Saturday, September 11, 2010

WELS Church and Change Eats This Up - Mequon Grad is DP for LCMS - Devours Sweet and Jeske

WELS-trained LCMS DP loves Sweet.
He is also gonzo for Jeske.
Heather has two mommies?
But Jeske has two DPs.

GJ Note - Wolves run in packs and kill for fun.


http://www.crosstalkblog.com/2010/09/new-age-teacher-leonard-sweet-coming-to-a-church-near-you-crosstalk-thursday/

New Age Teacher Leonard Sweet–Coming to a Church Near You? Crosstalk Thursday


Thursday’s Crosstalk will be addressing the increasingly popular teachings of Dr. Leonard Sweet. Tune in live at 2pm Central or listen to the archived show later.

Dr. Leonard Sweet is making his way into otherwise conservative evangelical churches, schools, colleges and organizations by speaking on things like postmodern culture and theology or “education in the age of Google.” But why would pastors and teachers from churches and institutions that are supposedly faithful to biblical Christianity promote and listen to a panentheist and New Age teacher like Leonard Sweet? Guest Sandy Simpson will explain what Leonard believes and teaches. It’s shocking. We will also be offering Warren Smith’s excellent book, A Wonderful Deception, which contains an entire chapter on Sweet and his “Quantum Spirituality.” During the program, we will address Leonard Sweet’s recent attempts to distance himself from his earlier book, and point out that he continues to promote eastern mysticism.

The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is one supposedly biblical denomination that has increasingly brought Leonard Sweet in for teachers conferences, convocations and educational seminars as keynote speaker. The South Wisconsin District of the LCMS is bringing Sweet in for a full DAY seminar at Lake Country Lutheran High School. (October 9, 2010) But why? Why would those who claim to believe in the authority of Scripture and the true Gospel of Jesus Christ bring in someone who thanks occultist David Spangler for his spiritual influence? (See below.) As preparation for the broadcast, please see this excerpt below from former New Ager Warren Smith’s book chapter on Leonard Sweet and his Quantum Spirituality. It’s a warning about how heretical occult teachings are no longer viewed as such in many churches. Unless God’s people learn to biblically discern these things, they are easy targets for deception.
Here’s the excerpt:
Leonard Sweet, in acknowledging Willis Harman, Matthew Fox, M. Scott Peck, and the others he refers to as “New Light leaders” in [his book] Quantum Spirituality, states:
I believe these are among the most creative religious leaders in America today. These are the ones carving out channels for new ideas to flow. In a way this book was written to guide myself through their channels and chart their progress. The book’s best ideas come from them.
Speaking of spiritual “channels,” Sweet expresses his personal gratitude in [his book] Quantum Spiritualityto channeler and veteran New Age leader, David Spangler. Spangler, in attempting to cast off the negative stereotype of a New Age channeler, would now more likely describe himself as a conscious intuitive.
A pioneering spokesperson for the New Age, Spangler has written numerous bookslieves over the years that include Emergence: The Rebirth of the Sacred, Revelation: The Birth of a New Age, and Reimagination of the World: A Critique of the New Age, Science, and Popular Culture. His book Revelation: The Birth of a New Ageis a compilation of channeled transmissions he received from his disembodied spiritguide “John.”
At one point in Revelation, Spangler documents what “John” prophesied about “the energies of the Cosmic Christ” and “Oneness”:
As the energies of the Cosmic Christ become increasingly manifest within the etheric life of Earth, many individuals will begin to respond with the realization that the Christ dwells within them. They will feel his presence moving within and through them and will begin to awaken to their heritage of Christhood and Oneness with God, the Beloved.
Unbelievably, in a modern-day consultation that bears more than a casual resemblance to King Saul’s consultation with the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:7), Leonard Sweet acknowledges in Quantum Spirituality that he was privately corresponding with channeler David Spangler. In Quantum Spirituality, Sweet writes about what he calls his “new cell” understanding of New Light leadership, then closes his book by thanking Spangler for “his help in formulating this ‘new cell’ understanding of New Light Leadership.” Sweet writes:
Philosopher Eric Voegelin’s word “cosmion” refers to “a well ordered thing that has the character of the universe.” New Lights offer up themselves as the cosmions of a mind-of-Christ consciousness. As a cosmion incarnating the cells of a new body, New Lights will function as transitional vessels through which transforming energy can renew the divine image in the world, moving postmoderns from one state of embodiment to another. I am grateful to David Spangler for his help in formulating this “new cell” understanding of New Light leadership…
Leonard Sweet’s Quantum Spirituality and David Spangler’s The Reimagination of the World were both published in 1991. It seems obvious from their books that both men are attempting to distance themselves from the more faddish, consumer-oriented elements of the New Age—but without actually dispensing with the term New Age itself. To the casual reader, it might look like Spangler and Sweet are actually speaking against the New Age.

In fact, quotes taken out of context might even make it appear this is true. But this is definitely not the case. Sweet and Spangler are just doing some New Age/New Spirituality public relations. They are both redefining and refining the term New Age as they try to strip the term of its Shirley MacClainesque pop aspects and put it more in the realm of seemingly authoritative science.

The term New Age would no longer be associated with occult spiritual beliefs but rather with a period of time—a new era—in which their seemingly scientifically based spiritual beliefs would manifest. It would no longer be a New Age Spirituality. It would now be a universal “New Spirituality” for a new era—the coming “New Age.” This New Age would be equated with a planetary era and a planetary ethic that would reflect a passionate concern for the environment and all of humanity. This new era would also reflect the new “civility” called for by Sweet’s “hero,” the late New Age leader M. Scott Peck. (Online source)