The following is taken from a chapter of FOR MANY SHALL COME IN MY NAME, a book written by Ray Yungen - updated version originally published in 2007 (another book by Mr. Yungen I based an article on The RED PILL Consortium was: A Time of Departing.I am currently finishing up on this book by Ray Yungen and a full book report will be forthcoming, but for now here is a 'Crimson Caplet' based on chapter Nine -NEW AGE IN RELIGION.
Mr. Yungen starts out chapter Nine by stating the reason why so many pastors are not alarmed or take seriously the proponents of the New Age is because there aren't New Age churches on every street corner.
However the New Age has had a profound influence and impact on every facet of our society, including business, education, health care, counseling, and many others. In addition to these, religion has likewise been influenced!
And in what form does the New Age influence religion here in America? Meditative and prayer discipline practices. Some would discount that such disciplines conducted in Christian circles, whether in church or on retreats have anything to do with New Age, Hinduism, or mystical practices but as Mr. Yungen states:
"Upon close examination, the methods used (mantra or breathing or some alternate means of focusing the mind to acheive altered states of consciousness) are identical to New Age techniques." He goes on to say he's discovered time and time again a link between New Age and so-called 'Christian' terminologies: holistic spirituality, and combining mystical traditions of both East and West. "Frequently the Hindu or Buddhist source of these spiritual exercises will be proclaimed openly."
CENTERING PRAYER - A 'Christian' form
"This employs a mantra - called a prayer word - that allows one to empty the mind by chanting Jesus, God or love that than om or Krishna," says Yungen.
"Centering prayer groups are flourishing in mainstream religious bodies today... They are seen by many as bringing a new vitality to the church" [Even back in the '80's I worked at my job site with a girl who claimed to be a Christian, but practiced 'centering'].
Basil Pennington, a promoter of centering or contemplative prayer relates a story about how a Hindu monk was to be a guest at the Christian centering prayer group one night, and as it all began, he wondered "what chords of response this call to faith and love might be striking in the Hindu monk."
At the conclusion the Buddhist " . . . smiled with joyful peace [and stated,] 'This has been the most beautiful experience I have ever had'."
Other terms along with centering or contemplative prayer are 'the silence' or 'the blank'.
SORCERY: A WAY TO GOD [GAL 5:20]?
Both terms are used with practitioners of metaphysical mysticism, and Jesuit priest Anthony De Mello, author of the book Sadhana: The Way To God, explains what this altered state of consciousness is about -
"There will be moments when the stillness or the blank will be so powerful that it will make all exercise and all effort on your part impossible [paralysis?]. In such moments, it is no longer you who goes in quest of stillness. It is stillness that takes possession of you and overwhelms you [possession!]. When this happens, you may safely and profitably, let go of all effort . . . and surrender to this overpowering stillness within you."
Hinduism defines the stillness or the blank as Samadhi, a deep mystical state induced by focus on something repetitive.
Jesuit William Johnson [another Jesuit - note how many Jesuits are involved in these types of practices, as well as influencing Emergent Thought! Coincidence?] states: "...the new mysticism [arising in the 20th century] within Christianity . . . has learned much from the great religions of Asia. It has felt the impact of yoga, and Zen and the monasticism of Tibet. It pays attention to posture and breathing; it knows about the music of the mantra and the silence of samadhi."
UPDATE: 7/11/11 - From UNDERSTAND the TIMES and LIGHTHOUSE TRAILS we have a Special Report! Read it at the link provided here:
The JESUIT AGENDA
DeMello's Sadhana book published in 1979 has been the Catholic best seller for years, in more than 20 languages, and has had an enormous impact on both clergy and laity. Now globally available, its acclaimed as the classic best text on how-to-do-it book on prayer in any language.
As Yungen points out, the very term Sadhana is related to Siddhis [psychic powers] and a means to directly or indirectly obtain enlightenment or knowledge or sadhana. It can also have the legitimate meaning of sorcerer or sorcery!
Such forms of meditation are being taught in Catholic schools at the high school and college level. One textbook in a Catholic high school, Your Faith and You: A Synthesis of Catholic Belief reveals:
CATHOLIC and CHRISTIAN Contemplative Conglomerates!
"Numerous Catholic retreat houses offer Yoga retreats or teach Zen meditation methods . . . these techniques are removed [borrowed] from the Buddhist and Hindu faiths. They are often used by Christians to help them develop a conscious faith relationship with Christ in prayer. Likewise the Buddhist or Hindu uses these same techniques to enter into a deeper union with God as his own religion has taught him to believe in Him."
Here is the admission that the identical technique used by the Hindu, Buddhist and Christian will allow them to enter into a deeper union with God, whatever they are taught to believe him to be! This is the global glue that will bring adherence to a unified spirituality that may have some superficial differences as a facade, but will internally re-shape any adherents and their belief system towards a unified syncretic system in believing a 'all is God, all is in God, we are God' mentality.
Further, we can see how through E.C.T. and the Manhattan Declaration that evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics are joining forces for social and moral good, and in so doing, hob-knobbing with one another, and how evangelicals have been exposed to this sort of thing (in relating in conversations and discussions informally between people of these two groups) and how this has had a profound effect on the emergence of contemplative prayer and centering among formerly biblical, evangelical churches!
Satanic Strategies For Syncretic Seduction -
Take note of this satanic strategy in getting biblical Christian churches to accept New Age/Spirituality and Emergent philosophies and beliefs:
First, he must strip churches of sound, biblical doctrine and the adherence of such as the inspired Truth of God as recorded in Scripture. Therefore he infests seminaries and Bible colleges with liberalism, so as to cast serious doubt on the Bible. The teaching of God's Word must be marginalized and use mankind and his own happiness and well being as the lens by which scripture is examined and taught; it is reduced to a simple philosophical resource for the purpose of moral living and religious practice (instead of being exalted and obeyed as God's Word which convicts of sin, leads to repentance, instructs in spiritual regeneration and salvation, as well as living in practical holiness being conformed to Christ Jesus.
Second, having deleted the scriptures and their efficacy to a minimum, the spiritual life of churches are diminished, and the focus is led away from the true Gospel of salvation from sin, death and hell (and for a redeemed relationship with God as our Father, Jesus Christ as our Lord and Head, the Holy Spirit as our Comforter and Teacher) and led towards a social Gospel in which affairs on Earth are engaged in from merely human resources and powers (rather than Divine). Emphasis on rationalism and intellectualism in a thinly veiled humanism is extolled, scripture is relegated to allegory alone, dispensationalism is disdained, and eventually churches are completely dried up and without the Spirit.
Third, once materialism and social influences have done their work, people will once again crave spiritual experiences and reality (for mankind is a race of both physical and spiritual dynamics), and here is where Satan will introduce spirituality of his own brand, and by such enticements deceive people into believing in subjective truth, which truth will hold sway on a global level and bring about unity.
Yungen asks: "Why are mainstream denominations so open to meditative and holistic practices? A professor of theology at a United Methodist college gave this explanation - 'A spiritual vacuum exists in organized religion that might be filled by theologies that draw - for better or worse - from what is called parapsychology, paranormal studies, psychic phenomena, and somewhat pejoratively, the "New Age" movement.'
Also, James Fadiman, a Metaphysical leader, makes the following observation:
'The traditional religious world is just beginning to make changes, but its a slow process - denomination by denomination. When religious institutions begin to lose members year after year, they eventually become aware that they're not meeting people's needs. Before long, they're scurrying around looking for innovative programs and improvements.'
Yungen then states: "This shows that a great number of people who consider themselves to be Christians have a rather dull and dreary attitude towards their faith. They are looking for something to fill the void.
YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED, SAYS BORG -
"One of the foremost individuals who has attempted to fill this void with New Age is Marcus Borg, professor and author of many widely read books [as well as the mentor of Rob Bell of the Mars Hill Church and has authored of several books and teachings himself, including the Nooma series on CD]. In one of Borg's books "The God We Never Knew, he lays out very concisely how he went from being a traditional Christian to a 'mature' Christian. He relates:
". . . By the time I was thirty, like Humpty Dumpty, my childhood faith had fallen into pieces. My life since had led to a quite different understanding of what the Christian tradition says about God." Borg, like so many liberal Christians, turned to mysticism:
"I learned about the use of mantras as a means of giving the mind something to focus and refocus on as it sinks into the silence." Borg represents the mainstream for millions of people in liberal churches . . . his platform is New Age as he makes clear when he expounds:
"The sacred is not 'somewhere else' spatially distant from us. Rather, we live within God . . . God has always been in relationship to us [even after Adam's fall into sin, which Borg doesn't believe in?], journeying with us and yearning to be known by us. Yet we commonly do not know this or experience this . . . We commonly do not perceive the world of Spirit."
[Note that the word 'Spirit' is capitalized, signifying the Divine, and that according to Borg the world as it should be perceived is of Spirit or God; quite the endorsement for panentheism (God is in all things), a very unbiblical concept].
THE GLOBAL GLUE of the NEW AGE GOD
The Road Less Traveled, a best-selling book by late psychologist M. Scott Peck had much to say about solving life's problems by utilizing ideas found in the Ancient Wisdom:
"God wants us to become himself (or herself or itself). We are growing toward godhood. God is the goal of evolution. It is God who is the source of the evolutionary force and God who is the destination. This is what we mean when we say that He is the Alpha and the Omega . . . a God who has it in mind for us precisely that we should attain His position, His power, His wisdom, His identity."
This was a book that remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over 400 weeks!! Peck mentioned that it "sells best in America's Bible Belt [?!!]."
New Age writer David Spangler has stated:
"There will be several religious and spiritual disciplines as there are today, each serving different sensibilities and affinities, each enriched by and enriching the particular cultural soil in which it is rooted. However, there will also be a planetary spirituality that will celebrate the sacredness of the whole of humanity in appropriate festivals, rituals and sacraments. There will be a more widespread understanding and experience of the holistic nature of reality, resulting in a shared outlook that today would be called mystical. Mysticism has always overflowed the bounds of particular religious traditions, and in the new world this would be even more true."
The rise of centering/contemplative prayer is causing many churches to become agents of transformation. Those that practice it tend to embrace this one-world-religion idea. One of the main proponents of this phenomena had this revelation:
"It is my sense from having meditated with persons from many different traditions, that in the silence we experience a deep unity. When we go beyond the portals of the rational mind into the experience, there is only one God to be experienced . . . I think it has been the common experience of all persons of good will that when we sit together Centering, we experience a solidarity that seems to cut through all our philosophical and theological differences."
Finally from Matthew Fox, we have this:
"Without mysticism there will be no 'deep ecumenism', no unleashing of the power of wisdom from all the world's religious traditions. Without this I am convinced there will never be global peace or justice since the human race needs spiritual depths and disciplines, celebrations and rituals, to awaken its better selves. The promise of ecumenism, the coming together of religions, has been thwarted because world religions have not been relating at the level of mysticism."
And for these above reasons I believe one of the primary factors that will lead to the success of a global religion (which will be necessary according to 'the goblins' if a one world government is to be actualized) is mystical experiences via mystical meditation, be it from a Hindu, or Christian (Desert Fathers of Catholicism) source or Buddhist or Muslim (the Sufi's), or Jewish (Kabbalah), or shamanic or Wiccan or Evangelical (so-called) source from the likes of Richard Foster, Dallas Williard, and others.
See these other articles:
Most especially this one that links Leaders from Christian, Emergent/Contemplative and New Age/Spiritualist groups together in the world view of mysticism, particularly Centering or Contemplative Prayer/Mantra Meditation as necessary for global unity and true spirituality:
Emergents Agree: Contemplative Prayer and Eastern Mysticism Are The Same Thing
Sunday, January 24, 2010
BEWARE of PRAYER- of the contemplative kind
Feb 19, 2010
BEWARE of PRAYER-of the contemplative kind: part 2
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Is This Christianity Today? ANCIENT-FUTURE Holy Ways or Heresies?
For more on these pertinent issues that the church must vigilantly guard against and warn of, please visit:
www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com
To visit the site of Ray Yungen, author of FOR MANY SHALL COME IN MY NAME, please see:
www.atimeofdeparting.com
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