Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Would you recommend this guy?

Watch this if you can - I could only stomach it for a few minutes. This is zen guru Ken Wilber spouting typical New Age rhetoric. Here are a few of the spiritual activities that Wilber promotes: yoga, Zen, centering prayer, kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), TM, tantra (Hindu-based sexuality), and kundalini yoga.

Why is this posted here on Pastor Kip?

I want to expose a driving force behind the Emergent Church movement. In his book Velvet Elvis (p. 192, endnote 143), Rob Bell recommends his readers set aside three months to read Wilber's book A Theory of Everything for a "mind-blowing experience".

You may remember Rob Bell from a sermon I preached on April 20th. He's the Emergent Church leader Christianity Today called, "the mystical Billy Graham".

To show how pervasive this is in evangelicalism, I recently received an email from Group Magazine promoting Bell's Nooma video series. I've had a chance to preview some of the videos, and while they are well produced, they contain some serious doctrinal errors.

By the way, doctrine is a bad word in the Emergent Church.

Now, how could a Jesus-loving, self-proclaimed evangelical like Bell recommend a blatant New-Ager? Stay tuned . . .

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I would like to hear your thoughts on Bell and the Nooma series. I think Rob Bell, McManus, Giglio, Andy Stanley and even John Maxwell are all part of the driving force in the same "movement". I'm tuned in.
Chuck

K. Keith said...

Sorry to be so late in replying, Chuck - it's been a busy month.

I haven't seen the Nooma series, though I've read reviews of it - some good, some bad. I have, however, read and thoroughly marked up a copy of Rob Bell's book Velvet Elvis. The book is an easy read and I like the format, but it's the content that I object to.

I'm concerned about his view of truth - he sees it as stretchy and bendy like trampoline springs. This leads him to espouse the idea that the truths of scripture can vary with cultural interpretations throughout the ages. I'm not even sure he believs Jesus is the only way to salvation.

All in all, I see Bell's theology as simply old-fashioned liberalism dressed in a t-shirt and jeans with trendy eye glasses and a goatee.

I don't know much about the others you mentioned. I think Giglio's Laminin video is pretty good, but I don't know much about him beyond that. Apparently, McManus has said some controversial things about wanting to put an end to Christianity, but I haven't confirmed that myself.

X said...

I'm confused. how can you offer an educated opinion on things you have never seen?

K. Keith said...

I'm not sure exactly what you're talking about, Macker.

Are you saying I haven't seen enough of Rob Bell to comment? If that's the case, I assure you I've read Velvet Elvis which lays out his view on repainting Christianity.

Also, I mention in my reply to Chuck that I haven't seen the Nooma videos, and I refrained from commenting on them specifically.

Are you saying that I can't give an educated opinion of this guy, Ken Wilbur, because I could only stomach a few minutes of this video?

If that's the case, I can only say that a few minutes is all you need to know where this clown is coming from. I've perused his website and watched other videos of his - enough to know that he teaches rehashed new age gobbledy gook.

Does that address the confusion you have over me criticizing things I haven't seen?