Spiritual Formation (SF) has been around for a long time. But it was not until the publication of Richard J. Foster’s book in 1978, entitled “Celebration of Discipline,” that SF started to catch on among evangelicals. Personally, I did not hear of SF until 1993, but in my nievety I never bothered to research it. When I finally researched it in 2010, I was shocked! Why is it that so many evangelical Christians have never heard of SF if it has been infiltrating evangelicalism since 1978? Perhaps because it is being “snuck” in via evangelical colleges, universities and seminaries.
So on to my point – what exactly is SF, and why is it so dangerous? There are many discernment articles on the Internet discussing this, but I will quote from just one at this time. The entire article can be found on the website of Hungry Hearts Ministries, at:
http://hungryheartsministries.com/id447.html
Here are some excerpts:
There is a movement advancing at lightning speed throughout the Body of Christ today. This movement promotes a spirituality that is corrupting believers from the simplicity found in Christ by weaving New Age—Occult precepts and practices into the very fabric of their life and faith….
Theological seminaries within literally every denomination are preparing graduates to facilitate this spirituality in the local churches through “Spiritual Formation” programs… And graduates of these seminaries are trained to introduce certain spiritual disciplines into the lives and prayer habits of believers. When the term “spiritual discipline” is used, it is almost always referring to the incorporating of “contemplative spirituality” into the life of church members. Many churches are even introducing contemplative spirituality into children’s programs. Roman Catholics, Protestants, Pentecostals, Charismatics, along with non-Pentecostal evangelicals are being influenced, through almost identical Spiritual Formation programs that embrace an ungodly and unbiblical form of prayer called Contemplative Prayer. Contemplative prayer is, by far, the main practice promoted by Spiritual Formation programs…
Contemplative prayer is not prayer at all, but rather a “Christianized” form of unbiblical, eastern meditation which is nothing more than, TM—transcendental meditation. Spiritual Formation programs promoting the “Spiritual Discipline” of contemplative prayer along with various other occult practices are clearly forbidden in the scriptures. Spiritual disciplines include, but are not limited to, yoga and labyrinth walking. These are also promoted, in addition to contemplative prayer, within the more liberal evangelical congregations. Do not assume your denomination has not already jumped on the contemplative bandwagon…
All who embrace contemplative spirituality, at some point, begin to hold the traditional beliefs of evangelical Bible-believing Christians in utter contempt—especially those concerning the importance of the written word of God and the importance of soul winning… All who embrace this spirituality begin losing their burden for soul-winning—although they seldom realize this is what is happening. Aggressive evangelism becomes discouraged and relationship evangelism is encouraged. That may sound good on the surface but denies the fact that it is the gospel of Jesus Christ—and nothing else—that is the power of God unto salvation. Again, do not think your fellowship is immune to this influence. Spiritual Formation programs are taking root within every denomination and within every belief platform of evangelical Christianity…
Believers should be alerted to the fact that the modern day contemplative spirituality, promoted within Protestant evangelical fellowships, descends from the Roman Catholic mystics (who in turn adopted it from eastern, non-Christian, belief systems). Contemplative prayer cannot be fully embraced without referencing, at some point, the Roman Catholic mystics—Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Ignatius, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, The Desert Fathers (fathers of contemplative prayer) are just a few of the mystics. However, these may not be mentioned at first while introducing “Spiritual Disciplines” to non-Catholic evangelicals…
In more conservative denominations, the spiritual disciplines may be limited, for the time being, to contemplative prayer. Among more liberal evangelicals, yoga, labyrinth walking and other occult practices may be, unapologetically, included in the “disciplines”…
One of the first observable fruits of contemplative spirituality is an ecumenical mindset which fails to discern important doctrinal differences between the Protestant and Roman Catholic religions. All, both Pentecostals and non-Pentecostals alike, who are experiencing paradigm shifts by means of these “disciplines,” become enamored with eastern culture. Both their words and writings are peppered with frequent references to the un-spirituality of the “western” church. Peace, peace, love, love and “Don’t Judge!” are becoming words of the day. But the same ones whose conversation is so liberally sprinkled with these also have no problem with criticizing—often viciously—those with more “traditional” beliefs. All contemplatives eventually experience a failure to understand why there are religious differences at all—between anyone in any religion—who is truly seeking God using any means. The prevailing attitude becomes, “Seek God. It doesn’t matter how you do it—just do it—he’ll accept you regardless.” Bible believing Christians know this is simply not true. Jesus Christ is the only way, the only truth and the only life…
It is a frightening fact that the list of evangelical, contemplative authors is growing daily. The dangers of contemplative, experiential, spirituality are severe enough that Bible believing Christians should give anyone promoting these beliefs a very wide berth. When allowed to run its course, the end result of embracing this spirituality is a complete paradigm shift—not only away from the simplicity found in Christ, but altogether away from the fact that Jesus Christ is the only way, the only truth, and the only life…
As I mentioned, this is just one of many articles exposing Spiritual Formation. I will plan to revise this post by adding more links to introductory articles – DM
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