“SOAKING”: Biblical OR Mysticism?
“SOAKING” IS SIN. There no such thing as “soaking” in God’s Word as it’s defined today by the witchcraft NAR (New Apostolic Reformation) cult!
For starters, is not coming from God, is not in His Word and is a lazy person’s delusion.
There’s no such thing as “soaking” in the Bible. It’s time to repent, to deny self, to take up the cross and follow Jesus for real and stop trying to get a fix, a feeling, a shortcut.
FLASHPOINT: The LORD told us that He manifests Himself to those who deny self, take up the cross, and walk with Him (Luke 9:23-24; John 14:21-23, etc.). He doesn’t manifest His holy presence to disobedience lazy dupes who sit around “soaking.” Total scam. Run for your life. New age occult practice!
Yes God inhabits the praises of His people and Jesus also tells us that He and the Father specifically manifest Themselves to those who abide, who worship and obey Them – and not those who sit around “soaking” in a presence they claim is from above yet is suspect of being from below (Psalms 22:3; John 14:21-23).
ARE you seeking to experience God OR to KNOW HIM? (John 17:3)
“People want a word from God instead of the Word OF God.” Warren Smith
Lots of disobedient, fruit-less, do-nothing counterfeits “soaking” in demons. They will do and seek after ANY and EVERYTHING except the simple obedience the LORD calls them to. They will do anything except lay down their lives and humbly, practically, daily walk with Jesus – worshiping, loving, and serving Him and others (Matthew 22:37-40; Luke 9:23-24). “IN WORKS THEY DENY HIM” – “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” (Titus 1:16)
WHAT IS “SOAKING”? “Soaking” is found nowhere in the Bible and is the invention of devils and only participated in by the wicked who have a mere “form of godliness” yet deny the power, the authority of Christ to reign in their daily life… and so are looking for some way to cheat the system, to evade, to deny the cross – the crucified life (2 Timothy 3:1-7; Luke 9:23-24, etc.). The only people who want to “soak” are the unrepentant, disobedient rebels who are not literally obeying God. Jesus and His holy apostles never told anyone to go “soak.” Counterfeits who “soak” seek and believe that God is manifesting His presence to them no different than the yoga cultist who make their little poses, believing that some spirit is going to manifest to them. And, it’s the devil himself manifesting to them and possessing them. Read 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12. Where’s there’s a refusal of truth, there’s a vacuum and demon spirits invade those rebels. “Soaking” is for disobedient rebels who refuse to engage in a practical, daily, cross relationship with Christ. Therefore they never seek God in sober prayer or do the slightest evangelism. “Soaking” is Satan’s accommodation for the wicked, the “reprobate.” (Titus 1:16)
God doesn’t fill or bestow His divine blessing and anointing on lazy, unrepentant, Christ-denying wicked counterfeits who sit and lay around waiting for Him to do so. Delusional.
Here’s how God manifests His approval and presence upon individual men – “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. … Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” (John 14:21, 23) And yes, we’re going to drill this passage – these words from the Son of God!
In word or concept “soaking” is found nowhere in Scripture. The LORD Jesus calls those who will be His to lay down their lives in this fleeting world and humbly, simply, quietly serve Him and others (Matthew 20:24-28; 22:37-40; 23:8-12; Philippians 2:3-5, etc.).
The same frauds who participate in this soaking witchcraft do not have the fruit of love in their lives (Galatians 5:22-23). They won’t go next door to ask their neighbor if they need prayer for anything and yet they will travel half way around the world to “soak” with a bunch of delusional flakes.
“Soaking” is many times coupled with the “holy laughter” or “drunk in the spirit” so-called “revivals that we see in apostate churches yet nowhere in God’s Word. But the LORD warns us to:
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” 1 Peter 5:8
Satan is devouring those who do not know and obey God’s Word.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” Hosea 4:6
Instead of reading God’s Word daily and living it out for themselves, they’ve relegated their eternal souls into the care of devouring wolves (Matthew 7:15). Those who follow this false movement and it’s fraudulent wolves, are enticed to buy into this notion that God’s presence is going to do what they refuse to do, like obey Him. Not.
“Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.” Hosea 10:12
The NAR (New Apostolic Reformation) cult loves to say this: “His presence is changing lives.” Read John 15:1-16 for the biblical truth about a daily, abiding relationship with Christ and the corresponding fruit. When we see people saying God’s presence transforms life it entices the biblically illiterate to simply try to go “soak” and get some magic transformation of their character. This is why those in this false movement have a mere “form of godliness” because they “deny the power” (authority) of God by submitting to His cross and are “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:7) Repentance and the central cross message of the original Gospel is never taught in this heretical system.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:1-2
According to Romans 12:1-2, transformation, change, the production of the fruit of the Spirit requires presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to the LORD, that is the crucified life, which is never taught among the false prophets of the NAR cult.
“Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God? 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:” Joel 2:12-15
Acting a fool has no place among true Christians.
Those who refuse to humbly, literally obey God – on his stated terms, will consciously soak in the flames of eternal damnation as hell is cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15). REPENTANCE AND FRUIT TO PROVE IT IS A MUST (Matthew 3:7-10; Luke 13:3).
“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.” Ephesians 4:14-15
The more I look at these things, the more it seems that these people are infiltrating warlocks and witches (Psalms 74).
What is now called “soaking” is the experience whereby people gather to sort of marinate before the LORD. Like the so-called “revivals” of the 1990’s, they will lay and seek to conjure up the presence of God which is an experience foreign to the biblical revelation revealed in the 27 book canon of the New Testament. There were prayer meetings in the NT for specific purposes, but never a soak till we get something meeting (Acts 12). While “soaking” like this they think they are being filled or saturated with the LORD’s presence, yet there are some strange things associated with this type activity as we saw in the false revivals of the recent past. What is now being called “soaking” is simply a repackaging and re-entry of the strange fire experiences we saw in the Toronto and Brownsville “revivals” which did not align with what we see in the Word, so are to be exposed as such.
“Marinating” or “soaking” takes the emphasis off of JESUS and puts in on the deceived dupe which makes it antichrist (in place of Christ). This means that those perpetrating this filthy robbery of the glory of Jesus are antichrists (Colossians 2).
“Why is it that ‘Christians’ keep coming up with things to dramatize Christianity and make it all about them. We have direct access in prayer to God through Jesus. There is absolutely no closer relationship than that soaking does nothing but get you wet. Sad and pathetic.” Paula M.
SOAK THIS!!!!!
It’s high time to repent, come out from among these devils and “soak” our darkened, deceived, apostate hearts and mind in God’s Word and go speak it to the precious lost soul for whom Jesus bled on that cross. We need some serious “washing of water by the word.” (Ephesians 5:25-27) …… Read Ezekiel 3:1-4 …. The LORD told His servant Ezekiel, and is telling you and I, to soak our minds and hearts in His blessed written Word and then GO tell somebody! Anybody ever heard of something called Christ’s GREAT COMMISSION?! It’s pretty simple. What excuse will we have on that Day!? It’s time to get a clue saints, we’ve been hoodwinked! Pass this on if you dare take such a stand … Jesus is coming …. What’s there to lose but eternal souls for whom Christ died and rose again? You don’t think any of the modern wolf “pastors” cares do you? No, they could care less because they are too busy denying Christ while they build their own empire – church business, marketing their communities for more nickels, noses, and numbers. Are you helping them blaspheme Christ? If so, you will receive the same eternal judgment as they do (2 John 7-11).
It’s one gimmick after another, one post card promising to entertain them and their children better than ABC church down the street. They are drawing unsuspecting, undiscerning sheep into their wolf dens that they call “church.”
If we don’t repent, the only soaking we’re going to be doing is when the LORD immerses us in the LAKE of fire! (Revelation 20:11-15)
The following should give some insight into the origins of this experienced-based (not truth-based) movement that we now see. Here is an excerpt taken from an article entitled What is really going on in the church?: http://www.letusreason.org/Pent25.htm
- “It was Benny Hinn who inaugurated Rodney Browne into ministry at one of his meetings in the early 90’s; from there he went to Hagin and then Copeland’s church, then TBN and the rest is history.
Browne says this much chaos must be from the Holy Ghost. This is clearly double-talk. The Holy Ghost of the Bible does not create chaos, He turns chaos into order. Browne describes the spirit he calls holy as a force like electricity running out of his fingers bouncing off and deflecting to others. Is this describing the Holy Ghost of the Scripture or a power that is running amok in their services. He’s got everyone under his spell of laughter thinking that anything that goes on at these meetings even if they are clearly unbiblical is of the Holy Ghost. This is the new order of another spirit and not the Holy Spirit of God. He (Rodney Howard Browne) states : “I’d rather be in a church where the devil and the flesh are manifesting than in a church where nothing is happening because people are too afraid to manifest anything… and if a devil manifests, don’t worry about that either. Rejoice because at least something is happening.” One could write several volumes chronicling the errors in the above statement. A revival of the Spirit does not manifest the flesh. God says clearly that if one walks in the Spirit, that he will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. (Gal. 5:1 6). These are contrary to each other. The works of the flesh will never compliment the workings of the Spirit. If the devil and the flesh are manifesting in a meeting, I would hope that it was an exorcism and the devil would be leaving rather than staying and participating! Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, not to put him on display.”
Did you catch this? Rodney Howard Browne states: “I’d rather be in a church where the devil and the flesh are manifesting than in a church where nothing is happening because people are too afraid to manifest anything… and if a devil manifests, don’t worry about that either. Rejoice because at least something is happening.” Is there any doubt that Browne here invited and brought in demons to the body of Christ? Woe to those gatekeepers (shepherds, pastors) who allowed this abomination and used the name of the LORD in vain by attaching His holy name to this wickedness!
Is there any remotely similar experience seen in Holy Scripture as today’s new “soaking” movement and experience? Or, is this yet another fad movement spawned from so-called “revivals” of the not-too-distant past? Is this “soaking” phenomenon another of the latest “winds of doctrine” blowing through the modern church world? Should such be weighed in the balance against Holy Scripture to see if it is of God OR just blindly received?
“The simple (naïve; undiscerning) believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.” Proverbs 14:15
“Prove (test) all things; hold fast that which is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1
In God’s economy, being gullible is a curse and not a virtue. Being a nice little, easy-going and agreeable Christian is not the goal of Christ for His disciples and is completely inconsistent with the lives of the apostles and early church.
It is incumbent upon the last day saints of the LORD to look very closely at new fad experiences and doctrines blowing through the church world, especially in light of the predecessor “revivals” of the 1990’s, where men and women rolled around on the floor barking and roaring like animals. For this writer such activities are not hearsay – I was there. These “revivals” we know bore not the fruit of a true biblical revival.
How naïve shall we be? Shall we again buy into that which has no connection to biblical Christianity?
The following 3 points on Gnosticism are taken from http://www.crossroad.to/Q&A/church/postmodern/soaking.htm
And yes, incorporates three key tenets of Gnosticism:
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- 1. Faith and knowledge based primarily on personal or mystical experience rather than the Word.
- 2. Emphasis on self-knowledge and emotional well-being or healing, rather than biblical knowledge of God and His freedom through the cross and cleansing through His blood (already accomplished).
- 3. Illogical and feeling-based interpretations of His Word.
George Parker writes:
“I have witnessed two prayer soaks, and each time my spiritual antenna began to blink. I believe that all it is, is a form of New Age mysticism, that has come about by the New Age gospel that has infiltrated the body of Christ since Eugene Peterson’s perverted and watered down version of God’s inspired Word, which is nothing more than a New Age perversion. And Rick Warren’s New Age gospel of having a purpose-driven life.”
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” Isaiah 14:12-15
Self-exaltation forever severed Satan from the Almighty. This movement seems to follow the pomp philosophy of Lucifer while cloaking itself as a Christian experience, yet with no biblical grounds.
At the heart of the divine economy is the worship of God and elevating of others above self (Matt. 22:37-39).
To show just how widespread this “soaking” phenomenon is becoming, here below is an excerpt from John Arnott, pastor of the Airport Vineyard in Toronto where the laughing revival started in the 1990’s. During this “Toronto Blessing” movement, people roared and did many strange animalistic things under the circus leaders of this movement who had no Scripture to justify such weird and unusual, unnatural manifestations.
“Soaking” is not Scriptural and it’s Pure Selfishness
“Overcome in Your presence” and language like this flood the music and messages of the modern church world. And, so, we have a generation of “prophetic” counterfeits who are waiting around for God to do something. He won’t because they ask “amiss” or with the wrong motive, while in disobedience to what He already stated in His Word, the “MORE sure word of prophecy.” (2 Peter 1:16-21)
“Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” James 4:2-3
“He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law (Word; instructions), even his prayer shall be abomination.” Proverbs 28:9
“Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” James 2:18
Jesus tells us how God works and it’s on record in John 14:21, 23. He and the Father abide with and manifest themselves to those who obey Him… not those who have a mere form of godliness as they seek the LORD to come upon them in a special way while they are not obeying Him. Counterfeits.
“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him … 23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” John 14:21,23
Only those who follow Christ’s teachings prove that they know and follow Christ and it’s to these true disciples that God makes Himself manifest (Matthew 7:21; John 8:47, etc.).
John Arnott:
“Let’s get back to supernatural church” by John Arnott
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- · “…we hear the term, ‘church without walls’ but what does this mean? While it can mean sending teams from a local church outside the church’s walls to minister in homes and in the marketplace, I believe it is much more than that. If we are going to reach this world for Jesus, we need a completely new model of doing church …
- · “I believe the vision God gave us here in Toronto for Soaking Prayer Centers all over the world is a great response to the Great Commission. In just over one year, we have had over 4,000 people order our ‘Soaking Kit‘ and begin a small group of ‘called out ones’ in their homes….
- · “Why the interest? Because it is a quick, simple way to get involved into the supernatural ministry of Jesus and start helping people receive healing, deliverance and freedom, to come into the joy of the Lord and be filled with the Spirit. The Soaking Kit includes all the basic information you need to start your own ‘soaking center’ in your home or business.”
Much could be said about these words of Mr. Arnott. Notice these words from Arnott concerning “soaking”: “Because it is a quick, simple way to get involved into the supernatural ministry of Jesus and start helping people receive healing, deliverance and freedom, to come into the joy of the Lord and be filled with the Spirit.” Sound smooth? Sound biblical? Since when is walking with Christ and doing ministry “quick”? Is there a “quick, simple way to get involved into the supernatural ministry”? Is “soaking” a “supernatural ministry” of the Holy Spirit or “another spirit”? (2 Cor. 11:4) This is the false premise for this whole “soaking” movement – a “quick, simple way” to get around a true walk with God which requires Jesus increasing and we decreasing – the crucifixion of the fleshly nature with fastings, prayer, repentance and obedience (2 Chronicles 7:14).
In Psalm 51 we see a divine sequence: first purging, then filling, and then ministry. Real ministry is not a “quick” fix, but rather a relationally-based preparation that requires that the believer humble himself under the mighty hand of God for purging and cleansing that he might be “a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.”
“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” 2 Timothy 2:19-21
Tell-Tale Fruit
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:22-23
From personal experience in this 1990s “blessing” movement (and study of it), this writer has concluded that there was very little fruit of the Holy Spirit produced in those supposed “revivals.” The fruit of the supposed “revivals” of the 1990’s was not “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness…” If such is true, do we conclude that it was a blessing or a curse? When God really moves (revival), there will be deep repentance, total trust, praise, Holy Ghost filling, water baptism, doctrinal purity, and a deep hunger for the Word! Read Acts.
“God is love” and those who truly know Him serve Him according to His Word which includes lifting up others above self (rather than self-seeking). See 1 John.
Where is the love? Are these revivals producing true Christian, Christ-like love, where people lay down their lives for their LORD and the brethren? This “soaking” phenomenon is to be weighed no differently than when we are in our local gatherings and sing, clap, dance and shout to the LORD in praise and yet never reach out with Christian love to commune with and bless the brethren of the LORD. Such deficiency of Christ-like love clearly reveals an empty outward religious exercise void of the true substance of worship. In the 1990s and today, the same people who lay on the floor for hours “soaking” seem to get up without exhibiting greater fruit or evidence of the Holy Ghost. Where is the love that is always characterized by loving one’s neighbor? No, instead it seems to be just another selfish experience where people come to get blessed instead of being one, just like the rich woman who lives to be pampered by others giving her massages, pedicures and facials. Those involved in these fad modern church and self-seeking “revivals” still seem to lack the love, real joy, and peace always consistent with the work of the Spirit of God. Such fruit will only come to those who sincerely worship from the depths of their hearts and are doers of the Word and not those who are sitting around doing little or nothing and waiting to be further pampered and fattened by “soaking”.
Do you really want to know how to judge or test this movement or any movement for its authenticity or lack thereof? Jesus commanded: “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15) The LORD also said “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19 The book of Proverbs says “He that winneth souls is wise.” (Prov. 11:30) True revival brings repentance and preaching of the Good News – the Gospel – from all truly touched by the LORD. Any other fruit other than that shown in Holy Scripture reveals that a so-called move of God is not biblical, and points to deception and not true revival. Read these following words of Jesus carefully:
“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another.” John 15:9-17
Obedience to the LORD Jesus and His Word in the laying down of one’s life and preferring others above oneself is the fruit of true revival. Anything short of this clearly reveals a false revival.
Who truly loves Jesus? Want to let Jesus answer this question?
“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him…Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” John 14:21, 23
According to Jesus, those who follow and obey Him are blessed with His presence. The presence of the LORD is in and with those who are following Him and therefore in motion expanding His kingdom – doing His bidding, not their own (self-seeking).
Cindy Rose Hatfield writes: “(John 16:23-24 KJV ). These verses and others clearly portray prayer as being comprehensible communication with God, not an esoteric, mystical meditation…Nor soaking in music or anything ..It is all in the Word and nowhere is it found to do the above as described…Amen.”
“Charity…Seeketh not Her Own”
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth…” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Doers or Deceivers?
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” James 1:22
Abiding in His Love:
“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” John 15:9-14
The LORD is looking for those who will abide in relationship with Him and obey His Word from a sincere heart of worship. Beloved, bringing your pillow to church to lay on the floor and “soak” is a farce and a fable at best. This is not what the church needs – more coddling while doing little or nothing to obey Jesus. The true church is being called to fasting, prayer, seeking His holy face and obedience to the Word of God and not to be further pampered and fattened, and deluded with more strange fire experiences brought into the church world by the promised false prophets of the last hour (Matt. 24:4-4,11,24; 1 Tim. 4:1-6; 2 Tim. 3:7; 2 Pet. 2-2; Jude 3-4, etc.).
Remember what Christ told us about the believers at Laodicea?
“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Revelation 3:14-17
Does the already overfed, overweight, do-nothing western world church need even more spoiling? This may sound harsh on the surface, yet I think the question has merit, all things given. Do you?
Have you noticed the pleasure-seeking craze and emphasis of the last few years which is usually cloaked behind some spiritual veneer? Paralleled with the advent of the day spa explosion across the western world, the indulgence and excess of those in the church world has come of age as foretold by the apostles of our LORD – “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud…heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim. 3:1-7)
It seems that today people will do anything but what Jesus told us to do and find “biblical” justification for it. But God sees the heart motives and intents of men and will bring these things to the light on that Great and Terrible Day of Judgment.
Concerning soaking, George Parker wrote us and says:
“… prayer soaking and they use all sorts of Scriptures, but I believe that all they are doing is what writers call ‘proof texting’, using Scripture to back up unproven truth. Now if ‘Prayer Soaking’ is Scriptural, then how come it has take over a thousand years to become a force?”
How do you think the people of the world who do not know the LORD view those in the church world who are engrossed in seeking continual self-indulgence, treatment and excess?
The question must be asked: Why would the LORD further pamper people who are not being obedient and fruitful in His harvest as it is? Are we not a bunch of spiritual weaklings?
“If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?” Jeremiah 12:5
While some misled Americans, claiming to be serving the LORD, seek to further pamper their poor little hurting buttocks (due to sitting too much), a large number of true believers in Christ across the world live in danger of martyrdom every day for their faith.
“GO YE”
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15
“Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.” Acts 8:4
Don’t stand around soaking, “go and tell others” is the message of the New Testament.
Those who are authentically touched by the LORD are to be His ambassadors to advance His eternal coming kingdom and not be preoccupied with pampering themselves. The Gospel is moving and those who possess and are possessed by it are “on the go.” Those moved by the LORD from Heaven do exploits among the lost people of their world and the LORD gives His presence to bless and empower them. They don’t congregate to “soak” in more self-seeking, self-indulgent, and self-serving experiences.
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. …And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 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. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.” Mark 16:15, 17-20
The LORD who alone saves, has called all who believe to “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.” Because they are “on the go” in obedience to Him, the LORD says here that He will be “confirming the word with signs following.” Jesus is not going to confirm or bless laziness and self-indulgence with His presence or “signs.”
2 Thessalonians 2 says there are “LYING signs and wonders” also just as the two magicians who challenged Moses. And yet there is the authentic which is also coinciding with the root and fruit of those preaching the pure, original Gospel – fruit / doctrine. Read Mark Martin16:15-20 and note that Jesus confirmed the preached WORD with signs and wonders which is telling. He doesn’t confirm foolishness and witchcraft and rolling on the ground, etc., but rather the declaration of His Word.
“I Told You”
“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before.” Matthew 24:24-25
While we pamper ourselves even more, we further lessen our chances of overcoming when the coming persecution hits within our borders. We have seen nothing yet. God help us in this hour to fast, pray and be broken while the light is still with us. Jesus warned “Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.” (John 12:35)
Trevor Gamble notes: “This reminds me suddenly of a Christian friend I knew living locally here to me who when I challenged her on believing this kind of stuff unfriended me. She had been trying to talk me into going to Holy Ghost parties. Where she said all roll around laughing hysterically and so much so no one can praise God. I asked her why God should want to stop people praising Him? She tried to claim it was all of God and said some there had experienced seeing gold teeth materializing into the mouths of people. I said God does not go around putting gold teeth in the mouths of believers. Nowhere in scripture does this happen.”
The persecutions that lie just ahead in this nation will be devastating to those who aren’t being prepared in this hour by exercising the Word – doing it. These who have bought into this latest of “strange fire” experiences, are being further blinded and deluded (Leviticus 10:1-2).
“He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Revelation 3:5-6
“They Have Cast Fire into Thy Sanctuary”
“Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt. Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs…They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.” Psalms 74:2-4,7
Leviticus 10 issues forth the severe warning against false prophets who bring “strange fire”among the people of God. The false prophets came under divine judgment and were killed.
“And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified.” Leviticus 10:1-3
In my estimation, this “soaking” movement/experience is yet another ridiculous scheme of the enemy to further embalm God’s people and keep them in bondage to self-serving experiences instead of the true worship of the LORD which leads one to love God supremely, deny self, take up the cross, and elevate others above self in truly following Christ. The sad thing is that so many today who are empty after walking through several supposed “revivals,” still go on blindly into yet another fad movement which has literally no biblical reconciliation. This movement will again leave them empty and vulnerable to the next delusion.
Think about it: Isn’t it easier to “soak” than to serve? Isn’t laying around doing “floor time” (their wording) the easy way out? Are these people not being led to follow the line of least resistance by vainly believing one is marinating in the presence of God while “soaking”? Is this in lieu of doing what the LORD told us to do in His Word?
How naïve shall we continue to be? How long will we be led around with the enemy’s hand by the nose and think we are being led by the Holy Spirit? How long shall we take the LORD’s name in vain by labeling false movements like this as from Him? How long shall we refuse to judge and test everything against the Word? How long shall we be “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive”? (Eph. 4:14)
Did the LORD ever instruct anyone in Scripture to marinate or “soak”? Or, did He instruct His people to mortify the selfish desires of the sinful nature? See Romans 6. Has the Almighty changed?
“For I am the LORD, I change not.” Malachi 3:6
What is the unchanging LORD looking for? Can we allow God to answer this one for Himself?
“But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” Isaiah 66:2
“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.” 1 Samuel 15:22-23
Whether they realize it or not, those who participate in this strange fire soaking movement are rejecting the Word of God and rebelling. If He didn’t tell us to do such in His Word, we are rejecting Him and His Word to do such.
Isn’t this “soaking” experience just another opportunity for western “Christians” to find another excuse not to deny self, take up the cross and truly follow Christ by doing the real work of the Gospel? Is this just another great escape from true repentance of life and brokenness before the LORD?
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
todd tomasella
www.SafeGuardYourSoul.com
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“AMEN!!!!!!! I truly believe some have become part of this either through lack of spiritual discernment … no knowledge of God’s Word … they don’t understand the spirits behind it. They are all too ready to simply follow after wicked men … and women … They come in innocence … some as new babes in Christ~~they are preyed upon by these power hungry, manipulative … greedy controlling “preachers” feeding them doctrines of demons … It is spiritual rape! Woe unto them!” Bonnie H.
SHOCKING DOCUMENTARY – False spirits invade the church – KUNDALINI WARNING – Andrew Strom
SOAKING? A Spiritual Discipline or Eastern Mysticism?
http://www.crossroad.to/Q&A/church/postmodern/soaking.htm
The Toronto Blessing and the Laughing Revival By Gary E. Gilley ~http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/char/more/bless.htm
SOAKING? A spiritual discipline or Eastern mysticism?
http://www.crossroad.to/Q&A/church/postmodern/soaking.htm
Hi Todd,
I live in Australia and I have become concerned for the movement that seems to have appeared out of nowhere.
I’ve read a lot on the web about prayer soaking and they use all sorts of Scriptures, but I believe that all they are doing is what writers call “proof texting”, using Scripture to back up to unproven truth.
Now if “Prayer Soaking” is Scriptural, then how come it has take over a thousand years to become a force?
I have witnessed two prayer soaks, and each time my spiritual antenna began to blink.
I believe that all it is, is a form of New Age mysticism, that has come about by the New Age gospel that has infiltrated the Body of Christ since Eugene Peterson’s perverted and watered down version of God’s inspired Word, which is nothing more than a New Age perversion. And Rick Warren’s New Age gospel of having a purpose-driven life.
I am concerned that all of this stuff has come into being since September 11, and the New Age meeting that some Christian leaders attended that was led by the leader of the New Age movement in America.
Now, what have you that might endorse this Prayer Soaking movement? I have an open mind, but I am concerned that these people who lie around on chairs and floors of a church, are opening themselves up to the enemy. I believe it becomes a self-hypnosis.
What do you think?
Love in Christ
George Parker
Australia
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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
-
- Chris Armstrong, “The Future lies in the Past” in Christianity Today, February 2008.
- Ibid. 24.
- Ibid. 29.
- 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).
- 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
- Ibid. 111-125.
- I write about Sanford’s inner healing theories in CIC Issue 96: HTTP://CICMINISTRY.ORG/COMMENTARY/ISSUE96.HTM
- Dave Hunt and T. A. McMahon, The Seduction of Christianity (Eugene: Harvest House, 1985) 138.
- Morton Kelsey, Encounter With God, (Bethany Fellowship: Minneapolis, 1972) 179.
- http://www.biola.edu/spiritualformation/programs/ SEE PDF
- HTTP://WWW.SDIWORLD.ORG
- HTTP://WWW.RENOVARE.ORG/JOURNEY_TRAINING_DIRECTION.HTM
- CIC Issue 105; March/April 2008: HTTP://CICMINISTRY.ORG/COMMENTARY/ISSUE105.HTM
- Watch this seminar HERE
- Armstrong, Future
- DONALD S. WHITNEY, SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES FOR THE CHRISTIAN LIFE (COLORADO SPRINGS: NAVPRESS, 1991) 23.
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Articles
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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