Professing to be wise, they became fools. Romans 1:22
What do Nazarene Publishing House, The House Studio, Barefoot Ministries, YouthFront, and WordAction Publishing all have in common? They are all promoters of contemplative spirituality (aka spiritual formation). All of these groups, to one degree or another, have allowed the wolves in sheep’s clothing to infiltrate and then publish and promote books and “Bible” lessons that teach unbiblical practices and techniques that are better suited for those who crave for Eastern mysticism. If what they are promoting is unbiblical, how can one say that they are being led by the Spirit of God? This has become a real problem not only in the Nazarene church but all denominations, so Christian beware.
The following example of un-Christian “Christian” material is from The House Studio, a publishing offshoot of Nazarene Publishing House. They are also co-conspirators with Barefoot Ministries, which is led by Chris Folmsbee, as well as organizations such as YouthFront, whose CEO is Mike King (editor of Immerse Journal under Barefoot Ministries), who also organizes and promotes the blasphemous Wildgoose Festival (a report coming next week on this). The interrelationship and level of cooperation amongst these groups is quite fascinating but not surprising. They are actively promoting contemplative spirituality and are brazenly pushing the envelope more and more. And why not? What are our leaders doing about it? Nothing that we can see yet. What is the Christian in the pew doing? Either he is still in a strong Bible believing church and is unaware, or he is looking the other way, ignoring the warning signs for the sake of a phoney “unity in the church.”
Here is more proof that the Church of the Nazarene is promoting an occultic version of Christianity called Celtic Spirituality. There is nothing Christian about it. In a short post entitled The Celtic Way of Evangelism, the author writes:
The Church, in the Western world, faces populations who are increasingly “secular”—people with no Christian memory, who don’t know what we Christians are talking about. These populations are increasingly “urban”—and out of touch with God’s “natural revelation.” These populations are increasingly “postmodern”; they have graduated from Enlightenment ideology and are more peer driven, feeling driven, and “right-brained” than their forebears. These populations are increasingly “neo-barbarian”; they lack “refinement” or “class,” and their lives are often out of control. These populations are increasingly receptive—exploring worldview options from Astrology to Zen—and are often looking “in all the wrong places” to make sense of their lives and find their soul’s true home.
In the face of this changing Western culture, many Western Church leaders are in denial; they plan and do church as though next year will be 1957. Furthermore, most of the Western Church leaders who are not in denial do not know how to engage the epidemic numbers of secular, postmodern, neo-barbarians outside (and inside) their churches.
—George Hunter III in The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach The West . . . . Again (Source)
These people who promote this pagan Christianity in the guise of “evangelism” are out of touch with God, and have no confidence in the power of His word. They are causing great damage to the church of Christ, and most of the church continues to sleep right through it all. To answer their question as to “how to engage the epidemic numbers of secular, postmodern, neo-barbarians outside (and inside) their churches”, the answer is simple: preach the undiluted Gospel of Jesus Christ, and nothing else! It may get some people angry, but where in the Bible does it tell us to preach the word in a way that does not anger sinners? The fact of the matter is that the true Gospel will anger many sinners and they will reject Him. Do you go to plan B and give them a more palatable gospel that brings them into the church that has become a social club? Or do you stick with the same Gospel?
It is the Gospel, and only the true Gospel, that convicts sinners and brings them to their knees in front of a Holy God, not the tiresome repackaged man-created “other gospel” that seeks to be “relevant to the culture.” This is how you evangelize. Nothing else matters, nothing else will help bring a lost sinner to Christ. Not any special program with a fancy new twist- nothing. You are a fool if you think otherwise. You need to throw away your man-made “other gospel”, your “other Jesus”, and repent from all this occultic-like, mystical nonsense!
Where are the leaders of the church?
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Rom. 1:16
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
2 Tim 4: 1-5
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 1 Cor. 1:18-25
Review: http://exnazarene.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/the-seductive-poison-of-apostasy-2/
http://www.thehousestudio.com/store/thin-places-small-group/
https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/2010/11/03/tony-campolos-thin-places-occultic-christianity/
Former Nazarene 