Richard Foster Exposed

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]

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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IS AMERICA DOOMED? To Stay or to Go [podcast]

Great Commission Evangelism

“This message (podcast) sure nailed the state of America. Rotten to the very foundation. God’s judgment and fury is falling! His very name is being mocked! As so-called Christians participate in and celebrate what He calls an abomination (Leviticus 18:22), and teaching this to children! Where are the parents? Why are they not standing up for their kids? Why are they not pulling them out of these indoctrinated government run schools? Because the men are weak (Ahabs) and the women are Jezebels and busy working. So the children are left on their own. It starts at such an early age they do not know it is happening. No biblical foundation is why kids are murdering kids! No sense of right or wrong anymore. We are a cursed nation because we have deviated from the standards of God in rebellion and disobedience! God will not bless anything that is abomination to Him.” Karen Cochran

Does the unchanging LORD still allow persecution and for His people to be “scattered abroad”?

“And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.

2 And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.

3 As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.

Philip Proclaims Christ in Samaria

4 Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.

5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.

6 And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.

7 For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.

8 And there was great joy in that city.” Acts 8:1-8

Persecution had hit Jerusalem and Christ’s saints were prepared and “scattered abroad” to go and preach Christ’s Gospel to the world.

Concerning people being “scattered abroad,” one source notes:

“Scattered abroad is a common biblical phrase primarily known from the King James Version (KJB) of the Bible. It describes the physical dispersion, spreading, or migration of a group of people. The concept holds both historical and theological significance, typically representing:

- Divine Judgment and Dispersion (Old Testament): In Genesis 11, God scatters humanity across the face of the earth and confuses their languages after their rebellion at the Tower of Babel. It also refers to the exile and historical dispersion (the diaspora) of the Israelites for rejecting God’s covenant.
- The Spread of the Gospel (New Testament): In the early Christian church, intense persecution in Jerusalem caused believers to scatter throughout various regions. Instead of destroying the movement, this dispersion inadvertently spread their message. For example, Acts 8:4 states: “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.”
- Encouragement to Believers: In the New Testament, the opening of the Epistle of James (James 1:1) is famously addressed to the “twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,” offering pastoral comfort to Jewish Christians facing trials in foreign lands.”

Any nation that is even discussing whether or not there are more than 2 genders is doomed.

Does God desire to scatter abroad, to spread His people across the world?

“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.

20 And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.” Mark 16:15-20

The LORD would never bless a nation that glorifies what He condemns. ANYONE who thinks America is or will ever be blessed without repentance…. is extremely gullible and deceived. Sodom! Ezekiel 16:49-51

“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” Leviticus 18:22

A good thing to ask proud Americans who claim they are Christians:

1. “When’s the last time you personally led someone to Jesus?”

2. “How much time and how much energy do you spend trying in vain to “save America” or “Make America Great Again” compared to the time and energy you spend learning, studying, and meditating on God’s Word and doing it—as in the Great Commission?”

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21

Anyone claiming to be Christ’s and yet is not doing, is not obeying His Great Commission mandate, is not in the will of God.

PRAYER: Father in the name of Jesus, may Your people cry out to You today for the lost souls of fallen men for whom You sent Your only begotten Son to die (John 3:16-17). May we be blessed to cry out for that which most concerns You! In Jesus’ name.

As God looks down from Heaven…. here’s what He sees, here’s what breaks His holy heart ….

“Hell and destruction are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?” Proverbs 15:11

SOUND LIKE THE MODERN CHURCH IN AMERICA?

“And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.” Mark 11:17

“11:17 Combining quotations from Isaiah and Jeremiah, He condemned desecration, exclusivism, and commercialism. God had intended the temple to be a house of prayer for all nations (Isa_56:7), not just for Israel. They had made it a religious market, a hang-out for shysters and racketeers (Jer_7:11).” Believer’s Bible Commentary

Recently lunatics went half crazy because some man threw a rock or stone at a monk seal. Yet no one is fighting for the right for precious innocent babies to live, to not be MURDERED in their own mother’s womb. America is under divine judgment and it’s not going to stop. It’s just getting started.

“Thou shalt not kill.” Exodus 20:13

“Fact: What the world celebrates, God hates!!

Fact: America as a nation will not be saved by God; only individual souls and families can be saved with the short time we have left.

Fact: The reason society has been overrun by the rainbow mafia in corporate America, in schools, and yes: even in ‘churches’, is because this God-mocking, God-hating nation has been given over to the filth they love above the holy God who gave us life.

Have a blessed day…” A disciple.

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“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Psalms 119:105

It’s a dangerous proposition to attempt to convey the divine doctrine, the truth, via fiction. Such an undertaking begins on skaky ground. The saints of Christ must get all their doctrine strictly from Scripture, and Holy Scripture only (Deut 4:1-10; Isaiah 34:16; John 5:39-40; 2 Tim 2:15; 3:15-17; 2 Pet 1:12-21, etc.). The writings of CS Lewis have zero divine inspiration and zero divine authority. Anyone who spends their time reading the writings of men, especially those which include very little Scripture (as in the case of Lewis), are inevitably going to be deceived. God gave us His Word to know Him and warned us that “MANY false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:11).

Beware. CS Lewis never even claimed to be born again and yet still has a cult following.

Being born again means one “is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God…” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18) Yet Lewis asserts that “there are people in other religions who are being led by God’s secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it.” So, the most profound divine miracle can happen to a person, they can be changed from the inside out, freely forgiven and regenerated, and not even know it? Such a statement from Lewis alone moves me to conclude that he was never born again. And this isn’t even to mention that he was at least in bed with the works-based antichrist Roman Catholic church.

Something to think about, to help you: Why would you be so strongly defending a mere man if that man and his writings didn’t mean so much to you? There seems to be a cult fiction following of Lewis involving people who seem to spend more times of a mere sinner’s fictional musings about God than they do reading about God for themselves in His own Word.

Of CS Lewis, one pastor notes problematic things in Lewis’s writings:

“(1) he was not an inerrantist; (2) he viewed the Protestant Reformation as avoidable; (3) he remained in the Church of England, despite his largely Protestant beliefs; (4) he allowed for “at least some people to be saved through imperfect representations of Christ in other religions”; (5) he gave little attention to the doctrine of atonement.” Then he says: “Lewis is not a writer to which we should turn for growth in a careful biblical understanding of Christian doctrine … There is almost no passage of Scripture on which I would turn to Lewis for exegetical illumination.”

CS Lewis stated: “I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.” Lewis, “The Problem of Pain,” 538.

One minister notes of Lewis’ doctrine that “Lewis never believed in a literal hell, but instead believed hell is a state of mind one chooses to possess and become.” In other words, CS Lewis believe hell was not literal but rather a fiction.

Of CS Lewis, Rick Miesel wrote the following 15 conclusions about the beliefs of CS Lewis:

1. Lewis indicates that shortly before his death he was turning toward the Catholic Church. Lewis termed himself “very Catholic.” His prayers for the dead, belief in purgatory, and rejection of the literal resurrection of the body are serious deviations from Biblical Christianity.

2. His contention that some pagans may “belong to Christ without knowing it” is a destructive heresy…, as was his statement that “Christ fulfils both Paganism and Judaism …”

3. Lewis believed that we’re to become “gods,” an apparent affirmation of theistic evolution.

4. He also believed the Book of Job is “unhistorical” (Reflections on the Psalms, pp. 110), and that the Bible contained “error” (pp. 110, 112) and is not divinely inspired.

5. Lewis never believed in a literal hell, but instead believed hell is a state of mind one chooses to possess and become…

6. On heaven: “All the scriptural imagery (harps, crowns, gold, etc.) is, of course, a merely symbolical attempt to express the inexpressible.”

7. C.S. Lewis’s most outrageous misunderstanding was about the purpose of the death of Christ, which of course mars all subsequent propositions about the effects of the cross and salvation.

8. In his speculations on the hereafter, Lewis is to be criticized for being so extra-biblical.

9. In spite of what many believe to be brilliant exegesis on Christian apologetics (In light of the above, one wonders which of Lewis’s books these people have been reading?), there appears to have been in C.S. Lewis a seemingly irresistible attraction to the shadow world of occult fantasy — a mingling of darkness with light evident in writings apart from his apologetics.

10. Lewis’s early favorite literature included E. Nesbit’s trilogy: Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Wishing Carpet, plus The Amulet — all occult fantasies.

11. So much was Lewis’s life steeped in fantasy that he wrote, “The central story of my life is about nothing else” (p. 17). From Nesbit and Gulliver he advanced to Longfellow’s Saga of King Olaf and fell in love with the magic and pagan myths of Norse legend. By the age of twelve, there had grown in Lewis’s mind an intense relationship with the world of fantasy and elves… Although one would expect childhood fantasies to subside after a time, in Lewis’s case they became more a delight as he grew older.

12. After advancing to preparatory school at Wyvern, Lewis gradually “ceased to be a Christian.” He became interested in the occult and embraced an attitude of pessimism about what he considered a faulty world. His taste for the occult was nurtured and grew as he became enthralled with Wagnerian operas and their Norse sagas derived from Celtic mythology.

13. It was during their long association that both Lewis and JR Tolkien developed their most prestigious “sword and sorcery” material.

13. It is argued that in presenting a blend of fantasy with analogy to Christian truth, Lewis hoped to encourage his readers to search out the truth further. This, however, was not Lewis’s intention in writing his fantasies… Many of Lewis’s characters in his fantasies depicted as “good” are in reality associated with witchcraft, pagan mythology, and the Norse mysteries.

14. One of the more pronounced confusions of good and evil is Till We Have Faces, Lewis’s retelling of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche, written just a few years before his death. In this work, several ungodly concepts are espoused as valid truths.

15. In fact, there has developed a cult of sorts which venerates the fantasies of Lewis along with those of other writers who do not claim to be Christians. Evidence of this is the fact that Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia is listed along with other occult writings as recommended inspirational reading by the makers of the demonically-oriented game Dungeons and Dragons!

CONCLUSION

According to Miesel, Lewis is also heretical on the depravity of man, how salvation works, being “Born Again,” and animals in heaven. He concludes,

“While there may be insights into life that are profitable to be found in the works of C.S. Lewis, we think it not wise to encourage young or untaught Christians to feed on such a presentation of so-called Christian truth. Some may be readily attracted to Lewis’s style and logic, but let us not be blinded and thus miss the plain and simple truth of Scripture.”

PEACE with GOD

C.S. Lewis Exposed [podcast]

“I have the deepest respect for Pagan myths, still more for myths in the Holy Scriptures” (PP, p.71). CS Lewis In the above quote from C.S. Lewis, not only did he announce his “respect for Pagan myths” but also called the contents of the Bible “myths.” But Jesus called God’s Word “truth” when He prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:17) Any man who can read these quotes from this devil in the flesh, CS Lewis, and not wholesale reject him and his heresies, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. “Tell most ‘Christians’ anything negative […]

Bible Bashed! King James Bible Bashing. CS Lewis Idolatry!

Persecuted for Believing God is Not Confused about His Real Word! ————————— BREAKING: The violent bashing continues…. NIV defenders attacking me because I believe God preserved His Word in the King James Bible – just as He promised (Psalms 12:6-7). Recently, an enraged “pastor” messaged me seeking to argue Bible versions… which he brought up, not me. He initiated the conversation and got real frustrated when I simply, kindly asked him to explain why Matthew 17:21 is removed, why Romans 8:1 is chopped in half, and why the BLOOD of Jesus was removed from Colossians 1:14. He didn’t like […]

Walt Disney, JR Tolkien, and CS Lewis Exposed [video]

NO CHRISTIAN SHOULD HAVE THIS FILTH IN THEIR LIVES OR THE LIVES OF THEIR CHILDREN. REPENT NOW AND BURN SATAN’S GARBAGE. ASK THE LORD TO FORGIVE YOUR WICKED HEART FOR EVER WATCHING OR BRINGING THIS FILTH INTO YOUR HOME AND THE LIVES OF YOUR FAMILY. THIS FILTH HAS BEEN PEDDLED TO US RELENTLESSLY THROUGH THE FAKE COMMERCIALIZED “CHRISTIAN” MARKET PLACE. THE DEVIL IS A LIAR. ONLY OBEYING CHRIST’S TRUTH CAN MAKE US FREE (JOHN 8:31-32, 36). Evil people who took their children to #pedo #disney land or disney world did so because entertaining their children means more to them than […]

Articles

How to Spot a Fake Bible [podcast]

Please don’t balk till you read these 3 verses. This is indefensible to the sane mind! “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.” (Proverbs 18:13)

Satan loves to borrow from the authentic. This is so he can attempt to borrow credibility from the real and he pawns off, he promulgates his counterfeits. This is why one of his fake “bibles” is called the “New King James Bible.” The Word “Berean” immediately evokes the truth of the disciples there who stood on God’s written Word and compared everything to it to prove it was true or false (Acts 17:10-11). In 2016 the Berean Study Bible (BSB) was introduced. Sounds good, right? Not! There are 4 verses we use to acid test “bibles”: Matthew 17:21; Acts 8:37; Romans 8:1; and Colossians 1:14

As usual, this BSB was taken from the known corrupted manuscripts instead of the Textus Receptus from which the KJB comes from. In the BSB, typically, we find:

Matthew 17:21 was removed and so was Acts 8:37,
Romans 8:1 was chopped in half, and
The blood of Jesus was removed from Colossians 1:14.

Many times I hold people’s feet to the fire on Colossians 1:14 and ask them if they truly believe they are washed in Christ’s blood and if they believe they could be saved without His blood (Hebrews 9:22). Then when they agree that our LORD’s blood is the only way they could have been and are saved, I ask them how they could possibly agree with, condone the removing of His precious blood, and then I point to Revelation 22:18-19.

“The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. 7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” Psalms 12:6-7

“Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. 6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” Proverbs 30:5-6

People are constantly bragging about “their” translation they love and swear it’s the best. So, all you have to do to blow up their little deception is to go online and find that version and go to the following 3 verses: Matthew 17:21, Colossians 1:14, Romans 8:1

Keep in mind that the King James Bible uses the word “fornication” and not “sexual immorality” like the new versions which can be manipulated and redefined by sinful men. Let’s use the King James Bible saints, not a cheap counterfeit.

IF you are going to dare still argue to defend the fake news new “bibles” after being told that the BLOOD of Jesus is removed from Colossians 1:14 and Matthew 17:21 is removed and Romans 8:1 is chopped in half…. I have no more responsibility to communicate truth to you according to (Matthew 7:6; Titus 3:10-11; Revelation 22:18-19; Proverbs 30:5-6). You are not a man of truth.

You have to wonder if professing Christians actually know and take this severe warning seriously by the crass attitude we see concerning the fake “bibles” which deliberately butchered God’s words and changed major doctrines (Revelation 22:18-19). Where O where is the holy fear of God?

“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: 19 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.” Revelation 22:18-19

Compare to the KJB which came from the Textus Receptus manuscripts which make up 98% of all manuscripts in existence and agree with each other. The underlying manuscripts are most important. When you compare these 3 verses you immediately see if their version is accurate. There’s more to it though because apparently some of the fake “bibles” use both sets of manuscripts. Yet, usually the fake “bibles” come wholly from the corrupted manuscripts and comparing these 3 verses reveals such.

The new versions of the Bible are rooted in rebellion no matter what the sales pitch they put on gullible minds. They are man’s thoughts and philosophies inserted into God’s (Isaiah 55:8-9). Total rebellion. Read Revelation 22:18-19. They are cursed at the root. The Holy Ghost is our Teacher not the Hebrew, Greek, or supposed, self-appointed “experts.”

90% of the time you will find that their “bible” version came from the corrupted manuscripts.

Personally, I cannot endorse what are clearly Satan’s CORRUPTIONS, cheap substitutes, and counterfeits of God’s Word and therefore cannot recommend them. I definitely encourage any and all believers, no matter the maturity level, to read the King James Bible.

Bible Versions Category

4 Verse KJV Comparison [podcast]

Reading a fake “bible” is like still watching CNN. Let that sink in. Fake news. See if you have a real Bible. I love the King James Bible. See if the BLOOD of Jesus has been removed from Colossians 1:14 in your “bible”. Also, see if Matthew 17:21 is removed and if Romans 8:1 has been chopped in half. IF YOU show your pastor this and he STILL refuses to ditch his satanically corrupted, Christ-attacking new version to begin using the King James Bible, RUN! 4 SILENCING VERSES – Here are the 4 verses I compare with people. There is rarely […]

Was Jesus the "One and Only Son" OR the "Only Begotten Son"? [podcast]

WHAT does the Bible word “begotten” mean to salvation? Everything! Remove it and there is no salvation and God lied! AND you still don’t think the changes made by satan’s agents in the new fake “bible” versions doesn’t change essential doctrine? You better think again. What are the 2 central, essential reasons Jesus had to be born of a virgin – “begotten of the Father” in the womb of a virgin? (John 1:14) Because the Messiah had to be sinless in order to be the perfect sin offering to expiate the sins of fallen men (Hebrews 7:26; 1 John 2:22, […]

Does it really matter what Bible version you prefer? [video]

Please watch the video above again. This is really good. Please share this page to help others. Bible Version Issue James White Exposed as a calvinist NIV fraud. YOU Call that a “bible”? Bible Versions Compared https://safeguardyoursoul.com//arrogant-bible-correctors-rebuked/

New American Standard Version "Bible" NASV Catastrophe Exposed

Here’s a typical example of someone who has bought lies and is now bearing false witness by spreading those numerous falsehoods spawned by evil men and the Catholic church in their attack upon the LORD. People like this are fed these untruths by warlocks who claim to be “scholars.” Here’s a recent conversation I was engaged in… MESSAGE RECEIVED: “God word is in the original scriptures and the NASB is the closest we have to scripture today . Today Christians idolized king James who was a claimed many to be a homosexual. No where in scripture do we find the […]