ETS Far West Region Annual Meeting: Confronting Neo-Paganism in the Culture and the Church

Yesterday Friday Apr 8th was the ETS (Evangelical Theological Society) annual meeting, which was held on the premises of WSC. I volunteered to serve for the banquet and thus had a "free" registration for the meeting.

The meeting started in the afternoon and ended with the banquet. Afternoon started with the welcome by Dr. Joe Hellerman followed by a short devotion by WSC president Dr. W. Robert Godfrey, the plenary address by Dr. Peter Jones and two responses to his address. This is then followed by 3 parallel sessions which concluded with the banquet cum business meeting.

In this and a subsequent post, I would like to share a short summary of the plenary address by Dr. Peter Jones, and then brief thoughts on the 3 parallel sessions I have chosen to attend.

Book review: Spirit Wars

I have just finished a review of Prof Peter Jones' excellent book Spirit Wars, which can be read here.

Entitled Spirit Wars, Dr. Peter Jones' book documents and exposes the New Spirituality and its growth in America (and through her, the world). After much research, Dr. Jones is convinced about the threat of this New Spirituality to the Church, and is concerned over the infiltration of this apostasy into the churches. Being a scholar of the ancient heresy of Gnosticism, Jones through his research sees many similarities of the New Spirituality with the Gnostic error, and seeks to warn the Church against this growing neo-pagan gnostic threat to her faith.

With copious endnotes and references, Jones seeks to prove his case that a pagan revival is underfoot in America, and how this anti-Christian movement has developed in its opposition to biblical truth. The movement has re-spawned the ancient pagan worldview, and this worldview is totally antithetical to the Christian worldview; the former is monistic, while the latter is theistic. The growth of this worldview however has impacted the Church, altering Christians' perspectives and compromising their beliefs on issues such as femininity and homosexuality among others.

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Reflection on Prof Peter Jones' talk on the 28th March 2009

I had attended a talk by Prof Peter Jones, adjunct professor at Westminster Seminary California and executive director for the ministry TruthXChange, which was organized by STEMI and held recently in Singapore on the 28th March 2009. Here is my personal reflection on this excellent talk:

On the 28th Mar 2009, Dr. Peter Jones, adjunct professor at Westminster Seminary California, gave a talk in Singapore held at True Way Presbyterian Church. The talk was organized by STEMI and occurred from 10a.m. to about 2:30p.m, with the title being The Paganization of the West and the Global Challenge to Christian Truth. The talk was good and informative, and it was interesting hearing such a presentation from a Reformed theologian as opposed to the multitudes of evidential apologists who sometimes sound more alarmist than inspirational, and definitely less biblical.

Prof Jones’ talk was split into two sessions, predictably one before lunch and one after lunch. In the first session, Prof Jones describes the pagan worldview and its challenge in today’s society, while in the second session, he exegetes Rom. 1:18-28 to answer the challenge of paganism.

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I think this message is very important for the church especially with the recent outbreak in interest in "Contemplative spirituality". It is hoped that the church will go back to the God of the Scriptures instead of going back to paganism in any form.

P.S.: There is a good sermon Prof Jones gave entitled Neo-Paganism: Stepchild of Secular Humanism, which you can obtain here.

Book Review: Faith Undone

I have just finished reading Roger Oakland's book Faith Undone, and I have done up a book review here. I would highly recommend this book to all who want to know more about the Emergent/Emerging Church Movement and where it is headed, as well as the growing apostasy within the "evangelical evanjellybean" churches.

Beware of Oprah Winfrey

OK, I am not much of a follower of pop culture (In fact, I do not follow it), but perhaps some people do, so here's a warning about the New Age teachings of Oprah Winfrey, who isn't a Christian and is currently introducing the doctrine of demons to gullible people on her show (like the teaching that we are all God...)

The Universe according to Oprah

'The Secret' New Age Universe according to Oprah

Oprah Winfrey a Christian?

Article: Beware the bridge people

Here is an interesting article by Ingrid Schlueter on the Emergents being the Bridge people who will bring 'Christians' to the New Age moment, using the heretic Brian McLaren at his Deep Shift site as an example. And for more 'excitement', how about her discovery of a New Age site promoting the same bridge concept?

On Environmentalism...

Interesting article here which exposes the anti-Christian agenda behind the Environmental movement. Note that I am not saying that we should not conserve nor that we should pollute the environment; we should conserve and not pollute the environment. However, we should not sink to the type of hysterical fear-mongering these Christ-haters descend to, as if God is not in control of the earth.

[HT: Christian Research Net]

Book review of Reimagining Jesus Christ by Warren Smith

I had finished reading the book by Warren Smith entitled Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel, which can be found here. I had then reviewed the book here on my website. I would like to recommand this book to those who are interested to know more about the New Age movement and how it evolves and infiltrates society, and also in part those who call themselves churches.

Addenum: Here is an update for chapter 10 of the book of his, where he showed how Rick Warren is the conduit by which the New Age ideas are infiltrating the church.