Leonard Sweet Continues Promoting Mystical Heresy

“We err greatly if we think of intimacy with Christ as some lofty level of mysterious, feelings-based communion with the Divine–as if it involved some knowledge of God that goes beyond what Scripture has revealed. That idea is the very heart of the gnostic heresy. It has nothing in common with true Christianity.” ~ John MacArthur

Who is Leonard Sweet?  He is described as an author, preacher, scholar, futurist and ordained United Methodist clergyman.  On his  website is this: “These are but a sampling of responses to Len’s three-ring mission: as a historian of American culture; as a futurist/semiotician who “sees things the rest of us do not see, and dreams possibilities that are beyond most of our imagining;” and as a preacher and writer who communicates the gospel powerfully to a postmodem age by bridging the worlds of academe and popular culture.

Is it not a bit frightening that a pastor, or any other self professing Christian for that matter, claims that he sees things others cannot see?  And that their imaginations are limited compared to his?  If we believe what he says in one instance, how do we know when he errs in his pronouncements?

Leonard Sweet is a big hit in evangelical Christian circles.  He is very popular among Nazarene emergents and with many Nazarenes in general, and has spoken at Pastor Leadership seminars.  He spoke at a leadership conference at European Nazarene University last year, along with Jon Middendorf, one of the leading emergent church promoters and ecumenists in the Nazarene denomination.  He uses the cool sounding hip terminology of “follower of Christ” instead of Christian.  He calls John Wesley the founder of my “tribe”, another cool hip emergent word instead of…denomination?  In many places where he is a conference speaker, there often seems to be a connection with other Nazarenes.  Recently he was a speaker at a conference called “Synergize 3!”, which had a theme “Where The Global Church Gathers To Save the World.”  (Can someone explain to me, what is synergizing??)  There were several Nazarenes as featured speakers, including a Nazarene General Superintendent, Dr. Stan Toler.

Leonard Sweet says that he is not emergent.  He has written a defense of his theology at his website, called A Response To Critics.  He claims that his theology has been “minsinterpeted.”  He rejects the thought that he supports emergent thinking, or that he is a New Age sympathizer and promoter.  He says, “Because I quote someone does not mean I agree with everything that person ever wrote.”  (As a pastor, is it wise to quote in your sermons someone who is a false teacher?)  Then he tries to make the case that the apostle Paul did the same thing!  And he says about his book Quantum Spirituality: “Would I write the same book today? No. Would I say some things differently? Yes.”

Here is one of many quotations from Quantum Spirituality:

A surprisingly central feature of all the world’s religions is the language of light in communicating the divine and symbolizing the union of the human with the divine: Muhammed’s light-filled cave, Moses’ burning bush, Paul’s blinding light, Fox’s “inner light,” Krishna’s Lord of Light, Bohme’s light-filled cobbler shop, Plotinus’ fire experiences, Bodhisattvas with the flow of Kundalini’s fire erupting from their fontanelles, and so on.” P. 235

Yet in all this defense, he did not renounce, and has not yet done so, this book and others such as Soul Tsunami; he continues to sell these books on his website, which does not make sense; and now he continues with more of his mystical mumbo jumbo.  Yet, look for him to be a featured speaker again at the next Pastor’s Leadership conference.

On his website, you will find him promoting a series of retreats called “Advances”, with this description supposedly derived from Scripture:

“Read the Gospel of Mark. In many ways the gospel is organized according to the “advances” Jesus took. Count the number of times Mark says “And Jesus came apart.”

Now look deeper into where Jesus “came apart“:” the mountains, the desert, and the water. Three different bons vaux, sacred spaced, landscapes of the sacred. The three natural places which have the power to help restore us to physical, mental and spiritual harmony. Your soul needs three sacred spaces. Which one depends on the state your soul is in.”

Where does Leonard Sweet come up with the teaching that “your soul needs three sacred spaces?”  Is there really power in these natural spaces to restore us spiritually?  Christ is not enough and all that we need?  Apparently this is part of his ability to see things the rest of us can’t see!  Can you see the problem here though?  None of this is Scriptural!  Can we all please wake up to the absurdity of this man’s imaginations?

The time is long overdue for Bible believing evangelical leaders, including Nazarenes, to part ways with Leonard Sweet, until he repents from all this foolishness that he is trapped in and is disseminating to countless Christians.  Until then, we should not be associating with him as if his theology is sound.  It clearly is not.

So here below is the latest example of more heresy from Leonard Sweet, as reported by David Cloud.  Do our Christian leaders agree with Sweet that we too can “breathe God?”

“EVANGELICAL” BELIEVES IN BREATHING GOD

(Friday Church News Notes, January 27, 2012, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Leonard Sweet, a very influential “evangelical,” believes you can breath God in your nostrils. In his 2012 book I Am A Follower, Sweet quotes Sufi poet Kabir who says, “God is the breath inside the breath.”

Sweet then makes the following blasphemous, pagan comment: “All of creation is made alive with the holy breath of the Creator. Breathing Yahweh breath is breathing the holy breath of life. Yahweh. … Our breathing and heartbeat are in tune with the name. Breathe in ‘Yah’ and breathe out ‘weh’ … I guarantee you will relax.”

This heresy is the product of contemplative prayer, which Sweet is recommending in this passage. Sweet is the author and co-author of more than 30 books. He was twice voted “one of the 50 Most Influential Christians in America” by ChurchReport magazine. Rick Warren recommends Sweet’s book Soul Tsunami (his recommendation is printed on the cover). Warren and Sweet collaborated on an audio set entitled Tides of Change, and Sweet spoke at Saddleback Church in January 2008 for a small groups training conference. Sweet has spoken at Bill Hybels’ Willowcreek Community Church. Sweet’s book Jesus Manifesto (co-authored by Frank Viola) was recommended by Southern Baptist Ed Stetzer, who has spoken at Southwide Baptist Fellowship and Trinity Baptist College, Jacksonville, Florida.

David Cloud, www.wayoflife.org


For further research:

Rick Warren, Leonard Sweet, and “New Light” Leaders

For a thorough treatise of many of his quotations from various books, I recommend you read Sandy Simpson’s article at his website: http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/leonardsweetquotes.html.  I have attached the same article for those who want to add to their resource library.

New Age Sympathizer Leonard Sweet Influencing Nazarenes
Leonard Sweet And His Continuing Emergent Influence

Diverse? Yes. United And Strong? No

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. 2 John 1:6

“We are united. We are diverse. We are strong.”

Those are some of the words of Dr. Stan Toler, General Superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene, which he wrote recently in a message titled “Unity Not Uniformity”.  What does that mean in the context of this article (see all of it at the end).   After reading it, I have come to the conclusion that it sounds nice, but the facts speak to a different reality.  Dr. Toler I’m sure is sincere in these statements, but the Church of the Nazarene is far from being united and strong.  Oh, it may be diverse, as we see all sorts of diversity around us today.  But united and strong?

Here are a few quotes pulled from the article, and my comments follow:

“Success in our mission to make Christlike disciples in the nations will require strong unity as a body of believers; yet unity does not mean uniformity.”

We reject the notion that we must be uniform in our expressions of worship or music or liturgy.Yet we have varying convictions. We refuse to rebuke one another for that which God has not condemned. And we respect the convictions of those with whom we disagree“

How can we be united when:

1. Emergent church ideology is breaking up local churches, and pastors who speak out against it are forced out, in a denomination that is claiming to be diverse.
2. Leaders at our seminary and other colleges are willingly joining hands with pagan interfaith groups and Roman Catholicism.
3. College professors are freely indoctrinating students with the heresy that God cannot know the future, and that He learns from His mistakes.
4. Pagan prayer labyrinths are now being used in Nazarene churches and at least one Nazarene university.
5. Professors who teach occultic Celtic spirituality are okay, but allowing ordination of pastors who believe in biblical inerrancy is not okay.
6. A prominent, radical, leftist “social justice” pastor who speaks at a homosexuality-promoting “Christian” festival continues to be rewarded, instead of being disciplined.  The same festival also was organized by Mike King, adjunct professor at Nazarene Theological Seminary.
7. Ashes to the forehead is promoted in a Nazarene devotional from Nazarene Publishing House; youth devotionals promote how to design your own prayer labyrinth, prayer beads, pilgrimages to interspiritual centers, and contemplative prayer ; Roman Catholic terminology and Lenten practices are making us look more like the Roman Catholics.
8. “Bible” study groups are more and more using books written by false teachers like Richard Foster, Henri Nouwen, Rick Warren and William P. Young, and less and less using… the Bible.
9. Centering prayer, practicing the silence, lectio divina, and other Eastern based prayer methods seeking to “experience God”, are taking the place of true biblical prayer.
10. Emergent Nazarene pastors praise Marcus Borg, who denies the atonement of Christ on the Cross; and they recommend the heretical novel The Shack as a great missional book for pastors; yet they disparage and insult those who believe in biblical inerrancy and the fundamentals of the faith.

I could give dozens of more examples, but I think I’ve made my point.

Dr. Toler said that we ought to refuse to rebuke fellow Christians for that which God has not condemned.  That’s not the problem.  The problem is, we are NOT rebuking those who are practicing and teaching that which God has condemned.

Yes, we are certainly diverse in the Nazarene church now, the evidence for that is solid.

But united and strong?  Tell me, how is that possible?  It is NOT possible to have unity with anyone who claims the name of Jesus, yet who does not live in obedience to His word.  This denomination is far from unified.

Manny Silva

nazarene.org | way of holiness | facebook | twitter | newsletter sign-up We are united. We are diverse. We are strong. We are making Christlike disciples in the nations. — Stan A. Toler Unity Not Uniformity By Stan A. Toler In one edition of Charles Schultz’s beloved Peanuts cartoon, the irascible Lucy demands that her little brother, Linus, change the television channel, threatening him with her fist to get him to comply. “What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?” asks Linus. “These five fingers,” says Lucy. “Individually they’re nothing, but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold.” “Which channel do you want?” asks Linus. Then he looks at his own fingers and asks, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?” Success in our mission to make Christlike disciples in the nations will require strong unity as a body of believers; yet unity does not mean uniformity. One Faith, Many Expressions We are a Christian church. Our faith is placed in a single source for salvation—the Lord Jesus Christ. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12, NIV). Yet we may honor our Lord in a variety of ways. We reject the notion that we must be uniform in our expressions of worship or music or liturgy. There is room in the Body of Christ for every people, every language, and every culture. One Passion, Many Convictions We are a holiness church. We are united in our hunger to experience the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit that enables us to live new, victorious lives. Yet we have varying convictions. We refuse to rebuke one another for that which God has not condemned. And we respect the convictions of those with whom we disagree, making “every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (Romans 14:19, NIV). One Mission, Many Contexts We are a missional church. We are united in our purpose to make Christlike disciples in the nations, and we pool our resources in this pursuit. Yet we live and minister in diverse settings. We understand that a variety of methodologies and strategies will be needed in order to make Jesus known to every culture, nation, and people. With the Apostle Paul, we have “become all things to all people so that by all possible means I [we] might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22, NIV). We are united. We are diverse. We are strong. We are making Christlike disciples in the nations. Colossians 3:11 reminds us that Christ is all! And it is this Christ who brings us together in message and mission. He alone is our inspiration. Fourth-century African bishop Augustine summed it up this way: The one who has Christ has everything. The one who has everything except for Christ really has nothing. And the one who has Christ plus everything else does not have any more than the one who has Christ alone. Our faith, our passion, and our mission are found in Him alone! We have a Board of General Superintendents’ radio program called The Way of Holiness. It is heard nationwide on OASIS network and Sky Angel (http://www.oasisnetwork.org/) every Monday through Friday. The program is one minute in length and features a different general superintendent each month. The podcast and previous programs can also be heard by visiting www.isaiah358.com. Please pass the good news to others. Permission is granted to use this BGS Leadership Newsletter in other church publications. These newsletters are not for resale.