This has not been a good year.
First, it was the Navigators, endorsing Contemplative Spirituality and its publications. NavPress, like many formerly respectable 'Christian' publications such as Zondervan, Baker Books and Tyndale, has sold out to the big corporations that are now, apparently, influenced by the Freemasons (I haven't been able to verify this allegation, so don't quote me). Thence the preponderance of heretical publications these publishers are churning out that teach such gnostic and New Age / New Spirituality heresies as The Shack. See here.
Then last week, I heard that Dr John Piper had joined up with Rick Warren to endorse his Purpose-driven interfaith movement. He had even cut off all ties and communication with anyone who might challenge him to the extent of setting up a line of communication for the sole purpose of bulk deletion without reading the complaints or queries about his actions.
Why do I care? For one, I was trained in discipleship and evangelism by the Navigators when I was at university in Australia. I learned to witness, share the gospel of Jesus' death on the cross for the salvation of sinners, follow up on new converts and teach them to make disciples.
For another, Dr Piper's books had been a comfort and source of encouragement to me during those years as a single female post-uni. Through his books I had gleaned new insights into the relationship God the Father has with His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ - which in turn taught me to see my own relationship with the Father in a new light; the Father delights in His relationship with the Son even through His obedience in bearing the sins of the world on that dark day when He died on the cross. The Father delights in His relationship with us who are co-heirs with Christ because of our fellowship with Christ as His body of believers. My renewed love affair with God the Father and the Son was in no small way attributed to some of Dr Piper's books.
I am heart broken by Dr Piper's decision and that of the Navigators in following the path of evangelicalism and away from the truth of Scriptures.
I care because a part of my Christian identity had been shaped by my exposure to their witness and ministries. As, I'm certain, has been that of many others in the Body of Christ, who must now question if they ever held to the absolute truth of the Word of God in the first place.
To these people, I wish to encourage you with the fact that, yes, there is an objective God - the God of the Bible - and, by extension, there is absolute truth, and this truth is encrypted in God's revelation of His commands as handed to us in His Word. Just because some of the 'elect' have now been deceived by the spirit of this age, as foretold in the Word, God's truths are not nullified, for they stand apart from what human beings perceive or believe.
I pray that Dr Piper, who I heard has withdrawn into his 'cave', and those in NavPress, will return to the truth.
