Disclaimer: The newsletter that I am presenting here is written by a Fundamentalist Baptist Pastor, who is a missionary overseas. The posting of this newsletter should not be taken as an endorsement of his beliefs. I do agree with SOME of his beliefs, but not all of them. Full Disclosure: I am a Fundamentalist Christian, although not necessarily a Baptist; in doctrine, yes. But in tradition, No. Having said all of that, I present the Newsletter.
Fundamental Baptist Information Service April 2, 2010
FRIDAY CHURCH NEWS NOTES
April 2, 2010, Volume 11, Issue 14
The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this does not imply an endorsement. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.
NATIONAL WORSHIP LEADER CONFERENCE AND CALVARY CHAPEL HOST NEW AGE-EMERGENT MYSTIC (Friday Church News Notes, April 2, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The upcoming National Worship Leader Conference at Calvary Chapel in Albuquerque will feature “New Age sympathizer and emerging church leader” Leonard Sweet (Lighthouse Trails, March 26, 2010). The conference is sponsored by Worship Leader magazine, the chief editor for which is Chuck Fromm, Calvary Chapel founder Chuck Smith, Sr.’s nephew. Leonard Sweet is a United Methodist clergyman, E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Drew University, and founder and president of SpiritVenture Ministries. He promotes a New Age universalist spirituality that he calls New Light and “the Christ consciousness.” He describes it in terms of “the union of the human with the divine” which is the “center feature of all the world’s religions” (Quantum Spirituality, p. 235). He says it was experienced by Mohammed, Moses, and Krishna. Some of the “New Light leaders” that have led him into this new thinking are Matthew Fox, M. Scott Peck, Willis Harman, and Ken Wilber, all of whom believe in the divinity of man, plus the Catholic-Buddhist monk Thomas Merton. Sweet says humanity needs to learn the truth of Merton’s words, “We are already one” (Quantum Spirituality, p. 13). Sweet defines the New Light as “a structure of human becoming, a channeling of Christ energies through mindbody experience” (p. 70). Contemplative mysticism has been permeating evangelicalism for decades and it is one of the foundational elements of the emerging church (See the titles “The Emerging Church” and “Contemplative Mysticism,” which are available from Way of Life Literature in print and e-book editions.) Contemporary Worship Music (CWM) is mystical in itself. It focuses on an emotional experience, which is why rock & roll is the preferred form of music. CWM’s leaders and participants are “hooked on a feeling.” They are intoxicated with pop music and are led more by their emotions than by God’s holy Word. (Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren has also promoted Leonard Sweet.)
MUSLIMS KILL PASTOR AND BURN ANOTHER CHRISTIAN ALIVE (Friday Church News Notes, April 2, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Islamic “militants” murdered a pastor recently in Somalia and burned a Christian man nearly to death in Pakistan. Pastor Modabe Abdi was shot to death on March 15 in Somalia, after he was tracked down by an Islamic group called al Shabaab. He had escaped a kidnapping attempt less than two weeks earlier. The Muslims refused to allow Abdi’s body to be buried, ordering that it be left to the dogs (Voice of the Martyrs, March 24, 2010). In Pakistan, Muslim “extremists” set 38-year-old Arshed Masih on fire for refusing to convert to Islam. His wife was raped and the couple’s three children were forced to watch their parent’s brutalization (AsiaNews.it, March 22, 2010). Arshed is in intensive care with burns over 80% of his body and is not expected to live. The terrorist act occurred in front of a police station not far from Pakistan’s capital city.
