Hope Together 2014 – Prayer that leads to apostasy.

 

Hope Together 2014 – Prayer that leads to apostasy.

Hope 2014 – Ways to Pray.

Hope Together present many techniques and practices of prayer this include the push for ecumenical prayer to mysticism, it states “The HOPE for the Future book and the new resource book out in April 2013 expand on these themes, along with a huge list of prayer resources.”

This is called Ecumenical Prayer

Hope Together state “one powerful way to pray is to arrange for a corporate inter-church prayer meeting/event to pray for your area and seek God about your mission plans in your area. Some regions have established regular area-wide prayer events and networks. They become accepted as part of the Church calendar and it encourages, inspires and enables people to keep living out their faith as community. The week of prayer for Christian Unity happens each year from 18-25 January and is organised by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.

The reason for this is because prayer is at the heart of the ecumenical movement they say through the World Council of Churches Jesus prayed that we all may be one, uniting God in the mystery of the Trinity.

The Catholic Church teaches the same because the whole point of missional ecumenism in the form of ecumenical prayer is to bring this whole view of unity in line with Roman Catholicism, the idea is to get you to recognise that the Roman Catholic Church is the true church that was founded by Peter and apostle of Christ and so by tradition we must recognise the authority given to us through Peter to his successor the supreme pontiff (the Pope), in the eyes and minds of evangelicals they do not appreciate the implications of what they are doing through ecumenical prayer we allowed into the belief that we pray through every religion of the world and through every week of the year affirming our solidarity Christians all the world, this will enable the Ward to hear our prayer.

This concept is anything but true, the Bible teaches the fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much James 5:16, what makes a person righteous is by faith righteous man prays when he petitions his proud to God the prayer is received by God and God does answer according to God’s will, however if we pray righteously for example those who do not believe in the gospel even if the Catholic Church claims to believe it has the gospel Roman Catholics cannot be justified simply because they have their religion, tradition, and an institution that is run by man and not by God, because of the idolatry that sin the Roman Catholic Church and faith in a bloodless sacrificial offering for atonement rather than the blood that is offered at the cross how can we expect God to hear is one we pray together with those who reject the authority of Scripture?

The Roman Catholic Church is saturated in such wicked and evil deeds that within Roman Catholicism itself is something that is so corrupted the yet in the Bible Proverbs 15:29 but LORD is far from the wicked: but he hears the prayers of the righteous.

There are principles and patterns in the old Testament that we can learn from for example the mixing of cloth we read in Leviticus 19 speaks about the principle of compromise, God hates mixture and we are mixed with people who are propagators of another gospel.

Hope Together encourages different ways of using prayer as a means to bring together various denominations regardless of doctrine, to give the idea that Christendom represents a broad view of various backgrounds, beliefs and practices that is characterised as one church.

This notion is false the various methods of prayer are as follows:

Prayer Together:

This is to encourage corporations between denominations praying together is about forming alliances and joint partnerships with all denominations in this the Roman Catholic Church is included, the whole point of this exercise is to plan for missional ecumenism, this exercise is encouraged by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.

Hope Together asks the question what does God require of us? The Bible tells us that God requires obedience if we believe in what the Bible teaches and so we apply our faith and practice in agreement with God’s word as the only authority.

1 John 2:4-5 But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly may complete in him.

We cannot love God if we do not obey him and so God’s love cannot be made complete in us if we do not obey God’s word, we certainly cannot obey God if we see to practice the traditions of the church because of these traditions it is mixed in with mysticism, paganism, and occultism by researching the roots of these prayer methods.

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland are jointly working with the World Council of Churches, within the World Council of Churches they promote interfaith alliances it has been known that representatives from World Council of Churches have paid homage to the gods such as events which were operated from the grounds of a Buddhist temple to promote diversity of faiths, the idea is to bring all religions together because it’s believed that they all share a commonality.

This photo is not representative of the world Council of churches or hope together it is used as an illustration of what is promoted through these groups.

2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

With groups like Churches Together and the World Council of Churches they do the opposite to what God instructs, the Bible is not seem to be the authority and so they overlooked Scripture in order to accommodate of the gods.

We can prove this because it is stated that the world Council associated Prof dislikes New Testament missions.

Acording to Wayoflife: It is stated in weekly news publications of the World Council of Churches, the ecumenical press service fo November 20th 1985, a presentation was made to a Church of South India consultations held in Bangalore, India, October 1985. The speaker was S.J. Samatha, a presbyter of the Church of South India a consultant to the Christian Institute for the study of religion and society, and a visiting professor at the United Theological College, Bangalore. The title of his the was “Dialogue and Mission in India.” Consider What this ecumenist thinks about missions and the Christians relationship with false religions:

“The question before the church in India is not whether it should be in mission, but what kind of mission. In recent years words from Matthew 28:18-20: ‘go baptise, make disciples, teach,’ have been interpreted and practice in such an militant and aggressive fashion that mission has come to mean ‘conquest Christ.’ It has become ‘Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to war.’ Mission is understood as an activity against religions. MOST CHRISTIANS UNDERSTAND MISSION AS WORKING FOR THE EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY AND THE EXTINCTION OF OTHER RELIGIONS. [THIS] IS A TRAGIC DENIAL OF GOD’S LOVE FOR ALL HUMANITY. This makes dialogue impossible. Those who hold this view should not use the word ‘dialogue’ at all. To do so would be a breach of trust with our neighbors. … we need to recover the original sense of mission in a post-independent era, TAKING INTO ACCOUNT … THE THEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF OTHER RELIGIONS.”

This professor rejects the Bible and the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says Jesus Christ ALONE is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Bible says no man can come to the Father except through Jesus Christ, that none other name given under heaven is given whereby men must be saved (Jn. 14:6; Ac. 4:12). The goal of the Great Commission is indeed the extension of true Christianity to the exclusion of false religions. We do not seek to destroy false religions through political or social efforts, but we do proclaim to them that salvation is only through Jesus Christ. The professor says this is a denial of the love of God for all humanity. Just the opposite is true. The love of God is witnessed through the offer of Jesus Christ. To replace the proclamation of the Gospel with dialogue is to rob men of the love of God. (End)

The World Council of Churches has been responsible for leading more churches astray then any other known ecumenical group on the planet.

Hope Together is no difference as the spirit that’s behind the World Council of Churches is the same as the spirit that is in Hope Together in this encourage you to practice the same esoterism in its methods of practice and prayer.

This can include a number of methods:

Prayer/Meditation Labyrinths
Emmaus Walk
Contemplative Worship
Meditative Prayer
Coursillio
Lactio Devina
Etc…

Hope Together also promote HOTS (Healing on the Streets).

HOTS was started by Mark Marx from Vinyard, we live in an age where many are looking for signs, wonders and miricles, we do not doubt that God can heal, but every time we look to Jesus and the way he healed he did not make this public in cases he told those who he head go tell no one of their healing, (Matthew 16:18-21, Mark 5:21-43, Mark 7:31-37) the reason for this is that our Lord showed us the message of the Gospel it self saves, just because a person is could be healed does not mean that person becomes saved because healing does not always produce faith, Jesus did not always require faith for healing, for example;

Mk.5:35-43The daughter of Jairus was healed from the fathers faith this was not down to her faith.

Mk.2:5 Jesus healed the paralytic not because of his faith but of the four men who carried him, this does not demonstatete the paralytic had faith.

Lk.17:11-19 Shows us healing did not always produce faith Jesus healed all 10 but only one obeyed showing that he was the only one to possess true saving faith, 9 were healed but remained in their unbelief.

Jn.11 Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead certainly it wasn’t Lazarus’ faith he was dead, neither did anyone else believe it could occur then. It was done so they could believe. (also Lk8:54).

Lk.8:26-39 The demoniac of Gadarene was healed without asking before he was capable of expressing his faith.

Lk.2:50-51 Jn.18:10 When peter cut of the ear of Malchus Jesus healed him without any faith present.

These are examples that Healing did occure without faith, HOTS claims that people are lead to Christ through healing their is nothing in the Bible to support this claim, the bible does not teach us if some one does not get healed it is always because of their lack of faith, Mark 6:5 it says he could not do any miricles (execpt that he lay his hands on a few sick people and healed them) Jesus did not always heal either Let us reason ministries shows us this in “Jn.5:1-15 v.3 Multitudes were gathered at the pool of Bethsaida, but Jesus picked only one to be healed a blind and lame man and disregarded the rest. V.3.The blind man acted on Christ’s invitation, having no faith. He didn’t know it was Jesus who healed him until later v.12-13.How many times did Jesus go past the gate of the temple and not heal anyone? Why doesn’t he heal everyone all the time? Why did he those who had faith and picked others who had no faith? Those involved in faith healing will have no answer for this, at least one that would be biblical.”

Healing on the streets is organised and created by Vineyard, a Charasmatic Church founded by John Wimber who worked alongside Lonnie Frisbee a homosexual mystic after Lonnie resigned himself from Calvary Chapel at the time, John Wimber is known for false prophets, lying signs and wonders amongst other things, vineyard is known for its complacency in false teachings from Power Evangelism to the third wave.

In vineyards discription on healing on the streets it does not encourage the preaching of the gospel and is focused mostly on spritual manifestations of healing, most of what is practiced in vinyard is not scriptual but the preferences is experiance and practice is more important then the word of God, their is also alot of the influences of Roman Catholosism within Vineyard circles,

Wimber gave much credence to Roman Catholic sources for establishing the validity of miracles. (Power Healing, p. 7). He contrasted the false claims of healing by “Elmer Gantrys, men and women out for material gain at the expense of the faithful,” with the Catholic Church’s “stringent criteria” for validating true miracles from God (Power Healing, p. 10). Wimber implied that the Roman Catholic approach to miracles was more trustworthy than that of Protestants (Power Healing, p. 11).

But why should this surprise us? Wimber’s wife Carol was raised in the Roman Catholic Church. Wimber stated that after having separated for awhile over marriage difficulties, he and Carol were remarried in the Catholic Church. Neither of the Wimbers ever renounced their Roman Catholic experiences — another reason why the occult influences of Roman Catholic mysticism find expression in the Vineyard.

Additionally, Wimber wrote for the Catholic charismatic publication, New Covenant (June, 1988). His article, “Why I Love Mary,” didn’t affirm the Catholic dogmas of Mary’s sinlessness, her perpetual virginity, or her assumption into heaven. But neither did it offer any refutation of them. Knowing the Catholic belief in Mary as “the Mother of God,” and the unbiblical doctrines that attend her veneration, such an article left the impression that Wimber had no problem with the Catholic approach to Mary. (Moreover, in his ecumenical fervor, Wimber publicly apologized to the Archbishop of Los Angeles on behalf of all Protestants.)

So what is Healing on the Streets, Healing on the Streets was birthed and pioneered by the Causeway Coast Vineyard on the streets of Coleraine in Northern Ireland in Easter of 2005. Adopted by many churches the Healing on the Streets model has spread around the world. It’s a gentle, non-confrontational way of connecting with people on the streets of our cities and introducing them to Jesus.

Acording to causeway coast vineyard “Healing on the Streets is marked with a look and feel that distinguishes it from other street ministries. We create an environment that’s full of the atmosphere of Heaven; a “thin place” where heaven and earth meet and people can experience the kingdom and encounter the King.”

This is never taught in the Bible, this is nothing more than gnostic teaching wrapped in myscticism, this teaching is nothing new even a gnostic such as Ellen G White taught the same.

“Christ’s true followers will represent Him in character. They will turn aside from worldly policy, and every day will train themselves for service in God’s cause. In active service they find peace and hope, efficiency and power. They breathe the atmosphere of heaven, the only atmosphere in which the soul can truly live. By obedience they are made partakers of the divine nature. The doing of the living principles of God’s law makes them one with Christ; and because He lives, they will live also. At the last day He will raise them as a part of himself. He declares, ‘As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.’ ‘This is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.’ Christ became one with us in order that we might become one with Him in divinity.” (Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 06-18-1901, paragraph 7.)”

False teacher and new age gnostic John Crowder who has been influenced by John Wimbers teaching goes deeper into this explination.

“Jesus is the Tree of Life, from whom we must eat. And in consuming His fruit, we find that we can tap into the Kingdom dynamic of “eternal life” immediately in the here and now. We are living our eternal life right now – it doesn’t start when we get to Heaven, though it originates from there. Why wait until Heaven before we take advantage of its potential? We can begin to pull things from the spiritual realm into our life here on earth (Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven), when we know the heart of the Father. This was a basic principle of how Jesus operated in the miraculous. He spent hours tucked away in the presence of the Father, soaking in the atmosphere of Heaven. Now through Jesus, we have access to that same Heavenly dimension. The Kingdom is at hand.“ [quote]

Much of this is rooted in Roman Catholic Mysticism, no where in the Bible are we taught to soak in the Atmospher of heaven by Healing on the Streets this is also practiced in the Roman Catholic Church, in a Catholic newsletter it states “Fr. Tom Holloway was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Peoria in 1999. He is currently the pastor of St. Bernard in Bushnell and St. Augustine in the town of St. Augustine, as well as the Chaplain to St. Francis of Assisi Newman Center at Western Illinois University. His heart is for all the people of God to discover that they have been deeply accepted by the Father in Jesus–and chosen to release the atmostphere of heaven into the earth.”

Roman Catholosism is known to be steeping in superstician and mysticism the RCC has constantly been trying to undermine the authority of scripture, the Franciscan Priest Tom Holloway is a follower of St Francis who was a known mystic.

The Donald Wilson, Parish Library on the Roman Catholic St. Francis of Assisi Catalogue lists a book called Glory: Experiancing the atmosphere of Heaven, by Occultist Heflin, Ruth Ward.

She wrote:

p10 “I have been in thousands of meetings and heard thousands of sermons, but the greatest influence, but the greatest influence in my life has been those glory sounds that came forth in the later hours of those prayer meetings where God’s people touched the eternal realm.

As air is the atmosphere of the earth, glory is the atmosphere of heaven. It lifts us up above earthly, into the very presence of God.
The question is where does this teaching come from ? Heflin, Ruth Ward was a patron of the Catholic Bible School in Nutbourne, Chichester, West Sussex, England she speaks of her experiance in visialisation exocises in the book Experiancing the atmosphere of Heaven P.70, we know this is deepley rooted in the use of Icons.

She teaches “In Catholic Charismatic circles they use the word “picture” instead of the word “vision.” “Has anybody seen a ‘picture’ this morning?” The reason they do it is that “vision” seems so big and awesome. “No, I haven’t had a ‘vision.’ But yes, I did see a ‘picture.’ No, I haven’t had a ‘revelation.’ But I have a ‘song.’ ”

Rome teaches “When you pray, how do you imagine God? Do you visualize someone or something? Do you use images to help you pray?

Too often we tend to focus on what we are praying for rather than the God to whom we pray. If you ask your students what they imagine when they pray, you may be surprised by what you hear. More than likely, most of your students will describe a white-bearded old man who resembles Zeus or Santa Claus.

How we pray: put yourself in the presence of God.

No matter how we pray, the purpose of prayer is to put ourselves in the presence of God. We experience this presence in a number of different ways: through music, icons, readings, smells, places, and other people. As a teacher or catechist, you must help your students place themselves in the presence of God. The challenge, of course, is doing it well.

One way of doing this, is to use images. Images are excellent ways to help your students assimilate your lessons into their personal prayer lives. I am admittedly a visual person so pictures, icons, and art help put me in the presence of God. For visual learners (and visual pray-ers), you may use paintings and icons of Jesus to inspire prayer……………….

You may also consider crafting a meditation that asks students to close their eyes and visualize some image of God that you would like them to focus on. The key is to have the students relax and eliminate all distractions to focus on the meditation.

Meditation Visualisation is rooted in the occult, this practice is called centering prayer, this is what Patricia King promotes as quoted from my article on Patricia King and Hermetics.

This is what is known as “Sanctified Imagination” or “The technique of visualisation.” This is dangerous, it is one way that the occult has come into the churches. Patricia King and her team advise people to ‘picture the scene’ as if you were present and could actually see it.

Pat Franklin writes, [16] “Another terrible error in the Anglican prayer book was in a section on ‘Bible Reading’. Even here, urging people to read the Bible, they managed to get it dangerously wrong. The book advises people to ‘picture the scene’ as if you were present and could actually see it. This is the technique of visualisation. It is an occult technique, and it is spiritually dangerous. It is one way the occult has come into the church, by people ‘visualising’. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us to visualise anything. Faith comes by hearing, not by visualising. Witch doctors visualise when they cast their occult spells. It is an open door to demonic activity. Some today call it using your ‘sanctified imagination’, but they are wrong. They are playing with fire and they will probably get burnt.“

[17] Alison Lentini who was involved in Wicca and neo-paganism, before coming to know Christ, explains:

“Perhaps the definitive example of Lewis’s ability to submit his lively enthusiasm for the mythology of classical humanism to his orthodox Christian faith is found in the luminous account of the creation of Narnia, when the wild, deep voice of the Lion summons into being all manner of mythical creature–“Fauns and Satyrs and Dwarfs. the river god with his Naiad daughters”–and all reply: “Hail, Aslan. We hear and obey.”34 The freedom with which Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, George MacDonald, and G. K. Chesterton baptized myth and magic in works of Christ-centered, “sanctified imagination” may appear unwise and even shocking to Christian readers in today’s syncretistic climate. Nonetheless, that freedom was directly proportional to the strength of their commitment to an orthodox Christian worldview and their passion for the preeminence of Christ, the Everlasting Man who was God’s answer to both demons and philosophers.35 Without such a severely limiting framework, “the old religion” of natural magic follows a predictable expansion and devolution into darker and more unnatural forms……..”

‘Sanctified Imagination’ and the New Age.

[18] In an article entitled Education in the New Age, published in the February, 1978, issue of the New Age journal, Jack Canfield states, “If you’re teaching in public school, don’t call it meditation, call it ‘centering.‘ “

Centering Prayer is a practice described my Thomas Keating as a contemporary form of prayer of the heart, Prayer of simplicity, prayer of faith, prayer of simple regard; a method of reducing the obstacles to the gift of contemplative prayer and of facilitating the development of habits conducive to responding to the insperation of the spirit.

According to Thomas Keating these practicies do lead to contemplative prayer, contemplative prayer were deep rooted practices into eastern diciplines “As a movement, those who practice contemplative prayer, on the whole, tend to develop spiritual kinship to other religions, especially Buddhism.”—Ray Yungen

Thomas Keating, Thomas Merton and Basil Pennington were all teachers in the philosophy of contemptlative prayer.

Merton stated “I want to be the best Buddhist I can be.”

Others have promoted teachings concerning diffrent forms of prayer included.

“I began practicing meditation, specifically breath prayer, once again. I integrated the use of Tai Chi and yoga into my morning workout. … I found the enlightenment of the Buddha and the Bodhisattva, the way of the Taoist and Confucian sage, and the freedom of the Hindu sannyasin, or holy man, through this full integration in Christ” (Talbot, Come to the Quiet, p. 8).

“For myself, after the moving meditations of Hinduism and Taoism, and the breath, bone-marrow, and organ-cleansing of Taoism, I move into a Buddhist seated meditation, including the Four Establishments of Mindfulness. I do all of this from my own Christian perspective…” (Come to the Quiet, p. 237).

Merton also said that he was both a Buddhist and a Hindu:

“I see no contradiction between Buddhism and Christianity. The future of Zen is in the West. I INTEND TO BECOME AS GOOD A BUDDHIST AS I CAN” (David Steindl-Rast, “Recollection of Thomas Merton’s Last Days in the West,” Monastic Studies, 7:10, 1969, http://www.gratefulness.org/readings/dsr_merton_recol2.htm, this report contains quotations from Merton’s talks at the Our Lady of the Redwoods Abbey in Whitethorn, California, in late 1968 on his way to Asia where he died).

their is much cause for concern when the practices of healing on the streets is an invention of vineyard fellowship that has introduced this practice of the atmosphere of heaven rooted in roman catholic mysticism, is a key indication of Vinyard Fellowships practice and promotion of Thomas Merton and other Contemplative practitioners.

Way of Life states,