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“Her Priests have violated My Law, and have profaned My holy things: they have put no difference
between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean
and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them” (Ezek. 22:26).

Another term for the pagan mysticism that is entering the modern church (or “postmodern” church) is “contemplative spirituality.” While you may not have heard this specific term, it is nevertheless
the type of worship now found in many churches. The teachings of contemplative mystics
such as Richard Foster, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Tilden Edwards, Basil Pennington, Brennan
Manning, Alan Jones, and many others, are being introduced on a massive scale through some of their most avid disciples who pose as traditional Christian men in the church world today.

Let’s begin this article by looking at one way contemplative spirituality is subtly creeping into unsuspecting churches — through alternative styles of worship. The trendy catchphrase now preferred among the hippest, most cutting-edge congregations is “Ancient-Future” worship. In
an article found recently in Rick Warren’s on-line “Ministry Toolbox,” Greg Scheer (minister of worship at Church of the Servant in Grand Rapids, music associate at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, and author of The Art of Worship) gives us a good overview: “Whereas the contemporary worship movement of the last 30 years sought renewal by breaking with the past, new worship movements
seek renewal through traditional forms of worship. But they aren’t interested in the traditions of
1950s America. They go back to monastic traditions, Celtic Christianity, Anglican liturgy, and ancient hymns.”
Despite the attempt to label such sources as “traditional” Christianity, a simple study shows that
these sources really practice mysticism. Scheer continues to describe how ancient rudiments are
often creatively reinterpreted to fit today’s postmodern context. For instance, “. . . icons are projected from computers, new tunes are written for old texts, and liturgy is spoken over techno beats.” You may “. . . mix candles and projection screens, historic liturgy, and extemporaneous
prayer (meaning without preparation or improvisation), exegesis and movie clips.” The term “ancient-future” was actually coined by Robert Webber. Robert Webber is the Professor of Ministry at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Illinois, Professor of Theology Emeritus at Wheaton College, and has authored and/or edited more than 40 books on worship and lectured in nearly every church denomination and
fellowship.

FUTURE CHANGE?
Webber also endorsed Scheer’s book. He says, “‘The Art of Worship’ . . . will enable the worship
leader or worship committee to thoughtfully analyze their current style of worship and to plan
step by step for future change.” A September 2006 article in Christianity Today entitled, “Together
in the Jesus Story”, explained that for many years now, Webber has been “. . . calling our attention
to the rich deposit of the ancient church’s faith,” meaning he wants Christian evangelicals to
appreciate the practices of the pre-reformation church! The article begins with this intro:
“One day during his tenure at Wheaton College, a colleague remarked, ‘Webber, you act like
there never was a Reformation.’ Bob recalls saying, ‘You act like there never was an ancient church.’” Interestingly, as well, in one music ministry periodical, Webber says, “My ecumenical vision
is shaped by Billy Graham’s embrace of all Christians” (Creator Magazine, February 2006). In
fact, thirty years ago Webber, along with some colleagues, headed his first “call” to
evangelicals in a document known as “The Chicago Call”. Newsweek actually devoted its
entire religion section to this “call.” So, since 1977 evangelicals have been gradually reconsidering
pre-Protestant traditions. Webber’s current call is entitled, “A Call to an Ancient Evangelical
Future”, but this time the appeal flourished through a mass e-mailing which is now in the process
of compiling enthusiastic signatures of agreement. Webber also made the statement: “Just
today I picked up one of my favorite books — ‘The Principle of Protestantism’ by Philip Schaff.
Schaff does say that there is a principle of separation to bring about a correction. When that
correction has been achieved, we ought quickly to unite again with the group from which we separated. He was using that with regard to the whole Protestant world and saying the Protestant
world left the Catholic Church for a correction. Once that correction has been made, he said, we
should reunite again with the Catholic Church” (“Together in the Jesus Story,” Christianity
Today. September 2006).

ANCIENT-FUTURE!
Another fascinating phenomenon of this “ancient-future” mode is that worship leaders are finding
it particularly easy to incorporate the musical styles and traditions of various cultures around the
world. According to most emergent leaders, this is a great thing because it will help enlighten our
minds to an awareness of the “global church.” Scheer says that accomplishing a global touch
may simply be a matter of adding an African djembe or Irish penny whistle to a praise song, but some
(like John Bell and Michael Hawn) have been able to introduce whole new songs to western
churches. Scheer says: “As we join in their song, our own faith is deepened immeasurably.
The global Church’s song enlarges our vision of God and helps us stand with our brothers and sisters
around the world in our joy and suffering. What a blessing that God is using people groups
who used to be a pushpin on a missionary map to instruct us in worship!” Evidently, he believes
that non-Christian cultures no longer need missionaries; they just need to incorporate their own
customs with Christianity. But, Christ did not teach the idea of a “global church” in the sense of a
mixing of diverse cultures. The Lord always called His people out of a culture in order to be a part
of His kingdom. “. . . Come out from among them, and be ye separate . . .” (II Cor. 6:17). Instead, as it has long been Satan’s desire to rule the Earth, it is the world-system of the Antichrist
that the Bible predicts will “join together” in worship of the beast (Rev. 13:8)!

THE GOSPEL MESSAGE: THE WAY OF THE CROSS
It should be well noted that contemplative/mystic spirituality will always bring with it many varying
disciplines, practices, and rituals, which are supposed to bring one closer to God. But, in all reality,
this is actually impossible. Why? Because, at its very core, contemplative spirituality rejects
the Gospel message! The Gospel is the proclamation of the One True Way to God the Father.
God cannot have fellowship with someone unless he first has a true Born-again Salvation experience,
which is the only possible starting point to communion with God. In other words, all relationship and experience with God must be built upon the foundation of the Cross. But, contemplative spirituality has an entirely different foundation. It did not originate with true Disciples of Christ who had already encountered God by way of His Son. Instead, in direct denial of the Way of the Cross, contemplative spirituality purports that any seeker, regardless of the “way” or “path” upon which he begins, can come to know God through certain spiritual disciplines. These disciplines came from “spiritual seekers,” from many different religious and cultural backgrounds, who were looking to encounter a god they did not know. Their foundation was never the Cross of Christ, so their disciplines will only result in lies,
even when they are practiced within a Christian Church. This is why we find that the deeper one
goes into mystic practices, the more he will come into agreement with heretical New Age/Occultist
teachings such as “pantheism,” meaning, “god is everything,” and “panentheism,” meaning, “god is in everything.” Deception is always the result of a faulty foundation.
“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 3:11).

DEEP THINKING?
Listen to what some more of the esteemed contemplatives in today’s church have to say. In his
book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster states that even people “who have yet to turn their lives over to Jesus Christ” can and should practice spiritual disciplines. Henri Nouwen was actually disturbed whenever he heard people say Jesus was the only way to God. He said, “Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God’s house, all human beings can walk through
that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God” (Sabbatical Journey p.51). This explains why he was able to see India as a plentiful source of spiritual “treasures” for Christians. Nevertheless, Henri Nouwen somehow became a very popular teacher within the Christian church. It has been explained that his style appealed to an intellectual “Christian” crowd yet remained very poetic and comforting at the same time. “Many pastors
and professors are greatly attracted to his [Nouwen’s] deep thinking. In fact, one of his biographers
revealed that in a 1994 survey of 3,400 U.S. Protestant church leaders, Nouwen ranked
second only to Billy Graham in influence among them” (Ray Yungen, A Time of Departing. p. 61).

SEDUCING SPIRITS
Tilden Edwards wrote in his book, Spiritual Friend (this book was also endorsed by Richard Foster),
“The new ecumenism involved here is not between Christian and Christian, but between Christians
and the grace of other intuitively deep religious traditions.” On pages 18 and 19, he
writes, “This mystical stream (contemplative prayer and other monastic traditions) is the Western
bridge to Far Eastern spirituality (and to that of Sufis Moslems); this exchange, together with the more popular Eastern impact in the West through transcendental meditation, Hatha Yoga, the martial
arts, and through many available courses on Eastern religions in universities, has aided a recent rediscovery of Christian apophatic mystical tradition.” “Apophatic” mysticism is based on the theology of “Via Negativa”, which endeavors to rid a person’s mind of all delusions and/or preconceived
ideas about God in order to prepare him to receive the truth of the “mystery” of god. It attempts to
gain and express the knowledge of God by describing what God is not, rather than by describing
what God is. Thereby, apophatic traditions (as opposed to “kataphatic” traditions) teach that humans can never truly define God in words, and all students must transcend words in order to truly understand the nature of the Divine. It emphasizes a spontaneous and/or cultivated
individual experience of “god”, which can only be sensed beyond the realm of ordinary human perception and is most often unmediated by any organized religious tradition. Here again, we see that the Gospel message is eliminated from the contemplative tradition because it can be understood only
through the written Word of God.

JESUS IS NOT MEANT TO BE A MODEL; HE IS A SAVIOR
Contemplatives believe that it is their spiritual disciplines which will cause you to know God and,
according to some, actually make you “like Christ!” In a very subtle manner, people become
more concerned with becoming like Jesus than embracing the correct Doctrines of His Word,
even though a correct understanding of His Word (which just happens to be the Revelation of
Christ Himself) is what will cause them to develop the fruit of genuine Christianity in their
lives. In fact, some contemplative promoters are suggesting that a Believer may no longer wish to
call himself a “Christian,” indicating that the term is useless and overrated. Instead, they contend,
you may want to use a term that better demonstrates a more reallife, dynamic transformation like
“Christ-follower” or, as Erwin McManus likes to put it, a “barbarian” or “warrior” for Jesus.
Referring back to the alternative, “ancient-future” worship scene, Robert Webber also speaks about
becoming “like Jesus.” He says: “. . . If we resituate worship in the story, then worship tells and
enacts the story of God. And God is the subject of that worship rather than the object that we
worship. The subject acts on us in worship and forms us into Christ’s likeness and thus affects
our spirituality . . . Hans Urs Von Balthazar said that we need to take a passage of Scripture
and so internalize it that we become it. If somebody asks where’s Matthew 25, we should be able to say, ‘Oh, it’s walking over there’” (“Together in the Jesus Story,” Christianity Today. September 2006). Even Ken Blanchard, the leadership guru who has teamed up with Rick
Warren on numerous occasions, strongly believes in becoming “like Jesus” and, not surprisingly,
that contemplative meditation is the key to this transformation. Blanchard describes Jesus as a
perfect model to follow, and has built several of his conferences around the idea of “leading
like Jesus.”

LIKE GOD?
But, this sort of Christ-imitation ignores the actual acceptance of Christ’s Lordship in one’s
life. Instead of developing a love for and submission to Jesus and His Truth, a person ends up trying
to be “like god.” This is quite an interesting goal, considering this is exactly what caused
the fall of Lucifer, and was also the exact thing he used in the Garden to tempt man, ultimately bringing his downfall as well! The Bible records the heart of Lucifer: “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High” (Isa. 14:14). And
the devil inspired the serpent to say: “For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). So, in trying to be like God, men became unlike God — in other words, sinners who knew evil by experience. God only knows evil by His omniscience (all-knowing power); God only has the capacity to do Good.

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