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Many claim to seek God but never find Him. Yet He has promised: “Ye shall seek ME, and find ME, when ye shall search for ME with all your heart” (Jer 29:13). The true God must be sought on His terms. It is not a question of music, videos, or other gimmicks to attract the youth, or of icons, candles, rituals, or other embellishments to create an aura of “sacredness.” The truth asks no props, only our fervent desire. The earnest seeker must come to God in repentance and cry out to Him for mercy.
God has spoken in His
infallible Word. We must honor what He has said. Truth is not negotiable. Yet
many Christian leaders, promote wicked Bible versions such as Eugene Peterson’s
The Message (NavPress, 1993: see TBC Oct ’95) that pervert God’s Word.
Men like Peterson have no conscience about changing what God says, replacing His
words with their own.
Peterson is praised for
this perversion by many Christian leaders such as J.I. Packer, Warren Wiersbe,
Jack W. Hayford, and Richard Foster, founder of the Renovaré Movement and
General Editor of the Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible (Harper San Francisco,
2005). Foster loves The Message because it supports that movement.
Peterson is “Consulting Editor, New Testament” of the Renovaré
Bible. He reduces much of Paul's vital treatment of the gospel in Romans to
metaphor, which he says is the “opposite [of] precise use of language” (p.
2045).
The Renovaré
movement’s major purpose is to subtly lead the church back into the occultism of
the mystics of the early Roman Catholic Church through “spiritual disciplines”
and “spiritual formation.” The Renovaré Bible is a major effort in
that direction. A host of “scholars” contributed commentaries, among them Bruce
Demarest, Professor of Theology at Denver Seminary; Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.,
President of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; Tremper Longman III, Professor
of Biblical Studies at Westmont College; Earl F. Palmer, pastor of University
Presbyterian Church in Seattle, WA and on the Board of Trustees of the
long-apostate Princeton Theological Seminary (as was Sir John Marks
Templeton).
From the Apocrypha, the Roman
Catholic Church justifies purgatory, prayers for the dead and their eventual
redemption through a propitiatory sacrifice (thereby justifying the Mass),
purchase of forgiveness of sins, worship of angels, prayers to the “saints” and
their ability to intervene. Yet Renovaré asserts, “The
Deuterocanonicals do not affect any central doctrine of the Christian
faith.”2
The Apocrypha were never quoted
by Christ or His apostles, though the Old Testament is quoted in the New more
than 250 times. Even Renovaré does not put the Apocrypha on the same
level as the Bible but as helpful for “spiritual formation.” Then why include it
in the same volume as Scripture—and without any warning concerning its heretical
teachings?!
The Renovaré Bible
introduces what it calls “Spiritual Disciplines” to help one’s “spiritual
formation.” Neither term is found in the Bible. Renovaré declares that
the purpose of this study Bible is the “discovery, instruction, and practice of
the Spiritual Disciplines.” In fact, many of these are occult “disciplines” not
found in Scripture but advocated by the mystics as a means of getting in touch
with God. Foster has been a major influence in seducing today’s church with the
same practices—and now has edited a Bible for the express purpose of justifying
this seduction.
A number of commendable
“Spiritual Disciplines” are mentioned, but some that are not commendable:
“solitude, confession…meditation and silence…secrecy, sacrifice, celebration.”
These innocent words have a special meaning for Foster. Explaining his view of
“celebration,” he writes: “We of the New Age can risk going against the tide.
Let us with abandon...see visions and dream dreams....The imagination can
release a flood of creative ideas [and] be lots of fun.” (Celebration of
Discipline, Harper & Row, 1978, p. 170)
In the West, meditation means
to think deeply about something, but in the East it means to empty the mind in
order to open it to the spirit world, leading to mystical experiences of “God.”
Purporting to reject Eastern mysticism, Foster says,“Christian meditation is an
attempt to empty the mind in order to fill it.” He seductively suggests:
“John was ‘in the Spirit on the Lord’s day’ when he received his apocalyptic
vision" (Rv 1:10). Could it be that John was trained in a way of listening
and seeing that we have forgotten?...Let us have courage to...once again learn
the ancient…art of meditation” (Celebration, pp. 14,15). The idea that John had
a special technique for hearing from God is heresy of the worst sort, but
foundational to Renovare’s promotion of “spiritual disciplines” and “spiritual
formation”!
The arousal of the imagination
through fantasy and visualization is a major theme in Foster’s Celebration. He
acknowledges that “prayer through the imagination” was taught to him by Agnes
Sanford, who popularized “inner healing,” a major source of much of the
occultism in the Charismatic movement. (For documentation of her full-blown
occultism, see TBC July
’89.) We have
dealt with these errors in detail in The Seduction of
Christianity,
Beyond Seduction, and Occult Invasion.
Foster writes in
Celebration, “In your imagination allow your spiritual body, shining
with light, to rise out of your physical body.…Reassure your body that you will
return….Go deeper and deeper into outer space until there is nothing except the
warm presence of the eternal Creator. Rest in his presence. Listen quietly [to]
any instruction given” (p. 27). This is astral projection and occult
contact through the imagination and is the major technique used by shamans to
contact their spirit guides.
Yet Foster claims that it leads
to Christ and God: “Take a single event [from Scripture]. Seek to live the
experience, remembering the encouragement of Ignatius of Loyola (Jesuit founder)
to apply all our senses to our task…represent to your imagination the whole of
the mystery…as an active participant….You can actually encounter the living
Christ in the event, be addressed by His voice…touched by His healing
power.…Jesus Christ will actually come to you.” Not so! You cannot call Jesus
Christ from the right hand of the Father to appear to you—but any demon will be
happy to pretend to be “Jesus” (p. 26).
In like manner, the
Renovaré Bible honors Catholic heretics and occultists as “saints” and
their writings as a framework within which to understand Scripture. The
Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola are endorsed even though they
involve occult techniques that have caused many to be demonized (see
TBC Mar
’00).
Sadly, the
Renovaré explanatory notes deny the Divine authorship of much of
Scripture—even that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Yet it hypocritically declares,
“We read the Bible literally, from cover to cover…[and] in context.”3
Renovaré claims that Genesis 1-11 is neither historic nor
scientific,4 and that the entire book of Genesis is merely a
collection of myths:
Genesis began as an oral tradition of
narrative stories passed down from generation to generation….These stories
[gradually] took on theological meaning….Over time [they] were written down and
collected together (Gen 12-50), and a prologue (Gen 1-11) was added….Borrowing
from other creation accounts…stories with parallels to ancient Near Eastern
religious narrative and mythology were reshaped with monotheistic intent….These
strands of varied materials were gathered and edited into the written
text….5
What wickedness for Christian
“scholars” to unite with skeptics to declare that Genesis, which is foundational
to the Bible, is just an edited compilation of mythology and folk tales! If
Genesis is not literally inspired of God, then how can we have confidence in any
other part of the Bible? What about Paul’s statement that “All scripture is
given by inspiration of God” (2 Tm 3:16) or Peter’s “Holy men of God spake as they were
moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pt 1:21) or Christ’s many quotations from
Genesis and references to “the things that Moses commanded” (Mt 8:4;
19:7; Mk 1:44; 7:10; 10:3, 4; 12:19, 26; Lk 16:29-31,
etc.)?
Contrary to Renovaré,
the Bible itself declares in numerous places that under the inspiration of God
Moses wrote the Pentateuch: “And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a
memorial in a book…and Moses wrote all the words of the LORD…and Moses wrote
this law, and delivered it…unto all the elders of Israel….And…Moses...commanded
the Levites…put it in…the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God.…” (Ex
17:14; 24:4; Dt 31:9, 25, 26, etc.).
“The law of Moses” is referred
to repeatedly (Jos 8:31-32; 23:6; 1 Ki 2:3; 2 Ki 14:6; 23:25; 2 Chr 30:16;
Ezr 3:2; Ne 8:1; etc.). Jesus called the Pentateuch “the law of Moses” (Lk
24:44). The Gospel of John is filled with affirmations that Moses was a prophet
who wrote much Scripture (Jn 1:17, 45; 5:45, 46; 7:19-23, etc.).
Of Daniel, the Renovaré
Bible declares, “We do not know who wrote it or exactly when it was
written…it was most likely partially written during Antiochus Epiphanes’
persecution of the Jews in Babylon, which began with the desecration of the
Temple in 167 B.C.” 6 So it is the work of an imposter pretending to be Daniel
400 years after the fact! To escape admitting that Daniel prophesied centuries
in advance the breakup of Alexander’s empire under four generals, the rise of
Antiochus Epiphanes, and the pollution of the temple, skeptics had to invent a
later date for these prophecies. Renovaré echoes this lie, robbing Christians of
an essential proof of the validity of the Bible and depriving the unsaved of
life-giving truth!
Daniel is written in the first
person telling events that happened to the writer four centuries before 167
b.c.: “When I…Daniel, had seen the vision (8:15)…I Daniel fainted,
and was sick certain days (8:27)….In the first year of Darius...I
Daniel understood (9:1,2)...I Daniel was mourning three full weeks
(10:2),” etc. (For evidence that Daniel authored his book in the sixth century
B.C., see Q&A Sept and Oct ’01.)
The Renovaré
“scholars” continually downplay the powerful Old Testament prophecies of Christ
(pp. 22, 32, 1375, 1377-8, 1384, etc.). The key prophecy in Isaiah 9:6-7 of the
coming Messiah, who is “the mighty God, the everlasting Father,” is
said to speak of “human agents” ( p. .997).
The notes reduce Isaiah’s
prophecies to “tradition” (pp. 982, 983), would have us believe that much of
that book was not written by Isaiah (there are “three authors”– pp. 982, 1068),
and even deny that chapter 53 prophesies Christ’s sacrifice for our sins (p.
984)! Renovaré describes the book of Isaiah as “poetic
imagination…Isaiah imagines,” etc. The Renovaré “scholars” declare, “The
prophets of Israel are not to be thought of primarily as…predictors of the
future…they were poets” (p. 1079). Through poetry, Jeremiah attempts “to make
sense of the events of his day…” (p. 1080). Blasphemy!
Renovaré
rejects the powerful prophecies of Daniel, including the proof of
9:24-26
that Jesus is the Christ. There is not a word about the image foretelling the
four world kingdoms and revival of the fourth (Roman Empire) under ten heads
(2:36-45) to be destroyed by the Messiah when He sets up His everlasting
kingdom. Nor is there a word about the future apocalyptic significance of the
four beasts of Daniel 7 coinciding with Revelation 13. The wrath of God poured
out upon earth during the Great Tribulation (Renovaré avoids that term)
are described as “natural disasters straight out of Exodus” (p. 2268). Yet even
the magicians in Egypt told Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God” (Ex
8:19).
All of the major prophecies so
crucial in proving the Bible to be the Word of God and Jesus of Nazareth to be
the Messiah are either not commented upon, or are spiritualized away as
pertaining to the “faith community” and its “spiritual formation.” There is no
recognition of the great prophecies in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc., of Israel being
brought back into her own land in the last days, and that she must endure
forever (Ezk 35-37, etc.). For example, the powerful prophetic promise from God
to bring back the Jews scattered around the world (Jer 31:8-14) is interpreted
as a promise to all homeless people (nothing about Israel), and God’s promise
that Israel can never be destroyed (31:35-37) is ignored!
Israel is treated as having
been replaced by the church. Incredibly, the valley of dry bones brought back to
life in Ezekiel 37, which is clearly declared to be “the whole house of
Israel” (37:11), is interpreted as the birth of the church at Pentecost!
Ezekiel 38-39 is not about Armageddon, with real armies attacking the nation of
Israel back in her land in the last days to be rescued by the Messiah, but is
about “dark forces” always at work in the world.
There is no commentary at
Revelation 1:7 about the Second Coming of Christ (p. 2269), no evidence of
belief in the Rapture; only that Christ will one day “return and overcome the
wicked powers” (p. 2266). Revelation is reduced to a “pastoral letter meant to
sustain the suffering and hearten the weary faithful” (p. 2267). The Antichrist
and False Prophet (Rv 13) are depersonalized as “dark forces of evil” (p. 2281).
The woman on the beast (Rv 17) has no prophetic significance but “embodies those
institutions that across the ages have sold themselves to the dark forces...”
(p. 2284). There is nothing about the city that it is clearly said she
represents. So the fall of Babylon (Rv 18) “pictures the ultimate collapse of
all human institutions given over to the lust for power…” (p. 2285).
The marriage of the Lamb to His
bride (Rv 19) is not a real event in heaven but “symbolic of the many different
celebrations that bring joy and jubilation” into our lives (p. 2287) The
thousand-year reign of Christ (Rv 20) is not a real event, and the armies of the
world coming against Christ and the saints at Jerusalem after Satan’s release
merely symbolize “the armies of darkness [which] surround us” (p. 2288).
This “Study Bible” is one more step on the slippery downward path into deepening apostasy. The Bible is being mocked in the church. Let us stand firmly, vocally, and actively in defense of God’s holy, infallible, inerrant, and sufficient Word!
TBC