A Time to Come Together – waiting to be one

In politics in America Democrats are polarized with Republicans, its an accepted fact they disagree on nearly everything because of their values and worldview. When it comes to Religion, it is no different.

The central idea of Interfaith cooperation is based on Religious Universalism. Which teaches that all religions hold elements of the truth and that no religion or religious teacher is fully right or wrong. One of the ways to build bridges to other religions, and unite with them is to claim God is the same everywhere and we can be diverse in our approach to him. It also presupposes that as long as people worship God in their own way they are accepted.

The New age view is that God is greater than any one religious system teaching on him “God works in many ways, through many faiths and religious agencies; this is one reason for the elimination of non-essential doctrines. By the emphasizing of the essential doctrines and in their union will the fullness of truth be revealed. This, the new world religion will do …” (Alice Bailey & Djwhal Khul) http://inthenameofpurpose.org/chp10.htm

This is primarily done by diminishing his name, the name of the only true God to be the gods of the other religions.

Recently a Dutch Roman Catholic bishop came out supporting Christians to rename "God" to

"Allah, this is good example of what is taking place as a shift from the truth to alternatives. (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57178, August 17, 2007)

Bishop Martinus Petrus Maria Muskens, told Dutch TV: "Allah is a very beautiful word for God. Shouldn't we all say that from now on we will call God 'Allah'?"

I’m not sure if this man came to this by his own conclusion or has read some of the emerging church ideas or Daniel Kikawas books (Perpetuated in Righteousness) who says essentially the same thing.

Further in his statement: "God doesn't care what we call Him." “The Almighty is above such "discussion and bickering," he insisted.

God’s name is no ordinary name; it reveals His character, his nature to mankind. God has given only one name fro salvation and for us to walk in Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12)

Here is the point; he said this to basically to appease the Muslims- “Catholic churches in the Netherlands should use the name Allah for God to ease tensions between Muslims and Christians”

Bishop Muskens' comments found an immediate audience in America. The Council on Islamic American Relations (CAIR no known as ties with Hamas) spokesman Ibrahim Hooper thinks it is a great idea.

"It reinforces the fact that Muslims, Christians and Jews all worship the same God," Hooper told FoxNews.com. "I don't think the name is as important as the belief in God and following God's moral principles. I think that's true for all faiths."

Of course Muslims love this idea, it brings everyone closer to admitting that Mohammed is a legitimate prophet and the Qur’an is the truth. That their god is same god of the Jews and Christians, even though he hates them and identifies them as infidels.

Maybe we can synchronize our praying to pray five times a day with the Muslims, we can call a church a mosque. By doing this we can lose everything of Christianity and bow with all the other religions to have unity with the god[s]s and make peace.

According to the God of the Bible, God's Name is very important to Him. "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain" (Exodus 20:7).

God's unique identity as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is very important to Him, as well.

Have you noticed that it is Allah who is seeking to be identified as God, and not the other way around? There is no effort among Christians and Jews to call God Allah (except bishop Muskens and other betrayers like him.)

Being worshiped as God has always been Satan's main objective. Scripture exposes his agenda through time to its conclusion. He tempted Jesus in the wilderness, demanding that Jesus bow down and worship him. Paul says in the end, during the Tribulation, he will sit "as God, in the Temple of God". John says he will demand worship as a condition for participating in his economic/religious system.

God does not want to be worshiped as Allah, but it is Allah who wants to be worshiped as God. God does not want to be worshipped by all the gods name because he already gave us his name. The Bible was given us to reveal God – it is not an open space to fill any name in you want. Not all religions are equal and neither are their gods the same.

Satan’s doctrine is that all religions are equally valid and true, that all the different paths man made or demonically inspired lead to God. It does not matter what name we call Him or how we worship Him. If we accept Allah why not Vishnu, or Amenominakanushi?

What right do we have to exclude one because of a different name? The one and only name of God for our salvation (Acts 4:12) will diminished or ignored which brings Christianity to an equality with the other religions that are false. If this first step succeeds, in a second phase that the true name and God will be removed.

The Bahai teach: “Many names in many religions are used to describe the same God.” The Bahais believe “Although we may have different concepts of God's nature, although we may pray to Him in different languages and call Him by different names—Allah or Yahweh, God or Brahma--nevertheless, we are speaking about the same unique Being.” “Many names in many religions are used to describe the same God.”

“Be aware that all major religions promote the belief in one God and one mankind, and that God is the source of Truth and Guidance.” “The source of all religions is one. Truth is One. God is One.”

To the promoters of this new spirituality, there is truth found in all religions; none are excluded. This is what Bahai is all about, this is what the new age – the new spirituality is all about, acceptance of all. In other words, God creates all religions they are all from the same God..

When you call on the names of foreign gods, thinking they are the true One, you have syncretized religions. You have mixed the true with the false. You have made God in your own image.

This new spiritual unity first unites God as a concept eliminating his name and ignoring his nature.

The next step is to introduce one to the other teachings of the religions.

Bahai religion teaches, “Since there is one God these manifestations of God have each taught the same religious faith.”

If one accepts that all the religious teachers have been sent by the same god  Once one is open to learn outside the Bible about god they are introduced to the various gods of the nations.

Today it’s popular to read of those who succumbed to this openness and degraded their faith. For example,

Thomas Merton is fashionable in the Emergent church movement because he was a mystic. He wrote, “I see no contradiction between Buddhism and Christianity. . . . I intend to become as good a Buddhist as I can.”

If you become a good Buddhist you have just forsaken being a Christian, they are two diametrically opposite systems that cannot be mixed. Being open to other religions teachings changes one from a faith that is christocentric to a synthesis. When you attach other religious/spiritual practices to Jesus Christ’s teachings, you diminish and corrupt the truth.

Henri Nouwen is another often read author in the emergent movement. He wrote “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 Henri Nouwen).

When one does this they reject the one way Jesus gave for all to come to God. While some see similarities to other religions, Jesus did not. He never quoted another religions teacher, only the Jewish prophets. So there is no justification for an amalgamation of their teachings.

Whether its Islam, Buddhism, Bahaism or Hinduism our response needs to be the same to syncretism.

Whether its inside of outside the church, we are surrounded by this false belief that- all is the same.

We see this same view in the movies, Hollywood is the ultimate liberal influence, even on strict Catholics like Mel Gibson. One film in particular was to present the story of Jesus’ crucifixion by film maker Mel Gibson, who has at times claimed to be a strict Catholic, believing salvation is in his church only. He had something very different to say at the time of his movie. In the Diane Sawyer interview (Primetime Feb.16, 2004) he said, “We are all children of God, doesn’t matter what you are”… we are all children of God.”

Focus on the Family interview: Commenting on someone who is against the film (Frank Rich) and against Christ also, Gibson responded to Dobson “he’s a child of God like all of us” (James Dobson Focus on the Family Feb.25, 2004 radio).

In an interview with Dr. David Elcott on the Today show Feb.17, 2004 the day after the Diane Sawyer’s interview aired. Sawyer asked him: “one sentence from you, if I can about Mel Gibson, did he say anything that tilted you one way or another?”

David Elcott: “I think it was great he opened up real possibilities of seeing us all as God’s children. About seeing humanity as responsible for the death of Jesus, about the idea that we can all be saved, Jew, Christian, Muslim, Hindu. That’s an American way of speaking about religion, a fabulous thing he could do that, fabulous that you can have that conversation.”

If we are all children of God in different religions than it does not matter what we all believe, it does not matter what Jesus said either, but for the record- he disagreed with this.

Rick Warren’s presidential inaugural prayer Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Warren combined the Jewish anthem from Moses (Deut.6:4) and the Muslims introduction to Allah in the Qur’an. After asking for Gods wisdom and integrity for Obama’s leadership as president.

“I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life: Yeshua, Issa, Jesus; Jesus, who taught us to pray and he then recites the “Lord’s prayer.”

The intent was to unite and to appease Muslims, Jews and Catholics. Presenting them as a being in unity by stating the Hebraic, Arabic names for Jesus. Ignoring the fact that Islam’s Jesus is not the same one of the Bible. But liberals don’t care about the differences so it went unnoticed.

This influence is accepted in the highest offices of the land in politics. Former President George Bush stated, ‘That’s what I believe. I believe Islam is a great religion that preaches peace’ “whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God” (WND - October 07, 2007 http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58026 )

President Obama has a similar opinion "I am rooted in the Christian tradition," however he also says "I believe there are many paths to the same place and that is a belief there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people."

Obama's Presidential speech also reflected on this unity. Stating, “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.”

While these various religions make up the landscape of America we have not been shaped by all these various religions, languages and cultures, that is until now. Change has come. Now we are lost in a plethora of religious opinions that have removed us from what we once knew and upheld. These people are accepted here, but our framers were distinctly Christians or theists that understood the morality of the Judeo Christian distinctive. They based their laws on the Bibles principles.

In an article “Americans accept 'array of faiths,' abandon biblical teaching”

The survey reveals that most Americans still call their faith an important source of personal and moral guidance. But this new survey finds Christianity is no longer the default faith of most Americans.

The Barna Group, which found that half of Americans believe Christianity is just one of many options for genuine faith. Americans are adopting a pluralistic mindset.  "Americans are increasingly very accepting of a diverse array of faiths," he notes. "They're less likely to think that Christianity is right or accurate in what it teaches."
 
"What we find is that people are deriving their biblical literacy and their views of spirituality from conversations that they have with friends, and they give that equal weight to things they might get in church or from other religious settings," he points out. "They'll get their faith views from their own personal reflections as well as from their personal experiences and observations" (Allie Martin - OneNewsNow - 1/16/2009)

In another article “More Americans Say They Have No Religion” March 09, 2009

About 12 percent of Americans believe in a higher power but not the personal God at the core of monotheistic faiths. And, since 1990, a slightly greater share of respondents “1.2 percent” said they were part of new religious movements, including Scientology, Wicca and Santeria.’ http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,506849,00.html

Carl Sagan “A new consciousness is developing which sees the earth as a single organism, and recognizes that an organism at war with itself, is doomed. We are one planet.” (Cosmos Video Series, Cosmos Studios, 1980)

Sagan was far removed from subscribing to any religion but as a scientist he saw hope in unifying all life to live in peace. An earth based spirituality that is interdependent on the whole involvement of mankind and its species. This neo paganism can be sold to those who have no idea about past history of religion and make it seem as something new. As something everyone can be involved in and do their share- environmental spirituality.

Many of the new religious movements that are springing up are earth based, environmentalism. Yes, even environmentalists have a spiritual viewpoint.

By destroying pagan animism, Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the feelings of natural objects…The spirits in natural objects, which formerly had protected nature from man, evaporated.”(Lynn White, Jr. (professor of History at the University of California) “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis”)

An earth based religious view that unites us with the environment is carried along with the global crises. In Al Gore’s book “Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit” he titled one chapter "Environmentalism of the Spirit."  Al Gore States:

Al Gore who head up the global warming hysteria and endorses the earth based religion of Gaia, much like a neo eco wiccan, he believes "This is not a political issue," "It is a moral issue. It is an ethical issue. It is a spiritual issue," this new religion will be our salvation just as Teilhard de Chardin taught.

Club of Rome is a “think tank” that wants to see a new social order established in the world. In the book “The First Global Revolution:” “In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill….All these dangers are cause by human intervention and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be over come, The real enemy, then, is humanity itself. (Alexander King/ Bertrand Schneider (founder/secretary-general of the Club of Rome), The First Global Revolution 1991)

“During any “issue-attention-cycle” in environmental campaigning, there is a phase in which the issue needs to be strategically exaggerated in order to establish it firmly on an agenda for action” (Robin Mearns (co-director of the Environment Group and Fellow of the U.K. based Institute of Development Studies), “Environmental Entitlements: Towards empowerment for Sustainable Development”)

Without making this a completely different subject we need to hear others who have arrived on the same plateau. Dominican priest and founder of the Institute for Culture and Creation, Matthew Fox, noted, "I think frankly that the survival of the Earth today depends upon an earth consciousness, that we move beyond nationalism, for example, to a sense of bio-regionalism,…. That we move beyond dualisms of first world/third world, north/south, communist/socialist/capitalist. It's all, um, it's over with. I think the only uture the planet has is a spiritual awakening that's global; global but local. And this is why I think the earth religions are coming forth at this time in history." (Full Circle: The Women's Spirituality Trilogy)

The Gaia hypothesis simply stated, is the idea is that we depend and need to connect to a living being, more ancient, and more complex than anything we now understand. That being is called Gaia, the Earth a living, intelligent organism.

Eric Buehrer, education analyst and president of Gateways to Better Education, says:
 “The Gaia theory is another New Age idea that springs up every so often in science curriculum.  This is the idea that the Earth is a spiritual entity, that all life on the planet is part of that entity — like cells in a global brain. For instance, I came across an outdoor activity in which children were taught that trees had spirits we could talk to.  At the top of the student worksheet the activity was titled "We are one with nature" (Interview with Eric Buehrer conducted by Dr. D. James Kennedy, reprinted in AFA Journal, April 1997, 18.)

PierreTeilhard De Chardin, was a pantheist who fused Christianity with evolution, described his road to salvation: … “I can be saved only by becoming one with the universe.” Which certainly makes the earth we live on of great importance.

He believed in a universal Christ: that seems to me the only possible conversion of the world, and the only form in which a religion of the future can be conceived.” (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Christianity and Evolution (Collins, 1971), p. 130)

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin had the earth based consciousness change his worldview: "What we call inorganic matter is certainly animate in its own way . . . Atoms, electrons, elementary particles . . . must have a spark of spirit." (Science and Christ, written 1920s, published in English in 1968)

Spirit is in man and in all living things- the same as new age movements pantheistic view. If God can be in us as human beings then why cannot he not be in other “things”?

LEONARD SWEET (Author of Quantum Spirituality and Emerging Church leader) Sweet calls this the Theory of Everything. This theory not only says that all creation is connected but that it is all inhabited with Divinity (God). (Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, comment by Tim Wirth, http://simplyagape.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html

Here is panentheism and pantheism the new age concept that challenges the transcendent God of the Bible and how things actually are. Sweet is a representative of the Emergent church’s direction into uncharted territory. We must look at his statements which are a major influence in the “new” emergent church movement.

 The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), established in 1972, commissioned a major collection of articles entitled Ethics & Agenda 21, treating the issue of respect for the environment as a moral and religious concern.  One article, "A Theological/Ethical Response to Agenda 21," was written by Sallie McFague, who has lectured on "A Christian Ecological View of Human Beings."  Her article called for rejecting the Western model of the Earth in favor of the "ancient organic model" which "can serve to incite the needed change in perspective." 

She explained:
 “The organic model, which is found in cultures and religions in Native American traditions, Goddess religions, and even in Christianity's incarnationism, portrays Earth as a body.”

This change of direction of worship to creation instead of the creator of creation is a shrewd switch.

The "organic model" of McFague's is the Gaia concept. The concept of the incarnation of Christ being present ecologically is the same we find in De Chardin, and Matthew Fox.

Sweet further states, “For people who understand the Gaia hypothesis, which posits that the earth behaves like a living system and, indeed, that living things regulate earth’s environments, it is not craziness to suggest, as some electrical engineers have argued, that scientists who like their equipment get better results than those who don’t. …--when food, plants, animals, and machines are seen as part of us, and we of them” (p.238 Quantum Spirituality).

In their book, Spiritual Politics, Corrine McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson write “God Imminent, the Divinity within all life, is today becoming more widely recognized in the new spiritual, ecological, and feminist movements that are working to empower the individual, support human rights, and honor the sacredness of the Earth as Gaia, the ancient Mother Goddess.” (Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson, Spiritual Politics. Changing the World From the Inside Out, 162.)

Sweet further explains, “New Light embodiment means to be “in connection” and “information” with all of creation. New Light communities extend the sense of connectionalism to creation and see themselves as members of an ecological community encompassing the whole of creation. “This is my body” is not an anthropocentric metaphor. Theologian/feminist critic Sallie McFague has argued persuasively for seeing Earth, in a very real sense, as much as a part of the body of Christ as humans. We are all earthlings. Indeed, in the biblical view of creation human earthlings do not stand at the apex of God’s handiwork. Above us are the angels.”

Sweet is wrong, angels are not of earth. Man was given rule over all the creatures on earth, being the last of the creatures made from the earth. Man is unique, God gave him life directly where he became a living soul apart from the animals and the earth. Sweets acceptance of the McFagues theory has no biblical basis.

Sweets connectionalism to creation is further explained, “The world of nature has an identity and purpose apart from human benefit. But we constitute together a cosmic body of Christ. In an ecological model of the church, the earth is not separate from us; indeed, we are in symbiotic relationship with the earth.” (Sweet, p.124 Quantum Spirituality) Where this can be found in the Bible would take a genius; its not there. But it is there if you are writing a new Bible with new light as your basis.

Lenoard Sweet continues to uphold McFague’s Earth as a body concept by also quoting Edward T. Hall “Nothing is itself taken alone. Things are because of interrelations or interconnections.” Earth as a body What economist/theosophist Anna F. Lemkow calls “the wholeness principle” pervades all of life. Strictly speaking, there is no separate identity called “self.” One person is no person. I cannot exist alone. We take on identity only in relation to community. In fact, humans are so interconnected that one person can directly affect another person’s brain activity on an unconscious level” (p.111 Quantum Spirituality)

This concept of interconnection is accepted by others in the emergent movement, Erwin McManus states:

“Those who study science have told us that a butterfly fluttering its wings in South America could, in some sense, be the primary cause of an avalanche in Antarctica. …the Scriptures have advocated this kind of interconnection for thousands of years....”According to Scripture, everything is connected, and every action has at least some effect on the whole. In the same way the church is part of the whole....” (Erwin McManus, An Unstoppable Force (Group Publishing, 2001), p. 15.

Sweet makes many pantheistic statements “The world of nature has an identity and purpose apart from human benefit. But we constitute together a cosmic body of Christ” (p.66 Quantum Spirituality)

Sweets quotations of McFague and others shows he has been influenced by another spiritual system, that is a philosophy of the world, not of Christ. There is much mixing in his writings as he draws from numerous authors. The emergent movement becomes a carrier of De Chardin, Matthew Fox and other eco spiritual advocates.

Sweet also defines the “The connectedness of our breathing encompasses not simply the human order but all creatures that breathe, including persons, plants, and animals. (p.300 Quantum Spirituality)

Aficionado Sweet quotes David Bohm. “Depth is the source and unity of both energy and matter.

I am a specter cleft by swords. Quantum Spirituality, p.61)

Are we masquerading, is our physical life an illusion? Sweet can quote authors like these because he believes “God is the Spirit of the universe, the consciousness of the cosmos: its energy, its information, its thought. This is a example of the pantheistic teaching that has an infiltrating influence the church.

Speaking on harmony and wholeness Sweet says,

“The same creative energeia [energy] of God that created matter and worked in that matter to bring forth plant life and then animal life also finally brought forth human beings” (Quantum Spirituality p.63).

“But if we look at the Logos incarnate as paradigm of the Spirit, we can see it is not the character of Spirit either to keep itself to itself or to replicate itself, but to go out from itself, to embody itself, to lose itself in that which is remotest from itself, in order to unite that other with itself” (Quantum Spirituality p.63).

This pure pantheism, the Spirit embodying all [or other] things it created. The logos became flesh in only one person- Jesus, to say it continually unites with other “things” is completely unfounded.

Sweet quotes the granddaddy of all unbelievers, Joseph Campbell, who saw all religions as a Myth and Christianity being the least of them; far superior were the earth based ones. No nation in the world today has a “national” environment--all ecologies are interrelated. Relationalism must begin to manifest itself in the church’s life through networking, roundtabling, electronic bulletin boards, and the like. The old gods are dead or dying and people everywhere are searching, asking: What is the new mythology to be, the mythology of this unified earth as one harmonious being? Mythologist/metaphysician Joseph C. Campbell p.285

Sweet goes on to show where this all leads to- interfaith. “Fourth, New Light embodiment means to be “in connection” and “information” with other faiths. To be in-formation means to know each other’s songs almost as well as one knows them oneself, and to enlarge the community to include those whose conceptions of God differ from ours in form.” (p.130 Quantum Spirituality)

Thus to sum up his position that is certainly not a Biblical one “One can be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ without denying the flickers of the sacred in followers of Yahweh, or Kali, or Krishna.A globalization of evangelism “in connection” with others, and a globally “in-formed” gospel, is capable of talking across the fence with Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Muslim--people from other so called “new” religious traditions (“new” only to us)--without assumption of superiority and power.”

That “Christians to appreciate the genuineness of others’ faiths, and to see and celebrate what is good, beautiful, and true in their beliefs without any illusions that down deep we all are believers in the same thing.” pp.130-131 Quantum Spirituality)

John Marks Templeton, a universalist, wrote:

“The heart of true religion is the willingness to see truths in other religions … “

This same broad road concept is being promoted by the emergent church leaders like Leonard Sweet -Sacred in other religions? Notice he put Yahweh (the true God of the religion of Judaism and Christianity) among the other gods, as if they have only flickers.

Echoing De Chardin, Sweet states --the Hydra always grows new heads. …The postmodern sense of community is now multi-dimensional. Only the whole can save us.” Thus a new spirituality is formed by taking only portions of the old and recreating it. The body of Christ has one head, who is eternal, but the zeitgeist brings changes.

The Zeitgeist Movement- Their symbol is the world.

Under the topic of Spirituality “The Zeitgeist Movement is not a political movement. It does not recognize nations, governments, races, religions, creeds or class. Our understandings conclude that these are false, outdated distinctions which are far from positive factors for true collective human growth and potential.”

“Establishment Religion, in many ways, seems to be rooted in a perceptual misunderstanding about life's processes. For instance, it presents a worldview which often puts the human on a different level than other elements of nature. This 'spiritual ego' has led to dramatic conflicts for generations, not only between human beings, but inadvertently between us and the environment itself.

However, as time has moved forward, Science has shown how human beings are subject to the exact same forces of nature as everything else. We have learned that we all share the same atomic substructure as trees, birds and all other forms of life. We have learned that we cannot live without nature's elements... we need clean air to breathe, food to eat, energy from the sun, etc. When we understand this Symbiotic relationship of life, we begin to see that as far as 'relationships' are concerned, our relationship to the planet is the most profound and important. The medium by which this is expressed, is Science, for the Scientific Method has allowed us insight into these natural process, so we can better understand how we 'fit' into this life system as a whole.”

This could be called a 'spiritual' awakening.”

“This realization, which has been proven by science, is that humans are no different from any other form of nature, while our integrity is only as good as the integrity of our environment, to which we are a part. This understanding presents an entirely different 'spiritual' worldview, for it forces the idea of interdependence and connection, at its core.

The interconnection of the whole of life is undeniable in the most basic sense, and it is this perpetual 'relationship' of total interconnectivity that is not fully realized by society overall. Thus, our modes of conduct and perception are largely out of line with nature itself... and hence destructive.

Nature itself is our teacher, and our social institutions and philosophies should be derived from this foundational and, invariably, 'spiritual' understanding.” http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com

In other words, since we have the same atomic makeup as everything created, we are part and equal, thus we are connected and interdependent on them as they are of us. So how does one explain volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes, is not nature itself destructive at times?

  pt.2 The Jump from Ecumenism to Interfaith our common god