The eastern [Hindu] spiritual
discipline of contemplative prayer is a New Age practice known as
transcendental meditation. That and other aspects of New Age spirituality have found
their way into the Christian community through the teaching of leaders such as
Rick Warren.
Included in his Ministry Toolbox [a pastor’s
resource emailed to thousands of ministers each week], is an article by Dan
Kimball which contains a basic outline for beginning practitioners of Christian
Witchery.
Kimball does not identify it as such.
However, Christian Witch Rawna Moon, agrees with Kimball, point for point, on
the essential steps for successfully practicing Christian Witchery.
Sacred
Space
Kimball instructs his readers to attend to
“the notion of sacred space.”
Moon does the same thing when she instructs
beginners in Christian Witchery that the first thing they need to do is get a
sacred space and, “Always keep before you that what you are doing here is not
using the sacred space as a thing, but relating to it as fellow creatures of
the Creating One and so your brothers and sisters.
Try to let this place be a place where you
let go of the modernistic idea of humanity above and separate from nature.
Instead realize that you are part of this place and you are not above it or
more important than it.
Begin to learn how to listen to it as your
teacher.”
Contemplative
Prayer
Kimball advocates contemplative prayer in
his push for a more experiential form of relating to God. He recommends that
churches begin “Implementing ancient forms of worship" in addition to more
recent ways.” Kimball recommended implementing “Lectio Divina” or some other contemplative praying of the Scriptures.
Rawna Moon and Kimball agree on this. She
believes contemplative prayer to be of inestimable value to Christian Witchery.
She wrote: “Different spiritual traditions call this practice (we call
centering) by many different names. It is the basic idea in Transcendental
Meditation. It was the core spiritual discipline in many streams of Christian
Monasticism and was called Contemplative Prayer.
Buddhists are basically doing this when they
chant.
In current Christian spirituality, Father
Thomas Keating, a Catholic priest, has been vital in reintroducing this
practice to the Church, often referring to it as centering prayer….
To Shamans and Witches of many diverse faith
systems throughout the ages, centering is the first step in entering a
spiritual realm.
This doesn’t mean centering doesn’t have all
the value that those who see it as the ultimate spiritual discipline say it has.
It probably has a lot more, in fact.
The simple truth is that if we can’t center,
we can’t do anything.”
Symbols
Dan Kimball recommends using symbols to aid
in worship. In Rick Warren’s Pastor’s Toolbox, he advised the following: “You
can use the worship space itself as an expression of worship by attending to
the notion of sacred space. Use religious symbols and artwork….
He suggests using the symbol
of the cross as a focal point during worship.
This is nothing more than
turning the cross into an idol. When the scriptures refer to the cross of Christ,
it is always in reference to the atoning work done there. Not to any physical
symbol of the cross itself.
Satanists wear crosses.
The symbol of the cross represents the Tree
of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which was critically involved in the fall of humanity
and is the oldest symbol in history. Crosses are used in all forms of occult
and witchcraft. It is not the symbol of the cross we focus on during worship,
it is Christ himself and the atoning work he did there.
Jesus is not embodied in any symbol.
That is one of the reasons for the 2nd
Commandment, “Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any
thing…”
Rick Warren must agree with this idolatrous
practice as the article promoting it is found on his Pastors.com website.
Christian Witches cannot practice their
craft without symbols. Moon makes this clear when she instructs her protégés
to: “Brainstorm symbols you can use to help you focus on the Divine as Goddess
and Jesus as the living Sophia. Also brainstorm symbols which may be neutral
gender-wise but will remind you of the Christian Good News and help you focus
on your life in Christ.
Get some of these symbols… construct your
own altar. Place on it the symbols you have determined you need on it.”
Why was a cross chosen for
Jesus to die on? Was it really necessary for his sacrificial death to be so
cruel?
When the Bible speaks of the cross of
Christ, it is referring to the atoning work done there—not to the symbol
itself.
The cross, however, was chosen for a
specific reason.
The symbol of the cross is an ancient
symbol. It pre-dates Christianity and represents the ultimate sin, the
conjunction (meeting or mingling) of opposites, i.e., good and evil.
The symbol of the cross is the oldest symbol
known to humanity and has enjoyed widespread acceptance by occultist and
Christians alike.
The cross symbolizes the conjunction of
opposites, and that relates directly to the knowledge of good and evil…which
Satan tempted the first couple with, and by which successfully orchestrated the
downfall of an entire race.
The
symbol of the cross, the conjunction or mingling of opposites, is in direct
opposition to a holy God who never mingles the opposites of good and evil.
God gave the first couple only one, “Thou
shalt not,” which would have kept them ignorant of all evil—other than the
simple fact that it existed and would have kept them completely safe, forever.
The serpent told the couple they were
missing something, and he would help them get it. He told them that God had not
really given them everything they needed to be complete. They knew only about
the good in life, and Satan told them that if they acquired the knowledge of
evil along with the knowledge of good, that would make them whole. They would
then become just like God (that is also where the yin/yang symbol and principle
comes from).”
God says there is no common ground upon
which good and evil can meet and co-exist successfully, not in the same mind,
not in the same body, not in the same home, city, country, planet, or universe.
The symbol of the cross has always been the
ultimate symbol of the mingling, conjoining and conjunction of opposites (the
place where good and evil meet i.e., The Tree).
The cross has always symbolized the lie that
the knowledge of both good and evil are necessary to achieve ultimate balance,
oneness, or wholeness.
That is why Jesus had to die on a cross.
He completely atoned for sin…
By paying the ultimate price for sin…
Upon the ultimate symbol of sin…
The cross.
Praying
With Crystals
Kimball recommends using crystals as an aid
to prayer. He wrote, “Set up a table with salt crystals and a map of your town,
and have people pray for your community as they drop [the] salt [crystals] on
places on the map”
New Agers and all other practitioners of the
occult also use crystals for healing and prayer (among other things). We read
on the webpage “The Wonderful World of Crystals,” “We project a certain appeal
into the heart of a crystal. We ask a crystal to help a person with a certain
disease, to preserve his emotional balance or to help with any other thing. We direct
the energy of a crystal. The dispersed energy of a crystal will flow according
to our request. This radiation will vibrate in the field of our aura.”
Dan Kimball has Rick Warren’s blessing in
advocating the integration of occult practices into the worship of Jesus Christ
in our church services. We know this because Warren published Kimball’s article
as a resource for Pastors.
One wonders what is going on with all the
pastors who failed to cry out against Warren’s endorsement of Kimball and his
article instructing God’s people in witchcraft?
This is a dangerous and sinful practice. We
are admonished in scripture not to learn the way of unbelievers. Simply because
the name “Christian” is attached to something, does not mean it is endorsed biblically.
The practices advocated by Rick Warren via Dan Kimball (and others) are without
a doubt, occult practices being introduced to unsuspecting sheep under the
guise of worship by trusted shepherds.
“Therefore you shepherds hear the Word of
the Lord As I live says the Lord God surely because my flock became a prey and
my flock became food to every beast of the field because there was no shepherd
neither did my shepherds search for my flock but the shepherds fed themselves
and fed not my flock Therefore O you shepherds hear the word of the Lord Thus
says the Lord God Behold I am against the shepherds and I will require my flock
at their hand and cause them to cease from feeding the flock neither shall the
shepherds feed themselves anymore for I will deliver my flock from their mouth
that they may not be food for them…” Ezekiel 34:7-10
The scriptures further say to Rick Warren,
Dan Kimball, and all others who are leading the flock of the Lord astray with
these abominable teachings, if they do not repent and turn from their wicked
ways, they will fall into the pit along with all the unfortunates who follow
them, and they will stand before the Judge of all the earth and answer for
their sin.
