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By Ken Silva

Here's a bit of clarification, prior to Apprising Ministries arriving on the Internet scene about a year ago I had been dealing strictly in apologetics. Since I have never asked God for any of the forums He has kindly given me I had no choice but to follow my Master as He led me into the field of discernment. As a former Roman Catholic I sensed the Lord directing me to study and expose the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Emerging Church deception and its key doctrine of contemplative spirituality (i.e. transcendental meditation for the Christian).

This is why God has led me to focus attention on the "living spiritual teacher" Richard Foster because he was unloaded from the Trojan Horse of the Emergent Church to spread this Gnosticism through so-called "Christian" mysticism inside the quite gullible evangelical church. And now that the enemy is in the camp we don't have the luxury of simply talking about how much God loves us, the time has come for us to grow up and start showing the Lord we love him by coming into conflict with Satan's forces in our local churches.

While I'm at it let me speak for my brothers and sisters in this discernment camp and address the ludicrous statement we are doing this "for the money." Yikes, that just might be one of the most foolish things I have ever heard. Those of us who are laboring for Christ in what feels like a vain attempt to awaken the Rip Van Winkles of evangelical leadership do so with precious little support. I can tell you that AM receives no outside agency funding. If we were in it for the money then we too would be scratching itching ears as do Foster, Rick Warren, Brian McLaren and Joel Osteen. Any chance those guys are making a buck or two?

This is an appeal for you to awaken from your own slumber and look at the red sky this morning. Even the quite liberal Christianity Today is making you aware of Emergent "evangelicals" like Steve Chalke and Scot McKnight who are attacking the atonement, which is to deny Jesus Christ. More on that in my next article, but think for a minute of God the Son's anguished cry on the Cross as God the Father breaks fellowship with Him "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" [1] Do you seriously think our Lord will tolerate an attack on the very heart of His glorious Gospel from inside the Body of Christ?

Out Goes The Reformation
Which brings us to another reason why this contemplative spirituality is so very dangerous. Men and women, as I read Guru Foster's work I have found that it's as if he cannot go three pages without citing some Roman Catholic mystic. For the discerning among us this should sound an alarm. Have we really forgotten the Reformation this easily? In the interest of a sappy sentimental "unity" are we now to simply overlook the men who were burned alive at the stake so that you could have a Bible in your hands? You are more than welcome to read my heavily documented work on the apostate Church of Rome here, and you will see for yourself from my own personal research in the Vatican library itself she has not changed an iota on the papacy or justification since Trent.

So before evangelical leaders like Chuck Swindoll lend men like Richard Foster and the heretical Henri Nouwen further credibility by citing their works he should be held accountable to be careful to know what it is men like this stand for and what they actually mean by "silence and solitude" (transcendental meditation). The last time I checked Dallas Theological Seminary was still a "Protestant" seminary. Apparently the chancellor has forgotten what it is we are "protesting." Men like Martin Luther risked his very life to nail those 95 theses on the door of his church. What do spiritually spineless living spiritual teachers like Richard Foster risk today, having to cancel a speaking engagement to make time to write another book?

Can we not see that through contemplative spirituality out goes the Reformation and in comes the new evangelical Ecumenical Church of Deceit? And in his book Speaking My Mind Emergent "Evangelical Prophet" Tony Campolo, a man who is actively involved in the practice of contemplative spirituality, tells you himself that it ends up in ecumenicism because: "Mysticism Provides Common Ground." [2] In a book Living Spiritual Guru Foster cites himself on page 31 of his own Celebration of Discipline, called Practical Mysticism by Evelyn Underhill, the mystic author defines mysticism for us: "Mysticism is the art of union with Reality" [3] (read: God).

I have read much from Underhill, who at best was a liberal Episcopalian that supposedly "converted" to Roman Catholicism, and I have yet to see her mention that faith in Christ must precede any such alleged "union with Reality," meaning God. You see in contemplative spirituality, which is mysticism in softer terms for the undiscerning Christian, Underhill tells us that the "mystic is a person who has attained that union in greater or lesser degree; [4] So you see it really shouldn't surprise us when Campolo asks concerning the Sufi Muslim mystics that he personally meditates with: "Could they have encountered the same God we do in our Christian mysticism?" [5]

No, in apprising you of the real Emergent issue, what really should surprise us is that the spiritual lunacy I have just discussed should be considered as acceptable teaching when coming from men ministering within the evangelical community of the Church of our Lord.