Fonda, McCorvey, Maxwell and Peck -- four very different celebrities on
four diverging paths
that may never meet! Yet, what do they share along the way? How do
they illustrate today's popular
spirituality and the "new way of thinking"
touted by church and secular leaders alike?
Author Scott Peck's
vision of "community" helps us answer those the questions. In his book,
A Different Drum,
he presents a four-stage journey through life: [1] personal chaos or spiritual
emptiness, [2] some kind of a spiritual experience or rebirth, [3] release from
the Bible's "offensive" moral boundaries and a longing for a more unifying
spirituality [4] unity in diversity, the ideal community where all is one, and
everyone serves the greater whole.
This enticing pattern for
deception illustrates the personal journeys of countless seekers around the world. But
does it match the public lifestyles of these four celebrities?
First clue
:
Ponder their own words and ways.
"For," said Jesus,
"out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." Luke 6:45
Jane Fonda (celebrated
as "born again"): "I began to really study it
[Christianity], and I thought, uh-oh, I don't
know. There's a lot of problems I have here with this Christianity. Maybe
I've made a mistake. I'm a feminist. But I'm on a journey....
KING: "You're not a born again?"
FONDA: "I don't even know what that means. ..."
KING: "Do you read your Bible?"
FONDA: "I read everything from Robert Graves' 'King David' to
the 'Gnostic Gospels' to the
Book of John [the Gnostic version?].' I read a lot. I'm on a
journey."
[1]
CNN Larry King Live.
Norma McCorvey,
the former "Jane Roe" of Roe vs. Wade
(celebrated
as "born again"):
"I would profess my adherence to all that the Catholic Church officially teaches.... But the Blessed Virgin leads me, and all of us, to the true God. I have great
dreams about the Mother of God, and have set up a prayer garden at my home. The
Blessed Virgin is there, and I bring her my love every morning and evening.
Through the storms of this life, she will come to lead us to Jesus and make a
way for everyone who will enter heaven."[2]
Scott Peck
,
author of A Road Less Traveled
(celebrated as "born again" in the 1980s):
"In and through community lies the
salvation of the world. Nothing is more important.... I am dubious, however, as to how far we can move toward
global community-- which is the only way to achieve international peace -- until we
learn the basic principles of community in our own individual lives and personal spheres
of influence."[3
- introduction]
John Maxwell
(chairman of
Global Pastor's Network) "No matter what your profession, possibility
thinking can help you to broaden your horizon
and
dream bigger dreams.
Professor David J. Schwartz ["one of the foremost experts on
motivation"]
believes, 'Big thinkers are specialists in creating positive
forward-looking, optimistic pictures in their own minds and in the minds
of others."[4
- page 160]
Before we explore
their paths, let's take a quick look at John Maxwell's leadership in a global
soul-winning venture -- today's ecumenical effort to draw the world's masses into God's
Kingdom. The visionary
Billion Soul Campaign is a global
project of Global Pastor's Network
(GPN),
which was founded by Bill Bright. Before his death, Dr. Bright asked that John
Maxwell
"succeed
him at GPN"
as its chairman. By then, Mr. Maxwell, the former pastor of
Skyline Community Church in San Diego, had left his
pulpit to start
INJOY Ministries, a church consulting
firm focused on
leadership development
for secular as well as Christian leaders. Its winning processes would now be aimed at one of the most grandiose visions of all:
"The Billion Soul Campaign is a coalition of more than 80
denominations, fellowships and ministries who are
synergizing their efforts for
the fulfillment of the Great Commission....
Global Pastors Network Chairman John
Maxwell
remarked, 'This is the largest global thrust in Church history.' ...
"Our goal is to
help plant five million new churches for a
one billion soul harvest, by
offering world class training resources and building the premier community of
successful pastors.”[5]
Few Christians would question "The Great Commission"
-- God's call to go "to
the end of the earth” as His witnesses.
[Acts 1:8]
After all, soul-winning is central to the mission of the Church. But
whose plan does He want us to follow? We find the answer in the Bible:
"You meet him who
rejoices and does righteousness, who remembers You in Your ways."
Isaiah 64:5
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord."
Isaiah 55:8-9
"But My people would not heed My voice... so I gave them over to their own stubborn heart,
to walk in their own counsels. Oh, that My people would listen to
Me."
Psalm 81:11-13
We head for failure when our human management systems plan
our Christian agenda.
We turn our backs to God when our planned
transformation is driven by psycho-social strategies, not the
Holy Spirit.
Changing the hearts of people is God's Work, not ours! The lost
are "regenerated" -- "born again" of His Spirit -- by God's power, not our
strategies. He uses our lives, but the work must be done His way, in His time, according to His eternal plan.
When we appeal to
human nature and aim to please people rather than our Lord, we lose
sight of His narrow
ways. And when the masses are Biblically illiterate, they have little or no
resistance to deception. They shift with the winds of change and don't even
notice where they are headed. And, as in Old Testament days, the masses follow
the "positive" messages of popular leaders and turn a deaf ear to "negative"
warnings of His unpopular prophets:
"Hear this now, O
foolish people, without understanding, who have eyes and see not, and who have ears and hear not:
Do you not fear Me?’ says the Lord.
‘Will you not tremble at My presence?"
Jeremiah
5:21-22
"But they refused to
heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that
they could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts like flint,
refusing to hear...."
Zachariah
6:11-12
Second clue: Scott Peck's evolving message
Around the world, those turbulent (but intentional)
winds of change are blowing toward a specific goal: unity in community.
In his book,
The Different Drum: Community-Making and Peace, Scott Peck outlined four stages of its path:
"Stage I: Chaotic, antisocial."
One might call it
pre-Christian. But, as Peck points out,
"some... convert to stage II. Such conversions are usually sudden and dramatic
and, I believe God-given. It is as if God had reached down and grabbed that soul
and yanked it up a quantum leap."[3
- 188-189]
"
Stage II: Formal, institutional."
After such a spiritual experience, people join institutions. "...for most," writes Peck,
the institution to which they submit themselves for governance is the Church."
But eventually young people begin to ask themselves, "Who needs this
fuddy-duddy old Church with its silly superstitions? At this point they begin to
convert to State III.... they often become atheists or agnostics."[3
- 190]
"
Stage III: "Skeptic, individual." Here, critical thinking
and countless options beckon the seeker forward. Peck explains:
"Although frequently 'nonbelievers,' people in Stage
III are generally more spiritually developed than many content to remain in
Stage II. ...they are often deeply involved in and committed to social
causes. They make up their own minds about things and are no more likely to
believe everything they read in the papers than to believe it is necessary
for someone to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior (as opposed to Buddha or
Mao or Socrates) in order to be saved. ...
"Advanced Stage III men and women
are active truth seekers.... They are able to get glimpses of the 'big
picture' and to see that it is beautiful indeed -- and that it strangely
resembles those 'primitive myths and superstitions' their Stage II parent or
grandparents believe in. At that point they begin their conversion to Stage
IV...."[3
- 190-192]
"
Stage
IV: "Mystic, communal."
Here they experience the coveted oneness:
"Mystics of every shade of
religious belief have spoken of unity, of an underlying connectedness
between things.... Mystics acknowledge the enormity of the unknown, but
rather than being frightened by it, they seek to penetrate ever deeper into
it....
[Mystics] are the ones most
aware that the whole world is a community and realize that
what divides us
into warring camps is precisely the lack of this awareness. Having
become practiced at emptying themselves of preconceived notions and
prejudices and able to perceive the invisible underlying fabric that connects
everything, they do not think in terms of factions or blocs or even national
boundaries; they know this to be one world."[3
- 192-193]
Christians will know a oneness in heaven that surpasses man's loftiest
dreams! But during our time on this earth, we still live in a fallen world. Yet,
around the world, counterfeit
visions of universal oneness are being rooted in man's deceptive imagination.
To grasp the vast promotion of such visions, please read "Creating
Community through a New Way of Thinking." Then ponder
these statements by Scott Peck:
"Incorporating the dark and the light, the
sacred and the profane, the
sorrow and the joy, the glory and the mud, its conclusions are well
rounded.... Be fully aware of human variety, and you will recognize
the interdependence of humanity."[3
- 65] See
2 Cor 6:12-18
"We think of confession
as an
act that should be carried out in secret, in the darkness of the
confessional.... Yet the reality is that every human being is
broken and vulnerable. ... Community requires the
ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures."[3
- 69-70]
[Not only are such confessions vital to group bonding and accountability
in Peck's community and Rick Warren's small group
fellowships, they were also essential to Soviet mind control.
See
Brainwashing,
Small Groups and the Dialectic
Process, and
The 21st Century
Church]
"My own frame of
reference is Christian, and for me, therefore, the spirit
of community, which is the spirit of peace and love, is also the
spirit of Jesus."[3
- 75-76]
"...even the agnostic and atheist
members will generally report a community-building workshop as a
spiritual experience...[3
- 74]
"...for those of a Christian orientation the work of community
building is seen as preparation for the descent of the Holy Spirit.
The spirit of community is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. This
does not mean that community is solely a Christian phenomenon. I
have seen community develop among Christians and Jews, Christians
and atheists, Jews and Muslims, Muslims and Hindus."[3
- 75]
"The community-building
process requires self-examination from the beginning. ...'Are we
still on target? Are we a healthy group?...
"What a
genuine community does do... is recognize its ill health when it
occurs and quickly take appropriate action to heal itself. Indeed,
the longer they exist the more efficient healthy communities
become in this recovery process."[3
- 66]
[See
"The
UN Plan for Your Mental Health"]
Rick
Warren amplified the last concept in his article, "Emphasize
church health, not church growth:"
"Church health is the key to
church growth. All living things grow if they’re healthy. You don’t have to
make them grow -- it’s just natural for living organisms. As a parent, I
didn’t have to force my three children to grow. They naturally grew up. As long as I removed the hindrances, such as poor nutrition or an unsafe
environment, their growth was automatic....
"What
then is the secret of church health? In a word, it’s balance! ... Our entire
world is based on this principle of balance.... "[6]
But God's spiritual realm doesn't operate like the natural realm. The
key to success is neither a "balance" that can be measured by man nor the removal of natural
hindrances. The key is
knowing God's Word (a balanced view of the whole Bible), delighting in Who He really is (in contrast to His new
"positive" image), being "crucified with Christ," then following His ways
by His grace and Spirit.
Neither churches nor people will "naturally" follow His ways. Our human
sin nature drives us in the opposite direction. We have no
power in ourselves to "remove" such "hindrances" as Satan's
temptations, the tantalizing lures of the world, and our own natural drives
toward sin and evil. All these hindrances will easily blind our eyes and block our
spiritual growth. But the sobering reality of such spiritual warfare is too "negative" for today's Church Growth
leaders. And it's too spiritual for today's worldly pragmatists.
In Old Testament days, unrepentant leaders removed hindrances to their plans
by killing the prophets
who spoke God's warnings. Today's hindrances are removed in many purpose-driven
churches by silencing contrary voices and excommunicating the nay-sayers.
[See
Dealing with Resisters]
Third Clue: John Maxwell's advice to the church and world
Rick Warren calls John Maxwell
"my friend."[7]
Small
wonder, for they have much in common. Both have
doctorate degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary.
Both were inspired early by
Robert
Schuller's positive thinking and
motivational strategies. And both men
are promoting today's organizational
model around the world. Though this revolutionary model sounds "Christian" when
cloaked in Biblical terms and labels, its well-tested psycho-social strategies
have nothing to do with Christianity or Biblical guidelines. They have everything to do with social transformation and the
new way of thinking. As John Maxwell points out in his
book,
Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways
Highly Successful People Approach Life and Work:
"In 1970, when I was twenty-three years old, I
read a book that made a major impact on how I dream. It was called Move Ahead with Possibility Thinking, by
Robert Schuller. As a young pastor in my
first church, it thrilled me to read about how Schuller overcame seemingly
impossible circumstances to build a huge church in Garden Grove, California.
When I read the following words, my world changed: 'The greatest churches
have yet to be organized.'
"
...because you
believe in possibilities, you put yourself in
position to achieve them."[4
- page 160]
The Bible
bases all our true success and triumphs on faith in God -- Who He is, what He has accomplished on our
behalf, and what He has promised in His Word.[8] In contrast, notice
where Mr. Maxwell places his faith: "...believe in possibilities," "believe in
solutions," "believe that you can" do whatever you dream and want.
Although he
mentions
faith four times, it's not
Biblical faith:
- "...the faith to
believe that it is possible."[4
- page 29]
- "...your faith in people..."
[4
- page 124] [See
John 2:24-25
and
To the Glory of God"]-
" ...call it what you like:
the will to succeed, belief in yourself, confidence in your
ability, faith. It's really true: people who believe they
can't, don't. But if you believe you can, you
can! That's the power ..."
[4 - page 170]
-
"...Richard M. DeVos [Amway's
founder] says, "The only thing that stands between a man and what he
wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith
to believe that it is possible."
[4
- page 29]
Mr. Maxwell never mentions the Holy Spirit in his book. Nor does he mention
repentance, conversion, the Bible, the cross or
the name of Jesus.
Yet, this well-known author and management consultant -- and his
Global Pastor's Network -- have broadcast their
worldwide plan to reach a
billion souls
for Christ! Does he believe this lofty end will justify the dubious means: the world's
manipulative methodology?
Since positive thinking is vital to his planned success, it follows that negative
thinking would be out! Indeed it is! "
Stop
focusing on the impossibilities,"
writes Maxwell in
Thinking for a Change. "...you may need to
enlist the aid of a friend or family member to alert you every time you
utter negative ideas."[4
- page 165]
Hmmm. What might those "negative ideas" include? There would be
plenty of them, for Jesus said, "apart from Me you can do nothing."
[John 15:5]
Unless we "abide in Him," our mission would fail - no matter how
enthusiastically we want to serve God and His people. He calls us to utter
dependence on Him -- not to faith in ourselves!
What else might be "negative" in the eyes of Church Growth leaders? The truths about
our sin,
guilt and rebellion? Or God's warnings about wrath and judgment
(balanced with His love)? What about commands such as "Do not be wise in your
own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil,"
[Proverbs 3:7]? Or
"come out from them and be separate"
[2 Corinthians 6:17]? Might such "negative" and divisive
notions be banned
and forgotten? That's already happening!
But God tells us to share the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That's
Biblical balance!
[See
God's unchanging
Word]
The conversations between Jesus and Peter in Matthew
16 illustrate well man's foolish inclinations to trade God's guidelines for
comforting affirmations:
"From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to
Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and
scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
"Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, 'Far be
it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”
"But He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me,
Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of
God, but the things of men.'" Matthew 16:21-26
Mr. Maxwell's models for success include George Lucas with his
Star Wars
movies and Sam Walton (the founder of Wal-Mart)
as well as
Robert Schuller. His sources of wisdom
include
Rosabeth
Moss Kanter, whose website includes references to
researchers and institutes -- Kurt Lewin, Tavistock, The Frankfurt Institute for
Social Change, and others -- that laid the psychological foundations for
today's worldwide quest for social transformation and
solidarity.
As
John Maxwell explained in an interview titled "Leading through preaching,"
there is little or no need for the Holy Spirit:
"All great leaders are
effective communicators.
It is the vehicle for the vision. For me to know where I want to take a group of people and not have the ability to
cast that dream, preach that message, communicate that heart, makes the dream impossible.... You show me a great leader and I'll show you a person that became a great leader
because of his or her ability to communicate effectively....
"...your job is not to sell your vision, your job is to sell
yourself. People don't buy into vision until they buy into the leader....
"... never cast the vision in a message until you have given process time
with that vision to the influencers.... For
me to go to the pulpit with a vision that I've just held between God and me,
that is naive. I want to go with the vision with God and me and key
players who have the heart for this church. ..."[9]
Mr.
Maxwell walks his talk! He knows how to sell himself to the
"influencers" of the world. The following Internet promotion
of the 2004
Living Leadership
conference reminds us that his management strategies work as well among
secular leaders as among church leaders:
"John C. Maxwell
,
a best-selling author and leadership authority, will help you map a
Leadership Action Plan that will translate insights and principles
from Living Leadership into the daily practices that will ignite
your leadership....
"Living Leadership unites an unprecedented lineup of executives,
world leaders, and gifted communicators for audiences gathered in
board rooms and universities across the country:
Donald Trump....
Mikhail Gorbachev,
President of the Soviet Union from 1985-1991....
Peter F. Drucker...
the Father of Modern Management....
"Living Leadership attendees can expect to
walk away with a vision
for
where they want to take their team, the ability to coach their
people to results-driven performance, and the skills necessary to communicate
with conviction, credibility, and compassion."[10]
Fourth Clue: Jane Fonda's spiritual
journey
Remember when Christians celebrated Jane
Fonda's conversion to Christianity some years ago? It sounded so good; so honoring to
God: an infamous rebel against God and America finally receives Christ! But did she
really repent and turn to God? Was
she born again? Or was
this simply one of many life changes on her personal spiritual journey?
I don't know the answer. Only God knows our
hearts! But He does warn us to be discerning, not gullible. Impressions and
appearance can be deceptive “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in
sheep’s clothing," said Jesus. "You will know them by their fruits." Matthew
7:15-16
Jane Fonda's
CNN interview with
Larry King on April 6,
2005,
gives us a glimpse into her heart. Ponder her statements about her faith.
Do they sound like the words of a Christian who, by God's grace has been filled
with His Spirit and loves His Word? Or do they sound more like Stages III
and IV in Scott Peck's spiritual evolution toward global unity?
FONDA: I haven't met anybody I wanted to date, although
I saw a psychic...
KING: And?
FONDA: ... She says that I'm going to meet somebody this year
that's going to be my soul mate....
Later in the
interview:
KING:
...He [Ted Turner] goes, she's religious! Jane found religion.
What's the story?
FONDA: ...when Ted brought me to Georgia, I, for the first time, got to know
people -- well, you know them, Andy Young, Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter and
others, who were people that practice their faith. And I was very
interested, and I spent a lot of time thinking about it and reading about it
and talking to them....
And then
when we separated, I began to really study it, and I thought, uh-oh, I don't
know. There's a lot of problems I have here with this Christianity. Maybe
I've made a mistake....
KING: You're not a born again?
FONDA: I don't even know what that means. It is hard to say -- for someone
like me to say that they're a Christian because it is so politically loaded
and it's so identified with fundamentalism now.
KING: But what does it mean to you? You're not a fundamentalist.
FONDA: To me -- no, to me, feminism and Christianity are very compatible.
The teachings of Jesus is, is feminist. What I mean by that is that all
people, women as well as men, have to claim their whole humanity, have to
open their hearts, have to care about the less-than, have to be generous and
forgiving and peace-loving, and -- but he viewed everyone as a whole human
being....
KING: Do you read your Bible?
FONDA: I read theology. I read biblical history. I read everything from
Robert Graves' "King David" to the "Gnostic Gospels" to "The Book of John." I read a lot.
I'm on a journey,
and it's hard for me to talk about it a lot because it is pretty new.[1]
Clue 5: Norma McCorvey's
changing faith
The news couldn't have
been more welcome! Norma McCorvey -- alias "Jane
Roe" -- had received Christ and was "born again!" She had become
an activist on behalf of babies! Her own joy was contagious,
and, for a moment in time, hope overshadowed the tragic consequences of "Roe
versus Wade."
Alas, that joy
didn't last. McCorvey's spiritual journey took another turn. She tells her story
in "
My Journey into the Catholic Church,"
a personal testimony posted on her website. Ponder her unbliblical but "positive"
beliefs:
"The day finally arrived when I would be received into the Catholic Church. ...the ceremony, scheduled for August 17, 1998 at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Dallas, was a Mass during which I would profess my adherence to all that the Catholic Church officially teaches....
"After Communion, Fr. Frank shared the following words that spoke directly to my heart:
"'Norma, reflect carefully on what has happened now that you have received Jesus for the first time in Holy Communion.... Our Faith teaches that by His Incarnation, the Son of God
joined all humanity to Himself. In some fashion, every human being of all time is united to Him. This, of course, includes every human being in the womb, and includes those who were aborted.
"'Today, you have received the very same flesh of the Son of God, to which all humanity has been joined. That means, Norma, that today, in giving you His Body, Jesus has also given you back all the babies that were aborted
because of what you did. He has reunited to you all the children who never got to play in the playgrounds.
He has restored them to you, closing the distance between you and them. He has reconciled them to you and given you peace.'...
"During these remarks, I was sitting there crying. I knew I had been forgiven -- and to think I was reunited with those children…
"...
the Blessed Virgin leads me,
and all of us, to the true God. I have
great dreams about the Mother of God, and have set up a prayer garden at my
home. The Blessed Virgin is there, and I bring her my love every morning
and evening.
Through the storms of this life, she will come to lead us to Jesus and make a
way for everyone who will enter heaven."[2]
However, Jesus
Christ, not Mary, is our Savior and Redeemer! He alone atoned for our sins
and bought our forgiveness. There is no other way to God and His eternity.
“I am
the way, the truth, and the life," said Jesus; "no one can come
to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him."
[John 6:43-44]
"Nor is there
salvation in any other, for there is no other name under
heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Acts 4:10-12
The night before his death, Jesus prayed these
words, “...this
is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God...."
[
John 17:3-5]
Does Norma McCorvey
know "the only true God?" Does Jane Fonda know Him? Does Scott Peck --
with his four stages of spiritual evolution -- know Him? What about John Maxwell
with his emphasis on "possibility thinking" and motivational management?
How about
Eldridge Cleaver,
who also was celebrated as a "born again"
Christian back in the seventies? A biographer gives this account of his
life:
"In France in the mid-1970s, a revelation ("I
saw a path of light in the sky") persuaded him he should go home and
preach the Christian gospel. The California authorities let him do a few
months in jail and some community service. The rest of his life... was
spent in desperate attempts at
personal reinvention,
a fast-forward blur of
shifting identities. ... For a while, he
ran the Cleaver Crusade for Christ.
Later, he created 'Christlam,'
to combine Christianity and Islam. He flirted with Rev. Sun Myung Moon,
and also with Mormonism."
[11]
What about you and
me? Paul tells us to "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the
faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in
you?"
2 Corinthians 13:5
I don't believe that
truly regenerated Christians -- those who actually have been "born again" and filled with His
Spirit -- can lose their salvation. Nor will they wander away from Truth and the
Lord they love! But God's Word leads us to wonder whether some of the enthusiastic members of today's feel-good churches have
truly been born of His Spirit. Remember the parable of the sower. Four different groups of people hear
God's Word. Two groups respond with joy, but only one group perseveres in the
faith:
"Now the parable
is this: The seed is the word of God. [1] Those by the wayside are the ones
who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts,
lest they should believe and be saved
.
[2] But the ones on the rock are those who,
when they hear, receive the word with joy;
and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation
fall away. [3] Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when
they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures
of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. [4] But the ones that fell on
the good ground are those who, having
heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit
with patience."
Luke 8:11-15
C
onclusion
What do Jane Fonda,
Norma Mc Corvey, John Maxwell, and Scott Peck have in common? They have all
called themselves Christians. All but Mr. Maxwell have enjoyed public acclaim
because of their surprising testimony of a "born again" experience. But their own words
seem to tell us that
they have drifted beyond the parameters of Biblical truth. Jane Fonda is
doubting Biblical Christianity and exploring the occult waters of Gnosticism
and other heresies. Norma McCorvey's journey moved from the Biblical Savior to a
Marian substitute, who appears to be the center of her devotion.
John Maxwell has surely taken a stand on God's Word as a pastor, but we don't know his heart. What we do
know is that his management and communication skills have influenced church
leaders around the world. They have also helped establish United Nation's
guidelines for collective human resource development in what Unesco
leaders call a world of "continual change." And they have earned him a pedestal
as a motivational guru to the secular world, to globalist leaders such as
Mikhail Gorbachev, and to
church leaders around the world. In fact, these sobering words of Jesus should cause us to
ask how one of His followers could find such popularity among those who
naturally reject our Lord:
"Woe to you when
all men speak well of you...."
Luke 6:26
"If you were of the
world, the world would love its own...Yet because you are not of the
world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you....
A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they
will also persecute you... because they do not know Him who sent Me."
John 15:19-21
Scott Peck's temporary
identity as a born-again Christian back in the 1980s won him access to churches
across the country. A popular speaker with a timely, feel-good, communal message, he
stirred interest -- especially among young people -- in dialectic communities
designed to undermine the authority, uniqueness and boundaries of the Scriptures.
Like John Maxwell, he has a lofty pedestal for sharing the new guidelines for
building human and social capital
in communities around the world.
[12]
In different ways, all four fit
somewhere on Peck's four-stage journey: [1] personal chaos or spiritual emptiness, [2]
some kind of a spiritual experience, [3]
release from the Bible's offensive and divisive moral boundaries and the start
of a more inclusive theology or more "positive" truth, [4] the end product of the dialectic
process: unity in diversity, all is one, everything is interconnected and
everyone must serve the greater whole. A transformed world and a glorious end
will reward those who followed this path.
But God's ways and His
warnings are totally different. He tells us that --
"... in the last days
perilous times will come
: For men will be lovers of themselves,
lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers,
without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors,
headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such
people turn away!
"...all who desire to live godly in Christ
Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow
worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue
in the things which you have learned..." 2 Timothy
3:1-14
"Preach the word; be ready in
season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with
great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their
ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to
their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will
turn aside to myths. But you be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an
evangelist, fulfill your ministry."
2
Timothy 4:2-5
In
these times of self-made religion, spiritual counterfeits, unceasing
distractions and rampant deception, how can we pray for each other, for
ourselves and for those who might be straying away from God's ways? We might
pray these simple words of the apostle Paul --
"...that
your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment,
that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be
sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with
the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory
and praise of God." Philippians 1:9-11
Endnotes:
1. Jane Fonda was interviewed on
CNN Larry King Live,
On April 6.
2.
My Journey into the Catholic Church
By Norma McCorvey, the former "Jane Roe" of Roe vs. Wade.
3.
Scott Peck, The Different
Drum: Community-Making and Peace (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987),
introduction.
4. John Maxwell, Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People
Approach Life and Work, (Warner Books, 2003).
5.
The
Billion Soul Campaign at
http://www.billionsoul.org/about.html#gpn
(posted 4-13-05)
6.
Rick
Warren, "Emphasize
church health, not church growth"
7.
Rick Warren,
http://www.pastors.com/article.asp?ArtID=3178
8.
Faith and Confidence
and
To the Glory of God
9.
Leading through preaching: an interview with John Maxwell
10.
"Living Leadership:
Delivering Results the Right Way," October 20, 2004. Ad still available 4-13-05
at
http://www.springschurch.org/Events/Living_Leadership/living_leadership.html
11. "Robert Fulford's column
about Eldridge Cleaver,"
Globe and Mail,
April 3, 1999, at
http://www.robertfulford.com/Cleaver.html
12. See "The Global quest for
Solidarity" at
http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/solidarity.html
Warning:
The following two links will take you to Gnostic/Occult websites. They show what
people -- even in churches -- are reading and seeking these days.
Gnostic
Gospels at
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html
The Secret Book of John at
http://www.skylightpaths.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SP&Product_Code=1-59473-082-2&Category_Code=S05
