Acts 20:28-31 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
There are still some good Christian colleges out there, you just need to search hard, find them, and verify what they profess to stand for. You cannot simply trust the fact that a school labels itself Christian anymore. This has been obvious to me in my last two years of investigation, and the facts are appalling and shameful. We need to stop being a little less polite or politically corrent, and be more honest and upfront about the dangers facing our youth today. Souls are at risk!
I just cannot see myself sending my son to a “Christian” university someday simply because it claims to be a Christian school. Some folks say that they would rather send their child to any “Christian” school rather than a secular school. Imagine the horror, however, if your child goes to a “Christian” school, and after four years, comes home having learned and incorporated all sorts of pagan practices and unbiblical ideas into his life, or doubting the truthfulness of the Bible, after you entrusted him into the hands of supposedly solid Christian teachers and administrators. My friends, many of these schools are all marching down the road of one-worldism, and ecumenical false unity, and an the incorporation of personal mystical experiences over the sufficiency of the word of God. And I have noticed over the last few years that many Christians are either not aware of, or just don’t care about, the signs of a great apostasy invading our Christian schools.
There is hardly a Christian university around anymore that can be trusted with your son or daughter’s spiritual well-being. It is getting harder to recommend a school that you can be confident has a strong biblical foundation. With the usual lame excuse of offering a “healthy liberal arts education”, this problem is showing up in all denominations, and in my particular denomination, the Nazarenes, it is a horrendous problem that I never dreamed would happen. But it is, and it is a nightmare of “biblical proportions.” And many Nazarenes are still stubbornly refusing to acknowledge this problem and deal with it according to scripture. But deal with it we must.
One of the nightmares for instance is occurring at Point Loma Nazarene University. I do not advise parents to send their children there at all. Point Loma proudly welcomed heretical emergent leader Brian McLaren- again- to speak there in February of 2009. McLaren is a false teacher who considers the Cross like false advertising for God; who as a pastor does not understand what scripture clearly teaches about homosexuality; who cannot come to say that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. Yet, Point Loma’s leaders either have no clue, or have bought into the lies and are deceived. Students are being led like lambs to the slaughter, spiritually, at this school. And having heard from alumni and concerned parents, these leaders have done nothing as of yet, as far as I know.
Point Loma has been promoting mysticism for a while now. They have no problem bringing in Richard Foster to their school, to teach our young people the ways of occultic mysticism. And they have shown their continued lack of discernment by hosting a bizarre conference called Nurturing The Prophetic Imagination. Here, in this video, Dr. Peter Jones describes this conference as well as the school’s connection with Madame Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, an occultic organization. Dr. Jones also mentions how several feminist professors at Point Loma are promoting a radical blurring of male-female roles that is unbiblical, as well as the radical social justice that is plaguing many Nazarene colleges. One of their professors, Dennis Bratcher, teaches process theology, a heresy that says that God learns from His mistakes. And Professor Darrel Falk is a leading member of BioLogos and is a promoter of evolution as being compatible with the Bible.
Then there is Northwest Nazarene University, which is just about as bad as Point Loma. I would also strongly advise against sending your child to this school without investigating. The classic example I have on my blog is the horrendously pagan lecture given by Dr. Jay McDaniel in front of NNU students, with the approval of leadership and faculty, including Dr. Tom Oord. What a disturbing display of pagan and universalistic thinking that was indoctrinating our college Christian students, with not a word of protest from those who are teachers of our young people. To this day, we have heard only excuses and pitiful explanations for this sad exhibition. And there’s more of course, as NNU also hosted Brian McLaren and his ridiculous worship of mother earth and mis-translation of John 3:16 as meaning that Jesus came to save planet earth (see Eric Barger’s video). Their theology curriculums are filled with books by mystics and emergent heretical authors. Many (not all) of their teachers reject the Bible as the infallible word of God, and consider much of it as only myths.
Trevecca Nazarene University is in bad shape as well. They have been going on field trips every year now to the Abby of Gethsemane, home to the late mystic Thomas Merton. They have been indulging in the pagan practice of the prayer labyrinth, and when they were exposed, they changed the name of this practice to “prayer walk.” They promote books by emergent church leaders, heretical mystics and contemplative spirituality proponents to their students. In practice, this school is rejecting solid biblical principles by bringing in the ways of Roman Catholic monastic mysticism and emergent church heresy.
My own alma mater, Eastern Nazarene College, is exhibiting many signs of poor judgment. The school is now also getting onto the social justice bandwagon. They have a new social justice program with connections to a Marxist. Can we also remember the hosting of Tony Campolo, in spite of my warnings to the leadership a few months before? Campolo did not fail us in our expectations, as he promoted his occultic mysticism to a chapel full of young students, and perhaps more sadly, to also a good number of Nazarene pastors and leaders that day. How sad that as far as I know, none have spoken out against this travesty. ENC is also home to Karl Giberson, a professor who does not believe the entire Bible, but insists that we came from evolutionary processes. And he also promotes the heresy of open theism (God cannot know the future). Their bookstore is full of books by heretical emergent leaders, and also promotes Roman Catholic bibles, including one with a prayer rosary inside. In February, they will be hosting a speaker, Rachel Held Evans, who will be taking part in the Big Tent Christianity Conference and apparently has no problem associating with heretical speakers such as Marcus Borg and Brian McLaren. A quote of her latest blog post gives us some insight into her thinking (emphasis mine) : “My tradition teaches that all non-Christians will be damned to hell for eternity, which can be supported with some interpretations of Scripture, but which violates every compassionate instinct God gave me as a human being and follower of Jesus.”
It seems that discernment has disappeared at my old school. I would not recommend it at this time for any discerning parent to send their child.
Just because I did not mention the other Nazarene schools, does not necessarily mean they don’t have problems. Nazarene Theological Seminary is frankly no better. It is shamelessly promoting mysticism, including a Spring course taught by Dr. Doug Hardy called Celtic Spirituality, an occultic belief system that is nothing but paganism pretending to be Christian! They have even promoted mystical and Roman Catholic practices to our young children of middle school age! I dread to think of what future pastors will be preaching and promoting, as many of them buy into the unbiblical teachings that are being taught at our top seminary.
Oh, there are others schools besides Nazarene. You will need to do some serious homework and ask some hard questions while demanding clear answers, before deciding where to send your child. There are many universities once trusted for years, but no longer. Fuller Theological Seminary is more aptly now called a cemetery. Baylor University, Biola University (known for its apologetics!); Dallas Theological Seminary, George Fox University, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and many more, are delving into contemplative spirituality, emergent church ideology, social justice tinged with Marxism, worship of the creation, and post-modern theological ramblings that go nowhere but to confuse already confused young people.
Am I crazy that I don’t want my son to go to a “Christian” school where the theology professors don’t even believe in the inerrant, infallible word of God? Am I crazy that I don’t want my son to be taught that you can have “an experience” with God, unlike anything taught in the Bible? Or that he is going to have a social justice ideology rammed down his throat at the expense of solid biblical foundations? Or that he is being introduced to Roman Catholic mysticism, prayer beads, and mantra style prayer?
Apostasy is here in our Christian universities and seminaries. Some of us just need to stop being in denial.
Filed under: *Nazarene, Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism/New Age, Eastern Nazarene College, Emergent Church, Nazarene Theological Seminary, Northwest Nazarene University, Point Loma Nazarene University, Tony Campolo, Trevecca Nazarene University | 34 Comments »
