By Mary Fairchild
Update: Summer Notes: Dave Dummitt Picks Up Bill Hybels’ Mantle at Willow Creek Community Church to Promote Peter Drucker’s “Next Society” (July 2022)
Mother’s Day at Willow Creek Church, South Barrington, Illinois. 2013. Willow Creek/Faith/Politics
Mystical writings and spiritual exercises from the fourth to fifteenth century were listed in the womens’ ministries for suggested reading in 2003. The mystics taught how to empty the mind and remove any rational thought so that it is passive. This is to open them up for the “Presence of God.” This is a form of Zen meditation(6; Dager).
The Holy Spirit indwells us when we accept Jesus Christ and the occult meaning behind the “God within”, “light within”, or “Christ within” has a different meaning. It’s a strategy for ecumenism without regard for doctrine. Richard Foster’s Renovare is the organization that has been behind this movement out of the traditions of Quakerism(14; Fairchild). The Renovare movement’s major purpose is to subtly lead the church back into the occultism of the mystics of the early Roman Catholic Church through “spiritual disciplines” and “spiritual formation”(6; Dager).
“In rare instances these esoteric teachings [Ancient Wisdom] have been presented by an initiate to the public in a way which has made it accessible to the average person.”
The “deeper spirituality” of Richard Foster, Henry Nouwen, and Thomas Merton flows like a steady stream through the women leaders at Bill Hybels’ Willow Creek. The Cosmic Christ tradition is beginning to take center stage for those who are ready for it. The “shadow of Christianity,” as ecumenical theologian and mystic Matthew Fox puts it, has occurred in the last 500 years as Christianity has lost its connection to its cosmology(7; Fox).
Nancy Ortberg at Westmont College Commencement 2012, “Your generation has taken the word justice and blown the dust off of it… make it a lifestyle. …When Jesus came he mostly talked about the small things… people doing small things might be able to make a dent and put a crack in the cosmos.”
“…Thomas Merton says that the highest expression of a person’s intellectual and spiritual life is contemplation.” Nancy Ortberg, Westmont College Commencement, 2012
Thomas Merton, is promoted at Willow Creek in women’s ministries and quoted by Nancy Ortberg (Westmont College). Merton says one can work within the Christian traditions but view universalism as the broader truth: “[The contemplative] has a unified vision and experience of the one truth shining out in all its various manifestations. He does not set these partial views up in opposition to each other, but unites them in a dialectic or an insight of complementarity”(2; Merton).
“Embracing the Cosmic Christ will demand a paradigm shift, and it will empower us for that shift; a shift … from rationalism to mysticism” (7; Fox, p.134-135).
Ecumenical theologian Matthew Fox believes that the world will need to let go of fundamentalism and literalism because they threaten the global village. In “The Coming of the Cosmic Christ,” he writes of a new birth of Spirit that sees the shamanic traditions of the globe as equals with Christ coming to age for a one-world human species. Fox believes that the greed of religion has caused it to outgrow cosmology and assume only an illusion of Godlikeness which he calls the shadow of Christ.
“In practicing Deep Ecumenism we find joint truth in religious faiths, common ground on which to face the very survival issues of morality and celebration, grief and forgiveness and letting go. We move into common action, common non-action, common prayer and common celebration.” Matthew Fox–One River, Many Wells
According to Kathy Dice, the original head of women’s ministries at Willow Creek, she had been moved from her position and then was told they could not support her anymore. She shared her concern for spiritual formation if it led to someone directing you in prayer in any way. I affirmed that they promoted books in the classes and similar ones in the church bookstore that did just that. She shared with me that Mindy Caliguire and her husband had been interns from Boston and that John Ortberg and Ruth Barton started up spiritual formation with a book they co-authored back in 1995 (14; Fairchild).
In 1995, the church membership book at Willow Creek printed something new. It had changed from its beginnings as a non-denominational Protestant church to an interdenominational church. Inter-denominational churches accept all beliefs. Although the Bible calls for separation from unbelief and worldliness, universalists hold to contemplative spirituality and believe in a form of ecumenism which includes non Christian religions and all “faith groups.” Only if you omit the gospel of Scripture, or replace it with a different one, and adopt the view that all are saved this makes sense. The new Bible version The Message, sold at Willow Creek, attempts this.
Spirituality is not Christianity. ”In rare instances these esoteric teachings [Ancient Wisdom] have been presented by an initiate to the public in a way which has made it accessible to the average person … (An) initiate of’ the secret societies who was instrumental in the spread of their esoteric teachings in the early part of the 20th century was Rudolf Steiner”(11; Howard).
“Education for Deep Ecumenism – Courses in the mystics, and above all courses that bring out the mystic in each minister, rabbi, or priest-to-be, must be taught in our seminaries” (7; Fox).
- Sybil Towner Women’s Mentoring 2003: One night in the mentor training class the leader, Sibyl Towner, was speaking to the woman next to me. She was all excited about a spiritual exercise she had just done with a three-year-old relative. She said she had used it 66 times and offered it to the woman if she wanted to try it. In this game she was excited because she felt the child “was ready” because she liked being “found by the great shepherd” (14; Fairchild).
- Matthew Fox calls Eckhart his favorite mystic and claims to actually communicate with this dead monk. Fox wrote a book called ‘Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering Book’ for all those daring to make the mystical, spiritual journey. Fox quotes Eckhart as saying there is a four-fold path to God, the last being something deep called ‘breakthrough,’ where one begins to hear voices”(4; Smith, Scott).
- Karen Mains Works with Sybil for Hungry Souls : “Why are you standing outside the dance? That inner voice, which I have learned so well, came to me in the middle of the knight like it has so many time before. Like many Protestants, I am woefully ignorant about the centuries between the book of Revelation.
…. I began to repeat it (two words) over and over until I began to feel peace seep so satisfyingly into my soul. … again, and then again breathing the phrase like a prayer. … it as during one of those wakeful moments that I heard that inner Word spoken deeply to my soul, that word from the One…
2010 blog “Hungry Souls”: ”Life-Mapping Opportunity– Sybil Towner and her team have taken years to develop and test an incredible tool that encourages the much neglected spiritual tool of self-reflection. They are conducting a two-weekend retreat to take participants through these Life Maps. Many great teachers of Christian faith say, in one way or another, “You can’t know God unless you know yourself; you can’t know yourself unless you know God.”
Whenever Hungry Souls has used the maps (in the developmental stages), they have proved to be a powerful and beneficial tool in this complementary awareness. Putting two weekends aside is well worth what is gained (Hungry Souls Newsletter; 8/13/10.) ”Hungry Souls has been conducting small (3-4 people) listening growth groups for more than five years. The following description may help you understand what it is we do.
(Parker Palmer; click image to read)
In his amazing book A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life, Parker Palmer talks about the paradox of being alone together, of being present to one another as a community of solitudes…’Those phrases sound like contradictions because we think of solitude and community as either-or. But solitude and community, rightly understood, go together as both-and.
True Self: “…the Arabian alchemist Abipipi:…’O man, know thyself! In thee is bid the treasure of treasures’.” (Kingsland; 6, p.86, quoting Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, Vol.2, p.617). “A human being partakes of all emanations or planes of reality at once without knowing it until he or she achieves cosmic consciousness … This is the esoteric meaning of know thyself, which post-Freudian people are apt to understand as merely making the unconscious conscious, as psychological awareness … But the ultimate meaning of ‘know thyself’ seems to be ‘know thy Self’” (1; Moffatt, p.344).
Edgar Cayce: “Know self and know the occult.” Edgar Cayce According to Cayce’s visions of the spiritualization process, it is done in cycles, recurring cycles. What has just been described may be experienced over and over again until it is fully achieved. We could have some of these Revelation experiences as a young child, experience them again as a teenager, again as a young adult, in adulthood, and even again in old age. At certain times in our life we may experience them several times. Rhythms and cycles of spiritualization is the pattern. These occur in both the little earth of ourselves and the great Earth of humanity as a whole. We may even play a role in small group’s experiences of this awakening process, such as our childhood family and later our own family or circle of friends and colleagues. Edgar Cayce’s ARE
On Vision Night 2003 at Willow Creek, Bill Hybels announced that his congregation needed to “accept their mantle of priesthood” and he felt that everyone in the church was supposed to know exactly what their spiritual gift was. He relayed how cool it felt when he had won a boat race with the right team work. Then he ridiculed those who were afraid of the “strange happenings” that can go on in relation to spiritual gifts. He spoke about conversions saying, “We think of the conversion point, the crossing the line of faith, but I’ve watched believers grow up in faith a lot of years and I’ve come to believe that after the first major conversion (that salvation moment) a lot of Christ followers seem to have several mini versions along their faith journey as they grow up in Christ. They come to various forks in the road–various decision points about how committed to Christ they are really going to be, how conformed to his image are they going to allow the Spirit of God to make them. Will I acknowledge in the new covenant, in the new arrangement that God has for his people (those of us who are in Christ are priests), will I accept the privileges and the responsibilities that are attributed to priests? I think you come to a point in time where it is explained to you and then you know. He concluded by describing his relationship with Dr. Bilizekian who was responsible for changing his life and vocation(15; Fairchild).
The Message–a mystical Bible version at the Willow Creek bookstore.
Through the use of paraphrase, The Message Bible, by Eugune Peterson, was ‘crafted’ to present the doctrines of mysticism to the Christian church in order to seduce believers into the occult and the New Age Movement (16; Hunt). Richard Foster and Madeleine L’Engle both endorse The Message. They both promote mysticism. Ephesians 3:5:
- KJV: Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophet by the Spirit.
- The Message: Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order.
Peterson is praised by Richard Foster, founder of the Renovare Movement and general editor of the Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible. Foster loves the message because it supports that movement. Peterson is “Consulting editor, New Testament” of the Renovare Bible. He reduces much of Paul’s vital treatment of the gospel in Romans to metaphor, which he says is the “opposite [of] precise use of language” (p. 2045)(11; Hunt, 12; Hunt).
The new Bible versions are copywrited to make money and can keep changing, as they certainly are, to have a mystical version that will fit the New Age to come. Peterson’s Message puts an occultic spin on Matthew 6:10: Set the world right; do what is best – As above, so below.
The mystical belief of the secret societies are based on the Hermetic maxim ‘As above – so below’ which teaches the natural world is a material reflection of the spiritual. It forms the esoteric basis for the ancient Egyptian Mysteries, Gnosticism, Esoteric Christianity, the Cabala, the Hermetic Tradition, Alchemy and societies such as the Templars, Freemasons and Rosicrucians (11; Howard). They believe that the whole universe is the great world, the macrocosm; its parts are small universes in themselves, microcosms. Such a microcosm is man, who is in himself an image of the universe and a perfect being. But the great universe is likewise a man, and as is ‘god,’ God has a human form(7; Fox).
Since 1611, and especially in the 20th century, many translations of the Bible have been made into most of the world’s languages, as well as numerous versions and paraphrases. By 1980, 95.8% of the world’s peoples had the Scriptures, in whole or in part, in their own language. The Bible in whole or in part, had been translated into 1,811 distinct languages–148 European languages, 54 within the Soviet Union, 526 in Africa, 457 in Asia, 266 in Oceania, and 360 in the Americas. Of these 1,811 languages, 759 had a complete New Testament and 276 the entire Bible. This contrasts markedly with what was available in 1900, when only 537 languages had Scriptures, in whole or in part. As the 19th century was the century of missions, so the 20th century was the era of translations.
Most of the English translations made in the 20th century are derived from a minority of inferior manuscripts which delete or change words and verses as well as omit passages-which violates Revelation 22:18-19. These problems began with two liberal textual critics of the Bible, Westcott and Hort, who made a new Greek text of the New Testament in the 1880s. They rejected the accepted Majority family of Greek text manuscripts, which had been used for centuries and assembled various inferior, less credible manuscripts to produce a new Greek text that had not previously existed (12; Bere).
Several new translations were made from the Westcott-Hort text over the years, but through the first half of the 20th century believers held fast to the trustworthy King James Version. By the 1960s, however, many people had begun to use new versions based on the Westcott-Hort text. Today, the majority of versions in use, including the New American Standard Version and New International Version, are based upon revisions of the Wescott-Hort text (Nestles/Aland). The Authorized Version, King James Version, continues to be the most accurate version because it is translated from the Majority Text family of manuscripts(12; Bere).
In his book, “The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance,” Matthew Fox, while still under the mantle of an ordained Dominican priest, prior to his being silenced by Cardinal Ratzinger, the Catholic Church’s current Pope, in 1992, made the call for depth-psychology and theology to join hands in an effort to make the Churches more truly ecumenical. He calls for the participation in a global transformation to get the message out that it is time for the world’s religions to become unified.
In the “prologue” Fox speaks of the coming of the Cosmic Christ as a “new birth that will cut through all cultures and all religions and will draw from the wisdom common to all vital mystical traditions in a global and religious awakening he calls “deep ecumenism.” The coming together of the historical Jesus with the Cosmic Christ is seen as a healing and will finally make Christianity whole. The ecumenism is broad enough to connect Christ to much more then a Church movement, but to the Cosmos that all religions of the earth celebrate. It transgresses the bounds of theology; it touches taproot in the shamanic archetype, which is at the foundation of Shivaism, Judaism, Sufism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Christianity–making it more than ecumenical.
Fox believes Christianity is undergoing a transformation with the shaman at the center now where Christ stood at the beginning of our colonization. The shaman is invading the sacred space formerly occupied by Christ so that a marriage between these two symbols of the Self; Christ and the Shaman, as symbols of the self. Fox looks to the Christ story for the deep roots of all religions, and the big metaphor he finds in his Christ archetype is big enough to create a revolution in Christian theology and advance towards a new Reformation through the Council of the world’s churches. The whole movement within Christianity will be forced to bow its head toward a more democratic way of viewing its dispensation of Love.
Shamanism comes from a tribe in Siberia–it is what they call their witch doctors and medicine men. Shamanism is identical everywhere in the world. It involves the idea, “may the force be with you.” It is the lie of the serpent that God is not personal (a personal God will hassle you with morals–a force won’t do that.), you can manipulate the force and you can become god and you will have powers. These powers are supposedly innate in nature. Shamanism is a nature religion. All of the secret rituals are passed down in families and you have to be initiated into this thing to get this force (13; Hunt, McMahon).
See the latest Willow Creek Report: Summer Notes: Dave Dummitt Picks Up Bill Hybels’ Mantle at Willow Creek Community Church to Promote Peter Drucker’s “Next Society”
References
- Moffett, James.,The Universal Schoolhouse: Spiritual Awakening Through Education; San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1994.
- Merton, Thomas, Contemplation in a World of Action. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1965, pp. 207-208.
- Caddock, John. What is Contemplative Spirituality and Why is it Dangerous? ;Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society, Autumn 1997 — Volume 10:19
- Smith, Samantha and Scott, Brenda, Trojan Horse; Lafayette, LA. Huntington House Publishers, 1993.
- Underhill, Evelyn, Mysticism: The Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness. Oxford: One World Publication, l994.
- Kingsland, William, The Gnosis or Ancient Wisdom in the Christian Scriptures: Or the Wisdom in a Mystery; London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1954 (1937)
- Fox, Matthew, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ; Harper San Francisco, 1988.
- Foster, Richard J., Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth; Harper San Francisco, 1998 (1978)
- Dager, Albert James, Special Report on Renovare: Taking Leave of One’s Senses; Media Spotlight, March l992.
- Cuddy, Dennis L., President Clinton Will Continue The New World Order; Research Manual: America 2000/Goals 2000 – Moving the Nation Educationally to a “New World Order;” Editor, James R. Patrick; Citizens for Academic Excellence, 1994, p.28-48
- Howard, Michael, The Occult Conspiracy; Rochester, VT.: Destiny Books, 1981.
- Bere, Michael, C., Bible Doctrines For Today, 2nd Ed.; A Beka Book; www.abeka.com, Pensacola Christian College.
- Hunt, Dave, McMahon, T.A, America, the Sorcerer’s New Apprentice: The Rise of New Age Shamanism; Harvest House, 5/1/1988.
- Fairchild, Mary, Protestant No More: Willow Creek is Infiltrated by a Mystic Quaker Movement Called Renovare; 3/26/03. mfairlady.com.
- Fairchild, Mary, Vision Night, Bill Hybels at Willow Creek Community Church; 6/14/2009, mfairlady.com.
- Hunt, Dave, The Bible is God’s Word; 8/1/2005, The Berean Call.