we committed was no less evil in the eyes of He alone who is “Holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8).

G.R.A.C.E. = God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense

It’s only by God’s grace that we are found and saved by Him and kept and enabled to please Him which includes participating in holiness, separated unto the LORD, as He is holy (Hebrews 12:14-15; 1 Peter 1:15-16; Revelation 4:8, etc.).

Titus 2 tells us that we are only saved by divine grace and only kept to the end by His enabling grace.

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 15 These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.” Titus 2:11-15

Deliverance from sin/sinning is only possible through faith, loving, worshiping, and obeying our LORD, that is, moment-by-moment abiding in Christ, the crucified life, being raised up by His Spirit (Romans 6; 8:13-14, etc.).

“And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. 5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. 6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.” 1 John 3:3-6

Perfection is the perfect forgiveness and justification of the LORD which God brings about by His Spirit and our faith which always brings our adherence to the daily cross (Philippians 2:12-13). It’s divine perfection worked out in the abiding disciple as he walks in the Spirit abiding in Christ (Galatians 5:16, 25, etc.).

True OR Feigned Holiness? | Saving, Enabling Grace | Have We Ourselves Become Pharisees? | The Spirit of Holiness |

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