COSMS, CODES, AND CRYPTOLOGIES,
Part 8
Part 8
Exhibit A* (click to enlarge)
[David] Spangler sees the Christ as
a cosmic principle: "Any old Christ will not do, not if we need to
show that we have something better than the mainstream Christian traditions. It
must be a cosmic Christ, a universal
Christ, a New Age Christ." The Christ is not so much a religious
figure, "but rather a cosmic
principle, a spiritual presence whose quality infuses and appears in
various ways in all the religions and
philosophies that uplift humanity and seek unity with spirit."[i]
—“The Christ of the New Age Movement” report
As one looks at the various trends in our day, one sees
that Teilhard’s [de Chardin] conception of spirituality is in the forefront. He
knew that he had to pass through many hazards, but he was directed principally
to the cosmic world. Others have
been directed to the human world. This does not mean to say that Teilhard
limited himself to anthropology and physics.
His fundamental orientation was “to
attain heaven through the fulfillment of earth. Christify matter.”
—Bishop Fulton J. Sheen[ii]
Quantum spirituality bonds us to all creation as well as to other members of
the human family…. This entails a radical
doctrine of embodiment of God in the very substance of creation…. But a
spirituality that is not in some way entheistic (whether pan- or trans-), that
does not extend to the spirit-matter of
the cosmos, is not Christian.
—Leonard Sweet[iii]
A Cosmic Christianity expects a Cosmic Christ. The Quantum Mysticism movement in the evangelical church is re-defining significant portions of theology—not only eschatology but also Christology.
This
“quantum leap” to a different Christology in the evangelical world was first
noticed by ex-New Ager Warren B. Smith. In Chapter 10 of A Wonderful Deception, Smith writes about the coming “Cosmic
Christ” awaited by past and present New Age/New Light Leaders Willis Harman,
Matthew Fox, M. Scott Peck, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin—and also Leonard Sweet, one
of Leadership Network’s chief architects of the Emergent Church movement.[iv]
Smith explains that the “Cosmic Christ” is the panentheistic (God is “in”
everything), universal (cosmic), god-force that permeates Creation (capitalized
as a sign of divinity).[v]
In a separate article, Smith, quoting from Episcopalian priest Matthew Fox’s 1988 book, The Coming Cosmic Christ, shows how this “Cosmic Christ” is linked to a sacred or divine “pattern” (i.e., occult geometry):
In a separate article, Smith, quoting from Episcopalian priest Matthew Fox’s 1988 book, The Coming Cosmic Christ, shows how this “Cosmic Christ” is linked to a sacred or divine “pattern” (i.e., occult geometry):
The Cosmic Christ is the divine pattern that connects in the
person of Jesus Christ (but by no means is limited to that person).(p. 135)[bold added]
Perhaps a new
“ecumenical council” will be forthcoming in our lifetime… Part of its work
might be to declare an ancient but forgotten doctrine: the Cosmic Christ, the “pattern that connects” all the atoms and
galaxies of the universe, a pattern
of divine love and justice that all creatures and all humans bear within them.(p. 7).[vi] [bold added]
In
2012, New Agers expanded this simple definition of the “Cosmic Christ” into a
full-blown quantum science called, “Cosmometry,” or “Exploring the Fractal
Holographic Nature of the Cosmos.”[vii]
Here is the course description of an online, 6-week virtual course by “Wisdom
University”:
As science and spirituality increasingly merge,
a new worldview is concurrently emerging
that embraces the idea that energy and consciousness (the physical and
metaphysical experience of reality) are a unified whole, and that all
“things” are entirely and instantly interconnected as one. Building upon the
foundational research of Buckminster Fuller, Arthur Young, David Bohm and other 20th century pioneers, a
contemporary understanding of the fundamental manifestation is informing this worldview with elegance and precision. The insights of both scientific and sacred
geometry that have grown over centuries of inquiry are now revealing an
increasingly accepted model of a fractal
and holographic universe, wherein the
whole is found to be present in every “part” at every scale, from micro-atomic
to macro-galactic.[viii]
[bold mine]
Note
that these New Agers in describing their universal or “Cosmic Christ,” use the
same “science” (New Age physics), the same Quantum Physics expert (Bohm), and
the same model of a “fractal” and “holographic universe” as Chuck Missler—the
author of Cosmic Codes—does in his
teachings.[ix]
Consider
the foreboding comments of Matthew Fox:
The Cosmic Christ educes power and
responsibility from those who dare to allow the mystic to be born in and through them. (p. 138)[bold added]
Deep ecumenical possibilities emerge when we shift from the quest for
the historical Jesus to the quest for the Cosmic
Christ. This shift requires making
mysticism central to our faith once again. What the human race needs today
is mystical solidarity. (p. 232)[x]
[bold added]
This
emerging shift toward the Cosmic Christ requires a collective embrace of Quantum Mysticism—an all-out defection
from biblical Christianity and the Lord Jesus Christ to a religion of Fox’s
“mystical solidarity.”
How
did the evangelical church get to the point where quotations like these would
be considered normative? That no one would ask questions about statements like
these—even within discerning circles? How is it that Quantum Mysticism/Spirituality
entered the church and took over to the extent that New Age beliefs about an
end-time Cosmic Christ could stand without opposition?
Warren
Smith credits Leonard Sweet with the launch of the Quantum Spirituality
movement, saying: “In 1991, Leonard Sweet was setting the stage for everything
happening in the church today.”[xi]
In his landmark book, A “Wonderful”
Deception, Smith explains Quantum Spirituality from its roots, both
historically and theologically. Beginning in Chapter 10, Smith begins to
recount Leonard Sweet’s relationship to Rick Warren, and reviews Sweet’s 1991
book Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern
Dialectic.
Smith
takes note of those leaders whom Leonard Sweet credits: David Spangler, Willis
Harman, Matthew Fox, and M. Scott Peck. Sweet describes these
New Age change agents with the glowing description of “New Light Leaders” of
the “postmodern apologetic.”[xii]
It
is possible that Leonard Sweet derived his use of the Greek term “metanoia” from Willis Harman.[xiii] A few years ago Herescope documented influential New Age leader Willis
Harman’s influence over key evangelical leaders in the late 1970s. He was
invited to a conference sponsored by the Billy Graham Association where he proposed
a new Gnostic “science” of metaphysics to be their foundation for the future.[xiv]
The Herescope report explains that Harman had the significant goal of merging science and
spirituality:
Willis Harman's presentation to the evangelical leaders called for a “new” science, which
he had termed “noetic” science, a Gnostic science, based on his research into the paranormal and the human brain. He listed
such things as hypnosis, remote viewing, precognition, psychokinesis and
psychic phenomena. He called for more scientific research into the “the world
of inner experience,” meaning psychic phenomena. All this could create a future utopia:
This new “noetic” science would eliminate the apparent contradiction
between the experiential understanding of Hindu, Moslem, and Christian. For the
first time in history we see emerging a growing, progressively funded body of
empirically established experience about man’s inner life – particularly about
the perennial wisdom of the great religious traditions and Gnostic groups. For the first time there is hope
that this knowledge can become… the living heritage of all mankind.[xv]
Warren
Smith recounts how Leonard Sweet was also influenced by Matthew Fox. Fox
believed that “we are all Cosmic Christs.” Smith explained:
[Fox is] a former Catholic priest
who was excommunicated from the Catholic Church for openly professing the
heretical teachings of Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (and other New
Age teachers)…. [Chardin], “the father of the New Age Movement,” believed that
all of humanity is converging towards a universal New Age Christ in the
future….[xvi]
M. Scott
Peck, another man who influenced Sweet, endorsed Matthew Fox’s book, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ. Peck
described the defrocked heretical Catholic priest Teilhard de Chardin as “the
greatest prophet of the evolutionary leap” to a “global consciousness and world
community,” which is “a giant leap forward in the evolution of the human race.”[xvii]
Yet
another unwholesome influence over Leonard Sweet’s idea of Quantum Spirituality
is New Age leader David Spangler. According
to New Age expert Constance Cumbey, “David Spangler has publicly identified
Matthew Fox as one of his ‘best friends.”[xviii] Given these interconnections, it is not surprising then that Sweet also cited Spangler positively, saying:
I am grateful to David Spangler for
his help in formulating this “new cell” understanding of New Light leadership.[xix]
Spangler’s
“new cell” idea articulated the classic New Age view of a cellular networking
structure of the universe, in which everything and everybody is connected and
all are destined to become part of one universal cosmic whole (body). Spangler
wrote:
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.[xx] [bold added]
Leonard
Sweet, who admits he had been corresponding with Spangler, likewise wrote about
this “new cell” concept, stating that his concept of Quantum Spirituality was
related to the theoretical “cosmion”—“a well ordered thing that has the
character of the universe.” Sweet then suggested that cosmions would facilitate
the paradigm shift to a new spiritual order:
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.[xxi] [bold added]
Leonard Sweet believed that “we
constitute together a cosmic body of Christ.”[xxii] This ethereal cosmic “Christ” body would be
made up of “cells.” Similarly, the New Agers have the concept of human “cells”
making up an evolutionary emerging cosmic organism. Much of this is articulated in Marilyn Ferguson’s
book that publicly outed the New Age Movement, The Aquarian Conspiracy.[xxiii] Similarly, in his book Reimagination of the
World, David Spangler used quantum physics to describe the Cosmic Christ:
Where is the Christ
that is revealing itself and incarnating now? Where is the Christ in nature and
in the Earth? Where is the feminine Christ?
With new discoveries in
biology and quantum physics, we are
seeing more and more what mystics have
always seen: the process side of reality, its interconnectedness, its
interpenetratingness, its blendedness. Where is the Christ in this expanding
worldview?
The Christ becomes the
Cosmic Christ. Just as an advertiser
can repackage a product and call it “new and improved,” so the Cosmic Christ
repackages the Christ. In fact, the essential qualities of this presence remain
the same. The Christ is the Christ is the Christ. That is true whether we view
its actions within an individual, a planet, or the cosmos as a whole. However, the new packaging may make it more
accessible to people and help us to recognize some of those qualities of the
Christ that we have been overlooking for the past two thousand years.[xxiv] [bold added]
FRACTAL SPIRITUALITY
Warren
Smith details his journey as he discovered how the Quantum Physics concept of
Fractals was being woven into popular bestselling books like The Shack. In his search he read an online article titled “Fractal
Chaos Crashes the Wall Between Science and Religion” which stated:
New discoveries in the science and mathematics of Chaos research are
revolutionizing our world view. They reveal a hidden fractal order underlying
all seemingly chaotic events. The fractals are intricate and beautiful. They
repeat basic patterns, but with an infinity of variations and forms. The
world-view emerging from this scientific research is new, and yet at the same
time ancient. With a little thought, and the help of this web, you can better
understand the significance of Chaos and Fractals. You can see how to use these
insights in your life to create a bridge between Science and Spirituality.
As the mystic sages of long ago put it, “as above, so below.”[xxv] [bold added]
Smith then analyzed this
fractal-inspired Quantum Spirituality:
But what is being presented as
“science” is actually an occult/New Age worldview, which presents the New Age belief that much of the “chaos” in the world
is the result of people not properly perceiving the “interconnectedness” of all
things. In other words, what appears to be “chaos” is often just “the observer”
not seeing the “as above, so below”/God “in” everything/“fractal order” that
defines all creation. This postulated fractal order is directly related to
Teilhard de Chardin, Matthew Fox, and Leonard Sweet’s quantum
spirituality/Creation Spirituality. The Shack’s references to
fractals—references I had overlooked when I first read the book—immediately
explain why author William Young capitalizes the letter “C” in the word
“Creation” at least twenty times in The Shack. The capital “C” reflects
what his “Jesus” is teaching—that God is “in” all things—including “Creation.”
From the perspective of the New Age/New Spirituality, it makes perfect
sense that The Shack’s “Jesus” states that God is “in” all things.
Mack—the main character—is seeing his life as “a mess” rather than as a
“fractal” part of “God.” This is because he is not seeing the “as above, so
below” fractal order of “God in all things.” From this perspective, it also
makes perfect sense that The Shack’s “Holy Spirit” told Mack that his
life only seems chaotic and “a mess”—that in reality, he was actually “a living
fractal.”
From this “Fractal Wisdom” website, I could see the deceptive New Age ploy
regarding the word fractal and its relationship to “as above, so below.” If all
of capital “C” Creation is “God” and thus composed of “God” atoms and energy,
then any fractal part of that “God” energy is therefore a part of God. Man is a
fractal. Man is God. That is why Mack is told he is “a living fractal.” That is
why Mack is told that God is “in” all things. The word fractal is being used as a pseudo-scientific synonym for the
belief that God is “in” everything—everything being a fractal or a fractured part
of the whole, a fractured part of God. Taken a step further, The Shack
is indirectly presenting the notion that “chaos” is simply the result of people
not seeing the “God in everything” fractal order in the world—“as above, so
below.”
Thus, The Shack—like Leonard Sweet’s quantum spirituality—subtly
introduces the New Age/New Spirituality as a worldview that puts forth the
notion that “chaos” can be significantly overcome when humanity stops seeing
itself as “separate” but rather sees itself as “One”—as a part of the “God” who
is “in” everyone and everything.[xxvi] [bold added]
The TAO OF PHYSICS
As
a former New Ager, Warren Smith recognized early on that the concept of Quantum Spirituality
was directly connected to the New Age views of Fritjof Capra in his 1975 best-selling
book on quantum physics, The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics
and Eastern Mysticism. Smith explains that Capra, a research physicist,
was the first to present this proposed scientific/spiritual model to a mass
audience. In it, Capra explains that he gained new spiritual insights through a
mystical experience he had sitting on a beach in Santa Cruz, California in
1969:
Five years ago, I had a beautiful experience which set me on a road that
has led to the writing of this book. I was sitting by the ocean one late summer
afternoon, watching the waves rolling in and feeling the rhythm of my
breathing, when I suddenly became aware of my whole environment as being
engaged in a gigantic cosmic dance…. As I sat on that beach my former
experiences [research in high-energy physics] came to life; I “saw” cascades of
energy coming down from outer space, in which particles were created and
destroyed in rhythmic pulses; I “saw” the atoms of the elements and those of my
body participating in this cosmic dance of energy; I felt its rhythm and I
“heard” its sound, and at that moment I knew that this was the Dance of
Shiva, the Lord of Dancers worshipped by the Hindus.
Commenting on his experience thirty years later, Capra writes that back in
1970 he “knew with absolute certainty that the parallels between modern physics
and Eastern mysticism would someday be common knowledge.” In 1999, in a
twenty-fifth anniversary edition of his book, Capra reflects on the fact that The
Tao of Physics had sold more than a million copies over the years and had
been translated into at least twelve languages:
What did The Tao of Physics touch off in all these people? What was it they
had experienced themselves? I had come to believe that the recognition of the
similarities between modern physics and Eastern mysticism is part of a much
larger movement, of a fundamental change of worldviews, or paradigms, in
science and society, which is now happening throughout Europe and North America
and which amounts to a profound cultural transformation. This transformation,
this profound change of consciousness, is what so many people have felt
intuitively over the past two or three decades, and this is why The Tao of
Physics has struck such a responsive chord.
Capra adds:
The awareness of the unity and
mutual interrelation of all things and events, the experience of all
phenomena as manifestations of a basic oneness, is also the most important
common characteristic of Eastern worldviews. One could say it is the very
essence of those views, as it is of all mystical traditions. All things are seen as interdependent,
inseparable, and as transient patterns of the same ultimate reality.[xxvii][bold added]
Tragically,
this is the same teaching of quantum physicist David Bohm—whose ideas are
favorably articulated by popular evangelical bible teacher Chuck Missler in Cosmic Codes: Hidden Messages from the Edge
of Eternity:
But the
holographic paradigm also serves as a most provocative model of interconnected
relationships which goes far beyond simply a curiosity of imagery. It may
provide us with a totally different insight into consciousness; it may even
give us a glimpse into the very nature
of reality itself…[xxviii]
[bold added]
One of the implications of Bohm’s view has
to do with the nature of location. Bohm’s interpretation of quantum physics
indicated that at the subquantum level location
ceased to exist. All points in space
become equal to all other points in space, and it was meaningless to speak of
anything as being separate from anything else. Physicists call this
property “nonlocality.”[xxix]
[bold added]
In
other words, “all is one,” or “as above, so below.”
LEONARD SWEET & THE NEW AGE GURUS
In
May 2000 Bob Buford’s Leadership Network sponsored an “Exploring Off the Map”
conference to help launch what would become known as the Emergent Church
movement.[xxx]
This futurist conference was cleverly disguised as the Lewis and Clark
expedition, called a “Corps of Discovery,” complete with all of trappings of an
elaborately decorated hotel with a waterfall, bridges, murals of campsights and
trails, and a big mess tent to eat in. Over 550 church leaders reportedly
attended this mega-event that took 18 months of preparation.
Leonard
Sweet was the moderator for this event that was attended by key New Age
business “gurus” who were called “Chief Scouts.” This included Peter Senge, Margaret Wheatley, Ken
Blanchard and his wife Marjorie, Jim
Collins, and others. A simple Internet search on these names will reveal
that they are recognized leaders in the New Age movement. But they were associates
of Peter Drucker, and most likely by his invitation they became leaders that
trained evangelical pastors![xxxi]
Leadership Network has a long history of being friendly towards these “gurus,” and had even written a rave review of Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline Field Book.[xxxii]
The
Leadership Network’s “emerging church” newsletter account of the “Exploring Off the Map” conference described
the “mission” as:
The mission of the Corps was to
“look beyond the present-day horizon and explore the changing national global
landscape for the purpose of charting
new maps for the 21st century.”[xxxiii][bold
added]
Leonard
Sweet moderated the conference and delivered the “final scouting report” where
he praised Margaret Wheatley and Peter Senge for their “passion” and insights.
It is clear from his comments that these "guru" presenters were encouraging the
evangelical pastors present to “explore off the map” doctrinally by accepting postmodern
elements of “change.” And the evangelical pastors were being challenged to dismantle the
“institution” of the church and restructure it because, as Margaret Wheatley
claimed, “They are the wrong forms for this age.” Sweet summarized:
As we explore off the map, we’re
finding that in this native culture there is more openness than ever before to
the notion that the most powerful forces in this universe are the invisible
forces, the unseen forces, the spiritual forces.”[xxxiv]
In
one of the summary reports on the event, evangelical leader Todd Hunter
described Peter Senge’s session as “prophetic,” and made the amazing statement that:
Listening to Margaret Wheatley was
for me a spiritual experience…. I believe, like Senge, she was also being
prophetic….”[xxxv]
Hunter
also said that Ken and Marjorie Blanchard talked about “creating the future,”
which is a key New Age belief—that man can create “alternative scenarios” and
change the End-Times.[xxxvi]
A
year later Leadership Network gave further credence to the New Age views of
Margaret Wheatley when they interviewed her for their Church Champions newsletter on the topic of “Leadership and the New
Science.” In this interview Wheatley promoted the ideas in her New Age book Leadership and the New Science (Berrett
Koehler Publishers, 1992, 1999). She clearly delineated her New Age beliefs
about the merger of quantum science and Quantum Spirituality. She even talked
about “fractals.”[xxxvii]
Margaret
Wheatley and Peter Senge have both incorporated the meditation and beliefs of Buddhism into their esoteric concept of organizations and
communities. Their version of Buddhism is perfectly compatible with Quantum
Spirituality. In 2001 (during this same time period), Senge and Wheatley were
interviewed in the Buddhist New Age publication, Shambhala Sun. Margaret Wheatley explained their evolutionary view of quantum “change”:
I think that both Peter and I have both found there’s great depth in
understanding life from a Buddhist perspective….
[M] my awareness of change and uncertainty came through my studies in
biology…. That awareness of the continuous change called life led me to very
ancient spiritual traditions....
Once I looked past the Western cultural tradition, it was a great comfort and teaching to understand that most other cultures—not only Buddhism but all indigenous cultures—have well understood that life is a process of continuous change.[xxxviii]
The
graphic Exhibit A at the top of the page is from Leadership Network’s NEXT publication, Oct-Nov-Dec 1999.[xxxix]
It illustrates how Leadership Network had already been incorporating the
quantum mystical teachings on “Fractaling” as a way to grow large megachurches.
The fractal concept applied to church growth was based on the same holistic
cellular structure that Len Sweet described in his Quantum Spirituality book. Each cell/fractal/small group in a large-bodied megachurch would become replicating.This networking concept of rapid cellular replication became known as "exponential growth" and it also formed the structure of C. Peter Wagner's New Apostolic Reformation. (See the graphic exhibit at Herescope's post, “Documenting Dominionism.")
Leonard
Sweet got his start in evangelical education circles with the image of a sort of hip counter
culture figure. But he was flagged as an up-and-comer in the 1990s and became
an Emergent Church leader, partially as a result of a publishing arrangement between
Jossey-Bass and Leadership Network (that utilized viral marketing techniques).[xl]
Leadership Network wrote that it was Sweet’s book Quantum Spirituality that influenced much of their work:
Last week, author/professor/church historian/cultural observer Len Sweet
was in Dallas to deliver a lecture series for a local congregation. Some
colleagues and I attended the Monday luncheon and as we were waiting for the
event to begin, my mind wandered back to the first time I heard him speak. It
was another September morning in 1991, and on the recommendation of a friend, I
had just finished reading Quantum Spirituality. I was so taken by the scope and
insight in the book that I had to know more about this guy. His writing was so
fresh and he managed to articulate the transition underway from the modern world
to postmodern world in ways that I had never heard expressed before. I tracked
him down to his office in Dayton, Ohio, where he was then serving as the
president of United Seminary and learned that he would be speaking in Dallas
later that month. Since then, our paths have crossed many times at various
learning events and meetings across the country and each time I learn
something.[xli]
Sweet
was a speaker at the Leadership Network sponsored “The National Reevaluation
Forum” in Glorieta, New Mexico on October 12-15, 1998, a encounter group styled seminar which focused on
adapting the church to the postmodern transition. “[M]ore than 500 young leaders of the new millennium’s emerging church” attended
the event, which was an apparent precursor for the “Exploring Off the Map”
conference a few years later. Leadership Network’s NEXT newsletter also reported that
“maps for this journey are still in process. Noted theologian and semiotician Len Sweet offered this observation: ‘The primary challenge in this Postmodern transition is navigational tools. Each person or church becomes their own cartographer.’”[xlii] [bold in original]
The same newsletter included an article titled simply “Mystical,” which recommended:
“maps for this journey are still in process. Noted theologian and semiotician Len Sweet offered this observation: ‘The primary challenge in this Postmodern transition is navigational tools. Each person or church becomes their own cartographer.’”[xlii] [bold in original]
The same newsletter included an article titled simply “Mystical,” which recommended:
The Church
must also fight against an individualistic form of spirituality. In an attempt
to guard against these failures, churches are returning to the “old” and using guided meditative prayer, prayer
walks, incense, candles, chanting and other historical Christian rituals.[xliii]
In brief, Sweet’s
ideas about Quantum Spirituality and mysticism were being incorporated into the
Leadership Network’s programs during this late 1990s time period during the
pivotal era when they doing trial experiments for the formation of the Emergent
Church Movement. He was also influencing megachurch leaders with his
cell/fractal theories. How many thousands of pastors were trained via
Leadership Network with Sweet’s mystical ideas?
A
1997 conference advertised by Leadership Network included Bill Easum and Len
Sweet discussing “21st Strategies: ‘Implications of the Quantum
World’” in a newsletter that also featured a front-page article by New Age business
guru Jim Collins, who would later be invited to be a presenter at the “Exploring Off the Map" conference. The graphic arts for his article included ying/yang
logos throughout the text.[xliv]
And,
significantly, in the same Leadership Network newsletter, an experimental conference on mysticism,
“’The True & the Beautiful’: a new generation at worship,” included a
mystical poem called “The Road to the Future runs through the past.” In this
poem one can see the roadmap that became Emergent Mysticism:
The signs are
everywhere –
from the
spectacular success of
“Chant,” an
album featuring
Gregorian
chants sung for more
than a
millenium, to the mass
appeal of
Taize, a monastic
group based
in France that
sponsors
ecumenical services
featuring
chant, liturgical prayer
and
candlelight vigils.
The search
for authentic
spirituality
among Generation X
is leading –
among other places –
to the
treasures offered by the
confessional
traditions of
the
Reformation, Orthodoxy,
and
Catholicism. This conference
will
appropriate the riches
of the past
in developing
authentic
worship for the
postmodern
movement.[xlv]
Quantum Spirituality Goes Mainstream
In
the past decade Leonard Sweet has repositioned himself as a mainstream
evangelical. In January 2002 he was a featured speaker at
the “Beyond All Limits Conference” conference in Orlando, Florida sponsored by
Campus Crusade for Christ International (CCCI) along with Rick Warren, Billy
Graham, Larry Burkett, John Maxwell, Bill and Vonette Bright and others.[xlvi]
On April 21-24, 2008 he spoke at an “Exponential Conference” with evangelical
leaders such as Rick Warren, Tim Keller, Andy Stanley, and Alan Hirsch.[xlvii] Despite his attempts to market his new image, eventually Sweet’s efforts to become
mainstream became controversial.[xlviii]
Currently
Leonard Sweet is associated with an organization called Second Billion, a
downline networking global church growth group with an online Global Church
Learning Center www.GCLC.tv where he is on the faculty.[xlix]
This group gives him a global outreach to train pastors in his Quantum
Spirituality views. For example, in June
2008 He spoke at a Second Billion conference in Jarkarta, Indonesia to
evangelical mission leaders.
On February 29 this year, the Second
Billion organization issued “A Special Message From Dr. Ken Blanchard” e-mail. The e-mail included a 2-minute video to hear Blanchard's “heart and vision” in promoting a
“World Leaders Conference.” Conference Speakers included: Tony Blair, Erwin McManus, Bill Hybels, Laurie Beth Jones,
Henry Cloud, Craig Groeschel, and others. (See “What Is the
World Leaders Conference?”, FAQS and list of sponsors.)
Second Billion has the goal to “double the size of the global church.” Leadership Network’s megastar Leonard Sweet has played a key leadership role, especially at its Synergize! conferences. Second Billion is also connected with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) at many levels, including shared personnel such as Sunday Adelaja and Jim Garlow.[l] An e-mail sent out 7/13/07 promoted the Dominionist ideal, “Be equipped to impact ‘seven spheres’ of society.” Sweet also co-authored Jesus Manifesto with Frank Viola, who has ties to the NAR.[li] Sweet has even published his own Bible version – The Voice Bible: Step Into the Story of Scripture – where he employs narratives and poetry to tell Bible stories.
Second Billion has the goal to “double the size of the global church.” Leadership Network’s megastar Leonard Sweet has played a key leadership role, especially at its Synergize! conferences. Second Billion is also connected with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) at many levels, including shared personnel such as Sunday Adelaja and Jim Garlow.[l] An e-mail sent out 7/13/07 promoted the Dominionist ideal, “Be equipped to impact ‘seven spheres’ of society.” Sweet also co-authored Jesus Manifesto with Frank Viola, who has ties to the NAR.[li] Sweet has even published his own Bible version – The Voice Bible: Step Into the Story of Scripture – where he employs narratives and poetry to tell Bible stories.
Quantum Ecumenical Metaphysics
In his book Quantum Spirituality, Leonard Sweet set the stage for the
evangelical church world to embrace the concept of a psychic science and its
accompanying panentheism.[lii] In his book Soul Tsunami, Sweet admitted frankly what
he was doing:
Physics is increasingly becoming the study
of matter so small (is it a wave? Is it a particle?) as to become the study of
consciousness. In other words, physics
is becoming metaphysics.[liii]
Sweet
opened the door to an expanded religion of the universe in which the whole
cosmos would come into “formation” (as in the spiritual formation envisioned
by Teilhard de Chardin). Sweet defined this spiritual formation in quantum
physics terms, referring to it in terms like energy, thermodynamics, entropy
and evolution. Using inventive terminology, he stated:
According to
the Oxford English Dictionary, to inform means “to give form to, put into form
and shape.” The purpose of the church is to give form to, to put into form
and shape, the energymatter known as Jesus Christ. New Light leaders,
therefore, are in-formational
connectors helping the body of Christ to become an in-formed church, an
in-formational community….. A major New Light undertaking is the designing of
newstream communities that can be 'in connection' and 'in-formation' with the
spirit of Christ. Christ will be
embodied for the postmodern church in information.[liv]
Sweet’s
version of progressive spirituality, in which we are all emerging as a “Christ
consciousness,” “organic relationships,” “community,” along with his idea that
the “biblical doctrine of salvation [has a]… communal dimension” became his
life work – what he termed “The synergizing of synergies.”[lv]
His Quantum Spirituality worldview was cosmic in scope. He wrote that
a
spirituality that is not in some way entheistic (whether pan- or trans-), that
does not extend to the spirit-matter of the cosmos, is not Christian.[lvi]
This
“Christ consciousness” could be furthered by small cell groups which would
facilitate the spiritual formation of a “Christ consciousness”:
The power of
small groups is in their ability to develop the discipline to get people "in-phase" with the Christ
consciousness and connected with one another.[lvii]
And
most significantly, Sweet’s “in-formation” concept of emerging spiritual
formation is very ecumenical, encompassing all other world religions.[lviii]
Sweet’s statements below may help to explain the use of ancient pagan
mythologies and occult sources by the currently popular quantum collaborators like
Tom Horn and Chuck Missler:
One can be a
faithful disciple of Jesus Christ without denying the flickers of the sacred in
followers of Yahweh, or Kali, or Krishna. A globalization of evangelism 'in connection' with others, and a
globally 'in-formed' gospel, is capable of talking across the fence with
Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Muslim--people from other so called 'new' religious
traditions ('new' only to us)—without assumption of superiority and power….[lix]
A
surprisingly central feature of all the world's religions is the
language of light in communicating the divine and symbolizing the union of the
human with the divine: Muhammed's light-filled cave, Moses' burning
bush, Paul's blinding light, Fox's "inner light," Krishna's Lord of
Light, Bohme's light-filled cobbler shop, Plotinus' fire experiences,
Bodhisattvas with the flow of Kundalini's fire erupting from their fontanelles,
and so on.[lx]
What
is this emerging “Christ consciousness” and how does it relate to the Quantum
Spirituality idea? In 2008, Herescope explained the views of Teilhard de Chardin,
father of the modern New Age movement:
Teilhard de Chardin's "Principle of
Emergence" had to do with the consciousness of mankind breaking out
collectively, creating an evolutionary convergence (a Noosphere built by
spiritual formation) that would result in a
"super-organism" of "collective mankind " (quotes from The
Phenomenon of Man and The Future of Man). The term "emergent" itself is steeped in
Teilhardian evolutionary ideology, and the modern New Age movement has
popularized it to mean the manifestation of new examples of humanity's
evolution towards this supposed collective consciousness.
Teilhard also proposed an alternative eschatology, an
'"eschatological' vision" in which "in order that the Kingdom of
God may come..., it is necessary, as an essential physical condition, that the
human Earth should already have attained the natural completion of its
evolutionary growth... that the ultra-human perfection which neo-humanism
envisages for Evolution will coincide in concrete terms with the crowning of
the Incarnation awaited by all Christians" (The Future of Man, p.
280), which achieves "God all in everyone" (The Phenomenon
of Man, p. 310, italics in original).[lxi]
All
of this hearkens to a New Age Quantum Spirituality – one which was being
incorporated into the evangelical church by progressive degrees over a period
of several decades. The seeds planted by Leonard Sweet’s Quantum Spirituality mysticism, nurtured along by Leadership
Network, have now come full bloom in the open Quantum Mystisicm that is
creating a Quantum Eschatology to deceive the church in these last days.
Pastor
Larry DeBruyn aptly summed up this quantum cosmic deception in his book Unshackled: Breaking Away from Seductive
Spirituality:
Emergent Christians like Leonard Sweet, who
allow their worldview to be influenced by such spirituality, are being taken
captive by philosophy and vain deceit.91 The “elements of the world” first
enrapture and then capture their souls. Like Judah who played the harlot with
other gods, their fixation upon science seduces them into spiritual bondage.
Captivation with the cosmos leads to being captured by the cosmos, the very
“system” which Scripture informs us, “lies in the power of the evil one” (1
John 5:19).[lxii]
And Jesus answered and said to them,
"See to it that no one misleads you.
"For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,'
and will mislead many.
"See to it that no one misleads you.
"For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,'
and will mislead many.
~ Matthew 24:4-5
Stay tuned for Part 9 in this multi-part series "COSMS, CODES, AND CRYPTOLOGIES". . . .
Part 1: QUANTUM MYSTICISM IN THE CHURCH
Part 2: COSMIC CRYPTOLOGY IN THE CHURCH
Part 3: The Emerging ENIGMA Bible
Part 4: False Eschatology Arising!
Part 5: Quantum Teleporting Through Time
Part 6: Quantum Geomancy and Cryptic Mystic Math
Part 1: QUANTUM MYSTICISM IN THE CHURCH
Part 2: COSMIC CRYPTOLOGY IN THE CHURCH
Part 3: The Emerging ENIGMA Bible
Part 4: False Eschatology Arising!
Part 5: Quantum Teleporting Through Time
Part 6: Quantum Geomancy and Cryptic Mystic Math
Part 7: Quantum Prophecy
Endnotes:
[i] Ron Rhodes,
“The Christ of the New Age Movement: Part One in a Two-Part Series on New Age
Christology,” http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/newage1.htm, citing New Age leader David Spangler
(first quote) Reflections on the Christ
(Findhorn, 1981), p. 107, and (second quote) Conversations with John (Lorian Press, 1983), p. 5, bold added.
[ii] Bishop Fulton
J. Sheen, Footprints In A Darkened Forest
(Meredith Press, 1967), p. 73, cited in Constance Cumbey’s book A Planned Deception: The Staging of a New Age “Messiah,” (1985), pp.
126-7, bold added.
[iii] Leonard Sweet, Quantum
Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic (Dayton, OH: Whaleprints for
SpiritVenture Ministries, Inc. 1991, 1994), p. 125. Cited in Warren B. Smith, A “Wonderful” Deception (Lighthouse Trails Publishing, 2009), page 104. Also
posted: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=997 , bold added.
[iv] See Herescope
posts:
[v] Warren Smith,
A “Wonderful” Deception, pp. 110-120; Note: Foster Gamble, The Thrive Movement (New Age), explains “The
Code/Fundamental Pattern” of the universe (cosmos) by examining the torus
(donut-shaped energy vortex), the Vector Equilibrium (a geometric form where
all forces are equal and balanced), the Phi Spiral (a spiral vortex of nature),
and fractals (fractions of the Whole); http://www.thrivemovement.com/views/the_code-fundamental_pattern.
[vi] Warren B.
Smith, “M. Scott Peck: Community and the Cosmic Christ,” Sidebar: “Matthew Fox
on the Cosmic Christ,” http://www.mountainstreampress.org/m-scott-peck-community-and-the-cosmic-christ/.
[viii] Ibid,
“Explorations in the Fractal-Holographic Nature of Life,” http://www.cosmometry.com/?utm_source=Resend+-+Last+Chance+to+Get+a+Taste+of+the+Living+In+Mastery+Retreat+&utm_Campaign=LIM+Orientation+Call&utm_medium=email.
[ix] See “Doomsday
Datesetters 2012” http://herescope.blogspot.com/2011/06/doomsday-datesetters-2012.html and Part 1 of
this current series, “Quantum Mysticism in the Church,”
[x] Smith, sidebar article: “Matthew Fox on the Cosmic Christ.” http://herescope.blogspot.com/2012/05/quantum-mysticism-in-church.html
[xi] A “Wonderful” Deception, pp. 126-7.
[xii] A “Wonderful” Deception, pp. 106-107.
[xiii] See post by
Steve Muse, “Leonard Sweet & Willis Harman – Metanoia/Transformation,”
Herescope, 9/26/05.
[xv] Herescope,
July 24, 2009, “Quantum Eschatology, http://herescope.blogspot.com/2009/07/quantum-eschatology.html citing Willis
Harman’s remarks, “A Utopian Perspective on the Future,” in An Evangelical Agenda:
1984 and Beyond: Addresses,
and Responses from the "Consultation on Future Evangelical Concerns"
held in Overland Park, Kansas, December 11-14, 1979 (William Carey Library,
1979), p. 27-37. See also: Evangelicals Face the Future: Scenarios,
Addresses, and Responses from the "Consultation on Future Evangelical
Concerns" held in Atlanta, Georgia, December 14-17, 1977, Edited by
Donald Hoke (William Carey Library, 1978) and the posts cited in the footnote
above.
[xvi] A “Wonderful” Deception, p. 111, citing
Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic
Christ, p. 137. Teilhard de Chardin is widely considered to be the father
of the New Age movement by insiders and critics alike.
[xvii] A “Wonderful” Deception, p. 118, quoting
Peck, The Different Drum, pp. 205-6.
[xviii] A Planned Deception, Ibid, p. 141. The
remainder of this chapter, “The Incredible Heresies of Father Matthew Fox,”
documents the connection between David Spangler and Matthew Fox as well as
Fox’s New Age beliefs, pp. 129-146.
[xix] A “Wonderful” Deception, p. 121, citing
Sweet’s Quantum Spirituality, p. 312.
[xx] A “Wonderful Deception, p. 122, citing
David Spangler, The Revelation: Birth of
a New Age, p. 177.
[xxi] Ibid, citing
Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality,
p. 338.
[xxii] Ibid, citing Quantum Spirituality, p. 124.
[xxiii]
Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian
Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s (JP Tarcher,
1980).
[xxiv] A “Wonderful” Deception, p. 128-9,
citing Reimagination of the World, p.
139-140.
[xxv] Ibid, pp.
142-3, quoting from “Fractal Chaos Crashes the Wall Between Science and
Religion,” http://www.fractalwisdom.com/FractalWisdom/index.html
[xxvi] Ibid, pp.
143-44. See also Larry DeBruyn's book Unshackled: Breaking Away From Seductive Spirituality that analyzes The Shack in regards to its use of Quantum Spirituality. http://herescope.blogspot.com/2009/10/unshackled.html
[xxvii] Ibid, pp. 167-9,
citing The Tao of Physics, pp. 11,
323-5, 330.
[xxviii]
Chuck Missler, Cosmic Codes: Hidden
Messages from the Edge of Eternity, Koinonia House, Coeur d’Alene, ID,
1999, pg, 311.
[xxix]Ibid,
pg. 339.
[xxx]
The fact that Bob Buford’s Leadership Network, which Rick Warren was closely
associated with for many years, and with which business guru Peter Drucker was
intimately involved from the onset, intentionally set up the Emergent Church
movement to drive the church towards New Age Spirituality was documented in a
series of posts on Herescope by the Discernment Research Group: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/01/change-agents-for-church.html
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/01/shifting-emergent-paradigm
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/01/leadership-network-process-of.html
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/01/leadership-network-process-of.html
Note
that much of the material in this section is more comprehensively analyzed in Warren Smith's book, A “Wonderful” Deception.
[xxxi]
See Pastor Paul Smith’s book New
Evangelicalism: The New World Order ((Calvary Publishing, 2011), which
extensively covers Peter Drucker’s role in starting and overseeing Leadership
Network. Available here: http://home.etcable.net/hestervanboven/Books.htm
and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2011/04/new-evangelicalism-new-world-order.html.
Also see “The Pied Pipers of Purpose," downloadable monograph at http://www.discernment-ministries.org/Purpose_Driven.pdf
[xxxii] NEXT, Vol. 2, No. 2, a publication of
Leadership Network, “The Bookshelf, p. 10.
[xxxiii]
Leadership Network, Explorer Archives… field notes for the emerging church
(newsletter), “EOTM and the 21st Century Corps of Discovery” June 5,
2000 (Number 12). Originally posted at http://www.leadnet.org/epubarchive.asp?id-30&db=archive_explorer.
Reported on by the Discernment Research Group, “Christian leaders go on
‘expedition’ with false prophets: Circa 2000,” 10/10/2005 http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/10/christian-leaders-go-on-expedition.html
[xxxiv] Ibid.
[xxxv]
Leadership Network, Explorer … field notes for the emerging church
(newsletter), “A Map is not a luxury… Reflections from Todd Hunter on the EOTM
expedition,” July 17, 2000. Once posted here: http://www.leadnet.org/epubarchive.asp?id-33&db=archive_explorer
[xxxvi]
See Herescope post: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2008/03/brian-mclaren-to-speak-at-world-future.html
which describes this whole New Age worldview. Also, in 2009 Herescope ran a 7-Part
article series on the history of the Emergent Church movement, culminating in
“Quantum Eschatology,” http://herescope.blogspot.com/2009/07/quantum-eschatology.html
which also explains this worldview.
[xxxvii]
Leadership Network, Church Champions Update Archives, “Leadership and the New
Science,” April 23, 2001 Once posted at https:/www.leadnet/org/libarchive.asp?id=110&db=archive_champsupdate
[xxxviii]
“Peter Senge
and Margaret Wheatley on Changing How We Work Together,” interview
by Melvin McLeod, Shambhala Sun,
January2001, http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2382 Note that Warren Smith also wrote extensively about this Leadership Network
conference and its implications in his book A
“Wonderful” Deception.
[xxxix] Promotional
material in Leadership Network’s NEXT
(Vol. 5, No. 4) October-November-December 1999, page 8. Leonard Sweet’s book AQUA Church is advertised on page 7 of the same newsletter.
[xl] Article cited in a Herescope column called “Marketing Emergent” http://herescope.blogspot.com/2005/11/marketing-emergent.html, which quoted from a Publisher’s Weekly
article by Marcia Ford -- Publishers Weekly, 1/17/2005, http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA496162.html?pubdate=1%2F17%2F2005&display=archive
[xli] “CONTINUOUS
LEARNING...PASSION..AND PERSPECTIVE.” Explorer…field notes for the emerging
church, An e-publication of Leadership Network, Number 65, November 06, 2002.
[xlii] “The National
Reevaluation Forum: The Story of Gathering,” NEXT, February 1999, special edition from Leadership Network.
[xliii] Ibid, p. 5.
[xliv] Jim Collins,
“BUILDING AN ENDURING CHURCH,” NEXT (Vol 3, No.1), May 1997, pp. 1-3, which
also promoted Collins’ Built to Last book. On page 6 the Sweet/Easum conference
is advertised. It was scheduled to take place in Aransas Pass, Texas, November
19-21, 1997. To put this all in perspective, we note that Peter Drucker’s talks to Leadership Network’s “Church Champions
Network” were sold as 4 audio tapes on page 11.
[xlv]
Ibid, p. 12. The conference was scheduled for June 20-27 in San Francisco, and
featured speakers included the very ecumenical mix of: FR. MARK BROSKI,
St. Benedict (Catholic) Monastery, Virginia, ANDY CROUCH, InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship, Harvard University, BILL HALEY, The Falls Church (Episcopal),
Virginia, FR. JONAH PAFFHAUSEN, St. Eugene (Orthodox) Hermitage, California,
REV. SCOT SHERMAN, The Village Church (PCA), New York, BRAD WILCOX, Regeneration Quarterly.
[xlvi] The url for
the conference promo was: http://agts.edu/conferences/beyond_all_limits.html
[xlvii] “Exponential
Conference: A Must-Attend Conference for Church Reproduction,” by Todd Rhoades,
2/10/08 at http://mondaymorninginsight.com/index.php/site/comments/exponential_conference/
[xlviii] See many
reports posted at Lighthouse Trails, including: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=4240, http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=4420 , http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=814 http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/leonardsweet.htm http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=4057
[xlix] E-mail from
Second Billion, 5/30/12 about the Global Church Learning Center.
[li] See the two
Herescope posts: “The Other Side of Emergent: The New Apostolic Reformation,” http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/06/other-side-of-emergent.html and “The Great
Confluence: The Emergent New Apostolic Reformation Flowing into the New Age,” http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/06/great-confluence.html. Also see FRANK VIOLA PRACTICES CORRUPT
CONTEMPLATIVE/CENTERING PRAYER, http://apprising.org/2010/06/06/frank-viola-practices-corrupt-contemplativecentering-prayer/
[lii] See, for
example, Ken Silva’s article at Apprising Ministries, 7/24/09, EMERGENCE CHRISTIANITY: QUANTUM SHIFT TO PANENTHEISM. Related to this see 8/20/29, BRIAN MCLAREN
AND THEOSIS, http://apprising.org/2009/08/brian-mclaren-and-theosis/ http://apprising.org/2009/07/emergence-christianity-quantum-shift-to-panentheism/
[liii] A “Wonderful” Deception, p. 181, quoting
from Sweet’s book SoulTsunami, p.
121.
[liv] Quantum Spirituality, p. 121-122. The quotes are posted in this forma tat “Emerging Church
Quotes are compiled by Sandy Simpson, 12/08: http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/ECquotes.html (they appear to have an altered format and pagination). Note that Leonard Sweet used to offer his Quantum Spirituality book online for a free download.
[lv] Ibid, p. 122.
[lvi] Ibid, p.
123-4.
[lvii] Ibid, p. 147.
[lviii]
See http://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/Church/post-modern/leonard-sweet.htm
for more quotes and analyses by Berit Kjos.
[lix] Ibid, p.
129-30.
[lx] Ibid, p. 235.
[lxi] “Brian
McLaren to speak at World Future Society,” Herescope, 3/24/08, http://herescope.blogspot.com/2008/03/brian-mclaren-to-speak-at-world-future.html
[lxii]
Pastor Larry DeBruyn, Unshackled: Breaking
Away from Seductive Spirituality, Moeller Printing Company, Inc. 2009, pg.
68. Pastor
Larry DeBruyn wrote a 6 part series on Herescope in 2010 titled “FROM COSMOS,
TO CHAOS, TO CONSCIOUSNESS.” Part 6 , “Emergent Metaphysics,” is posted here: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/11/emergent-metaphysics.html.
The other sections include: Part 5: “Quantum Consciousness,” http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/11/quantum-consciousness.html
, Part 4: “The Force Be With You,” http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/10/force-be-with-you.html,
Part 3: “Fractal Emergence,” http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/10/fractal-emergence.html,
Part 2: “The ‘Uncertainty’
Principle,” http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/10/uncertainty-principle.html,
and Part 1: “Quantum Physics and the New Spirituality,” http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/10/quantum-physics-and-new-spirituality.html
*The graphic Exhibit A at the top of the page is promotional material in Leadership Network’s NEXT (Vol. 5, No. 4) October-November-December 1999, page 8.
We are grateful to Warren Smith for so graciously giving us his permission to utilize many longer portions of his book A "Wonderful" Deception for this segment of the article series.
*The graphic Exhibit A at the top of the page is promotional material in Leadership Network’s NEXT (Vol. 5, No. 4) October-November-December 1999, page 8.
We are grateful to Warren Smith for so graciously giving us his permission to utilize many longer portions of his book A "Wonderful" Deception for this segment of the article series.