Kingdom Triangle by J.P. Moreland

Home

Excerpts from

Lighthousetrailsresearch.com

Newsletters: November 21, 2007 and January 19, 2008

Contemplative Proponent

J. P.
Moreland

J. P. Moreland
says Christians too committed to the Bible

Newsletter, November 21, 2007

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=206

---

According to

a Christianity Today article, Biola University professor

J.P. Moreland says evangelical Christians are too committed to
the Bible. His talk at a recent Evangelical Theology Society meeting
was titled “How Evangelicals Became Over-Committed to the Bible
and What Can Be Done About It.” Quoting Moreland, the article
states:

“‘In the actual practices of the
Evangelical community in North America, there is an
over-commitment to Scripture in a way that is false, irrational,
and harmful to the cause of Christ,’ he [Moreland] said. ‘And it
has produced a mean-spiritedness among the over-committed that
is a grotesque and often ignorant distortion of discipleship
unto the Lord Jesus.’ The problem, he said, is ‘the idea
that the Bible is the sole source of knowledge of God, morality,
and a host of related important items. Accordingly, the Bible
is taken to be the sole authority for faith and practice.”

While Moreland gives examples such as
non-charismatics who steer clear of any and all venues such as
‘impressions, dreams, visions, prophetic words, words of knowledge
and wisdom,’ there may be more behind his statements than meets the
eye. This idea of ‘bibliolatry‘ (the idolizing of the Bible)
did not originate with Moreland. Several years ago contemplative
Brennan Manning (who gets many of his ideas from panentheist
mystics like
Thomas Merton and William Shannon (Silence on Fire) said this:

“I am deeply distressed by what I
only can call in our Christian culture the idolatry of the
Scriptures. For many Christians, the Bible is not a pointer to
God but God himself. In a word–bibliolatry. God cannot be
confined within the covers of a leather-bound book. I develop a
nasty rash around people who speak as if mere scrutiny of its
pages will reveal precisely how God thinks and precisely what
God wants.”–Brennan Manning, Signature of Jesus, pp.
188-189

---

Note: God warned us in His Word
that that a time would come when people would reject reject His Word
and turn to subjective myths and other shifting impressions of
reality:

“Be
ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For
the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine, but according
to their own desires, because they have
itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will
turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
But you be watchful in all things…”  2
Timothy 4:2-5

“All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for
every good work.”  2
Timothy 3:16-17

“In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made
through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not
comprehend it.”
John 1:1-5

---

Book Warning

Kingdom
Triangle
by
J. P.
Moreland

 

Newsletter, January 19, 2008

 

Read the entire newsletter at

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/index.php?p=942&more=1&c=1

---

J. P.
Moreland is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot (Biola)
School of Theology and a faculty member at David Noebel’s Summit
Ministries 1.
He has written numerous books and has spoken at over 200 colleges.
He has many academic credentials and honors such as: Outstanding
Young Men of America, 1981 and Senior Class Professor of the Year,
Biola University, 1992-93. But Moreland has another credential that
is not being discussed in evangelical circles – he promotes
contemplative and emerging spirituality.

In Moreland’s 2007 book, Kingdom Triangle, subtitled: Recover the
Christian Mind, Renovate the Soul, Restore the Spirit’s Power,
Moreland says there are three components needed in Christianity,
both collectively and individually. He says that these three
“essential ingredients” are for the “maturation of the Evangelical
community” (p. 13).

It doesn’t take too long into Kingdom Triangle to realize that the
second element of this maturing process is “spiritual formation.” On
the Acknowledgments page, Moreland thanks John Coe, who is the
director for Biola’s Institute for Spiritual Formation. Moreland
says that Coe guided him “into spiritual formation and the inner
life.”
Coe’s program offers a menagerie of contemplative spirituality
courses, retreats, etc.

To support Moreland’s emphasis on spiritual formation, he has asked
contemplative leader

Dallas Willard to write the foreword for the book; and in fact
Moreland calls Willard the mentor he has had for 25 years (p.13).
Given Willard’s immense affinity with contemplative spirituality,
this long term mentorship would explain Moreland’s belief that
spiritual formation is essential for the Christian community.

In chapter 6 of Kingdom Triangle, Moreland plunges into discussion
about the “true self” and the “false self.” He echoes
Thomas Merton
and Martin Buber, both who had strong mystical propensities, and who
believed we could attain to our true self (a perfect self) through
mystical practices. Moreland encourages the writings (and practices)
of St. Ignatius Loyola, (p. 156), saying such practices will help us
to “cultivate the ability to discern the divine components” within
us. This follows the course of thinking that Thomas Merton had –
that divinity is already within, and mystical practices help us to
realize what is already there. That is why
Merton said,

“It is a glorious destiny to be a
member of the human race, … now I realize what we all are …
If only they [people] could all see themselves as they really
are. I suppose the big problem would be that we would bow down
and worship each other…. At the center of our being is a point
of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a
point of pure truth….This little point … is the pure glory
of God in us. It is in everybody.” (Conjectures of a Guilty
Bystander, pp. 157-158)

Roger Oakland discusses Ignatius Loyola
in Faith
Undone: “Ignatius founded the Jesuits with a goal to bring the
separated brethren back to the Catholic Church. He and his band of
ruthless men would do everything possible to accomplish this goal.”
(p. 116) The

Metamorpha website (see Willard, Foster, Coe videos there) says
that the “imagination is key in Ignatian prayer…. Ignatian
meditation involves several key spiritual disciplines: lectio divina,
Ignatian contemplation, reminiscence, and the examination of
consciousness (notice: not conscience).”

Moreland tells readers that a “treasure of deep, rich knowledge of
the soul” can be found in the writings of the

Desert Fathers,
Henri
Nouwen, and Richard Foster, (p. 153). Of course, all three of
these sources ultimately point followers to eastern-style
meditation. A four-part series Moreland did for Focus on the Family
(click
here to read further substantiates that Moreland is embracing
contemplative spirituality where he suggests that “Catholic retreat
centers are usually ideal for solitude retreats.”

Moreland describes the third element to this triangle for Kingdom
living in his preface when he says that this is the time in history
where evangelicals can “show our culture the way forward” and that
prior to now, Christians were not ready to “lead our culture to
higher ground” (p. 12). He continues: “Signs indicate we are gaining
momentum and may well be ready to manifest our Lord’s true character
[through spiritual formation] in a way appropriate to the crisis of
our age… Tools for spiritual formation are available as never
before in my lifetime.”

As for Moreland’s third element of his Kingdom triangle, Moreland
says that the Kingdom of God or “gospel of the Kingdom” (p. 172) can
only come about on the earth through signs, wonders, and miracles –
thus his title: “Restoration of the Kingdom’s Miraculous Power.”
Knowing that Moreland’s 2nd leg in his three-legged triangle is
encapsulated with contemplative spirituality, which would empower
this signs and wonders Kingdom he describes, is more than alarming.
If indeed the realm that contemplative meditators enter is one
filled with familiar (demonic) spirits, then signs and wonders that
follow these excursions, would be on the same plane.

Moreland wraps up his book by stating that many believers (whom he
refers to as “sojourner[s] in the Way of Jesus] are bored and
do not sense God’s presence in their lives. He says the answer this
is to have the Kingdom Triangle “at the very heart of the new
revolutionary movement gaining momentum day by day”
(p. 196). Moreland concludes:

“As you enter more and more deeply
into progress in the way of Jesus, the Kingdom Triangle must be
a the core of your life and (your church’s) strategy. The first
leg provides a thoughtful sense of truth, knowledge, and
direction to this approach to life; the second leg gives passion
to the journey and allows one to lay aside baggage that gets in
the way; the third leg provides the faith and confidence to risk
more and more for God and expect him to actually be a coworker
in the only sensible life plan available. This is what our
culture needs… Don’t waste your life being preoccupied with
things that don’t really matter. Join me in the revolution. This
is your opportunity. Seize it and rejoice in it
(p. 199).”

This kind of rhetoric that we are on the
brink of a massive spiritual awakening doesn’t sound much different
than what New Agers say today. In a newsletter Lighthouse Trails
received on January 18th from New Age write Gary Zukav, Zukav
expresses a similar vision:

“A great change is washing over us,
around us, and through us. A new human consciousness is being
born in millions of individuals, one by one…. We are pioneers
in uncharted terrain, participating through our changing inner
experiences in the birth of a new humanity. The great change …
offers potential not previously available to us. Our perception
is expanding beyond the limitations of the five senses…. From
this new perspective, a multisensory perspective, we are not
separate from anything or anyone, … and each individual is
responsible for how he or she will respond to his or her
experiences….

“It is for each of us to decide how long we will choose to see
ourselves as helpless innocents who are at the mercy of our
experiences before we move into a new, more accurate
understanding of ourselves as the creator of them. As we change
our experiences from angry to supportive, jealous to caring,
impatient to patient, and frightened to loving, we change the
world around us…. From the emerging multisensory perspective,
each individual is responsible for what he or she contributes to
the world, regardless of what others contribute to it…. When
will you begin the journey that will take you there?”

It is our hope that those reading this
article can begin to connect the dots: as society (and unfortunately
much of Christianity at large) becomes more and more mystically
oriented, the vehicle for large scale deception is being provided.
As the Bible warns about, in the days prior to Jesus Christ’s second
coming, there will be a great falling away through doctrines created
by demons. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter
times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits, and doctrines of devils.” I Timothy 4:1
 

---

You can
order

Faith Undone  and

Another Jesus
from
Lighthouse Trails

Earlier reports from
Pastors Convention could send
many pastors in mystical direction

Ken
Blanchard Joins “The Secret” Team  |
The New Look of Christian Missions

www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com:
| Emergent Manifesto

Deceptive
Roots of the Emerging Church

The
Re-Think Conference | Deceptive
Roots of the Emerging Church

Yoga, Mysticism & Moody Bible Institute