Top Christian subversive, Richard Foster, leads the Spiritual Reformation Movement and Richard Foster is also held in high esteem in the emergent subversive church movement. So whats the big deal about the Spiritual Reformation Movement and the Emergent Church? Only that spiritual reformation concepts and the contemplative prayer concepts of the Emergent Church Movement are much the same. This, “get in touch with your own spirituality movement” really comes from practices found in Buddhism, Hinduism and and Roman Catholic mysticism. They all descended from the practices of ancient Babylon. It has nothing to do with concepts taught in Christianity and the Bible.

The concept of spiritual reformation as I understand it, is that they believe one can become closer to God by meditating on their own inner spirituality or god feelings.  Jesus may not even be required by these emergent subversives because they think some Buddhists and Hindus have developed spiritual reformation without Jesus.  Most “Christians” that are into this conjure up a Jesus of their own liking rather than the one revealed in the Bible since most either never read the Bible or they have not understood that the whole Bible is about God’s salvation through Jesus. Thus, they mediate on some Jesus of their very own making that will mystically whisper things they want to hear in their minds eye while in an altered state of conscientiousness.

But, I have emerging news for those emergent’s that are doing this. You cannot become more like God by meditating on your own concept of god. There are no mystical short cuts to Christian spirituality. You only get Christian spirituality through being born of the Spirit and then you grow toward spiritual maturity by living out your faith in practice. You cannot  become more spiritual by trying to become more spiritual any more than you can develop faith by claiming faith. You cannot become closer to God if you are still dead in your sins. Other religions have never come to Jesus Christ for forgiveness of their sins so they cannot have a path to God, they only have a path to their own self deception.

What they never tell you in all the spiritual reformation and contemplative prayer teachings and seminars is that you are a sinner separated from God and you must repent of your ways and be saved through the blood of  Jesus Christ.

Some of what is going on in the Emergent Church Movement reminds me of the old Charismatic Church Movement that thought they could attain a higher spiritual level by just making up their own reality. They called it a “second baptism”.  So what new levels of spiritual maturity have they achieved over the years over other Christians that never bought into their “second baptism” delusions? They thought this would bring them into a relationship with God where they could heal, do miracles and tell each other the future. Instead they often believed false presumptions that are still being displayed to the world with healing circus performances, laughing hyenas and false prophets. Some still think they are “Joel’s Army” or the “Third Wave” and they are going to take the world for Christ by spiritual force, but they display that they do not even have the weapons of spiritual warfare to defeat the devils in their own lives and in their own local congregations. There are no short cuts or mystical paths to spiritual maturity. You do not develop spiritual maturity though a ritual or by believing false presumptions and you do not get spiritual maturity through contemplative prayer and spiritual reformation.

All these new movements are really just putting fancy new covers on the same old book of mystical lies. The Spiritual Reformation Movement and the Emergent’s are just finding common ground to become part of the larger Interfaith Movement. The Interfaith movement is being pushed by people like Tony Blair that recently converted to Catholicism, and then started a Interfaith foundation to find common ground among world religions. Tony Blair also wants to be head of the EU. This almost sounds like something out of Bible prophecy. The woman (interfaith harlot religion) rides the Beast (That come out of the area of the Roman Empire)

Here is something I found in Jan Markell’s article:

The East is Seducing the West.

Pastor Bob DeWaay writes in his Critical Issues Commentary, “I met a lady who attends a Christian college. As part of her study program, she was required to take a course on spiritual formation. Spiritual formation in her class also concerned the study of Roman Catholic mystics and the search for techniques to help those who implement them feel closer to God. This study also explored ‘spiritual disciplines’ which promised to make those who practiced them more Christlike. After she finished the class, she shared her text books with me.”

He continues, “To hear evangelicals like Dallas Willard and Richard Foster tell us that we need practices that were never spelled out in the Bible to become more like Christ or to get closer to God is astonishing. What is more astonishing is that evangelical colleges, seminaries, and church denominations are requiring their students and members to study practices that are relics of Medieval Rome, not found in the Bible, and closely akin to the practices of manry pagan societies.”

You need to understand that this spiritual reformation garbage is being pushed by many Bible colleges. So is it any wonder that so many young pastors teach this stuff to their congregations? By the way, while I am on that subject, why do churches hire pastors (elders) right out of Bible college to be the elder of their church? How did Bible colleges become the proving ground for spiritual qualifications to be the elders of the local Church? Now you know why there is more and more error being introduced into western Christianity. The spiritually immature are put in positions to teach and mislead, all the way from Seminaries and Bible colleges to our local congregations and small groups. Everyone thinks they have a young Timothy leading them but more likely their leader could be named “Trial” or “Error”.

In the same article quoted above Jan Markell gets it correct when she says:

So while the term spiritual formation sounds like a good concept as we all want to grow spiritually, it comes with questionable baggage that is, once again, mystical and hardly sound. Ask questions of your church leadership or college staff. Challenge the issue by pointing out that much of this foundation has been laid by mystics and Catholicism — and throw in some Buddhism and Hinduism as well.  You will then conclude that when the term spiritual formation comes up as it does more and more frequently, it should have a “buyer-beware” label on it. If you see your church bulletin announcing its arrival, don’t just sit there — do something. Confront your leadership!

Such things as the Bethel University symposium on “meditation” and the spiritual formation movement are driven by what is known as “contemplative prayer.” Contemplative  (mystical spirituality) is the heartbeat of the spiritual formation movement.  It is more likely to derail you spiritually than draw you closer to God.  Don’t believe them when promoters of spiritual formation tell you that this will take you to a higher level of Christianity and to a new level of spirituality. New spiritual programs aren’t necessary;  rather, hearts yearning to grow in the knowledge of the Lord simply from reading the Bible. We cannot get any “closer to God” than Jesus Christ indwelling us through His Holy Spirit!

On the same subject look what Jan has to say about her own school in her article “When Students are Left to the Wolves”

I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to hear the evening of November 3. My alma mater, Bethel University in St. Paul, MN, sponsored an Interreligious Symposium promoting some kind of “common ground” between Buddhism and Christianity. One would think if a Christian had an ounce of discernment, they would deduce that Christianity has nothing to do with Buddhism and such unions are playing with fire. But a panel concluded that there was “common ground” when it came to “meditation.” Granted, this kind of meditation could put one in a dangerous altered state of consciousness, but maybe that’s ok as long as we can find a bit of unity here! Some would call this common bond of meditation “contemplative prayer.”

About 200 students and a few adults were crammed into the symposium auditorium. Attendance by the students was mandatory. The three main presenters were Buddhist monk Witiyala Seewalie from Sri Lanka, Bethel professor Paul Reasoner who is a part of the “Christian Zen” movement, and Ted Meissner, an active Buddhist layman and meditator in Zen, although he grew up in a Christian home.

The push was “meditation.”  But being a Buddhist means becoming conscious of one’s own divinity. This was not clarified. Had it been clarified, it could have sent out a huge red flag to questioning students at Bethel.  So why would Christians get on board with this kind of meditative enlightenment when acknowledging one’s own divinity for a Christian would be idolatry and an abomination to the one true God?

The students were encouraged to do meditation that would silence or empty their minds. Keep in mind that some who promote this kind of meditation such as Richard Foster, actually tell you to pray a prayer of protection over yourself before you begin! Yet there was no warning to innocent and naïve students and again, attendance for most there was mandatory.

We heard a lot about those ancient mystics and desert fathers. Here we go with the mystical again, and mysticism always trumps doctrine. Bring on “experience”!! Another panelist talked about the Jesuits he studied under. Is Bethel a Baptist-rooted university or Catholic-rooted? Try the former.

A symposium like this is leading these kids straight to the Emergent Church which goes along with all of the above. And if anything will bring spiritual death, it is all things Emergent. The step beyond that is the one-world religion.

Brannon Howse also has a defining view of this emerging church threat in this article promoting his book.

The Emerging Third Way of Apostate Pastors and Globalist Leaders

The pastors and authors of one of America’s fastest growing spiritual movements, the Emergent Church, sing the praises of socialism. As I’ll explain in more detail later, the Emergent Church champions the neo-Marxist call for a utopian society through spiritual evolution where good and evil merge to form a “better” third option. This idea derives from the belief system of philosophers such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and finds its contemporary manifestation in the “Third Way” movement of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. In the Third Way, capitalism, socialism, and communism merge to form a misanthropic combination of the three. This blending is now represented in the terms “the New World Order” and “the new enlightenment.”

The Third Way promotes Communitarianism, a toxic blend of communism, socialism, atheism, and Cosmic Humanism. Communitarians believe in universal health care, government-subsidized housing and education, radical environmentalism,Fabian socialism, and the like.

The bottom line is that the Interfaith Movement, The Emergent Movement, and the Spiritual Reformation Movement is leading to the Harlot of Revelation chapter 17. We see that one pied piper named Tony Blair converts to Roman Catholicism, starts an interfaith foundation and also wants to be the head of the EEU and meanwhile the emergent rats just follow his tune and march over the cliff to spiritual malformation.