Sunday, January 18, 2009

Interesting Chart--What do you think about it?

Beliefs

Biblical Christianity

Transition

See Emerging, Kingdom and PEACE

New Spirituality

See The Shack, The Secret and Theosophy

TRUTH

Timeless

or

relative?

God's eternal, unchanging Word! Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6

Truth is de-emphasized to avoid division: “Humanity is recognizing the need for a more vital approach to God... men are tired of doctrinal and dogmatic differences....”23

“...a portion of truth... is found in every religious and philosophical system…. There is no room for absolute truth.... But there are relative truths."26 

    “When we can contact our own inner God, all truth will be revealed to us."58

JESUS

our Savior

or a

"World Teacher"?

"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Matt 16:15-16

"...that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow... and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord....." Phil. 2:10-11

“The teaching of Christ is not obsolete and out of date. It needs only to be rescued from the interpretations of the theologies of the past …”8

“…see Christ as representing all the faiths and taking His rightful place as World Teacher.… They may not call Him Christ, but they have their own name for Him and follow Him as truly and faithfully as their Western brethren.”13

INCARNATION

Jesus

or

you?

"He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God..." Col. 1:15  "The Word became flesh  (incarnate) and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory." John 1:14 

"For the church not to speak to pop culture, not to use [its] images... that's not being very incarnational.... In order to incarnate Christ into the culture... we have to look to redeem pop culture." Leonard Sweet [note 2]

"God, the scripture is saying, is formless consciousness and the essence of who you are." Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, p. 219

"You are God in a physical body ... You are all power ... You are all intelligence ... You are the creator." The Secret. [note 3]

SALVATION

By faith

or

by works?

"...by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works...."

     “...wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction.... Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life... there are few who find it." Matt. 7:13-14

"We have taught that Christ died to save the world and have endeavored to show that only believers could be saved … Individual salvation is surely selfish in its interest and its origin.”76

"Only those principles and truths which are universally recognized and which find their place in every religion are truly necessary to salvation.” 20

FAITH

Based on Truth or experience?

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God..." Gal. 2:20-21

    "...your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." 1 Cor. 2:5

  “The need is for vision, wisdom and that wide tolerance which will see divinity on every hand and recognize the Christ in every human being.”10

“...there will emerge the universal religion, the One Church. …doctrines and dogmas will no longer be regarded as necessary, for faith will be based on experience.…"16

SIN

Confessed

or

ignored?

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.... If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:8-9

Sin and guilt are ignored, minimized, redefined, or replaced by unbiblical tolerance or -- as spirit guide Djwhal Khul called it,  “the Law of Loving Understanding."

"There is no sin." [note 1]

    “That old message of right and wrong … good and evil, everlasting rewarding and everlasting damnation, has done nothing to end the suffering. …because it is a message of separation.”77

GOSPEL

The Truth

or   deception?

The "good news" about the suffering, redeeming death, and victorious resurrection of Jesus -- that we might be saved from sin and joined to Christ.

    Those who deny His Gospel will face His judgment.

The old Gospel is replaced by a more "positive" gospel: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for you. Just agree and accept in His love. Don't dwell on sin.

"...this message is the only message that can save the world.… That message is The New Gospel: WE ARE ALL ONE.”78

FELLOWSHIP

In Christ or through facilitated dialogue?

"...love one another; as I have loved you..." John 13:34    

     "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another....singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord....." Col. 3:16

Small dialectic groups must be non-judgmental, "authentic" and affirming, showing unconditional tolerance and acceptance, seeking consensus and unity in diversity. [note 4]

"Our object is not to destroy any religion, but rather to... filter each, thus ridding them of their respective impurities.... Free discussion, temperate, candid, undefiled by personalities and animosity, is, we think, the most efficacious means of getting rid of error.... ”26 [See The Dialectic Process]

SERVICE

God's way

or the world's way [Praxis]

"...whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men." Col. 3:23

    "...they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us..." 2 Cor. 8:5
    "...distributing to the needs of the saints...." Rom. 12:13

"The first Reformation was... about creeds; this one's going to be about our deeds."

    "The last thing many believers need today is to go to another Bible study.... What they need are serving experiences..." Rick Warren [note 5]

"The New Group of World Servers ... can be regarded as the embodiment of the emerging kingdom of God on earth ... not a Christian kingdom.... It is a grouping of all those who – belonging as they do to every world religion... are free from the spirit of hatred and separativeness..... It is a group... without a ...bible of any kind... it has no creed..."[note 6]

SEPARATION

or 

universal oneness?

"Walk as children of light ... finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. " Eph. 5:8-11

"Key to the New Spirituality is a belief that God is not separate from anyone or anything  -- and neither are we."44

“...the ushering in of the new world order... will gather into its ranks all men of peace and good will … the embodiment of the emerging Kingdom of God on earth… It is a grouping of all those who... are free from the spirit of hatred and separativeness.”52

PERSECUTION

or

"tolerance" for

"resisters"

"...the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me." John 16:2-3

"Postmodern culture is a change-or-be-changed world. The word is out: Reinvent yourself for the 21st century or die." Emerging church leader, Leonard Sweet, Soul Tsunami

"Evolve or die: that is our only choice now. ...at this time about ten percent of people in North America are already awakening.... This is probably enough of a critical mass to bring about a new earth." Eckhart Tolle, author of A New Earth and The Power of Now

KINGDOM

of GOD

or

Kingdom of the World?

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world." John 18:36

     "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son... in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1:13

“Christ's major task was the establishing of God's kingdom upon earth. He showed us the way in which humanity could enter that kingdom … the way is found in service to our fellow men …"4

“The true Church is the kingdom of God on earth … composed of all, regardless of race or creed, who live by the light within, who have discovered the fact of the mystical Christ in their hearts.”11

 

I am almost done reading "The Shack" and I knew that a lot of it would be pretty controversial (looking at it from a traditional conservative Christian theological view).  I like how it shows intimacy with God and how He heals us with love when we are in a relationship with Him.  I don't think I can get myself to lump "The Shack" into the far right column of the chart above, but I do know that I believe all that is in the far left column of the chart because it is pure scripture.  I know that the Shack has led me to tears and to laughter and that it is a very involving story that makes me want to believe that the experiences are true.  I think it is a wonderful work of fiction that pushes people to examine their walk of Faith.

What do you think?  Tell me.

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